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PoliticsNigeria Is Making Mistake In Niger. by naijapower(op): 10:39am On Aug 06, 2023
I will not say much.
Note:
The Person that advised President Tinubu to cut Electricity Supply and Imposed other punitive actions on Niger today has destroy the tomorrow relationship between Nigeria and Niger. In respective of whom become Niger's leader tomorrow. The Government of Niger will not forget the actions Nigeria has taken today and will put in place programmes that will protect Niger national security from Nigeria ability to cripple their government.

* Niger will dam their end of the River that brings water to River Niger, thereby crippling Kanji Dam (ask Egypt and Ethiopia).
* Niger will build their own Electricity Generation Plant to supply their country with electricity.
* Other action will follow, let me not give Niger idea.
CrimeRe: Bishop Lamor Whitehead Robbed At Gunpoint While Delivering Sermon On Livestream by naijapower(op):
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CrimeBishop Lamor Whitehead Robbed At Gunpoint While Delivering Sermon On Livestream by naijapower(op): 6:38am On Jul 26, 2022
Bishop Lamor Whitehead says five to ten minutes into the sermon, he saw the door in the back of the room kicked open and three to four men walked in with guns. He believes he was targeted, the station says. The service was being livestreamed.

"I said, 'Alright, alright, alright,' pretty much stating that I'm not going to do anything because I know you're coming for me. You're coming straight to me. I don't want my parishioners hurt. I've got women and children there," said Whitehead, of Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries.

"As I got down, one went to my wife and took all her jewelry and had the gun in front of my 8-month-old baby's face. Took off my bishop's ring, my wedding band and took off my bishop's chain, and then I had chains underneath my robe and he started tapping my neck to see if anything else. So that means they knew. They watched and they knew that I have other jewelry," he explained.


The church's livestream shows the gun being held on the pastor.

"They had guns on my deacons that was at the door," said Whitehead.

What you don't see on camera, Whitehead said, are around 100 congregants who were in the room. Men, women and children dropped to the floor in silence.

"My church is traumatized. The women and children are still crying. Babies are still crying," said Whitehead.

According to police, the men took off in a white Mercedes. Whitehead said cops have a license plate and witnesses saw the men change clothes outside.

"These men, they need to turn themselves in," Whitehead said. "I forgive you and I'm praying for you, and I hope that God delivers you from the mindset of who you are at this time."

Whitehead believes his family was targeted because of the publicity he received when he helped turn in the suspect wanted in the fatal subway shooting of 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez in May.

"I turned him in, but the media called me 'the bling, bling bishop.' They had my Rolls-Royce caw all over everywhere, and I feel that that played a part in this," said Whitehead. "I think all pastors should be able to get permits for pistols."

The NYPD is investigating and Whitehead said Mayor Eric Adams and top police brass have called him pledging support to find the suspects.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the mayor said, "No one in this city should be the victim of armed robbery, let alone our faith leaders and congregants worshiping in a House of God. The NYPD is investigating this crime and will work tirelessly to bring the criminals involved to justice."

No one was hurt during the robbery.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lamor-whitehead-brooklyn-bishop-robbed-gunpoint-sermon-livestream/

CelebritiesChris Brown Charges Fans $1,000 For VIP Meet And Greet by naijapower(op): 11:16am On Jul 24, 2022
Reports indicate that America Singer and rapper Chris Brown charges fans $1000 for a VIP Meet and Greet.

Chris Brown’s huge charge for just a meet and greet has garnered massive reactions online.

The ladies who attended the Meet and Greet shared photos from their time with Chris Breezy.

The reports say Chris Brown charged $1000 for VIPs for an exclusive meet and greet but netizens have shared their 2 cents on the rumours.

To some of the fans the charges are too huge for just a behind the scenes meeting.

Others were also unperturbed about the price tag as they branded Chris Brown as a genius

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AutosGet 6,6m Naira Bonus When You Buy 2010 Toyota Corolla Foreign Used by naijapower(op): 4:14am On Jul 23, 2022
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PoliticsWhy You Should Support And Vote TINUBU In 2023 by naijapower(op):
According to ait advert years back, Tinubu was portrayed as the biggest Landlord in Africa.
Why was Tinubu the Biggest LandLord?
Because he had both the Political Knowledge and Will Power to get the result he wanted.
Having both Political Knowledge and Willpower at same time is lacking in most politicians.
From 1999 till date, lots of politicians came on the Nigerian political scene, but nearly all have gone to oblivion.
Lots of them have become politically broke.
Tinubu is not a Religious saint, but a money making saint yhats knows how to use available resources to make money and create jobs.
Nigeria has lots of resources that will create jobs for all Nigerians and infrastructures, if Tinubu comes onbaord, he can leverage on Nigeria resources to create jobs and build infrastructures
NIgeria is like a vehicle, that need a good driver and not saint to drive. Tinubu is a good driver.
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Tinubu made money from structures he created , Structures that employed millions of people and boost the igi of Lagos.

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BusinessMake Fast Legal Money by naijapower(op): 9:52am On Jul 14, 2022
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PoliticsRe: Atiku Returns From Vacation by naijapower: 9:50am On Jul 14, 2022
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PoliticsRe: Buhari: Presidency Is Tough, I Am Eager To Go by naijapower: 8:04am On Jul 12, 2022
Nigeria go better

TV/MoviesRe: Big Break Moment Africa Reality Show: 500 Students Auditioned In FCT For N30m by naijapower: 10:00pm On Jul 11, 2022
when pure Creativity match pure Support pure Success is always they case.

Car TalkRe: Igbo Christian Buys Toyota Corolla As Sallah Gift For His Hausa Driver by naijapower: 9:26pm On Jul 11, 2022
Every good work will enjoy reward.

Foreign AffairsNew Zealand To Help With Ukrainian Military Intelligence by naijapower(op): 11:06am On Mar 28, 2022
The island nation is sending nine officers to assist colleagues in the UK and Belgium
New Zealand to help with Ukrainian military intelligence
New Zealand is going to assist its European allies in gathering intelligence on the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday.

