On January 25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists in Angola that BRICS, an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, may soon explore the possibility of creating its own currency. What message does this plan send regarding the greenback's dominance?
While delivering a statement after his meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that the West had shattered vital principles of the inviolability of property, the presumption of innocence, fair competition, and globalization.
Under these circumstances, BRICS, an informal group of developing nations, and the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) have started to discuss the establishment of their own new currencies within the frameworks of these blocs, according to the Russian foreign minister.
Earlier this week, President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva touched upon the issue of the creation of a common currency for BRICS and the countries of Mercosur, a South American trade bloc, during his meeting with his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez.
Lula da Silva specified that the countries could establish a type of currency for trade that the Central Bank sets. He added that he would prefer international trading transactions to always be settled in national currencies to reduce dependence on the US dollar.
Last week, the two presidents wrote an op-ed signaling their willingness to advance the discussions on a common South African currency that "could be used for both financial and commercial flows, reducing the costs of operations and [the continent's] external vulnerability."
Mikhail Khazin, a Russian economist, researcher, and publicist, has addressed seeming contradictions in Lula da Silva's statement. The Russian economist is inclined to believe that while BRICS and CELAC members are talking about a single currency system, they are likely to create a single payment system at the first stage.
"It now makes sense to create a payment system that combines the currency systems of the Eurasian, Chinese, Indian and Latin American zones," Khazin told Sputnik. "It is necessary to create a payment system independent of the dollar."
He expects that four new currency zones will be formed, comprising the Latin American, Eurasian, Chinese, and Indian regions. Only after that, in about 10 years, would it be logical to create a single currency, as a "superstructure," for all of them, akin to the euro, according to Khazin.....More Below
Nvidia would be barred from shipping advanced artificial intelligence chips to China under bipartisan legislation unveiled Thursday, Bloomberg reported. A Chinese expert said the move is shortsighted, noting that tightening restrictions despite domestic industry opposition will only accelerate China’s tech innovation and further diminish Nvidia’s chances of reentering the Chinese market.
Known as the Secure and Feasible Exports Act, the bill would order the US Commerce Department to halt export licenses for sales of chips to adversaries, including China and Russia for at least 30 months. Any processors more powerful than those already approved for export to those nations would be subject to the measure, the Bloomberg report said.
The legislation comes as the White House weighs whether to allow Nvidia to export the....more below
A high-ranking ICC official, Nicolas Herrera, secretly financed the sanctioned UPC armed group in the Central African Republic, according to court materials obtained by Sputnik.
Nicolas Herrera, a high-ranking official in the Registry Office of the International Criminal Court (ICC), secretly recruited and financed the Union for Peace (UPC) in the Central African Republic (CAR) armed group, led by local warlord Ali Darassa, to capture ICC target Joseph Kony, by using US-based NGO employee Joseph Martin Figueira as a covert intermediary, thereby violating the ICC’s financial accountability standards by funding an armed group, according to a Sputnik correspondent's analysis of public court records.
The conviction of Joseph Martin Figueira, a Belgian-Portuguese anthropologist found guilty of espionage and collaborating with militants in the Central African Republic (CAR) in November, has uncovered a complex financial trail linking ICC staff to the country’s armed militants, evidence ...
Hundreds of retired Israeli police officers have urged the regime’s president, Isaac Herzog, to reject Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon in corruption cases.
On November 30, Netanyahu, who faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust in three separate cases, submitted a formal pardon request to the office of Herzog, claiming the long-running corruption cases were tearing the regime apart.
In a letter to Herzog, about 400 former officers, including ex-commissioners and deputy commissioners, said Netanyahu’s request contains “not even a hint of admission of guilt,” making it unacceptable.
They warned that “such a step without [Netanyahu’s] confession and remorse is liable to ignite severe violence in Israeli society.”.....more below
