World War III will start with simultaneous Xi and Putin invasions taking the globe to the brink of Armageddon, warns NATO chief Mark Rutte
NATO chief Mark Rutte has chillingly warned that World War III will start with simultaneous invasions from Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.
Secretary-general Rutte suggested the combined attacks from the Chinese and Russian leaders could trigger a World War nightmare and bring the planet to the brink of Armageddon.
According to the NATO chief, China would start by seeking to grab Taiwan – while ensuring the Kremlin dictator simultaneously attacks NATO territory, amid fears Putin is anyway eyeing the Baltic republics Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, formerly part of the USSR.
Russia today hit back at ex-Netherlands premier Rutte, claiming he had ‘gorged on too many of the magic mushrooms beloved by the Dutch‘, while warning he should look forward to a future in a hellish Siberian labour camp.
Stressing the urgent need to re-arm and boost military budgets, Rutte told the New York Times in a chilling vision of the future: ‘Let’s not be naïve about this.
‘If Xi Jinping would attack Taiwan, he would first make sure that he makes a call to his very junior partner in all of this, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, residing in Moscow, and telling him, “Hey, I’m going to do this, and I need you to to keep them busy in Europe by attacking NATO territory”.
‘That is most likely the way this will progress, and to deter them, we need to do two things’ he added.
Continuing his terrifying account, Rutte said: ‘One is that NATO, collectively, being so strong that the Russians will never do this.
‘And second, working together with the Indo-Pacific – something President [Donald] Trump is very much promoting, because we have this close interconnectedness, working together on defence industry, innovation between NATO and the Indo-Pacific.’
Rutte warned that Putin is rearming at a fast pace, insisting that Western countries must increase defence spending.
‘We have an enormous geopolitical challenge on our hands,’ he said.
‘And that is first of all Russia, which is reconstituting itself at a pace and a speed which is unparalleled in recent history.
‘They are now producing three times as much ammunition in three months as the whole of NATO is doing in a year.
‘This is unsustainable, but the Russians are working together with the North Koreans, with the Chinese and Iranians, the mullahs, in fighting this unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.
‘So here, the Indo-Pacific and your Atlantic are getting more and more interconnected. We know that China has its eye on Taiwan.’
Senior Putin security official Dmitry Medvedev – a former Russian president and ex-premier – lashed out on X: ‘Rutte has clearly gorged on too many of the magic mushrooms beloved by the Dutch.
‘He sees collusion between China & Russia over Taiwan, and then a Russian attack on Europe.
‘But he’s right about one thing: he should learn Russian. It might come in handy in a Siberian camp.’
The warnings came as Russia continued its onslaught on Ukraine – days after Putin informed Trump by telephone that he had no intention of halting his war of invasion.
Putin pummelled Ukraine with four S-300 missiles and 157 drones, with 127 of the UAVs shot down or suppressed by electronic warfare.
Explosions hit Kyiv and the surrounding region, with multiple people wounded and residential buildings damaged.
In Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, a two year old child and a woman, 46, were among those hurt as Putin continued to terrorise civilians, seeking to weaken the population’s resolve.
The Russians also hit Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.
Apartment buildings were also hit in Kramatorsk in drone strikes.
Ukraine hit back with an attack sea drone seen being destroyed by Russian defences in Novorossiysk Bay in the Black Sea.
Moscow was forced to close its major international airport Sheremetyevo due to the threat of drones.
Rutte praised Trump for seeking to make progress with Putin.
‘He is the one who broke the deadlock with Putin. When he became president in January, he started these discussions with Putin, and he was the only one who was able to do this,’ said the NATO chief.
‘This had to happen. A direct dialogue between the American president and the president of the Russian Federation.’
Yet this had not yet resulted in a peace deal.
‘We are not there yet, and that means that in the meantime you have to make sure that Ukraine has what it needs to stay in the fight.
Link to original article:
World War III will start with Xi and Putin invasions, warns NATO chief
Russia has seized around $50 billion of assets as its wartime economy comes under pressure
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin’s administration is aiming to raise an additional 100 billion rubles through privatization efforts this year..
•Russia has seized $50 billion in assets since invading Ukraine in 2022, according to a Moscow-based law firm.
•Authorities targeted 102 private assets, including foreign firms like Carlsberg and Danone.
•Russia’s economic resilience is waning, with signs of recession and slowed GDP growth.
Russia has confiscated nearly 3.9 trillion rubles, or around $50 billion, worth of assets since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to a report by Moscow-based law firm Nektorov, Saveliev and Partners.
The analysis found that Russian authorities have seized 102 private assets over the past three years. They spanned a variety of industries, and some were resold to owners including the state.
Targets included foreign and domestic companies, such as Danish brewer Carlsberg and French food giantDanone. The Kremlin has cited reasons ranging from corruption to extremism to justify the asset seizures.
In 2024, Russia’s federal budget received 132 billion rubles from property sales, per Russian news outlet Interfax. Roughly a quarter of that total came from the sale of Rolf, the country’s largest car dealership. The company was previously owned by the family of a Kremlin critic now living in exile.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in March that the government aims to raise at least 100 billion rubles from sales of seized assets this year.
The aggressive asset seizures come as signs emerge that Russia’s post-invasion economic resilience may be faltering as sweeping Western sanctions take hold. A recent S&P Global survey showed a sharp contraction in manufacturing activity in June.
