🇺🇸🇸🇾⚡️ — BREAKING: The U.S. is in the process of withdrawing all of its roughly 1,000 troops from Syria, according to WSJ, citing three American officials.

➡️ The Trump administration has decided a U.S. military presence in Syria is no longer necessary, citing the near-total disbandment of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

➡️ The full pullout should be completed within two months.

📝The withdrawal is not related to the deployment of forces for potential military action against Iran.

🇺🇸🇹🇼🇨🇳⚡️ — NEW: The major U.S. arms package for Taiwan has been put on hold following Chinese pressure ahead of President Trump’s planned April visit to Beijing, WSJ reports.

➡️ During a recent call, Xi Jinping warned Trump to handle Taiwan arms sales cautiously, describing the issue as "the most important issue in China-U.S. relations."

🇮🇷⚡️📉 — A Partial power outage in Tehran, Iran was reported over the past hour

🧠💬⚔️❌🇨🇳 — 📰 ZeroHedge | CIA Releases Video To Recruit Spies In China Amid Xi's Top Brass Purge | February 13, 2026:

"The CIA rolled out a new recruitment video Thursday aimed squarely at prying open cracks inside China's military establishment - already as a Xi CCP purge of top military officials has been underway, according to Reuters. This latest video features a "disillusioned mid-level Chinese military officer" pitching other officers in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on the idea of quietly switching sides and feeding US intelligence - which seems a bit on the nose.

(...)

In the video, the fictional PLA officer declares: "Anyone with leadership qualities is bound to be subject to suspicion and ruthlessly eliminated" - an unmistakable nod to Beijing's ongoing purge of senior military brass.

The new video follows a similar CIA campaign launched last year targeting senior Chinese Communist Party officials, complete with detailed Mandarin-language instructions on how to securely contact US intelligence.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe has boasted that those earlier efforts penetrated China's censorship firewall and offered officials an "opportunity to work toward a brighter future together."

"Our past videos reached millions of people and inspired new sources," an anonymous CIA official told Reuters. One wonders, given the mass nature of the 'outreach', how many of these 'new sources' might actually be double agents dangled as bait by Chinese intelligence.

According to some of the dialogue featured in this new video release (machine translated):

"I pledged loyalty to the motherland and China's national security. But the leadership is corrupt. I once thought our leaders cared for the people, but they only pursue their own interests. They abuse power for personal wealth, sacrificing the nation.

My conscience can no longer bear it. I must act - for China, for justice. I contacted the CIA. They protected me and provided safety. Now I'm free to speak the truth. If you have info on high-level Chinese leaders, contact us. We'll protect you."

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🇺🇸🇪🇺⚡️ — The U.S. State Department is developing a website, “freedom.gov,” intended to let users in Europe and other regions access content restricted by their governments, including material labeled as hate speech or terrorist propaganda, according to Reuters.

➡️ Officials involved say the project is meant to promote digital freedom and counter censorship.

➡️ The platform may include VPN-like functionality to make user traffic appear to originate from the U.S., and sources say user activity would not be tracked.

➡️ The initiative is being led by Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers and was initially expected to be announced at the Munich Security Conference but has not yet launched.

➡️ Some State Department officials raised concerns about the plan, though a department spokesperson denied that any announcement was delayed or that lawyers objected. The spokesperson also said there is no censorship-circumvention program specific to Europe, while emphasizing support for digital privacy technologies.

➡️ The freedom.gov domain was registered in January and currently displays no content beyond a basic landing page. It remains unclear how the government portal would differ from commercial VPN services already available.

🇺🇸🧏🤝🇹🇼— 📰 ZeroHedge | US-Controlled ATACMS Missiles Deployed In South China Sea, 10km Off China's Mainland | February 13, 2026:

"Mere days after the US-backed government in Taipei launched the so-called Joint Firepower Coordination Center (JFCC), defined as “an enhanced firepower coordination effort in close cooperation with the United States”, multirole sources have confirmed that the Chinese breakaway island province of Taiwan is deploying the overhyped and exorbitantly overpriced M142 HIMARS MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) to the islands of Penghu and Dongyin.

