Trade Wars Begin: Trump Slaps 25% Tariffs On Canada And Mexico, 10% On China

Trade Wars Begin: Trump Slaps 25% Tariffs On Canada And Mexico, 10% On China

And just like that, the Trump trade wars have officially (re)started.

As was widely previewed yesterday, President Trump unleashed the first salvo of his latest trade war with tariffs of 25% on Canada and Mexico and 10% on China, the start of a wave of promised trade barrages against both foreign adversaries and allies.

Trump signed orders for the tariffs around 5pm ET on Saturday; they will go into effect on Tuesday, at which point they will likely escalate in tit-for-tat fashion until something breaks.

According to a fact sheet published by the White House, the tariffs are in response to the “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs” such as fentanyl, which constitute a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Perhaps the only difference from what was previously leaked is that energy imports from Canada will be spared from the full 25% levy and will face a 10% tariff. The White House officials said that was intended to minimize upward pressure on gasoline and home-heating oil prices.

The orders also include retaliation clauses that would increase US tariffs if the countries respond in kind. The tariffs issued on Saturday will be on top of existing trade levies on those countries.

The order also revoked the so-called de minimis exemption for small parcels and packages, one official said, which will apply tariffs more widely to small shipments and impact e-commerce and online retailing. The US loses a tremendous amount of tariff revenue by using the exemption, one official said.

The three targeted countries are the largest three sources of US imports, accounting for almost half of total volume.

The decision is intended to have sharp economic impacts for the nations targeted; it will likely also impact the US depending on how much of the tariff-related price increases are passed through.

Parts of the US, including the Pacific Northwest and Northeast US, are deeply reliant on electricity or gas flows from Canada. And oil industry advocates have warned against even a 10% increase in the cost of crude inputs into Midwestern refineries that have few near-term options to substitute with US supplies.

For context, over 60% of US crude imports comes from Canada, so a 10% tariff on oil imports will lead to a prompt increase in the price of diesel which is the backbone of the US economy. Depending on the mood of the Fed on any given day, that may be seen as inflationary and lead to rate hikes in the near future.

Markets have been gripped by uncertainty as they awaited Trump’s decision on the tariffs and there are looming questions about how the levies will impact stocks.

In the 10 days since Trump’s initial tariff threat on his first full day in office, the S&P 500 Index was essentially flat while equity benchmarks in Europe, Canada and Mexico were all higher. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon Index — comprised of companies that do business in China but trade in the US — jumped more than 4%.

According to Bloomberg, automakers such as General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis NV, which have global supply chains and massive exposure to Mexico and Canada, could see significant swings.

Needless to say, Trump’s political opponents such as Jason Furman were quick to conclude that the market will punish what the Democrat economic advisor sees as bad economic and foreign policy.

Citing sources, Bloomberg writes that officials on the call Saturday justified the tariffs by citing the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs across the border, as well as illegal immigration. Sources added that Canada had been officially informed that the tariffs would be implemented on their goods on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to speak on the tariffs after they are implemented on Saturday. Canada is set to impose retaliatory countertariffs, the nation’s natural resources minister said in an interview on Friday.

“We will focus on tariffing American good that actually are sold in significant quantities in Canada, and especially those for which there are readily available alternatives for Canadians,” Jonathan Wilkinson said.

Former Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who is among the candidates to succeed Justin Trudeau as prime minister, suggested hitting Trump ally Elon Musk directly by applying a 100% tariff on Tesla cars. That will hardly help de-escalate what is now officially the first trade war of Trump’s second (technically third) term.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 18:10

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‘Trantifa’ Insurrectionist Who Went To D.C. To Kill GOP Leaders Was Inspired By Luigi Mangione

‘Trantifa’ Insurrectionist Who Went To D.C. To Kill GOP Leaders Was Inspired By Luigi Mangione

Via Headline USA,

A Massachusetts resident went to the U.S. Capitol to kill members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet was influenced by Luigi Mangione, the man charged with fatally shooting the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, prosecutors said in a court filing.

Ryan Michael English / IMAGE: @exline_m45026 via X

Ryan Michael English, who goes by Riley English, was arrested Monday and remained in custody after an initial court appearance on Thursday. English didn’t immediately challenge the pretrial detention, court records show.

English, 24, of South Deerfield, Massachusetts, was “on a mission” and “had been thinking about for this for a while because of Luigi Mangione,” prosecutors said.

