Trump goads ’51st state’ Canada ahead of hockey grudge match

CANADA BEAT THE U$A

ByAFP
February 20, 2025


US President Donald Trump has goaded Canada over it sovereignty, trade and hockey - Copyright AFP Jan FLEMR

President Donald Trump took a slap shot at Canada on Thursday, again suggesting a US takeover of the northern neighbor as a “fifty first state” and urging the US hockey team to prevail in a closely watched grudge match.

Tensions have soared in the run-up to a tournament final in the US city of Boston following Trump’s ordering of tariffs on Canadian imports — and his repeated verbal assaults on the sovereignty of the longtime close ally.

Brawls between players and booing by Canadian fans of the US national anthem marked the teams’ previous meeting in Montreal on Saturday in the Four Nations Face-Off tournament, a round-robin featuring the NHL’s top players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States.

The US president said he would be calling Team USA to wish them luck and will be watching the game on television when the puck drops at 8:00 pm (0100 GMT Friday).

“I’ll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.

Trump said a previous commitment — addressing a gathering of US governors in Washington — will “sadly” prevent him from attending the game in person.

“But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome,” Trump said.

The US president has repeatedly made disparaging references to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a mere US governor. Trudeau was at the Montreal game.

Despite the snark, Trump concluded with a sporting remark: “Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting!”

But both teams advanced to the final after eliminating Finland and Sweden.

In the first US-Canada clash, there were three fights between players in the first nine seconds, an emotionally charged opening that many linked to the ugly politics.

Canadians have a long history of taking their national team hockey seriously. But with Trump repeatedly insulting their country, the temperature ahead of Thursday’s final is decidedly icy.

The Toronto Star newspaper on Thursday said Canadian national pride would “surge” should their team prevail in the rematch.

The paper cited a Rogers survey which said more than three-quarters of citizens believe hockey is core to Canada’s national identity, and a similar amount say Canada’s national pride is deeply intertwined with the sport.

Woke is dead — the work isn’t


ByRoselle Gonsalves
February 21, 2025
DIGITAL JOURNAL

Image generated by Canva AI

Roselle is a thought leader in Digital Journal’s Insight Forum (become a member).

Mourners gather at the graveside of a once-revered ideal. Some sniffle into wadded-up tissues, others stare ahead, stone-faced like the tombstones around them. The wind is whipping and cold, stirring tears that may or may not be grief. As the casket is lowered into the ground, each person tosses a small black square — a weathered printout of an old social media post, a wrinkled corporate pledge — into the dirt. It was only five short years ago that they’d held those small black squares so dearly; a symbol of their newfound commitment to what they were now here to bury: being woke.

I watch from a distance, and my phone beeps in the pocket of my coat. Checking the message, I find another article with another headline about the so-called death of “woke.”

I exhale sharply, pressing my palms into my eye sockets, it isn’t the whipping wind that is making me weepy, though it offers a benevolent disguise to my tears. I adjust the collar of my coat, feeling it scratch against my neck, hoping it will protect me from the wind, and offer some anchor in this turbulent moment.

There is a weight I feel pressing against my ribs. The news has been relentless — one organization after another abandoning their inclusion commitments, governments dismantling Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, entire industries declaring that this work has run its course. Not long ago, these same institutions flooded timelines with black squares and pledged unwavering allyship. Today they wield erasers, scrubbing away any evidence they ever cared. Instead, the rhetoric of meritocracy has been resurrected, as though the pursuit of inclusion was somehow too polarizing, and in opposition to excellence.

Having worked in the field of inclusion and reconciliation for nearly two decades now, I’ve witnessed the ebbs and flows. Where 2020 saw a peak in demand for inclusion work, we now find ourselves in a valley where those little black squares that promised to listen and learn are being tossed into the open grave of being woke.

Yet I know that beyond all this noise, this distraction, this flood of information … beyond all of it remains the work of building bridges, which must continue. Albeit, once again, subversively and quietly, but with no less resolve.

As I stand on the outskirts of the cemetery, I am aware of the deep grief that runs beneath my annoyance. Because I know that the word is not the work. The work has always been deeper than slogans and corporate pledges. The work, like an underground river, never stops flowing.

