Trade War with China #2

The US targets postal deliveries out of China and Hong Kong this morning and China fires back with a thinly veiled threat to probe into the Apple App Store fees.

The news on Apple broke just before pre-market trade opened. The stock is down.

The Chinese playbook is becoming a bit clearer. Focus retaliatory efforts on those points of leverage which (1) can have the most immediate impact and (2) not be viewed as being overly painful to the American populace.

Furthermore, China is clearly unwilling to negotiate like Mexico, Canada, Panama, Colombia. There seems to be a desire to call out Trump’s threat. Cards on the table.

Things could turn real ugly, real fast.

In the UK, there's a celebrity bartender called Merlin on a TV programme called "First Dates", he's currently orange pilling on X:

IRS has been using AI to access bank accounts of US citizens without a warrant and without suspicion of a crime.

Sparrow v2.1.0 released with:

• Lark for USB hardware wallets

• Ledger multisig wallet registration save

• Jade Plus USB support

• Restore tables sort & sizing on wallet load

• PSBTv2 support

China Afternoon Missive

Now the commentariat shifts focus to #China. No deal was struck with the US, meaning that Xi Jinping was unwilling to take the Trump call, unlike Trudeau and Sheinbaum, and now the 10% tariffs are formally on. For its part, China has followed with 15% tariffs on certain US imports albeit starting next week.

Expect there to be an ungodly deluge of headlines and social media commentary. Please take all the “hot takes” with a large grain of salt. The US is operating from a position of bellicosity, nothing more. Moreover, when you take a moment and actually consider all pressure points from both sides, you’ll quickly find that China is equally positioned if not the party with actual leverage.

The only certainty is that there’ll be more volatility across all asset classes. Stay safe out there fam

I know a lot of people are sharing this but some haven’t given credit to Jeff Park from BitWise, so just doing it on my end here.

Is #Bitcoin no longer LEGAL TENDER in El Salvador 🇸🇻 ?

According to Julie Kozack, Director of the Communications Department at the IMF, the use of Bitcoin is now "voluntary".