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"China has showed the world that they are the bad actors" - Bessent on China retaliating

mf, you started this shit lmao

macron attempting to occupy another superposition, after allowing antichrist to fly over his country and ignoring ceasefire violations in lebanon which he signed up for

Seems as if I spoke too soon. US airstrikes do continue on Yemen for the 27th night in a row, targeting the capital, Sana'a. The Yemeni people will not even get to have one night of peace. We truly live in a rotten world sometimes.

Lots more airstrikes on Sana'a, including targeting the Nuqum mountain again.

Farmland in Sana'a Governorate targeted.

Reports from other sources of huge explosions in Saada Governorate.

Al Masirah TV twitter

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Ah

Going well in the market communities

SC-USA issues administrative stay, Maryland dude will keep rotting in Salvadoran prison

"This looks like market manipulation"

"Well there is nothing we can do about that. This is the world we live in now"

• Guy on bloomberg (didn't catch his name)

Zelenskyy posted a video supposedly of a Chinese citizen fighting for Russia.

Except he uploaded it with its original file name: "0804_KOREAN_SOLDIER 2.mp4".

Just blatantly recycling the "North Korean soldiers" propaganda and fucking it up.

Full text: https://xcancel.com/SeanMcCarthyCom/status/1909367030815277174

Plus side is, people fucking love china now purely out of negative polarization towards trump. Obviously many are bots, but look at the comments on this vid

https://youtu.be/lLSIklQSMro

April 8 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. will soon announce a "major" tariff on pharmaceutical imports.

Speaking to an event at the National Republican Congressional Committee, Trump said the tariff will incentivize drug companies to move their operations to the U.S.

Peter Navarro says Vietnam’s 0% tariff offer is not enough: ‘It’s the non-tariff cheating that matters’

Follow-up to Vietnam's attempt to negotiate last week - now it looks like the admin thinks the value added tax is a form of cheating and is going to go after it in Europe as well.

I think with the so-called "90 day pause" (not really a "pause" from what's so far discernible in the fine print) and the China-US tit-for-tat escalation, those those two developments should be stable enough to make it possible to finally analyze the situation of the past week for a bit without being being at the risk of rendered immediately outdated within the next hour.

With the 90-day "pause," this has in effect turned from a US trade world war into more of the same Sino-American trade war that has been ongoing since Trump I. What does this mean? It means that the pressure on China has risen far more now that the US has just stated it will fully concentrate against it, though it could be argued that the whole tariff gimmick was all about China in the end anyways.

The damage done to the markets will likely recover for a while due to political reasons since the "pause" was conceded precisely because of the one-two punch of the American world tariffs assault and China's unexpectedly resilient response, which made it unbearable for Trump's Republican oligarch backers to support, as Musk's panic illustrated. Trump and his lackeys like Navarro and Miran may have a chef's kiss plan all sketched out of restoring American manufacturing, but their great sorrow is that they and their perfect plan exist in the mud and dirt of reality, Hegelian idealism faceplanting into the material conditions of the real world. American leadership simply does not have the capacity to tell its oligarchic and financial backers to "shut up" and "bear the pain for the greater good" in the same way that China did during the first term trade war. This "pause" shores up the market from a state of total doom and gloom, which relaxes some of the political pressure on Trump.

I don't really have an opinion on whether the "pause" was a pump-and-dump market manipulation (it totally was) because regardless of the intentionality, it has wider consequences. In that way, it wouldn't be wrong to say that the Chinese response put Trump into a Catch-22. Retaining tariffs on the rest of the world to follow through with their grand plan would be politically untenable through the mounting financial damage to their financial backers, which is the ultimate limiting factor curtailing any US executive action. The US made itself into a capitalist oligarchy and it is forced to lie in the same bed it made through McCarthyist repression. Reducing and pausing tariffs on the rest of the world, as he has now chosen, would provide an avenue to retaliate and take revenge against China, but undermines his original strategic goal.

The point, as Trump's team revealed after people mocked them for tariffing random Pacific islands, was to exact a cost on manufacturers so long as they stay out of the US, no matter where else they set up. This was done to incentivize the profit-seeking calculus of manufacturing companies to determine that it was worth it to come to the US rather than anywhere else. Additionally, and more importantly, this was meant to combat China's manufacturing outsourcing strategy of "Made Abroad with Chinese Characteristics" where Chinese manufacturers went overseas to set up intermediaries in locations like Vietnam (which is why that country received among the highest tariffs), which effectively negated the entire point of the US trade war on China, which was to weaken the Chinese manufacturing sector.

