The US Postal Service has announced that it will no longer receive packages from China and Hong Kong, amid the trade war intensified by President Donald Trump. The measure accompanies a 10% increase in tariffs on Chinese imports.

One of the most impactful changes was the elimination of the tariff exemption for low-value packages, known as “de minimis”, which allowed tariff-free entry for items valued at up to US$800. This could affect platforms such as Shein and Temu, which are responsible for 30% of the packages sent. According to a congressional report, almost half of de minimis shipments come from China, and the volume of these imports has increased by 600% since 2015, reaching 1.36 billion packages by 2024.

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Ok gang what's the going odds that the US actually attempts to annex Canada?

Dude can't think of one thing by himself. Now he again copied Trump:

Echoing Trump, Milei pulls Argentina out of World Health Organization

***Argentina will pull out of the World Health Organization, Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni confirms, following in the footsteps of the United States. ***

President Javier Milei has decided to formally withdraw Argentina from the World Health Organization, the government confirmed Wednesday. Presidential Spokesperson Manmuel Adorni confirmed the decision, which echoes last month’s announcement by US President Donald Trump that the United States would pull out from the UN agency.

"President [Javier] Milei instructed Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein to withdraw Argentina's participation in the World Health Organisation. This is based on the profound differences with regard to health management, especially during the [Covid-19] pandemic," said the spokesman. “We Argentines are not going to allow an international organisation to intervene in our sovereignty, much less in our health,” he stressed at a press conference.

Gotta love that fake ass nationalism. I wish they had the same attitude towards the US, the EU and the IMF but no, these institutions can come in and take whatever the fuck they want.

Adorni claimed that the WHO, along with Milei’s successor in office Alberto Fernández, led Argentina into “the longest lockdown in the history of humanity,” referencing the nation’s strict Covid-19 lockdown between 2020 and 2021. The WHO had “failed its greatest litmus test” by promoting “eternal quarantines without scientific support” during the pandemic, he alleged.

Was the COVID pandemic mishandled in Argentina? Yeah, probably. The government's role wasn't as terrible they claim it was, it's not like people were being executed for going out or something. The lockdowns were indeed long (but not the "longest in history" omg) but at the same time COVID killed a lot of people. What destroyed the government's legitimacy and every effort was a number of photos and videos leaked of the President and his family hosting a party in the middle of the lockdown and the government handing out vaccines to VIP subjects for free before everyone else (something that happens everywhere but never goes public).

'Nefarious'

Milei issued a statement a few hours after the announcement, denouncing the WHO as “nefarious” and claiming it had played the role of the “executive arm” of the “biggest experiment of social control in history.” Denouncing its authorities as “ideologues,” Argentina’s leader said its “quarantine” policies during the Covid-19 pandemic led it to be part of “one of the most outlandish crimes against humanity in history.”

Literal Alex Jones moment.

Milei’s top spokesperson claimed the withdrawal would “give the country greater flexibility to implement policies adapted to the context of interests that Argentina requires, as well as greater availability of resources and reaffirms our path towards a country with sovereignty in health matters.” Adorni added: “It should be clarified that Argentina does not receive funding from the WHO for health management, therefore this measure – unlike some have said at least on social networks – does not represent a loss of funds for the country nor does it affect the quality of services.”

Unnamed government officials, cited by the La Nación daily said that the decision would save around US$10 million a year. According to WHO documents hosted on its website, an assessment of Argentina's funding capabilities for 2024-2025 proposed the nation contribute 0.71 percent of the organisation's overall budget, an estimated US$50 million. It is unclear how much of that is returned to Argentina via programmes and policies.

A lot of it returns to Argentina actually. Argentina has access to the OMS' common fund to purchase medicine and vaccines to combat diseases like HIV/AIDS, Chagas, Dengue and so many others, we need that shit. Now they're out of reach...

Following in Trump’s footsteps

Milei’s decision is in line with the recent executive order signed by Trump ordering the United States to depart the WHO. The United States is by far the WHO's biggest donor and its withdrawal will leave a major hole in the organisation's budget and its ability to respond to global public health threats.

In its last complete budget cycle, for 2022-23, the United States pitched in US$1.3 billion, representing 16.3 percent of the WHO's US$7.89 billion budget. Most of the US funding was via voluntary contributions.

The World Health Organization last week urged the United States to reconsider a decision to suspend funding for HIV treatment programmes in developing countries, after Trump ordered an almost-complete freeze on foreign aid.

"We call on the government of the United States of America to enable additional exemptions to ensure the delivery of lifesaving HIV treatment and care," the UN health body said on X, adding that it had "deep concern" over the funding pause. With regards to HIV, the agency said that its programmes provided access to "life-saving HIV therapy to more than 30 million people worldwide.”

We are being governed by people who want to kill, murder and exploit to no end and by washed up versions of the former.

Death to "america" and death to "israel".

The White House just issued an executive order on South Africa that includes admitting Afrikaner South Africans as refugees to the United States

Ukraine update from a sicko that still reads daily map updates:

3/4 of the big Russian winter battles have been wrapped up. Velika Novosilka, Kurakhove and Toretsk are now done, with Chasov Yar probably wrapping up before the end of this month. Well what's next? The big spring/summer battle will probably be the Pokrovsk-Myrnograd urban agglomeration, which seems to be heading towards the classic Russian maneuver of advancing towards the flanks, then making a quick dash to a village close to the last supply line of the city, putting the city into a semi-encirclement before starting to squeeze out Ukrainian units from the city by entering it before the encirclement really closes.

Other interesting developments are happening in the Oskol front near Kupiansk and the western sector of the Pokrovsk advancement. Russia has achieved a quite remarkable breakthrough on the Oskol front, establishing a good bridgehead on the western bank of the Oskol River, and now advancing fairly quickly due to the dire state of the AFU on that front. Another bridgehead was established closer to the Russian border a few days ago, and there are reports that there's a quite significant Russian grouping on the Belgorod-Kharkov border that might dash to Velkyi Burluk against barely armed Ukrainian border guards very soon.

The western sector of the Pokrovsk front is just 3 km from the borders of Dnipro Oblast. Crossing an imaginary border on a map is not really a major accomplishment, but it is still a bit symbolic and it would be the first time since the start of the war that Russia has a meaningful presence in Dnipro, after driving through a few times during the chaos of the first two weeks of the war. The way I see it, the war is not a decisive victory without at least a small presence in Dnipro, so entering that Oblast is at least a moral victory.

In awe of this woman's ability to keep digging herself deeper and deeper

So musk using DOJ as personal attack dogs

I've been living under a rock the past few months. Has anything come out with North Koreans in Russia or is that still most likely bullshit?

Columbia students just sued the university for attacks on pro-Palestine activism

China decides to impose a 10% tariff on US oil and 15% on coal produced in the country. China adopts economic measures against US companies, including Google and Calvin Klein. Among the actions are fines and suspension of purchase contracts

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Trump agrees to postpone Canada and Mexico tariffs by one month - The Guardian

President delays threatened 25% tariffs on US neighbors but China still to face 10% levy on exports to US from Tuesday. Donald Trump has pulled back from the brink of a trade war with Canada and Mexico, postponing sweeping new US tariffs on goods from its two closest economic partners by one month.

It is the third time in two weeks the US president has delayed his threatened 25% tariffs on the two countries. China is still set to face additional 10% levy on its exports to the US from Tuesday. Following talks with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, on Monday, Trump agreed to hold off from imposing new duties on the two countries.

The agreements came on a day of extreme volatility in global financial markets as rattled investors reacted to the prospect of a dramatically escalating dispute involving the world’s largest economies. The US president had upended US-Mexico ties over the weekend when he announced 25% tariffs and accused Sheinbaum’s administration of engaging in an “intolerable alliance” with Mexican crime groups.

Sheinbaum rejected that “slanderous” accusation, but on Monday morning struck a softer note as she announced “a series of agreements” with Trump after a conversation between the two leaders during which they agreed to pause US tariffs for a month to allow for fresh negotiations. Mexico had agreed to send 10,000 members of its national guard “to prevent drug trafficking from Mexico to the US, in particular of fentanyl”, Sheinbaum said. In return, the US had agreed to work to prevent high-powered weapons crossing the border into Mexico.

Trump confirmed the deal shortly afterwards on his Truth Social network. He said 10,000 Mexican soldiers would be “specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our country”. Negotiations involving senior Mexican officials, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, would take place during the pause, he said.

Following two calls with Trump on Monday, Trudeau announced that tariffs would be “paused” for 30 days. “Canada is implementing our $1.3bn border plan – reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl,” he said in a statement. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”

Late last year, Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China on the first day of his presidency. From the first day of his presidency, he said he would do so from 1 February. This weekend, he said they would kick in from 4 February. They have now been delayed until March. Economists have warned Trump’s planned wave of tariffs would risk raising prices for millions of Americans, just weeks after he pledged, upon taking office, to “rapidly” bring them down.

On Monday, however, Trump maintained that tariffs were a “very powerful” means of both strengthening the US economically and “getting everything else you want”. He had conceded over the weekend that they could cause “a little pain” in the US. Markets sold off sharply worldwide in response to what has been described as a “Trump tariff tantrum” before recovering some of their losses after news broke of the deal with Mexico. Wall Street fell in early trading, with the S&P 500 down almost 2%. Share prices in Europe followed a sharp move lower in Asia.

And the latest Racist-Libs-Making-Shit-Up-To-Feel-Better news for the week is:

After Trump’s remarks on Gaza, some in Dearborn, Michigan ‘think we screwed up’

USPS claims to be halting imports of packages from China. Wonder how long this latest manifestation of random thrashing will last?

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/07/g-s1-47322/musks-team-takes-control-of-key-systems-at-consumer-financial-protection-bureau Musk's team takes control of key systems at Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

There had been more US military activity around México. A United States Air Force RC-135V "Rivet Joint" Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft flew right up the Gulf of California/Sea of Cortez, likely spying on communications inside México by the military and cartels and even civilians if they want to. While US military aircraft have flown on the west side of the Baja California coastline before, this is the first time in recent years, to my knowledge, that a US military aircraft has flown within the Gulf of California itself.

Now did this US military aircraft enter Mexican airspace? There are many misinformed accounts on social media that will say yes, but the truth is, technically and legally, no, this US military aircraft did not enter Mexican airspace. A state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nmi (22 km; 14 mi) from it's baseline. This sea, including the airspace above it, is the sovereign territory of that nation. Anything outside of that is technically international waters (and airspace). I'll post an image here showing the territorial airspace and seas of Mexico.

Many misinformed social media accounts have confused the concepts of Flight Information Regions (FIR) and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) with a nation's territorial/sovereign waters and airspace. I think the source of this misinformation is because AI LLMs like Google AI, Gork, and ChatGPT also confuse this concept, so OSINT social media accounts using these LLMs to do research just blindly believed their output. Please do not believe everything AI models say, they are often incorrect.

The RC-135V aircraft made sure to stay clear of this 12 nautical mile border/demarcation, and U-turned before entering Mexican sovereign territory under international law. But the USA has now exercised freedom of navigation rights with a military aircraft in the Gulf of California, in the context of recent events.

Donald Trump has decided to suspend taxation on Mexico for a month, following talks with the country's president, Claudia Sheinbaum. The leader of the Latin country reportedly agreed to send 10,000 troops to control the border and curb illegal immigration to the US. In a statement, President Claudia said that the United States had “agreed to collaborate” to prevent large-caliber weapons from being trafficked into Mexico.

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Damn they’re going hard with it in Tennessee right now. Gov. Bill Lee’s “immigration enforcement plan” legislation passed and included a provision, stuck in at the last moment, to literally felonize any elected officials voting in favor of a sanctuary city bill, threatening them with police arrest, felony charge, $3,000 fine, and up to six years in prison. Couple articles on it here and here.

The legislature committee video on it is pretty wild if anyone can find it. The chairman just steamrolls a sponsor of the initial bill who was like wait why was this put in here. Meanwhile the Nashville democrat musters a whopping “be careful what you wish for” defense lmao. Literally the state using police to prevent its own politicians from voting for something.

Has this been done elsewhere or is this new? Feels like if there is something like this, it would be like a 1950s law felonizing any votes for a “communist policy” or something. But idk this feels like new territory and definitely something other states will replicate if court challenges fail

Some Finland news:

Incidents involving unauthorised access and damage at water towers in Finland received a lot of publicity last summer. According to Hakala, it is now quite certain that Russia was not behind these.

"Some of them are under preliminary investigation by the police, but our view is clear that there were no sabotage attempts by Russian proxies," Hakala says.

It is likely that the water tower incidents were cases of ordinary vandalism, says USU.-

There has been frantic consent manufacturing going on to fuel the fires of war and when a garden chair gets blown over by the wind, there is wide news coverage on how Russia did it. Far smaller are these follow up stories a year later where they have to admit that Russia definitely did not do it.

Zelenskyy told Trump Ukraine would consider sharing rare earth minerals in exchange for military support https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/zelenskyy-told-trump-ukraine-would-consider-sharing-rare-earth-minerals-in-exchange-for-military-support/ar-AA1yqayA

The US puppet president of Ecuador announces a 27% tariff on Mexico. Noboa has ordered the militarization of ports and borders but its his security forces that are working with the cartels.

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lol

Milei is continuing to ape Trump, including the transphobia:

AP: Argentina’s president bans gender-affirming care for people under age 18

@Torenico@hexbear.net Is this something that Milei can do unilaterally? The article mentions a 2012 law establishing protections.

