-
The Hurricane spins around hotspots of tension and conflict. Feel free to suggest your stories, opinions and ideas: UIHEN@protonmail.com
India to buy US gold and silver to rebalance us trade under Trump
The Hindustan times reported that India is weighing the import of gold, silver, and other precious metals from the United States as part of a broader strategy to narrow its bilateral trade deficit. According to sources familiar with the negotiations, the idea is being explored under the ongoing Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) discussions, which aim to integrate supply chains and introduce concessional duties on high-value trade items.
The U.S. is a major global producer of gold, silver, and platinum. Officials say sourcing these metals from the U.S. would be logistically efficient and help offset India’s widening merchandise trade imbalance. In the first 11 months of the 2024–25 financial year (April–February), India imported $74 billion worth of precious metals, including gold and gems.
“The U.S. is miffed by the trade deficit, which is one of the key reasons for imposing 26% reciprocal tariffs on India,” one official noted. The BTA is expected to address these concerns by increasing high-value imports from the U.S.
In addition to oil, India is looking at precious metals and finished jewelry as trade diversifiers. Officials believe these items represent “low-hanging fruit” in the larger effort to rebalance trade while reducing exposure to politically motivated tariff regimes.
#India #USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
"Will not surrender" - Harvard snubs Trump admin's demands tied to $9 billion funding
Harvard University’s professors sued the Trump administration on April 11 after it threatened to withhold nearly $9 billion in grants and contracts if the university fails to adopt the administration’s required structural changes.
The Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) filed a lawsuit alleging that the administration’s action represents an “unlawful and unprecedented misuse of federal funding and civil rights enforcement authority to undermine academic freedom and free speech” on a university’s campus.
According to the court filing, the university received a letter from the administration on April 3 outlining the “non-exhaustive preconditions” it must meet in order to keep its government funding, following an investigation into the university’s failures to address anti-Semitism on campus.
The plaintiffs accused the administration of misusing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, an anti-discrimination law that applies to federally funded institutions, to “coerce universities into undermining free speech.”
#USA #Trump #Harvard #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Airline passengers without REAL ID could be denied boarding starting May 7
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said it will begin enforcing long-delayed stricter ID requirements at U.S. airports starting May 7 and warned passengers could be denied access to flights.
On May 7, TSA will no longer accept state-issued identifications that are not REAL ID compliant. Congress in 2005 approved new, stricter federal standards for issuing identification cards but enforcement has been pushed back repeatedly.
TSA said that next month passengers 18 or older without passports or the enhanced ID "can expect to face delays, additional screening and the possibility of not being permitted into the security checkpoint."
It is still unclear how vigorously the TSA will enforce the new rules. U.S. airlines are already worried about weaker demand given international tariff tensions and economic concerns.
#USA #ID #TSA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump official who oversaw closure of USAID has left state department
One of the key architects of the Trump administration's campaign to slash foreign aid has been fired from the State Department after less than 90 days on the job, according to the WSJ.
Pete Marocco, who oversaw the closure of USAID and briefly led the foreign-assistance mission at State, worked closely with Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), yet at times clashed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to the report.
Marocco learned that his time at the State Department was coming to an end late last week, according to a person close to him. After a meeting at the White House, Marocco was told by State Department officials he was out at the agency, the person said, noting he had to hand in his agency badge and laptop.
Another U.S. official said it wasn’t Marocco’s choice to leave the department, adding that he was at times at odds with Rubio and his top advisers.
#USA #USAID #DOGE #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
French embassy officials expelled from Algeria
French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot has announced that Algeria had ordered the expulsion of 12 French diplomatic embassy staff, giving them 48 hours to leave the country.
The foreign ministry said on April 14 it believed the move was a “direct response to the recent arrest of three Algerian nationals in France, suspected of involvement in criminal activity”. Several Algerian individuals, including an official from the Algerian consulate.
Following the arrests, the Algerian foreign ministry denounced the detainment of its consular official, labelling it “unprecedented” and detrimental to the revival of Algerian-French relations.
In a statement issued on April 12, Algeria warned of consequences and described the situation as “inadmissible and unspeakable,” suggesting it would seriously damage bilateral ties.
Algeria then accused France of not wanting to fix or improve relations with the country.
