Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

“There’s a reason why you separate military and police. One fights the enemy of the State. The other serves and protects the People. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the State tend to become the People.” ~ Commander Adama, “Battlestar Galactica” (“WATER”, Season 1 episode 2, at the 28 minute mark.)

“Let me warn you and let me warn the Nation against the smooth evasion which says, “Of course we believe all these things; we believe in social security; we believe in work for the unemployed; we believe in saving homes. Cross our hearts and hope to die, we believe in all these things; but we do not like the way the present Administration is doing them. Just turn them over to us. We will do all of them- we will do more of them. We will do them better. And, most important of all, the doing of them will not cost anybody anything.” ~ FDR”s “Let me warn you” remarks [1m 0s]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0haNUUcqwI] [TEXT AT: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/address-the-democratic-state-convention-syracuse-ny]

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig, now in its 14^th year on KPFT from Houston 90.1-HD2, Galveston 89.5-HD2, Livingston/Goodrich 89.9-HD2, and Huntsville 91.9-HD2. KPFT is Houston’s Community radio.

And welcome to our international listeners from China, Singapore, Belgium, Hong Kong, Norway, and elsewhere.

On this show, we discuss local, state, national, and international stories that may have slipped under your radar. At my website, THINKWINGRADIO-dot-COM, I link to all the articles I read and cite, as well as other relevant sources. Articles and commentaries often include lots of internet links for those of you who want to dig deeper. I do try to fact-check myself and include the links I use to do so.

It’s the 51st week of Trump’s military occupation of Washington DC; and 40 weeks since those states’ governors deployed National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana, at Trump’s request, which is where they remain for now.  

The next gubernatorial election in Tennessee is in about 3 months, and I can’t wait to see how that turns out.

LAWFARE has a chart of where US troops are currently stationed around the US. The link is in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com.

Due to time constraints, some stories may be longer in this show post than in the broadcast show itself.

1. From COMMUNITYIMPACT].]COM — Houston program aimed at helping minority-owned businesses deemed unconstitutional; By Cassandra Jenkins | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | Published July 29, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. CT/Updated July 29, 2026. TAGS: Houston, U.S. District Judge David Hittner, Houston’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) Program, Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment,
   1. A federal judge declared a longstanding program in Houston that requires a percentage of Harris County contracts to be awarded to women- or minority-owned businesses unconstitutional during a July 28 trial.
   2. S. District Judge David Hittner, the ruling judge on the case, said the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. …
   3. The city’s Minority and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) program sets intentional percentage targets for certified minority- and women-owned businesses to participate in municipal construction, professional services and goods contracts. The program was launched in 1984 under the city’s Office of Business Opportunity and required the minority or female business owner to possess at least 51% ownership, management and control of the enterprise, according to the city’s website.
   4. However, a white couple from Spring filed a lawsuit in 2023 against the city after stating that they had to pay $143,000 to a minority-owned competitor to finish part of the work on their five-year, $1.3 million contract with the city, per prior reporting.
   5. The couple, Gerald and Theresa Thompson, who own Landscape Consultants of Texas and Metropolitan Landscape Management, stated that the program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. After a three-year back-and-forth trial, Hittner voted in favor of the couple.
   6. … The Equal Protection Clause states that no state shall deny any person equal protection of the laws. According to the National Archives, the clause essentially requires states to treat similarly situated individuals in a similar manner and serves as the primary constitutional basis for protecting civil rights against unfair discrimination.
   7. … Hittner’s ruling now blocks the city from using race-conscious preferences in public contracts.
   8. Joshua Thompson, director of equality and opportunity litigation at the nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation, who represented the Thompsons, said the ruling reaffirms that public contracts should be awarded based on merit, not race.
   9. [Thompson said in an emailed statement,] “The Constitution guarantees equal treatment under the law, including when governments award public contracts.”
   10. … City Council members and Mayor John Whitmire expressed their disappointment with the court ruling during a July 29 meeting.
   11. [Mayor Pro-Tem Martha Castex-Tatum said,] “For four decades this program has been in place for us to represent the city’s commitment to qualified businesses having meaningful opportunities to compete for these contracts. … These are business owners who are entrepreneurs. They are creating jobs. They are investing in our neighborhoods. They really are making an impact to strengthening Houston’s economy. We cannot let this moment become the end of our commitment to economic inclusion.”
   12. Council member Edward Pollard said the program was put in place in the 1980s so small and minority businesses would have the opportunity to participate in contracts because there were business owners who were not getting a fair opportunity.
   13. [Pollard said,] “It’s interesting that the arguments that are being made are saying that the program is discriminatory against those who are shown on every disparity study that has come out that minorities are still not getting their fair slice of the pie, especially Black people. … Progress still needs to be made, and as we’re trying to make progress, this ruling comes down. So I think that now puts us in a place where we have to be creative in our approach in how to ensure that as the most diverse city in America, we still find ways to give opportunity to the broad cross-section of our community so that everyone has an opportunity to participate.”
   14. … In fiscal year 2025-26, Houston awarded approximately $1.4 billion in contracts, with roughly $362 million, or 25%, awarded to certified minority, women and small business firms, according to a financial report from the city’s Office of Business Opportunity.
   15. Whitmire said the majority of businesses certified in the MWBE program are also registered in the SBE, or Small Business Enterprise Program, which he said will play a major role in the contracting process.
   16. City officials said they will abide by the court’s decision regarding existing contracts. However, as of July 29, it is unclear if the city will move to appeal the ruling or not.
   17. MIKE: I hope the city appeals this decision.
   18. According to CENSUS[.]GOV and Google Ai, “Approximately 76.8% of Houston’s population is non-white, based on S. Census Bureau QuickFacts data showing non-Hispanic white residents make up 23.2% of the city. [1]”
   19. MIKE: The population breakdown is as follows:
   20. MIKE: Hispanic or Latino: 44.2%;
   21. MIKE: Black or African American: 22.7%;
   22. MIKE: Asian: 6.9%;
   23. MIKE: Two or More Races / Other: 3.0%;
   24. MIKE: Non-Hispanic White: 23.2%.
   25. MIKE: In other words, Houston is very much what is called a majority-minority city.
   26. MIKE: And on average, any given population is about 50% female.
   27. MIKE: So given those numbers, it would seem to me that reserving 25% of city contracts for minority- and women-owned business is more than fair.
