zerohedge

Zelensky Must Prepare Elections, Cede Territory To End The War: Trump Admin

The Trump White House wants Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to begin planning elections or else consider stepping down as a condition for the resumption of US military aid and intelligence sharing, a fresh NBC report reveals. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said Monday that Ukraine must cede territory.

Ukraine “would have to make concessions over land that Russia had taken since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war,” The NY Times reports. “The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” Rubio told reporters as he flew from the US to Jeddah – as quoted in multiple outlets.

American and Ukrainian officials are meeting in Saudi Arabia. The question of elections in Ukraine, which have been canceled indefinitely under martial law, has moved to the forefront also as pressure is still on for Kiev to sign the minerals deal.

“As President Trump demonstrated by reading President Zelenskyy’s message at the joint session, the Ukrainians have made positive movement. With meetings in Saudi this coming week, we look forward to hearing more positive movement that will hopefully ultimately end this brutal war and bloodshed,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said this weekend when asked about Trump’s requirements.
Via The Hill

Rubio in Riyadh has further explained, “The important point in this meeting is to establish clearly their intentions, their desire, as they’ve said publicly now numerous times, to reach a point where peace is possible,” Rubio said of Tuesday’s delegation meeting with the Ukrainians. “And then we’ll have to determine how far they are from the Russian position, which we don’t know yet either. And then once you understand where both sides truly are, it gives you a sense of how big the divide is and how hard it’s going to be.”

There’s widespread acknowledgement in Washington that Ukrainian forces will never be able to pry the four annexed territories in the east back from Russia.

The question of Crimea will be something Moscow will also never budge on – and Kiev is likely more willing at this point to give up any future claims on it, which has been the historic home of Russian naval power on the Black Sea.

As for elections, Zelensky’s term in office expired in May 2024, and Ukrainian parliament has recently reaffirmed the Constitutionality of Zelensky’s mandate as leader of the country during wartime. However, Trump last month called him a ‘dictator’ who canceled elections, and even long before that called him the “world’s greatest salesman” as he received hundreds of billions from the US and Western allies.

Below are the key lines from the Sunday NBC report:

Trump wants the deal, which would give the United States a stake in Ukraine’s mineral resources, signed. But he also…

Greenland Elections: US, Denmark, Or Independence?

Via RF/ERL,

Greenland’s upcoming elections have gained global attention after former U.S. President Donald Trump expressed interest in acquiring the territory.

While most Greenlanders favor independence, they rely heavily on Denmark for economic support.

Three of the five political parties support independence, but the path to full sovereignty requires a deal with Denmark, a Greenland-wide referendum, and approval from the Danish parliament.

Normally the elections for the 31-member Inatsisartut, the parliament of Greenland, would get scant attention. 

The world’s biggest island, with a population of just 60,000, is rarely in the news.

That changed in January, when incoming US President Donald Trump expressed an interest in taking control of the strategically located and resource-rich territory.

The move sent shockwaves throughout Europe, notably for fellow NATO ally Denmark, to which Greenland in fact belongs. 

(While Copenhagen oversees foreign and monetary policy, Greenlanders control most domestic issues.)

That has meant all eyes will now be on the March 11 elections, called by Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, after Trump’s pronouncements. 

And while regular domestic issues are part of the election campaign, the overriding issue is clear: Go American, stay Danish, or aim for independence?

To be clear, most Greenlanders don’t want to become American, and none of the five parties in parliament is advocating for it. Along with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Egede has made clear that Greenland — which is an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark — is not for sale and that only Greenlanders can decide its future. 

Interestingly, the parliament recently passed a law banning both anonymous and foreign donations in the election campaign.

But what if an offer they can’t refuse comes their way? 

The United States first expressed an interest in the island in the 19th century, and the territory is actually closer to North America than the European continent. Greenland’s security is already guaranteed by virtue of an US air base in the north.

And the Arctic is certainly not off-limits for the major powers. 

Both China and Russia are active in the region, not only for the region’s lucrative rare earth materials but also due to warmer temperatures melting sea ice and opening up lucrative trade routes. 

