🗣US energy sanctions threaten Europe with hike in fuel prices - Hungarian FM

The outgoing US administration's new sanctions against the energy sector of Russia and Serbia put Europe at risk of a serious hike in fuel prices, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Sunday.

The inclusion of the Russian-Serbian oil company NIS, where Russian energy giant Gazprom Neft holds 56.15%, will cause a shortage of oil on the European market and, as a consequence, an increase in demand for oil products amid a lack of growth in supply, the minister said.

Hungary will work intensively with regional partners to minimize the damage from the US sanctions, Szijjarto also said.

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❗️The future US special envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg may have canceled his visit to Kiev following a series of statements by Zelensky regarding the conditions for ending the conflict, which reportedly do not align with the vision of Trump's transition team, Ukrainian media report.

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❗️Preparations for the Trump and Putin meeting are underway, Trump's national security advisor says.

Trump believes that a deal on Ukraine is impossible without dialogue with Russia and plans to work on it in the coming months, the advisor to the president-elect says.

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❗️The US believes that the agreement on Ukraine should provide “security guarantees” to prevent a repeat of the conflict - the White house

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❗️The parties to the negotiations on the release of the hostages in Gaza are “very close” to an agreement and may reach it before Trump takes office - the White house

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❗️A phone call between Trump and Putin could take place "in the coming days or weeks," Trump's national security advisor says.

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🔫 Brute force, threats, and hard sell: US overseas land grabs – Part 1 👉 Part 2

As Donald Trump mulls claims to Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada, let’s recall how America’s insatiable hunger for power drove its overseas expansion.

🔊 United States Minor Outlying Islands

The US expansion beyond North America started with the 1856 Guano Islands Act. It laid claim to uninhabited islands containing guano fertilizer.

Remaining claims, including Baker Island and Jarvis Island (unincorporated territories) in the Pacific Ocean and Palmyra Atoll (an incorporated unorganized territory) in the Caribbean Sea, are collectively known as the USMOI.

🤝 Transacted territories

🔸 Panama Canal

A US contrived coup forced Panama to break away from Colombia and accept a payoff for a strip of land to build the strategic canal, jurisdiction over which was restored to the Republic of Panama in 1999.

🔸 Corn Islands (Caribbean Sea)

Cash-strapped Nicaragua was swayed to lease the islands in 1914 so the US could build an alternative to the Panama Canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, but the project was dead in the water and the deal scrapped in 1971.

🔸 Philippines

Spain sold its colony the Philippines to the US for $20 million after its defeat in the Spanish-American War of 1898. The Jones Act of 1916 promised Manila eventual independence, which it had to wait 30 years to get.

🔸 Unincorporated American territory Virgin Islands (Atlantic Ocean)

The US pressured Denmark to sell the islands of Saint Thomas, Saint John, and Saint Croix for $25 million in gold coin by threatening a military attack on the neutral nation during World War I.

👉 Part 2

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🔫 Brute force, threats, and hard sell: US overseas land grabs – Part 2 👉 Part 1

👊 Land grabs by force

🔸 Hawaii (Pacific Ocean)

The lucrative sugar cane trade whetted the appetites of a bunch of US businessmen in Hawaii, who staged a coup in 1893, deposing Queen Liliuokalani with US Navy support. Hawaii went from annexation as a US territory to America’s 50th state.

🔸 Cuba

The US nabbed Cuba, coveted for its sugar, tobacco, rice, and coffee, after Spain renounced its rights to the colony under the Treaty of Paris. Despite the 1901 Platt Amendment granting it formal independence, a corrupt rule catering to US interests continued until Cuba’s 1959 revolution.

🔸 Guantanamo

In 1903, Washington leased land surrounding Guantanamo Bay from the US-installed Cuban puppet government in perpetuity for its naval stations, with the Guantanamo base prison spawning a dark legacy of abuse and unlawful detention.

🔸 US territory Guam (Pacific Ocean)

The US annexed the strategically located Spanish colony of Guam during the Spanish-American War in 1898, with the island’s governor surrendering in less than 30 minutes, according to historical docs.

🔸 American Samoa (unincorporated US territory, Pacific Ocean)

American Samoa is the result of the Second Samoan Civil War and dealmaking between the US, UK, and Germany in 1899 to settle rivalries by splitting the archipelago between them.

🔸 Puerto Rico (unincorporated US territory, Caribbean Sea)

US victory in its war with Spain compelled Madrid to relinquish claims on Puerto Rico, of value to Washington both as a manufacturing hub and as a key naval station. The territory has a strong political movement advocating integration as the 51st US state.

