World News

While Canadians are using "elbows up" diplomacy with the white house, they are welcoming U.S. tourists with open arms.

Summary

Donald Trump imposed sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on dozens of nations, including a 104% levy on Chinese goods, claiming to boost U.S. manufacturing.

These tariffs, calculated by dubious trade deficit formulas, hit major trading partners like the EU, Japan, and South Korea.

Economists warn of rising inflation, recession risks, and potential stagflation. JPMorgan estimates a 60% chance of global recession, while U.S. consumers may face $2,100 in added yearly costs.

Despite retaliation threats, Trump refuses to back down. Businesses and allies express concern over economic damage and trade instability.

Summary

Thai police arrested US academic Paul Chambers on charges of insulting the monarchy and violating computer crime laws, linked to remarks made during an online seminar.

Chambers, a political science professor at Naresuan University, was summoned after a complaint by the Thai Army.

He denied the charges and was denied bail, with no trial date set. Thailand enforces strict lèse-majesté laws under Article 112, carrying up to 15 years in prison.

https://archive.is/wDANo

Russia said on Wednesday the world was getting tired of endless threats against Iran and that bombing the Islamic Republic would not bring peace, cautioning that Tehran was already taking preventative measures.

Former hedge fund’s role marks shift away from tariff hardliners in Trump’s White House.

An upbeat Scott Bessent walked into the US Treasury department on Tuesday, optimistic that the tensions between America and some of its allies in the wake of last week’s “liberation day” tariff announcement would soon be eased.

“I think you’re going to see a couple of big trading partners do deals very quickly,” he told reporters.

In the days before and after President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on much of the world last week, the Treasury secretary was upstaged by boisterous hardliners such as Peter Navarro, the White House trade tsar, and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary.

But this week Bessent has burst into the fray as the president has opened the door to negotiations with some allies in the face of the brutal sell-off in equities that triggered a backlash from Wall Street to Capitol Hill.

Trump has designated Bessent to lead talks with Japan and South Korea, the first big US trading partners in line for an accord to potentially reduce the levies, alongside Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative.

Meanwhile, Navarro, who has been deeply sceptical of negotiations over the tariffs, has been relegated to the sidelines — for now — along with Lutnick, who has been the main interlocutor for foreign trade officials. In recent days, two foreign officials have said the commerce secretary has made clear that he lacks the mandate from Trump to enter into trade talks with them.

The shift in clout on Trump’s trade team reflects the president’s dawning realisation that he has to show he is trying to stabilise markets after withering criticism from all sides of the political spectrum and from many business leaders that he has been too complacent about the damage his tariffs would inflict on the economy and the financial sector.

During Trump’s first term, Bessent’s predecessor Steven Mnuchin became one of the administration’s leading trade doves, restraining the president’s protectionist instincts and often clashing with Navarro.

He and Robert Lighthizer, then the US trade representative, led high-stakes negotiations with China, a formula that Trump now appears to want to return to in some fashion for talks with other big trading partners.

“Bessent and Greer are more qualified to negotiate and not inflame. They are the rational traffic cops to de-escalate but achieve acceptable and meaningful results,” said a person familiar with the talks.

The more central role of Bessent — who last weekend spent time with Trump in Florida, flying back with him to Washington — comes amid signs of rising tensions within the White House.

Elon Musk, the billionaire technology executive and White House adviser who has said he would like to see a broad trade deal with the EU, on Tuesday launched an extraordinary attack on Navarro, calling him a “moron” and “dumber than a sack of bricks” for suggesting that Tesla, his electric vehicle company, simply assembled — rather than manufactured — its vehicles in America.

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sought to minimise the spat. “These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue,” she said.

But whether Bessent can pacify investors and negotiate agreements with a wide range of countries in a second Trump administration that is more dogmatic and aggressive than the first is unclear.

The South Carolinian former hedge fund manager has embraced Trump’s justification for imposing the tariffs in the first place, including his desire to reshape global commerce so America’s economy is no longer dependent on cheap imported goods, even if it comes at a cost.

“One always had the sense that by virtue of his background, Bessent would be more liberally minded on trade. On the other hand, in joining the administration, he had to sign up to the programme. And he knew what he was signing up to,” said Mark Sobel, a Treasury official under Barack Obama.

