Ursula Gauthier

Ex-correspondent in China expelled for reporting on Xinjiang. Keeps writing about Uyghur, Tibetan and Chinese victims of the CCP. Also
@ugauthier.bsky.social

[Matt McDermott @mattmfm]

The new Pope’s Twitter suggests he is pro gun reform, supports climate action, backed Black Lives Matter, strongly opposed to MAGA immigration policies — and clearly has no patience for JD Vance.

[Ursula Gauthier @ugauthier]

Et dans son dernier tweet, le nouveau pape Leon XIV s'en prend bille en tête à Trump et à Bukele, le président du Salvador, et à leur honteux accord sur les déportations.
Ca va être intéressant à regarder.

[Jon Favreau @jonfavs]

An American pope who fights with JD Vance on Twitter?

I am so in

[Ursula Gauthier @ugauthier]

Un des derniers tweets du cardinal Robert Prevost avant qu'il soit élu pape.
Il dit tout de go : "JD Vance se trompe".
Ce dernier avait pontifié (de travers, bien entendu) sur la notion d'ordo amoris.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna was tortured to death in Russian captivity, The Guardian

Her body was returned without eyes, brain, or larynx. Burn marks on her feet. Stab wounds. Broken rib. Signs of strangulation. 1/

[Maya Wang 王松蓮 @wang_maya]

China's reportedly dropping its retaliatory sanctions to court EU. If so, EU has leverage over China. It should press China to end crimes against humanity, free the hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in prison & end forced labor https://t.co/o4K9HeZPoR

[Robert Peston @Peston]

We just learned that the world’s most powerful person, Donald Trump, has a boss: the bond market.

He may not have acknowledged this to himself, yet, but the global financial tumult he caused - and has temporarily eased - has locked him in a fiscal prison.

Because, as I have been saying for 24 hours, he came perilously close yesterday to having caused such an extreme fall in the price of US government debt that it would have become prohibitively expensive for his administration to fund a large deficit - more than 6% of GDP - and also to refinance the almost $8 trillion of government debt that matures in the coming year (almost a third of America’s sovereign debt).

The point is he is totally in hock to the good will of bonds investors.

And when he announced his reckless roster of massive tariffs eight days ago he alienated them, because they feared he would tank the economy such that tax revenues would plummet and the deficit would balloon.

So they sold US government bonds, Treasuries, and the yield on the bonds - the de facto interest rate - soared.

Which is why Trump blinked, and put on hold the more extreme tariffs, except for the 140% on China, for 90 days.

You might think the worst part of this is the uncertainty he has created for businesses and investors for the next 90 days. Since no one in their right minds would make a major US investment till the final tariff determinations are made.

But the cancerous uncertainty is not the worst of it.

The worst of it is he has shredded any respect that overseas governments and investors might have had for America’s economic and fiscal competence.

Shades - you might say - of how Truss and Kwarteng’s unwise unfunded tax cuts undermined the perceived fiscal competence of the UK.

But unlike Truss and Kwarteng, there is pretty much no mechanism for removing Trump.

All of which means that bond and stock markets will remain fragile and volatile - fearful that Trump will regain his mojo and engage in some other fiscal extravagance.

He has also handed a loaded gun to his perceived enemy, China, and his supposed ally Japan.

This matters in both cases, because he is engaged in the mother of all trade wars with China - and Japan wants a trade deal with him that would see it escape mega tariffs.

The loaded guns they have are their massive loans to the US government. Japan owns more than a trillion dollars of US Treasuries and China not much less.

If they were to sell those bonds, or even if they chose not to refinance maturing bonds, that could be a disaster for Trump. Because it could cause another potentially crippling spike in bond yields.

Here is the measure of Trump’s debacle.

He may well have trashed America’s single most important financial competitive advantage, namely that investors have traditionally bought the dollar and US Treasuries at a time of economic and political uncertainty.

No more - because he personally has become the world’s source of economic uncertainty snd anxiety.

So, as I say he, is now in a fiscal prison. And if bond investors, including Japan and China, see him imposing tariffs or cutting taxes in ways they don’t like, they learned yesterday they have the means and power to stop him.

[Ricardo Hausmann @ricardo_hausman]

There is a reason why major public decisions need to be discussed by sub-committees, then committees, then the whole chamber, then the other chamber. And then the President. It is a system intended to prevent the idiocy and the lunacy of “Liberation Day”. The worst economic mistake ever.

[Theresa Fallon @TheresaAFallon]

👀China Will Launch an Invasion of Taiwan In Next Few Months acc to Intel Sources. This is being prompted by belief among the Chinese Communist Party snr leadrshp that US administration in DC will either be unwilling or unable to prevent an invasion by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) https://t.co/iEflr9mz27

[Ursula Gauthier @ugauthier]

Quand un amiral américain à la retraite se paye le vice-président Vance qui s’est rendu sur la base militaire américaine au Groenland ⬇️

« Vance porte la veste de son papa. »

[Admiral Mike Franken @FrankenforIowa]

Pres Putin understands Pres Trump's annexation of Greenland, while VP Vance wears his dad's jacket.

[Dominik Hasek @hasek_dominik]

I recommend this video from the former US ambassador to Denmark to every US citizen. So that they know that the citizens of this country,which their US vice president referred to as a bad ally,were putting their lives on the line for the US in Afghanistan

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

free speech*
(terms and conditions may apply)

[Cyrille Amoursky @AmourskyCyrille]

🇺🇸🇷🇺 Les États-Unis ont capitulé face à Moscou.

Interview catastrophique de l’envoyé spécial de Trump en Russie et au Moyen-Orient Steve Witkoff.

Il reprend mot à mot le récit russe concernant les régions russophones qui seraient ‘légitimement russes’.

Il ne connaît même pas le nom des régions concernées.

Il donne une légitimité à un référendum qui n’a été aucunement démocratique et qui s’est déroulé dans le sang, la pression et la terreur.

Il parle d’un problème constitutionnel pour l’Ukraine pour expliquer l’opposition de Kyiv a reconnaître les annexions russes.

Comme s’il s’agissait uniquement d’un problème juridique et non pas d’une guerre meurtrière sans la moindre justification avec pour conséquence l’occupation, la torture et la russification.

Cette intervention de Witkoff est une honte !

[Tristan Snell @TristanSnell]

For the last 3 years, the US kept a database to track thousands and thousands of Ukrainian CHILDREN abducted by Russia

The Trump administration not only just stopped the program -- they appear to have deleted all of the data

Trump is now aiding and abetting Putin's WAR CRIMES

[The Economist @TheEconomist]

The demise of Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other broadcasters weakens America and supporters of democracy https://t.co/5Rg5HvzYGU

[Nicolas Tenzer @NTenzer]

It happened in the US—not Russia or China.
A 🇫🇷 scholar who came to the US to attend a conference was turned back at the border because he had expressed a critical personal opinion on Trump's research policy.
Laptop & phone seized.
Right outrage.
#freedom
https://t.co/mtiGzCEfDT

[Sari Arho Havrén @SariArhoHavren]

Indeed, China and Russia both have long worked to make “America against America” and exploited its vulnerabilities to dismantle the society from within. They have succeeded beyond their plans with the help of Donald Trump, his broligarchs and MAGA movement.

Globally, America is smaller by the day. Putin disrespecting Trump (not only by making him wait but by Russian forces striking Slovyansk’s energy facilities straight after they agreed not to) says it all: why would Putin even bother; together with Xi, they are accomplishing the unthinkable.

[Malcolm Turnbull @TurnbullMalcolm]

It’s only because of France that the Americans aren’t playing cricket and singing God Save the King.

[Financial Times @FT]

Breaking news: In an emergency session of the outgoing Bundestag, the chancellor-in-waiting won the support of 513 lawmakers, more than the two-thirds majority required for the constitutional changes. https://t.co/6GDTmEPkrM

[Yaroslav Trofimov @yarotrof]

As Putin and Trump speak, Germany’s parliament makes the constitutional change needed for Europe to defend itself alone, if needed.

[Nicolas Tenzer @NTenzer]

There is a full ideological collusion, probably more, between Trump and Putin.
Let's abandon any hope: Trump won't change under the pressures of US (former) Allies.
Period.