Daily Links — Wednesday, August 26, 2026
Wednesday keeps the dinar overhaul front and center, now framed around chasing stolen money: Iraq pitches the currency redesign as a way to trap dirty dinars, and Jamal Kougar notes that of 108 trillion printed dinars, only 28 trillion actually sit inside the banking system — the rest is the target. Shafaq frames Iraq as caught in the crosshairs of the U.S. 'economic attack' on Iran's partners, while trade finishes its initial goods offer for the WTO and the transport minister pitches the 'development road' as Iraq's economic turning point. On the wider board, oil dumps as Iran and Oman push to reopen Hormuz, the CIA director reportedly held covert Moscow talks, and a quantum-resistant digital-asset pilot goes multi-jurisdictional. Here's everything on the desk.
Iraq & the Dinar
- Iraq targets stolen dinars with the currency overhaul plan — Channel 8
- Jamal Kougar: of 108 trillion dinars printed, only 28 trillion are inside the banking system — Kurdistan 24 (Arabic)
- Shafaq: Iraq in the crosshairs of the American 'economic attack' — a model for targeting Iran's partners — Shafaq News (Arabic)
- Trade completes the initial goods-offer procedures in preparation for submission to the World Trade Organization — Baghdad Today
- Minister of Transport: the development road is the artery of the 21st century and the turning point of Iraq's economy — Economy News
- Advanced understandings to resolve 9 vacant ministries — and a likely postponement of the vote to September — Alsumaria
Money & Markets
- A multi-jurisdictional pilot (Europe, Middle East, Asia) is testing quantum-resistant infrastructure for digital-asset wallets and transfers — CoinMarketCap (X)
- Mario Nawfal — featured long-form report — X
Around the World
- Oil dumps as Iran and Oman push to reopen Hormuz; satellite imagery shows Gulf producers ramping up — ZeroHedge
- CIA director held covert Moscow talks with Russian intel chiefs as relations sink deeper into 'crisis' — ZeroHedge
- Colombia's new president orders immigration raids, vows to deport illegal immigrants — The Epoch Times
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