🔹Belarusian 🇧🇾 president Lukashenko receives a warm welcome to Zimbabwe 🇿🇼. Deals are already being signed on the 1st day of his 3-day visit.

🔹Belarus’ Minsk Tractor Plant signed a memorandum of strategic partnership, in 2023-2024 is set to supply 3,575 tractors 🚜 to Zimbabwe. African customers laud the high quality of Belarusian tractors. In the field of agriculture, memorandums & cooperation agreements were signed between Zimbabwean co,'s and Belarusian co.'s to promote sales in Zimbabwe.

🔹Charge d’Affaires of Belarus to Zimbabwe Dmitry Sakun — “Belarus would like to create a hub for trading its products in Africa... & Belarus is developing industrial cooperation projects with its African partners”.

Last reported on this channel:

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

💠 Gold coins used as currency in Zimbabwe to be available in smaller denominations.

💠 Zimbabwe expects to harvest 380,000 tonnes of wheat 🌾 to cover local consumption & not import.

🔹President Zoran Milanovic of Croatia 🇭🇷 (an EU & NATO member), criticised Western nations for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks and other weapons, saying those arms deliveries will only prolong the war. He said that it is “mad” to believe that Russia can be defeated in a conventional war.

🔹He said Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, will never again be part of Ukraine. He added that the arrival of German tanks in Ukraine would only serve to drive Russia 🇷🇺 closer to China 🇨🇳.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Croatian President Z. Milanovic ridicules the German FM’s declaration that Europe is “fighting a war against Russia,”. He called out the EU 🇪🇺 for treating its members like developmentally-challenged children.

💠 Croatian 🇭🇷 lawmakers narrowly rejected a proposal the country should join an EU mission in support of the Ukrainian military.

Video courtesy AZgeopolitics

🔹Azerbaijani 🇦🇿 President I. Aliyev & Hungarian 🇭🇺 PM V. Orban signed several intergovernmental documents, on an expanded strategic partnership between the two members of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS).

🔹PM Orban —-- "... the energy security of Hungary & Europe has entered a sensitive period. These new conditions have immediately enhanced the importance of Azerbaijan". Under an agreement, the natural gas delivered from the country to Europe would be doubled by 2027, & another lays the groundwork to deliver electricity. Both routes would run through Hungary.

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💠The OTS established the Turkic Investment Fund, during the OTS Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan 🇺🇿.

💠A trilateral deal was signed by Azerbaijan 🇦🇿, Russia 🇷🇺, & Iran 🇮🇷 to facilitate the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor.

💠Türkiye's 🇹🇷 President Erdogan has attended the first trilateral summit with Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 & Turkmenistan 🇹🇲.

Video courtesy Azertac

🔹The Economist ——- "mysterious newcomers have begun to help sell Russia’s 🇷🇺 crude...new “shadow” shipping & financing infrastructure is robust & extensive". "....the volume of cargo with unknown destinations has jumped, Russian oil 🛢, once easy to track, is now being distributed through more shadowy channels".

🔹Oman 🇴🇲 & the UAE 🇦🇪, which imported more Russian oil in the first 10 months of 2022 than in the previous 3 years combined, seem to have blended & re-sold some to Europe. Malaysia 🇲🇾 is exporting twice as much crude to China 🇨🇳 as it can produce.

🔹More than 30 Russian trading outfits have set up shop in Dubai—some under new names. Last year nearly 200 crude-carrying vessels 🚢 changed hands, some 55% more than in 2021. Increasingly, banks in the Gulf are signing cheques to bankroll and insure their operations.

🔹The fleet Russia can use to dodge the price cap now counts 360-odd ships, equivalent to 16% of the global crude tanker inventory.

🔹USA- About 100,000 chickens died at a large egg 🥚 farm fire, in Bozrah Connecticut. No confirmation on the exact number of egg-laying hens that died. 20 fire departments helped local firefighters with the blaze. No workers were injured.

🔹USDA notes there are more than 372 million egg-laying hens in the US. Chicken farmers are taking to social media about suspicions of reduced protein content in chicken feed (Producer's Pride brand).

Earlier bird flu posts on this channel:

💠 US 🇺🇸- Egg prices jumped 60% in 2022.

💠 Egg prices 'expected to soar' in Japan 🇯🇵 after record cull of 10 million birds.

💠 US - Bird Flu outbreak worsens as over 50 million birds are culled.

💠 UK 🇬🇧- Customers are facing limits on how many eggs they can buy.

💠 Spain 🇪🇸 - 2 poultry farm workers tested positive for bird flu.

💠 Millions of chickens euthanized to prevent spread of bird flu at US & UK farms.

