Trump may give Musk’s Tesla boost by slapping over-the-top tariffs on Chinese EVs – expert

Donald Trump may help Tesla and the domestic EV industry by imposing very high tariffs on Chinese EV exports to the US, Dr. Mamdouh G. Salameh, a global energy expert, told Sputnik.

“This will give a domestic boost to Tesla,” he said, “in return for the financial and political support” that Tesla CEO Elon Musk provided to his election campaign.

Weighing in on Trump’s campaign pledges to “end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” geopolitical commentator Thomas W. Pauken II speculated that Biden’s EV subsidies were “not exactly very business-orientated.”

“It was a case of having government spending on unpopular EVs… It didn't make the cars cheaper. It just made it cheaper for the manufacturers to produce the cars and to even go head over heels over increasing automated manufacturing. So, the subsidies, rather than invest into human labor or to lower the cost, instead went to the manufacturers to automate their factories.”

The president-elect is “correct for opposing these type of subsidies,” the pundit said.

“When Biden was having to decide on what companies would get the subsidy, I'm pretty sure that he looked at the DNC donors list to see who is more worthy of the subsidies and who is not,” Pauken II added.

While Biden made EVs the centerpiece of his administration’s bid to fight climate change, Trump has slammed them as too expensive and undermining the American auto industry. Musk has dismissed concerns about a potential end to Biden’s EV tax credit.

“Take away the subsidies. It will only help Tesla,” Musk posted on X in July.

Shares of Tesla, Inc. soared 15% on the results of the November 5 election, adding roughly $15 billion in value to Musk’s net worth.

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The Hamas political bureau in Qatar has not received any instruction from the emirate to leave the country, a source in the Palestinian movement’s leadership told Sputnik.

The Financial Times newspaper – quoting unnamed sources – claimed that Qatar had asked Hamas, which has long had its office in Doha, to leave the country under pressure from the US.

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🤝 ‘Russia-Africa Forum shatters hopes of Russia's isolation’ – Foreign Ministry spokeswoman

The first ministerial conference of the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum has shown the importance of multipolarity, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik.

"Without exaggeration, there are dozens of bilateral meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, [and our] African colleagues are meeting each other," Zakharova said.

"All this is taking place on the sidelines of the event," she added. "These talks are full of current and practical agenda."

"The fact that we are holding this event has dashed someone's dirty hopes of isolating our country”, the spokeswoman noted. “The economy will be discussed, business contacts will be discussed, humanitarian exchanges will be discussed, that is, culture, education, science and promising projects in all areas. In other words, this is an event that not only demonstrates multipolarity itself, but also has a practical impact, it is filled with concrete substance,” Zakharova said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said representatives of all 54 African states, as well as heads of the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) were invited to the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum.

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RFK Jr. vs big pharma: Why pharmaceutical giants are anxious over activist’s possible cabinet post Part 1 👉🏻 Part 2

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is primed for a possible senior job in Trump’s cabinet, with sources telling media he’s already been asked for tips on appointments to the DHHS and the FDA.

Kennedy has promised to ‘Make America Healthy Again’ by reining in big pharma’s enormous influence on US health policy, and improving food safety standards.

“He’s going to have a big role in health care, a very big role. He knows it better than anybody,” Trump said of RFK Jr. earlier this month. That could be bad news for the drug makers. Here’s why:

Anti-vaxxer?

Smeared by legacy media as an “anti-vaxxer” in virtually every article mentioning him, Kennedy has said that he’s “never been anti-vaccine.”

“I fought against mercury in fish for 40 years. Nobody called me anti-fish. I like the idea that we have seatbelts in cars. Nobody calls me anti-automobile. I want vaccines that are safe just like every other medication and that are adequately tested. It doesn’t mean I’m anti-vaccine. It just means that I’m sensible and have common sense,” Kennedy said in a tense PBS interview in 2023.

'Criminal' drug companies

“The pharmaceutical industry is – I don’t want to say because this is going to seem extreme – a criminal enterprise, but if you look at the history, that is an applicable characterization. For example, the four biggest vaccine makers, Sanofi, Merck, Pfizer and Glaxo make all of the 72 vaccines that are now effectively mandated for American children. Collectively, those companies have paid $35 billion in criminal penalties and damages in the last decade,” he told Lex Fridman in 2023.

“The way that the system is set up, the way that it’s sold to doctors, the way that nobody ever goes to jail so there’s really no penalty [and] it all becomes part of the cost of doing business,” Kennedy said.

Another problem is that effectively half of the FDA’s budget comes from the pharma co’s they’re supposed to be regulating, RFK Jr. says.