   28. MIKE: Actually, statistically on that basis, Whites rather than minorities should be getting about 25% of contracts.
   29. MIKE: It had never seemed to me that racial or gender quotas were unreasonable, but it was in my 50s, after having observed and worked for companies for a while, that I viscerally understood why quotas that are intended to make up for previous disenfranchisement and actual discrimination were necessary.
   30. MIKE: Humans unavoidably develop certain biases.
   31. MIKE: I’m going to refrain from calling them prejudices because that’s an emotionally loaded term.
   32. MIKE: Even the most fair-minded people have some biases. Biases can be culturally based or ethnically based, or they can be derived from some other relatively normal and innocuous sources. They can impact one’s tastes in art or food, or one’s ideas of law and fairness, for example.
   33. MIKE: People are also naturally tribal; sometimes irrationally so. Just look at sports team fanaticism.
   34. MIKE: So when two equally qualified people apply for a job or a contract, all things being equal, I think the person who decides will choose the person with whom they feel most comfortable working.
   35. MIKE: This isn’t necessarily a conscious case of racism or sexism, but the affect is the same.
   36. MIKE: This — let’s call it — unintentional discrimination can’t and won’t be functionally corrected until minorities have places at the levels where decisions are made. And given past discrimination — intentional or otherwise — that will be much harder and take much longer without somehow putting a metaphorical thumb on the scales.
   37. MIKE: Putting that thumb on the scale doesn’t necessarily mean that less qualified people will get a break. It mostly means that perfectly qualified people who wouldn’t otherwise have gotten a chance, get one.
   38. MIKE: Is this unfair to some other people? I can see that argument. I can even see how the 14^th Amendment’s “equal protection clause” can apply in this judgment.
   39. MIKE: Quotas are admittedly tricky, but the counter argument can be that life isn’t fair. Some decisions are arbitrary. Everyone wins some and loses some. And we must somehow have a way for everyone to get a fair break.
2. Next, from HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA[.]ORG — Three Houston-area moms sue over Ten Commandments in schools. They say it violates Texas’ own laws; By Michael Adkison | HOUSTONPUBLICMEDIA.ORG | Posted on July 31, 2026, 2:43 PM. TAGS: Court, Education, Education News, Harris County, HISD, Houston, Local News, Politics, Religion, Texas, Cy-Fair ISD, Freedom Of Religion, Houston ISD, Spring Branch ISD, Ten Commandments In Schools, Ten Commandments Law, Texas Law, Texas Schools,
   1. When Houston ISD students return to school on Aug. 10, it could be the first time students and teachers will have the Ten Commandments displayed in classrooms, after the district was embroiled in lawsuits over a Texas law requiring their display and it was upheld in the spring by a federal appeals court.
   2. But now, three Houston-area mothers are trying to stop the 2025 law from a new legal perspective: Rather than rely on the U.S. Constitution’s protections for freedom of religion, they argue the display of the Ten Commandments violates Texas’ own laws.
   3. In a new lawsuit filed Thursday in Harris County, those three mothers — Sanjam Kaur Sohal, Dr. Audrey Rosa Nath and Emily Roth — are suing the state as well as Houston ISD, Cy-Fair ISD and Spring Branch ISD over that argument.
   4. In 1999, the Texas legislature passed a bill, signed into law by then-Gov. George W. Bush, which prohibited the state government and public entities from “substantially burden[ing] a person’s free exercise of religion.” That provision, known as the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, has been cited as recently as 2021, when Attorney General Ken Paxton used it as evidence that governments could not close places of worship during the COVID-19 pandemic.
   5. [Vanessa D. Gilmore, a former district court judge and one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, told Houston Public Media,] “It cannot be something that is only done when it advances a Christian agenda, to the exclusion of every other religious background of the citizens and students of Texas.”
   6. Sohal, Nath and Roth argue the same standard should hold for, as they say, imposing the Ten Commandments on their children. The version of the commandments required to be displayed, if schools receive them as a donation, is the Protestant version from the King James Bible.
   7. Donated posters displaying the Ten Commandments are required to be posted in Texas school classrooms under a 2025 law that is again being challenged in court.
   8. The plaintiffs also argue that displaying the Ten Commandments in schools violates a recent amendment to the Texas Constitution — passed by state lawmakers last spring and then by voters in November — that affirms parents’ rights related to their children’s education.
   9. [Nath, whose family adheres to Jainism, Hinduism, Judaism and Quakerism, told Houston Public Media,] “There’s that commandment saying you shouldn’t have imagery or statues or whatever and no other gods than me. … That’s telling my son that there’s something wrong with him for celebrating his grandpa’s Hinduism. And it’s not just my son, but for all the other kids who come from such a diversity of religions in my kids’ classes.”
   10. Representatives from the Office of Attorney General, the Texas Education Agency, Houston ISD, Cy-Fair ISD and Spring Branch ISD, all of which are defendants in the lawsuit, did not immediately return requests for comment.
   11. Prior lawsuits over the Texas law had focused on federal precedent for freedom of religion, rather than state-level laws. Earlier this year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the law did not violate the U.S. Constitution.
   12. The lawsuit filed Thursday does not have a hearing scheduled. The plaintiffs are asking for a temporary restraining order against the three districts from displaying the Ten Commandments before their school years begin next month.
   13. MIKE: I’ll note here that the 5^th Circuit, based out of New Orleans, is notoriously Conservative. About 71% of the judges were nominated by Republican presidents, and they are known for rulings favorable to Conservative ideology. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that this circuit court is stacked with Rightwing judges.
   14. MIKE: I think it’s ridiculous that previous attempts to contest this law based on First Amendment US Constitutional grounds having failed, plaintiffs now have to rely on Texas law to obtain legal relief.
