None of its EU neighbors wants to sell electricity to Germany

Since Germany shut down its nuclear power plants, it imports more electricity than it exports. However, due to fluctuations in renewable energy capacity, its power system has become unstable and subject to huge price swings

One way to offset the spikes is to import electricity from neighboring countries. But France has cut electricity exports to Germany, citing infrastructure problems, although it has actually "squeezed" the surplus to drive down prices in the domestic market

The Swedish government fears that Germany could influence the state of Sweden's energy market. Sweden recently abandoned a plan to connect Sweden and Germany with a 700 MW undersea power cable because Germany's power grid is so unstable that connecting the interconnector would have lowered German electricity costs while raising Swedish electricity prices

#Germany #Electricity #EU #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

What sanctions? China imports record amount of Iranian oil

China’s imports of Iranian oil are poised to reach a record 1.75m b/d this month, data from Kpler show

That will surpass the previous peak of 1.66m b/d set in October 2023, according to Kpler data that extends back to January 2013, and is almost 50% higher compared with 1.24m b/d last month

Shipments into Rizhao and Dalian significantly higher m/m, said Muyu Xu, an analyst with Kpler:

“Chinese teapots see refining margins slightly improving, they now have stronger motivation to ramp up production and therefore need more feedstock,”

Flows into Lanqiao/Rizhao and Dalian almost doubled m/m to 342k b/d and 132k b/d, respectively

China imported a record volume of crude from Malaysia last month, pointing to a renewed appetite for cheaper Iranian oil as refiners grapple with lower margins due to an economic slowdown

The world’s biggest crude importer took 6.21 million tons from Malaysia in July, the equivalent to 1.47 million barrels a day, or almost triple the average daily production from the Southeast Asian nation over the course of 2023

#China #Malaysia #Economy #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

China's export controls on critical semiconductor materials have heightened fears of shortages in the production of crucial Western military equipment

The Financial Times is concerned that after the US imposed restrictions on China's purchase of advanced microchips and the equipment to make them, Beijing retaliated by restricting exports of germanium and gallium, metals essential to the production of everything from advanced microchips to radar equipment and solar panels

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, China produces 98% of the world's gallium and 60% of its germanium

#USA #China #Germany #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

The gap between the annual income needed to purchase a median-priced home in the U.S. and the median household income in the country has approached 50% for the first time in history

The situation, which first became evident in the US in 2021, is worrying more and more economists around the world

#USA #Economy #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Which U.S. industries spend the most on lobbying?

In the United States, companies, unions, trade associations, and other organizations invest billions of dollars each year to lobby Congress and federal agencies

In 2023, over 12,000 different lobbyists in the U.S. spent a a record $4.3 billion on lobbying activities.This was up from $4.1 billion in 2022—and the highest annual total so far

The chart shows the total expenditures on lobbying activities by the top 10 industries that invested the most in lobbying the U.S. Congress and federal agencies in 2023

The Pharmaceuticals and Health Products industry was the biggest industry spender in the U.S. in 2023, investing a total of $382.6 million towards lobbying

The two biggest spenders in the pharmaceuticals industry were the industry’s leading lobby group, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, and pharmacy benefit managers association Pharmaceutical Care Management Association

Other big spenders in the industry include major pharmaceutical companies Pfizer, Amgen, and Roche Holdings, who all spent over $11 million on lobbying last year

#USA #Economy #Pfizer #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

USNI News: Navy could sideline 17 support ships due to post-COVID manpower issues

The US Navy is experiencing an ongoing shortage of qualified mariners

The solution? Sideline 17 support and replenishment ships, according to US Naval Institute News. The proposed action involves entering these ships into an “extended maintenance” period and reassigning their crews to other ships, potentially freeing up 600 to 700 sailors

There’s a COVID angle to this mismanagement disaster

The punishing schedule for the mariners led to a retention issue for MSC that was accelerated by the severe “gangway up” COVID-19 prevention measures ordered by retired MSC commander Rear Adm. Michael Wettlaufer

