🇧🇷🤡💬⚖️ — In a meeting with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), Supreme Federal Court (STF) Justice Gilmar Mendes advised that the Federal Police (PF) has the right and duty to disobey orders from fellow Justice André Mendonça.

➡️ The Justice outlined possible paths for the government's next steps in response to decisions by the rapporteur of the Master and INSS cases, the latter involving investigations into the president's son, Fábio Luís Lula da Silva (Lulinha).

➡️ With this, Brazil is officially being governed by Lula and the rest of the Supreme Federal Court (PF).

Source 🖇

🇺🇸⛽️ BREAKING: according to GasBuddy data, the live U.S. national average price of diesel has set a new record: $5.820/gal, surpassing the previous daily $5.819/gal all-time high that occurred June 17, 2022. (9/3/26 3:25pm ET)

🔗 Patrick de Haan

🇩🇪 German industrial bosses want workers back to 40 hours a week without extra pay — effectively a 13% cut in hourly labor costs.

The 35-hour week in metals and auto was won by IG Metall after a seven-week strike in 1984 and has been the norm since 1995.

Now with German manufacturing over 15% below its 2017 peak, labor costs at €49.50 an hour (47% above the EU average), and VW considering plant closures, executives at Mercedes-Benz, Stihl, and others are openly calling the old deal unaffordable.

Source: FT

🔗 Clash Report

🇳🇴❌🇺🇸 Norway is the latest European country that is dumping U.S. treasuries

Manager of Norway's USD 2.3tln sovereign oil fund has proposed an overhaul of its government bond portfolio that could see it cut its holdings of US Treasuries by about USD 80bln as it looks to other types of debts to try to boost returns, according to FT

Norway's sovereign oil fund held $199 billions worth of USTs at the beginning of the year. A $80 billion selloff would mean a 40% reduction in Norway's UST holdings.

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🇨🇳🤝🇮🇷 China Isn’t Scared of Trump’s Squeeze on Iran

Beijing has plenty of leverage to deter Washington.

There’s a fatal flaw to the Trump administration’s recently announced “economic D-Day” against Iran. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared that the new U.S. sanctions and pressure campaign was designed to “sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime” in Iran. But Iran’s single greatest lifeline, China, went unnamed.

China has long been the largest buyer of Iranian oil, with some estimates claiming that about 90 percent of Iran’s oil is shipped there through a network of “shadow fleets.” China also offers access to the Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) that facilitates bank transfers outside of the U.S. dollar system, and through which volumes have gone up from 680 billion renminbi (RMB) per day to 790 billion RMB since the Iran war was launched. Thus, if the United States actually wanted to seriously harm Iran economically, it would have to go after China.

And yet, Beijing is hardly quivering in its boots. When the secretary was asked repeatedly at a press conference if “Operation Economic Outcast” would target Beijing, he demurred, without mentioning China directly: “No one is above the reach of U.S. sanctions.” And when pressed on why the Treasury Department is issuing a threat rather than just imposing the sanctions, Bessent simply said, “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?”

Judging by the lackluster Chinese response, Beijing doesn’t seem too concerned by the new U.S. steps. China’s foreign ministry spokesperson condemned the announcement as “illegal” but went little further. One Chinese analyst writing on the China Internet Information Center, a State Council news outlet, described Bessent’s announcement as an “act of helplessness” that has more to do with addressing American frustration at home than with pressuring Iran. One private Chinese media outlet also pointed out how vague and slow-moving the new U.S. sanctions are.

Beijing has recently armed itself with a legal framework for retaliation. In May, China invoked its new policy of “blocking rules” for the first time in response to U.S. sanctions against several of its biggest independent oil refineries. These rules effectively constitute a legal prohibition on any companies inside or outside China complying with the U.S. sanctions on Iran. So far, China has chosen not to enforce this rule, but it continues to signal to the United States that it is ready to do so if needed.

Most importantly, China knows it has an ace in the hole. Beyond its ability to take simple retaliatory measures, Beijing can also escalate its competition with Washington. Among its most powerful tools is a ban on the export of rare earths, which China knows that it can impose again. Freezing exports of rare earths to the U.S. last year brought some sectors of U.S. manufacturing to a standstill, particularly in the defense sector, and forced a rapid climbdown by Trump on Chinese tariffs.

The U.S. has made grand statements about developing alternative supply chains here but has struggled to reduce its overall reliance on China. It is competing with decades of Chinese investments in those refining capabilities, but it also quite willingly offshored many of these refining processes because they are so polluting.

Furthermore, China is clearly willing to call Washington’s bluff. The U.S. has already sanctioned one of China’s largest independent refineries, as well as 40 shipping firms, and this latest package targets 60 smaller intermediaries. But the U.S. hasn’t yet gone after the more significant Chinese banks that support these refineries or tried to dismantle the intricate system whereby China funnels funds to Iran. In Beijing’s view, nothing in the recent U.S. announcement signals a serious desire to escalate the sanctions regime.

🔗 https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/09/03/china-iran-economy-sanctions-trade-trump-bessent/

🇯🇵 Japan ministries seek record JPY143 trillion in fiscal 2027 budget requests

Japanese ministries requested a record JPY143.07 trillion ($915bn) for the fiscal year starting in April 2027, the fourth consecutive annual high, the Finance Ministry said, Kyodo News reported on September 4.

The requests far exceed the JPY122.3 trillion initial budget for fiscal 2026, partly because the government wants to move spending long financed through supplementary budgets into the main budget. The total also runs more than JPY2 trillion above the combined JPY140.6 trillion of the fiscal 2025 supplementary budget and the fiscal 2026 initial budget.

Debt-servicing costs hit a record JPY36.64 trillion. The assumed interest rate used to calculate those payments was lifted to 3.8% from 3.0% in the fiscal 2026 budget.

The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry filed the biggest single request at JPY36.58 trillion, driven by growing pension, health care and nursing-care bills in an ageing society. The Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry sought JPY21.92 trillion, mostly for grants that help local governments plug funding gaps.

The Defense Ministry asked for JPY8.84 trillion, including money to develop attack drones as Japan builds up counterstrike capabilities. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry sought JPY5.70 trillion, of which JPY4.53 trillion falls under the investment category covering artificial intelligence, semiconductors and other sectors intended to draw in private capital.

Numerous ministries submitted "itemised requests" without attaching figures, leaving room for the final budget to swell further.

🔗 https://www.intellinews.com/japan-ministries-seek-record-jpy143-trillion-in-fiscal-2027-budget-requests-465705/

🇺🇸⛽️ US diesel prices have risen 23% in the last two months, to a new record high of $5.85.

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🇮🇱📰 The Jerusalem Post is brainstorming ideas on how to get the US to start a land war with Iran despite massive problems, including a shortage of soldiers (up to 1.5 million soldiers would be needed!).

The solution?

Well, according to the Jerusalem Post, the US should offer to erase student loans and credit-card balances for the young Americans willing to join the slaughter.

🔗 Trita Parsi

📎 https://www.jpost.com/defense-and-tech/article-906985