💠 Death of seabirds & duck farms in Canada 🇨🇦 linked to bird flu.

Video courtesy Fox News.

🔹China's 🇨🇳 new foreign minister Qin Gang wants to build stronger ties with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) 🇸🇦and set up a China-Gulf free trade zone "as soon as possible". He said the sides should further expand cooperation on economy, trade, energy, infrastructure, investment, finance, and high technology.

🔹The KSA may trim prices for crude 🛢grades sold to Asia for a fourth straight month in March.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 The KSA is open to discussions about trade in currencies other than the US dollar 💵, such as the Chinese yuan.

💠 The Shanghai Gold Exchange will be used by the KSA 🇸🇦for its yuan to gold transactions.

💠 President Xi Jingping 🇨🇳 boosts cooperation in energy supply chains with the KSA during his state visit.

💠 The KSA lowered prices for Arab light crude grade it sells to Asia.

Video courtesy Sean Foo

🔹USA - 🇺🇸 New York & much of the East Coast are at risk of a gasoline shortage this summer as the EU’s 🇪🇺 ban of Russian 🇷🇺 fuel threatens to choke off the backup supplies the US relies on during peak driving season.

🔹Seasonal gasoline ⛽️ stockpiles already are at the lowest in about a decade, and heavy winter maintenance at refineries may further trim inventories.

🔹Although the US is a net exporter of gasoline, most of the excess is in the Gulf Coast, and transportation to the East Coast is constrained by insufficient pipeline capacity & the expense of waterborne shipping.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 U.S. oil refining margins (aka 'crack spread'), jumped to a three-month high. This is an indication of ongoing product shortage. The crack spread hit $42 a barrel, the five-year January average is $15.56.

💠 Rising oil prices, potentially pose challenges to the US plan to begin refilling the SPR 🛢 using fixed-price contracts.

💠 The US used 📉 218 million barrels of oil from it's SPR.

🔹Norway's 🇳🇴 sovereign wealth fund returned -14.1% in 2022, equivalent to a record loss in monetary terms of 1.64 trillion Norwegian kroner ($166.2 billion). The fund's 69.8% allocation to equities returned -15.3% in 2022. The wealth of the fund is anchored on Norway's enormous North Sea oil and gas deposits.

🔹Last year, the fund cut its holdings in the world’s biggest oil & gas co.'s, taking profits after a run up in energy prices. It bought stocks in big tech, big pharma & real estate as the markets fell.

🔹The fund is barred from proceeding with the planned divestment of its $292 million of worth of Russian holdings as the custodian bank is under sanctions.

Last reported on this channel:

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

💠 Norway's Yara International says Q3 2022 ammonia output dropped 📉 to 57% of capacity in Europe.

💠 Norwegian owned Norsk Hydro shuts down a 175,000-ton annual capacity aluminum smelter in Slovakia.

🔹UK 🇬🇧 - Up to half a million British teachers, civil servants, and train drivers walked out over pay in the largest coordinated strike action for a decade. The mass walkouts across the country shut schools, halted most rail services, and forced the military to be put on standby to help with border checks on a day dubbed "Walk Out Wednesday" by unions.

🔹Union Rep. —"Not only are wages not keeping up, but things like fares, council tax and rents are going up. Anything we get is eaten away." Britain has witnessed months of strikes by tens of thousands of workers -- including postal staff, lawyers, nurses and employees in the retail sector -- as UK inflation raced above 11%, 📈 the highest level in more than 40 years.

🔹British PM Rishi Sunak ——"Nothing would give me more pleasure than, to wave a magic wand 🪄 & have all of you paid lots more,".

🔹The IMF downgrades 📉 the UK growth forecast by -0.6%. GDP fell 0.3% in Q3 2022 & estimated to have fallen in Q4.

Rifts are emerging between the US & NATO allies as the Ukraine narrative begins to fall apart.

🔹Türkiye 🇹🇷 has warned its citizens against "possible Islamophobic, xenophobic & racist attacks" in the US & Europe. Turkish President R. T. Erdogan doubled down on his admonishment of Sweden 🇸🇪, warning that he would not approve Stockholm’s NATO membership bid. A copy of the Quran was burnt in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden.

🔹Finland 🇫🇮 claims Russia 🇷🇺 is to blame for Quran burning. Foreign Policy claims that Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. 🇺🇸 support for Kurds in Syria 🇸🇾. Hungary joins Türkiye to condemn Sweden.

🔹Hungarian 🇭🇺 FM P.Szijjarto has declared that Turkish President Erdogan should be considered for a Nobel Peace Prize. Critics accuse Hungary of purging NATO officers from it's military.