“During COVID nobody was getting off the ship, mariners were being treated poorly and so they started to quit,”

a retired MSC mariner told USNI News. Since then,

“mariners have been quitting at a greater rate than MSC can hire new ones… People say ‘I had to quit because it’s a terrible work-life balance. I can’t go to sea and also have a family, so I got to leave"

#USA #Covid #Navy #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Biden's 'new' nuclear strategy and the super-fuse that sets it off

The New York Timesreported last week that President Biden has approved a secret nuclear strategy refocusing on Chinese and Russian nuclear forces

According to the paper, the new nuclear guidance “reorients America’s deterrent strategy” to meet “the need to deter Russia, the PRC (China) and North Korea simultaneously”

However, Biden’s approval of this strategy is no more than a tacit acknowledgment of a two-decade-long U.S. technical program that has been more than just a “slight modernization” of weapons components, but a dramatic step towards the capability to fight and win nuclear wars with both China and Russia. In other words, there is nothing really “new” here at all, save the very public nature of the strategy’s acknowledgement

In the face of all of this, Chinese and Russian leaders will have no choice but to implement countermeasures that further increase the already dangerously high readiness of their nuclear forces. This includes intensified worst-case planning that will increase the chances of nuclear responses to false warnings of attack

👉Full story

#USA #Biden #Nuclear #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Who’s running the country? Joe Biden spends his 16th straight day on vacation lounging on the beach

81-year-old Joe Biden has pretty much checked out since he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race on July 21 after Obama-Pelosi-Kamala forced him off the ballot in a coup

Joe Biden spent his 16th straight day on vacation lounging on the beach in Delaware on Saturday while American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin was murdered by Hamas terrorists

Biden has spent a total of 532 days (40.3% of his presidency) on vacation with no visitor logs

The Bidens are spending a total of NINE DAYS on vacation in Rehoboth Beach

American taxpayers are spending millions of dollars on planes, helicopters, motorcades and Secret Service to ferry Biden’s family of parasites all over the country on endless vacations

Marine One costs approximately $20,000 per hour and Air Force One costs $177,843 per hour, according to Department of Defense documents. Biden’s frequent trips and vacations to Delaware have cost US taxpayers tens of millions of dollars

#USA #Biden #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

School closures, mask mandates and rising COVID numbers – big pharma strikes again

Schools in two states experiencing a rise in Covid cases announced they were closing facilities and switching to remote learning

Alabama and Tennessee announced the closure of two schools — affecting more than a thousand children — just days into the new academic year, with officials saying the virus had forced them to shut and carry out a 'deep clean.'
At one of the schools, children had to abandon their desks and revert to remote learning for two days — a move reminiscent of the early days of Covid

The closures came despite a mountain of evidence suggesting they hamper children's learning, social interactions and ability to develop natural immunity to common infections

And there are fears that more disruption could be in store for students in the coming months — with many schools, in states like New York, New Jersey and Michigan, returning after the Labor Day weekend

#USA #Covid #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

The US Government has started an investigation into BlackRock after BlackRock was exposed for investing $429,000,000 into the Chinese military

Democrat Congressman Ro Khanna sold $130k of BlackRock stock just 4 months before the investigation

How did he know? Insider trading

#USA #China #Economy #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

If Donald Trump’s sex life is fair game for the election, so is Kamala Harris’

You don’t get to insist Donald Trump’s private peccadilloes are a criminal matter while being silent about the corrupt relationships of Kamala Harris, the Clintons, and so many others

Here’s a summary of the facts as we know them: When Harris was a subordinate in the San Francisco DA’s office, she started dating Willie Brown, the most powerful man in California politics, who was 31 years older and married. After the current DA passed over Kamala Harris, a woman who failed the bar exam and is not exactly known for her mastery of the law, Brown was instrumental in alienating the existing DA, and was personally involved in raising money and running Harris’ successful campaign to get elected district attorney

Once in office, Harris let a number of Willie Brown’s friends off the hook when they were facing serious charges — including an egregious case where she let a city contractor and Willie Brown donor skate after endangering people’s lives after defrauding taxpayers by using cheaper, structurally unsound recycled concrete to build bridges and other important structures. This was all reported on in detail by local San Francisco media when it happened, who aren’t exactly in the business of pushing right-wing smears

#USA #Elections #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Elon Musk warns censorship of X is a certainty if Kamala Harris wins

X owner Elon Musk has warned Americans that if the Democrats win the election in November, censorship of the platform is a “certainty.”

