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China announces 34% retaliatory tariffs on US imports

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China announces 34% retaliatory tariffs on US imports

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China has announced duties of 34 per cent on all US imports in retaliation to Donald Trump’s tariffs, moving the world closer to a full-blown trade war as the US president vowed he would never back down.

Global stock markets extended their losses on Friday after Beijing’s statement, with the S&P 500 down 2.4 per cent at its open and the Europe-wide Stoxx 600 4 per cent lower.

“CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED — THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!” Trump posted on his Truth Social network just before Wall Street began trading for the day.

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The new Chinese tariff matches the US president’s latest increase in duties on Beijing and comes on top of a previous tit-for-tat round this year.

The country’s Ministry of Commerce said on Friday that it would be imposed on all US imported goods from April 10, a day after America’s “reciprocal” levies come into effect.

Beijing’s move was accompanied by a slew of other measures, including restrictions on rare earth exports and a probe of the China subsidiary of DuPont, the US chemicals giant.

Trump said he would persist with his policy, which will take Washington’s tariffs to their highest for more than a century, despite the falls on Wall Street and other stock exchanges around the world.

“TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” he posted. “THIS IS A GREAT TIME TO GET RICH, RICHER THAN EVER BEFORE!”

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The US president’s announcement this week of the 34 per cent tariff on Chinese imports to the US will take average US tariffs on Chinese goods to 76 per cent, according to analysis by the Peterson Institute of International Economics.

That figure is well above the 60 per cent Trump threatened during last year’s election campaign.

Beijing, which had previously considered such a level of tariffs as a worst-case scenario, denounced the new US duties as “a typical unilateral bullying move”.

It added that this week’s round of US tariffs “does not comply with the rules of international trade and seriously damages the legitimate rights and interest of China”.

Leah Fahy, a China economist at Capital Economics, said in a research note that Beijing’s new 34 per cent retaliatory duty pushed the country’s average tariff on US imports up to about 50 per cent, and marked a “significant escalation”.

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The latest measures are likely to have the most impact on US agricultural exports, including soyabeans, wheat and corn. China is also a significant importer of pharmaceuticals, crude oil, petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas from the US.

The trade war comes at a sensitive moment for Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has leaned on exports to steer the world’s second-largest economy through a property sector slump and deflation.

Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia-Pacific at Natixis, said Beijing’s latest round of tariffs suggested it was trying to position itself to be first in line for high-level negotiations with Washington.

Trump’s move to impose steep tariffs on US trading partners around the world has convulsed markets. On Thursday, about $2.5tn in market value was erased from Wall Street stocks and all of the dollar’s post-election gains were wiped out.

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As the falls continued on Friday, the FTSE 100 slumped 3.5 per cent and Germany’s Dax lost 3.8 per cent.

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Investors swept into US Treasuries, pushing the 10-year yield down 0.13 percentage points on the day to 3.93 per cent.

Beijing is among the biggest targets of the “reciprocal” tariffs unveiled by Trump, who had already imposed a separate duty of 20 per cent on Chinese goods earlier this year.

Andrew Gilholm, head of China analysis at consultancy Control Risks, said Beijing could suffer “major self-inflicted damage” from fully matching US tariffs, given China’s trade surplus with the US and the tariffs it already has in place.

China announced export bans on seven types of rare earths on Friday, while US tech companies, including drone makers Skydio and Brinc Drones, were added to its “unreliable entity” list, which bans Chinese suppliers from selling components to them.

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

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Man Charged With Posting Bomb Instructions Used in New Orleans Attack

Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former Army serviceman they accused of distributing instructions on how to build explosives that were used by a man who conducted a deadly attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Day last year.

The former serviceman, Jordan A. Derrick, a 40-year-old from Missouri, was charged with one count of engaging in the business of manufacturing explosive materials without a license; one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered destructive device; and one count of distributing information relating to manufacturing explosives, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday. The three charges together carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison.

Starting in September 2023, the authorities said, Mr. Derrick was using various social media sites to share videos of himself making explosive materials, including detonators. His videos provided step-by-step instructions, and he often engaged with viewers in comments, sometimes answering their questions about the chemistry behind the explosives.

The authorities said that Mr. Derrick’s videos were downloaded by Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, who was accused of ramming a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Jan. 1, 2025, in a terrorist attack that killed 14 people and injured dozens. Mr. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with the police. Before the attack, Mr. Jabbar had placed two explosives on Bourbon Street, the authorities said, but they did not detonate.

The authorities later recovered two laptops and a USB drive in a house that Mr. Jabbar had rented. The USB drive contained several videos created by Mr. Derrick that provided instructions on making explosives. The authorities said the explosives they recovered were consistent with the ones Mr. Derrick had posted about.

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Mr. Derrick’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Derrick was a combat engineer in the Army, where he provided personnel and vehicle support, the authorities said. He also helped supervise safety personnel during demolitions and various operations. He was honorably discharged in February 2013.

The authorities did not say whether Mr. Derrick had any communication with Mr. Jabbar, or whether the men had known each other. In some of Mr. Derrick’s videos and comments, he indicated that he was aware that his videos could be misused.

“There are a plethora of uh, moral, you know, entanglements with topics, any topic of teaching explosives, right?” he asked in one video, according to the affidavit. “Of course, the wrong people could get it.”

The authorities also said that an explosion occurred at a private residence in Odessa, Mo., on May 4, and the occupant of the residence told investigators that he had manufactured explosives after watching online tutorials from Mr. Derrick.

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Mr. Derrick’s YouTube account had more than 15,000 subscribers and 20 published videos, the affidavit said. He had also posted content on other platforms, including Odysee and Patreon. Some videos were accessible to the public for free, while others required a paid subscription to view.

“My responsibility to my countrymen is to make sure that I serve the function of the Second Amendment to strengthen it,” Mr. Derrick said in one of his videos, according to the affidavit. “This is how I serve my country for real.”

Outside of the income he received through content creation, Mr. Derrick did not have any known employment. He did receive a monthly disability check from Veterans Affairs, the affidavit stated.

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded

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The Girls: “This isn’t ringing alarms to y’all?” : Embedded
Allegations pile up, but Child Protective Services declines to investigate and the school district continues to promote Ronnie Stoner. We include an update at the end of the episode. “The Girls” is a 4-part series from the Louisville Public Media’s investigative podcast, Dig.
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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

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Chud the Builder, Known for Racist Confrontations, Charged With Attempted Murder

A streamer known for hurling racist slurs in public settings under the nickname “Chud the Builder” was charged with attempted murder after a shooting outside a Tennessee courthouse on Wednesday, the authorities said.

The streamer, Dalton Eatherly, 28, was involved in a confrontation with an unidentified man that escalated to gunfire outside the Montgomery County Court in Clarksville, about 50 miles northwest of Nashville, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Both men sustained gunshot wounds and were in stable condition, the office said.

In addition to attempted murder, Mr. Eatherly was charged with employing a firearm during dangerous felony, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, the sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Eatherly, who is white, has accumulated an online audience by livestreaming confrontations in which he uses racist language toward Black people in public.

Law enforcement did not provide any details about the second man involved in Wednesday’s shooting. Mr. Eatherly posted an audio recording online of paramedics treating his wounds in which he claims he shot the man in self-defense.

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A video posted by the website Clarksville Now shows Mr. Eatherly on a stretcher with a microphone attached to his lapel.

Mr. Eatherly is being held at the Montgomery County Jail, pending arraignment, the sheriff’s office said.

According to court records, Mr. Eatherly was scheduled to appear for a court hearing on Wednesday morning in an unrelated case brought by Midland Credit Management, a collections agency.

A lawyer listed in court records from a separate harassment case in which Mr. Eatherly was a defendant in November did not respond to a request for comment.

On Sunday, three days before the shooting in Clarksville, Mr. Eatherly was arrested in Nashville. According to a police affidavit, Mr. Eatherly live streamed his meal at a restaurant, Bob’s Steak and Chop House, on Saturday even though the restaurant had asked him ahead of time not to do so.

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When he was confronted, Mr. Eatherly “became disruptive and started making racial statements, yelling, screaming and otherwise creating a scene,” according to the affidavit.

He then refused to pay for his $370 meal. Mr. Eatherly was charged with theft of services, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He was released on $5,000 bond.

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