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Best of the Web: Geopolitics and the Weaponizing of the periodic table

No 1
Gold and Geopolitics
Tue, 27 Jan 2026 20:42 UTC
Periodic table
The periodic table, where all the rare metals mentioned in the article can be found.
I've been sitting on this one for a while now. Collecting data points that most people missed because they were too busy arguing about tariffs and TikTok bans.

But the trade war is heating up again I think. Inevitably I have to add. And when it does - when the next round of restrictions hits and everyone acts surprised - I want this here.

Because what's coming isn't another tariff dispute that gets negotiated away. It's strategic strangulation through materials nobody can pronounce or understand.

This one's going to be heavy on the numbers. I'm talking percentages, production figures, price movements, stockpile comparisons, the whole data-laden works. Because when you're discussing whether the United States can manufacture ammunition, fighter jets, or data centers without Beijing's permission, vague hand-waving doesn't cut it. The specifics matter. The percentages matter. The timelines matter.

bear buckled up
So buckle up.


Comment: The article is long but well worth the read so stay with it. Kudos go to the author of the article for putting all the research together.


Comment: Still waters run deep!

See another example of how China responds. Not by entering the US bragging contest or attending weekly social bonding sessions in the European capitals like the EU elite, but by quietly acting:
China hits US with economic counteroffensive after Maduro's abduction: Report

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Gold Coins

Best of the Web: Gold hits $5,000 as geopolitics defines global markets

Christian Mayes
Portfolio Advisor
Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00 UTC
Gold Bars
© Unknown
Gold set a further record high on Monday, rising above $5,000 per ounce after a week of geopolitical noise amid the World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland.

Volatility from geopolitical shocks, including US tariffs, has caused renewed interest in safe haven assets. Over the past year, the price of gold has surged over 80%.

While gold is up at a record high, Lucy Smith, investment manager at Killik & Co, said markets generally feel calmer than before Davos. During the conference, Trump ruled out military action in Greenland.
"The looming threat of tariffs is an immediate and significant risk for investors. As seen last April, Trump's gung-ho approach to tariffs means they can come at any time, which is why safe-haven assets are performing so well.

"The biggest takeaway from all this is that geopolitics will continue to define global markets. [Canadian President] Carney's speech at WEF was a clear call to action for the middle powers to push back against the US. If they do so, expect more volatility and an even higher gold price."

Comment: Market turmoil and a weakening US dollar have pushed the bullion beyond $5,100 an ounce:
Gold prices have surged to a new record, as investors seek safety from escalating global tensions and the volatility of the US dollar.

The February 2026 futures contract on Comex surpassed $5,100 per troy ounce on Monday, with a gain of roughly 2.5%, according to exchange data.

Analysts attribute the rally to market turmoil and policy shifts, including actions by the administration of US President Donald Trump aimed at influencing the Federal Reserve, his intention to acquire Greenland, and military intervention in Venezuela.

The prices of both gold and silver have soared over the past year, as precious metals are commonly viewed as safe-haven assets during periods of market turbulence. Gold rose by more than 60% in 2025, and silver by approximately 150%.

The rally has been further fueled by a sharp decline in the US dollar, which lowers gold's cost for overseas investors. The greenback's fall was compounded by turmoil in Japan, as a historic sell-off in government bonds sparked a worldwide reassessment of sovereign debt.

The rally has generated windfall gains for Russia that Bloomberg reports are comparable to the value of its sovereign assets frozen in the West, around $300 billion. Unlike the blocked funds, Russia's gold reserves can be sold or pledged as collateral, restoring significant financial capacity.

According to the latest data from the Federal Assay Chamber, Russia's gold reserves stood at 74.8 million troy ounces (2,326.54 metric tons) at the start of 2026. The market value of the bullion surged by nearly 67% over the previous year, from $195.7 billion to $326.5 billion as of January 1.

Reuters quoted analysts as saying that gold has more room to climb this year, potentially towards $6,000, on mounting global tensions and strong demand from central banks and consumers. The metal has already surged past JPMorgan's late-December forecast, which projected it would "push toward $5,000/oz" by the fourth quarter of 2026.

Russian experts, meanwhile, share an even more bullish perspective. "The price of gold reaching $10,000 per troy ounce is achievable within three to four years," Aleksandr Shepelev, an expert at BKS Mir Investments, told the Russian media. He said this would occur if high international tensions and a loss of trust in the US dollar continue.


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Bizarro Earth

Best of the Web: Greenland is a punishment for Europe's role in Ukraine

Philip Pilkington
The American Conservative
Tue, 27 Jan 2026 18:57 UTC
donald trump davos
© Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP Getty ImagesPresident Donald Trump attending the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, January 21,2026
Europeans can expect more of the same until they get with the peace program.