Even if the island doesn’t become American anytime soon, there could be some sort of free trade or association deal with Washington in the future.

Then again, the Greenlanders can be a conservative bunch. 

Where others may see lucrative business opportunities, many of them see a homeland that should be preserved. Only two mines currently exist in Greenland, and the last election, in 2021, was dominated by the popular decision to limit oil and gas exploration and ban the mining of uranium.

It is here where Denmark comes into the picture. 

Three of the five political parties want independence from Denmark, including Prime Minister Egede’s left-wing Community of the People party, which finished first four years ago and is likely to finish on top again.

The same is true for the ruling party’s current coalition partner, the social-democrat Forward party, which aims to finish second. The liberal Democrats party, which prefers to remain in a union…

Beijing’s ‘Panama Strategy’ Is Global

Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

What’s behind the Trump administration’s interest in revisiting the Panama Canal Treaty?

Plenty.

Although Panama technically owns the canal, China operates ports at both ends of it. This gives Beijing the opportunity to militarize its control over it with dual-use infrastructure, potentially positioning it to deny access to the critical waterway, particularly to the United States.

Today, China is the canal’s second-largest customer, behind only the United States. Some believe that Beijing’s influence has already led to disproportionately higher transit costs for the United States and that it violates Panama’s neutrality policy that was negotiated by a treaty with the United States in 1978.

The Trump administration believes that the treaty has already been broken, so U.S. action is justified. It also believes that Beijing’s de facto control over the Panama Canal poses a direct threat to U.S. economic, military, and geopolitical interests in the region and the world.

The administration is correct in its assessment.

The ‘Panama Strategy’ Goes Global

In the larger picture, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has deepened its presence and influence in Latin America, as it has in many strategic areas around the globe. The BRI, also known as “One Belt, One Road,” is a global infrastructure and investment scheme to insert Chinese money, influence, and personnel into nations worldwide by building needed infrastructure such as roads, railways, ports, and energy pipelines.

BRI participation typically weakens foreign governments by leaving them deep in debt to Beijing, resulting to some degree in a loss of sovereignty or control over Chinese-built ports and other infrastructure.

Panama’s relinquishment of economic control of the canal to Beijing is a great example of the CCP’s overarching strategy. Its “Panama Strategy” is a systematic way of gaining control over the world’s strategic waterways, shipping lanes, and ports.

This strategy’s main elements involve establishing a global naval presence, extending influence through its BRI deals, and building military sites and artificial islands in key locations around the world. The goal is to expand the Chinese regime’s power in order to overturn the U.S.-led global trading system and its open shipping lanes policy. The Panama Canal isn’t the first, but it is one of many strategic waterways that China controls through either infrastructure investments, or a military presence through its BRI program, or with both.

Beijing’s Big Board Game

For Beijing, the most critical area is the South China Sea. With about $3 trillion worth of trade (one-third of global shipping) passing through it annually, China has built artificial islands and military installations in the region to assert its dominance. Of course, this poses a direct challenge to U.S. security guarantees to nations in the region, from Taiwan to South Korea and Japan. This has led to rising tensions with neighboring countries and global powers, especially with the United States and Taiwan.

The Strait of Malacca is another narrow passage for global trade with a heavy Chinese naval commercial presence established through the BRI. With 60 percent of its…

China Hits Canada With Retaliatory Tariffs On Farm And Food Products

In the latest salvo of the second global trade war, on Saturday, China announced retaliatory tariffs on some Canadian farm and food imports, after Canada imposed duties in October on Chinese-made electric vehicles and steel and aluminum products.

Additional 100% tariffs will be imposed on Canadian rapeseed oil, oil cakes and peas, and additional 25% tariffs will apply to pork and some seafood imports. The new duties become effective March 20, according to a statement by the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council.

China said it was responding to “discriminatory” tariffs of 100% on electric vehicles and 25% on steel and aluminium that Ottawa announced in August, which followed similar actions by the US.

China is an important market for Canadian rapeseed, a crop also known as canola. China bought $3.5bn worth of Canadian canola products, including oil and seeds, making it the largest market behind the US, according to the Canola Council of Canada trade group.