I am reminded of the Underground Railroad that enslaved peoples built and used to create networks of safety and community. The Underground Railroad was not an institution; it was a network of people who, in the face of immense danger, found ways to move forward, step by step, person by person. I am buoyed by knowing that when progress is publicly attacked, it often finds new, covert ways to move forward.

I think of the leaders who have told me in hushed tones, “We can’t call it DEI anymore, but we’re still doing the work — just under a different name.” I think of the educators, artists, and community organizers who, despite facing dwindling funding, continue to gather, to teach, to resist.

This is how change has always worked. It does not require corporate endorsement to persist. It requires people who care.

I remember a colleague, years ago, who found herself suddenly without a job after her department’s DEI function was dissolved. She had spent years advocating for change, only to be told that her work was no longer a priority.

In the aftermath of her dismissal however, something remarkable happened. The people she had supported — the interns she had mentored, the colleagues she had advised — rallied around her. They helped her find new opportunities. They carried her name into rooms she wasn’t in.

This is the power of community care. It is not just about grand movements and policies; it is about people showing up for one another, ensuring that no one fights alone. It is the same ethos that has sustained every movement for justice: when institutions falter, people step up.

The moment we now find ourselves in is not a novel one. The civil rights movement, the disability justice movement, Indigenous sovereignty efforts — all have seen waves of public commitment followed by periods of retrenchment. But those who have always done the work understand: the word is not the work.

The work is about shaping systems to be more just, creating spaces where people of all stripes can thrive, and recognizing that inclusion and meritocracy are not opposites — they are inextricably linked. True meritocracy only exists when barriers are removed so that the best of the best, regardless of background, can rise up.

If we are to learn from history, we must remember that progress does not always announce itself; sometimes, it moves in the quiet spaces between people who refuse to let the work perish. We find strength in community care. We find resilience in interpersonal support. We continue to tell stories, because they are the bridges that connect us to one another. And we will do the work, no matter what it is called, because history has shown us that the fight for justice does not end, it simply evolves.

I turn my back on the mourners and their funerary occasion. The wind presses against me as I walk away from the cemetery, but beneath my feet, I feel it — the quiet persistent flow of an underground river. The work will live on, coursing through those of us who refuse to let go.

Written ByRoselle Gonsalves
Dr. Roselle M. Gonsalves is a leader in inclusion, reconciliation, and culture. A bestselling author and ethnographer, she explores belonging, storytelling, and leadership. She heads Inclusion & Reconciliation at ATB Financial and serves on global DEI councils. She is a queer, racialized, immigrant woman based in Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia. Roselle is a member of Digital Journal's Insight Forum.

‘History will not forgive’ failure to seal pandemic deal: WHO chief


By AFP
February 21, 2025

Countries have wrapped up the penultimate week of talks - Copyright AFP Jim WATSON
Robin MILLARD

The head of the UN’s health agency warned Friday that history would not forgive countries if they failed to strike a pandemic treaty at the last hurdle

World Health Organization leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the comments with progress slow and time running out for the talks.

Countries had reached the cusp of concluding a landmark agreement on how to tackle future pandemics together, as they wrapped up the penultimate week of talks, said Tedros.

“You have made progress — maybe not as much as you would have hoped but still there is progress,” he said as the penultimate round of talks closed at the WHO headquarters in Geneva.

“We are at a crucial point as you move to finalise the pandemic agreement” in time for the WHO’s annual decision-making assembly in May.

“You are so close. Closer than you think. You are on the cusp of making history.”

But with only five more days of formal negotiations left, scheduled for April 7-11, countries agreed to hold informal meetings in March to try to find compromises on the trickiest issues.

Tedros urged countries not to sink the agreement on a word, a comma or a percentage in the text, imploring them not to make perfect the enemy of the good.

“History will not forgive us if we fail to deliver,” he warned.

– US walks away –

The 13th round of talks kicked off under a cloud.

The United States, having already quit the WHO under President Donald Trump, informed the UN health agency they would play no further part in the treaty talks.

European diplomatic sources said Washington walking away had not dampened optimism for a deal.