#France #Algeria #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
China halts critical exports as trade war intensifies
China has suspended exports of a wide range of critical minerals and magnets, threatening to choke off supplies of components central to automakers, aerospace manufacturers, semiconductor companies and military contractors around the world.
Shipments of the magnets, essential for assembling everything from cars and drones to robots and missiles, have been halted at many Chinese ports while the Chinese government drafts a new regulatory system. Once in place, the new system could permanently prevent supplies from reaching certain companies, including American military contractors.
The official crackdown is part of China’s retaliation for President Trump’s sharp increase in tariffs that started on April 2.
If factories in Detroit and elsewhere run out of powerful rare earth magnets, that could prevent them from assembling cars and other products with electric motors that require these magnets.
The PRC controls over 90% of the world’s production of gallium, over 80% of the production of magnesium, tungsten, and bismuth, and over 70% of the production of graphite. China also controls between 40% and 50% of the world’s supply of refined rare earth elements.
#China #Economy #Tariffs #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Audit: Cuomo spent $453M on 247,343 medical devices for COVID. State used only 3
Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's handling of the Covid crisis wasn't just a health catastrophe, but a financial one too, according to a damning new audit report. The state government poured $453 million into building an enormous stockpile of medical equipment -- and only used 0.000012% of it.
According to state comptroller Tom DiNapoli, New York bought a staggering 247,343 medical devices, but only wound up using a laughable three pieces of equipment out of the vast horde.
Worse, the waste was only compounded by the state's utter neglect of its fiduciary duties to taxpayers. Rather than finding buyers for the once-valuable assets, bureaucrats have been content to let the equipment age and decay in warehouses. As if the erosion of the stockpiles weren't bad enough, New York is also wasting money on storage costs.
“New York state bought hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of medical equipment at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including ventilators and x-ray machines, that now sits unused in storage facilities across the state, missing recommended maintenance and costing taxpayers storage expenses,” said Napoli's office.
Of the equipment that requires ongoing maintenance, auditors found that 90% of it is past due, with no process or contract in place to handle that need. Failure to keep up with maintenance risks voiding manufacturer warranties, and also rendering the equipment unusable in an emergency.
#USA #COVID #Audit #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Commerce Secretary Lutnick says tariff exemptions for electronics are only temporary
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Sunday that the administration's decision Friday night to exempt a range of electronic devices from tariffs implemented earlier this month was only a temporary reprieve, with the secretary announcing that those items would be subject to "semiconductor tariffs" that will likely come in "a month or two."
"We need to have semiconductors, we need to have chips, and we need to have flat panels — we need to have these things made in America. We can't be reliant on Southeast Asia for all of the things that operate for us," Lutnick said.
"So what President Trump's doing is he's saying they're exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they're included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two. So these are coming soon."
The administration's clarification comes after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection bulletin was posted Friday night outlining key electronics — smartphones, computers, solar cells, flat-panel TV displays and semiconductor-based storage devices, among others — would be exempt from the tariffs announced since April 2. That meant those products would not be subject to steep tariffs on Chinese imports, nor the global 10% tariff rate.
#USA #China #Tariffs #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US losing investor confidence - Janet Yellen
The simultaneous decline in the US government bond market and the dollar is extremely worrying. This suggests that investors are beginning to avoid dollar-denominated assets and are questioning the reliability of the foundation of the global financial system - U.S. Treasury bonds," former U.S. Treasury Secretary and former Fed chief Janet Yellen said
#USA #Yellen #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Kremlin says a Putin-Trump meeting "will take place"
Following the March phone call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which lasted over two hours, the Kremlin has this weekend hinted strongly that the two leaders could soon meet in person.
Such an in-person meeting "will take place," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has confirmed, but then vaguely said it would be "at the appropriate time."
"The presidents expressed their political will that [the meeting] should take place, including publicly. But it will take place at the appropriate time, we need to prepare for it," he added.
The Sunday statement by Peskov also followed Friday’s meeting between Putin and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff in St. Petersburg. While diplomatic normalization was the focus of the latest Istanbul talks, the Witkoff meeting covered "aspects of the settlement of the Ukraine conflict."
The White House called it "another step in the negotiating process". Earlier this month Russian presidential aide Kirill Dmitriev met with senior Trump officials in Washington.
#USA #Russia #Diplomacy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Italy's prime minister accuses France of colonial policies and using child labor in Africa to fill its coffers.
