🤖 Humanoid robot company Figure released a new video of its robot working on BMW's production line.

"This isn't a test environment—it's real production operations."

🔗 Sawyer Merritt

🇸🇻🇺🇸 Last night, in a joint military operation with our allies from the United States, we transferred 17 extremely dangerous criminals linked to Tren de Aragua and MS-13.

All individuals are confirmed murderers and high-profile offenders, including six child rapists.

This operation is another step in the fight against terrorism and organized crime.

🔗 Nayib Bukele

🇮🇱🇯🇴 Israel to begin building new $1.4 billion border barrier with Jordan

Israel will begin building a long-promised new fence along the border with Jordan in June, the Times of Israel has learned. The work is expected to take three years.

The fence will run from Hamat Gader at the southern edge of the Golan Heights to the Ramon International Airport north of Eilat. A 30-kilometer (18-mile) portion of the border with Jordan, from Eilat to Ramon Airport, was already upgraded in a similar fashion to Israel’s border barriers with Egypt and the Gaza Strip in the 2010s.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-to-begin-building-new-1-4-billion-border-barrier-with-jordan/

🇺🇸 What Has Happened To The Peace President That America Voted For?

🔗 Ron Paul

🇮🇷🇦🇪 Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is claiming to have attacked and seized two oil tankers today in the Persian Gulf, which they claim were part of a “fuel smuggling network” in the Gulf.

The two tankers, identified as STAR l and VINTAGE, were captured during a naval operation by the IRGC earlier today, with 25 crewmembers being arrested while the tankers are transferred to an oil port in the city of Bushehr, where their fuel will be offloaded and seized by Iran

One of the tankers is believed to be owned and operated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while the other is currently unknown.

🔗 OSINTdefender

🇪🇬🇮🇱 Egypt military buildup in Sinai threatens peace with Israel, source warns

Israel has recently observed a military buildup by Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula, according to a security source who spoke with reporters on Monday.

“Egypt has deployed forces beyond the permitted quota, expanded port facilities, and extended runways at airports,” the source said. The source added that these actions violate the peace agreement between the two nations.

Regarding the entry of Egyptian forces beyond the permitted quota, security officials emphasized that “such actions are reversible – it is not a problem to pull tanks back.”

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-848313

UPDATE:
🇺🇸🤝🇮🇱-KAN: The commander of U.S. Central Command arrived in Israel and held nearly 10 hours of discussions with Israeli leaders on Iran and the Houthis.

🇺🇸 Attorney General Pamela Bondi has ordered federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Luigi Mangione.

🔗 AF Post

🇹🇷🇸🇾 Western intelligence source to 'Post': Turkey aims to activate the Syrian T4 air base

The Turkish-Syrian connection has been tightening recently, including in the military field. A Western intelligence source told The Jerusalem Post that Turkey wants to become Syria's air defense provider, in part by establishing a presence at the T4 base, which was active during Assad's regime.

The T4 base has been the target of several Israeli airstrikes in Syria in recent weeks. On monday, an Israeli defence official told reporters that the purpose of these strikes was to signal to Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa that Israel will not allow any reduction in its freedom of action in Syrian airspace.

According to the Western intelligence source, Turkey intends to convert the T4 base into a drone facility.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-848349

🇺🇸🇨🇳 A successful tariff wall is set to slow growth, but the downturn begins with a dollar liquidity crisis in China and ends with a crash in the US as funding pressures ricochet throughout the global banking system. Because they've historically run a large trade surplus with American consumers, Chinese banks have accumulated a large base of Eurodollars, with trade serving as their chief source of dollar funding. The tariff wall appears to target China, which will throttle the flow of Eurodollar deposits to the mainland, worsening offshore dollar funding stresses.

The payment chain is the supply chain in reverse. Since the trade war began just before Covid, China has successfully evaded US duties and kept the dollars flowing through entrepot trade via Mexico, ASEAN, and other countries, continuing to funnel goods to ultimate US consumers. Deploying a tariff fortress across all US imports, however, is an attempt to make that impossible.

Hardly a blind spot, China is of course aware of this vulnerability, having been carefully preparing for it with multiple points of leverage that go far beyond retaliatory tariffs and entrepot trade.

Chinese banks will transfer Eurodollar deposits to their New York branches - keeping them onshore and within the Fed's system - or park them into onshore nostro accounts with big US banks. That appears to have been status quo until sometime in 2023. Since then, Chinese banks have largely made Eurodollar deposits into nostro accounts based in Hong Kong - offshore and outside the Fed's system. Citibank, in particular, reports a uniquely massive and uninsured foreign deposit base, a large portion of which appear to be Chinese claims. An unprecedented 79% of Citi's domestic deposits are uninsured, a lurking solvency issue which would be realized in the event that Chinese banks need to raise dollars.

There are also problems with engineering dollar shortages, namely that if borrowing rates are too punitive, Chinese banks and non-banks would force liquidate dollar-denominated assets - equities, Treasuries and credit - at fire sale prices, an outcome that would not only have adverse consequences for the solvency of Chinese lenders, but for US lenders and the stability of the global financial system.

In any case, the US sees an opportunity for asymmetric pain to develop - hurting China and forcing their banks into a role that is more subservient to the dollar - but likely overestimates its own leverage. This sets the stage for a battle in the ongoing war of Great Powers, and there will be blood.

1. Recession? Crisis? "Detox"?
2. How Foreign Banks Obtain Liquidity
3. 'Chinadollars'
4. Dollar Shortages
5. Shoring Up USD & Hong Kong
6. Gold, Tariffs and the 'Three Strategies'

🔗 Zerohedge