🇫🇷 French 10 year bond is the highest its been since May 2009 in the middle of the Eurozone crisis.

@CIG_telegram

🇫🇷 French far-left presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, promises, if elected president, to force the European Central Bank (ECB), to cancel France's debts

The far-left presidential contender would essentially have the European Central Bank agree to waive interest payments on a massive tranche of French bonds.

Speaking on a stage set above water at a lakeside conference center in Châteauneuf-sur-Isère, on the outskirts of the city of Valence, the France Unbowed leader struck a prophetic tone as he fired up thousands of his supporters with a subject more often associated with grey suits and glass corridors than tub-thumping rallies: the European Central Bank and its holdings of France’s public debt.

“The French economy was teetering on the brink of recession; now it is about to plunge,” Mélenchon said.

“The European Central Bank can and must freeze [European] governments’ debt, starting with the debt incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic,” he added, doubling down on an idea he first floated earlier this summer with another temperature-themed metaphor, when he promised to “set fire” to debt held by the Eurosystem — the overwhelming majority of which sits with the Bank of France.

The Eurosystem, which comprises the ECB and the currency area's national central banks, owns around one-sixth of French debt, totaling some €600 billion.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called it a “scam in its purest form.” Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally, slammed the proposal as “nonsense.” Former European Commissioner Thierry Breton penned an op-ed against it.

Mélenchon’s rivals can hardly dispute the subject’s importance: With public debt amounting to more than €3.5 trillion, or 117.5 percent of GDP, the issue has become a top concern for voters.

The country’s indebtedness is already threatening to derail Lecornu’s efforts to rein in its deficit. France is among the countries hardest hit by a global surge in borrowing costs. A loss of confidence in the government's ability, or willingness, to repay its bonds could make investors shun them, making it impossible for Paris to raise the cash needed to run the country.

As the race for next year’s presidential election heats up, Mélenchon’s debt proposal has driven the country’s political conversation. It has also underscored something his rivals are painfully aware of: The leftist veteran is ready for battle, when most of them are still trying to gather their armies.

The EU treaties forbid the ECB from bailing out eurozone countries — even if the bank has found ways to intervene at the height of the eurozone crisis, when its then-President Mario Draghi pledged to do “whatever it takes” to preserve the euro, and again during the Covid crisis.

A unilateral move by France — “disobedience” was how Mélenchon’s top lieutenant Manuel Bompard put it during an hour-long conference on the subject on Saturday — would not only freak out investors, critics argue, but call into question the fundamentals of the eurozone.

“He does it brilliantly, but he's talking nonsense,” Economy Minister Roland Lescure said on the France television channel BFM TV. Tampering with the Bank of France's balance sheet, he argued, would amount to “leaving the euro because you're saying you no longer respect the rules of the common home.”

🔗 https://www.politico.eu/article/jean-luc-melenchon-tosses-a-debt-bomb-into-frances-presidential-debate/

🇫🇷🗳 A new French election poll shows the rightwing Marine Le Pen and the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon obtaining the most votes in the 1st round in most cases.

The only scenario in which Mélenchon is beaten by the former prime-minister and Macronist candidate, Édouard Philippe, is when the social-democrat candidate, Raphaël Glucksmann, isn't on the ballot, which is unlikely as Glucksmann is expected to announce his intention to run for president in the coming weeks.

The only way for Emmanuel Macron to avoid his nightmare scenario: a runoff between Le Pen/Bardella and Mélenchon would be to convince former premier, Gabriel Attal and former minister of the interior, Bruno Retailleau, to not run for president in order to improve Philippe's odds.

However, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon are the two most popular politicians in France.

The legacy Macron is leaving behind after his decade-long tenure is a polarized French society with a majority of French citizens rejecting centrist parties in favor of the far-right and far-left.

@CIG_telegram

🇮🇱⚖️ Israeli judges acquitted an Ultra-orthodox Jewish settler who assaulted a French nun near King David's Tomb in Jerusalem last April.

The court accepted the settler's defense which claimed that he was "in a psychotic state" and therefore, not legally responsible.

He was sentenced to a psychiatric hospital instead of prison.

@CIG_telegram

🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸 IRGC Spokesman says If the US does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will under no circumstances be reopened.

• He says all hostile warships have moved at least 400 kilometers away from the Strait of Hormuz. From both a military and territorial standpoint, no vessel is capable of passing through this waterway without Iran’s permission and management.

• The waterway near Oman is also fully under our control.

• Strait of Hormuz belongs to Iran & Oman. Negotiations with Oman have reached outcomes accepted by both sides.

