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 December, Russia’s State Duma passed a law allowing clear-cut logging in Lake Baikal’s Central Ecological Zone, a move swiftly approved by the Federation Council and signed by Vladimir Putin. Although the legislation — set to take effect on March 1, 2026 — permits such logging only under specific conditions, environmentalists and activists have no doubt that officials and businessmen with a stake in the region will have little trouble securing the necessary approvals. And they warn that the consequences for the lake and its unique flora and fauna could be irreversible. Meduza explains how the new law will work, who stands to benefit from it, and what could soon become of one of Russia’s most valuable natural sites.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called territorial control the “most difficult” of the 20 points in the new peace plan drafted by Ukraine and the United States. For the agreement to take effect, Russia would have to withdraw its troops from four of Ukraine’s regions, and the front line that snakes through the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions would be frozen in place, under a monitoring mechanism. This arrangement would leave the millions of Ukrainian citizens behind the contact line under indefinite Russian occupation. But the peace plan currently under discussion barely mentions them. For insight into how a ceasefire agreement would impact these civilians, Meduza deputy editor Eilish Hart spoke with Karolina Hird, a National Security Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) who focuses on the humanitarian consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Shortly after Ukraine’s Air Force reported the threat of an intermediate-range ballistic missile launch from a Russian strategic nuclear testing site near the Caspian Sea, explosions rocked the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday morning, local time. Mayor Andriy Sadovyi confirmed the attack, and Regional Governor Maksym Kozytskyi identified the target as a critical infrastructure facility. According to local media reports, the intended targets were likely the Stryi gas field and gas storage facility.
On January 7, U.S. military forces seized two tankers linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” ending a weeks-long pursuit of one vessel, the Bella 1. After the ship sought Russian sovereign protection by changing its flag in late December, Moscow mobilized warships and a submarine to intervene. Despite these maneuvers, U.S. personnel eventually boarded and detained the ship. Russia’s Transport and Foreign ministries have since accused Washington of violating the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, while Washington maintains the operation was a lawful enforcement of sanctions. Meduza spoke with Dr. Pierre Thévenin, an international maritime law researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, to explain the legality of the actions taken by both sides in the “tanker conflict.”
Russia’s domestic censorship leaves almost no space for criticism of the war against Ukraine in music, while the Kremlin actively promotes pro-war artists like Shaman, funneling resources and media coverage their way. Yet in 2025, many of the country’s most-listened-to musicians were those who have remained silent on the war — including some who openly support the Putin regime. Meduza shares a translation of Verstka Media’s roundup of artists who have avoided speaking about the war and the politics behind their silence.
2026.01.09
Silver North (TSXV:SNAG, OTCQB:TARSF) completed its 2025 drill program in mid-November at its flagship Haldane Project, located within the historical Keno Hill Silver District in the Yukon territory.
The road-accessible, 8,579-hectare Haldane property is 25 km west of Keno City, YT, adjacent to Hecla Mining’s producing Keno Hill silver mine. Haldane hosts several occurrences of silver-lead-zinc-bearing quartz siderite veins resembling the veins being mined at Keno Hill.
Silver North offers investors exposure to one of the most prolific silver districts in Canada and the world — Keno Hill — which is seeing major investment from Hecla Mining, the largest silver producer in the United States, following Hecla’s 2022 takeover of Alexco Resources.
2026.01.09
Cassiar Gold (TSXV:GLDC, OTCQX:CGLCF) recently announced results from nine initial diamond drill holes of the 2025 exploration program at the Taurus deposit. According to Cassiar, the results expand mineralization near surface and beyond the extent of the current resource block model.
The 2025 drill program comprised 7,308 meters over 20 drill holes and concluded in early October.
Results are pending for 5,243m of drilling over 11 drill holes from the Newcoast prospect which lies 2 kilometers to the south.
Most of the world’s silver production, approximately 70-80%, comes as a byproduct of mines focused on other metals, primarily lead/zinc and coppermines.
Only about 20-30% of silver is extracted from primary silver mines, where silver is the main product.
Pure silver plays are difficult to find; Silver North is a true silver play, with silver currently comprising over 80% of listed metal value and 100% drilling success rate.
Continue reading Under the Spotlight – Silver in ‘26 at Ahead of the Herd.
2026-01-07
The Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM) is made up of exchange-traded futures on 22 commodities and is widely mimicked by ETFs and fund managers. On Nov. 28, 2025, the weighting for gold was at 19.4% and silver at 7.1%. On Jan. 8 the BCOM is set to change its 2026 target weight to 4.9% weighed to gold and 3.9% to silver.
This is happening on both precious metals because of the large price movements since the end of November.
Continue reading Gold and silver in ‘26 – Richard Mills at Ahead of the Herd.
By Adam Hamilton, CPA
The gold miners’ recently-finished Q4’25 will soon prove their greatest quarter ever fundamentally! Their coming reported earnings are going to skyrocket to epic records, mostly due to astonishing record gold prices. But stable mining costs and production will also contribute to phenomenal results. Such crazy-strong fundamentals will drive down gold-stock valuations, making them great buys on any material gold weakness.
With Q4’25 in the books, another quarterly earnings season draws near.
Continue reading Gold Miners’ Greatest Quarter 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…
2EMMA Hall of Fame
Ivan
Ivan
