/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 14:29

🇺🇸❌🇨🇳🛰 US imposes sanctions on Chinese companies for allegedly helping Iran

State department says groups provided satellite imagery that enabled Tehran to strike American forces in Middle East

The US has imposed sanctions on three Chinese commercial satellite companies for allegedly providing support to Iran, just days before President Donald Trump travels to Beijing for a summit with President Xi Jinping.

The US Department of State said it was targeting four entities, including three Chinese groups, for providing satellite imagery that enabled Iran to conduct military strikes against American forces in the Middle East.

The targets of the sanctions included The Earth Eye, a satellite earth station company that the US accused of providing satellite imagery to Tehran.

The other Chinese targets were MizarVision, a geospatial intelligence firm, and Chang Guang Satellite Technology, a commercial satellite imagery group that helped Iran by supplying images of military facilities operated by the US and its allies in the Middle East during Operation Epic Fury.

Iranian military documents obtained by the FT showed that the IRGC had access to satellite control ground stations operated by Emposat, a Beijing-based provider of satellite control and data services with a global network.

The FT also reported last year that Chang Guang Satellite Technology, a group with ties to the Chinese military, had supplied Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen with imagery to target US warships in the Red Sea.

The fourth target was Iran’s Ministry of Defence Export Center, the exporting arm of the country’s Ministry of Defence Logistics Export group, which has been previously put under sanctions by the US and UN Security Council.

🔗 https://archive.ph/jqXDD

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 13:53

🇪🇬🤝🇸🇦🇶🇦🇧🇭🇰🇼 A senior Egyptian official told Al Jazeera that the UAE is not the only GCC country hosting Egyptian military personnel, with 4 other countries in the region housing Egyptian troops.

The deployments reportedly began during the first week of the war, with Egypt offering support proactively rather than waiting for requests.

The source said Cairo kept the deployments quiet due to regional sensitivities and its ongoing diplomatic and mediation efforts.

The source said images of Egyptian fighter jets in the UAE have limited impact on Cairo–Tehran ties, noting Egypt’s presence in four Gulf states is mainly political signaling and support, not involvement in war, and concluded it is a “defensive, not offensive” mission.

Its likely there are Egyptian troops in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia besides the UAE.

@CIG_telegram

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 13:23

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 A U.S. Air Force E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node (BACN) has been operating over Iraq for the second consecutive day.

The aircraft departed from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

- Daily MQ-4C ISR missions
- Two dozen USAF tankers a day over the region
- E-3 Sentry AWACS & RC-135W SIGINT activity intensifying over the Persian Gulf (rare)
- E-11A BACN back in the skies (rare)
- USAF airlifters are still flying to the region.

🔗 EGYOSINT

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 11:00

🇮🇷⚔️🇺🇸 The Public Relations department of the IRGC Navy released an infographic of the exchange of fire with the U.S. Navy which they claim resulted in the damage of 3 U.S. destroyers on the night of May 7-8th.

Following the engagement in the Strait of Hormuz, NASA's FIRMS satellite showed two fires breaking out in the Strait.

Satellite images taken before and after the battle confirm NASA's fires breaking out, showing a massive fireball immediately north of the Omani coast and a smaller fire closer to the Iranian coast.

While not definitive proof that U.S. warships were struck, the IRGC Navy struck something.

@CIG_telegram

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09 May 2026 10:37

🇷🇺🪖 — A ceremonial parade of military personnel participating in a Russian Army soldiers currently fighting in Ukraine take place on Red Square

@BellumActaNews

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09 May 2026 10:32

🇷🇺🪖 — Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov reported to Russian President and Supreme Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin about the readiness of crews for the ceremonial parade

@BellumActaNews

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 10:32

🇷🇺🪖 — This year's parade is being commanded by the Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces, Colonel-General Andrey Mordvichev.

The parade is received by Defense Minister Belousov. He is currently making a tour of the troops in Red Square.

@BellumActaNews

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 04:59

📝 🇺🇸 🐸 This is the first time in a while that feels like the entire assortment of online figures are united. But it couldn't feel less natural, there is nothing genuine about it.

