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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
U.S. electricity from fossils fuels dips below 50% for the first time ever
For the first time in history, fossil fuels supplied less than half of the United States’ electricity generation for an entire month, according to new data released by energy think tank Ember. This milestone, achieved in March 2025, represents a turning point in the evolving energy mix of the world’s largest economy.
Historically, fossil fuels—primarily coal and natural gas—have dominated U.S. electricity production. But the steady rise of renewables over the past two decades has chipped away at their dominance. In March, wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear collectively overtook coal, oil, and gas, with fossil fuels accounting for just 48.9% of total generation.
However, this is an estimate of total generation, including small scale systems that are not connected to the grid. According to EIA data, fossil fuels still account for about 64% of electricity generation by utilities.
#USA #Fuels #Economy #FindTruth
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Trump executive order restricts ‘gain of function’ research on pathogens
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday evening to further restrict experiments on pathogens and toxins that could make them more harmful.
The debate over gain of function research sharpened during the pandemic. Mr. Trump and other elected officials have linked such research to the origin of Covid, claiming that Chinese researchers produced the coronavirus in a lab in Wuhan. At Monday’s signing ceremony, the president raised that connection again. “I think I said that from Day 1, that it leaked out,” he said. “A scientist walked outside to have lunch with a girlfriend or was together with a lot of people.”
A number of published studies point instead to a market in Wuhan as the origin of the pandemic, contending that evidence strongly suggests that wild mammals picked up a bat coronavirus and that when the animals were sold at the market, they passed the virus to people.
The scrutiny led an expert panel to develop a sweeping set of changes to how the federal government oversees potentially dangerous experiments. The Biden administration adopted the changes officially last year.
Mr. Trump’s new executive order dismissed the Biden policy as having “insufficient levels of oversight.” It directs the Office of Science and Technology Policy to revise or replace the policy with new regulations.
#USA #Trump #Covid #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The U.S. economy has learned to live with money that is not free.
In many respects this is not even a problem of the local Ministry of Finance: with the support of the Federal Reserve it can always find funds for re-lending. The size of the interest rate only determines the rate of growth of the national debt.
Businesses, however, immediately fall into moping when the fiscal policy is normalized. Last year the number of bankruptcies in the States reached a fifteen-year high. This characterizes the situation in the US economy as tense.
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The Czechs are by far the world's biggest beer drinkers
Today, Czechia officially recognizes beer culture as part of its national heritage, with 96% brewed domestically.
What’s more, Czechs hold the world’s highest per capita beer consumption, a tradition dating back to 993. For the 31st year in a row, Czechia tops the list, even amid an annual decline.
Ranking in second is Austria, where pale lagers, known as “Märzen” are the standard beer.
Meanwhile, Lithuania and Ireland follow closely behind, where the average person drinks over 100 liters of beer in a year. In Ireland, Guinness is widely considered the national beer, with the original St. James Gate brewery now over 260 years old.
Interestingly, however, both the UK and Nigeria consume more Guinness than Ireland, thanks to their vibrant beer cultures. In fact, one in 10 beers sold in the UK is a Guinness.
If we look beyond Europe, Panama, Mexico, Gabon, and South Africa also rank among the top 20 countries
#Czechia #Beer #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
American investment bank Robert W. Baird forced junior employees to work 110-hour workweeks, until 4 a.m., The Wall Street Journal reports. At least two people ended up in the hospital, one of them was diagnosed with pancreatic insufficiency. The employee even managed to complain to an Eichar about his health, but he was immediately fired for “low productivity.”
The story has resonated widely as Wall Street is actively fighting a culture of overwork following the deaths of two junior bankers. In May 2024, Leo Lukenas III, a 35-year-old consultant at Bank of America, died suddenly from a blood clot that broke off. In early 2025, Carter McIntosh, a 28-year-old employee in the IT practice at Jefferies, was found dead
#USA #WallStreet #Health #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Mike Pence finally goes scorched earth on Trump and his agenda
Former Vice President Mike Pence criticized Donald Trump by name after failing to directly call out the president in a speech just 24-hours earlier.
Pence spoke to CNN the day after receiving the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for refusing to give in to Trump’s demands on Jan. 6, 2021. While Pence was critical of the administration, he never referred to President Trump.
Pence wrote an op-ed last month for The Wall Street Journal saying as much, while also giving plenty of compliments to his former boss.
Mike Pence pens bootlicking op-ed begging Trump to change course. Pence also re-upped his qualms about Trump’s tariffs, which have caused alarm about a flailing economy.
