Trump seeking ways to shield farmers from expansion of refinery biofuel waivers – report
Source link
The TWZ Newsletter
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is rapidly expanding a secretive airbase in the northwest of the country that is loosely akin to America’s top-secret proving ground at Area 51. The facility is used to test experimental platforms and next-generation combat aircraft, sporting one of the longest runways in the world at 16,400 feet. It has transformed from a relatively austere and remote airstrip into an increasingly sprawling People’s Liberation Army (PLA) flight-test center over the past few years, and there is no sign that construction will slow anytime soon. In fact, it’s accelerating, and one of its newest features is of significant interest.
Satellite imagery taken by Planet Labs on August 27, 2026, shows the scale and scope of the buildout in high-resolution detail.
The installation is located near the infamous Lop Nur Nuclear Test Base in the desolate, arid Xinjiang autonomous region of northwestern China. Lop Nur is the PRC’s primary testing facility for nuclear weapons and where China detonated its first nuclear device, codenamed Project 596, in 1964, becoming the world’s fifth nuclear power.
Last year, TWZ spotted both of China’s sixth-generation stealth fighter designs, the J-36 and J-XDS, at the base for the first time − far from the home airfields of their respective manufacturers, Chengdu and Shenyang. Before supporting the development of advanced air combat technologies, the facility was linked to military space development efforts and testing reusable space planes as far back as 2020. At that point, the site was nothing more than a 3.1-mile runway with a small hangar and a few scattered vehicles.
In 2023, the main apron was significantly expanded, and a new large hangar was added. In 2025, new hangars were added on both sides of the main ramp area via extensions. These shelters appeared to be optimized for tactical fixed-wing aircraft. Not long after those facilities were complete, the two 6th-generation fighter aircraft showed up. The pace of further construction ramped in May 2025 and hasn’t let up since. The time-lapse below visualizes the gradual, then all-at-once progression over the past six years.
“New taxiways, aircraft turning pads, hangars and possible fuel-storage infrastructure substantially increase the airfield’s capacity to support aircraft movements and sustained flight-test activity,” Damien Symon, a geo-intelligence researcher and friend of TWZ, told us. Symon assisted TWZ in identifying the new structures.
Several key areas of the site have been reshaped since the beginning of the year, marked on the annotated graphic near the top of this story.
Below the southern end of the runway, construction is moving fast on a new taxiway extension running parallel to the runway, connecting it to the central apron and main hangar. The nearly completed route will allow additional aircraft to move more freely without having to back-taxi on the runway, which is a huge problem for higher operations tempos and more complex sortie launches and recoveries.
“Of particular interest are several large aircraft hangars in the southern section of the airbase, each measuring approximately 80 by 40 meters (262 by 131 feet),” Symon said of the three hangars grouped together that are being constructed on the south ramp. A fourth appears on its own just farther south on the apron, with different dimensions. The hangars, with direct access to the new southern taxiway, are sized to accommodate all of the tactical and strategic aircraft in the PLA’s current fleet. For scale, the PRC’s only strategic bomber in active service, the Xi’an H-6, has a wingspan of approximately 108 feet. But what’s already flying operationally isn’t the focus of these new facilities, it’s a unique class of aircraft, some of which are in testing now and more will be in the future.
The hangars’ wide proportions are similar to those of new ones found at China’s other secretive major test airbase in Xinjiang, located near Malan, which is largely focused on unmanned aircraft. The buildout comes as two massive stealth flying wing drones are in flight testing and we await the H-20 stealth bomber. It remains unclear where the H-20, which still hasn’t made a public appearance, will be tested. However, Lop Nur would be an ideal locale considering how sensitive the program is, and these new hangars could very well be in preparation for its arrival. It’s also worth noting that this installation appears more focused on crewed platforms, not drones, like at Malan. So sending the H-20 here for at least part of its test program would make sense, although this is just speculation at this time.