I don't recall all these camps being friendly with each other, if anything they mostly divide and infight in a way that is comparable to a bucket of crabs. For better or worse, that trait tends to be what defines the whole sphere. But now this newfound unity with all these strange bedfellows is only happening for all the wrong reasons. It would have been very nice to have this across-the board-cooperation for virtually anything else in the past, present, and even into the future.

The timing just doesn't fit. The other day Nick extended the olive branch, he offered to end all the beef. It was a great opportunity to play as a team. In a way, that did happen but it was directed at Nick for absolutely no reason at all. Was it seemingly because of past grievances? Even so, it was far too coordinated and completely unsolicited.

There is virtually no political platform with this new "America First United" group whatsoever. It just appears to be a hangout to say what every twitter account already posts on a daily basis. Where is the real mission here, what are the tangible goals? Are these campaigns even real to begin with? This is not going to be any sort of positive or constructive group whatsoever.

Nick's conduct as of late, has been completely normal. "But he said this, but he said that." I believe he has been criticized on the whatever issue for weeks, months, if not years. That is business as usual on his end. Meanwhile, watching the instant centralization of all our guys just doesn't sit right with me. Somehow everyone got the memo to gather together at the drop of a hat. But not for literally anything else. That raises the possibility of necessary opposition against the establishment being controlled.

Lastly, is this supposed to be a limp-wristed "coup" against the America First label, or are they trying to kill a movement through their own folly? We've all seen every criticism of Nick over the years, but this feels more like a combined attack to dislodge him (extremely low chance for success) and then, what, ideally replace him with a coalition that will instantly tear itself apart?

I just don't see what the Groypers did here to deserve being attacked by everyone. It would be far more productive to actually channel this energy towards anything that improves our situation. Whatever this is supposed to be, it really isn't our fight.

/channel/nickjfuentes/15678

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 00:37

💰 🇺🇸 ✊️ MAGA evangelical leaders gathered at Trump National Doral golf course in Doral, Florida to bless and dedicate the giant gold‑leafed effigy, dubbed the “Don Colossus," to Donald Trump.

📎 Christopher Hale

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 22:09

🔼 🇺🇸 🕯 The S&P 500 closes at its highest level on record, now up +17.2% since the March 30th bottom.

That's +$10 TRILLION in market cap in 29 trading days.

📎 KobeissiLetter

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 20:42

🚢🛢 A large oil spill was observed yesterday coming from a VLCC tanker that was transiting the Strait of Hormuz.

This VLCC was spotted yesterday sailing at 26.52792°N, 56.59397°E through the so-called U.S.-designated safe passage route, located near Khasab, Oman.

🔗 EGYOSINT

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 20:29

🤖 AI could end scarcity, end humanity or boost GDP growth by 0.2%/year.

Which is more likely to happen?

@CIG_telegram

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08 May 2026 19:58

🕯 🇱🇻 🪦 Upcoming Memorial in Latvia for Ņikita Sļadzevkis

Date: 13 May 2026
Time: 12:00–13:00
Location: Jaunciems Cemetery, Riga, Latvia
Meeting point: Main entrance

A year ago in Ukraine, the Latvian volunteer soldier Nikita "Tarenovs" - Callsign: “Latvietis” / “Латвієць” — literally, “Latvian” - fell.

Ņikita Sļadzevskis was a Latvian volunteer soldier. Although he had a Russian surname, Latvian was his first language, and Latvian identity was a deliberate choice for him.

In Memoriam: Ņikita Sļadzevskis

• Ņikita went to Ukraine in 2017 and joined the fight in Donbas at the age of 19. This was years before the full-scale invasion, when much of the West still treated the war as someone else’s problem.

• At the start of the full-scale invasion, he defended Kharkiv as part of Kraken, a unit under Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, GUR.

• At some point later on, he joined the reconnaissance/sabotage unit “Hatred” of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, a well-known elite formation originally built from Azov veterans.

• His time in Ukraine consisted of eight uninterrupted years on the front line.

• On the 13th of May, 2025, Ņikita Sļadzevskis was Killed in Action while serving in Ukraine. He was 27 years old.

The man, according to his closest friend:

Kārlis Apalups, a Latvian Zemessardze / National Guard reservist, gave a Latvian TV interview after Ņikita's death. A few points stood out:

• Ņikita visited his home country for the last time around Easter 2025:
“He said he was very happy to be back, and very tired after eight years.”

