🇺🇸🗣❗️🇨🇳 — 🇯🇵 Nikkei Asia | Where will U.S.-China tech decoupling go under Harris or Trump? | Silicon Valley split on different futures for AI, crypto and China investment | August 8, 2024:

"(...) While the U.S. and China tech sectors are expected to continue moving apart regardless of who wins in November, some still prefer a "stable decoupling" by a Harris administration over a less predictable Trump administration."

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🔗 Source:

🇵🇸 🇮🇱 🇮🇱 This Israeli soldier, who, alongside his unit, raped a Palestinian prisoner, was invited on Israeli Channel 14 to defend the assault live on TV.

⬛️ "Our army in the healthiest army, I'm here to protect our good name"

🔶️ The heinous assault was captured on CCTV at the Sde Teiman detention center and leaked, revealing the brutal conditions and systematic torture inflicted on Palestinian prisoners. Reports from the center have documented severe abuse, including rape, electric shocks, and starvation.

🔶️ The case has caused controversy in Israel, primarily because the focus has been on initiating an investigation and questioning the soldiers rather than addressing the rape itself.

🔶️ Hundreds of Israelis, including politicians and reserve soldiers, have even stormed a military base to protest the investigation and demand the release of the soldiers, effectively defending their actions. According to an Israeli TV poll, 47% of Israelis supported the rape of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers.

📎 Quds News Network

🚀 🇨🇳 🛰 China's Effort to Launch Starlink Rival Accidentally Creates Orbital Debris Field

🔶️ A mishap from the Chinese rocket creates over 300 pieces of trackable debris, according to US Space Command. And the fragments might one day pose a danger to Starlink.

🔶️ A rocket carrying satellites for China’s version of Starlink accidentally broke apart in space, creating a debris field in Earth’s orbit.

🔶️ The rocket, Long March 6A, took off on Tuesday, carrying the first 18 satellites for China’s Qianfan “Thousand Sails” satellite constellation, which was previously known as G60. Although the satellites were successfully deployed, the rocket's upper stage appears to have split into numerous fragments, according to satellite tracking firms.

🔶️ On Thursday, US Space Command confirmed the “break-up” of the rocket, saying the incident has resulted in over “300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit.”

https://www.pcmag.com/news/chinas-effort-to-launch-starlink-rival-accidentally-creates-orbital-debris

🇮🇷❌🇺🇸🇺🇸 — The Islamic Republic of Iran is Targeting 2024 US Election to manipulate public opinion against Donald Trump, says Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC)

In Their report, MTAC says:

➡️ Today we’re sharing intelligence about activity we’ve been tracking that increasingly points to Iran’s intent to influence this year’s US presidential election. In recent weeks, groups connected with the Iranian government have upped two kinds of activity.

➡️ First, they’ve laid the groundwork for influence campaigns on trending election-related topics and begun to activate these campaigns in an apparent effort to stir up controversy or sway voters – especially in swing states. Second, they’ve launched operations that Microsoft assesses are designed to gain intelligence on political campaigns and help enable them to influence the elections in the future.

➡️ We discuss this activity in a new report we released today, which details this activity, and four examples illuminate what we can increasingly expect from Iran as we near November.

One Iranian group has been launching covert news sites targeting US voter groups on opposing ends of the political spectrum. One of the sites, called Nio Thinker, caters to left-leaning audiences and insults former president Donald Trump, calling him an “opioid-pilled elephant in the MAGA china shop” and a “raving mad litigiosaur.”

➡️ Another, called Savannah Time, claims to be a “trusted source for conservative news in the vibrant city of Savannah” and focuses on topics including LGBTQ+ issues and gender reassignment. The evidence we found suggests the sites are using AI-enabled services to plagiarize at least some of their content from US publications.

➡️ A separate Iranian group has been setting the groundwork for US-focused influence operations since March.

➡️ We believe this group may be setting itself up for activities that are even more extreme, including intimidation or inciting violence against political figures or groups, with the ultimate goals of inciting chaos, undermining authorities, and sowing doubt about election integrity.

🔗 Link
https://archive.is/RVzm7
🔗 Microsoft Threat Intelligence (@MsftSecIntel)

🇧🇷✈️⚠️ — ☠ In a statement, the City Hall of Valinhos, in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, reported that there are no survivors from the plane crash. 68 people lost their lives in the accident.

🇲🇽🇷🇺🇺🇦 Mexico rejects Ukraine's request to arrest Russia's Putin during visit

The Mexican president on Thursday rejected a request from Ukraine's government to arrest Vladimir Putin if the Russian leader defies an international arrest warrant and attends the inauguration of Mexico's next president in October.

