💰 📉 Bitcoin exchange reserves have hit a 3-year low of 2.5 million as demand continues to grow, per CryptoQuant.

🔶️ People are demanding physical gold and more Bitcoin. Interesting times.

🔗 Kobeissi Letter

🇺🇸 🇷🇺 🇸🇦 Trump says he expects to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia after phone call on Ukraine war

🔶️ Donald Trump says he will likely meet with Vladimir Putin, probably in Saudi Arabia

🔶️ Both Trump and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the two presidents agreed to visit each other's nations during the call

🔗 BBC News

📈 🇷🇺 🇪🇺 Russia's military spending last year is equivalent to $462 billion on the basis of purchasing power parity, which 'now outstrips all of Europe's defence budgets combined'.

🔶️ The IISS forecast that this year total Russian defence spending — including so-called voluntary payments by regional authorities and companies — would increase 13.7 per cent to reach Rbs15.6tn, equivalent to 7.5 per cent of GDP or almost 40 per cent of Russian federal spending.

🔶️ By contrast, if Europe increased defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP, that would equate to an extra $250bn, according to IISS. If it rose to 5 per cent of GDP, defence spending would rise by about $800bn — almost twice Russia’s current level of spending.

🔶️ Trump has also said Europe should spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence, compared with its current average of about 1.7 per cent.

🔗 Financial Times

🇷🇺 🇱🇹 🇪🇺 “Russia's military capabilities are three times greater than they were before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė has said.”

🔶️ Russia is expanding its military industry, cooperating effectively with China, North Korea and Iran, and is capable not only of fighting in Ukraine, but also of rebuilding and expanding its capabilities, she said.

🔶️ "Russia is reforming its military forces, expanding its personnel, developing its military industry, and doing so very rapidly. Europe should also step up in this area," Šakalienė said.

🔶️ "The moment the front in Ukraine stops or slows down to the point where the losses on the Russian side are significantly reduced, the accumulation of capabilities for the next stages of the war, possibly with other countries, accelerates," she said.

https://www.lrt.lt/en/news-in-english/19/2483081/russia-s-military-power-grows-threefold-since-invasion-says-lithuanian-minister

🇵🇦🇨🇷🇺🇸 A caravan of mostly Venezuelans was stopped by Panamanian police on their way home and sent back north to Costa Rica to undergo criminal checks.

🔎 Source
#US #Panama #CostaRica

☠️ Blood Meridian

🇬🇧 🇺🇦 - After Trump, Putin call to discuss a potential Ukraine peace deal, the UK's Minister of Defence says that no peace talks should take place without Ukrainian input.

Follow: @ThermopylaeNews

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

@CIG_Telegram

🇦🇷🇨🇳🔨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

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

@CIG_Telegram

🇺🇸 🛢 🇬🇾 — 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