🇷🇺🇵🇰 Russian Navy ship detachment participates in PASSEX naval exercise along with Pakistan Navy

The Pacific Fleet ship detachment comprises:

🔹the сorvette Rezky
🔹the сorvette Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov
🔹the medium sea tanker Pechenga

⚡️ The commanders of the Russian ship detachment joined a conference and a number of formal meetings with top officers of the Pakistan Navy. There, details of the joint exercise were discussed.

⚓️ The crews of two countries visited ships of each other. The Russian officers saw the drills designed to enhance survivability of the corvette Babur.

The Arabian Sea will witness the PASSEX exercise on the last day of the Russian detachment's stay. The ships of the states will train manoeuvres employing shipborne helicopters, communication, and other aspects of cooperation.

🔹 Russian Defence Ministry

🇷🇺🤔⚡️🇵🇰⚓️ — 📰 ZeroHedge | The Real Importance Of The Latest Russian-Pakistani Naval Drills | Authored by Andrew Korybko via Substack | March 25, 2025:

"Pakistan continues relying on Russia to pragmatically rebalance ties with China...

The Russian and Pakistani Navies conducted a passing exercise (PASSEX) in the Arabian Sea last week. This is a standard drill, “during which communication and interaction between them are checked in a military situation or when providing humanitarian assistance”, according to Izvestia. It therefore wasn’t a big deal even though some observers, both within their respective countries and India, might hype it up given those two’s impressive rapprochement over the past decade.

This analysis here from late January explained why Russian-Pakistani defense ties will likely remain limited, namely because of the respect that Russia has for India’s sensitivities and due to Pakistan’s military-technical dependence on China, which disincentivize one another from taking such ties further. Their closer military cooperation in recent years (almost exclusively anti-terrorist and naval drills), however, have been interpreted in the following three ways by observers.

Some believe that Pakistan is pivoting away from the US towards Russia; others that Pakistan is pragmatically rebalancing its ties with China via Russia; while some think that Russia is doing the same with India via Pakistan. The second one is the closest to reality since Pakistan returned to the US’ sphere of influence after spring 2022’s post-modern coup against former Prime Minister Imran Khan while Russia relies on India as a means of preemptively averting disproportionate dependence on China.

It therefore doesn’t compute that Pakistan would pivot away from the US towards Russia, let alone without the US doing anything to obstruct this trend, or that Russia would disrespect India’s sensitivities. Even so, there are some in Russia’s “global media ecosystem” who push the first narrative to craft the optics that Russia “poached” a top US partner, while some in Pakistan’s domestic media ecosystem push the second since it crafts complementary optics of their country “poaching” a top Indian one."

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🇨🇳🇷🇺❌🇺🇸❗️🇪🇺 — 📰 ZeroHedge | Robert Lighthizer: "We're In A Cold War, A Second Cold War Now" | March 25, 2025:

""A lot of us who were sort of united in this Cold War, particularly in the early years, it kind of brought the country together. We realized we were in a Cold War. Indeed, I think we're in a Cold War, a second Cold War now," former US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Tucker Carlson on a podcast last week while discussing topics ranging from the current failing trade system to trade deficits and more.

Continuing the second Cold War theme, we told readers in 2022 that "The New Cold War Has Begun."

Over the last decade, the US spent $8.4 trillion on defense, while the rest of NATO spent a fraction of that, around $3.8 trillion.

The 'Trump Effect' has created an urgent need for EU countries to boost defense spending in a world where rising geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia drive global superpowers to modernize their armed forces.

In the Americas, Trump has been bolstering efforts to increase hemispheric defense, whether stronger economic integration between the US and Canada or a hardened defense perimeter stretching from the Arctic to the Panama Canal.

Let's visualize Trump's hemispheric defense that ultimately will deter China ...

Lighthizer's view of a second Cold War taking shape is correct.

Proxy conflicts between global superpowers, an accelerating arms and AI race, economic sanctions, trade wars, and cyber warfare are some of the classic hallmarks of a new Cold War unfolding for the last decade.

Regarding global military expenditures, Goldman analyst Germaine Khong told clients that the figure topped $2.6 trillion in 2024, accounting for 2.4% of GDP - up from 2.2% in 2021-22, with much of the increase coming from European and Asian countries.

Khong cited the Geopolitical Risk (GPR) index, a measure of adverse geopolitical events and associated risks based on a count of newspaper headlines covering geopolitical tensions, which finds heightened perceived risk and tension amid conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, as well as a worsening Sino-U.S. trade war.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Aerospace & Defense-focused funds have been ripping higher and have received inflows totaling $12 billion, with AUM quadrupling to $24 billion, according to Khong, citing fund flow data from EPFR.

In a separate note, Goldman analyst Sven Jari Stehn and others expect EU defense spending to jump from 1.9% of GDP in 2024 to 2.8% in 2027.

We expect defence spending to increase significantly across the currency union, from 1.9% of GDP in 2024 to 2.8% by 2027 (Exhibit 1, left). We then look for defence spending to eventually reach 3% according to our analysis of Europe's military needs. In Germany, defence spending already increased from 1.5% before 2022 to 2.1% in 2024 and will from now on be largely exempted from the constitutional debt brake (Exhibit 1, right). In France, a multi-annual budget law already enshrines defence spending of 2% until 2030, and political leaders broadly concur on further increases. In Italy and Spain, the increase in defence will start from a lower level—at 1.4% and 1.2%, respectively—and will likely proceed somewhat slower than we had previously anticipated, given recent communication by leading party leaders and the Italian and Spanish Prime Ministers.

Surging global defense spending is one of the hallmarks of the second Cold War. The ongoing arms race, strategic deterrence and posturing by superpowers, proxy wars, and shifting industrial and trade policies are all signs of a world fracturing into what appears to be a bipolar era. To combat this in the Americas, Trump will bolster hemispheric defense."