   15. MIKE: Let’s take a moment to review the actual text of what is commonly referred to as “the Establishment Clause” of the First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; …”
   16. MIKE: There are many Americans who consider the establishment clause not only constitutionally mandating national freedom of religion, but also freedom from
   17. MIKE: The phrasing of the establishment clause has given Christian Conservatives and proto-Christian Nationalists fits almost since the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were ratified, and they have tried to work around it since then with occasional small victories.
   18. MIKE: Among these small victories are the religious invocations used to open Congress and state legislatures; putting “under God” into the Pledge of Allegiance; or making “In God We Trust” the national motto instead of “E Pluribus Unum”.
   19. MIKE: By the lights of some Americans, these changes come perilously close to the US officially “establishing” some degree of national religiosity, and a reasonable person might consider them in violation of the establishment clause, but here we are.
   20. MIKE: We’ll have to see how this new legal strategy plays out.
3. In national news, from POLITICO.COM — Paul says Fauci will face ‘repercussions’ for taking the Fifth. That could get complicated.; By Simon J. Levien, Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney | POLITICO.COM | 07/29/2026, 11:19am ET/Updated: 07/29/2026, 11:29am ET. TAGS: Sen. Rand Paul, Anthony Fauci, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Fifth Amendment Rights, President Joe Biden, Presidential Pardons, State Legal Jeopardy,
   1. Rand Paul says Anthony Fauci can expect consequences for the former Covid czar’s decision to exercise his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination to avoid testifying before Paul’s Senate committee on Wednesday.
   2. [Paul told Fauci, the longtime top government health official who led the Covid pandemic response,] “It’s against the law to obstruct an investigation of Congress. There will be repercussions for your refusal to testify.”
   3. Paul [subsequently] scheduled a vote of his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Aug. 5 on a resolution declaring Fauci in contempt of Congress.
   4. The Fifth Amendment, which gives people the constitutional right to avoid making statements that they believe could incriminate them, usually precludes consequences for rebuffing questions at congressional hearings.
   5. But Fauci is in an unusual position: President Joe Biden pardoned him for all of his official conduct from 2014 to 2025, meaning Fauci cannot be subject to federal criminal prosecutions for many of the pandemic-related decisions and actions Paul sought to grill him about.
   6. Republicans contend it means he cannot claim fear of prosecution for questions about the time the pardon covers. However, Fauci could theoretically face state or local prosecution, as well as federal prosecution for making any false statements to the panel. And Fauci said he was convinced Paul’s goal was to trip him up and trigger a perjury allegation.
   7. Complicating the equation further is Congress’ power to hold recalcitrant witnesses in contempt. The Senate could seek civil contempt sanctions against Fauci, pursuing a court order requiring him to testify and exposing him to fines or incarceration for refusing. In theory, the Senate could have its sergeant-at-arms arrest and detain Fauci, but this “inherent contempt” power hasn’t been used for nearly a century.
   8. The Senate could also pursue criminal contempt, voting to turn the matter over to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. Two former Trump aides — Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon — were convicted of contempt misdemeanors for refusing to testify to the Jan. 6 committee. Unlike Fauci, they refused to appear for their depositions and cited executive privilege rather than the Fifth Amendment. Each served four months in prison.
   9. After Paul said Fauci would face consequences, David Schertler, Fauci’s lawyer, sought to speak, arguing the Constitution should shield his client. Paul had security remove Schertler from the hearing room.
   10. [Schertler said in a statement,] “It was outrageous for Sen. Paul to exclude his counsel for counsel making a legitimate legal point. … It proves the baseless and vindictive nature of this proceeding and Rand Paul’s personal vendetta against Dr. Fauci.”
   11. A key risk Fauci, 85, faces is that if a court rejects his Fifth Amendment claim, he may have no sanctuary in arguing he was relying on his attorneys’ advice in declining to answer the committee’s questions. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 1961 that the so-called advice-of-counsel defense isn’t available to those charged with willfully defying Congress.
   12. In recent rulings, some judges have expressed skepticism about the rationale of that decision, but the appeals court has thus far refused to revisit it.
   13. After Paul at his committee hearing accused Fauci of covering up Covid’s origins — Paul believes the disease emerged from a Chinese lab that had received U.S. research funding — and of unnecessarily closing schools and churches, Fauci repeatedly refused to answer questions.
   14. [Fauci said,] “On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”
   15. Fauci said in his opening statement [that] he thought Paul aimed to entrap him, citing his “obvious obsession with calling for my prosecution, his repeated slanderous comments about me, and recently his publicly releasing my unredacted personal diary aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me.”
   16. Paul said he would explore “appropriate actions” to pursue Fauci further.
   17. Dozens of witnesses in recent high-profile congressional probes have pleaded the Fifth to avoid testifying, from Joe Biden’s physician to a slew of witnesses called by the House’s 6 select committee. Those assertions effectively doomed that committee’s bid to compel their testimony — since litigation would likely have taken months or years to resolve.
   18. MIKE: There’s a lot to dissect here.
   19. MIKE: First, according to Google AI, using CNN as a source, “Senator Rand Paul obtained Dr. Anthony Fauci’s pandemic-era diary entries after they were retrieved from government servers and handed over to congressional investigators. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated that the files were found following an eight-month search across 11 separate servers before being provided to Paul and Senator Ron Johnson.”
   20. MIKE: Aside from the general guidance I try to live by and recommend to others to be careful what you put in writing or text that might come back to bite you, this is also another example of why you want to be very careful about what you write or text or email using an employer’s devices or servers.
   21. MIKE: Even casual conversations may seem harmless at the time, but all of that information is effectively the property of the company or agency on whose hardware you share it.
   22. MIKE: That being said, I share the shock of many others that Senator Rand Paul prevented Dr. Fauci from having his lawyer beside him to actively advise him in what was obviously a politically motivated inquisition or witch hunt, whatever one may choose to call it.
   23. MIKE: In that context, it’s important to remember that the Inquisition looked for heresy where it often didn’t exist. The witch trials looked for witches, which is definitionally a little trickier.