• On Latvian society’s relationship to people like him:
“Here’s Ņikita Sļadzevskis, a Latvian whose first language is also Latvian.”

Apalups’ point was that Latvia often overlooks Russian-speaking Latvians who fight for the right side.

• On the injustice that stayed with him: people like Ņikita, who went and fought out of conviction, were demonized in Latvian discourse for years, while pro-Russian figures often received softer treatment. Ņikita can no longer defend his own name; they can.

His unit:

• Towards the end of his life, he was associated with Nord Storm, an international, Latvian-linked formation.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 19:50

🇯🇵🇺🇸 Japan is likely SELLING US Treasuries to defend the yen:

Federal Reserve custody holdings of US Treasuries fell by -$8.7 billion to $2.73 trillion in the week ending May 6.

This is consistent with Japan selling US government debt to fund an estimated $54.7 billion in yen purchases over the same period, according to Bloomberg.

Since 2022, Japan has spent more than $200 billion in total defending the yen, selling US Treasuries each time to raise the dollars needed for intervention.

Importantly, Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, and continued Treasury sales could put further upward pressure on US yields at a time when they are already rising due to surging oil prices and growing fiscal deficit concerns.

In past interventions, Japan did not draw down its cash reserves, according to Bank of America, implying the funding likely came entirely from bond sales.

If the same pattern held this time, the total impact on US Treasury supply from this intervention would be around $70 billion, further lifting yields.

Japanese interventions are adding pressure to the Treasury market.

🔗 Global Markets Investor

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 19:46

🥩 Beef and veal prices climbed 12.1% from March 2025 to March 2026, ranking as the fifth-largest contributor to US food inflation behind only instant coffee, tomatoes, roasted coffee, and lettuce.

And the 12.1% retail jump actually understates the pressure.

Wholesale beef prices ran 19.7% higher year-over-year in March 2026, while farm-level cattle prices were up 16.2%, meaning more inflation is still working its way down the supply chain to grocery shelves.

The root cause is a supply backdrop that's the tightest in three generations:

U.S. cattle inventory stood at 86.2 million head as of January 2026, its smallest size in 75 years.

The beef cow breeding herd is down to 27.6 million heads, the smallest since the early 1960s.

The average retail price of a pound of ground beef is near $6.70, a record high in BLS data going back to 1984.

🔗 Hedgeye

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 14:13

❗️🇬🇧 - Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party dealt a crushing defeat in the British Local Council Election.

Reform UK, headed by the Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage, won at least 1358 seats, up from just 82. Labour lost up to 1051 seats, over half of its seats.

Another major development is the rise of the Welsh and Scottish nationalist parties. Whereas the SNP has been on a steady rise, the victory of Plaid Cymru in Wales, long a Labour stronghold, came as a shock.

The UK political system, long underpinned by the two major parties Labour and Conservative, is becoming increasingly fractured, with 5 viable parties now competing in a first past the post system. The UK has had 4 Prime Ministers in the last 6 years.

The UK's 10-year bond yield is flirting with the 5% level, one of the highest borrowing cost among the world's developed economies, signaling the market expectation for continued political and fiscal instability.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 13:28

🇪🇬🤝🇦🇪 A squadron of Egyptian Air Force Rafale fighter jets has been deployed to the UAE to help defend the country sometime last week.

The Egyptian Rafales were showcased during the visit of Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah el-Sisi to the UAE on May 7th.

@CIG_telegram

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 11:55

🇮🇷🇷🇺🇨🇳 Mackinder's Dread Realized

Harold Mackinder wrote in 1904 that the era of European maritime predominance established 400 years earlier was coming to an end. Western naval and colonial powers had previously been able to outflank and dominate the Asian landmass through superior technology. But the consolidation of great continental-sized land powers such as the Russian Federation and potentially China—combined with changes in land transportation—meant that insular maritime democracies including Great Britain would have a more difficult time maintaining their global position. Mackinder asked his readers to envision continental Europe, continental Asia, and continental Africa as a single “World Island,” possessing most of the world’s population and industrial potential.

