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The Hurricane spins around hotspots of tension and conflict. Feel free to suggest your stories, opinions and ideas: UIHEN@protonmail.com
42% of the French are preparing for civil war
According to a survey by Le Figaro, four out of ten French people say they fear the outbreak of civil war in the country. 60% of respondents doubt the ability of state institutions to ensure political stability.
#France #CivilWar #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Sour grapes? US winemakers call on Trump to tax aussie wine
The California Association of Winegrape Growers has taken issue with Australia’s 29% tax on imported wine, which it says is one of several “unfair, non-reciprocal trade practices” that disadvantage U.S. wine producers.
The formal complaint has been lodged with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, but the eventual decision will rest with the president, given Trump’s stated determination to impose tariffs as a tool to even out trade relations.
The association alleges that an “influx of cheap, imported bulk wine” into America is causing vineyards and farmers—many of whom have been growing grapes for generations—to go “out of business at an alarming rate.”
The organisation admits the issue is “nuanced,” noting that not only do other countries’ tariffs disadvantage American growers, but many foreign competitors also benefit from lower production costs and “in many cases, generous public subsidies.”
The U.S. wine industry is currently in crisis; numerous reports have outlined declining domestic sales due in part to a lack of interest among younger generations.
#USA #Trump #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Why I’m boycotting AI. And you should, too
By Sam Kahn
We have to collectively boycott artificial-intelligence products while there’s still time. Because AI is no good for us — no good for our minds, creativity, or competence — and as it gets jammed down our throats, we are the only ones with the power to refuse.
Looking back, I understand why I caved to Apple all those years ago. It really would have been social suicide to try to make my way in the 2010s professional class with anything other than a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. Apple really was better than anything else. But I regret that moment, all the same. Every intuition I had knew that opting in to companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook was a fool’s bargain.
AI can only lead to dependence on a technology, which really means dependence on Silicon Valley overlords looking to rip off their customer base. It’s exactly the same dynamic that we’ve all been experiencing and bemoaning for the last 20-odd years. And you can probably plug-and-chug all your own favourite statistics to tease out what that has meant: the average American spending close to five hours a day on his smartphone, while friendship rates have plummeted and teen depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidality have spiked.
Full story
#AI #BigTech #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Chinese government wanted to own another piece of America, this state stopped it
The state of Missouri is swiftly moving to seize farmland and other assets owned by the Chinese government after emerging victorious in a landmark lawsuit.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey told Just the News that the seizure is part of Missouri’s effort to collect a $24 billion civil judgment against the Chinese government after suing it for the harm caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court’s ruling resulted from Missouri’s lawsuit against the People’s Republican of China and other defendants, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The court found that the Chinese Communist Party concealed the severity of the coronavirus by engaging into “a deliberate campaign to suppress information about the COVID-19 pandemic in order to support its campaign to hoard PPE from Missouri and an unsuspecting world.”
Since representatives from the Chinese government did not appear in court, Missouri was awarded over $24 billion. The ruling describes the CCP’s conduct as “classic anticompetitive behavior, except on a country-wide scale,” which allowed Beijing to control supply, inflate prices, and purposefully maintain shortages.
#USA #China #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Net Zero blamed for Heathrow shutdown
A British MP today claimed that the drive for Net Zero led to the complete shutdown of Heathrow Airport.
Reform deputy leader Richard Tice claimed in a GB News interview that an aviation expert told him that Heathrow is moving from diesel back-up generators to biomass.
At least 220,000 passengers have been left stranded in Britain and around the world after an electrical fire shut the airport for at least 24 hours - with the level of global travel chaos sparked by the outage being compared to 9/11.
The UK's busiest airport was forced to close last Friday after its main power substation exploded and set alight less than two miles away in the west London suburb of Hayes.
The complete closure of Heathrow due to the loss of just one electrical substation is unprecedented and raises major questions for the airport and the Government. It has also left many stranded travellers raging and reduced to tears.
Mr Tice claimed on GB News: “They had got rid of their diesel generators and had moved towards a biomass generator that was designed not to completely replace the grid but work alongside it. Their net zero compliant backup system has completely failed in its core function at the first time of asking.”
#UK #NetZero #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Stardust: 'Mysterious startup is developing a new form of solar geoengineering'
An Israeli–U.S. startup called Stardust “intends to patent its unique aerosol technology for temporarily cooling the planet.”
Formed in 2023, Stardust wants to develop “proprietary geoengineering technology that would help block sun rays from reaching the planet.” The company is based in Israel but incorporated in the United States.