👉🏻 Part 2

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Opioids, gender mutilation and chronic disease: why big pharma loathes Kennedy Part 2 👉🏻 Part 1

The opioid epidemic is a perfect example of big pharma’s corrupting influence, Kennedy believes, recalling the latter’s’ lobbying the FDA to tell doctors oxycodone isn’t addictive, and getting “a whole generation addicted to oxycodone. And when they got caught, and we made it harder to get oxycodone, now all those addicted kids are going to fentanyl and dying. This year it killed 106,000.”

Kennedy vs. mutilation of children

RFK Jr. has stepped out against ‘gender-affirming care’ and hormone therapy for children, referring to the former as “surgical mutilation” and the latter as “castration drugs.”

“Minors cannot drive, vote, join the army, get a tattoo, smoke, or drink, because we know that children do not fully understand the consequences of decisions with life-long ramifications…People with gender dysphoria or who want to change their gender deserve compassion and respect, but these terribly consequential procedures should be deferred till adulthood. We must protect our children,” he tweeted in May.

That’s more bad news for big pharma, which has walked lock-step in support of trans rights, and profited immensely from hormone therapy drugs and surgical procedures from the late 2000s onward.

RFK Jr. on chronic disease

Kennedy has also vowed to “end the chronic disease epidemic” facing America, another potential blow to big pharma.

“There is nothing more profitable in our society today than a sick child,” RFK Jr. told Tucker Carlson in August. “Because all of these entities are making money on him – the insurance companies, the hospitals, the medical cartel, the pharmaceutical companies have lifetime annuities…They want [them] sick for the rest of their lives…When my uncle was president, 6% of Americans had chronic disease. Today it’s 60%. When my uncle was president, do you know what the annual cost of treating chronic disease was in this country? Zero. There weren’t even any drugs invented for it. Zero. Today it’s about $4.3 trln.”

👉🏻 Part 1

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A meeting between Biden and Trump on the transfer of power will take place on Wednesday at the White House, according to a statement.

"At President Biden’s invitation, President Biden and President-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday at 11:00 am. Additional details to follow," the statement published on the WH website says.

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Protests erupt in Georgia over election results

In the Georgian capital Tbilisi, opposition supporters took to the streets to protest the election outcome, vowing to hold demonstrations daily in the capital.

The Central Election Commission declared victory in the October 26 general election for the ruling Georgian Dream party, which opposes anti-Russian sanctions and backs closer relations with Moscow.

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Trump’s energy policy means ‘fundamental’ break with European globalists and Agenda 2030: analyst

Donald Trump is “absolutely going to do away with a lot of the restrictions” the US currently has on drilling, and with it the “oil politics” driving the false green energy narrative, veteran market analyst and geopolitical observer Tom Luongo told Sputnik, commenting on what’s in store for the US and global energy sectors and markets once the president-elect returns to office.

“Understand that Trump represents something fundamentally different within the American political circles. I've long held the belief that the Biden administration, the Obama administration has been in cahoots with European globalists to affect what we all like to know is Agenda 2030 and this idea that we're going to destroy oil and gas production and all the rest of that and climate change and all of it. Trump is not down with any of that,” Luongo said.

"Trump’s promise to 'rebuild America' and the oil drilling policy related to this are in effect saying 'look, why don’t we stop with the oil politics? There's no reason for that. There's plenty of oil in the world…' And there's an embedded message in that to our partners over in Europe who don't have any oil. I've long made this point that this is part of why they're so afraid of him. If you look at their agenda, if you look at the whole climate change agenda and the push for EVs and quote unquote ‘renewables’ and all of this stuff, you realize that it's coming mostly from the people who don't have any oil and have to buy it on the open market. And that's mostly Europe,” Luongo said.

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❗️❗️❗️The events in Ukraine expose the bias of the Western press, Congo's Foreign Ministry chief says

💬 "Finally, all the theories we have developed about the freedom of the press and the impartiality of the Western press have been exposed. Everything has been reduced to zero," Jean-Claude Gakosso told Sputnik Africa on the sidelines of the first Ministerial Conference of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum in Sochi.

The Western media's dislike of Russia is not a reason to show solidarity with Ukraine and broadcast anti-Russian propaganda all day long, the foreign minister said, adding that in his opinion, the whole thing "seems to be a bad tone".

💬 "We can't wait for this conflict to end so that we can return to a healthier relationship between countries and a healthier relationship with the press," Gakosso concluded.

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🔸 Sputnik Africa 🔸

Scrapping subsidies on both gas and electric cars would unleash fair competition - veteran market analyst

💬 “Musk is okay with electric vehicles competing on the open market. I'm sure he believes that he can compete with internal combustion engines,” veteran financial analyst and geopolitical observer Tom Luongo said, commenting on the prospects for EVs -including Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors, under the incoming Trump administration.

“The problem for everyone is that at this moment in time, the regulations against internal combustion engines in the United States are so onerous that we can barely afford to buy cars. And it's been done on purpose to shift people towards EVs, which we can't really run America on because America is too big for that…So, again, this is the distinctly European policy that's been foisted on us to make us less competitive, so that Europe can continue to be uncompetitive. That's the big story, and Trump and Musk are, I think, are on the same page about this,” Luongo said.

