Important Takeaways:
- Beijing has the ability to hit the United States with conventional weapons; compromise U.S. infrastructure through cyber-attacks; and target its assets in space, the Annual Threat Assessment by the intelligence community said, adding the Communist dictatorship also seeks to displace the United States as the top AI power by 2030.
- AFP reports Beijing’s “coercive pressure” against Taiwan and “wide-ranging cyber operations against US targets” flag its growing threat to U.S. national security, according to the assessment.
- Beijing’s military is gearing up to challenge U.S. operations in the Pacific and “making steady but uneven progress on capabilities it would use in an attempt to seize Taiwan,” it concluded, even as U.S. President Donald Trump warns that Beijing’s actions will have consequences.
- Russia, along with Iran, North Korea and China, seeks to challenge the U.S. through deliberate campaigns to gain an advantage, with Moscow’s war in Ukraine affording a “wealth of lessons regarding combat against Western weapons and intelligence in a large-scale war,” the report said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Trump shared the figure during Monday’s Cabinet meeting at the White House.
- “First of all, many companies are now moving into the United States. They’re coming back. Some of them left us from many years ago, decades ago, and they’re all – it seems they’re all coming back,” he said.
- “We have probably identified maybe $4 trillion worth of companies moving back or going to move back. Many of them have announced. It’s going to be tremendous jobs, high-paying jobs, too,” he added.
- Trump noted the semiconductor industry in particular and criticized the CHIPS and Sciences Act of 2022, which he said did not incentivize domestic microchip production as it provided large subsidies to companies already worth billions.
- “You gave billions of dollars to companies that already have many billions of dollars that just… said, ‘Thank you very much.’ It was no incentive for them to use it,” Trump said of the CHIPS Act. “But what is good is the tariffs will make it so that they want to come back. That’s why they’re coming back.”
- Trump stressed that domestically produced goods do not face tariffs, which is an incentive for companies to manufacture in the United States.
- The president also touted automobile investment announcements in the United States with his return to office:
- Honda is coming in with a massive plant to Indiana. But there are many plants that are happening, and literally, some have started already. General Motors is already redoing plants that were half abandoned, or they have plants that weren’t being fully utilized… They and others are going to be making parts and other things in those plants so that it’s one-stop shopping, finally.
- Plans for the latest auto investment in the U.S. were revealed on Monday when CNBC reported Hyundai, a South Korea-based company, was set to “announce a $20 billion investment in U.S. on shoring that includes a $5 billion steel plant in Louisiana.”
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Important Takeaways:
- China is one of the United States’ largest creditors, owning about $859.4 billion in U.S. debt. It doesn’t own the most U.S. debt of any foreign country, however.
- Nations borrowing from each other may be as old as the concept of money. Foreign debt provides the opportunity for countries to secure financing that they ordinarily wouldn’t have access to and to stimulate their economy.
- The concept of foreign debt carries a negative connotation, however, especially when it concerns large amounts owed to nations embroiled in controversy. The huge amount of debt that the U.S. government owes Chinese lenders has been the subject of countless debates, headline news stories, and political platforms for decades.
- Japan commands the top spot among foreign creditors with $1.1 trillion, about 3% of total U.S. debt owed by the U.S. government. China holds the number two position with $859.4 billion of U.S. Treasury’s, about 2.6% of the total U.S. debt.
- Consequences of Owing Debt to the Chinese
- It’s politically popular to say that the China “owns the United States” because it’s such a huge creditor but the reality is very different from the rhetoric.
- The U.S. dollar would depreciate and the yuan would appreciate if China called in all its U.S. holdings, making Chinese goods more expensive.
- Although 2.6% of the national debt isn’t insignificant, the Treasury Department has had no problems finding buyers for its products even after a rating downgrade.
- Others would likely step in to service the market if the Chinese suddenly decided to call in all the federal government’s obligations and this isn’t possible because of the maturities of debt securities. This includes the Federal Reserve which already owns six times as much debt as China.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Polish president said there’s a need for NATO’s deterrence to shift eastward to Poland following the end of the Cold War
- Polish President Andrzej Duda has asked the US to deploy nuclear weapons to Poland to deter a potential Russian invasion.