“The world needs a sign that multilateralism still works,” Tedros insisted Friday. “Reaching a WHO pandemic agreement in the current geopolitical environment is that sign of hope.”

In December 2021, fearing a repeat of Covid-19 — which killed millions of people, crippled health systems and crashed economies — countries decided to draft an accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.

While much of the draft text has been agreed, there are still disputes over sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential and the sharing of benefits derived from them — vaccines, tests and treatments.

The Philippines, speaking for 11 nations including Australia, Brazil, Britain and Mexico, said despite only “incremental improvements” this week, countries had done enough to sustain optimism.

“The conclusion of the agreement in May will be a testimony to our commitment to global health — and the continuing relevance of the WHO in a time of major political challenges,” the group said.

Eswatini, speaking for 49 African countries, said they were “ready to burn the midnight oil”, despite the sluggish pace.

“We are optimistic that the remaining issues, though critical, are manageable,” it said.

Ethiopia feared losing momentum, but pledged to “work hard to narrow the gap”.

– ‘Improvement’ to status quo-

Civil society organisations closely following the talks broadly lamented the slow progress. Fearing time running out, some urged countries to strive for a solid foundational agreement, banking gains that could be built on later.

Nina Jamal from Four Paws said that while some core articles were “full of caveats and weak language… this treaty, as it stands right now… won’t deliver everything we want but it’s an improvement to the status quo”.

James Love, the director of Knowledge Ecology International, felt “some doubt about how much some parties, particularly the EU, want to have an agreement in May”, amid rising right-wing populism and “the US pulling out of everything”.

Tedros hit out at mis- and disinformation surrounding the agreement, saying “false claims” that it would cede sovereignty to the WHO “will not succeed”.

Love urged the WHO to webcast the closed-door plenary sessions as “there’s this big anti-vaxxer movement (and)… the secrecy of the negotiations just feeds into the paranoia and conspiracy theories”.

On $15 a month, Venezuela’s teachers live hand to mouth

NOT SOCIALISM


By AFP
February 21, 2025


In Venezuela, a teacher cannot afford to buy new clothes

 - Copyright AFP Pedro MATTEY

Ariadna GARCÍA

With a monthly salary of $15, a teacher in Venezuela earns nowhere near enough to cover their basic food necessities, never mind rent or medicine.

Many in the crisis-stricken South American country are forced to work multiple jobs, or pool their money with family.

Thousands have emigrated in pursuit of greater financial stability.

“For the past two years, the situation has been horrible; you can’t even buy shoes,” 70-year-old Maria Cerezo, who has been a teacher in the public sector for 39 years, told AFP at a thrift shop in the capital Caracas.

She had just selected a blue nylon dress with white polka dots — and a price tag of $2. She hid the garment behind other clothes for sale.

“I’ll get it tomorrow, God willing, because I don’t have the money today,” Cerezo explained.

She remembers a time when a teacher would buy “clothes, shoes, electrical appliances” with their yearly bonus.

Nowadays, “it’s not possible.”

A basket of food essentials for a family of four in Venezuela costs about $500 a month, 33 times the salary of a teacher — a profession that has historically been underpaid, but never as little as now.

Cerezo’s family budget is augmented by the salaries of her daughter — also a teacher — and her husband, a lawyer.



– Role models –



An 80-percent drop in GDP over a decade of increasingly repressive rule by President Nicolas Maduro since 2013 has pushed more than eight million Venezuelans — a quarter of the population — to seek a better life elsewhere.

A public sector teacher’s salary is not even among the lowest.

The minimum salary in Venezuela today is $2 a month, which the government supplements with subsidies.

In the private sector, the average monthly income is about $200.

Most public schools today operate only two or three days a week so that teachers can work additional jobs.

Some give private lessons, others drive taxis or sell crafts.

Venezuela’s education system has a deficit of 200,000 teachers, according to the government, and enrolment of student teachers is down nearly 90 percent.

For those who remain in the profession, there is the El Ropero Solidario thrift store in Caracas, run by teacher Kethy Mendoza and supported by the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers.

Much of the merchandise comes from educators, who receive half of the sale price of an item of clothing — which they can also opt to donate — while the other half keeps the shop running.

