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World

Latest reporting from World.

Empty medical clinic intake desk seen through glass partition at dusk, fluorescent light on blank forms, security camera bracket in upper corner.

ELITE Scored Deportation Targets by Medicaid Address Data

Palantir's ELITE system replaced ICE's static case-file addresses with live probability scores drawn from 80 million Medicaid records, under a July 2025 CMS agreement whose stated purpose was enforcement, reversing the agency's own prior promise to applicants. DHS deployed it without a single required privacy disclosure.

By Signal Desk

Aerial view of a near-empty South Texas reservoir showing vast cracked earth and a narrow ribbon of remaining water at center.

Corpus Christi at 8.5%: Two Years to the Nearest Fix

Corpus Christi authorized negotiations with a two-month-old startup as its only planned fix for a Level 1 emergency projected in December 2026. The company says two years to build, and negotiations have not concluded.

By Signal Desk

A low-running irrigation canal cuts through dry southern Idaho farmland under a pale sky, with an idle center-pivot sprinkler visible in the background.

A 1900 Water Right, a 181,600 Acre-Foot Gap

Idaho's water director curtailed 6,400 junior aquifer pumpers in May, protecting a senior right dating to October 1900. The settlement that kept most users online was calibrated for a river delivering more than 2026 is.

By Signal Desk

Aerial view of an open-pit cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo, terraced red-earth walls descending in rings around a pale road where a single truck moves through the excavation

CMOC Is Sitting on 89,000 Tonnes It Cannot Ship

The DRC capped cobalt exports at 96,600 tonnes while CMOC mines 120,000. CATL's 25% stake in KFM Holding, the Kisanfu vehicle, bought an offtake claim that now runs through a government-controlled export window it had no hand in setting.

By Signal Desk

Rows of gold bars on a concrete shelf inside a central bank vault antechamber, under hard overhead lighting.

China's Gold Streak Hits 18 Months. Its Treasury Math Is Murkier.

The PBOC's 18-month gold streak is the documented half of China's reserve shift. The other half is a $41 billion March Treasury decline and what Russia learned in February 2022 about reserves held in someone else's accounts.

By Signal Desk

Row of dark biometric enrollment kiosks in an empty European airport border control hall at dawn, a single yellow queue post marking an unmanned lane

EU Biometric Borders Live, No Sanctions for Member States

The EU's Entry/Exit System declared operational in April after three missed deadlines, flagging roughly 4,000 overstays across 30 million crossings in its first four months. Greece exempted British tourists without filing the required notice; the regulation provides no specific sanction for that defiance.

By Signal Desk

An LNG tanker in ballast navigating heavy southern ocean swells, photographed from low angle near a headland under an overcast sky

Recovered Canal, Locked Slot: LNG Takes the Long Way

Panama Canal has refilled to 88.9 feet and runs 40 ships a day, 10% above budget. Spot LNG from the US Gulf bypassed it anyway: 31 of 34 April cargoes to Asia took the 44-day Cape route, locked into regasification terminal windows that were booked for Cape arrivals before the canal's recovery changed the math.

By Signal Desk

Large crude oil storage tanks at Fujairah port at dusk, the Gulf of Oman visible beyond the breakwater under an amber sky.

India Stores Crude at the Port Iran Just Struck

India's strategic reserves agency will store crude at Fujairah under a May 15 pact, eleven days after Iran struck the same port with cruise missiles.

By Signal Desk

Sealed electronics boxes stacked on a warehouse floor under fluorescent lights, with an empty forklift aisle receding into darkness.

Commerce Cleared H200s for China. None Have Shipped.

Commerce cleared ten China-based buyers for Nvidia H200 chips at 75,000 units each. Not one has shipped: Nvidia owes the U.S. Treasury 25% of revenue on every sale, passes the cost to Chinese buyers, and Beijing's customs block arrived the day those terms published.

By Signal Desk

A large oil tanker on open Indian Ocean water flanked at distance by a smaller naval vessel in hazy afternoon light

Skywave Loaded at Kharg in February, Caught in May

U.S. forces boarded the 302,481-ton VLCC Skywave on May 19 in the Indian Ocean, the third Iran-linked hull seized in six weeks. It was heading toward a UAE transshipment port when intercepted, and the crude may have already been delivered.