   24. MIKE: As someone explained on Reddit, most Wiccans consider themselves to be witches, but not all witches are Wiccans. To quote, “Wicca is a specific modern pagan religion, while witchcraft is a practice of magic that anyone of any faith can do. [1]”
   25. MIKE: Just as we recognize in our presumably enlightened scientific age that there is no such thing as sorcery or magic, there are no witches in the magical sense.
   26. MIKE: Thus, a modern witch hunt by definition is looking for something or someone that cannot exist. The same is true as it pertains to Rand Paul’s metaphorical witch hunt campaign against Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci is not a witch, but Rand Paul is a modern Cotton Mather.
   27. MIKE: Cotton Mather was a 17^th century Puritan clergyman who is famous today (or infamous) mostly for his involvement in the notorious Salem witch trials. If you don’t know the reference, I’ve linked to it in this show post.
   28. MIKE: Rand Paul and others have also made much of Dr. Fauci’s invocation of the 5^th It cannot be pointed out too often that although President Joe Biden gave Dr. Fauci and others pre-emptive pardons, that does not protect them for being charged for something or other at the state level.
   29. MIKE: Thus, “pleading the 5^th” is a perfectly reasonable thing to do in this new age of witch hunts and what we might called a modern Red Scare; “red” being the symbolic color of Republicans who are attempting to use law as a cudgel against their perceived enemies.
   30. MIKE: When elections come around, remember that it’s not just individual Republicans you’re considering voting for. It’s the whole, sick Republican sociopolitical ecosystem.
   31. MIKE: Let’s hope that elections still have consequences.
4. I’ve previously discussed on this show the increasingly serious water problems in Corpus Christi. This next story talks about an ongoing water crisis that could reshape the entire US Southwest, and even impact our relations with Mexico. From THEGUARDIAN[.]COM — Water cuts loom as US unveils long-awaited response to Colorado River crisis; By Gabrielle Canon | THEGUARDIAN.COM | Fri 31 Jul 2026 13.38 EDT. TAGS: US news, West Coast, Water, news, Colorado River crisis, California, Arizona, Nevada, Lake Powell, and Lake Mead,
   1. The US government released its anxiously awaited plan for how to manage the Colorado River crisis on Friday, which includes the potential for harsh cuts in water supplied to California, Arizona and Nevada.
   2. Under the proposal, the so-called lower basin states stand to lose up to 3m acre-feet (3.7bn kiloliters) a year – enough water annually to serve more than 25 million people and roughly 40% of their collective total. The so-called upper basin states – Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming – were spared from mandates restricting their supply.
   3. The Colorado River supplies roughly 40 million people in seven states, two countries and dozens of tribes, and also irrigates 5.5m acres (2.2 hectares) of farmland. The federal government has limited jurisdiction over state-based water policy but is responsible for managing the dams at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the two key reservoirs that lower basin supplies flow through.
   4. The 10-year plan makes space for changing conditions, with specifics decided in two-year increments based upon supply in the system. Officials said this enables better planning during an uncertain future and also leaves options open if the seven states responsible for managing the essential and overdrawn waterway are able to forge an agreement in the near future.
   5. [Said US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum in a press release,] “This framework provides the flexibility to respond to changing hydrologic conditions while preserving the opportunity for the Basin States to continue working toward durable, consensus-based solutions.”
   6. But according to Noah Garrison, a water policy researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, adding these open-ended terms could leave the plan toothless.
   7. [Garrison said in an emailed response,] “All this does is kick the can down the road yet again, in search of an agreement between the states that has failed to materialize for more than 3 years. … We need to be more aggressively pursuing the suite of solutions that can provide a safe, reliable, new supply of water for the region.”
   8. The federal government is expected to release a so-called “record of decision” in the coming week that will detail operations under the plan in the short term. It has been reported that they will closely follow a proposal issued by the lower basin states earlier this year that would shave 3.2m acre-feet from their combined total over 2027 and 2028.
   9. The plan follows years of fraught negotiations and missed deadlines. The states that rely on the river continue to fight over a long-term management plan for the dwindling resource that supplies huge [swaths] of the western US.
   10. Tensions are high and the stakes are rising. The Colorado has been overdrawn for more than a century, as demand continues to outpace supply. The river and its tributaries are the lifeblood for the American west, supplying bustling cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, as well as agricultural centers.
   11. The climate crisis is also taking an increasingly large share. Snowmelt that feeds the river is evaporating more quickly, and thirsty soils and plants soak up more water. Flows in the Colorado are down 20% over the last century and precipitation has shrunk by about 7%.
   12. MIKE: It’s often said that a good compromise is one with which none of the participants are happy. On that basis, this should be a great compromise.
   13. MIKE: Water demand generally and the Colorado River system specifically are among those incipient crises that everyone has seen coming for years, but that no one has had the wisdom, will, courage, statesmanship or foresight to resolve.
   14. MIKE: Real estate investors always say that land is the one thing that you can’t make more of, but anyone who lives in NY City or, say, the Netherlands knows that’s not true. It’s really much truer when it comes to water.
   15. MIKE: Water can be moved, manipulated, used, purified, or polluted. But you can’t make more water.
   16. MIKE: Even worse, unlike land, you can’t always rely on water being where you need it when you need it. That’s what the US Southwest and northern Mexico are dealing with.
   17. MIKE: We’ve pretty much tapped the available groundwater sources, and often have over-tapped them. Like energy conservation, water conservation can only get you so far. When the water runs out, you’re done.
   18. MIKE: Industry and energy production use vast amounts of water. In the stories about Corpus Christi’s water crisis, industry and refineries use about half of all the city’s water.
   19. MIKE: Once conservation has taken you as far as it can, there are really only two options left: Either bring more water where it’s needed from places where there is a surplus, or purify water from sources where it’s available but unusable in its current condition.
   20. MIKE: As UC water policy researcher Noah Garrison suggested in the story, “We need to be more aggressively pursuing the suite of solutions that can provide a safe, reliable, new supply of water for the region.”
   21. MIKE: Coastal locations are a natural resource that can be profitably exploited. Coastal cities need to put a lot more study and money into developing environmentally acceptable desalination plants for human use and consumption.