President Donald Trump's Greenland rhetoric has knocked European leaders completely off balance. Whether this was the intended effect of Trump's threats or the president simply wants to take the island matters little at this stage — the most important objective impact that the Greenland discussions have raised is the impact that it is going to have on NATO, the so-called "transatlantic Alliance," and the Ukraine war.

Although it is almost besides the point, it is probably worth addressing the moral-legal question first. For what it is worth, I feel sorry for the people of Greenland who have gotten caught up in a game that they were not prepared for. Nevertheless, the hypocrisy that is oozing out of the European capitals is odious. They act as if a unilateral action by the United States against a territory that does not belong to them is a challenge to the Mandate of Heaven. Yet only a few days ago these same leaders were cheering on Trump's so-called "police action" in Caracas, Venezuela.
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Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: 'Historic' U.S. storm leaves several dead, 11,000 flights canceled, a million without power during extreme cold

Rebecca Schneid
Time
Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:49 UTC
worker clears snow from the entrance to a parking lot, as a major winter storm spreads across a large swath of the United States, in New York City, on Jan. 26, 2026.
© Brendan McDermid/ Reutersworker clears snow from the entrance to a parking lot, as a major winter storm spreads across a large swath of the United States, in New York City, on Jan. 26, 2026.
More than 1 million people have been left without power and at least 13 people have died during a massive winter storm that has sown chaos across the South and the Midwest and is now barreling toward the East Coast.

Over 200 million people across the country were under some kind of weather alert as of Sunday morning. Power outages mostly affected homes in the South, including in Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky, where large snowfall is rare. Parts of the U.S. experienced dangerously low wind chills in the minus-20s to minus-30s as Arctic air pushed south. Copenhagen, New York, saw record-breaking temperatures of -49°F, Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Sunday.

The storm's dangerous mixture of heavy snow, sleet, ice, and bitter cold threatens to trap millions indoors for days. Travel has been severely disrupted, with more than 16,000 scheduled flights canceled from Saturday through Monday, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. On Sunday, around 11,000 flights were canceled—the most in a single day since the COVID-19 pandemic. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the D.C. area canceled all flights on Sunday, and New York's LaGuardia Airport has reopened after closing on Sunday afternoon, although no flights are expected to take off or land until Monday morning.

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Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: Toronto breaks snowfall records: 56 cms (22 inches) of snow in 24 hours - January also snowiest on record


TorontoToday.ca
Mon, 26 Jan 2026 19:22 UTC
A person clearing snow on a side street near Lansdowne Avenue and Dupont Street.
© Gabe Oatley/TorontoTodayA person clearing snow on a side street near Lansdowne Avenue and Dupont Street.
Toronto's major winter storm over the weekend was one for the record books.

On Sunday, there was an estimated 56 centimetres of snowfall in downtown Toronto, beating the previous single-day record of 48.3 centimetres, which according to Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson, was set on Dec. 11, 1944.

The meteorologist said Toronto Pearson Airport recorded 46.2 centimetres of snowfall on Sunday. The amount beat out the region's previous single-day snowfall record of 39.9 centimetres, set on Feb. 25, 1965.

January has also been the snowiest month in Toronto's recorded history, which Environment Canada began tracking in 1937.

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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: Obama fingerprints are all over the investigations of Trump and Killary

Paul Sperry
RealClearInvestigations
Thu, 22 Jan 2026 22:57 UTC
Obama, hillary clinton
© Kevin Lamarque/ReutersBarack Obama and Hillary Clinton
Comey cleared Clinton, Obama boarded Air Force One with her, and the Russia hoax took flight — new evidence suggests the fix was in long before voters ever weighed in.

In the run-up to the 2016 Democratic Party convention, FBI Director James Comey gained access to at least eight thumb drives containing large volumes of former Secretary Hillary Clinton's sensitive State Department emails — as well as some from President Obama — that appeared to have been compromised by foreign hackers.

Instead of investigating the explosive new batch of evidence revealed in recently declassified documents, Comey rushed ahead to close an investigation into whether Clinton improperly transmitted and received classified material from a private, unsecured server she kept in her basement. Comey also took the extraordinary step of bypassing the attorney general and personally exonerating Clinton of wrongdoing during an unusual press conference on July 5, 2016.
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Arrow Down

Best of the Web: Up to 9 people dead in landslides, floods after heavy rainfall in New Zealand (UPDATE)


ITV
Thu, 22 Jan 2026 18:53 UTC
Rescue work will continue through the night, officials say
Rescue work will continue through the night, officials say
At least two people have died and several are reported to be missing, including a young child, after landslides in New Zealand, officials said on Thursday.

