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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
Trump says Biden’s pardons are ‘void’ and ‘vacant’ because of autopen
President Trump wrote on social media on Sunday night that he no longer considered valid the pardons his predecessor granted to people whom Mr. Trump sees as political enemies because they were signed using an autopen — a typically uncontroversial method of affixing a presidential signature.
“The ‘Pardons’ that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on social media on Sunday night. “In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!”
He was asked: Would other things Mr. Biden signed as president using an autopen also be considered null and void?
“It’s not my decision,” he said. “That would be up to a court. But I would say that they’re null and void, because I’m sure that Biden didn’t have any idea that it was taking place.”
#USA #Trump #Biden #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Meta threatens to withdraw WhatsApp from Sweden over proposed surveillance law
Meta draws a red line in Sweden as lawmakers push for encryption backdoors, warning of a potential WhatsApp exit.
Meta isn’t in the habit of walking away from markets. But in Sweden, the company is drawing a hard line. If the government moves forward with a proposed surveillance law requiring backdoor access to encrypted messages, WhatsApp may pull out of the country entirely.
Janne Elvelid, Meta’s head of policy in Sweden, claimed: “We’re doing everything we can to support the police in their work against crime,” Elvelid said. “But that doesn’t mean that we’re going to compromise on safety and privacy for our users. We’re willing to accept that our services may not be available everywhere or in every country if that is the price for keeping our promise to users that our chat services will be secure.”
The company, which owns both WhatsApp and Messenger, thrives in markets where it can dictate the terms of engagement. It has fought similar battles before, resisting government demands for data access under the guise of protecting users, all while continuing to collect vast amounts of metadata for its own purposes.
#Sweden #WhatsApp #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Conor McGregor comments on immigration in White House criticised as ‘wrong’
Remarks made by mixed martial arts fighter Conor McGregor’s about immigration during a visit to the White House have been criticised by Irish politicians as “wrong” and “outrageous”.
McGregor’s St Patrick’s Day meeting with Donald Trump came after the US president last week identified the Dubliner as his favourite Irish person during a press conference in the Oval Office with Irish premier Micheál Martin.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, McGregor claimed “Ireland is at the cusp of potentially losing its Irishness” and that “the illegal immigration racket is running ravage”.
Martin later described McGregor’s remarks as “wrong” and said they “do not reflect the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland”.
McGregor later responded to Martin, telling Sky News that “every available metric has shown that the Government of Ireland currently has failed the people of Ireland”.
He suggested Dublin is one of the most dangerous cities in Europe. “I won’t speak about him [Martin] personally or throw a jab. I could. I could throw many jabs at them.”
#USA #Trump #McGregor #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Statue of Liberty should be returned to France, politician says
The famous American icon has stood in the harbor in New York City for nearly 140 years, a gift from France. But a French politician suggests that the U.S. no longer represents the ideals of the statue.
“We’re going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: ‘Give us back the Statue of Liberty,’” said Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European Parliament.
“We gave it to you as a gift, but apparently you despise it. So it will be just fine here at home.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded Monday to Glucksmann, calling him an “unnamed low-level French politician.” She also cited the role of the U.S. in liberating France during World War II.
#USA #France #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Telegram founder charged with multiple crimes is allowed to leave France
Pavel Durov, the founder of the messaging app Telegram who was charged in France last year with a range of crimes related to illicit activity on the app, has been allowed to temporarily leave the country.
Mr. Durov had been barred from leaving France, but the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Monday that the investigative judges handling his case had lifted the travel restrictions between March 15 and April 7, when he must return to France.
“I’ve returned to Dubai after spending several months in France due to an investigation related to the activity of criminals on Telegram,” said Mr. Durov, a Russian-born entrepreneur who also has citizenship in France and the United Arab Emirates.
Mr. Durov, 40, was detained near Paris last August and barred from leaving the country while he was under investigation. It was a rare move by French legal authorities, who charged him personally with complicity by running an online platform seen as enabling illegal activity. After being released from custody last year, he was required to check in at a police station twice a week.
#France #Durov #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
JFK Files Released...
