#Ukraine Export Data

[exportimport12]

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[tradeimex453]

Top Ukraine Imports & Exports: Overview of Ukraine Import-Export Data

In today's global economy, understanding the import and export landscape of a country is crucial for businesses looking to expand internationally. Ukraine, located in Eastern Europe, is a key player in the international trade market. According to Ukraine import data and customs data on Ukraine imports, Ukraine’s goods imports reached a total value of $70.49 billion in 2024, an increase of 11% from 2023. As per the Ukraine export data, Ukraine exports accounted for $41.7 billion in 2024, a 13.4% increase from the previous year. In this article, we will delve into the top imports and exports of Ukraine, using data from Ukraine Import Data and Ukraine Export Data.

Ukraine Imports Overview

When looking at Ukraine's imports, it is clear that the country relies heavily on foreign goods to meet the needs of its population and industries. Some of the top imports of Ukraine include:

Energy Products: Ukraine is a major importer of energy products, such as oil, natural gas, and coal. These products are essential for powering the country's industries and meeting the energy needs of its people.

Machinery and Equipment: Ukraine imports a significant amount of machinery and equipment, including vehicles, electronics, and industrial machinery. These products are essential for modernizing the country's industries and infrastructure.

Chemicals: Ukraine also imports a large quantity of chemicals, including pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, and plastics. These products are crucial for various industries, such as agriculture, manufacturing, and healthcare.

Metals and Metal Products: Ukraine is known for its steel and metal production, but the country also imports metals and metal products to meet the demand of its industries.

Top 10 Ukraine Imports: Ukraine Import Data by HS Code (2024)

In the analysis of the top 10 Ukraine imports by HS Code for the year 2024, a comprehensive understanding of the country's trade dynamics is crucial. Ukraine's import data plays a pivotal role in recognizing the most significant goods being brought into the nation, shedding light on key sectors and economic trends. The top 10 goods that Ukraine imports, as per Ukraine customs data and Ukraine shipment data for 2024, include:

Mineral fuels and oils (HS code 27) $8.89 billion (12.62%) 

Electrical machinery and equipment (HS code 85) $8.37 billion (11.87%)

Vehicles (HS code 87) $7.54 billion (10.7%)

Nuclear reactors and machinery (HS code 84) $6.54 billion (9.29%)

Commodities not elsewhere specified (HS code 99) $5.93 billion (8.42%)

Plastics and articles thereof (HS code 39) $2.86 billion (4.06%)

Pharmaceutical products (HS code 30) $2.43 billion (3.45%)

Optical, medical, or surgical instruments (HS code 90) $1.73 billion (2.46%)

Iron and steel (HS code 72) $1.48 billion (2.11%)

Aircraft, spacecraft, and parts thereof (HS code 88) $1.46 billion (2.06%)

Ukraine Exports Overview

On the export side, Ukraine is known for its agricultural products, energy resources, and industrial goods. Some of the top exports of Ukraine include:

Grains and Oilseeds: Ukraine is one of the world's top producers of grains and oilseeds, such as wheat, corn, and sunflower seeds. These products are in high demand globally for food and feed purposes.

Steel and Metal Products: Ukraine's steel industry is a major player in the global market, with the country exporting a large quantity of steel and metal products to various countries.

Energy Resources: Ukraine is rich in natural resources, including coal, natural gas, and oil. The country exports these energy resources to neighboring countries and beyond.

Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals: Ukraine also exports chemicals and pharmaceuticals, including fertilizers, medicines, and plastics. These products are in demand worldwide for various industries.

Top 10 Ukraine Exports: Ukraine Export Data by HS Code (2024)

In analyzing the top 10 Ukraine exports through the Ukraine Export Data by HS Code, a clear picture emerges of the country's key economic drivers. With a professional focus, these data reveal Ukraine's significant export strengths across various industries. From cereals and iron ores to machinery and electrical equipment, the export data showcases the diversification and competitiveness of Ukraine's export sector. The top 10 goods that Ukraine exports, as per Ukraine shipment data and Ukraine export statistics for 2024, include:

Cereals (HS code 10): $8.30 billion (22.96%)

Animal or vegetable fats and oils (HS code 15): $5.64 billion (15.61%)

Oil seeds and oleaginous fruits (HS code 12): $2.81 billion (7.79%)

Iron and steel (HS code 72): $2.64 billion (7.32%)

Ores, slag, and ash (HS code 12): $1.87 billion (5.17%)

Electrical machinery and equipment (HS code 85): $1.66 billion (4.6%)

Wood and articles of wood (HS code 44): $1.48 billion (4.11%)

Prepared animal food (HS code 23): $1.39 billion (3.86%)

Nuclear reactors and machinery (HS code 84): $957.15 million (2.65%)

Meat and edible meat offal (HS code 02): $892.29 million (2.47%)

Final Outlook

By acquiring Ukraine Import Data and Ukraine Export Data, businesses can gain valuable insights into the country's trade patterns and identify potential opportunities for growth and expansion. Whether you are looking to import goods into Ukraine or export products from the country, having access to reliable Ukraine trade data is essential for making informed decisions.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Ukraine plays a significant role in the global trade market, both as an importer and exporter. By exploring the top imports and exports of Ukraine with the help of Ukraine Import Data and Ukraine Export Data, businesses can unlock new possibilities and tap into the country's vibrant economy.

[anamseair]

Discover the major exports of Ukraine and its key export partners with Seair Exim Solutions. Gain insights into Ukraine's export market, trade statistics, and economic impact.

[dataonthecharts]

The Russia-Ukraine war and the ensuing oil embargos have been in the news for long now. The impact of this on India's oil trade and the corresponding trade figures are depicted here...

Data sources used:  2000 to 2020 data: https://resourcetrade.earth/ 2020 to 2022 data: https://tradestat.commerce.gov.in/eidb/

[mariacallous]

MYKOLAIV, UKRAINE—Kateryna Nahorna is getting ready to find trouble.

Part of an all-female team of dog handlers, the 22-year-old is training Ukraine’s technical survey dogs—Belgian Malinois that have learned to sniff out explosives.

The job is huge. Ukraine is now estimated to be the most heavily mined country on Earth. Deminers must survey every area that saw sustained fighting for unexploded mines, missiles, artillery shells, bombs, and a host of other ordnance—almost 25 percent of the country, according to government estimates.

The dogs can cover 1,500 square meters a day. In contrast, human deminers cover 10 square meters a day on average—by quickly narrowing down the areas that manual deminers will need to tackle, the dogs save valuable time.

“This job allows me to be a warrior for my country … but without having to kill anyone,” said Nahorna. “Our men protect us at war, and we do this to protect them at home.”

A highly practical reason drove the women’s recruitment. The specialized dog training was done in Cambodia, by the nonprofit Apopo, and military-aged men are currently not allowed to leave Ukraine.

War has shaken up gender dynamics in the Ukrainian economy, with women taking up jobs traditionally held by men, such as driving trucks or welding. Now, as mobilization ramps up once more, women are becoming increasingly important in roles that are critical for national security.

In Mykolaiv, in the industrial east, Nahorna and her dogs will soon take on one of the biggest targets of Russia’s military strategy when they start to demine the country’s energy infrastructure. Here, women have been stepping in to work in large numbers in steel mills, factories, and railways serving the front line.

It’s a big shift for Ukraine. Before the war, only 48 percent of women over age 15 took part in the workforce — one of the lowest rates in Europe. War has made collecting data on the gender composition of the workforce impossible, but today, 50,000 women serve in the Ukrainian army, compared to 30,000 before the war.

The catalyst came in 2017, years before the current war began. As conflict escalated with Russia in Crimea, the Ukrainian government overturned a Soviet-era law that had previously banned women from 450 occupations.