Mangione pleaded not guilty in December to state murder and terror charges in a Manhattan court.

“I pushed that away because I was thinking like that is so stupid, that accomplishes nothing, that poor kid just threw his life away for like a minute of vengeance,” English said, according to prosecutors.

English was arrested on weapons charges after approaching police at the Capitol—the same site as the 2021 homicide that killed Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt.

The unhinged ‘Trantifa’ activist claimed to have gone there in order to kill billionaire investor Scott Bessent on the day that the Senate confirmed him as Trump’s treasury secretary, according to a Tuesday court filing.

Investigators said they found a folding knife, two homemade firebombs and a lighter in English’s possession.

English also claimed to have traveled from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., intending to kill other Republican political figures—Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson—and to burn down the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, according to police.

English changed the target to Bessent, a former top financial adviser to billionare left-wing oligarch George Soros, after reading an internet post about his confirmation hearing, police said.

English, who claimed to be terminally ill, “wanted to do something before I go,” according to prosecutors.

“The criminal conduct for which she [sic] is before the Court is not a momentary lapse in judgment; rather, it was a premeditated and calculated attempt to commit violence,” the prosecutors wrote, referring to English by female pronouns even as the Trump administration issued an order that federal employees discontinue a Biden administration practice of removing so-called preferred pronouns from their official emails.

Defense attorney Maria Jacob said English only went to the Capitol “as a cry for help” and didn’t intend to harm anybody.

“She [sic] was not aggressive when she approached the Capitol Police Officers,” Jacob wrote. “She never brandished any of the items as weapons and assisted police to retrieve the items on her person immediately.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 16:20

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“It’s Like A Switch Was Flipped”: Border Encounters Plummet 94% Under Trump

“It’s Like A Switch Was Flipped”: Border Encounters Plummet 94% Under Trump

Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, illegal alien encounters at the southern US border have plummeted an average of 94% during his first 9 days, compared to President Biden’s last 19 days in office.

Screenshot, Truth Social

During Trump’s first 9 days in office, after new border measures were implemented, there were an average of 126 daily encounters at the border vs. 2,087 per day during the last 2.5 weeks of the Biden administration.

As Rasmussen’s Mark Mitchell put it last week, “It’s like a switch was flipped.

During his 2024 campaign, Trump vowed to crack down on illegal immigration by continuing construction on the border wall, conducting the largest mass deportation in US history, slapping tariffs on Canada and Mexico until they control the situation from their end, and increasing penalties for illegal aliens.

To that end, there were more than 3,500 illegal immigrants who were arrested during Trump’s first week in office, including over 1,100 in a single day.

As American Greatness notes further, on Wednesday, shortly before signing the Laken Riley Act into law, the 45th and 47th President announced his intention to send 30,000 of the most dangerous criminal illegals to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Laken Riley Act, named after the 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered by a Venezuelan illegal, is the first bill signed into law during President Trump’s second term. It gives federal immigration authorities broader power to arrest illegals who commit dangerous crimes, including drunk driving and assaulting police officers.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 14:35

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Trump’s Overhaul Of The Federal Bureaucracy Backed By Recent Survey Research

Trump’s Overhaul Of The Federal Bureaucracy Backed By Recent Survey Research

Authored by Elizabeth Sheld via RealClearPolicy,

Since returning to office for a second term, President Trump has taken aggressive action to overhaul the federal bureaucracy. After a week in office some of Trump actions towards federal workers include: removing employment protections for civil servants, firing17 inspectors general, reassigning career officials in the Department of Justice, sending home 160 staffers from the National Security Agency and firing the lawyers at the Department of Justice who prosecuted Trump under special counsel Jack Smith.

Trump’s efforts have been met with hostility and criticism from the media and predictably from his political opposition.

Opinionist Phillip Bump at the Washington Post  writes Trump’s actions are “a sharp disruption of how the government works.” Bump laments that “Trump is clearly interested in…seeding loyalists throughout the executive branch.”  At Axios, Zachary Basu and Dave Lawler explain that Trump is “transform[ing] the federal bureaucracy into an army of loyalists.” Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who represents 140,000 federal workers in Virginia, told reporters “This gleeful hatred of the federal workforce will lead to nothing good.”

But are Trump’s efforts to transform the government workforce justified by a real concern that his policy platforms–which earned him a presidential victory–will be thwarted by anonymous bureaucrats?

