1-BRICS convened a virtual meeting today
Leaders of BRICS Confront U.S. Tariffs in Virtual Summit Convened by Brazil
According to statements from China’s Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin will join Brazil’s virtual BRICS summit on September 8.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, called this meeting to unite emerging economies against new U.S. trade levies. India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, will send his foreign minister in his place.
The leaders aim to coordinate a response to U.S. tariffs of up to 50 percent on Brazilian and Indian goods, and 30 percent on Chinese and South African products.
These duties, imposed in early 2025, threatened to raise costs for consumers and disrupt global supply chains. Brazil and its partners view them as protectionist measures that undermine World Trade Organization rules.
China and Russia will deliver major speeches. Xi will speak from Beijing, and Putin from Moscow.
Their discussion will focus on reducing dependence on the U.S. dollar and expanding trade in local currencies.
This growth reflects its goal to represent half the world’s population and over 40 percent of global GDP.
This summit signals deeper economic ties among developing nations. .
2–Trump readies tougher sanctions against Russia after week end airstrikes
Notice he never, ever sanctions Israel? Never condemns only condones.
President Trump said Sunday that he’s ready to ramp up sanctions against Russia after Moscow launched the largest aerial attack of the war with Ukraine, indicating his frustration with the conflict that he had hoped to resolve months ago.
3–China Russia Pipeline Diplomacy Threatens US Energy grip Power of Siberia 2
Prior to his appearance with Putin at last week’s Victory Day event, Xi signaled a new chapter in Beijing’s energy diplomacy by signing a bilateral agreement on a new pipeline in defiance of Washington’s attempt to isolate Moscow, setting the stage for sharper tensions in the China-US great power rivalry.
China backed the pageantry with action on Tuesday, when Russian gas giant Gazprom announced the sides had signed a legally binding memorandum with Moscow for the construction of Power of Siberia 2: a 2,600-kilometer gas pipeline that will run between the two countries and a project that has struggled to take off after more than a decade of fruitless talks. China will also boost the already large gas volumes it imports through the existing Power of Siberia pipeline. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Tuesday that the two countries had agreed to increase supplies via the pipeline to 44 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year from 38 bcm. Additionally, both sides agreed to raise the volume of Russian gas deliveries to China via a pipeline from Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East by 20 percent to 12 bcm annually.
4–Financial Times
Link to image showing pipeline route
China and Russia have signed an agreement to build the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline, a huge gas project that could reshape global energy flows as both countries seek an alternative to Donald Trump’s US-led global order.Russia announced the deal as President Vladimir Putin met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday. Russia’s pipeline gas monopoly Gazprom said the two sides had signed a legally binding “memorandum of construction” after years of stalled negotiations.
However, the document covered general terms and omitted details on pricing, the main stumbling block. China did not immediately comment.
“Talks will now focus on financing the pipeline’s construction and the commercial terms of supply,” Gazprom’s chief executive Alexei Miller said on Tuesday in Beijing, according to state newswire Tass.
He promised to “provide the commercial details” separately but said a long-term gas deal would run for 30 years.
Even without clarity on costs, the deal signaled a significant shift in the global gas market. Once built, in the early 2030s, the 50bn cubic metre-a-year Power of Siberia 2 pipeline will run east from the gasfields that once served Europe. It also gives China an alternative to importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, Qatar and Australia.
The project may change the economics for companies currently considering whether to invest further in building LNG export terminals, particularly in the US, said Anne-Sophie Corbeau, a global research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.
The three-way talks also involved Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, president of Mongolia, through which the pipeline will run, said Russian state newswire Interfax.
5-The pipeline has already been threatened with destruction
On the air of the Fox News channel, it was suggested that the gas pipeline could be threatened with sabotage by analogy with the already well-known story around the Nord Streams.
"Putin is laying a big pipeline to China. It is expected to be completed in the next decade, it will provide 15 percent of China's energy. Russia and China are getting closer. Perhaps someone will have to bomb this pipeline, like Nord Stream," said host Jesse Watters.