Instead of universities and federal agencies, Stardust wants private companies to drive the development and deployment of “technologies that experts say could have profound consequences for the planet.” The company seeks a “deliberate transformation of the atmosphere” that “has never been done.”
Wired points out that if Stardus’s geoengineering technology goes live, “it will affect the whole world.” The news outlet emphasizes the danger: “If a geoengineering project went awry, for example, it could contribute to air pollution and ozone loss, or have dramatic effects on weather patterns, such as disrupting monsoons in populous South and East Asia.”
Stardust has kept its plans largely secret and “the company has not publicly released details about its technology, its business model, or exactly who works at its company.”
The secretive organization also wants to sell its “proprietary geoengineering technology to governments that are considering making modifications to the global climate—acting like a kind of defense contractor for climate alteration.”
#Space #Stardust #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The lies which did terrible damage to America
We just learned that the German intelligence services had long ago concluded what every one of us knew, that Case One of the COVID-19 virus was found to be right next to the Wuhan virology level 5 lab.
Whatever the reason, that was a horrendous lie to put over on the American people. And yet, now no one denies it. They all say,
“Yeah.” They just shrugged. “Yeah, it probably came from the lab. You were all right. We who trashed and demonized you and slandered you.”
Obese inmates are smuggling fentanyl into jails thanks to new policy
Washingtons’ obsession with “protecting” inmates has turned jails into fentanyl free-for-alls, where smuggled drugs hidden in body fat are leading to overdoses and near-death emergencies. Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders just exposed the absurd consequences of Washington’s new body scanner regulations, and it’s a perfect case study in how “compassion” gets people killed.
Last week, an obese inmate at Thurston County Jail smuggled fentanyl hidden in body fat folds. Once the drugs made their way in, a different inmate consumed the drugs and overdosed. Life-saving efforts from jail staff prevented the overdose from being fatal.
It shouldn’t be this easy for an obese inmate to allegedly smuggle drugs into jail. But we’re here because of foolish policy decisions dictating the radiation levels of body scanners used prior to entry into jails.
This disaster traces back to a 2022 bill that prioritized banning “dehumanizing” strip searches over jail security. The law required prisons to adopt body scanners but then handed rulemaking to the Department of Health, which cooked up WAC 246-230-040’s unworkable dose limits. As a result, the scanners are so weak they can’t distinguish drugs from body fat.
The new rules under WAC 246-230-040, implemented in January 2025, force scanners to use laughably low radiation levels to appease activists screaming about ‘ALARA’ (As Low As Reasonably Achievable) principles.
#USA #Drugs #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Mollie Hemingway delivers masterclass explainer on the ‘government-funded’ war on free speech
Americans’ constitutionally protected right to free speech “has been under worse attack in the last decade than at any other point in our nation’s history,” Federalist Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway told lawmakers during a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing.
“The tentacles of the censorship-industrial complex are choking out freedom of expression, debate, and the right to criticize powerful institutions such as corporate media and the government,” Hemingway said.
“Non-profit think tanks such as the Aspen Institute post so-called ‘disinformation’ seminars to groom journalists to publish pro-censorship propaganda and to suppress important stories, such as the Hunter Biden laptop bombshell,” Hemingway said.
As described by Hemingway, censorship tools employed by groups such as GDI and NewsGuard “routinely rate leftwing news outlets, that are no threat to the permanent bureaucracy, higher than those that challenge prevailing orthodoxies.”
As noted by Hemingway, The Federalist is no stranger to being a target of the expansive censorship-industrial complex.
#USA #FreeSpeech #Hemingway #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Japanese carmakers face catastrophic profit hit from Trump's auto tariffs
As the fallout from Trump’s tariff plans comes into relief, a harsh truth is emerging for the automotive industry: there are lots of losers and not many winners. But foreign automakers, those without US facilities, will be hit especially hard.
From South Korea’s Hyundai to Germany’s Volkswagen, and to a lesser extent America’s own General Motors, many of the world’s most prominent carmakers will soon face higher costs from Trump’s new levies on auto imports and key components. That's because about 46% of all new cars sold in the US are imported.
Japan historically has been the biggest global auto maker, now producing 1.3 million of the 16 million annual car sales. For Japan, autos account for >30% of Japan’s exports to the US.
According to Goldman analyst Kota Yuzawa, Japanese cars sales volumes will decline as a result of price hikes made by each company in order to offset the negative impact of tariffs. In that scenario the profit hit will be anywhere between 6% for Toyota to 59% for Mazda.