Recent survey research suggests Trump is right to be concerned. Napolitan Institute found that just 45% of Federal Government Managers would follow a legal order from President Trump if they thought the order was bad policy and instead would do what they thought was right. Among managers who voted for Kamala Harris that figure jumps to nearly three-quarters (69%.) The survey also found a majority (52%) of the federal managerial class voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

Those current survey results are consistent with events that developed in the first Trump Administration, where we learned how bureaucratic opinions on “right” policy interfered with the power of the duly elected executive officer.

Former diplomat Jim Jeffrey revealed that his team routinely mislead the Trump Administration after the president had ordered the withdrawal of troops from Syria. “What Syria withdrawal? There was never a Syria withdrawal,” Jeffrey said. “When the situation in northeast Syria had been fairly stable after we defeated ISIS, [Trump] was inclined to pull out. In each case, we then decided to come up with five better arguments for why we needed to stay. And we succeeded both times. That’s the story.”

“We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there,” Jeffrey said in an interview.

While Jeffrey’s revelation came after Trump had left office from his first term, there was a real time revelation of a policy conflict between President Trump and the “interagency consensus” that would become foundation of the first Trump impeachment.

The policy difference originated from a phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when Trump requested Zelensky open an investigation into possible corruption at the Burisma energy company before receiving a military aid package. Trump’s 2020 election opponent Joe Biden’s son was on the board of Burisma.

A central part of the subsequent impeachment case was testimony from Lt. Alexander Vindman (ret.), who had been detailed to the National Security Council and present for the phone call. Vindman explained in his opening statement to the House impeachment committee he was concerned the president chose to wield his executive authority in a way that was at odds with the “interagency consensus.” Vindman testified “…a false narrative of Ukraine inconsistent with the consensus views of the interagency,” Vindman said in his opening statement. “This narrative was harmful to U.S. government policy. While my interagency colleagues and I were becoming increasingly optimistic on Ukraine’s prospects, this alternative narrative undermined U.S. government efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine.”  But Vindman and the “interagency consensus” have no authority to determine or execute their interpretation of U.S. government policy or in other words, “do what they thought was right.”

The New York Times editorial board supported and encouraged the usurpation of executive authority in favor of the “right” bureaucratic opinion by praising the government bureaucracy overriding or ignoring President Trump’s lawful authority. “…patriotic public servants — career diplomats, scientists, intelligence officers and others…have somehow remembered that their duty is to protect the interests, not of a particular leader, but of the American people.”

There is no way to know exactly how extensive bureaucratic resistance interfered with Trump’s ability to govern in his first term, but we do know 46% of current Federal Government Managers would ignore the legal order of President Trump and instead do what was “right.” Trump is making the correct move to overhaul the federal bureaucracy in order to deliver on the campaign promises that got him back in office.

Elizabeth Sheld is a veteran political strategist and pollster who has worked on campaigns and public interest affairs.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 12:50

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NYT, NBC, NPR, Politico Evicted From Pentagon Press Offices In Favor Of Trump-Friendly Outlets

NYT, NBC, NPR, Politico Evicted From Pentagon Press Offices In Favor Of Trump-Friendly Outlets

The innumerable consequences of the 2024 election keep gushing forth at a pace that’s hard to keep up with. Here’s a new gem: On Friday evening, the Department of Defense told The New York Times, NBC News, National Public Radio and Politico that they have two weeks to vacate their long-held and treasured offices inside the Pentagon. 

Three of their four replacements skew decidedly to the Trump-friendly sector of the political spectrum: the New York Post, One America News Network and Breitbart. Throwing a bone to leftists, HuffPost news snagged Politico’s old slot. The Pentagon Press Association said it was “greatly troubled by this unprecedented move by DOD to single out highly professional media.”

The short-notice evictions from the hallowed “Correspondents’ Corridor” spring from the launch of a “new annual media rotation program for [the] Pentagon Press Corps,” according to a memorandum sent by DOD spokesman John Ullyot on Friday and posted by CNN Pentagon correspondent Haley Britzky. The program seeks to “broaden access to the limited space…to outlets that have not previously enjoyed the privilege and journalist value of working from physical office space in the Pentagon,” said Ullyot.

The booted outlets will retain their status as full members of the Pentagon Press Corps, entitled to attend briefings and be considered for travel with officials. “The only change will be giving up their physical workspaces in the building to allow new outlets to have their turn to become resident members of the Pentagon Press Corps,” wrote Ullyot. 

