🇺🇸 — RFK Jr. has been confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human services by the US Senate

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🇺🇸⚡️- President Trump says the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will carry out an audit against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for “corruption and waste.”

🇺🇸 - Illegal border crossings have reached record low after Trump’s swift crackdown and could be on track for levels unseen in 60 years.

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🇦🇷🇨🇳🔨China's Ganfeng starts lithium production at Argentina's Mariana project

China's Ganfeng Lithium mining company has begun producing lithium at its Mariana project in northern Argentina, it said on Wednesday, kicking off one of several of its new lithium projects under way in the South American country.

The Mariana plant, in the province of Salta, represents a $790 million investment and has the capacity to produce 20,000 metric tons of lithium chloride per year from extraction at the Llullaillaco salt flat.

🔎 Source
#Argentina #China

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇺🇸 — For the first time in over 20 years, Americans think the country is headed on the “Right track.”

The "right track, wrong track" survey is widely considered to be the most accurate gauge of incumbent approval by American political scientists

🔗 Link

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🇺🇸 ❌ 🇮🇳 — Trump announces reciprocal tariffs on India

President Trump says that India has had some of the highest tariffs against US goods.

As such US import duties will now be that whatever India charges.

🔗 Link

@CIG_Telegram

🇬🇧 - New poll gives Reform UK a six-point lead over Labour, suggests they could win a majority of seats.

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🇺🇸 - "Amir Hatem Mahdy Ali," a "Canadian-American" district judge appointed by Biden last November, orders Trump to lift his funding freeze on USAID.

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The New York Stock Exchange to Launch NYSE Texas
Article, Comments

🇪🇨 🗳 ⁉️ — Ecuador’s president claims "irregularities" in first-round election

🔶 Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa claimed that the first round of the country’s presidential election was rife with “irregularities” after he made it to the second round with a slim lead

🔶 Noboa is set to face leftist Luisa González in the second round

🔶 Noboa even suggested that “armed groups” were forcing voters to cast their ballots for his opponent

🔶 Prior to his allegations, González made a similar claim on Monday in an interview with local channel Teleamazonas, saying that there were “inconsistencies” in the vote in certain provinces throughout Ecuador.

🔶 The European Union’s observation mission to Ecuador pronounced the election “transparent, well-organized, and peaceful” on Tuesday, and pushed back against any allegations of fraud.

🔗 Link

@CIG_Telegram

🇳🇬🤝🇳🇪🇩🇿 — Nigeria signs gas pipeline deal with Algeria, Niger Republic

🔶 Nigeria has signed a pipeline deal which would transport billions of cubic metres of gas 4,128 kilometres (2,565 miles) from Nigeria in West Africa through Niger and on to Algeria.

🇪🇺 Officials from the three countries on Tuesday signed the deal in Algiers, Algeria’s capital, aimed at accelerating the development of a vast natural gas pipeline toward Europe.

🔶 The Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) deal would also see the gas pumped through the undersea Mediterranean pipeline, Transmed to Italy, or loaded onto liquefied natural gas tankers for export.

🔶 The contracts centred on “an update of the feasibility study” and other issues, including non-disclosure agreements among their state energy companies.

❗️ While no update was given for the pipeline’s cost, which was estimated at launch at $10 billion, the project has been given new urgency by a surge in gas demand worldwide and soaring prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

🔗 Link

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🇺🇸 🛢 🇬🇾 — Exxon seeks permit for its eighth oil, gas project in Guyana as output rises

🔶 A consortium led by Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab has requested environmental permits from Guyana for its eighth project, the first that will generate gas not linked to oil production, and to explore another well at its massive offshore block.

🔶 Exxon plans to boost output capacity this year to 940,000 barrels per day (bpd) versus the 616,000 bpd it produced in 2024 after upgrades at two of its three floating oil facilities and the arrival of a fourth vessel, Alistair Routledge, president of Exxon Guyana, said at a press conference.

🔶 Guyana has been pressing Exxon to produce and deliver more natural gas, part of the government's strategy to rely on the fuel for power generation, to industrialize the country and begin petrochemical and liquefied natural gas (LNG) businesses that can expand government revenue.

🔶 Guyana's economy achieved its fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth in 2024, expanding 43.6%, driven by crude production. Oil output rose 58% from 391,000 bpd in 2024.

🔗 Link

@CIG_Telegram

🇬🇦 🗳 — Gabon to hold presidential election on April 12

🔶 Gabon's transitional government said Thursday that presidential elections would be held on April 12

🔶 The oil-rich central African country, which had been under the rule of the Bongo family for 55 years, adopted a new constitution in a November referendum.

🔶 Ali Bongo ruled for 14 years until he was overthrown moments after being proclaimed the winner in the 2023 presidential election the military and opposition declared fraudulent.

"Voting will start at 7:00 am and end at 6:00 pm in line with current laws," government spokesman Seraphin Akure Davain announced after a cabinet meeting.

🔗 Link

@CIG_Telegram

🇻🇳 🤝 🇺🇸 — Vietnam Looks to Placate Trump By Vowing No Limits on US Goods

🔶 Vietnam says it has no intention of imposing measures that “create burdens or restrict trade” with the US, and is “ready to open its market, increasing imports of US agricultural products.”

🔶 Vietnam welcomes US investors to participate in “new energy projects, oil and gas areas, as well as mining,” to ensure energy security and sustainable supply chain development between the two countries, Industry and Trade Minister Nguyen Hong Dien said at a meeting with the country’s top US envoy, according to a statement on Vietnam’s trade ministry website.

🔶 Vietnam’s trade surplus with the US widened to $123.5 billion last year, giving it the third-highest trade gap that any country has with the US, behind China and Mexico, making the manufacturing powerhouse a potential prime tariff target.

🔶 Vietnam is among the world’s most trade-dependent nations, with exports equivalent to about 90% of economic output, and counts the US as its most significant customer. Shipments have surged since the US-China trade war broke out during Trump’s first term, which accelerated global brands shifting production away from China to countries such as Vietnam.

🔶 Vietnam is also currently the ninth largest market for US agricultural products, importing goods such as beef, soybeans, and apples, according to the trade ministry.

🔗 Link

@CIG_Telegram