Just last month, Russia’s economy minister, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the country was “on the brink” of a recession.
Russia’s GDP grew 1.4% in the first quarter of the year from a year ago, according to Rosstat, the country’s official statistics service. This is a steep slowdown from the 4.5% growth it posted in the fourth quarter of last year. In 2024, Russia’s economy grew 4.3% for the full year.
In January, a prominent Swedish economist said Russia could run out of liquid reserves as soon as this fall.
The conversation regarding the mainly one off effects of tariffs is really a red herring. Given a slow down in inflation growth, the FED should lower interest rates here. Even if it’s just 25 basis points to 50 basis points to start. Inflation is well enough under control and this tariff diversion is another miscalculation on the Fed’s part. But as always, the FED is always wrong. That’s by definition.
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As Trump Calls For 3-Percentage Point Rate Cut, ‘Too Late’ Jerome Powell To Resign, June Fed Minutes Show ‘Uncertainty’ Reigns Supreme
As the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s June meeting were released on Wednesday, the word “uncertainty” reigned supreme amid the ongoing tariff turmoil and President Donald Trump‘s call to cut rates by 3 percentage points.
What Happened: The words “uncertain” and “uncertainty” appeared 28 times in the June 17-18 meeting minutes, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell mentioned the two words 19 times, as highlighted by Ed Yardeni from Yardeni Research.
“Most of the uncertainty faced by Fed officials has to do with Trump’s Tariff Turmoil (TTT). Collectively, they are leaning toward lowering the federal funds rate. But they are in no hurry to do so since they are worried that TTT might still boost inflation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chief economist at LPL Financial, Jeffrey Roach, said that the key takeaways from the Federal Open Market Committee’s June 18 policy meeting suggested “The FOMC is comfortable remaining in wait-and-see mode. Despite headwinds, the economy continues to trudge along, giving policymakers time to assess the projected impact from tariffs.”
This comes amid Trump’s call for slashing the interest rates by 3%, highlighting that Powell was “Too Late” and it “is costing the U.S. 360 Billion Dollars a Point, PER YEAR, in refinancing costs.”
Trump has hinted at announcing Powell’s replacement and called for his resignation on multiple occasions because of the Fed’s “wait-and-see” stance.
On Wednesday, Trump also imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil, escalating the trade tensions between the two nations. This was followed by a slew of letters posted on his Truth Social account to Japan, South Korea and other countries, with a deadline of making a deal by Aug. 1.
Why It Matters: According to the Fed Minutes takeaways, the FOMC members were also concerned about stagflation risks if inflation proved persistent while employment weakened.
“Surprisingly, members thought the uncertainty about inflation and the economic outlook had decreased. Yet, committee members wanted to take a careful approach in adjusting monetary policy,” said Roach.
The FOMC members also acknowledged that lower and moderate-income households were switching to lower-cost items, and these households could be disproportionately affected by tariff-related price increases.
Roach added that at LPL, they expect next week’s inflation data to show a reacceleration, giving the Fed more reason to keep rates elevated. “We don’t expect inflation readings will improve until later this year,” he added.
Price Action: U.S. stocks climbed Wednesday, buoyed by Nvidia Corp.‘s (NASDAQ:NVDA) shares soaring to an unprecedented $4 trillion market capitalization and a fresh all-time high, pushing the Nasdaq to close at a record high.
US Mortgage Applications to Buy a Home Jump to Two-Year High
(Bloomberg) — US mortgage applications to purchase a home jumped to the highest level since early 2023 last week, even as borrowing costs barely budged.
The Mortgage Bankers Association’s index of home-purchase applications advanced 9.4% in the week ended July 4, according to data out Wednesday. MBA’s measure of refinancing jumped by a similar amount to the highest level since April.
While the figures are adjusted for seasonal effects, they are still prone to wide swings around holidays like Independence Day. And even with the increases, both gauges are still well below their pre-pandemic levels.
The contract rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage dropped just 2 basis points to 6.77% last week. Economists and real estate agents have said that a sustained drop in home financing costs is needed to reinvigorate the housing market, which is also hamstrung by high prices.
The MBA survey, which has been conducted weekly since 1990, uses responses from mortgage bankers, commercial banks and thrifts. The data cover more than 75% of all retail residential mortgage applications in the US.
China working on low flying troop, cargo transport plane. So, this is one way to implement a surprise attack on our mainland!
http://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2025/06/china-builds-new-jet-powered-large-ekranoplan/
This is a very insightful description of AI and one if it’s main dangers. The need for critical and creative thinking is being erased as we speak! Beware!
The concept of anti-intelligence was noted by a futurist and AI expert. In short, AI causes a dissolving of cognitive boundaries. This subtle, almost invisible change displaces the mental struggle, the friction of thought, and the need for creative thinking. Mechanistic AI can spit out facts and even accurate insights, but it is totally antithetical to the human thinking process. As anti-intelligence spreads at scale to the whole world, humanity finds itself moving closer to a simulacrum.
The hype around the AI world is that AI will free humanity to embrace its creativity, but the polar opposite effect is taking place. ⁃ Patrick Wood, Editor.
Fear mongering propaganda. Those photos are laughable if you know what you are looking at.