🔹More than a dozen proposed LNG export projects in the US 🇺🇸 could stall due to cost inflation and increased competition to secure financing due to higher interest rates. There are fewer and fewer construction co.'s that can actually handle these kinds of loads to build LNG export facilities 🏭 in the US.

🔹LNG export project developers face repeated delays as they vie with each other to secure the long-term purchase agreements needed to underwrite their projects. Projects under construction or entering service will increase US capacity by roughly 70% once they all come online by 2027.

🔹European countries have been rushing to build import terminals and purchase LNG. Ukraine's 🇺🇦 lawmakers called on the US & EU🇪🇺 for new sanctions, including a ban on Western co.'s providing services to help Russia export LNG.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 US LNG exports to Europe increased y-o-y by 140% in 2022, hitting a record monthly high in Mar. '23.

💠 Spain 🇪🇸has imported 84% more Russian LNG since Feb. '22.

💠 The EU's LNG imports from Russia 🇷🇺 in 2022 rose by 31% and 35% compared to 2020 & 2021 volumes, respectively,

💠 Head of the EU Energy Regulator admits, the EU’s price cap is an untested tool that may not work as intended to prevent gas price spikes. "The gas price cap is “a difficult creature, it’s unprecedented, it’s untested”.

💠 Chinese 🇨🇳co.'s that signed long-term contracts to buy U.S. LNG are selling the excess & making millions per cargo.

💠 Qatar's 🇶🇦 Energy Minister says EU's natural gas price caps are hypocritical.

Video courtesy Kpler

🔹Saudi Arabia’s 🇸🇦 FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan met with Syrian 🇸🇾 President Bashar al-Assad after arriving in Syria’s Damascus on April 18th. This is the first visit to Syria's capital by a Saudi official since the start of the country's civil war in 2011. The trip comes less than a week after Syrian FM Faisal Mekdad visited Saudi Arabia, also on the first such visit since the conflict began.

🔹Last week, diplomats from nine Arab countries met in the Saudi city of Jeddah to discuss ending Syria's long spell in the diplomatic wilderness and its possible return to the 22-member Arab League after Damascus was suspended in 2011. The diplomats stressed the "importance of having an Arab leadership role in efforts to end the crisis" in Syria.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Syria's Foreign Minister visits Saudi Arabia, first such trip since 2012.

💠 Tunisia 🇹🇳 initiates procedures that would appoint a new ambassador to Syria.

💠 UAE 🇦🇪 President was visited by the Syrian Preisident. UAE calls for Damascus to be reintegrated into the wider Arab region.

💠 President Assad visited Russia 🇷🇺 to discuss political/economic issues on the Syrian crisis.

💠 Türkiye 🇹🇷 has agreed to fully withdraw its troops from northern Syria following tripartite talks involving Moscow, Ankara and Damascus.

💠 US sanctions on Syria restrict international aid arriving in Syria during the aftermath of recent earthquakes.

Video courtesy Al Mayadeen English

🔹 🇹🇷 Türkiye's - Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has claimed that "the whole world hates America" while suggesting that Europe is merely a pawn of the United States 🇺🇸. He said this during a speech at Topkapi Social Facilities in Fatih, Istanbul, on April 18th. Soylu's characterization of Europe 🇪🇺 as an American pawn suggests that he believes the continent lacks independence & is heavily influenced by the US.

🔹 He also reiterated; "We are faced with cultural terrorism aimed at destroying the family structure, morality, greatness, civilization in every country, its history, our religion, our faith values, our tradition, our vision, what our mothers and fathers teach us."

Deteriorating relations between Türkiye & the US, reported on this channel:

💠 Türkiye was the only NATO member state without an invite to the US's 🇺🇸 Summit for Democracy.

💠 Russia & Türkiye 🇹🇷 working on an alternative to replace the Russian payment system MIR after the US threatened Türkiye with sanctions for servicing MIR cards.

💠 Türkiye confronts the US 🇺🇸 ambassador over US meddling in country's internal affairs.

💠 US warns Türkiye of potential embargo if it doesn't implement sanctions on Russia.

💠 Türkiye has agreed to fully withdraw its troops from northern Syria 🇸🇾 after talks with Russia.

💠 Türkiye lambasts the US for ‘bullying’ it's own ally, Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦.

💠 Hungary 🇭🇺 supports Türkiye in a call for negotiations with Russia.