The duties come in retaliation for Ottawa imposing tariffs against Chinese imports in October, including a 100% surtax on all Chinese-made EVs and 25% on steel and aluminum imports.

“Despite China’s repeated opposition and dissuasion, Canada has taken unilateral restrictive measures on electric vehicles, steel, aluminum and other products imported from China without investigation, undermining China-Canada economic and trade relations,” read the statement by the customs authorities.

The decision to impose retaliatory duties comes after an “anti-discrimination probe, which found out that Canada’s restrictive measures against some Chinese products have disrupted normal trade order and harmed the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises,” it added.

Canada announced tariffs on Chinese goods last August following similar duties being imposed by the U.S. and the European Union against Chinese-made EVs and other products. The Western governments – and certainly Trump – say China’s subsidies give its industry an unfair advantage.

Canadian outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused China of “not playing by the same rules” when he announced the tariffs on Chinese EVs and metals in August. Carmaking is one of Canada’s most important manufacturing sectors, with plants supplying the US market.

The tariffs add to global trade tensions already high, with rounds of tariff announcements by the United States, China, Canada and Mexico. This week, Trump backtracked on his threat to impose sweeping 25 per cent tariffs on Mexico and Canada but maintained the possibility of the measures being imposed in April.

Tyler Durden
Sun, 03/09/2025 – 17:07…

These Are The Nations With The Highest (And Lowest) Marginal Income Tax Rates

It’s tax filing time for quite a few countries, as their financial year comes to end.

How differently do countries tax their citizens? Visual Capitalist’s Pallavi Rao took a look at the top marginal individual income tax rates of nearly 150 countries to compare and contrast differences.

Data for this map is sourced from PwC’s Worldwide Tax Summaries, updated between Aug 2024–Feb 2025.

Of course there are limitations to the data. Only the highest portion of an individual’s income is taxed at this rate, and brackets vary significantly on how much money falls into that pool.

Furthermore, property, sales, or other indirect taxes are not included. It also omits state, provincial, and municipal taxes

Ranked: Countries by their Highest Personal Income Tax Rate

Western European countries on average have the highest headline income tax rates in the world.

Per the source, seven countries have a 50%+ top rate, and six of those are in Europe, led by Denmark at 55.9%.