But obstacles still remain; for example, women are not allowed jobs the government deems too physically demanding. These barriers continue to be chipped away—most recently, women have been cleared to work in underground mines, something they were prevented from doing before.

Viktoriia Avramchuk never thought she would follow her father and husband into the coal mines for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company.

Her lifelong fear of elevators was a big factor—but there was also the fact that it was illegal for women to work underground.

Her previous job working as a nanny in a local kindergarten disappeared overnight when schools were forced to close at the beginning of the war. After a year of being unemployed, she found that she had few other options.

“I would never have taken the job if I could have afforded not to,” Avramchuk said from her home in Pokrovsk. “But I also wanted to do something to help secure victory, and this was needed.”

The demining work that Nahorna does is urgent in part because more than 55 percent of the country is farmed.

Often called “the breadbasket of Europe,” Ukraine is one of the world’s top exporters of grain. The U.K.-based Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which has been advising the Ukrainian government on demining technology, estimates that landmines have resulted in annual GDP losses of $11 billion.

“Farmers feel the pressure to plow, which is dangerous,” said Jon Cunliffe, the Ukraine country director of Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British nonprofit. “So we need to do as much surveying as possible to reduce the size of the possible contamination.”

The dogs can quickly clear an area of heavy vegetation, which greatly speeds up the process of releasing noncontaminated lands back to farmers. If the area is found to be unsafe, human deminers step in to clear the field manually.

“I’m not brave enough to be on the front line,” 29-year-old Iryna Manzevyta said as she slowly and diligently hovered a metal detector over a patch of farmland. “But I had to do something to help, and this seemed like a good alternative to make a difference.”

Groups like MAG are increasingly targeting women. With skilled male deminers regularly being picked up by military recruiters, recruiting women reduces the chances that expensive and time-consuming training will be invested in people who could be drafted to the front line at a moment’s notice. The demining work is expected to take decades, and women, unlike men, cannot be conscripted in Ukraine.

This urgency to recruit women is accelerating a gender shift already underway in the demining sector. Organizations like MAG have looked to recruit women as a way to empower them in local communities. Demining was once a heavily male-dominated sector, but women now make up 30 percent of workers in Vietnam and Colombia, around 40 percent in Cambodia, and more than 50 percent in Myanmar.

In Ukraine, the idea is to make demining an enterprise with “very little expat footprint,” and Cunliffe said that will only be possible by recruiting more women.

“We should not be here in 10 years. Not like in Iraq or South Sudan, where we have been for 30 years, or Vietnam, or Laos,” Cunliffe said. “It’s common sense that we bring in as many women as we can to do that. In five to 10 years, a lot of these women are going to end up being technical field managers, the jobs that are currently being done by old former British military guys, and it will change the face of demining worldwide because they can take those skills across the world.”

Manzevyta is one of the many women whose new job has turned her family dynamics on their head. She has handed over her previous life, running a small online beauty retail site, to her husband, who—though he gripes—stays at home while she is out demining.

“Life is completely different now,” she said, giggling. “I had to teach him how to use the washing machine, which settings to use, everything around the house because I’m mostly absent now.”

More seriously, Manzevyta said that the war has likely changed many women’s career trajectories.

“I can’t imagine people who have done work like this going back and working as florists once the war is over,” she laughed.

[tomorrowusa]

By plunging the world into recession and possibly depression, Donald Trump is inadvertently causing the price of oil to drop. With less economic activity and reduced international trade, there's less demand for oil – and so the price falls.

On January 21st, the first business day after Trump took office, the price of US West Texas Intermediate Crude closed at $75.89 a barrel; when I checked a few minutes ago, WTI Crude was at $60.24.

This drop in the price of oil is causing problems for Putin. Russia's biggest exports are fossil fuels. The oil price fall means less revenue to fund Putin's war of aggression in Ukraine.

The Kremlin on April 7 announced it is “closely monitoring” oil markets after the price of its key export grade, Urals crude, plunged towards the $50 mark. “We are very closely monitoring the situation, which is currently characterized as extremely turbulent, tense, and emotionally overloaded,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Interfax. Peskov attributed the price decline to "the US decision to introduce tariffs for most countries in the world." Urals crude fell to $52.76 per barrel at the Baltic port of Primorsk on Friday, according to Argus Media data cited by Bloomberg. This is well below the $70 per barrel benchmark used for Russia's 2025 budget planning. With oil and gas revenues accounting for nearly 30% of budget proceeds in January-February, according to government data cited by Bloomberg, the price decline poses significant fiscal challenges. A price collapse could destabilize Russia's federal budget, as military expenditures for the Ukraine conflict have driven government spending sharply upward in early 2025. If price fall below the $50 mark, it would push Russia's key oil export to its weakest level in nearly two years.

Let me inject that WTI Crude is a premium variety with lower density and lower sulfur content which sells for more than Urals Crude – Putin oil. Brent Crude is another desirable premium oil variety found under the North Sea. Urals Crude is a mixture of heavy sour oil from the Urals and lighter Siberian oil. It brings a lower price than Brent or WTI.

As recently as late March, global oil prices were actually rising, driven by U.S. sanctions on Iran and ongoing discussions on a potential ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine, with Brent crude reaching $72.52 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude increased to $68.68. Despite this, Russian oil and gas revenue fell by 17% year-on-year in March to 1.08 trillion rubles ($12.8 billion), as forced discounts on crude and a stronger ruble hit budget inflows, the Moscow Times reported on April 3, citing Russia's Finance Ministry data. The ministry said the government lost roughly 230 billion rubles ($2.7 billion) in tax income compared to March 2024, with oil and gas revenues accounting for one-third of the total state income. Energy revenues remain a key source of financing for the Kremlin's war against Ukraine, despite Western sanctions and a price cap designed to limit Moscow's earnings from oil exports.

So Trump's trade war reduced demand for Putin's shitty oil and is causing him to scrape the bottom of the barrel – pun intended.

[sudaca-swag]

https://www.tumblr.com/sudaca-swag/767116058622590976/seeing-small-countries-that-have-never-done-damage?source=share

i don't necessarily disagree but...north korea are helping funding russia's invasion and war on ukraine, where they are killing civilians and taking their land? And how do these europeans countrys you mention main income come from weapon...i'm swedish and i did not realize that was our main income nor that we are colonizing any country.

If you think for one second that north Korea is at the scale of economical and political power to be able to single handedly supply Russia like say the US does with Israel you're wrong, in any case at most they would be an outsourced factory to jump around international regulations for the Russian government, and if you think that Europe and the US arent benefitting immensely from the weapon economy regarding the Ukraine-Russia conflict you're very wrong, they're in no hurry to close that gold mine. So let's better talk about what actually moves the wheel which are the billions and billions of US dollars and European riches going into funding wars and genocides across the world directly from the hand of western politicians.

And as for the Sweden comment, here's an article from last may from Le Monde, Sweden is the 13th largest arm export country and is unfortunately looking to climb up the ladder faster no matter how green they pretend to go amongst their citizens for votes, I suggest you read it because it says some very interesting things about those in power in your country and their ties to said war industries, and how war around the globe is the joint group effort of rich countries coming together for even more profit. I'll put some of the article down here since it's locked past the first paragraphs, but if you Google "Sweden arm industry" you will be surprised at the huge amount of articles like this written about this, you should check them out they're quite short: "Certain Nordic nations have emerged as significant suppliers of security technologies and weapon systems internationally. Simultaneously, these countries are widely perceived and labelled as the ‘do-gooders’ in global affairs. This perception is supported by many characterisations of the Nordics as ‘agents of a world common good’ and ‘moral superpowers’ ".