💠 Russian 🇷🇺 FM met his Turkish counterpart in Ankara to discuss regional developments.

🔹Over the past 5 days (April 16th - 20th) Russia's 🇷🇺 Foreign Minister S. Lavrov visited four Latin American countries to discuss the formation of a multipolar world order based on the principle of respect for the sovereign equality of states. He met with his diplomatic counterparts and also with the respective presidents of Brazil 🇧🇷, Venezuela 🇻🇪, Nicaragua 🇳🇮 and Cuba 🇨🇺.

🔹Brazil 🇧🇷 has not joined Western nations in imposing sanctions on Russia and has refused requests to supply ammunition to Ukraine. Imports of Russian goods to Brazil surged by nearly 120% in March compared to the same month two years ago. FM Lavrov met with Brazil's president Lula da Silva and thanked him for his offer to mediate peace talks.

🔹Lula recently said the US & Europe "need to start talking about peace," and that Kyiv shares the blame for the conflict. US 🇺🇸 National Security Council spokesman John Kirby responded to this saying "Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts".

🔹FM Lavrov also met Venezuelan 🇻🇪 President N. Maduro. FM Lavrov reiterated that "it is necessary to join forces to counter the attempts of blackmail and illegal unilateral pressure of the West".

🔹Nicaraguan 🇳🇮 president Daniel Ortega met with FM Lavrov and criticized the US sanctions on his country: "We already have hundreds of fellow officials sanctioned, but that no longer causes any fear or concern to the sanctioned comrades". Lavrov responded that "Russia thinks that (the sanctions) is an acknowledgment of progress in protecting the interests of the people".

🔹Lavrov also met with the President of Cuba 🇨🇺, Miguel Diaz-Canel. His meetings focused mainly on boosting political, economic, educational and cultural cooperation.

Video courtesy France24, Al Arabiya. DW, & TeleSUR.

🔹The Chilean 🇨🇱 gov't announced a plan to have the state take a majority stake in the lithium 🔋industry. Chile's President G. Boric said the state would take a controlling interest in each partnership, leading some to call it a nationalization of the industry. Chile is the second largest producer of lithium and holds the world’s third largest reserves of the metal.

🔹South American leaders are already expressing that they will not be content to simply provide such raw materials for U.S.-🇺🇸 based value chains to profit off it. Instead, they will focus on adding value in their own countries and allowing their own economies to enjoy that windfall. Already, there is talk of creating quotas for how much lithium will be exported and how much will be kept for local markets.

🔹Japan 🇯🇵 will subsidize half the cost of smelting &mine development projects of important minerals including lithium by Japanese co.'s.

Previous lithium posts on this channel:

💠 Iran 🇮🇷 discovered its first lithium ore deposit containing the world's 2nd largest reserves.

💠 Mexican 🇲🇽 President signed a decree handing over responsibility for lithium reserves to the energy ministry.

💠 Canada 🇨🇦 ordered three Chinese companies divest their investments in Canadian lithium & critical minerals.

💠Report on the vast resources needed to be mined for an EV 🚙 which is clearly unsustainable.

💠 Lithium mining pollution and the growing scarcity.

💠 Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 lithium reserves & China 🇨🇳 investment.

Video courtesy Reuters.

🔹France’s 🇫🇷 power prices for early 2024 are double the German prices for next winter as the huge French nuclear fleet continues to show signs of weak output and availability. "France's cap on electricity price 💡hikes will stay in place beyond 2023 and likely be phased out over a two-year period" - Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire.

🔹In France, concerns about the operations resurfaced last month after the French nuclear ☢️ safety authority, ASN, told nuclear reactor operator EDF to review its program of reactor checks, following the finding of another crack at a nuclear power plant.

🔹French utility EDF has warned drawn-out strikes at its nuclear reactors and hydro-electricity plants have cost it 1 billion euros ($1.10 billion) in lost output and that it is reviewing hiring plans for the year. Maintenance at nine French nuclear reactors was disrupted due to ongoing strikes.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 G7 members including France have formed an alliance aimed at blocking Russia out of the international nuclear energy market.

💠 France's state-owned nuclear operator EDF is considering using funds from depositors in a centuries-old savings account to finance part of a €50bn plan to build six nuclear reactors.

💠 🇫🇷 EDF said that it had lowered its nuclear output target for 2022 due to the impact of strikes on its reactor maintenance schedule.

