🇬🇧 Exclusive: British police are making more than 30 arrests a day over offensive posts on social media and other platforms

Thousands of people are being detained and questioned for sending messages that cause “annoyance”, “inconvenience” or “anxiety”

Custody data obtained by The Times shows that officers are making about 12,000 arrests a year under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 and section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988

The acts make it illegal to cause distress by sending “grossly offensive” messages or sharing content of an “indecent, obscene or menacing character” via the internet, telephone or post

Officers from 37 police forces made 12,183 arrests in 2023, the equivalent of about 33 per day. This marks an almost 58 per cent rise in arrests since before the pandemic. In 2019, forces logged 7,734 detentions

The statistics have provoked criticism from civil liberties groups The Free Speech Union and Big Brother Watch
that the authorities are over-policing the internet and threatening free speech using “vague” communications laws

https://www.thetimes.com/article/e4fce705-2a56-4e4a-aa04-0b55effb5bc0?shareToken=5ebc5dac67ef2d251e3da2fe4781f3ac

🔗 Charlie Parker

🇺🇸🇾🇪 U.S. defense officials confirm B-2 stealth bombers conducting strike operations against the Houthi (CNN)

- HSTCSG strikes Houthi for 3 weeks straight
- VINCSG transits Singapore Strait (5-7 days from CENTCOM)
- Destroyer reinforces air defense capabilities at Diego Garcia
- B-2 active weapons loading spotted on satellite

https://fxtwitter.com/ianellisjones/status/1908286120074301680

🇩🇪🇺🇸 According to The Telegraph, a number of senior officials in the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Party of Germany, who are set to lead the next German Government in the Bundestag, are considering the removal of all remaining 1,200 tons of its massive gold reserve, the second largest in the world behind the United States, from an underground vault at the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York City.

Both current and former Officials with the CDU have stated considerations are ongoing about the removal of the gold from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is believed to be worth about €113 billion and accounts for 30% of the country’s gold reserves worldwide, due to concerns that Washington is “no longer a reliable partner” to Germany.

🔗 OSINTdefender

🇺🇸🇾🇪 Gregory Brew on X:

Privately, DOD admits they have had limited success against the Houthis, despite strikes being larger than what was done under Biden, "and much bigger than what [DOD] has publicly described." Costs are $200 million so far and could exceed $1 billion by next week.

https://fxtwitter.com/gbrew24/status/1908143848934584618

🇺🇸🪖 Army Planners Are Weighing Force Reductions of Up to 90,000 Active-Duty Soldiers

The Army is quietly considering a sweeping reduction of up to 90,000 active-duty troops, a move that underscores mounting fiscal pressures at the Pentagon and a broader shift in military strategy away from Europe and counterterrorism, according to three defense officials familiar with the deliberations.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/04/03/army-mulling-dramatic-reduction-of-tens-of-thousands-of-troops.html

🇨🇳🇺🇸 China has announced that a 34% retaliatory tariff on all goods entering the country from the United States beginning April 10th, in response to U.S. President Trump’s new wave of tariffs against China.

Additionally, China’s Ministry of Commerce said it was adding 11 American companies to its list of unreliable entities, essentially barring them from doing business in China or with Chinese companies.

🔗 OSINTdefender

🇺🇸🇮🇱/🇮🇷 Axios reports, citing a senior Israeli official, that Netanyahu thinks the chances of a U.S.-Iran nuclear deal are extremely low and wants to reach an understanding with Trump about striking Iran's nuclear facilities when diplomacy fails.

https://www.axios.com/2025/04/04/netanyahu-visit-trump-wh-tariffs

🔗 Apex

🇨🇳🌏 China's largest “silent” research vessel Dong Fang Hong 3 is leaving the Indian Ocean Region after a month long survey of the Ninety East Ridge - an underwater linear intraplate rise ideal for submarine operations

🔗 Damien Symon

🇺🇸🇾🇪 Breaking on Yemen: This is the site of the CENTCOM strike in Fazah, Hudaydah, along the Red Sea coast. Dozens reported KIA.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/azGErGbhp56r4X6r8

🔗 BashaReport

🇨🇳🇮🇳 China’s Lhunze airbase, just 100-kilometers from Tawang, India is evolving fast—new shelters, hangars & expanded aprons highlight its ongoing military upgrade, a move that will recalibrate the airpower balance along the LAC in the eastern sector

🔗 Damien Symon

🇩🇪 Germany's AfD party continues to gain ground in the polls and is now on a par with the CDU for the first time.

🔗 Disclose

🇺🇸💸 Lots of partisan grifters and charlatans commenting on the US economic and financial situation - some even posing as investment analysts. Here is a master of the trade, Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital, giving an accurate assessment:

🔴 The tariffs are the biggest shock to the US economy in the lifetime of anyone alive today.

🔴 Macro forecasting is often useless but it becomes especially so in situations like these.

🔴 Every forecast has a probability of error - with error tracking the level of uncertainty at any given time. The level of uncertainty today is enormous and so the error cancels out the value of the forecast.

🔴 America’s economic problems are longstanding and have to do with overborrowing from abroad. These did not appear this week, nor did they appear when Trump appeared in 2016.

🔴 There is a real risk that the dollar hegemony that underwrite this overborrowing might collapse and this could trigger a major fiscal crisis.

Watch the whole clip. It is infinitely better than the slop circulating on X these past few days.

🔗 Philip Pilkington