Roughly 80,000 pages of JFK files have finally been released in the form of 1,123 PDF files on the National Archives website, after President Donald Trump announced on Monday that they would be made public.
"You got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything. I said, ‘just don’t redact, you can’t redact,'" Trump said during a visit to the Kennedy Center in Washington.
Yet, it still lacks a lot of information. So far, it still points to Lee Harvey Oswald as the culprit.
A few notable findings:
▪️One American intelligence operative noted that multiple CIA assets connected to a particular CIA agent had been spreading misinformation that Cuba was behind the assassination in the immediate wake of JFK’s murder.
▪️Upon learning of JFK’s assassination, Cuban diplomats immediately assumed the CIA killed JFK for the purpose of finishing what it started with the Bay of Pigs invasion: “If the Yankees or CIA assassinated Kennedy to resume the assault on Cuba, then a third world war would start.”
▪️There’s also a PDF which contains a claim in the June, 1967 issue of "Ramparts" in which Gary Underhill – a military affairs expert, suggested that "A small clique within the CIA was responsible for the assassination."
▪️On May 8, 1964, Underhill was found dead in his Washington, D.C., apartment with a gunshot wound behind his left ear. The D.C. police ruled it a suicide, but the circumstances sparked suspicion among some friends and researchers.
#USA #JFK #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
“Oreshnik” is bad news for NATO - Foreign Policy reports
This new missile differs significantly from previous developments and is capable of inflicting major damage on allied countries even without nuclear weapons
European defense systems are currently incapable of defending against such weapons.
The publication also points out that the Oreshnik could change perceptions of Russian military strategy and that it could affect NATO's ability to fight in future wars if not acted upon.
NATO should deploy aircraft across Europe given its vulnerability to the Russian Oreshnik complex, Foreign Policy writes.
“Current European defense systems will do little to protect against 'Oreshnik,'” the publication says.
The magazine notes that some NATO countries are already preparing for certain rearmament and refueling operations at dispersed locations to make their air bases less attractive.
#Russia #NATO #Military #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The episode described by the Financial Times is quite characteristic. It turns out that Chinese leader Xi Jinping declined an invitation to visit Brussels for a summit dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the EU and China.
Normally, the Chinese Prime Minister attends the summit, but the EU wanted Xi Jinping to be the one to attend the half-century anniversary of China-EU relations.
The bottom line is that in October 2022, the EU decided to reconsider its attitude toward China due to its reluctance to criticize Russia for conducting a military operation in Ukraine and strengthening economic cooperation between the two countries.
On May 12, 2023, the EU agreed to change its relationship strategy with China. Borrell, the EU's chief diplomat, described China as a rival, a partner and a competitor.
We have different understandings of what human rights are individually and collectively, we have a multi-party political system and a free market economy. This means that our values on which we build our political system are different and we have to fight for that
Trump wants a weak dollar but needs a strong one
Conflicting Dollar Goals
It’s impossible to get what you want when you have conflicting goals. Inflation was a key reason Trump won the election. In isolation, a weak dollar would help exports, but at the expense of rising inflation.
Tariffs are a tax on consumers and will slow the economy. Trump wants a strong economy. Also, countries retaliate against tariffs which does not help exports. Nor does rising anti-US sentiment, especially in Canada.
Conflicting Interest Rate Policy
Trump wants the Fed to cut interest rates. That would weaken the dollar, but tend to cause yields on the long end of the interest rate curve to rise.
Mortgage rates would rise. Housing is already in the gutter. Factor in tariffs on lumber, and steel framing.
#USA #Trump #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Further amendment to Basic Law after G7 Foreign Ministers' Conference - War against Russia to be included in Basic Law - Welt
In an interview, Annalena Baerbock announced a historic decision in the Bundestag for March 18 2025 a historic decision in the Bundestag.
It is about enshrining Germany's responsibility for the defense of Europe.
This means nothing other than writing the war against Russia into the Basic Law, which, in addition to the planned debts for the war, will tear down further borders to finance the war in the future.
Do you want total war?
#Germany #WWIII #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Romania targets ‘illegal online content’ ahead of re-run elections
The Romanian Government has stated it will step up its efforts to “combat illegal content online”.