On Tuesday, US equity prices dropped again after opening higher, with investors sceptical that negotiations with some countries would be enough to overcome their fears for the global economy. A number of Wall street financiers have warned the measures could cause a worldwide recession.

Navarro has suggested Trump’s shift to talks with selective countries is not inconsistent with his views. “Context matters. I said ‘This is not a negotiation . . . it is a national emergency . . . President Trump is always willing to listen,” he wrote in an email to the Financial Times. “We like what we have been hearing.”

Meanwhile, Greer told Congress that while more than 50 countries had approached him seeking talks to lift the punitive tariffs, the negotiations could be protracted and he declined to put a timeline for any deals.

Critics accuse the Trump administration of failing to explain the ultimate goal of launching such an expansive trade war, and now attempting to retreat on some of it — a contradiction that Bessent may not be able to resolve.

“There is no clear message on how the tariffs were determined, what they’re supposed to accomplish, how long they’ll be in place, whether they’re a negotiating tool or a move to try and cut the United States off from global trade,” said Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate finance committee.

“In the days since Donald Trump announced tariffs, the president and his advisers have repeatedly changed their stories on all of these questions,” he added.

Analysts say this uncertainty is underpinned by the fear that Trump could easily reverse course again.

“We get the impression that what Trump says on any day may vary based upon who the last person he spoke with is,” said Sobel. “So maybe he’s spoken with Bessent lately, but maybe he’ll speak with Navarro tomorrow.”

A high-profile former Ukrainian commander has called for the head of the country’s military to step aside, accusing him of a lack of strategic imagination and putting Ukrainian soldiers’ lives at risk with “borderline criminal” orders.

Bohdan Krotevych, who quit as the chief of staff of the Azov brigade in February partly so he could speak out, said he believed that armed forces commander, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, “must go” and Ukraine’s military leadership must be shaken up.

“The general staff ordered that when a soldier’s shift [on he frontline] is over, they can’t rest in the rear, they have to rest 50 metres from the front,” Krotevych said, which he added was typically at a platoon forward observation base.

Forcing soldiers to recover so close to the front put “all these people in grave danger”, he argued. He accused the army command of being “criminally guilty of not understanding the principles of war right now” and in particular “how FPV drones work, how glide bombs work”.

Summary

Germany is investigating a suspected Russian cyberattack on the German Association for East European Studies (DGO), a Berlin-based research group deemed "undesirable" by Moscow.

Intelligence agencies BSI and BfV linked the breach to APT 29, or "Cozy Bear," a Kremlin-affiliated hacker group also suspected of targeting German political parties.

Hackers accessed DGO's email servers, triggering concerns due to IP patterns matching a previous attack.

The DGO reported prior incidents, including stalking and break-ins. Germany recently warned 70 academic institutions of similar threats from Russia.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/28317932

Peter Beaumont
Mon 7 Apr 2025 13.01 EDT

"The results of the postmortems join a growing body of evidence that sharply contradicts Israel’s account of the incident, including video footage that shows the vehicles were travelling with headlights and flashing red lights that identified them, with personnel wearing hi-vis vests, at the time they were fired on."

Mexico on Tuesday logged its first human death from H5N1 avian influenza, a three-year-old girl in the northern state of Coahuila, according to the state's health minister.

Coahuila Health Minister Eliud Aguirre said the girl died early in the morning, with the infection causing multiple organ failure.

"We are monitoring all individuals who had close contact with the patient and conducting tests to determine if they are infected. So far, no one has tested positive," Aguirre added.

The European Union on Tuesday reached out to Beijing for help in tracking a wave of Chinese imports that is expected to pour toward the EU after U.S. Donald Trump ramped up tariffs on China.

China has pledged to “fight to the end” against Washington in an escalating showdown with Trump that could see Chinese goods facing tariffs of as high as 104 percent in entering the U.S. market.

https://archive.ph/Wlklz

European Union leaders will consider imposing 25 percent tariffs on a range of US imports, including steel, clothes, and food, but not bourbon or other alcoholic drinks, following US President Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on imports from the EU.