🔹President Z. Milanovic of Croatia 🇭🇷 (an EU & NATO member), criticised Western nations for supplying Ukraine with heavy tanks.

🔹Brazilian 🇧🇷 President Lula da Silva rejects Germany's proposals to send weapons to Ukraine during German Chancellor O. Scholz's visit to Brazil. Both Argentina & Chile have given Germany a cold shoulder on the issue.

🔹 A German gov't official suggested that Lula’s reluctance to condemn Putin may also be shaped by the large quantity of fertilizers that Brazilian farmers 🚜 buy from Russia 🇷🇺. Germany outlined more than $200 million in contributions for environmental projects in Brazil's Amazon forests.

🔹Germany 🇩🇪 attempts to speed up progress to finalise the proposed EU–Mercosur free trade agreement (FTA). Mercosur (The Southern Common Market) is a customs union comprising of 12 Latin American countries with a free intra-zone trade & a common trade policy.

🔹Germany's Chancellor O. Scholz is on a Latin America tour to push for the completion of the EU–Mercosur FTA. The EU is concerned over discussions of a Latin American common currency announced by Brazil 🇧🇷 & Argentina 🇦🇷.

🔹The U.S. 🇺🇸 beef cow herd dropped to its lowest level since 1962 ——USDA. Severe drought raising costs for livestock feed is given as the reason. Declining supplies of cattle are expected to keep meat prices high for consumers.

🔹Ranchers increasingly sent cows 🐂 to slaughter last year, instead of keeping them to reproduce, as dry weather reduced the amount of pasture available for grazing in the western United States and on the Plains. At the same time, a tight labor market limited slaughtering at meatpacking plants.

🔹There were 28.9 million beef cows as of Jan. 1, down 3.6% from a year earlier. Overall the total number of cattle and calves across the country fell 3% 📉 from a year ago to 89.3 million, the lowest since 2015.

🔹Don Roose, founder of US Commodities, a grain and livestock investment and management firm, warned: "We're still in the contraction phase. "It takes a long time to build a herd back up again."

🔹India’s 🇮🇳 ambassador to Russia 🇷🇺, Pawan Kapoor ——-Moscow & New Delhi should consider jointly building oil-carrying ships and establishing energy insurance companies. He noted that the countries “should think about the future and look at opportunities of ship-building & creating independent logistics network & insurance.”

🔹India imports nearly 90% of its crude oil 🛢 but is rich in refining capacity. Refiners are gobbling discounted Russian crude grades for re-export as diesel fuel and other distillates. One of the biggest oil-products exporters happens to be India’s largest publicly traded company, Reliance Industries.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 India now buying thirty-three (33) times more Russian oil than a year earlier.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

💠 Russia’s crude grades re-routed from Europe to China 🇨🇳 & India 🇮🇳.

💠 US East Coast are at risk of a gasoline shortage this summer due to EU’s 🇪🇺 ban of Russian fuel.

🔹Russia's 🇷🇺 Foreign Minister S. Lavrov points out the changing views around the world that the west cannot be trusted to adhere to international agreements as a result of freezing/confiscation of Russian foreign exchange reserves and assets.

🔹He said, "The US 🇺🇸 & its NATO satellites have completely undermined their reputation as reliable international partners that are capable of coming to an agreement,". "Countries are increasingly convinced that no one is immune to the West’s banditry and expropriation".

🔹Recently, Switzerland's 🇨🇭Minister of Economy said that the transfer of frozen Russian assets to Ukraine would be a violation of Swiss law.

Last reported on this channel:

💠The 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 destroyed, how money & currencies function in relationship to trade & private property rights.

Video courtesy IntelRepublic

🔹Türkiye's 🇹🇷 Interior Minister, S. Soylu lashes out against the US ambassador to Ankara, telling him to take his "dirty hands off of Türkiye". He also accused the West of waging a “psychological war” against Ankara.

🔹This comes after the US 🇺🇸 & EU 🇪🇺 states issued travel warnings over possible terror attacks in Türkiye & closures of consulates. The West did not share the source of possible attack's with Türkiye.

🔹Türkiye's Foreign Minister M. Cavusoglu claimed these actions were “intentional” due to Türkiye's refusal to greenlight the NATO membership of Sweden & Finland.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Türkiye 🇹🇷 has warned its citizens against "possible Islamophobic attacks" in the US & Europe. West claims claims that Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. 🇺🇸 support for Kurds in Syria 🇸🇾.

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

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

Video courtesy AZgeopolitics

🔹Hungary's 🇭🇺 Foreign Minister P. Szijjarto issued a scathing rebuke of the US ambassador to Budapest, asserting that he has no business meddling in the nation’s internal affairs. Szijjarto said, “Nobody can tell us from the outside how to live, so it is of no interest what a citizen of another country – be it an ambassador – thinks about the domestic political processes in Hungary.

