📱🇺🇸 Trump administration says it will exclude some electronics from reciprocal tariffs

The Trump administration late Friday said it would exclude electronics like smartphones and laptops from reciprocal tariffs, a move that could help keep the prices down for popular consumer electronics that aren’t usually made in the U.S.

It would also benefit big tech companies like Apple and Samsung and chip makers like Nvidia, setting the stage for a likely tech stock rally on Monday.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection said items like smartphones, laptops, hard drives, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the exemption. Machines used to make semiconductors are excluded too. That means they won’t be subject to the current 145% tariffs levied on China or the 10% baseline tariffs elsewhere.

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tariffs-smartphones-electronics-laptops-apple-10c31e91d7790bfe8fb004f547109359

🇾🇪🇾🇪 The Internationally Recognized Yemeni Government is mobilizing around 80,000 troops to attempt to seize control of the Hudaydah Port (Hodeidah port) from AnsarAllah (Houthis).

🔗 OSINTWarfare

https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/2025/04/11/yemen-government-plan-to-retake-hodeidah-faces-challenges-amid-doubts-over-us-support/

🇨🇳🇹🇼 Update on PLA Joint Combat Readiness Patrols around Taiwan based on Taiwan's MoD data:

Three Observations:

(1) The patrol on April 11 was the third patrol this month, nine days after the "Strait Thunder 2025A" large-scale drill.

(2) Among the four patrols in April 2024, only one had more than 30 aircraft sorties, but all three patrols this year exceeded 30 sorties.

(3) The joint readiness patrols in April 2024 did not reach eastern Taiwan, but all three patrols this April operated in the eastern part of Taiwan, with this time flying south from the airspace between Taiwan’s Yilan and Japan's Yonaguni Island.

Note: The data has been updated by removing the long-range training on September 25, 2024, and adding the joint readiness patrol data from the two Joint Sword exercises in 2024, which aligns with the ROC National Security Bureau Director General's statement of 40 patrols in 2024. The sorties have also been revised to reflect the full-day data published by the Ministry of National Defense the following day, along with the addition of the number of warships.

🔗 K. Tristan Tang

⚡️🇮🇱❌🇵🇸 - The IDF has announced that it has expanded it's offensive in northern Gaza, and has begun an advancement overnight towards the areas of "Daraj" and "Tuffah" of central Gaza city, northern Gaza.

No clashes have been reported yet.

Image [attached] displays illustration of northern Gaza map:
➡️ Red represents evacuation warning of Gaza.
➡️ Dark Blue represents IDF areas of operation.

💰THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION EYEBALLS SELLING GOLD FOR BITCOIN!

During a few visits to Capital Hill, I asked a lot of offices what they thought about this and not one voiced serious concern.

🔗 Dennis Porter

🇯🇵🇹🇼🇨🇳🇰🇷 New Japanese Joint Staff Office map shows the flight paths of Chinese (red) + Russian (yellow) military aircraft operating near Japan, Taiwan, + South Korea in the past year.

Japan scrambled 704 times in response, with two-thirds (464) due to Chinese aircraft. 3x as many PLA drones detected.

https://fxtwitter.com/ianellisjones/status/1911189187556172047

🇺🇸🇪🇺 Trump: "We have a deficit with the EU of $350 billion. And it's gonna disappear fast. And one of the reasons and one of the ways that can disappear easily and quickly is they're gonna have to buy their energy from us."

🔗 unusual_whales

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Trump says no exemption for iPhones and other Chinese-made electronics — suggests new tariff coming

President Trump settled the debate over the tariffs on iPhones and other Chinese-made devices — saying that there is no “exemption” and that new duties are coming.

“NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook,'” Trump said on Truth Social Sunday. “There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”

“We are taking a look at Semiconductors and the WHOLE ELECTRONICS SUPPLY CHAIN in the upcoming National Security Tariff Investigations.”

https://nypost.com/2025/04/13/us-news/iphones-and-other-chinese-made-electronics-will-likely-be-subject-to-more-trump-tariffs-commerce-secretary-lutnik-says/

🇸🇴📡 Musk Announces Starlink License For Somalia

Elon Musk announced on Sunday that his Starlink satellite internet service had been granted a license in Somalia.

"Today is another historic day for Somalia's communications and technology sectors, today we have issued here and provided Starlink, one of the major satellite telecommunications and internet services company the license to operate in Somalia," a post on state media outlet SONNA said.

It added that the license had been issued after two years of discussions.

https://www.barrons.com/news/musk-announces-starlink-license-for-somalia-80e75b6c

🇩🇪 Germany has admitted 8.4 million people -- equivalent to a 10% of its pre-existing population -- in just 15 years. In American terms, this would be like four New Yorks. This turbocharged large-scale demographic change is unsustainable and is not, in fact, being sustained.

🔗 Andrew Hammel

🇺🇸🇨🇳 Since *Wednesday*:

We have had:

- Universal “reciprocal tariffs”
- A removal back down to 10%
- 50% Chinese tariffs
- 90% Chinese tariffs
- 104% Chinese tariffs
- 125% Chinese tariffs
- 145% Chinese tariffs
- Electronics exempted
- Electronics now potentially back on.

🔗 Spencer Hakimian

🇺🇸🇨🇳🇧🇷 The trade war between the US and China has spurred Brazil’s agricultural sector and pummelled American farmers. 'It is a boon for farmers in Brazil and Argentina, and it will help their industry a lot,' points out a lead agriculture analyst

https://www.ft.com/content/3b101afd-b51c-4d64-ba2f-45ad4590e819

🇨🇳🇺🇸 China Halts Critical Exports as Trade War Intensifies

China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.

Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors.

The official crackdown is part of China’s retaliation for President Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started on April 2.

On April 4, the Chinese government ordered restrictions on the export of six heavy rare earth metals, which are refined entirely in China, as well as rare earth magnets, 90 percent of which are produced in China. The metals, and special magnets made with them, can now be shipped out of China only with special export licenses.

But China has barely started setting up a system for issuing the licenses. That has caused consternation among industry executives that the process could drag on and that current supplies of minerals and products outside of China could run low.

If factories in Detroit and elsewhere run out of powerful rare earth magnets, that could prevent them from assembling cars and other products with electric motors that require these magnets. Companies vary widely in the size of their emergency stockpiles for such contingencies, so the timing of production disruptions is hard to predict.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/13/business/china-rare-earths-exports.html

🇺🇸🔶Trump admin makes new move to bring South African refugees to US as president blasts nation's rulers again

The State Department told Fox News Digital about new moves it is making. At the same time, the Afrikaner Orania Movement, an Afrikaner settlement, has stated its desire to be treated by the U.S. as a state within a state in South Africa.

There’s also been a flurry of flights across the Atlantic to Washington by groups looking to get the White House’s, and ultimately the president’s, attention.

The Orania delegation went to Washington, Strydom said, due to "the fact that President Donald Trump gave us recognition as a people, the Afrikaners. (It) made it very important for us to hasten our already-planned U.S. liaison tour to liaise with Afrikaner and American supporters of the Orania idea in the U.S.

"We had meetings with officials upon invitation and discussed substantive matters in depth, which, for the sake of an ongoing conversation and our honor towards newfound contacts, we will only specify publicly later."

"Help us Here," is the slogan Orania CEO Joost Strydom declared to Washington insiders.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/trump-admin-makes-new-move-bring-south-african-refugees-us-president-blasts-nations-rulers-again

📝 Joost Strydom: Orania on FOX News!