CBDC update:

🔹The BIS & the central banks of Israel🇮🇱, Norway🇳🇴 & Sweden🇸🇪 are launching Project Icebreaker, a joint exploration of how CBDCs can be used for international retail. The objective is to test the feasibility of interlinking different domestic CBDC systems.

🔹The BIS 🇨🇭, BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre🇭🇰, Hong Kong Monetary Authority🇭🇰, Bank of Thailand🇹🇭, PBOC🇨🇳 & the UAE 🇦🇪 Central Bank announced the successful completion of the first CBDC pilot involving four jurisdictions & real-value transactions.

🔹The U.S. 🇺🇸 Treasury will advise the federal gov't to press forward on work to issue a digital dollar, but CBDC will be approved only if in the “national interest,”.

Video of Jim Rickards on The Rich Dad Channel.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Maajid Nawaz warns of CBDC's being a control 🔒 mechanism.

💠 Bank for International Settlements (BIS) 🇨🇭report on CBDC interoperability.

💠 Catherine Austin Fitts- CBDC's are a foundational building block of tyranny.

🔹Hungary 🇭🇺 has agreed with Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom to re-route gas transit to Hungary via the TurkStream pipeline (southern transport route). Under a 15-year deal signed last year, Hungary receives 3.5 bcm of gas per year via TurkStream -Turkey🇹🇷 -Bulgaria🇧🇬 - Serbia🇷🇸.

🔹2 weeks ago, Dutch 🇳🇱 authorities, to enforce sanctions, withdrew the export license of South Stream Transport which operates the TurkStream. They are re-applying for a new license.

🔹Hungary 🇭🇺 would not allow new 🇪🇺 sanctions against Russia in the energy sector. Hungary would not support the introduction of a price cap on Russian gas.

Last reported on this channel:

💠Saboteurs attempt to blow up 🧨 Turkstream Pipeline infrastructure.

💠 Oil leak on the Druzhba pipeline in Poland 🇵🇱 that supplies Russian oil to Germany🇩🇪.

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 & Serbia 🇷🇸 have agreed to build a connection to the Druzhba oil pipeline.

💠 EU 🇪🇺 declares Hungary is no longer a democracy & suspends billions 💶 in EU funding.

🔹UN 🇺🇳 reps. plan to visit Moscow in hopes of extending agreements on the export of grain & food across the Black Sea, previously signed on July 22 in Türkiye 🇹🇷.

🔹The grain deal is unlikely to be extended - Russia's UN rep. Moscow may quit the grain deal if agreements to facilitate exports of Russian 🇷🇺 food products & fertilizers to Africa/SE Asia etc. aren’t implemented.

🔹The grain deal allows ships 🚢 into the Black Sea & no Russian warship activity near ports/ port routes.

🔹The grain deal hypocrisy appears by western countries, as Ukrainian 🇺🇦 grain is exported to Europe 🇪🇺not poor countries. (Before the deal, Russia was being blamed for starving poor countries from Black Sea grain access).

Background to deal reported here:

💠 Chairman of the African Union visits Russia & asked President Putin for help with solution to food 🌾 crisis in Africa.

💠 Grain deal signed with safe routes 🚢 made in Black Sea, after Ukraine mined 💣 the Black Sea. Previous deal was botched by Ukraine.

🔹Low water levels 📉 in the Mississippi River restricts barge traffic along one of the 🇺🇸 US’s busiest waterways last week. The river is always relatively low in the early autumn, but this year the situation is especially pronounced after a very dry summer.

🔹The drought ☀️ caused a 100-boat clog last week. Low water levels & dredging shuttered barge traffic heading north and south on the Mississippi last week. At one point, more than 100 towboats and 2,000 barges 🚢 were stuck waiting. drier conditions are expected over the next several weeks. The river is slurping up water reserves right now.

🔹The cost of moving grain 🌾 via barge from St. Louis was 218% higher year over year during the week of Oct. 4. Shipments from Cincinnati and Louisville, Kentucky, popped by 196% over the same time period.

🔹Bean and other farm goods are piling up at farms up and down the Mississippi River as barges can't be fully loaded. Barges have reduced weight to improve the draft, which means less availability.

🔹A massive demonstration of 50,000 people took place in Chisinau🇲🇩, the capital of Moldova today.

