🔹Officials from The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 were in Yemen’s 🇾🇪 capital on April 9th for talks with the Iran 🇮🇷-backed Houthi rebels, as part of international efforts to find a negotiated settlement to Yemen’s nine-year war. The Saudi delegation, chaired by the kingdom’s ambassador to Yemen, met with the head of the Houthi’s supreme political council, which runs rebel-held areas in Yemen.

🔹An Omani 🇴🇲 delegation, which arrived in Sanaa on April 8th, joined the talks. Hans Grundberg, the U.N. envoy for Yemen, described the ongoing efforts as “the closest Yemen has been to real progress towards lasting peace” since the war began.

🔹The Saudi-Houthi talks are focused on a full reopening of Houthi-controlled ports and 🇾🇪 Sanaa airport, payment of wages for public servants, rebuilding efforts and a timeline for foreign forces to exit the country. The Houthis on April 8th had received 13 detainees released by Saudi Arabia in exchange for a Saudi detainee freed earlier, ahead of a wider prisoner exchange agreed by the warring sides.

🔹At talks in Switzerland🇨🇭last month attended by the UN 🇺🇳 and Red Cross, the Yemeni gov't and the Houthis agreed to free 887 detainees. The 13 prisoners are part of that agreement. Saudi Arabia and the Houthis reached a draft deal last month to revive a cease-fire that expired in October.

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💠 Iran and Saudi Arabia make preparations for the reopening of embassies in Tehran and Riyadh. This comes after both countries agreed to resume diplomatic ties mediated by China 🇨🇳.

Video courtesy PressTV

🔹 Germany 🇩🇪 has retaliated, by ordering Chad's 🇹🇩 ambassador to leave the country, today (April 11th) responding to the central African nation's expulsion of the German ambassador on April 8th. Chad's gov't gave German Ambassador Gordon Kricke 48 hours to leave, citing his “discourteous attitude” and accusing him of failing to respect diplomatic customs. Germany still has lower-ranking diplomats in Chad's capital N'Djamena.

🔹A Chadian gov't official told AFP anonymously that N'Djamena blamed the diplomat for "interfering too much" in the "governance of the country", as well as "remarks tending to divide the Chadians".

🔹Chadian 🇹🇩 sources said Ambassador 🇩🇪 Gordon Kricke had criticised delays in holding elections, and a ruling last year that will allow interim military leader Mahamat Idriss Deby to run in elections in 2024.

🔹Military leaders of Chad originally promised an 18-month transition to elections when Deby seized power after his father, President Idriss Deby, was killed on the battlefield during a conflict with rebels.

🔹But last year, the military gov't extended the timeline by two years, delaying elections until October 2024, sparking protests in which dozens of civilians were killed, and worrying regional powers and the US who have warned against extending military rule.

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💠 Chad's Authorities nationalized all oil/gas assets of a subsidiary of 🇺🇸 Exxonmobil due to Exxon's conflicting terms.

💠 Chad & other African presidents agreed to step up military coordination in their countries' war against Boko Haram & ISIS terrorists, who are now receiving weapons from Ukraine 🇺🇦.

💠 In 2022, Chad declared a national food emergency as a third of the population needs food aid.

Video courtesy AfrikaNow AfrikaTomorrow

🔹China 🇨🇳 boosted its gold reserves for a 5th straight month. The PBoC raised its holdings by about 18 tons in March, with 'total stockpiles' now sit at about 2,068 tons, after growing by about 102 tons in the four months before March.

🔹Central banks accumulated gold at the fastest pace on record in the first two months of 2023, as they collectively bought a net 125 tonnes of the metal, the highest amount for the YTD period since banks became net buyers in 2010. The top purchasers were Singapore 🇸🇬, Türkiye 🇹🇷, China 🇨🇳, Russia 🇷🇺 & India 🇮🇳.

🔹Russia’s 🇷🇺 central bank gold bullion holdings jumped by 1 million ounces over the past year Mar. '22- Feb '23.