It comes after high winds and heavy rainfall over the past few days on the North Island, leading to multiple power outages and widespread flooding, local media reported.

The first landslide hit a house in the community of Welcome Bay on New Zealand's North Island at 4.50am, police said.

Two people escaped the house, and the bodies of two who were trapped inside were recovered hours later, Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell said.

Later the same morning, emergency services were called to a second slide at the base of nearby Mount Maunganui.

The rubble hit Beachside Holiday Park, where a number of people in the "single figures" are missing.


Comment: Update January 23

The World Socialist Web Site reports:
Six people are unaccounted for and three others are confirmed dead after severe storms caused flooding and landslides across northern parts of New Zealand this week.

States of emergency remain in place for Whangārei, Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki districts and for Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti-Gisborne regions due to severe rainfall, which was most intense on Wednesday and Thursday.


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MIB

Best of the Web: Commuter train crashes into crane in Murcia, marking Spain's fourth train crash in five days


Sky News
Thu, 22 Jan 2026 21:17 UTC
spain train crash adamuz
The incident in the Murcia region marks Spain's fourth train crash since Sunday, with that day's high-speed collision in Adamuz killing at least 43 people.

A commuter train has crashed into a construction crane in southeastern Spain, the fourth rail incident in the space of a week.

Emergency services in the Murcia region said four people suffered minor injuries as a result of the incident near the port city of Cartagena.

A spokesperson added the train "hasn't been overturned nor derailed". The incident happened at around midday.

Meanwhile, Spanish rail operator Adif said on X that traffic on ‍that line was interrupted due to "the intrusion into the infrastructure gauge by a crane not belonging to the railway operation".

It added at around 1.30pm that service had resumed on the line, but it marks Spain's fourth such incident since Sunday, with that day's high-speed collision in the southern Andalusia region killing at least 43 people.

Comment: Sounds like sabotage is afoot.

The Adamuz crash on Sunday occurred precisely at a location where the two pairs of tracks split into three, allowing faster trains to overtake slower ones. So the last three cars of the train that derailed (and onto the tracks of the oncoming second train that crashed into them) were very possibly forced off the tracks as they passed the nearby relay switching 'station'.

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Tsunami

Best of the Web: Cyclone Harry pummels hits Sicily, Italy, causing flash-flooding and major coastal erosion

Isabella Boneham
NationalWorld.com
Thu, 22 Jan 2026 12:07 UTC
wave then crashes through the street
A wave crashes through a street in Sicily
Sicily's fourth largest town Alcamo was hit by 35mm of rain around midnight on Wednesday, leaving chaos in its wake. Videos posted to social media captured forked lightning and raging torrents flowing through the Italian streets.

Parked cars were swept away, and flood waters invaded garages, basements and the ground floor of many homes, overwhelming the city in just a few hours. Emergency services received several requests for help throughout the night.

The tourist area of Taormina was on its knees, with beaches swept by the violence of the sea. Governor Schifani in Sicily expressed "heartfelt thanks to the regional civil protection, the volunteers, the municipalities, the fire brigade, the police force, and the thousands of people who worked tirelessly during the most difficult hours of the emergency", making it possible to "avoid the loss of human lives".

Authorities issued red alerts across Sicily and Sardinia as the storm unleashed gale-force winds, intense rain and dangerous storm surges. In total, 190 people were evacuated from exposed areas across Sicily.

It comes after storms also lashed Malta with hail piling up like snow and rivers of ice flooding streets. Malta's Civil Protection Department warned residents: "avoid working at heights, including rooftops, balconies, scaffolding, and exposed structures" and "Stay away from the shoreline, breakwaters, and coastal paths."


Comment: Also on the coast of southern Italy more massive waves were videoed:



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Dollars

Best of the Web: Architecture Of Plunder: Why the modern Democratic Party is a kleptocracy

Saggezza Eterna
X
Mon, 19 Jan 2026 20:30 UTC
somali fraud money laundering
The Predator State:

In the lexicon of polite political discourse, we are told that "kleptocracy" is a phenomenon reserved for the decaying regimes of the third world — banana republics where dictators in gold-braided epaulets stuff suitcases with cash while their people starve. This is a comforting fiction. It allows the American mind to believe that corruption is something that happens over there, in places without marble capitols or Ivy League economists.

But this definition is archaic. It fails to capture the sophistication of the modern predator state. A true kleptocracy in the twenty-first century does not require a dictator with a Swiss bank account; it requires a bureaucracy with a grant-making authority. It does not steal with a gun; it steals with a regulation.
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