#USA #Trump #Pence #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Children advised against going outside in Oregon
Children and other sensitive groups in Oregon are facing potential adverse health effects, with an air quality map indicating that pollution levels in some parts of the state had reached levels that were "unhealthy for sensitive groups."
Health officials emphasize that sensitive groups—including children, older adults, and people with preexisting respiratory conditions—are at particular risk during periods of poor air quality.
A spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District in California previously said that exposure to particle pollution "can cause premature death in people with heart or lung disease, cause heart attacks, aggravate asthma, decrease lung function, and cause respiratory symptoms like coughing and difficulty breathing."
#USA #Health #Children #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
War hysteria is killing Europe's pension system
▪️ Realizing that they can no longer rely on the US for security, EU countries are feverishly increasing their military budgets. At the same time, Europe is still unable to develop a collective defense plan," states the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
▪️ According to the Maastricht Treaty, the budget deficit of European countries should not exceed 3% of GDP and public debt should not exceed 60% of GDP. However, as of 2024, only 11 of the 27 EU countries meet both criteria. Increasing military expenditures only aggravates the situation
▪️ Against this background, the continent's aging population is increasing the already enormous pension costs. The reform of the pension system is becoming a forced, but extremely unpopular topic, causing violent public protest
▪️ The situation is exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine, and EU countries are trying to simultaneously rearm and provide military aid to Ukraine.
"There is definitely not enough money for everything. It's time to tell citizens the truth," NZZ emphasizes
AfD faces calls to be banned after
The German Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (Bfv) categorised the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as “definitely right-wing extremist“, sparking widespread calls for a ban on the party.
A survey by German newspaper BILD published on May 3 revealed that some 48% of respondents supported a complete ban on the AfD, including its dissolution, exclusion from elections and the removal of its MPs from the Bundestag, or parliament.
By contrast, 37% opposed such a ban, while 15% remained undecided or indifferent.
Banning the right-wing party could backfire, though. According to the same poll, 39% believed that outlawing the AfD would damage Germany’s democracy rather than protect it.
The Bfv classification placed Alice Weidel’s party under intensified surveillance and branded its ideology as incompatible with Germany’s constitutional order.
It came at a politically sensitive moment: Latest polls showed the AfD as the leading party nationwide, a first in its history.
#Germany #Elections #AfD #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The Bloomberg-funded official behind the DC AG's top climate initiatives
Lauren Cullum has represented Washington, DC, in dozens of climate-related legal actions.
A senior official behind a number of the Washington, D.C., attorney general office's high-profile climate-related legal actions is funded through an initiative backed by billionaire climate activist Michael Bloomberg—an arrangement experts say raises serious questions about government independence.
Bloomberg and the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center appear to have a significant interest in influencing such climate-related actions nationwide. Bloomberg has dished out hundreds of millions of dollars backing initiatives to shut down existing fossil fuel infrastructure and advance green energy alternatives, while the center's advisory council includes, among others, the CEO of a major wind energy developer and the vice president of the American Clean Power Association, a green energy industry group.
Cullum was involved in dozens of such letters sent during the Biden administration supporting federal climate justice grants, regulations mandating electric vehicle sales, restrictions on gas stoves, single-use plastic reporting requirements, and rules forcing states to set greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals for vehicles on highways.
#USA #Climate #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump’s demand for US tariffs on foreign movies may put EU film industry at risk
US President Donald Trump has demanded a 100% tariff on foreign films, stating “national security threat” as foreign films were filled with “messaging and propaganda”.
If such a foreign films tariff was instated, it would effectively double the cost of distribution and raise box-office prices of European movies for cinema-goers.
That could lead to a sharp decline in exports, reducing revenue for European studios, distributors and talent, observers said. Smaller, independent European filmmakers, already reliant on international sales, would be hit hardest.
Europe could respond in kind with similar duties but it had refrained from doing so in other sectors when Trump launched his first tariffs.
With US movies dominating the European markets, Brussels might be even more reluctant as the EU could be perceived as being responsible for making popular movies less accessible.
#USA #EU #Trump #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
A nationalist bucks pro-EU status quo, wins big in Romania
It would seem disaffection with Brussels and ending support for Ukraine War are popular with voters.
The head of Romania’s “sovereigntist” camp, George Simion won Romania’s first round presidential race on Sunday with 41% of the vote in a field of 11 candidates.
Simion — who as president would have substantial powers in the realm of foreign and security policy — supports Romania’s NATO commitments, but is not an enthusiastic supporter of sending further military aid to Ukraine. Ukraine barred him from entering the country on grounds that he was fomenting discontent within the ethnic Romanian minority (numbering about 150,000) in Ukraine. His victory could strengthen the dissident camp on this issue within the EU.
