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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
Italy does not sign against Trump’s sanctions on the ICC
The US sanctions on the International Criminal Court have been condemned by 79 UN member countries with a joint statement asserting that “they would severely compromise all currently under investigation, as the Court might have to close its field offices,” as well as “increase the risk of impunity for the most serious crimes and threaten to erode the rule of international law”.
Among the signatories are Germany, France, Spain, and the United Kingdom, but not Italy.
Among the critics of the US sanctions is also the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who clarified on social channels how the Hague Tribunal guarantees “accountability for international crimes and gives a voice to victims worldwide. It must be able to freely pursue the fight against global impunity”.
“Europe – she pointed out – will always advocate for justice and respect for international law”. Words that were followed by those of the Court’s president, Tomoko Akane. “Trump’s sanctions are “a serious attack on international law” and “aim to undermine the Court’s ability to administer justice in all situations,” explained the Japanese judge.
The episode comes at a time of deep friction between Rome and the Hague Court, with the latter being publicly attacked by the Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio in Parliament and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani, who invoked an investigation against the ICC for its stance on the Almasri case, the Libyan commander released by Italy despite the Court having issued an arrest warrant against him accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
#EU #Italy #Trump #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Google backtracks on AI ethics pledge, sparks outrage over weapons and surveillance use
Google has quietly erased a key promise from its AI ethics guidelines, abandoning its 2018 pledge not to use artificial intelligence for weapons or surveillance. The move, announced last Tuesday, has ignited fierce backlash from employees, human rights advocates, and tech watchdogs, who warn that the decision sets a dangerous precedent for the unchecked militarization of AI.
Google’s pivot aligns with its growing collaboration with government agencies, raising concerns about the tech giant’s role in enabling mass surveillance and warfare.
The updated policy now emphasizes “responsible” AI development in line with “widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.” However, the removal of explicit prohibitions on weapons and surveillance has left many questioning Google’s commitment to ethical AI.
Matt Mahmoudi, an AI and human rights adviser at Amnesty International, condemned the decision, stating, “AI-powered technologies could fuel surveillance and lethal killing systems at a vast scale, potentially leading to mass violations and infringing on the fundamental right to privacy.”
#Google #AI #Surveillance #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
First CBS news poll of Trump stuns Democrats
President Donald Trump's lawsuit against CBS News over its "news distortion" of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris may have compelled the left-leaning media organization, owned by Paramount Global, to report actual news.
A new CBS News/YouGov survey of 2,175 US adults interviewed last week found President Trump to be "tough" (69%), "energetic" (63%), "focused" (60%), and "effective" (58%) in his first few weeks in office.
Many respondents said the president is going over and beyond in helping this nation, with very few saying he is doing less.
His voters note that he has the right balance of focusing on restoring national security by reversing the disastrous open border policies of the Biden-Harris administration and ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government and military.
Most respondents approved of the president's border and deportation policies, while cash-strapped respondents said the administration needs to focus more on tackling the inflation storm sparked by out-of-control spending by Democrats.
#USA #Trump #Democrats #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Wikileaks reveals US spent $472.6M for covert censorship, media control
Wikileaks has revealed that the United States allegedly transferred $472.6 million through Internews Network, a global media non-governmental organisation (NGO) suspected of promoting covert censorship and media control.
USAspending data shows that in the last 17 years, 87 percent of the funding, equivalent to $415 million, came from USAID, while the US Department of State awarded an additional $57 million in the same period.
Internews claims to have “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing 4,799 hours of broadcasts in one year alone, reaching up to 778 million people globally. Wikileaks also said in a series of posts on X that it “trained" over 9,000 journalists in 2023 and supported social media censorship initiatives.
Reports suggest that Jeanne Bourgault earns $451,000 annually as the leader of Internews. Bourgault, a vocal advocate for global advertising “exclusion lists,” has pushed for censoring what she deems “disinformation.”
Critics argue this amounts to subjective censorship, as her definitions of “good” or “bad” content remain contentious. Social media users have labelled the US government's support for the organisation as a "literal state propaganda network."
#USA #USAID #Leaks #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
EU spending: Who is getting quiet billions from the European Commission?
With President Trump’s new administration combing through public spending and finding many questionable uses of taxpayers’ money, in particular on payments made by the aid agency USAID, European experts have been digging through spending by Brussels.
That came while a debate was still ongoing on how the European Commission secretly gave money to NGOs to promote its “green agenda”.
