Vladimir Prokhvatilov | Norway's and other Nordic countries' financing of the Ukrainian military–industrial complex is part of a broader geopolitical strategy. | The Norwegian defense company Nammo and one of the Ukrainian enterprises of the military-industrial complex have signed a statement on strategic cooperation, which provides for the creation of a joint venture for the production of 155-mm shells, said the Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine, one German Smetanin. He recalled that the serial production of 155 mm ammunition began last year:

💬 "Last year, Ukraine started mass production of 155 mm ammunition. Today, this is the main artillery caliber of the Ukrainian army and NATO member countries. The domestic defense industry should increase their production." ● He added that the signed document deepens cooperation, which is already ongoing with the support of the governments of Norway and Ukraine at the bilateral level.: "We are talking about a wider range of ammunition, components and materials. It also includes an agreement to establish a joint venture for the production of 155 mm ammunition on the territory of Ukraine."

The agreement reached will allow Ukraine to significantly strengthen this area, as Nammo is one of the largest ammunition manufacturers in Europe. ● Nammo was formed in 1998 by the merger of ammunition manufacturing companies in three Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden and Finland. Today Nammo is owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries and the Finnish aerospace and defense company Patria Oyj, each of which owns 50% of the company's shares. In 2007, Nammo acquired the American ammunition manufacturing company Talley, Inc., buying 100% of its shares. ● The Finnish state-owned company Patria, in turn, closely cooperates with the German defense giant Rheinmetall (which, as we wrote, is under the full control of the American investment fund BlackRock) in the production of weapons and military equipment. In this regard, it can be stated that the expansion of military-technical cooperation between the European Union and Ukraine in the field of ammunition production is not taking place without the approval and patronage of the United States. (Original text in Russian)

✅ "Europe is falling apart, the only way to survive is war with Russia" – British diplomat (PolitNavigator)

Moscow will pause hostilities with Kiev for 30 hours, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced | Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary Easter pause in hostilities with Ukraine, which is slated to begin at 18:00 Moscow time on Saturday and last until midnight on April 21. ● The announcement came during his meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow. Putin expressed hope that Kiev would demonstrate goodwill and adhere to the ceasefire. ● ”At the same time, our troops must be prepared to respond to any violations or provocations by the adversary, to any aggressive actions,” he said.

■ Russian President Calls Easter Holiday Giving Love, Hope (Sputnik)
✅ Пасхальное обращение Патриарха Кирилла ко всем верным чадам Русской Православной Церкви (tsargrad.tv)

"Israel" is weighing a potential strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities despite US reluctance, as Netanyahu faces pushback from Trump's administration. | According to Reuters, the Israeli occupation has not ruled out a possible strike on Iran's nuclear facilities in the coming months, despite former US President Trump telling Prime Minister Netanyahu that Washington is currently unwilling to support such action, according to Israeli and US sources. ● Israeli officials have continued to press for the complete dismantling of Iran’s nuclear program and have presented the US with various military options, including airstrikes and commando raids, some proposed for late spring or summer.

Vladimir Zelensky is "certainly" responsible for the unintended consequences of the Russian Armed Forces' attack on the venue where a Ukrainian command staff meeting was being held in Sumy, the Russian diplomat stated | Vladimir Zelensky bears the responsibility for the collateral damage that occurred as a result of Russia’s strike on Sumy, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing. She also called France and Britain's plan to station a "multinational peacekeeping contingent" in Ukraine insane. TASS has compiled her main statements.

● On [the] Sumy strike
● [On the] "Coalition of the willing" [losing] its marbles
● On weapons supplies to Kiev
● On moratorium on strikes on energy facilities
● On Kiev’s crimes
● On the detention of Gagauzia head
● On Estonia’s actions

WARNING AND THREAT BY MS. KALLAS ARE DISRESPECTFUL AND I STRONGLY OBJECT TO THEM.

