Whether this is a coordinated response is unclear – and certainly on a much smaller scale – but Bloomberg reports that Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree this morning imposing higher tariffs on U.S. products in retaliation for U.S. duties on metals imports, according to Economy Ministry statement.
In another example which proves Britain isn’t used to having excessive amounts of heat. a man has been rescued by firefighters after he became stuck in melted tarmac.
Melted tarmac. Apparently, it’s entirely down to the glorious and now tarmac-melting weather the UK is experiencing.
The 24-year-old was left without recourse after his leg sank ‘thigh deep’ into the road on a back lane in Newcastle, forcing him to call the local fire department for help.
China’s commerce ministry says the country has no choice but to fight back after the US “launched the largest trade war in economic history,” as Washington’s 25 percent tariffs on various Chinese imports go into effect.
“On July 6, the US began to impose 25 percent tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese imports. The US has breached WTO trade rules and launched the largest trade war in economic history to date,” the ministry’s statement read.
The Trump administration’s new 25 percent duties apply to 818 Chinese imports worth $34 billion. They are the first stage in levies threatened by the US on a total of $450 billion worth of Chinese goods.
Egyptian archaeologists have discovered what’s thought to be the largest granite sarcophagus ever found in Alexandria, measuring nearly nine feet long.
The massive stone casket was buried more than 16 feet beneath the surface alongside a huge alabaster head – likely belonging to the man who owned the tomb.
Experts say the ancient coffin has remained untouched since its burial thousands of years ago during the Ptolemaic period.
According to conventional wisdom, trade wars are bullish for the dollar, for two main reasons: they tend to be inflationary (import prices spike), and they impact risk assets, resulting in a flight for USD-denominated safety. Indeed, just today, Bloomberg writes that for dollar bulls, Trump’s trade wars are just what the doctor ordered.
As the world’s largest economy, the U.S. had the strong hand in the early stages of trade negotiations. But, if it escalates into a sustained trade war, the U.S. position weakens substantially due to its twin deficits. It can’t afford to play such hardball that foreign governments become incentivized to stop funding its largesse.
On the other hand, if trade tensions abate, investors will releverage into EM and risk assets, which will result in a de facto selling of the world’s reserve currency.
Several earthquakes, including one measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale, jolted the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel on Wednesday morning.
Most of the earthquakes, known as a swarm, were small and unnoticeable. But at least one measured in at 4.1 at about 4:50 a.m., according to the Geophysical Institute of Israel. The earthquake was located about 4 kilometers underground.
The US military declared it “stands ready” to keep waterways open in the Persian Gulf, after the Iranian President warned of “consequences” if Washington tried to reduce Tehran’s oil exports.
Captain Bill Urban, a spokesman for US Central Command (Centcom), said on Wednesday that the US Navy and its regional allies will ensure the Persian Gulf is open, and stand ready to safeguard “the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows,” according to AP.
Archaeologists have discovered two ancient homes near the Giza pyramids in Egypt. The structures may have housed officials responsible for overseeing the production of food for a paramilitary force more than 4,500 years ago. The residences were found in an ancient port at Giza that flourished at a time when the Pyramid of Menkaure was being constructed at Giza. (Menkaure was a pharaoh who reigned from around 2490 B.C. to 2472 B.C.)
At least one person was trying to scale the Statue of Liberty after a banner reading ‘Abolish ICE’ was unfurled at its base Wednesday afternoon.
A woman was spotted scaling the statue, and had made it to Lady Liberty’s midsection, US Park Police public information officer Sgt. Dave Somma told NBC 4. The island was being evacuated as a precaution.
The unique optical computer is believed to have immense advantages over traditional computers, opening up new doors as far as raw computational power and energy use are concerned.
The supercomputer was developed by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics in Sarov, about 375 km southeast of Moscow and is based on optical or photonic computing technology. The institute has already patented its project.
In the interests of transparency at The ‘New’ Federal Reserve, The St.Louis Fed has decided, suddenly and without warning, to discontinue the production of The Fed’s balance sheet size from its FRED website.
Publicizing its growing exasperation in dealing with president Donald Trump who refuses to halt the tit-for-tat retaliation in the growing trade war with China – which is set to officially begin on Friday when the US slaps $34 billion in Chinese exports with 25% tariffs – but has a habit of doubling down the threatened US reaction to every Chinese trade counteroffer (after all the US imports far more Chinese goods than vice versa)…
A volcano on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali erupted Monday, sending rocks and lava spewing into the air and unleashing a wave of panic across the island.
Residents reported hearing a loud explosion as Mount Agung flung volcanic rocks at least 2 km in the air. A sea of lava spewed from the crater, which ignited nearby vegetation.
Indonesia’s National Agency for Disaster Countermeasure (BNPB) said the explosions began just after 9pm local time and that the ash column was seen as high as 2,000 meters above Mount Agung’s peak.
The bodies of many different species of marine life — such as fish, sea turtles, eels, goliath groupers and even manatees — have washed ashore on Boca Grande beach in Florida over the past week. Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told ABC10 that “red tide” is likely causing the deaths. A red tide, formally known as a harmful algal bloom (HAB), occurs when “colonies of algae — simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater — grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds,” according to the National Ocean Service.
A total lunar eclipse will rise over the night sky this summer, and it will be the longest eclipse of this century, according to NASA. On July 27, a lunar eclipse will be fully visible for 1 hour and 43 minutes. But you may have to travel to see it since the eclipse will only be visible in parts of South America, much of Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.
A Thai soccer team and their coach are in good health after being trapped in a flooded cave for days. Now rescuers are trying to figure out how to free them.
The most recent BRGM report, issued Friday, shows another two earthquakes of magnitude 4.0 or greater, and six quakes between 3.4- and 3.6-magnitude for the previous 24 hours. While the activity seemed to have slowed in mid-June, it came roaring back last Sunday with dozens of smaller earthquakes and one that topped out at a 5.1 magnitude. There were 17 more on Monday, and 12 more on Tuesday – including another 5.0 – followed by a comparable quake on Wednesday.
Almost all of the seismic activity is situated in the same spot about 50 kilometers to the east of the island, with the largest 5.8-magnitude quake occurring on May 15. It also was the largest ever recorded in the archipelago, surpassing a 5.2-magnitude event in 1993 that had previously been considered the most powerful.
An eerie orange haze covered the San Francisco sky over the weekend as terrifying photos show the raging wildfire spread across Northern California. Smoke from the Yolo County fire was contributing to poor air quality in Napa, Sonoma, San Mateo and San Francisco counties.
Russia is modernizing its submarine force around Europe to directly challenge American naval dominance — greater than any other period since the Cold War, Admiral James Foggo told Stars and Stripes in an interview last week.
The commander said the U.S. must expand its naval force, along with enhancing its submarine fleet to combat Russian aggression in the region.
Tensions between Russia and NATO have never been higher. According to a new report from the United States Naval Institute(USNI), the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), the eighth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy, has exited the Mediterranean Sea and is now patrolling the Atlantic Ocean, an unnamed defense official recently told USNI.
Trading with the EU is almost as bad and unfair as trading with China, President Trump told Fox News, noting how Washington pays a fortune “protecting” its little European partners, and they reciprocate by doing “terrible” things.
“The European Union is possibly as bad as China, just smaller,” Donald Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “It’s terrible what they do to us.”
“I can say it better in a different way. They made, last year, $151bn in trade surplus. We had a deficit with the EU. On top of that, we spend a fortune on NATO to protect them,” he added.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), said he has the full support of Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin to advance the development of space-based sensors that would defend the nation from hypersonic attacks by America’s adversaries.
