/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 22:59

🇷🇺🇲🇬⚡- After a series of setbacks in Africa, Russia is now courting a new stronghold on the continent: Madagascar, Le Monde reports.

Moscow has heavily invested in relations with the new President Michael Randrianirina, a former commander of the elite CAPSAT unit that seized power last year. President Randrianirina has already paid Russia a visit.

Russia has supplied Antananarivo with military equipment and has begun a large-scale media campaign at influencing the locals, which includes radio channels, a new pro-Russian political party, and more. Moscow has also expressed interest in a strategic port in the north of the country.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 21:10

🏃‍♂️ 🇺🇸 🪖 War Secretary Hegseth on restarting Presidential Fitness Test in U.S. schools nationwide: "It takes young people to run a military."

📎 Disclosetv

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 20:50

✈️ 🇺🇸 📈 The cost of domestic plane tickets has risen dramatically this year, per WSJ.

"The average price of a domestic airline ticket in the U.S. increased 24% between Jan. 5 and April 20, compared with a 3% increase during the same time frame last year..."

📎 More Perfect Union

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 17:36

🇦🇪 Dubai faces existential crisis as impact of US-Israeli war on Iran shakes business and tourism industry

Dubai is grappling with an unprecedented economic downturn as the escalation of hostilities involving the US and Israel against Iran devastates its hospitality and aviation sectors. First quarter passenger traffic at Dubai International Airport dropped by millions of travelers while March saw a staggering 66 percent plunge in arrivals. Despite the UAE lifting air travel restrictions previously imposed after Iranian retaliatory strikes on GCC states, global confidence remains shattered. Major European and US carriers have suspended operations due to insurance complications, leaving once bustling terminals looking like ghost towns.

The internal fallout is equally severe as the city state's reputation as a conflict-free sanctuary evaporates. According to a report from Middle East Eye, longtime residents and business owners report a rapid liquidation of assets and widespread job losses across various industries, including advertising and logistics. Thousands of workers are being laid off as firms struggle to justify remaining in a region now viewed as a high-risk zone. Even with an aggressive government campaign of nationalist messaging and billboards designed to reassure the public, the prevailing mood is one of deep uncertainty.

For an economy built entirely on the promise of security and convenience, the current instability represents an existential threat to the Emirati model. Many expatriates and investors are already scouting for alternatives in Europe or Istanbul, fearing that the era of Dubai as a global safe haven has come to an end. While local officials attempt to project a return to normalcy, the empty hotels and silent departure lounges tell a different story.

🔗 The Cradle

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 16:37

🐣 🇺🇸 📉 March 2026 US births down 1.75% Y/Y. Black -5.61%, Hispanic -3.13%. First preliminary release, so expect upward revisions.

📎 Smirkley

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 16:35

🇺🇸🌎⚡- “On May 4, at the direction of SouthCom commander Gen. Francis L. Donovan, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations. Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations. Two male narco-terrorists were killed during this action. No U.S. military forces were harmed.”

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 03:08

🛢 🇮🇷 🚢 The ongoing narrative that Iran's oil storage will fill up ASAP and cause production to shutter is wrong.

If we look back to the Trump 1.0 era, Iran scaled back production to just under 2Mbpd. Fact is that they can refine that entire amount of oil just for domestic consumption.

Exports are already down off their highs. Production will decrease. Assuming exports hit 0, production can still hold 1.8-2Mbpd.

One major wild card is whether Iran gets hold of more floating storage space in the form of additional spare tankers.

If those manage to infiltrate the US Navy blockade line, then the rate of production won't fall too quickly even if exports remain at zero.

https://tradingeconomics.com/iran/crude-oil-production

📎 TankerTrackers

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 23:28

✈️ 🇯🇵 🤖 Japan Airlines will trial humanoid robots for baggage handling and aircraft cleaning at Tokyo's Haneda Airport starting in May, citing workforce shortages and rising tourist numbers

📎 unusual_whales

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 22:14

🚸 🇺🇸 🇪🇺 For the first time on record, more Americans are moving to Europe than Europeans moving to the United States.

New data shows a steady rise in Americans relocating to EU+EFTA+UK countries, while European migration to the US has declined compared to the mid-2000s.

📎 Europa

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 21:44

⚡️🇯🇴🇺🇸🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 - At least 17 USAF Tankers are airborne. 1 "MQ-4C Triton" UAV is on it's path back to Jordan after a 10+ hour ISR mission in the Persian gulf.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 21:19

🇺🇸🇦🇪🇮🇷⚡️ — President Trump stopped short of saying that Iran had violated the ceasefire with today's attacks in his interview with ABC News.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 21:17

🇦🇪⚔️🇮🇷 The UAE claims to have shot down 12 ballistic missiles, 3 cruise missiles, and 4 UAV’s in today's attacks.

