L’imposizione di dazi doganali – da ultimo quelli del 15 per cento sulle importazioni dall’Unione Europea – è presentata dall’amministrazione Trump come una vittoria per l’economia americana, una dimostrazione di forza negoziale e un modo per “riequilibrare” la bilancia commerciale. Ma la narrazione poggia su due gravi fraintendimenti, che vale la pena chiarire.
Imporre un dazio del 15 per cento sulle importazioni da una delle economie più avanzate, diversificate e competitive del mondo, come l’Unione europea, significa aumentare del 15 per cento il prezzo di quei prodotti per chi li acquista negli Stati Uniti. In pratica, è una tassa aggiuntiva a carico dei consumatori americani e delle imprese americane che importano. È difficile interpretarla come una “vittoria di Trump”: quando due economie complesse e interdipendenti come gli Stati Uniti e l’Europa alzano barriere commerciali reciproche, non ci sono vincitori, ma solo perdenti. Si riduce la concorrenza, aumentano i prezzi e, potenzialmente, si rallenta la crescita. L’efficienza del mercato viene compromessa, con una riduzione di benessere reciproca. Certamente, i dazi americani sulle esportazioni Ue non sono una vittoria per l’Europa. Ma di certo non lo sono nemmeno per gli Usa.
Secondo errore: le entrate da dazi non le pagano “gli altri”
L’amministrazione Trump ha spesso rivendicato l’aumento delle entrate da dazi doganali. Ad esempio, tra ottobre 2024 e aprile 2025, gli Stati Uniti hanno raccolto circa 59,2 miliardi di dollariin entrate, rispetto ai 44,1 miliardi dello stesso periodo dell’anno precedente. Solo nel mese di aprile 2025 le entrate nette hanno raggiunto 15,6 miliardi di dollari, quasi il doppio rispetto a marzo (8,2 miliardi dollari). L’amministrazione Usa prevede di incassare, entro la fine del 2025, maggiori entrate da dazi per circa 250 miliardi di dollari.
Ma chi paga veramente queste entrate? Di certo, non l’impresa italiana che esporta formaggio grana negli Stati Uniti. Nei registri doganali, il soggetto tenuto al pagamento del dazio è l’importatore americano – ad esempio, la “American Cheese Importers LLC”, con sede in New Jersey – un’azienda che impiega lavoratori americani, paga tasse americane e fa parte della catena produttiva nazionale.
La “American Cheese Importers LLC” potrà decidere di ribaltare il costo del dazio sul prezzo finale del prodotto: in tal caso, a pagare sarà il consumatore americano che troverà il grana più caro al supermercato di Chicago o New York. Oppure, potrà assorbire il maggior costo comprimendo i propri margini di profitto: in tal caso, a pagare sarà l’impresa americana stessa, con possibili ricadute su investimenti e occupazione.
L’esportatore italiano, in tutto ciò, può essere colpito solo indirettamente: se riduce il prezzo per rimanere competitivo, subisce un taglio ai ricavi; se la domanda dei consumatori americani si sposta verso prodotti alternativi non colpiti da dazio (ad esempio, il formaggio olandese), perde quote di mercato. Ma non è lui a pagare materialmente l’imposta. La tesi dell’amministrazione Trump, quindi, che il resto del mondo stia elargendo denaro agli Usa attraverso i dazi è semplicemente falsa.
In a dramatic development, Poland has discovered the largest oil and gas deposit in its history just off its Baltic Coast, containing 22 million tons of crude oil and 5 million cubic meters of natural gas, with more likely located in the area. The find, which has been hailed as a “breakthrough,” marks one of the most significant energy discoveries in Europe in the last decade, and will more than double Poland’s current oil reserves, which sit at just over 20 million tons. The find is located just shy of the German border, off the coast of the port city of Świnoujście (Swinemünde) in northwestern Poland.
Why it matters: The discovery of this deposit will not only massively help Poland diversify its energy resources and move it closer to energy independence, but may also allow it to emerge as a much more serious regional oil and gas exporter, potentially weakening the reliance of countries like Slovakia, Hungary, and other Central European states on Russian energy. While such an outcome is still years away, with this find, Poland may now be poised to become an even more influential player in Europe, not just as a political and military heavyweight, but as a provider of energy security as well — as long as it plays its cards right and avoids letting domestic political squabbling squander this immense geopolitical opportunity.
En Indonésie, l’appel à l’aide d’un ex-soldat enrôlé dans l’armée russe enflamme le débat. Dans une vidéo TikTok, un ancien membre de la marine indonésienne, qui aurait perdu sa citoyenneté en partant combattre avec l’armée russe en Ukraine, appelle à l’aide Jakarta pour pouvoir retourner dans son pays. Son appel suscite une vive polémique à bien des égards dans son pays.
