🇺🇸🤝🇷🇺🆗⛽️➡️🗺 — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | Putin ally pushes deal to restart Nord Stream 2 with US backing | Ex-spy Warnig’s plan to involve American investors shows breadth of Trump’s rapprochement with Russian president | March 2, 2025:

"A former spy and close friend of Vladimir Putin has been engineering a restart of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Europe with the backing of US investors, a once unthinkable move that shows the breadth of Donald Trump’s rapprochement with Moscow.

The efforts on a deal, according to several people aware of the discussions, were the brainchild of Matthias Warnig, an ex-Stasi officer in East Germany who until 2023 ran Nord Stream 2’s parent company for the Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom.

Warnig’s plan involved outreach to the Trump team through US businessmen, the people said, as part of back-channel efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine while deepening economic ties between the US and Russia.

Some prominent Trump administration figures are aware of the initiative to bring in US investors, according to officials in Washington, and they see it as part of the push to rebuild relations with Moscow.

While there have been several expressions of interest, one US-led consortium of investors has drawn up the outlines of a post-sanctions deal with Gazprom, according to one person with direct knowledge of talks who declined to disclose the identity of the prospective investors."

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🇺🇸📈❌🇪🇺📉🪖 — 📰 ZeroHedge | European Reality Check: Without The US There Is No NATO And No Ukraine | March 3, 2025:

"(...)

Political leaders and media proponents have been flooding social media to show support for Zelensky as the new savior of the EU and many have suggested that Europe can easily fill the void that the US leaves behind.  This is dangerous delusion. 

For example, the US represents around 70% of the entire annual combined defense spending of NATO countries.  No other nation comes close.

In 2023-2024, this expenditure amounted to over $860 billion. The closest NATO member in terms of budget for the alliance is Germany with $68 billion. NATO funding is included in America's total defense spending package.

According to RAND Corporation's Defense Spending Index, the US carries 47% of the burden share, vastly outweighing any other NATO member.  While NATO's official budget is $3.5 billion, this does not represent the burden share if NATO goes to war.  Members with the largest armies and spending the most on defense will be expected to expend the most resources in a conflict. 

The media consistently misrepresents the NATO spending imbalance by comparing NATO fees as a percentage of GDP.  This is nonsense. The sheer amount of defense spending is what matters, not the ratio to GDP.  When examined in true terms there is no argument to be made - The US is essentially the military cash cow for the entire western world.  Without the US there is no NATO."

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👤🗯👤 — 📰 ZeroHedge | Zelensky Rejects Calls For Immediate Ceasefire & Won't Apologize To Trump: 'Ukraine Not For Sale' | March 3, 2025:

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has remained defiant in the wake of Friday's explosive confrontation with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office. He said from London Sunday that he will not apologize that that his country's freedom is "not for sale".

He acknowledged that the public spat "didn’t bring anything positive or additional to us as partner" - however he also said "This relationship will continue because this is more than a relationship in one moment."

"If you don’t have an end to the war and you don’t have security guarantees, no one is able to control a ceasefire," he told reporters while preparing to leave the UK, following a meeting with European leaders to agree on continued support for Ukraine."

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👤🚫🕊🇷🇺 — 🇬🇧 Financial Times | Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejects calls for immediate Ukraine-Russia ceasefire | Defiant Ukrainian president sees no need to make amends for explosive Oval Office row with Trump | March 2, 2025:

"Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected calls for Ukraine to agree an immediate ceasefire in its war with Russia, saying it would be “failure for everyone” if a cessation of hostilities were not accompanied by detailed security guarantees.

The defiant Ukrainian president said he saw no need to make amends for an explosive row with Donald Trump at the White House on Friday or come up with a plan to salvage his relationship with the US president, although he restated his gratitude to the American people.

“This relationship will continue because this is more than a relationship in one moment,” added Zelenskyy, who was speaking after meeting more than a dozen European leaders at a summit in London on Sunday, in reference to the bust-up that shocked Kyiv’s allies."