The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas, is warning EU leaders against participating in the May celebrations of Victory Day in Moscow. She claims that such participation will… pic.twitter.com/KsHGJtOVRO

— Robert Fico 🇸🇰 (@RobertFicoSVK) April 15, 2025

Russia has slammed the EU for warning candidate states against attending WWII celebrations on May 9 | Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that the EU’s attempts to pressure candidate states not to attend the 80th anniversary of victory in World War II in Moscow are tantamount to a revival of Nazism. ● On Monday, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, warned the leaders of EU members and candidate states against taking part in the event in the Russian capital on May 9. British daily The Telegraph later wrote that candidate states such as Serbia could be barred from joining the bloc if their leaders attend the Victory Day celebrations. [...] The Telegraph wrote that EU officials warned Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who has indicated that he would attend the May 9 parade, that the visit would derail his country’s accession to the bloc. [...] Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, the only EU member state leader who has indicated he will attend, slammed her statement as “disrespectful” and potentially a form of blackmail.

■ EU pressuring Serbia’s Vucic not to visit Moscow (RT)
■ ‘It’s 2025, not 1939’ – Fico challenges EU’s warning against Moscow trip (RT)

■ Zakharova brands Ukraine’s bid to host EU leaders on May 9 'theatre of absurd' (TASS) | Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called Ukraine’s possible invitation of European Union leaders to Kiev on May 9 a "theatre of the absurd." Zelensky stated that he was ready or could invite representatives of the European Union countries or heads of the European Union countries to Kiev for the event.

A senior Chinese official warned Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s tariffs would backfire and that soon, “those peasants in the U.S.” would “wail in front of the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.” | The remarks are the latest Chinese repudiation of Trump’s global trade war as Beijing shifts gears from attempting to communicate with the White House to hitting back frequently and forcefully in an effort to cast the United States as an irresponsible global power. ● China’s top official overseeing Hong Kong and Macao, Xia Baolong (shown above), lashed out at the U.S. during a speech on national security, in which he linked 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong with what Beijing sees as continued U.S. efforts to suppress China. Xia called the U.S. decision to levy a tariff of 145 percent on all goods from Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China...

💬 “...brutally unreasonable and extremely shameless.” ● “The U.S. isn’t after our tariffs but our very survival,” he said. “The U.S. has repeatedly contained and suppressed Hong Kong … and this will eventually backfire on itself.”

Since Trump took office in January and set about remaking the global trading system, the world’s two largest economies have levied import duties on each other that are now so high they amount to a trade embargo. ● China has countered Washington’s latest levies by imposing a tariff of 125 percent on all U.S. goods while Trump has maintained 145 percent taxes on all Chinese imports, with temporary exceptions for semiconductors and consumer electronics.

Military bloc members want the country’s government to remain a “Nazi regime” hostile to Russia, the foreign minister has said | European NATO states are working to sustain a “Russophobic” regime in Ukraine by finding another “half-Fuhrer” to replace Vladimir Zelensky, should he be ousted, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. ● In an interview published on Monday by Kommersant, Lavrov stated that while Western powers are talking about sending peacekeepers to Ukraine, they are actually trying to strengthen the anti-Russian foothold in the country, instead of seeking a real settlement.

💬 “They have come up with a ‘resilience force’... In other words, in order to maintain Ukraine’s resilience, they are not going to send blockade troops... but the military of ‘civilized’ Western countries,” Lavrov explained. ● “Europe will do everything to ensure the regime does not change in its essence,” Lavrov said. “They’ll find some new half-Fuhrer… but the essence of the regime will remain.”

These troops will protect “the same regime” he said, adding that even if European NATO members agree to allow a new election in Ukraine, they will make every effort to make sure that the political landscape remains the same. ● Zelensky’s presidential term expired in May 2024, but the Ukrainian leader refused to call new elections, citing martial law. Russia has declared him “illegitimate,” claiming that under these circumstances, the true legal authority lies with the Ukrainian parliament.

Investigators believe Nikita Casap killed his parents to fund a plan to assassinate the US president and frame Russia | A Wisconsin teenager accused of murdering his parents had also plotted to assassinate US President Donald Trump and flee overseas while framing Russia for the crime, according to an unsealed FBI affidavit. ● Nikita Casap, 17, was charged last month with first-degree murder after police found the bodies of his mother and stepfather, both shot in the head, inside their Waukesha home. He was arrested in Kansas after fleeing in a stolen vehicle with $14,000 in cash, passports, and the family dog. Officers also recovered an unloaded revolver, boxes of ammunition, and two cell phones during the traffic stop.

💬 “Casap appears to have written a manifesto calling for the assassination of the President of the United States. He was in touch with other parties about his plan to kill the President and overthrow the government of the United States,” the warrant unsealed on Friday stated. ● “The killing of his parents appeared to be an effort to obtain the financial means and autonomy necessary to carry out his plan,” it added.