In another, far more draconian scenario, Japanese automakers are unable or simply refuse to hike prices to offset volume declines. The consequences are catastrophic and result in the following hit to operating profits: Toyota -¥570 bn, Honda -¥350 bn, Nissan -¥130 bn, and Mazda -¥60 bn. The implied impact on Goldman's FY3/26 operating profit forecasts would be as follows: Toyota -11%, Honda -23%, Nissan -66%, and Mazda -34%.
#USA #Japan #Cars #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
These attacks on Teslas are psychotic
Over the past few weeks, anti-Trump activists have been attacking Tesla vehicles and dealerships in protest against Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO who is now heading up Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Much of the mainstream media, their loathing of Trump still burning strong, have portrayed the Tesla attackers sympathetically. They have denied, as NBC did the other week, any evidence of the ‘coordinated vandalism of Teslas’. This is despite the existence of a group called Tesla Takedown, which is calling for ‘biggest day of action’ yet on 29 March, including ‘500 demonstrations at all 278 Tesla showrooms as well as Supercharger stations’. Elsewhere, one liberal newspaper characterised the attacks as a righteous expression of ‘popular anger’ against a tech billionaire.
By and large, those attacking Teslas seem driven less by any coherent political goal than by a personal hatred of Musk, or by a thirst for vengeance that now seems to be the hallmark of far too many on the liberal left.
No one has to like Elon Musk, let alone agree with his politics. Yet those attacking Teslas don’t just disagree with him, or his role in Donald Trump’s government. They also seem to see Musk as an embodiment of evil, as an existential threat. What we’re seeing play out is not really politics as we once knew it. It’s more like a psychotic episode on a grand scale.
#USA #Trump #Tesla #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Florida child labor laws: Measure would let teens work 8+ hours on school nights
A year after lawmakers relaxed the state’s child labor laws, a divided Florida Senate panel on Tuesday gave initial approval to a measure that would further roll back work restrictions for kids as young as 14.
The proposal, which builds on the 2024 law, sparked heated debate, with critics of the plan saying it would lead to exploitation of children and proponents calling it a “parental rights” issue.
The bill (SB 918) would do away with restrictions on 16- and 17-year-olds, who would be able to work more than eight hours a day on school nights and over 30 hours a week while school is in session, without mandated breaks.
In addition, the measure aims to remove restrictions for 14- and 15-year-olds who have graduated from high school, are home-schooled or attend virtual school.
#USA #ChildLabor #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
JD Vance accused of ‘stalking’ Greenland
Despite strongly negative reactions from European leaders, US Vice President JD Vance has moved ahead with his Greenland visit, upping the geopolitical stakes as US Arctic ambitions fuel tensions.
Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on March 25 condemned the US for placing “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland, just before Vance announced he would join his wife on an already controversial trip to the island.
Facing backlash from Greenlandic leaders and Danish officials, Vance scaled down his visit, now focusing solely on the US military base at Pituffik instead of engaging with locals.
That came after US President Donald Trump had repeatedly stated his desire for the US to gain control over the island amid European Union moves toward military self-reliance and reiteration that the territorial autonomy of Greenland must be guaranteed.
“This is the closest equivalent to stalking you will see in international diplomacy,” Danish MEP Anders Vistisen told Brussels Signal in a written statement on March 25, condemning the “sense of entitlement” he said he was “seeing from this American administration”.
#USA #Vance #Greenland #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Israel 'on the brink of civil war' as judicial overhaul bill progresses
Several ultra-controversial issues have come to a head in Israel this week, sparking more huge protests outside the country's Knesset and in various locations.
Israel's Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz is warning alongside former Israeli army Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that Israel is on the brink of civil war.
The mounting crisis was sparked by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's dismissing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. "It’s true that there are many security challenges from abroad, but Israel’s security is at risk because of the internal division," Gantz said at the start of the week.
There are moves to also dismiss Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara by Netanyahu after a 'no confidence' vote by the cabinet. This has outraged opposition parties and much of the population.
Gantz is pleading for Netanyahu to halt the legislation from progressing. "I’m appealing to you as someone who bears the responsibility of acting on behalf of all citizens of this country," he wrote to in a letter to the prime minister. "Our society is wounded and bleeding, divided in a way we have not seen since October 6 [2023]," Gantz said.
