JUST IN: 🇵🇭 Philippines SEC orders Apple & Google to remove Binance from their app stores.

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JUST IN: BRICS exploring the creation of a crypto stablecoin for international trade settlements.

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🇵🇦🇳🇮 Panama recalls its ambassador to Nicaragua for talks over Martinelli

Panama recalled its ambassador to Nicaragua on Monday for consultations, citing the government's "energetic protest" against what it called the illegal protection afforded to a former Panamanian president at its embassy in Panama City.

In a statement, Panama's foreign ministry accused the government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega of allowing Ricardo Martinelli to conduct political activities from its diplomatic mission in Panama, which it argues is contrary to international law.

Since February, Martinelli has sought refuge in the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama City after Ortega's government provided him with asylum status.

🔎 Source
#Panama #Nicaragua

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇬🇧 🇺🇦 💷 Britain's prime minister has promised Ukraine the largest military aid package in the kingdom's history worth of £500m ($621) million

It includes:

▪️ 60 boats, including raid and diving boats and naval guns.
▪️ More than 1,600 strike and anti-aircraft missiles, plus additional long-range Storm Shadow missiles.
▪️ More than 400 pieces of equipment, including 160 Husky protected vehicles, 162 armored vehicles and 78 all-terrain vehicles.
▪️ Nearly 4 million rounds of small arms ammunition.

Thus, the total amount of funds allocated by London for Ukraine in 2024 will reach 3.7 billion dollars, The Guardian writes.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/rishi-sunak-promises-uks-largest-ever-military-support-package-for-ukraine

📎 NEXTA

🏭 🇬🇧 💷 UK Secretary of State for Defence:

🔶️ Defence Spending will rise by £75bn over the next 6 years. With the world becoming more dangerous we can’t afford not to act. That’s why we’ll invest unprecedented amounts to give our Armed Forces a game-changing advantage. By far the largest uplift enacted since the Cold War, this increase, starting today will see us reach 2.5% of GDP by 2030. That means by the end of the decade we’ll be spending over £22bn extra a year on defence and more than double what we spent in 2010.

🔶️ Not only will this £75 billion keep Britain safe, it will also guarantee our long term support for Ukraine. Which is how we’ve today announced the largest ever military donation and an extra £500 million to help Ukraine defeat Putin. With an axis of authoritarian states growing increasingly assertive and acting together to reshape the world, we must act now to ensure we can lead our allies in this contested world. Today’s uplift will ensure we can face down threats globally.

🔶️ Since 2019, we’ve already uplifted defence spending by £41bn. But by going further, today’s £75bn will give our Armed Forces a strategic advantage against any aggressor, by ensuring 5% of the defence budget goes to R&D to harness new tech from lasers to AI. From the pilots scrambling at a moment’s notice, to the sailors in the Red Sea, the soldiers stationed on NATO’s eastern flank & those who you will never see or know. We will ensure everyone brave enough to defend their country is supported with what they need to fight.

🔶️ Not only will we maximise every pound spent on defence with a reformed procurement model – we will put our defence industry on a war footing. Doubling our spend on munitions with a new £10bn strategy to rearm Britain. And this historic uplift will also empower continued investments in conventional forces from attack submarines to jets. These capabilities and a new National Defence & Resilience Plan, will leave our enemies in no doubt about the strength of UK defence.

📎 Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP

💵 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 Breakdown of $60bn aid package for Ukraine:

🔶️ $14 billion in terms of direct military aid after a delay by six months.

🔶️ Since January 2022, mostly Western nations have pledged more than $380 billion in aid to Ukraine, including nearly $118 billion in direct military aid to Ukraine from individual countries.

📎 Britsky

🗳 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 US Senate votes overwhelmingly to advance Israel, Ukraine aid legislation

🔶️ The package of foreign aid and TikTok legislation is expected to clear the Senate and be signed into law by President Joe Biden in the coming days.

🔶️ The Senate voted Tuesday to advance the $95 billion aid package to provide critical aid to Ukraine and a provision that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok.

🔶️ The vote of 80-19 indicates the legislation has enough support to clear the Senate in a final vote, which could come as soon as Tuesday evening, and then head to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law.

🔶️ And it would give TikTok’s China-based parent company nine months, which the president could extend to a year, to sell the popular social media platform or be banned in the U.S. That puts TikTok closer than ever before to a prohibition while ensuring that it won’t be banned until after the 2024 election.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-hold-key-test-vote-ukraine-aid-israel-funding-tiktok-ban-rcna148685

🏹 🇹🇷 🇮🇶 Turkey may deploy its Russian S-400 Triumf air defenses on their Southern border.

⬛️ US officials have warned Turkey against "activating" it.

⬛️ The missile attacks between Israel and Iran may also be a rationale to deploy the S-400.

🔶️ Turkey may deploy its advanced Russian S-400 Triumf air defenses on the Iraqi border for its planned summer offensive against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, PKK, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Such a move would mark the first operational deployment of the missile system since Ankara received it in 2019 to Western reproach.

🔶️ Its purported upcoming deployment on the Iraqi border would be the first time Turkish S-400s have been put into use five years after Ankara received them.

🔶️ "Considering that Ankara has stationed troops in Northern Iraq, it would be more logical to deploy such a system to protect them during regional escalation or confrontation," Bakir said. "Iran has used missiles lately against Northern Iraq."

🔶️ Even though Turkey's other air defenses are capable of combating aerial threats from the PKK, Turkey requires an advanced system for intercepting ballistic missiles fired from Iran.

https://www.businessinsider.com/turkey-may-soon-deploy-controversial-russian-s-400-air-defenses-2024-4

🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇮🇱 Senate passes foreign aid bill to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.

Bill includes:

- $60.8 billion for Ukraine
- $26.4 billion for Israel
- $8 billion for Taiwan

📎 Faytuks

📵 🇺🇸 🇨🇳 Senate passes bill that could ban TikTok in the US

⬛️ Once Biden signs it into law, ByteDance will have 270 days to sell TikTok.

🔶️ The bill's passage in the Senate comes after months of lobbying against it by TikTok — the app prompted its users to reach out to their representatives and voice their displeasure, and its CEO personally traveled to Washington, DC, to try to stop it — as well as reportedly China itself. Politico reported earlier in April that officials from the Chinese Embassy met with congressional staffers to voice their displeasure with the legislation.

🔶️ Enacting the TikTok "ban" could hurt Biden's chances at reelection in November, given the app's popularity among younger demographics and the likelihood of a close final vote. Trump may have picked up on that, too — earlier in the year, he spoke against banning TikTok despite his actions while president.

https://www.businessinsider.com/senate-passes-tiktok-ban-2024-4