👤🚫🤝👤 — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | Ukraine rejects Trump bid to take rights to half its mineral reserves | Kyiv wants security guarantees to be tied to any natural resources deal | February 15, 2025:

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected a US bid to take ownership of around 50 per cent of the rights to his country’s rare earth minerals and is trying to negotiate a better deal, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered Zelenskyy the deal during a visit to Kyiv on Wednesday, which came after President Donald Trump suggested the US was owed half a trillion dollars’ worth of Ukraine’s resources in exchange for its assistance to the war-torn country.

Zelenskyy wants American and European security guarantees to be tied directly to any deal on the mineral reserves, according to four people familiar with the US-Ukraine negotiations."

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🗣🗯🇪🇺❗️🇺🇸 — 🇬🇧 The Guardian | Macron convenes European leaders for Ukraine summit amid tension with US Paris meeting aims to retake initiative on talks about Ukraine’s future as US and Russian delegates prepare to meet | February 16, 2025:

"Emmanuel Macron will host a Paris summit of European defence powers on Monday to try to retake the initiative and demand the US ends its lockout of Europe from talks on Ukraine’s future.

With the US and Russia due to send high-powered delegations for talks in Riyadh this week – the first such meetings in two years – there are fears in Europe that Russia will relaunch its plan for imposed Ukrainian neutrality and a joint US-Russia carve-up with agreed spheres of influence.

Ukraine and many of its closest European allies believe Vladimir Putin wants to make a recasting of the postwar order his precondition for a ceasefire.

France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, told France Inter radio on Sunday: “The president will bring together the main European countries tomorrow for discussions on European security,” although he declined to say which countries would take part and said the meeting should not be “over-dramatised”.

European diplomatic sources said the Monday afternoon summit would include Germany, Poland, Italy and Denmark – representing the Baltic and Scandinavian countries – as well as the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen."

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🪙❗️💸 — 📰 ZeroHedge | The (Geo)Politics Of Precious Metals | February 16, 2025:

"Since 2018, gold prices have nearly tripled, driven by central banks' increasing demand, particularly in response to U.S. sanctions and asset seizures, such as the $300 billion in Russian reserves frozen by the West. This trend reflects a global shift away from reliance on the U.S. dollar and euro, with gold seen as a safer alternative. "Gold is being seen as an alternative to dollar or euro-denominated assets

(...)

"The aim of this was political—to keep the world viewing the U.S. dollar as the most secure form of international reserves," he states. However, as trust in the Western financial system declines due to excessive monetary policies and sanctions, nations are turning to gold. The recent sharp rise in gold prices signals the breakdown of this controlled system.

A major concern Hudson raises is the discrepancy between the actual gold supply and the financialized gold market, where much of the traded gold is merely paper-based. The leasing of gold by central banks to private dealers has created a situation akin to a financial bubble, with more claims on gold than the available physical supply."

#Geoeconomics

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🪖🗯🇺🇦🔫❌🇷🇺 — 🇬🇧 The Telegraph | Nato at odds with Ukraine over Soviet-style tactics | British defence sources have accused Zelensky’s troops of wasting expensive weapons and equipment | February 16, 2025:

"Nato is at odds with Ukraine over its battlefield tactics, with British defence sources accusing Volodymyr Zelensky’s army of wasting expensive weapons and equipment, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Kyiv’s troops are understood to be combining Western-donated weapons with Soviet-style tactics, in a misstep which has led to a significant amount of squandered Nato weaponry.

Russian tactics prioritise masses of cheap firepower over Nato-style precision attacks."

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🇺🇸🗯🇺🇦💲💸 — 🇺🇸 The Gateway Pundit | MAJOR UPDATE: President Trump Says He Is Working on a Plan for Ukraine to Pay Back the $350 Billion the US Sent to Ukraine | February 16, 2025:

"President Donald Trump spoke to reporters briefly before he flew to Daytona Beach for the Daytona 500.

During the questions and answers, President Trump made when he announced that Ukraine was going to pay back the estimated $350 billion the US generously sent to the Zelensky regime.

This was a major announcement by President Trump.

Here is the trannoscript.

Reporter: Would you support Zelinsky’s seeding territory or exchanging territory in any agreement to end the war?

