🇲🇦 — The Moroccan government has approved a historic defense budget of nearly $14 billion for 2025, the largest defense budget in the kingdom's history.

🇬🇧🇺🇸 A bombshell report, by renowned investigative reporter Matt Taibbi and former US Senate investigator Paul Thacker, could have serious political and diplomatic ramifications for the UK.

Taibbi and Thacker allege that a whistleblower has provided them with documents which show that a charity closely linked to Sir Keir Starmer's election svengali and current Chief of Staff, Morgan McSweeney, has written plans to "kill Elon Musk's Twitter,",

"Trigger EU and UK regulatory action," and build closer links with the Biden-Harris Administration. The charity, called Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), was co-founded by Mr McSweeney, who also founded 'Labour Together', which became known as a 'party within a party' and was the driving force behind Sir Keir Starmer's successful election as Labour leader and ultimately as Prime Minister.

Indeed, Mr McSweeney recently gained even more power by winning an internal struggle against Sue Gray to become the Prime Minster's Chief of Staff--running the political side of Number 10 as Sir Keir's right hand, while controlling access, and curating advice given, to him.

Apparently, the lustre McSweeney's Labour Together gained from their election victory in July has scored a gig helping the Harris-Walz presidential ticket in the USA. Politico has reported that Mr McSweeney has personally visited the US to advise Kamala Harris's election. campaign.

Politico even reported that Ms Harris had even followed a McSweeney/Starmer line "smash the gangs" in her response to the US Southern Border issue. These close ties have recently led to controversy, when it emerged that Sofia Patel, the head of operations CCDH appears to be part of this deepening involvement of Labour and its activists in US politics on the Democrat side.

As aforementioned, CCDH was co-founded by Mr McSweeney, and he was previously a director there. Another co-founder, and current CEO, Imran Ahmed, has personally advised the UK government on "conspiracy news sites" and social media 'disinformation' and 'misinformation'.

In Britain, CCDH has engaged in campaigns to deprive of advertising and sponsorship money those media organisations and individuals that the CCDH itself accuses of spreading disinformation or harmful content. One of the most prominent examples was The Canary, a left wing, pro-Jeremy Corbyn media outlet that was part of the group aligned against Sir Keir Starmer's Labour leadership bid and the wing of the Labour Party associated with Labour Together.

CCDH's campaign against this Starmer opposition outlet forced The Canary to cut staff. The bombshell Taibbi-Thacker report alleges that CCDH started building a similar operation in the US three years ago. This operation has seen CCDH attack outlets such as ZeroHedge and The Federalist, but it appears to have been focused on Twitter/X.

Taibbi and Thacker report that CCDH appeared in the Twitter Files, and investigation that exposed collusion between various levels and organs of the US Government and Twitter to silence certain accounts.

🔗 https://fxtwitter.com/admcollingwood/status/1849007732432548273

🇺🇸🌐⚔️🌐🇷🇺 "A full-scale [European] land war in their own territory...may need to be fought without the full firepower of the US, the indispensable ally that ensured the region’s security through the Cold War and ever since."

"Yet Trump’s provocative comments reflect a current of thinking that transcends Washington’s political divide and may prevail whoever wins the US presidential election in November: that European governments should build their own powerful militaries instead of keeping defense budgets slim, safe in the knowledge that their Soviet-era mutual defense pact with America will protect them from invaders."

"Those who argue for strengthening European defense are motivated by pragmatism as well as fairness. The rise of China...with its designs on Taiwan, has US officials wargaming a scenario in which they are forced to divert weaponry from the Atlantic to East Asia."

"NATO nations have cut back on troops and military hardware since the Cold War. But Europe has cut far deeper than the US. Defense budgets have become a pot that could be raided to fund more pressing priorities, such as treating and caring for aging populations."

"As a result, much of Europe’s military has become, in the view of some US defense experts, a “Potemkin army” that is ill-prepared to wage and win a prolonged war."

"With Russia’s efforts to absorb Ukraine again revealing the limitations of its military and resulting in heavy casualties, Putin has said he would expand the country’s armed forces to 1.5 million, which would make it the second-biggest military in the world behind China."

"Without the full might of the US armed forces by their side, NATO’s European members may struggle to confront such a powerful invader — not to mention deter it in the first place.

"European governments have begun to commit more spending to defense. A lot of that money will be needed simply to rebuild and reinforce the assets they already have."

"Even if the European members collectively reached the US level of around 3.5% of GDP, their spending would still trail that of their superpower ally because Europe’s economy has been on a path of decline."