• In the negotiations, agreements were reached regarding each country’s share of the strait’s waters, as well as Iran’s and Oman’s respective shares of the revenues generated from it. - Tasnim

🔗 Arya

🇳🇱❌🇺🇸 The Netherlands' biggest retirement pension fund, ABP, sold most of its UST holdings in the last 18 months.

The fund, which invests on behalf of civil servants and workers in education, has also cut its holdings in US government bonds from €19 billion to €4.6 billion since last November and from €29 billion 18 months ago.

Shareholdings in US-based companies were also cut by 10% to a total of €101.8 billion, after the fund sold shares in Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple. The latest figures reflect the position at the end of the first quarter of 2026.

The three companies’ share prices have fallen in the last six months but not by as much as the reduction in ABP’s holding – it currently has €4.6 billion in Nvidia shares, compared to €9 billion six months ago.

A spokesman said it was more attractive to hold government bonds in euros than foreign currencies, partly because of the rules around the new Dutch pension structure.

Its figures for November showed that most of the €10 billion it sold in US government bonds had been reinvested in Germany, accounting for €6 billion, and the Netherlands.

🔗 https://www.dutchnews.nl/2026/07/abp-pulls-more-us-bonds-largest-share-of-fund-now-in-europe/

🇪🇸⚔️🇲🇦 The migrants left because Spain ignored their requests for asylum and failed to provide humane conditions of "reception" for the asylum-seekers. Essentially, the people of Ceuta hunkered down, closed their shops, and starved the newcomers out.

📢 🇺🇸 🛠 Department of State on X:

On August 26, 2026, the U.S. Department of State designated the Italy-based Autistici/Inventati (A/I) Collective as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT). The A/I Collective is an extremist hacker cell that provides encrypted communications, web hosting, and digital infrastructure to violent Antifa cells and radical left-wing networks in the U.S. and abroad. The designation blocks all assets of the group under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits Americans from transacting with them.
The State Department cited specific cases where A/I-hosted sites facilitated terrorism, including doxxing ICE agents by Rose City Antifa, guiding attacks on critical infrastructure like power grids and pipelines, and coordinating bombings by groups such as “Jane’s Revenge” and international affiliates like the International Revolutionary Front. The U.S. government stated it will use all available tools to disrupt and disable these transnational far-left terror networks. - Cocoon AI Summary

The A/I Collective builds and provides the digital infrastructure for violent Antifa cells and other radical left-wing networks in the United States and across the world.

Today, the United States is designating this extremist group as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

The Autistici/Inventati Collective is an Italy-based hacker cell that provides far-left extremists with encrypted communications, calls, and web-hosting services – all concealed from law enforcement.

The A/I Collective is a central node in the far-left's war on our civilization.

One of America’s most violent communist groups relies on the A/I Collective.

Rose City Antifa used a site hosted by A/I to dox ICE agents, incite attacks against them “at their homes,” and organize terror attacks on Border Patrol helicopters, leading to a federal indictment.

Several sites hosted by the A/I Collective offer detailed guides on waging terror attacks on critical infrastructure through arson, bombings, and sabotage.

Far-left terrorists are urged to attack bridges, pipelines, the electric grid, and even U.S. military logistics centers.

Anarchists waged a violent campaign against a police facility in Georgia, using an A/I-hosted site to dox government employees and share instructions on building bombs to target government buildings.

The attacks resulted in domestic terrorism charges and left an officer injured.

The A/I Collective hosts a site where foreign terrorists and anarchists document their acts of terror and urge others to stage attacks.

A domestic terrorist boasted of his crimes on the site and was found guilty of bombing a police car and plotting to attack a federal building.

Leftwing extremists calling themselves “Jane’s Revenge” carried out a violent campaign stretching from Colorado to New York, bombing pregnancy centers across the United States.

They took to a site hosted by the A/I Collective to urge extremists to commit their own attacks.

A/I provides services to U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organizations and aligned groups like the International Revolutionary Front.

The group claimed responsibility for numerous bombings in Italy as well as the shooting of an engineering executive.

A far-left extremist network plunged Berlin into darkness with an attack on Germany’s power grid that left one person dead.

The group used a site hosted by A/I to claim responsibility and publish calls for sabotage against industrial, corporate, and technological infrastructure.

Anarchists sabotaged a rail line in Italy during the 2026 Winter Olympics and then took to an A/I-hosted site to claim responsibility and publish a manifesto.

Italian authorities arrested seven suspects for terrorist association and subversion of the democratic order.

SDGT designations block all assets of the designated the entity under U.S. jurisdiction.

Americans and those based in the U.S. are prohibited from transacting with or providing and receiving services from Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

There will be no refuge for the far-left extremist networks that plot to violently overthrow free societies.

The State Department will use every tool at its disposal to disrupt, disable, and crush transnational far-left terror networks.

📎 State Department