Steve Witkoff’s salute of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian” on Wednesday shocked Ukraine and its supporters, but didn’t surprise close watchers of Witkoff’s handling of the Russia file. The praise, heard around the world, wasn’t a departure for the U.S. special envoy, as President Trump has sought to foster warmer relations with Putin in an effort to defuse the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv and develop economic ties with Russia. Witkoff’s remarks were made after he arrived in Russia to secure the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old American citizen who was living in eastern Ukraine when he was detained by the Russians soon after they invaded their neighbor in 2022. The U.S. State Department designed Hubbard as wrongfully detained and denied Russian claims that Hubbard has been a mercenary. Read more: 🔗 on.wsj.com/48dwdfD

🚨 THE NEXT MONETARY WAR BETWEEN U.S. and CHINA HAS ALREADY STARTED The U.S. is betting on Digital Dollars (Stablecoins) while China is betting on physical gold. Trump and the Treasury just admitted the quiet part out loud. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: We will keep the dollar as the world’s reserve currency and will use stablecoins to do it. Trump’s January 2025 order made dollar-backed coins official policy. The GENIUS Act locked the mechanism in: every compliant stablecoin must sit 1-for-1 on cash, T-bills, and Treasury repos. That’s the escape hatch. America can’t print gold. It can print demand for its own debt. How it works:
 Billions of people who will never open a U.S. bank account can hold a dollar token. Every new token forces the issuer to buy short-term Treasuries.
 Dollar demand gets exported on crypto rails.
 The reserve currency survives even if SWIFT loses corridors because the world is still holding a claim on U.S. paper. It’s not a gold standard. It’s a digital T-bill standard wearing a crypto costume. Meanwhile China is doing the opposite: The PBOC just posted its 21st straight month of gold buying. Official holdings: ~2,366 tonnes. They’re stacking metal like the clock is running out. Hong Kong already opened the first offshore Shanghai Gold Exchange vault. The city wants 2,000+ tonnes of storage. More vaults are being scoped for Singapore, Dubai, Riyadh, Moscow. The pitch is simple: hold yuan, convert it to gold you can actually take delivery of. That’s the old-school play.
Physical collateral.
Offshore vaults.
Yuan contracts settled in metal, not promises. Two strategies. Same problem. The London Metal Exchange (LME) Treasury Chief Just Quit London For The Crypto Firm “Ripple” For Tokenized Commodities on XRP Ledger As China Builds a Yuan-Gold Vault Settlement System. That product is already live. Assetiko gold XAUa and silver XAGa on the XRP Ledger. Swap metal to native XRP on @Trensik_com without leaving the book. The U.S. is trying to keep the dollar’s privilege by turning private coins into a global bid for Treasuries. China is trying to leave the privilege by stacking gold and building a vault-and-settlement network that doesn’t need Washington’s permission. One side is digitizing the debt. The other is hoarding the metal. Watch which one the rest of the world actually trusts when the next shock hits.

In Oslo and St. Petersburg, @JaredKushner and I met with Russian, Ukrainian, and European leaders to advance President Trump’s mission to end the war. In St. Petersburg, we met with President Putin to build on the progress made in Oslo with President Zelenskyy, discuss a peace framework, and thank President Putin for releasing American citizen Stephen Hubbard to return home to his family. These discussions were constructive, and will continue with trilateral talks between the United States, Russia, and Ukraine at the technical level. While there is still important work left to do, President Trump remains committed to seeing this war end and achieving a comprehensive, durable peace that will provide security and prosperity for generations to come.

In 2011, then Gujarat Chief Minister Thiru @narendramodi avl said that if his hands were not tied, he would have gone to Delhi and waged war against the central government. Thiru Narendra Modi avl made this statement in response to the police crackdown on the peaceful anti-corruption campaign led at Ramlila Maidan, Delhi. In my opinion, what the Hon PM said then was absolutely right, and there is nothing wrong about it. Today, you could be jailed indefinitely; your surety bonds could be rejected; and, surprisingly, a Special Executive Magistrate will play circles around you when he/ she is empowered to deal with preventive bond cases. If you question the violation of due process of law in a democracy, you would be called names, and a barrage of attacks would follow, including being labelled a Foreign Agent. Ever since I asked the Central Government to speak with the protestors during the NEET exam protests, I have faced constant attacks, but I let them pass because I felt it was important to focus on the issues on the ground in Tamil Nadu. I also, in a way, enjoyed this as it would quickly remove the tag of me being a BJP B Team and sent to TN as a Dhurandhar 😍 Yesterday during a press meeting, I questioned the Delhi Police’s methods of detaining protestors of CJP. Since yesterday, the attacks have resumed, as expected. For some in the BJP, let me make this categorically clear, in case you have selective amnesia: I left the BJP on June 5, 2026. As I mentioned yesterday, I might not agree with the tactics of the CJP, and I think many of theirs are misguided. But if you ask me whether they have a right to oppose/argue/protest on an issue that they think is important? I would categorically say - YES. So, I would like people to ask the questions again, even if it makes some of them uncomfortable, and I wish the Central Government would answer them instead of resorting to whataboutism. 1.How was Jantar Mantar denotified as a protest site as per a standing order of the Ministry of Home Affairs after a letter was handed over by CJP seeking permission to conduct a protest? 2.How long can we have a system that gives powers to an Asst Commissioner of Police as a Special Executive Magistrate who rules over whether to keep someone in preventive detention? The ACP of Delhi Police stands over the trial where Delhi Police is the complainant against the accused CJP. Now you know which way the wind will blow. 3.On October 19th, why did the Special Executive Magistrate, aka ACP of Delhi Police, deliberately arrive late for the bail hearing of those who were arrested from Jantar Mantar on October 13th and recuse himself, saying there is a threat to his life? Is this some kind of a joke? 4.Why were 8 sureties rejected, and why was the person who came for surety subjected to cross-examination by the Special Executive Magistrate? 5. Any action taken on pellet gun usage by the Delhi police or other actions on Delhi police who have violated the standard operating procedures against the protesters during the NEET fiasco stir? Has no BJP karyakarta in Delhi violated any bond conditions during the previous Congress and AAP governments. I trust the same Delhi police were then also when barricades were jumped and orders disobeyed? How were they dealt with then? Like this? Definitely - NO. Now I hear that the detained functionaries of CJP were released by SEM after the case reached the High Court. I also recently saw a cockroach effigy burned as part of the Dusshera celebrations. Out of curiosity, I tried to find out who is giving this free publicity at a National level. No surprises here. It was led by a BJP MLA, Ashok Goel. My question again is: is the BJP opposing the CJP or giving it free publicity? Does it want the opposition votes to split by making CJP a bigger player? At this rate, the CJP couldn’t have asked for a better PR team, even if it had paid for one! (1/2)