The holding company for the California-based Silvergate Bank announced on Wednesday that it would begin the process of ending its operations and voluntarily liquidating the bank, ending a long descent for the crypto-focused firm and weeks of speculation about its viability.

With crypto’s rise and traditional banks’ hesitance to work with the volatile sector, Silvergate had established itself as one of the most important partners for the nascent industry, offering key financial services in exchange for soaring profits. By working with crypto’s top companies, from Coinbase to FTX, Silvergate’s share price rose more than 1,500% between November 2019 and November 2021. The bank’s fortunes were tied to the industry, with 90% of its deposit base coming from crypto companies.

Wall Street’s biggest banks took quite a thrashing in the stock market Thursday as investors spooked the turmoil at Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate Capital dumped financial shares. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley – the four most valued US lenders – saw $55 billion wiped off their combined market capitalization on Thursday, Refinitiv data show.

JPMorgan, the biggest US bank, alone saw a $22 billion tumble in its market value as its stock slid 5.41% to $130.34. Wall Street heavyweight Bank of America lost $16.16 billion as its share price fell 6.20% to $30.54. Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley saw their market capitalization drop by $10.3 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively. Among other major US banks, Goldman Sachs and Citi also witnessed significant declines in their share prices.

California-based Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday morning after it suffered a bank run and capital crisis. SVB was the second-largest banking failure in US history, yet nobody saw this coming. As recently as Wednesday, all seemed well at the respected bank. Then it surprised investors with news that it needed to raise $2.25billion (£1.875 billion) to shore up its balance sheet, and all hell broke loose.

Terrified depositors and investors raced to pull their money, causing a run on the bank. Yesterday, regulators shut it down before more damage was done. SVB isn’t the only US financial institutions to go to the wall this month. Its collapse came two days after Federal Reserve member bank Silvergate went into liquidation, after racking up huge losses on crypto trading. The big question now is how far the contagion spreads.

Beauchamp reckons Monday will be brutal. “It certainly isn’t wise to stand in the way of the avalanche of selling, which looks unlikely to end soon.”

Riyadh cut ties after Iranian protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic missions in 2016 following the Saudi execution of revered Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr - just one in a series of flashpoints between the two longstanding rivals.

Friday's announcement, which follows five days of previously unannounced talks in Beijing and several rounds of dialogue in Iraq and Oman, caps a broader realignment and efforts to ease tensions in the region.

"Following talks, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have agreed to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies and missions within two months," said the joint statement, which was published by both countries' official media.

The detente between Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, and Iran, a pariah for Western governments over its nuclear programme, has the potential to reshape relations across a region characterised by turbulence for decades.

Iran and Saudi Arabia support rival sides in several conflict zones including Yemen, where the Huthi rebels are backed by Tehran and Riyadh leads a military coalition supporting the government. The two sides also vie for influence in embattled Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. He also said Tehran, which has backed Damascus during its 12 years of conflict, would join efforts to reconcile Syria and Turkey, which has long supported rebel groups opposed to President Bashar al-Assad.

There has also been a rapprochement between Riyadh and Ankara since the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and government critic Jamal Khashoggi inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pushed hard to revive ties, a move analysts describe as largely driven by economic considerations.

'I am certain that working together, we will ensure the development of fruitful Russian-Chinese cooperation in all sorts of different areas. We will continue to coordinate joint work on the most important regional and international issues. Xi Jinping was handed a third term as Chinese president on Friday, capping a rise that has seen him become the country's most powerful leader in generations.

China has become an increasingly valuable ally to Russia, importing Russian energy and commodities and softening the impact of western sanctions after the invasion of Ukraine. 'We will see a China more assertive on the global stage, insisting its narrative to be accepted,' Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute, told AFP.

'But it is also one that will focus on domestically making it less dependent on the rest of the world, and making the Communist Party the centrepiece of governance, rather than the Chinese Government,' he said. 'It is not a return to the Maoist era, but one that Maoist will feel comfortable in,' Tsang added. 'Not a direction of travel that is good for the rest of the world.'

Western media took a much different angle, with many outlets making obligatory mention of warnings from analysts and officials that China’s real military spending could be much higher than the announced budget. For example the Guardian cited the US Department of Defense as claiming it could be up to two times higher. These outlets do mention that China’s defense budget is still dwarfed by that of the US ($224 billion versus $772 billion), before moving on to talk about the size of China’s navy and infantry, its “militarization” of the South China Sea and, of course, repeating the warnings emanating from Washington DC that “China may invade Taiwan” soon.

It also wants to avoid Europe becoming more militarily involved against China, which would represent a great success for the US. China strives to be firm but also calm and cautious. There is a lot to lose in facing a hostile US, but sitting idly by is not an option. A military competition has begun, and it isn’t going away. Beijing must be strong but also avoid “rocking the boat” too much.

The retired general argued that China could prevail “without firing a shot,” rather than getting involved in a costly confrontation. To ensure that outcome, the leadership in Beijing would need to establish control over Taiwan’s airspace as well as sea lanes, Keane suggested.

The US would be well advised to beef up its “deterrence capability” in the region to “prevent a war,” the retired general added. To this end, Keane stated that Washington should increase weapons production as well as double down on arming Taipei.