   22. MIKE: Infrastructure needs to be built so that coastal cities building desalination plants that provide more potable water than their populations need can sell and transport that water to inland communities that don’t have a seawater desalination option.
   23. MIKE: Another option that I’ve envisioned for the last 30 years is a national transcontinental water transport and flood control system.
   24. MIKE: Every year, storms cause flooding around the country. Rather than endure these floods until they can work their way back to the seas, we should build canals and pipelines to move that excess water where it’s needed from areas where it’s causing damage and death. This will simultaneously help to mitigate the human misery and property costs of flooding.
   25. MIKE: I’ve lived in Houston for almost 50 years, and periodically there are storm systems that bring flood waters to the region.
   26. MIKE: What’s heartbreaking is that we have some flood control systems that are managed, such as lakes, reservoirs and dams, but these systems can usually only delay flooding. When there is too much water for the infrastructure to safely hold, it must be released on a controlled basis so that dams and levees don’t fail.
   27. MIKE: Oftentimes, that means that people downstream know they will be flooded when that excess water is released, but there’s nothing anyone can do.
   28. MIKE: There’s been talk of building drainage tunnels to supplement natural drainage runoff from the southeast Texas watershed, but that’s a multibillion-dollar project. Wastefully, it also envisions moving water more quickly to the Gulf of Mexico when there are parts of west Texas and the US Southwest that are sorely in need of that water.
   29. MIKE: Building a transcontinental canal-and-pipeline system would not be cheap. It would cost many billions of dollars and be a multidecadal project, but it could be built like the interstate highway system in master planned segments, with costs shared by federal, state, and local governments.
   30. MIKE: I believe that there would be collateral cost benefits that might help to justify these expenditures. Reductions in the cost of flood insurance; reduced need for costly disaster relief from flooding; creation of new seasonal lakes and reservoirs; added irrigation sources for agriculture; perhaps some opportunity for hydropower generation from the segments that run downhill as the water is transported; and perhaps other cost-saving or profit opportunities that I can’t foresee or imagine.
   31. MIKE: Maybe this is just a pipedream of mine. But maybe it’s a concept whose time is coming and that needs serious investigation.
   32. MIKE: What are your thoughts?
5. Turning to international news and North Africa … This is an informative article from Al-Jazeera English about the sudden massive movement of migrants attempting to enter the Spanish enclave of Ceuta — Why did Ceuta migrant mayhem chill already frosty Israel-Spain relations?; By Alex Milan Durie | ALJAZEERA.COM | Published On 1 Aug 2026. TAGS: Israel, Spain, Spanish Enclave in Africa, Ceuta, Melilla, Morocco, Decolonization of Africa,
   1. Spain says the crisis in its North African enclave Ceuta is back under control, with most of the more than 50,000 migrants who stormed across its borders over recent days choosing to voluntarily go back to Morocco.
   2. Tens of thousands of people crossed into Ceuta on Thursday and continued arriving overnight into Friday.
   3. Most came by sea, swimming or in small boats, to get around the border fence. Some rushed border crossing points in such numbers that the guards were overwhelmed. Others tried to climb the breakwater that holds the border fence. At least 67 people died trying to reach Ceuta.
   4. Many questions remain about what caused such a huge number of people to abruptly seek to illegally enter Spanish territory. It was clearly not a coincidence they all chose the same day to do so. Was it coordinated and planned in advance, and if so, by whom and for what purpose?
   5. Here’s what we know:
   6. … Ceuta is an autonomous Spanish city on the northern coast of Africa bordering Morocco. Along with Melilla, it is one of the only two land borders between the European Union and Africa.
   7. It first came under Portuguese rule in 1415 before becoming part of Spain in 1580.
   8. [MIKE: I’m providing a potentially useful link about that history in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com. Continuing …]
   9. It remained under Spanish sovereignty after Portugal regained independence in 1640. After the decolonization of Africa, Ceuta and Melilla are the only remaining European-held territories on the African mainland.
   10. Its location has made it one of the main entry points for migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Europe. The enclave is protected by high border fences, surveillance systems, and a permanent deployment of Spain’s Civil Guard and National Police.
   11. What caused the sudden massive influx?
   12. Authorities in Ceuta linked the surge in attempted crossings to a Spanish Supreme Court ruling published in July that barred authorities from immediately returning migrants who arrive by sea. The ruling does not apply to migrants who enter Spain by land, including by climbing over the border fence.
   13. But several experts have questioned this theory, saying few migrants would have been aware of the court ruling.
   14. Ignacio Cembrero, a Spanish journalist specialised in migration in North Africa, told the news agency AFP that “without a doubt, the July 8 ruling has played a role… but that doesn’t explain the level of mobilisation.”
   15. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez blamed the sudden influx on human trafficking mafias who exaggerated the significance of the court ruling to convince vast numbers of migrants to take part in a mass coordinated surge into Ceuta.
   16. Some believe that Morocco may have had a role in organising and facilitating the sudden mass breach of the border.
   17. Morocco does not recognise Madrid’s sovereignty over the centuries-old Spanish enclaves Ceuta and Melilla, regarding them as occupied territory.
   18. Morocco also stridently asserts its own sovereignty over Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony it annexed in 1975 where the Indigenous inhabitants, represented by the Polisario Front, oppose rule from Rabat and want independence.
   19. In April 2021, Madrid allowed Polisario Front leader Brahim Ghali to be treated in a Spanish hospital for COVID-19, infuriating Morocco, which regards him as a criminal in charge of an outlawed separatist rebellion.
   20. Morocco recalled its ambassador from Madrid, and appeared to loosen its border controls in May, allowing about 10,000 migrants to enter Ceuta as a threat to Spain.
   21. In 2022, Spain restored full diplomatic relations with Morocco after reversing its four-decade policy of supporting self-determination for the Indigenous people of Western Sahara and instead backing Moroccan sovereignty. It was widely assumed that Rabat achieved this goal by leveraging the vulnerability of the Spanish enclaves.
   22. Last month, relations between Madrid and Rabat soured again because Sanchez made an official visit to Algeria – a country Morocco regards as a bitter enemy because of its unwavering support for the Polisario Front.