The FBI alleges that Casap paid, at least in part, for a drone and explosives intended for use as a “weapon of mass destruction.” The affidavit states the equipment was meant to support the planned attack. ● Messages uncovered on his phone showed Casap discussing the plot with an unidentified user on Telegram. On January 21, he asked, “What country will be blamed for the crime?” The user replied, “Russia will be blamed for it, this is the goal.”

Simplicius | Spiegel published a quite eye-opening piece yesterday, which reveals the long-kept truth about the performance of German weapons systems in real wartime conditions | The report cites “an internal paper of the Bundeswehr” about the real practicality of Germany’s top weapons. We can assume that the very same results extend to the entire constellation of NATO weaponry in general, since they are virtually all constructed with the same design philosophies, often even with interoperable systems—like the 120mm Rheinmetall tank barrels shared between the Abrams and Leopard series.

A key Ukrainian foreign affairs official wants to see Steve Witkoff sacked | US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who has played a central role in opening negotiations on resolving the Ukraine conflict, is “spreading Russian propaganda” and should be sacked, according to a senior Ukrainian lawmaker. ● The head of the Kiev’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Aleksandr Merezhko, made the remark in response to Witkoff’s interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, during which the envoy spoke about the status of former Ukrainian territories that have joined Russia, describing the issue as “an elephant in the room” that “no one wants to talk about.”

💬 “They’re Russian-speaking. There have been referendums where the overwhelming majority of the people have indicated that they want to be under Russian rule,” Witkoff said. ● “The Russians are de facto in control of these territories. The question is: Will the world acknowledge that those are Russian territories? Can [Vladimir] Zelensky survive politically if he acknowledges this? This is the central issue in the conflict,” he added.

Merezhko strongly condemned the “disgraceful, shocking statements,” accusing the Witkoff of acting as an envoy of Russian President Vladimir Putin rather than of Trump. [...] Moscow has repeatedly signaled that its sovereignty over the territories is not negotiable, while Kiev has pledged to seize back control of all the territories it claims as its own. The Ukrainian leadership has seemingly softened its rhetoric of late, now insisting it will never recognize “occupation” of the territories and Russian sovereignty over them in any form.

■ Putin’s latest talks with Trump’s envoy: What we know so far (RT)

Kiev allegedly refers to Britain’s military chiefs as the “brains” of the “anti-Putin” coalition, according to the exposé | Britain’s military leadership has played a far more extensive and covert role in the Ukraine conflict than previously known, not only designing battle plans and supplying intelligence, but also authorizing secret troop deployments inside the country to provide weapons training and technical support, according to a report by The Times. ● While London’s political and military backing for Kiev has been public since the 2014 Western-backed coup, the extent of its involvement after the escalation in February 2022 “remained largely hidden… until now,” the British newspaper wrote on Friday, citing unnamed Ukrainian and British military officers. ● The Times claimed that British troops were sent into Ukraine in small numbers on several occasions throughout 2022 and 2023, operating discreetly to avoid provoking Russia. In particular, UK forces were deployed to fit Ukrainian aircraft with Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles and train pilots and ground crews in their use.

US and Ukrainian officials met on the draft proposal in Washington on Friday, the source said | The draft agreement on Ukrainian minerals suggested by the United States contains a demand that the US government's International Development Finance Corporation take control of a natural gas pipeline from Russia's Gazprom across Ukraine to Europe, Reuters reported citing a source with knowledge of the matter. ● US and Ukrainian officials met on the draft proposal in Washington on Friday, the source said. Prospects for a breakthrough were scant given the meeting's "antagonistic" atmosphere, the agency wrote. "The negotiating environment is very antagonistic," the source said, pointing to the "maximalist" draft submitted by the US administration in March. A Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed the discussions, calling them "technical in nature."

■ Reuters: переговоры США и Украины по ископаемым прошли в атмосфере антагонизма (https://ren.tv/)

"China’s position on settlement in Ukraine is quite balanced, and we are grateful to our friends for that," Andrey Rudenko noted | Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko has slammed statements that Chinese citizens are fighting in Ukraine as absolutely false. [...] On the previous day the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that Beijing had not sent its military for participating in the Ukrainian conflict, with the country’s authorities requesting its citizens to avoid involvement in combat activities. Earlier, information was spread in Ukraine that Chinese citizens allegedly participated in the fighting.