“Let's open up oil and gas. Let's free the car makers to make whatever cars people want and let the free market decide. And that would end 75 to 80 years’ worth of strategic foreign policy as well and have downstream effects on foreign policy as well because there would be no need to be running around the world trying to ‘secure’ everybody else's oil. The world has enough oil. That's not the issue,” the observer stressed.

On top of that, Luongo said, on “energy in general,” whether its EVs, hybrids, PEM fuel cells, or even small modular nuclear reactors, “the technology is now caught up in many ways to allow all of these things to flourish,” so people should be able to decide what they want with their wallets instead of trying to preserve one particular oligarch’s advantage and purposely stifle innovation.

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🇶🇦 Qatar has suspended its mediation efforts between Israel and Hamas after the latest round of peace negotiations failed, the country's Foreign Ministry stated.

The spokesperson for Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied reports claiming that Hamas' political bureau in Doha has been shut down. The spokesperson emphasized Qatar's commitment to facilitating dialogue and highlighted the bureau's role in previous agreements.

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🔸 Protest erupts in Georgia’s Tbilisi over parliamentary elections results

🔸 Demonstrators take to Paris streets in solidarity with Palestine and Lebanon

🔸 What promises has Trump made on Ukraine?

🔸 Things are going wrong for Soros after Trump’s win

🔸 Why Big Pharma is anxious about RFK Jr. possible post in Trump’s cabinet

🔸 Trump’s energy policy means break with globalists’ agenda - analyst

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Why Russian energy is among world’s greenest without falling into globalist dogmas about renewables

In his address at the Valdai Discussion Club this week, President Putin pointed out that Russia has “one of the greenest energy systems in the world,” with “40% of our energy structure being gas-fired power generation,” and that together with nuclear and hydro, Russia’s low-emissions power generation accounts for 85% of the total.

💬 “Low-emission energy sources are those with low levels of greenhouse gas emissions,” Russian Energy Ministry expert and Anselm Scientific Center director Maxim Kanishchev told Sputnik, elaborating on Putin’s figures.

“About 15% of our energy comes from hydroelectric power plants with zero greenhouse gas emissions, 20% from nuclear power plants, whose emissions are also minimal. The remaining 65% consists of thermal power plants, about 70% of which run on gas. In this way, 85% of the energy produced in Russia today is produced with minimal emissions,” Kanishchev explained.

As far as renewables – such as wind and solar power, are concerned, Kanishchev said that for Russia, over 80% of whose energy is already “green,” it makes little economic sense to focus on these alternatives (which account for as little as 1% of the country’s energy balance), especially as there’s still plenty of work to be done on reducing emissions from existing sources, and reducing energy use in the economy in general. “We still have huge opportunities for savings – including about 300 billion rubles a year in the oil and gas sector alone,” he said.

That’s not to mention the environmental considerations, Kanishchev pointed out, highlighting many renewable sources’ “low efficiency, colossal costs, and the colossal harm they do to the environment – with the ecosystems they use often simply destroyed at the root,” whether this be solar farms, wind, tidal, or geothermal power.

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German president attacks writer for criticizing his stance on NATO, Nord Stream

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier lost his cool after German writer Marko Martin criticized his stance on NATO's eastern flank exercises and the Nord Stream gas pipeline.

"He lost his temper and hit me over the head, saying that I and 'intellectuals' have no idea how difficult the job of politicians is," Martin told the Bild newspaper.

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⚡️ Vladimir Putin officially ratifies the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty between the Russian Federation and North Korea.

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❗️❗️❗️Standing strong together: the Congolese minister of foreign affairs praises Russia's resilience amid "unjust" sanctions

🇨🇬🇷🇺 In a show of support, Congolese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Claude Gakosso, highlighted the admiration many Africans hold for Russia’s resilience under prolonged sanctions, speaking on the sidelines of the #RussiaAfrica Partnership Forum's Ministerial Conference.

💬 "Here are a people who have been subjected to unjust sanctions for years, but who are standing firm," he told Sputnik Africa, adding that Russia’s enduring strength inspires solidarity among African nations.

In an exclusive interview, Gakosso emphasized Russia’s historical role in Africa's development, from supporting decolonization to training skilled professionals.

💬 "The demand for one or two seats for Africa on the UN Security Council has found a positive echo here in Russia," he remarked, underscoring the enduring partnership between Russia and Africa.

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🔸 Sputnik Africa 🔸

🎶 Russian climber plays guitar on the spire of Russia's tallest building

Eduard, an industrial climber, reached the top of the 462-meter Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg and performed the song "Ya svoboden" (I am free).

The caption on the video reads: “If they tell you that something is impossible, just go ahead and do it!”

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