🇨🇳🇺🇸 Chinese Holdings of U.S. Treasuries plunge to lowest level since the Global Financial Crisis

🔗 BarChart

🇸🇦🇦🇪⚔️🇮🇷 Iran’s state media says fishermen found wreckage of a downed U.S. MQ-9 Reaper near Bushehr, but OSINT analysts say it’s almost certainly not an MQ-9.

The debris appears to match a Chinese-made Wing Loong II, likely operated by a regional state such as Saudi Arabia or the UAE.

This is at least the second Wing Loong II wreckage found by Iranian forces.

Either Saudi Arabia or UAE is actively involved in operations against Iran along with U.S. and Israel.

🔗 Clash Report

🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸🇮🇱 Iranian air defenses shot down another 1,000-pound AGM-158 JASSM Cruise Missile over Markazi province.

This would be the 4th visually confirmed AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile shot down by Iranian AA.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸 The majority of new jobs added to the American economy in the past 12 months were in the healthcare sector, which saw 663k new jobs created.

📝 Roy: The American economy is boomers paying to extend their life by 6 months, defense spending, AI data centers, and people defrauding government programs

🔗 Morning Brew

🇬🇧 UK motorists face £2 a litre diesel as Iran war drives wholesale prices to 4-year high

Scarce cargoes have boosted European diesel futures to equivalent of $211 a barrel, almost double the price of crude oil

The loss of supplies from the Middle East has driven up oil prices across the world but diesel had some of the most rapid gains, with the world’s buyers jockeying for the remaining supplies.

Middle Eastern refiners have become more significant to European diesel supplies in recent years after restrictions were placed on purchases from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

“Every day that passes the oil market gets tighter so prices continue to climb,” Gelder said. “Diesel prices could well go much higher.”

Already, UK motorists saw the highest monthly rise in prices for diesel and petrol on record in March, according to figures compiled by RAC.

🔗 https://archive.ph/WzTNV

🇺🇸 Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell:

"The thing I think a good number of people in the committee are concerned about is the low level of job creation. If you adjust what's been the job creation level over the past 6 months, if you adjust that for what the stats think its job overcounting, it effectively means there's zero job creation in the private sector"

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇦🇱🇾🇷🇺 Ukrainian military presence in GNA-controlled Western Libya.

🔗 https://t.me/rybar_africa/2877

🇮🇳🤝🇮🇷 India's ministry of petroleum and natural gas denied rumours that the Eswatini-flagged oil tanker loaded with Iranian hydrocarbons headed for the Indian port of Vadinar was rerouted, thereby confirming the news that India has restarted acquisitions of Iranian oil.

In a post on X, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas dismissed reports that an oil tanker carrying Iranian crude had rerouted mid-voyage from its previously indicated destination of India, which would have marked the first such shipment in nearly seven years, to China, saying the claims overlooked standard industry practice where cargoes can change destination during transit based on trade optimisation and operational flexibility.

Terming as "factually incorrect" assertions that the cargo was diverted from its previously indicated destination of Vadinar in Gujarat to China due to payment hurdles, the ministry said, "there are no payment hurdles for Iranian crude imports".

"India imports crude oil from 40+ countries, with companies having full flexibility to source oil from different sources and geographies based on commercial considerations," it said.

"Amid Middle East supply disruptions, Indian refiners have secured their crude oil requirements, including from Iran, and there is no payment hurdle for Iranian crude imports, contrary to the rumours being circulated." Ship-tracking firm Kpler on Friday stated that Aframax tanker Ping Shun, built in 2002 and sanctioned by the US in 2025, is now signalling Dongying in China as its destination instead of Vadinar in Gujarat, which it had indicated earlier this week.

🔗 https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/iran-israel-war-no-payment-hurdle-for-iranian-crude-imports-india-dismisses-rumours-11311069

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 Jewish political activist, Laura Loomer, calls on president Trump to bomb Iran's power grid.

One of her tweets got a community note recalling that the U.S. did the same to Iraq's power grid in 1991 and it did not degrade Saddam Hussein's grip on power and only led to more misery and suffering for Iraqi civilians.

Considering the significant amount of influence Loomer holds over Trump, the president will listen to her "advice".

@CIG_telegram

🛢 The amount of oil in transit around the globe has decreased sharply since the outbreak of the 3rd Gulf War.