By Signal Desk

Empty federal courthouse hallway with closed doors and a single manila folder on a window ledge

Inside a Sealed FISA Order, a Demand the FBI Can't Prove It Met

The surveillance court found FBI and NSA filtering tools deficient in a March ruling it immediately sealed. The Trump administration ignored the bipartisan May 15 deadline to release it, and also runs the agencies the opinion implicates.

By Signal Desk

Three surveillance cameras on a concrete pole above a snow-covered street in northern China, mountains in the background

China Left Its Olympic Foreigner Tracker on the Web

Hebei Province's 'Dynamic Control Platform for Foreigners' was built for the 2022 Zhangjiakou ski events and is still receiving updates. The researcher who found the government prototype on an open server discovered his own file inside, labeled 'trackable.'

By Signal Desk

Black smartphones arranged face-up on a gray metal table in a government conference room, ID badge lanyards nearby, metal lockers blurred in the background.

ICE's Sole-Source Notice Adds 1,570 Scanners and Watchlist Alerts

ICE's May 8 notice of intent to sole-source adds 1,570 additional iris scanners to a Bi2 Technologies fleet already deployed nationwide, and gives ERO field agents standing watchlist alerts across a 247-agency booking network. DHS has filed zero Privacy Impact Assessments through mid-May 2026.

By Signal Desk

Aerial view of a drought-stricken canyon reservoir with prominent white bathtub rings along red sandstone walls and a dramatically shrunken water surface

One Million Acre-Feet From Wyoming Buys Powell a Year

The Bureau of Reclamation opened Flaming Gorge on May 15, buying Lake Powell 54 feet and roughly 11 months of headroom before Glen Canyon Dam loses generating power to 5 million WAPA customers across six states. A replacement framework for the Colorado River's expiring rules is still unsigned, with an October 1 deadline approaching.

By Signal Desk

Aerial view of center-pivot irrigation on the Eastern Snake River Plain, with some pivots running water and others idle over dry cracked soil

Idaho Curtailed 6,000 Aquifer Users Over a 1900 Right

A 2024 settlement was supposed to spare Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer pumpers from curtailment. IDWR Director Mathew Weaver's May 14 order proves it doesn't hold in drought years.

By Signal Desk

Idle excavator on a red-brown laterite ore bench in a tropical open-pit nickel mine, dense rainforest on surrounding ridges under a flat overcast sky

Weda Bay's Quota Stranded Eramet and Spared Tsingshan's Smelters

Jakarta cut PT Weda Bay Nickel's 2026 ore quota by 71%, more than twice the sector average; the mine hit that ceiling in mid-May. Danantara, Indonesia's sovereign investment authority, is now in early talks to acquire Eramet's 37.8% stake.

By Signal Desk

Rows of gold bars inside a high-security vault lit by a single overhead shaft of light, a blurred vault door visible at the left edge of the frame.

India's 197-Tonne London Balance Earns Interest

The Reserve Bank of India brought 168 tonnes home from the Bank of England in FY26, its third straight year above 100 tonnes. The 197 tonnes left in London earn interest as a gold-lending book.

By Signal Desk

Steel mesh border fence and surveillance camera pole in misty conifer forest at dawn

Poland's $4.2 Billion Counter-Drone Contract Delivers Late 2026

Poland's Belarus frontier has had sensors running since 2025 and a wall since 2022. The $4.2 billion weapons system contracted to answer what those sensors see delivers its first batteries in late 2026, and the interceptor drone inside each platoon has a name its contractor roster did not previously include.

By Signal Desk

A large LNG carrier anchored in still water at golden hour, isolated against a pale horizon with a second tanker faintly visible in the distance

Qatar's Only LNG Exit Closed Before RWE's Contract Began

QatarEnergy extended force majeure through mid-June on its LNG supply contracts. RWE and Uniper, whose 15-year German deal was due to begin deliveries in 2026, have not received a cargo.

By Signal Desk

A truck-mounted anti-ship missile launcher on a coastal ridgeline, smoke trails rising over open sea under a pale sky.

Tokyo and Manila Broke a 59-Year Arms Freeze

Takaichi's Cabinet abolished Japan's lethal arms export ban on April 21. Manila signed the first agreement under the new rules two weeks later, the day before a Type 88 missile sank a decommissioned Philippine corvette used as a target in the Luzon Strait.

By Signal Desk