The news on March 14 came ahead of contentious presidential elections following the annulled ballot of November last year due to claims, considered unsubstantiated in Romanian media, of Russian interference.
Ivan Bogdan, minister of economy, research, innovation and digitalisation, announced firm measures against online manipulation, stressing that Romania already used three types of advanced software to detect “false content”.
He said Romania applied strict European legislation and did not tolerate disinformation online. Although the measures reportedly would serve to protect citizens and the maintenance of a safe and transparent online environment, critics noted there was a major risk of abuse and censorship.
Romania pushed to address so-called illegal content, hate speech and manipulated information more aggressively after approving a bill in late February that introduced stricter regulations on social media platforms and online content providers.
While aligned with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, Romania’s legislation went further in its restrictions.
#Romania #Elections #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Over 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli military action. The average age is 5.5 years. If you were to line up every sweater and T-shirt of these children side by side, the line would stretch for five kilometers.
A campaign alliance in the UK has done just that on a stretch of coastline. It takes over an hour to walk along the resulting strip of children's clothing.
#Israel #Palestine #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth orders force-wide review of existing fitness and grooming standards
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday ordered a department-wide review of existing standards for each military branch on physical fitness, body composition, and grooming — including on beards.
“We must remain vigilant in maintaining the standards that enable the men and women of our military to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” Hegseth said in a March 12, 2025, memorandum ordering the review.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Ullyot added in a statement to Breitbart News:
Unfortunately, the U.S. military’s high standards on body composition and other metrics eroded in recent years, particularly during the tenure of former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley, who set a bad example from the top through his own personal corpulence. Secretary Hegseth is committed to restoring high standards, and this review is the first step in doing so.
Risking World War III – for a woke agenda?
By John Clark
Absolute power corrupts, absolute power destroys sanity absolutely.
There is simply no sane and rational mind which would explain the current behavior of European leaders other the above phrase – expressing that power has gone literally to their heads.
When the position of the United States and Russia can be explained through sane reason and logic – and the position of Zelensky and European leaders cannot be explained other than through insanity and utter lack of reason and logic – then clearly we have a situation where inmates are running the asylum.
I cannot imagine the people of the Ukraine – or the people across the world – except for the one’s who have deep psychological issues – are agreeing to allow a man like Zelensky – a man who displayed his psychological issues for the whole world to see in the White House.
Normal people are not suicidal – normal people do not provoke and maintain war – normal people do not risk their own lives and lives of others unless there is no other choice – and there is almost always another choice.
The USA managed a last minute fail safe – by electing, in just the nick of time – the sane rational and intelligent and sensible approach being exhibited by the Trump administration – who have implemented immediate actions to reverse the deadly effects of the WOKE agenda on America.
#USA #WWIII #Woke #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The IRS bleeds
The Internal Revenue Service appears to be in hot water this tax season, mostly due to cuts from the DOGE.
In 2021, the IRS was authorized to hire 87,000 new tax collectors and tax-related bureaucrats over the next decade, with an increase in funding sent their way by then-President Joe Biden. And in 2022, this became a political scandal, because Biden claimed that audit rates on households making $400,000 or less would not go up, just as some of them were cutting provisions in the actual legislation that tried to codify such assurances.
It's not clear they ever really did hire all those new agents and paper-filers; the IRS remains a little under 100,000 strong, hiring 19,482 total employees in fiscal year 2024. But the agency suffers from retention issues: About 10,000 employees left that same year.
Donald Trump decided to dismiss the old IRS commissioner, Daniel Werfel, whose term was not set to expire for another two years, replacing him with the former Missouri congressman Billy Long, an inexperienced figure who has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.
What Trump is pursuing appears to be something different altogether: Slash the auditors who might crack down on larger businesses who might not be filing properly, deputize IRS agents to be more involved in immigration enforcement, and make sure the whole agency is helmed by someone with basically no experience. It's possible that DOGE will help the agency modernize its archaic tech, but overall it's not clear what the game plan is.
