Global Politics by Mob Rule: Trump's Worldview Mirrors a Mafia Don, Say Observers
From Ukraine to Cambodia, U.S. Tariffs Unleash Worldwide Economic Strain
China has responded to Donald Trump’s 34% “reciprocal” tariff last week by announcing it will slap an identical rate on all US goods, along with more sanctions on American companies and curbs on exports of rare earth minerals. And after Trump threatened an additional 50% duty if Trump does not immediately withdraw its retaliation, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it is willing to fight “to the end.” - Nikkei Asia
Elsewhere in Asia, the Indonesia Stock Exchange composite index tumbled almost 10% on Tuesday morning - reflecting growing fears of the effects of the sweeping new U.S. tariffs as trading resumed after the Eid holidays. The rupiah fell to an all time low.
European markets open higher and major Asian markets make gains following days of losses in the wake of Donald Trump's tariffs. The UK's FTSE 100 opens 1% up, with France's Cac 40 index up 1.8% and Germany's Dax opening 1.3% higher - BBC
The Financial Time’s Gideon Rachman writes that “the tariff war that Trump has unleashed is revealing the weakness of the mafia boss approach to the world economy.” He adds that the US president discovers that it is easier to shake down a law firm than to reshape the international trading system
Shorter contracts with fewer protections, job losses, or resigning to look for work overseas. These are the bleak choices Cambodian factory workers and their union representatives say hundreds of thousands of people will face if the 49% tariff Donald Trump announced last week is not dramatically cut. People involved in the garment sector, which make up about a third of Cambodia’s exports to the U.S., said the impact would not be immediate because brands typically place orders six to 12 months in advance. But they added that if production does move, Cambodian factories and workers would be devastated - Nikkei Asia
In this brief video, I break down what happened today in Asia in response to the Trump tariff blitz…
The US Supreme Court ruled on Monday night that the Trump administration could continue to deport Venezuelan migrants using a wartime powers act for now, overturning a lower court that had put a temporary stop to the deportations. The decision marks a victory for the Trump administration, although the ruling did not address the constitutionality of using the Alien Enemies Act to send the migrants to a prison in El Salvador. The justices instead issued a narrow procedural ruling, saying that the migrants’ lawyers had filed their lawsuit in the wrong court. All nine justices agreed that the Venezuelan migrants detained in the United States must receive advance notice and the opportunity to challenge their deportation before they could be removed, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh wrote in a concurrence. The justices ordered that the Venezuelan migrants must be told that they were subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act “within a reasonable time” for them to challenge their removal before they are deported. That finding could impose significant new restrictions on how the Trump administration might attempt to use the act in the future - NYT
Another week of military planning and diplomacy will again underline the divisions between Washington and its European allies over policy on Ukraine, with two key meetings on successive days at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The United States will be absent from the first and also looks set to play no major role in the second, as European countries seek to forge ahead with their own plans. The first gathering on April 10 will bring together Defense Ministers from the so-called coalition of the willing , which also includes non-European countries such as Canada and Australia. The 30-nation group formed in early March following an explosive bust-up between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House. Among its chief goals is the creation of a military force to deploy to Ukraine following a cease-fire or peace deal. A big problem for creating the force is that many nations, including Britain, have said that it would only be possible with a "US backstop," meaning air support, logistics, and intelligence. So far, there's been no clear signal from the United States that it's ready to help - RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly acknowledged for the first time that his troops are active in Russia's Belgorod region. “We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas on enemy territory, and that is absolutely just - war must return to where it came from," he said on Monday. His comments also referred to Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine still holds a small area after a major offensive last year. Moscow has since retaken most of the territory. Zelensky said "the main objective" was to protect Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv border regions, and to "ease the pressure" on other parts of the vast front line, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region. Russia's military had last month reported Ukrainian attempts to cross over into the Belgorod region - but said such attacks had been rebuffed - BBC
Israeli forces continue bombarding Gaza, killing six Palestinians in a raid on the northern city of Beit Lahiya, a day after killing at least 60 in attacks across the enclave. Ahmed Mansour, a journalist who suffered severe burns in Monday’s Israeli attack on a media tent near Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, has died of his wounds, taking the toll from that assault to at least three. Separately, in an Oval Office meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump again pitched his idea to redevelop the “incredible piece of important real estate” that is the Gaza Strip into what he termed a “freedom zone”. Netanyahu then denied that Israel is the one keeping Palestinians “locked in” the besieged enclave. The leaders of Egypt, France and Jordan have rejected any displacement of Palestinians from their land and say the Palestinian Authority must govern post-war Gaza - Al Jazeera
Microsoft has fired two employees who interrupted the company’s 50th anniversary celebration to protest its work supplying artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli military, according to a group representing the workers. Microsoft accused one of the workers in a termination letter Monday of misconduct “designed to gain notoriety and cause maximum disruption to this highly anticipated event.” Microsoft says the other worker had already announced her resignation, but on Monday it ordered her to leave five days early. The protests began Friday when Microsoft software engineer Ibtihal Aboussad walked up toward a stage where an executive was announcing new product features and a long-term vision for Microsoft’s AI ambitions. “You claim that you care about using AI for good but Microsoft sells AI weapons to the Israeli military,” Aboussad shouted at Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman. “Fifty-thousand people have died and Microsoft powers this genocide in our region.” An investigation by The Associated Press revealed earlier this year that AI models from Microsoft and OpenAI had been used as part of an Israeli military program to select bombing targets during the recent wars in Gaza and Lebanon. The story also contained details of an errant Israeli airstrike in 2023 that struck a vehicle carrying members of a Lebanese family, killing three young girls and their grandmother - AP
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