🔹A few hours ago, policemen 👮‍♂️violently dismantled a tent gathering, in front of the parliament building and the presidential administration. The protesters chanted: "We do not give up", "Down with Maia Sandu.". The Police said that they recorded numerous violations.

🔹 Last weekend also, Up to 60,000 people demonstrators marched through the 🇲🇩 capital demanding the resignation of President Maia Sandu.

🔹Moldova’s underequipped and understaffed Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office is struggling to file documents because it doesn’t have enough printing paper 📄.

Video compilation courtesy Telegram reports.

Recently reported on this channel:

💠 Last month, several thousand people protested in the Moldovan 🇲🇩 capital Chisinau due to high price increases 📈 for energy. The organizers said that many buses with protesters were not allowed into the capital by the police.

🔹A colder-than-average winter ⛄️ forecast & high energy prices will raise heating costs for U.S. consumers. US 🇺🇸 Henry Hub natural gas averages $6.40 per MMBtu, which is 36% higher than last winter’s average. Nearly half of all U.S. households heat primarily with natural gas.

🔹Working natural gas inventories by end of October are forecast to be 6% below the previous five-year average. U.S. natural gas storage injections usually take place from April through October.

🔹Average heating oil expenditures had already been higher in the U.S. as oil 🛢 use is concentrated in the colder Northeast, where 18% of households use it as their primary heating energy. Overall, just 4 percent of the U.S. heats with oil.

🔹GE plans to make major job cuts in its U.S. wind operations and will consider its other markets too as windfarms 🪫are proving to be a major expense. Continued supply chain disruption and the high cost of wind turbines are deterring companies from investing 📉 in wind energy.

🔹China 🇨🇳 told state-owned natural gas importers to halt LNG 🚢 reselling to Europe. Beijing looks to protect domestic gas supplies for the winter. They threw a lifeline to Europe amid its energy crisis by reselling unneeded LNG purchased from Russia.

🔹In the first 9 months of 2022, Russian LNG exports to Europe 🇪🇺 increased 1.5X. LNG is proving to be an effective tool for diversifying Russian🇷🇺 gas exports, primarily due to the lack of dependence on transiters & one final buyer.

Last reported on this channel:

💠Chinese 🇨🇳 companies that signed long-term contracts to buy U.S. 🇺🇸 LNG are selling the excess & making millions per cargo 🚢.

💠 Sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 + Europe LNG/oil 📈 demand drive tanker rates to record highs.

💠 Russia is selling LNG 🚢 from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount & the operating company, is still making a profit.

💠Malaysia - 🇲🇾 Petronas declares force majeure on contracted LNG deliveries to Japan 🇯🇵, due to leaking pipeline.

🔹Media blackout of multiple protests 🔥 called the " ‘Day of Justice / Jour De La Justice’ ", yesterday (Oct 16th) in Brussels, Belgium🇧🇪. No mainstream media coverage & no articles showing up in internet searches. One Youtuber managed to record a livestream.

🔹Protests are against skyrocketing 📈 electricity, natural gas, food prices & to draw attention to the sharp hike in the cost of living. Protesters are concerned that they might not be able to afford their electricity 💡& gas bills, which doubled over the last year. Protesters representing many other EU countries were in the protests also.

Video compilation courtesy Telegram and Twitter.

Previously reported on this channel:

💠 Last month massive protests by trade unions broke out across Belgium🇧🇪.

💠 Firewood 🪵 & wood pellet prices drastically increase across Belgium.

💠 High gas prices forces stainless steel 🏭 producer Aperam to shut down its production facility in Genk, Belgium 🇧🇪, along with other manufactures of fertilizer etc.

🔹Russia’s 🇷🇺 nuclear fuel industry remains conspicuously untouched by European 🇪🇺 sanctions. Shipments 🚢 of Russian nuclear fuel continue to Europe.

🔹Hungary 🇭🇺 & Bulgaria 🇧🇬 were the most vocal in opposing sanctions on Russian uranium. There are 18 Russian nuclear reactors 🏭 in Europe. The EU has a port access ban on Russian-flagged 🇷🇺🚢 vessels for the transport of nuclear fuel.

🔹Japan 🇯🇵 is now considering extending its 60 year limit on the operation of nuclear plants. Germany 🇩🇪 reverses closure plan for 2 nuclear reactors, uranium mining shares price increase.

Video: Recent Russia/Hungary nuclear power plants report.