🗣"We can't do that," President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters at a regular government press conference. "It's not up to us."

Ukraine asked Mexico to arrest Putin if he attends the Oct. 1 swearing-in ceremony of President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum. Sheinbaum's team has invited the Russian president to attend the inauguration, noting earlier this week that it sent a "diplomatic notice" to all countries with which Mexico maintains diplomatic relations.

https://news.1rj.ru/str/meriblood/3441

@FelipeChannel

🇵🇦🇺🇸 Panama asks the US to expedite resources for repatriating migrants

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino asked the U.S. to accelerate aid deliveries for repatriating migrants who cross into Panama through the Darien Gap.

Mulino took office in early July vowing to crack down on the record number of migrants crossing the Darien and announced an agreement with the U.S. under which Washington would foot the bill for sending back migrants who enter Panama without authorization.

In a press conference on Thursday, Mulino called on the U.S. to deliver the money quickly, saying he needed it for repatriation flights.

🗣"The ball is in their court, we have done everything we can do," he said, referring to the Americans.

🔎 Source
#Panama #US #DarienGap

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇦🇷📰❌🇻🇪 — Leandro Lutzky, former Argentine news presenter at teleSUR, has announced his resignation due to the electoral scandal in Venezuela and the news network's support for Nicolás Maduro's regime:

"I resigned from my job as a news presenter at Telesur because of the electoral scandal in Venezuela. On the return flight, a Venezuelan migrant made me promise that I would make a video explaining it."

Leandro Lutzky (@LeanLutzky) 🖇

🇻🇪🇻🇪 💥 — In the Supreme Court of Justice, controlled by the regime, Maduro attacks María Corina Machado once again, calling her a "terrorist" and a "fugitive from justice."

💰🇪🇺🌍💶☝️💶💲 MiCA regulation poses ‘systemic risk’ to banking system, says Tether CEO

According to Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino, recently approved MiCA regulations threaten both banks and stablecoin issuers.

He raised concerns that the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation poses a systemic risk not only to stablecoins but also to the broader banking system.

“The problem that I have with MiCA is that instead of making the system more secure, it’s actually creating an incredibly big systemic risk,” Ardoino told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview.

The MiCA regulation, which took effect on June 30, imposes stringent limitations on stablecoin operations across the European Economic Area. Notably, it mandates that at least 60% of reserves backing stablecoins must be held in EU bank accounts.

Ardoino highlighted that financial institutions operate under fractional reserve banking, where only a fraction of deposits are available for withdrawal at any given moment, leaving them vulnerable to bank runs.

He further pointed out that EU cash deposits are insured for only up to $100,000 — an amount he argues is inadequate for large stablecoin issuers like Tether.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/mica-regulation-systemic-risk-banking-system-tether-ceo

@FelipeChannel

🏹 🚢 🏴‍☠️ Container shipping costs from China have spiked to their highest levels since 2022.

🔶️ Since the beginning of 2024, shipping rates have more than TRIPLED.

🔶️ It now costs ~$9,000 to ship a 40-foot container from Shanghai to New York and ~$8,000 to Los Angeles.

🔶️ This has been driven by a sharp drop in Suez Canal transit volume, disruptions at some ports in Asia, and demand increase due to inventory restocking.

🔶️ Rising shipping costs are fueling inflation.

📎 Kobeissi Letter

🇪🇹📈💵 — New BRICS member Ethiopia to launch a securities exchange by October

➡️ Ethiopia's securities exchange is expected to begin operations in October, according to its chief executive, as reported by state-affiliated media on Thursday

➡️ Despite being East Africa's largest economy, with a GDP of around $205 billion according to the IMF, Ethiopia has lacked a stock exchange

➡️ The government is actively seeking private investors to purchase up to 75% of the ESX's shares. Ethiopian Investment Holdings, the state-controlled sovereign wealth fund, along with its subsidiaries, will retain the remaining 25% shareholding.

➡️ In February, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed revealed that the government is considering selling a 10% stake in the state-owned telecoms company, Ethio Telecom, through the upcoming securities exchange

➡️ Ethio Telecom maintained a monopoly in the market until 2022 when a consortium led by Kenya's Safaricom won the country's first private telecoms license and began commercial operations, according to Reuters.

➡️ While Ethiopia's economy is still facing the legacy of being a command economy for decades, Abiy's push since 2018 towards more private sector involvement has been notable for being more ambitious than previous attempts at liberalization.

🔗 Link