- Duda argued that NATO’s deterrence should shift eastward from Germany to Poland following the end of the Cold War, adding that he has discussed the option with Washington’s Ukraine-Russia envoy Keith Kellogg. However, Duda did not divulge the details of the conversation.
- “The borders of NATO moved east in 1999, so 26 years later there should also be a shift of the NATO infrastructure east. For me this is obvious,” Duda told the Financial Times (FT).
- “I think it’s not only that the time has come, but that it would be safer if those weapons were already here,” he added.
- Duda made a similar remark in the summer of 2024, saying at the time that Poland was ready to host nuclear arms if NATO decides to deploy the weapons in the face of Russia reinforcing its armaments in Belarus and Kaliningrad.
- Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also made similar comments in recent days, saying Warsaw has been “talking seriously” with France to deploy its nuclear arsenal in Poland after French President Emmanuel Macron talked of a potential nuclear umbrella for Europe.
- Duda also referenced Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus in his comments to the FT. Poland shares a border with Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and Moscow ally Belarus.
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Important Takeaways:
- China has said it is “ready for war” with America as it raises defense spending and imposes retaliatory tariffs on US imports.
- In a direct threat to Donald Trump, China’s representatives in America said: “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight until the end.”
- The US has hit China with 20 percent tariffs in response to what the White House considers to be Chinese inaction over the flow of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, into America.
- In combative statements online, China’s ministry of foreign affairs and US embassy warned Washington that “intimidation does not scare us” and criticized Mr. Trump for linking tariffs to the fentanyl crisis.
- The fiery language comes as China’s top legislature met for annual Two Sessions meetings in Beijing, where the plans to boost defense spending were revealed.
- The rise in spending is equal to the jump last year and takes the official budget to roughly 1.78 trillion yuan (£190 billion), as China pursues the goal of Xi Jinping, its president, to build a modern military by 2027.
- On Wednesday, Li Qiang, China’s premier… said Beijing “will step up military training and combat readiness so as to firmly safeguard China’s sovereignty, security and development interests”.
- China has stoked alarm with increasingly aggressive moves in Asia and the Pacific – including recent live-fire drills off the Australian coast, military exercises close to Taiwan and Vietnam and confrontations with the Philippine coast guard in the South China Sea. Japan, South Korea and India have all criticized the projections of military might.
- Earlier this week, it was revealed that China is developing a new nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which would be larger and more advanced than any vessel in its fleet, in an attempt to rival the US.
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Important Takeaways:
- At exactly 12.01am ET this morning, the long-awaited 25% US tariffs on Canada and Mexico as well as an additional 10% levy on China went live. The 25% tariffs taking effect apply to all imports from Canada and Mexico, except for Canadian energy which will be tariffed at a 10% rate.
- The 25% EU tariffs, sectoral tariffs on copper, lumber etc., as well as the broader suite of reciprocal tariffs
- Swift retaliation followed from both Canada and China. Canada imposed 25% tariffs of its own on $155bn of US exports including orange juice and bourbon in two stages – immediate tariffs on $30bn of goods and the remaining $125bn in 21 days.
- China raised tariffs by 10% on soybeans, pork, beef, and fruits starting March 10th, and 15% tariffs on chicken, wheat, corn and cotton in line with yesterday’s press reports of agricultural goods being Chinese tariff targets.
- Additionally, China’s Customs suspended imports of US lumber effective immediately, and suspended soybean import qualification for three US companies
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Important Takeaways:
- Diplomats from the United States and Russia met and spoke at the U.S. consul general’s residence in Istanbul, Turkey for over six hours on Thursday, the latest meeting between the countries in a bid to normalize diplomatic relations before moving on to the larger matter of finding a solution to the Ukraine War. The discussions were said to have been focused on allowing the two countries to return to being able to properly operate embassies in each other’s’ nations.
- An agreement was reached to hold further meetings although when and where was not stated.
- Thursday’s talk followed another in-person meeting between Russian and American delegations in Saudi Arabia last week, the first such meeting between the nations in years, and a phone call between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin before that. An ambition of these talks is to get diplomatic relations between the states to a point where the two leaders are able to meet in-person to negotiate an end to the Ukraine War, but no meaningful progress on that has been made public.