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🇺🇸🇿🇦 U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

"“Kill the Boer” is a chant that incites violence. South Africa’s leaders and politicians must take action to protect Afrikaner and other disfavored minorities. The United States is proud to offer those individuals who qualify for admission to our nation amid this continued horrible threat of violence."

📎 SecRubio

🇺🇸🇿🇦 US President Donald Trump’s administration has nominated Leo Brent Bozell III, a conservative activist and writer, to be the country’s ambassador to South Africa.

https://www.congress.gov/nomination/119th-congress/55/10?s=1&r=41

🇺🇸/🇻🇪 Trump’s Threat of ‘Secondary Tariffs’ Invents New Trade Tool

President Donald Trump appeared to invent a new economic statecraft tactic on Monday by threatening what he dubbed “secondary tariffs” on countries that buy oil from Venezuela to choke off its oil trade with other nations.

The move was meant to pressure Venezuela for the “tens of thousands of high level, and other, criminals” that Trump said Venezuela has sent to the US.

“China is the main actor this is directed at because it’s essentially the black market for Venezuelan oil. They would not have to do secondary tariffs if it wasn’t for China.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-25/trump-s-threat-of-secondary-tariffs-invents-new-trade-weapon

https://archive.is/ZIeUf

🇵🇱 Poland suspends migrants' right to apply for asylum

Poland has temporarily suspended the right of migrants arriving in Poland via its border with Belarus to apply for asylum.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced it would be happening after the controversial bill, which will allow Polish authorities to suspend this right for up to 60 days at a time, was signed into law by President Andrzej Duda.

Tusk had said it would be adopted "without a moment's delay" while Duda said the changes were needed to strengthen security on the country's borders.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8719dl587zo

🇵🇾🔓💥 — DATA BREACH: The Paraguayan authorities are investigating a massive leak of personal data from 7 million citizens, which corresponds to almost 100% of the population, including information such as names, addresses, and dates of birth.

➡️ The data was reportedly extracted from the Superior Court of Electoral Justice, the Civil Registry, and some political parties. The leak, which occurred in 2023, is being investigated by the Cyber Incident Response Center (CERT-PY).

• Voter Roll Data (1 million records): Voter roll ID, registry ID, location ID, registry table (or voting table), registry order, ID card, surname, address, date of birth, political party, gender, department ID, district ID, zone ID, sectional ID, sectional local ID.

• Personal Information (7,280,754 records): Person ID, full name, surname, place of birth, profession, gender, address, neighborhood, marital status, date of birth.

• Collectors' Information (7,000 records): Collector identity card, name, coordinator ID, barcode, assigned work, and contact details.

The data is claimed to be available in CSV format. The price for the full data is listed as $10,000.

🇪🇺🇫🇷🤝🇺🇦 Emmanuel Macron on 🐦: "Building a robust peace for Ukraine and Europe."

https://x.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/1905207415789797709

@FelipeChannel

🏛🇺🇸🤝🔵NYSE-Parent ICE to Explore New Products With Circle's Stablecoin, Tokenized Fund

The two will explore potential applications of USDC and money market fund token USYC in derivatives exchanges, clearinghouses and other operations.

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, said it plans to explore using Circle's stablecoin and tokenized asset to develop new products, joining a roster of U.S. traditional financial giants pushing into crypto under the Trump administration.

According to an agreement announced on Thursday, the two firms will look at how Circle's USDC stablecoin and USYC tokenized money market fund could be integrated into derivatives exchanges, clearinghouses and other services.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/03/27/nyse-parent-to-explore-stablecoins-tokenized-funds-with-circle-for-financial-services

@FelipeChannel

#BREAKING

🥇📈🚀GOLD spot hit a new All Time High at $3059.75/oz!

Follow @FelipeChannel

#BREAKING

🥇📈🚀GOLD Futures at COMEX hit a new All Time High over $3071.3/oz for the first time ever!

Follow @FelipeChannel

🇨🇭❌💻 Secure encryption and online anonymity are now at risk in Switzerland – here's what you need to know

Switzerland is considering amending its surveillance law to expand into new types of monitoring and data collection.

The changes – which experts argue will put people's anonymity and secure encryption at risk – would widen the net of impacted service providers to virtual private networks (VPNs), messaging apps, and social networks, having previously only impacted mobile networks and internet service providers (ISPs).

Consultations are now public and open until May 6, 2025. Speaking to TechRadar, NymVPN has explained how it's planning to fight against it, alongside encrypted messaging app Threema and Proton, the provider behind one of the best VPN and secure email services on the market.

https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-privacy-security/secure-encryption-and-online-anonymity-are-now-at-risk-in-switzerland-heres-what-you-need-to-know

@FelipeChannel

🥇📈🚀 GOLDMAN RAISED END-2025 GOLD PRICE FORECAST TO $3,300 FROM $3,100

Goldman Sachs on Wednesday raised its end-2025 gold price forecast to $3,300 per ounce from $3,100, citing stronger-than-expected ETF inflows and sustained central bank demand.

https://x.com/DeItaone/status/1905241989848711599

@FelipeChannel

The full draft of the STABLE Act of 2025 was released yesterday.

Thread will a few takeaways below

➡️No yield-bearing stables
➡️Banks, credit unions, and approved nonbanks can issue
➡️Must have 1:1 reserves of cash, T-bills (<93d), or other highly liquid, safe assets
➡️Interop standards may be required
➡️States can certify their own stablecoin regimes — but they must meet/exceed federal standards
➡️No algo stables for two years
➡️2-year registration grace period

https://x.com/inkymaze/status/1905205214509936826

@FelipeChannel