🔹India's 🇮🇳 gold imports have declined by about 30% during the Apr. - Feb. period of '22-'23, compared to the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year. Silver 🪙 imports have increased by 66% for the same period.

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💠 Gold hits 11th straight month of net outflows leaving the COMEX vaults.

💠 China imports highest volume of gold in 2022, since 2018.

💠Central banks are scooping up gold 📈at the fastest pace since 1967.

💠 Prof. Everisto Benyera on the shift in relationship between Africa, gold & the USD.

💠 BRICS 🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 plan an international reserve currency based on a basket of the national currencies, backed by commodities such as gold.

Video courtesy Sean Foo

🔹 USA 🇺🇸- 18,000 cows were killed in an explosion at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas, on April 10-11th. A dairy farm worker rescued from inside the structure was taken to an area hospital and was in critical but stable condition. The death toll is equivalent to nearly three times the number of cattle led to slaughter each day across the US.

🔹This was the biggest single-incident death of cattle 🐄 in the country since the Animal Welfare Institute began tracking barn and farm fires in 2013. The farm is nearly 10 times larger than the average dairy herd in Texas. Castro County, where the fire occurred, is open prairie land dotted with dairy farms and cattle ranches.

🔹The company's losses in livestock could stretch into the tens of millions of dollars. That doesn't include equipment and structure loss. Texas ranks fourth nationally in milk🥛production, home to 319 Grade A dairies with an estimated 625,000 cows.

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💠 The U.S. beef cow herd dropped to its lowest level since 1962. Severe drought & rising costs for livestock feed are given as the reason.

💠 Vermont 🇺🇸- Beef cattle pasture not growing back due to drought. Cattle feed quality and volume are both down about 50% in 2022 from a normal year.

💠 The young, future calf-producing cows 🐂 – are at their lowest point nationally since USDA began keeping numbers in 1973.

Video courtesy RawAlerts & KCBD

🔹Europe's optimism as natural gas spot prices come down 80% from their peak levels in 2022 may be short-lived. Despite an exceptionally warm winter of 2022-2023, Europe is still paying 6 times the price for natural gas as that of in the USA 🇺🇸.

🔹US LNG exports to Europe increased y-o-y by 140% in 2022. Last month, US. overall LNG exports were 7.79 million tonnes, a record high.

🔹Multiple factors are not in Europe's favour: Asian countries are increasingly seeking long-term LNG supply contracts, existing Russian LNG deliveries to Europe are likely to end soon, electricity generation from wind turbines in Europe continues to be quite low and the continent's summer demand will increase, as hydropower levels are set to drop.

🔹Europe has failed to secure enough long-term contracts for LNG to offset their cut-off from Russian 🇷🇺 gas imports. Europe bought much of its LNG last year on the spot market, where prices are often much higher than gas bought under long-term contracts.

🔹EU 🇪🇺 member states proposed that the bloc create a legal option to let countries stop Russian firms booking the infrastructure capacity needed to ship LNG to Europe. The proposal, which is part of a law containing broader rules on EU gas markets, must be negotiated with the EU Parliament.

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💠 Spain 🇪🇸has imported 84% more Russian LNG since Feb. '22, highlighting the persistent reliance the EU has on Russian energy.

💠 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.

Photo courtesy Holger Zschaepitz

🔹The Italian 🇮🇹 gov't has approved the sale of the ISAB refinery in Sicily, which is owned by Russia’s 🇷🇺 largest private oil company, Lukoil, to Cyprus’ GOI Energy, a branch of private equity group Argus. The Italian gov't needed additional time to review the deal, as the United States 🇺🇸 had asked Rome to confirm that Russia was not involved with G.O.I. energy.

🔹The gov't reportedly placed strict conditions on the deal, demanding that the new owner protect the plant’s staff of around 1,000, & GOI Energy to guarantee that oil supplies for the refinery do not come from Russia. EU 🇪🇺sanctions complicated the refinery operations since December '22 as oil was historically supplied from Russia to the refinery.

