🇨🇳😎📉📈 — 📰 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"

🇺🇸🇯🇴🗺 — Via its account on Weibo, China's Mizarvision satellite imagery shows that United States Air Force is massing up its presence at the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan's Muwaffaq Al-Salti Air Base (85 KM E of Amman)

Such a base now hosts:

📝 18x USAF F-35A Lightning II fighter jets

📝 6x US Navy EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft

➡️ It's noteworthy that such a base under the Hashemite's protection is outside most of IRGC's SRBMs as the Fateh-110 (300 KM range), Fateh-313 (~500 KM range) and Zolfaghar (~700 Km) as it is placed around 1000-1600 KM away from the main Iranian launching pods and underground cities in Lorestan, Khuzestan, Fars and Kurdistan Provinces of Iran

➡️ However, such a base could still be targeted by Iranian MRBMs and IRBMs as the Shahab-3 (Depending where it is placed, as it has a 1300 Km range), the Ghadr-110 (~1900 KM range) and the Emad (~1700 km range), as well, obviously, Iranian loitering munition, although the later is slower

#BREAKING | 🇺🇸 — The White House has published the list of countries sending representatives to today’s inaugural meeting of the 'Board of Peace' at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace:

🇦🇱 Albania
🇦🇷 Argentina
🇦🇲 Armenia
🇦🇹 Austria
🇦🇿 Azerbaijan
🇧🇭 Bahrain
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
🇰🇭 Cambodia
🇭🇷 Croatia
🇨🇾 Cyprus
🇨🇿 Czech Republic
🇪🇬 Egypt
🇸🇻 El Salvador
🇪🇺 European Union (EU)
🇫🇮 Finland
🇩🇪 Germany
🇬🇷 Greece
🇭🇺 Hungary
🇮🇳 India
🇮🇩 Indonesia
🇮🇱 Israel
🇮🇹 Italy
🇯🇵 Japan
🇯🇴 Jordan
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
🇽🇰 *Kosovo
🇰🇼 Kuwait
🇲🇽 Mexico
🇲🇳 Mongolia
🇲🇦 Morocco
🇳🇱 Netherlands
🇳🇴 Norway
🇴🇲 Oman
🇵🇰 Pakistan
🇵🇾 Paraguay
🇵🇱 Poland
🇶🇦 Qatar
🇰🇷 South Korea (ROK)
🇷🇴 Romania
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇸🇰 Slovakia
🇨🇭 Switzerland
🇹🇭 Thailand
🇹🇷 Türkiye
🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates (UAE)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom (UK)
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan
🇻🇳 Vietnam

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🇺🇸🕊📝 — United States President Donald J. Trump has arrived at the Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. where he will chair his first Board of Peace meeting.

🇺🇸⚽️🕊 — At the Board of Peace meeting, FIFA President Gianni Infantino is seen wearing a red “USA” hat