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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
SpaceX's giant Starship Mars rocket nails critical 10th test flight
SpaceX's Starship megarocket took to the skies for the 10th time ever on Aug. 26, on a bold test flight that marked a big bounceback from recent failures.
Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, lifted off from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. That was two days later than originally planned; an issue with ground systems at Starbase forced a scrub on Sunday and bad weather caused another one on Monday.
But it was worth the wait: Starship did everything SpaceX asked it to today, getting the giant vehicle back on track after a string of issues.
The flight was the 10th overall for Starship, which is designed to be fully and rapidly reusable, and its fourth of 2025 so far. The year's three previous liftoffs didn't go entirely to plan.
#USA #SpaceX #Musk #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Why more farmers are turning to AI machines
Artificial intelligence-powered harvesters, drones, and precision farming systems are quickly entering the mainstream of American agriculture. At its core, the technology promises efficiency and sustainability and carries a potential solution to a decades-old farming problem: the need for physical labor.
As the capabilities of robotics evolve, many jobs that once required human hands are being delegated to machines. Some AI developers working on integrating this technology into America’s farms say early data support the possibility of a major farm labor force reduction.
The American Farm Bureau Federation estimated 17 percent of all U.S. agricultural labor in fiscal year 2024 comprised temporary migrant workers brought in under the H-2A visa program.
There are also millions of illegal immigrant workers, who, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, made up 42 percent of farm workers from 2020 to 2022.
Investment in the AI-agriculture market was valued at just under $2 billion in 2023, according to Grand View Research, and it is expected to surge at a compound annual growth rate of more than 25 percent per year through 2030.
#USA #Farme #AI #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump, Hegseth float renaming Defense Department to Department of War
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said plans to rename his agency as the Department of War are “coming soon,” but it remains unclear whether the executive branch can make such a move without congressional permission.
During a White House press event on Monday, Hegseth spoke about the deployment of National Guard troops throughout Washington, D.C., and along the southern U.S. border. President Donald Trump responded to the remarks by complimenting the service members but complaining that the Department of Defense name “didn’t sound good” to him.
“Department of Defense, I don’t want to be defense only,” he continued. “We want defense, but we want offense, too.
The United States used the Department of War moniker for its military bureaucracy from 1789 to 1947. In 1949, it was changed to the current Department of Defense name amid massive restructuring of the military services.
#USA #Trump #Hegseth #FindTruth
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Polish President Nawrocki vetoes law on support for Ukrainians
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has vetoed legislation extending support for 1 million Ukrainian refugees living in Poland.
“President Nawrocki does not agree with the privileged treatment of citizens of other countries. That is why he has decided to veto the bill on assistance for Ukrainian citizens in its current form and will present his own legal proposals,” read a statement released by his chancellery on August 25.
The legislation in question, which was drafted by the centre-left coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and passed by parliament in late July, would have extended until March 2026 various forms of assistance and protection granted back in 2022 in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier in August, the display of black and red Ukrainian nationalist flags at a concert in Warsaw was condemned in Poland and the government announced it would be deporting the perpetrators.
#Poland #WarInUkraine #FindTruth
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An employee of the American analytical center Atlantic was asked to comment on the fact that he lives on money from American military companies
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
U.S. confirms nation's first travel-associated human screwworm case connected to Central American outbreak
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported the first human case in the United States of travel-associated New World screwworm, a flesh-eating parasite, from an outbreak-affected country.
The case, investigated by the Maryland Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was confirmed by the CDC as New World screwworm on August 4, and involved a patient who returned from travel to El Salvador.
Screwworms have been moving north from Central America through Mexico since 2023, with a new case identified in July about 400 miles south of the U.S. border in Veracruz.
For humans, screwworm infestations are survivable with treatment, but this is the first U.S. case that has sent alarm bells across public health officials and the cattle industry. Left untreated, these parasites can kill hosts, such as cattle, wildlife, and pets.
#USA #Health #Screwworm #FindTruth
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After Europe, Canada refused to engage in a trade war with the US, where large-scale staff cuts began in a number of provinces. Bloomberg reports on Canada's capitulation as follows:
“Canada will cancel most retaliatory tariffs on US goods in an attempt to ease tensions with Trump and strengthen the USMCA trade agreement.”