The US-made system is also equipped with ATACMS missiles, extending its reach to 300 km. Taipei insists that this will “strengthen the effectiveness of the kill chain”, while its Ministry of Defense (MoD) stressed that the increase in HIMARS orders to 111 units was undertaken specifically to forward-deploy them to the islands closest to China’s mainland.

Dongyin, the northernmost island of the Matsu archipelago in the East China Sea, (see Map) is located around 10 km from mainland China. Deploying missiles such as the ATACMS there puts virtually the entire Fujian province within range, including key cities like Fuzhou, Ningde and Quanzhou.

However, the situation is even worse, given that the US controls those missiles through the JFCC. Its establishment and the permanent deployment of American personnel at command and control facilities in Taipei to oversee planning and potential use of ATACMS missiles in case of yet another US/NATO-orchestrated escalation are deeply troubling and concerning for Beijing.

However, Taipei is still trying to present it as “harmless assistance in coordination and supervision”. They’re just not saying for what."

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🌎📊🪙🇨🇳🥇 — 📰 ZeroHedge | These Are The Countries Buying (And Selling) The Most Gold Since 2020 | February 16, 2026:

"As gold prices surged more than 230% since 2020, central banks around the world launched one of the largest gold-buying waves in modern history.

For many countries, bullion became more than just a hedge—it became a strategic reserve asset amid rising geopolitical tensions, currency volatility, and growing efforts to diversify away from the U.S. dollar.

Yet not every nation followed the same playbook: some were accumulating gold aggressively, while others were trimming reserves.

This chart, via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, ranks the countries that made the biggest net additions and the largest reductions in gold reserves over the past five years."

#Geoeconomics

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🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 New from CBS News:

-- US Military ready for strike on Iran as soon as this weekend

-- No decision made by Trump: Discussions are fluid and ongoing

-- Pentagon moving personnel out of the Middle East

-- Rubio visiting Israel in around 2 weeks

🔗 Faytuks

🇨🇳😎📉📈 — 📰 ZeroHedge | China's Debt Model Creates Danger Of Stagnation | February 17, 2026:

"The latest social financing figures from China show an economy that is increasingly relying on government debt while private demand for credit remains weak. The strength of the Chinese technology sector and its exporting companies gives enough room for leverage. However, behind the weak private sector credit demand lies an evident economic slowdown that the Chinese government acknowledges, challenging consumption patterns, a significant overcapacity problem, and the depth of the housing crisis.

The current economic model, focused on delivering 5% real economic growth, requires larger doses of debt to achieve smaller increments of growth, especially productive sector growth. The government has focused on reducing debt and overcapacity imbalances while reorienting its exports and financial system to lessen dependence on the US dollar; however, the main challenge for the Chinese economy remains boosting consumer demand, despite rate cuts and easing financial conditions.

To understand the intensity of debt of the Chinese model, we must go to the year 2000 and see the acceleration in the flow of debt, not just the current stock. At that time, real GDP growth was around 8–9%, so each percentage point of growth came with roughly 13–16 points of debt‑to‑GDP. Government debt was very low, at around 25% of GDP, and most leverage sat in the state-owned corporate sector with modest household debt. China was able to deliver near‑double‑digit growth with a total non‑financial debt ratio barely above 120% of GDP.

By 2023, non‑financial sector debt had risen to about 285% of GDP, more than doubling its level of 2000. Chinese think‑tanks and official commentators put the “macro leverage ratio” closer to 300% of GDP by 2025, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The macro leverage ratio rose by 11.8 percentage points to 302.3 percent in 2025, exceeding the 10.1-point increase reported in 2024.

Over the same period, the trend of real GDP growth has slowed to roughly 4–5%, so each percentage point of growth now requires around 60–75 points of debt‑to‑GDP, more than three times the debt per point of growth required in 2000. Furthermore, it comes mostly from government debt."

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#BREAKING

🇺🇸❌🏴❗️ — The United States and allied Coalition forcee thwarted near-catastrophic prison break of 6,000 ISIS fighters in Syria, Fox News reported.