On February 6, Sander Smit and Alexander Bernhuber, both MEPs from the European People’s Party, sent a letter to the commission, demanding full transparency regarding what they called the “lobby scandal with Green NGOs”.
Recent reporting has shown there were allegedly secret contracts between the commission and Green NGOs, where Brussels used money from a billion-euro climate and environmental subsidy fund for its shadow lobbying activities.
The programme is called LIFE, and it is meant to be dedicated to environmental objectives.
According to the MEPs, this raised “concerns about the separation of powers, institutional balance, transparency, potential Treaty violations and the adequacy of internal Codes of Conduct as well as impartiality of staff”.
#EU #USA #USAID #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Germany will lose its steel industry at current electricity prices
▪️ Germany's Georgsmarienhütte, one of Europe's leading suppliers of high-quality steel, has said that production will be moved outside the FRG if electricity prices remain at current levels, states German Focus
▪️ Rejection of Russian gas, shutdown of nuclear power plants, reliance on intermittent wind and solar power are the main reasons for the plight of the German energy sector.
#Germany #Economy #Energy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The Super Bowl, the final of the US soccer championship, was not without politics as usual. Before last year's Super Bowl, there were rumors that Taylor Swift might support Biden and the Democrats. That didn't happen in the end, and today the singer was booed.
This time at the Super Bowl, Trump posed surrounded by his associates and foreigners like the Prince of Monaco who came to him for talks. And one of the main Super Bowl commercials was a video of the U.S. Secret Service urging Americans to go to work for them.
The Secret Service has long been in crisis. Agents are severely understaffed, so Trump was guarded before the election by inexperienced employees of DHS - the Department of Homeland Security. They disgracefully and blundered through an assassination attempt on Trump, violating all security regulations.
At the same time, scandals are constantly erupting around the Secret Service. Agents are accused of drug abuse, pedophilia and corruption. They themselves complain of a very toxic work environment, with frequent fights and beatings. It's a general crisis in US law enforcement - no better in the scandal-ridden FBI. Or the police force, which is also understaffed.
At the same time, the situation with assassination threats against Trump and his team remains grave. The other day it became known that during the campaign he was even forced to change his plane for safety.
The Secret Service also launched fictitious Trump motorcades. Surely these procedures will be used after the inauguration. In the meantime, we should urgently look for new agents and hope that they will at least somehow manage to prevent the wave of political violence that is sweeping the United States.
#USA #SuperBowl #SecretService #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
A Japanese government official called the idea of building a nuclear waste disposal site on the Russian-controlled Northern Territories "attractive," sparking criticism
Prime Minister Ishiba apologized, but former island residents condemned the remarks as insensitive, while Russia’s state media reported on the controversy.
The editorial warns that such statements harm Japan’s diplomatic standing and territorial claims. It criticizes the government’s disregard for scientific risks—since the islands are prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity—and argues that the government must act responsibly to avoid public distrust.
#Japan #Russia #Nuclear #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Lobby and hypocrisy
By Ben Freeman
“I don’t need anybody’s money…I’m not using the lobbyists. I’m not using the donors,” proudly proclaimed Donald Trump in his 2016 campaign for president that, like his other campaigns, was laced with disdain for how money drives politics in the U.S. He, of course, did take hundreds of millions of dollars in donor money (some of it from lobbyists) in his 2016, 2020, and 2024 campaigns.
And, he certainly wasn’t the only politician railing against the corrosive impact of money in politics. Sen. Bernie Sanders famously vowed to “get corporate money out of politics,” in his 2016 presidential campaign and regularly advertised that his average donation was just $27.
Rhetoric like this from Trump and Sanders works extraordinarily well because it strikes a nerve in an American public that really doesn’t trust its government and despises money’s corrupt influence on our politics.
The public’s trust in government is near all-time lows. Last year, the Pew Research Center found that just 23% of Americans trust the federal government to do what is right “just about always” or most of the time.
Sadly, their suspicions are absolutely right. And, in few areas is the corrosive impact of money in politics more apparent than in U.S. foreign policy. The public needs to understand the truth behind how U.S. foreign policy is actually being created.
But, just knowing how the sausage is made doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. In fact, it can make it much harder and, ultimately, contribute to the crisis of confidence in government. Exposing corruption — both the illegal and perfectly legal varieties — is a necessary step, but it must be followed by actions that fix the broken system itself.
