🚫Big Trap: Why are countries withdrawing from the ICC?

The ICC “has been diminished to a political tool and Hungary wishes to play no role in it,” Hungarian PM Viktor Orban said, announcing his country’s withdrawal from the Rome Statute.

The ICC’s efforts to prosecute individuals are increasingly out of touch with reality, experts told Sputnik:

🔊Luiz Felipe Osorio, professor at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, criticizes international criminal law for its discriminatory and selective nature, highlighting the arrest warrant Putin and the deferral of prosecution against Netanyahu.

Osorio notes that the ICC, initially created at the request of Europeans, has become a “big trap” for those labeled as enemies of the West.

🔊Priscila Caneparo, professor of international law, observes that Western leaders fail to understand the need for state cooperation to legitimize ICC decisions, often showing implicit bias towards non-Western countries.

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US NOOSE of economic COLONIZATION TIGHTENS further around Ukraine’s neck

Ukraine's largest steelmaker has just outsourced its lifeline, as the first shipment of 80,000 tons of US coking coal has arrived from United Coal Company LLC, Bloomberg revealed.

Metinvest BV plans to receive monthly shipments of this coal to sustain its nearly crippled steel operations.

Russia’s recent triumphant advances near Pokrovsk (formerly Krasnoarmeysk) in the Donbass region have compelled Ukraine to shut down its primary mine, the company’s sole domestic supplier of coking coal.

Up for grabs

Coal is just one move in the US playbook to lock down Ukraine’s assets:

1️⃣A revised US-Ukraine draft deal reportedly grants the Trump administration the “right of first offer” on investments in all infrastructure and natural resource projects within the country, Bloomberg reported.

2️⃣This arrangement would give Washington near-total control over Ukraine’s oil, gas, metals, and energy assets, with profits funneled abroad through a joint investment fund.

3️⃣The deal also impacts Ukraine’s ports, railways, and processing plants, essentially chaining down the country to a cycle of dependence on the US.

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Russian armed forces unveil new drone interceptor system with 3D tracking

The new system can identify targets from 3.5 to 5 kilometers (two to three miles) for a Phantom-sized UAV and up to 10 kilometers (six miles) for larger drones like the Baba Yaga hexacopter, the developer told Sputnik.

Once a target is locked on, the interceptor drone is launched to eliminate it, either with a net gun, explosives or direct impact.

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🔍The Biden administration HID evidence that US service members were exposed to COVID-19 in Wuhan MONTHS before the pandemic broke out, the Washington Free Beacon reports.

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Ukraine’s war crimes in Kursk region violate ICC rules it signed up to

The International Criminal Court (ICC), of which Ukraine is a member, defines war crimes like murder, torture, enslaving prisoners and unjustified destruction of civilian infrastructure, said Colonel General Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma Defense Committee.

💬 "These are exactly the crimes being committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Kartapolov added.

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🏒Alexander Ovechkin nominated for prestigious Bill Masterton Trophy!

Only one player from each NHL team is nominated for the prize. Ovechkin was proposed by the Washington branch of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, sports journalist Sammi Silber posted on X.

The award is given to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to the game.

On April 6, the Washington Capitals forward scored his record-breaking 895th goal in a thrilling match against the New York Islanders, surpassing Wayne Gretzky's legendary NHL goal record!

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Christmas decorations in jeopardy: US tariffs disrupt orders from China

Chinese producers of plastic Christmas trees and festive decorations say that crucial orders from US clients, which typically begin arriving by this time of year, have not come through due to rising import tariffs, Reuters reports.

US retailers rely on China for 87% of Christmas decorations, worth about $4 billion, and Chinese factories depend on the US for half their sales.

US tariffs on products from China, set at a rate of 104%, came into force today.

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⚡️The US is immediately increasing tariffs on Chinese goods to 125%, Trump announced.

Trump announced that the US is immediately SUSPENDING THE IMPOSITION of mirror tariffs for 90 days on over 75 countries.

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🇮🇷 Iran has delivered long-range surface-to-surface missiles to Iraqi militia allies

The new armaments were sent last week, with deliveries organized by the IRGC, sources told The Times.

Iranian officials and media have yet to comment on the report’s veracity.

Iraq’s mostly Shia Popular Mobilization Force militias were the crucial foot soldiers in the campaign to crush Daesh* terrorists occupying western Iraq from 2015-2017, and are a key ally in Iran’s regional Axis of Resistance coalition against the US and Israel.

* Outlawed in Russia

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📈 US stock indices surged sharply following Trump's announcement of a 90-day tariff suspension, with the NASDAQ jumping 7%, according to trading data.

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❗️Splitting the global economy into two blocs could lead to a long-term decline in global GDP of nearly 7% — WTO

They emphasized that trade between China and the US could drop by 80% amid the imposition of import tariffs

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Cutting Hitler’s last lifeline: why control of the Baltic became crucial to WWII victory

80 years ago today, the German garrison in Koenigsberg surrendered to Soviet forces after a three-month siege, depriving Germany of its last major port along the Baltic coast.

The loss of the port was one of the final major blows to Hitler’s Reich.