And here's some more data from 2022: In 2014, it was the third largest weapons exporter per capita at $53.1 per capita, behind only Israel at $97.7 and Russia at $57.7. From 2009 to 2019, it was the world’s ninth largest arms exporter in U.S. dollars with a cumulative value of $14.3 billion. In the same time period, it ranked eighth in arms as a percentage of total exports. Swedish factories produce not just small arms, but advanced systems like fighter aircraft, missiles, tanks, submarines, corvettes, and air-defense platforms.

"While Western countries nominally define themselves by individualism and meritocracy, Sweden highlights the viability of dynastic, family-oriented elites in creating and maintaining powerful industrial societies. Sweden is in fact an exemplar of a unique European model of governance and political economy, but one that cleverly and counterintuitively wraps elite-led industrial strength intended to support military capacity in an egalitarian and pacifist packaging"

"Saab's share price has soared, more than tripling since February 2022. Orders have exploded. The Swedish manufacturer invested €150 million in its production capacity. Nothing like this had happened since the group began manufacturing Carl Gustafs in 1948, according to Michael Höglund, head of the Land Combat division. Several factories will be built in Sweden and abroad, notably in India. The aim is to quadruple deliveries of anti-tank weapons and ammunition by 2025, from 100,000 to 400,000 units a year.

Johansson said the war in Ukraine was a formidable "showcase" for Saab. In 2023, the group's orders, already up in 2022, climbed by 23%, as did its sales, which reached 51.6 billion Swedish krona (€4.5 billion), while its profit grew by 51%, ending at 3.4 billion krona.

Over the past year, the manufacturer, which employs over 21,000 people worldwide, including 16,000 in Sweden, has increased its workforce by almost 2,500 and is continuing to recruit. And it's not the only one. The entire Swedish arms industry is abuzz – a sector that brings together around 200 companies, some 60 of which are foreign-owned. In 2022, these companies, with sales of 48.5 billion krona, employed over 28,000 people. "We don't yet have the result for 2023, but it should be much higher," said Robert Limmergard, director of the Swedish Security and Defense Industry Association.

Demand is largely fuelled by Sweden, whose military spending is set to reach 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2024. Finally integrated into NATO on March 7, the kingdom is pulling out all the stops to replenish its armaments stocks, after decades of disengagement. "We have placed orders for equipment, both in Sweden and abroad, for 19 billion krona in 2021, 36 billion in 2022 and 52 billion in 2023," said Göran Martensson, director of the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV). Exports have also risen by 18% in 2023, placing Sweden 13th in the world.

Saab was founded in 1937. "The company was formed on a handshake between the chairman of our board of directors at the time, Marcus Wallenberg [grandfather of the current president, whose family is still the group's majority shareholder], and the prime minister," said CEO Johansson.

SOFF director Limmergard: "Companies don't like me to say it, but in the late 1980s we had an Ikea-style arms industry. We had to produce high volumes, easy-to-understand and easy-to-use weapons that had to be functional and cheap. It was this tradition that enabled us to gain international market share and maintain a large industry, with companies that have since succeeded in specializing in niche markets, sometimes with the help of foreign investment."

The main bottleneck is the production line. It's impossible to increase deliveries of weapons and ammunition if suppliers don't keep up. For the Carl Gustafs, there are around 200 suppliers, some of whom have several customers, all of whom have increased their orders. This is the case, for example, with Norway's Nammo, one of Europe's largest ammunition manufacturers, with whom Saab has just signed an agreement. "We have jointly decided to develop our own warhead molding capacity. Meanwhile, they will be refocusing on artillery ammunition, which will give us greater production capacity together," said Höglund."

[coolcarsntrucksngunsnusa]

𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩’𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐝𝐥𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝’𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬—𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭.

Take the EU: pre-Trump 2.0, they were coasting at €235 billion on defense in 2024—barely 1.6% of GDP, per the European Defence Agency.

Now?

Ursula von der Leyen’s ‘ReArm Europe’ plan’s jacking it up by $840 billion over four years—think €650 billion from national budgets, €150 billion in joint borrowing.

Why?

Because Trump’s Ukraine aid freeze and NATO tough talk (5% GDP or bust) lit a fire under them. Poland’s gone from €12 billion in 2014 to €31.6 billion in 2023, now buying 1,000+ tanks; Germany’s adding €60 billion to hit 3.5% GDP. That’s Trump’s genius—making allies pay up, not us.

~~~~~~

Domestically, he’s unleashing chaos on the swamp.

Deregulation’s got oil flowing—Keystone XL’s back, and XLE’s up 8% since January.

Tax cuts are cooking—leaks say 15% corporate rates for manufacturers, with Ford eyeing 2,000 new jobs in Michigan.

Border’s tighter—Border Patrol nabbed 30% fewer crossings in February after his wall push resumed.

Ohio steel’s roaring too—tariffs slashed Chinese imports by 25%, per early trade data.

~~~~~~~~

Globally, he’s rewriting the playbook.

Abraham Accords 2.0—Saudi’s joining Israel’s handshake, with $10 billion in deals inked. Iran’s oil exports? Down 40% since January sanctions hit—Tehran’s squealing.

Ukraine’s Zelensky’s on the ropes—Trump’s peace-or-bust ultimatum could end that war in some foreseeable future, when previously there was no end in sight.

𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐛��𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭: EU’s cash dump means we’re not footing their bill—$100 billion less U.S. aid projected by 2026.

Domestic GDP’s set to jump 3% with tax breaks and energy.

Globally, Trump’s forcing strength—NATO’s waking up, Middle East’s aligning, adversaries are scrambling. The man’s a bulldozer—2025’s his runway.

[eskwander]

Capitalism and Genocide

Mathias Clivaz and Hugues Poltier. October 15, 2024.

1. In 2007, Israeli lawyer Ram Caspi published the following in the Tel Aviv-based financial daily Globes: "Neither ground invasion nor air attack, but strangulation... [...] the Israeli government will take steps to cut Gaza off from essential resources such as fuel, water, electricity, telephone, and will prevent anyone from providing them." (quoted by G. Levy in Haaretz, 10.6.2007) The election of Hamas that year – which Israel supported in order to oust Fatah – provides a ready-made pretext for initiating a blockade of the Gaza Strip. Slowly suffocated, GDP per capita falls by 27% and unemployment rises by 49% between 2007 and 2018.

2. But the stranglehold is only just beginning. There are signs, both rhetorical and institutional, of what is coming. In 2009, B. Netanyahu becomes Prime Minister of Israel, a position he will hold for eleven years, then again from 2022; and on several occasions he aims to make the Palestinians an abject people, for example when he blames them in a speech in 2015 of having suggested the Final Solution to Hitler. But it's really with the election of D. Trump to the White House in 2017 that everything accelerates. In obviously coordinated moves, the USA recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's capital and transfers its embassy there in May 2018 and, two months later, the Knesset approves a constitutional law that ratifies the settlement process in the West Bank, and declares Jerusalem the "whole and unified" capital of Israel. The two-State solution is buried.

3. The next stage is to secure impunity and consolidate power. A step in this direction is taken with the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, again under the patronage of D. Trump: peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), followed by normalization of diplomatic relations with Morocco and Sudan. Then in 2022, Israel and the UAE sign a free-trade agreement. The stakes are clear: normalization-pacification of Israel's relations with its Arab neighbors, bypassing the Palestinian question. — European companies are not to be outdone. A study by the coalition Don't Buy Into Occupation showed that between January 2020 and August 2023, 776 European financial institutions (including BNP Paribas, HSBC, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale, to name just the top four creditors) had dealings with 51 companies actively involved in Israeli settlements, for a total investment of $164.2 billion, and a stake of $144.7 billion in shares and bonds. This despite the fact that, under international law, such investments in occupied territories are illegal. — The American tech giants are there also. In 2022, Amazon and Google signed lucrative contracts with Tel Aviv for the construction of data centersand with the army to manage their cloud operations, including maintaining surveillance data on most Palestinians living in Gaza, data that is being used by the AI models that determine who should be targeted for attacks[1].