The New Zealand Defense Force will use its capabilities for the next three months to support the UK and other European partners, “taking advantage of the time zone difference to help with key tasks during their night time and our day time,” Ardern told the media after a cabinet meeting.

The island nation’s ministers have decided to immediately deploy nine officers to the UK and Belgium “to assist with the heightened demand for intelligence assessments” amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, she said.

Five of those experts will monitor satellite imagery, while the rest will be tasked with enhancing Wellington’s understanding of the activities of its allies and NATO relating to the crisis, the PM added.

New Zealand had previously contributed $5 million to the NATO Trust Fund, which provides fuel, military rations, communications and first-aid kits to Kiev, as well as another $6 million to support Ukrainian civilians affected by the conflict.

Wellington has also joined the international sanctions against Moscow, targeting more than 460 Russian individuals and entities. “We know that sanctions globally have been making it harder for the Russian regime to fund its war... New Zealand is playing its part,” Ardern said.

Russia sent its troops into Ukraine over a month ago, following a seven-year standoff over Kiev’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it had been planning to retake the two republics by force.

https://www.rt.com/news/552815-new-zealand-uk-ukraine/
Foreign AffairsUkraine Blocks Trans Women Refugees: "They Are Men, Must Go Back & Fight" by naijapower(op): 4:15am On Mar 24, 2022
The Ukrainian government is refusing to allow transgender women to leave the country along with the millions of women and children refugees who have been streaming into Poland and other European nations. Instead, Ukrainian border guards are turning them back and forcing them to return home to join the fight.

Their reasoning might sour some trans activists in the West: Ukraine's martial law requires all biological males between the ages of 18 and 60 to remain in the country and fight. And it makes no exceptions for trans women.

Even trans women who have been widely accepted by their communities as woman still carry passports identifying them as males, which is what border guards see when they try to cross the border. In many cases, trans women who have tried to flee have been turned back, according to the Italian newspaper La Corriere della Sera, Italy's largest-circulation newspaper.

The paper quoted a trans woman who shared her experience at the hands of the guards: "They are men...they must turn back and fight."

The story has been picked up by a handful of European newspapers, including the UK-based Guardian. Trans women who spoke with the two newspapers described "humiliating" searches by border guards, and other perceived depredations, before being denied further passage.

As strange hands searched her body and pulled back her hair to check if it was a wig, Judis looked at the faces of the Ukrainian border guards and felt fear and despair.

"Ukrainian border guards UnCloth you and touch you everywhere," Judis says. "You can see on their faces they’re wondering ‘what are you?’ like you’re some kind of animal or something."

Judis is a transgender woman whose birth certificate defines her as female.

Legally, there is no reason why she should not be allowed to pass with the thousands of women who are crossing Ukrainian borders to safety every day.

Yet, on 12 March at about 4am, after a long and humiliating search, border guards determined she was a man and prevented her passage into Poland.

Since Ukraine enacted martial law on Feb. 24, it's estimated that hundreds of trans women have tried to cross the border. Many have been turned back. The trans activists who spoke with both papers have said that trans people have reason to flee, since they would likely face persecution if Russia seizes control of the country. The Guardian went as far as to

The International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association said Ukraine ranks 39th out of 49 European countries for its overall treatment of LGBTQ+ people. Gay marriage is not allowed in the country, and the Christian Orthodox Church considers homosexuality a sin. There are also no anti-discrimination laws to protect LGBTQ+ people.

Legally speaking, Ukraine starting recognizing trans women as women in 2017, with one important catch: they must undergo extensive psychiatric observation and a lengthy bureaucratic process before their assumed gender can be reflected on formal documents.

"Martial law says all males are obliged to serve in the military, so they can’t leave the country," says Olena Shevchenko, 39, a human rights defender and the chair of Insight, a Ukrainian LGBTQ+ organization and one of the few public organisations in the country that works with trans people. "Technically, the law applies to trans people as well, including both certified trans men and trans women who had not changed their documents. But it sounds like Ukrainian border guards are preventing even trans people with a valid certificate reflecting their new gender from leaving Ukraine, and nobody knows why."

Two trans women interviewed by the Guardian shared similar stories about border guards telling them to turn back and join the fight.

"'Go to the war', they replied, adding that more than 3 million people had already fled the country and they weren't going to let me out."

Alice, 24, a trans woman from Brovary, a town near Kyiv, recounted a similar experience. She and her wife, Helen, a 21-year-old who identifies as non-binary, were stopped by border guards during an attempt to cross into Poland.

"They took us to a building near the border crossing,” recounts Alice. "There were three officers in the room. They told us to take off our jackets. They checked our hands, arms, checked my neck to see if I had an Adam’s apple. They touched my breasts. After examining us, border guards told us we were men. We tried to explain our situation but they didn’t care."

Interestingly, the American press didn't pick up the story. Could this be because it might undermine the bright shiny (definitely not nazi-ish) new heroic image of the Ukrainian government, which has been the subject of almost unanimously positive coverage in the American press?
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-blocks-trans-women-refugees-they-are-men-must-go-back-fight

Foreign AffairsGermans Told To Drink Tap Water As Prices Surge by naijapower(op): 2:44am On Mar 24, 2022
They are also advised to buy seasonal food and local produce, and watch for discounts

German news magazine Focus has advised readers to change their spending and lifestyle habits in order to save money amid skyrocketing prices.

According to the publication, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine and the economic sanctions placed on Moscow have resulted in additional problems in supply chains and have driven up energy prices. This, in turn, has affected the product range and prices across German supermarket chains.

Prices for basic products such as pasta and sunflower oil, for instance, have soared by 40% and 100% respectively. Detergents, mineral water, dairy products, coffee, and toilet paper are also more expensive. Popular supermarket chain Aldi raised prices on 140 different items last week, and other supermarkets are likely to follow suit, according to Focus.

However, the publication has come up with a number of measures to help consumers save money. To start with, readers are advised to drink tap water instead of buying bottled water. The publication even lists a number of firms producing water filtration systems in Germany which could help improve the taste of tap water.
It also says shoppers should buy seasonal fruits and vegetables because they are always much cheaper due to the low costs regarding logistics.

