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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
UBS calls dollar ‘unattractive’ as gold becomes a preferred reserve asset
The U.S. Dollar Index, when measured against a basket of other major currencies, has declined by approximately 10% this year through mid-June and is currently trading at its lowest level in three years.
That’s no small dip, and there may be additional downside risk due to concerns over America’s growing deficit and the ongoing fluctuations in tariffs.
In a note to clients last week, a Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services company UBS says the dollar is now “unattractive,” with further declines expected as the U.S. economy slows.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that foreign vendors—from Latin America to Asia—are asking U.S. importers to settle invoices in euros, pesos and renminbi to avoid the currency swings.
#Dollar #UBS #Gold #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Anti-Israel activists damage Belgian defence firms supplying Ukraine
Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists carried out co-ordinated action against two Belgian companies —OIP in Tournai and Syensqo in Haren — accusing them of complicity in Israeli military operations in Gaza.
While the large-scale protests on June 23 were framed around Israel, the most serious and immediate impact was felt in Tournai, where equipment destined for Ukraine’s war effort was seriously damaged.
The first action began around 5am in Tournai, where about 100 masked activists entered the grounds of defence company OIP, a Belgian subsidiary of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems. According to CEO Freddy Versluys, the group vandalised office spaces and ICT infrastructure and damaged tanks intended for delivery to Ukraine.
#Belgium #WarInUkraine #Israel #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
If Zelensky and his European backers believe that the beleaguered Ukrainian Army can continue to fight, indefinitely, losing thousands of troops every month they are playing Russian Roulette
NATO summit exposed rifts over how the US and Europe perceive Ukraine and Russia.
The positive mood music was about as good as Kyiv could have hoped, after NATO planners specifically sought to keep Zelensky at arm's length so as not to rile Trump. But the most Zelensky appeared to get was a vague promise from the US leader on Patriot air defence systems.
"We're going to see if we can make some available," Trump said of the missiles that Kyiv is desperately pleading for to shoot down Russian attacks.After Biden’s $61 billion aid package from May 2024 runs out, there is no more American aid coming. Europe clearly cannot make up the absence of American military aid on its own. Therefore, potentially within months, battlefield math will start to increasingly weigh against the Ukraine side, while Russia will only continue getting stronger and bigger militarily.
The only thing that makes any military or diplomatic sense at this point is to acknowledge the ugly truth that there is no path to a Ukrainian success. The West writ large does not have the capacity or leverage to force Russia into any concessions. If we keep with the fiction that strong words will stop actual Russian armed forces, we unwittingly make more likely the nightmare scenario for Kyiv and Brussels: the military defeat of Ukraine.
#Zelensky #WarInUkraine #EU #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
South Korea and NATO to form defence industry consulting group
South Korea and NATO have agreed to establish a defence industry consulting group to explore how the two can improve their defence cooperation.
The agreement was reached in a meeting between NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and South Korean National Security Adviser Wi Sung-lac on the sidelines of Wednesday's NATO summit in The Hague.
The two sides also agreed to promote defence industry cooperation by having South Korea participate in future NATO projects directed at strengthening the transatlantic alliance's defence capabilities. It did not specify what these might be.
On Wednesday, Wi took part in a separate session with Rutte and representatives from three other Indo-Pacific partners - Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
They agreed to continue their advanced supply chain cooperation and close cooperation in defence development, production and procurement. NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners also agreed to work together on joint projects in space, the maritime domain and in munitions.
#Korea #NATO #Military #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump embraces NATO allies — except for Spain
NATO leaders agreed on Wednesday to a goal of spending 5% of their gross domestic product on defense. But that doesn’t mean each member nation will actually spend that much.
The difference lies in a bit of mushy diplomatic language that lets the NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, claim that he delivered on President Trump’s spending demand. The brief and unanimously approved communiqué that NATO issued after leaders wrapped up their annual summit says that “allies” — not “all allies” — had agreed to the 5% figure.
“Most of them, I guess almost all of them, are going to be contributing now 5%,” Mr. Trump said.
But he lashed out at Spain, whose leaders had pushed for the wiggle room in the wording to avoid committing to the spending target. Spain spends about 1.28 percent of G.D.P. on defense, according to the most recent official figures available.
