Remarkably, many news articles are citing confusion in trying to understand why U.S. Undersecretary of War, Elbridge Colby, announced the suspension of U.S. participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense with Canada. However, the announcement comes immediately after his meeting with U.S. ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, at the Pentagon and the comment, “we’re working closely to ensure every NATO partner, including Canada, reaches the Hague Summit’s 3.5% GDP defense spending target, a vital investment for North American and Arctic defense.”

The issue, as outlined by Undersecretary Colby, centers around Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent statements in antagonism toward the U.S., a public announcement that Canada would not be purchasing U.S. military equipment and the biggest issue of all, that Canada is not living up to the NATO defense spending agreements.

It was in December of 2024, immediately after the November election where Donald Trump won, when then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago for dinner with President Trump and told him there’s no way that Canada could meet their NATO obligations.  Canada had relied on the USA to provide all national defense and was 16th in defense spending at 1.1% of GDP. {CITATION}

The issue of NATO compliance was part of a larger discussion around trade imbalances, non-tariff barriers, intellectual property conflicts and legislative hurdles that Canada used as a crutch to retain economic benefit without reciprocity.

Trudeau was arguing that Canada could not change all the points of conflict, drop their non-tariff barriers, comply with NATO demands and simultaneously get into total alignment with the USMCA trade compact (CUSMA to Canada), because their climate policies did not support or match the heavy industrial processing capabilities of both the United States and Mexico.

This triggered President Trump to respond with the 51st state, notation.  Essentially, if you cannot be a partner with equal capabilities; and if you need to retain structural economic dependency; then Canada should just become a 51st state of the USA.

Since that time, things went downhill quickly.  Instead of trying to find ways to eliminate points of conflict, Prime Minister Mark Carney began a campaign of aggressive anti-Trump narrative distribution in order to maximize domestic political benefits.

President Trump then turned toward Mexico and began working with USTR Jamieson Greer to construct what is essentially a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and Mexico.

The administration began ignoring Canada, planning instead to announce the upcoming dissolution of the USMCA and then force Canada to negotiate a bilateral.  A jilted Canada then began doubling and tripling down on the anti-Trumpism, with Carney saying the era of trade between the USA and Canada is over.

Carney then reached out to Europe and China for trade replacement value and began making announcements about no longer purchasing U.S. manufactured fighter jets and military hardware.

U.S. Undersecretary of War, Elbridge Colby meets with U.S. Ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, and obviously the NATO stuff is just the straw that ended the U.S. participation in the Permanent Joint Board on Defense with Canada.  Not a complicated timeline to figure out.

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Barbara Boyd from Promethean Action PAC gives her take on the current situation.

“Barbara Boyd argues the key outcome of Trump’s China visit was the personal trust between Trump and Xi, symbolized by Xi’s “secret garden” tour previously reserved for Putin, and framed as establishing guardrails for U.S.–China strategic and tech competition amid the Iran war and energy geopolitics. She says London and Democrats are “screaming” because Trump is reshaping global economic relationships while Treasury Secretary Bessent lifts U.S. sanctions on Russian exports. The episode targets Mark Carney and Keir Starmer as City of London figures who tried to capture China finance, advance BRICS as a dollar alternative, promote a synthetic reserve currency via CBDCs, and steer $130T through green finance—efforts Boyd says have failed as Trump reverses “Green New Deal” policies. She highlights DOJ election-rigging probes, renewed scrutiny of “Russiagate,” anti-fraud prosecutions, voter backlash, and insurgent politics in Los Angeles and London.”

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I’m not going to spend too much time on this as I suspect most readers are well aware of my predictions on the matter.  Suffice to say Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has extended the sanctions waiver on Russian oil and gas for another 30-days. {citation}

[SOURCE]

The OFAC waiver targets Russian oil/gas that was loaded onto floating storage platforms as of April 17, 2026.  The destination of the oil/gas will primarily be China, India and Southeast Asia; westbound Arctic supply route. The general license means all of the ASEAN countries can purchase in dollars and provides Russia with an exchange for the same currency valuation.  Once again, Zelenskyy -and Europe- will not be happy.

There is a certain irony in Europe previously banning the import of Russian oil/gas (EU sanctions) and now, when they desperately need it, the supply is flowing in the opposite direction.  Both Russia’s Arctic I and Arctic II platforms are operating to produce the supply; however, as many readers here will note they coincidentally :::nudge, nudge – wink, wink::: started pumping supply to “on the water” storage for six months prior to the beginning of the Iran conflict.   This is the third U.S. waiver of sanctions.

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday. {GO DEEP}

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Mercedes is willing to begin military and weapons production. Historically speaking, this did not work out so well for Europe the last time; however, as with all things German, the expanded backstory is a little more complicated.

Due to a combination of terrible political decisions related to the German and EU energy sector, the German industrial economy is contracting rapidly. Germany is the heart of the EU economic engine.

At the same time as the German economy is contracting, the economic footprint of China in the EU is growing. The core issue centers around a declining auto sector but extends to all ancillary manufacturing outputs.

By following the WEF’s “Build Back Better” program, Europe as a whole has ended up making itself energy-dependent and vulnerable. The Gulf oil and gas crisis, the looming 25% Trump tariffs on EU cars, and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from German NATO bases only add to their growing economic troubles.

Around the same time as this economic convergence, Germany began ramping up its commitments, support, and spending for Ukraine in the conflict with Russia. Subsidy outflows rose just as GDP was falling, a clear example of an economic spiral that can easily spin out of control.

German Chancellor Freidrich Merz is trying to deal with the consequences of exceptionally short-sighted and damaging policy, but reversing the trend would require Germany to focus all policy operations inwardly away from Brussels and the demands of the collective European Union. This is now the core issue in German politics driving bold dividing lines between political power structures.

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The folks at Promethean Action PAC outline their perspective on what President Trump’s trip to Beijing means against the backdrop of a substantial geopolitical reset that seems to diminish the role of Europe.

“Susan Kokinda analyzes President Trump’s May 14 post responding to Xi Jinping’s remarks about the “Thucydides Trap,” arguing media coverage framed the U.S. as declining while Trump asserted America’s renewed strength. She says the summit’s real significance was Trump bringing an unprecedented delegation of top U.S. CEOs into the bilateral meeting and including the Defense Secretary, breaking a post-1972 pattern.

Kokinda highlights Trump raising denuclearization directly with Xi and rejecting war-driven “geopolitical trigger points,” including on Taiwan, emphasizing avoiding a distant war. She contends the Thucydides Trap concept popularized by Graham Allison is British-influenced “fake history” that obscures imperial manipulation, and claims Trump is dismantling that paradigm by reviving the American System—tariffs, manufacturing, and energy independence.”

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President Trump gives quick comments to the assembled Press Pool at the White House upon return from China.  WATCH:

The most interesting aspect to the Beijing trip was not and is not the trade success stories that surfaced during the trip {USTR Greer}.  While President Trump brought titans of industry, tech and finance with him to Beijing, the emphasis is on relationships.

Stay elevated. Note the emphasis by Secretary Rubio was on geopolitical relations against the background of current events.  Note how much narrative energy is spent on the ‘relationship’ aspect to President Trump and Chairman Xi, from both leaders and also on direct questions to all pertinent current events.

When questioned about issues, Trump, Rubio and Xi spoke of relations – not details of policy or current events.  The venues within China were specific to something more akin to understanding motives behind policy, personal motives, historic motives from a personal perspective.  It wasn’t a trip of transactions; the vibe, the frequency of it all, was seemingly dominated by something more important to the moment than dollars and yuan.

It seemed critical for both leaders to convey their mutual alignment, ensuring and emphasizing the importance of no conflict between their nations, even if policy differences are present.  Both Rubio and Trump emphasized this overall tone.

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British monarch King Charles III is scheduled to deliver the annual ‘king’s speech’ to the U.K Parliament on Wednesday, and that was the essential defense position of those who are trying to maintain embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer in power as the Labour Party leader.

The king’s speech is an address to Parliament to outline his legislative priorities and the anticipated support from the political assembly. Without a solid Prime Minister in place, it would seem like an address to a leaderless body. However, once the speech is finished, the struggles for Prime Minister Starmer are soon to resurface.

British pundit Neil Oliver asked the most alarming question on GB News earlier this evening when he pondered who exactly does Keir Starmer work for? Noting very similar issues in both France and Germany with Emanuel Macron and Chancellor Freidrich Merz respectively, Oliver outlines how many EU leaders are pushing national policies while seemingly disconnected from the citizens of their countries. WATCH:

Oliver senses something bigger is afoot with the seismic shift in British electoral politics.  The nation is demanding a change in direction away from leftist policies.  When President Trump was asked about the dynamic earlier today, he said Keir Starmer needs to decide whether to leave or try and stay in power.  Dropping pretenses and speaking pragmatically, President Trump further pointed to the suicidal energy policies that are driving up the costs of living for all European citizens.

Via Daily Mail – […] On a dramatic day at Westminster, four Labour ministers resigned, saying they no longer had confidence in Sir Keir. The number of Labour MPs calling for him to go rose to 90, and Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood was forced to deny she is on the brink of quitting after telling the PM to set out a timetable for his departure. (more)

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Andrey Yermak is not just some random high-level government official in Ukraine.  Andrey Yermak was President Zelenskyy’s right hand, chief of staff, organizer of the functions of Ukrainian government and the guy who controlled the systems that keep all other government officials working on the agenda of the President.

