Bulletins and News Discussion from April 14th to April 20th, 2025 - The Lamentations of a Levy-Loving Leader

Image is of Trump's initial set of reciprocal tariffs. Source is CNN and Reuters.

It's difficult to keep up with the news around the tariffs; they get instated, then dropped, then reinstated... for example, on Friday, Trump said that certain electronics like smartphones would be exempt, causing markets to rally a great deal, but now the Commerce Secretary has said that they might not be exempt? The state of play right now, if you haven't been keeping up this week, is that the US recently announced a 90-day global pause on implementing the tariffs he had planned (that is, 25% on certain Canadian and Mexican goods, and at least 10% on every other nation) but nonetheless increased tariffs on China to 145%.

Meanwhile, China has been - quite remarkably - standing their ground, increasing tariffs on the US to 125%, and putting restrictions on rare earths. Xi Jinping has been in Vietnam and has made statements against a tariff war there, saying that it would have no winners. Meanwhile, a Chinese spokesperson has essentially said that China can endure the tariff war due to the increasing demand from its domestic market in combination with its growing economic ties with other countries.

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An update from Ansarallah (also known as the Houthis) on the situation in Yemen, within the context of escalating US military aggression and airstrikes, including the bombing of Ras Isa Fuel Port in Hodeidah, which killed 74 people and injured 171 (some of whom were immolated by the resulting fires), as well as severely damaging or destroying all the fuel infrastructure at the port, including tanker tracks, storage tanks, and piping, leading to large fires and oil slicks that burnt and destroyed everything.
The National Defense Council, chaired by His Excellency Field Marshal Mahdi Al-Mashat, President of the Supreme Political Council and Chairman of the National Defense Council, addresses the political and military situation, developments in the US aggression against our country, and options for responding and confronting the aggression.
Twitter source, retweeted by official Yemeni Armed Forces officials such as Brigadier General Yahya Sare'e
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~~Are the Saudis about to get bombed again? Saudi Arabian Formula 1 Grand Prix starts in less than two hours.~~
In the end, it was just the announcement of Yemeni sanctions against US companies, and an overview of military actions. Biggest military news is that it's heavily implied that Ansarallah are primarily using an electro optical monitoring system for air defence, instead of a system in the electromagnetic spectrum like radar, with comments about bypassing "electromagnetic jamming". No big announcements otherwise.
- using an electro optical monitoring system for air defence, instead of a system in the electromagnetic spectrum like radar
  I'm new to this language but isn't an electrooptical sensor just a camera? that would make it a receive-only, passive system like radar, and not detectable. technically still using the electromagnetic spectrum though.
  
  Yes you're 100% correct, it mainly uses infrared/thermal cameras basically, like a ground based version of the Infrared Search and Track (IRST) on fighter aircraft. Made a brain fart on the electromagnetic spectrum there, thanks for correcting that. Since the cameras dont emit electromagnetic radiation from the sensors themselves, they are hard to detect, that's what I meant. Obviously the vehicles still have and emit or reflect their own infrared thermal signature in the electromagnetic spectrum.
  As for systems that Ansarallah can have and link up with their air defence systems against fighter aircraft, one of these would be variants of the Iranian Sepehr-14 fire control system, designed to link up with the Iranian Raad air defence system that can fire Sayyad 2C surface to air missiles. The Raad and Sayyad 2C are all systems that Ansarallah already have.
  Disadvantages are range and the amount of targets that can be tracked at once, as the atmosphere and weather attenuate infrared, and advanced video and image processing is needed to track many targets. The Sepehr-14 IRST can track 15 targets up to a range of 40km. When radar guided, Sayyad 2C missiles have a range up to 75km. So range is almost halved without radar. Stealth aircraft also use various materials and design techniques to lower their infrared signature, particularly once they're at higher altitudes. Fighter aircraft also have their own IRST and electro optical targeting systems with infrared cameras, for tracking ground targets, which could include the Sepehr-14.

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