“En raison de mon ignorance, j'ai signé un contrat avec le ministère russe de la Défense, ce qui a entraîné le retrait de ma citoyenneté. [...] Je vous prie de bien vouloir faire preuve de magnanimité pour m'aider à mettre fin à ce contrat et à me restituer mon droit à la citoyenneté pour que je puisse retourner en Indonésie” : ainsi s’exprime Satria Arta Kumbara, en uniforme militaire, face caméra, dans une //www.tiktok.com/@zstorm689/video/7529093424381807877">vidéo publiée sur TikTok le 20 juillet.
The Telegraph has found that Chinese companies directly supplied parts and materials worth at least £47m to Russian firms sanctioned for producing drones, from 2023 to 2024, a period when Moscow was building large-scale logistics infrastructure for its domestic drone programme.
Nearly a quarter of the value of those shipments – £10.7m – were sent to sanctioned Russian firms linked to the production of Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones, operating in a special economic zone (SEZ) in the town of Alabuga, according to Telegraph analysis of global trade records compiled by Sayari, a risk and data intelligence company.
Goods directly exported by China to Russia included aircraft engines, microchips, metal alloys, camera lenses, fibreglass, emulsion binders for fibreglass, and carbon fibre yarns – all key components to produce the drones that wreak nightly havoc on Ukraine.
In all, The Telegraph identified 97 Chinese suppliers. (The Telegraph)
Lured by promises of high pay, European travel, education, and the possibility of “finding love,” African girls are being brought to Tatarstan’s “Special Economic Zone” located about 1000 kilometers (625 miles) east of Moscow. Their passports are then taken away and they are made to handover their nominal $700 a month salaries to pay for company housing and other necessities. They are then put to work for long hours gluing together the composite suicide drones.
The Russian military company JSC Alabuga dealt with an acute labor shortage to build Shahed 136 drones (for the Ukraine war) by raising salaries and exploiting high school-age students and immigrant employees recruited under false pretenses. JSC Alabuga has been using two programs to actively recruit young men and women, primarily aged 16-22, to make military drones: Alabuga Polytechnic is used to recruit students within Russia, and the Alabuga Start program is used to recruit workers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (also known as CIS countries) and other countries, primarily African countries.
This deceptive and manipulative recruitment effort is intended primarily to enable JSC Alabuga to meet its ambitious Shahed 136 kamikaze drone production goals for the Russian military, a project that Russia steeps in secrecy, to the point of calling it motorboat manufacturing. Potential recruits are not told that they could be involved in producing Shahed 136 drones
Alabuga Polytechnic’s students and Alabuga Start’s recruits have produced thousands of Shahed drones and dozens, perhaps hundreds of Albatross M5 drones for Russian combat operations against Ukraine,
Aware of the Russian legal problems of hiring workers under 18 years old, defined as children by the United Nations, JSC Alabuga lobbied Russian authorities to change labor laws to allow minors under 18 to work in riskier work environments, which includes Alabuga because of the use of toxic chemicals in making the airframe and the danger of explosions from fuel and high explosives.
The Wall Street Journal reported since its inception that over one thousand women from all over Africa went to Alabuga under Alabuga Start, and another thousand are likely to go this year, based on Ugandan officials aiding or knowledgeable about the recruitment effort. At least twenty-seven countries have sent participants through Alabuga Start to work at Alabuga, most are in Africa, but also seven are in Commonwealth of Independent State countries
Alabuga Start uses several tactics to attract foreign females to join its program. It offers a generous pay of 60,000₽ per month ($673 USD) and a certificate of professional training such as in “Quality Management of Products, Processes and Services” from the technological college Kazan National Research Technical University The participants are not formal students at the technical college and are only listed on the school’s roster to obtain a professional training certificate.
Alabuga Start notes that the salary it offers is at least double the average monthly salary in countries such as: Zimbabwe, Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, and Rwanda. The program even goes as far to claim through videos and advertisements that Alabuga Start participants can “find love” and start families in Russia, and that the Alabuga Polytech offers a great way to do that.
As mentioned earlier, more than an estimated 90 percent of them work in drone production. In some leaked documents from 2023, they were called "mulattoes," a term referring to people of mixed race but apparently used here in a derogatory manner. The modules where they worked were labelled with an additional “M,” or “MM, for “mulatto module.”
Russian companies are widening their campaign to find young African women to help fill a labor shortage, heightening concern many are being deployed in Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine.
The latest drive is in South Africa, a fellow member of the BRICS block of large emerging market economies. One of the main recruiters, Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan, produces military drones. South Africa’s government is now investigating what Russian companies are doing and what their intentions are, a person familiar with the situation said.
The push involves organizations using BRICS branding. The local chapter of the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance signed an agreement in May to supply Alabuga and house builder Etalonstroi Ural with a combined 5,600 workers next year.