An excerpt from the DOD announcement that four of the left’s favorite news outlets are being kicked out of their Pentagon press offices

Make no mistake: Those physical workspaces are a big deal. “Kicking out reporters HURTS coverage. If you can’t file your stories from inside the building you are disadvantaged. If you don’t have a work space you are disadvantaged,” wrote former Pentagon Press Corps VP Kevin Baron on X. That commentary was part of a thread condemning the development as “the erasure of journalism at the Pentagon.” 

The Pentagon Press Corps comprises more than two dozen outlets. The program calls for one outlet from each press medium to rotate from the premises every year. As if Breitbart’s invitation into the Pentagon weren’t enough to outrage establishment media types, the fact that it’s taking the “radio” slot from NPR only compounded the indignation. In a Friday night article, CNN’s Brian Stelter called foul:  

“Breitbart – a well-known web site for pro-Trump coverage and commentary – barely has a radio operation of its own. The word ‘radio’ doesn’t appear on its home page at all. The media outlet has a distribution deal with SiriusXM and one big podcast, Breitbart News Daily. Its footprint pales in comparison to NPR, which provides news coverage for local stations all across the country.”

In another hilarious, leftist-pummeling swap, One America News Network will be sliding into NBC’s slot. Expressing sympathetic disbelief, CNN’s Britzky emphasized that NBC “has an entire booth w/ cameras etc.” NBC News promised to soldier on, telling Reuters,

“We’re disappointed by the decision to deny us access to a broadcasting booth at the Pentagon that we’ve used for many decades. Despite the significant obstacles this presents to our ability to gather and report news in the national public interest, we will continue to report with the same integrity and rigor NBC News always has.”

For the many Americans who are still angry about legacy media’s aggressive role in working to derail Trump’s 2020 re-election bid, Politico’s punishment is perhaps the most satisfying. The outlet took the lead in spreading the consequential, Deep State lie that Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell” — first reported by the New York Post — was part of a Russian misinformation scheme. That lie helped ignite unprecedented censorship of the Post’s coverage. Fittingly, the Post — the country’s longest-running newspaper — is among the outlets graduating to space in the Pentagon. 

This infamous 2020 Politico article paved the way for broad social-media censorship of the New York Post’s legitimate reporting of Hunter Biden’s scandalous laptop contents 

“The National Press Club is deeply concerned by the Defense Department’s decision to remove certain media organizations from their dedicated spaces in the Pentagon,” club president Mike Balsamo said in a statement. “Any action that restricts the ability of journalists to report on the operations of the U.S. government should alarm all who value transparency and press freedom.” Balsamo pointed to the Pentagon press corps’ history of “diversity,” yet the announced swaps inarguably increase viewpoint diversity. 

The Pentagon’s shot across the bow of legacy media follows Trump press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s announcement that the White House will significantly broaden media access, with an emphasis on alternative media. “The Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media that are seated in this room,” she said in her first press conference. 

Never a dull moment in Trump II: The Revenge. What’s next? 

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 11:05

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The Hidden Dangers Of AI In Finance

The Hidden Dangers Of AI In Finance

Authored by Adam Sharp via DailyReckoning.com,

Jim Rickards recently published a compelling article on AI risk for Insider Intel subscribers.

In it, Jim discusses a different way in which AI could crash markets. One that is totally separate from the DeepSeek, China, and NVIDIA angle we’ve been covering for the past week.

Today we’re going to review his key points and explore them in detail.

Here’s Jim:

The ultimate danger arises when a large cohort of asset managers controlling trillions of dollars of assets all employ the same or similar AI algorithms in a risk management role. An individual robot working for a particular asset manager tells the manager to sell stocks in a crashing market. In some cases, the robot may be authorized to initiate a sale without further human intervention.

Taken separately, that may be the best course of action for a single manager. In the aggregate, a selling cascade with no offsetting buy orders from active managers, specialists or speculators takes stock prices straight down. Amplification through feedback loops makes matters worse.

Individual AI systems have various trigger points for selling. Not all will be triggered at once, yet all will be triggered eventually as selling begets more selling, which triggers more automated systems that add to the selling pressure, and so on. There are no contrarians among the robots. Building sentiment into systems is still at a primitive stage.

This is a good example of why I read Jim’s work. He always approaches issues from a unique and thoughtful angle.

