President Claudia Sheinbaum clarified that PEMEX decided to halt oil shipments due to contract issues; however, humanitarian aid will continue as Mexico has been providing it for years.

During her morning press conference, the president clarified that the confusion arose after the publication of a news article that misinterpreted a supposed suspension. “I never said it had been suspended,” she emphasized.

He explained that, on the one hand, Petróleos Mexicanos maintains commercial contracts with the Cuban government, where delivery times and volumes are determined according to the contractual terms. On the other hand, he explained that Mexico also sends fuel as humanitarian aid, as it does with other countries facing energy emergencies or crises.

Sheinbaum emphasized that humanitarian aid to Cuba continues, and that Mexican foreign policy is governed by historical principles of sovereignty, solidarity, and non-intervention. “Mexico has always stood in solidarity with the peoples of the world, and these are sovereign decisions,” she stated.

Finally, he reiterated that any decision related to Pemex contracts responds to technical and commercial criteria, while humanitarian assistance is maintained based on specific requests and needs.

If the target state falters and fails to crush the insurrectionists during this critical stage, the insurgents will be able to rapidly organize a guerilla army using their newfound notoriety and political power and proceed to go about fighting the revolutionary war and eventually overthrowing the government. There won't be a state apparatus left afterwards to let the revolutionaries govern anything, but generally the kind of people who use these methods don't really care about little things like that.

There is a critical drawback to this model, however - if the state doesn't buckle and cracks down effectively during the key terrorism phase, the insurgency is doomed. Unlike the communist model, in this phase the insurgency isn't a broad-based social movement that can withstand official sanctions - it's a plot involving a few hundred heavily-armed maniacs who can simply be killed by the police.

So how does this tie into Iran? Well, earlier this month organic protests about economic issues were hijacked by heavily-armed insurgents who proclaimed their general opposition to the government, fought running gun battles with police, caused a shocking amount of property damage, and attempted to organize public support for their movement via an intense social media push - all of this with some success! Then the Iranian government cracked down hard and the insurrection collapsed. All of this ties exactly into the model of a bourgeois-nationalist "terrorist insurgency" which was defeated during its period of maximum vulnerability - the terrorism phase itself - by a robust and agile state opponent. It also explains the sudden and massive push in the West to recognize the insurgency as a rival Iranian government almost immediately - all of this was very clearly orchestrated by Western interests (read: Mossad), and this insurrection had the clear aim of either overthrowing the Iranian government outright or starting a civil war in Iran. The people pushing to change the Iranian flag emoji on this website (which remains as the pre-1979 flag to this day) absolutely knew what their intended end-state was.

The key thing to realize is that the bourgeois-nationalist insurgency method does not require a large network and mass popular support. It requires a few hundred - or even a few dozen - hard men with guns, and a capable PR team capable of getting people behind the insurgents so as to build a mass movement and support for guerilla war overnight. This is what Mossad et al. was trying to do in Iran earlier this month, and that was in all likelihood the actual extent of their remaining attack network in the country after much of it was dismantled during and after the Twelve Days' War.

ARTEC consortium, which is a joint venture of KNDS Germany and Rheinmetall, announced plans to increase annual production of heavy wheeled GTK Boxer armored vehicles. And they plan to reach such a milestone in 2030. Janes noticed this at the Defence iQ International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2026 conference in Farnborough, Great Britain. At the same time, improvement of the basic chassis, or drive module, which is common to all Boxer-based vehicles, is being carried out. Currently, ARTEC already has five plants in Europe alone and is constantly expanding supply chains by adding new sources. At the same time, if necessary, the company is ready to deploy additional armored vehicle assembly capacities. In total, currently over 2,100 Boxer family vehicles in 28 modifications for 7 countries have been delivered and are being manufactured. At the same time, the drive module is compatible between all operators and can be changed within 40 minutes. If we look at previous figures in more detail, it turns out to be 837 armored vehicles in 8 versions for Germany, 629 in 5 variants for Great Britain, 272 units in 5 modifications for the Netherlands, 211 in 8 versions for Australia, 118 in 5 variants for Lithuania and 22 of two types for Qatar. Of course, there is also room for Ukraine here, with over 50 vehicles in two variants.

Defense Express notes that according to previously known information, Ukrainian military should receive 54 RCH 155 SPGs and 9 AiTO30 command vehicles. That is, together it turns out to be 63 units of Boxer-based armored vehicles, whose delivery status remains unknown for now. Regarding production increase plans, this is a very logical response, considering massive defense procurement by many countries. Germany alone plans to purchase up to 5,000 Boxers or vehicles based on them, which will cost approximately €40 billion. Also, other countries will join the list of operators, such as Portugal, which plans to take 90 units. Well, and one shouldn't forget that additional mass production allows somewhat reducing the quite considerable price of Boxer.