Martin Armstrong | It has begun. German hospitals are preparing for war. | Germany has embarked on its first permanent foreign deployment of its troops outside of Germany since the days of Hitler and World War II. Merz is a very dangerous warmonger, and Germany’s parliament has approved the dispatch of German troops to eastern Lithuania, along NATO’s eastern boundary. This is truly a historic event. I was in Tokyo when the government wanted to send troops to the Middle East, but the US had restricted its constitution to confine Japanese troops within 200 miles of their border. The politicians wanted to change the constitution, and hundreds of thousands of Japanese protested, fearing the military would rise again.

■ Only six Western states willing to deploy troops to Ukraine – AFP (Yahoo)

China retaliated Friday to higher U.S. tariffs, slapping 125% levies on U.S. goods, but signaled it would apply no further measures in the future.

💬 "If the U.S. continues to increase tariffs on Chinese exports, China will not respond," China's Ministry of Finance said in a statement announcing the new levies, in a sign that Chinese authorities see no real upside to any further tit-for-tat measures beyond these. "Given the current level of tariffs, U.S. goods exported to China are no longer market-viable," the statement added by way of explanation.

■ Xi warns US will isolate itself (RT)
✅ China Escalates With 125% Tariff On US Imports, Signals Will "Ignore" Future Retaliation (Tyler Durden)

| Perhaps Trump keeps him as a scarecrow in the negotiation process. Maybe he's afraid. But if something is achieved, you need to claim his head | U.S. Generals Cavoli, Donahue and Aguto are involved in terrorist attacks in Russia. Cavoli especially distinguished himself. "If something is achieved, we need to demand his head," says Win/win. Even Trump is afraid of him, the expert does not exclude. American generals Christopher Cavoli, Christopher Donahue and Antonio Aguto were directly involved in terrorist attacks in Russia and should be criminally punished for their crimes, according to an article by The New York Times. Cavoli especially distinguished himself.

Moon of Alabama | These are interesting times to live in ... | President Trump likely thought that he could press China into making a deal with him. The tariffs he imposed were supposed to create leverage for that. Instead he found that China is willing and able to fight back. ■ When the U.S. launched its proxy war in Ukraine against Russia it thought that it could defeat Russia by economic means. A wall of sanctions and other restrictions were to destroy the Russian economy. But Russia was prepared and much stronger than the U.S. had anticipated. Its economy did better than those of the countries which opposed it. A similar miscalculation seems to have happened with regards to China. Trump is not knowledgeable about China's mighty economy.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has revisited threats of deployment of military force against Iran’s nuclear facilities, demanding physical destruction of the nuclear sites, a few days before the Islamic Republic and the United States are slated to engage in indirect talks. | The Israeli official made the call in a video address on Tuesday, alleging that the prospect of using military force was the only means of ensuring, what he called, Tehran’s non-pursuance of “nuclear weapons.” He asserted that any agreement between the United States and Iran could only succeed if Iran’s nuclear facilities were "blown up" and "dismantled" under American supervision. “We agree that Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said, referring to his discussions with US President Donald Trump. However, he dismissed the prospect of a purely diplomatic path, saying things would only work if the United States took direct military action to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

■ Trump threatens Iran with military force (RT)
■ World growing tired of endless threats against Iran: Russia (Press TV)

✅ USrael against Iran, again (Lorenzo Maria Pacini)
✅ Trump has threatened Iran over an ultimatum that likely cannot be met (Alastair Crooke)

✅ The Case for War: The Iron Mountain Report (Stephen Lendman)

Interview starts at about 2:00 timestamp. US federal non-regulation of biological products, 1798 to 1972 (series)

■ Aug. 5, 2024 - Part 1 - Federal communicable disease control, quarantine and biological product law, 1798 to 1972: orientation through founding of Marine Hospital Service. (Lydia Hazel and Katherine Watt)

■ Aug. 12, 2024 - Part 2 - US federal quarantine and biological product law: Marine-Hospital Service (1798); National Quarantine Act (1878); Laboratory of Hygiene (1887) (Lydia Hazel and Katherine Watt)