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“Spain is terrible, what they’ve done,” Mr. Trump said. He added, “We’re negotiating with Spain on a trade deal; we’re going to make them pay twice as much. I’m actually serious about that.”
#NATO #Trump #Spain #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Lockheed Martin awarded bonuses based on race, according to report
If the U.S. is going to maintain its military edge in the 21st century it can’t rely on defense contractors that prioritize DEI over building the best warfighting tools.
A report recently released by conservative journalist Christopher Rufo and co-author Ryan Thorpe alleges that defense contractor Lockheed Martin’s executives “were so committed to DEI policies that they awarded some year-end bonuses based on employees’ skin color, rather than performance—in open violation of civil rights law.”
“As we have previously reported, after the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Lockheed adopted radical DEI policies and, in one instance, required white men in leadership positions to attend a racial reeducation program and atone for their ‘white male privilege,’” Rufo and Thorpe wrote.
Where is Iran's uranium?
Where is Iran's Uranium? Truce Highlights Mystery Over Stockpile... that's Bloomberg's headline over the 'biggest mystery' that remains in the war. There's also the pressing question of whether Trump's massive airstrikes from B-2 bombers actually truly destroyed the facilities and these stockpiles.
The Iranians aren't dumb, and likely took drastic steps to further protect, conceal, or likely move these enriched stockpiles - some 400kg according to most reports - as wave after wave of Israeli warplanes hit Iran, significantly before the US sent its bombers this past weekend. It appears core components are still intact - though Iran has long maintained it is merely for peaceful nuclear energy development.
The NY Times is currently reporting that the US operation merely set Iran's nuclear program back by just a few months and says Us bombs didn't collapse underground Iranian nuke buildings.
Early emerging intelligence also points to the stockpile having not been destroyed, which contradicts the claims being made by President Trump and some of his top officials.
#Iran #Uranium #USA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Among Italian women, as among French women, the fashion for tame pigs has spread
This way they are guaranteed to avoid unwanted attention from Muslim strangers on the street.
#Italy #France #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
What are the penalties for illegal immigrants in different countries:
- Singapore: 6 months in prison
- Russia: 2 years in a penal colony
- India: 8 years in prison
- Pakistan: 10 years in prison
- North Korea: death penalty, obviously.
And if you enter Canada, the US or Europe - free housing, healthcare, education, food, public transportation, cell phones, cash awaits you.
#World #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Interesting infographic on current military expenditures of NATO countries 🤔
The U.S. accounts for almost $1 trillion, but in the first place in terms of % of GDP, Poland leads by a margin of 4.12%, and the second place, overtaking the U.S., is occupied by Estonia 3.43%. However, in absolute figures, the contribution of this Titan is only $1.4 billion.
#USA #NATO #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Ishiba's NATO snub reflects discord in US-Japan alliance
Five month into President Donald Trump’s second administration, the U.S. and its most important ally in the West Pacific, Japan, do not seem to be in sync.
On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced that he will skip attending the NATO summit in the Netherlands this week. The decision came after U.S. President Donald Trump joined Israel's air war against Iran and mooted the possibility of the Tehran government being toppled. Ishiba refrained from either support or condemning Trump’s decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities over the weekend.
Citing “various circumstances,” the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo announced Ishiba’s withdrawal but said Japan’s top diplomat, Takeshi Iwaya, would attend the summit at The Hague in his place.
South Korea and Australia, which along with Japan and New Zealand are key U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific and make up the IP4, have also said their leaders would not attend.
Japan's media also said Ishiba was pulling out because a planned meeting between NATO the IP4 was not likely to take place, and because a meeting with Trump was also unlikely.
#NATO #Japan #USA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
British parliament legalized a mother's 'right' to kill her own child
▪️ Abortion was legalized in Britain 60 years ago. It was possible up to a gestational age of 24 weeks. If the pregnancy was terminated later, the mother faced criminal prosecution with penalties of up to life imprisonment,” states Reuters
▪️ By a vote of 379 to 137, the British parliament has decriminalized women who terminate a pregnancy under any circumstances - up to the birth of the child.