   23. Some are speculating that the latest events in Ceuta show Morocco once again sending a warning to Spain.
   24. What does this have to do with Israel?
   25. Some observers believe that if Morocco did orchestrate the mayhem, it may have been encouraged by others, pointing at two leaders with a particular grudge against Sanchez – US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
   26. Sanchez is one of Europe’s most consistently pro-Palestinian voices. He has explicitly said Israel’s war on Gaza is genocide, has been highly critical of the US-Israel war on Iran, and refused to allow jointly operated US-Spanish military facilities to be used to facilitate that war.
   27. Trump has been scathing about Spain because of its refusal to spend a greater share of gross domestic product to match the NATO target.
   28. Morocco has been far friendlier than Spain to Israel. In 2024, Spain refused to allow a US-flagged cargo ship carrying weapons for Israel to dock at Algeciras, so the vessel redirected to Morocco instead. The same year, Moroccan authorities allowed an Israeli warship to dock at Tangier to refuel and resupply en route from the US to Israel, after Spain had refused the vessel port access.
   29. Many Israelis consider Madrid’s support for Palestine hypocritical when Spain also occupies Arab territory.
   30. In 2019, Netanyahu’s son Yair tweeted a map of Ceuta and Melilla, saying, “Dear Arabs and Muslims. Want to free occupied Arab Islamic lands? Here’s a good start!”
   31. In March this year, an article written by American Enterprise Institute fellow Michael Rubin for the staunchly pro-Israel Middle East Forum urged: “Moroccans should gather, send bulldozers to the border, and then enter Ceuta and Melilla unarmed to raise the flag.”
   32. In April, pro-Israel Moroccan analyst Amine Ayoub wrote an article for Israeli website Ynet News arguing: “US-Spain tensions over NATO, Iran create opening for Morocco to press claims on Ceuta and Melilla, with Israel positioned to back Rabat diplomatically within US-led alliance that increasingly favours cooperative partners over European holdouts.”
   33. On Friday, with Ceuta invaded by tens of thousands of migrants, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, posted a provocative comment on X.
   34. “Spain, which never misses an opportunity to lecture Israel, has declared a state of emergency in Ceuta following the crisis over its immigration policy,” Danon wrote. “Maybe before it continues lecturing us, it’s time it explained to the world why it still maintains colonial enclaves in Africa.”
   35. “Well, it’s all starting to become quite clear,” commented Spain’s transport minister, Oscar Puente, apparently suggesting he thought Israel was involved in what happened in Ceuta.
   36. Pro-Israel sentiment has been steadily on the rise in Morocco, particularly as the country’s diplomatic relationship with both Israel and the United States has been deepening.
   37. Days ago, it was announced that Morocco named a 1,055km (655.5-mile) highway over Western Sahara after Trump.
   38. Experts said the gesture was far from surprising, as Morocco was one of the signatories to the Trump-brokered Abraham Accords, which saw the country normalise relations with Israel in 2020. In return, the Trump administration has provided crucial support to Morocco at the United Nations and through bilateral channels, bringing Rabat closer to securing greater control over Western Sahara.
   39. There is no evidence that Morocco orchestrated events in Ceuta partly on behalf of Israel, just a lot of interesting coincidences.
   40. But whether or not there was any conspiracy, one consequence of the episode is clear – the already frosty relations between the left-wing Spanish government of Sanchez and the far-right Israeli government of Netanyahu are now even chillier.
   41. MIKE: I don’t have any additional comments here. I think that as a geopolitical analysis piece, it’s self-explanatory.
6. I have to admit that I don’t talk much about Africa, with the occasional exception of North Africa, and usually as it relates to US, EU, Chinese, and occasionally Russian geopolitics. I acknowledge some potential bias there from both myself, as well as the news sources I tend to scan. This next story isn’t about a world-shaking development in African trade economics, but it may be the start of an important development in sub-Saharan regional economics. From BUSINESSINSIDER[.]COM— Africa’s largest economy takes major step towards local-currency trade as Angola’s kwanza joins regional payment system; By Ayodeji Adegboyega | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | 27 July 2026 06:37 PM. TAGS: South Africa, South African Rand, Angola, Angolan Kwanza, Southern African Development Community Real-Time Gross Settlement system (SADC-RTGS),
   1. Angola’s “kwanza” has become the second settlement currency on the SADC Real-Time Gross Settlement (SADC-RTGS) platform.
   2. [MIKE: For those who may be curious, I’m adding a link in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com that discusses what SADC is and what it does. I’ll detail its importance later in my comments. Continuing …]
   3. The move allows banks and businesses to settle eligible cross-border payments directly in kwanza instead of converting through the South African rand.
   4. Officials say the change will lower transaction costs, speed up payments and encourage greater use of African currencies in regional trade.
   5. Botswana’s “pula” is expected to become the next currency added as SADC expands its multi-currency payment system.
   6. The kwanza has been introduced into the Southern African Development Community Real-Time Gross Settlement system (SADC-RTGS), allowing approved banks and financial institutions to settle eligible regional transactions directly in the Angolan currency.
   7. The development was announced on Monday by South African Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago and Banco Nacional de Angola Governor Manuel Tiago Dias.
   8. South Africa is currently Africa’s largest economy, with the International Monetary Fund projecting its nominal gross domestic product at approximately $480 billion in 2026, ahead of Egypt and Nigeria.
   9. Its central bank operates the SADC-RTGS platform on behalf of the central banks participating in the regional bloc, giving South Africa a central role in the payment infrastructure supporting trade across Southern Africa.
   10. The addition of the kwanza ends the rand’s position as the platform’s only settlement currency since the system was launched in 2013.
   11. Participants conducting transactions in kwanza will now be able to settle directly in the currency instead of first converting payments into rand or another intermediary currency.
   12. The South African Reserve Bank said this would reduce foreign-exchange conversion requirements, lower transaction costs and allow businesses to receive funds more quickly.
   13. [The bank said in its announcement,] “This is an important step towards strengthening regional financial integration and supporting the use of regional currencies in cross-border trade.”
   14. … The inclusion of the kwanza is part of SADC’s plan to transform the regional payment infrastructure from a largely rand-based platform into a multi-currency settlement system.
   15. The rand’s dominance reflected South Africa’s position as the region’s largest and most integrated financial market, but it also meant that businesses trading between other SADC economies often needed to convert payments through the South African currency.
   16. That could expose transactions to additional exchange-rate costs and increase the number of financial intermediaries involved in completing payments.
   17. Direct settlement in kwanza is expected to simplify transactions involving Angola and encourage businesses to invoice and receive payments in the local currency.
   18. The South African Reserve Bank said other currencies, including Botswana’s pula, are expected to be introduced in due course.
   19. Regulators had previously approved plans to onboard the Angolan kwanza and the US dollar as additional settlement currencies, according to a South African Reserve Bank payment-system oversight report.
   20. The expansion supports a broader regional effort to reduce dependence on currencies from outside SADC and make cross-border payments faster and less expensive.
   21. The SADC secretariat describes the system as regional infrastructure developed to settle cross-border transactions without relying heavily on intermediary banks outside Southern Africa.
   22. … The SADC-RTGS system connects central banks, commercial banks, and other approved financial institutions across 15 participating countries.
   23. It currently processes about US$15 billion … in transactions every month.
   24. [MIKE: One dollar equals about R16.50, so that equals about R250.7 billion per month. Continuing …]
   25. Since its establishment, the system has become an important part of Southern Africa’s financial infrastructure. By January 2023, it had already settled more than 2.8 million transactions worth R10.97 trillion, according to SADC.
   26. Trade and interbank transactions between Angola and the other 14 participating SADC countries reached approximately $3.77 billion in 2025 across nine currencies.
   27. South Africa accounted for nearly $2.99 billion of that amount, representing about 60% of transaction volumes and 79% of the total value, according to figures released alongside the announcement.
   28. That concentration highlights both the importance of South Africa to Angola’s regional commerce and the extent to which Southern African payments remain centred on the continent’s largest economy.
   29. … The SADC-RTGS system is different from the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System, or PAPSS.
   30. SADC-RTGS is a Southern African interbank system used primarily to settle payments between participating financial institutions in the SADC region. Transactions are processed individually and settled in real time through central-bank money.
   31. PAPSS, by contrast, is a continent-wide payment infrastructure backed by Afreximbank and designed to connect banks and payment providers across African countries.
   32. It allows individuals and businesses to initiate cross-border payments in their local currencies, while PAPSS handles the currency conversion and settlement between participating financial institutions. Its model combines instant payments, pre-funding and net settlement.
   33. In practical terms, SADC-RTGS is a regional high-value settlement system, while PAPSS is intended to support broader pan-African local-currency payments under the continent’s expanding trade framework.
   34. The two systems therefore serve related but different purposes.
   35. … African governments and financial institutions have increasingly promoted local-currency settlement as a way to reduce the cost of intra-African trade.
   36. Many transactions between African countries are still priced or routed through currencies such as the US dollar or euro, even when neither party is based in the country issuing that currency.
   37. This can require multiple conversions, raise banking charges and make businesses more vulnerable to shortages of foreign exchange.
   38. By introducing more regional currencies, SADC hopes to reduce some of those frictions and make it easier for companies to manage cash flow across borders.
   39. The initiative also aligns with the G20’s cross-border payment targets, which seek to improve the cost, speed, transparency and accessibility of international transactions.
   40. For Angola, the kwanza’s inclusion gives the currency a larger role in regional finance. For South Africa, it represents a gradual shift away from a system built entirely around the rand towards payment infrastructure capable of supporting several Southern African currencies.
   41. MIKE: To get a bit more detail into this story, the “Southern African Development Community” or “SADC” is described on its website as follows: “The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is a regional economic group with 16 member states including South Africa, Botswana, and Angola. Headquartered in Gaborone, Botswana, its main goal is to promote economic growth, peace, security, and regional integration across Southern Africa.”
   42. MIKE: Infrastructure like this is essential for promoting economic growth and future prosperity for the southern African region. It promotes trade, which generates economic activity, jobs, and ultimately also tax revenue that governments can use to build more infrastructure and further improve the lives of their people.
   43. MIKE: It’s important to remember, though, that for this kind of economic infrastructure to deliver its maximum potential benefits requires long-term peace and political stability in the region for all the parties involved.
   44. MIKE: Time will tell if all the participating countries in the SADC can accomplish that in a region that is unfortunately occasionally prone to political violence and upheaval, even in what outwardly appear to be stable governments and even democracies.
   45. MIKE: While not in the southern African region, the nation of Liberia is a sad example of how even a long-established African democracy can suddenly be thrown into chaos.
   46. MIKE: For those who want to explore its history, I’ve linked to the Wikipedia entry on Liberia in this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com.
   47. MIKE: Established in 1847, after over 130 years of political stability, Liberia was unexpectedly torn asunder in 1980 by military coups and political violence.
   48. MIKE: As Monty Python famously said, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition. That’s just another way of reminding us that the future is never written in advance, and stuff happens.
7. In more Africa news, from BUSINESSINSIDER[.]COM — BRICS allies South Africa, Russia deepen military ties as Moscow expands Africa strategy; By Ayodeji Adegboyega | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | 28 July 2026 06:03 PM. TAGS: BRICS, South Africa, Russia, Russia’s Africa strategy,
   1. South African Army Chief Lieutenant General Lawrence Mbatha has agreed to strengthen military cooperation with Russia during an official visit to Moscow.
   2. The visit comes as Russia broadens defence partnerships across Africa through military training, equipment and security cooperation.
   3. Analysts say the engagement reflects Pretoria’s long-standing strategic ties with Moscow while maintaining its policy of non-alignment.
   4. The development also underscores Russia’s continued effort to expand its influence on the continent despite Western efforts to isolate Moscow. Mbatha met senior Russian military officials on Monday, where both sides discussed expanding cooperation between their land forces, improving combat readiness and pursuing additional joint projects.
   5. According to Russia’s Defence Ministry, the two countries reached agreements to deepen bilateral military ties during the visit.