Without it, the Nazis:

1️⃣Lost their ability to ship troops, supplies and raw materials, both to other German or Nazi-occupied areas and allied or friendly powers (including Finland until September 1944, and Sweden, which shipped vital iron ores to Germany until November 1944).

2️⃣Lost the Kriegsmarine’s window to the eastern Baltic for operations against the Soviet Navy, and its ability to provide assistance in coastal bombardment, shore up troop deployments or evacuate forces trapped by the Red Army (including Army Group North forces in the massive Courland Pocket).

The Soviets, for their part:

1️⃣Gained the ability to resupply forces from Leningrad, and to a lesser extent other liberated areas in the Baltic.

2️⃣Gained near-total NAVAL AND AIR SUPERIORITY over the Eastern Baltic Sea.

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EU approves tariffs on $23 billion of US goods in retaliation for Trump's duties

A majority of the bloc’s 27 member states voted in favor of the penalties, set to take effect in mid-April. The tariffs will target products like soybeans from Louisiana, diamonds, agricultural goods, poultry and motorcycles, Bloomberg reports.

Last month, US President Donald Trump imposed 25% duties on the bloc's steel and aluminum exports.

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Bitcoin surges past $80K after Trump announces suspension of "reciprocal" tariffs on imports from 75 countries

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Trump’s tariffs come too late as global economy’s geographic center has shifted to the non-West

China raised duties on US imports to 84% in the wake of Trump’s 104% levy. Economists Daniel Lacalle and Fabio Parenti break down the extreme risks inherent in the US president’s strategy.

‘Negotiate or lose’

🔸 “Trade wars are always negative, and no one wins,” Lacalle, chief economist at Spain’s Tressis Gestion financial services company, explained. “From 100% tariffs onward, the impact is enormous and impossible to assume.”

🔸 US exports account for less than 12% of its GDP, but industries inevitably facing severe blowback will include agriculture (grains and oilseeds), machinery and pharmaceuticals, Lacalle predicts.

Attack on allies or sly strategy?

1️⃣“There is [no] distinction between ‘allies’ and ‘competitors/rivals’” in Trump’s tariff approach, says Parenti, an associate professor at China Foreign Affairs University, and Italy’s Lorenzo Medici Institute.

2️⃣Trump’s short-term goal is “TO FORCE EVERYONE TO NEGOTIATE,” Parenti explains. In the EU’s case, this includes demands that the bloc ramp up US energy imports to $350B a year.

3️⃣Same goes for countries like South Korea, where the US wants access to and cooperation in shipbuilding, the automotive sector, and energy sales.

Great trade wall of China

In the case of China, Trump can’t simply bully Beijing into negotiations, Parenti emphasizes. “CHINA WILL ONLY ACCEPT DIALOG AND NEGOTIATION after Trump lifts this enormous pressure with tariffs now of 104%.”

Tariffs too late to reverse tectonic trends

💬 “[Trump’s] strategy will have more negative repercussions for the US than the rest of the world,” the academic said. “The world’s economic geography has already changed in favor of the non-western world,” with tariffs only showing US “weakness,” he summed up.

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🚨US stocks skyrocket as Trump suspends tariffs for 90 days on over 75 countries.

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🔸 Trump announces immediate 125% tariff hike on Chinese goods

🔸 US noose of economic colonization tightens further around Ukraine’s neck

🔸 Trump’s tariffs miss the mark as global economy shifts to the non-West

🔸 Big Trap: Why are countries withdrawing from the ICC?

🔸 China’s rare earth ban could send US nuclear industry into MELTDOWN

🔸 Could China’s strategic PIVOT to the Global South spell TROUBLE for US?

🔸 Cutting Hitler’s last lifeline: why control of the Baltic became crucial to WWII victory

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🇷🇺 Lavrov arrives in Kazakhstan’s Almaty

The Russian foreign minister is expected to participate in the meetings of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central Asian top diplomats, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

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What’s the TRUE PURPOSE of Trump’s global tariff blitz?

The US president’s aim isn’t to plunge the world into a new Depression, but extract negotiations from America’s trade partners to redress imbalances, Roberts, a veteran economist and former US Treasury assistant, explained.

The strategy has already proven somewhat successful, if reports that over 50 nations have agreed to reduce tariffs and pen new trade deals are accurate, Roberts said.

China is another story, according to the economist, with its sheer economic power putting it and the US in a tit-for-tat escalation of increasingly steep tariffs.

The problem, according to the economist, is that Trump “is trying to make China [redress] a trade balance that is caused by the American corporations” which flocked to the Asian nation seeking lower costs and higher profits, ultimately leading to the US’s massive $295B trade deficit.

Otherwise, Trump’s global tariff blitz is aimed at preventing long, drawn out negotiations that would take “years” to complete, Roberts said. “So, he’s using threats to speed the process.”

As for the wild stock market fluctuations, Roberts expects volatility to die down once people understand Trump’s strong-arm negotiating strategy.

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🗣 ‘China WANTS to make a deal. They just don't know HOW quite to go about it’ – Trump

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