4. A transnational network of capital has thus been set up, whose interest lies in the growth of the Israeli State and its regional supremacy. This in turn involves the arms trade: Israel, whose defense budget is the highest on the planet as a proportion of GDP, is enabling the US military-industrial complex – which supplies 69% of its weapons – to make record profits in 2023 (the conflict in Ukraine being the other major market that year). Germany is not to be outdone, since the country supplies around 30% of Israel’s weapons. The United Kingdom, Italy, France and other countries are also part of this security-capitalist alliance, to which are added all the companies that export "dual-use" and consumer goods to Israel, have industrial, commercial and educational partnerships with Israel — and buy its surveillance systems.

5. In the meantime, the hands have tightened around the victim's neck: walls have been erected between 2017 and 2021 around the entire perimeter of the Gaza Strip, now a hermetically sealed open-air prison. The strangler waits, observing the effects of asphyxiation on his victim. The victim calls for help, but no one comes. Others sound the alarm, but no one listens. So the victim screams and struggles. And Israel will conclude – and with Israel all the countries of the Global North who have a hand in the operation – that Gaza is threatening Israel.

6. On October 7, 2023, 1,139 Israelis are killed by Hamas and other Palestinian groups. These included around 800 civilians. Atrocities were committed, with Hamas guilty of war crimes. Israelis are also killed under the “friendly fire” of the Israeli army, whose military doctrine aims to prevent hostage-taking. Hamas took 252 Israeli hostages captive, with the probable aim of exchanging them for the more than 1,300 Palestinians then being held in administrative detention (imprisoned without charge or trial) in Israeli prisons. But the Israeli scriptwriters have already written the rest of the story: Israel accuses Hamas of posing an "existential threat to Israel" and invokes the right to defend itself. Never mind that Hamas has no means of destroying Israel, and that in its 2017 Charter it declared itself in favor of a two-State solution on the 1967 borders.

7. From October 7, 2023, the declarations of genocidal intent are explicit. B. Netanyahu declared on October 12: “We will fight these savage beasts with all our might, destroy them and wipe them off the face of the earth”. Israel's president, I. Herzog, on October 13: “It is a whole nation that is responsible. The rhetoric about citizens not being involved, not being aware, is absolutely false.” A. Dichter, Minister of Agriculture, on November 12: “We are now carrying out the Gaza Nakba”. And it will continue. B. Smotrich, Minister of Finance, in May 2024: “There is no job half done. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nousseirat - total destruction.” The organization Law for Palestine has listed more than 500 instances of calls for genocide during the first months of Israel's war on Gaza[2]. Starting October 2023, there is no doubt that Israel launches a war of annihilation.

8. At the same time, Israel invests millions to circulate propaganda messages on all the channels of the global North, including the most macabre fake news (forty babies beheaded by Hamas, a pregnant woman disembowelled, etc.), picked up on a loop by Germany and the USA. On smartphone screens across the planet, the cognitive war is in full swing: between the selection of the visible by Silicon Valley algorithms and the oligarchy's stranglehold on the mainstream media; between the constant threat of accusations of anti-Semitism against individuals and the editorial offices of independent newspapers, and the more than 100 journalists killed in Gaza by the Israeli army in 6 months. In plain sight, disguising the announced massacre of the Palestinian people as a "fight against terrorism", the "world's most moral army" is strangling Gaza, strangling it with fury, strangling it with the laughter of Israeli soldiers on Tik Tok, strangling it to death.

9. In truth, it's nothing new. As historians know, this is the latest act in an ethnic cleansing that began in 1948, and whose tools are forced displacement (over 6 million Palestinians are refugees in neighboring countries), apartheid of Israel's Arab citizens (kept under 20% of the country's population), the murderous and violent colonization of the West Bank, the destruction of Palestinian land and infrastructure, and the normalization of arbitrary detentions, executions, torture and sexual abuse, including in Israeli camps where 9,700 Palestinians, most of them kidnapped, were being arbitrarily detained in July 2024. Nothing new, and that's the problem.

10. In the year following October 7, 2023, Gaza's Ministry of Health has counted 41,689 Palestinian deaths because of Israel's war, the overwhelming majority of them civilians and, according to the UN, over 15,000 children. That's without counting the number of wounded (at least 96,625) and sick, the chronically ill (around 350,000), the malnourished and starving (100% of the population), the severely mentally harmed (100% of the population), in a situation where hospitals have been systematically bombed by Israel. Schools, places of worship, universities, housing, refugee centers, water management infrastructures, heritage – nothing is spared. In August, the UN satellite agency reported a volume of debris in Gaza 14 times greater than the combined total of all the conflicts of the last 16 years. The body politic of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has been effectively annihilated. To understand the extent of the massacre and the intent behind it, we need to add up the direct and indirect victims, and multiply these figures (based on the experience of past wars and genocides) by a factor of 3 to 15[3]. that puts Palestinian deaths to date at between 150,000 and 770,000, or 9% to 30% of the Gazan population. But while the countries of the Global South and a few rare voices in the North call for an end to the genocide, the USA and Germany continue to deliver arms, unperturbed.

11. There are several conclusions to be drawn from these events, which will enable us to get to the heart of the problem facing all societies today.

12. First conclusion: the crime of genocide does not exist in a binary yes/no mode. It is a process, beginning with an aim and ending with its implementation by all kinds of means, not just State means. In this respect, when the International Court of Justice (ICJ) concluded that there was a "real and imminent risk of genocide" in January 2024, it established de facto that genocide was underway. By the same reasoning, Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children and their Russification amounts to genocide (Art. II, e), as does China's treatment of the Uighur people. Second conclusion: the alliance between Israel, the USA, Germany and a few others points to the rise of white capitalism, a trans-imperial formation whose supremacism is being exercised here against the Arab populations of the Middle East. As has been demonstrated time and again, capitalist States use racism in their imperialist ventures as much as in the colonization of their own populations. Third conclusion: capitalism, now complete on a planetary scale, is experiencing an acceleration in the frequency of its crises, due to its illimitation in a world of limited resources. The capitalist response to each crisis of capital is the same: to proceed with the fascization of society, with the aim of ensuring the further concentration of capital and the continuity of existing privileges, through the militarization of States, authoritarianism and the transformation of market competition into a war of "us" against "them" (à la Huntington). Low-key fascism has become the norm in "liberal democracies". Fourth conclusion: the war between rival capitalisms (American, Chinese, Russian, Indian, Europeans) is expressed by the intensification of imperialist struggles aimed at securing a greater capacity to mobilize resources, both material and human. The instrumentalization of racism leads to the total degradation of populations of no interest to capital. Understood as waste, they are integrated by capitalism via an economy of destruction that identifies them with the material substratum of their living environment. And so, after Gaza, the bombs rain down on Lebanon. Two lessons here: the imperative of control over the world’s most important oil-producing region remains a priority for US imperialism; the ensuing demand for "regional normalization" authorizes the treatment of hostile populations living there as enemies or waste to be eliminated. The USA and its allies, in any case, are arming this annihilation. There is a clear continuity here between the Nazi holocaust of the Jews and the genocide of the Palestinians by Israel and its allies, insofar as both peoples were/are treated as "obstacles" to a supremacist project, and put to death with capitalist tools. Fifth conclusion: since capitalist rationality is built on the reification of "nature", every non-human being is assimilated to a commodity. In this context, identifying a human being with "nature" is tantamount to degrading them: the Negro slave is historically the figure of the identification of human beings with a commodified nature, transformed into pure labor or merchandise. At the other extreme, this logic implies that the supremacy of one race over another is ipso facto the domination of the "human" over "nature". Capitalism, linked to the techno-scientific project of modernity, cannot be understood outside the interweaving of genocide – the destruction of peoples as raw material – and ecocide. Indeed, it is impossible to defend human rights without also defending the rights of nature.

