🔹Europe 🇪🇺- A continuing cold blast ❄️, has led to higher energy prices & drawn down natural gas inventories. Average temperatures across Northwest Europe are expected to continue sliding well below a 30-year trendline to around 27 degrees Fahrenheit by Dec. 18.

🔹Gas storage sites are still relatively full for the time of year, but risks still linger that a severe cold spell could quickly deplete stocks, leaving the continent exposed to any new supply curtailments. Dutch TTF natural gas futures are trading around 150 euros per megawatt-hour.

🔹Higher bids for domestic natural gas (for heating) in the US 🇺🇸 are coming as , parts of the US are about to see below-average temperatures between Dec.15-21. This will increase the prices of US LNG 🚢 to Europe.

🔹The European Central Bank warns that the natural gas price cap rules could achieve the exact opposite. The cap may increase volatility and related margin calls & challenge central counterparties' ability to manage financial risks.

🔹Egypt 🇪🇬 has officially become a member of the New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 group of major emerging economies. The NDB was established to finance infrastructure in member states & other emerging economies.

🔹Egypt & China 🇨🇳 have created the ECEA to encourage Chinese investments in Cairo. Egypt had previously expressed an interest in becoming a BRICS member, along with Turkey 🇹🇷 & Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦.

🔹The NDB is boosting infrastructure investment in India 🇮🇳. Bangladesh 🇧🇩, the United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪 , Egypt 🇪🇬 & Uruguay 🇺🇾 are also members of the NDB.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 China 🇨🇳 laying groundwork for better trade relationship with Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 & GCC countries.

💠 BRICS plan an international reserve currency based on a basket of the national currencies, backed by commodities such as gold.

💠 BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 nations open to bypassing SWIFT using Russia's SPFS.

Video courtesy Redacted with Clayton Morris.

🔹Mongolia 🇲🇳 reported coal destined for China 🇨🇳 has "disappeared". Massive protests have erupted over the past week in Ulaanbaatar, demanding accountability of the gov't.

🔹The allegations center on coal being mined by 🇲🇳 state-owned Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi & two other companies. At least 385,000 tonnes of coal is unaccounted for between 2013 & 2019.

🔹This was discovered after comparing China's import data & Mongolian export data with import data reported by China 🇨🇳, its main buyer. China says they are willing to provide any lawful assistance requested & believes Mongolia is capable of doing their investigation.

Recently on Mongolia 🇲🇳:

📌 Russia stepped up ongoing discussions over the future Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline via Mongolia to China.

📌 Russia 🇷🇺 & the EAEU are considering the possibility of creating free trade zones with Mongolia 🇲🇳.

📌 China 🇨🇳 & Mongolia intend to renew their joint effort to stop the spread of land desertification.

Video courtesy The Duran.

🔹A Summit of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council 🇷🇺 🇦🇲 🇰🇿 🇰🇬 🇧🇾 took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Armenian PM Pashinyan & Russian President Putin met on the sidelines to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh.

🔹Iran 🇮🇷 announced the finalisation of negotiations the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) on bilateral free trade of over more than 7,500 commodity items. President of EAEU observer state, Cuba 🇨🇺, gave a speech on further EAEU integration for economics and trade.

🔹Russia's 🇷🇺 FM Lavrov reported, intense discussions are underway to work out protective mechanisms that will reduce dependence on the whims of the west, to serve trade & investment activities using our own methods, including the transition to national currencies, the creation of their own logistics chains.

🔹Kazakhstan 🇰🇿called for further interaction with Iran, Vietnam, & Serbia with which the EAEU has signed a preferential trade agreement. Kazakhstan notes the beginning of talks with the UAE 🇦🇪 on an free trade zone agreement.

🔹Belgian 🇧🇪 prosecutors investigate allegations that allegedly Qatar 🇶🇦 has sought to influence EU policy by bribing EU parliament officials. Four officials are charged with money laundering & corruption. The arrests followed raids in Brussels which turned up 600,000 euros 💶 in cash.

🔹The vice-president of the EU 🇪🇺 Parliament, Eva Kaili, has been charged with corruption after Belgian 🇧🇪 police found 'bags of cash' in her home. She would normally enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution but there is an exception in cases where a suspect is caught red-handed in the act of committing an alleged crime.

🔹It is suspected that parties in political positions within the EU 🇪🇺 parliament were paid large sums of money or offered substantial gifts to influence parliament’s decisions in respect to support of labour reforms in Qatar.

🔹Qatar 🇶🇦 has come under heavy international pressure to introduce labour reforms as it sought to build new World Cup stadiums using migrant workers.