💠EDF is rushing to get nuclear power stations 🏭 online in late 2022 due to delays from strikes & corrosion issues.

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

🔹India 🇮🇳 and Bangladesh 🇧🇩 have reached a deal that will see a small part of their bilateral trade transactions settled in their own currencies, the Indian rupee and the Bangladeshi taka. Meanwhile, Bangladesh is set to make loan repayments in Chinese 🇨🇳 yuan for its nuclear power plant being built by Russia.

🔹It is expected that exports from Bangladesh to India, (about $2 billion in 2022), will be fully switched to rupees and takas, while $2 billion-worth of Indian exports to Bangladesh (out of roughly $13.69 billion as of the previous fiscal year) will be paid-for in rupees. The rest will continue to be paid in dollars.

🔹That is about 15% of Indian exports to Bangladesh paid in rupees. Businesses have for some time been calling on the central banks of the two nations to allow the switch. The tightening monetary policy of the US 🇺🇸 Federal Reserve has also placed great pressure on India's dollar liquidity. Thus, it becomes increasingly unsustainable for India to settle its foreign trade completely in US dollars.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 India opens 60 special rupee vostro accounts in 18 countries to facilitate rupee payments.

💠 More Asian countries, such as Indonesia 🇮🇩 & the UAE 🇦🇪, are showing interest in using the Indian Rupee as a trading unit.

💠 Indian refiners have begun paying for most of their Russian 🇷🇺 oil purchased via Dubai-based traders in UAE dirhams instead of USD.

💠 India 🇮🇳 has been exploring a rupee trade settlement mechanism with Russia.

💠 India & Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 discuss the feasibility of institutionalising Rupee-Riyal trade, & introduction UPI & Rupay cards in the kingdom.

Video courtesy FirstPost

🔹The Bank of Indonesia 🇮🇩 will launch its domestic card payment system in May as part of a strategy to reduce dependency on foreign systems and protect transactions from geopolitical fallout. Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation and Asia's fourth biggest economy.

🔹Indonesia 🇮🇩 announced it was preparing to phase out Visa and Mastercard as it seeks more autonomy over its payment infrastructure by minimizing the role of foreign payment providers. The Central Bank is officially launching physical domestic cards “in close cooperation with the gov't and the Indonesian Credit Card Association.

🔹Indonesia expects to conclude negotiations with China 🇨🇳 in the coming weeks on an additional US$560 million loan for a high-speed rail project. Meanwhile, Germany works towards a trade agreement between the EU and Indonesia to reduce its reliance on China for crucial raw materials.

🔹Belarus 🇧🇾 & Indonesia plan implementation agreement on the intensification of trade & economic co-operation between the two countries. Preparations are underway for May's Belarusian-Indonesian Business Forum in Russia.

🔹Last month, Indonesia and Russia 🇷🇺 signed an extradition agreement which they said will help carry out legal actions to extradite perpetrators of transnational crimes and corruption.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 An official meeting of all ASEAN nations' (includes Indonesia 🇮🇩) Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governors was held to discuss reduced dependence on the US Dollar, Euro, Yen, and British Pound from financial transactions and move to settlements in local currencies.

💠Indonesia & the UAE 🇦🇪, shows interest in using the Indian Rupee as a trading unit.

💠 Indonesia expresses interest in joining the BRICS New Development Bank.

Video courtesy KanekoaTheGreat

🔹 The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 is set to introduce a gold-backed digital currency to serve as legal tender in the country. The gold-pegged tokens will act as hedges against ongoing currency volatility, and serve as a more effective store of value than the Zimbabwe dollar.

🔹 Hyperinflation has plagued Zimbabwe's economy for over a decade, ravaging the country's currency, which has rapidly weakened against the USD since the beginning of 2022. The USD 💵 is an official currency used for payments in the country. Zimbabwe’s currency trades at 1,001 ZWL against $1 but is typically exchanged for 1,750 ZWL on the streets of Harare.

🔹 The monetary dysfunction in Zimbabwe and lack of changes have led to businesses printing their “own money,” often on handwritten scraps of paper, so that users can pay for future purchases.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Gold coins used as currency in Zimbabwe 🇿🇼 made available in smaller denominations as the country faces a shortage of US dollars.