"The war in Ukraine has shown that, even in modern warfare, the ability to supply large quantities of old-fashioned guns, ammunition and other basics remains as important as it did a century ago."

"Russia was on track to produce nearly 3 million artillery shells this year — almost three times the combined output of the US and Europe."

"Some US submarines carry more Tomahawks than the entire UK Royal Navy probably has in its stocks, according to RUSI calculations."

"The bulk of NATO’s long-range cruise and ballistic missiles, which in combat would be propelled over hundreds of miles from mobile batteries and warships, are provided by the US. And Europe doesn’t have Patriot-style anti-missile systems in numbers that would constitute an effective defense against incoming projectiles."

"Currently, only the US could carry out effective suppression and destruction of modern Russian air defenses. Specialized aircraft locate the source of radar transmissions from enemy missile defense systems."

"So far, the rebuilding of Europe’s military capabilities has been piecemeal and of limited scope. Whoever might take the lead, rebuilding Europe’s defenses would require a lot of money that may not materialize"

"Some security officials say European military spending may need to rise to as much as 4% of national budgets — levels not seen since the end of the Soviet era — to ensure NATO can deal with the emerging threats."

🔗 https://archive.ph/ze9Ny

⚫️🇲🇱❌🇳🇪 JNIM claimed an attack on a border post at Assamaka, northern Niger, near the Algerian border. This would be the group’s first attack in far northern Niger.

Nigerien Tuareg rebels (FAL) gave a competing claim for the attack but have not published evidence as JNIM has.

The competing claims possibly indicate that the two groups are coordinating their operations, as JNIM has done with Tuareg rebels in Mali.

CTP has assessed since 2023 that JNIM is at least deconflicting its activity with the Malian Tuareg rebels.

🔗 Critical Threats

📊 Results from a new survey:

Free speech is now ranked the second-most important issue for Americans in the upcoming election — more important than health care, crime and immigration.

@CIG_telegram

🐣📈♀️ Could a right to remote work stop declining birth rates?

One benefit of remote work is that it allows parents to spend more time on childcare and housework—potentially reducing the barriers to starting a family. Indeed, some preliminary research in the U.S. shows that remote work is associated with higher fertility for some demographic groups, such as wealthier or higher-educated women. Meanwhile, most developed countries are grappling with persistent declines in fertility rates, raising concerns over aging populations and economic stagnation. Although the decline in fertility rates is a complex and multifaceted problem, the recent trend in remote work raises questions around if and how flexible work arrangements could help fertility rates rebound. Specifically, could a right to request flexible work that is enshrined in law combat declining birth rates?

https://www.brookings.edu/events/could-a-right-to-remote-work-stop-declining-birth-rates/

🇺🇸U.S. Army’s Watercraft Fleet in Crisis: Government Watchdog Reveals Less Than 40% of Vessels Are Ready For Action

In a scathing report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the U.S. Army’s watercraft fleet has been found to be in dire straits, with less than 40% of its vessels currently capable of performing their missions.

The revelation comes at a time when demand for these critical assets is on the rise, particularly in the strategically important Indo-Pacific region.

The report highlights a stark decline in the operational readiness of the Army’s 70-vessel watercraft fleet. From a fully mission capable rate of 75% in 2020, the fleet’s readiness has plummeted to below 40% in 2024, the GAO report has revealed. This dramatic downturn severely hampers the Army’s ability to meet its mission requirements, conduct essential training, and maintain operational readiness.

https://gcaptain.com/u-s-armys-watercraft-fleet-in-crisis-government-watchdog-reveals-less-than-40-of-vessels-are-ready-for-action/

☢️🇹🇼🇺🇸 TSMC has achieved early production yields at its first plant in Arizona that surpass similar factories in Taiwan, a significant breakthrough for a US expansion project initially dogged by delays and worker strife

Mark Nelson on X: "TSMC's Arizona plant is nuclear-powered, from 3 giant reactors in the middle of the desert using Phoenix's treated waste water.

Meanwhile Taiwan is about to crash its electricity grid in an insane crusade to close all their nuclear plants and run on imported fossil fuels."

The share of chips manufactured at TSMC’s facility in Phoenix that are usable is about 4 percentage points higher than comparable facilities in Taiwan.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-10-24/tsmc-s-arizona-chip-production-yields-surpass-taiwan-s-a-win-for-us-push

https://archive.ph/MckxG

☢️ 🇺🇸🏗 Construction has started on a liquid sodium test facility for TerraPower's Natrium reactor in Wyoming.

