🇺🇸 — U.S. senior director for counterterrorism Sebastian Gorka, as part of an interview where he explains confronting "left-wing terrorists, narcoterrorists, and Islamic terrorists", lets it slip that Nick Fuentes and Tucker Carlson are on his radar, claiming that the two aren't conservatives and "laud Sharia law".

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🇺🇸 — Earlier, a USAF T-38 "Talon II" fighter/bomber trainer crashed in Lamar, Mississippi. Both pilots safely ejected before crash.

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🇺🇸 — President Trump outright states that he is not considering the American people's financial situation when conducting negotiations with Iran. The only thing that matters is that Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.

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🇺🇸 — President Trump announces he is doubling the size of the White House ballroom. A reporter points out this would double the cost. President Trump crashes out.

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🇺🇸🇨🇳 — President Trump announces that twelve CEOs are traveling to China, and Trump will arrive with the goal of further opening up American businesses to the Chinese market. The most notable CEOs in attendance are Jensen Huang, Sanjay Mehrota, and Cristiano Amon, as their three companies (Nvidia's chips and Micron & Qualcomm's semiconductors) are the center of the Sino-American technology war, with heavy export restrictions locking all three to the American market, making it possible that loosening export controls is on the table.

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🇱🇧❌🇮🇱 — Drone alert at Avivim, northeastern Israel along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

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🇺🇸 — Congressional Budget Office has released a report claiming that the "Golden Dome for America" quad-layered missile defense system could cost $1.2T dollars over the course of 20 years, far above President Trump's estimate of $175B. 60% of the cost would be on the space-based interceptor section; the Golden Dome plan envisions thousands of satellites orbiting the Earth launching interceptors to confront hostile missiles.

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🇺🇸↗️ - The US Consumer Price Index (CPI) accelerates to 3.8% year on year, highest since May 2023.

The index climbed 0.6% month on month, driven by a 3.8% increase in energy price. The US energy market is still being cushioned by drawdown from the SPR and refined product inventories. Energy price is expected to increase further if the Hormuz crisis is not resolved in the coming weeks.

The inflationary pressure is broad based, with core inflation also spiking to 2.8% year on year.

The mounting inflation may derail President Trump's plan to cut the interest rates and boost the slowing US economy. The US 10-year yield climbed 50 basis points since the beginning of the War in Iran.

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🇺🇸📞🇨🇳 - Ahead of his high stake visit to Beijing, President Trump signals his openness to use arm sales to Taiwan as a bargaining chip, breaking decades of precedents.

President Xi would like us not to, and I’ll have that discussion. That’s one of the many things I’ll be talking about.

Washington has always supported Taiwan de facto independence and has never entertained Chinese interference in its security tie with Taiwan. However, as President Trump comes to China with a long list of demands and little to offer, Taipei has entered the menu.

With a depleted weapon stockpile from the wars in Iran and Ukraine, arm sales to Taiwan will likely be severely delayed regardless.

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