This first round result seems to be a decisive rebuke by the electorate of the cancellation of the first-round contest of last November, after the surprise first-place finish of Calin Georgescu, another nationalist-populist candidate. Georgescu, an AUR member until 2022, endorsed Simion, and the two men appeared together throughout the campaign.
Simion seems to have succeeded in winning support from those angered by Georgescu’s disqualification. (The combined tally of votes in November for Georgescu and Simion, who finished fourth, was 37%). Georgescu was barred from running, because his November campaign allegedly benefited from covert financing from Russia, including effective TikTok advertisements.
Following the results of the presidential election first round, Marcel Ciolacu on May 5 declared his resignation as prime minister stating that his coalition was “no longer legitimate as it hasn’t sent its candidate to the second round”.
#EU #Romania #Elections #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The Berlin Wall has been rebuilt by German bureaucrats - U.S. Vice President
▪️ The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the most popular party in Germany and by far the most representative party in East Germany. Now the bureaucrats are trying to destroy it. The West brought down the Berlin Wall together. But now it has been rebuilt - by the German establishment," said U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance
▪️ "Germany has just given its spy agency new powers to spy on the opposition. This is not democracy - it is tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AdG... but the deadly policies of the establishment," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier in the day
#Germany #AfD #USA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
If you're criminal you'll be deported
#USA #Trump #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump says he will reopen 'enlarged and rebuilt' Alcatraz prison
President Donald Trump said Sunday he will direct several federal agencies to "reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz," a facility that for decades was a federal prison and is now a national park.
"REBUILD, AND OPEN ALCATRAZ! For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent, and repeat Criminal Offenders, the dregs of society, who will never contribute anything other than Misery and Suffering," Trump realDonaldTrump/posts/114452025916969327">wrote on Truth Social.
Alcatraz Island, a former military fortress and prison in San Francisco Bay, was turned into a federal penitentiary in 1934 and over the course of 29 years housed more than 1,500 people "deemed difficult to incarcerate elsewhere in the federal prison system."
Alcatraz was initially deemed unfit to serve as a federal institution because of its small size, isolated location and lack of fresh water. However, Sanford Bates, the director of the Bureau of Prisons in 1933, later found it "an ideal place of confinement for about 200 of the most desperate or irredeemable types."
Trump suggested in his post that he'd like to restore the facility to that purpose.
#USA #Trump #Crime #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Pete Buttigieg said what about black babies?
Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is under fire after claiming that Black babies are available for adoption at a “discount.” The remark was intended to highlight racial disparities in the adoption process, but instead revealed just how out-of-touch progressive elites can be when discussing matters of race and family. Adoption advocates and experts quickly pushed back, calling the comment offensive, misleading, and harmful to the very children and families Buttigieg claimed to support.
Buttigieg recently sparked backlash after he suggested that adopting white children involves a “list” and a “deposit on a fetus,” while implying Black children are adopted at a discount. He claimed that the U.S. adoption system exposes so-called ongoing racial disparities, saying that prospective parents who specify they only want to adopt a white child face longer waitlists, while those open to adopting children of any race may even receive fee discounts or have deposits waived.
#USA #Buttigieg #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
America is using cryptocurrencies as a weapon - CIA
▪️ Over the past decade, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have evolved from a niche segment to a global medium for various financial transactions. America is using bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a “tool,” stated CIA Deputy Director Michael Ellis
▪️ Cryptocurrencies are another area of technological competition in which the U.S. will obviously not lag behind China and other technology adversaries
"Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies aren't going anywhere. As you know, more and more organizations are embracing them, and I think that's a great trend," Ellis said
Migrants share African design experience with Europeans
#EU #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
How bad is China’s economy? The data needed to answer is vanishing
Not long ago, anyone could comb through a wide range of official data from China. Then it started to disappear.
Land sales measures, foreign investment data and unemployment indicators have gone dark in recent years. Data on cremations and a business confidence index have been cut off. Even official soy sauce production reports are gone.
The missing numbers have come as the world’s second biggest economy has stumbled under the weight of excessive debt, a crumbling real-estate market and other troubles—spurring heavy-handed efforts by authorities to control the narrative.
China’s National Bureau of Statistics stopped publishing some numbers related to unemployment in urban areas in recent years. After an anonymous user on the bureau’s website asked why one of those data points had disappeared, the bureau said only that the ministry that provided it stopped sharing the data.
The disappearing data have made it harder for people to know what’s going on in China at a pivotal time, with the trade war between Washington and Beijing expected to hit China hard and weaken global growth. Plunging trade with the U.S. has already led to production shutdowns and job cuts.