“We are role models for the children,” Mendoza, 64, explained of the endeavor, which also aims to help teachers in need of medicines, food and emergency hospital care.

“If we go to school poorly dressed because the economic crisis doesn’t allow us to buy a change of clothes or decent shoes, how can we expect of the pupils to come dressed properly, presentable?”

Maduro, who claimed victory in July 2024 elections that the opposition and much of the international community says he stole, insists low salaries are a consequence of international sanctions.

Experts point to economic mismanagement and corruption in the oil-rich former petro state as other factors.

Cook Islands strikes deal with China on seabed minerals

BAN SEA BED MINING


By AFP
February 22, 2025


Cook Islands leader Mark Brown (L), pictured in 2024, says a deal with China supports a broader pact on cooperation in trade, investment and the seabed minerals sector - Copyright AFP/File Tupou Vaipulu

The Cook Islands said Saturday it has struck a five-year agreement with China to cooperate in exploring and researching the Pacific nation’s seabed mineral riches.

A copy of the deal — which is likely to irk close partner and former colonial ruler New Zealand — showed it covers working together in the “exploration and research of seabed mineral resources”.

A joint committee would oversee the partnership, which also includes seabed minerals-related training and technology transfer, logistics support, and deep-sea ecosystems research.

The Cook Islands government said the memorandum of understanding, signed with China on February 14, did not involve any agreement to give an exploration or mining licence.

The self-governing Cook Islands, a country of 17,000 people, has a “free association” relationship with New Zealand, which provides budgetary assistance as well as helping on foreign affairs and defence.

Cook Islanders hold New Zealand citizenship.

Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown said the deal supported a broader partnership pact he signed on a state visit to China this month for the two countries to cooperate in trade, investment and the seabed minerals sector.

“Our seabed minerals section remains under strict regulatory oversight, ensuring that all decisions are made transparently and in the best interest of the Cook Islands and its people,” he said in a statement.

– New Zealand unnerved –

New Zealand has already accused the Cook Islands government of a lack of consultation and transparency over the wider partnership agreement with China.

It has demanded to see all the agreements signed during Brown’s China trip.

New Zealand and its allies including Australia and the United States have been unnerved by China’s growing diplomatic, economic and military influence in the strategically important Pacific.

But Brown has insisted his country’s relations with New Zealand and other partners are not affected by the partnership accord he signed with China.

The Cook Islands has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric car batteries.

Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government says it will not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts.

The Pacific country’s prime minister has nevertheless touted the benefits of the potentially multi-billion-dollar industry, saying previously that the Cook Islands needs to protect itself against climate change “through whatever revenues that we can get”.

France’s agriculture show, an outlet for angry farmers 

PETITE BOURGEOIS LANDOWNERS


By AFP
February 22, 2025


French farmers are feeling unloved - Copyright AFP Odd ANDERSEN
Sofia BOUDERBALA, Jurgen HECKER

France’s annual Agriculture Show has become a hotbed of protest by farmers, exasperated by low produce prices, heavy regulations and global competition, against the government they say doesn’t care for them enough.

One of the world’s largest agriculture fairs, the “Salon de l’Agriculture” that opened Saturday, attracts some 600,000 visitors over nine days.

The bonanza showcases all aspects of French agriculture which despite the country’s rapid post-war industrialisation is still a European leader in the sector.

France is the European Union’s top cereal and beef producer, the world’s second-largest producer of wine, and makes a staggering 1,200 varieties of cheese.

The sector’s gigantic economic role makes the gathering a mandatory stop for French leaders, but also a political minefield, as President Emmanuel Macron discovered to his cost at last year’s edition.

During his entire 13 hour-long visit among 1,400 exhibitors and 4,000 animals a year ago, the president was heckled as protesting farmers crashed gates and fought with police, prompting repeated temporary closures of the entire event.

Before cutting the ribbon for this year’s show Saturday, Macron met with farming associations, called for “respectful dialogue” and gave assurances that France was still fighting against a free-trade agreement between the European Union and members of South America’s Mercosur bloc that has farmers up in arms.

Macron’s advisors also urged him to spend less time at the fair than last year to limit the number of potentially hostile encounters.



