Image is of Trump’s initial set of reciprocal tariffs. Source is CNN and Reuters.
It’s difficult to keep up with the news around the tariffs; they get instated, then dropped, then reinstated… for example, on Friday, Trump said that certain electronics like smartphones would be exempt, causing markets to rally a great deal, but now the Commerce Secretary has said that they might not be exempt? The state of play right now, if you haven’t been keeping up this week, is that the US recently announced a 90-day global pause on implementing the tariffs he had planned (that is, 25% on certain Canadian and Mexican goods, and at least 10% on every other nation) but nonetheless increased tariffs on China to 145%.
Meanwhile, China has been - quite remarkably - standing their ground, increasing tariffs on the US to 125%, and putting restrictions on rare earths. Xi Jinping has been in Vietnam and has made statements against a tariff war there, saying that it would have no winners. Meanwhile, a Chinese spokesperson has essentially said that China can endure the tariff war due to the increasing demand from its domestic market in combination with its growing economic ties with other countries.
Last week’s thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.
Please check out the RedAtlas!
The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Currently riding on a train through Xinjiang. Hopefully I’ll update later with more details.
I’ve noticed recently that Wikipedia has been a lot less pro-Israel recently. Like, they directly call it an Apartheid state and what Israel is doing a genocide without any qualifiers, and if you look at the Talk pages on those articles, any time someone tries to bring it up, they’re basically just like “No. We’ve already settled on this discussion.”
It’s a barometer of the opinions of normie college-educated liberals, they’re the ones who write it for the most part
Or because funding for US propaganda outfits got cut?
lol bye bye USAID
or whatever fuckin agency it is that spreads that shit
Guess libs are getting off the Israel train because of Trump being in charge. Although the policy is exactly the same as Biden’s
The only difference is in tone: Biden feigned at it being an unfortunate necessity to destroy hospitals and starve babies, while Trump brags about it.
Yes. A repeat of the first Trump admin. Sadly, their opinions will just return to the right-wing status quo when the next Biden is president and in charge of the genocide again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_genocide
The evidence is overwhelming that denial propaganda has to ignore or discourage people from investigating into the claims. It isn’t just the scale of catastrophic damage but the rhetoric of Israeli politicians, media, micro-celebrities in Israel, and the entire society espousing genocidal rhetoric on social media, interviews, and public statements. Netanyahu quoting Amalek was the huge and first red flag for special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, but even recently ministers like Smotritch claiming "it’d be a good, moral, righteous thing to let 2 million people starve but ‘the world won’t let us’. "
Had to wait until everyone had already made up their minds
From what I saw they were pretty early on it, citing scholarly opinion that it was a genocide long before I saw most libs really come around to calling it that. They do love their appeals to academic sources, and there was widespread agreement among scholars that Israel’s actions qualified as genocide.
Jerome Powell gave a press conference today where he all but used the S-word (stagflation) to describe the Fed’s current economy outlook post-Liberation Day. Should history repeat itself, that would mean Neo-Reagan is probably 6-8 years away.
Some goings on
That mortgage interest one is so fucked. Imagine having to pay an extra year’s salary because you bought your house on the wrong day.
this is the most efficient possible economic system you god damned commie
The economy is economing.
What spell is this
Cone of ggplot
why does the first look like it was done in msPaint?
The number of poorly designed graphs, charts, and data visualizations I’ve seen from economists and/or their mouthpieces…
Literally MS Paint is a new one though.
new york
timescrimes not using emf like god intended
Per NYT:
Mr. Bukele, in a social media post, even crowed that “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture,’” was “now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” But according to a person familiar with the situation, a Bukele aide placed the two glasses with cherries and salted rims on the table in front of Mr. Van Hollen and Mr. Abrego Garcia in the middle of their meeting in an attempt to stage the photo.
Staged photo:
Official photo from Senator Chris Van Hollen’s office:
Fucking fascist dorks.
Trump is Kamala-ing JD!
Hamas statement regarding the passing of Pope Francis:
The Islamic Resistance Movement extends its deepest condolences and sincere sympathy to the Catholic Church worldwide and to all Christians on the passing of His Holiness Pope Francis, Pope of the Vatican, who passed away after a distinguished career in the service of human and religious values.
The late Pope Francis was a noted advocate of interfaith dialogue, calling for understanding and peace among peoples, and rejecting hatred and racism. On more than one occasion, he expressed his rejection of aggression and wars in the world, and was one of the prominent religious voices to condemn the war crimes and genocide being perpetrated against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.
While we, in the Islamic Resistance Movement movement, value his moral and humanitarian stances, we emphasize the importance of continuing the joint efforts between the bearers of divine messages and people of living consciences to confront injustice and colonialism, and to support the causes of justice, freedom, and the rights of oppressed peoples.
US lapdog submits to its master:
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/Economy/south-korea--will-not-fight-back--against-trump-tariffs--actFollowing Yoon Suk Yeol’s removal from office this month by the country’s constitutional court, Han Duck-soo, a technocrat serving as acting president, highlighted that “the role of the US was huge in making Korea what it is now.”
So Van Hollen met with Kilmar in El Salvador and Kilmar just had to go back to jail afterwards? Weren’t they outside at a restaurant?
How long until libs say Bukele is evil because he is of Palestinian descent? Biden had all the chance in the world to remove Bukele from power, but nah, he was too busy attacking Nicaragua for no reason.
Russia’s Putin declares unilateral Easter ceasefire in Ukraine, 19 April 2025 - Reuters
Before anyone gets too excited, this unilateral Russian ceasefire is just for this Easter Saturday evening and Sunday, starting at 15:00 UTC today 19 April (almost two hours ago), and ending on Sunday at midnight Moscow time, presumably 21:00 UTC 20 April. So just for Easter, a 30 hour unilateral ceasefire. It’s unknown how Ukraine will respond to this action, if they will continue attacking or also cease fire. There was also a large prisoner of war exchange today, at at 1:1 ratio of 246 prisoners between Russia and Ukraine.
The idea of an Easter ceasefire was first discussed in the leaked 100 day peace plan for Ukraine discussed and linked here, so it’s very interesting that at least Russia is publicly committing to this idea of an Easter ceasefire.
We have fed posting, but what about AI powered fed posting?
This ‘College Protester’ Isn’t Real. It’s an AI-Powered Undercover Bot for Cops
https://www.wired.com/story/massive-blue-overwatch-ai-personas-police-suspects/
Ford stops car shipments to China from Michigan and Kentucky.
In April, ~80 cargo ships are “blank sailing” so far, while around 50 were at the height of Covid. So more cargo ships have either cancelled their scheduled travel entirely, or are at least skipping ports than at any point during Covid.
Trump did something to fuck with the student loan system, I completely forget what it was. Anyway, student loan defaults spiked 289%.
Honestly… The TPP probably might have been more effective at boxing out China than these tariffs. And trump got rid of that. Now hes trying to do the same thing with worse leverage
I think the notion that liberals are just better stewards of empire than the reactionaries always pans out. You can say that Obama and Biden’s ideological constraints meant that they never went far enough. Like with the CHIPS act becoming a money sinkhole instead of a proper industrial policy, mostly because the government was unwilling to make the long term investments in education or, worse, was even less willing tell companies not to blow all the subsidies into stock buybacks. But that was still a better plan than embargoing the whole world and collapsing your own state’s ability to finance itself. The TPP could have encircled China with markets where the US is the top rentier. Instead we have the East Asian trifect talking to each other about countering US policy.
Between March 18 and April 9, Israeli forces have struck housing and tents for internally displaced people (IDPs) on 224 occasions during 36 separate strikes, according to the UN rights office, OHCHR
Earlier on Friday [2025-04-11], Israeli authorities issued two new displacement orders “covering vast areas in northern and southern Gaza,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at the regular noon briefing in New York.
“Together, these areas span more than 24 square kilometres – roughly the size of everything south of Central Park here in Manhattan.”
UN News, 2025-04-11: “Gaza: UN rights office condemns Israeli buffer zone plan”
story
The UN human rights office said on Friday it fears that Israel may intend to permanently remove civilians in Gaza as part of an expanded buffer zone, amid evacuations orders and escalating bombardment.
Hostilities in the Gaza Strip resumed mid-March following the collapse of the ceasefire and Israel’s border closure.
As it enters its sixth week, the denial of aid into the enclave has left more than 2.1 million Gazans trapped without access to food, drinking water, and basic services.
Israel in recent weeks has ramped up its attacks on civilian infrastructure such as residential buildings and camps, leaving many more dead or missing under the rubble.
Between March 18 and April 9, Israeli forces have struck housing and tents for internally displaced people (IDPs) on 224 occasions during 36 separate strikes, according to the UN rights office, OHCHR.
Vast new exclusion zones
Earlier on Friday, Israeli authorities issued two new displacement orders “covering vast areas in northern and southern Gaza,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said at the regular noon briefing in New York.
“Together, these areas span more than 24 square kilometres – roughly the size of everything south of Central Park here in Manhattan.”
Some medical facilities and storage sites containing critical supplies are located within the newly designated zones, prompting aid coordination office OCHA to warn that this could have life-threatening consequences for people in urgent need of care.
“This leaves Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza’s area to live in – and that remaining space is fragmented, it’s unsafe and it’s barely livable following 18 months of hostilities.”
‘Forcible transfer’
OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani also highlighted the growing trend in attacks against media workers, reporting that at least 209 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the deadly Hamas-led terror attacks of October 2023, as Israel continues to deny international media entry into the Strip.
The OHCHR spokesperson acknowledged that the temporary evacuation of civilians in certain areas can be legal, under strict conditions.
But "the nature and scope of the evacuation orders raises serious concerns that Israel intends permanently to remove the civilian population from these areas in order to create a so-called buffer zone”, she said.
“Permanently displacing the civilian population within occupied territory amounts to forcible transfer, which is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention and a crime against humanity.”
War crimes
Combatants need to demonstrate compliance with the rules of war, particularly the principles of distinction – meaning defenceless civilians should not be targeted – as well as proportionality and precaution.
“Intentionally directing attacks against civilians not taking a direct part in hostilities constitutes a war crime, further compounding the desperate conditions for Palestinian civilians,” Ms. Shamdasani said.
OHCHR has also repeatedly warned that collective punishment and the use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war, constitute crimes under international law.
Ms. Shamdasani also stressed that her office was “seriously concerned that Israel appears to be inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza, conditions of life increasingly incompatible with their continued existence as a group”.
Supplies pile up
With stocks of drugs sharply declining, medicines and other essential supplies have been piling up at the shuttered border crossings.
Almost 36 million tons of supplies in Dubai are on standby for entry into the enclave, according to Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization Representative (WHO) for the West Bank and Gaza.
Medical evacuations for patients in need of urgent treatment have slowed significantly. Likewise, the number of international emergency medical teams deployed has dropped, depriving hospitals of the help they crucially need, “because the caseload is immense”, Dr. Peeperkorn stressed.
“We urgently call for the immediate resumption of medical evacuation through all possible routes, particularly restoring the medical referral pathway to the West Bank and Jerusalem.”