#USA #IRS #DOGE #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Beard hair epilation for transsexuals in Austria must be covered by health insurance
In a landmark ruling by the Labor and Social Court of Vienna, Austria, it was decided that the costs for laser hair removal for transgender individuals must be covered by statutory health insurance.
A transgender woman, born male, who had been denied reimbursement for beard hair removal by the health insurance, was granted her claim. A daily shave, waxing, or other temporary methods are not sufficient and have psychological consequences, according to the ruling.
The statutory health insurance had argued that it does not pay for beard hair removal for biological women either. Therefore, reimbursement for transgender individuals would contradict the principle of equality.
This argument was followed by the Labor and Social Court of Vienna in the ruling made last year but now published. "If the plaintiff had to shave her face daily, she would be reminded daily that she is in the wrong gender," said the judge.
For waxing, one would have to let the hair grow a few millimeters, "so that the plaintiff could not leave the house on such days without being pathologically burdened." The statutory health insurance was ordered to pay for the laser epilation.
#EU #Austria #Trans #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US nuclear submarine begins scouting around Australia as AUKUS takes shape
As the very first tactile steps are taken in Australia’s nuclear submarine deal with the United States, an Australian defence expert has reiterated the importance of defending the Indian Ocean against Beijing’s burgeoning might.
The U.S. submarine presence in association with the AUKUS agreement is starting to come to fruition off the coast of Western Australia (WA).
The Virginia-class USS Minnesota has been scouting out new territory during training exercise while based at WA’s naval base off the coast of Perth, where four Virginia Class submarines will be stationed from 2027 under the AUKUS trilateral defence pact.
By the middle of the year, up to 80 U.S. navy personnel will be stationed at the multi-billion-dollar HMAS Stirling base—they’ll be the first of hundreds who will eventually arrive on—or off—Australia’s shores.
Under AUKUS, Australia will be armed with nuclear-powered submarines—amid a swathe of other defence collaborations with the UK and United States—a move aimed at creating a counterweight against Beijing’s aggression in the region.
#USA #Australia #AUKUS #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
America’s Changing Health Landscape
Autism, fluoride, and french fries are first up on the RFK agenda.
It’s safe to say that Americans have been jerked hither and yon when it comes to health issues. Many remember the now-defunct food pyramid of decades ago, when fluoride conquered tooth decay, and consuming one to three alcoholic drinks a week helped you live longer. Once upon a time, these edicts were taken as gospel, but new studies reveal that some recommendations should be revisited. Now a new era of questioning the norm is underway in the United States. Suffice it to say the American health landscape is changing.
Nothing could illustrate the changing health landscape in America more than the debate over fluoride.
Long ago, most American fast-food french fries were cooked in beef tallow (also known as suet), which is nothing more than rendered fat from a cow. But it got a bad name because saturated animal fats were considered a heart health hazard. Seed oils, along with several other additives, were substituted for its use in frying foods, but now there is concern that the switch is even worse for the consumer than the tallow.
“Making America Healthy Again” appears to be a tricky business.
#USA #Health #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Gavin Newsom secretly funded monument to himself inside San Francisco City Hall
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) secretly paid for his own monument inside San Francisco’s City Hall, according to a book released Tuesday.
Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All, written by Susan Crabtree and Jedd McFatter, alleges that Newsom arranged for a bronze bust of himself to be sculpted inside City Hall to commemorate his term as mayor, using funds he controlled.
Newsom then allegedly feigned ignorance of the identity of the private donors who funded the bust, as well as some uncertainty about its design.
#USA #Newsom #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US-Russia talks: The rubber finally hits the road
If the diplomatic overtures of the past several months were seen by some as opaque, then Tuesday phone call between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be taken as anything but proof positive that the rubber has hit the road on serious, substantive U.S.-Russia negotiations over a Ukraine peace deal.
The White House has been pushing for an all-encompassing ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine as the first step on the long road to a durable settlement. There is an obvious military rationale for doing so: the major battlefield indicators favor Russia, which is slowly overpowering Ukraine in a war of attrition and has just effectively ended the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ high-stakes incursion into the Kursk region.