Last reported nuclear dev. on this channel:

💠Russia's 🇷🇺 Rosatom & Hungary, 🇭🇺 discuss licenses for the Paks-2 nuclear power plant construction 🏗.

💠France's EDF is rushing to get nuclear power stations 🏭 online. 20 of 56 offline due to strikes & corrosion issues.

💠The French 🇫🇷 gov't to fully nationalize the EDF. which runs a 29 billion Euro loss.

The de-industrialisation of Germany - Part 1.

In Germany 🇩🇪, today, due to rising 📈 energy / raw material prices & supply chain bottlenecks:

🔹Textile supplier for vehicles 🚗, Borgers SE & Co. KGaA filed for bankruptcy after 156 yrs in business.

🔹One of the largest soap 🧴manufacturers in Europe, Kappus, declares bankruptcy, being in operation since 1848.

🔹Bodeta Süßwaren GmbH confectionery 🍬 founded in 1892, filed for bankruptcy.

🔹Construction 🪚🔨🪜 co. Wolff Hoch- und Ingenieurbau file for bankruptcy after 125 yrs due to bottlenecks in personnel & material.

🔹Bakery 🥐 🍞chain Thilmann Brot GmbH, founded in 1937, declares bankruptcy.

🔹Electricity blackout 🪫 fries computer servers at kitchen designer Einbauküchen Solutions GmbH. This forced the 60 yr old co. into bankruptcy.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Steel 🏭 manufacturers shut down across Europe.

💠European ammonia fertilizer plants shut down due to lack of Russian 🇷🇺 natural gas.

🔹USA 🇺🇸- Biden admin. plans to release 10-15 million barrels of crude 🛢 from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a bid to suppress gasoline & diesel ⛽️ prices. 180 million barrels have been drained from the SPR since May.

🔹Accusations from top Biden admin. officials against the Saudi 🇸🇦 gov't result in OPEC+ member states, to publicly endorse the oil production cut agreed upon this month.

🔹US 🇺🇸 anti-trust legislation (NOPEC Bill) awaiting approvals. It can be used to point to Saudi 🇸🇦 Aramco as being collusive in price-fixing through adjusting output to manage oil prices.

💠 OPEC+ defends their role in 🛢 oil market stability at JMMC of the OPEC+ group HQ 🇦🇹.

💠 US/EU oil price cap plan on Russian 🇷🇺 oil can backfire.

💠 The US 🇺🇸 reviewing its relationship with Saudi Arabia.

💠 UAE's 🇦🇪 President Al Nahyan visits Russia, President Putin reaffirms OPEC+ decision not directed against anyone.

🔹Several dozen LNG 🚢 tankers are waiting near the Spanish 🇪🇸 coast for permission to unload their cargo. Only six connections for regasification are available at local gas terminals in Spain this week.

🔹Spain 🇪🇸 is home to 45% of EU’s 🇪🇺 LNG regasification capacity & storage is nearly full. It's lack of pipelines prevents it from supplying northern European countries.

🔹China's 🇨🇳 weak domestic LNG demand & high spot prices may come as a relief for Europe's LNG prices.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 China 🇨🇳 told state-owned natural gas importers to halt LNG 🚢 reselling to Europe.

💠 Chinese companies, buy U.S. 🇺🇸 LNG & sell the excess at profit 🚢.

💠 Sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 + Europe LNG/oil 📈 demand drive tanker rates to record highs.

💠 Russia is selling LNG 🚢 from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount, & is still making a profit.

💠 Malaysia - 🇲🇾 Petronas declares force majeure on contracted LNG deliveries to Japan 🇯🇵, due to leaking pipeline.

🔹EU 🇪🇺 leaders have failed to agree on a gas price cap following a summit in Brussels, 🇧🇪. They are now suggesting that the EU’s joint purchasing power should be used as leverage in negotiations with global suppliers of gas.

🔹The EU's plan to cap natural gas prices could swipe supplies away from Europe, German 🇩🇪 Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned. "The EU must coordinate closely with other gas consumers like Japan 🇯🇵 so as not to be competition with each other," he said.

Video: Courtesy Aljazeera

Previously reported on this channel:

💠 Russia 🇷🇺 has warned that a gas price cap can result in gas flows cut-off.

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 would not support a price cap on Russian gas.