Rank
Country
ISO Code
Headline Personal Income Tax Rate
1
Denmark
DNK
55.9
2
Finland
FIN
55
3
Luxembourg
LUX
51
4
Austria
AUT
50
5
Belgium
BEL
50
6
Israel
ISR
50
7
Slovenia
SVN
50
8
Netherlands
NLD
49.5
9
Portugal
PRT
48
10
Norway
NOR
47.4
11
Spain
ESP
47
12
Switzerland
CHE
45.5
13
Australia
AUS
45
14
China
CHN
45
15
Germany
DEU
45
16
France
FRA
45
17
UK
GBR
45
18
Japan
JPN
45
19
South Korea
KOR
45
20
South Africa
ZAF
45
21
Greece
GRC
44
22
Italy
ITA
43
23
Senegal
SEN
43
24
Papua New Guinea
PNG
42
25
Chile
CHL
40
26
DRC
COD
40
27
Congo
COG
40
28
Gabon
GAB
40
29
Guyana
GUY
40
30
Ireland
IRL
40
31
Mauritania
MRT
40
32
New Caledonia
NCL
40
33
Türkiye
TUR
40
34
Taiwan
TWN
40
35
Uganda
UGA
40
36
Colombia
COL
39
37
India
IND
39
38
New Zealand
NZL
39
39
Cameroon
CMR
38.5
40
Morocco
MAR
38
41
Ecuador
ECU
37
42
Namibia
NAM
37
43
U.S.
USA
37
44
Zambia
ZMB
37
45
Uruguay
URY
36
46
Croatia
HRV
35.4
47
Argentina
ARG
35
48
Cyprus
CYP
35
49
Algeria
DZA
35
50
Ethiopia
ETH
35
51
Ghana
GHA
35
52
Indonesia
IDN
35
53
Kenya
KEN
35
54
Mexico
MEX
35
55
Malta
MLT
35
56
Pakistan
PAK
35
57
Philippines
PHL
35
58
Thailand
THA
35
59
Tunisia
TUN
35
60
Vietnam
VNM
35
61
Venezuela
VEN
34
62
Canada
CAN
33
63
Latvia
LVA
33
64
Puerto Rico
PRI
33
65
Eswatini
SWZ
33
66
Côte d’Ivoire
CIV
32
67
Lithuania
LTU
32
68
Mozambique
MOZ
32
69
Poland
POL
32
70
Iceland
ISL
31.35
71
Bangladesh
BGD
30
72
Jamaica
JAM
30
73
Jordan
JOR
30
74
Saint Lucia (assumed “Saint”)
KNA
30
75
Malaysia
MYS
30
76
Nicaragua
NIC
30
77
Peru
PER
30
78
Rwanda
RWA
30
79
El Salvador
SLV
30
80
Chad
TCD
30
81
Tanzania
TZA
30
82
Barbados
BRB
28.5
83
Brazil
BRA
27.5
84
Cabo Verde
CPV
27.5
85
Egypt
EGY
27.5
86
Angola
AGO
25
87
Azerbaijan
AZE
25
88
Botswana
BWA
25
89
Costa Rica
CRI
25
90
Dominican Republic
DOM
25
91
Gibraltar
GIB
25
92
Equatorial Guinea
GNQ
25
93
Honduras
HND
25
94
Laos
LAO
25
95
Lebanon
LBN
25
96
Myanmar
MMR
25
97
Panama
PAN
25
98
Slovakia
SVK
25
99
Trinidad & Tobago
TTO
25
100
Nigeria
NGA
24
101
Singapore
SGP
24
102
Albania
ALB
23
103
Czechia
CZE
23
104
Liechtenstein
LIE
22.4
105
Isle of Man
IMN
22
106
Armenia
ARM
20
107
Estonia
EST
20
108
Georgia
GEO
20
109
Guernsey
GGY
20
110
Jersey
JEY
20
111
Cambodia
KHM
20
112
Madagascar
MDG
20
113
Mongolia
MNG
20
114
Mauritius
MUS
20
115
Serbia
SRB
20
116
Sweden
SWE
20
117
Ukraine
UKR
18
118
Hong Kong
HKG
16
119
Hungary
HUN
15
120
Iraq
IRQ
15
121
Montenegro
MNE
15
122
Palestinian Territories
PSE
15
123
Russia
RUS
15
124
Bolivia
BOL
13
125
Libya
LBY
13
126
Macau
MAC
12
127
Moldova
MDA
12
128
Uzbekistan
UZB
12
129
Bulgaria
BGR
10
130
Bosnia & Herzegovina
BIH
10
131
Greenland
GRL
10
132
Kazakhstan
KAZ
10
133
North Macedonia
MKD
10
134
Paraguay
PRY
10
135
Romania
ROU
10
136
Timor-Leste
TLS
10
137
Kosovo
XKX
10
138
Guatemala
GTM
7
139
UAE
ARE
0
140
Bahrain
BHR
0
141
Bermuda
BMU
0
142
Cayman Islands
CYM
0
143
Kuwait
KWT
0
144
Oman
OMN
0
145
Qatar
QAT
0
146
Saudi Arabia
SAU
0
Note: Denmark’s figure includes a mandatory labor market tax for all wage earners in the country. Scotland pays a different rate than the rest of the UK.

But as always, the fine print contains more useful information. For example, in Denmark, the top bracket for employment income is 15%. However, this combines with the bottom bracket tax and mandatory healthcare and municipal contributions to raise the income tax ceiling. Finally, income from shares and dividends also attracts a high rate of 42%.

In the U.S., the 37% headline rate is only applicable to income above $609,000 for individuals. Of course, U.S. states tax their residents as well.

And finally, several Middle Eastern countries—also oil producers—don’t charge an income tax.

The Pros and Cons of Western Europe’s High Tax Rates

Individual income taxes often make up the largest source of government revenues.

