💬 Tariffs hurt, not help, fertilizer industry

EU tariffs on Russian fertilizers won’t help Europe’s industry recover from production cuts, warns Yara International CEO Svein Tore Holsether.

Fertilizer production relies on natural gas, and with European gas prices 345% higher than in the US producers may be tempted to relocate.

“These industries aren’t like restaurants during Covid, where you shut down and reopen,” Holsether said. “Once production moves and new facilities are built, they stay. It’s not like you go back.”

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'Shy Musk voter' could hand victory to Alternative for Germany, poll suggests

A new survey by the Washington-based Democracy Institute has sent shockwaves through European politics. It suggests the Euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) is on the brink of winning the country’s snap elections—and Elon Musk might play a key role.

🔸 The AfD is now the second-strongest party with 25% support, trailing the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) by just two points, the poll shows;

🔸 Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) are third place on 15% and the Greens fourth with 13%;

🔸 In a surprising twist, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel leads as the most popular choice for chancellor on 35%, leading CDU head Friedrich Merz by nine points;

🔸 But the real shocker? A striking 28% of Germans say they are more likely to vote AfD due to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s endorsement, compared to 23% who say they are “less likely”;

🔸 Democracy Institute director Patrick Basham dubbed the phenomenon the "shy Musk voter".

The German Bundestag elections are set for February 23.

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📹 Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman receives Syrian interim president Ahmed Sharaa, who arrived to Riyadh on his first foreign trip for two days to discuss closer relations between the two countries.

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🔍Who controls what Americans listen to, read, and see in the news?

Elon Musk has publicly criticized the concentration of media ownership in the US, which allows a select few to "filter" information to fit a narrative. "There are like five people that control all the news," he said, deciding "what is newsworthy."

So, who are the individuals pulling the strings behind much of US media?

1️⃣BRIAN L. ROBERTS – Chairman & CEO of Comcast Corporation

Media assets:

🟠TV: NBC, Telemundo, MSNBC, CNBC, USA Network, Bravo, Syfy, E!, Golf Channel, Olympic Channel

🟠Film: Universal Pictures, Focus Features, DreamWorks Animation

🟠Streaming: Peacock

2️⃣CHRISTINE MCCARTHY, BOB IGER – Top individual shareholders at The Walt Disney Company

Media assets:

🟠TV: ABC, ESPN, FX, National Geographic, Freeform

🟠Film: Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Marvel Studios, Lucasfilm, 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures

🟠Streaming: Disney+, Hulu (majority stake), ESPN+

3️⃣SHARI REDSTONE – Major stakeholder at Paramount Global

Media assets:

🟠TV: CBS, The CW (partial ownership), MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Comedy Central, Showtime

🟠Film: Paramount Pictures

🟠Streaming: Paramount+

4️⃣MURDOCH FAMILY – Owners of Fox Corporation, News Corporation

Media assets:

🟠TV: Fox News, Fox Business, Fox Sports, Fox Network

🟠Print: New York Post; Dow Jones & Company (owns The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch)

5️⃣HEARST FAMILY – Owners of Hearst Communications

Media assets:

🟠Print: San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar

🟠TV: Partial ownership in A&E Networks (History Channel, Lifetime), ESPN (with Disney)

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🤖China showcases performing robots at the Spring Festival AI Fair in Beijing – because who needs to splurge on human artists when AI can take the stage?

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🇮🇷 Iran unveils new 1,700 km ballistic missile: What to know

1️⃣ New missile, new name

Iran has introduced the Etemad missile, meaning "trust" in Persian, as its latest defense advancement.

2️⃣ High-profile unveiling

The missile was revealed in Tehran during a ceremony attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to IRNA.

3️⃣ Defense, not offense

Pezeshkian emphasized that Iran's defense and space developments are for deterrence, not aggression, ensuring that no country dares to invade.

4️⃣ Specs & capabilities

The Etemad measures 16 meters long, 1.25 meters in diameter, and has a maximum range of 1,700 kilometers, expanding Iran's missile reach.