#USA #Lobby #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US gold imports surge after Trump's victory
▪️2.16 billion dollars - U.S. gold imports in November 2024, doubled. In physical terms, the figure amounted to 27 tons - stated experts
▪️$3.19 billion - gold imports in December. This is 1.5 times more than the November figure and 2.5 times more than a year earlier. In physical terms, the figure amounted to 38.1 tons. This is the maximum since July 2020
#USA #Economy #Gold #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Independent journalist highlights why dems are so quiet about Trump right now
By Matt Vespa
One reason there are no mass protests by Democrats against those things is likely because they see no value in having them. They wouldn’t have much impact any time soon. Trump is able to do those things because voters elected him president. And they have known this since early November.
Another factor may have been the Democrats’ own disgust with the poor performance of Harris and Biden, the margin of their defeat, and the resulting lack of enthusiasm for the Democrats’ agenda. In 2017, Democrats won the popular vote while losing the electoral vote; this year, they lost both.
The fact that they didn’t shows that they really didn’t believe those things were true and good; they just said they did. Polls show that either a majority of Democrats or a significant percentage of them agree with Trump on energy, migration, and transgender issues. As such, the reason the Democrats and the Left are so quiet is because they have been defeated morally, not just politically.
#USA #Democrats #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Left-wing militant group pushing anti-ICE protests in LA teaches ‘self-defense’ classes to fend off deportation raids
‘Learn how to identify undercover ICE vehicles that are used in ICE raids,’ Unión del Barrio wrote.
A radical left-wing group, Unión del Barrio (UdB), is offering "self-defense" training to combat Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. The Latino-focused organization, which models itself on militant groups like the Black Panthers, is also trying to recruit members for daily car patrols to help "expel" ICE agents from neighborhoods.
UdB has also been involved in the recent wave of anti-ICE protests that have engulfed Southern California in response to Trump’s deportations. Some have led to illegal street and freeway blockades, as well as incidents of criminal vandalism.
In addition to "resisting" immigration and law enforcement in the United States, UdB "unconditionally upholds the right of self-determination of indigenous people, and of all poor and oppressed people throughout the world."
#USA #Protests #ICE #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
How Trump's dismantling of USAID marks a seismic, historic shift on America's role in the world
The most consequential decision and executive order which came within the opening days of President Donald Trump's administration has without doubt been his "reevaluating and realigning US foreign aid" — which sent shockwaves through Washington especially given federal funding has been cut to USAID in a shock blow to the agency. But it is also having a massive ripple effect throughout the world. Some foreign powers will welcome the news, while many allies as well as an assortment of US-backed 'opposition groups' will feel completely abandoned.
This has meant that pro-Western media outlets, NGOs, and 'soft power' organizations are in panic mode. This has basically overnight shutdown a multi-billion dollar regime change apparatus which pushed or often imposed American interests throughout the globe, especially in the very vulnerable Third World, as well as former Soviet satellite regions.
The way this works on a practical, on the ground level is detailed in the well-known book Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man. As for Trump's apparent efforts to dismantle the powerful USAID agency, we compiled some of the best current analysis from around the web outlining the huge significance of this move, which is nothing less than a historic reset (and we say a very welcome reset) of Washington's relations with the rest of the world.
Read the full story
#USA #USAID #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Bill Gates voices concern over USAID investigation, claims new pandemic will cause “millions of deaths”
Bill Gates appeared on The View on Tuesday, voicing concerns that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could expose waste and corruption within the USAID.
Gates, whose foundation collaborates with USAID on nutrition and vaccine distribution, lamented the agency’s dismantling under the Trump administration.
“My foundation partners with USAID on nutrition and getting vaccines out… So, hopefully, we’ll get some of that work back in shape,” Gates said. “If we don’t, you could have literally millions of deaths.”
Gates expressed particular frustration with Musk’s involvement in the White House, stating that his influence over USAID’s dismantling is “insane.”
While discussing global health, Gates predicted a “10% chance” that a new deadly pathogen could be released within the next four years.
#DOGE #USAID #Gates #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Wi-Fi, cell towers may soon be spying on you without your consent
Wireless radiation could be used to surveil people without their knowledge or consent, even if they aren’t wearing a “smart” device or holding a cellphone, according to the authors of a new study.
The study authors — engineering faculty members with the Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science at the University of Porto, Portugal — posted their report Jan. 24 on the Cornell University open-access research website, arXiv.
The study showcases hardware the authors designed that leveraged ambient wireless radiofrequency radiation to detect and render a visual image of human activity — such as waving a hand or a person’s breathing rate — with over 90% accuracy.