Thus, higher taxes help fund extensive public services like healthcare, education, and social security.

It can also potentially reduce income inequality by redistributing wealth, supporting lower-income citizens, and fostering social cohesion.

However, less disposable income…

What Happens To The Middle East If Russia & The US Stop Being Enemies?

Via Middle East Eye

Some call it the end of the post-war order. Others, a grand realignment. Regardless of how it’s defined, the Middle East faces a new paradigm: what happens when the US stops viewing Russia as a foe and instead as a potential partner, or at the very least, a neutral actor? American diplomats and analysts are still struggling to come to grips with this potentially historic shift.

When asked about a report that Israel was lobbying the Trump administration to let Russia keep its military bases in Syria, one career US diplomat in the region replied, “Well, that would be against our national interests?” They responded with silence when asked what would happen if the US president didn’t see it that way. Trump has said he wants to partner with Russia for “incredible opportunities”.

On Friday, Trump doubled down, saying he found it easier to deal with Russia than Ukraine, a country the US had been supplying arms and intelligence to until recently. Asked about Russia’s widespread attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid, Trump said Putin was “doing what anybody else would do”.
Via AFP

Trump, Nixon and the China analogy 

The US view of Russia as a foe working against its interests has defined the Middle East since the end of WWII, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt courted Saudi Arabia for Gulf oil. In the following decades, the US worked to counter the Soviet Union across the region.

The US’s support for Israel in the 1973 War led to an eventual peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. In the process, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat evicted Soviet military advisors who had been welcomed by Gamal Abdel Nasser. Until December 2024, the United States viewed the toppled Syrian Assad dynasty as a vehicle for nefarious Russian power projection.

Trump’s allies looking to explain his outreach to Putin have said he is trying to break up a bloc of states, mainly Russia, Iran and China, from coordinating against the US. They add that Trump’s overtures echo the strategic diplomacy of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger opening up to China in the 1970s.

Chas Freeman, a former US diplomat, whose career spanned almost three decades, told Middle East Eye it was a “false comparison”.

“A better analogy to Trump’s opening to Putin is Sadat going to Jerusalem.” Freeman is reliable on the subject considering he was the interpreter for Nixon’s trip.

In the Middle East, Trump’s bid to work with Putin may reflect his priorities and a geopolitical world view. Some of Trump’s confidants have raised the alarm about Turkey’s expanding influence.

Steve Bannon & Mike Flynn’s worldview

Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor whose podcast War Room has become required listening to those seeking to discern Trump’s world view, said recently that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was “one of the most dangerous leaders” in the world and wants to “re-establish the Ottoman Empire”.

Trump himself said that the collapse of the Assad government in Syria was merely an “unfriendly takeover” by Turkey….

SSA Confirms Over $7.5 Billion In Retroactive Social Security Payments

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) announced the payment of billions of dollars to more than a million Americans after two provisions that reduced or eliminated benefits for certain individuals were recently repealed.
A Social Security card is seen along with checks from the U.S. Treasury in Washington on Oct. 14, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Last week, the agency said that it will start paying retroactive payments to people whose benefits have been affected by the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO). Through March 4, “SSA has already paid 1,127,723 people more than $7.5 billion in retroactive payments,” the agency said in a March 4 statement. “The average retroactive payment so far is $6,710.”

The WEP and GPO provisions “reduced or eliminated the Social Security benefits for over 3.2 million people who receive a pension based on work that was not covered by Social Security (a non-covered pension).”

In January, former President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act (SSFA) which ended both GPO and WEP. Since the provisions no longer applied as of January 2024, millions of Social Security beneficiaries became eligible for retroactive payments.

“President Trump made it very clear he wanted the Social Security Fairness Act to be implemented as quickly as possible,” said Lee Dudek, Acting Commissioner of Social Security. “We met that challenge head-on and are proudly delivering for the American people.”

SSA said it continues to pay the remaining retroactive payments.

Furthermore, the elimination of WEP and GPO makes many beneficiaries eligible for higher monthly benefits starting in April. The exact increase in payment will depend on factors such as the type of Social Security benefit they receive and the amount of pension received.