💠 LNG deliveries to Japan 🇯🇵 from Malaysia's 🇲🇾 Petronas cut upon force majeure, due to leaking pipeline. Malaysia's Bintulu LNG terminal is one of the largest LNG facilities 🏭 in a single location in the world.

💠 German 🇩🇪 households & small businesses raised their natural gas consumption in Sept.

🔹India’s 🇮🇳 Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is considering increasing its stake in the new Russian 🇷🇺 entity that will manage the Sakhalin-1 energy project. ONGC holds a stake in the project through its overseas investment arm, ONGC Videsh. The Sakhalin-1 project accounted for about a quarter of ONGC reserves of 124.7 million tons.

🔹🇺🇸 Exxon Mobil announced its exit from the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas venture. India 🇮🇳 increased its Russian Urals crude 🛢purchases by 13.5 times year-on-year in the first eight months of 2022.

Previous reports on this channel:

💠 Russia’s 🇷🇺 Sakhalin-1 oil 🛢 & gas project, will be transferred to a local entity. The same was done for the Sakhalin- 2 project earlier.

💠 India's 🇮🇳 de-dollarization news post the SCO Summit.

💠Russia🇷🇺 has significantly increased exports of fertilizers to India, 🇮🇳 after both countries finalized a barter agreement in May.

💠 Russia is selling LNG 🚢 from the Sakhalin-2 project at a 50% discount & is still making a profit.

🔹Norway's 🇳🇴 Yara International announced yesterday, that Q3 2022 ammonia output was slashed due to skyrocketing natural gas 📈 prices.

🔹Ammonia output in the quarter dropped 📉 to 57% of capacity in Europe 🇪🇺.

🔹Western sanctions on Moscow 🇷🇺 inhibiting gas flows from Russia, & the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage 🧨 has caused a massive squeeze on natural gas.

Previous fertilizer posts on this channel:

💠 UN 🇺🇳 spoke with EU 🇪🇺 leaders about lifting sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports. Russia 🇷🇺 wants to give 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizers stuck at EU ports to poor countries free of charge.

💠 Fertilizer manufacturing 🏭 shutdown across Europe.

💠 Ammonia fertilizer manufacturers to shut down in Germany🇩🇪, Lithuania 🇱🇹 & Poland 🇵🇱.

💠 Ammonia fertilizer producers in Norway🇳🇴 , Austria 🇦🇹 & UK 🇬🇧 cut production.

💠 Russia 🇷🇺 blocked from shipping fertilizers to poor countries for free.

💠 Belarus' 🇧🇾 president warn that sanctions will lead to global food crisis.

🔹The amount of diesel stored in northwest 🇪🇺 Europe will sink to 210.4 million barrels by Feb. 2023, the lowest since 2011 — consultancy Wood Mackenzie. That’s the month that EU sanctions on Russian🇷🇺 seaborne 🚢 refined oil products come into effect.

🔹The front-month East-West swap, a measure of the premium for diesel in Europe over Asia, widened to $60.50 a ton. It averaged $7.40 a ton in 2021.

🔹A sharp slump in diesel ⛽️ reserves across the EU is expected this winter once the ban on exports of Russian 🇷🇺 crude oil 🛢 comes into effect. The situation could become even worse due to recent strikes at French refineries 🏭, which have halted fuel production.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Diesel and petrol ⛽️ stations in parts of France 🇫🇷 are running out of fuel due to worker strikes at 🏭 oil refineries.

💠 The German 🇩🇪 gov't confiscates Russia's 🇷🇺 state-owned Rosneft's assets in order to control the PCK Schwedt oil refinery 🏭 to maintain diesel supply for Germany.

🔹US 🇺🇸 diesel market demand is surging while supplies remain at the lowest seasonal level for this time of year ever, with just 25 days of diesel supply, the lowest since 2008.

🔹American refiners 🏭 are enjoying the best-ever diesel margins, with the profit of turning a barrel of crude into one of diesel - i.e., the diesel crack spread 💰 - hitting a record high 📈 of $86.5 per barrel, up roughly 450% from the 2000-2020 average of $15.7 per barrel.

The reasons for the collapse in inventories & the price surge are four-fold.

📌 Local diesel ⛽️ demand has recovered quicker than gasoline & jet-fuel from the impact of pandemic lockdowns.

📌 American diesel exports 🚢 running at unusually high level.

📌 The US also has lower refining 📉 capacity than before.