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/10/22/construction-underway-on-testing-facility-at-terrapowers-wyoming-nuclear-plant-site/

📎 James Hopf

🇺🇸🇨🇳China-Based Chemical Manufacturing Companies and Employees Indicted for Alleged Fentanyl Manufacturing and Distribution

Today, the Justice Department announced the unsealing of indictments against eight China-based chemical companies and eight employees charging federal crimes, including attempted distribution of synthetic opioids and precursor chemicals used in the production of fentanyl, and money laundering. The indictments were filed under seal in the Middle District of Florida over the past year.

“The global fentanyl supply chain, which ends with the deaths of Americans, often starts with chemical companies based in China. In order to break this critical link in the fentanyl supply chain, the Justice Department has aggressively investigated and prosecuted these companies. We will continue to target every organization and individual that fuels the deadly drug trade.”

As described in the unsealed indictments, the defendants openly advertised their ability to thwart border officials and deliver the synthetic opioids or the chemicals used to make fentanyl to the Middle District of Florida and elsewhere in the United States. The defendants deliberately engaged in evasive activities, such as mislabeling the contents of shipments to ensure the illicit chemicals and controlled substances went undetected. As a result, these companies were able to sell a stable supply of precursor chemicals to clients in Mexico and the United States for years. One of the companies even represented that every month it sends “more than 20 kilograms to the United States, Africa, Canada, and other countries.”

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/china-based-chemical-manufacturing-companies-and-employees-indicted-alleged-fentanyl

Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022, discussing personal topics, business, and geopolitics. Putin even asked him to avoid activating Starlink over Taiwan as a favor to Xi Jinping, according to several U.S, European, and Russian officials - WSJ

https://wsj.com/world/russia/musk-putin-secret-conversations-37e1c187

📎 Faytuks

🇬🇧 BBC sparks fury after questioning if term 'ethnic minority' should be replaced by 'global majority'

In recent years, various organisations across the UK, including the Government, have dropped the acronym Bame, which stands for black, Asian, and minority ethnic, and in its place are opting to use the new phrase “global majority”.

The term was coined in 2003 by Rosemary Campbell-Stephens, a British-Jamaican academic, and refers to people who are “black, Asian, brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities'”.

Campbell-Stephens said in 2020 that the group accounts for more than 80 per cent of the world’s population.

🔗 https://www.gbnews.com/news/bbc-sparks-fury-questioning-ethnic-minority-replaced-global-majority

🇿🇼 Zimbabwe to compensate white farmers who lost land in seizures 20 years ago

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe says it will compensate local and foreign white farmers who lost land and property more than 20 years ago in farm seizures meant to redress some of the wrongs of colonialism.

About 4,000 white farmers lost their homes and swathes of land when the Black-majority country’s then-president, Robert Mugabe, launched the often-chaotic redistribution program in 2000, which turned violent at times. Mugabe, who died in 2019, said it was aimed at addressing colonial-era land inequities after the southern African nation gained independence from white minority rule in 1980.

Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube announced Wednesday at a meeting with diplomats that his government approved 441 applications for compensation worth $351.6 million from local white farmers and 94 applications from foreigners worth $196.6 million, but only 1%, or $3.5 million, will be paid in cash to local farmers who lost land. The balance, Ncube said, will be paid through the issuance of treasury bonds.

Foreigners will receive an initial $20 million to be shared equally among the 94 claimants from Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and several countries in eastern Europe, he said.

White farmers who owned the majority of prime farmland were removed from their farms, often forcibly by violent mobs led by veterans of the country’s 1970s independence war. Some farmers and their workers died or were seriously injured in the violence that included beatings and rape, according to Human Rights Watch.

The seizures badly impacted commercial farming, forcing a country that was a key regional food producer and exporter to rely on assistance from donors. Zimbabwe’s agriculture sector has rebounded in recent years, but recent droughts are now the main challenge.

https://apnews.com/article/zimbabwe-white-farmers-land-colonialism-mugabe-8ef1747c1f02d92487b0c47bb1be1f4d

🇨🇦 Justin Trudeau admits the unrestricted mass migration of Indians to Canada has created too many problems and promises to restrict immigration "for the next two years".

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇺 The European Parliament pretty narrowly endorsed the British Rwanda Plan/Italy-Albania scheme of deporting rejected migrants to 3rd countries while they await repatriation.

@CIG_telegram

🇪🇺 The European Parliament voted in favour of building physical border walls on its reaches after mass opposing such a move for more than a decade.

📝: The right has won the debate on migration, even leftist politicians are beginning to take borders and migration seriously, not because they believe migrants are bad, but because they fear losing their support base to right-wing parties.

@CIG_telegram