#EU #USA #Canada #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
South Korea President Lee aims to avoid further clashes with Trump
From August 25, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is visiting the White House for his first summit with President Donald Trump.
Having launched his presidency only in June, Lee hopes to build a positive, cooperative relationship with Trump — a crucial diplomatic counterpart with whom he must learn to work to advance the U.S.-ROK alliance and achieve shared goals in the years to come.
The new trade deal that Seoul and Washington reached late last month will likely take center stage. The deal involves lowering U.S. tariffs on South Korean goods from 25% to 15% in exchange for South Korean investments in key American sectors.
Trump has long suggested that America’s allies have been free-riding on Washington’s extended deterrence and has called on U.S. allies to dramatically increase their defense spending and overall financial contributions. “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them,” Trump has warned in the past. South Korea has been no exception.
#USA #Trump #SouthKorea #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Hungary is right: Ukraine should not join the EU
As Donald Trump’s courageous and much-needed efforts to put an end to the Ukrainian war gain momentum, there are rumours that the EU’s leadership has not given up on its dreams of having Ukraine join the bloc.
Brussels, Paris, Berlin, and London have apparently all asked Trump to pressure Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán into abandoning his long-lasting reservations to the Ukrainians beginning accession talks.
If true, this would signal yet another grave misjudgment on the part of the Europeans. In fact, however, Budapest’s position is not obstinacy—it is foresight. And foresight is precisely what the rest of Europe now lacks.
Europe’s true and urgent interest lies not in conflict, but in detente and rapprochement: In building a common economic and security architecture that works for all. But Ukraine’s entry into the bloc would make all that impossible. It would permanently burden Europe with the costs of conflict while denying it the urgent advantages of reduced tensions, trade, and cheap energy. In the long term, this would be a death knell for the nations of Europe.
When Orbán resists this lunacy, he certainly isn’t currying favour with Moscow, as shamefully suggested by the Ukrainians. He is siding with Europe, for Europe’s sake. Ninety-five per cent of Hungarians have already endorsed this opposition to Ukrainian membership of the EU in a recent referendum. That is what genuine democracy looks and sounds like.
Either Europe embraces reality and geopolitical prudence, or it will continue to plunge into the pit of impoverishment, war, and decline. Orbán, almost alone, has chosen the former. He can’t be blamed for it.
#EU #Hungary #Ukraine #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
China-based company buying up land incinerated by firestorms in California
Now comes the fire sale.
If foreign corporations want to buy burned-out properties, can those sales be stopped? Should they be stopped?
Foreign investors are buying up prime lots in the burned-out area of an iconic Malibu beach.
Jen Van Laar from RedState reports that the buyers are a couple of Kiwis—New Zealanders. These businessmen are based in the once-free Hong Kong, China to be close to their toy manufacturing empire in Guangzhou and Shenzhen. They also own a business park in Issaquah, Washington.
The brothers also run another Chinese-based company, Zuru Tech, that makes modular pre-fab homes made of a concrete which they plan to use in their new Malibu real estate venture.
Another company, "Sheng Feng Global Inc., has purchased six home sites in the Altadena area. The company is connected to multiple real estate entities and "hints at possible international ownership, but the full picture remains murky.
Are California's so-called "values" honored by allowing foreign investors to reshape the premier and most iconic real estate of the West Coast of the United States? Should stopping foreign ownership even be considered in a relatively free market?
#China #USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Dirt bike gangs terrorize streets from D.C. to Baltimore
It's no secret that Democrats have failed the residents of the Mid-Atlantic. Whether it's a power bill crisis fueled by disastrous green policies to "save the planet" in the name of some alleged climate crisis, or social-justice experiments at the local and state levels that have epically backfired and transformed parts of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore into crime-ridden hellholes, the days of law-abiding citizens tolerating this mess are over.
Things have gotten so bad that President Trump deployed the National Guard across the D.C. metro area to support local law enforcement, which has suffered from a dangerous officer shortage in recent years after Democrats in the nation's capital had the bright idea to defund the police.
And - shocker, crime is coming down in some areas, according to official government data.
