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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ckg23qpnnlxo At least 27 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in northern Gaza that was serving as a shelter for displaced families, the Hamas-run health ministry says. Dozens more were wounded when the Dar al-Arqam school in the north-eastern Tuffah district of Gaza City was hit, it cited a local hospital as saying. Gaza: Israeli strike on school kills 27, health ministry says - BBC News

Come on tbl, lighten up.

You can't always get what you want. A pro-MAGA outlet, The Quartering, spelt it out for its followers the day after Trump's sweeping new tariffs were announced. “You do NOT need the new iPad. You do NOT need the new Cell Phone. You do NOT need the new video game console. You WANT them. There is a big difference and if you look at the people whining about the tariffs, I challenge you to ask them how their lives have been affected in any way.” The Quartering had previously boasted that Trump’s new administration would usher in a “golden age” in America. Critics soon pounced: “Broke: America’s economy enters a golden age on Jan. 20 woke: you losers don’t need things,” Civil rights lawyer Joshua Erlich wrote on Bluesky. “Wasn’t WANTING the new iPad, Cell Phone, & video game console the whole reason you voted for Trump in the first case?” essayist and writer Sami Gold pointed out to his followers on X. 'Life comes at you fast': Pro-Trump outlet mocked as it flips on 'golden age' outlook

Musk is not only vile and odious but his stupid actions at DOGE has caused senseless worry to many federal employees. He just leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth, enough reason to avoid any products associated with him, or indeed with the US at present. For example, 30 medical-related employees, including more than 10 laboratory leaders, were laid off at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) this week after a coding error mislabelled employees with incorrect position codes. “NIH leadership has informed us that the individuals below should be contacted ASAP and told immediately return to work,” the HR email stated. Among reinstated employees are three senior scientists and staff in the Office of Research Training and Career Development, as well as people in the Office of the Scientific Director and facilities. One of the employees also included Richard Youle, who claimed a 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences after showing how clearing out damaged organelles discourages Parkinson’s disease. “I am infuriated at the inefficiency of the time wasted by staff running around having to respond to these events, heartbroken for the emotional cost for hardworking, dedicated civil servants and scientific trainees just starting their careers,” an anonymous NINDS employee told The Transmitter. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/infuriated-at-the-inefficiency-workers-mistakenly-fired-by-doge-error-hired-back/ar-AA1Cgbrv?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=EDGEXST&

Dazed and confused. While the White House’s top economic advisers insist that the administration’s massive new set of tariffs are non-negotiable, Trump’s made clear he’s not on the same page with his team. "The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have,” Trump told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One a day after his Rose Garden “Liberation Day” tariff announcement sunk the market to its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic. However: 1. “This is not a negotiation,” Trump adviser Peter Navarro said moments earlier in a CNN interview. 2. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said: “I don’t think there’s any chance Trump is going to back off his tariff.” What's going on? Uncertainty 3 different White House officials explicitly said today that the tariffs are not up for negotiation,” YouTube personality Amit Kukreja told his followers on X. “Now Trump says they are. Just more and more uncertainty that the market has no idea how to price in.” Tearing up current agreements “What's the point of negotiating with someone who already violated a bunch of trade agreements to impose tariffs?” Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, wrote on Bluesky. “They ALREADY negotiated. And then Trump just decided that didn't mean anything.” Constant Flip flopping Navarro: "Trump is going to stay tough…no negotiation on tariffs *one hour later* Trump: tariffs are negotiable.” X user David Dennison wrote. Trump, the master bluffer according to Maga Policy analyst James Medlock posted on Bluesky that the president’s defenders say, “Trump is just pretending to be crazy to get a good negotiating stance. Trump: This is not about negotiating. Defenders: Trump is just saying he's not negotiating, to get an even better negotiating stance.” ‘Deal or no deal?’ Critics pounce as Trump breaks with own aide immediately after TV spot

Experts say Trump's tariffs won't solve US carmakers' EU struggle Last year, Germany shipped nearly 450,000 cars to the US, while only 136,000 US cars were sold in Germany, according to Germany's auto industry association VDA. Before the introduction of the 25% tariff, the US had a mere 2.5% duty on cars from Europe, while the EU's rate for US vehicles is 10%. Industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer points to the size and fuel consumption of US vehicles as key obstacles, as fuel prices in Europe are significantly higher than in the US. Without smaller, more fuel-efficient models, Dudenhöffer believes US manufacturers will continue to struggle in Europe, regardless of tariff policies.

Everybody knows penguins are smuggling fentanyl from their base at the South Pole into the US, just look at the way they walk, they're plainly high as kites. Plus the disrespect they showed Trump and Vance in the Oval Office. Tie-less and constantly chatting between themselves.

CNN Business reporter Allison Morrow on Thursday took stock of Musk's three recent business and political failings: 1. His $20 million losing bet on the pro-Trump candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 2.Tesla's biggest sales drop ever, falling 13% in the first quarter, while its No. 1 rival grew revenue by 60% in the same time period. Musk has lost more than a quarter of his total net worth since January as Tesla shares have slumped. 3. Rumours swirling that Trump wants to sack Musk although the White House denies it. Morrow went on to say there was so far no sign of any business plan to regain customers. According to her, the sales drive with Trump on the South Lawn, combined with the Commerce secretary’s appealing to Americans to buy Tesla shares, fell flat; whilst the FBI threatening to prosecute Tesla vandals as domestic terrorists stretched the definition of terrorism beyond credibility according to legal experts. 'Parade of humiliation' has engulfed Elon Musk in just the last day: CNN Business reporter

It's not only Krugman ridiculing Trump's formula for tariffs. The maths is simple: take the U.S. goods trade deficit with a country, divide it by that country's exports to the U.S. and turn it into a percentage figure; then cut that figure in half to produce the U.S. "reciprocal" tariff, with a floor of 10%. That's how the volcanic Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic ended up with a 10% tariff. Madagascar, with a GDP per head of just over $500 p.a. faces a 47% tariff on the modest $733 million of exports of vanilla, metals and apparel that it did with the U.S. last year. "Presumably no one is buying Teslas there," John Denton, head of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), told Reuters, an ironic reference to the improbability of Madagascar being able to placate Trump by buying upmarket U.S. products. Madagascar is not alone: the bluntness of the formula as applied to economies which cannot afford to import much from the U.S. inevitably leads to a high reciprocal tally: 50% for Lesotho in Southern Africa, 49% for Cambodia in Southeast Asia. Richer countries are nonplussed too. For the European Union it has produced a punitive tariff of 20% - four times the 5% which the World Trade Organization calculates as the EU's average tariff rate. Trump's tariff formula confounds the world, punishes the poor

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Journalist James Surowiecki observed Wednesday evening that the president's sweeping worldwide tariffs seemed to be based on a simplistic formula, which takes the U.S. trade deficit with an individual nation and divides that number by its exports to the U.S. Surowiecki posted on X. "They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us. So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is." However because Trump claims to be 'nice' he then divides the figure by half! In a final flourish, if US trade deficit/imports with a country is less than 10%, or the US has a trade surplus with a country, Trump then slaps a flat 10% tariff on that country. 'Truly amazing': Journalist slaps down White House aide's attempted fact check

On Tuesday, the Trump regime targeted Harvard University, threatening to withdraw about $9 billion in contracts and multiyear grants unless Harvard capitulates to unspecified demands. Last week, Trump targeted major Washington law firms, threatening to cut off their access to government buildings and government contracts unless they agreed to various ultimatums. Yesterday, the regime placed 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from all other nations. Some governments say they’ll retaliate. Others, Israel and Vietnam, for example, are responding by rolling back their own tariffs. Trump says he’ll continue to raise tariffs until other countries capitulate to various unspecified demands. What do all these have in common? Trump’s unquenchable thirst for power, dominance, and intimidation. Here are 8 rules for dealing with this. 1. Don't believe his said reasons for action. He'll use whatever pretext he can find to issue demands and get universities, for example, to capitulate. 2. Don't assume that Trump is concerned about other nations’ “unfair” trade practices or illegal immigration. These, too, are pretexts. He is using tariffs, immigration, and every tool at his command to force them to cave in to his demands. 3. Surrender and domination are the goals: whether a university, a large law firm, a big non-profit organisation, even a Democratic state like California. Surrender is the point. 4. Each capitulation confirms the narrative that Trump is all-powerful, invincible, and able to get every person, institution, and country to prostrate themselves before him. 5. Each submission fuels his lust for dominance and attempt to create an image of absolute power, King Trump. 6. It’s vitally important, therefore, that institutions and countries join together to fight this systemic intimidation. University faculties must united under the American Association of University Professors to speak out against Trump’s assault on free speech and debate at universities, sue the Trump administration for violating their rights under the First Amendment, and develop a media strategy to alert the public to the demagogue's threats. 7. Canada, Mexico, Japan, and the European Union must unite to create a special trade zone that bars the United States. They should threaten to curtail American banks’ access to their public procurement markets, limit the large figures their citizens invest in American companies annually, and increase tax and regulatory pressure on American digital platforms. 8. The media should highlight institutions that are standing up to Trump (such as the Jenner & Block law firm, Canada, and Mexico) and condemn those that are surrendering to him ( Columbia University, the Paul Weiss law firm, and Israel and Vietnam on tariffs). This is all about Trump’s thirst for power, transforming the United States into a dictatorship. The only way to deal with Trump's demands for capitulation | Opinion .

Paul Krugman's views: "The EU, like the United States, has generally low tariffs; the average tariff it charges on US goods is less than 3 percent. So where does this 39 percent number come from? I have no idea. Many people speculated that Trump would count value-added taxes as tariffs, even though they aren’t — European producers selling to the EU market pay the same VAT as US producers, so it doesn’t discriminate and therefore isn’t protectionist. But even if you get that wrong, EU VAT rates are in the vicinity of 20 percent, so you still can’t get anywhere close to 39 percent." Trump falsehoods according to Krugman: " Trump is still claiming that we’re subsidizing Canada by $200 billion a year. Aside from the basic mistake of claiming that a Canadian trade surplus means that we’re somehow subsidizing Canada, he’s inflating the actual trade surplus by a factor of three. Many, many people have pointed out the error, but Trump is sticking with it, the same way Musk is sticking with the millions of dead Social Security beneficiaries thing." 'Full-on crazy': Nobel-winning economist aghast at Trump's tariffs and wildly false claims

Gaza ambulance 'crushed' by IDF as aid attacks increase On Sunday, a mass grave containing the bodies of 15 first responders was unearthed in Gaza. Sky News investigates how their final moments unfolded. The group had disappeared during a rescue mission one week earlier.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has begun mass layoffs of 10,000 employees at healthcare institutions as part of a campaign to reduce federal employees. Security prevented some employees from entering the building a few hours after they received notice of their dismissal. The layoffs affected several well-known agencies within the US Department of Health and Human Services, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The layoffs included dismissal of leading scientists overseeing public health, cancer research, and vaccine and drug approval. This raises concerns about how the US will respond to ongoing emergencies - such as the measles outbreak and the spread of bird flu. ''The FDA as we've known it is finished, with most of the leaders with institutional knowledge and a deep understanding of product development and safety no longer employed," former Commissioner Robert Califf wrote in a LinkedIn post. "I believe that history will see this a huge mistake," he wrote. "It will be interesting to hear from the new leadership how they plan to put 'Humpty Dumpty' back together again." Mass layoffs in US healthcare sector

Some Palestinians are ignoring the latest evacuation orders — even if it means risking their lives. “After one year and a half of war that has exhausted everyone, children and their parents, too, are just worn out physically and mentally,” said Rosalia Bollen, UNICEF’s communication specialist. For the past month, Israel has blocked all food, fuel and supplies from entering Gaza, and aid groups say there are no more tents or other shelter supplies to help the newly displaced. On Tuesday, the World Food Program shut down all its bakeries in Gaza, on which hundreds of thousands rely for bread, because it had run out of flour. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/as-israel-advances-in-gaza-many-exhausted-families-flee-again-some-can-t-bear-it/ar-AA1C7D9L?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=EDGEXST&

Unfortunately Israel will not allow any foreign journalists into Gaza to verify reports of deaths. Obviously Jewish supporters such as Aizenberg are keen to downplay civilian casualties, however widespread bombing as conducted by Israel on Gaza will inevitably lead to heavy loss of civilian life. I quote the BBC: Unicef uses figures released by Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry - figures which Israel has consistently disputed. The figures are seen by the UN and other international institutions as being reliable. International journalists, including the BBC, are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently, so are unable to verify figures from either side.