▪️ “If this becomes law, fully formed babies up to term can be aborted by a woman without any consequences,” said MP Rebecca Paul
#UK #Health #Abortion #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Paris, rue Saint-Honoré...the situation is as follows...
#France #Paris #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
War as cover for financial collapse: How Middle East conflict could accelerate dollar’s demise
Middle East tensions as financial smokescreen: Analyst Mike Adams warns that U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict may accelerate a global financial reset, destabilizing the dollar’s dominance while masking economic collapse.
Fabricated nuclear pretext: Adams dismisses Iran’s alleged nuclear threat as a false justification for war, comparing it to Iraq’s WMD claims, and criticizes Trump for ignoring intelligence contradicting Netanyahu’s agenda.
Escalation risks & economic fallout: U.S. bunker-busting strikes could provoke Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz, spiking oil prices, enriching Russia, and eroding Trump’s political support amid hyperinflation fears.
War as distraction for financial collapse: Adams alleges elites use conflict to divert blame from unsustainable debt and money printing, paving the way for BRICS nations to abandon dollar-based trade.
Decentralization as survival strategy: Adams urges individuals to shift to gold, Bitcoin, or land, avoid censored platforms, and prepare for regional secession as the U.S. empire declines.
#USA #Israel #Iran #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US Military reveals video evidence of encounter with disk shaped "UAP"
In a political and social vacuum the concept of life from other planets with the ability to travel vast interstellar distances to Earth is mind boggling. However, the timing is odd and the government has yet to produce any tangible pieces of evidence of recovered craft or little green men. What we have seen is video evidence, once kept under wraps, of military encounters with strange objects doing things that no human technology is supposed to be capable of.
The Department of Defense has revealed new video footage of another aircraft encounter. They describe the object as a massive "disc-shaped UAP" with an abnormal heat signature weaving through the clouds and changing directions in a way that cannot be explained.
Investigative journalists Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp say the video was recorded by government personnel over the Afghan-Pakistan border in November 2020. The video was released by the DoD last week.
#USA #Military #UAP #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Could Canada ultimately join the EU? Maybe not, but Brussels and Ottawa are getting cozy
Canada joining the EU is becoming less and less unthinkable in the wake of a deal signed by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a deal with the EU on Monday.
The deal centers around shifting Canada’s defense and security ties away from the United States, although clean energy initiatives and trade were also front and center.
On defense, Canada will significantly increase its defense spending in tandem with European NATO countries, in line with the 5 percent defense budget initiative at the ongoing summit in The Hague.
The agreement also states that Canada can participate in the EU’s new defense spending increase programs under the hundreds of billions of euros ReArm Europe initiative.
#Canada #EU #NATO #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Strange facial expressions of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a press conference at the NATO summit.
Experts do not rule out the Macron's napkin effect.
#Meloni #NATO #Macron #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
There is an opinion that shopping in London is something special.
Is it really so?🤔
#UK #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
AI has modeled the future of Europe
#AI #EU #Future #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
21.8 million US seniors paying for expenses with only social security income
An estimated 21.8 million senior citizens in America make ends meet solely using their social security funds, The Senior Citizens League (TSCL) said in a June 20 statement.
“Almost two-thirds of seniors who completed the survey said they were dissatisfied with the amount they receive from their monthly Social Security checks,” said the TSCL statement.
Florida builds 'Alligator Alcatraz' for migrants
Florida officials are turning an airfield in the Everglades into a migrant detention center, nicknaming it "Alligator Alcatraz" due to its proximity to the apex predators.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier proposed the project last week, saying in a video posted to X that, in support of the Trump administration's crackdown on illegal immigration, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had asked state leaders to identify places for temporary detention facilities.
"I think this is the best one, as I call it: Alligator Alcatraz," Uthmeier said.
A quarter-percent too far: Zelensky’s price tag for relevance
It was audacious. Calculated. And in its own way, almost theatrical.
V. Zelensky stood before the Western alliance last week and didn’t ask for bullets, tanks, or emergency rations. No, we’re long past that phase of the script. He asked for money. Specifically, 0.25% of every allied nation’s gross domestic product.