This risk is clearly real. We are now at the point where trading firms are integrating LLMs (AI models) into their proprietary algorithms.

What happens if a majority of trading firms are using the same AI software to drive their trading? For example, it’s likely that many money managers have integrated OpenAI’s ChatGPT models into their algos.

Now that DeepSeek R1 is the new shiny object, maybe a significant portion of firms are switching to that model.

Perhaps DeepSeek approaches trading in a completely different way. What happens if ChatGPT interprets data bullishly, but DeepSeek sees the same information as bearish?

This means that the release of a new cutting-edge model could actually change the market’s direction. It’s newer, it’s smarter, and it thinks stocks are overvalued by 40%! Sell!

Or perhaps even more disturbing, what if all the leading models come to very similar conclusions? Everybody deciding to buy or sell at the same time is a recipe for trouble. It would magnify moves on the way up and down, and could create a nasty feedback loop (as Jim points out).

70% of Markets

Today algorithmic (software-driven) trading accounts for an estimated 65-70% of American stock market volume. And this number is only increasing.

We don’t know how deeply AI models (specifically LLMs) are integrated into trading algorithms at this moment. Investment software is notoriously secretive. But my guess is it’s a significant part of the market and growing fast.

For example, we can assume that large trading firms are using LLMs/GPTs for market sentiment analysis. They’re reading and digesting social media like LinkedIn and X to figure out if the public is scared or greedy. This data is then integrated into core algos.

AI sentiment analysis has the potential to be a very useful tool for traders. However, the risks Jim mentions do apply. We will likely see increased “herding” behavior as a result.

Sentiment analysis is one thing. But are we at the point where LLMs are actually making trading decisions at a large percentage of firms? My guess is that if we aren’t there yet, we will be soon. Using AI models is an order of magnitude cheaper than hiring Harvard MBAs and Princeton PhDs.

As I mentioned earlier, AI users tend to latch onto the latest, hottest model. ChatGPT dominated early on, then Anthropic’s Claude became the trending new thing. Now, China’s DeepSeek is making waves.

There’s a very real risk of herding reactions if everyone is trading off similar analysis. And if everyone is constantly switching to the hot new model, there are countless ways in which it could affect markets going forward.

Mr. Rickards closes his piece with a powerful metaphor:

“You might want to re-read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The novel centers on the creature made by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The term “creature” is not incidental; it’s intended to evoke the term Creator. Contrary to movie portrayals of the creature as a brutish, homicidal monster, the literary version was actually highly intelligent and learned French, read Shakespeare, and was able to engage in long philosophical discourses.

Of course, such natural language processing and self-learning are exactly what AI is about. The creature can be thought of as the first fully realized AI system in literature. The central dilemma in Frankenstein was not whether the creature was intelligent (it was). The dilemma was whether it had a soul. You can draw your own conclusions. My view was that the creature did not have a soul … but perhaps it deserved one. Now we face the same dilemma with AI.”

One way to prepare is to hedge the digital world with the analog (gold and silver), as Jim suggested yesterday. I especially like silver here (which is +3.6% on the day as I write this and looking good).

*  *  *

Insider Intel subscribers can read Jim’s full AI analysis here. And if this topic interests you, I strongly recommend checking out Jim’s new book: MoneyGPT – AI and the Threat to the Global Economy. The book couldn’t be more relevant.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 10:30

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Stablecoin Volumes Surpassed Visa & Mastercard Combined In 2024

Stablecoin Volumes Surpassed Visa & Mastercard Combined In 2024

Stablecoins, which play a major role in the global cryptocurrency ecosystem, saw massive adoption in 2024, with their transfer volumes beating those of Visa and Mastercard combined.

The annual stablecoin transfer volume reached $27.6 trillion last year, surpassing the combined volumes of Visa and Mastercard by 7.7%, according to a Jan. 31 report by crypto exchange CEX.io.

As CoinTelegraph’s Helen Partz reports below, one of the major catalysts amplifying stablecoin transfer volume has been the increased use of bots, especially on Solana and Base, CEX.io lead analyst Illia Otychenko said.

Tether’s USDt, the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization, accounted for 79.7% of stablecoin trading volume on average, strengthening its position amid surging stablecoin reserves on centralized exchanges.