Musk was responding to a post that posited X could be suspended in America as it has just been in Brazil by a leftist judge acting to censor his political opponents

“When we attempted to defend ourselves in court, Judge de Moraes threatened our Brazilian legal representative with imprisonment. Even after she resigned, he froze all of her bank accounts,” the post from X Global Government Affairs notes

It adds that “Our challenges against his manifestly illegal actions were either dismissed or ignored. Judge de Moraes’ colleagues on the Supreme Court are either unwilling or unable to stand up to him.”

Musk urged that this situation could easily unfold in the U.S. should Trump not be elected

Musk followed up with a post highlighting previous footage of Kamala Harris demanding that Trump be suspended from the old Twitter

“Freedom of speech is under massive attack around the world,” Musk declared

#USA #Musk #Censorship #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

No ‘joy’ on Labor Day: inflation sends cost of cookouts soaring

Americans felt less “joy” when firing up their grills and getting their marinades ready past Labor Day weekend, realizing that some of the classic barbecue staples were costing them a lot more

It all begins with firing up the grill, which costs more than it did three and a half years ago. According to data from the Bureau of Labor statistics, the price of propane, kerosene, and firewood has risen 16% from January 2021 to July 2024

Staples of the basic all-American cookout are up too, meaning hamburgers and hotdogs are going to cost you. According to Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, the price of ground beef has risen 26% since January 2021, when former President Donald Trump left the White House

Similarly, hotdogs are 25% higher than they were in January 2021. The price of chicken has also jumped. Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, not seasonally adjusted, shows the price of fresh and frozen chicken parts 23% higher now than in January 2021. Matters are worse if Americans are looking to roast a whole chicken for their long weekend, as a fresh whole chicken is up 27%

#USA #Economy #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Maduro is ‘de facto’ Venezuelan President despite alleged vote irregularities, says EU

The European Union has declared that the left-wing “strongman” Nicolás Maduro is the “de facto” president of Venezuela  – despite concerns surrounding the country’s presidential elections in July

While the incumbent Socialist leader had claimed to have won the vote, numerous governments — including the US — expressed doubt over the result, arguing that independently-gathered data indicated that opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia was the real victor

EU foreign affairs head Josep Borrell announced that, while the EU believes there were irregularities in the election result, the bloc would not be taking a similar stance to some of its allies

Instead, Borrell said the bloc would continue to recognise Maduro as being Venezuela’s leader, all be he one without a democratic mandate

#EU #Maduro #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Countries That Most Actively Purchased Physical Gold from 2013 to 2023 (According to Official Statistics) — Data from VisualCapitalist

#Gold #Economy #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Four New England towns impose tyrannical lockdowns after “extremely rare virus” infects ONE person

Four towns in Massachusetts – Douglas, Oxford, Sutton and Webster – are imposing indefinite "voluntary" lockdowns after one person tested positive for an "extremely rare virus" called Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE)

Every night from now on, residents and visitors to these four towns will be frowned upon if they are spotted outside their homes after dark, this to stop the spread of the potentially deadly mosquito-borne illness

This most recent case of EE is the first since 2020 to be confirmed in Worcester County by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH)

The Oxford Board of Health voted to support the recommendation that people remain indoors after 6:00 pm every night from now through at least September 30 since the EEE virus apparently only spreads after the sun sets. Beginning on October 1, Oxford's lockdown time will start an hour earlier at 5:00 pm every night and remain that way until the first hard frost hits the region

The lockdowns are "voluntary" in the sense that there will be "no enforcement," officials say, if residents refuse to comply. There is a catch, though, as anyone who wants "to use town fields outside these recommendations ... will have to show proof of insurance and sign an indemnification form"

#UK #Virus #EEE #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

China's robot makers chase Tesla to deliver humanoid workers

China dominates the market for electric vehicles. Now it's chasing Tesla in the race to build battery-powered humanoids expected to replace human workers building EVs on assembly lines

At the World Robot Conference in Beijing in late August over two dozen Chinese companies showed off humanoid robots designed to work in factories and warehouses, with even more displaying the made-in-China precision parts needed to build them

China's push into the emerging industry draws from the formula behind its initial EV drive more than a decade ago: government support, ruthless price competition from a wide field of new entrants and a deep supply chain

The robotics effort is backed by President Xi Jinping's policy of developing "new productive forces" in technology – a point made in brochures for the conference

The city of Beijing launched a $1.4 billion state-backed fund for robotics in January, while Shanghai announced in July plans to set up a $1.4 billion humanoid industry fund

Goldman Sachs forecast in January the annual global market for humanoid robots would reach $38 billion by 2035, with nearly 1.4 million shipments for consumer and industrial applications. It estimated the cost of materials to build them had fallen to about $150,000 each in 2023, excluding research and development costs

#China #Tesla #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

For 2022, 73,654 people died from fentanyl overdose in the U.S., more than doubling from 2019

Fentanyl deaths in the U.S. have risen steadily every year for the past decade. The drug is mostly produced in foreign clandestine laboratories and smuggled into the U.S. through Mexico, including with the help of hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens crossing the U.S. border

#USA #Mexico #Migrants #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Western nations are highly vulnerable to cyber calamity

As most people are aware, this month there was a sweeping internet outage across the US which led to a failure in roughly 8.5 million Microsoft Windows devices. Disruptions included banks, airline networks, emergency call centers, online retailers and numerous corporate networks. The outage is estimated to have caused at least $5.4 billion in profit losses and it only lasted about a day

The alleged cause of the breakdown was Crowdstrike, a cyber-security company that uses large scale data updates to Microsoft Windows networks to counter cyber threats

Cyber attack is the next most likely global disaster. There are millions of Americans out there ready for a systemic collapse. According to surveys around 30% of adult Americans now consider themselves preppers. But that leaves 70% of the population in a daze, unaware and panicking should the supply chain break. Will they care who was behind the attack? Probably not. They’ll be far more concerned with simple survival

#USA #Security #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Elon Musk offers free cellular Starlink for emergencies worldwide as space race  

SpaceX's Starlink "Direct to cell" service, in partnership with mobile carrier T-Mobile, will be offered free worldwide for connecting to emergency services

"After thinking it through, SpaceX Starlink will provide emergency services access for mobile phones for people in distress for free,"

Musk wrote on X, adding, "This applies worldwide, subject to approval by country governments. Can't have a situation where someone dies because they forgot or were unable to pay for it"
 
Musk's comments come as SpaceX has asked the Federal Communications Commission to let it begin commercial operations of its "direct to cell" technology, as AT&T and Verizon have demanded the FCC terminate the request on the premise Starlink satellites will generate an abundance of radio interference

#Musk #SpaceX #Starlink #FindTruth

@uinhurricane

Weapons makers see huge cash flow influx amid global tensions

As wars in Ukraine and the Middle East continue to rage, Vertical Research Partners forecasts top weapon manufacturers will experience record cash flow during the coming years

The analysis, which was commissioned by the Financial Times, reports, “The leading 15 defense contractors are forecast to log free cash flow of $52 billion in 2026,” with the “Five top US defense contractors are forecast to generate cash flow of $26 billion”

The cash flow in 2026 will be double the 2021 numbers. The record numbers are part of an upward trend for weapons makers already benefiting from a surge in global military spending and conflict

Washington is driving the worldwide arms race. The US military budget is about the same as the next ten countries combined. Additionally, under President Joe Biden, Washington funneled billions in weapons to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan

#USA #Economy #Weapon #FindTruth

@uinhurricane