France prints currency for 14 African countries and they share the profits from businesses that violate human rights. As an example, the Prime Minister cited a business in Burkina Faso that uses child labor to work in gold mines.
#Italy #France #Africa #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
What France is now
#France #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Relations between Russia and the U.S. are evolving toward lifting sanctions - Jeffrey Sachs
▪️ "Ongoing negotiations between Russia and the U.S. could be very productive.... Events are developing in the right direction toward the actual lifting of US sanctions on Russia,“ said one of the most prominent and influential liberal economists in the US, Jeffrey Sachs
▪️ ”In addition, Trump's so-called tariff wars will not be a big problem for Russia. Because it will not have a direct and strong impact on Russia," the economist emphasized
#USA #Russia #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The administration of US President Donald Trump intends to deport up to 1 million migrants during his first year in office, The Washington Post reported, citing former and current federal officials.
The previous record - more than 400,000 deportations per year - was set under the 44th President Barack Obama, who held office from January 2009 to January 2017
#USA #Trump #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
How globalists use crazed leftists to piss off the populace and provoke dictatorship
Many conservatives and liberty advocates still don’t understand that we are in the middle of a 4th Generation conflict. It’s not a political or ideological disagreement, it’s a war; a guerrilla war in which the enemy hides behind civilian status and the legal apparatus.
The agenda to create a one world system and erase traditional western principles is ongoing, handed down from one generation of globalists to the next in a parasitic lineage. The people behind it are moral relativists and Luciferians (they worship themselves and desire to become godlike). They pursue their goals with the fervor of a religious cult. They believe in what they are doing utterly; with as much conviction as you or I hold in our fight for freedom and accountability.
It’s a zero sum game for conservatives because the more we accommodate the political left and treat them like fellow citizens rather than an enemy insurgency, the more the US will degrade into chaos. If we respond to them as enemies, crushing them like the bugs they are, then we become the bad guys and potentially welcome in a level of government power that could hurt us all in the end.
#USA #Leftists #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Two top Pentagon officials placed on leave in leak probe
The Pentagon placed two top political appointees under administrative leave on Tuesday after a probe into potential leaks of sensitive information, according to three defense officials.
Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was escorted out of the Pentagon by security officers and had his building access suspended pending further investigation, said two of the officials, who were granted anonymity to discuss an ongoing probe.
Darin Selnick, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff, was also suspended as part of the same probe and escorted out of the building, according to one of the officials.
The leaks under investigation include military operational plans for the Panama canal, a second carrier headed to the Red Sea, Elon Musk’s controversial visit to the Pentagon and pausing the collection of intelligence to Ukraine, the other official said.
Reuters first reported Caldwell’s removal, but Selnick’s departure and the focus of the leaks have not been previously reported.
#USA #Pentagon #Hegseth #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
China would lose a ‘trade war’ with the US — ‘gradually, then suddenly’
By Victor Davis Hanson
No one wants a “trade war” with China, or for that matter with any nation. Nonetheless, China has been waging one for years and is now locked in a tariff recalibration with the Trump administration.
In this American effort to find trade parity and equity, China can do some short-term damage to the U.S., especially in terms of ceasing exports of some pharmaceuticals, phones, and computers. But ultimately, it cannot win—and will eventually lose catastrophically. It will likely accept that reality sooner rather than later.
We are only in the first week of the escalating rhetoric and tariffs. But already China is appealing to its Asian rivals, Australia, and the EU to join in fighting the supposed American bully.
But so far, there are understandably few takers.
Full story
#USA #China #TradeWar #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Billionaire hedge fund leader warns US facing something ‘worse than a recession’
Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund manager of Bridgewater Associates, said that he’s worried about “something worse than a recession” because of President Donald Trump’s trade war.
“I think that, right now, we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession,” Dalio said on “Meet the Press” when asked if the U.S. was headed toward a recession because of the president’s tariff policies. “And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well.”
Dalio’s comments come in response to weeks of tumult in the global markets because of Trump’s ever-changing policies.
“We are having profound changes in our domestic order… and we’re having profound changes in the world order,” he said.
Dalio likened the current economic climate to that of the 1930s, saying, “I’ve studied history. And this repeats over and over again.” He added that we currently “have a breaking down of the monetary order.” He also said the current mix of tariffs, high debt, and China (“a rising power challenging existing power,” the U.S.) is “very, very disruptive.”