The US, btw, has produced a little under 5k of the Stryker, a much cheaper and less sophisticated 8x8 APC (although it gets a lot pricier in its modern IFV variants, but so does the Boxer, and most Boxers seem to be the basic APC variant or other mostly unarmed configurations anyway, which ought to be on the cheaper end). But yeah, the Germans are going to get 5k of these and the manufacturer's going to be pumping out 1k yearly, for... which clients exactly, given that up until now the averaged out yearly sales have been like 130?

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will make an official visit to China starting on Wednesday, marking the first such tour by a United Kingdom head of government in eight years.

The four-day visit, which will take Starmer to Beijing and Shanghai, is seen by officials and scholars as an opportunity to open a new chapter of sound and steady development in China-UK relations.

The two countries stepped up diplomatic engagement after Starmer took office in July 2024. In August the same year, President Xi Jinping held a phone conversation with Starmer at the latter's request, and a few months later in November, they met on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, steering China-UK relations on the path of improvement and development.

On Tuesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said in Beijing that China and the UK, both permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, share common interests in maintaining communication and strengthening cooperation, which benefits both peoples and contributes to world peace, stability and development.

After taking office, the government of the British Labour Party expressed clear willingness to develop relations with China in a consistent, long-term and strategic way, and it has actively promoted dialogue and cooperation between the two countries, Guo said.

China stands ready to take this visit as an opportunity to enhance political mutual trust with the UK and deepen practical cooperation, he added.

According to media reports, Starmer will be accompanied by more than 50 senior executives and institutional representatives from major British companies, covering sectors including finance, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, culture, and the creative industries.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday that the large delegation reflects the UK's strong desire to deepen bilateral economic and trade ties.

"China attaches great importance to economic and trade cooperation with the UK, and is actively working with Britain to prepare for the economic and trade cooperation outcomes from the visit, as well as a meeting of Chinese and British entrepreneurs," a statement from the ministry quoted the spokesperson as saying.

Chinese and British companies have shown keen interest in the meeting, and more than 100 of them have registered for participation, the spokesperson added.

Official data shows that the bilateral trade value of goods between China and the UK reached $103.7 billion in 2025, and the two-way investment stock stood at nearly $68 billion. The trade value of services is expected to exceed $30 billion. The UK is China's third-largest trading partner in Europe, while China is the UK's largest trading partner in Asia.

Starmer has previously said that failing to navigate relations with China would amount to a "dereliction of duty", describing the absence of engagement as "just staggering".

In an interview with Bloomberg ahead of his visit, the British prime minister reiterated his point, saying that ignoring China — "when it is the second-largest economy in the world and there are business opportunities" — would not be sensible.

On Tuesday, Peter Wilson, the UK's ambassador to China, said the visit aims to increase contacts and establish stabilizing mechanisms, including structured dialogues and concrete, commercially meaningful outcomes, to support bilateral ties.

"Two countries like ours not talking to each other is a problem," Wilson said at a briefing in Beijing. He emphasized that keeping channels open allows both sides to have honest conversations about differences. "We don't see everything in the same way — and that is precisely why we need to talk."

Against what he described as the world facing a period of "radical uncertainty", Wilson said the UK and China need to find areas where they can "make common cause", help stabilize the international system and contribute to conflict resolution.

Zheng Zeguang, China's ambassador to the UK, wrote in The Times on Monday that closer collaboration with China will benefit Britain in attaining its development goals. He called for expanded dialogue, coordination and cooperation in many areas, including trade and investment, financial services, clean energy, fighting cross-border crime, education and culture, scientific and technological innovation, climate change and public health.

British Trade Commissioner for China Lewis Neal said on Tuesday in Beijing that sustained, government-level engagement is critical to underpinning long-term and strategic business relationships.

"The UK is open to investment from Chinese companies," he said.

Speaking to reporters during a visit to Iowa to promote his economic record, Trump was asked if he was comfortable with the current value of the greenback and if he thought it had fallen too much after sliding 10% over the past year.

“I think it’s great,” Trump said of the weaker dollar. “I mean the value of the dollar, look at the business we’re doing. No, [the] dollar is doing great. You know it’s very interesting, if you look at China or Japan, I used to fight like hell with them because they always wanted to devalue their yen ... you know that, the yen and yuan, and they’d always want to devalue it. They devalue, devalue, devalue. And I said, ‘not fair.’ They devalue, because it’s hard to compete when they devalue.”

The Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against six leading trading partners (but not China), fell the most in a single day since last April 10, when it tumbled almost 2% amid mounting trade disputes and U.S. threats to impose a 145% tariff on China. That same day, the S&P 500 slid 3.5% and the Nasdaq Composite sank 4.3%.

On Tuesday, the dollar also dropped to its lowest level since February 2022.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/27/dollar-worst-one-day-rout-since-april-trump-says-hasnt-fallen-too-low.html