I believe that Trump genuinely sought to "make a deal" with China, particularly in line with the Phase One trade agreement that he briefly secured before the onset of COVID-19 and his electoral defeat in 2020 derailed any lasting progress. Historically, the West's successes against China have often involved signing unequal treaties, which leveraged the centralizing strength of the Chinese state to enforce Western terms on China and its people. Whether Trump anticipated China's response or was genuinely surprised by it, the "pause" he was ultimately forced to concede—at the detriment to his re-shoring strategy—demonstrates the impact of China's reaction.

In any case, the US's focus is once again squarely on China, but this just represents a continuation of the Trump I trade war, a more familiar ground compared to the scenario of the global trade conflict, now put on hold. While China will suffer from this renewed US assault, its experience from the first trade war suggests it is better equipped to weather such pressures. The previous trade war allowed China to consolidate domestic capital around its self-sufficiency goals, making it more resilient. In contrast, the rest of the world, as seen during Biden's term, lacks defenses against US economic and political aggression. Trump can boast about other countries coming up to "kiss his ass," but those nations like Vietnam do so out of a lack of options.

During Biden, China largely took a passive stance, as the US lashed out indiscriminately at multiple targets. To be frank, I'd say that it would have been politically untenable, for the Chinese leadership to have voluntarily stepped forward to faceslap Genocide Joe and draw his attention towards them at that time. Now, however, the Chinese government has a compelling rationale for positioning itself as a shield to redirect American hostility away from the rest of the world and focusing it squarely on China - simply because it's been made a fait accompli through Trump's actions. Since this is what happened during Trump I, at least all the way until the one month prelude in 2020 before the beginning of the pandemic when the US assassinated Soleimani, an intensification against China can be expected to allow the rest of the world, the Global South in particular, some breathing room. This would be a disaster if China is weakened as a result, but the experience accrued from a near-decade of trade war means that China is better positioned than in any time ever and the speed of the Chinese response this time around suggests that the Chinese government knows it.

Chinese exporters said to be ditching shipments mid-voyage to avoid crushing Trump tariffs - SCMP 2025-04-09

Now watch the EU go back to bootlicking America, embargoing China and getting tariffed after 90 days anyways.

Hamas tries to sue https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/hamas-terrorism-uk-marzouk

How long is the market gonna ignore the 125% to china? Because that is fucking massive

US Regime considering drone strikes on Mexico

Discussions among White House, Defense Department and intelligence officials, which are still at an early stage, have included possible drone strikes against cartel figures and their logistical networks in Mexico with the cooperation of Mexico’s government, the sources said.

Still, the administration has made no final decision and reached no definitive agreement about countering the cartels. And unilateral covert action, without Mexico’s consent, has not been ruled out and could be an option of last resort, the sources said. It is unclear whether American officials have floated the possibility of drone strikes to the Mexican government.

Wonder how many surface to air missiles have made their way from Ukkkraine to the cartels in the past couple years. I bet it's not zero.

nitter.net | xcancel | twitter

i don't think the Trump regime is "stupid" so much as i think they have had trouble coming to a unified plan of attack. It's obvious there are very real divisions between figures like Navarro, Musk, and Bessent/Miran; and the fickle 78 year old at the center is struggling with it

So Trump comes out swinging on Obliteration Day and goes full "no compromise" Navarro, then he gets pushback from the generally anti-tariff Musk, and what emerges is a warped version of the "country buckets" Bessent/Miran targeted tariff approach (tho it bears the Navarro scars).

The political establishment is incredibly fractured, and that includes the Republican party. That's why Trump is able to get away with such big initiatives without real challenge, but it's also why his actions seem pulled into different, contradictory, directions.

best take I've seen on the tariffs, i think the insider trading is just a side job. from a follow up tweet, engels actually wrote about this in an abstract way lol https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1890/letters/90_09_21.htm#%3A%7E%3Atext=For+what+each+individual+wills%2Cthe+same+laws+of+motion

Ahhh feels like the good old r/cth days where we pointed and laughed at the stonks during covid

Tariffs are already off, a 90 day delay on everything except China. Didn't last half a day.

Trump lowers across the board tariffs to 10% for 75 countries for 90 days, except on China where he raised them to 125%.

US Government's appeal to stay return order for Kilmar Abrego Garcia case (wrongful removal of guy from Maryland) has been denied, DOJ has already filed with the Supreme Court (within minutes of the denial).