@CIG_telegram

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 20:43

🇨🇳⚔️🇺🇸 China’s unprecedented defiance of U.S. sanctions triggers showdown

China has ordered its companies to ignore U.S. sanctions, an unprecedented act of defiance that threatens to trap a vast banking sector in the crossfire as tension rises between the world’s largest economies.

Beijing has often railed against unilateral sanctions and pronounced them illegitimate, but it has also quietly allowed its largest companies to comply with them, in order to avoid blowback on its own economy and to preserve access to the U.S. financial system.

Saturday’s announcement—coming before a long-awaited meeting later this month between President Donald Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping—signals a far more aggressive stance. Beijing has now directed companies not to abide by U.S. sanctions on private refiners linked to the Iranian oil trade, including heavyweight Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refinery Co. which was sanctioned last month.

Beijing’s move will test the U.S. sanctions system at a time when it’s already under pressure, as Washington vacillates on curbs against Russia, Venezuela and Iran. With Trump’s war against Iran straining its global alliances, China has seized the opportunity to defend a major piece of its economic system while expanding its arsenal of economic weapons.

Xi’s government has been progressively cranking up the use of alternative tools, from rare earths to technology. Beijing last week blocked Meta Platforms Inc.’s $2 billion purchase of AI startup Manus, moving to scuttle the deal even after it had already been sealed.

China is deploying a blocking measure introduced in 2021 that was aimed at protecting its firms from foreign laws it deemed unjustified. The refiners—including Hengli, and several other privately-owned processors—had been facing asset freezes and transaction bans.

China’s private processors have shown themselves more willing to run the gauntlet of U.S. sanctions, making the most of discounted oil from Iran, Russia and Venezuela. Though the sector includes some heavyweights, like Hengli, it is typically less dependent on the U.S. financial system than large state refiners. The biggest players do, however, have close links with China’s major state-owned lenders.

Workarounds for banks can include transactions in the yuan, which makes them less visible to U.S. authorities. Under the blocking order, companies can also apply for exemption from the rules and may be granted approval if they show that compliance would cause exceptional hardship or inconvenience.

While the blocking measure is not likely to derail the Xi-Trump summit, Washington’s reaction to it will indicate if the matter escalates, according to analysts from Eurasia Group.

🔗 https://fortune.com/2026/05/04/china-defiance-us-sanctions-iran-oil/

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 20:04

🇮🇱🚨 Israel is opening all public bomb shelters as a precaution.

Israel did not open public bomb shelters, it only increased the alert level.

@CIG_telegram

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 20:00

🇦🇪⚠️❗️ — 14x New NOTAMs issued for the United Arab Emirates

@BellumActaNews

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 22:05

🔼 🇺🇸 📈 The S&P 500 surges to a new record high, now up +15% since its March 30th low.

📎 KobeissiLetter

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 20:55

✈️ 🌐 📉 Global airlines are cancelling flights at an unprecedented pace:

Airlines have cut 2 million seats and 12,000 flights worldwide from their May schedules over the last 2 weeks, reducing the total available seats to 130 million.

This comes as jet fuel costs have doubled since the Iran war began, forcing carriers to cancel unprofitable routes, switch to smaller aircraft, and raise ticket prices.

Turkish Airlines and Air China account for the largest seat reductions, cutting ~520,000 and ~490,000 seats, respectively.

Lufthansa leads in flight cancellations, at ~4,000 flights in May alone, with the airline having removed 20,000 flights from its schedule between May and October.

Meanwhile, Gulf carriers, including Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar Airways, are still operating well below pre-conflict capacity, as the closure of Gulf airports has disrupted ~33% of all European journeys to Asia.

Singapore and Tokyo airports asked carriers not to add extra services to limit jet fuel use, and Vietnam introduced jet fuel rationing.

The global aviation shock is spreading.

📎 KobeissiLetter

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 20:47

🇺🇸🇨🇺⚡️ — Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited U.S. Southern Command and met with Gen. Francis L. Donovan earlier today to discuss efforts to counter threats affecting security, stability, and democracy in the region.

➡️ A map of Cuba is visible in the background as Rubio and Donovan shake hands.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 16:38

🐣 🇺🇸 📊 Preliminary March 2026 birth update for the United States from CDC Wonder. Slightly weaker year-over-year gains for non-Hispanic white births compared to February, and continuing sharp declines for non-Hispanic blacks.

📎 Neolithic HVAC Technician

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 16:35

🇲🇱 - Current situation in Mali.