Video courtesy WION

🔹A 🇷🇸 Belgrade rally against the harassment of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo was held to urge the Serbian gov't to stand strong. Kosovo police & EULEX (EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) seized electoral commission premises & blocked Serb areas without permission.

🔹Serbs erected barricades along a highway in protest. KFOR (NATO-led force in Kosovo) & EULEX demanded the barricades removed. Serbian 🇷🇸 President Vucic plans a request to KFOR, to deploy 1,000 Serbian policemen in Kosovo, to protect Serbs in accordance with UNSC resolution 1244.

🔹KFOR will likely decline & ignore UNSC resolution 1244, since the German 🇩🇪 FM has done so. Serbia says US & EU ignore international treaties. “Radical” Albanian extremists & Kosovo authorities, backed by the US & EU are escalating tensions.

🔹Netherlands 🇳🇱 call for EU suspension of 🇷🇸 Serbia's Schengen visa-free regime for failure to implement sanctions on Russia.

🔹US 🇺🇸 & EU 🇪🇺 pretend not to violate the Serbia/Kosovo Brussels & Washington Agreements.

🔹Peru’s 🇵🇪 new president, Dina Boluarte, forced to bring elections forward by 2 years, after last week’s ousting of former president Pedro Castillo sparked protests that have left at least six dead - mostly teenagers.

🔹Boluarte, previously the VP, was sworn in after Castillo was removed by Congress & arrested for trying to dissolve the legislature. Lawmakers had previously tried twice to impeach him since he took office in July 2021.

🔹Boluarte has declared a State of Emergency in several provinces which has suspended several constitutional rights as protestors now call for her resignation.

🔹President Boluarte, a Davos Forum 2022 attendee has been pushing for Peru's closer ties with the WEF. US 🇺🇸 Ambassador to Peru 🇵🇪 encourages the Peruvian public to remain calm during this uncertain time.

🔹Castillo is accused of corruption. The former teacher denied the allegations & said political opponents were trying to subvert the will of voters who elected him.

🔹EU 🇪🇺 fails to agree a gas price cap again, amid divisions over price, whether the cap should only apply to the TTF index or all European gas trading hubs and ECB concerns that it may jeopardise financial stability in the euro area.

🔹EU ministers cannot agree on a maximum cap to pay for gas due to fear that global suppliers will simply bypass Europe when others offer more money.

Last reported on this channel.

💠 Poland 🇵🇱, Spain 🇪🇸 & Greece 🇬🇷 are eager to implement the cap at a much lower price.

💠 Some EU 🇪🇺 leaders are insisting that the EU impose a price cap on all natural gas imports.

💠 Norway's 🇳🇴 Equinor CEO: "Any price cap is not really solving the fundamental problems".

💠 EU 🇪🇺 plans to use joint purchasing power as leverage in gas negotiations.

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

Video courtesy Firstpost

🔹The UK’s 🇬🇧 National Grid (UKNG) will run a test of one of the country’s coal-fired 🏭 power generators that’s being kept in reserve to boost supplies this winter. The UK is struggling with a shrinking buffer of spare capacity that can produce power when the wind drops. Prices have surged to records.

🔹Two contingency coal-fired power 🏭 plants were placed on ready-mode. Last Saturday/Sunday electricity generation sources ranged around; wind @ 8%, natural gas @ 62%, nuclear 14%, biomass 5%, coal 4%.

🔹On Monday (Dec 12th) - France's 🇫🇷 grid operator RTE has asked the UKNG if it could slash its scheduled exports to Britain in half between 8am & 9am.

🔹During a normal winter, Britain relies on French energy imports to help meet demand, particularly during peak 💡 hours in the early evening. Another limitation now becomes apparant, if the interconnectors (photo) are maxed out, it doesn’t matter how much surplus capacity & how much gas in storage other countries have.

🔹Canada 🇨🇦 is revoking the waiver for sanctions on Russia’s Gazprom gas turbine repairs via Germany's Siemens (manufacturer). Germany 🇩🇪 requested the turbines so Nordstream 1 & 2 can function (recently blown up).

🔹The timeframe for the repairs to restart NS 1&2 is unclear. 🇷🇺 Gazprom plans to leave all infrastructure on stand-by, so flows can be restarted once/if the pipelines are repaired.

🔹Gazprom may not restore the pipelines at all, because the gas turbines are needed at the Portovaya compression station to send gas via the NS 1 &2.

Timeline reported on this channel in reverse order:

💠 Germany requested Canada 🇨🇦 to waiver sanctions.

💠 German 🇩🇪 Chancellor claims one turbine is ready to be shipped to Russia from Germany after Gazprom declared 'force-majeure' on NS 1.