The partial ceasefire on energy and infrastructure attacks, apparently agreed to by both the Russian and American sides, is a preliminary way to cut the Gordian knot as talks over a full ceasefire proceed in coming days and weeks.
The Trump-Putin discussion extended far beyond Ukraine, touching on a wide spectrum of issues including cooperation in the Middle East, opportunities for economic normalization, nuclear arms control, and even a U.S.-Russia hockey series.
Whilst a full ceasefire remains a worthy short-term objective, the overall priority should be to engage Russia in frank, pragmatic dialogue on what the outlines of a final peace settlement can look like. Indeed, Moscow is unlikely to accept the former without a workable roadmap to the latter.
#USA #Russia #Talks #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Yet another Romanian politician disqualified — for opposing EU membership
Romania’s electoral body has disqualified another politician, Diana Șoșoacă, from the presidential election re-run.
In doing so on March 15, the Central Electoral Bureau (CEB) cited her public rhetoric — including opposition to Romania’s European Union and NATO membership — as incompatible with the constitutional duties of the presidency.
Șoșoacă is an MEP for the right-wing Eurosceptic SOS Romania Party — and unaligned in the European Parliament. She has more than 400,000 followers on Facebook and more than 523,000 on TikTok. Șoșoacă has stated she was against EU membership for her country.
She has previously visited the Russian Embassy in Bucharest to deliver messages of peace on behalf of Romanians who “do not wish to be dragged into war by a treacherous political class”.
According to the CEB, this meant she was unfit to run for president.
On March 13, she filed her candidacy for the elections on May 4, promising to “fight the system”, wearing boxing gloves to underscore the point. But, two days later, she was rejected.
#Romania #Elections #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
In Italy, a popular movement to fight the "Maranza" gangs is gaining momentum
The scale of crime and gangsterism among young people has become frightening for the locals.
Groups of young people under the auspices of the fight against street violence began to carry out vigilante justice, in Milan is growing popularity of the movement Articolo 52, whose members catch and “punish” at their discretion especially brazen criminal migrants.
“People's avengers” from Articolo 52 (an article of the Italian Constitution, according to which ‘defense of the homeland is a sacred duty of every citizen’), who post their “acts of popular justice” on social media, are sure that in this way they fill the gaps in the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure that allow young criminals to go unpunished.
“Maranza” - young aggressive hooligans dressed in fashionable branded clothes and not shy about illegitimate methods of acquiring them - have flooded the northern Italian capital, jeopardizing the safety of its residents. Articolo 52 “vigilantes” have divided Milan into zones, each of which is supervised by a local branch responsible for “order” in its territory and promptly responding to complaints from local residents. Robberies, fights and harassment of girls are under special scrutiny.
“We have been humiliated for many years, we feel like strangers in our own country, we have reached a point. Our goal is to become masters of our lives again, to walk carefree on the streets of the city and not be afraid that our wives or mothers will not come home one day or will be traumatized for life,” reads one of the posts on the social media pages of the group, which constantly changes its coordinates due to police harassment.
The total number of subscribers to Articolo 52 has passed 12,000, many of whom support the Milanese by sending them money to buy self-defense equipment and legal fees in case of problems with the police.
Italy's police and carabinieri are extremely limited in the performance of their functions, especially when it comes to the use of force, physical coercion, or the use of weapons, including for defense and self-defense, unlike American police, who, as many complain, swing their fists and shoot at every opportunity, Italian law enforcement has to account for any round fired even in the air, and often has to hire a lawyer on its own in cases of allegedly unjustified use of force. A complaint from the offender himself is enough to jeopardize the career of a policeman or carabinieri.
The “Maranza”, known for their boldness, often use these nuances, which generally unleash them. Cases of encirclement of police officers and group threats against them are becoming the norm - the latest such incident took place in Rome's Quarticciolo neighborhood, when a police officer tried to arrest an 18-year-old Tunisian who was driving without a license. One of the local “bosses” of the neighborhood came to his defense.
Crimes committed by minors, especially migrants, go unpunished in most cases. Some blame judges and prosecutors, others point to the connivance of the police, gaps in the law, and the political lobby of the “left,” which allegedly allows migrants to do things that Italians are not forgiven for.