Maybe im naive but the Trump administration, despite being staffed to the brim with insane China hawks, folding on its "anti-china economic warfare" before even starting it can be spinned into a more optimistic view on the prospects of hot US-China war. The murikans dont seem to have it in them. With the first sign of things getting tough, the US folded like a cheap tent. Just the prospect of things going to shit was enough. No prices have increased, nobody lost their job, nobody has been deprived of anything real. Some numbers on screens went up or down and the powers that be forced Trump’s hand. Even if instead of chaotic and incompetent it was some calculated and competent plan for a US-China clash, at some point most of these pressures and prospects would have arisen all the same and at the end of the day it wouldnt have much better chances to win against China. Will they really decide to destroy everything in a nuclear holocaust when the decision for a hot war is there when they couldnt even let the bond market freak out for more than 5 days ? Just as them losing the trade war (or at least not having the capacity to execute it without country breaking consequences) became obvious within days, the fact that they would lose any war close to China shores in 2028 or whenever will also sink in. Especially with the trajectory of both countries. It may still be possible to sustain that delusion in the big 2025 and rig war games to barely tie the engagement but its rapidly becoming less possible, especially after this whole debacle conlcudes

The libs in Pikachu or superhero costumes at that event you go to might be cops.

Article is too long to post here so, tl;dr: Over 100,000 Israelis have stopped appearing for reserve duty. Attendance rates for the reserves have reportedly dropped to 50-60 percent.

https://www.972mag.com/israeli-army-refusal-crisis-gaza-war/

US Commerce Secretary says exempted electronic products to come under separate tariffs. Looks like the euphoria on Monday might be short lived. Why the made the first announcement on Saturday and are saving the second for Monday beats me, maybe they're still trying to get chatGPT to come up with a plan

It’s absolutely bananas how bad these motherfuckers are at communicating what they’re doing.

US airstrikes on Yemen continue for the 25th night in a row, with multiple airstrikes in Hodeidah city and throughout Hodeidah Governorate targeting residential areas, and strikes Amran Governorate targeting communications infrastructure.

More airstrikes in Dhamar city, targeting farmland.

Multiple rounds of airstrikes in Ibb Governorate, with multiple strikes each, targeting Al-Shamhi Mountain and communications infrastructure.

Heavy airstrikes in the capital city, Sana'a.

Massive airstrikes in the mountains around Sana'a, approximately 10 airstrikes recorded:

Twitter thread of video and images of the strikes

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Warning for potential graphic imagery of casualties being shown during ongoing airstrikes.

Al Masirah TV twitter

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As a new development, Saudi Arabian news channels are justifying the expansion of the US air campaign to include any civilians or tribal figures that associate with Ansarallah/the Houthi movement as valid targets or collateral casualties

China in bid to challenge SpaceX by deploying maglev rocket launch pad by 2028 | South China Morning Post

Advances in rocket acceleration to supersonic speeds before ignition are part of plan to create hub of private rocket manufacture

Treasury Secretary Bessent right now on Fox Business, responding to China: "They are the surplus country. Their exports to the US are five times our exports to China. They can raise their tariff, but so what?"

Ik many know this but China's huge trade surplus (as raw numbers not % of GDP) should in many ways be seen not that different from foreign aid (particularly to the US) especially in long term. The difference between a "market transaction" and a simple "transfer" is blurred.

Its not like the old days where financial claims had to be paid back in real assets like gold or other real goods and services.

China may argue that it helps increase/maintain output and employment and that's true but the same also applies to foreign aid.

US foreign aid being a major source of demand for US goods. Yes ik, US foreign aid can be much more damaging by making the countries dependent on foreign debt combined with austerity from IMF which forbids Government intervention.

China is providing welfare to Americans. It has aid like effects. And it'll go away soon if US keeps on doing what its doing.

For example: USSR sends ₽1b worth of oil to Cuba, this alone will be an aid, but it accepts a financial claim from Cuba worth 10b Cuban pesos. This would be considered a trade deficit by many, but it is an implicit aid. It can try buying stuff from Cuba but Cuba has to allow that and there has to be enough supply. This is more "aid" than "trade".

With today's negotiations between the USA and Russia over the Ukraine war now concluded in St Petersburg, and negotiations between the USA and Iran taking place tomorrow in Oman, what's everyone's thoughts on this? It would be cool if we could all give our opinions and discuss, even if we disagree with each other of course. Open debate is always best, even with such highly serious topics. These are some of the most important negotiations in modern history. If they fail, we could be looking at large scale warfare and associated events that could lead to the death of many and seismic shifts in the world economy that would make tarrifs look small. Or not, hopefully.

My view is quite simple and not very insightful, the losing sides have to offer up large concessions to halt ongoing war or prevent war. Ukraine is suffering losses and losing to Russia in Ukraine, so for any "peace deal" to go through, Ukraine and the USA will have to offer some substantial concessions to Russia, such as the four oblasts in the east (or even more territory) becoming effectively Russian, future elections, no NATO, etc. If those concessions are not offered, Russia will continue the war until it reaches it's ultimate conclusion. On the other hand, Iran has suffered some substantial losses in its Axis of Resistance network, and it's deterrence is at a historical low (no Operation True Promise III/Israeli attack on Iranian soil not responded to, large US military buildup in the region), so Iran will have to offer some substantial concessions to the USA and Israel around it's uranium enrichment levels, nuclear program and potentially other assets like the Axis of Resistance, otherwise I believe the USA and Israel will go to war against Iran.

Do hexbears think the fate of Ukraine and Iran is linked somehow between the two potential deals? Can Russia play an important role in preventing war against Iran and brokering a "nuclear deal"? Can the USA play a vital role in getting Ukraine to offer up large concessions in exchange for pausing the war there and achieving a "peace deal"? I certainly hope that in both cases peace can be achieved obviously, but if war is inevitable it will happen.

On a lighter note, is Pezeshkian the Iranian Gorbachev? Is Zelenskyy the Ukrainian Churchill?

There were some 5d chess asumptions that a reason for Trump to purposely crash the markets is to be able to refinance the dept that matures in the next months (an immense amount, like 30% of total) with lower rates. But the 10 year yields have actualy been going up through the last week (rumors are that China dumped like 50 Billion in Treasuries, partly to resist pressure to depreciate the Yuan, partly to raise free cash for whatever stimulus they have coming up or to buy gold , partly because they see the writing of the wall for actual decoupling seeing Trump's teams moves and maybe to actualy fuck Trump over) and of course the enviroment created by Tarrifs aint very conductive to that plan. Trump may be yelling that Powell has to cut rates but with these numbers its not immediately likely either. If Tarrifs stand and If the market crashes then China can continue and time its dumping to force Trump to use higher rate debt to replace lower rate debt or inflation shocks. Yeah i know MMT and printing and stuff and of course this scheme will go on for a bit and the US cannot default or anything but there are large negative consequences, political and economical, for marching on with much worse dept terms, especially in this global enviroment

“I know what the hell I’m doing,” the president said. “I know what I’m doing. And you know what I’m doing too. That’s why you vote for me.”

The administration has given conflicting signals over whether the tariffs are open to negotiation. Trump claimed: “I’m telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal.”

Mocking the pleas of foreign leaders, he parodied: “Please, please, sir, make a deal. I’ll do anything. I’ll do anything, sir!”

https://archive.is/20250409144836/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/09/trump-address-republicans-china-tariffs

"Dance my little vassal piglets"

you'll love this next part

Bessent is a true believer who loves kool-aid

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is likewise ignorant:

I advised Scott Bessent, now Trump's Secretary of the Treasury who is leading the tariff war, in 2013 when he was still with Soros. An investment bank engaged me to advise Bessent on China's economy and consumer trends and go over my book The End of Cheap China.

I took an instant disliking - Bessent was one of the most arrogant and ignorant on China people I had ever met. He was uber bearish on China and was largely ideologically driven in his analysis. Communist countries couldn't succeed was basically the jist of his views.

Data and rational analysis did not reign supreme. ... He thinks America has the upper hand with China right now. I worry for America. We have one of the most ignorant on China yet arrogant people I've ever met running a trade war against China.

from https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/04/fall-out-from-the-tariff-wars.html

Nicaragua has withdrawn its support for South Africa's case against the Apartheid entity at the ICJ, confirmed on 3 April - ICJ official post

No immediate reason was given, but it is suspected that Trump had painted a target on Nicaragua's back and may have threatened to retaliate against the 450,000 Nicaraguans living in the US, in addition to Nicaragua's cordial relations with South Africa (who is now also being accused of complicity in 7 October, as an escalation of atrocity propaganda by the Orange Führer's friends).

Death to ameriKKKa

US airstrikes continue on Yemen for the 29th night in a row, with multiple rounds of airstrikes targeting the Al Bayda', Saada and Hodeidah Governorates. I think this is the first time Al Bayda' has been hit in this campaign, feel free to check me on that as usual, I can and probably will make mistakes, I'm only human and it's been almost a month of continuous airstrikes now, so it's difficult to keep track of it all.

9 airstrikes in Marib Governorate, with 5 targeting Mount Hailan, according to other sources.

Warning for potential graphic imagery of casualties during ongoing airstrikes:

Al Masirah TV twitter

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A commentator also mentioned Saudi Arabian shelling of Saada last night, and yeah orher sources collaborated that.