#China #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Democrat senator pushes amnesty for illegal aliens in response to Trump’s self-deportation program
Senator Ruben Gallego suggested he opposed self-deportations and instead offered an amnesty plan that would keep eligible illegal aliens on renewable work visas indefinitely.
“Why don’t we make them pay a $5k fine, go through a background check, and give them a work visa for a few years, renewable with good behavior,” Gallego wrote on X.
Despite increasing popularity, Democrats have continued opposing deportations even for the most violent criminal illegal aliens.
A recent CBS News poll found that a majority — 56% — of American adults support the Trump administration’s goal of locating, detaining, and deporting illegal aliens from the United States.
Similarly, an Echelon Insights survey revealed that all-important moderate swing voters support Trump’s mass deportation agenda.
#USA #Democrats #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump administration offers to pay $1,000 to migrants who ‘self-deport’
The Trump administration said Monday it is offering $1,000 stipends to undocumented immigrants who “self-deport” to their home countries using a U.S. Customs and Border Protection app.
Billing it as a “historic opportunity” and a “dignified way to leave the U.S.,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that those who submit an “Intent to Depart” through the CBP Home app will receive travel and financial assistance to return to their home countries, in addition to $1,000 paid after their return has been confirmed.
The average cost for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest, detain and remove an immigrant illegally in the United States is $17,121, according to DHS. The agency claims that even with the cost of the stipend, a “self-deportation” would decrease the cost of a deportation by about 70%.
#USA #Trump #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The $348 Billion Question for Warren Buffett's Successor
Warren Buffett announced that he will step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year, after nearly 60 years at the helm. The decision came as a surprise even to his successor Greg Abele, who has been managing the company's non-core assets since 2018.
Buffett transformed Berkshire from a textile mill to a conglomerate with a capitalization of $1.16 trillion. Thanks to a value investing strategy, its market value has risen more than 5,500,000% since 1965. However, this strategy is becoming increasingly difficult to execute - the stock is overvalued and profitable deals are scarce.
Chinese firm behind NATO ally's windfarm is tied to Army
A Chinese company that will be supplying turbines for a new wind farm to serve NATO member Germany is run by a military veteran who has sworn eternal loyalty to the Communist Party and is staffed by many ex-soldiers, according to details obtained by Newsweek.
The history of military and political involvement – and continued expressions of loyalty – by the founder and president of Ming Yang Group, Zhang Chuanwei, underlines a potential security challenge for European countries as their drive to install more renewable energy sources risks a growing dependency on technology from China for the electricity for homes, businesses and defense systems.
The readiness of some European countries and NATO members to tie their futures to an increasingly powerful China also threatens to put them under greater scrutiny from the United States as its relations worsen with its main global adversary. President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that Europe was failing to uphold its own security and defence.
The Waterkant wind farm project in the North Sea is going ahead with Ming Yang Smart Energy as the supplier despite a warning from a German government experts, who said allowing Chinese firms to supply wind power equipment brought technology, political and supply chain risks.
#USA #China #NATO #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Transportation boss Sean Duffy pledges to fix ‘frail system’ that caused frightening Newark airport air traffic control outage
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Monday blamed the previous administration for not addressing aging airport infrastructure, which he claims contributed to the terrifying radar and communications outage at Newark Liberty International Airport last week.
“We have really old infrastructure in America,” Duffy told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “It hasn’t been updated in the last 30-40 years.” “This should have been dealt with in the last administration — they did nothing,” the Trump administration official charged.
Newark airport has received more than $170 million in federal funds for “runways, taxiways, safety and sustainability projects, as well as terminal, airport transit connections, and roadway projects,” since 2022.
But a fried piece of copper wire sparked a temporary radar and communications blackout for air traffic controllers overseeing the second-busiest airport in the New York metro area on April 28, leaving those in the tower “unable to see, hear, or talk to” planes in the sky, a National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesperson said Monday. Newark Airport has experienced hundreds of flight cancellations and thousands of delays since the disruption.
#USA #Transport #Duffy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
35 Democrats vote with GOP to block Biden rule allowing Newsom's gas car ban
Thirty-five House Democrats are rebuking the Biden administration's 11th-hour waiver that cleared a path for California to enact a full ban on gas cars by 2035.
A Republican resolution aimed at repealing the Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) move passed by a 246 to 164 vote on Thursday morning.
Notably, two California House Democrats were among the 35 who voted to rescind their own state's clean energy waiver — Reps. Lou Correa and George Whitesides. Other Democrats in the number include Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.; Pat Ryan, D-N.Y.; Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.; Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Hillary Scholten, D-Mich.; and Frank Mrvan, D-Ind.
