During the weekend, discussions about central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, trended on social media as many people believe the idea will result in increased financial surveillance and a totalitarian monetary system. In a recent interview, Lynette Zang, the chief market analyst at ITM Trading, warned that CBDCs will “take the world into a full surveillance economy that can be controlled directly by the central bank.”

Kosovo police have seized dozens of crypto mining devices from residents of a majority Serb region in the north of the country. Authorities in Pristina and Belgrade exchanged accusations over the move, which has the potential to raise tensions in the ethnically divided, partially recognized Balkan state.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has expressed concerns that a rising number of countries, including China, Russia, and the Middle East, are aligning themselves and gaining global influence. “I think \[it] is a huge challenge for the United States,” he cautioned.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s chief adviser on foreign policy, Celso Amorim, says China and Brazil “are coming closer together” and they could play important roles in building a less centralized world with no hegemony. Commenting on de-dollarization, he stressed: “I think it’s very important that we are free from the dominance of one single currency because sometimes it is used politically.”

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