Additionally, the publication recommends that customers choose local and unadvertised brands instead of popular ones. Almost every supermarket chain has its own line of cheaper products. As they are always backed by larger producers, the products are almost the same or just slightly different, but the prices can be up to 60% lower.

Finally, the magazine says readers should keep close track of sales and discounts, and stock up on large packs of products which have a long shelf life.

On average, consumer prices were 5.5% higher in Germany last month than in February 2021, figures from the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) show. And analysts say things will only get worse if the situation in Ukraine is not resolved. According to the German Economic Institute, the crisis itself, as well as related Western sanctions and Moscow’s counter-sanctions, could drive inflation as high as 6.1% in the coming months.

https://www.rt.com/business/552514-tap-water-german-economy/
Foreign AffairsRussia’s Ruble Payment Plan Leaves European Gas Buyers Confused by naijapower(op): 2:32am On Mar 24, 2022
German gas industry group Zukunft Gas said on Wednesday it was confused by the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin about the switch of payments for Russian natural gas supplies to rubles.

“We took the message that Russia wants [us] to pay for gas supplies only in rubles with great confusion,” Timm Kehler, the director general of Zukunft Gas, told DPA agency. “We can't predict at this moment what specific implications this will have for the gas trade,” Kehler said.

Meanwhile, Austrian OMV said it was going to continue to pay for Russian gas in euros. According to the head of the company, they have no other contractual basis.

President Putin announced earlier in the day that Russia will now accept payment for gas exports to “unfriendly countries” in rubles only.

READ MORE: Putin wants rubles for Russian gas
The measure is the first serious response from Moscow to sanctions imposed on Russia by the US and its allies over the conflict in Ukraine. A number of mostly Western countries have taken steps to isolate Russia from their financial systems. Major Russian banks have been cut off from the SWIFT payment network, making it difficult for the country to continue transactions in euros and US dollars.
https://www.rt.com/business/552571-russia-ruble-gas-europe-confused/
Foreign AffairsRe: Putin Wants Rubles For Russian Gas by naijapower(op): 3:33pm On Mar 23, 2022
This strategy will cause the Ruble to appreciate and ensure stability of the russia economy. As Germany, and other EU nations will have to source for Ruble to pay for gas.

Trading in Ruble has always been the desire of Putin and russia.

The reason why the US attack Iraq, Libya, Syrie etc was because they wanted to abandon the use of dollar for trade.
Foreign AffairsPutin Wants Rubles For Russian Gas by naijapower(op): 3:16pm On Mar 23, 2022
The change will affect energy exports to "unfriendly countries"

Russia will now accept payment for gas exports to "unfriendly countries" in rubles only, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the government on Wednesday.

The president explained that Russia plans to abandon all “compromised” currencies in payment settlements. He added that illegitimate decisions by a number of Western countries to freeze Russia’s assets destroyed all confidence in their currencies.

“I have decided to implement in the shortest possible time a set of measures to change the payments for – yes let’s start with this – for our natural gas supplied to the so-called unfriendly countries in Russian rubles, that is to stop using all compromised currencies for transactions,” the Russian president said.

"It doesn't make sense to deliver our goods to the EU and the US and get paid in dollars and euros," he added.

Moscow warns Europe of energy market collapseREAD MORE: Moscow warns Europe of energy market collapse
Putin gave the Central Bank and the government a week to determine the procedure for operations for buying rubles on the domestic market for importers of Russian gas.

The president added that Russia will continue to supply gas in accordance with the volumes and pricing principles of the contracts. Only the currency of payment will change.

The announcement caused a spike in the cost of contracts for gas supply at the TTF European hub, Forbes Russia quoted data from the Intercontinental Exchange as indicating. During Wednesday’s trading, the gas price rose from €97 per megawatt hour (MWh) to approximately €108.5 per 1MWh, but after the president’s speech, it jumped by another €10 to €118.75 per 1MWh, before retreating to €114 per 1MWh as of 1pm GMT.

In the past month, Russia has been hit with several rounds of unprecedented international sanctions over its military operation in Ukraine. The US, EU, and their allies have cut off the country from their financial systems, limited dollar and euro transactions, and froze roughly $300 billion in Russian forex reserves abroad, among other measures. At the same time, they have continued to buy Russian oil and gas.
https://www.rt.com/business/552546-putin-wants-rubles-russian-gas/
Foreign AffairsSwiss Banks Reveal How Much Russian Money They Hold by naijapower(op): 5:06am On Mar 18, 2022
Keep your treasure where you have full control over it.
Over $200 billion is reportedly stashed in the country’s vaults

Swiss banks, prized for their anonymity and safety, made a rare estimation of holdings by Russian clients amid sanctions slapped on Moscow due to the military operation in Ukraine.
The country’s Bankers Association (SBA) said on Thursday that there are between 150 and 200 billion Swiss francs ($160-$213 billion) of Russian clients’ money held in Swiss accounts. The revelation is unusual for Switzerland, which is favored by the world’s richest as a tax haven and one of the safest places for storing wealth.

Analysts say the figures announced show that the actual extent of Russians’ business with Swiss banks is far greater than what the balance sheets unveiled by several financial firms so far shows.

Setting aside the tradition of neutrality, Switzerland last month joined sanctions placed on Russia amid the crisis in Ukraine, with President Ignazio Cassis announcing that the country would freeze the assets of Russian President Vladimir Putin and 370 politicians and businessmen sanctioned by the European Union. The step was described as a way to stop those allegedly close to the Russian government from financing the “unprecedented military attack” on Ukraine.

Analysts say that based on figures unveiled by several Swiss financial institutions, direct Swiss bank exposure to Russian clients looks manageable. The country’s two largest banks, UBS and Credit Suisse, last week reported “limited” exposure to Russia. Credit Suisse, for instance, said that only 4% of its deposits belong to Russians. However, according to the bank’s report for 2021, these holdings amount to around 33 billion Swiss francs ($35 billion).

Given the SBA’s estimation, in order to turn off the money taps for Russian customers, the Swiss authorities still have a long road ahead of them to count just how much Russian wealth lies in their vaults. And as UBS CEO Ralph Hamers said, sanctions have indeed been keeping his bank busy.

“I can’t give a further update on the number of sanctioned clients, because it literally changes every day... New lists come out every night, and we just go through the list and we match it against [our client relationships],” Hamers said at the Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference on Wednesday, adding that “in principle, every Russian, every person with a Russian passport, is semi-sanctioned.”


https://www.rt.com/business/552164-swiss-banks-russian-wealth/
Foreign AffairsRe: Anton Siluanov: Russia Made Bond Payment, Now Up To US To Pay Bondholders by naijapower(op): 9:25am On Mar 17, 2022
Russia account was frozen for political reason and not criminal reason.
Israel bomb Gaza , US bomb iraq etc, for their own security and nobody seized their fund.

The Excutive Order use to block Russia account , can be set aside by Trump , when he become president after Biden .
Foreign AffairsAnton Siluanov: Russia Made Bond Payment, Now Up To US To Pay Bondholders by naijapower(op): 8:35am On Mar 17, 2022
Siluanov says the country has all the funds necessary to pay off foreign debt

Russia has ordered payment on two US dollar bond coupons due on Wednesday, but it is up to Western states, mainly the US, to withdraw the funds from the country's frozen foreign currency accounts and pay bondholders, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov says.

“The possibility or impossibility of fulfilling our obligations in foreign currency does not depend on us, we have the money, we made the payment, now the ball is in America’s court,” the official stated in an interview with RT Arabic. He added that Washington should clarify whether it is possible to make the payments from Russia’s foreign currency accounts.

Russia has to pay $117.2 million on two issues of its sovereign Eurobonds on March 16. The Finance Ministry announced on Monday that it had sent an order to transfer the payment to the international depository and clearing system Euroclear. The depository will then transfer the money to bondholders. The payment order is given in US dollars, but for bondholders to receive the money, it must be withdrawn from frozen Russian foreign currency accounts. But this could be tricky.
Nearly half of Russia’s reserves (around $300 billion) and foreign currency accounts of the Russian Central Bank (Bank of Russia) are frozen amid sanctions that followed the launch of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine last month.

The restrictions have not included formal bans on operations to service Russia’s external debt, but foreign banks may refuse to make payments on them fearing retaliatory US sanctions. Still, according to analysts, if the order in foreign currency is not executed, the sum due will be transferred to bondholders’ accounts in rubles at the exchange rate of the Russian Central Bank on the day of payment.

Despite sanctions making it difficult for Russia to fulfill its obligations, the country intends to do so, according to Siluanov, who insists Russia has all the necessary funds. As the official mentioned earlier, there are no real economic grounds for Russia to default on its debt.

Experts also say that given Russia’s ratio of GDP ($1.65 trillion) to external debt ($478.2 billion), which does not exceed 25%, the country is financially stable, which supports Siluanov’s earlier statement that the West is trying to drag Russia into an “artificial default.”
Russia also has special drawing rights (SDRs) in the International Monetary Fund, which are not subject to sanctions, and analysts say these could also be used to pay its national debt if other measures fail.
https://www.rt.com/business/552061-russia-makes-bond-payment/

Foreign AffairsRe: Russian Soldiers Kill Brent Renaud (American Journalist) - Pictures by naijapower: 7:01pm On Mar 13, 2022
His assistant did not state who killed him

New York times said he stop working for them since 2015, but he still go about with their ID.
Foreign AffairsA Surprising Explanation Of Russia's Invasion From A Former Top-level CIA Offici by naijapower(op): 6:55am On Mar 08, 2022
BY TYLER DURDEN
TUESDAY, MAR 08, 2022 - 03:00 AM
A surprising op-ed in MSNBC arguing that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was likely "preventable" if the US and NATO had merely tried to take a path of muscular diplomacy and potential compromise appears to have slipped passed the mainstream media censors and gate-keepers.

Since the start of the Thursday Feb.24 invasion, the prevailing narrative concerning Russia's motives has been largely limited to an ultra-simplistic hollywoodwesque story that goes something like this: one day a big bully and monster named Putin decided he wanted to invade and kill people in a neighboring country, and that he further wants to "resurrect the old Soviet Union".

But in a refreshingly realist op-ed piece, MSNBC political columnist Zeeshan Aleem exposed the self-serving Washington narrative which was intended more for the consumption of masses as false. Aleem points to a much more complex and nuanced reality, reminding the public of what should be obvious to any student of history - that the top diplomats and US officials who oversaw post-Soviet negotiations with Russia over Europe's security order in the 1990's knew full well that if NATO ever got expanded up to Russia's borders, it would be suicide. It was predicted decades ago that war would be triggered in such a scenario.


As the political relations professor and scholar John Mearsheimer put it in 2015, "What’s going on here is that the West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked."

Relying on some of these past scholars and US statesmen, the recent MSNBC piece describes a war that could have easily been avoided:

The fact that the NATO status question was not put on the table as Putin signaled that he was serious about an invasion — so plainly that the U.S. government was spelling it out with day-by-day updates — was an error, and potentially a catastrophic one. It may sound cruel to suggest that Ukraine could be barred, either temporarily or permanently, from entering a military alliance it wants to be in. But what’s more cruel is that Ukrainians might be paying with their lives for the United States’ reckless flirtation with Ukraine as a future NATO member without ever committing to its defense.

After all, the columnist points out, it was hugely unlikely that Ukraine would have ever become a NATO member for many years to come anyway, given that Article 5 necessitates that any potential member must have control over their own borders. Of course, given the Donbass conflict which has raged since 2014, this alone would preclude Kiev's entry.

But neither Brussels nor Washington was interested in "losing face" or making any level of concessions to Moscow, and now Ukrainians are suffering immensely after for years they were promised a "path" to NATO:

But for the West to offer to compromise on Ukraine’s future entry into NATO would have required admitting the limitations of Western power.

"It was the desire of Western governments not to lose face by compromising with Russia," Anatol Lieven, senior research fellow on Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and the author of “Ukraine and Russia: A Fraternal Rivalry,” told me. "But it was also the moral cowardice of so many Western commentators and officials and ex-officials who would not come out in public and admit that this was no longer a viable project."