🔹The decision is good news for Lukoil and its shareholders as the sale is supposed to bring in more than $1.5 billion.

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💠 Lukoil agreed to sell the Italian ISAB refinery 🏭 to Cyprus-based G.O.I. Energy Limited, a private equity firm backed by Trafigura.

💠 Italian🇮🇹 gov't placed the ISAB refinery under trusteeship with talks of a possible future nationalisation. Lukoil said it is ready to ensure uninterrupted operation, given the feedstock stored up are of non-Russian origin 🛢.

💠 Russia’s Lukoil has turned down an offer to sell its Italian refinery to US private equity, Crossbridge Energy Partners. If a buyer is not found, the refinery will close, because it is not able to receive Russian crude due to sanctions.

Video courtesy PressTV

🔹The foreign ministers/representatives of Russia 🇷🇺, China 🇨🇳, Iran 🇮🇷 & Pakistan 🇵🇰 are holding a meeting in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand on April 13th-14th within the framework of a ministerial conference of Afghanistan’s 🇦🇫 neighboring countries.

🔹The top diplomats of Tajikistan 🇹🇯, Turkmenistan 🇹🇲 and Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 are also participating. The diplomats will discuss the further steps on facilitating Afghanistan’s political settlement, the stabilization of the humanitarian and socio-economic situation in the country as well as the development of regional economic integration and the implementation of transport and energy projects with Kabul’s participation.

🔹The ministers called on the radical Taliban movement, which has seized power in Afghanistan, to form an inclusive government and to lift all restrictive measures against women and ethnic minorities. They supported "all diplomatic efforts to promote a political solution to Afghanistan's problems,".

🔹A joint statement noted that the US 🇺🇸 & its allies must take the responsibility for the complicated situation in Afghanistan. It also confirmed that the countries represented are ready to assist in Afghanistan's reconstruction and develop economic ties with it. Russia & Pakistan reaffirmed their focus on increasing cooperation in fighting terrorism.

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💠 A bomb explosion outside the Foreign Ministry in Afghanistan’s 🇦🇫 capital Kabul killed 20 people.

💠 Pakistan participated in the 4th meeting of the ”Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan” with an emphasis on regional security & military-political stability.

💠 The Organization of Turkic States considers actions to address Afghanistan's humanitarian crisis during an OTS summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

💠 India 🇮🇳 and Russia FM's discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

Video courtesy CGTN

🔹Russia's 🇷🇺 seaborne oil product exports rose in March by 17.3% month-on-month on a daily basis. The price of Urals, Russia’s flagship export grade, has moved higher since the OPEC+ production cut, threatening the $60 price cap that the G7 & the EU agreed to impose on Moscow.

🔹Higher oil prices will make it harder to enforce the price caps and crack down on illicit oil trade without choking off supplies. OPEC+ estimates that Chinese 🇨🇳 oil demand is set to grow by 760,000 bpd 🛢this year. The biggest oil importers in Asia have been busy buying June-loading spot crude cargoes from the Middle East since the news of OPEC+ cuts.

🔹Sanctions watchdogs will have to make tough choices. Indian 🇮🇳 banks are very closely monitoring crude prices at ports, where costs of logistics are intermingled, making for a more complicated pricing mechanism, because anything above $60 would trigger EU 🇪🇺 sanctions.

🔹Iraq 🇮🇶 lowered the price of oil supplies to India in Feb. amid a steady flow of cheaper Russian shipments. India has decreased oil imports from the Middle East amid growing purchases from Russia.

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💠 Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 will voluntarily reduce its oil production by 500,000 bpd from May until the end of 2023. Other OPEC+ members will also cut.

💠 Russia's 🇷🇺 largest oil producer Rosneft and India's top refiner Indian 🇮🇳 Oil Corp agreed to use the Asia-focused Dubai 🇦🇪 oil price benchmark.

💠 Saudi Arabia will not sell oil to any country that imposes a price cap on its supply.

💠 Russia cuts oil 📉 production from March by 500,000 bpd.