Teachers, police officers, firefighters, federal workers covered by the Civil Service Retirement System, and employees whose work is covered by a foreign social security system stand to gain under the new changes.

Beneficiaries set to receive retroactive benefits or see an adjustment in monthly benefits will receive a mail notice from the Social Security Administration explaining the matter.

Most people receiving retroactive payments may get their notice two to three weeks after receiving payments since “the President understands how important it is to pay people what they are due right away,” SSA said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) welcomed the SSA announcement of retroactive payments, according to a Feb. 27 statement. Earlier last month, she joined other lawmakers in sending a letter to the Acting Commissioner of the SSA, calling for quickly implementing the Social Security Fairness Act.

Murkowski said the WEP provision reduced Social Security benefits for people getting government pensions, while the GPO cut down benefits for widows, spouses, and widowers whose spouses received government pensions.

“I applaud the Social Security Administration for moving quickly to ensure Alaska’s public servants are able to access the benefits they are entitled to,” she said.

“I have been working on the Social Security Fairness Act for 22 years—and Alaskans have been waiting even longer for…

De-Dollarization Was Always More Of A Political Slogan Than A Pecuniary Fact

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

The three-year-long NATO-Russian proxy war in Ukraine contributed to the belief that the international community had bifurcated into the West and the World Majority respectively, with the outcome of the aforesaid conflict determining which camp will most powerfully shape the global systemic transition. This paradigm predisposed observers to imagine that BRICS, which represents the World Majority, is actively coordinating de-dollarization policies in order to decouple themselves from the West’s financial clutches.

That perception persists to this day despite last October’s BRICS Summit achieving nothing of tangible significance at all, including on the de-dollarization front, and leading members like India and Russia subsequently confirming in response to Trump’s tariff threats that they’re not creating a new currency. As it turns out, even before Trump initiated the nascent Russian-US “New Détente”, the international community wasn’t as divided over the past three years as many multipolar enthusiasts thought.

Complex interdependencies kept most of the main players together, including Russia and the West after Russia continued selling oil, gas, and critical minerals like uranium to the West in spite of their proxy war. Similar interdependencies account for why Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar declared in mid-November that “India has never been for de-dollarization” and then reaffirmed this position last week when he said that “we have absolutely no interest in undermining the dollar at all.”

He also said that “I don’t think there is a unified BRICS position on [de-dollarization]. I think BRICS members, and now that we have more members, have very diverse positions on this matter. So, the suggestion or the assumption that somewhere there is a united BRICS position against the dollar, I think, is not borne out by facts.” 

The reason why it’s important to draw attention to his latest words is because of the global context within which they were shared as regards the nascent Russian-US “New Détente”.

Putin’s recent invitation to American companies to cooperate with Russia on strategic resources, including energy in the Arctic and even rare earth minerals in Donbass, will lead to Russia using more dollars in international trade if anything comes of this. That would in turn discredit the perception shared earlier in this analysis of Russia actively de-dollarizing, which Putin himself always said that it was forced by sanctions into doing and thus wouldn’t have ordinarily happened on its own.

A thaw in their tensions brought about by the US brokering an end to their proxy war in a way that meets most of Russia’s interests would therefore naturally see Russia using the dollar yet again. To be sure, it’ll still support the creation of platforms like BRICS Bridge, BRICS Clear, and BRICS Pay, but these would be aimed at preventing dependence on the dollar more so than advancing de-dollarization per se. The ruble will also continue to be used as Russia’s preferred currency in conducting international trade.

Nevertheless, any breakthrough in Russian-US relations would inevitably disappoint those multipolar enthusiasts who bought into the most ideologically dogmatic narratives of the New Cold War and consequently believed that Russia would forever eschew the dollar out of principle….

Classified X-37B Spaceplane Returns To Earth

About two weeks after the Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs published the first-ever in-orbit image captured by Boeing’s X-37 spaceplane, the US Space Force revealed early Friday that the top-secret spaceplane has returned to Earth.