13. How do capitalism and genocide fit together? First, on the immediate material level, capitalism, because it is defined by growth and because growth is today unrestrained, necessarily leads to the normalization of exclusion in the mobilization of resources. In order to exclude, capitalism engages social and State forces to degrade the target populations so as to dispose of them as pure resources. This zone of organized death is a potential reality anywhere on the planet, for all living beings: whether it's a matter of grabbing a territory rich in raw materials, gentrifying a neighborhood, managing immigration, or building a factory. Capitalism’s dream is to achieve an absolute mobilization of resources, viewing life as matter to be destroyed and shaped at will at the service of profit. Second, capitalism, on the immaterial level, is indexed to the valorization of value, i.e. to the valorization of capital, through constant and unfettered growth, in profit, in size and scale. As a result, capitalism enters a crisis at the first sign of a decline in surplus value. The response to this decline is always the same: for the same quantity produced, reduce human labor by replacing it with dead labor (machines, AI, etc.); and/or increase the quantities produced to at least maintain the level of surplus value. This has a twofold effect: it increases the absolute number of excluded/wastes that can be eliminated without damaging capitalism; and it increases global environmental predation, as shown by N. Machado[4].

14. The Palestinians are the figure of a population relegated to the rank of waste in the capitalist order, since they have been and are kept outside the global logic of value. In truth, they are valued more from being massacred than from being kept alive, since they are much more integrated into the logic of value through the arms market, and later through the market of “reconstruction”. If we shift the focus to other populations kept outside the circuits of valorization and "sitting" on exploitable resources, the conclusion is similar: their extermination is required by the demand to maximize profit; or, at the very least, their forced displacement. Extraction to maintain growth has as its necessary flip side the erasure of the rights of these populations, which happens simply by the signature of business contracts.

15. This dynamic gives rise to what we call, following A. Mbembé, a necropolitics[5]. At the heart of this process is integrated capitalism's ability to play both sides of the public/private, State/entrepreneurial divide, enabling it to pre-empt the legislative capacity of political bodies and the right of populations to self-determination. We can speak with S. Sassen of predatory formations: individual decisions and actions certainly matter, "but they are part of larger assemblages of mutually reinforcing elements, conditions and dynamics" (Expulsions, 2014). On the other side, States in turn attempt to capture these polymorphous flows, giving rise to what G. Deleuze and F. Guattari have called State war machines, which "take war as their object, and form a line of destruction extendable to the limits of the universe" (A Thousand Plateaus, 1980).

16. Confronted with these realities, international institutions are unable to give force to the law of which they are the depositories. As in the case of the ICJ's judgments concerning Israel, they can only observe their powerlessness to compel established powers, whether they be States protected by their military might[6], or transnational corporations that flout borders and rules and surpass most of the world's States in power.

17. The genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza signals the fate of all living beings confronted with the "progress" of capital, which its servants believe and desire to be the ultimate sovereign. At the crossroads of other fetishisms (that of the nation, that of religion, that of technology), effectual death materializes the abstraction of value: it consecrates the supremacy of capital over all other forms of social relations (this is, strictly speaking, the fetishism of value). With no conceivable opposition to stop it, capitalist necropolitics is this power that exists only by putting its destructive capacity to the test, by casting the concrete shadow of a supreme predation.

[1] Y. Abraham, "'Order from Amazon': How tech giants are storing mass data for Israel's war", https://www.972mag.com/cloud-israeli-army-gaza-amazon-google-microsoft/.

[2] https://law4palestine.org/law-for-palestine-releases-database-with-500-instances-of-israeli-incitement-to-genocide-continuously-updated/

[3] This is the methodology of an article published by R. Khatib, M. McKee and S. Yusufin in The Lancet on July 10, 2024, Cf. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01169-3/fulltext.

[4] N. M. C. Machado, La limite écologique du capitalisme, in Jaggernaut n°4, 2022, pp. 26-27.

[5] Published in 2006, https://shs.cairn.info/revue-raisons-politiques-2006-1-page-29.

[6] It seems pointless to hope for any change in this respect until the veto power at the United Nations held by the USA, China, Russia, France and the UK has been abolished.

>> This article and the French original are available here: https://eskwander.nexus/textes/index.html#capitalismeetgenocide

[aronarchy]

The extent of Russia’s influence in Sudan goes beyond its involvement in the current war. It’s not only fueling war in Sudan but it’s the reason Russia is able to continue its war in Ukraine and other places despite being sanctioned by the West. Russia is surviving western sanctions by exploiting, smuggling gold and aiding the Sudanese Transitional Military Council (TMC) in the suppression of the pro-civilian led government movement.

In 2014, Putin was vocal about creating an economic plan to circumvent potential Western sanctions tied to the Ukraine war. By 2017, they began extending lifelines to autocrats, and unsurprisingly, former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir joined Putin’s economic pipeline. After a meeting between the two presidents, Russian geologists and mineralogists employed by Meroe Gold arrived in Sudan.

The Russian companies, including Wagner, a private military company linked to Russia and frequently engaged in conflicts worldwide, began establishing a presence in Sudan. Notably, Wagner leader is under US sanctions, accused of meddling in the 2020 US elections. In 2020, under Trump administration, the group was sanctioned for its heavy exploitation of Sudan’s natural resources. The exploitation was so evident that they literally had to be sanctioned by Trump, which is quite surprising.

In 2019, following Al-Bashir’s overthrow, Wagner transitioned to striking deals with the Rapid Support Forces militia general, Hemeti. This militia, formerly known as Janjaweed and implicated in the Darfur genocide, received weapons and training. Wagner, in return, gained access to smuggled gold and devised plans to maintain control, ultimately contributing to today’s proxy war in Sudan.

The method of gold smuggling involved disguising it as flying cookies and concealing the smuggled gold beneath Russian cookie boxes. 🤣

In 2022, @/nimaelbagir a Sudanese journalist and CNN’s Chief International Investigative Correspondent went to a Russian owned gold mining facility in Sudan. Watch her report here ⬇️

Full report here:

In June 2022, the Darfur Bar Association (DBA) launched an investigation and confirmed Wagner mercenaries presence in South Darfur after its attack on gold miners in South Darfur. The investigation also revealed that the Transitional Military council (SAF+RSF) knew about the presence of Wagner in Sudan and in 2019 a copy of the report was actually sent to then prime minister Hamadok.

The DBA investigation also revealed how the UAE is involved in Sudan and its role in the current war. There’s also an extensive investigation report on the role of the UAE in Sudan by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that proves the UAE involvement in Sudan.

How are the UAE and Russia linked you might ask?

