🇺🇸📞🇺🇦❗️ — Trump envoy General Kellogg:

Resumption of US military aid to Kyiv depends on its readiness to settle and sign a deal on fossil fuels and minerals

🏳🗣🇺🇦❌😵‍💫 — 📰 Politico | Top Trump allies hold secret talks with Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian opponents | As Washington ramps up its pressure on Zelenskyy to step aside, his rivals are talking to Trump’s team | March 6, 2025:

"KYIV — Four senior members of Donald Trump’s entourage have held secret discussions with some of Kyiv’s top political opponents to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just as Washington aligns with Moscow in seeking to lever the Ukrainian president out of his job.

The senior Trump allies held talks with Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, a remorselessly ambitious former prime minister, and senior members of the party of Petro Poroshenko, Zelenskyy’s immediate predecessor as president, according to three Ukrainian parliamentarians and a U.S. Republican foreign policy expert.

The discussions centered on whether Ukraine could hold quick presidential elections. These are being delayed in line with the country’s constitution because Ukraine remains under martial law."

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🇷🇺❌🇪🇺🕊 — Russian MFA rejects ceasefire talks, calls it unnaceptable

➡️ Moscow has flatly rejected proposals for a one-month halt in fighting or a pause in aerial and naval attacks, dismissing calls from Zelensky and Macron.

➡️ Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made it clear: Russia won’t accept a “respite” without firm agreements on a final settlement.

🇺🇦🤝🇺🇸🇸🇦 — 🇫🇷 AFP on 𝕏:

"#BREAKING US envoy says pleased by Zelensky 'apology' over White House row"

🔗 AFP News Agency (@AFP)

"#BREAKING Ukraine, US delegations are expected to meet Tuesday in Riyadh, a senior Kyiv official tells AFP"

🔗 AFP News Agency (@AFP)

🇨🇳🪶🗯🇺🇸 — 🇨🇳 Chinese Embassy in US quoting on 𝕏 the MFA of China ["Spokesperson发言人办公室"]:

"If the U.S. truly wants to solve the #fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China by treating each other as equals.

If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end."

🔗 Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS)

"The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports. Our countermeasures to defend our rights and interests are fully legitimate and necessary.

The U.S., not anyone else, is responsible for the #FentanylCrisis inside the U.S. In the spirit of humanity and goodwill towards the American people, we have taken robust steps to assist the U.S. in dealing with the issue. Instead of recognizing our efforts, the U.S. has sought to smear and shift blame to China, and is seeking to pressure and blackmail China with tariff hikes. They’ve been PUNISHING us for helping them. This is not going to solve the U.S.’s problem and will undermine our counternarcotics dialogue and cooperation.

Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China. Anyone using maximum pressure on China is picking the wrong guy and miscalculating. If the U.S. truly wants to solve the fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China by treating each other as equals.

If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end."

🔗 Spokesperson发言人办公室 (@MFA_China)

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

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement. This Agreement is until April 2nd. I did this as an accommodation, and out of respect for, President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been a very good one, and we are working hard, together, on the Border, both in terms of stopping Illegal Aliens from entering the United States and, likewise, stopping Fentanyl. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for your hard work and cooperation!"

Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 🖇

🇷🇺🇸🇾 NEW: Russia is about to retain its military bases in Syria and plan to sign multibillion contracts

• A new construction of Tartus port
• Gas offshore concessions
• Phosphate mines and hydrocarbon fields in Palmyra
• The construction of a fertilizer plant in Homs — WSJ

🔗 ragipsoylu

🇺🇸 CIA has started dismissing recently hired officers, following government-wide reductions ordered by the Trump administration.

Many of these employees, hired within the past two years, were summoned to an off-site location and asked to surrender their credentials.