Map key:
- Purple: FLA + JNIM areas of control,
- Orange: FAMa,
- Green: Platforme (pro-FAMa),
- Grey: Islamic State of the Sahel region areas of operations.

Unmarked territory indicates JNIM areas of operations / influence, and weak FAMa presence.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

05 May 2026 05:30

🇺🇸🌎 - Photos of Earth and the Moon released in recent hours during the Artemis II Mission.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 23:32

🤖 🇨🇳 👮‍♂️ China deploys country’s first robot police squad

A robot police squad has officially begun duty in China.

15 traffic police robots were deployed in Hangzhou to manage crowds during the May Day travel rush.

The robots use voice recognition and AI to detect traffic violations, direct crowds, and provide navigation for tourists.

After successful trials at marathons, the squad has moved from experimental use to full-scale coordination with human officers.

📎 The Independent

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 23:07

🏍 🇵🇱 🇺🇸 May the 4th: Volonaut Airbike Speeding Through the Forest Looks Like a Scene from Star Wars

Meet Tomasz Patan, a Polish inventor who’s been chasing the thrill of flight for years. His new design, the Volonaut Airbike, makes that dream a reality: a single seater that hovers and zooms through the air, all powered by propulsion jets.

Patan used his experience with battery powered flyers to push the limits here. Instead of spinning propellers or big wings, the Airbike generates lift and speed with tiny jet engines – four micro-turbines hidden inside the chassis. These engines fire downwards for vertical takeoff and then tilt to propel forward motion, eliminating the drag of exposed blades. Riders sit in a basic motorcycle-like seat, with handlebars that feed into a flight computer designed to do all the heavy lifting for balance. One hand twists for thrust and the other steers, with joysticks on the grips controlling pitch and yaw. Sensors constantly monitor the horizon and adjust output to keep the bike level even in gusts.

The frame is made of carbon fiber, braided tight and light with computer aided design and 3D printed joints. At 66 pounds empty, the Airbike is one third the weight of a dirt bike, so one person can carry it to a launch point without breaking a sweat. Add a 209 pound pilot and the total is under the ultralight regulations in the US, so no pilot’s license is required in recreational zones. Fuel is normal avgas piped into a tiny tank for 20-30 minute flights on a full tank, long enough to loop a valley or explore a ridge. The prototype has a top speed of 124 mph but the production model will be limited to 63 mph for certification.

Preorders started in August 2025 for batches limited to dozens per year, with deliveries slated for mid 2026. Each one is priced at $880,000 so it’s more for collectors and explorers who chase horizons over highways. To ensure top quality the Airbikes are assembled in Polish factories with composites from aerospace suppliers.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 21:53

🇺🇸- Al Jazeera’s cheif US correspondent, Alan Fisher, has reported that the White House has initiated a security lockdown following reports of gunfire originating just several blocks away. At the same time, Donald Trump is participating in small business summit at the White House.

@GeoPWatch

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 21:19

🔥 🇦🇪 🛢 Fujairah is currently the only oil export outlet for the UAE.

📎 Faytuks News

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 21:19

🇺🇸🇦🇪🇮🇷⚡️ — President Trump to ABC News on the Iranian attacks that targeted the UAE:

They were shot down for the most part. One got through. Not huge damage.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 20:54

🇺🇸🙏🇨🇳 After placing sanctions on several Chinese oil refineries, Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, is now pleading with Beijing to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Bessent is calling on China to intensify diplomatic efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, adding that this will be one of the topics of discussion between president Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

In the same TV appearance Bessent referred to China as a "state-sponsor of terrorism" because it is buying Iranian oil.

He urged China to "join us in this international operation" to ​open the strait but did not specify what action Beijing should take. He added that China and Russia should stop blocking initiatives at the United Nations, such as a resolution encouraging steps to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/bessent-urges-china-step-up-diplomacy-iran-ahead-trump-xi-summit-2026-05-04/

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 20:29

🇮🇷❌🇦🇪 — NASA FIRMS data shows fires have broken out at at Emirati oil infrastructure in Fujairah, UAE.

@GeoPWatch

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 20:02

🇮🇱🇮🇷🇺🇸 Israeli intelligence assesses that the US-Iran ceasefire is going to collapse in the coming hours.

No indication Iran is preparing to target Israel in the future.

@CIG_telegram

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

04 May 2026 19:52

🇮🇱🛡🇦🇪 CNN reports that the UAE is using an Israeli anti-air system to defend against Iranian projectiles.

It was reported a week ago that Israel sent the Iron Dome system to the UAE and a team of technicians to operate the system at the beginning of the 3rd Gulf War.

@CIG_telegram