Broad construction continues behind the central apron area, with several buildings that were in development late last year now completed. A cluster of prefabricated containers arranged in tight rows for storage and accommodation has appeared since our last review. The additional laborers, materials, or equipment could be housed there to support the aggressive pace of development, as a much larger workforce would be required to speed up the construction process. Excavation and construction have started at other locations nearby, but they are in the early stages of development and their future purpose is unknown. Farther east, on the outskirts of the facility, a concrete batching plant with wash-water ponds and segregated aggregate stockpiles was recently built.
Grading is underway for another taxiway that will connect the central apron to the northern part of the main runway. The latest imagery suggests that concrete has just started to be poured. A circular pad with a 400-foot diameter has taken shape at the northern end with direct access to both the runway and the main base, which TWZ assesses to be an engine run and turnaround pad. If a shelter were added, it could also act as a “scoot and hide” area for keeping sensitive test articles from being seen by satellites passing overhead. An apron extension near the circular pad is also under construction, with at least two large hangars being built there, although they will have more traditional proportions compared to the four wide ones on the south ramp.
Additionally, Symon identified possible fuel-storage infrastructure under construction that would “further expand the base’s aviation-support capacity.” If confirmed, “the additional infrastructure could support a higher sortie rate and longer periods of sustained flight activity, consistent with an expansion in the scale or tempo of operations at Lop Nur,” he added.
The facility is clearly in the process of taking on a very important role in China’s advanced aerospace development ecosystem, and its significance will only grow as it expands to accommodate more, and bigger, airframes. With the hangar additions we are seeing, major programs are about to migrate there, even on a detachment basis, for extensive testing. The new southern hangars, in particular, suggest the PLA expects to be testing aircraft with far wider wingspans in the not-too-distant future.
Contact the author: ian.ellis-jones@recurrent.io or on X @ianellisjones
Author’s note: Special thanks to Damien Symon for assisting with the imagery analysis, be sure to follow him on X at @detresfa_
LAST night the world was hit by the tragic news that western icon Dolly Parton has died aged 80 after a short battle with cancer.
While fans around the world mourn the 9 to 5 singer, bookings for the star’s theme park, Dollywood, have surged.
The theme park’s website went down yesterday after people rushed to the site shortly after the news of her death broke.
Dollywood spans 165 acres in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, boasts more than 50 rides, including rollercoasters like Big Bear Mountain and Mystery Mine.
There’s also Dollywood’s Splash Country – an outdoor waterpark.
Originally set to open on August 18 but now set to fully open on August 30, there will even be a new rollercoaster called NightFlight Expedition.
Read more on travel inspo
The $50million (£36.7million) ride incorporates four thrilling experiences in one, with an indoor coaster section that takes riders over the Smokies at night, then there is a whitewater rafting excursion where riders head up and over a mountain ridge before plunging down into a lake.
The theme park also hosts events throughout the year including Run Dollywood, Dollywood’s Harvest Festival and Neon Lights at Splash Country.
Coming up, the theme park will host a new nighttime event called Harvey’s Boo Bash on October 16, 23 and 30.
The event is hosted by the park’s pumpkin character called Harvey.
There will be Great Pumpkin LumiNights too, every evening between September 14 and October 31.
Across a wider 10-year plan costing $500million (£336.7million), there are plans to add three new resorts which will make the park have five resorts overall.
There are also plans for a ‘unique experience’ that the park previously teased could be camping ‘Dolly style’.
By 2050, the destination aims to have all five resorts open, each with 300 hotel rooms and the outdoor resort as well.
The park which opened in 1986 has a 20-minute ride on the Dollywood Express steam train as well.
You can also stay at the park too, at either Dollywood’s DreamMore Resort & Spa or the HeartSong Lodge & Resort.
Day tickets to the theme park cost as little as $29.99 (£22) per person.
And if you do visit the theme park it is also worth exploring wider East Tennessee, as it was recently named one of the 14 “best places to go in the US in 2026” according to Conde Nast Traveller.