Stablecoins beat Visa and Mastercard despite losing share in the market

Stablecoin supply saw a significant surge of 59% in 2024, reaching 1% of the US dollar supply. Despite beating Visa and Mastercard in volumes, stablecoins lost 13.5% in share within the total market cap, CEX.io noted.

The market share drop mainly occurred in the third quarter of 2024 amid decreased activity in the broader crypto market.

2024 quarterly transfer volumes of stablecoins vs. Visa and Mastercard. Source: CEX.io

Regarding their overall growth, CEX.io’s Otychenko said:

“Stablecoins experienced a surge in both supply and volume following the post-election spike in crypto activity, surpassing Visa and Mastercard by over two and three times, respectively, in Q4 alone.”

Otychenko pointed to trends indicating that regular users are increasingly using stablecoins for savings and remittance transfers as a cost-efficient way to transfer value compared to traditional payment methods.

“However, stablecoins’ role as the lifeblood of crypto trading and DeFi interactions currently far outweighs this trend,” he added.

Bot activity accounted for 70% of stablecoin transfer volume

Trading bot activity comprised a massive share of stablecoin transaction volumes in 2024, which CEX.io estimated to account for 70%. On Solana and Base, the bot transactions accounted for 98% of the volume.

“High bot activity within the network doesn’t necessarily mean ‘worse’ transfer volume,” Otychenko said, adding that bots are often used to improve market efficiency through arbitrage or cover gas fees by paymasters.

Bots can be used for harmful practices like frontrunning, sandwich attacks, pump-and-dump schemes and snipping liquidity pools. Still, the bot dominance in stablecoins could also represent the maturation of certain networks, he noted.

Ethereum and Tron retain dominance, but other networks build up momentum

Ethereum and Tron continued to dominate as the primary networks for stablecoins in 2024, accounting for more than 83% of the market by the end of the year.

At the same time, their combined share fell from 90% at the beginning of the year, pointing to the ongoing diversification across other networks, particularly Solana, Arbitrum, Base and Aptos.

Stablecoin market cap distribution by network. Source: CEX.io

“This shift was particularly pronounced for Tron, which saw its market share decline significantly from 38% to 29%,” the report noted.

Ethereum’s stablecoin market cap surged by 65% in 2024, reaching a new all-time high. This growth was partly driven by a reduction in transaction fees following the Dencun upgrade in March, as well as post-election optimism in the United States, Otychenko said.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 09:55

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Russia May Lift Restrictions On Nukes If US Goes Through With Trump Missile Defense Order

Russia May Lift Restrictions On Nukes If US Goes Through With Trump Missile Defense Order

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Russia may expand its arsenal of nuclear weapons if the US goes ahead with a major missile defense program that’s been ordered by President Trump, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Thursday.

Trump signed an executive order on Monday to develop an “Iron Dome for America” that can intercept ballistic, hypersonic, and other types of advanced missiles, unlike Israel’s Iron Dome, which is designed to intercept short-range crude rockets. The order also calls for an improvement in missile defense to protect US troops deployed in other countries and the territory of US allies.

Via Associated Press

Writing in the Russian journal International Affairs, Grigory Mashkov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special ambassador, said the US’s global missile defense posture was already a threat to Russia and said expanding it further “puts an end to the prospects of strategic offensive arms reduction and preservation of strategic stability on the previous terms.”

Mashkov said that it is “not ruled out that in the current conditions of confrontation with the West, with its policy of inflicting strategic damage on Russia, we may face the need for moving away from restrictions on nuclear and missile arsenals in favor of their quantitative and qualitative increase.”

He said one possible retaliatory measure Russia could take is adjusting its position on the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and other commitments Moscow has made related to the transparency of its nuclear stockpile.

“We will have to take a fresh look at all our commitments in the area of strengthening transparency and confidence-building measures, and suspend discussions on nuclear risks and threats, which are becoming empty talk in the context of growing efforts by the West to undermine strategic and non-strategic nuclear deterrent forces,” Mashkov said.

Trump’s executive order clashes with his recent comments about seeking “denuclearization” with Russia and China since it’s clear the development of a major new missile defense system would spark a new arms race.

Mashkov warned that an arms race was already underway. “A missile arms race is already in full swing. So is the large-scale modernization of nuclear arsenals and WMD delivery vehicles. The militarization of space is gaining momentum, which, in the near future, is likely to become another scene of military confrontation,” he said.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 09:20

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Sweden Lets 5 Suspects Held In Killing Of Quran-Burning Activist Go Free

Sweden Lets 5 Suspects Held In Killing Of Quran-Burning Activist Go Free

Iraqi refugee and anti-Islam activist Salwan Momika was shot dead overnight on Wednesday, shockingly as he was in the middle of a live-stream in his apartment.

