🇵🇱🤝🏳️‍🌈 Poland begins recognising same-sex marriages performed abroad:

Poland began applying rules on August 23, allowing same-sex couples married abroad to enter their marriage certificates in Poland’s civil registry, extending official recognition beyond cases won through the courts.

The change is Poland’s first system-wide recognition of such marriages and gives couples a Polish document confirming their civil status. It ends the need for separate court orders, although it does not legalise same-sex marriage in Poland or automatically settle every associated right.

Eleven couples had already received new Polish marriage certificates by late morning on August 24, the first working day since the changes took effect, deputy Prime Minister and Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/poland-begins-recognising-same-sex-marriages-performed-abroad-463251/

🇮🇱🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 The Wall Street Journal citing people close to the White House, says Trump disregarded reports made by American intelligence officers choosing to believe Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli intelligence reports

The WSJ is confirming a narrative described previously by sources close to the Administration to the New York Times that Donald Trump ignored advice from his own advisors and chose to rely on the advice given by the Israelis.

The then DNI, Tulsi Gabbard, advised Trump that killing Iran’s supreme leader would likely usher in a more hard-line regime open to acquiring nuclear weapons. Tehran would rush to close the Strait of Hormuz, destabilizing the global energy market. And it would strike U.S. forces and partners in the Middle East, prompting questions about American resolve and reliability with allies. She was ignored.

Vice-president, James David Vance, urged Trump to continue to pursue diplomacy believing that Iran would dissolve its nuclear program. Getting a deal was a risk but less costly than a war with unwieldy consequences. Plus, Iran’s economy was collapsing under heavy U.S. sanctions. If that path proved fruitless, Trump would have more legitimacy to attack Iran in a swift and overwhelming operation, Vance said.

At the same time, Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu told Trump Iran was "at its weakest point in decades" providing Trump the rare opportunity to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program and bolster his legacy as a peacemaker.

Trump was initially open to Vance's plan but a presentation of military options by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine and Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, made Trump decide on attacking Iran.

Other military officials below Gen. Dan Caine and Adm. Brad Cooper were a lot less optimistic about the likelihood of victory in a war with Iran.

🔗 https://unwall.app/www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/iran-war-warnings-9d7f289a

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇮🇷 U.S. Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, promised yesterday the biggest sanctions package on Iran aiming to collapse the Iranian economy but China, Iran's biggest trading partner, is not included.

Bessent and U.S. president, Donald Trump, promised decisive action aiming to cripple Iran's trade with the outside world but underdelivered, seemingly afraid of Beijing retaliating and damaging the U.S. economy.

As part of its new effort to end the war with Iran, the U.S. sanctioned more than 60 entities, including Chinese firms that enable Iran to procure nuclear and missile technology, earn revenue from oil and carry out cyber operations.

The Treasury also said Monday it would levy future penalties on countries and entities that do business with Iran in five sectors: digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping.

“Treasury structured the whole thing to give China room to adjust quietly,” said Kerri Bitsoff, a former Treasury official. The “framing means China can change behavior without its banks being targeted,” she said.

Since the war against Iran began, the U.S. has sanctioned Chinese oil tankers and oil infrastructure, though China has continued to purchase Iranian oil.

Although the U.S. blockade has limited Iranian oil exports recently, China imported more than 500,000 barrels a day so far in August, according to Kpler. Much of this originates from an elaborate system involving ship-to-ship transfers of Iranian oil, which often move Iranian oil from sanctioned tankers onto unsanctioned ones. Those tankers then ship the oil to China.

Whether Chinese banks and refineries judge Bessent’s threats credible will be critical. Trump has made improved relations between the U.S. and China a priority following a major tariff war last year. China at the time responded with powerful tools of its own, including restricting access to rare earths, which pummeled U.S. manufacturers.

China has repeatedly said it opposes “illegal and unreasonable unilateral sanctions” by Washington. A foreign ministry spokesman reiterated that message in a press briefing Tuesday, saying economic warfare will only heighten tensions and could disrupt the global economy.

China and Iran have established a complex system aimed at evading U.S. sanctions. U.S. officials have said China buys more than 80% of Iranian oil exports and warned that Iranian front companies use Chinese banks to buy Chinese goods and move cash via currency exchange houses to the Middle East and Iran.

The effort to isolate Iran economically from the U.S. dollar has also forced the regime to increasingly use China’s currency, the yuan, to trade, blunting the effect of U.S. sanctions.

On Monday the U.S. sanctioned a China-owned oil tanker it says has transported millions of barrels of Iranian oil to China this year, as well as China and Hong Kong-based companies and individuals that helped Iran obtain sensitive goods, like navigation instruments for missiles. But the U.S. didn’t target any prominent Chinese banks or companies that are more clearly connected and reliant on the U.S.-led global financial system.

🔗 https://unwall.app/www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/u-s-squeezes-iran-but-avoids-targeting-its-biggest-lifeline-china-b8d2ee88

🇺🇸🤝🇰🇵 President Trump says he has instructed Secretary of War Hegseth to “substantially reduce” joint military exercises with South Korea based on his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong Un of North Korea.

Trump also says he asked South Korea to join the US on the “denuclearization of Iran” and they responded “no thanks!”

@CIG_telegram

🇰🇷❌🇺🇸 Public opinion of the U.S. in South Korea has plummeted to levels not seen since the early 2000s.

There is now a majority of South Koreans who have a negative view of the U.S. according to a Pew Research study.

@CIG_telegram

🚗 🇺🇸 🇷🇺 US diplomatic convoy seen travelling through Moscow under heavy police escort today.

📎 WarMonitor

🇨🇳🇮🇷🇺🇸⚡️ — China has rejected U.S. threats of secondary sanctions over its trade with Iran, calling such measures illegal and warning that Beijing will take “all necessary measures” to protect its interests.

China’s Foreign Ministry said its cooperation with Iran is conducted under international law and should not be disrupted.

Beijing also warned that economic wars and “maximum pressure” would only increase tensions, risk wider spillover, and damage the global economic and financial system.