Video courtesy WION

🔹 South Africa’s 🇿🇦 governing African National Congress (ANC) contradicted a statement by President Cyril Ramaphosa that the party had decided the country should withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC). Recently, South Africa's parliament announced that it would abandon a seven-year-long legislative process to pull South Africa out of the ICC's Rome Statute.

🔹 The remark by Ramaphosa comes as the country prepares to host a BRICS summit in August that Russian 🇷🇺 President Vladimir Putin has been invited to attend. As a member of the ICC, South African authorities would be obliged to arrest Putin under a warrant issued by the court.

🔹The ANC noted a resolution the party made in December to rescind an earlier plan to pull out of the ICC. South Africa drew international criticism in 2015, when it refused to execute an ICC arrest warrant for then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir while he was attending an African Union summit.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 South Africa's 🇿🇦 FM Naledi Pandor says BRICS economies want to find a way of bypassing the dollar to create a fairer payment system that would not be skewed toward wealthier countries. South Africa warned the US 🇺🇸 that the bill seeking to counter Russia's "malign activities" in Africa violate international laws.

💠 South Africa’s National Assembly speaker, calls for a collective solution from BRICS+ to mitigate the global food, 🌾 fuel & financial crisis.

Video courtesy Russian American Daily

🔹Nineteen countries have expressed an interest in joining BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 as the group prepares to hold an annual summit on June 2nd-3rd in South Africa. Thirteen countries have formally asked to join and another six have asked informally.

🔹Saudi Arabia and Iran have formally asked to join. Other applicants include Argentina, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt, Bahrain, Indonesia, and three African nations whose names are not presently disclosed. Pakistan presently under a severe economic crisis with works in progress to revive IMF loan programs may not be in a position to apply yet.

🔹Former staff economist at the US White House Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in Foreign Policy that a currency issued by BRICS would pose a unique threat to the dollar's dominance. His concern is that on the scale of GDP, BRICS collectively outweigh the entire G7 nations.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 BRICS review criteria for new members willing to join the group.

💠 Russia sees the possibility of a single supranational currency being created for settlements within the BRICS.

💠 The EAEU 🇷🇺 🇦🇲 🇰🇿 🇰🇬 🇧🇾 is interested in setting up a common payment system with BRICS nations.

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

Video source- FirstPost

🔹US 🇺🇸 and UK 🇬🇧 envoys goes to Kazakhstan 🇰🇿 and announce a warning that the county may face consequences if it continues helping Russia evade Western sanctions. The Western envoy warned that if Kazakh companies participate in dodging the sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺, this will expose them and the country to the risk of secondary sanctions.

🔹 The US Assistant Secretary of Treasury, US Deputy Commerce Secretary and UK Foreign Office Director for Sanctions told reporters in Astana, demanded Moscow’s ally in Central Asia comply with their embargo. The UK representative cited “open source trade information” to claim Kazakhstan is exporting goods sanctioned by the UK to Russia.

🔹 Within one day of the threat, Kazakhstan's Almaty-based Halyk Finance Institution announced it will restrict its dealings with Russian and Belarusian 🇧🇾nationals. Kyrgyzstan 🇰🇬 may be the next country to be threatened as it is being accused of playing a role in helping Russia avoid technology importation bans.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Kazakhstan stops processing Russian Mir payment system, after the US threat of sanctions.

💠 Kazakhstan’s Kaztransoil applied to Russia's Transneft to transport Kazakh oil 🛢through Russia's section of the Druzhba pipeline to Germany.

💠 Booming trade flows with Russia’s neighbors may be a sign that sanctions are being evaded by EU & US companies.

💠 European traders are evading sanctions with fake paperwork claiming Russian/Belarussian firewood 🪵 is from Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan.

Video source - Jibek Joly News

🔹The United States 🇺🇸 will gradually lift sanctions on Venezuela 🇻🇪 only if the country moves toward restoring 'fair' elections. US sanctions have aggravated Venezuela’s economic crisis by hindering oil sales, though failed to unseat Maduro. The US envisions a “step-by-step approach” whereby steps toward restoring Venezuelan democracy are met by steps to ease sanctions.

🔹Leaked documents of US intelligence posted on Discord claim Russia 🇷🇺 will be able to finance war efforts for at least another year, despite the sanctions.

🔹British American Tobacco, a London-based company with a subsidiary based in Singapore, must pay $630 million in fines to the U.S. government for violating U.S. sanctions by selling tobacco products to North Korea 🇰🇵.