Their design involved a thin programmable surface — a Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface — that communicates with computers and artificial intelligence.
RIS can manipulate and steer Wi-Fi signals in controlled ways. By adjusting how radio waves reflect off this surface, the researchers were able to enhance signal-sensitivity and improve their ability to detect subtle human movements.
#Surveillance #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Gas reserves in Europe's underground gas storage facilities are less than half full
European gas storage facilities (UGS) are less than half full (49.95% according to the results of the gas day on February 6), reports the association Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). Now the reserves in UGS are 8 p. p. below the average level for the last five years.
Meanwhile, the weather in Europe is not so cold, with February temperatures expected to be within the climate norm, but 4 degrees below levels of a year ago.
EU gas prices are crossing $600 per thousand cubic meters. Friday's contract at the TTF hub (Netherlands) closed at $594.
Gas futures with delivery in March are also growing: its price is €58.16 per megawatt-hour (about $629 per thousand cubic meters) at the TTF hub.
We remind that Europe has been actively withdrawing gas during this heating season and now it will have to intensively replenish volumes during the summer to enter the new season with at least 90% of reserves.
In addition, the EU will need to offset the under-supplied energy from wind farms at the expense of gas. In early February, wind generation was able to cover only 12% of electricity demand (22% a year ago).
#EU #Energy #Gas #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US and China teeter on edge of trade war as tariff deadline looms
China and the US risk renewing a full-blown trade war unless the two largest economies can defuse the dispute amid Chinese tariffs on $14bn of American exports take effect on Monday, analysts warned.
President Donald Trump unveiled an extra 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods to force Beijing to do more to tackle fentanyl-related exports to the US and Mexico and threatened more if China retaliated.
When the US duties took effect, Beijing immediately hit back, announcing additional 10 to 15 per cent duties on US energy exports and farm equipment.
“This could be just the beginning of this phase of the trade war,” said Zhang Yanshen, an expert at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges. “This could become a very, very bad situation.”
Experts in Beijing said Trump’s shock tactics, aimed at forcing Xi to reach a deal quickly, might have backfired. The US president provided only two days between announcing and implementing the tariffs — a timeline that was probably unacceptable to Xi.
“China doesn’t want a deal like that,” said Ma Wei, a researcher at the Chinese government-affiliated CASS Institute of American Studies. “You have to have equal talks and an equal agreement, not one in which you first put a high tariff on me, and then you say we have to make a deal.”
Ma said the US tactics had echoes of a Chinese idiom “cheng xia zhi meng” — dealing with your enemy under duress when it is at your castle gates.
#USA #China #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Musk suggests federal judges who stymie DOGE should be impeached: ‘A corrupt judge protecting corruption’
He doesn’t want DOGE on a short leash.
Elon Musk has suggested that judges who have thrown up roadblocks to his Department of Government Efficiency’s crusade to trim bureaucracy should be impeached.
Musk’s ire against the judiciary comes after a New York-based judge temporarily restrained DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment systems on Saturday and other legal setbacks in recent days.
“A corrupt judge protecting corruption,” Musk raged early Sunday against US District Judge Paul Engelmayer, who blocked DOGE’s access to Treasury data. “He needs to be impeached NOW!”
“This ruling is absolutely insane!” he fumed in another post. “How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent? That’s literally impossible! Something super shady is going to protect scammers.”
Musk further concurred with a post from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) who argued “This has the feel of a coup—not a military coup, but a judicial one” and Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) announced plans to roll out legislation that would grant DOGE access to the Treasury data.
#USA #Musk #DOGE #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Everything that has been happening in recent years with Germany has been collected for you in one short video
#Germany #Economy #Energy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The most important economic race of our time is not between the US and China - these are two major economies that complement each other in many ways - but between the PRC and the EU
Both entities are centers of material production. The profiles of the EU and PRC economies are very similar: both are resource-deficient, both are concentrated on manufacturing, mostly consumer goods, with a bet on scale of production and exporting finished goods to third countries.
The US is moving away from this model. Firstly, the US is self-sufficient in many types of resources, and secondly, it relies on intangible exports of services: IT, military and financial services - such exports are easier to scale.
EU economies stopped growing 5 years ago. Whereas China's economy, although slowing down its growth, still shows 4-5% growth, which Europe never dreamed of.
As a result, already in 2025-2026 China (GDP for 2024 - $18.3 trillion, IMF) will overtake the entire EU in terms of GDP. This seemed unthinkable a decade ago: the position of European manufacturers in many markets was unshakable.