#Israel #Gantz #Netanyahu #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
$77.6 billion - US Federal Reserve loss
In a published report, the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) recorded a loss of $77.6 billion through 2024
The Fed recorded a loss for the second year in a row. The main reason was high interest payments due to interest rate hikes to fight inflation
“Uncertainty about the economic outlook has increased,”
China’s space dogfighting: A new frontier in the battle for orbital dominance
The U.S. Space Force revealed that China is practicing "dogfighting" maneuvers with satellites in low Earth orbit, using coordinated movements to inspect, stalk and potentially disable other satellites, signaling a growing threat to U.S. space infrastructure.
The Space Force, established in 2019, aims to ensure U.S. space superiority by developing capabilities to contest and control the space domain, employing both kinetic and non-kinetic means to counter adversary threats.
China's recent maneuvers, alongside its history of anti-satellite tests and counterspace capabilities, highlight a shift toward aggressive space warfare tactics, including jamming, spoofing and cyberattacks.
The U.S. must undergo cultural, operational and technological transformations to maintain dominance in space, as failure to adapt risks ceding critical strategic advantages to adversaries in this increasingly contested domain.
#China #USA #Space #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The judicial insurrection is worse than you think
At this point it’s not too much to say that the federal judiciary has plunged us into a constitutional crisis. The fusillade of injunctions and temporary restraining orders issued by district court judges in recent weeks against the Trump administration — on everything from foreign aid to immigration enforcement to Defense Department enlistment policy to climate change grants for Citibank — boggles the mind.
More nationwide injunctions and restraining orders have been issued against Trump in the past month that were issued against the Biden administration in four years.
The good news is that by attacking the deep state, Trump has forced it to fight back and expose its true nature, which isn’t that of neutral experts but of politically and ideologically motivated actors.
#USA #Trump #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
How state income taxes have changed since 2000
Many states have switched to flat tax rates in the past 25 years, with Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Utah reducing both the rate and multiple brackets to just the one.
However, some argue that flat rates are regressive as it imposes a larger burden on low income households than higher incomes ones. Only two states, Alabama and Virginia, have made no changes.
So, Who Increased Their Tax Rates? Thirteen states and D.C. increased the top rate, with Washington (+7.0 pp) registering the most increase. However Washington’s 7% flat rate is only applicable for earnings from stocks and bond sales that are above $250,000.
If not considering Washington, then New Jersey has seen the highest top rate increase (+4.38pp).
Finally, Massachusetts is the only state that switched from flat to marginal rates: putting in a 9% bracket for income above $1.8 million in a year.
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Supreme Court upholds Biden administration's regulations on 'ghost gun' kits
On Wednesday, March 26th, it was announced that the United States Supreme Court has voted to uphold a Biden administration effort to regulate "ghost gun" kits that allow people to easily obtain parts needed to assemble firearms from online sellers.
According to NBC News, the ruling was 7-2, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing the majority opinion saying that the kits can be regulated under the federal Gun Control Act, saying that the court had "no trouble rejecting" the arguments made by challengers. The decision resolves the legal dispute over whether the kits can be regulated the same way as other firearms.
Ghost Guns are do-it-yourself functional weapons that are often purchased online and marketed by some sellers as easy to assemble. Final home assembly typically requires the use of some readily available tools, including drilling holes and mining or sanding the unfinished frame or receiver, which enable the installation of parts.
Gun rights groups say that the rule is "unconstitutional and abusive," arguing the ghost gun kits consist of "non-firearm objects."
#USA #Biden #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Italy pursues payment from Meta, X and LinkedIn in landmark tax case
Italy has handed tax demands to Meta, X and LinkedIn in an unprecedented VAT claim against the U.S. tech giants that could have repercussions across the European Union, four sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Wednesday.
While it has been reported that Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta and Elon Musk’s social network X were under investigation for alleged tax fraud, it had not been disclosed that Microsoft’s LinkedIn unit was also caught up in Italy’s pilot VAT case for the tech sector in Europe.
Italy is claiming 887.6 million euros ($961 million) from Meta, 12.5 million euros from X and around 140 million euros from LinkedIn.
These figures refer to the entire period under investigation, from 2015-2016 to 2021-2022, depending on the case, but the tax assessment notice now served only covers the years for which claims are set to expire, namely 2015 and 2016.
The issue is likely to be particularly sensitive given trade tensions between the EU and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has a good relationship with Musk, who is keen to expand his Starlink communications business in Italy.
