lucareds85

London-based financial journalist. Managing editor at Reorg and blogger for Huffington Post Italia. AC Milan, Philip Roth, Nina Simone and some good food.

[Rory Stewart @RoryStewartUK]

It is so difficult to understand why Trump launched his Iran operation - an op so clearly damaging to US national interests, the global economy, Ukraine and the US’ closest allies in Europe and the Gulf.
Then there is this….

[Louis Theroux @louistheroux]

. @Issaamro who featured in The Settlers has posted videos of his latest harassment by settlers and soldiers. Our team has been in regular contact with him since the documentary and over the last 24 hours. We are continuing to monitor the situation.

[Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם @yuval_abraham]

A group of settlers just lynched Hamdan Ballal, co director of our film no other land. They beat him and he has injuries in his head and stomach, bleeding. Soldiers invaded the ambulance he called, and took him. No sign of him since.

[lucareds85 @Lucareds85]

They say they defend free speech

[Nandita Bose @nanditab1]

Can confirm White House is letting in a reporter from Russian state news agency TASS to cover the bilat between Trump and Zelenskiy. Reuters and AP were excluded.

[Robert Peston @Peston]

There is nothing good to say about Trump’s imposition of tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, his probable imposition of the import tax on the EU and his possible imposition on the UK.

Tariffs are a tax on consumption and on investments. They push up the costs of imported parts for American manufacturers and of stuff in the shops for American consumers - unless importers absorb some or all of the price increase, which would depress their earnings.

You may wonder why Trump would wish to increase the cost of living for Americans who just voted him in because they were furious with the last president for not doing more to temper the squeeze on their living standards caused by Putin’s energy shock, but there we are.

And if the economically attacked countries and regions retaliate with tit-for-tat tariffs, which seems inevitable, then the consumption and investment tax becomes global.

So inflation would rise, slowing or reversing the current cycle of interest rate cuts. And economic growth would fall.

Trump hopes in the long term his tariffs would somehow secure two benefits for the US. First, that rival powers will capitulate to American might and give him better terms of trade for US exporters. Quite what he means by this is not clear however.

Second he assumes one impact will be that over time businesses will choose to locate themselves in the US to avoid the tariffs. In other words, the free trade of globalisation would be replaced by a new era of mercantilist beggar-my-neighbour.

The politics of his decisions are easy to see: they are the first dramatic populist response to the powerful and correct sentiment of many older depressed industrial communities that globalisation impoverished them while enriching others.

But just because these so-called rust belt communities have a legitimate grievance does not mean Trump’s prescriptions are correct, even for them. The shock to the cost of living will hurt rustbelt communities along with everyone else. And who knows whether relocated manufacturing will help them, if it ever transpires?

As for the impact on the UK, Trump says he hasn’t made up his mind whether to impose tariffs here.

His reasoning is apparently that the UK enjoys only a very small surplus on its trade in goods with the US. Let’s just hope he doesn’t notice the UK has a substantial surplus on its trade in services with America.

I say “apparently” because it is also possible that his hesitancy in respect of the UK stems from his conspicuous love of the royal family - and a reluctance to jeopardise the prospective pomp and circumstance of a state visit to the UK.

What should the British prime minister do? Probably just remain ineffably courteous in conversations with Trump and keep fingers and toes crossed.

If Trump does slap the import tax on UK goods, then Starmer has a dilemma.

For an open economy and free-trading nation, the rational response might be not to retaliate, as a symbolic gesture. But this wouldn’t do much to protect our living standards if the rest of the world is in a tariff driven phase of higher prices and lower growth.

Also, to our EU neighbours, such UK restraint might look as though Starmer is sucking up to Trump, while devaluing them, and could complicate his hopes of improving the terms of trade for the UK with the EU. 

As I have said repeatedly, Trump is forcing Starmer, as much as he does pretty much everyone else, to choose him as the UK’s closest ally, much as a mafia boss might do (this is the analogy of an official experienced in geopolitics).

Starmer’s hope therefore that he can be simultaneously best friend of Trump’s Washington and of Brussels looks increasingly hard to sustain.

It is quite a day therefore for Starmer to be the first UK prime minister to attend an EU council of leaders summit since Brexit. Nothing trivial to discuss.

[NASA @NASA]

Keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.

In memory of David Lynch, we will continue to explore the otherworldly and the unknown. We will focus not on the loss, but on what we gained from the years we shared this planet with you. We will see you in our dreams.

[Film Updates @FilmUpdates]

Martin Scorsese pays tribute to David Lynch.

"He put images on the screen unlike anything that I or anybody else had ever seen - he made everything strange, uncanny, revelatory and new. And he was absolutely uncompromising, from start to finish. We were lucky to have had David Lynch."

[Neil Henderson @hendopolis]

INDEPENDENT: Five years on, the true cost of Brexit #TomorrowsPapersToday

[Dylan O'Sullivan @DylanoA4]

I think about this moment from Bob Dylan's 60 Minutes interview a lot

[lucareds85 @Lucareds85]

Tremendous song!

[HustleBitch @HustleBitch_]

another VIRAL "They're Eating The Dogs" song remix with President Trump

[lucareds85 @Lucareds85]

Solo #Fonseca i “dirigenti” non l’hanno ancora capito #saveacmilan

[Corriere della Sera @Corriere]

Toscani: «Ho perso 40 chili in un anno. La mia malattia è incurabile. Sono stato sempre fortunato, vivere così non mi interessa» https://t.co/345cuYjESc

[ALASTAIR CAMPBELL @campbellclaret]

They don’t. Believe me. Why do you talk such utter shite? And why are you morphing into a sovereign individual
anarcho-capitalist narcissist with fascist leanings? Some journey you’ve been on.

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

we’ve come full circle.
worth a moment of your time. https://t.co/HUgVyjDHmG

[ITV News @itvnews]

Exit poll suggests Labour have won a landslide victory with an overall majority of around 170 seats. The Conservatives are likely to record their lowest ever number of seats and share of the vote in a general election since 1832
https://t.co/ZWRKcmYUCX

[lucareds85 @Lucareds85]

😂🤣

[Rishi Sunak @RishiSunak]

We shouldn’t be reliant on foreign food. Buy British.

[lucareds85 @Lucareds85]

Grazie mister per averci fatto tornare la passione per l’#AcMilan. Grazie per il calcio incredibile dei primi anni, per la semifinale di Champions e soprattutto per lo scudetto più bello. Poi troppo buio, bisognava fermarsi prima, ma va anche bene cosi

https://t.co/yXkiPXP35N

[AC Milan @acmilan]

𝓓𝓮𝓪𝓻 𝓜𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻 ✍

[Alessandro Nizegorodcew @Alenize82]

Il problema del #Milan non è soltanto #Pioli (che, come ho detto più volte, ha finito il proprio ciclo a gennaio 2023)

Il problema non è essersi fatti soffiare #Thuram, perché al Milan da prima punta avrebbe fatto molta fatica. Il problema è non aver rimediato. Il problema è andare a trattare Taremi negli ultimi tre giorni di mercato sapendo che il Porto è società scomodissima nelle trattative. Il problema è aver preso Jovic che rende solo con un’altra punta accanto

Il problema è aver puntato su #Krunic, che voleva andare via già l’anno prima. È andato via. Non è stato sostituito

Il problema è non aver preso alcun centrocampista con buone letture difensive

Il problema non sono i giocatori acquistati, che sono tutti forti, molto forti o forti in prospettiva. Il problema è sbagliare la costruzione della rosa

Il problema è non creare un ponte tra società/proprietà e squadra. #Maldini e #Massara mandati via ma non sostituiti

Il problema è far fare il calciomercato a chi non lo ha mai fatto e non ne conosce le dinamiche (vedi sopra, caso Taremi)

Il problema è non aver capito che Pioli era da cambiare a fine anno, a prescindere dall’esito dell’Europa League. E che ora si è in ritardo per un nuovo allenatore

[Robert Peston @Peston]

It’s almost impossible to believe this world - this NHS - existed. Less than 20 years ago