1) Most Sudanese gold passes through the United Arab Emirates. Unofficial data from the United Arab Emirates reported that over $1.7bn of Sudanese gold landed in Dubai in 2021, just under half the value of all the country’s exports. But there is little accurate data tracking it after it arrives in the UAE (arrives via Russia). Most industry exports reckon that official figures account for less than a quarter of total gold sales. Khartoum’s central bank recorded gold exports of 26.4 tonnes from January to September in 2021 but estimates over 100 tonnes would have been smuggled out during that period. (Africa Confidential)

Amdjarass, the Chadian town just across the Sudanese border, is the base from which the UAE is running an operation supposedly to help Sudanese refugees. But behind the façade of what the UAE maintains are humanitarian efforts, lies covert weapons, drones, and medical treatment to injured RSF fighters. (The Africa Report)

A U.S. Ally Promised to Send Aid to Sudan. It Sent Weapons Instead. (WSJ)

The New York Times report on how the UAE is further involved ⬇️

2) In April 2023, following the onset of the war in Sudan, the Wagner group was exposed by CNN for allegedly supplying missiles to the RSF in their conflict against the Sudanese armed forces (SAF). The arms came through the UAE under the guise of humanitarian aid for Sudanese refugees in Chad. These armaments were destined for the UAE’s local proxy, the RSF, in Sudan’s western region. In addition, CNN exposed that the shipments of surface-to-air missiles provided by Wagner were destined for the RSF via flights shuttling the hardware from Latakia, Syria, to Khadim, Libya, and then airdropped to northwestern Sudan, where the RSF enjoys a strong presence. This support from Wagner is considered a significant factor contributing to the RSF’s continuation of the war and their reported atrocities against Sudanese civilians, including killing, looting, sexual violence, and mass destruction of Sudan’s infrastructure.

The satellite images from CNN and the open-source group “All Eyes On Wagner,” provide evidence of an escalated Wagner presence at the bases of Khalifa Haftar, the leader of a Libyan militia supported by Wagner, in Libya. This heightened presence was purportedly in preparation to assist the RSF militia against the SAF.

Full report here:

3) There is evidence that the UAE has been funding Wagner in Libya to help reduce the financial burden on Russia for its Libyan operations and has been deploying these forces to prop up its ally, General Khalifa Haftar, who has been fighting the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli. The report that the UAE is funding Wagner in Libya actually came from the US department of defense, which again is a surprise considering the close alliance of the US and the UAE.

East Africa Counterterrorism Operation, North and West Africa Counterterrorism Operation Quarterly Report to Congress, July 1, 2020‒September 30, 2020

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Canada Retaliates, and so does Trump (1440/AP) The Canadian province of Ontario raised prices on electricity exported to the US states yesterday, adding a 25% surcharge to power transmissions to New York, Michigan, and Minnesota. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said the move was in response to ongoing tariff threats from the Trump administration. Upon hearing about Ontario’s pushback, President Trump threatened to double the 25 percent tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum, declare a national emergency for areas affected by the electricity surcharge, and increase tariffs on Canadian-made cars to ��essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada”—all while heightening his desire to make Canada the 51st state. “The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State,” Trump wrote. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear.” Ford later said on X he chose not to impose the surcharge on electricity exports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota after having a “productive conversation” about the economic relationship between Canada and the U.S. with Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.

Trump’s Tactics Lead Americans to Question Role on World Stage (NYT) Abraham Lincoln suggested the United States was “the last, best hope of Earth.” Ronald Reagan celebrated it as a “shining city on a hill.” George W. Bush argued that the nation was “the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world.” But to President Trump, America is the all-powerful player in a series of high-stakes transactions. “You don’t have the cards right now,” he lectured President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in their extraordinary Oval Office showdown. Mr. Trump is radically different from his Republican predecessors in countless ways. But rarely is the contrast starker than in his approach to American leadership in the world. While those Republicans championed free trade, he has started trade wars. And while they argued that American assistance abroad could fend off problems at home, he has moved to gut foreign aid. Now, Mr. Trump’s nakedly transactional style is forcing Americans to reimagine how they see their country’s place in the world.

Tariffs face long odds in bid to bring factories home (Washington Post) President Donald Trump says there is an easy way for manufacturers to avoid his blizzard of tariffs: Move back to the United States. If it works, Trump’s tariff-first strategy could end a long stagnation in U.S. manufacturing output and create the kind of jobs that his blue-collar supporters crave. But in trying to repatriate manufacturing, Trump is battling powerful long-term forces that have caused factory jobs to dwindle to the smallest share of U.S. employment since government records began in 1939. Just 8 percent of American workers now toil in factories, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Even if Trump succeeds in luring companies inside his tariff walls, it is unlikely he could regain the nearly 5 million factory jobs that have vanished since the late 1990s, according to many economists. Machines greatly outnumber workers in modern factories. The jobs that remain require higher skills and no longer pay more than other opportunities available to workers without a college degree. Trump’s trade policy, against all odds, is trying to re-create an economy—and a way of life—that hasn’t really existed in the United States for decades.

Former Social Security official describes hostile takeover by Musk team (Washington Post) They came in aggressively, a former official who witnessed Elon Musk’s team take over the Social Security Administration said, demanding access to sensitive taxpayer data and refusing briefings on how the agency ensures the accuracy of its benefit systems. They recklessly exposed data in unsecured areas outside Social Security offices, the official said, potentially disclosing personally identifiable information on almost every American to people not authorized to see it. And representatives sent by the U.S. DOGE Service refused to explain why they needed taxpayer information that is protected by law, the former official said. These and other allegations are included in a sweeping declaration filed as part of a federal lawsuit Friday from Tiffany Flick, the agency’s acting chief of staff until she was forced out in mid-February. Flick describes a fast and tension-filled takeover of the agency and its sensitive data systems by DOGE in what amounted to a de facto coup by agency outsiders. The declaration is the first in-depth public account from a high-ranking government executive of how Musk’s team is operating at one of dozens of agencies as it leads a downsizing of the federal government.

‘Strong eruption’ of volcano in Guatemala forces evacuations (Guardian) Guatemalan authorities have evacuated about a thousand people after Central America’s most active volcano erupted, spewing lava, ash and rocks. Residents with traumatic memories of a deadly eruption in 2018 sought safety in a temporary shelter after the Fuego volcano—located 35km (22 miles) from the capital, Guatemala City—showed escalating activity on Sunday. Guatemala lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

Russia shoots down 337 Ukrainian drones in massive attack (AP) Russian air defenses shot down 337 Ukrainian drones over 10 Russian regions overnight, military officials said Tuesday, in what appeared to be the biggest Ukrainian drone attack on Russia in the three-year war. The attack came hours before the start of key Ukraine-U.S. talks in Saudi Arabia on how to stop Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II. Two people were killed and 18 were injured, including three children, officials said.

U.S. Agrees to Resume Military Assistance to Ukraine (NYT) Ukraine said it would support a Trump administration proposal for a 30-day cease-fire with Russia, an announcement that followed hours of meetings on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia where the United States agreed to immediately lift a pause on intelligence sharing and resume military assistance to Kyiv. The talks in the coastal city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, brought fresh momentum to cease-fire negotiations that had faltered following a public confrontation at the White House between the Ukrainian and U.S. presidents. In the statement, the United States and Ukraine acknowledged that the terms of any cease-fire would be subject to Russia’s approval.

Russia Trots Out Its Newest Weapons in Ukraine: Horses (WSJ) On the eastern front here, Russia is saddling up a mainstay of battlefields from earlier centuries to counter Ukraine’s drone army: horses and donkeys. The hoofed mammals carry supplies and soldiers to avoid the attention of drones, which can easily spot and strike armored and other vehicles moving near the front lines. While horses and donkeys are far from a centerpiece of Russian operations, Moscow’s dalliance is indicative of the ways in which a high-tech war is requiring creative uses of old-school combat methods, from trenches to motorbikes. Horses in combat date to around 1500 B.C., when they were used to pull chariots, according to the American Museum of Natural History. They later became a military linchpin for transport and cavalry charges. By the end of World War I, though, horses and donkeys were largely replaced by vehicles. Last month, Russian Lt. Gen. Viktor Sobolev told a pro-Kremlin media outlet the military was struggling to supply some units with ammunition, equipment and food. In this environment, using donkeys and horses in logistics is normal, he said. “It’s better if a donkey gets killed than two men in a car carrying the things necessary for battle and sustenance,” he said.