“How that’s handled could produce something that is much worse than recession,” he added.
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Houthis issue total death toll after month of US attacks, claim 19th Reaper downing
Since the collapse of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire the renewed US anti-Houthi campaign over Yemen and in the Red Sea has been waged with intensity, now reaching the one-month mark. US aerial attacks continued to pummel the capital of Sanaa over the weekend.
The new Houthi military statement blasted the "blatant US aggression on the homeland and its direct targeting of civilian objects and civilians."
"This crime, added to the criminal record of the American-Zionist enemy, is a full-fledged war crime and a flagrant violation of all international laws and conventions," it added.
Meanwhile, the Houthis have claimed yet another shoot-down of a MQ-9 Reaper drone, this time over Yemen's Hajjah governorate, which is in the northwest of the country.
A statement said the Houthis targeted the drone with "a locally manufactured missile" - among its arsenal of surface-to-air missiles which have been used frequently in the conflict.
#USA #Houthis #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Salvadoran president says he won’t return wrongly deported man to U.S.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said Monday that he does not plan to return to Kilmar Abrego García to the United States. “How can I return him to the United States?” Bukele asked Monday during a meeting with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office.
“I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.” He made the comments a day after the Justice Department told a federal judge that it isn’t required to bring home the Maryland resident, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
Since Bukele struck a deal with Trump’s administration, he has accepted more than 200 Venezuelans deported from the U.S. in recent months.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national, was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration, after which the US Supreme Court ruled that the administration must facilitate his return.
Two immigration courts found that he was a member of MS-13," which had been declared by President Trump as a foreign terrorist organization. That meant that he was no longer eligible under federal law for any form of immigration relief in the United States.
#USA #ElSalvador #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US military academies end race consideration in admissions
The U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Air Force Academy will no longer consider race as a factor in admissions as the military schools had long done to boost enrollment of Black, Hispanic and other minorities.
The changes were detailed in court filings by the U.S. Department of Justice in federal courts in New York and Colorado related to two lawsuits filed by the group that successfully persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to ban race-conscious admissions at civilian universities.
That group, Students for Fair Admissions, was founded by affirmative action opponent Edward Blum and has been seeking to build on its 2023 victory at the Supreme Court, when the 6-3 conservative majority invalidated race-conscious admissions policies used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
The ruling did not apply to military academies, which Chief Justice John Roberts wrote had "potentially distinct interests."
That prompted Blum's group to launch new lawsuits aimed at barring similar admissions practices at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York; the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado; and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
#USA #Military #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
New York bill proposes legalizing Bitcoin, crypto for state payments
A New York lawmaker has introduced legislation that would allow state agencies to accept cryptocurrency payments, signaling growing political momentum for digital asset integration in public services.
Assembly Bill A7788, introduced by Assemblyman Clyde Vanel, seeks to amend state financial law to allow New York state agencies to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.
It would permit state agencies to accept payments in Bitcoin , Ether , Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash.
According to the bill, state offices could authorize crypto payments for “fines, civil penalties, rent, rates, taxes, fees, charges, revenue, financial obligations or other amounts,” as well as penalties, special assessments and interest.
Cryptocurrency legislation is becoming a focal point in New York, with Bill A7788 marking the state’s second crypto-focused legislation in a little over a month.
#USA #Crypto #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Space Force Col. Susannah Meyers fired after astonishing mass email about JD Vance’s Greenland visit surfaces
The officer in charge of a US Space Force base in Greenland was stripped of her command after she sent out a mass email that distanced herself from statements by Vice President JD Vance and the Trump administration days after his visit last month.
The Space Force announced late Thursday that it removed Col. Susannah Meyers as leader of Pituffik Space Base “for loss of confidence in her ability to lead.”
“Commanders are expected to adhere to the highest standards of conduct, especially as it relates to remaining nonpartisan in the performance of their duties,” the Space Operations Command’s statement read.
Meyers, who assumed control of the 821st Space Base Group in July 2024, fired off a message to the troops in her command stating that the views discussed by Vance during his visit on March 28 “are not reflective of Pituffik Space Base.”
Meyers sent out the email on March 31, seemingly upset over comments made by Vance about potentially annexing Greenland.