💠 Gazprom 🇷🇺 stopped the operation of a second Siemens turbine for servicing while awaiting all function testing/safety/legal documents 📂. Western sanctions have been stalling the return of the turbine.

Additional note/opinion by admin:

I thought this turbine sanctions debacle was all over when the NS 1 & 2 pipelines were blown up, but revoking the waiver ensures the pipelines are never repaired for Germany 🇩🇪 to get gas via NS 1 & 2. Russia's 🇷🇺Gazprom will not waste resources to repair the pipeline only to be prevented from compressing gas for the pipelines due to sanctions on the turbines.

Note Germany's Siemens is the manufacturer of the turbines and the contract to repair is with Siemens which is done in Canada 🇨🇦 for some reason. If the turbines can't be reliably repaired and returned to Gazprom then we can be sure, Germany will not receive gas via those pipelines again.

🔹USA🇺🇸 - Officials have declared a drought emergency for all of Southern California, warning millions of residents that water conservation measures could become mandatory if conditions don't improve. However, recent storms brought some improvement.

🔹Southern California does not produce enough water 💧for all of its residents and businesses and relies upon imported supplies from the Colorado River & the State Water Project, which account for nearly 60% of where its water comes from.

🔹The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provides water to 26 different agencies that supply major population centers. The board voted to extended the drought ☀️emergency to cover all water agencies.

🔹Up to 75% of all water used in Southern California is for irrigating yards and gardens & restrictions in place for much of the year are to water just one day per week.

🔹Last year, California Gov. called for residents & businesses to cut their water 📉 use by 15%. But since, use was reduced by just 5.2%.

🔹The US 🇺🇸Sanctions Coordinator, said that they expect Türkiye 🇹🇷to comply with sanctions against Russia 🇷🇺, & that the US can impose embargoes to stop Türkiye's violations.

🔹The EU 🇪🇺 has also chastised Türkiye 🇹🇷 for not sanctioning Russia. The Turkish President responded to top EU diplomat J. Borrell’s call for Türkiye to sanction Russia by saying the EU politician has no authority over relations between Moscow & Ankara.

🔹Turkish President Erdogan has attended the first trilateral summit with Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 & Turkmenistan 🇹🇲.

🔹Many Turks believe, that if Turkiye does not join the anti-Russian sanctions, this will have a positive impact on the country’s economy.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 West blames Türkiye 🇹🇷 over disruption of oil shipments from the Black Sea.

💠 President Putin proposed building a major gas hub in Türkiye.

💠 Russia 🇷🇺 resumes Black Sea grain deal after Türkiye's 🇹🇷 guarantees.

Video courtesy TRT World

🔹The euro 💶 area countries annual inflation rate was 10.1% in Nov. 2022, down from 10.6% in Oct. It's was 4.9% in Nov. 2021.

🔹The EU 🇪🇺member countries annual inflation rate was 11.1% in Nov. 2022, down from 11.5.6% in Oct. It's was 5.2% in Nov. 2021.

🔹The highest annual rates were recorded in Hungary 🇭🇺 (23.1%), Latvia 🇱🇹 (21.7%), Estonia 🇪🇪 & Lithuania 🇱🇺(both 21.4%).

🔹In November, the highest contribution to the annual euro area inflation rate came from energy (+3.82 percentage
points, pp), followed by food, alcohol & tobacco (+2.84 pp), services (+1.76 pp) and non-energy industrial goods
(+1.63 pp).

🔹Britain’s 🇬🇧 largest North Sea oil producer, Harbour Energy, is refusing to bid for new UK oil 🛢& gas wells. It is reviewing its investments & company-wide capital allocation.

🔹The UK Chancellor recently hiked taxes 📈 on energy firm profits to 35% from 25%. This would send the oil & gas sector’s effective tax rate on UK profits rise to 75%. The extra windfall tax could be extended to 2028.

🔹Shell 🇬🇧🇳🇱 is reviewing plans to invest £25bn in Britain’s energy system after the windfall taxes policy. The UK Chancellor’s statement is forcing Shell to re-examine a slew of projects in the pipeline.

🔹French 🇫🇷 oil giant Total Energies has become the first major North Sea operator to cut investment as a direct result of the windfall tax. Total will reduce 📉 planned spending on new wells by 25% in 2023 as the levy forces drilling businesses to reexamine their plans.

Video courtesy GB News

🔹Germany 🇩🇪 & Poland 🇵🇱 have agreed to Poland supplying enough crude for Germany's PCK Schwedt refinery (confiscated from Russia's Rosneft) to run at a capacity of 70% from January.