🔹US 🇺🇸 Ambassador D. Pressman, recently told Politico that Hungarian policymakers “continue to push policies endorsed by Putin”.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Western critics accuse Hungary 🇭🇺 of purging NATO officers from it's military.

💠 Hungary claim Germany 🇩🇪 is blocking the upgrade of Hungary's Paks nuclear facility by Russia's 🇷🇺Rosatom.

💠 Ukraine 🇺🇦 forcibly & disproportionately conscripting ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia.

💠 The EU 🇪🇺 withholds both Hungary's budgeted allocation of 7.5 billion euros & it's post-pandemic recovery funds of 5.8 billion euros.

Video courtesy AZgeopolitics

🔹 US 🇺🇸 warns Türkiye 🇹🇷 & the UAE 🇦🇪 against maintaining economic & financial ties with Russia because they are undermining sanctions. The US is concerned over Russian vessels either sanctioned or subject to export controls making port calls in Türkiye.

🔹US senators warn of blocking Türkiye’s F-16 deal if Erdogan doesn’t back Sweden's 🇸🇪 NATO bid. US WSJ reports that Russia's war effort is fueled by Türkiye.

🔹Türkiye believes the presence of Iran in ongoing talks between Türkiye, Syria 🇸🇾, & Russia 🇷🇺 is beneficial for resolving the conflict in Syria.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 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 🇸🇦.

Video courtesy Collective East News

🔹Indian 🇮🇳 refiners have begun paying for most of their Russian 🇷🇺 oil purchased via Dubai-based traders in UAE 🇦🇪 dirhams instead of USD. Indian refiners & traders are concerned they may not be able to continue to settle trades in dollars, especially if the price of Russian crude 🛢rises above the G-7/EU imposed price cap. The State Bank of India, is now clearing these dirham payments after previous failures.

Last reported on this channel:

💠 Oman & the UAE 🇦🇪, accused of importing Russian oil & blending to re-sell to Europe.

💠 The US 🇺🇸 warns Oman, UAE & Türkiye of possible embargo if they continue to evade US sanctions on Russia.

💠 India & UAE discuss non-oil trade in rupees.

💠 Bank of Russia 🇷🇺 starts setting official rates of the ruble vs the UAE dirham.

💠 India 🇮🇳 buying thirty-three (33) times more Russian oil than a year earlier.

💠 Russia is now transporting more of it's own crude on its own tankers 🚢.

Video courtesy Firstpost

🔹Many parts of Italy 🇮🇹 faces a major internet outage today, Sunday 5 February. From North to South there are thousands of users left without internet and telephone on the Telecom Italia network. The problem would have mainly concerned the internet connection from the fixed network and the difficulty of opening some websites in particular if connected to the network.

🔹The greatest number of problems seem to be concentrated in the major 🇮🇹 urban centers relating to internet access from a landline of Telecom Italia subscribers and in some cases also from mobile.

🔹CloudflareRadar data shows traffic loss nationwide, on AS3269, and on AS16232, due to an "international interconnectivity problem". 🌐

Our prayers 🙏 go out to the people of Türkiye 🇹🇷 & Syria 🇸🇾 who have been devastated by these earthquakes.

It is quite disheartening to see social media & Telegram posts (which I refuse to popularise on this channel) by some Westerners & extremists in Ukraine glorifying this disaster because of Türkiye's & Syria's cordial relationship with Russia. This loss of humanity shows the direct consequences of western media Russo-phobia propagated on the minds of citizens in western countries.

A reminder to subscribers of this channel to be aware of the continuous psychological war going on around us for our minds.

🔹Today, on the morning of Monday 6th Feb., a powerful 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck in southern Türkiye 🇹🇷, causing significant destruction across the country and in neighboring Syria. A second a 7.5-magnitude earthquake took place in the afternoon. Over 1,541 people are dead, as buildings collapsed on both sides of the border.

🔹It was centered in the in the southern province of Kahramanmaras 🇹🇷 at a depth of 7 km. In the Turkish Kilis Province, natural gas pipelines were ruptured.

🔹In Syria 🇸🇾, it recorded over 716 deaths and over 1,000 injured people. A large refinery in the city of Baniyas, had to be shut down for at least 48 hours due to cracks in the chimney of its power unit.

🔹Türkiye has officially requested help from NATO for medical assistance and equipment. 45 countries have responded and offered help, including Iran, Israel, India, UK, US, Azerbaijan, EU members states & the UAE. Russia is mobilizing to provide Syria & Türkiye with the necessary aid it requires.