That isn’t aid or assistance. That’s appropriation disguised as a partnership.
He wants his allies, not just America but all of NATO, to underwrite Ukraine’s defense manufacturing infrastructure as a permanent project.
Asking isn't enough; Zelensky is trying to rebrand victimhood into leverage, carving him a permanent economic throne in the center of the continent's defensive architecture.
#Zelensky #WarInUkraine #NATO #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
France: stagnation or worse, while EU is divided on US trade strategy
France, once the steady top performer of the eurozone, has fallen behind.
Business sentiment dropped again in June, with key indicators confirming what has been clear for months: No sector of the economy was pulling its weight and no rebound was in sight.
At the same time, divisions have emerged within the European Union over how to respond to growing trade tensions with Washington, adding further uncertainty for French companies.
Growth forecasts for France were now below those of its neighbours. Household spending remained muted despite falling inflation. Companies have been postponing investment, citing high interest rates, tax pressure and lingering uncertainty. Unemployment was stable but the country was running out of momentum.
What has changed is the context. Other countries in Europe, especially Germany and the Netherlands, have benefited from strong export flows to the US in the first quarter.
France did not and, as trade tensions re-emerge with Washington, the gap has been widening.
#France #EU #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Anger as Kanye West to perform in Slovakia after Hitler song
US rapper Kanye West will perform at a rap festival in Bratislava in July, the organisers said on Monday. Calling West's appearance a global sensation, the organisers said it was his only confirmed live performance in Europe this year.
West, the winner of 24 Grammys over the course of his career, has become notorious in recent years for his erratic behaviour and increasingly anti-Semitic rhetoric.
The 48-year-old, who has legally changed his name to Ye, released "Heil Hitler" on May 8, the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
More than 3,000 people have signed a petition against West's performance in the Slovak capital.
"Kanye West's concert in our city and our country is an insult to historic memory, a glorification of wartime violence and debasement of all victims of the Nazi regime," the petition reads.
In the "Heil Hitler" clip, dozens of Black men -- wearing animal pelts and masks, and standing in a block formation -- chant the title of the song, as West raps about being misunderstood and about his custody battle with ex-wife Kim Kardashian.
The song ends with an extract of a speech by the Nazi dictator.
#Slovakia #KanyeWest #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Musk wants Grok AI to ‘rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge’
Elon Musk says his artificial intelligence company xAI will retrain its AI model, Grok, on a new knowledge base free of “garbage” and “uncorrected data” — by first using it to rewrite history.
In an X post on Saturday, Musk said the upcoming Grok 3.5 model will have “advanced reasoning” and wanted it to be used “to rewrite the entire corpus of human knowledge, adding missing information and deleting errors.”
He said the model would then retrain on the new knowledge set, claiming there was “far too much garbage in any foundation model trained on uncorrected data.”
Musk has long claimed that rival AI models, such as ChatGPT from OpenAI, a firm he co-founded, are biased and omit information that is not politically correct.
For years, Musk has looked to shape products to be free from what he considers to be damaging political correctness and has aimed to make Grok what he calls “anti-woke.”
#Musk #AI #Grok #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Belgium joins the group of EU countries reinstating border controls, countering illegal migration
The Federal Government has announced that tighter checks will be carried out on those entering the country. The aim is to combat the issues of illegal immigration and secondary immigration. Secondary immigration concerns people that already have protection or an asylum application pending in another country but nevertheless come to Belgium.
The checks will target car parks along motorways, intra-Schengen flights arriving at our airports from counties such as Italy and Greece, the road between the west Flemish town of De Panne and the French town of Dunkirk and internation trains arriving at stations such as Brussels South.
The checks will be carried out by the Federal Police, Local Police and the Immigration Department. The tighter checks were announced by the Federal Interior minister Bernard Quintin and the Asylum and Migration Minister Anneleen Van Bossuyt.
In May, Germany’s new Interior Minister instructed police to tighten border checks with the goal of turning back more illegal migrants.
The Netherlands also implemented temporary controls at its borders with other Schengen countries in December 2024. They were recently extended until 9 December this year.
