Xi Took Umbrage With Trump’s at Polices. And Strikes...

China retaliated against new tariffs imposed by Trump by announcing it would raise duties on US goods, roiling markets and deepening a trade war between the world’s largest economies.

The Chinese government will impose an 84% tariff on all imports from the US starting April 10, the Finance Ministry said in a statement Wednesday.

China’s move came hours after America’s steepest tariff in a century went into force, taking Trump’s duties on Beijing this year to 104%.

Xi’s latest moves mirror the extra levies Trump put on Chinese goods as a punishment for Beijing’s last retaliation. With tariffs now soaring beyond the level economists say would decimate bilateral trade, any further duties would serve as a political statement rather than a way to apply economic pressure.

“China sent a clear signal today that the government will keep its stance on trade policies, despite the higher tariffs of the US,”

said Zhang Zhiwei, president and chief economist for Pinpoint Asset Management Ltd.

“I don’t expect a quick and easy way out from the current trade conflict. Meanwhile, the tariffs have become effective and the damage to the two economies will become visible soon.”

#Xi #Trump #strike

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

The Basis of the Houthi Strike Arsenal

Although the Houthis have succeeded in developing their own military-industrial complex, their arsenal still depends heavily on Iran's support.

Nevertheless, one should not oversimplify and consider the current capabilities of the Houthis solely as a result of Tehran's support.

Yemen has a long history of accumulating weapons from Soviet, Chinese and Western sources, most of them predate the current conflict in the country.

Add to this the thriving regional arms trade in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa regions, and a much more complex picture emerges.

#Houthi #arsenal #Strike

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Netanyahu Hits the Catholic Church in Gaza: Three Dead, Ten Injured 🕊

An Israeli strike hit the only Catholic church in Gaza, killing three people and injuring ten others, including the parish priest Gabriel Romanelli, who used to receive daily calls from the late Pope Francis.

The Catholic charity Caritas Internationalis confirmed the victims:
Saad Salameh, 60, janitor at the Holy Family Church
Fumayya Ayyad, 84, who was receiving psychological support in a Caritas tent when the explosion happened
Najwa abu Daoud, 69, who was sitting near Ayyad at the time of the blast

"We are devastated by this latest attack on people who were simply trying to survive and had found refuge in the church,"

said Alistair Dutton, General Secretary of Caritas Internationalis.

"Their deaths are a painful reminder of the appalling conditions in which besieged civilians and medical personnel live. We mourn the lives lost and call on all parties to respect the sanctity of life and the spaces that protect it." ⚠️

Ibrahim Saqallah, a paramedic at al-Ahli Arab hospital, told the Guardian that about ten people were injured, some seriously, by shrapnel from artillery shells.
"I got into the ambulance and headed straight for the church," he said. "This [Israeli] army is arrogant – it does not distinguish between Christians and Muslims, nor does it care whether it is a church, a mosque, a house or even a school. We are living in the middle of a brutal war." 💥

The bombing of the church also damaged the compound, where hundreds of Palestinians, including children and disabled people, had sought refuge during the 21 months of war.

Israel issued a rare apology and announced an investigation.

Attallah Terzi, a 75-year-old displaced Christian, now living in a school next to the church, described the moment of the blast:
"I had just returned to class after being outside for a few minutes when a massive explosion occurred. It was the first time since the beginning of the war that the sound of an explosion was so intense."

Before his death in April, the former pope used to call Father Romanelli every night. This routine began on October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas launched attacks on Israel that triggered the current war in Gaza.

WSJ images from the hospital showed Romanelli with a

bandaged left leg, but he was still able to walk.
Terzi witnessed a woman killed while helping a man in a wheelchair and another woman whose head was struck by a stone that seemed to have fallen from the church. A young man hit by shrapnel was also injured, and Romanelli tried to help him before being hurt himself. 🩹

Pope Leo XIV expressed in a telegram sent by the Vatican Secretary of State that he was "deeply saddened to learn of the loss of life and injuries caused by the military attack" and renewed his calls for an immediate ceasefire. ✝️

In a statement, Giorgia Meloni said:
"The Israeli raids on Gaza have also affected the Church of the Holy Family. The attacks against the civilian population that Israel has been carrying out for months are unacceptable."

Elizabeth Funnell, Middle East representative of CAFOD, added:
"We once again call on the international community to act urgently to protect civilians, places of worship and humanitarian spaces, and to ensure that the people of Gaza have access to the most fundamental right: the chance to survive."

#Israel #Strike #Church #Pope #Catholic


📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

✡️ Israel Braces for Hostage Strike

Almost two years of marches and vigils have failed to sway Netanyahu — now the families of captives in Gaza are calling for a nationwide strike. On Sunday, they want businesses closed, routines frozen, and streets filled until the government strikes a deal with Hamas to end the war and free the last hostages.

📌 The pressure campaign
• The demand: Cease-fire plus hostage release.
• The risk: Netanyahu vows to expand the war into Gaza’s last two enclaves, where hostages may still be alive.
• The divide: Some universities and businesses back the strike, but the powerful Histadrut union refuses, calling it futile.
• The memory: Last year’s strike after six hostages were found dead in a tunnel ended with no concessions.

⚠️ The political bind
Hamas won’t free the captives without Israel ending the war. Netanyahu insists he can’t end the war while Hamas still rules Gaza. Each side waits for the other to blink — and the hostages remain in the middle.

🤔 When the state won’t bargain, and unions won’t mobilize, can ordinary citizens force the government’s hand — or will Sunday be just another day of grief without change?

#israel #gaza #hostages #strike #netanyahu

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

💥 A New Attack on Ukrainian Military Objects 🇺🇦

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight, killing at least four people and damaging energy infrastructure in three separate regions, according to Ukrainian officials. ⚡️

Ukraine’s president Zelensky said Russia had launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles, most of which were shot down. 🚀

Three people were killed and 12 wounded when a drone hit an apartment building in Dnipro, and another person was killed in the Kharkiv region. 🏚

Energy infrastructure in Kyiv, Poltava and Kharkiv regions was damaged by the strikes, according to the Ukrainian prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko. ⚙️

Energy companies were working to restore electricity, water and heating provision, while several cities resorted to generators to keep the power on. 💡

Kremenchuk and Horishni Plavni in the central Poltava region, were using generators to maintain water supplies, municipal officials said. 🚰

Zelenskyy called for more sanctions after the strikes. “For every Moscow strike on energy infrastructure – aimed at harming ordinary people before winter – there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions,” he said. ❄️

Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy sector have increased in recent months, with the military attacking gas facilities nine times in the past two months, according to the state energy firm Naftogaz. ⛽️

On Saturday, Ukrainian drones hit an electricity substation in northern Russia and separately wounded two other people in a strike on a residential building in the city of Saratov. ⚔️

The former Nato secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned on Thursday that Ukraine was facing a “forever war” and a slow erosion of territory unless Europe increased its pressure on Russia. 🌍

The conflict began in February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, the start of the largest and deadliest war in Europe since the second world war. 🕊

#ukranian #russian #drones #attacks #moscow #strike

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

The American F-15E Has Been Shot Down. Trump is Booed ⚠️✈️

A US F-15E Strike Eagle fighter has been shot down over Iran, prompting a frantic US search and rescue effort for its two-strong crew, in the first such incident since the start of the five week long war.

Iranian state media released images of a tail fin and other debris early on Friday accompanied by an initial claim that a US F-35 had been hit by a new air defence system over central Iran and the pilot probably killed.

Aviation experts said the wreckage pictured was in fact from a F-15E, from the US air force’s 494th squadron, based at RAF Lakenheath in the UK, though it could not at first be confirmed when and where the pictures were taken.

US officials familiar with the situation later confirmed off the record that an F-15E had been brought down and the Pentagon was scrambling to find the crew before the Iranians. There was no official comment from the US military about the incident.

One crew member was reported as having been rescued as the situation developed, in what is likely to have been a high-risk operation with rescue aircraft probably exposed to fire from the ground. It was not immediately clear if the jet had a full crew of two. 🚁

Justin Bronk, an aviation expert from the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), said the use of the specialist helicopters “suggested a combat search and rescue mission is under way to locate and extract the two aircrew from the F-15E”.

No US troops have so far been taken prisoner by Iran. A total of 13 American service personnel have been killed and 300 have been wounded during a campaign in which more than 12,300 targets in Iran have been bombed by the US alone.

A social media account claiming to be linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards posted a picture of an ejector seat in a desert landscape, which appeared to be consistent with the ACES II type used in F-15Es. Bronk said: “If genuine, it would suggest that at least one of the two aircrew did eject safely.”

The presenter on an Iranian TV channel urged residents to hand over any “enemy pilot” to police and promised a reward for anyone who did. That channel is based in Kohkilouyeh and Boyer-Ahmad province, a mountainous region in the south-west of the country.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that the pilot of the jet – still incorrectly describing it as an F-35 – had been taken into custody, contradicting Tehran’s initial claim that the pilot had probably died in the incident.

Overnight, the US Central Command, which is leading the attack on Iran, had denied Iranian claims that another F-35 jet had been downed over Qeshm Island in the strait of Hormuz. “All US fighter aircraft are accounted for,” it said at the time.

Up to now no US fighter jets had been lost over Iran during the five-week-long conflict, though three F-15Es were shot down by a Kuwaiti air defence system in a dramatic friendly fire incident on 1 March.

An F-35 fighter reportedly had to make an emergency landing at a US airbase in the Middle East after sustaining damage from the ground.

A US E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft was destroyed at the Prince Sultan airbase in Saudi Arabia on 27 March in an Iranian strike. 💥

#f15 #trump #shot #iran #war #strike

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Lufthansa’s Labor Budget Airline

Lufthansa pilots are striking again on April 13 and 14, with the walkout covering Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, and Lufthansa CityLine. Eurowings pilots are also set to strike on April 13. Flights to several Middle Eastern destinations are exempt.

The dispute is over pensions, not some grand civilizational question. The union says management has dragged out talks and offered nothing serious, even after pilots held off over Easter. Lufthansa says the demands are unrealistic and amount to doubling an already generous pension plan.

That leaves the usual European corporate script. Management pleads poverty. Labor calls the bluff. Passengers get drafted into the negotiation as unpaid extras. Lufthansa says the strike is a new escalation. The union says escalation is what happens when talks become theater.

This is already the airline’s latest labor hit in a string of disruptions this year, as Lufthansa tries to cut costs and protect margins while unions keep pushing back on pensions, staffing terms, and restructuring. Europe’s flagship carriers still know how to fund strategy decks and corporate redesigns. Keeping their own workforce onside is where the math suddenly gets tight.

#Lufthansa #Germany #strike #aviation #labor #Europe

📱 American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