..."Cowardice" which was no doubt linked to the climate of accusations of "everyone's a Russian agent!" if they don't fall in line to the dominant narrative of the past five years since the Trump-Russiagate claims.


The MSNC op-ed further includes some stunning commentary from a former top level CIA analyst:

"The choice that we faced in Ukraine — and I'm using the past tense there intentionally — was whether Russia exercised a veto over NATO involvement in Ukraine on the negotiating table or on the battlefield," said George Beebe, a former director of Russia analysis at the CIA and special adviser on Russia to former Vice President Dick Cheney.


The CIA's Beebe follows with this almost unbelievable line:

"And we elected to make sure that the veto was exercised on the battlefield, hoping that either Putin would stay his hand or that the military operation would fail."

Again this illustrates perfectly Mearsheimer's prior prediction: "...the West is leading Ukraine down the primrose path, and the end result is that Ukraine is going to get wrecked."

George Kennan, the living legend who had fathered America’s policy of containment against the Soviet Union, called NATO expansion “a strategic blunder of potentially epic proportions.” Thomas Friedman, America’s most prominent foreign policy columnist, declared it the “most ill-conceived project of the post-Cold War era.” Daniel Patrick Moynihan, widely considered the most erudite member of the US Senate, warned, “We have no idea what we’re getting into.” John Lewis Gaddis, the dean of America’s Cold War historians, noted that, “historians—normally so contentious—are in uncharacteristic agreement: with remarkably few exceptions, they see NATO enlargement as ill-conceived, ill-timed, and above all ill-suited to the realities of the post-Cold War world.”


And now tragically the world is witnessing the blowback, suffered most intensely and immediately by the very Ukrainian people that NATO powers claimed to have wanted to protect.
Foreign AffairsPutin Orders Companies To Make Debt Payments To Foreign Creditors In Rubles by naijapower(op): 9:28am On Mar 07, 2022
knowledge is profitable to direct.
Last week, following reports that as part of its countersanctions, the Russian central bank had banned payments to foreign owners of ruble bonds known as OFZ, we said that it was now just a matter of days if not hours, before Russia was in technical default (similar to what happened in 1998 when a Russian default led to the collapse of a little-known hedge fund known LTCM, which was bailed out and ushered in today's era of moral hazard). And sure enough, late on Friday Bloomberg reported that ahead of the weekend foreign holders of Russia’s local-currency government bonds still haven’t received coupon payments three days after they were due, citing financial data provider CBonds and five investors at American and European firms.

Russia’s National Settlement Depository received the interest - 11.2 billion rubles ($98 million) on 339 billion rubles of bonds known as OFZs due February 2024 - from the government on Wednesday and paid local investors, they said. But international investors weren’t paid because of the Russian central bank’s order barring foreign payments.

“Money is in NSD, payments to Russian bondholders were made,” said Elena Avdonicheva, Head of Russia & CIS Fixed Income Department at CBonds. “Payments to non-residents weren’t made due to government ban, this money is frozen in NSD until further notice. Technically we can expect that money will reach bondholders later.”

So is it time to declare Russia officially in default? Not quite yet: local Russian debt has a grace period of 10 working days after the Moscow Stock Exchange (assuming it ever reopens) publishes what it calls a technical default, according to Cbonds. Adding to the confusion, it also unclear if that will happen because technically, Russia paid.

“Officially in Russia it is not called a default,” Avdonicheva said. “But if we follow the logic: money hasn’t reached bondholders in the right time and investors couldn’t reinvest coupon payments, then it is a technical default.”

Ultimately, the determination of whether or not Russia has defaulted will come from the rating agencies, which will announce some time in mid-March that Russia has entered what is known as "Selective Default", at which point it will be in default across its entire bond universe.

Meanwhile, even while Russia did make a partial payment on its reuble-denominated debt, all eyes are now on Russia’s foreign-currency debt, where the government is due to pay more than $100 million of coupons on two dollar bonds on March 16. It also has another interest payment due on March 21 and a $2 billion bond maturing on April 4. International bonds have a 30-day grace period and a failure to pay in that time could trigger credit-default swaps, though there’s concern about whether those would pay out as well.

Furthermore, with Russia effectively prohibited from making outbound dollar transactions, a dollar-denominated default is now just a formality.


So in an innovative attempt to circumvent this eventuality, on Saturday Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing companies to pay foreign creditors in rubles, even though we doubt any of Russia's foreign creditors have any interest in being paid in rubles which have lost 50% of their value in the past week.

The decree establishes temporary rules for sovereign and corporate debtors to make payments to creditors from “countries that engage in hostile activities” against Russia, its companies and citizens. The government will prepare a list of such countries within two days.

According to Saturday’s decree on servicing foreign-held debt, payments will be considered executed if they are carried out in rubles at the central bank’s official rate.

While most Russian corporate bonds denominated in foreign currencies have plunged to deeply distressed levels in recent days as investors weighed the impact of sanctions imposed on the country in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine, on Friday JPMorgan published a list of companies whose bonds it believes are money-good including Lukoil, Novolipetsk Steel and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel. The Russian government responded to the sanctions by reducing dramatically access to foreign currencies, which could restrict the ability of bondholders to receive interest and principal payments.

In a separate announcement on Sunday, the Central Bank of Russia said it will temporarily ease reporting requirements for Russian lenders in an effort to shield them from the pressure of sanctions. Commercial banks will no longer have to publish their monthly accounts on their websites, though they will still have to submit them to the central bank and then can disclose them to counterparties, the regulator said.


* * *

It's unclear how Putin's orders will take place in practice, as clearing houses Clearstream and Euroclear have stopped accepting the ruble as settlement currency and have excluded all securities issued by Russian entities from all Triparty transactions, barring a traditional channel used to make payments to bondholders.

Furthermore, while some of Russia’s foreign sovereign bonds allow payments in rubles, the new measure will pose a big headache for holders of credit-default swaps. That’s because, given the capital controls in Russia and the sanctions, the payment in rubles “may render these bonds out of scope for CDS as ‘obligations’ and ‘deliverable obligations’,” JPMorgan strategists led by Trang Nguyen wrote on Friday. In total, CDS cover a gross $41 billion of Russian debt, according to the DTCC.