But it seems Trump has more work to do - as lawless assholes on dirt bikes and ATVs are terrorizing the DC area. This extends across the Baltimore metro areas as well.
Time for a little more 'law and order' - eh?
#USA #Crime #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Report: Trump directs U.S. Military to prepare lethal strikes on Mexican cartels
Top secret planning orders task Northern Command with developing attack plans against cartel networks inside Mexico.
The Trump administration has ordered the U.S. military to develop plans for lethal operations against Mexican drug cartels, according to reporting by investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein. Three military officials confirmed that a top secret planning directive issued in late spring tasked U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) with preparing strike options to be ready by mid-September.
The move marks a sharp escalation in Washington’s posture toward cartels. While U.S.-Mexico defense cooperation is historically strong, any U.S. military action south of the border is politically and diplomatically sensitive. Intelligence officials told Klippenstein that the operations could be unilateral, without the approval of Mexico’s government.
#USA #Trump #Mexico #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Movements, politicians call for shutdown across France to protest budget cuts
The movement ‘Bloquons tout’ ('Let's block everything') emerged in France in July, and is calling for a nationwide shutdown on 10 September to oppose the austerity measures announced by Prime Minister François Bayrou.
"On 10 September we're not paying, we're not consuming and we're not working." This is the message disseminated online by Bloquons tout.
These posts emerged last month, in the wake of the budget cuts announced by Bayrou.
France’s hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon also calls for mass protests to topple Bayrou’s government. Mélenchon accuses the government of betraying the nation, enriching the elite, and steering the country toward catastrophe.
In a column published in La Tribune, Mélenchon demanded an extraordinary session of the National Assembly, a nationwide mobilisation on September 10, and the immediate dismissal of Bayrou and his cabinet.
#France #Shutdown #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The situation at the local McDonald's in the small town of Vilagarcia de Arusa on the northwest coast of Spain
Well, okay, Spaniards are used to being dirty... but where are the hard-working migrants from Africa who were brought here on steamboats?🤔
#UK #Farme #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The artificial intelligence boom in the US is hitting the rest of the economy
▪️ 40% — the unprecedented contribution of digitalization and artificial intelligence (AI) to US economic growth, including stimulating the development of related fields. At the same time, their share of US GDP is only a few percent, according to the British publication The Economist
▪️ The development of AI is not a typical investment boom. Even the largest technology companies are unable to develop using their own funds. They attract investment “at any cost,” regardless of the cost of borrowed funds.
▪️ The current situation is very reminiscent of the dot-com boom in the late 1990s, when there were high hopes for explosive growth in automation and labor productivity. This did not happen, as it may not happen now, and the result will be a sharp increase in the cost of investment and electricity
▪️ The rapid development of data centers, leading to higher energy prices and interest rates, is holding back the traditional economy, including, for example, the construction sector
▪️ “The dot-com boom was followed by a severe downturn. A similar decline in AI investment would deprive America of a major source of growth at a time when the rest of the economy looks vulnerable. If demand for data centers falls, the problems will affect everyone,” The Economist emphasizes.
#USA #AI #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Tech giants, civil liberties groups unite against California’s child safety law in major court battle
California's Age-Appropriate Design Code (AADC), modeled after the U.K.'s version, aims to protect children online by requiring platforms likely accessed by minors to implement privacy-focused features like age estimation, default safety settings and data minimization.
But the bill is facing a powerful coalition of opponents. The law, set to take effect in July 2024, is back before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after tech industry groups and digital rights advocates challenged its constitutionality.
The Computer and Communications Industry Association, representing companies like Google and Meta, argues the law is overly vague, infringes on free speech and forces intrusive data collection from all users.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Center for Democracy and Technology filed a joint amicus brief urging the court to strike down the entire law, citing First Amendment violations, risks to online anonymity and the chilling effect on lawful speech.
They stress that digital engagement is vital for minors' personal growth and civic participation, warning that the AADC could harm, not help, youth by restricting their access to online spaces.
#USA #California #AADC #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Elon Musk offers to help fund legal actions against UK officials ‘who aided and abetted the rape of Britain’
Tech billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday offered to help fund legal actions against the dozens of “corrupt officials” who allegedly allowed Pakistani grooming gangs to sexually exploit young girls in the United Kingdom.