🔗 Clash Report

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Luke Gromen on X:

As I discussed recently with Tucker Carlson (& many times before), the structure of post-1971 reserve status has become a threat to US national security if we ever again need to credibly mass produce weapons w/o China's help

Solution = shift to neutral reserve asset (gold or BTC) that floats in all currencies at FX reserve level.

https://fxtwitter.com/LukeGromen/status/1897681865378582897

🇺🇸❌🇨🇳❗️— US FBI and United States Department of Justice arrested US Army 1st Lt. Li Tian and Sgt. Jian Zhao from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, along with former soldier Ruoyo Duan. They are accused of selling classified military secrets to Operatives of Communist China MSS/Chinese Communist Party

Charges include conspiracy, bribery, and theft— posing a major national security risk.

🇺🇸🗯🇪🇺💸🇺🇸 — 📰 ZeroHedge | Trump: If NATO Countries Don't Pay Fair Share, US Won't Defend | March 6, 2025:

"For readers of independent media - or anyone who's been paying any level of attention for that matter - this is nothing new, but this week marked the first time a sitting US Secretary of State Described the Ukraine-Russia conflict as a proxy war.

(...)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, "We can and want to agree with it, and we agree with it. That's the way it is. We have said this repeatedly. We have said that this is actually a conflict between Russia and the collective West. And the main country of the collective West is the United States of America."

Peskov added, "So it is absolutely in line with the position that our president and foreign minister have repeatedly expressed. We have said this repeatedly, and yes, we agree that it is time to stop this conflict and this war.

Update(1222ET): The White House has paused both weapons shipments to Kiev as well as intelligence-sharing, given that so far President Zelensky has refused the sign Trump's minerals deal while complaining it doesn't contain clear and firm security guarantees. 

Rather than back down, it appears Trump has just piled on yet another big demand on Ukraine, ramping up the pressure even more. The US is now pressing Ukraine to achieve a 'quick ceasefire' to go with the minerals deal, Bloomberg reports Thursday:

European officials have been told that President Donald Trump wants to link the proposed US-Ukraine minerals deal to demands for Kyiv to commit to a quick ceasefire with Russia, according to people familiar with the matter.

Washington has indicated that Trump is ready to finalize the agreement on natural resources, which has been on hold since his Oval Office fallout with Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, on condition the Ukrainian leader agrees to tangible path for a truce and talks with Moscow, the people said.

Update(1535ET): President Trump has on Thursday afternoon warned allies that if NATO countries don’t pay their fair share they won’t be protected. His words come as European leaders, as well as some US politicians, are worried the Atlantic alliance is becoming weaker than ever, and that Article 5 collective defense is in peril.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at NATO countries not meeting their current two percent spending goal while the unfair burden falls on United States, which spends 3.4% cent of its GDP on defense.

And as France's Macron starts some rare nuclear saber-rattling, Trump responded...

At the same time Russia's President Putin has made clear on Thursday that he's not going to make any concessions in potential near-future negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

This is especially as by most accounts Moscow is 'winning' the war..."

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🇪🇺😬🇺🇦 — 📰 New York Post | Europe fails to reach deal on Ukraine, rearmament after emergency talks end without agreement | March 6, 2025:

"Europe remains divided on how to support Ukraine and shore up its defenses in the face of Russian aggression, as emergency summit talks ended without a consensus on Thursday.

A statement on Ukraine was signed by all but one of the 27 EU members with a lone country — believed to be Hungary — holding out.

As leaders pledged to ramp up defense spending, the main European powers couldn’t agree on what exactly that support for Ukraine might look like and how Europe should adapt to what many see as a new world order under President Trump."

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🇺🇸✉️❗️🇮🇷 — US President Donald Trump said he sent a letter to Iran addressed to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, expressing his desire to negotiate.

"If Iran doesn't negotiate, it will be very ugly for them. Iran can't have nukes. Other options are available," Trump added.

🇺🇸❌🇷🇺❗️ — President Trump says he is strongly considering large scale banking sanctions, sanctions, and tariffs on Russian Federation until a cease fire is reached.