💸 Paper Promises, Golden Truths

The dollar will remain an important player for some time to come. But the era of the petrodollar system, where the dollar was the only way to buy oil, is over.

We are entering a new multi-polar era where countries use their own currencies to buy oil and other goods. And the U.S. is no longer the sole superpower.

Central banks around the world are gobbling up gold and diversifying away from the dollar as debt spirals out of control.

We’re approaching the end game now. This is why we’ve been pounding the table on gold and silver so much lately. And it’s why we will continue to going forward.

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/paper-promises-golden-truths

🇪🇨🇺🇸 Ecuador is preparing for US forces, plans show, as Noboa calls for help battling gangs

Ecuador is laying the groundwork for US forces to arrive, according to plans obtained by CNN – as its president calls on US President Donald Trump to help battle powerful gangs in a country once known as the “island of peace.”

According to a high-level Ecuadorian official familiar with the planning, construction of a new naval facility in the coastal city of Manta is part of that preparation, with barracks-style housing and administration offices designed to support sustained operations and US military personnel. The official requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

“The expectation is that these will be eventually occupied by US troops,” the official told CNN.

Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has made no secret of his desire for foreign boots on the ground as gangs unleash terror across the country – a request he is expected to reiterate this weekend. Noboa is set to meet Trump in Florida on Saturday to discuss immigration, trade and “security cooperation.”

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/29/americas/ecuador-trump-noboa-gang-intl-latam/index.html

🇺🇸🚢📝 Sal Mercogliano: Remember when US shipyards actually built ships!

The US made the decision to end the symbiotic relationship between the US Navy and the US Merchant Marine.

Instead, they outsourced US commercial shipping and shifted naval construction into private yards like HII and GDNASSCO.

Even now, with calls for reform, we default back to putting naval officers in charge of US maritime reform.

🔗 mercoglianos

🇪🇺💶 "Where will the EU source the funds to re-build its defense base?" - Macro & geopolitical commentators

"Because that's where the money is." -Bank robber Willie Sutton, when asked why he robbed banks.

Where the money is:

🔗 Luke Gromen

🇲🇽🇺🇸 Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called her meeting with DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “fruitful,” saying both nations benefit from a relationship grounded in “respect for each other’s sovereignty.”

🔗 AF Post

🇫🇮🗣🇺🇸🗯🗣 — 🇬🇧 The Guardian | Trump ‘running out of patience’ with Putin over Ukraine ceasefire, says Finnish president | Alexander Stubb – who played golf with Trump this weekend – suggested deadline and US sanctions package | March 30, 2025:

"(...)

“The half-ceasefire has been broken by Russia, and I think America, and my sense is also the president of the United States, is running out of patience with Russia. I think that’s good news for engagement and negotiation. So this is what I sensed over the weekend as well.”

🗄 Archive

🔗 Source:

🇺🇬❌🇨🇩❗️ — Ugandan General Muhoozi Kainerugaba claims that Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF) is now deployed in Bule in Ituri region in Northeastern Congo

Uganda, following Rwanda, has also invaded Congo

Ituri is plagued with a heavy ISIS presence since the last decade which have been persecuting the Anglican-Evangelical local population, which pleaded on their fellow co-religionists in Uganda for help as the situation in Eastern Congo goes down

🔗 Muhoozi Kainerugaba (@mkainerugaba)

🇺🇸🇺🇸❌🇮🇷❗️— United States President Donald Trump to NBC News about the Ultimatum to the Iranian Regime on the nuclear issue:

“If they don’t make a deal,” Trump said about Iran, “there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”

🇵🇦❌🇳🇮 Nicaragua will not receive former President Martinelli until the Interpol alert is clarified.

The Government of the Republic of Nicaragua informed the Government of Panama this Sunday that they will not be able to receive him until the status of whether or not an Interpol alert exists against former President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal.

The Nicaraguan government has assured that former President Martinelli will continue to be offered refuge and humanitarian asylum at the Nicaraguan embassy in Panama.

https://www.laestrella.com.pa/panama/politica/nicaragua-no-recibira-al-expresidente-martinelli-hasta-que-se-aclare-la-alerta-de-interpol-AM11487610

@FelipeChannel

🇺🇸⚡️🇺🇦❌🇷🇺 — 📰 The New York Times | The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine | This is the untold story of America’s hidden role in Ukrainian military operations against Russia’s invading armies | March 29, 2025:

"ON A SPRING MORNING two months after Vladimir Putin’s invading armies marched into Ukraine, a convoy of unmarked cars slid up to a Kyiv street corner and collected two middle-aged men in civilian clothes.

Leaving the city, the convoy — manned by British commandos, out of uniform but heavily armed — traveled 400 miles west to the Polish border. The crossing was seamless, on diplomatic passports. Farther on, they came to the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, where an idling C-130 cargo plane waited.

The passengers were top Ukrainian generals. Their destination was Clay Kaserne, the headquarters of U.S. Army Europe and Africa in Wiesbaden, Germany. Their mission was to help forge what would become one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war in Ukraine.

One of the men, Lt. Gen. Mykhaylo Zabrodskyi, remembers being led up a flight of stairs to a walkway overlooking the cavernous main hall of the garrison’s Tony Bass Auditorium. Before the war, it had been a gym, used for all-hands meetings, Army band performances and Cub Scout pinewood derbies. Now General Zabrodskyi peered down on officers from coalition nations, in a warren of makeshift cubicles, organizing the first Western shipments to Ukraine of M777 artillery batteries and 155-millimeter shells.

Then he was ushered into the office of Lt. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, who proposed a partnership.
Its evolution and inner workings visible to only a small circle of American and allied officials, that partnership of intelligence, strategy, planning and technology would become the secret weapon in what the Biden administration framed as its effort to both rescue Ukraine and protect the threatened post-World War II order."

🗄 Archive

🔗 Source:

🇺🇸🇮🇷 U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with bombings and secondary tariffs on Sunday if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC. "But there's a chance that if they don't make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago."

🔗 Rapid Response 47

🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran has rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to Trump’s letter

Iran’s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, offering Tehran’s first response to a letter that U.S. President Donald Trump sent to the country’s supreme leader.

https://apnews.com/article/iran-rejects-direct-negotiations-trump-letter-us-c414743a567c574b6f48f64a2e889f31