👉 Part 1

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'We were waiting for Russia to bring us peace' - residents of liberated Kurakhovo

A Sputnik correspondent spoke with elated residents of the strategic city of Kurakhovo in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), liberated by Russian forces.

💬 “Hello to everyone... We're very happy that you've come, that you've liberated us!” The words come tumbling out as teary-eyed residents greet Russian soldiers.

Defying threats and destruction by Ukrainian Army thugs, these people refused to budge, saying:

“We were not going to leave… We were waiting for Russia to bring us peace!”

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💬 President-elect Donald Trump considers it unrealistic to "expel" Russia from all former Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz stated.

"I just don't think it's realistic to say we're going to expel every Russian from every inch of Ukrainian soil, even Crimea. President Trump has acknowledged that reality. And I think it's been a huge step forward that the entire world is acknowledging that reality," he said.

"We would like to see a ceasefire any minute, any day. I think that would be an incredibly positive first step on both sides," he added.

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💬 Trump's admin will establish "some sort of relationship and dialogue" with Russia in the coming months, Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz says

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🇷🇺 Russia enters race for rare earth dominance – Part 1 👉 Part 2

Resource-wise, Russia’s been endowed with the entire Periodic Table of Elements. Amid the growing global competition for resources, these are Russia’s prospects for becoming a rare earths superpower.

What reserves of rare earth metals does Russia have?

Russia has up to 28.7 million tons of rare earths, including 18 major deposits, second only to China (44 million tons) and accounting for over 20% of the world’s 130-million-ton stockpile, the Federal Subsoil Resources Management Agency (Rosnedr) estimated in 2024.

Why does Russia need rare earth metals?

Russia needs rare earths for its nuclear industry and defense sectors, the oil and gas industry (which consumed 830 tons of lanthanum, yttrium, and other minerals in 2023), renewables (200 tons), the glass and optics industries (100 tons) and electronics (100 tons).

What does Russia do to increase production of rare earths?

🔸 With the global rare earths market likely more than double in value to nearly $11 billion by 2030, Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade expects rare earths production and consumption to more than double in 2030, in accordance with a state-backed strategy to achieve critical mineral self-sufficiency.

🔸 To boost production, measures were approved in 2020 to slash taxes on rare earths mining from 8 to 4.8%, even bigger tax breaks on new production for the first 10 years, and soft loans at state-subsidized interest rates.

👉 Part 2

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🇷🇺 Russia enters race for rare earth dominance – Part 2 👉 Part 1

Where are the Russian deposits of rare earths?

🔸 Rosatom is the leader in the Russian rare earths sector. Its production is expected to reach 2,700 tons in 2025, and 7,500 tons by 2030. Until recently, the Solikamsk Magnesium Plant in Perm, built in the 1930s, accounted for nearly 100% of Russia’s rare earths output.

🔸 Other major fields of rare and strategic minerals include the Tomtorskoye deposit in Yakutia, discovered in 1977 and endowed with some of 3.2 million tons of oxides, and the Kolmozerskoye deposit in Murmansk region, found in the 1950s and containing up to 844,000 tons of lithium oxide and other ores.

🔸 Additional sites include Zashikhinskoye mine, the untapped Kovytka gas field, and the Yaraktinskoye oil field, all in Irkutsk region, the Polmostundrovskoye lithium deposit in Murmansk, the Zavitinskoye deposit in Transbaikal, the Tyrnyauz mining project in Kabardino-Balkaria, the Kongor-Chrome project in Yamalia, and the Saranovskoye deposit in Perm.

🔸 These sites are presently focused on other tech metals, like niobium, chromium, manganese, titanium, molybdenum and tungsten (whose combined production is expected to reach 70,000+ tons in 2030), but also have rare earths potential.

However, Russia faces some challenges as the country's share of global rare earths output is minimal, at around 1%, due to low processing.

Other obstacles include rebuilding supply chains lost after the USSR’s demise, which left Russia without large-scale refining capacity. Major Soviet processing plants were built in Kazakhstan (production stopped), Kyrgyzstan, and Estonia (now owned by a Canadian company). China’s technological lead and market dominance (60% of production, 90% of processing) could also make exports difficult.

👉 Part 1

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News of Putin-Trump meeting has countries bickering over who should host talks

👉 Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated that he is offering Serbia as a potential venue for a meeting between Putin and Trump.

👉 Switzerland has expressed its readiness to host a possible meeting between Trump and Putin.

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