#EU #China #USA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
2.8 trillion💰 of U.S. tax revenue was sent:
🤬 TO DEAD PEOPLE
🤬 TO CROOKS
🤬 TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.
The first hearing before the DOGE Committee will be this Wednesday, 2/12, at 10am.
#USA #Economy #DOGE #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has fallen victim to a cryptojacking attack that resulted in significant losses on cloud services
The incident occurred in the fall of 2024, when attackers gained access to the agency's test environment using a password spraying attack. After hacking into a global administrative account, the hackers created another account profile and began mining cryptocurrency using the agency's Microsoft Azure cloud resources.
The damage from the consumption of cloud capacity amounted to about $500,000. To prevent further attacks, the agency implemented strong password policies, activated mandatory multi-factor authentication (MFA), and increased security monitoring.
The use of government computing resources for cryptomining is not uncommon. For example, in 2024, one campaign targeted misconfigured Kubernetes clusters for mining the Dero cryptocurrency.
According to experts, cryptojacking is difficult to detect because attackers erase traces of activity and disable security systems after hacking. Often such attacks are carried out by organized groups or government hackers. North Korea is among the countries suspected of supporting such activities.
#USA #USAID #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
$3,000 an ounce could hit gold price within three months
▪️Trump's trade wars could slow economic growth, spark inflation and disrupt global trade. Central banks will continue to build up their reserves in gold, the price of which could jump to $3,000 an ounce within three months, a Citi survey reported by Bloomberg estimates
▪️Gold has broken several consecutive records in the past few days amid fears of more Trump trade wars. This supports gold's role as a savings vehicle in volatile times
#Gold #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Assisted dying bill: What is in proposed law?
British MPs have voted in favour of proposals to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales.
The bill will now face many more months of debate and scrutiny by MPs and peers, who could choose to amend it, with the approval of both Houses of Parliament needed for it to become law.
It is also possible the bill could fall and not become law at all. Called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, it would make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to be given assistance to end their own life.
But there are requirements:
▪️They must be resident of England and Wales and be registered with a GP for at least 12 months
▪️They must have the mental capacity to make the choice and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure
▪️They must be expected to die within six months
▪️They must make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed (by them or a proxy on their behalf), about their wish to die
▪️Two independent doctors must be satisfied the person is eligible - and there must be at least seven days between the doctors’ assessments
▪️A High Court judge must hear from at least one of the doctors and can also question the dying person, or anyone else they consider appropriate. There must be a further 14 days after the judge has made the ruling (although this can be shortened to 48 hours in some circumstances)
#UK #Health #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
"Europe Is Better Safe Than Sorry on Natural Gas" - the difficult choice of the EU, which refused gas from Russia
Gas reserves in Europe could fall to 30% by early April amid a cutoff of supplies through Ukraine, a cold winter and windless weather that is boosting gas-fired power generation. In the previous two years, the figure was at 60%, Bloomberg states.
▪️In this situation, the gas price curve has inverted: while gas prices used to be lower in summer than in winter, traders now realize the nature of the current problems and are jacking up summer prices
▪️Europe is a victim of energy policy complacency. The EU has interpreted lower gas demand, caused by a combination of favorable weather and catastrophic deindustrialization, as a strategic success story
▪️Europe is left to either buy gas in the summer at exorbitant prices, wasting taxpayers' money, or pray for a favorable outcome, including an end to the conflict in Ukraine, increased gas supplies from the U.S., warm weather and strong winds. But in the second case, there is a risk of “meeting next winter with nothing on,” Bloomberg emphasizes
#EU #Energy #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Virginia dem sen. sponsors bill to cap debt interest - which could eliminate options for many consumers
Placing an artificial cap on interest rates for consumer debt has the unintended effect of blocking some people out of the credit market altogether.
That's precisely what the state of Virginia is contemplating. Senate Bill 1252, currently making its way through the Virginia Legislature, would cap consumer interest at 12%.
It's important to note that for many people, this artificial cap would limit them to mortgages, auto loans, and credit cards - "open-end credit plans" - and people with poorer credit ratings would be blocked from the market. It's important to note that the average interest rate for revolving credit accounts - credit cards - in the United States today is a bit over 24%.
The government of Virginia should not be messing around in interest rates. The various lending institutions, banks, credit unions, credit card companies, auto traders, and so on, are best equipped to determine what interest rates will attract consumers, while reducing the institution's exposure to defaulting borrowers. Markets, not government. Private sector, not public. It's messy, it's sometimes reactive, but it generally works. Central control never does.