🔹Syrian 🇸🇾 FM Faisal Mekdad has completed a breakthrough visit to Saudi Arabia on April 12th-13th, the first such trip since Riyadh cut diplomatic relations with Damascus in 2012.

🔹Saudi 🇸🇦 FM Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud discussed “efforts to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis that preserves Syria’s unity, security, stability, Arab identity, and territorial integrity while also serving the interests of its brotherly people”.

🔹Parts of northern Syria are currently under control of Turkish-backed militants, while the area northeast of the Euphrates River is held by US- 🇺🇸 backed Kurdish militias. Several hundred US troops are also in the country in violation of international law, controlling most of the Syrian oil wells.

🔹Mekdad's trip to the kingdom came two days before Saudi Arabia hosts a meeting of regional foreign ministers to discuss the return of Syria to the Arab League. Washington D.C.-based think tanks, such as the Middle East Institute (MEI) - which receives significant funding from Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia & Qatar - are not happy at these developments.

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💠 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 France24

🔹Brazilian 🇧🇷 President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, spent the past 3 days (April 12-14), visiting China on a diplomatic tour to strengthen the country's comprehensive strategic partnership with China 🇨🇳. President Lula and Chinese President Xi Jinping witnessed the signing of several bilateral cooperation documents that cover a wide range of areas, including trade and investment, the digital economy / information and telecommunication.

🔹 Brazil's top priorities for co-operation with China include:
🔸 Addressing the 120 million Brazilians that suffer from some type of food insecurity. Brazil needs to strengthen the productivity of its small-scale farming 🚜, which accounts for 70% of the food consumed in the country.
🔸 Re-industrializing 🏭 the country's economy, using technology transfer.
🔸 The resumption of Brazil's driving role on the geopolitical stage, with its sovereign foreign policy.

🔹President Lula visited to the HQ of the BRICS New Development Bank & Huawei's technology development center. Algeria 🇩🇿, Iran 🇮🇷 and Argentina 🇦🇷 have applied to join the BRICS, showing the international attraction of the mechanism.

🔹The secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC, met with Lula and his delegation, saying that the city will continue to strengthen cooperation with Brazil in fields like trade, industry and energy. China has been Brazil's largest trading partner since 2009 and its bilateral trade reached a record $150 billion in 2022.

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💠 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 courtesy KanekoaTheGreat, Geopolitics & Empire, Sputnik and Aljazeera.

🔹 Five members of the G7 (US 🇺🇸, UK 🇬🇧, Canada 🇨🇦, Japan 🇯🇵 & France 🇫🇷) have formed an alliance aimed at blocking Russia out of the international nuclear energy market.

NB. G7 member Germany 🇩🇪 shut down its last three remaining nuclear power plants 2 days ago on April 15th & the other G7 member Italy 🇮🇹 phased out nuclear power in 2018.

🔹Germany is pushing for the EU to include the civilian nuclear sector in the bloc's new sanctions package against Russia.

🔹 The G7 plan is to use their respective resources and capabilities of each state’s civilian nuclear energy sectors to develop shared supply chains that isolate Russia, who is considered to be one of the world’s largest uranium producers.

🔹Meanwhile, Bangladesh 🇧🇩 is set to make loan repayments in Chinese 🇨🇳 yuan for its nuclear power plant being built by Russia, as a way to sidestep Western sanctions.

🔹Russian chemists are researching a method that could improve the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, which involves using a compound that readily binds to uranium, but not other heavy metals contained in reactor waste.

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💠 Egypt 🇪🇬 & Russia discuss construction of a nuclear power plant in Egypt.

💠 Russia & China 🇨🇳 agreed on long-term cooperation in the field of fast neutron reactors.

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

💠 Finland 🇫🇮 tests their newest nuclear reactor Olkiluoto 3.

💠 France 🇫🇷 accused of helping to fund Russia by continuing to import Russian nuclear fuel.

Video courtesy DW

🔹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.

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💠 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.

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💠 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.