In any case, an event of default even according to the loosest possible terms is now just at most ten days away - Russia has $117 million worth of coupons on dollar bonds coming due on March 16 that don’t have the option to be paid in rubles, the JPM strategists said.

Elsewhere, companies with upcoming maturities of dollar-denominated notes include state oil producer Rosneft PJSC, whose $2 billion bond matures on Sunday, and state-controlled energy giant Gazprom PJSC, which has a $1.3 billion note due on Monday. The latter was already in the process of settling that payment, Bloomberg reported earlier.
InvestmentUS Bank Predicts Gold to lose its universal “store of value " status to Bitcoin by naijapower(op):
Gold may soon lose its status as the universal “store of value” to Bitcoin, US bank claims
Wall Street bank predicts end of gold era

Bitcoin may overtake gold’s market share in 2022, a Goldman Sachs analyst has said in a research note to clients, as cryptocurrencies and digital assets surge in price and attract increasingly more investor interest.

According to a list of 2022 predictions from the bank’s analyst Zach Pandl, Bitcoin will “most likely” acquire a bigger piece of the pie in the year to come than its current 20%, which was calculated by comparing the cryptocurrency’s $700 billion market capitalization to the roughly $2.6 trillion worth of gold in global investments.

If Bitcoin’s price surpasses $100,000 per coin, it would secure a 50% share of the market, the note stated.

“Bitcoin may have applications beyond simply a store of value – and digital asset markets are much bigger than Bitcoin – but we think that comparing its market capitalization to gold can help put parameters on plausible outcomes for Bitcoin returns,” Pandl wrote.

The term “store of value” refers to assets that are capable of retaining their worth for a long time without depreciating, like precious metals or certain currencies.
According to Coindesk data, Bitcoin was trading around $46,456 at approximately 2pm GMT on Wednesday. The globe’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization had a rough year in 2021, having plunged in price from around $60,000 in April down to near $30,000 in July, before reaching an all-time high of some $69,000 in November.

It’s struggled to surpass the $50,000 benchmark in the past few weeks after dropping sharply in December. Still, crypto-enthusiasts and market analysts are optimistic about the coin’s future, with many voicing predictions of Bitcoin hitting the long-awaited six-digit price sometime in 2022.
www.rt.com/business/545223-goldman-sachs-bitcoin-gold/
 <a href="www.rt.com/business/545223-goldman-sachs-bitcoin-gold/">Wall Street bank predicts end of gold era — RT Business News</a>    


If Goldman is pimping btc and slamming gold it can mean only one thing. Goldman is trying to buy gold and wants a cheaper price while selling btc and wants a higher price

PoliticsForeign Drones Tip The Balance In Ethiopia’s Civil War by naijapower(op): 9:22pm On Dec 21, 2021
Nigeria military need drone as it will reduce the high death rate of military personnel
Written by Declan Walsh

After Ethiopia’s embattled prime minister pulled off a stunning military victory earlier this month, reversing a rebel march on the capital that threatened to overthrow him, he credited the bravery of his troops.

“Ethiopia is proud of your unbelievable heroism,” the jubilant leader, Abiy Ahmed, told his troops on the battlefront at Kombolcha, on Dec. 6. “You were our confidence when we said Ethiopia would never lose.”

In reality, the reason for the reversal in Abiy’s fortunes was hovering in the skies above: a fleet of combat drones, recently acquired from allies in the Persian Gulf region and elsewhere who are determined to keep him in power.

Over the past four months, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Iran have quietly supplied Abiy with some of the latest armed drones, even as the United States and African governments were urging a cease-fire and peace talks, according to two Western diplomats who have been briefed on the crisis and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The motives of Abiy’s suppliers varied: to make money; to gain an edge in a strategic region; and to back a winner in the spiraling conflict that has engulfed Africa’s second most populous nation. But the impact of the drones was striking — pummeling Tigrayan rebels and their supply convoys as they pushed down a major highway toward the capital, Addis Ababa. The rebels have since retreated roughly 270 miles by road to the north, erasing months of battlefield gains.

On Sunday, the Tigray leader, Debretsion Gebremichael, told the United Nations he had ordered an immediate withdrawal of all forces to the borders of Tigray, citing, among other factors, “the drones provided by foreign powers.”

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Debretsion called for a cease-fire followed by peace talks. “We trust that our bold act of withdrawal will be a decisive opening for peace,” he wrote.

On Monday, his spokesperson said that a wave of Ethiopian airstrikes inside Tigray had killed 18 civilians and wounded 11.

An Ethiopian government spokesperson did not respond to questions about the use of drones.

The demonstration of drone power confirmed that Ethiopia’s year-old conflict, largely a regional affair until now, has been internationalized. And it adds the country to a growing list of conventional conflicts, like those in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, where combat drones have become a significant factor in the fight, or even the dominant one.

“Increasingly, unmanned systems are becoming a game changer,” said Peter W. Singer, an expert on drone warfare at New America, a research group in Washington. “It’s not just about the raw capability of the drones themselves — it’s the multiplying effect they have on nearly every other human and system on the battlefield.”

For Abiy, the drones arrived just in time.

He launched a military campaign in Tigray in November 2020, a year after he won the Nobel Peace Prize, in coordination with the leader of neighboring Eritrea. But his forces suffered a humiliating defeat last summer when Tigrayan rebels forced them from Tigray, then started to push south. By late November, the Tigrayans were approaching the city of Debre Birhan, about 85 miles north of Addis Ababa.

But they could go no further. Swarms of drones appeared overhead, striking soldiers and supply convoys, Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a leading Tigrayan commander, said in an interview with The New York Times.

“At one time, there were 10 drones in the sky,” he said. “You can imagine the effect. We were an easy target.”


Abiy built his drone arsenal by tapping the sympathy of foreign autocrats and a booming segment of the global arms trade.

Even as he talked about negotiations, Abiy was turning to other countries to bolster his military. Nearly every day, cargo flights arrived from a military base in the United Arab Emirates, one of Abiy’s closest allies.