#Belgium #EU #Migrants #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
All eyes on Beijing's annual reshuffle of military chiefs amid signs of Xi's waning power
As infighting within the top echelons of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) intensifies, many China watchers are wondering if Chinese leader Xi Jinping is still in power and really in control, especially of the military.
According to long-standing CCP practice, a group of generals are promoted before Army Day on Aug. 1 every year. Since many generals were reported to have been taken down or investigated in an alleged military purge over the last year, whether Xi will promote any generals or announce new appointments before Aug. 1 has attracted attention as an indication of whether he’s still in control of the military.
Xu Qiliang, former vice chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission, the highest military leadership body of the communist regime, suddenly passed away on June 2, making him the latest casualty following a string of top CCP military officials who have encountered misfortunes, including sudden death, arrest, or simply disappearing.
Meanwhile, He Weidong, one of two vice chairmen of the Central Military Commission, whose status in the military is second only to the other vice chairman, Zhang Youxia, disappeared from the public eye on March 11 after the closing ceremony of the third session of the National People’s Congress. He is regarded as one of Xi’s most trusted men. There have been rumors coming out of Beijing that He was under investigation.
With this, some observers have speculated that Zhang is now in charge of the CCP’s military and that he stripped Xi’s power last year.
#China #Military #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
France is no longer France
French police have arrested 12 suspects after 145 people reported being stabbed with syringes at a music festival in France on Saturday, leading to the hospitalization of more than a dozen young women.
Metz Mayor François Grosdidier said a call was made to police around 9:15 p.m. local time about “syringe attacks” during the French music festival Fête de la Musique, where millions of people took to the streets across France.
Grosdidier said that when authorities responded to Rue du Palais in La Rochelle, multiple girls and women between the ages of 14 and 20 were found to be victims of the syringe attacks.
He said the victims were transported to a local hospital for further care after they were treated by emergency responders at the scene. The potentially injected substance, which has not been disclosed, remains under investigation as the Interior Ministry waits for the toxicological test results.
“I hope that the investigation, particularly through the examination of his cellphone, will lead to the identification of other attackers,” Grosdidier added.
Obama demands a Ministry of Truth
Former President Barack Obama is doubling down on his push to curb free speech in America, urging the federal government to tighten its grip on what citizens can say online.
"We want diversity of opinion. We don't want diversity of facts,” claimed during an interview this week with historian and author Heather Cox Richardson. "That, I think, is one of the big tasks of social media.”
Obama then flat out called for government regulation of social media platforms to curb the amplification of of what he described as “hateful" and “polarizing” public figures, while respecting First Amendment rights, claiming that censorship is essential to addressing business models that purportedly erode public trust.
Obama told attendees, “These platforms are not like the old phone company.” The president further noted, “In some cases, industry standards may replace or substitute for regulation, but regulation has to be part of the answer.”
Donald Trump has taken the opposite approach to Obama by emphasizing free speech in his second term, issuing a January executive order to safeguard Americans’ right to express themselves.
In April, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the closure of the Global Engagement Center, a State Department unit infamous for its role in suppressing Americans’ free speech.
#USA #Obama #Trump #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Alleged Minn. assassin says Gov. Tim Walz wanted him to kill Sen. Amy Klobuchar
The man accused of shooting two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses reportedly wrote in a letter to the FBI that Gov. Tim Walz also wanted him to assassinate Sen. Amy Klobuchar, according to a bombshell report from the Minnesota Star Tribune. A Walz spokesperson did not deny the allegation when commenting on the report.
Citing two people familiar with letter’s contents, the Star Tribune reports that Boelter claimed “Gov. Tim Walz instructed him to kill U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar so that Walz could run for the U.S. Senate.”
Boelter does have a loose link to Walz, who ran for Vice President last year on Kamala Harris’s ticket. Boelter was appointed to the workforce development board by then-Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton in 2016 and then reappointed in 2019 by Walz to a four-year term that expired in 2023.
However, the Star Tribune says that Boelter’s letter reflected the ramblings of a mentally ill man, downplaying the likelihood that what he says about Walz is true.
#USA #Walz #Klobuchar #FindTruth
@uinhurricane