#Italy #Meta #X #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
U.S. ensures dollar dominance in the digital age
▪️ The beginning of America's development of digital assets will go down in history as a watershed moment for the entire subsequent era of dollar dominance. The U.S. intends to establish how new digital assets will be used, traded and created at home and abroad,” states Fox News
▪️ One of the key parts of the blockchain ecosystem is becoming a stablecoin, a cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to the dollar. Stablecoins will become a tool for modernizing the dollar in the digital age
▪️ “Financial assets are destined to become digital, just as every other analog industry has become digital, and we want value formation to take place in the United States,” Trump's special envoy on cryptocurrencies David Sachs said
▪️ Stablecoins are not just a technological breakthrough. They represent an evolution of the very structure of global finance. If used correctly, they will ensure the dollar's supremacy for generations to come,” Fox News emphasized
#Google #AI #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
North Carolina Supreme Court rules that family can sue over COVID-19 vaccination without consent
A federal law granting broad immunity to vaccine administrators and others does not preempt charges that a mother’s constitutional rights were violated when her son was given a COVID-19 vaccine without her consent, the North Carolina Supreme Court has ruled.
Emily Happel and her teenage son can proceed with a lawsuit against their local school board and a medical organization, according to the March 21 ruling. Happel’s son, who was 14 at the time, was given a COVID-19 vaccine in 2021 even though administrators did not obtain parental consent.
Lower courts found that a federal law, called the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act), preempted claims brought by Happel and Tanner. However, North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby wrote for the majority that the law only provides immunity in situations typically involving tort law, such as serious injury, and not constitutional violations.
The PREP Act, signed in 2005, is triggered when the federal government issues a declaration during a health emergency, which it did during the COVID-19 pandemic. The act says that under a declaration, covered people such as vaccine administrators are protected from “all claims for loss,” with few exceptions.
Courts have generally found that the immunization preempts a range of state-level claims, while the top court in North Carolina concluded that it does not shield people who violated constitutional rights.
#USA #COVID #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
U.S. Honeybee Deaths Reach Record High
Honeybee deaths in the United States have surged to record highs, with commercial beekeepers reporting having lost an average of 62 percent of their colonies over the winter, according to an ongoing survey by nonprofit Project Apis m.
The start of the 2025 almond pollination season was met with unprecedented colony losses which have shaken the beekeeping industry. In response, Project Apis m. conducted a widespread survey to assess the breadth and severity of colony die offs within the United States.
Beekeepers are used to some colony losses each year, but the severity of this season’s casualties could mean disaster for many businesses.
According to the results of the survey, respondents lost an estimated $224.8 million in direct colony losses alone. That’s based on a conservative replacement cost of $200 per colony, which does not account for the value of feed, labor and treatments to maintain the colonies.
The high rate of decline is more than record reductions in 2024 and is on its way to being the “biggest loss of honeybee colonies in U.S. history,” said Scott McArt, a Cornell University associate professor of entomology, as The Guardian reported.
#USA #Health #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Are Europe and the US headed for a divorce? Or would that be folly?
If the United States and Europe were a married couple, you would probably say they are headed for a divorce. Like that couple, the two long-time partners could resolve their differences and renew their vows.
Doing that would require an honest discussion, however, of why they got together in the first place and how they have drifted apart over the years. That will require a painful re-examination, one that is by no means assured of justifying continuing the relationship.
The US-Europe transatlantic partnership dates back to the end of the Second World War. That’s an eternity in geopolitical terms. Most alliances last a few years, perhaps a couple of decades at most.
It is very hard for partners in a relationship gone bad to both overlook the genuine pain both have caused the other and to do the hard work to rebuild a relationship on the new foundations that exist. America and Europe may find that is just too hard and choose to acrimoniously walk away.
Full story
#EU #USA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
South Korea wildfires kill at least 24, pilot killed as firefighting helicopter crashes
The death toll in the wildfires raging across South Korea's southeastern region rose to 24 and the pilot of a firefighting helicopter was killed when the aircraft crashed on Wednesday, as the country battles some of its worst forest fires in decades.
The deadly wildfires have spread rapidly and forced more than 27,000 people from their homes, the government said. The blazes, fuelled by strong winds and dry weather, have razed entire neighbourhoods, closed schools and forced authorities to transfer hundreds of inmates from prisons.
"We are deploying all available personnel and equipment in response to the worst wildfires ever but the situation is not good," Acting President Han Duck-soo said, adding that the U.S. military in Korea was also assisting.