The world is very close to fuel shortages.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸❌🇻🇦 For the first time in modern history, the Pentagon offered no Good Friday services for Catholics.

While Catholics don't celebrate Mass on Good Friday, they do venerate the cross of Jesus Christ and receive the Eucharist.

Earlier this year, Pete Hegseth invited his pastor to speak at the Pentagon. That pastor has called for banning public expressions of Catholicism in the United States.

📎 https://www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/trump-vance-white-house-escalates

🔗 Cristopher Hale

🇺🇸❌🇻🇦 Pete Hegseth’s Evangelical-Presbyterian pastor and mentor, Doug Wilson, says the United States should ban public Masses, Marian processions, and Corpus Christi devotions.

Hegseth invited the anti-Catholic preacher to lead a prayer service at the Pentagon on February 14.

🔗 Christopher Hale (@ChristopherHale)

🇺🇸❌🇮🇷 — US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio on X:

Until recently, Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter were green card holders living lavishly in the United States.

Afshar is the niece of deceased Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. She is also an outspoken supporter of the Iranian regime who celebrated attacks on Americans and referred to our country as the "Great Satan."

This week, I terminated both Afshar and her daughter's legal status and they are now in ICE custody, pending removal from the United States.

The Trump Administration will not allow our country to become a home for foreign nationals who support anti-American terrorist regimes.

@BellumActaNews

🇺🇸 More & more young Americans burdened by college debt are moving abroad and are not paying it back — NYT

Amanda Lynn Tully spent her teenage years as a ward of the State of Colorado and believed a college degree was her ticket to a better life.

So, when she graduated in 2017 with a master’s degree in historic preservation from the University of Oregon, $65,000 in federal student loans and no job offers in the conservation field, she felt misled.

Less than a year after graduating, Ms. Tully made a drastic decision: She moved to Prague, where she had completed an internship, and defaulted on her loans. She hasn’t made a payment in over seven years.

For some borrowers, moving abroad and out of reach of debt collectors can be tempting. In interviews, people who made this decision cited relieving the psychological burden of student debt as a motivator, as well as having a higher quality of life, even on a lower salary, outside the United States. Many who fled abroad, including Ms. Tully, said they had no plans of ever returning.

Credit reporting agencies like Experian, aware of the issue, have advised borrowers who have moved abroad to “resist the temptation to stop making payments.” Borrowers in delinquency and default will likely see their credit scores plummet, raising their borrowing costs and making it difficult for them to access credit.

In 2016, Eric Cooper graduated from a state school in Georgia with a degree in logistics. He received good grades and found a job as a logistics manager earning $52,000 a year almost immediately. But he had $80,000 of student debt, most of it consisting of parent PLUS loans through his mother.

“I did what everyone says to do — go to college, sign up for the loans,” said Mr. Cooper, now 31. “My concern when I was 18 was that it was a lot of money, but everyone tells you that you’ll get a good job and pay it back, no problem.”

Mr. Cooper’s payments were over $600 a month, and he was living paycheck to paycheck. He considered his options and planned to default not long after graduating, realizing his debt would take decades to pay off.

“I thought about it one day and was like, ‘Am I really going to be doing this until I’m 50 or 60?’”

His primary concern was the parent PLUS loan. “If I left and didn’t pay it, they would be forced to,” he said of his family. After working for three years and making timely payments, he refinanced the loan into his name with a private lender. Within months, he moved to Southeast Asia to teach English and continued making minimum payments while applying for citizenship in his new country. He stopped paying when it was secured.

Mr. Cooper defaulted on his loans in 2019, changing his email and phone number, never alerting debtors to his new address.

Besides the emails, debt plays virtually no role in Mr. Zúñiga’s life in Shanghai. Ms. Tully and Mr. Cooper also lead seemingly debt-free lives. They largely rely on local jobs and freelance work, still living comfortably despite earning far less than their American peers. Both have visited the United States without encountering issues and said they rarely thought about their debt.

📝 Indian Bronson: As more young/non-asset owning Americans realize the US establishment impoverished them by inflationary monetary policy to insulate older/asset owning Americans, the establishment is starting to worry they will opt out & live well for doing so.

If you want to terrify the deep political order of US Empire — not just any particular party — pull the chair out from under them. Live somewhere else + earn in dollars & spend them wisely coordinated with 100+ people. Eliminate the value capture of your serfdom.

🔗 https://archive.ph/dv0Y3