It was a stunning repudiation of their own former party leader's policies targeting one of Democrats' largest strongholds.
Republican leaders, meanwhile, cheered the resolution's passage.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said of the California waiver, "This radical measure bans the sale of gas-powered vehicles, forcing electric vehicles on the American people and taking away consumer choice."
#USA #Democrats #GOP #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
🇯🇵|Unit 731 ☣️
The White House recently released a statement that Covid is probably of artificial, Chinese origin, The evidence there is of the “well because they could” variety. But there are other “because they could.”
For example, after the defeat of fascist Japan, Shiro Ishii was arrested, but in 1946 the US authorities released him and granted him immunity from any prosecution, for providing some secret data. So who is this Shiro.
Shiro Ishii is a Japanese lieutenant general, under whose leadership in 1932 was created a secret “Unit 731”, whose task was to create and test biological and bacteriological weapons.
Tests were conducted on prisoners, mainly Chinese, Russians, Mongols and Koreans.
The unit conducted experiments to assess the limits of human capabilities, for which they froze, dried, drowned, boiled and burned living people.
They also practiced “live autopsy”, when under local anesthesia the organs, including the brain, were removed one by one from the test subjects (called “logs”).
Mass infections with dangerous pathogens (gangrene, plague, anthrax) were carried out, and the results were documented and recorded on film.
In August 1945, Shiro Ishii ordered the destruction of all developments, documents and... prisoners.
According to Japanese tradition, all employees of the unit were also ordered to commit suicide.
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone carried out the order. Shiro didn't intend to kill himself either.
What did Shiro tell the Americans that they decided not to try him, but gave him immunity and let him go home to Japan...
#USA #Japan #BioLabs #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Situation on a bus in Germany
#Germany #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Germany’s CDU politicians want to remove AfD members from civil service
The German Office for the Protection of the Constitution’s (BfV) decision to designate the right-wing AfD party as “definitely right-wing extremist” has caused a flurry of demands for action by representatives of the German Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
Roderich Kiesewetter, a CDU MP and deputy chairman of the German parliamentary control panel that supervises the BfV and other agencies, said: “The qualification of the party as extremist can and should have consequences for public servants as AfD membership is incompatible with public service.”
“AfD reformulates important topics in an extremist way in order to destroy trust in our democracy and our institutions”, Kiesewetter said in an interview with state broadcaster ARD.
“Members of a right-wing extremist party should neither be allowed to work in public service nor to have a gun licence”, Wanderwitz said. Kiesewetter demanded “individual audits” for AfD-leaning public servants.
#Germany #Elections #AfD #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Tariff war with China would have ‘extremely negative’ impact on US economy - Janet Yellen
▪️ Trump's tariffs are restricting businesses that depend on critical supplies from China. They will deal a serious blow to the economy and could lead to a recession, states former US Treasury Secretary and former Fed chief Janet Yellen
▪️ About 40% of goods imported into the country are components for domestic production. Recent surveys show a marked deterioration in consumer and business sentiment
"We are heavily dependent on China for most critical minerals, including in the green energy sector. By imposing huge duties on them, we are potentially limiting industries that have a chance to succeed," Yellen said
The dollar falters as gold remains stable
In the past three months, the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen from 108 to below 99. This means the dollar has dropped in value relative to major foreign currencies by over 8% in just the past quarter. This is disastrous for those holding large amounts of uninvested cash.
Excessive money printing increases the amount of currency in circulation without increasing the supply of goods. This leads to inflation, which devalues the dollar. That was the source of the dollar’s fall during COVID and in the years that followed. However, this time there is a different culprit.
Instead of the standard inflation that results from an increase in the money supply, this time the cause of the devaluation is artificial inflation driven by imposed tariffs. One of the rationales for the tariffs was that U.S.-based producers competing with foreign countries such as China would see their goods increase in domestic demand due to relative price stability.
In many cases, it is neither profitable nor feasible to produce certain goods entirely within the U.S. Thus, when tariffs substantially increase the prices of foreign goods, this harms domestic producers as well as consumers. As a result, prices of all goods increase, not just foreign ones, and the dollar loses a portion of its buying power.
With the dollar losing value and tariffs increasing prices, gold stands out as a strong investment choice. Unlike paper money, gold isn’t controlled by a government’s monetary policy or affected directly by instituted tariffs. This makes it a relatively stable store of value when the dollar’s purchasing power shrinks from external factors.
Gold is a hedge against the weakness of the dollar and thus is a reliable way to preserve value when the economy faces challenges such as tariffs. Its independence from political and economic turmoil makes it a smart choice for anyone looking to safeguard their investments today.
#Gold #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane