Important Takeaways:
- An earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 5.4 on the Richter scale struck in the early hours of Monday morning, according to the US Geophysical Institute (USGS) and the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.
- The shocks were most intense in the Sines, Lisbon and Setúbal areas, with reports on social media of the earthquake being felt as far as Porto, and even Spain and Morocco.
- The Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute (IPMA) has since revised the earthquake’s magnitude to 5.3 on the Richter scale.
- The earthquake was recorded at 5:11 am local time (6:11 am CET), with its epicenter 58 kilometers west of Sines, on the high seas, and at a depth of 21 kilometers, according to the IPMA.
- In a statement issued Monday morning, the Portuguese government said it was “in close coordination with all the relevant services” following the earthquake.
- It reassured that there was no record of personal or material damage and appealed to the population to remain calm and follow the recommendations of the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority.
- The quake wasn’t big enough to create a tsunami on the US East Coast or Europe.
- The earthquake was also felt in parts of Morocco, including the Casablanca area.
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Important Takeaways:
- A Chinese military surveillance plane breached Japanese airspace off the country’s southwestern coast on Monday, marking what Japan’s defense ministry described as the first known incursion by China’s military into its territorial airspace.
- According to a ministry official, a Chinese reconnaissance aircraft briefly entered Japanese territory near Nagasaki Prefecture around 11:30 a.m. on Monday. In response, Japan’s Self-Defense Force put fighter jets on high alert and issued a warning to the Chinese aircraft.
- While Chinese planes frequently appear in international airspace around Japan, this incident represents the first confirmed entry of a military aircraft into Japan’s territorial airspace.
- Over the past two decades, Japan has increasingly faced foreign aircraft encroachments. Last year, Japan’s Self-Defense Force scrambled fighter jets to intercept foreign planes on 669 occasions — more than three times the number of such responses two decades ago.
- Of these 669 cases, 479 were in response to Chinese aircraft sightings, according to Japan’s Ministry of Defense.
- Military analysts suggest that Monday’s airspace violation could be a message from China challenging Japan’s delineation of its territorial border. China asserts control over a large continental shelf in the East China Sea, with its outer edge extending close to the Danjo Islands area, where the Chinese plane was spotted.
- The airspace violation is the latest in a series of recent events heightening tensions between Japan and China.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia unleashed a massive drone and missile barrage throughout Ukraine on Monday, targeting energy infrastructure. At least three people were reported killed, and power cuts were reported across the country.
- The barrage began around midnight and continued beyond daybreak in what appeared to be Russia’s biggest attack against Ukraine in weeks.
- Russian forces fired drones, cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic Kinzhal missiles at 15 Ukrainian regions – more than half the country, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Monday morning.
- Ukraine’s private energy company, DTEK, introduced emergency blackouts, saying in an online statement that “energy workers throughout the country work 24/7 to restore light in the homes of Ukrainians.”
- In the wake of the barrage and the power cuts, regional officials all across Ukraine were ordered to open “points of invincibility” – shelter-type places where people can charge their devices and get refreshments during energy blackouts, Prime Minister Shmyhal said. Such points were first opened in Ukraine in the fall of 2022, when Russia targeted the country’s energy infrastructure with weekly barrages.
- In Russia, in the meantime, officials reported a Ukrainian drone attack overnight and on Monday morning.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced early Sunday morning local time that it had launched a preemptive strike on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon to thwart a major imminent attack by the Iran-backed terror group.
- Residents of northern Israel were advised to enter bomb shelters and “safe rooms” in their homes in anticipation of a response by Hezbollah. Israel’s missile defense system, notably the Iron Dome, was said to be intercepting rockets.
- Israel’s Army Radio reported that residents were being advised to take shelter even in cities relatively far from the northern border, such as the port city of Haifa, which is in the north of the country but typically safe from rockets.
- In a statement in Hebrew, IDF spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the military had detected that Hezbollah was about to fire a large barrage of rockets and missiles into Israel. Therefore, he said, the Israel Air Force (IAF) had taken preemptive action. A response was expected from Hezbollah, and therefore he said that residents of the north should enter safe rooms for at least ten minutes. He stressed that Israel’s defenses were “not hermetic.”
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea has warned the United States of “serious consequences” after Washington provided South Korea with military hardware including Apache helicopters.
- Pyongyang’s warning comes in the wake of Vice President Kamala Harris branding Kim Jong Un a tyrant at the Democratic National Convention.
- In the statement, published by the Department of Press and Information of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, the Chief of Foreign News said: “We strongly oppose and reject the U.S. and its vassal forces’ arms buildup posing a grave danger to the regional security environment and escalating the military tension and warn them seriously of the consequences to be entailed by it.’
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw suicide drone tests over the weekend, an emerging vector of arms development for the fortress state, state media reported Monday.
- Drones represent a near-perfect weapons solution for North Korea in its war of nerves against the South, experts say. They are an economical means of destroying expensive manned fighting platforms, have proven ability to penetrate air-defense nets and take advantage of Seoul’s innate geographical vulnerability.
- Given that one of the drones shown resembles Russia’s Lancet, the new Unmanned Aerial Vehicles may be the fruits of a defense agreement the isolated state signed with Russia in June – an agreement that Seoul, Tokyo and Washington have lambasted, but have been unable to impact.
- “It is necessary to develop and produce more suicide drones of various types to be used in tactical infantry and special operation units, as well as strategic reconnaissance and multi-purpose attack drones,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying during Saturday’s tests by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
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Important Takeaways:
- Kamala Harris wants to hike the current 21% federal corporate income tax rate to 28%, higher than communist China’s 25% and the EU average of 21%, her campaign said Monday.
- The Kamala Harris federal 28% rate is higher than the Asia average corporate tax rate of 19.8%, the EU average of 21%, the world average of 23.5%, and the OECD average of 23.7%. (See the Tax Foundation’s comprehensive listing here.)
- The Harris federal 28% rate is also higher than Canada (26.2%), the UK (25%) Sweden (20.6%), and even Russia (20%), Afghanistan (20%), and Iraq (15%).
- After adding state corporate income taxes, the combined federal-state tax burden in most states will easily exceed 30% under the Harris plan.
- Under the Harris plan, the combined federal-state capital gains tax exceeds 50% in many states. California will face a combined federal-state rate of 57.8%, New Jersey 55.3%, Oregon at 54.5%, Minnesota at 54.4%, and New York State at 53.4%.
- Harris wants to impose a second Death Tax by taking away stepped-up basis when parents die. This would result in a mandatory capital gains tax at death — separate from, and in addition to — the current Death Tax.
- This will impose a steep tax increase and paperwork nightmare for small businesses, farms, and families
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Important Takeaways:
- Four prison employees have been killed after prisoners staged a revolt in a Russian penal colony and took several hostages, federal authorities say.
- Special forces stormed the IK-19 Surovikino facility in the southwestern Volgograd region after knife-wielding prisoners, who identified themselves as Islamic State (IS) militants, claimed to have taken control of the sprawling complex.
- The attack began during a disciplinary commission meeting, Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement.
- It was unclear how many hostages had been taken, though some reports in Russian media suggested that the prison’s director and deputy director had been seized
- The Volgograd hostage-taking is the second such incident this summer, after six prisoners who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group captured two guards at a facility in the neighboring Rostov region.
- IK-19 Surovikino is a high-security penal colony. It is believed to hold about 1,200 inmates.
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Important Takeaways:
- Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said Friday that the central bank is poised to cut interest rates, adding that policymakers do not want to see the job market cool any further.
- In a much-anticipated speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell said the Fed’s fight to reduce inflation has largely succeeded and it now is attuned to risks of a faltering job market — setting up a rate cut in mid-September.
- The unemployment has now risen to 4.3%, up nearly a percentage point from recent lows, raising alarm bells about a weakening economy.
- “We do not seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions,” he said, in a notable contrast with his tone over much of the last two years, when he described a cooling in the job market as needed in order to bring the economy into better balance.
- Between the lines: “We will do everything we can to support a strong labor market as we make further progress toward price stability,” Powell said, suggesting the recent worsening of the job market — the unemployment rate has risen from 3.7% in January to 4.3% in July — has the Fed’s attention.
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Important Takeaways:
- Fury was palpable at the end of a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, as protesters demanded a deal to free Israeli hostages in Gaza and grieved this week’s news that the bodies of six captives had been retrieved.
- Their tragic fate has raised fears that more Israeli hostages will not be retrieved alive either, said one protester.
- There has been no official explanation yet of how the six died.
- On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that initial forensic tests suggest that all six hostages had been shot, but it has not determined whether the gunshot wounds were the cause of death.
- The IDF said four additional bodies were found next to the bodies of the six hostages, which were believed to be those of the Hamas militants who had been holding the hostages, but that no evidence of shooting was found on their bodies.
- There are currently 109 Israeli hostages that remain in Gaza, including 36 believed to be dead, according to data from the Israeli Government Press Office.
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