📱🗣🇺🇦⚠️❌🇷🇺 — 📰 ZeroHedge | From "Don't Be Evil" To Drone King: Eric Schmidt Warns Ukraine's "No Man's Land" Is Future Of War | February 15, 2026:

"Google's old motto, "Don't be evil," was retired for very good reasons about eight years ago.

Former CEO Eric Schmidt has found a new obsession and is linked to a covert drone production pipeline that has supplied hundreds of FPV drones to Ukrainian front-line units, reinforcing his warning in a new Financial Times op-ed that "Ukraine's no man's land is the future of war."

"Future wars are going to be defined by unmanned weapons," Schmidt wrote in the op-ed.

(...)

He explained:

Ukraine is ready for the next stage of warfare, with swarms of drones operated remotely and increasingly automated with AI targeting.

No man's land has expanded as each side pulls its most valuable personnel back from the front while new generations of drones achieve longer ranges and increased lethality through better batteries, sensors and aerodynamics. Automating operations so personnel can operate safely behind the lines has become an urgent Ukrainian priority, with plans to move drone pilots even farther from the front in 2026.

The combination of unblockable satellite communications, cheap spectrum networks and accurate GPS targeting means the only way to fight will be through drone vs drone combat. Drones share data in real time, meaning that many inexpensive platforms can act as a single weapon. They will carry air-to-air missiles to defeat attackers, just like a fighter jet does, but will be cheaper and more abundant.

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⚡️🆗🇺🇦🗳 — ✔️ TASS | Russia ready to halt airstrikes on election day if elections held in Ukraine — diplomat | There is no talk yet of the practical organization of voting in Ukraine, Mikhail Galuzin said:

"MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. Russia is ready to ensure that there will be no airstrikes on election day in Ukraine if Kiev decides to hold elections, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said an interview with TASS.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that Moscow is ready to consider halting airstrikes deep into Ukraine on election day if elections are held there. He also noted that the 5-10 million Ukrainians living in Russia should have the right to vote.

"Of course, Russian President Vladimir Putin's statements remain relevant. But, as I earlier noted, there is no talk yet of the practical organization of voting in Ukraine," Galuzin said."

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🇺🇸🍕 — The past three days, there has been heavy pizza-ordering activity at pizza restaurants near MacDill AFB, home of US CENTCOM.

🔵❌🧠 — 📰 ZeroHedge | Pentagon Threatens To Blacklist Anthropic As 'Supply Chain Risk' Over Guardrails On Military Use | February 16, 2026:

"The Pentagon is reportedly about to cut ties with Anthropic, makers of Claude, which is already embedded in classified systems

The company insists on implementing guardrails over how the US military can use Claude - specifically when it comes to mass surveillance and autonomous weapons - after it was used in the Maduro raid without their knowledge.  

The Pentagon is now calling Claude a threat to national security

Some are accusing the overwhelmingly left-leaning company of trying to undermine the Trump administration, while Elon Musk says Claude 'hates whites, Asians, heterosexuals, and men.'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly "close" to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating the firm a supply chain risk - a penalty typically reserved for foreign adversaries, a senior Pentagon official told Axios.

Anthropic's flagship model, Claude, is already embedded in the military's classified systems - however the company's CEO has been pushing for abstract guardrails over ethical concerns for what the government sees as urgent national security needs. "

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🇺🇸🇮🇷 — The U.S. is amassing its largest Middle East air buildup since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, positioning for possible strikes on Iran.

Washington has deployed F-35s, F-22s, additional fighters, command aircraft, missile defenses, and two aircraft carriers to the region.

Officials say this gives Washington the option of a 'weekslong air war' — not just a one-off strike.

— The Wall Street Journal | @thewarreporterr

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇸🇦 — 2x United States Air Force (USAF) E-3C Sentry AWACS aircraft were seen over Tel Aviv en route to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

🇮🇷🪖📝 — Citizens in Iran published an interesting photo, likely in Alborz/Tehran (given the car plates), showing the movement of homegrown military communications system "Sepehr-110"