📌 The US was importing a significant amount of Russian 🇷🇺 fuel oil before sanctions, which its Gulf of Mexico-based refiners turned into diesel.

🔹Türkiye 🇹🇷 lambasts the US 🇺🇸 for ‘bullying’ it's own ally. Rather than threatening the Saudis 🇸🇦 over oil 🛢prices, the US should lift sanctions on Iran 🇮🇷 and Venezuela 🇻🇪, Türkiye's FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu says.

🔹“The bullying against Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦is inappropriate. We are going through similar challenges in energy prices but we don’t threaten anyone.

Video source - Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu & Ulusal Kanal.

Recently reported on this channel:

💠 US 🇺🇸 accuses the KSA of siding with Russia. Options are being reviewed for what actions should be taken against the Kingdom 🇸🇦

💠 US 🇺🇸 anti-trust legislation (NOPEC Bill) awaiting approvals. It can be used to point to Saudi 🇸🇦 Aramco as being collusive in price-fixing through adjusting output to manage oil prices.

💠 OPEC+ defends their role in 🛢 oil market stability at JMMC of the OPEC+ group HQ 🇦🇹.

💠Saboteurs attempt to blow up 🧨 Turkstream Pipeline infrastructure. President Putin has proposed building a major gas hub in Türkiye 🇹🇷

🔹Police 🚓 brutalities continue amid a breakout of protests in Moldova 🇲🇩. Reports of protestors and police clashes. Moldovans for months, have been protesting inflated 📈 prices for gas, electricity, water & other utilities.

🔹Protestors highlight the injustice of police 👮‍♂️ by setting up tents at the General Prosecutor's Office. Reports of a false flag by police, trying to frame protestors as attacking a journalist. Estimated 90,000 turnout.

🔹Despite western media blackout of these protests 🔥, there was a live video streamed on YouTube.

Video compilation courtesy Moldovan social media channels.

Previous Moldova protests reports on this channel:

💠 Last week Sunday, 50,000 protestors gathered across Chisinau🇲🇩, the capital of Moldova. Weekend before that 60,000 Moldovans protested.

💠 Thousands protest high energy prices during September in Chisinau. State-backed gas distributor Moldovagaz failed to fulfil wholesale payments to its sole gas supplier, Russia's 🇷🇺 Gazprom.

🔹Taiwan 🇹🇼 Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) has suspended production of advanced silicon for Chinese 🇨🇳 startup Biren Technology to ensure compliance with US regulations.

🔹 U.S. 🇺🇸 embargo on China will likely have broad repercussions. The controls also barred U.S. citizens or entities from working with Chinese 🇨🇳 chipmakers without explicit approval. Chipmaker says listening to the US by banning China is bad for business.

🔹TSMC 🇹🇼 commands 20% of global wafer fabrication & 92% of advanced chip capacity.

🔹TSMC Q3 2022 profit rose 79.7% 📈 over a year earlier to a record $8.8 billion amid surging demand.

Recently reported on this channel:

💠 US bans exports 🚢 to China of equipment for 14nm chips.

💠South Korea 🇰🇷 attempts to assure China 🇨🇳 on supply chain amid US pressure.

💠 US 🇺🇸 share of semiconductor R&D has dropped drastically.

🔹A steady increase in the combined flow of Russian 🇷🇺 crude via ships to Turkey 🇹🇷, China🇨🇳 & India🇮🇳 in recent weeks. Time is running out to deliver crude from Russia’s before EU 🇪🇺sanctions deprive vessels of insurance & other services from Dec. 5.

🔹Trading houses & refiners are racing to book storage tanks in Rotterdam for when EU sanctions take effect. Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 & China 🇨🇳, jointly stressed the importance of stable long-term crude 🛢supply to the market.

🔹"Russia could largely evade the planned price cap on its oil..." — U.S. Treasury official. "There is a big enough shadow fleet 🚢 to continue Russian 🇷🇺 crude flows after Dec. 5" — Trafigura

🔹China's 🇨🇳 oil imports 🚢 from Russia soared 22% in September from a year earlier.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 OPEC+ defends their role in 🛢 oil market stability at JMMC of the OPEC+ group HQ 🇦🇹.

💠 US/EU oil price cap plan on Russian 🇷🇺 oil can backfire.

💠 Türkiye 🇹🇷 lambasts the US 🇺🇸 for bullying Saudi Arabia