Enslave
Profiteer
Rule
Don’t go there!
Perhaps ironically, one of the most famous 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse paintings is by a Russian:
- Pestilence (on a White Horse -> COVID !?)
- War (on a Red Horse -> PUTIN !?)
- Famine (on a Black Horse -> HYPERINFLATION !?)
- Death (on a Pale Horse -> TOO LATE !?)
- Meduza
- DW
- Ahead
In February 2022, Konstantin Efremov, a Russian military officer from the Republic of North Ossetia, was deployed as part of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Three months later, he quit the military, left the country, and went public with what he had seen on the front line. In interviews, Efremov spoke about Russian troops torturing Ukrainian POWs, abusing civilians, and mistreating their own soldiers who refused to fight.
Since 2023, history in Russian high schools has been taught from a single, standardized textbook, whose lead author is Putin aide Vladimir Medinsky. Its creators have made no secret of the fact that their main goal is to “foster patriotism.” Starting in September 2026, all schools will switch to the same textbook series, beginning in fifth grade. In an interview with the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Vladislav Kononov, the project’s executive secretary and a presidential administration official, discussed the thinking behind it. Meduza translated some of his more notable remarks into English.
In conversations about a hypothetical Russian invasion of NATO territory, analysts frequently discuss the city of Narva, Estonia, as a possible target. Narva sits directly on the Estonian-Russian border, and 85 percent of its population is ethnic Russian. This has raised fears among some observers that Moscow could stage an attack under the same pretext it used in Ukraine, claiming a need to “protect” Russian speakers from persecution. In March 2025, an Estonian anti-propaganda watchdog flagged a cluster of social media accounts promoting a so-called “Narva People’s Republic,” deliberately echoing the language Moscow used to legitimize its backing of the Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The accounts have since drawn responses from Estonia’s prime minister, its intelligence services, and international media. But who is behind them — and what they actually want — remains murky. Here’s what we know.
Last week, Meduza asked its readers in Russia how they’re living amid mobile Internet shutdowns and restrictions, which have become worse in recent weeks. We received hundreds of responses from dozens of cities. Together, they show how much everyday life has changed — and how much harder basic tasks have become. We’re sharing some of the most notable responses, translated into English.
Late last week, many Telegram users in Russia began reporting serious disruptions, according to outage trackers Downdetector and Sboy.rf. Reports that Russian authorities planned to permanently block the popular messaging app in early April had been circulating for some time. But according to industry experts, the process may have begun two weeks ahead of schedule.
2026.03.23
Certain metals are essential for maintaining a country’s warfighting capabilities. Three are tungsten, graphite and rare earths.
Tungsten
Tungsten (W) is one of the world’s hardest and hardest-to-source materials. It tolerates the most extreme-temperature environments, making it useful for lights, transistors, construction equipment, and parts for cars and aircraft. Tungsten-based alloys are used in a variety of industries, including defense, aerospace, energy and electronics.
Because tungsten is extremely hard, it is essential for armor-piercing munitions and high-end tooling.
Continue reading 3 metals indispensable for warfighting – Richard Mills at Ahead of the Herd.
By Morgan Bazilian & Adam Charles Simon – The Conversation
Demand for copper is surging because of demand from new technologies, but suppliers are struggling to keep up, and they are likely to fall further behind in the coming years, resulting in shortfalls globally. Even though copper prices are at historically high levels, the financial risk involved in mining means that prices will need to go much higher before mining companies see profit in addressing the supply shortage.
By Selena Ross – The Guardian
Picture an Arctic territory, marginalized by its own country, almost entirely lacking roads, ports and power sources, but rich in mining potential and suddenly feeling vulnerable to outside threats.
It’s not Greenland; it’s the Canadian Arctic.
After decades of underinvestment, Ottawa is now turning its attention to the country’s north amid an outbreak of nationalism and new spending, in reaction to provocations by the Trump administration.
From KITCO
In this presentation, Jeffrey Christian of CPM Group looks at recent movements in gold, silver, platinum, and palladium markets. Gold prices have been consolidating near the $5,000 after reaching record highs earlier in the year. Many market participants question why prices have not risen even more sharply as tensions in the Middle East escalate and oil prices rise.
Jeff explains why gold does not necessarily move tick-for-tick with oil prices, even during periods of conflict in the Middle East.
2026.03.21
We’ve got a couple of articles that we wrote, and there’s a couple of articles on the site that points to the US not having the critical minerals, not having the manufacturing capability and getting almost all of the critical metals it needs for warfighting, either from China, processed in China or both.
US risks running out of missiles in war with Iran – Richard Mills
They’re running out of missiles and are in panic mode to secure rare earths, magnets etc.
Continue reading Under the Spotlight – War in Iran at Ahead of the Herd.
2EMMA Featured Stories
Mandela’s Kiss Endures
The 2024 Global Elections Super-Cycle
Stay tuned for continuous updates on elections around the world. Click on a country for the latest elections data and analysis.
- Number of national elections to be held in 2024 18 of 68
- Overall turnout (based on registered voters) 63%
- Total number of ballots cast in 18 elections 467,094,737
Pulled conclusions from pooled data compilations
Using some of the world’s largest companies by market cap & some of the most quoted indices + two most sung alternatives: data for this millennia where available
- At 134x, Apple is the absolute stock price growth winner; with Amazon at 45x and Google at 32x
- Despite the lack of interest or dividends, gold at 6.6x looks good compared to any other stock or index!
- Barrick Gold on the other hand seems to be poorly correlated to anything including the gold metal itself!?
- But Barrick is the only stock producing negative correlations with most of the indices including a relatively high -0.77 with the Euronext100 index
- If one wast trying to get something totally uncorrelated on purpose- it would be hard to beat: gold and the Euronext100 index at -0.03; or Barrick and the Hang Seng index at 0.04; or gold and Merck at 0.16; or BTC and the FTSE index at 0.19
- Correlation against a basket of indices & alternatives is best in Disney and Google (0.81-0.82), albeit at different growth multiples
- If an average historical P/E is somewhere in the 20x range, then the current S&P quoted average which is in high 30s is as warned high, BUT: only Amazon and Visa seem to be widely out of range (justified by growth in online transactions?), with many below current & historical averages
- In the current world of no interest & no inflation, maybe the higher P/E averages are justified..? For how long, that is a different question…
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