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🇺🇸🗯👤 — 🇺🇸 President of United States Donald J. Trump on Truth Social:

"This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy, and America will not put up with it for much longer! It is what I was saying, this guy doesn’t want there to be Peace as long as he has America’s backing and, Europe, in the meeting they had with Zelenskyy, stated flatly that they cannot do the job without the U.S. – Probably not a great statement to have been made in terms of a show of strength against Russia. What are they thinking? https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-zelenskyy-starmer-trump-b025877c40ffe0ddf2a92adad1715231"

🔗 Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)

🇮🇷‼️👨🏽‍💼📉 — 🇮🇷 Tasnim News | Iran’s Economy Minister Dismissed after Losing Parliamentary Vote of Confidence | March 2, 2025:

"TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian lawmakers on Sunday gave a vote of no confidence to the minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, terminating the term of Abdolnaser Hemmati 193 days after he took office.

Hemmati attended an open session of the Parliament on Sunday and took the podium to answer the questions of a number of lawmakers, complaining about his ministry’s performance and poor handling of the economic situation.

At the conclusion of the impeachment, the parliamentarians voted for the motion to dismiss the minister with 182 votes in favor, 89 no votes, and one abstention from a total of 272 votes.

(...)

The lawmakers have complaints about price hikes and diminishing purchasing power in Iran.

The Iranian money, rial, plunged to a record low against the US dollar this month. There has been growing demand for dollars and gold among ordinary Iranians, who fear more plunge in the value of their assets and growing price of goods, even those not imported from abroad."

#Geoeconomics

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🇺🇸🇨🇳President Trump has increased tariffs on Chinese goods to 20%

🔗 RapidResponse47

If you bought European Stocks in 2000, you have finally broken even after 25 years! Congrats everyone, we did it 🥳🍾
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🇺🇸🚫💸🇺🇦 — 📰 Bloomberg | Trump Pauses Military Aid to Ukraine After Clash With Zelenskiy | March 3, 2025:

"President Donald Trump ordered a pause to all military aid to Ukraine, turning up the heat on Volodymyr Zelenskiy just days after an Oval Office blowup with the Ukrainian president left the support of his country’s most important ally in doubt.

The US is pausing all current military aid to Ukraine until Trump determines the country’s leaders demonstrate a good-faith commitment to peace, according to a senior Defense Department official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.

The official said all US military equipment not currently in Ukraine would be paused, including weapons in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland. Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to execute the pause, the person said.

Trump is pushing for a quick deal to end the war triggered by Russia’s invasion of its neighbor three years ago. But when Zelenskiy pushed in an Oval Office meeting last week for security guarantees to ensure Russia doesn’t violate any agreement, Trump angrily told him to come back when he’s ready for peace.

That sent European allies racing to come up with plans to keep Ukraine supplied with weapons, as well to provide peacekeepers for a deal. But Europe lacks many of the arms and other capabilities that the US now provides. Allied officials have said supplies of weapons are likely to last only until summer.

Just how much aid is affected by Trump’s order wasn’t immediately clear.

Trump came into office with $3.85 billion remaining in funding from the previous administration in so-called presidential drawdown authority from US inventories. It has remained unclear whether the Trump administration would actually use the money for Ukraine, particularly given US weapons stockpiles are running low and need to be replenished."

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🇺🇸❌🇨🇦🇲🇽 — President Trump just confirmed that the 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian products will start TOMORROW.

➡️ Trump administration accuses both Mexico and Canada of being inneffective in countering fentanyl smuggling from China, thus the tarriffs

🇺🇸💸📈 — White House Press Secretary Leavitt:

Trump will talk about tax cuts tomorrow.

🇺🇸❌🇺🇦❗️— Bloomberg reports that US paused all current military aid to Ukraine

🇺🇸📞🇺🇦❗️ — The United States is pausing all United States military aid to Ukraine until President Trump determines the Ukrainians show a commitment to "good faith peace negotiations", a senior Trump administration official tells Fox News. 

"This is not permanent termination of aid, it's a pause," the official emphasized. "The orders are going out right now."

The official said this is in response to Ukrainian President Zelensky's conduct over the last week.

🇺🇸📞🇺🇦❗️ — A senior Pentagon official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Bloomberg that the halt to military aid to Ukraine includes all military aid in transit and waiting in transit areas in Poland.

🇺🇸📞🌐 — Ukraine-born US Representative Victoria Kulheyko Spartz to NATO countries:

"Europeans really have no weapons. United States is the only country that has weapons."