Hijacking in Pakistan (Foreign Policy) The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) hijacked a train in Pakistan on Tuesday, taking hostage 182 people, including security personnel. A U.S. official put that number closer to 450 people. The train was en route to the city of Peshawar when armed militants blew up the tracks and trapped it in a tunnel. The militants have killed at least 10 of the hostages, but at least 104 passengers, mostly women and children, have made it safely to the nearest station. The other passengers’ fates are unclear. At time of writing, the BLA remained in a tense standoff with the Pakistan Air Force, and at least 13 militants had been killed by security forces.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte arrested in the Philippines on an ICC warrant over drug killings (Bloomberg) In dramatic events on Tuesday, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s government arrested and deported his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte to face the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The move came just over a month after the impeachment of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte, by allies of Marcos. A Senate trial, which would determine whether she gets removed from office, is scheduled to begin in July. The push by Marcos to sideline his main political opponents marks a gamble that could easily backfire. The Dutertes still hold clout, with Sara a top candidate in polls to win the next presidential vote in 2028. Just prior to his arrest at the Manila airport, the elder Duterte was regaled by thousands of adoring supporters at a Hong Kong stadium, showing the enduring appeal of a brash politician frequently compared to Donald Trump. And while Marcos also remains popular, his approval ratings have declined in part due to stubbornly high inflation. For Duterte, 79, the next step is facing charges in the Netherlands-based ICC over his drug war that killed more than 6,000 people.

Kiwi exodus (Economist) “Ditch the winter chill” and “expand your horizons in sunny South East Queensland!” reads one newspaper advert, luring New Zealand’s health-care workers towards a new life in Australia. “Warmer days and higher pays”, enthused another, last year, from the Australian state’s police service. Kiwis who chose “policing in paradise” could look forward to 300 days of annual sunshine and a A$20,000 ($12,500) relocation bonus, it declared. For many New Zealanders that is an easy sell. They are leaving their country in record numbers. Almost 129,000 residents emigrated last year—40% above the pre-pandemic average for this century. Its small economy and relative lack of opportunity have long driven young New Zealanders towards what they call the “overseas experience”, fanning fears of brain drain. And recently, New Zealand has been in a rut. The economy is in recession and unemployment has risen. Outgoing Kiwis grumble about costly housing and a crime surge. Unlike most, they have an alternative when times get tough: they are free to live and work in Australia, and vice versa. Almost 15% of them are now based “across the ditch”.

Syria’s government signs a breakthrough deal with Kurdish-led authorities in the northeast (AP) Syria’s interim government signed a deal Monday with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main U.S.-backed force there into the Syrian army. The deal is a major breakthrough that would bring most of Syria under the control of the government, which is led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that led the ouster of President Bashar Assad in December. The deal to be implemented by the end of the year would bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkey, airports and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control. Prisons where about 9,000 suspected members of the Islamic State group are also expected to come under government control. Syria’s Kurds will gain their “constitutional rights” including using and teaching their language, which were banned for decades under Assad. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds, who were displaced during Syria’s nearly 14-year civil war, will return to their homes.

Uganda deploys special forces to South Sudan to protect the government as fears of civil war grow (AP) Uganda has deployed an unknown number of troops to South Sudan in a bid to protect the fragile government of President Salva Kiir as a tense rivalry with his deputy threatens a return to civil war in the east African nation. Ugandan special forces have been deployed to Juba, the South Sudanese capital, “to support the government of South Sudan” against a possible rebel advance on the city, said Maj. Gen. Felix Kulayigye, a spokesperson for the Ugandan military. The U.S. on Sunday ordered nonemergency government personnel to leave Juba. The U.N. is warning of “an alarming regression that could erase years of hard-won progress” in South Sudan.

TikTok crooner, 92, feels 'very, very fortunate' (BBC) A 92-year-old who croons contemporary pop hits, garnering more than 600,000 followers on TikTok, says he feels “very, very fortunate”. Edwin Rayner, from Bournemouth, Dorset, stopped singing after his wife Margaret passed away but his granddaughters convinced him to upload some clips onto TikTok, creating a sensation. His latest successes include 8.7 million views for his cover of Chappell Roan’s Pink Pony Club, and 11.5 million for his version of Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. He told BBC Breakfast: “It’s so gratifying because some of the people who comment on me were in despair, and my singing, and songs, have brought back life to them, and it’s so pleasing to know I’ve done this.”

[exportimport12]

Explore how Eximpedia's import-export data can drive your business growth. Access insights like the US Importers Database, Ukraine trade data, Indonesia import data, and more to make smarter trade decisions.

[beardedmrbean]

TALLINN (Reuters) -Russia detained a Greek-owned oil tanker on Sunday after it left an Estonian Baltic Sea port, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said, adding it had alerted NATO allies to the incident.

The Liberia-flagged ship Green Admire was leaving Sillamae port using a designated navigation channel that crosses Russian territorial waters, the ministry said in a statement.

"This is definitely connected to the fact that we have started to harass Russia's shadow fleet", Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told Estonian broadcaster ERR. He also said he had informed allies of the event.

Western sanctions on Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have led to a vast "shadow fleet" of tankers crossing the sea to help Moscow keep its crude oil exports flowing.

Only last week, Estonia said that Moscow had briefly sent a fighter jet over the Baltic Sea during Estonia's attempt to stop a Russian-bound oil tanker.

The West has imposed a series of sanctions against tankers that transport Russian oil, resulting in transport by vessels typically with opaque ownership structures and without top-tier Western insurance or safety certification cover.

Baltic Sea nations are also on high alert after a string of power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages.

The Green Admire had departed Sillamae port on Saturday at 18:40 GMT, and on Sunday afternoon was at one point anchored near Russia's Hogland Island, according to Marine Traffic, a website that tracks vessels.

A Greek government official said the ship had manoeuvred in Russian waters to avoid shallows and that the Russians had intercepted it and moved it to a safe place to impose a fine.

Shipping data showed the vessel’s operator was Athens-based Aegean Ship Management and one of its key insurers was listed as Norway-based Skuld. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The ship was bound for Rotterdam with a load of Estonia's shale oil, the Estonian Transport Administration said. The tanker with a maximum capacity of 700,000 barrels, was almost fully laden, LSEG ship tracking data showed.

The navigation channel out of Sillamae through Russian territorial waters has been set up under an agreement between Estonia, Finland and Russia to avoid shallows in the Estonian waters, the administration said.

Vessels sailing into and out of the port will now be guided through Estonian territorial waters, it added.

NATO did not immediately comment on the incident.

A Greek coast guard official said that, since the vessel was not Greek-flagged, the Greek state had no authority on it.

However, a Greek government official said Greece was aware and was monitoring the case. The official said Athens had stated its availability to assist, though no request to do so had been submitted.

[anamseair]

https://www.seair.co.in/blog/exports-of-ukraine.aspx

Discover major exports of Ukraine, including cereals, iron and steel, and sunflower oil. Learn about Ukraine's top export partners like Poland and China, and explore the country's significant role in global trade.

[dertaglichedan]

North Korea Tests K-23 Missiles, Agrees on Drone Production with Russia

North Korea is reportedly using the ongoing war in Ukraine as a testing ground to enhance its missile technology, with significant improvements in the accuracy of its ballistic missiles.