If you took Susie Wiles and Marco Rubio’s responsibilities and combined them into one job function, that would be the scale of importance and influence that Andrey Yermak controlled inside the Ukrainian government and the office of President Zelenskyy.

Left, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – Right, Andrey Yermak

Today, following an explosive criminal corruption charge that surfaced less than 36 hours ago, Andrey Yermak appears in court to face charges of corruption, theft and money laundering.  Yermak was under investigation for his role in theft through the energy sector and now stands accused of using construction projects near Kiev as a tool to launder money to himself and other high-level government officials.

There are three facets to this I find very interesting.  First, is the timing.  Second, is the often-overlooked admission by National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) about them working closely with FBI investigators in Europe and American intelligence units.  Third, is the way they caught him: “The anti-corruption bureau shared part of a wiretapped conversation as part of its case and said six more people had been identified as suspects.”

(Via BBC) – […] For years he was a close friend of Zelensky, and led Ukraine’s talks with the US until an anti-corruption raid on his flat last November prompted his resignation.

Ukraine’s Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office (Sapo) said it was asking the Kyiv court to either place him in preventive detention or give him bail of about $4m (£3m).  The head of the National anti-corruption bureau (Nabu) stressed that Zelensky himself was not part of the pre-trial investigation.

Yermak had been the president’s closest adviser throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, until he became caught up in a broader inquiry by Sapo and Nabu into an alleged $100m (£74m) embezzlement scheme in Ukraine’s nuclear energy sector.

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This video presentation is very well worth reviewing. Thankfully the British-centric perspective is dropped and Promethean Action PAC focus more on the overall ‘globalist’ political machine driven in North America by Obama’s leftist political operation, the Center for American Progress (CAP).

Kokinda stays away from the ‘intelligence‘ aspect of the background (which is good – not her lane).  However, for accurate and affirming context on the geopolitical part of the Kokinda review, make sure you have read “Segment 4” (just updated) from the remarks of Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was asked about whether his upcoming trip to China was related any way go President Trump’s trip which takes place this week.  President Trump and President Putin have spent several hours on the phone together in the past seven days. Putin’s responses in SEGMENT 4 are quite revealing.

PROMETHEAN PAC – “As President Trump prepares to travel to China, this episode argues that Putin’s remarks about Russia’s “partners and friends” (China, India, and the U.S.) reveal a shifting global alignment that alarms the Obama–Soros network. It examines the Global Progress Action Summit in Toronto, where Barack Obama appeared and Center for American Progress leaders, including Neera Tanden and Patrick Gaspard, framed Trump’s presidency as an “interregnum” and promoted Mark Carney’s “Principled Pragmatism,” described as preserving globalist structures while rebranding to address public backlash. The script contrasts this with what it calls a “new strategic map” driven by Trump, Putin, and Xi, highlighted by Victory Day context, an announced Russia–China energy deal, and Trump’s proclamations. It concludes that Democrats seek midterm gains but face setbacks from redistricting rulings, prompting renewed efforts to win back working-class voters.”

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Bumped and Updated as THE FULL the transcript is now available.  Segment #4 of the Transcript is exceptionally interesting!

Reports are beginning to surface about Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the end to the special military operation in Ukraine is close.  I am embedding the full press conference video below as only part of his remarks has been translated and transcribed.

President Putin is asked for his overall impressions of the Victory Day events, and the context of the ceasefire against the backdrop of a request by U.S. President Donald Trump.  As with most things Russian, the nuance is often between the lines.

[RU Transcript] – “President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Good evening. Happy holiday once again, happy Victory Day.

Question: Let me start with today and the way you view it, if I may. Today is a great and momentous day. Earlier, US President Donald Trump came up with an initiative to declare a three-day ceasefire. You supported it, so did Zelensky. However, on the eve of May 9, there were still a number of grave and provocative statements coming from Kiev.

How would you assess today and the way events unfolded? Even the military parade was held in a somewhat reduced format due to security concerns. Could you share your overall assessment of the day? Were there any provocations?

Vladimir Putin: As for provocations, as you can see, I am here, and so far, the Defence Ministry has not reported anything of that nature to me, so I cannot comment on it.

Regarding the parade. You know that this year – which is not an anniversary year but nevertheless it is Victory Day – we decided that the celebrations would go ahead in any case but without a display of military hardware, and not for security concerns but primarily because the Armed Forces should focus on the decisive defeat of the enemy within the framework of the special military operation.”

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