Former Reform member of parliament (MP) Rupert Lowe launched a crowd-funded independent inquiry earlier this year in response to the UK government’s decision not to investigate the grooming gang scandal.
Touting his Interim results on X Tuesday, Lowe said it was “one of the most comprehensive exposes of the rape gang scandal to date.”
“Our Rape Gang Inquiry has today released research detailing eighty-five local authorities in which the gang-based sexual exploitation of children is taking place, or has historically done so,” Lowe wrote.
Musk posted in response: “I would like to help fund legal actions against corrupt officials who aided and abetted the rape of Britain, per the official government inquiry. Please reply below for consideration.”
While Lowe’s ongoing effort is not an “official government inquiry,” as Musk stated, it is being overseen by a qualified independent panel with the support of a legal advisory team.
#UK #Musk #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Europe needs no migrant influx, Mrs Lagarde – it needs innovation and babies
Christine Lagarde is one of those people whose business is to know better than us what is good for us. Now she insists Europe’s economy needs migrants to grow. Speaking at the Federal Reserve’s annual symposium in Wyoming, the European Central Bank chief portrayed foreigners as labour market saviours in an ageing continent. But this is a flimsy narrative, coined by elites blind to the costs.
The truth is that Europe can actually thrive without mass immigration, which slashes wages, strains societies, and drains funds better spent on boosting native birth rates.
Of course, Europe’s demographic challenge is more than real. Eurostat’s 2023 data shows a fertility rate of 1.5 children per woman, below the 2.1 replacement level. By 2100, 32 per cent of the population will be over 65, pressurising pensions and labour markets. But Lagarde’s migrant fix is highly problematic, ignoring smarter solutions.
European leaders should trust and empower their own citizens: Natives over foreigners. As for Lagarde’s migrant mantra, it is a diversion, as well as a false economic theory, which nonetheless remains common ground amongst progressives and globalists. Not only must we not buy it. We must debunk and cancel it. Elsewise, it is us who will be cancelled.
#EU #Migrants #Lagarde #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Zelensky wants EU to provide $1 billion monthly allowance to fuel war against Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on 25 August that Kiev plans to secure at least $1 billion monthly from European nations to purchase US weapons to continue his war against Russia.
Zelensky made the comment while speaking alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store during a press conference in Kiev on Monday.
The Ukrainian president also said Norway could contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine with an emphasis on providing air defense and maritime security.
On 24 August, US Vice President JD Vance claimed Russia has been “flexible” and made “significant concessions” in some core demands as part of negotiations to end the war, including regarding US and European security guarantees.
#EU #Zelensky #WarInUkraine #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Trump plans to block offshore wind farm project near Biden's beach house
The Trump administration is working to halt development of an offshore wind project planned near Maryland, in the latest escalation of the president’s war on the clean energy source he loathes.
The Interior Department plans to move to remand and vacate a permit granted to the $6 billion Maryland Offshore Wind Project, according to a court filing dated Friday. The project was approved by the Biden administration in 2024 and was set to begin construction next year.
The site is located 10 nautical miles off Ocean City - or just down the road from Joe Biden’s beach house in the liberal-elite enclave of Rehoboth.
#USA #Trump #Biden #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
USDA ends solar subsidies on American farmland
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that the Department of Agriculture will no longer use taxpayer dollars to fund large-scale solar or wind projects on productive farmland, nor allow solar panels made by foreign adversaries in USDA programs.
The department cited farmland loss as a driving concern. Tennessee has lost more than 1.2 million acres in the past 30 years and could lose 2 million by 2027. Nationally, solar installations on farmland have risen nearly 50% since 2012.
“Our prime farmland should not be wasted and replaced with green new deal subsidized solar panels,” Rollins said.
“USDA will no longer deploy programs to fund solar or wind projects on productive farmland, ending massive taxpayer handouts. Also ending the use of panels made by foreign adversaries like China,” she added.