Space Force announced the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle-7 (OTV-7) “successfully deorbited and landed” at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, on early Friday around 0222 local time. 

Images posted on X by the space agency show military personnel in laboratory protective suits, like NBC and/or BSL-4 suits, approaching the X-37 after touchdown at Vandenberg. 

More images were posted on X of the X-37B, which concluded its seventh mission in orbit.

This time, X-37B remained in space for 434 days.

“While on orbit, Mission 7 accomplished a range of test and experimentation objectives intended to demonstrate the X-37 B’s robust maneuver capability while helping characterize the space domain through the testing of space domain awareness technology experiments,” Space Force wrote in a statement. 

USAF Public Affairs posted this image from X-37B late last month during a series of “experiments in a highly elliptical orbit in 2024.”

With each successive top-secret mission, the X-37B spends long and longer time in orbit:

OTV-1: launched on Apr. 22, 2010 and landed on Dec. 3, 2010, spending over 224 days in orbit.

OTV-2: launched on Mar. 5, 2011 and landed on Jun. 16, 2012, spending over 468 days in orbit.

OTV-3: launched on Dec. 11, 2012 and landed on Oct. 17, 2014, spending over 674 days in orbit.

OTV-4: launched on May 20, 2015 and landed on May 7, 2015, spending nearly 718 days in orbit.

OTV-5: launched on Sept. 7, 2017 and landed on Oct. 27, 2019, spending nearly 780 days in orbit.

OTV-6: launched on May 17, 2020 and landed on Nov. 12, 2022, spending over 908 days in orbit.

OTV-7: launched on Dec. 29, 2023 and landed on Mar. 7, 2025, spending over 434 days in orbit. 

. . . 

Tyler Durden
Fri, 03/07/2025 – 23:00…

Consumer Credit Jumps More Than Expected In January, Back Over $5 Trillion

We have repeatedly warned that with their savings – and especially “emergency covid savings” – gone or nearly gone, Biden admin’s residual savings data manipulation notwithstanding…

… US consumers had no choice but to max out their credit cards in order to “extend and pretend” their moment of purchasing greatness, or as we called it three months ago, their last hurrah (see In “Last Hurrah”, Credit Card Debt Explodes Higher Despite Record High APRs As Savings Rate Craters), a hurrah that would last very briefly as it was only a matter of months if not weeks before said cards were denied.

One month later, that’s exactly what happened, when to our surprise, revolving credit cratered at the fastest pace since the covid crash, contracting a whopping $13 billion, an event which for a country that lives on debt – literally – is unheard of outside of a recession.

Commenting on the plunge, we said that “we don’t know what sparked this sudden reversal in the favorite American pastime – i.e., to buy stuff one can’t afford and hope to pay it back some time in the future for a modest 29.95% APR – but we know what didn’t: falling rates… because they didn’t.” We then proceeded to show that the average interest rate on credit card balances were at the second highest on record ever though the Fed had already cut rates by 100 bps.

And while it would have been normal, if not expected, for credit card balances to continue declining with savings rates near record lows and with credit card rates at record highs, trust the US economy to do precisely the opposite of what is logical and according to the latest just released consumer credit data, US consumers exited 2024 with a bang after Consumer credit soared by a record $40.8 billion in December, a complete reversal of the November drop, and a month that sticks out like a sore thumb in the history of consumer credit as shown below.

And while one would expect that the record December surge in credit would quickly reverse at the start of the year amid the ongoing drawdown in savings – and the lack of holiday spending – the US consumer has a habit of doing just the opposite of what is expected, and according to the latest NY Fed data, in January consumer credit surged again, rising by $18.084 billion (from a downward revised $37.1 billion vs $40.8 billion previously), and the third highest monthly increase since June 2023…

… which sent the total back over $5 trillion.

Taking a closer look at the number, revolving credit – i.e., credit card debt – increased by $9 billion or roughly half of the near record $21 billion surge in December.

Non-revolving debt (i.e. student and auto loans) rose almost by the same amount, up $9.1 billion and also down from the $16.2 billion the previous month.

Looking at the composition of nonrevolving credit, the Fed reported that in…