Five people had immediately been arrested in connection with the murder. Suspicion has been raised over the obvious likelihood that Islamic hardliners took his life, given Momika had become well-known for holding regular Quran-burning events. He would also upload videos of this ultra-provocative religious offense towards Islam to the internet.

It’s unclear what specific evidence police had on the five suspects, for example whether they were actually apprehended at the apartment grounds where the killing took place. The speed at which they were arrested, within hours of Momika’s death being revealed, strongly suggests they may have been linked to the scene.

WANA via Reuters

But shockingly, the suspects who have not been named, have been released. “A Swedish prosecutor said on Friday he had decided to release from detention five suspects who were held over the killing on Wednesday of an anti-Islam campaigner,” Reuters confirms.

Just a day prior, here’s how Anna Westberg from Stockholm police’s media center presented the initial arrests: “Five people were arrested overnight in connection with the murder incident.”

The suspects’ release is sure to arouse deep anger and frustration among the European right, given it has the appearance of pro-Islamic appeasement. 

Meanwhile the police are presenting it as a case of the evidence being thin:

While five suspects were initially apprehended by police, the suspicion against them had weakened as the investigation progressed, Senior Prosecutor Rasmus Oman said in a statement on Friday.

The five were, however, still subject to further investigation, Oman said.

Also interesting is that Swedish police have raised the possibility of foreign involvement in the killing.

This also as Reuters highlights the following past statement out of the Islamic Republic of Iran:

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in 2023 that people who desecrate the Koran should face the “most severe punishment” and that Sweden had “gone into battle-array for war on the Muslim world” by supporting those responsible.

Salwan Momika, AFP/Getty Images

Momika’s Quran-burning events have long been widely condemned in Europe and internationally (especially Middle East leaders) as incitement; however, the slain activist always defended what he was doing as acts of free expression.

His native Iraq was especially outraged that Swedish authorities allowed and protected the Quran-burning events. However, a Swedish court was expected to rule on whether it is protected speech.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 08:45

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The Net-Zero Gap: Global Green Spending Is Falling Short Of Targets

The Net-Zero Gap: Global Green Spending Is Falling Short Of Targets

Authored by Charles Kennedy via OilPrice.com,

  • Global green energy investment hit a record $2.1 trillion in 2024, up 11% from 2023, but growth has slowed.

  • To achieve net-zero by 2050, annual investment needs to reach $5.6 trillion, meaning current levels are only 37% of what’s required.

  • While China leads in green spending, investment in the US has stagnated, and it has fallen in the EU and UK.

Global investments in green energy solutions topped $2 trillion last year, for the first time ever, but the world needs to pour in $5.6 trillion each year into low-carbon energy to get on track for global net zero by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement, BloombergNEF said in a new report on Thursday.

Last year, green energy investments reached a record high globally, but the pace of growth has slowed from the 2021-2023 period, according to BNEF’s report Energy Transition Investment Trends 2025.

The world invested a total of $2.1 trillion in low-carbon energy in 2024, up by 11% compared to 2023, the report found.

However, the pace of growth has slowed. In the years 2021 to 2023, global investment in clean energy jumped by between 24% and 29% each year, according to BNEF.

Electrified transport continued to be the top segment for low-carbon energy investment, drawing in $757 billion in 2024.

China remained the single biggest market with $818 billion of investment, up by 20% from 2023 and increasing investment in all sectors.

China’s total investment last year was greater than the combined investment of the U.S., the EU, and the UK.

However, investment was stagnant in the U.S., at $338 billion, and fell in both the EU and UK, hitting $381 billion and $65.3 billion, respectively, BNEF said.

The research provider also noted that energy transition investment will have to average $5.6 trillion each year from 2025 to 2030, in order to get on track for global net zero by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement.

The current investment level of $2.1 trillion implies that the world is only at 37% of what is required to get on track, BNEF said.

“There is still much more that needs to be done, especially in emerging areas like industrial decarbonization, hydrogen and carbon capture, in order to reach global net-zero goals,” commented Albert Cheung, Deputy CEO of BNEF.

Tyler Durden
Sat, 02/01/2025 – 08:10

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