- One facet of talks so far has been grumbling from Europe and Ukraine in particular about their not having been invited to these talks. While U.S. diplomats have been mollifying, pointing out these first meetings are specifically about American-Russian relations and Europe and Ukraine will have a seat at the table when relevant in the future, Russia’s Putin was more direct, warning European leaders not to attempt to undermine the process.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iran has put its defense systems around its nuclear sites on high alert amid fears of an attack by Israel and the US, The Telegraph has learnt.
- According to two high-level government sources, the Islamic Republic has also been bolstering defenses around key nuclear and missile sites, which include the deployment of additional air defense system launchers.
- Officials say the measures are in response to growing concerns of potential joint military action by Israel and the United States.
- It follows warnings from US intelligence to both the Biden and Trump administrations that Israel would likely target key Iranian nuclear sites this year.
- “They [Iranian authorities] are just waiting for the attack and are anticipating it every night and everything has been on high alert – even in sites that no one knows about,” one source told The Telegraph.
- “Work to fortify nuclear sites has been ongoing for years but it has intensified over the past year, particularly since Israel launched the first attack,” he added.
- “Recent developments, including Donald Trump’s comments and reports about potential plans from his administration to strike Iran, have further intensified activities.”
- Israel’s victories over Iran’s proxy networks such as Hamas and Hezbollah, the fall of Bashar al-Assad the Syrian president who was Tehran’s main ally, and regional setbacks have severely weakened the Iranian regime.
- The losses have fueled dissent at home and raised hopes for change.
- It has left Iran vulnerable to Mr. Trump’s hawkish stance on the country. Since he came to power he has resumed his “maximum pressure” campaign on Iran, including efforts to stop it from obtaining nuclear weapons by driving its oil exports down to zero.
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Important Takeaways:
- EMP is generated when a small nuclear weapon, 40 to 60 kilotons or about three times the size of a Hiroshima bomb, is detonated 200 miles out in space above the United States. It sets up an electrostatic discharge, or compton effect, which cascades to the Earth’s surface, feeds into critical infrastructure and cripples the U.S. electrical grid.
- Military historian and expert on EMPs William Forstchen said it’s a serious issue for the country.
- “This is a very real threat,” said Forstchen. “It’s scary to realize too that almost all of our electricity is pumped on systems that are 30 and 40 years old.”
- Congressional reports from 2002 and 2008 stated that 80%-90% of Americans would be dead a year later from an EMP strike.
- “Estimates are that three small weapons like this in the eastern, central and western United States would short off most of the electrical grid,” Forstchen explained.
- Forstchen suggests that the U.S. – and everyday Americans – prepare for the “existential threat” of such an attack.
- “Second, we need a missile defense system that will protect the United States.”
- Since becoming President, Trump has ordered the construction of an advanced missile defense shield similar to Israel’s Iron Dome.
- “Every American citizen should take this seriously and prepare a little bit with a month or two worth of emergency supplies on hand,” said Forstchen.
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Important Takeaways:
- President Trump wants to create a defensive iron dome over America, similar to the one used by Israel to defend itself against Hamas and Hezbollah rocket attacks.
- Under a new executive order from the president, the Pentagon was given 60 days to come up with an initial plan for defending the country against a wide range of missile attacks.
- “We protect other countries, but we don’t protect ourselves. When Ronald Reagan wanted to do it many years ago we didn’t have the technology, but now we have phenomenal technology,” Trump said in January during a speech at the House Republican Retreat in Florida.
- The order focuses on potential threats, including ballistic, hypersonic, and advanced cruise missiles plus other next-generation aerial attacks. Trump also specified the need for deploying new space-based sensors that would identify, track, and intercept missiles.
- Deterrence is one of the primary goals of the new system – missile defenses that would make enemies question whether their first strike could hit its mark.
- While cost would likely be one of the biggest roadblocks, several Republican lawmakers are already working on a funding package, and Coates points out that freeing up money for projects like this is a big benefit of the work being done by Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
- President Trump is calling for all components of this defense shield to be American-made.
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