#Italy #Maranza #Crime #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Johns Hopkins University to slash 2,000 jobs after $800M in federal cuts
Johns Hopkins University said Thursday it had begun laying off more than 2,000 workers across the globe after the institution lost $800 million in federal grants cut by the Trump administration.
As the administration has slashed funding for the USAID, perhaps no institution of higher education has been hit harder than Johns Hopkins. Among the programs targeted were a $50 million project to treat HIV while experimenting with machine learning in India and a $200 million grant to treat one of the world’s most deadly diseases in thousands of children.
In all, the university cut 1,975 positions in 44 countries and 247 in the United States from the public health nonprofit Jhpiego, the School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs and the School of Medicine, the university said in a statement. U.S.-based workers have at least 60 days before the job changes take effect.
The university said it also furloughed about 100 additional workers.
Hopkins President Ronald Daniels wrote in a recent note to the university’s community that nearly half of its total incoming money came from federal funds last year.
#USA #USAID #Hopkins #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Why the US continues to kill millions of hens, 4 years into bird flu outbreak
Despite leadership changes at the country’s top agricultural and public health agencies, the government is continuing the strategy of culling millions of birds to limit the spread of the disease.
The USDA’s effort to stamp out the virus has led to the loss of at least 166 million birds since the latest outbreak began in February 2022.
On Feb. 28, the latest USDA summary pegged the current average wholesale price of a dozen eggs at $8.05.
The high amount of culling and its dramatic effect on the egg supply without an apparent drop in infections is leading to criticism of the culling plan.
#USA #USDA #BirdFlu #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Left-wing crimes can serve the common good, but right-wing crimes should always be punished, claims Germany’s Left Party leader
Germany’s Left Party leader Jan van Aken has sparked controversy after suggesting that politically left-wing crimes can be justified if they serve the public good, whereas right-wing crimes cannot.
In an interview with Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung, van Aken defended his own past breach of secrecy laws, arguing that “sometimes you have to cross borders to protect the general public.”
Van Aken was questioned about his role in leaking confidential government documents in 2016 related to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations between the United States and the European Commission. At the time, as a member of the Bundestag, he smuggled a hidden camera into a classified reading room, filmed the documents, and handed them over to Greenpeace. The disclosure helped turn public opinion against TTIP, which was later abandoned.
Van Aken openly admitted to his actions, defending them as necessary to prevent what he saw as a threat to consumer protection and workers’ rights. When asked whether a right-wing politician, such as a member of the Alternative for Germany party, should also be allowed to break the law for reasons of conscience, van Aken firmly rejected the idea.
#Germay #Crimes #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
With forced withdrawal, Russia takes away Ukraine's Kursk cards
President Zelensky should have pressed ahead with peace talks in August 2024, rather than invading Kursk. Ahead of talks between Presidents Trump and Putin, he has no cards left to play.
According to the New York Times on Sunday, Ukrainian troops are all but gone from the Russian Kursk region. At the peak of last August's offensive, Ukraine held 500 square miles of the Russian territory. After fierce fighting it holds just a sliver of that today.
It is perhaps ironic that President Volodymyr Zelensky’s audacious offensive took place in the midst of secret talks in Qatar towards a partial ceasefire. It is no coincidence that Russia’s offensive in Kursk over the past week took place while Ukraine was agreeing with the U.S. on the notion of a possible ceasefire during talks in Saudi Arabia.
Zelensky had gambled on improving his hand of cards in future ceasefire talks by being able to trade land in Russia for the return of land in Ukraine. That gamble has failed. Prior to the past week, based on the Institute for the Study of War battle map, Russia had already occupied three-to-four times more land in Ukraine than was seized in Kursk.
The question for Washington is what incentive they can offer to Putin to line up behind a ceasefire? UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European leaders have been advancing, frankly unworkable, ideas about tightening sanctions on Russia to force a settlement. But Putin will not agree to stand down his troops and face yet more sanctions having gained the upper hand. Anyone who believes that he will is, I am sorry to say, quite deluded.