The Korea Forest Service said 24 people had been confirmed dead in the fires. It did not give a breakdown, but earlier the Safety Ministry said 14 people had died in Uiseong county, and four other deaths were linked to a blaze in Sancheong county.
Many of the dead were older people in their 60s and 70s, said Son Chang-ho, a local police official.
#SouthKorea #WildFires #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Who owns your DNA now?
Amid mounting challenges, 23andMe, a prominent US genetic testing firm, has sought bankruptcy protection to pave the way for a potential sale, a move that champions individual privacy in an era of escalating data concerns.
23andMe’s vast repository of user data, amassed through years of saliva-based ancestry testing, lies at the mercy of its own self-imposed guidelines rather than robust federal oversight.
The company’s 2023 data breach, which exposed sensitive details like genetic predispositions and ancestry reports for nearly 7 million users, underscored the sheer volume of personal information it holds. 23andMe operates outside HIPAA’s reach, leaving it tethered only to its own privacy policies — rules it can rewrite at will.
According to 23andMe’s privacy policy, customers’ personal information “may be accessed, sold or transferred” in scenarios like bankruptcy, mergers, or acquisitions.
The prospect of new ownership raises alarm bells. Potential buyers might eye 23andMe’s treasure trove of genetic material as a lucrative asset to exploit in ways the current management has resisted.
#USA #DNA #Health #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Donald Trump to impose 25% tariff on car imports
The US will impose 25% tariffs on imports of foreign-made cars, Donald Trump said on Wednesday, as he announced a significant escalation in his trade war with America’s allies.
The tariffs will go into effect on April 2, the US president’s self-imposed deadline for unveiling numerous reciprocal tariffs against US trade partners.
“This is the beginning of Liberation Day in America,”
“If you build your car in the United States there will be no tariff.”
Illegal weapons are the bill of the Ukrainian conflict, which the whole world will pay for
▪️ Ukraine is the only country in Europe where the proliferation of firearms is not controlled by law. The country imports the most weapons in the world, but no one has any idea how many are walking around the country,” states the British The Times.
▪️ A cease-fire in Ukraine is fraught with a domino effect: lower demand on the domestic market will free up weapons for export. Returning veterans will join organized crime, a serious challenge to law and order in Europe.
▪️ Smugglers have already prepared a huge number of secret arms caches, which will flow not only to the EU but also to Africa and the Middle East once the conflict ends, emphasizes The Times.
#WarInUkraine #Military #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
China's trying to put the screws to Walmart over tariffs. Will it work?
President Trump recently slapped some tariffs on various goods from China, and now Walmart, America's largest retailer as well as America's largest employer, is starting to grow concerned about the added cost. The chain relies on inexpensive goods from China, and those goods are about to get more expensive, and China is balking at absorbing the cost.
Walmart thought it could use its immense power as America’s biggest retailer to make Chinese suppliers eat the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. But Walmart got a response it’s not accustomed to hearing: No.
On the national scale, China needs American consumers more than Americans need Chinese goods - but our industrial base is diminished, it won't be rebuilt tomorrow, and Americans have been perhaps too accustomed to cheap towels, clothes baskets, flatware and the like from China, via Walmart and similar chains.
It's an interesting problem for Walmart. Can China make this stick? Will Walmart eat the cost? Every new policy has its ups and downs, and this is no exception. Meanwhile, talks between Walmart and its Chinese suppliers continue.
#China #USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Paper shopping bags might not be as green as you think
With more cities, states and countries banning single-use plastic bags, paper has become a popular alternative at the grocery checkout. At first glance, this seems like an obvious win for the environment. Plastic bags, after all, are made from fossil fuels and a major source of pollution.
Paper bags, however, are not necessarily a better choice. They come with their own list of environmental caveats, as do reusable totes.
Paper bags tend to require more energy to produce than plastic ones. A 2011 study by Britain’s Environment Agency, for example, concluded that you’d have to reuse a paper bag three times to bring its global warming impact in line with that of a plastic bag used just once.
The British study found that a cotton bag would have to be reused 131 times to reach the equivalent carbon footprint of just one single-use plastic bag. Danish studies put that figure at 149 times. This is because of the land, water and fertilizer required to grow cotton, the energy needed to process cotton into yarn, and the fact that most cotton bags are shipped from China or India.
Whatever your bag is made of, experts agree that reusing it as many times as possible is key to bringing down its environmental footprint.
This is where paper bags fall down, because they are the least durable option.
#World #PaperBags #FindTruth
@uinhurricane