5️⃣ Strategic implications

With its extended range, the Etemad enhances Iran’s missile arsenal.

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The faces behind media giants: A breakdown of ownership and assets

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Trump’s crypto push is more about ideology than transforming trade policy

President Trump’s obsession with Bitcoin is part spectacle, part playing to his Silicon Valley tech backers like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and has more to do with the ideology surrounding the deregulation of digital finance than international financial or trade policy, says digital economy specialist Ashraf Patel.

💬 “Fundamentally,” the Institute for Global Dialogue research associate says, “crypto cannot replace fiat currency,” since “global trade finance investment will always need central banks,” whose chief digital instruments lie in central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

“It's actually CBDCs that are linked to currencies, that are introducing digital currencies and that would be the mainstay of going forward,” Patel says, pointing to growing collaboration among countries to develop interoperability standards around the new “money.”

“The problem in the US, even during the Biden administration has been the growth of crypto exchanges and all the corruption around it,” Patel notes, highlighting the high-profile cases of the collapse of crypto exchanges. “The main challenge around crypto is lack of consumer protection and lack of central banks to bail out consumers.”

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Did closest US intelligence allies spy on Trump?

Washington’s Five Eyes allies may have guilty secrets about the Russia collusion hoax – and fear US President Donald Trump’s government will find out, Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel tells Sputnik.

"Years ago, Judge Andrew Napolitano revealed on Fox TV that he believed the US and the UK – possibly with other Five Eyes nations – had an understanding that members would cooperate to evade their own governments' restrictions on domestic spying upon their citizens by tasking foreign partners to carry out such missions," Ortel says.

In March 2017, the White House accused British eavesdropping center GCHQ of spying on Trump. Napolitano claimed Obama used GCHQ to snoop on Trump, exploiting the Five Eyes partnership to flout domestic spying rules. GCHQ’s NSA access could have enabled operatives to obtain trannoscripts of Trump’s conversations.

"We do not yet know most of the truth, but it certainly seems to me that the US government and partisan operatives in media, academia and the corporate world are centrally involved in attempting to rig elections inside and outside America," Ortel says.

"We also know that UK elements have never stopped meddling in US affairs, likely from 1782 onwards. By comparison, Russian meddling in US politics, if any, seems minute."

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🇷🇺 Day of Military Glory of Russia: honoring the 200-day Battle of Stalingrad

As the neo-Nazi Kiev regime and its Western backers attempt to rewrite the history of WWII, the Day of Military Glory of Russia (February 2) stands as a reminder of the events that led to victory over Hitler’s forces.

Marking the 82nd anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943), this day honors the decisive battle that turned the tide of war, showcasing the resilience and sacrifice that secured the defeat of Nazi Germany.

📊 The Battle in numbers

🔹 200 days of fighting—longer than Hitler’s entire French campaign which lasted six weeks

🔹 The front line spanned 100,000 km², from the Don and Volga rivers to Stalingrad

🔹 23,000 bombs were dropped on the city before the assault

🔹 The average soldier's life expectancy was 15 minutes

🔹 The fiercest battle was for Mamayev Kurgan, a blood-soaked strategic hill

🔹 The Red Army’s Operation Uranus counteroffensive (Nov 19 to Feb 2) encircled and destroyed 300,000+ Wehrmacht troops under Field Marshal Paulus

🔹 200,000+ Axis forces from Romania, Italy, Croatia and collaborationist units were wiped out

🔹 Soviet casualties were 1.13 million killed or wounded

🔹 Enemy losses were 1.5 million killed, wounded, or captured

❓ Why Stalingrad matters

🔸 It secured the key industrial center of Stalingrad

🔸 Halted the Nazi advance toward the oil-rich Caucasus and Kuban

🔸 The fascist bloc lost over 25% of its front-line troops

🔸 Stalingrad broke the Nazi war machine, marking WWII’s turning point in Europe

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