Ukrainian officials have observed that North Korean missiles used by Russian forces since December 2024 now strike targets with a precision of 50 to 100 meters, compared to 1 to 3 kilometers earlier in the war. This improvement is attributed to better navigation systems and targeting data, potentially provided by Russia.

Over 20 North Korean ballistic missiles, including K-23, K-23A, and K-24 types, have been launched at Ukraine in recent weeks, with these missiles forming a small but increasingly precise part of Russia's arsenal.

Additionally, North Korea and Russia have agreed to jointly develop and mass-produce drones, with North Korea providing troops to support Russia's invasion in exchange for technical assistance.

This deepening military cooperation raises concerns about regional and global stability, as North Korea could leverage these advancements to threaten neighboring countries or export improved weapons to unstable states or armed groups.

[mariacallous]

Throughout the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign, observers spent much time puzzling over why voters seemed to be so unhappy with the economy, even when macroeconomic data—and most economists—suggested that the economy was historically strong.

The United States was growing at nearly 3 percent (faster than it had for decades); unemployment (at under 4 percent) was at historic lows; the stock market was at a record high after the best two consecutive years this century; manufacturing jobs were coming back, and inflation—which had surged during the COVID-19 pandemic—was back down to near target levels. The U.S. economy was in many ways the envy of the world, and yet 77 percent of the public believed it was “poor” or “only fair,” which now-President Donald Trump both encouraged and took advantage of.

While there were many reasons for this striking perception gap, the best explanation seems to be the unique role of inflation: Unlike broad macroeconomic trends that show up mainly in headlines, people experience inflation directly and several times every day, when filling up the gas tank or buying a sandwich causes sticker shock and anger for which political leaders must be to blame.

Whatever the reason, what got less attention during the campaign was the fact that a similarly striking gap existed between the United States’ actual strength and standing in the world and the perception that voters had of it.

Trump told voters a story of U.S. weakness and global decline, and Americans seemed to buy it, with just 33 percent of those polled in a February 2024 Gallup survey saying they were “satisfied” with the position of the United States in the world today—a level 20 points below what it had been four years previously..

What they apparently failed to see was that notwithstanding the wars in Ukraine and Gaza—and indeed, in some ways because of them—the United States was in a stronger geopolitical position than it had been for many years or even decades, in stark contrast with the perception of weakness and decline.

Compared with both its allies and its adversaries, the U.S. economy is in anything but decline. U.S. economic growth over the past 20 years has dwarfed that of other wealthy countries, a gap that has grown over the past few years to the point that the U.S. economy is now nearly twice the size of the eurozone and almost seven times that of Japan. Meanwhile, China’s 30-year run of meteoric growth seems to be ending with its economy bogged down by low consumption and a bloated property market, while Russia’s economy has been devasted by sanctions, export controls, and war.

The United States has real economic problems—including debt, stubborn inflation, and inequality—but its share of the global GDP, at around 26 percent, is higher than it has been for nearly two decades and similar to where it was at the end of the Reagan administration. That economic power remains the basis for exercising unparalleled global influence.

Virtually every other measure of relative power underscores U.S. global strength. Far from artificially constrained in the name of climate change, as alleged by critics, U.S. energy production is at an all-time high, with the country leading the world in production of both oil (20 percent of global production) and natural gas (25 percent). U.S. technology companies—such as Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Tesla—dominate global markets, and the country remains well ahead of its allies and competitors in the field of artificial intelligence. The U.S. dollar remains the currency of choice for nearly 60 percent of international transactions and currency reserves—giving Washington unique power to leverage sanctions, freeze assets, and take advantage of deficit spending. Demographically, the United States is also better positioned than competitors, with a higher birthrate than any other advanced industrialized economy or adversaries such as China or Russia.

American voters in 2024 may not have been feeling good about the country’s standing in the world, but people elsewhere were: Even in summer 2024, amid rising global criticism of U.S. policy in the Middle East, a Pew poll of 34 countries from all over the world showed that international views of the United States were still strongly favorable (54 percent favorable vs. 31 percent unfavorable) and that twice as many people surveyed had confidence in President Joe Biden to do the right thing than they did in Chinese President Xi Jinping or Russian President Vladimir Putin—or Trump.

In other words, Americans had the impression that a strong majority of people around the world (57 percent vs. 42 percent, according to a February 2024 Gallup survey) viewed the United States unfavorably, when the reality was the other way around.

The U.S. geopolitical position in key regions of the world also belies the notion of decline. In Europe, the war in Ukraine has certainly been costly and has no doubt contributed to the American perception of foreign-policy failure. In fact, the response to Putin’s invasion was a remarkable demonstration of U.S. power. In February 2022, virtually all observers thought Russia would take Kyiv in weeks. Instead, finances and weapons from the United States and other allies helped Ukraine thwart the invasion, and the country remains free and independent, while Russia has lost some 700,000 dead and wounded on the battlefield and is forced to rely on North Korea for reinforcements.

With the addition of Finland and Sweden—and European defense spending rising considerably since the Russian invasion—a U.S.-led NATO is now bigger and more unified than ever. If Trump ends U.S. military support for Ukraine, alienates NATO allies (with initiatives such as unilateral tariffs or his threatened attempt to acquire Greenland), or pulls out of the NATO alliance altogether, U.S. influence there will obviously diminish; but he inherited a position of strength.

The United States’ strength and standing in Asia is also enviable. When the Biden administration took office, it seemed to be a matter of “when,” not “if,” China’s economy would surpass that of the United States, and fears about Beijing’s domination of the South China Sea or a military takeover of Taiwan were high.

Instead, China’s post-COVID-19 recovery has been anemic—leading Beijing to seek more stability in relations with the United States—and Washington has bolstered its extensive network of alliances around the region. Targeted U.S. export controls, tariffs, and investment restrictions have constrained China’s military rise while Washington has bolstered political and security ties with Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia, Taiwan, and others.

Trump could, of course, squander Washington’s leverage and influence if he repeats calls to pull U.S. troops out of South Korea or questions the country’s willingness to defend Taiwan, but those would be self-inflicted wounds.

Finally, for all the chaos in the Middle East—no doubt itself responsible for the impression of U.S. weakness—Washington’s geopolitical position in the region is now stronger than it has been for decades. The war between Israel and Hamas, which has caused mass civilian casualties and destruction, has been painfully tragic, and strong U.S. support for Israel has alienated Arab populations across the region.

At the same time—and in part thanks to that support—the strategic situation in the neighborhood has been positively transformed. The United States’ main regional adversary, Iran, is now believed by many to be weaker than it has been since its 1979 revolution, and its proxies—including Hamas and Hezbollah—have been decimated. Iran’s ballistic missile program, once a core element of its deterrent, has proved to be ineffective and its air defenses have been revealed as weak. Tehran also lost its main regional partner with the fall of the Assad regime in Syria.

The U.S. military’s demonstration in April 2024 and October 2024 that it—along with a coalition of regional partners—could shoot down hundreds of ballistic missiles and drones launched from Iran toward Israel was a powerful reminder to the entire region and beyond of the benefits of having the United States on your side. Trump is certainly inheriting a complicated regional picture in the Middle East, but he is also inheriting a historic opportunity.

None of this is to say that the United States does not face enormous challenges or rivalries on the world stage, including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. But the notion that the past four years revealed the United States to be a paper tiger—or that it is now in a weakened global position compared with any of its rivals—is absurd.

If Trump reverses the bipartisan policies that led to this position of strength—the creation and maintenance of alliances; an open U.S. economy; an investment in soft power (including through development assistance); upholding defense commitments; and a willingness to confront international aggressors and stand up for global rules and norms—then he could end up producing the very decline and insecurity that he falsely claims to have inherited.