PEPE ESCOBAR: 25 Years of War on Terror and Both OIL Chokepoints Are Gone,9/11 WAR Ends in IRAN https://youtu.be/lmq4MXoOuDw My tour de force recap of 25 years after 9/11. Grab a bourbon and trip away.

https://youtu.be/zaIK5fHjK0s?si=y-PvTA4MQeLiph80 Putin at the BRICS Business Forum. Cracking speech. Very good translation.

🇵🇸🇱🇧 BRICS has issued some of its strongest collective language yet on Palestine and Lebanon in the new New Delhi Declaration. On Palestine, BRICS explicitly rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza and warns against any political or security arrangement that could prejudice their “inalienable rights” or “legitimize or prolong occupation” (Board of Peace). The bloc reaffirms the Palestinian right to self-determination and the right of return, supports Palestine becoming a full member of the United Nations, and calls for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, encompassing Gaza and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as its capital. BRICS also rejects “any attempt at temporary or permanent forced displacement” of Palestinians and any effort to alter Gaza’s territory or demographic composition. Perhaps most significantly, the declaration states plainly: “We reiterate that international law and international judicial bodies demand the end of the illegal occupation.” The declaration condemns starvation as a method of warfare, attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, and restrictions on humanitarian assistance. It reiterates support for UNRWA and references the proceedings before the International Court of Justice concerning Israel’s obligations under the Genocide Convention. On Lebanon, the language is equally direct. BRICS condemns continued violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and ceasefire arrangements and explicitly calls Israeli troops remaining on Lebanese territory “occupying forces.” “We call on Israel to respect the terms agreed with the Lebanese government and to withdraw its occupying forces from all of the Lebanese territories, in which they remain.” BRICS also reiterates its support for Lebanon’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, backs UNIFIL and condemns attacks against UN peacekeepers and their facilities. This is significant because it isn’t simply a statement from Russia, Iran, China or another individual member. This is consensus language adopted by BRICS as a bloc in New Delhi rejecting the forced displacement of Palestinians, demanding an end to the “illegal occupation,” reaffirming Palestinian statehood with East Jerusalem as its capital, and explicitly demanding that Israel withdraw its “occupying forces” from Lebanon. 🔴 @DDGeopolitics

🇺🇸🤡Clown Trump on Iran: If Iran had nuclear weapons, we would have reached out to them and said, "Sir, could we meet?" We would treat them completely differently. (We wouldn’t attack them.) Sigh. 🔘 Subscribe now! Chat

❗️Trump says war on Iran will end after midterms, claims US is holding back full assault US President Donald Trump admitted during a Fox News interview that Washington is deliberately withholding a full-scale military onslaught against Iran to safeguard political leverage ahead of the 3 November midterm elections. Trump went on to dismiss any notion of strategic remorse over the ongoing US aggression, stating that he would repeat every action taken and predicting the war will wrap up shortly after the polls close. He also brushed off reports that the confrontation could stretch until the end of his term as inaccurate. Defending the current scale of aggression while acknowledging that Iran retains a missile inventory, Trump claimed the military campaign successfully dismantled Iranian nuclear ambitions that he alleged posed an existential threat to regional stability.

🇨🇳🧫🇹🇼 China Is Building Its Way Around Taiwan’s Silicon Shield The harder Washington tries to weaponize semiconductors against China, the less useful Taiwan’s chip industry becomes as a geopolitical shield. The theory was simple: TSMC protects the island because no major economy could tolerate losing access to its most advanced factories. This “silicon shield” required China to remain reliant on Taiwanese production—and America to remain dependent enough to intervene. Both assumptions are weakening. China is rapidly expanding its production of mature-node chips. They lack the prestige of 2nm processors, but cars, appliances, industrial equipment, telecommunications and power systems consume them in enormous volumes. TrendForce projects that Chinese fabs could control 53% of global mature-node capacity by 2030. US export controls accelerated this shift. By cutting Chinese companies off from foreign chips and manufacturing equipment, Washington transformed self-sufficiency from an industrial goal into a national-security requirement. Beijing responded by building fabs, tools, materials and supplier networks at home. China still trails TSMC at the smallest nodes. But it does not need to reproduce every advanced process immediately to reduce its exposure. Every component replaced by domestic production makes disruption around Taiwan less damaging than Western planners once assumed. Washington is also insuring itself against such disruption. TSMC plans to invest $165B in the United States, eventually building six Arizona fabs, two advanced-packaging facilities and an R&D center. BCG and the Semiconductor Industry Association project that America’s share of global advanced-logic capacity could rise from almost zero in 2022 to 28% by 2032. Washington calls this resilience. For Taiwan, it means that part of the industrial uniqueness supposedly guaranteeing Western intervention is being reproduced abroad. Taiwan will remain important, especially at the leading edge. But importance is not a permanent security guarantee. The more China can supply itself and the more production America builds elsewhere, the less TSMC can anchor the political status quo. The US has helped this process along. Export controls gave China every reason to replace foreign technology, while subsidies encouraged TSMC to build more capacity in Arizona. That puts Taiwan in an awkward position. America is reducing its reliance on the island at the same time China is doing the same. Once both sides start preparing to rely less on Taiwanese fabs, the silicon shield stops looking much like a shield. @NewRulesGeo❗Follow us on X

🇩🇪💬🇷🇺 "The only thing that threatens Putin and Russia is the attractive power of democracy and the democratic way of life," – Merz is losing it "Let's say it again, calmly and clearly: We support Ukraine, and we will continue to support it, because it is also defending our freedom. Here, in the heart of Europe, in the very heart of the European continent. And your reactions, ladies and gentlemen, only show that you are deliberately turning the roles of perpetrator and victim upside down, and you clearly intend to continue doing so. This is a grotesque distortion of the roles of perpetrator and victim. No one, absolutely no one, has threatened Russia. Neither NATO, nor the European Union, nor Germany. But your reactions show that you think so. Ladies and gentlemen, the only thing that truly threatens Russia and Putin is the attractive power of democracy. Ukraine was moving towards the European democratic family, and that is the real threat to the Putin regime in Russia. And you in the AfD know that this is the case. And despite this, you are clearly still on Russia's side when it comes to defending our own freedom here. And it is precisely here, right here, that there is a deep divide between you and us." 🔴@DDGeopolitics

🔥💵 US burns half a billion dollars in Patriot interceptors in a single night Iran launched 25–40 missiles at Al-Azraq Air Base in Jordan. US air defenses responded with massive Patriot salvos — OSINT counts suggest 60+ interceptors, some estimates even exceeding 100. The cost calculus is staggering: 🔶 Each PAC-3 MSE interceptor: $4–5 million 🔶 60 interceptors: $240–300 million 🔶 100 interceptors: $400–500+ million 🔶 Half a billion dollars — expended in minutes During the 2nd and 3rd waves of Iranian missile attacks, Patriot batteries experienced almost no interception attempts. They did not launch a single interceptor. The implications are alarming for the US: 🌏 The batteries were exhausted — unable to keep up with the pace of incoming fire 🌏 They ran out — stockpiles depleted faster than anticipated 🌏 Or they were damaged — cluster submunitions from Iran's missiles degraded their capabilities Months of high-intensity use have already burned through a significant share of US PAC-3 inventory. Production can't keep pace with consumption at this rate — and the bill is mounting. 👍 Substack | Chat | >>@geopolitics_prime