A UK airport with international flights is set to undergo a multi-million redevelopment – its first in nearly a decade.
Belfast City Airport in Northern Ireland has revealed the latest plans for its £200million expansion.
The plans are part of the airport’s Master Plan 2040 and would include expanding passenger facilities as well as creating new airfield infrastructure.
There will be new airport access as well as a new forecourt, additional parking and a hotel.
There are currently no plans to extend the airport though.
The airport is also hoping to increase its operating hours from 15 to 16 hours per day.
Read more on travel inspo
In addition, the airport wants to increase its annual flights from 48,000 to 61,000.
Other plans include a potential new rail connection.
The wider 2040 plan includes serving up to seven million passengers per year, compared to just 2.36million today.
Eventually there will be new aircraft stands, aprons and a taxiway too.
Routes from the airport are mainly to other UK destinations, but there are flights to Amsterdam as well as seasonal routes to destinations including Majorca in Spain.
Matthew Hall, Chief Executive of Belfast City Airport, said: “Delivery of our Master Plan is a once-in-a-generation opportunity that will benefit passengers and businesses across the region, whilst delivering key elements of the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government.
“Every airport on the island of Ireland will need to play its part in meeting future demand, and this draft Master Plan exemplifies Belfast City Airport’s commitment to doing so, while reinforcing our position as a vital economic enabler for the region.
“We want more passengers to arrive by public transport and leave their cars at home, hence a focus on greener journeys within the Master Plan.
He added that they have partnered with Translink to look into creating a new rail halt linking the airport with Belfast city centre on the Bangor line.
The government of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz approved a landmark bill to expand the powers of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Domestic Intelligence Service (BfV) by 2027. This expansion grants them offensive and operational tools, including cyber counter-sabotage and espionage, with funding of €1.51 billion. This move has sparked significant concern among Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies regarding the radical shift in German security doctrine, stemming from the geopolitical context and the fears of Germany’s adversaries, China and Russia, regarding the ongoing hybrid warfare. The German initiative was driven by the escalating pace of gray and hybrid warfare, the most recent example being the discovery of a booby-trapped drone at Leipzig’s strategic airport. Consequently, intelligence, strategic, and security circles in Beijing and Moscow are closely monitoring this historic intelligence revolution approved by Chancellor Merz’s government on August 12, 2026. This draft law (exceeding 700 pages) represents the most significant shift in Germany’s security doctrine since the end of World War II in 1945. From the perspective of Chinese and Russian intelligence, this shift constitutes a security revolution that ends the strict constraints imposed on Germany since World War II, transforming German intelligence agencies from mere information-gathering tools into entities capable of launching offensive and counter-sabotage operations. For these reasons, this internal German intelligence transformation is being closely monitored and analyzed in depth within intelligence and military circles in Beijing and Moscow, given its strategic dimensions and its connection to Berlin’s attempt to break free from American dependence. This move, analyzed by Chinese and Russian intelligence and military circles, is seen as a targeting of Russia and China. Although Berlin attempts to frame counterintelligence as a general effort, German officials, such as Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, have explicitly stated that the goal is to deter Russian and Chinese sabotage operations and enable German intelligence to inflict pain on adversaries and operate on equal footing with allies like the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), rather than relying on them entirely. The German Federal Parliament (Bundestag) is expected to formally pass the bill after the summer recess, allowing these offensive powers to become fully operational in Germany by early 2027.