– ‘Won’t shake Macron’s hand’ –



Guy Desile, a 58-year-old cereal farmer in the northwestern Eure region, told AFP ahead of the event that he feared “losing it” as his debts build up.

“I won’t shake Macron’s hand,” said Jean-Philippe Yon, a livestock farmer from northern France, accusing the government of failing to ensure sufficient income for farmers. “We expect concrete steps from the president,” he said.

Farmers in the southern Tarn area are running a campaign of turning road signs in the wrong direction in protest against the government, an illustration of the “It’s all gone topsy-turvy” slogan that the powerful farming union FNSEA has had printed on T-shirts for its members.

Such protests can be effective. In 2024, after weeks of farmers blocking motorways, then prime minister Gabriel Attal scrapped a planned fuel tax rise affecting the sector although the move turned out to do little to appease the protesters.

The French movement was copied elsewhere in Europe, including in Poland where solidarity with Ukraine began to crumble in the face of unwelcome farming imports from the eastern neighbour at war with Russia.

French statistics show that close to half of the families running farms live below the poverty line, are often deep in debt and depend heavily on government subsidies for survival.

– ‘Forced on them decades ago’ –

At the heart of the problem lies a rapid and profound change in their business conditions, ranging from new rules linked to climate change and health requirements, to price pressure brought on by big agro-business and cheaper competition from abroad.

“Farmers are being asked to change a system that was forced on them decades ago,” said Edouard Lynch, a historian, adding that government support has been insufficient to offset the impact of change.

Structural problems have been compounded by misfortune: Excessive rainfall in the autumn of 2024 caused wheat production to drop to its lowest level in four decades and wine production to fall by a quarter, while livestock was decimated by devastating epidemics.

Macron has been eager to show that the government still has farmers’ backs.

He reminded reporters that he was trying to assemble a “blocking minority” of EU members to prevent the Mercosur accord from being implemented.

“Our farmers cannot become an adjustment tool,” Macron said.

European farmers are crying foul over supposedly less stringent regulations on the sector in South America, pointing especially to the industry’s role in destroying huge swathes of the Amazon rainforest, a crucial buffer against climate change.

Macron also said on Saturday that he would tell US President Donald Trump not to make allies “suffer” with new tariffs when he meets him in Washington on Monday.

French wine and cognac exporters, who sell vast quantities of produce in the US, would be especially hard-hit if Trump makes good on his tariff threats.

burs/jh/cw

Londoners march in support of Ukraine to mark three years of war

By  AFP
February 22, 2025


Around 300 people started at a statue of Saint Volodymyr in west London and marched towards the Russian embassy - Copyright AFP Odd ANDERSEN

Hundreds gathered in London on Saturday to march in support of Ukraine, ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Monday and amid increasing tensions between Washington and Kyiv.

Protesters started at a statue of St Volodymyr, a national saint of Ukraine, in west London and marched towards the Russian embassy, waving Ukrainian flags and signs of support.

The three-year long war was sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Britain has been a key backer of Ukraine since, sanctioning Moscow, providing financial and military support to Kyiv and opening its door to over 250,000 Ukrainian refugees.

At the rally, one sign read “Ukraine defends peace for the entire Europe”, while another said “If Ukraine falls, war will come to your house”.

“I’m not Ukrainian but I recognise the great danger they are in,” 68-year-old Briton Martin Vincent told AFP.

“We cannot abandon them it’s a duty for the UK to stand up with Ukraine,” the protestor added.

Among the crowd were some Ukrainians, including Nataliya, a university student who did not want to share her last name for security reasons.

“I feel so homesick and so vulnerable right now. I don’t know If I’ll be able to come back to my country,” said Nataliya, wearing a floral crown in the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag.

“What’s next? Uncertainty and uncertainty,” she added.

Stella Robinson, 27, was “afraid of what might happen next” as well. “This is not only Ukraine, this is Europe.”

“We can’t turn a blind eye on the war just because Trump wants peace,” added Robinson, referring to recent diplomatic talks between the US and Russia on the future of the war that have sidelined Kyiv and its European backers.

“But what kind of a peace? Frankly, it’s terrifying,” added the law student.

