-
The Hurricane spins around hotspots of tension and conflict. Feel free to suggest your stories, opinions and ideas: UIHEN@protonmail.com
Think America owes $37 trillion? It’s far worse than that
When asked how far the US government has plunged into the red, many fiscally-conscious Americans will tell you the national debt has reached $37 trillion. As distressing as that official number is, America’s true fiscal situation is even worse — far worse. According to a barely-publicized Treasury report, the actual grand total of Uncle Sam’s obligations is more than $151 trillion.
That huge discrepancy springs from the fact that the federal government doesn’t hold itself to the same accounting standards it imposes on businesses. Rather than using accrual accounting — which recognizes expenses when they’re incurred — our Washington overlords self-servingly use simple cash accounting, only recognizing expenses when they’re paid. As a result, discourse on federal obligations solely focuses on the national debt, comprising Treasury bills, notes and bonds.
Once a year, however, an obscure report delivers a more accurate version of Uncle Sam’s balance sheet. While it receives almost no attention from journalists or public officials, the Treasury Department is required to submit an annual report to Congress detailing the government’s financial condition. Critically, the 1994 law compelling this report mandates that it reflect “unfunded liabilities” — that is, commitments made without any dedicated assets or income streams to ensure they’ll be kept.
Full story
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
America's "civilizational crisis"; A nation in freefall without immediate course correction
The foundational pillars of the American middle class have been crumbling for decades, crushed under the weight of unaffordable housing, runaway education costs, and the rising price of just about everything.
This full-blown affordability crisis is hollowing out the middle class from within. Add years of mass migration of millions of illegal aliens, and the wealth and opportunities once available to the native population have eroded even further. It's becoming impossible to ignore that many policymakers in Washington, seemingly aligned with the globalist billionaires, have deliberately waged economic war on America's middle class. This is precisely why President Trump rose to power.
Alarm bells have been sounded, and now it is the Trump administration that had better be paying attention.
Young Americans can't afford homes, can't start families, and increasingly see the American Dream as just a dream. This has given rise to socialism and Marxism, spreading across the nation like cancer. It's as if the globalist elite in Washington deliberately sabotaged the middle class over the years, hollowing it out with decades of destructive policies designed to break those key pillars.
This chart was enough for Elon Musk to respond with "!!" as he, too, understands there needs to be a drastic and sharp course correction or risk losing the country to socialists and Marxists.
#USA #Civilization #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Ukraine's anti-graft agencies say they uncovered major drone procurement bribery case
Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies said on Aug. 2 they had uncovered a large-scale bribery scheme involving the procurement of military drones and electronic warfare equipment.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said in a statement on Saturday that the alleged plot involved a sitting lawmaker, current and former regional officials, National Guard personnel, and a company executive.
Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, identified the accused lawmaker as Oleksii Kuznetsov of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party. Investigators alleged that those involved had refined a scheme over the past two years to systematically siphon off budget funds allocated by local authorities for defense needs, and to secure “unfair benefits in particularly large quantities.”
On July 22, Zelensky signed a measure that gave the prosecutor general sweeping authority over NABU and SAPO, including the power to reassign prosecutors and transfer cases away from the agencies.
In response to the measure, thousands of Ukrainians rallied in Kyiv and other cities in the largest protests since the Russian invasion in 2022, accusing the government of undermining hard-won anti-graft safeguards.
The European Union, which granted Ukraine candidate status in 2022, warned that the law violated one of the bloc’s core accession requirements: maintaining the independence of anti-corruption institutions.
#EU #Ukraine #Corruption #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Berlin in poverty: the number of homeless people has doubled in the German capital
▪️55,000 homeless citizens live in Berlin. Their number has doubled in three years," states the German Berliner Zeitung.
▪️According to experts' estimates, the number of homeless people in Berlin will exceed 100,000 by 2030, which by German standards is comparable to the population of a large city.
▪️The Senate, for its part, states the goal of eradicating homelessness by 2030. However, a number of ongoing programs in this area are only able to help a few hundred people in need.
▪️“The Senate has not yet found a strategy to combat the structural housing crisis,” emphasizes Thomas Bartel of the Left faction.
#Germany #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
RFK Jr. announces repeal of policy that rewarded hospitals for reporting staff vaccination rates
In his department’s latest move related to vaccine-related reform, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Aug. 1 announced more repeals of federal policy that rewarded hospitals for reporting staff vaccination rates.
Kennedy said in a press release that the policy was coercive and denied informed consent.
“Medical decisions should be made based on one thing: the wellbeing of the person—never on a financial bonus or a government mandate,” Kennedy said. “Doctors deserve the freedom to use their training, follow the science, and speak the truth without fear of punishment.”
Created under the Biden administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inpatient payment rule, the policy linked hospital reimbursement to staff vaccination reporting.
The move represents the most recent policy repeal under CMS. These moves are “part of a broader HHS effort to restore medical autonomy in federally funded programs and root out financial and regulatory pressures that incentivize physicians towards pre-scripted medical decisions rather than individualized, evidence-based care,” according to the press release.
#USA #RFKJr #Vaccines #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Can stablecoins save the US dollar—or just delay its collapse?
When it comes to profit per employee, Tether is the most profitable company in the world. It may even be the most profitable business in the history of business.
With $13.7 billion in profit last year and only around 165 employees, that’s over $83 million in profit per employee. It’s a staggering figure—blowing NVIDIA and every other company out of the water. Has any business in history ever generated this much profit per employee?
Tether gives anyone with a smartphone instant, global access to digital US dollars. With a market cap exceeding $162 billion and climbing, USDt (Tether) is the world’s largest stablecoin—and the fourth-largest cryptocurrency overall.
Though calling it a “stablecoin” is something of a misnomer—government paper currencies, with their steadily eroding purchasing power, are anything but stable. In that sense, they’re less “stable” and more like “guaranteed-loss coins.”
Stablecoins like Tether offer meaningful support to the Treasury market and the US dollar. But that support hasn’t fundamentally changed the US government’s bleak financial outlook—driven by runaway spending on warfare, welfare, entitlements, and mounting interest on the national debt.
Tether may be helping to stabilize the US dollar in the short term—but it doesn’t change the long-term trajectory. The structural cracks are widening fast—and time is running out.
#Crypto #USD #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
€170bn - budget hole plaguing Germany
▪️Germany must close a €170 billion budget deficit by 2029. Since the government has agreed not to raise taxes, this will require significant cuts in ministries and welfare reforms, the Financial Times has found.
▪️"There is no time to lose. In the 2027 budget alone we will have to cover a deficit of 30 billion euros, which is one of the most serious domestic problems we have to solve in the next 12 months," said German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil
▪️This comes amid continued uncertainty about the outlook for Germany's economy, which has shown no growth over the past five years and has been hit hardest by U.S. duties on EU goods
#EU #Germany #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Investors dump wind-power projects in northern Sweden
Investors are trying to dump northern Swedish wind-power projects, citing an “absurd” market that was losing almost all value.
Until last year the country was touted by financiers as one of the most interesting places to invest in wind power, with “green” industry pumping in large amounts of money, backed by firm State subsidies. Things have since taken a major turn.
Elin Akinci, CEO of ELS Analysis, says that there is basically no value in today’s market in Sweden. Especially in northern Sweden, developers faced surging hours of negative electricity prices, stalled demand and lack of grid capacity to access southern markets, she said.
On top of this, wind power suffered from unpredictable and costly balancing mechanisms while political support has also melted away. As a result, many investors were not just avoiding Sweden — they were trying to exit at fire-sale prices.
“Many international investors see it as a negative outflow of capital. They want to sell, but there is basically no value in today’s market. It is neither profitable to think about new investments nor to pursue current assets in Sweden,” Akinci said.
Most major international investors claim the investment climate in Sweden had severely deteriorated, with some calling the situation “absurd”.
Wind farms once valued at €1.5 million per megawatt (MW) are now being offered for less than €1 million — sometimes even below €10 per MW in distressed cases.
#Sweden #Energy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Most US citizens can no longer say “My home is my castle” because they do not and will never own their own homes
Meet Lowell Baron, Brookfield CEO of Real Estate. The corporation owns more than 65,000 homes in the US, ranging from single-family homes to huge residential complexes.
Taking advantage of the fact that the cost of buying a home has become so unaffordable for Americans, the company is buying up more and more real estate, both new and existing. It then rents all of this out to US citizens.
#USA #RealEstate #Brookfield #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Is true value in crypto or gold?
B y Christopher Whalen, a Wall Street insider
Despite the fact that President Trump wants to make America the crypto capital of the world, and even threatens to open retirement accounts to these speculative notions, the rest of the world is migrating away from dollars back to the only true form of money that is not some form of debt, namely gold. Perhaps the most significant trend is the increasing purchases of gold by global central banks.
Owning gold or at least having exposure to the price of gold are perhaps the best options, The physical metal is independent of the fortunes of state put, yet as we learned in the 1930s, gold is vulnerable to confiscation.
One of the chief reasons to be bullish on gold and negative on the dollar is that there is so little deliverable gold available. A lack of deliverable gold supply can create upward pressure on prices.
“De-dollarization is a misnomer as it’s highly unlikely anyone is seriously considering of fully divesting themselves of US assets,” argues Simon White of Bloomberg. “But the evolution of events this year has led many foreign investors to consider reducing their exposure to the US which had already grown imprudently large. This will take time to show up in the data.”
#Gold #Crypto #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Controlled thought zone
Are you having
arrestable thoughts?
Thought monitoring technology has been installed in this area.
Prohibited thoughts are punishable by the court of law.
Surveilling london, metropolitan police.
It's a joke, of course. But it's pretty close to the truth.
#UK #Censorship #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Orban: ‘Tusk has betrayed his patriotic positions, that’s why he hates me’
The Hungarian prime minister told Polish TV that what is happening in Poland under Donald Tusk is "completely unacceptable."
Noting the “historic friendship” between the two countries, Orbán said: “Poland is bigger than Hungary. Its political strength during the rule of President Jarosław Kaczyński’s party and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s government helped, for a time, reduce the pressure from Brussels on Hungary. I remember that very well.”
Touching upon the new Polish government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Hungarian leader did not hold back. “What is happening in Poland is completely unacceptable, contrary to law, morality, and democracy,” he said, then laying blame at Brussels’ feet as well.
“It is shameful that the European Union authorities, who govern the community to which we all belong, not only remain silent but even support the repressive policies pursued by the Polish prime minister. From the perspective of European values, this is completely unacceptable.”
Turning to his fellow prime minister in Poland, Donald Tusk, Orbán was blunt.
“Tusk betrayed his patriotic positions, I never betrayed them. I’m still standing here, so he hates me because he knows I know and remember his mistakes, his sins. I’m trying to be as polite as possible here, but that’s how I see it,” he added.
#Hungary #Poland #Orban #Tusk #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
The US-EU trade “deal” is nothing to celebrate
Although European officials clarified that this was a legally non-binding outline and the two sides are still working out some details, Trump is characteristically celebrating the “deal” as a major win for the American people.
But it really isn’t. While it is true that Trump’s opponents in the establishment are using weak and sometimes ridiculous arguments against tariffs, they really are bad for the country as a whole.
Tariffs create shortages because they make it unprofitable for foreign companies right on the margin to continue selling their goods to Americans. That drives prices up higher than they would have been in the absence of the tariff.
The absolute strongest argument that had been advanced in favor of Trump’s tariff strategy had been that he was actually using tariffs as a way to negotiate our way to a world without tariffs. But now Trump has permanently raised tariffs on the European goods and resources that American consumers and businesses buy. And the EU accounts for a lot of the total volume of US trade—even more than the much-maligned China.
The only Americans who will benefit are the handful of businesses that can now charge their fellow Americans higher prices without worrying they will switch to a less expensive European alternative.
The government helping to further enrich some well-connected energy companies and weapons manufacturers is great for those companies, but not the American people as a whole.
#EU #USA #TradeDeal #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
American Income vs. Home Prices (1985–2025)
Buying a home in America isn’t for the faint-hearted, with the salary needed to buy a home doubling from 2017 to 2025.
However, while home prices have risen strongly, wage growth hasn’t kept up, widening the home affordability gap. The home price-to-income ratio of America has grown significantly over the last few decades.
In 1985, the median U.S. home cost $82,800, while the median household earned $23,620 annually—a ratio of roughly 3.5x income. That gap has widened over four decades: as of 2025, the median American home costs $416,900, five times the median annual household income of $83,150.
Meanwhile, the 30-year fixed mortgage rates have nearly halved from 12.4% to 6.8% between 1985 and 2025. Theoretically, the lower cost of borrowing would make homes more affordable. However, it can also drive up demand for new housing, potentially resulting in higher prices if supply is limited.
#USA #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Marine Corps Force Design: A failed operational concept
When the Marine Corps adopted a concept called Force Design as its new warfighting concept in 2019, so called military experts hailed it as a groundbreaking adoption of emerging technology. Unfortunately, most of the praise has come from senior Marine leaders in the form of Press releases from the U.S. Marine Corps Communication Strategy and Operations Office, Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Release 002-2020 and ill-informed journalists.
Tthings have gone sideways for Force Design. The Tomahawk cruise missiles envisioned proved logistically untenable. The shorter range subsonic NEMSIS anti-ship missiles that the Corps has heavily invested in has become obsolete before being fully fielded while also being vulnerable to Chinese countermeasures. The idea behind Force Design was to hide small units on the many islets and shoals in the south China Sea and along China’s first island chain to interdict passing Chinese warships.
The stunning failure of Force Design is the lack of warfighting and logistics capabilities to operationalize the concept.
Full story
#USA #China #Marines #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
EPA moves to reapprove twice-banned herbicide despite health risks
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants to bring back dicamba, an herbicide that federal courts have banned twice. While herbicides are a type of substance designed to kill weeds, they carry the same health risks as other agricultural chemicals. Despite clear evidence of health risks from chemical exposure, the EPA announced plans to reregister this drift-prone herbicide for genetically engineered cotton and soybean crops.
Chemical exposure isn’t just an occupational hazard for farmers anymore. These chemicals show up in our food, water, air, and even our bodies. The average American carries detectable levels of multiple agricultural chemicals, creating a toxic cocktail with unknown long-term effects.
Cancer rates tell the story. Farmers and agricultural workers develop lymphoma, leukemia, brain tumors, and prostate cancer at much higher rates than the general population. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has labeled multiple pesticides as probable carcinogens.
Children get hit hardest. Their developing brains can’t handle chemical assault. Studies keep finding connections between chemical exposure and autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, and lower IQ scores. Pregnant women exposed to these chemicals have more miscarriages, birth defects, and premature babies.
#USA #EPA #Herbicide #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Slovenia ‘first EU nation’ to ban weapons trade with Israel
Slovenia said it will ban all weapons trade with Israel over the war in Gaza in what it said was a first by a European Union nation.
“Slovenia is the first European country to ban the import, export and transit of weapons to and from Israel,” the government said in a statement late on July 31.
However, in response, an unnamed Israeli official told Israeli news outlet Ynet: “There is no defence procurement in Slovenia. We don’t buy so much as a pin from them.
“They simply decided on an embargo for the sake of the media, because they can, but it’s completely meaningless.”
The Slovenian Government, led by its President Nataša Pirc Musar, has frequently criticised Israel over the conflict and last year moved to recognise a Palestinian State as part of efforts to end the fighting in Gaza as soon as possible, AFP reported.
It said it was moving ahead “independently” because the EU was “unable to adopt concrete measures … due to internal disagreements and disunity”.
#EU #Slovenia #Israel #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
UK gov't 'disinfo' unit shifts from lockdown dissenters to spying on mass migration critics
A shady government outfit in the UK that was previously tasked with identifying and monitoring COVID lockdown dissenters has been repurposed to spy on critics of mass migration and so called ‘asylum’ hotels.
The body, now known as the National Security and Online Information Team (NSOIT) has been lobbying social media companies such as TikTok to take action against users who post what it describes as “concerning narratives” about immigration and ‘two tier policing’.
The unit operates within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and was previously known as the ‘Counter Disinformation Unit’ during the pandemic.
During the COVID lockdowns, the unit was tasked with pressuring social media companies to target and censor those critical of the stay at home orders and those questioning the mass vaccination of children. Discussions opposing vaccine passports were also flagged.
The rebranded outfit has now been flagging videos it sees as “exacerbating tensions” in Britain, particularly in August last year during the unrest stemming from the murder of three children by a second generation migrant in Southport.
#UK #Surveillance #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Former Trump prosecutor Jack Smith under investigation for alleged election interference
Jack Smith, the former special counsel who led two criminal probes into President Donald Trump, is now being investigated by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) for potential election interference. The inquiry comes after a prominent Republican senator accused Smith of using his role to harm Trump’s chances ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
The OSC—a federal independent agency—confirmed that it is reviewing whether Smith violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, initiated the request for the probe. He accused Smith of “unprecedented interference” in the last election and claimed the investigations into Trump were politically driven efforts to benefit the Biden-Harris campaign.
According to Cotton, Smith expedited the timeline for Trump’s election-related trial, pushing for early jury selection without offering a valid explanation. The case was eventually dropped after the election.
Cotton also accused Smith of breaching the Justice Department’s 60-day rule, which restricts prosecutors from making election-related moves close to Election Day. He argued that Smith’s actions were designed to aid Vice President Kamala Harris and damage Trump’s campaign.
#USA #Smith #OSC #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Where the world’s richest people live in 2025
The global distribution of wealth reveals a highly concentrated landscape.
The graphic visualizes the countries with the largest wealthy populations, split among three tiers: millionaires, centi-millionaires (over $100 million), and billionaires.
The United States has the world’s largest wealthy population, with 6 million millionaires, over 10,000 centi-millionaires, and 867 billionaires. Its economic scale, deep capital markets, and startup ecosystem continue to make it the top destination for accumulating wealth.
China is second in all three categories, with nearly 828,000 millionaires, 2,258 centi-millionaires, and 278 billionaires.
China’s population is significantly larger than America’s, meaning its ratio of ultra-wealthy individuals is lower than the United States. This may reflect a combination of capital controls, fewer global firms, and recent policy crackdowns on wealth accumulation.
Germany, Japan, and the UK all have between 500,000 and 800,000 millionaires. But their centi-millionaire and billionaire counts are far lower, suggesting more evenly distributed wealth, or at least less concentration at the top.
Switzerland and Australia have notably large wealthy populations given their overall sizes, reflecting their developed economies and high standards of living.
#World #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Iran’s plan to abandon GPS is about much more than technology
Most recently, the United States-Israeli attacks on Iran demonstrated not just new strategies of drone deployment and infiltration but also new vulnerabilities. During the 12-day conflict, Iran and vessels in the waters of the Gulf experienced repeated disruptions of GPS signal.
This clearly worried the Iranian authorities who, after the end of the war, began to look for alternatives. Iran’s decision to explore adopting China’s navigation satellite system may appear at first glance to be merely a tactical manoeuvre. This move is yet another indication of a major global realignment.
Iran’s possible shift to BeiDou sends a clear message to other nations grappling with the delicate balance between technological convenience and strategic self-defence: The era of dependence on US-controlled infrastructure is rapidly coming to an end. Nations can no longer afford to have their military capabilities and vital digital sovereignty tied to the satellite grid of a superpower they cannot trust.
This sentiment is one of the driving forces behind the creation of national or regional satellite navigation systems, from Europe’s Galileo to Russia’s GLONASS, each vying for a share of the global positioning market and offering a perceived guarantee of sovereign control.
#USA #Iran #GPS #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
UK online safety law leads to 5m extra age checks a day for pornography sites
Huge increase in online age verifications but many users turn to virtual private networks to access pornography sites.
Five million extra online age checks a day are being carried out in the UK since the introduction of age-gating for pornography sites, according to new data.
The Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA) said there had been a sharp increase in additional age checks in the UK since Friday, when age verification became mandatory for accessing pornography under the Online Safety Act.
“As a result of new codes under the Online Safety Act coming into force on Friday, we have seen an additional 5m age checks on a daily basis, as UK-based internet users seek to access sites that are age-restricted,” said Iain Corby, the executive director of the AVPA.
The UK has also seen a surge in popularity of virtual private networks, which obscure a user’s real location and thus allow them to access sites blocked in their own country. Four of the top five free apps on the Apple download store in the UK are VPN apps, with Proton, the most popular, reporting a 1,800% increase in downloads.
#UK #Censorship #AVPA #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
€31 bln - estimate of losses of German industry due to US duties
▪️Annual losses of the German industry due to US import duties in the medium term may amount to up to €31 billion, - states consulting company Deloitte.
▪️The sectors that will be hardest hit are (with an indication of export loss estimates):
- EUR 7.2 billion - mechanical engineering
- EUR 5.1 billion - pharmaceutical industry
- EUR 4.0 billion - automotive industry
- EUR 2.0 billion - chemical industry
#USA #Germany #Economy #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Microsoft’s China ties may expose Pentagon’s digital security
Microsoft allowed Chinese engineers to work on U.S. military software without Pentagon disclosure, exposing critical national security systems to foreign risk.
Recent reports have shed light on a troubling lapse in cybersecurity governance, raising serious questions about the integrity of America’s defense infrastructure and the extent of foreign access to critical systems. Microsoft—the primary technology provider for much of the U.S. government, including the Department of Defense—has allowed engineers based in China to work on sensitive software systems tied to military operations. Even more alarming is that this access was never disclosed to the Pentagon.
The revelations document how Microsoft allowed engineers in China to work on the same software used by U.S. defense agencies. This arrangement, which lacked formal oversight and notification to the Department of Defense, has raised concerns within Congress.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) of the Senate Intelligence Committee has formally requested answers from the Pentagon about the nature and extent of Chinese engineers’ access to Microsoft systems used in military contexts. The concern is not abstract. In an era defined by escalating cyber competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), such access—regardless of what may have been directly exposed—poses profound risks.
#USA #China #Microsoft #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Unlike Meta, Google signs EU AI Code of Practice but warns it could ‘cripple EU tech ambitions’
US tech giant Google has agreed to sign the European Union’s new AI Code of Practice.
That was despite warning that the bloc’s rules could strangle innovation and slow the continent’s development of artificial intelligence.
Announced on July 30, the company framed its decision as a good faith move to keep Europe in the AI race.
“We do so with the hope that this Code, as applied, will promote European citizens’ and businesses’ access to secure, first rate AI tools as they become available,” the company said.
Even so, Google expressed unease over Brussels’ decision.
The new rules target general purpose AI models such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Elon Musk’s Grok on X, with particular emphasis on copyright issues.
#EU #BigTech #AI #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
‘A direct result of the irresponsible mass immigration’ – 40% of all violent crime suspects in German schools are foreigners, over 2 knife attacks a day
New data shows that 40% of all suspects identified in school violence in 2024 in Germany were not German citizens.
In total, there were 4,254 foreign suspects and 7,309 suspects with German citizenship. Of the 11,558 suspects in total, 1,236 had Syrian passports, representing one in ten violent incidents. In second place were Afghans, who represented 3.6% of all suspects.
What should be noted is that an extremely large number of German suspects are individuals with a foreign background, but since they have German passports, they are counted solely as “Germans.” Even with those with dual citizenship, they are only counted as Germans. Neighboring Denmark records the data of Danish citizens with a foreign background, giving the country a better idea of integration efforts and trends in foreign crime.
In total, there were 35,570 violent crimes in Germany’s school system last year. That amounts to 97 violent crimes per day. Of those crimes, 740 were knife attacks. That is over two knife attacks per day.
#Germany #Migrants #Crime #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
Mercedes-Benz reports profit plunge on China sales slump
Mercedes-Benz said Thursday its profits plunged by almost a third last year amid a sales slump in China and a slowdown in its electric car business, and announced a cost-cutting drive.
The German car giant's net profit fell to 10.4 billion euros ($10.8 billion), down 28% from 2023, while revenues also slid about 4% to 145.6 billion euros.
The group said it planned to slash production costs by a tenth by 2027 as it seeks to "ensure the company's future competitiveness".
It was the latest bad news from one of the country's car titans, which are reeling from a stuttering shift to electric vehicles, fierce competition in China from local rivals and weakening demand elsewhere.
In China, Mercedes's biggest single market, sales dropped seven percent in 2024. German manufacturers all invested heavily in China in recent decades but are facing fierce competition from local rivals.
Overall the group's sales fell four percent last year from the previous year, hit by a drop of 23% in sales of electric vehicles.
It was the latest evidence that the transition to EVs is stalling, a slowdown that is weighing heavily on carmakers across Europe.
#China #Germany #MercedesBenz #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
In the USA, shops are forced to go to extreme measures. In California, even biscuits and doughnuts for a couple of dollars are now being locked up.
#USA #California #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
How to Turn a Terrorist into a Statesman. Memoirs of the American diplomat Robert Ford.
#USA #Syria #FindTruth
@uinhurricane
US tech firms could leave EU, lawmakers warn
US tech giants will abandon the EU if the Digital Services Act (DSA) is not amended.
Companies like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta could withdraw from the EU altogether if the law remains unchanged, warned Republican Representative Scott Fitzgerald, a member of the House antitrust committee.
“Absolutely,” he responded, when asked if there was a real risk of US companies exiting.
“There’s seven corporations that are currently listed as gatekeepers by the DSA, and six of the seven are American corporations who are the innovators. They’re the ones that are driving the train on just about everything we do,” said Fitzgerald.
The delegation — which included Republican House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan and Representatives Fitzgerald and another Republican Representative, Kevin Kiley — called the DSA “censorship legislation”, saying it threatens innovation, political expression, and US–EU digital cooperation.
They hoped upcoming EU–US trade negotiations would address the DSA, they said.
#USA #EU #BigTech #FindTruth
@uinhurricane