🇺🇸🇮🇷 U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Iran with bombings and secondary tariffs on Sunday if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.

"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC. "But there's a chance that if they don't make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago."

🔗 Rapid Response 47

🇮🇷🇺🇸 Iran has rejected direct negotiations with the US in response to Trump’s letter

Iran’s president said Sunday that the Islamic Republic rejected direct negotiations with the United States over its rapidly advancing nuclear program, offering Tehran’s first response to a letter that U.S. President Donald Trump sent to the country’s supreme leader.

https://apnews.com/article/iran-rejects-direct-negotiations-trump-letter-us-c414743a567c574b6f48f64a2e889f31

🇯🇵🇰🇷🇨🇳 South Korea, China, and Japan held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday as they prepare for tariffs imposed by Trump.

According to a joint statement reported by Reuters, the trade ministers of the three countries agreed to "closely cooperate to conduct comprehensive high-level negotiations" on a free trade agreement between South Korea, Japan, and China to promote "regional and global trade."

The report highlights that Beijing, Seoul, and Tokyo are major trading partners of the United States, though only the latter two are political allies of Washington.

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🇺🇸❌🇾🇪❗️ — Media aligned with Houthi terrorists say that US Navy is carrying out extensive, large-scale bombings in Saada area

🇩🇪🇺🇸 Where’s the gold? Germany’s conservatives sound the alarm over reserves in the US

Can the United States be trusted with Germany’s gold?

[S]ome politicians in Germany are worried that what was for decades seen as one of the world’s most reliable storehouses might not be so secure after all.

Germany holds the world’s second-largest gold reserves, and keeps 37 percent of them — some 1,236 metric tons, worth €113 billion — in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve. Those holdings of precious metal guarantee that, should the need ever arise, the Bundesbank has access to something it can change into U.S. dollars (or any other hard currency).

The very idea that they might not be safe would have been considered ridiculous from 1945 ... until a couple of weeks ago. But the certainties of Germany’s postwar existence have been turned on their head and — as the recent scrapping of a notorious cap on public borrowing showed — the unthinkable is suddenly very thinkable indeed. All the more so given evidence of U.S. President Donald Trump’s willingness to push the limits of his powers and assert presidential primacy over the judicial system.

German tabloid Bild, owned by POLITICO parent company Axel Springer, reported on Thursday that outgoing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lawmaker Marco Wanderwitz is one of those concerned.

Already in 2012, Wanderwitz had unsuccessfully requested to inspect the gold holdings as part of an effort to pressure the bank to either take a more active role as a custodian, or to repatriate it to Germany.

“Of course, the question now arises again,” Wanderwitz said in comments reported by Bild.

https://www.politico.eu/article/gold-germany-conservatives-sound-alarm-over-reserves-usa/

🇨🇳🇹🇼 China launches joint military exercises around Taiwan, practicing a “blockade on key areas”

On 1 April, PLA Eastern Theater Command deployed Army, Navy, Air Force, & Rocket Forces to “close in on Taiwan from multiple directions.”

- Sea-air combat readiness patrols
- Joint seizure of comprehensive superiority
- Assault on maritime & ground targets
- Blockade on key areas & sea areas

“It is a stern warning & forceful deterrence against ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatist forces.”

The PLA released a theme poster called “Closing In: Sinister Moves of Taiwan Separatists Courting Disaster Upon Themselves.”

https://fxtwitter.com/ianellisjones/status/1906867532646031666

🤖 Humanoid robot company Figure released a new video of its robot working on BMW's production line.

"This isn't a test environment—it's real production operations."

🔗 Sawyer Merritt

🇮🇱🇯🇴 Israel to begin building new $1.4 billion border barrier with Jordan

Israel will begin building a long-promised new fence along the border with Jordan in June, the Times of Israel has learned. The work is expected to take three years.

The fence will run from Hamat Gader at the southern edge of the Golan Heights to the Ramon International Airport north of Eilat. A 30-kilometer (18-mile) portion of the border with Jordan, from Eilat to Ramon Airport, was already upgraded in a similar fashion to Israel’s border barriers with Egypt and the Gaza Strip in the 2010s.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-to-begin-building-new-1-4-billion-border-barrier-with-jordan/

🇪🇬🇮🇱 Egypt military buildup in Sinai threatens peace with Israel, source warns

Israel has recently observed a military buildup by Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula, according to a security source who spoke with reporters on Monday.

“Egypt has deployed forces beyond the permitted quota, expanded port facilities, and extended runways at airports,” the source said. The source added that these actions violate the peace agreement between the two nations.

Regarding the entry of Egyptian forces beyond the permitted quota, security officials emphasized that “such actions are reversible – it is not a problem to pull tanks back.”

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-848313