British public support for Ukraine is strong, with 67 percent saying they both want Ukraine to win the war and care a “great deal or fair amount” that it does so, according to a YouGov poll from last week.

And eight in ten Britons said it is “unacceptable” for Ukraine not to be included in negotiations on the conflict, per the poll.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the start of the war, although the exact toll is unclear.

'Extortion, pure and simple': Onlookers shocked by Trump threat to cut Ukraine's internet

Adam Nichols
February 22, 2025 

: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky meet at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., September 27, 2024. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton/File Photo

U.S. negotiators are threatening to effectively cut off Ukraine’s access to the internet if the country’s leaders don’t agree to hand over minerals worth billions of dollars, according to a report Saturday.


Reuters was told by three sources that Trump’s representatives have suggested ending Ukraine’s use of the Starlink satellite internet system.

It would effectively take the war-torn nation offline.

The sources said the threat was brought up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after he initially turned down the mineral proposal.

The move left onlookers shocked.

“Extortion, pure and simple,” said lawyer and outspoken Trump nemesis George Conway.


Writer Thom Hartmann commented, "Russian asset."

On Thursday, Zelensky was told his country faced “imminent shutoff,” Reuters reported.

ALSO READ: 'Gotta be kidding': Jim Jordan scrambles as he's confronted over Musk 'double standard'


" Ukraine runs on Starlink. They consider it their North Star," the outlet's source said. "Losing Starlink ... would be a massive blow."

Trump has suggested Zelensky agree to give Trump’s administration $500 billion in mineral access to repay money spent by the U.S. to support the nation.

Musk was hailed as a hero when he provided thousands of Starlink terminals as the Russians destroyed communications infrastructure after its 2022 invasion, Reuters reported.


Melinda Haring, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, told Reuters, “Losing Starlink would be a game changer.”

US proposes Ukraine UN text omitting mention of occupied territory: diplomats


By AFP
February 21, 2025


A Ukrainian-European text proposed at the United Nations stresses the need to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the war in 2025 - Copyright AFP Genya SAVILOV

The United States proposed Friday a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Washington’s proposal comes amid an intensifying feud between US President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky which has seen Trump claim it was “not important” for his Ukrainian counterpart to be involved in peace talks.

It also appeared to rival a separate draft resolution produced by Kyiv and its European allies, countries that Trump has also sought to sideline from talks on the future of the three-year-old war.

The Ukrainian-European text stresses the need to redouble diplomatic efforts to end the war this year, noting several initiatives to that end, while also blaming Russia for the invasion and committing to Kyiv’s “territorial integrity.”

The text also repeats the UN General Assembly’s previous demands for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.

Those votes had wide support, with around 140 of the 193 member states voting in favor.

Washington’s text, seen by AFP, calls for a “swift end to the conflict” without mentioning Kyiv’s territorial integrity, and was welcomed by Moscow’s ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia as “a good move” — but stressed that it did not address the “roots” of the conflict.

In a break with past resolutions proposed and supported by Washington, the latest draft, produced ahead of a General Assembly meeting Monday to coincide with the third anniversary of the war, does not criticize Moscow.

Instead the 65-word text begins by “mourning the tragic loss of life throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”

It then continued by “reiterating” that the United Nation’s purpose is the maintenance of “international peace and security” — without singling out Moscow as the source of the conflict.

France’s ambassador to the UN, Nicolas De Riviere, the EU’s only permanent member of the council, said he had no comment “for the moment.”

“A stripped-down text of this type that does not condemn Russian aggression or explicitly reference Ukraine’s territorial integrity looks like a betrayal of Kyiv and a jab at the EU, but also a show of disdain for core principles of international law,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group.

“I think even a lot of states that favor an early end to the war will worry that the US is ignoring core elements of the UN Charter.”

Ukraine’s earth riches are rare and difficult to reach


By AFP
February 22, 2025



Yann SCHREIBER

Ukraine’s soils hold some five percent of the world’s mineral resources, which is what US President Donald Trump is anxious to secure, but not all of them are yet exploited — or maybe even exploitable, according to experts.

Ukraine ranks 40th among mineral-producing countries, all categories combined (including coal), according to the 2024 edition of World Mining Data. It was the world’s 10th largest producer of iron in 2022.