The Emiratis had trained Abiy’s Republican Guard and provided crucial military support at the start of the war, running drone strikes that took out Tigrayan artillery and weapons depots, a Western official and a former Ethiopian official said.

The Emirati strikes stopped in January after President Joe Biden came to power, under pressure from Washington. But they have resumed in recent months, largely in the form of the latest Chinese-made drones, the officials said.

The Emirati drone strikes, under the direction of national security adviser Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan, appear to be a snub to American diplomatic efforts to end the war. American officials say they are trying to draw the UAE into peace efforts as an ally, but that cooperation is limited.

In a recent meeting with the U.S. regional envoy, Jeffrey Feltman, al-Nahyan denied that his country was shipping weapons to Ethiopia, an American official with knowledge of the meeting said.

By contrast, Abiy’s dealings with Turkey have been relatively open.

He signed a military pact in August with Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Bayraktar TB2 drone played a decisive role in Azerbaijan’s victory over Armenia in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is manufactured by a company run by Erdogan’s son-in-law.

Turkish drones are attractive to many African countries seeking battle-tested, relatively cheap hardware with few strings attached. “Even in Africa, everywhere I go, they want UAVs,” Erdogan boasted in October after a tour of Nigeria, Togo and Angola. (Drones are also known as unmanned aerial vehicles).

After Bayraktar drones appeared in Ethiopia recently, Turkish officials insisted the drone sale was a purely commercial activity — defense and aviation exports to Ethiopia rose to $95 million this year, up from $235,000 in 2020, the Turkish Exporters Assembly reported.

But in recent days, Turkish officials have privately claimed to have frozen exports to Ethiopia, apparently in response to international pressure over a war that has become a byword for atrocities and starvation.

At least 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions, according to the U.N.

In response to reports of civilians killed, detained or expelled, the United Nations Human Rights Council agreed on Friday to set up a commission to investigate abuses and identify perpetrators — the latest of many international initiatives that, until now, have failed to stop the suffering.

Abiy, meanwhile, is focused on his military campaign and its foreign sponsors. On Friday he landed in Istanbul for the Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit — a two-day gathering of leaders from 39 African countries that, analysts say, is also a forum for Turkish arms sales.

His embrace of Iranian drones, although much less powerful than the Chinese or Turkish-made models, has further strained his relations with Washington.

Since August, a number of cargo flights have arrived in Ethiopia operated by Iranian airlines that the U.S. has accused of being fronts for the Quds Force, the expeditionary wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. Flight-tracking blogs have made note of the shipments as well.

American officials in Addis Ababa have made private representations to Abiy about the Iranian flights, urging him to cut them off, a U.S. official said.

Abiy’s drone army remains modest: By several estimates, he has no more than a few dozen combat drones at his disposal, and they can be expensive to run, repair and supply with weapons. But they remain a potent threat to the Tigrayan forces, which themselves have no access to drones.



Singer, the drone expert, said the experimentation with drone warfare in Ethiopia and Libya has parallels with the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, when outside powers used the fight to test new military technologies and to gauge international reaction to determine what they could get away with. “It’s a combination of war and battle lab,” he said.

But, he added, technology is no guarantee of victory. “The U.S. had drones in Afghanistan, yet the Taliban managed to hold out for 20 years,” he said. “Human will is what determines the outcome of war.”

Foreign AffairsPutin Sets Out Military Threats Facing Russia by naijapower(op): 8:48pm On Dec 21, 2021
Amid worsening relations with the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has set out what he sees as the country’s main defense priorities in a speech to top military chiefs in Moscow, in which he displayed frustration with NATO.
As part of an expanded meeting at the Ministry of Defense on Tuesday, Putin said that the attitude of the US and its military bloc towards Russia is driven by “an illiterate, incorrect analysis” of the status quo. According to him, the West believes it can take an “aggressive line” towards Moscow because of its perceptions of having won the Cold War. He added that Russia has “every right” to take steps to defend itself, and pointed to a number of new arms systems being trialed to modernize its arsenals.

NATO expansion
In the address, Putin stressed that Russia needs “long-term, legally binding guarantees” from Washington prohibiting NATO’s potential encroachment on his country’s borders. Last week, Moscow prepared two documents, one for the military bloc, and one for US officials, asking for a wide range of assurances it said were aimed at strengthening the security of all parties involved. The proposals focus on the movement of military personnel and hardware, and include a requirement that Ukraine’s long-held aspirations will not be realized.

The proposals came after talks between the Russian leader and his US counterpart Joe Biden earlier this month, via video link. Putin said his country was “seriously interested” in getting “reliable and firm legal guarantees” that would rule out NATO pushing further into Eastern Europe, as well as the deployment of “offensive strike weapons systems” nearby.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sounded the alarm earlier in December, expressing concern over a significant number of the bloc’s weapons, including American and British hardware, being moved closer to Russia. The top diplomat warned that this could lead to an all-out provocation.

Broken promises
However, Putin went on to say that even if the US were to offer such assurances, ruling out further NATO expansion, it would be hard to trust that American officials would stick by them, given what he described as a track-record of pulling out of international treaties once they become “uninterested” in honoring them.

As evidence, Putin pointed to the Open Skies Treaty, which Washington unilaterally withdrew from last year, accusing Russia of breaking its terms. The agreement was first mooted by the US and the Soviet Union in the 1950s as a way of boosting transparency around troop movements and the deployment of nuclear weapons. He also referenced America’s decision to leave the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002, a Brezhnev-Nixon accord inked in 1972, designed to limit the scale of prospective missile defense systems.

Earlier this month, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova spoke out to condemn what she characterized as Washington’s broken pledges, arguing that “since the end of the Cold War, Russia has been repeatedly assured that NATO’s jurisdiction and military forces will not move an inch eastwards.” According to her, “all these promises have been forgotten and not fulfilled. The result is the current sad state of European security.”