#USA #EU #WarInUkraine #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The U.S. Army could lose to China in “one click”
WarOnTheRock came to this conclusion by recalling Israel's “pager attack” against Hezbollah and estimating the number of Pentagon contractors. During a conference in September 2022, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill LaPlante revealed that when trying to figure out the supply chain for U.S. weapons manufacturers, the Pentagon initially thought there were only 300 suppliers, but there were actually 3,000.
To get to the bottom of a similar issue, the U.S. Navy paid as much as $400 million for analytics from Govini in 2019, and it turned out that 40 percent of the suppliers in the chain were from China.
WOTR argues that because of the supply chain entanglement problem for U.S. defense contractors, China has gained so much influence that its intelligence services will be able to pull off the same kind of operation with U.S. weapons fairly easily that the Mossad did with planting explosives in Hezbollah's pagers, which were detonated at the appropriate moment.
Since 2018, the Pentagon has been making systematic efforts to reduce the specific weight of components and resources from China in the production of weapons from the United States. However, this has led to the opposite effect, i.e. the growing dependence of the US MIC on Chinese suppliers, the level of which increased 4 times between 2005 and 2020. In September 2022, the US Defense Department was forced to suspend the purchase of F-35 aircraft because it turned out that one of the engine components was made of cobalt and samarium alloy, which was supplied directly from China.
The globalization of the economy has created a situation where suppliers for the production of a single weapon can be located on different continents, and the existing system of bureaucracy in U.S. defense procurement is formed in such a way that it is advantageous for weapons manufacturers and suppliers not to disclose the entire chain of contractors with whom they are working for the sake of “maintaining premiumity".
#USA #China #Military #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Tim Walz going on tour of Republican House districts, tells Americans to ‘fight back’ against Trump
Failed 2024 vice presidential candidate Tim Walz is launching a national town hall tour in Republican-controlled House districts, telling CNN that he wants to tell people “they can mobilize to fight back” against President Donald Trump.
Walz, a former U.S. congressman who has been governor of Minnesota since 2019, told CNN this week that his work as former Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate is not over.
With town hall events already scheduled in Iowa’s third congressional district on Friday and Nebraska’s second congressional district on Saturday, Walz told CNN, “There was just a primal scream of folks recognizing what’s going on with the Trump administration, their authoritarian tendencies, and what they viewed was a lack of a proper response from their representatives.”
#USA #Walz #Trump #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Europe discusses the reintroduction of compulsory military service
Against the backdrop of the “Russian threat” and uncertainty over US support, European countries are discussing the reintroduction of compulsory military service, reports AFP. According to experts, the EU may need up to 300,000 new soldiers to effectively counter Russia.
▪️There is no consensus within NATO: conscription is associated with high political and economic costs, and most countries are in no hurry to introduce it. Poland is considering a training program for reservists, while Macron is trying to persuade young people to join the army voluntarily. Germany is on the verge of reintroducing it.
▪️The US paid for NATO with 3.44 million active troops (2.11 million excluding the Americans). There has never been a better time to say “NO” in full voice and conviction!
We will not die for you on the battlefields! For a war that neither Russia wants nor the European continent needs!
It's time to learn from history!
#EU #USA #NATO #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
New DC Cardinal McElroy has long record of promoting LGBT ideology, downplaying abortion
Cardinal Robert McElroy was installed on Tuesday as the eighth archbishop of Washington, D.C., making him one of the most prominent figures in the U.S. Catholic Church.
But the former San Diego bishop has made a reputation for himself as a particularly heterodox, controversial prelate.
McElroy has aggressively defended giving Holy Communion to pro-abortion politicians and downplayed the gravity of abortion, denying that the murder of unborn children is the “preeminent” moral issue.
The liberal cardinal, a favorite of Pope Francis, has also faced backlash for criticizing Catholic teaching on homosexuality, celebrating LGBT-themed Masses, calling for unrepentant homosexuals to be admitted to the Eucharist, and throwing his support behind LGBT activists like Fr. James Martin.
McElroy is a major proponent of “women deacons” as well and has suggested that women could eventually be “ordained” to the priesthood in contradiction to Catholic teaching.
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