Val Kilmer passed away, the actor famous for films like Top Gun, or Batman Forever or as it's now known, Batman Not Forever. For what it's worth I'm not surprised, he was coughing his guts out in Tombstone and that was over 30 yers ago. Anyway, his agent says he's set to star in Heat 2, next week at the crematorium

China has banned cigarette smoking in schools. Luckily for the children though it will still be permitted in the workplace

Marine Le Pen was banned from running for election next time, because the authorities have to stop democracy to protect it or some such nonsense. For what it's worth, she was technically guilty of the crime though and to paraphrase the old expression, "Le Pen is not mightier than Le Fraud"

However, this week's biggest news was the Tariffs that President Trump imposed on Foreign imports. Higher taxes and protection for US blue collar jobs, it's a policy that everyone from Barack Obama to Nancy Pelosi have spent half a century arguing for but because Trump did it it's a bad thing now. The products really fall into two categories

1) A tax on cheap Chinese tat like stuff at wall mart and $5 t-shirts. I joked a minute ago about Chinese children smoking in factories but that really is what fuels the cheap clothing market and if you believe in an fair wage for a days work then there's literally no reason other than exploitation that explains why clothes are made in the Far East. There's an old Ricky Gervais joke where he's shown a the artwork a friend't child made, to which he says it's rubbish and points out the quality stitching that a 5yo made when he was sticking his jacket.

2) Fancy European stuff, for the people who live in America but build their lifestyle and public perception around how they drive an Audi or only by French wine or join a conversation about the Super Bowl in order to shut it down and explain that they don't watch sport at all. In some respects I imagine that those sort of people will actually welcome the price increases, so that it becomes less attainable by the riffraff, the sort of plebs that had to work for their money or whose parents didn't get them a place at college by writing a big cheque.

As to the reaction it was comical. Irish leader Micheál Martin said he goal "is to protect Irish jobs and the Irish economy" Except he has no such powers, that will be decided by people in Brussels. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said her administration will do “everything we can” to work towards an agreement with the United States" except she can't do a single thing, because she's in the EU and those decisions are similarly made by the unelected people in Brussels, who have literally nothing to lose, and everything to gain by being as obstinate and attention seeking as possible. On the other hand the UK is literally being offered either a 10% rate or even a zero percent rate, but it would be conditional on things like free speech and not, as an example, prosecuting people for praying in their own house, which the Scottish police have actually done. It reminds me of the joke where Kier Starmer saw and old lady struggling with 2 shopping bags so his went up to her and offered to lighten the burden, by cutting her pension in half so she could only afford one bag the following week.