NATO, led by the US, suffers strategic defeat in Ukraine
Italian newspaper IL Fatto Quotidiano reports 10 factors indicating the West's strategic defeat in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine:
🔹Russia's military industry surpasses NATO, producing as many weapons in three months as the alliance does in a year
🔹The Russian army is well armed and motivated
🔹 Europe's air defense system is incapable of intercepting the most modern Russian missiles
🔹 Europe has no military or political weight, which is why it has been excluded from the negotiations on Ukraine's future
🔹 The Russian economy is capable of growing in the midst of conflict, despite Western sanctions
🔹 Russia is fully integrated into the international system and has many allies, including China, Brazil, and India
🔹 The Russian head of state is a formidable strategist
🔹Russian citizens support the head of state and hate NATO
🔹 Russia ignores NATO's demand for a ceasefire
🔹 Vladimir Putin is not afraid of Trump's threats and pursues a sovereign policy
#NATO #Russia #WarInUkraine #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The demographic crisis is a serious obstacle for EU economies
▪️ The heads of the Bank of Japan, the ECB, and the Bank of England warn that in the coming decades, developed Western economies will face a shortage of labor necessary to ensure economic growth, according to the British Financial Times
▪️ In Western countries, birth rates are at historically low levels, while life expectancy has increased significantly. This has led to a growth in the proportion of the population that is not of working age
“Without an influx of foreign labor, by 2040 there will be 3.4 million fewer people of working age in the eurozone,” said ECB President Christine Lagarde
An American woman in a grocery store shows that every item she picks up has the words
“Contains bioengineered ingredients”
“I'm here at Aldi, and almost everything they have contains bioengineered food ingredients.”
Facing impending crisis, California lawmakers pivot on fossil fuels
California legislators on Wednesday considered a plan that would dramatically loosen restrictions on drilling and refining oil in the state, as it scrambles to reconcile ambitious climate goals with the sobering reality of continuing demand for conventional transport fuels.
The plan comes at the urging of Gov. Gavin Newsom—a major shift from his hardline decarbonization stance that would have seemed unlikely a year ago.
Some lawmakers noted the gap between the state’s projections about zero-emissions vehicles and the slower-than-expected decline in demand for conventional petroleum.
18 million people still live in California’s areas that exceed federal air pollution standards, with five out of the nation’s worst cities for air quality located in the state.
Despite the fact that the current plan put forth by Newsom’s administration maintains a ban on fracking, or well stimulation, and offshore drilling, experts expect both might be reconsidered in the current climate.
#USA #California #Fuel #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Poverty rates across America
America’s economic landscape looks very different depending on where you live. The map showing poverty rates by state makes that disparity clearer.
Each shade represents the share of residents living below the poverty line, inviting quick comparisons across the country.
For reference, this is a quick guide on how much a household needs to be earning to be considered below the poverty line in 2023.
One person: ≤$15,480
Two people: ≤$19,680
Three people: ≤$24,230
Four people: ≤$31,200
Louisiana tops the list at 18.9%, leaving nearly one in five residents below the poverty threshold despite the state’s large energy sector.
Neighboring Mississippi (17.3%) and Arkansas (15.8%) tell a similar story of limited job diversity and chronically low household incomes.
Historic underinvestment, weaker safety-net programs, and lower average wages all help explain why the South accounts for four of the five worst-affected states.
#USA #Poverty #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The UK planned to impose taxes on farmers and earn £2 billion, but instead caused a wave of farm closures and layoffs and lost £2 billion
#UK #Farme #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
On the situation with migrants from southern latitudes in Albion:
- The UK is like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Everyone saw the riots in Southport. And it will get 10 times worse. One more incident and the whole country will literally explode. It doesn't matter where it happens, people will go crazy everywhere. It's obvious to me. People are fed up. No one listens to us, they fool us, they travel at our expense, they lie to us, and there's no end to it!
#UK #Migrants #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Europeans are reselling weapons from the US to Ukraine with a 10% markup. This was stated by Finance Minister Bessent
#USA #EU #WarInUkraine #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The number of bankruptcies in the US has exceeded the level seen during the 2020 pandemic
According to S&P, 71 companies, both public and private, filed for bankruptcy last month. This is more than in June, when 63 companies filed for bankruptcy.
Retailers Forever 21, Joann's, Claire's, juice manufacturer Del Monte Foods, LifeScan Global, Rite Aid, and Party City have all filed for bankruptcy.
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane