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This year’s gathering of the BRICS represents the largest group of world leaders traveling to Russia in decades, Al Jazeera reports. The original BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — will be joined by several others interested in discussing global finance.It is widely believed that the group aims to challenge American financial control and replace the dollar with a different currency.“BRICS, which represents countries containing nearly half the world’s population, has been described by some as a potential rival to U.S. global dominance,” writes Kelsey Ables for The Washington Post.Russia and China have already been working...

HAVANA, October 8. /TASS/. Cuba has submitted an official request to be included in BRICS as a partner country in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the director general of the Cuban Foreign Ministry’s General Division of Bilateral Affair, Carlos Pereira, said. "Cuba has submitted an official request to join BRICS as a partner country in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin who is the chairman of the grouping which is consolidating global politics and the hope of the Global South as a key player," the senior Cuban diplomat said in a statement on his page on X.

Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted last August that a drop in the importance of the U.S. dollar was "irreversible"—but there appears to be no sign that the global economy is turning its back on the greenback. "The U.S. Dollar was used in 48% of international payment transactions last year, the highest level in more than a decade. But Brics...," it said next to the graph, which showed the euro making 23.2 percent of transactions and the Chinese yuan way behind at 3.47 percent. "BRICS countries would like their currencies to be used in world trade, but each has a major...

Monday, January 03, 2005 almost fUNnny . . . Day 9 of the tsunami crisis. I know I had promised to lay off the UN for a bit . . . but I can't. As one reader commented on a previous Diplomad posting on the UN, "it's like watching a train wreck" -- you know it's horrible, but you've just got to look at it. In this part of the tsunami-wrecked Far Abroad, the UN is still nowhere to be seen where it counts, i.e., feeding and helping victims. The relief effort continues to be a US-Australia effort, with Singapore...