/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 14:29

📉📈 Luke Gromen: BTC is starting to act more like an energy-linked neutral reserve asset and less like a levered NDX proxy.

📝 EndGame Macro: This is a key structural shift Luke Gromen is calling out if BTC is beginning to decorrelate from tech beta (NDX) and move more like a neutral reserve asset, that implies a rotation in who is accumulating and why. It suggests sovereign or macro allocators those who care less about speculative upside and more about systemic hedge characteristics are stepping in.

The energy linkage matters too. Bitcoin is priced globally in dollars but secured by energy. That makes it functionally different from both fiat and gold it has production costs like gold, but is digital, portable, and censorship-resistant like no other asset. If global trade continues to fragment and commodity-based FX regimes emerge (petroyuan, gold-linked rails, BRICS tokens), Bitcoin may begin behaving as an option on monetary reset. Watching this divergence from NDX is not just about price it’s about signal migration from risk asset to strategic collateral.

🔗 EndGame Macro

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 12:54

🇨🇳 "In 'cold war' of modern exchange rates, 'digital currencies from reserves are used'. However, when 'hot war' of major default does begin, 'nuclear weapons of GOLD' are deployed!"

-ANOTHER (THOUGHTS!), 5/21/98

🔗 Luke Gromen

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 11:02

🇨🇳🇲🇾 China’s Xi wraps up Malaysia visit with jet, chip deals before heading to Cambodia

Chinese President Xi Jinping wrapped up his first visit to Malaysia in over a decade on Thursday with a flurry of trade and investment pledges – including support for Chinese-made aircraft sales and semiconductor cooperation – as Beijing seeks to position itself as Southeast Asia’s most dependable partner amid Washington’s intensifying trade war.

Xi’s stop in Malaysia, part of a week-long tour of Southeast Asia, came in the wake of Washington’s announcement of sweeping tariffs on goods from the region, ranging from 24 to 49 per cent. Although these measures were subsequently suspended for 90 days, they have raised serious concerns about future access to American buyers.

During his stop in Kuala Lumpur – his first since 2013 – Xi oversaw the signing of dozens of agreements with Malaysia, including deals on railway and aviation cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, as well as partnerships in technology and energy.

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/economics/article/3306890/chinas-xi-wraps-malaysia-visit-jet-chip-deals-heading-cambodia

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 09:24

🌎 Protestantism (especially Evangelicals) is increasing rapidly in the traditionally Catholic region of Latin America.

Honduras and Guatemala have more Protestants than Catholics now according to this 2024 survey

🔗 SidKhurana

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 02:25

🇺🇸🏭❌🏭🇨🇳 — 📰 ZeroHedge | Made In China Vs Made In America | April 16, 2025:

"While China’s status as the world’s largest manufacturing hub seems to be a law of nature these days - one only challenged by President Trump - that hasn’t always been the case. 

In fact, as Statista's Felix Richter shows in the chart below, as recently as 2009, the U.S. trumped China in manufacturing output as measured by total value added in the sector."

#Geoeconomics #WWT

🗄 Archive

🔗 Source

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 18:25

🇺🇸🇮🇷 Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, JD Vance and Susie Wiles helped shut down Israel/USA joint attack on Iran -- NY Times

This probably explains why three of Hegseth's aides have now been fired for supposed "leaks"--internal knife fighting is intensifying.

🔗 Douglas Mackey

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 15:29

🇨🇳 China-built civil-military sites in the South Pacific

@CIG_telegram

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 14:12

🇺🇸 President Trump is set to cut foreign aid by 75%, slash the State Department’s budget by 50%, and strip funding from the UN, NATO, and over 20 international bodies.

Notably, aid to top recipients Israel and Egypt remains untouched.

🔗 AF Post

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 12:09

🇺🇸🇨🇳 U.S. officials are planning to use negotiations with 70+ nations to ask them to disallow China to ship goods through their countries, per WSJ.

The U.S. is reportedly attempting to "isolate" China.

🔗 The Kobeissi Letter

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 09:16

🇺🇸🇨🇳 White House says 245% Chinese tariff is false

China faces:

— 125% reciprocal tariff
— 20% tariff to address fentanyl crisis
— Section 301 tariffs on specific goods, between 7.5% and 100%

🔗 unusual_whales

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 07:11

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇮🇷🛢 US imposes sanctions on a Chinese refinery accused of buying Iranian oil

The Treasury Department imposed sanctions Wednesday on a Chinese refinery accused of purchasing more than $1 billion worth of Iranian oil, saying the proceeds help finance both Tehran’s government and Iran’s support for militant groups.

The sanctioned refinery in China’s Shandong province received dozens of shipments of crude oil from Iran worth more than $1 billion, the Trump administration said. Some of the petroleum came from a front company for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, U.S. authorities said.

Officials also announced that several companies and vessels involved in the shipments were added to the sanctions list.

The new penalties were imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control and follow earlier efforts by the administration to disrupt the flow of Iranian oil, which authorities say is carried by Iran’s “shadow fleet.” The United States has already penalized dozens of individuals and vessels involved in the shipments.

“Any refinery, company, or broker that chooses to purchase Iranian oil or facilitate Iran’s oil trade places itself at serious risk,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

https://apnews.com/article/iran-sanctions-shadow-fleet-oil-china-trump-d0f677185a09fc1f3392de209670b3d5

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 18:08

🇺🇸🇲🇽 CIA To Unleash 'Finely Tuned Machine' To Destroy Mexican Cartels

It was only a matter of time until the CIA became involved in the Trump administration's war on Mexican drug cartels. According, and is formulating a 'finely tuned machine' to help disrupt one of the deadliest criminal networks in the world.

Specifically, the CIA is establishing the Americas Counternarcotics Mission Center, combining its counternarcotics and Western Hemisphere teams to enable faster, more effective collaboration, CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis (formerly Rumble general counsel) told Breitbart, adding that the mission is to become a "finely tuned machine" to dismantle cartels, labeled foreign terrorists by the Trump administration.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/cia-unleash-finely-tuned-machine-destroy-mexican-cartels

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 15:59

🇺🇸 Hiring neocons is always bad.

The Trump Administration has shifted from DOGE & cutting -- to neocon spending & war hysteria.

🔗 Ron Paul

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 14:32

📈 Gold fund net inflows have hit a record $80 BILLION year-to-date.

This is 2 TIMES more than the previous high set in the full year 2020.

Investors are pouring money into gold at a record pace as the market uncertainty has skyrocketed.

As a result, gold prices have rallied 22% year-to-date and have outperformed every other major asset class.

Gold prices have also hit 52 all-time highs over the last year, posting the best streak in 12 years.

Gold is the global safe haven.

🔗 The Kobeissi Letter

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 13:34

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Many say, "The US military ultimately backs the USD and USTs", and that is true...but per below, Chinese components back the US military...and Chinese factories make those Chinese components...and the US is tariffing those Chinese factories...

Do you see the problem yet?

🔗 Luke Gromen

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 13:34

SpaceX and its partners emerge as frontrunners to build part of Trump's Golden Dome project: report

SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril reportedly working on joint bid to construct missile defense system

https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/spacex-its-partners-emerge-frontrunners-build-part-trumps-golden-dome-project-report

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 11:44

🇨🇳🇰🇭 China’s leader Xi Jinping holds talks in Cambodia to wrap up his 3-nation Southeast Asia tour

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Cambodia on Thursday for a two-day state visit that serves as an opportunity to further strengthen China’s already robust relations with its closest ally in Southeast Asia.

China is presenting itself as a source of stability and certainty as Southeast Asia; where Trump’s tariffs threaten the region’s export-oriented economies whose largest markets are generally the United States.

https://apnews.com/article/xi-jinping-hun-manet-ream-naval-base-cambodia-china-f477b79fd3bb2a08455e95b66acff53c

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 09:54

🇺🇸 Trump says Fed Chair Jerome Powell's "termination cannot come fast enough"

President Trump took aim at Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, writing in a social media post that Powell should be cutting interest rates and adding that his "termination cannot come fast enough."

Mr. Trump's comments on his social media app, Truth Social, come after Powell delivered a speech on Wednesday that warned of the potential consequences of the Trump administration's trade war, while reiterating that the central bank plans to hold interest rates steady for now.

In his social media post, Mr. Trump on Thursday pointed to the European Central Bank, which cut rates by 0.25 percentage points after the president posted his message.

"The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, 'Too Late' Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always TOO LATE AND WRONG, yesterday issued a report which was another, and typical, complete 'mess!'" Mr. Trump wrote.

He added, "Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS. Too Late should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell's termination cannot come fast enough!"

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-powell-federal-reserve-termination-fire-interest-rates/

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

18 Apr 2025 08:48

🇨🇳 Nvidia’s CEO makes surprise visit to Beijing after US restricts chip sales to China

The chief executive of the American chip maker Nvidia visited Beijing on Thursday, days after the US issued fresh restrictions on sales of the only AI chip it was still allowed to sell to China.

Jensen Huang’s surprise visit was on the invitation of a trade organisation, according to a social media account affiliated with state media.

The official broadcaster China Central Television said Huang met Ren Hongbin, the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, where he said he hopes “to continue to cooperate with China”.

The visit caps a tumultuous week for Nvidia. The US restrictions, announced on Tuesday, apply to shipments of its H20 datacentre GPUs, a lower-powered version of other Nvidia chips, which was designed specifically to comply with Biden-era restrictions on sales to China.

The US government, which is battling China in the race for AI supremacy, told Nvidia the new rules were designed to address the risk that its products might be “used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China”.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/17/nvidias-ceo-surprise-visit-beijing-restricts-chip-sales-china

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 21:23

—❗️🇺🇸/🇮🇷 President Trump: 'I never said I'm ruling out an attack on Iran, but I'm not in a rush to do it'

@Middle_East_Spectator

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 16:51

🇨🇳🌏 The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area was established in 2010. Since then, bilateral trade has surged, tripling from 2010 to 2024.

🔗 Valiant Panda

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 15:28

🇨🇳 Exclusive—How China's Military is Quietly Gaining Control of the Pacific

China has quietly extended its military reach far across the Pacific by building dozens of ports, airports, and communications projects at key points in a vast region that could shut out the United States and its allies in the event of war, a new report says.

The projects appeared civilian in nature but were in reality "strategic nodes" stretching about 3,000 miles, from Papua New Guinea immediately north of U.S. ally Australia, to Samoa, which lies about 40 miles away from the U.S. territory of American Samoa in Polynesia, according to the new study made available exclusively to Newsweek. The remote, scattered islands of the Pacific were once crucial to American warfighting strategy in World War II, and they could play a role in the next global conflict, too.

The growing logistics network in the South Pacific—built mostly by Chinese state-owned companies with ties to its defense sector—was being overlooked even as Beijing's rivalry with the U.S. deepened and as China's overseas base ambitions elsewhere drew attention, said Domingo I-Kwei Yang, an assistant research fellow at Taiwan's Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), an institution funded by the government of self-ruled Taiwan, which China has threatened to invade.

"The question is not whether, but when, China will complete a civil-military logistics system in the Pacific," Yang said in China's Dual-Use Infrastructure in the Pacific, a study published on Monday as part of the Coastwatchers 2.0 Project, a collaboration between the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and Project Sinopsis, a research center in Prague in the Czech Republic.

https://www.newsweek.com/china-south-pacific-strategic-dual-use-infrastructure-us-military-2059048

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 12:57

🇪🇺🇷🇺🛢 EU shelves idea of sanctions on Russian LNG imports

European officials have dropped the idea of pushing for a ban on the bloc's Russian liquefied natural gas imports in upcoming packages because of resistance from some governments and uncertainty about alternative sources, EU officials said.

Instead, the Commission wants to iron out a new road map to end the bloc's reliance on Russian energy by 2027. The plan is due to be announced in early May but details are scarce.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/eu-shelves-idea-sanctions-russian-lng-imports-2025-04-16/

https://archive.ph/zN0r3

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 10:19

🇪🇺🇩🇪 Looks like the era of EU-immigration has ended for Germany. Last year was the first year with a net loss of EU-foreigners, mostly Poles, Bulgarians and Croats. Eastern EU countries have now converged enough for migration flows to reverse.

🔗 BirthGauge

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

17 Apr 2025 08:22

🌊 A mini-gold rush brews three miles below sea level

A mini-gold rush brews three miles below sea level. Trump is expected to issue an executive order that would step up plans to harvest polymetallic nodules that form beneath the Pacific. These black lumps are rich in nickel, cobalt and manganese.

https://www.ft.com/content/88f82730-021c-4f01-9d21-6dc98d541f7d

https://archive.ph/fMbGJ

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 21:01

🇺🇸🇾🇪 Jennifer Griffin has reported that B-2 bombers operating from Diego Garcia have been employing GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) against underground Houthi infrastructure targets since early April. The MOP is a highly specialized and limited stockpile weapon, designed specifically to neutralize deeply buried and fortified targets.

If confirmed, this would mark the first known combat use of the GBU-57 and would send a clear and deliberate message to Iran.

🔗 GMI

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 17:05

🇷🇺🇮🇩 Russia Eyes Papua Airbase Near Australia

Russia plans to establish its first airbase in the Pacific Ocean and wants to place its military aircraft near key U.S. and Australian facilities

The airbase will be located in the province of Papua, Indonesia.

🇦🇺 Australia sounds the alarm: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that Canberra is awaiting clarification from Indonesia.

🔗 NEXTA

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 15:05

🇮🇱 There is a hyper-aggressive Israeli military doctrine reshaping the Middle East: Israel has been seizing territory from its neighbours, building buffer zones and bombing perceived threats as far as Beirut and Damascus in massive displays of force

https://x.com/FT/status/1912219424083370478

https://archive.ph/Jk5DY

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 13:58

🇺🇸🇸🇻 After U.S. President Trump suggested yesterday that he would support such a move, the White House confirmed today that they are “looking at” the legal basis for being able to deport not just illegal immigrants, but also Americans charged with certain crimes, to the notorious CECOT maximum-security mega-prison as well as other prisons in El Salvador.

🔗 OSINTdefender

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

16 Apr 2025 12:55

🇺🇸 President Trump learns to say “Make America Great Again” in Spanish.

🔗 AF Post