#USA #Greenland #Meyers #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
EC to enforce digital laws against US tech companies
European Commission Vice-President Henna Virkkunen has vowed to continue the European Union’s crackdown on major US tech companies, including Apple, Meta and X, over alleged competition violations and the handling of so-called illegal content.
Speaking to European media, Virkkunen emphasised that the EU’s actions were not targeted at specific companies but reflected a broader push to enforce compliance with the bloc’s digital regulatory framework.
“We have certain regulations in the EU, and these are not trade barriers,” Virkkunen stated, adding that the same rules applied to European, US and Chinese companies. The larger the company, the higher the requirements, she noted.
Under the European Digital Services Act (DSA), companies were required to address so-called hate speech, incitement and other illegal content online.
#EU #US #DSA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Eurozone on the verge of recession again
▪️ The US trade war has become the third “unique shock” the European economy has faced in less than five years. After the energy shock, Europe's economy started to slowly recover but is now facing recession, state Citi experts
▪️ Trump's new tariffs will reduce EU exports to the US by up to 50%. The overall negative impact of tariff wars on the global economy will also hit Europe. Damage to the European economy is estimated at 1% of GDP
▪️ Estimates for the growth rate of the eurozone economy have been lowered to 0.8% in 2025 and 0.6% in 2026. Previous estimates are at 1% and 1.3%, respectively
#EU #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
London's elite neighborhoods of Kensington and Chelsea are losing wealthy tenants. The neighborhoods have long attracted top executives and the rich, who were willing to pay exorbitant housing prices to live in one of the most posh areas of London. Now they are leaving by the thousands, Bloomberg writes.
The average house price in Kensington and Chelsea is about 27 times the average full-time income of its residents at £1.2 million ($1.6 million).
The so-called Royal Borough and neighboring Westminster have lost about 4 percent of working residents, or more than 6,000 people, over the past two years, according to official figures. If you add Hammersmith and Fulham, Camden, the City of London, Islington and leafy Richmond, you get an outflow of about 11,000 people. Many are moving to the Arab Emirates
#UK #London #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
A huge solar energy project in the American Mojave Desert has become technogenic garbage.
It will have to be shut down due to inefficiency of technology and losses. Barack Obama at the expense of the budget 11 years ago built a solar power plant Ivanpah about 8 kilometers long. The loss is $2.2 billion in federal loans.
#USA #Energy #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The EU seeks to “grab a piece of the Ukrainian pie”
▪️ The paranoia of European countries that Russia will allegedly invade their territories after Ukraine is actually a manipulation," states Turkish dikGAZETE
▪️ Negotiations on peace in Ukraine are being held without the EU's participation, and the USA is claiming the entire “Ukrainian pie”, including natural resources and infrastructure
▪️ Europe's plans to create a “coalition of the willing” are nothing but a desire to occupy Ukraine and “snatch” its share of the country's resources, - dikGAZETE emphasizesWhat is France now?
#USA #EU #WarInUkraine #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The Western World has abandoned democracy
Once upon a time political establishments would focus on defeating their opponent/challenger in elections. Now they imprison them or stop them from running, as the Democrats tried to do to trump with four criminal indictments. In Brazil Jair Bolsonaro faces alleged coup charges. In Romania, a host country for a US missile base on Russia’s border, Calin Georgecu has been falsely charged with “incitement to actions against the institutional order.” In France Marine Le Pen has been sentenced to two years in a jail cell and a five year ban on running for president of France.
Throughout the Western World the main focus of the educational system is to undermine the belief system that maintains accountable government, which means a government accountable to the people and not to an establishment of vested interests. The erosion of the belief system is far advanced.
Ideas have consequences, and the consequence of the destruction of our ideas that uphold liberty is tyranny, which has raised its ugly head in France, Romania, and Brazil, and perhaps in America.
#USA #World #Democracy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
EU abolishes duty-free regime for imports of agricultural products from Ukraine
▪️ The emergency regime, under which the EU canceled duties and quotas on imports of agricultural products from Ukraine, was introduced with the start of the ETS. It expires on June 5 and will not be extended, - states American Politico.
▪️ “The current measures will be canceled in any case. The council has made it very clear that no extension is possible,” said Agriculture Commissioner Christoph Hansen
▪️ The Ukrainian side warned that lifting the emergency rules would lead to a 3.3-billion-euro drop in exports and a 2.5% drop in GDP.
#EU #WarInUkraine #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane