🌊🇪🇺❌🇺🇸💰🏦💶💶 ECB pitches digital euro as response to Trump's crypto push

Euro zone banks need a digital euro to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's push to promote stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency typically pegged to the U.S. dollar, European Central Bank board member Piero Cipollone said on Friday.

Trump said he would "promote the development and growth of lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide" as part of a broader crypto strategy that he sketched out in an executive order issued on Thursday.

Cipollone said this would help lure even more customers away from banks and strengthen the case for the ECB to launch its own digital currency in response.

"I guess the key word here (in Trump's executive order) is worldwide," Cipollone told a conference in Frankfurt. "This solution, you all know, further disintermediates banks as they lose fees, they lose clients...That's why we need a digital euro."

https://www.reuters.com/technology/ecb-pitches-digital-euro-response-trumps-crypto-push-2025-01-24/

@FelipeChannel

💰‼️THORChain urgently drops ‘risky’ DeFi features amid $199 million debt

THORChain has suspended Bitcoin and Ethereum withdrawals within its lending and savings programs after reports of a $199 million liability surfaced.

On Jan. 24, THORChain founder John-Paul Thorbjornsen disclosed that validator node activities for THORFi services have been paused. This suspension temporarily halts debt repayments and synthetic asset redemptions while validators deliberate on a restructuring plan.

https://cryptoslate.com/thorchain-urgently-drops-risky-protocol-features-amid-199-million-debt/

@FelipeChannel

🇺🇸🇵🇦 U.S. Invasion of Panama Would Backfire, Strengthening Russia and China’s Global Influence

A U.S. military operation to seize the Panama Canal would be "both foolish and difficult," warns former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, in a column for Bloomberg.

Stavridis highlights the arrogance of such a move, suggesting that Panamanians would resist fiercely. A war against a smaller, sovereign nation would not only devastate U.S. credibility in Latin America but also strengthen global opposition to Washington’s interventions, giving Russia and China further moral and geopolitical leverage.

"From a military perspective, we should pause and ask ourselves how determined the Panamanians would be to defend themselves. My assumption—based on experience and discussions with well-informed friends in the region—is that they will fight. Panama would also likely receive significant political and even military backing from other Latin American countries," Stavridis notes.

The admiral underscores that while Americans might dismiss such an invasion as "absurd," Latin American nations see it as consistent with U.S. history.

The United States has interfered in Latin America and the Caribbean nearly 70 times since its founding, often under the pretext of protecting its own interests.

"We tend to forget how often we have imposed our will on the countries south of us, but I assure you, the people there remember," Stavridis adds, acknowledging the lasting resentment these actions have created.

He warns that any operation in Panama would carry disastrous consequences not only for the U.S. but for the region as a whole.

"Politically and diplomatically, it would destroy the U.S.'s relationships throughout the Americas. Washington would lose its remaining influence in the Organization of American States and damage its credibility on other pressing international issues. Domestically, the Latin American community in the U.S. would strongly oppose such a move," he writes.

Strategically, Stavridis argues, an invasion of Panama would only serve to justify the actions of U.S. rivals. Russia could point to such aggression to validate its operations in Ukraine, while China would feel emboldened to assert control over Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Furthermore, such a conflict could shut down the canal entirely, disrupting global shipping and escalating tensions in the Caribbean, possibly leading to attacks on commercial vessels.

Instead of reckless military intervention, Stavridis suggests Washington should focus on maintaining "strong, integrated" relations with Panama, negotiate a free trade agreement, and seek lower shipping rates.

While the admiral stops short of acknowledging it outright, his analysis underscores a broader truth: U.S. overreach is increasingly isolating Washington on the world stage. As Latin America and other regions shift closer to the multipolar framework led by Russia and China, the days of unilateral U.S. dominance appear numbered.

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🇦🇷🏴❌🇪🇺 — Javier Milei spoke at Davos about the EU's attack on democracy in Romania by overturning of the election results:

"Is it not true that right now, as we speak, in the UK citizens are being imprisoned for exposing horrifying crimes committed by Muslim migrants, crimes that the government seeks to conceal?

Or didn't the bureaucrats in Brussels suspend Romania's elections simply because they didn't like the party that had won?"

🇺🇸🇷🇺🛢 Trump asks OPEC to cut oil prices, argues it will stop Russia-Ukraine war

'We want to see OPEC cut the price of oil. That will automatically stop the tragedy that's taking place in Ukraine. It's a butchering tragedy for both sides,' the US President told reporters in North Carolina on Friday.

https://www.deccanherald.com/world/trump-asks-opec-to-cut-oil-prices-argues-it-will-stop-russia-ukraine-war-3372392

📝 Anon: Seems the Trump doctrine strategy of ending the war in Ukraine involves destroying Russian oil infrastructure and the lowering of oil prices to ultimately target Russian oil revenue ($108 Billion 2024) as leverage.

🇺🇸📉❗️ - A Red sight over the Market Heaven

The US Stock market lost $1 trillion due to the launch of Chinese AI DeepSeek and continues to lose

🇺🇸🇲🇽 BREAKING: Per multiple law enforcement sources, within the last hour, Border Patrol agents near Fronton, TX were fired upon from MX by suspected cartel gunmen as a group of illegal aliens were being brought across the river. I’m told BP returned fire, nobody hit on either side, and that the illegal aliens did not make it across.

📎 Bill Melugin