Geologists, including at France’s Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM), found more than 100 resources, including iron, manganese and uranium, in a study of Ukraine published in 2023.

– Critical minerals –

Minerals can be described as critical or strategic by countries for their economy or their energy production. The United States designates about 50 and the European Union more than 30.

The European Commission said “Ukraine is a significant global supplier of titanium and is a potential source of over 20 critical raw materials.”

It is a notable producer of manganese (the world’s eighth largest producer, according to World Mining Data), titanium (11th) and graphite (14th), which is essential for electric batteries.

Ukraine has also said it “possesses one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe”. However, the government added that the soft metal it is not yet extracted.

– Rare earths not yet exploited –

Rare earth elements (REE) are a very specific classification of 17 metals within the much wider category of critical minerals.


Ukraine: reserves of critical raw materials. — © AFP

Ukraine is not known for its reserves of rare earths, which are essential for screens, drones, wind turbines, and electric motors. Trump has particularly declared he wants rare earths and demanded an accord on getting minerals in return for US aid for Ukraine to fight its war with Russia.

“Ukraine has several deposits containing rare earth elements” but none of these deposits have been mined, said Elena Safirova, a Ukraine specialist at the US Geological Survey.

In 2023, the BRGM said Ukraine has “significant REE resources” but that further exploration and development would require heavy investment.

The Ukrainian government said “rare earth metals are known to exist in six deposits”. It said investment of $300 million would be needed to develop the Novopoltavske deposit, “which is one of the largest in the world”.

Technically, some of the elements cited by the Ukrainian government (tantalum, niobium, beryllium, strontium, magnetite) are not on the list of 17 rare earths.

And some of the Ukrainian government projections are based on “a Soviet-era assessment of difficult-to-access rare earths deposits,” rating agency S&P said in February.

Because the country’s rare earths may be too low in concentration or too difficult to access, “Ukraine’s deposits of rare earth elements might not be profitable to extract”, S&P said.

Read more: https://www.digitaljournal.com/business/ukraines-earth-riches-are-rare-and-difficult-to-reach/article#ixzz915RWiwFZ

I experienced Russian corruption firsthand — and Trump is importing KGB thuggery

Sabrina Haake
February 22, 2025

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin (AFP)

Before I became a trial lawyer, I was corporate. Studying legal systems abroad morphed into drafting foreign license agreements, and in the late 90s, I negotiated across the table from Russian oligarchs. These were men who, through connections with the recently-dissolved Russian state, came into new money when Soviet apparatchiks divvied up Russia’s wealth and natural resources for themselves.

Meet Boris, a walking Russian stereotype

In Chicago, I was a corporate in-house lawyer, and Boris was my client’s Russian trademark licensee. He was also the wealthiest kleptocrat in my rolodex. (Under 40? Rolodex: a wheel of small index cards with names, addresses, phone and fax numbers.) A walking stereotype, Boris self-described as a corporate tycoon, complete with pinky ring, real fur, and pomade ponytail. Convinced that rudeness demonstrated power, he walked into our meetings with a lit cigar, and used the coffee saucer as an ashtray.

Boris lived and worked in Moscow but came to the US frequently. He often came to my office to execute updated contracts, because he kept changing the name of his Russian company (to evade an asset search by his wife’s US divorce lawyer, I suspected). The deception fit, but I was paid to negotiate license agreements, not moralize.

Our mutually-profitable relationship continued for several years, while Boris imported my client’s beverage base, mixed it with water and other ingredients, and distributed it throughout Russia under my client’s trademark. After a few good years, however, Boris decided he’d spent enough money marketing a trademark that belonged to a US company. He decided that he should own my client’s trademark, duly registered in the US, Russia, China, and throughout the industrialized world, for himself.

Moscow was, and is, a dangerous place

When I went to Moscow, I traveled with a body guard. I stayed at the Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel because it was walking distance to the Stalin-era Russian subway, where elderly women peddled glasses of vodka and borscht, and because it reliably served familiar food.