A dog can’t play basketball

le epic airbud moment

This should be the copypasta we say to liberals everytime trump does the thing the liberals insist the law will not allow him too.

Deutsche Bank report: China eats the world

On February 5, 2025, Deutsche Bank published a research report titled "China Eats the World", drawing on the phrase by Marc Andreessen, who said in 2011, "Software is eating the world," making a prescient prediction that software would drive tremendous economic benefits. Deutsche Bank is also optimistic about China, viewing its criticized economic flaws as minor in light of its broader momentum.

it is february 9 and stalin saved the world from fascism

chat is this true

(yes I literally snapped a pic from a newspaper. Right from da source baby)

According to Ken Klippenstein, Mitch McConnell just fell down the stairs.

Geopolitical Economy Report - How Trump's tariffs will accelerate US decline. Probably nothing that will surprise most people here, but it's good to hear the analysis reaffirming it all, as well as providing more and deeper details I was unaware of. I won't attempt to summarize the entire video, but one of the main points is that Trump & co. do not understand the economic levers they're pulling on, and will ultimately only accelerate the US economy's downturn. They also share a view I've had and seen echoed here, that they expect certain industries to eventually push back on some of Trump's policies once it becomes clear how harmful they are.

Edit: This bit was especially relevant, I know a lot of us have been trying to gauge deeper meaning behind this admin's actions. Radhika Desai: "[in response to another panelist] I would say that you're, inadvertently I'm sure, being too complementary to Trump when you say that Trump is trying to manage US decline. I think, really, Trump is surfing US decline. He will make the most of it for himself and his corporate cronies and beyond that, I don't think Trump has the capacity to think of the United States as an economy, as a people, as a country, or anything like that"

oh my god our surfing emote is already ORANGE

Absolutely horrible political instincts on display by the Canadians here.

There is NO shot that Canada would refuse getting the one month extension themselves if Mexico didn’t get it too but they’re immediately gonna get pissy with Mexico for it?

VOX asked Hungarian ~~NED-beneficiaries~~ journalists what can they teach Americans about authoritarian regimes:

Apparently Orban is just a power hungry evil dude who loves money and power and took his chance. It's not like a historical process or something, shifts in societies just happen, because of a few bad actors.
Hungary was a "vibrant democracy" then the bad dudes came into power with a giant mandate. They used the unfortunate circumstances of the 2008 global economic crisis (what was that about anyway?)

ctrl+F "neoliberal" = Phrase not found.

The Hungarian economy was in shambles after the 2008 financial crisis — so bad, in fact, that it required an emergency $25 billion from the International Monetary Fund and others to avoid fiscal ruin — and the current prime minister was embroiled in scandal.

Wow so the evil right wingers came into power even after the glorious IMF saved the Hungarian economy? Huh? Why is that? Strange!

Just a few years back, the former Trump administration was distributing hundreds of millions of dollars towards destabilization and foreign coups through the State Department and USAID. We watched them do it to Bolivia, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela. As Senator, Marco Rubio spent years citing reports, think tanks, propaganda outlets, human rights orgs and opposition activists which are all bankrolled by USAID. He himself helped determine the destination of those funds. His friends are all recipients.

During Trump's last administration, he sent his VP to Colombia to personally deliver USAID supplies and to pledge additional funds to the Washington-appointed fake leader of Venezuela. Marco Rubio was key to the USAID money laundering pyramid scheme. 2019—Trump tripled 'democracy aid' to Venezuela (USAID). Trump tripled USAID funds to the Venezuelan opposition in 2019 after it learned about the widely reported corruption scandal involving large sums directed to Guaido's people by the Trump administration. Trump spent $24 million dollars to 'promote free press' in Venezuela in 2017 and 2018 alone.

• Camila Kasachuan News

NSFW probably death. slept into a moving

China could win big from transatlantic trade war, EU leaders warn Trump

Georgian opposition leader Nika Melia and the former mayor of Tblisi, Gigi Ugulava were arrested along with several other protestors over the weekend in renewed protests against the Georgian government

Protests have been ongoing in the country since the November parliamentary elections, in which the Georgian Dream Party retained power and subsequently voted in a new president under new presidential election rules.

The former President of Georgia, Salomé Zourabichvili, left the country after her term expired but has yet to concede that she is no longer president.

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Georgian Juan Guaido Gaiden Arc continues

Islamist reactionaries demolish the house of Bangladesh founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Completely planned. Certainly done by BNP and Jamaat fundamentalists.

Looks like the Wiki page on Jamaat Bangladesh has been edited to show their ideology as "moderate" even though they collaborated with Pakistan during the genocide.

2024 was a great year for these Muslim Brotherhood allied parties.