The minister said the Bundeswehr is understaffed and under-equipped after decades of neglect from the federal government. Pistorius added that Germany would have to invest much more in its military in order to be up to NATO standards.

Lieutenant General Alfons Mais, the commander and highest ranking officer of the German army, told the DPA press agency on Sunday that the €100 billion previously promised by Chancellor Olaf Scholz would not be enough to make the country’s armed forces battle ready. He further added that “the army that I have the duty to lead is more or less bare.”

“We had two whole systems that could certainly have defended Berlin,” Papperger said, as quoted by RIA Novosti. According to the CEO, four of the systems would be enough to protect Berlin, but now their number will be inadequate. On Saturday, thousands of protesters rallied in the German capital, calling for Chancellor Olaf Scholz to “stop the escalation in weapons deliveries.”

Similarly to Germany undermining its own protection for the sake of solidarity with Ukraine, Denmark opted in January to send its 19 French-made Caesar howitzer artillery systems to Kiev, compromising its own defensive capabilities. The artillery systems had been a key component of Denmark’s plan to field a heavy infantry brigade.

Officials in some NATO nations have cautioned that the constant supply of arms and ammunition to Ukraine on such a massive scale would eventually come at a cost to their own defensive capabilities.

Now it's Britain's turn to suffer. Supermarkets here are rationing tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and lettuces as UK farmers struggle with higher energy costs which stop them using hothouses in winter to grow them. Soft fruit, including raspberries, are also hard to find in the shops.

Tony Montalbano, a director of Green Acre Salads in Roydon, Essex, typically produces a million kilograms of baby cucumbers a year, but his glasshouses were empty last month. He delayed growing his crops to avoid rocketing winter fuel bills of up to £500,000 a month. He expects his production to be cut by up to half this year.

'It's sad and frustrating but I can't afford to grow,' he said. 'I must make a profit. If I don't, there's no point in me going on. Lots of growers are closing their doors and selling up.' Jack Ward, chief executive of the British Growers Association, added: 'Up and down the country, we've got empty glasshouses. People who would grow two or three crops of cucumbers a year may cut that to just one, because they want to avoid using more expensive energy.'

Eggs are also being rationed as farmers cannot afford the costs of keeping laying hens warm in energy-guzzling sheds. All this, of course, makes you wonder who is winning the economic war. From Perm, John told us: 'I have seen with my own eyes that sanctions are not hurting Russia. People on the street hardly notice anything. The shops are full of everything they want or need.

The National Communications Commission (NCC), citing the island's telecom service, blamed two Chinese ships for cutting the cables. It said a Chinese fishing vessel is suspected of severing the first cable some 50 kilometres (31 miles) out at sea. Six days later, on February 8, a Chinese cargo ship cut the second, NCC said.

Taiwan's government stopped short of calling it a deliberate act on the part of Beijing, and there was no direct evidence to show the Chinese ships were responsible.

In a statement on Tuesday, Kim Yo-jong – the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and a senior figure in the ruling Workers’ Party – responded to a recent press report citing a high ranking US military official, who said the Pentagon would immediately intercept any long-range missile fired into the Pacific by the DPRK.

“If a military response such as an interception follows our strategic weapons test, which is conducted without any harm to the safety of neighboring countries in the high seas and airspace not under the jurisdiction of the United States, this will undoubtedly be regarded as a clear declaration of war,” she said in comments carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

But below that is a crack reaching across finance: Rising interest rates have left banks laden with low-interest bonds that can’t be sold in a hurry without losses. So if too many customers tap their deposits at once, it risks a vicious cycle.

Across the investing world, “people are asking who is the next one?” said Jens Nordvig, founder of market analytics and data intelligence companies Exante Data and Market Reader. “I am getting lots of questions about this from my clients.” Indeed, amid deposit withdrawals at SVB, its chief executive officer urged customers on Thursday to “stay calm.”

April Babcock, Austen’s mother, and Wendy Thomas, Matthew’s mother, have both become activists to raise awareness about illicit fentanyl. Babcock is the founder of Lost Voices of Fentanyl, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness on illicit fentanyl, and Thomas is the founder of Mathew’s Voice. Both told The Epoch Times that obtaining illicit fentanyl is as easy as ordering a pizza.

“I talk to all these moms [in Lost Voices of Fentanyl], and their kids go on social media and literally ordered drugs just like a pizza. It’s just like Uber Eats. Well, now it’s like Uber drugs,” Babcock said. “Some of these parents in the group literally saw the dealer on their Ring. They’d pull up into their driveway, and their kid would run out. I mean, these pills are cheap.”

Xi made a rare direct rebuke of Washington in his speech to China’s National People’s Conference, with additional remarks that did not appear in the English transcript of the event, NPR reported. “Western countries led by the US have implemented comprehensive containment, encirclement and suppression against us, bringing unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development,” he reportedly said, NPR reported.

Qin, who most recently served as China’s ambassador to the United States before being named Foreign Minister just weeks ago, elaborated further, saying, “If the United States does not hit the brakes, but continues to speed down the wrong path, no amount of guardrails can prevent derailing, and there will surely be conflict and confrontation,” the outlet reported.