President Trump: Well, he’s going to have to do what he has to do, but his poll numbers aren’t particularly great, to put it mildly. He’s got a country where it’s been savaged and attacked, and he’s got an army that’s been very, very brave, actually, despite the fact that we’ve given him, in my opinion, $350 billion. That’s what the number is. You don’t hear that number. And Europe has given, in my opinion, $100 billion. And they’ve done it in the form of a loan.

And I have a Secretary of Treasury right now who’s actually quite brave. He’s over in Ukraine on a train, and there’s a lot of things happening around that train that aren’t so good. And he’s going there to get a document done where we’re going to be assured that we’re going to, in some form, get this money back because we’re putting up far more money than Europe.

And Europe is in far more danger than we are. We have an ocean in between. Europe has nothing in between. You know what they have in between? They have Ukraine in between. So as you know, Europe is putting up money, and they’re getting it in the form of a loan.

And the United States, under Biden, didn’t do loans. They just handed money. Every time somebody walked in from Ukraine, they just handed them money foolishly. This should have never happened. It should have never started. And once it did, other things should have happened. Other things should have taken place. So we’re getting security on our money. We’re going to have it secured by… They have raw earth, and they have oil and gas, and they have a lot of other things. And we’re asking for security on our money. So does it mean you are not sending any more aid to Ukraine? They’ve agreed to it. Ukraine has agreed to it.

Reporter:  Does it mean you are not sending any more aid to Ukraine?

President Trump:  No, we are, but we want it secured, and the money is going to be secured.."

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Cynical Publius: "Of the top 7 wealthiest counties in America, 4 of them are suburbs of Washington DC.

These counties have no major industries of note other than the federal government, lobbying the federal government and selling things to the federal government.

This is a major reason why the vast majority of Americans have zero sympathy for defunded NGOs, terminated federal employees, cut-off journalists and suddenly irrelevant lobbyists."

🔗 Cynical Publius

🇺🇸 The Story of the Fort Knox Gold Heist

🔗 Wall Street Apes

🇺🇸 Trump administration officials have explored the idea of auditing the gold reserves at Fort Knox.

Ron Paul has repeatedly warned about the U.S. government's secrecy over its gold, sparking theories that it may have been secretly sold to foreign governments.

No member of Congress has been granted access to the vault in over decades.

Ron Paul claimed the gold was stolen from the people by the U.S. government through an executive order in the 1930s.

🔗 Shadow of Ezra

🇷🇺⚡️ Visa and Mastercard will return to Russia in the near future , said Anatoly Aksakov, head of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets

He believes that payment systems will return to the Russian Federation and will offer their services, but it will be difficult for them because “Russians are accustomed to domestic payment systems.”

🇺🇦🇷🇺🇱🇻 ‘Freezing’ Ukraine war would allow Russia to threaten NATO, Latvian intelligence warns

Any pause in fighting in Ukraine would allow Russia to rebuild its forces and launch a confrontation with European Union countries, Latvia's state security service warned Monday, as U.S. President Donald Trump launches peace talks with the Kremlin.

In a newly unclassified report published by the Baltic nation's Constitution Protection Bureau, intelligence officers assess that "the likelihood of a direct Russian-NATO military confrontation in 2025" is "rather low" because Moscow's manpower and resources are tied up in the costly invasion.

"However, if the war were to become 'frozen' and Russia no longer had to suffer significant losses during the active hostilities in Ukraine, Moscow would be able to increase its military presence next to the NATO’s northeastern flank, including the Baltics, within the next five years," the report warns.

https://www.politico.eu/article/freezing-ukraine-war-would-allow-russia-threaten-nato-latvian-intelligence-warns-donald-trump-peace-talks/

🇻🇦📝 — Pope Francis' infection is presenting a complex clinical picture and requires further hospitalization, the Vatican says

➡️ Pope Francis has spent the past days alternating hospitalized, switching between resting and reading, the Vatican added in a brief statement.

➡️ His doctors have advised complete rest and Francis was unable to deliver his regular Sunday prayer to pilgrims in St Peter's Square or lead a special mass for artists held to mark the Catholic Church's Jubilee Year.