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump admin reopens millions of acres for oil drilling in rollback of Biden climate agenda
Interior Secretary Burgum orders review of Biden's oil lease cancellations
The Trump administration is reopening oil and gas leasing across hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands and waters that were locked up by the Biden administration.
The actions, while expected, signal an abrupt change in how the Interior Department will approach oil and gas leasing issues during the Trump administration. Under Biden-era interior secretary Deb Haaland's leadership, the agency pursued an aggressive climate strategy, severely restricting oil and gas drilling and mining while expanding green energy production on public lands and waters.
And as part of the department's new effort to roll back regulations, the Interior Department will eliminate at least 10 existing regulations for every new one introduced and "ensure that the costs of new regulations are offset by removing the costs of previous ones."
Environmental groups, though, sounded the alarm—the Wilderness Society said Burgum's first day as interior secretary couldn't have been "much worse than this."
"The new secretary hasn’t even had time to break in his chair at the Department of the Interior, and yet the Trump administration is already driving day-one actions to implement a drill-first agenda," Wilderness Society senior director Dan Hartinger said.
#Trump #Biden #Oil #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Record high imports pressure US trade deficit
The U.S. trade deficit widened sharply in December as imports surged to a record high against the backdrop of tariff threats, which might have prompted businesses to rush purchases of foreign-made goods like finished metals and computers.
The report from the Commerce Department on Wednesday showed the United States experienced significant deficits with several trade partners, including China, Mexico and Canada, which have been targeted by President Donald Trump's administration for broad or additional tariffs. Trump on Monday suspended a 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods until next month.
The trade gap increased 24.7% to $98.4 billion, the highest since March 2022, from a revised $78.9 billion in November, the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) said.
It was the second-largest deficit on record and the monthly increase was biggest since March 2015.
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Ukraine funds left-wing smear campaign to oust Hungary’s Orbán
Máté Kocsis, the leader of the Hungary’s Fidesz faction, announced after a meeting of the National Security Committee that, according to information obtained by the Hungarian secret services, the Ukrainian state had launched a smear campaign against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The goal is said to undermine the international reputation of the prime minister and weaken Hungary’s ability to assert its interests. This is nothing new for Hungary, as the country, namely, successive Orbán governments, has repeatedly been targeted by such campaigns initiated by foreign state and non-state entities.
Now, with Trump in office and cutting foreign aid left and right, Zelensky is getting aggressive, targeting a country that has been continuously promoting peace since the war began. Notably, Zelensky may be using European and American taxpayer money to accomplish these goals, as his country is highly reliant on foreign aid and loans.
Orbán is also close to Trump and flew immediately to Mar-a-Lago after his win to, among other topics, discuss fast-tracking peace talks in Ukraine, which Kyiv feels will mean conceding more to Moscow than they are willing to give.
The timing makes sense, given Ukraine is losing much of its previous American support under Biden with the new Trump administration.
#Hungary #Ukraine #Orban #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Wisconsin man, 22, dead from asthma attack after price on inhaler skyrockets from $66 to over $500, parents claim in explosive lawsuit
A Wisconsin 22-year-old man died from an asthma attack when the price of his inhaler skyrocketed to over $500 and he was forced to choose to pay for rent over the “life-sustaining medicine,” his parents claim.
Cole Schmidtknecht’s family is demanding damages from Walgreens Pharmacy and United Health Group’s OptumRx for their alleged actions leading to the tragic 2024 death.
Schmidtknecht was diagnosed with chronic asthma as an infant but managed his symptoms with a daily dose of a corticosteroid inhaler for over a decade. His self-insured plan through OptumRx covered the corticosteroid inhaler Advair Diskus.
Through the plan, Schmidtknecht paid roughly $35 to up to $66.86 during the “deductible phase of the plan.” Without insurance coverage, the doctor-prescribed medication would cost Schmidtknecht over $530, the lawsuit claims.
In the Fall of 2023, OptumRx allegedly changed the list of drugs it would cover in 2024, with Advair Diskus being excluded from the covered medication. Schmidtknecht went to his local Walgreens connected with OptumRx to fill his prescription on Jan. 10, 2024 and was told the medication was no longer covered by his insurance. The out-of-pocket cost for the inhaler was $539.19.
Schmidtknecht left the pharmacy without his medication. During that time, Schmidtknecht chose to pay his rent instead of buying the medicine.
#USA #Health #FindTruth
@uinhurricane