The core of this world island he called the Heartland, inaccessible to sea power—essentially, Russia, Mongolia, Tibet, and Central Asia, including parts of China and Iran. If the world island were ever united under a single political entity, with a base in the Heartland, then it would possess overwhelming economic and military advantages over the outer crescent of geographically insular maritime powers, such as Great Britain, Japan, and the United States. Mackinder’s recommendation was for these maritime powers to encourage the creation of geopolitical buffer zones, for example in Eastern Europe.

Writing in the early 1940s, Nicolas Spykman modified Mackinder’s formulations by pointing to the existence of what he called an amphibious Rimland—located in between the Heartland and its great offshore islands—and stretching from Western Europe around the Middle East, across India, ending in coastal China. Spykman pointed out that most of the world’s productive potential was in the Rimland, not within the Heartland. Control of the Rimland therefore meant control of the world—precisely what was at stake during both world wars—and this would be determined by struggles between mixed alliances, rather than by simply lining up sea powers versus land powers straightforwardly.

If the U.S. failed to maintain control over vital sea and airspace in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, then some other power eventually would. Even a predominant U.S. influence in South America’s southern cone could hardly be taken for granted, given the vast distances involved, and if that influence were lost then a hemispheric defense would collapse into something more constrained and impoverished. Taken as a whole, the Rimland’s economic and military weight pointed to no secure resting place for Americans in the absence of internal Old World balances, and these balances would have to be actively upheld by the United States. As he put it, America’s “main political objective, both in peace and in war, must therefore be to prevent the unification of the Old World centers of power in a coalition hostile to her own interests.”

What is the geopolitical situation in our own time? Since the 1990s, there clearly have been some very significant shifts within the international balance of power, in broad alignment with Mackinder’s predictions over a century ago. The single greatest gravitational shift in relative economic and military weight has been from the Atlantic toward the Pacific, and from Europe toward Asia. The Indo-Pacific, rather than Europe’s Western half, is the focus of the world’s greatest economies, militaries, and geopolitical ambitions. In particular, the dramatic long-term growth in China’s economic capabilities allows it to build greater diplomatic and military assets.

The blockade of Iran will accelerate the development of the railway network in Central Asia linking Iran to China's industrial base. While the railways will not be able to replace maritime trade, once the U.S. lifts the blockade, they will reinforce the Iranian economy and tighten China's grip over the economies of the region. This is just one of the many ways the 3rd Gulf War backfired.

@CIG_telegram

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09 May 2026 10:37

🇰🇵🇷🇺🪖 — A Detachment of the North Korean People's Army is seen parading on Red Square alongside Russian Army troops

@BellumActaNews

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09 May 2026 10:37

🇷🇺🪖 — As the Victory day parade begins, the cadets of the Alexander Nevsky Military Institute open the parade at the Red Square

@BellumActaNews

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09 May 2026 10:32

🇷🇺🪖 — Video by RT shows the moment when Russian Defense Minister Belousov greets parade formations of Pacific Higher Naval School, Serpukhov branch of the Peter the Great Academy, and the Kremlin Cadets

@BellumActaNews

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 10:32

🇷🇺🪖 — The parade in honor of Victory Day over National Socialist Germany began in Moscow, capital of Russian Federation

🇷🇺🇷🇺 On Red Square is the national flag of Russia and the battle banner of the 150th Guards Motor Rifle Berlin-Idritsa Order of Kutuzov Division, which became the main symbol of Victory for the Red Army in World War II (what Russians call as the Great Patriotic War)

@BellumActaNews

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

09 May 2026 02:19

🇺🇸❌🏴🚤 — SOUTHCOM's Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Eastern Pacific that was transiting along "known narco-trafficking routes" on Friday.

➡️ Two male "narco-terrorists" were killed.

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 22:27

🗳 🇺🇸 📊 Redistricting Push 2026:

Passed:
🔴 Texas: +5
🔴 Florida: +4
🔴 Ohio: +2
🔴 North Carolina: +1
🔴 Missouri: +1
🔴 Tennessee: +1
🔵 California: +5
🔵 Utah: +1

Total Passed:
🔴 Republicans: +14
🔵 Democrats: +6

Pending:
🔴 Louisiana: +1
🔴 Alabama: +1
🔴 South Carolina: +1

📎 OpenSourceZone

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 22:05

🇺🇸🇮🇷🇨🇳 The Atlantic writes that Trump is weary of restarting the war with Iran concerned that a resumption of hostilities would harm business prospects with China

🔗 https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2026/05/iran-war-trump-deal/687100/

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 20:39

🛢 OPEC production has collapsed from a 3½-year high of around 29.6 million b/d to a 36-year low of 20.6 million b/d in just two months.

Several “release valves” have so far helped cushion the shock, most notably a surge in U.S. exports, a massive IEA-coordinated SPR release, China’s import constraints and pause in stockpiling, and - not least - demand destruction that has led to lower refinery runs.

🔗 Ole Hansen

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 20:05

🇺🇸 Wall Street banker: 'Does anyone really care if the Strait of Hormuz is open?'

Despite war and tariffs driving worries about US affordability, attendees at this year’s Milken Institute conference were notably untroubled — gliding between Spago dinners, a speech by Tom Brady and parties at billionaires’ Bel Air homes.

Many of the investors, bankers and corporate chieftains who took over the Waldorf and Beverly Hilton this week have become desensitised to President Donald Trump’s whims. The stock market hitting new records, even if investors are attempting to pull tens of billions of dollars from some private funds, has helped those spirits.

Financiers largely brushed off concerns that have dominated conversations on Wall Street in recent months, including the war with Iran, which has driven up petrol prices across the US and is now dividing policymakers at the Federal Reserve over whether they can eventually cut interest rates.

“Does anyone really care if the Strait of Hormuz is open?” one high-powered banker posited.

Even as Milken held a panel to debate whether private equity groups would be able to exit their ageing buyout portfolios with roughly $4tn of unsold assets, the faithful were steadfast, pointing to new flagship funds raised by the likes of KKR, Blackstone and Ares as a sign that they would survive recent pressures.

“They might not like a lot of what’s happening in Washington, but at the end of the day, everyone’s focused on their own investment portfolios, especially here,” said Ted Koenig, chief executive of Monroe Capital.

One London-based hedge fund manager said the conference had crystallised how relatively removed the US has been from the conflict’s effects, despite being an active participant in the war.

“No one in Europe has this level of optimism,” he said. “There is enthusiasm based on the greater adoption of AI and positivity about the economy. In Europe, the tone is at best cautious optimism or healthy scepticism.”

📝 Luke Gromen: This comment might be the leader in the clubhouse for this cycle's Chuck Prince famous 2007 comment ("...as long as the music's playing, you've got to get up and dance.")

🔗 https://archive.ph/c96i0

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08 May 2026 19:52

🇺🇸 65% of Americans can't afford a new home.

@CIG_telegram

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08 May 2026 19:47

🇺🇸 The 30-year Treasury yield is testing the ceiling for bonds again:

The US 30-year Treasury yield is back up to 4.96%, knocking on the 5% threshold for the 3rd time since 2023.

Every previous test of this level has been followed by a sharp pullback in global equities, and a sustained break above 5% would push yields into a trading range not seen in nearly 2 decades.

At 5%, government bonds become attractive enough to pull capital away from stocks, while simultaneously raising borrowing costs for mortgages, credit cards, and corporate loans, squeezing consumers and businesses alike.

This comes as traders are now pricing in the possibility of a Fed rate hike in 2027, driven by fears that the Iran war oil shock could reignite inflation and force the Fed's hand.

A sustained break above 5% would be the worst possible outcome for global stocks.

🔗 Global Markets Investor

/CIG/ Telegram | Counter Intelligence Global

08 May 2026 19:22

🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 The U.S. has deployed the MV Ocean Spec Ops Command (SOC) mothership to Diego Garcia

Satellite image from Sentinel 2 on May 7th reveals a highly significant arrival at NSF Diego Garcia

🔸Likely spot of Spec Ops Command (SOC) mothership, MV Ocean Trader, safely anchored inside the atoll.
🔸USNS Pililaau & an Arleigh Burke also in the lagoon.

My last definitive spot was way back in Nov 2025 off the coast of Puerto Rico. I had a potential sighting on Apr 13 2026 in the Med approaching the Suez Canal. This spot in the Indian Ocean strongly validates that earlier track.

When the Ocean Trader slides into theatre—much like what we saw with previous posturing around Venezuela—more complex operations tend to follow.

Does her arrival indicate SOCOM elements are actively gearing up for the next phase?

🔗 MT Anderson