Putin has previously insisted that Western leaders gave the last Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev guarantees that the US-led military bloc would not seek to fill the space left after the collapse of the USSR. In 2017, a tranche of documents was declassified, and was subsequently widely interpreted as showing that American, British, and German officials offered verbal assurances to the Kremlin in the 1990s that the organization would not expand into Eastern European nations, before then admitting countries such as Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Military threats
Putin also warned about the prospect of the US-led military bloc’s hardware appearing on Ukrainian territory, arguing that if Western missile systems are deployed there, “their flight time to Moscow will be reduced to 7-10 minutes, and if hypersonic weapons are deployed – to just five.”

The Russian president’s remarks come amid heightened concern over American weapons systems being handed over to Kiev. At the end of November, Lavrov said claims that Ukrainian troops had deployed American-made Javelin rocket launchers were a concerning development and could lead to provocations on the ground. His remarks came just hours after the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service revealed that the Javelin had been tested and was being handed to soldiers in the war-torn Donbass region.

Hypersonic missiles
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu also took the floor on Tuesday, following Putin’s speech, to reveal that Russia’s new high-tech hypersonic missile – capable of flying through the air at around nine times the speed of sound – has finished testing and will begin shipping to the military in 2022. He also said Moscow will be investing $3.5 billion into upgrading the arsenal in the coming years.

“By 2026, the number of carriers of high-precision, long-range weapons will grow by 30%, and the supply of cruise missiles of various types will double,” the minister explained.

In November, Putin stressed the importance of developing and implementing technologies “necessary to create new hypersonic weapons systems, high-powered lasers and robotic systems that will be able to effectively counter potential military threats, which means they will further strengthen the security of our country.”

Chemical weapons in Ukraine

Shoigu went on to allege that US private military companies are preparing a chemical weapons “provocation” in eastern Ukraine. He claimed that containers with “unidentified chemical components” have been delivered to the cities of Avdeevka and Krasny Liman in the Donbass. However, the minister provided no further details or evidence of the chemical attacks that had purportedly been planned.

Tensions have been escalating in the east of Ukraine for several months, with a number of Western officials and news outlets reporting that Russian troops were amassing near the demarcation line. This, they claimed, was evidence that Moscow had planned to launch a full-blown military invasion of its neighbor. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting they are groundless and a sign of growing “hysteria.”

Instead, Moscow has accused the West of encouraging Kiev’s officials to provoke Russia and seek a military solution to the situation in the Donbass. Lavrov warned at the end of November that “if the West cannot hold back Ukraine – and actually encourages it – of course we will take all necessary steps to ensure our security.” The Russian side insists that Kiev has so-far refused to hold talks with the leaders of the two self-proclaimed Republics in Donetsk and Lugansk, as mandated by the so-called Minsk Agreements.

By Layla Guest and Gabriel Gavin
[url] https://www.rt.com/russia/543899-putin-outlines-military-threats-facing/ [/url]
InvestmentMusk Sells Tesla Shares for $1,000, Buys Them Right Back For $6.24 by naijapower(op):
Knowledge is profitable to direct. Musk made cool legal money without stress.

Musk sold 934,091 Tesla shares for more than $1,000 per share to ?

Earned $934,091,000:00

Then Spend $13,728,000:00 to buy 2.2 million Tesla share from ?

The Current value of the 2.2 Million Tesla share is $1001:00

Based on current tesla value, Musk made $920,363,000:00 cash plus 2.2 million Tesla share valued at $2,202,200,000
Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to offload his company’s shares, selling another bulk worth $963.2 million, according to Thursday regulatory filings. However, the billionaire bought back Tesla shares for pennies on the dollar.
In his latest exercise of options,the tech billionaire sold 934,091 Tesla shares for more than $1,000 per share. However, he also purchased another 2.2 million Tesla shares for $6.24 apiece, according to the filings. Musk doesn’t receive a salary or cash bonuses from his company, so he can only pay his taxes by selling stocks. He is also allowed by the company board of directors to purchase Tesla shares at significantly lower prices.

Last month, Musk, who’s facing a looming tax bill of more than $15 billion, asked his Twitter followers if he should sell stock and pay taxes on unrealized capital gains. His followers voted ‘yes’ and as a result, he has sold more than 10 million shares worth over $11 billion.

thinking of quitting my jobs & becoming an influencer full-time wdyt

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 10, 2021
In September, Musk said at the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California that his marginal tax rate will be more than 50% when his stock options expire at Tesla, and that he was already planning to sell soon.

“I have a bunch of options that are expiring early next year, so ... a huge block of options will sell in Q4 – because I have to or they’ll expire,” he said.

At his current pace of exercising, there are about three weeks left before Musk will be done with those options.Tesla shares slid 1% on news of the sale, trading at around $1,002 per share in pre-market on Friday, after dropping 6% in the previous session. The fall also followed a tweet in which Musk said he was thinking of quitting his jobs to become an influencer.
[url] https://www.rt.com/business/542799-musk-offloads-tesla-stock/ [/url]

BusinessApple’s Market Value About To Top World’s 5th Largest Economy Germany by naijapower(op): 11:47am On Dec 09, 2021
Company becoming richer than nation, because of the product they produced and sell. This shows, that there is hope for Nigeria, when Nigerians start creating product that attract global market
Apple is on the verge of becoming the world’s first company to achieve a market value of $3 trillion. This would make the tech giant bigger than the German equity market or the entire UK economy.
The milestone is coming just a year after the US tech giant breached the $2 trillion mark, after reaching a market cap of $1 trillion in 2018.

The company’s stock closed at $175.08 per share on Wednesday. Apple needs to reach $182.85 per share to hit the much-anticipated milestone.

Apple stock has soared nearly 30% in 2021 on top of an enormous growth of 80% last year. The company’s rivals, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, and Tesla, have all gained between 10% and 70%.

“It’s a phenomenal achievement and highlights the incredible dominance of US tech firms,” Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, told Bloomberg.

“And there’s so much still to come from Apple, which makes you wonder what milestone they’ll pass next and how big they can become,” the analyst added.

The California-based corporation briefly lost its title as the world’s most valuable private company to Microsoft earlier this year. The drop followed CEO Tim Cook’s comments on the pandemic-related supply chain burden and the current struggle to cope with global shortages of microchips and components to produce smartphones, laptops, and tablets.


https://www.rt.com/business/542644-apple-tops-uk-economy/

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