Google has blurred the Starykostyantyniv Air Base in Khmelnytskyi Oblast, Ukraine. This airfield was attacked by Kalibr cruise missiles in the recent missile attack and has been a prime target for other missile attacks and drones. It is also believed to house F-16s.

https://t.me/AMK_Mapping/9124

"Blurred" makes it sound somewhat innocent, but if you look at it on Google Maps, it's clearly a thorough censorship job with deliberately chosen areas to "blur" (probably cut out, replaced with old imagery, and blurred).

To break with tariff news here's some funny drama around a portuguese socialist party MP.

So a black angolan-portuguese rapper (she's huge in Angola), activist, researcher and graduate of London's School of Oriental and African Studies called Eva RapDiva (not her legal name) showed up in 8th place on the socialist party's electoral list for the Lisbon district, which means she's certain to gain a seat, immediately right-wing trolls popped up questioning whether a rapper could be an MP along with other veiled racist remarks, with the party and generally pundits standing by her of course.

Then tragedy struck, when a video from 2023 of her in a hoodie and a beanie performing a freestyle about the Ukraine War resurfaced , these were the lyrics translated

I'm an African, I don't give a shit about the war in Ukraine.

Let those guys kill each other like we did. They don't care about us so we don't care about them.

I know that if this goes online, a lot of people will start complaining. But it's not my job to please everyone.

Not even Christ did this. If someone want's to criticize me I'll say 'Christ, go to the trash'

But this isn't about Christ, he's my divinity, I'm in the mic killing it with my creativity.

Because I'm a sweetheart, a woman of faith, but it's thanks to my work that til today I'm standing on my feet.

BARS!

Sadly this didn't go over well with the pro-ukraine socialist party electorate so now she started getting criticism from the center-left. However it's been resolved as she posted a video of herself in a suit saying that she's "completely on the side of the ukranian people". She explained her rap lyrics stating that "the creative liberty of an artist like me, improvising as it's done in rap (...) cannot be revealing of what is my political position" (boooooo), she stated she's against "putin's imperialism" and "trump's irrational policies".

She also said she's on the side of the palestinians which means that when the socialist party is back in power and votes against recognizing Palestine she'll be oddly quiet.

US airstrikes on Yemen continue for the 24th night in a row, with five airstrikes reported in Marib Governorate.

More airstrikes on Kamaran Island.

Multiple rounds of airstrikes, with multiple strikes each in the capital city, Sana'a, as well as a wider range of airstrikes in different areas of Sana'a Governorate.

Multiple rounds of airstrikes in Marib Governorate.

Three rounds of further airstrikes in various areas of Marib Governorate, totalling 9 airstrikes. 5 in the first round, and two in the second and third rounds.

Graphic scenes on Al Masirah TV of civilian casualties from US airstrikes, including children. Just providing a warning before anyone clicks the link for updates themselves.

Al Masirah TV twitter

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Fox News' Chief National Security Correspondent, Jennifer Griffin, appears to confirm what has already been reported: B-2 Spirit stealth bombers are targeting underground facilities in Yemen, likely using GBU-57 MOP 30 000lb/14 000kg "bunker buster" bombs.

Jennifer Griffin tweet

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Also I missed this earlier, but I'll comment on it now. With air defences seemingly suppressed over key Ansarallah strongholds like the capital Sana'a, where residents were able to film and photograph a US MQ-9 Reaper drone flying visibly low over the capital city, it appears that the type of munitions used by the US Navy are changing. Large amounts of BLU-117 2000lb/900kg bombs (identified by the three yellow stripes at the tip) fitted with GBU-31 JDAM guidance kits were photographed on the US aircraft carrier Harry Truman. While these bombs have been used since the beginning of the campaign, they have not been pictured in such large numbers before, with more stand off longer range munitions like AGM-154 JSOWs, GBU-53 StormBreakers, and AGM-84 H/K SLAM-ER ATAs previously making up the majority of munitions used and photographed. So it seems as if we're entering a new phase of the US aerial campaign against Yemen, where US aircraft can operate with more freedom and drop more shorter range stand in munitions with minimal risk to the aircraft and pilots, whereas previously a large amount of stand off munitions had to be used to minimise risk.

Since as far as i can tell China is still not selling UST and is holding it for the right momment, what if the chinese "plan" if all this continues is to wait as other UST holders keep this yield pressure on the bond market (since this situation continues pressuring asian-euro UST holding hedgefounds and BoJ given their currency and monetary state) then once the Fed is forced to do QE, China dumbs and exits USD. Inflation & rates would explode/ USD would devalue. US may not pay up or impose capital controls, but that means USD will lose GRC status