🔹The EU 🇪🇺 is already preparing its 11th package of sanctions against Russia.

🔹Russia’s exports of fuels such as diesel and gasoline are on course to remain well above seasonal norms this month despite sanctions. Ukrainian report sounds alarm over violations of US sanctions in sales of crude 🛢from Russia’s Asian ports.

🔹The Czech 🇨🇿 gov't has made the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, the first person on its national sanctions list.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The EU has been looking into the 'legal' options to confiscate Russia’s assets frozen under sanctions.

💠The US/EU has undermined ‘Lex Mercatoria’ (Latin – ‘Merchant Law’). The autonomous legal order of international economic relations for trade & rules for settling disputes. The west has now now destroyed, how money & currencies function in relationship to trade & private property rights.

Video Source - PressTV

🔹The yuan 🇨🇳 became the most widely-used currency for cross-border transactions in China for March, overtaking the dollar for the first time, reflecting efforts by Beijing to internationalise use of the yuan. Cross-border payments and receipts in yuan rose to a record $549.9 billion in March from $434.5 billion a month earlier.

🔹The yuan was used in 48.4% of all cross-border transactions, while the dollar's 💵 share declined to 46.7% from 48.6% a month earlier.

🔹Data from SWIFT showed that the yuan's share of global currency transactions for trade finance rose to 4.5% in March, while the dollar accounted for 83.71%.

🔹The Central Bank of Iraq 🇮🇶 is considering it's option to convert dollars in the bank's accounts with JP Morgan and the Development Bank of Singapore to yuan for payment to final beneficiaries in China as part of a policy to allow direct yuan settlement for trade from China.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 China & Brazil 🇧🇷 set up yuan clearing arrangement in to facilitate cross-border transactions.

💠 The KSA 🇸🇦 is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the USD, such as the Chinese yuan.

💠 The share of trade between Russia & China in national currencies has reached roughly half of turnover (yuan- ruble).

💠 China's holdings of US 🇺🇸 Treasuries have been decreasing in 2022.

💠 Moscow 🇷🇺 & Beijing are developing a system of settlements to allow cross-border transactions bypassing SWIFT.

Video source - Sean Foo

🔹Argentina 🇦🇷 is set to follow Brazil and start to pay for Chinese 🇨🇳 imports in yuan rather than US dollars 💵. The country wants to preserve its dwindling USD reserves. A historic drought has hit Argentina's agricultural exports, meaning fewer dollars are coming in.

🔹The South American nation will aim to buy around $1 billion of Chinese imports in April using yuan. After that, it hopes to pay for around $790 million of monthly imports in the Chinese currency.

🔹Argentine Economy Minister Sergio Massa said “...these types of measures give our reserves greater strength and are key to improving the prospects for net reserves, giving us greater freedom and capacity to intervene in the face of those who speculate and over-speculate with the economic situation,”.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Argentina 🇦🇷 applies to join BRICS group of nations.

💠 Argentina & Brazil want to "advance discussions on a common South American currency" to be used for financial and trade flows.

💠 China 🇨🇳 and Brazil 🇧🇷 have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies after setting up a yuan clearing arrangement in to facilitate cross-border transactions.

Video source - CGTN

🔹Russia's Foreign Minister S. Lavrov addressed the online Global Conference on Multipolarity on April 29th. He said, "It seems only natural that efforts by Washington and its satellites to reverse the course of history and force the international community to live up to a ‘rules-based world order’ have failed. He also expressed that the trend toward multipolarity is irreversible, whether former colonial powers like it or not.

🔹The 17-hour long conference was filled with short speeches from politicians, public dignitaries, journalists, and academic and cultural figures from around the world, who stand up for multipolarity, and for fairer and more democratic inter-state relations.

🔹Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spokeswoman, M. Sakharova, criticized "the political elites in the US and the EU who do not use information and communication technologies for the noble purpose of providing objective information to the general public, but for agitation, provocation and propaganda".

🔹Political scientist & philosopher Alexander Dugin declared that the era of unipolarity is over. He encouraged attendees of various nations to recognise that they are part of many civilizations and not only "the rest of the world" that Western leaders categorize non-western countries as. He included the people of western civilization who are against the agendas (anti-humanity) pushed by their western political elite, as part of the multipolar world.

Video source - Russian MFA