During one of my trips, an American businessman who was staying in--and who had founded--that very hotel, was gunned down. The LA Times reported that American Paul Tatum helped develop the Radisson-Slavjanskaya Hotel into one of the first Western-style hotels in Moscow. Tatum saw newly capitalist Russia as an entrepreneur’s heaven. But just before he was murdered, Tatum had begun telling anyone who would listen that he was “defending his share in the hotel against unscrupulous executives, the Chechen Mafia, and a Russian business culture that wouldn’t play fair.”

‘Wouldn’t play fair’ was an understatement. Tatum, according to reports, understood that murder is “a corporate strategy in Moscow.” As I and my corporate client—who paid for my bodyguard— knew, hundreds of business executives are killed annually in Mafia-style hits throughout Russia. Tatum, however, gambled that assassins-for-hire “would never dare kill a prominent American. He even stopped wearing his bullet-proof vest.” As Moscow police spokesman Yuri Tatarinov put it later, Tatum “tried to act in Moscow like he would act in the States or any other civilized country.” He no doubt remembered where he was when 11 bullets pierced his skull.

Russian officials openly demanded bribes, which Trump has now legalized

When Boris tried to steal my client’s trademark, worth millions by then, I met with officials at Rospatent, the Russian Patent and Trademark Office. Boris sat across the table, looking bored with no cigar, as Rospatent officials told me outright that my client was at a legal disadvantage in the Boris challenge. Their offense, I asked? Failure to grease their palms.

American companies were prohibited under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act from paying bribes, and in pre-Trump years, federal law mattered. So my client and I set in for protracted litigation. I hired Baker and McKenzie in Moscow, closed following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, to conduct extensive market surveys throughout Russia to defeat Boris’ specious “geographically misdescriptive trademark” claim. Several years and several million dollars later, we won.

Donald Trump, who always reminded me of Boris, acting like a successful bully on The Apprentice, has now suspended the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Openly embracing corruption and bribery, Trump has thereby made doing business abroad much more expensive, and much more dangerous.

Modeling the strength of an AK-15 wielding mob boss, Trump has also embraced Putin, a murderous thug trained by the KGB, in his quest to normalize Russian-style thuggery. Getting rid of bribery laws was one of Trump’s priorities in his first term but Rex Tillerson, his first secretary of state, refused. Today there are no Rex Tillersons in Trump’s cabinet, only unqualified lackeys who will do anything for power, and voila! Foreign bribery is now legal.

Trump/Musk/Vance are importing KGB thuggery

Trump’s KGB-inspired thuggery aligns perfectly with Elon Musk campaigning on behalf of Germany’s Nazi party, the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Last week, Vice President JD Vance, who still refuses to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election, had the unmitigated gall to lecture European leaders in Munich about how they had abandoned “the values of democracy” by excluding Germany’s Nazi party from government.

Pundits can stop wondering where Trump’s allegiance lies; now we know, as Trump/Musk/Vance officially embrace America’s nemesis, Vladimir Putin. Trump is trying to gaslight the world by parroting Putin’s absurd claim that Ukraine started the war. Ukraine’s President Zelensky, who has lost over 100,000 people to Putin’s brutal invasion, correctly observed that Trump exists in a “web of disinformation.” He might have added, “woven by Putin and Elon Musk on X.” Republicans in Congress who were formerly hawks against Moscow have remained shamefully silent in the face of Trump’s villainy, fearing Musk will primary them.

For anyone wondering what the connection is between Trump, Musk, Putin and the AfD, it is all of a piece: Trump/Vance/Musk are empowering far-right nationalists in Europe in an effort to divide European democracies, just as Trump/Putin are dividing the US. At their core, Trump/Musk embrace Putin because he stands for ruthless oligarchy and defeat of the only thing that challenges Trump: the rule of law. As I see it, it is treason.

I, for one, would not do business in Russia today. I hope Boris (not his real name) doesn’t see this, but it really doesn’t matter, because Trump has already spread Putin’s mob-boss mentality throughout America’s boardrooms, hotels, and streets. Plus, Musk already knows my address.

Sabrina Haake is a 25 year trial lawyer specializing in 1st and 14th A defense.Her columns are published in the Chicago Tribune, Salon, Raw Story, Out South Florida, Windy City Times, MSN, Alternet, and Smart News. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.