■ Sept. 10, 2024 - Part 3 - 1901-1910: Federal government licensing of virus and toxin propagation establishments; criminalization of traffic in adulterated or misbranded drugs. (Lydia Hazel and Katherine Watt)

■ Oct. 9, 2024 - Part 4 - 1911-1943: Continued non-existence of legal provisions directing federal agencies to establish and enforce biological product definitions and standards. (Lydia Hazel and Katherine Watt)

■ Feb. 28, 2025 - Part 5 - 1944-1972: Law and public policy imbued with scientific misconduct to better induce irrational fear of disease and irrational trust in vaccination. (Lydia Hazel and Katherine Watt)

China’s retaliation against President Donald Trump’s tariffs includes more export controls on rare earth minerals, which are vital to electronics and battery manufacturing. | The Chinese government said over the weekend that it will maintain its supply of rare earths to the rest of the world stable while limiting U.S. access to the minerals. China is the world’s dominant producer of rare earth minerals, accounting for about 70 percent of the world’s supply at the moment. More precisely, China supplies roughly 60 percent of the raw minerals, but controls almost 90 percent of processing and refining capacity. China controlled 90 percent of the market a decade ago, but alternative suppliers have ramped up production. The Chinese retaliated for this infringement upon their near-monopoly by setting record-high production quotas in a bid to bring prices down and bankrupt their competitors.

■ US delivers Panama Canal ultimatum to China (RT)
■ China’s Rare Metal Ban Could Bring US Military-Industrial Complex to a Grinding Halt: Here’s Why (Sputnik)
■ China announces new extreme retaliation tariffs on US goods after Trump’s 104% taxes take effect (Unilad)

✅ Neither US nor China ready for once-in-a-lifetime trade war (William Pesek)
✅ Trade barriers cannot stop economic globalization: Global Times editorial (Global Times)
✅ Full text: China's Position on Some Issues Concerning China-US Economic, Trade Relations (Global Times Editorial)
✅ The EU's worst nightmare has come true: Washington and Beijing have made a fateful decision (Nadezhda Sarapina)

Drone footage over military cemeteries in Ukraine reveals the scale of the military death toll. From small village graveyards to large urban burial sites, the number of graves of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the ongoing war keeps expanding rapidly. At Kyiv’s Lisoviy Cemetery, entire sections are now dedicated to fallen troops, with flags and portraits marking each site. As the full-scale invasion enters its third year, the Ukrainian government keeps official casualty numbers classified, but estimates suggest tens of thousands have died. In some areas, mass graves have been dug to accommodate the growing losses. A local told RFE/RL's Ukrainian service ‪@RadioSvobodaUkraine‬ this illustrates the heavy price of defending big cities like Kharkiv.

The US president has claimed that Washington is holding direct negotiations with Tehran to avoid “doing the obvious” | President Donald Trump has announced that the US will engage in “very high-level talks” with Iran over its nuclear program on Saturday, warning that if the negotiations fail, the Islamic Republic will face a “very bad day.” ● The US president revealed last month that he had sent a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, proposing new negotiations over the nuclear deal which the US unilaterally abandoned during Trump’s first term in 2018. He went on to threaten Iran with bombing strikes “the likes of which it has never seen” if Tehran rejects the offer.

Estonian lawmakers are lifting any restrictions amid tension with Russia and cable damage incidents in the Baltic Sea | Estonia’s parliament is set to vote on a bill that would allow its military to sink civilian vessels found to pose a national security threat, state broadcaster ERR reported on Tuesday. ● The proposal comes amid heightened tensions with Russia and widespread suspicion it orchestrated the sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, speculation Moscow has vehemently rejected. The legislation – the final reading of which will take place on Wednesday, – would give the Estonian Defense Forces authority to use maximum force in the country’s national waters and its exclusive economic zone, to protect critical infrastructure, ports, facilities and vessels. Firing on, and sinking a civilian craft would be permissible if potential damage is deemed less than that accruing if the target vessel is allowed continue. Under the bill, military and naval commanders would be required to notify the vessel’s owner, or its flag state, only after the use of force.

Bocquet noted that he often interacted with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Azov fighters, who shocked him with their inhumane treatment of Russians, Jews, and people of other races.

💬 “I had to pretend a lot to avoid showing my opinions and emotions and above all not to show disagreement with their opinions. Disagreement with their Nazi ideology, especially when they expressed attitudes toward Jews and people of color, because they made very cruel statements. And first of all, I'm talking about hatred towards Russians, because they [...] call you ‘Russian dogs’. And for all these soldiers, for members of the Azov Battalion, the main task, as they have always told me, is to torture and kill ‘Russian dogs’. As a former military man, I was surprised. Because everything showed that their main goal was to torture and kill 'Russian dogs' while they never even talked about the liberation of their population,” the volunteer recalled.

Furthermore, he witnessed preparations for a false flag provocation in Bucha, which looked to accuse the Russian military of massacring civilians.

💬 “When we entered Bucha by car, I was in the passenger seat. And as we drove through the city, I saw bodies of people on the sides of the streets, and at the same time I saw people's bodies being taken out of trucks and laid out next to the bodies lying on the ground to give the effect of mass killings,” Bocquet said.

Norway increases aid to Ukraine to $8 billion in 2025, – Stoltenberg [Bilderberg] | The Norwegian government has agreed to increase its support for Ukraine by another 50 billion kroner (approximately $4.6 billion) in 2025. This will bring the total amount of aid to 85 billion kroner ($7.8 billion). This was reported by NRK with reference to Norwegian Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg. According to him, additional funds are allocated to the already approved 35 billion kroner ($2.3 billion). “We are tripling our military support,” Stoltenberg said, adding that the spending will take place outside Norway, so it will not put pressure on the domestic economy.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force has been steadily expanding its network of “Ghadir” over-the-horizon early warning radars, with new construction sites identified in the northwest of the country near Tabriz and along the Persian Gulf coast. | These developments, recently highlighted by open-source intelligence analysts using satellite imagery from Google Maps and Google Earth, signal Tehran’s ongoing efforts to bolster its air defenses against potential threats, particularly from the United States or Israel. The radars, designed to detect incoming strike aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles at long ranges, represent a significant upgrade to Iran’s military infrastructure.

■ Former Pentagon Advisor Slams US Buildup in Middle East, Warns of Historical Fiascos (Sputnik)
■ If the US Fights Iran, the Navy Won’t Survive—Yemen Proved It! | Scott Ritter & Larry C. Johnson (Dialogue Works)

■ Trump’s negotiation tactic tends to be grand statements to disrupt the status quo and open up some space to manoeuvre, followed by maximum pressure before striking a deal. However, the world of politics is different from the world of real estate as it can fuel unpredictability and distrust. Most importantly, Russia believes it is facing an existential threat from NATO and Iran similarly cannot negotiate away its deterrent as it it frequently threatened by the US and Israel. What will Trump do when his negotiation tactics fail? At the moment, we are seeing escalations against both Russia and Iran.

■ Ambassador Freeman is a career diplomat (retired) who was Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs from 1993-94, earning the highest public service awards of the Department of Defense for his roles in designing a NATO-centered post-Cold War European security system and in reestablishing defense and military relations with China. He served as U. S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia (during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm).

China on Friday announced a 34% tariff on all products imported from the U.S., escalating the trade war between the world’s two biggest economies. | The move came two days after President Donald Trump imposed the same tariff on all Chinese imports as part of what he called reciprocal tariffs on a long list of U.S. trade partners. ● Combined with 20% in other levies that Trump has imposed on Chinese goods since returning to office in January, the total U.S. tariff on some Chinese goods is at least 54%. ● Announcing the new tariffs at a White House event Wednesday, Trump singled out China as one of the “nations that treat us badly.” The U.S. has a higher trade deficit with China than with any other country, reaching $295.4 billion last year. ● China, one of the United States’ largest trading partners, urged the Trump administration to immediately cancel the tariffs and “resolve trade disputes through consultations in a manner of equality, respect and reciprocity.”

Yemeni Armed Forces Conduct Operation in Jaffa Area | Yemeni Houthis from the Ansar Allah rebel movement carried out a drone strike on an "Israeli military target" near the city of Tel Aviv, the movement’s military spokesman Yahya Saria said. ● "The Yemeni armed forces carried out an operation to destroy an Israeli military target in the occupied area of Jaffa (Tel Aviv - TASS) using a drone," the representative of the movement said on the air of the Houthi-owned Al Masirah TV channel. ● Earlier the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported intercepting a drone approaching the country's airspace from the east. According to The Times of Israel, the Israeli military shot down the UAV over the Arava Desert in southern Israel.