“Russia is sitting with a demand for workforce,” Lebogang Zulu, who chairs the women’s alliance and inked the deal on a trip to Russia earlier this year, told Bloomberg. “South Africa is sitting with a crisis of unemployment.”
Russia’s aging and shrinking population, coupled with the loss of hundreds of thousands of men to the front line in Ukraine and a spike in salaries, has left a hole in the labor market. At the same time, a third of the workforce in South Africa is unemployed. But while the economics might make sense, the recruitment push is drawing increasing scrutiny.
The Alabuga zone, for example, has been accused in three research reports from organizations including the Institute for Science and International Security, or ISIS, of tricking African women into working at the plant assembling Shahed 136 kamikaze drones. Women are viewed as more reliable than men for the specific kind of work, according to ISIS.
Officials in Pretoria may summon Russia’s diplomatic representatives to answer questions, the person familiar with the situation said. They asked not to be identified because a public statement hasn’t been made.
“The South African government is actively investigating reports of foreign programs that recruit South Africans under false pretenses,” the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in response to questions. “The South African government is yet to find any credible evidence that job offers in Russia are inconsistent with their stated purpose. However, the government has noted the alleged recruitment of youth by the Alabuga company.”
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In einem Teil Deutschlands werden die Anhänger einer bundesweit aktiven, traditionellen Partei verfolgt. Einer Partei, die in vielen Bundes- und Landesregierungen beteiligt war und ist. Darf das sein?
Die Parteibasis schlägt Alarm
Brief an die Grünen-Spitze: "Dies ist ein verzweifelter Hilfeschrei"
Aktualisiert am 26.07.2025, 15:23 Uhr
Angriffe auf Politikerinnen und Politiker machten in den vergangenen Wahlkämpfen immer wieder Schlagzeilen. Kommunalpolitiker aus Thüringen haben sich nun an ihre Parteiführung gewandt.
Grünen-Parteichef Felix Banaszak hat sich besorgt über Schilderungen von Hass und Hetze durch Thüringer Kommunalpolitiker gezeigt. Er nehme das sehr ernst, sagte Banaszak auf Anfrage.
Zuvor hatte der "Spiegel" berichtet, dass zwei Grünen-Kommunalpolitiker Banaszak und der Co-Parteivorsitzenden Franziska Brantner in einem Brief die schwierige Situation im ländlichen Thüringer Raum geschildert hätten. "Dieser Brief an euch ist ein verzweifelter Hilfeschrei, denn: Wir wissen nicht mehr weiter", zitierte das Magazin aus dem Schreiben von Matthias Kaiser und Felix Kalbe aus Gotha.
In dem Schreiben, das nach Angaben des "Spiegel" auf den 16. Juli datiert ist, berichten die beiden Politiker den Angaben nach darüber, dass sich immer mehr Mitglieder aus dem aktiven Parteileben zurückzögen. Es sei gefährlich geworden, Grünen-Mitglied im ländlichen Thüringen zu sein. In den Wahlkämpfen des vergangenen Jahres sei es normal gewesen, auf offener Straße als Grüner beleidigt oder angespuckt zu werden. "Fast wöchentlich wurden Hassbotschaften an unsere Bürofenster geklebt. Sprüche wie "Euch Grüne hängen wir auf" waren alltäglich", zitierte das Magazin aus dem Schreiben.
Ähnlicher Brief an Landesinnenminister
Kaiser, der für die Grünen im Kreistag Gotha sitzt, und Kalbe, Mitglied des Stadtrats von Gotha, hatten sich bereits in einem ähnlichen Brief an Landesinnenminister Georg Maier (SPD) gewandt. "Mit unseren Briefen wollten wir deutlich machen, wie ernst die Lage hier vor Ort in Gotha ist", teilte Kalbe der Deutschen Presse-Agentur mit. Sie stehe stellvertretend für zahlreiche ländliche Regionen, wie sie in Thüringen, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Sachsen-Anhalt existierten.
Sind die Grünen die neuen Juden? Sollten sie wie die jüdische Gemeinde besonderen Polizeischutz erhalten, und sollten Belästigungen und Schäden bei Grünen und grünen Institutionen von Polizei und Gerichten strafrechtlich verfolgt werden? Es ist inakzeptabel, dass mitteldeutsche Bundesländer einfach wegschauen, wenn eine Partei und ihre Anhänger geschädigt und verfolgt werden. Wenn solche Bundesländer keine wirksamen Maßnahmen ergreifen, sollten sie unter Bundesverwaltung gestellt und von Berlin aus regiert werden, bis die verfassungsmäßige Ordnung wiederhergestellt ist.
Heinrich von Loesch
Nebenbei: Wegen herkömmlicher Standesethik achtet der Autor als Journalist traditioneller Art darauf, politisch ungebunden zu sein. Kein grünlicher Schimmer!
