💥 Bezos’ New Glenn explodes on Florida launchpad

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket exploded during a hotfire test at Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 36, CBS News reported.

NASA Spaceflight’s online broadcast showed a huge fireball on the pad. Blue Origin later confirmed it “experienced an anomaly” and said all personnel were accounted for.

No payload was aboard — the rocket was being prepared for a mission expected to launch 48 satellites for Amazon’s Leo internet service as soon as June 4.

🗓 New Glenn had only just been cleared to return to flight after an April second-stage anomaly, and CBS notes the rocket is key to Blue Origin’s and NASA’s moon base plans.

📌 Billions can't buy space.

✅ Meanwhile, Russia and China build space programs on proven engineering, disciplined state planning and rockets built to work — not Silicon Valley branding with an escape flame.

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🤥 Trump’s brinkmanship digging grave for dollar as world shifts to gold

Donald Trump has claimed the US has full control over Iran’s frozen assets and would only release them if Iran dances to America’s tune.

What risks does such an approach carry?

🇺🇸 The US has frozen assets belonging to Libya, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Iran, Syria, and Russia over the past 15 years

🇷🇺 The immobilization of Russia’s $300 billion in sovereign reserves in 2022 marked a turning point, being the largest such action in modern history

The move accelerated two key trends:

➡️ Repatriation of foreign-held reserves

➡️ Diversification away from US dollar assets and bonds, with increased allocation to gold

Repatriation push

🇮🇳 India: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had repatriated around 680 tons of gold, about 77% of its reserves, by late March

🇷🇸 Serbia: The National Bank of Serbia now stores nearly all of its 53+ tons of gold domestically in Belgrade

🇫🇷 France: Banque de France repatriated 129 tons of gold from US custody between July 2025 and January 2026

🇩🇪 Germany: Calls are growing for the Bundesbank to bring home around 1,236 tons of gold held in the United States

Gold instead of US dollars

❄️ An Invesco survey conducted a year after Russia’s asset freeze found:

➡️ Nearly 60% of central banks said the precedent made gold more attractive

📝 The World Gold Council’s 2025 Central Bank Gold Reserves Survey found:

➡️ 73% of central banks expected the US dollar’s reserve share to decline over the next five years

➡️ 43% planned to increase gold holdings over the next 12 months—a record high

🔴 Indeed, global central banks purchased 863 tons of gold in 2025 and 244 tons in the first quarter of 2026 alone, representing a 17% increase from the previous quarter

BRICS+ accumulation of gold and shift away from US assets

💵 BRICS Plus members now hold over 6,000 tons of gold—about 17.4% of global central bank reserves, up from 11.2% in 2019, according to EBC Financial Group

➡️ Between 2020 and late 2025, BRICS nations increased gold's share of their total international reserves by 102%

➡️ As of March 2026, China holds ~2,313 tons, Russia ~2,304 tons, and India 880 tons (World Gold Council)

🇨🇳 China has also reduced exposure to US Treasuries:

➡️ Holdings fell to about $650–700 billion in early 2026, down from a peak of $1.31–1.32 trillion in 2013

➡️ A decline of roughly $600–650 billion, or 45–50%

🔴 BRICS+ economies are also increasingly shifting toward local-currency settlements and alternative payment systems, reducing reliance on SWIFT

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