   6. Mbatha’s delegation is also scheduled to visit Russian military academies and defence companies, suggesting cooperation could extend beyond diplomacy into training and military education.
   7. The visit marks Mbatha’s second official trip to Russia as head of the South African Army, highlighting an increasingly institutionalised military relationship between the two BRICS members.
   8. … The engagement comes at a time when Moscow is steadily expanding security partnerships across Africa.
   9. Earlier this month, Russia pledged deeper military cooperation with Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger through the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), promising continued military and technical assistance as the three countries battle worsening insurgencies.
   10. Russia has also maintained defence partnerships with countries including the Central African Republic and Equatorial Guinea through military training, security assistance and the deployment of its state-backed Africa Corps.
   11. The Kremlin has repeatedly said Africa remains a strategic priority and that future cooperation will include defence and other “sensitive” sectors alongside trade and investment.
   12. … South Africa’s relationship with Russia differs significantly from those of several West African military-led governments.
   13. Unlike Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which have turned to Moscow for security support after severing defence ties with France and other Western partners, South Africa’s cooperation is built on decades of diplomatic, military and political engagement dating back to the Soviet Union’s support for the anti-apartheid struggle.
   14. Pretoria has consistently maintained that its foreign policy is non-aligned, arguing it seeks constructive relations with both Western countries and Russia.
   15. That position has drawn criticism from some Western governments, particularly after South Africa hosted joint naval exercises with Russia and China following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
   16. … The latest military engagement also reinforces growing cooperation within the expanded BRICS grouping, where South Africa and Russia continue to advocate a more multipolar global order.
   17. According to Russia’s Defence Ministry, Russian officials praised South Africa’s stance on international affairs, including what they described as Pretoria’s commitment to a multipolar world and its refusal to align with Western sanctions against Moscow.
   18. While no new defence procurement agreements were announced during Mbatha’s visit, analysts say expanding cooperation in military education, doctrine and institutional exchanges could further strengthen relations between the two countries as Russia seeks to consolidate its strategic presence across Africa.
   19. MIKE: China and Russia have been working very hard at making geopolitical economic, financial, and military inroads into Africa, each in their own way depending on their own self-perceived strengths and interests.
   20. MIKE: BRICS functions mainly as an international economic grouping, but as discussed in this story, it also has geopolitical and military strategic dimensions.
   21. MIKE: “BRICS” — B-R-I-C-S — is an acronym. As “BRIC”, it originally stood for Brazil, Russia, India, and China. It became “BRICS” when South Africa joined.
   22. MIKE: BRICS was intended and functions as an attempted counterweight to the US-led post-WW2 economic order. As such, mass matters.
   23. MIKE: First, let’s discuss BRICS’s economic dimensions.
   24. MIKE: BRICS, from Wikipedia, “is an intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries: Brazil, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.^[1][2] Its conceptual origins were articulated by Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov in 1998 …”
   25. MIKE: “GDP” stands for Gross Domestic Product. “PPP” stands for Purchasing Power Parity.
   26. MIKE: Most of you have heard of GDP, but PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) may be entirely new to you. Investopedia defines PPP as an economic theory and metric that compares different countries’ currencies through a “basket of goods” to equalize the cost of living and determine real buying power. Personally, for the average person, I think that’s a more useful comparison than just exchange rates.
   27. MIKE: I hope you’ll forgive me for throwing a bunch of numbers at you, but all will be summed up at the end.
   28. MIKE: According to WorldEconomics[[.]com, “The combined nominal GDP of the expanded BRICS nations is roughly $31.72 trillion, while their purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP reaches nearly $90.27 trillion.”
   29. MIKE: I think it’s important to note that those numbers include both China and Russia.
   30. MIKE: According to numbers from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), within BRICS, China alone has the second-largest nominal GDP in the world at roughly $20.85 trillion. In other words, China contributes about 65% of the entire estimated GDP of BRICS.
   31. MIKE: For context, World Economics estimates the United States’s 2025 GDP at $27.915 trillion …”
   32. MIKE: From Wikipedia, the nominal GDP of the European Union is $23.035 trillion. The IMF estimates Japan’s nominal GDP is approximately $4.38 trillion, and estimates South Korea’s GDP of $1.93 trillion.
   33. MIKE: That trading bloc of Japan, the US, South Korea and the EU, doesn’t have a formal acronym. but just for fun, using the first letters of each, let’s call it JUKE.
   34. MIKE: The trade grouping I’m calling JUKE has a GDP that is almost a third larger than BRICS at $56.5 trillion, while JUKE’s PPP is about $20% smaller at about $70 trillion.
   35. MIKE: Which matters more? It may depend on whether you’re a government or a retail consumer. For a government, GDP probably matters more for tracking a country’s absolute financial influence and wealth on the global stage. Also, GDP can translate into military potential.
   36. MIKE: Individual members of these two blocs each have lots of trade and strategic ties that that crisscross within and between blocs in complex ways.
   37. MIKE: These two groupings are not necessarily hostile to each other, but there is an old saying that war is just diplomacy by other means. The same can be said of global economics.
   38. MIKE: That Russia in this story is using the economic ties it has within BRICS to further it’s geopolitical and military objectives is just more proof of that.
   39. MIKE: In this show post at ThinkwingRadio[.]com, I’ll include some of the raw PPP numbers I’m not including here.
   40. According to WorldEconomics[[.]com, “The combined nominal GDP of the expanded BRICS nations is roughly $31.72 trillion, while their purchasing power parity (PPP) GDP reaches nearly $90.27 trillion.”
   41. “World Economics estimates United States’s 2025 [Gross Domestic Product] GDP at $27.915 trillion in PPP terms (Purchasing Power Parity) and an initial estimate of $28.557 trillion for 2026. This figure is 7% higher than the official estimate published by the World Bank.”
   42. From Wikipedia, “The nominal GDP of the European Union is $23.035 trillion, and the GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) is $30.678 trillion.”
   43. The IMF estimates Japan’s nominal GDP is approximately $4.38 trillion, and its GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is approximately $7.26 trillion.
   44. The IMF estimates South Korea’s economy has a total (GDP) of $1.93 trillion and a GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) of $3.54 trillion.