Military think tanks and research centers affiliated with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and Russian circles alike are analyzing all the operational and political dimensions of this strategic decision in Germany, focusing on understanding the German desire to shift from a defensive doctrine to an offensive operational approach and to adopt a cyber sabotage strategy and a counter-terrorism measure called “Hack-Back.” For the first time, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Intelligence Service (BfV) are granted legal authority to penetrate the information systems of adversaries and attackers and modify or delete data to prevent large-scale cyberattacks and dismantle the infrastructure of hackers. This includes German approval for field sabotage operations in situations of German defense tension, whereby the BND is permitted to carry out active sabotage operations abroad, such as disabling servers and replacing military or vital technology components with damaged ones to prevent attacks, such as in drone factories and chemical laboratories of hostile states. This has been interpreted by Chinese and Russian circles as a German crushing of the principle of separation between German domestic and foreign intelligence agencies. According to Chinese and Russian analyses, the new German law is also generating considerable legal controversy within Germany itself, as it narrows the historical distance between intelligence agencies (those concerned only with collecting information) and the police agencies (those concerned with implementation).
Here, the Chinese intelligence reading of the German reform can be understood as the end of historical restrictions imposed on Berlin, as Beijing views the move as a reversal of the strict restrictions imposed since the end of World War II and Berlin’s shift from purely information gathering to carrying out covert operations and penetrating adversaries’ networks. In addition to what this represents for Beijing and Moscow in terms of reducing dependence on Washington, Chinese intelligence is monitoring Germany’s attempt to build independent self-reliance capabilities to reduce intelligence dependence on the United States and its allies amid mutual strategic suspicions. Intelligence, military, political, and strategic circles in Beijing also view with caution the (militarization of German digital space). Here, the Chinese analysis considers that allowing the disruption of infrastructure and the modification and deletion of data places German agencies in the ranks of major countries with active offensive doctrines, given the reliance of German domestic and foreign intelligence agencies on the pattern of practical and technical dimensions of reform and hybrid capabilities in reforming their security and intelligence agencies, through directly confronting drones, disrupting spy servers, or tampering with components of a weapon under production without resorting to human physical violence, with the expansion of the use of artificial intelligence technologies, through expanding the use of facial recognition technologies and reducing data protection restrictions to store and analyze information for longer periods. However, at the same time, German circles are facing parliamentary challenges, given that the draft law is undergoing legislative proceedings in both houses of the German parliament (the Bundestag and the Bundesrat) amidst local human rights objections warning of the erosion of personal freedoms and the principle of separating intelligence from the police.
Here, the Russian intelligence perspective (Moscow) on the German intelligence draft law comes to the fore. Russian intelligence agencies (SVR, GRU, and FSB) view this move as a direct response to their operations and interpret it within the context of an acknowledgment of hybrid warfare. Moscow believes that Germany is now officially treating Russia as an enemy in a state of undeclared war. The increase in the budget of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) by 26%, reaching €1.51 billion, is seen as an indication of a long-term security buildup against Russia. Moscow also viewed this as a move to neutralize cognitive denial, especially given accusations from German domestic and foreign intelligence agencies that Russia is exploiting German bureaucratic sluggishness and strict data privacy measures to carry out cyberattacks and sabotage operations. Therefore, the Russian interpretation of this German decision can be seen as a direct response from Berlin to Moscow, aimed at closing this digital and security gap between the two sides. It can be interpreted as a German intelligence strategy of reciprocity, or, according to the Russian analysis, as an attempt by Germany to encircle disinformation networks by granting German intelligence the ability to take down Russian propaganda and disinformation servers, which pose a direct threat to Russia’s soft power tools aimed at destabilizing Germany.
Stay ahead of the geopolitical week.
MD Briefing delivers expert analysis across five global fronts — the Indo-Pacific, energy, geoeconomics, European security, and the Middle East — every Monday morning. Free.
