Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree confirming the country's official support for the free circulation of cryptocurrencies. The document provides a legal basis for the creation and maintenance by the Belarusian High-Tech Park of a register of crypto wallet addresses used in illegal activities. The decree document details the process and standards for the government to seize crypto from criminals. The decree is intended to protect crypto investors from possible losses and prevent unintentional participation in activities prohibited by law. https://president.gov.by/ru/documents/ukaz-no-48-ot-14-fevralya-2022-g

UK - Petrol prices have surged to a record high and are expected to climb further in coming weeks, adding to the burden on UK households’ already squeezed budgets.
The AA said petrol surpassed 148p a litre on Sunday, rising above the previous record high of 147.72p on 21 November last year. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/feb/14/uk-petrol-prices-hit-all-time-high

The best option for India is to ban private cryptocurrencies, one of the country's top central bankers said. Private crypto is worse than Ponzi schemes and pose a threat to financial stability, Rabi Sankar said. The government plans to impose a 30% tax on income from cryptocurrencies and other digital assets such as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. It also wants to deduct 1% in tax at source on payments related to buying such assets. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/india-ban-ponzi-private-cryptos-114901191.html

US- A hack at IRA Financial Trust, which offers self-directed retirement accounts, resulted in the theft of $36 million in cryptocurrency. That same day, unidentified hackers drained $21 million in Bitcoin and $15 million in Ethereum from the accounts of IRA Financial Trust customers. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-14/ira-financial-hacked-36-million-in-cryptocurrency-stolen?srnd=premium&sref=ibr3A0ff

Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau has invoked special emergency powers to confront the trucker convoy. It gives Trudeau’s administration special authority to restrict movement, freeze financial accounts (including personal bank accounts and cyptocurrency transactions) https://news.yahoo.com/trudeau-invokes-emergency-powers-against-010824459.html

A cyberattack hit the websites of Ukrainian government agencies and major banks today. At least 10 Ukrainian websites stopped working due to DDOS attacks, including those of the Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Culture Ministry and Ukraine’s two largest state banks. Customers at Ukraine’s largest state-owned bank, Privatbank, and the state-owned Sberbank reported problems with online payments and the banks’ apps. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cyberattack-hits-ukrainian-government-sites-major-banks/ar-AATToJ5

US- Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert and taking steps to increase biosecurity, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion. The new fear is driven by the discovery announced Feb. 9 of the virus infecting a commercial turkey flock in Indiana. The 29,000 turkeys in the flock were killed to prevent the spread of the virus. https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2022-02-15/us-bird-flu-case-puts-chicken-turkey-farms-on-high-alert

More chip shortages ahead. This time memory chips. Western Digital says it has lost at least 6.5 exabytes (6.5 billion gigabytes) of flash storage due to contamination issues at its NAND production facilities. The contamination could see the price of NAND — the main component of SSDs — spike up to 10 percent. https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/11/22928867/western-digital-nand-flash-storage-contamination

Argentina's farm belt is set for days of hot and dry weather ahead, stoking fears among grains farmers whose corn and soy crops are in sore need of rainfall after spells of drought. Argentina is the world's top exporter of soybean oil and meal. Crops suffered important losses between December and the first half of January due to a drought and heat waves. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/dry-weather-outlook-fans-drought-fears-argentinas-farmlands-2022-02-15/

Agricultural chemicals shortage ahead - Bayer sent a note to retailers saying due to production issues with a third-party ingredient supplier, the company won’t be able to fulfill some of its previously booked orders. Bayer declared a force majeure, which means due to the issue being out of Bayer’s control, the company will be able to escape contractual obligations. https://www.agweb.com/news/crops/crop-production/bayer-warns-more-glyphosate-shortages-heres-how-severe-situation-could

Paraguay's soybean crushing industry will run out of beans to process by the middle of the year due to a drought hammering production, the country's trade industry body told Reuters, adding it was in talks to import beans for the first time ever. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/exclusive-paraguay-soy-crushers-hit-by-drought-risk-running-out-beans-2022-02-16/

British consumer prices rose at the fastest annual pace in nearly 30 years last month, intensifying the squeeze on households and reinforcing the chances that the Bank of England will raise interest rates. The annual rate of CPI rose to 5.5% in January, the highest since March 1992. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-inflation-rises-55-january-2022-02-16/

🇨🇦 Live conversation with Canadian bank manager confirming orders from federal government to freeze accounts associated with those exercising their right to protest.
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No fear here, everything this tyrannical government is doing just digs their hole deeper and deeper waking up and connecting more and more people.

Shaun "The Viking" Zimmer
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#unitedwestand #faithoverfear

Blackstone cemented its position as America's largest residential and commercial landlord by buying apartment owner Preferred Apartment Communities in a deal valued at $5.8 billion, demonstrating the unstoppable investor demand for multifamily - i.e., rental - properties in Sunbelt states. https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/americas-largest-landlord-just-got-even-bigger-blackstone-buys-12000-sunbelt-apartments

US- Fire had broken out at Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) Claypool, Indiana, soybean processing and biodiesel plant and the affected systems had been suspended. The suspension of deliveries could slow production of soymeal and biodiesel at a time of high demand. The Claypool plant has capacity to crush 175,000 bushels of soybeans a day. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/louis-dreyfus-reports-fire-largest-us-soy-processing-plant-2022-02-16/

The United States’ Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project has in one of two recently conducted pilot tests achieved a record speed of 1.7 million transactions per second (TPS), way faster than the best cryptocurrency networks. The test was carried out by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, in partnership with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) Digital Currency Initiative. https://www.cnbctv18.com/cryptocurrency/us-test-cbdc-hits-record-transaction-speed-12530262.htm

Massive outages of Canadian banking websites yesterday. ATM's reportedly empty in areas. #BankRunCanada trending on Twitter yesterday as protestors bank accounts are frozen. Alternatives of cash, gold, silver and cryptocurrency being considered by protestors to be able to survive.