🔹Supply to be imported through the German port of Rostock 🚢 & Poland (re-sold Kazakh oil).

🔹PCK Schwedt refinery is supplied via the Druzhba oil 🛢 pipeline (exempt from sanctions) from Russia. Poland is seeking German support to slap EU 🇪🇺 sanctions on the Polish-German section of the Druzhba pipeline. Sanctions will allow Polish refiner PKN Orlen to break the contract & not pay any penalties to Russia 🇷🇺.

🔹However, sanctions will starve those receiving from the southern section of the pipeline mainly Hungary 🇭🇺, Slovakia 🇸🇰 & the Czech Republic 🇨🇿.

🔹Rosneft protested against the refinery seizure calling it illegal & saying it amounts to an expropriation of equity assets in which it had invested €4.6bn in refining capacity. The 3 refineries ran by Rosneft provide 12% of Germany’s total refining capacity

🔹UK 🇬🇧 - Civil Service forecasters/MET Office blamed for underestimating the scale of the winter chill resulting in poor planning & now the prospect of rolling power cuts. Emergency plans have been drawn up to impose power cuts between different peak times & days, if the electricity💡grid overloads.

🔹The UK is encouraging consumers to scale back demand for power & natural gas, such as lowering the temperature on home boilers.

🔹ONS data indicates that 63% of British adults were using less gas & electricity 🔌 because of increases in the cost of living.

🔹UK 🇬🇧 PM has scrapped plans to strike several long-term deals with foreign gas suppliers. He claims it did not make sense to lock taxpayers into long-term contracts at high prices.

🔹The UK has approved the development of its 1st new coal mine in 30 years It will take 2 years to construct & cost $201 million. Almost 50% of the coal used in UK steel production traditionally comes from Russia 🇷🇺, & now under sanctions.

Video courtesy GB News

🔹Matterhorn Asset Management 🇨🇭:
$300 trillion of global debt & $2 quadrillion of quasi debt in the form of derivatives can only end in currencies going to 0 & sovereign borrowers defaulting. Sanctions, energy prices, inflation, 📈 & many more problems in Euroland, make gold a 'sine qua non' (necessity) in order to avoid total wealth destruction.

🔹Mises Institute:
Thinking about the gold price in terms of any fiat currency, not just the USD 💵, is not really helpful. It’s not gold’s value that fluctuates, what fluctuates is the perceived & totally imaginary value of all these useless pieces of paper.

War also causes the type of inflation that results from a rapid expansion of money & credit. In WWI, the American 🇺🇸people were characteristically unwilling to finance the total war effort out of increased taxes. Much of the expenditures in WWI, were financed out of the inflationary increases in the money supply.

Prof. Everisto Benyera: Africa/Gold/USD. Video: South Africa's SABC News.

🔹PERU 🇵🇪 - The death toll has risen to 23 in nationwide protests denouncing a coup. At least 426 people, including 216 security personnel, have been wounded in the capital Lima & other regions.

🔹Newly installed President Dina Boluarte is removing her PM, Pedro Angulo after 10 days in office. US 🇺🇸 Secretary of State Antony Blinken asked the different political actors in Peru to multiply their efforts to make “the necessary reforms” to safeguard democratic stability.

🔹President Boluarte ruled out that she will resign & demanded that Congress reconsider “voting on the advancement of elections”, after the rejection on the eve of her plans to hold elections in December 2023.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 President 🇵🇪 Pedro Castillo was removed by Congress & arrested on accusations of corruption & extending executive power. US backed VP Dina Boluarte takes power with plans to build Peru better as per WEF agenda. State of Emergency declared to suspend certain constitutional rights.

🔹Belarussian 🇧🇾 President, Lukashenko at a joint press conference with Russian 🇷🇺President Putin, complimented the sanctions specialists from both countries on a job well done. Russia's MoD Shoigu & FM Lavrov also arrived in Minsk for a series of talks with their Belarusian counterparts about economic, military, & energy cooperation.

🔹The two members of the Union State 🇷🇺🇧🇾will continue their joint exercises, intended to boost the combat readiness of their militaries. Both had already activated an integrated air defense & warning system.

🔹Belarus will take over the rotating presidency of the Collective Security Treaty Organization 🇧🇾🇦🇲🇰🇿🇰🇬🇹🇯🇷🇺in January. Minsk is now armed with Iskander ballistic missiles and protected by S-400 air defense systems. Pilots from Belarus will soon receive training in using “special weapons & special ammunition,”.

🔹The US 🇺🇸 responded to Putin’s visit to Minsk by accusing Belarus of “ceding its independence” to Russia.

Video courtesy Smotri_Media