On the other hand, Chinese intelligence circles, primarily the Ministry of State Security (MSS), which acts as the Chinese intelligence service, analyze German law from the perspective of technological and geopolitical conflict, targeting industrial and academic espionage by China. Here, the Chinese analysis focuses on the expansion of the powers of the German domestic intelligence agency (BfV) and the use of artificial intelligence. This analysis primarily aims to track Chinese soft networks that focus on stealing advanced German technology and conducting economic espionage in order to protect German infrastructure and communications. Beijing believes that the new German laws, which compel German telecommunications companies and digital platforms to hand over data to German intelligence, are primarily intended to isolate Chinese technology and impose complete German sovereign control over cyber data in the face of China. The most sensitive aspect of Russian and Chinese analyses lies in their dual interpretation of Germany’s desire to break free from the Five Eyes framework. They see it as either an intelligence network for exchanging signals intelligence, comprising the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, whose decisions are guided by Washington, or as a new dilemma facing Germany in building self-reliant capabilities and ending its dependence on the United States. This latter scenario serves the interests of China and Russia, promoting multipolarity and a multipolar international world and ending the one-way street of Washington. The German Chancellery has publicly stated that reliance on allies (specifically the US) has been a one-way street, where Germany receives information without the ability to exchange it or protect itself independently. From a Chinese and Russian intelligence perspective, this represents a new German policy of hedging against Trump’s unpredictability. Moscow and Beijing believe that the primary motivation behind the conservative Merz government’s actions is strategic skepticism regarding the reliability of the United States, particularly with Donald Trump in the White House, and Berlin’s fear of the politicization or severing of US intelligence flows. This reinforces the Chinese-Russian view that this is a technologically impossible German attempt to break free from US control and dictates.
Accordingly, assessments in Beijing and Moscow agree that Germany—despite its ambition—will not be able to completely break free from intelligence dependence on America anytime soon. The United States controls the global cloud infrastructure, internet cables, and critical cyber technologies, making German intelligence independence a costly ambition that will take years to materialize technologically. However, it does give Berlin at least greater parity in dealing with partners, which China and Russia are trying to maximize.
A MAJOR international airport is about to undergo two decades of change with a massive expansion.
Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport in Australia dates back to 1919 making it one of the oldest international airports in the world.
And it has revealed its Master Plan 2045 that will completely transform the airport.
Over two decades, the AUD$6billion (£3.1billion) project will completely overhaul the airport including expanding the international terminal, as well as redeveloping two domestic terminals.
There will be two new gates at the international terminal, as well as 12 new ‘swing gates’ at the domestic terminals, which can also be used for international aircraft depending on demand.
There will also be a new concourse between the domestic T2 and T3 terminals, which is where the new ‘swing gates’ will be, allowing the area to be transformed for international departures.
Read more on travel inspo
At the international terminal (T1), travellers will also find additional baggage reclaims and new gate lounges.
Tech upgrades at the airport, which will be finished by the end of this year, include a $200million (£104million) update to T2 Domestic Terminal with new security scanners and self-service bag drops.
Flights at the airport are set to increase as well, from around 75,000 currently per year to 130,000 by 2045.
As a result, international passengers are expected to double from around 16million per year today, to 36.4million in 2045.
There will also be a new hotel which will add 200 to 500 rooms near T1 and between 500 and 900 elsewhere at the airport.
Across the entire airport, there will be a number of new shops, cafes, restaurants, bars and potentially even a pub too.
According to the planning documents, there will be “amusement centres” and “entertainment facilities” as well.
By 2045, the airport aims to handle 72.6million passengers a year – compared to the 42.5million passengers today.
It will be the airport’s largest terminal transformation since the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Sydney Airport CEO Scott Charlton said: “Approval of Sydney Airport Master Plan 2045 provides a clear pathway to plan for future demand and invest in the infrastructure Sydney will need over the next two decades.
“As Australia’s international gateway, this plan ensures we can continue supporting tourism, trade, investment and jobs while delivering the capacity needed for future generations.”
Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Catherine King said: “Kingsford Smith is Australia’s busiest airport, it must remain fit for the future.
“Airports aren’t artworks, they’re constantly evolving to become more efficient and improve the passenger experience, and this new Master Plan maps out the airport’s plan to do just that.
“As demand grows, a modern Kingsford Smith will remain crucial to transport, tourism and industry across New South Wales and the nation.”
