China

Russia and China have both ramped up their presence in Antartica in order to increase their influence in the last remaining unclaimed part of the world.  Russia are building off of existing Soviet bases in Antarctica and expanding its development of a global petitioning to rival American GPS. Businessinsider.com.au reports: Moscow has so far constructed a minimum of three satellite monitoring systems in the Antarctic, the Times reports, with future bases planned. Russia also has more long-term ambitions in the region.

Surely, The PBOC will step in at some point and save the collapsing currency? Nope - not if options traders (and Kyle Bass) are to be believed. The odds of the yuan breaking beyond 7 to the greenback by the end of March more than doubled to 12% (from 5.8% at the start of December). Ironically, Bloomberg reports only 1 of 39 analyst predicts Yuan to trade beyond 7 by the end of 2016.

On the first trading day of the year, stocks crashed after China shocked the world with a circuit-breaking market slide that was not contained by the government. On the second trading day, after the Chinese government intervened drastically, global equities stabilized if just barely.

When last we checked in on the dispute over Beijing’s land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea, several dozen protesters from the Philippines were camped out on Pagasa island in a demonstration aimed at raising awareness of what they say is an illegal occupation of the Spratlys.

To let China tell it, it’s the other way around.

That is, the Filipino troop presence in the archipelago represents an illegal occupation of territory that belongs to Beijing and China would be well within its rights to forcibly expel the occupying army.

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

Well, it happened again.

China’s stock market plunged, sending more than half a trillion dollars to money heaven.

What a surprise, it turns out that a massive credit bubble is actually unsustainable and will eventually burst. Shocker.

And just like what happened last year when Chinese stocks tanked, the government is stepping in to centrally plan the stock market recovery.