aacj

June 9 2025

LA protests; China exports to US tumble; US and China hold talks; Republicans revise Trump bill; Goodyear blimp celebrates centennial; Modern spycraft reshapes warfare

Greg Loving

09 Jun 2025 • 7 min read

@SetPixels

Federal Intervention in LA Protests Sparks Standoff With State

China's Exports to U.S. Tumble Despite Trade Truce; U.S., China to Hold High-Level Economic Talks in London

Senate Republicans Race to Revise Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'

Goodyear Blimp Celebrates Centennial Amid Modern Tech

Modern Spycraft and Technology Reshape Warfare

1. Federal Intervention in LA Protests Sparks Standoff With State

National Guard troops in Los Angeles on Sunday. Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has formally asked the Trump administration to remove them. NYT

It is the fight President Trump had been waiting for, a showdown with a top political rival in a deep blue state over an issue core to his political agenda. In bypassing the authority of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a Democrat, to call in the National Guard to quell protests in the Los Angeles area over his administration’s efforts to deport more migrants, Mr. Trump is now pushing the boundaries of presidential authority and stoking criticism that he is inflaming the situation for political gain. Local and state authorities had not sought help in dealing with the scattered protests that erupted after an immigration raid on Friday in the garment district. But Mr. Trump and his top aides leaned into the confrontation with California leaders on Sunday, portraying the demonstrations as an existential threat to the country — setting in motion an aggressive federal response that in turn sparked new protests across the city. As more demonstrators took to the streets, the president wrote on social media that Los Angeles was being “invaded and occupied” by “violent, insurrectionist mobs,” and directed three of his top cabinet officials to take any actions necessary to “liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion.”

NYT

2. China's Exports to U.S. Tumble Despite Trade Truce; U.S., China to Hold High-Level Economic Talks in London

A. SINGAPORE—A U.S.-China trade truce wasn’t enough to stem a sharp drop in shipments from China to America last month, a sign of the havoc that President Trump’s tariffs have wrought on trade between the world’s two largest economies. Chinese shipments to the U.S. sank 35% from a year earlier in May, according to government data released Monday. It was the biggest percentage decline in U.S.-bound shipments since February 2020, when exports were hit by Covid-induced shutdowns, and followed a 21% drop in U.S.-bound exports in April. As was the case last month, the decline in exports to the U.S. was offset by a jump in outbound shipments to other regions of the world, including Southeast Asia and the European Union. Overall, China’s exports rose 4.8% in dollar-denominated terms in May from a year earlier, though that figure was weaker than the 5.6% expected by economists and down from April’s 8.1% increase.

WSJ

B. Top officials from the Trump administration will meet with their Chinese counterparts in London on Monday for a second round of economic talks, aiming to cement a trade truce between the world’s two largest economies. The American delegation will be led by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Jamieson Greer, the United States’ trade representative. China will be represented by He Lifeng, the country’s vice premier for economic policy, who led the previous round of talks in Switzerland. The meetings are expected to run through Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.

NYT

3. Senate Republicans Race to Revise Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill'

WASHINGTON—Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) is trying to release this week a revised version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” But as he races to pass the legislation ahead of Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline, he has got about as many problems as there are GOP senators, with lawmakers battling over the additional borrowing and spending cuts that will be used to finance tax relief, plus spending on the border and military. The House in May passed its own version by a one-vote margin, and Trump has urged the Senate to move the multitrillion-dollar bill quickly. But GOP senators want changes, and lawmakers disagree over the depth of cuts to Medicaid, clean-energy tax credits and nutrition assistance, with some seeking to protect their own states’ interests and others accusing colleagues of not taking federal deficits seriously. Republicans have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and a similarly slim 220-212 edge in the House, meaning any small group of holdouts—working together or separately—can derail the bill.

WSJ

4. Goodyear Blimp Celebrates Centennial Amid Modern Tech

For the past 70 years, the Goodyear blimp has been as ubiquitous in the sports world as the national anthem. The tiremaker’s small fleet of blimps have floated above football games, NASCAR races, golf tournaments and other events, providing aerial coverage to networks and signaling to fans that a sports spectacle is underway. Goodyear’s relationship with television networks and event organizers is a unique and enduring sponsorship. Since 1955, when NBC asked Goodyear to provide live video coverage of the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl, the company has sent live images of games and events to television producers in return for mentions of the company’s name and logo during the broadcasts. These “blimp pops” run about once an hour and can be worth millions of dollars in ad time. In an age of digital inserts, screens within screens and other ways for sponsors to reach viewers, Goodyear’s technology is quaint. The blimps, which are slightly longer than a Boeing 747, hover about 1,000 feet off the ground and rarely move faster than 70 miles per hour. But their ability to capture a skyline, a stadium or the flight of a golf ball down a fairway has made them an indispensable part of broadcasts. Goodyear’s four blimps, which travel to about 120 events a year, are more visible than usual as the company celebrates the centennial of the blimp’s debut on June 3, 1925. The company plans to fly its helium-filled airships to more than 100 cities this year, and attend concerts, hot air balloon festivals and other cultural events.

Three-quarters of the Goodyear fleet. There are about 40,000 LED lights on the outside of each blimp. NYT

NYT

5. Modern Spycraft and Technology Reshape Warfare

Deception, infiltration and spycraft have played a major role in warfare at least since the ancient Greeks gifted a wooden horse to the citizens of Troy. In more recent times, such operations rarely had a strategic effect, but the spectacular operations of Israeli intelligence against Hezbollah in Lebanon last fall and of Ukraine against Russia’s strategic bomber fleet last weekend have brought them back to the forefront of conflict in the 21st century. Both showed how technological advances—such as drones, communications networks and smaller but more powerful batteries and explosives—can potentially alter the course of a war when they are coupled with superior tradecraft. “Technology today allows you many new possibilities: There is a larger surface where you can actually detect places where your enemy is vulnerable due to the fact that you can bypass a lot of physical barriers that in the past you couldn’t bypass,” said Eyal Tsir Cohen, a former senior division director of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. Yet, he added, many of the same technologies can also empower one’s opponents. “It always works both ways—it depends on which side is more sophisticated in exploiting the vulnerabilities of the other side,” Cohen said. “You need good people to work with technology—technology rides on the shoulders of the human factor and not vice versa.” Ultimately, success in this rapidly changing world depends on the ability to anticipate the new opportunities—something that big powers such as Russia and perhaps the U.S., can be slow to understand as the very nature of warfare evolves.

WSJ