Geologist: A Yellowstone Eruption “Would Destroy Most Of America” (Source Zero Hedge)

According to Tech WP, Dr. Zaba says that Yellowstone would destroy much of the United States. Dr. Zaba, who is a geologist at the University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland, said the mass explosion is completely unavoidable although it’s impossible to say when that explosion will occur. In addition to the annihilation of the United States, the geologist also says about 5 billion other people will starve to death in the volcanoes aftermath: a volcanic winter. It is forecasted that if there was an explosion it would destroy most of the United States. Discarded materials would cover everything with a meter layer within a radius of 500 km. And due to the emission of a huge amount of dust, gases or sulfur oxide to the atmosphere, there would be a temporary cooling of the climate. Sulfur oxide would create a thin veil of sulfuric acid around the planet reflecting sunlight. This would persist for many years. It is estimated that due to climate change about five billion people would starve to death. 

Huawei founder: US government ‘underestimated our power’ (Source foxbusiness.com)

The growing animosity between Huawei Technologies Opens a New Window. and the U.S. government Opens a New Window. was inevitable and a sales ban imposed by the Trump administration Opens a New Window. will have no effect on the firm’s plans, according to the founder of the Chinese telecommunications giant. Speaking to Chinese state media on Tuesday, Ren Zhengfei said there would be “conflict with the United States sooner or later” as Huawei seeks to grow its dominance in the global telecom industry.

Following the actions from the Trump administration, a number of companies took immediate steps to limit their relationship with the Chinese firm. Google, for example, said it would restrict access to popular applications on Huawei smartphones, a decision that was reversed after the White House’s 90-day reprieve. Chipmakers like Intel and Qualcomm Inc. also reportedly suspended shipments to Huawei. While the company develops some of its own chips, it relies on U.S. firms for other parts.

Spokespersons for Qualcomm and Intel did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Huawei CEO Richard Yu on wrote on Tuesday on popular Chinese messaging app WeChat that the company would roll out its own operating system in 2020, a move that would reduce the reliance on U.S. companies.

“It Felt Like An Earthquake”: Violent Tornados Tear Through Missouri, Leaving 3 Dead (Source Zero Hedge) Late Wednesday night, a tornado ripped across Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri. The storm, described as a “direct hit” to the capital city, left dozens trapped and injured. What the National Weather Service described as a “violent tornado” landed nearly eight years to the day that another deadly storm leveled Joplin, Missouri. More tornadoes, thunderstorms and flash floods are expected for a large swath of the Midwest between Oklahoma and Illinois. Across the state, storms have left three people dead, the Missouri Department of Public Safety reports. Tornado watches were in place for areas from Oklahoma City northeast to central Illinois overnight. The NWS has received 33 reports of tornadoes between late Wednesday and Thursday morning. Since Tuesday, 60 such storms have been reported.

Even Before The Recession Has Officially Begun, Some Large U.S. Firms Are Laying Off Thousands Of Workers (Source theeconomiccollapseblog.com)

If the U.S. economy is “booming” and very bright days are ahead, then why are many large U.S. corporations laying off thousands of workers?  Layoffs are starting to come fast and furious now, and this is happening even though the coming recession has not even officially started yet.  Of course many are convinced that we are actually in a recession at this moment.  In fact, according to John Williams of shadowstats.com if the government was actually using honest numbers they would show that we have been in a recession for quite some time.  But the narrative that the mainstream media keeps feeding us is that the U.S. economy is “doing well” and that the outlook for the future is positive.  Well, if that is true then why are big companies laying off so many workers right now? Ford Motor said that it is laying off about 7,000 managers and other salaried employees, about 10% of its white-collar workforce across the globe, as part of a restructuring plan designed to save the No. 2 automaker $600 million annually. The cuts, some of which were previously announced by the company, will be completed by August, Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in an email to employees. If the U.S. economy was about to take off like a rocket, this move doesn’t make any sense at all. But if we are headed into a recession, this move makes perfect sense. Nestle SA’s U.S. unit will dismiss about 4,000 workers as it stops delivering frozen pizza and ice cream directly to stores and transitions to a warehouse model that’s becoming an industry standard for Big Food companies looking to trim costs. 3M plans to cut 2,000 globally as part of a restructuring due to a slower-than-expected 2019.

The maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics said Thursday that the move is expected to save about $225 million to $250 million a year.

Did you catch that part about these layoffs being due to “a slower-than-expected 2019”?

Unfortunately, things are slow for a lot of companies out there these days.

Xi Has $3.65 Trillion Fiscal War Chest to Counter Trump Tariffs (Source Bloomberg)

Beijing’s main defense against trade-war fallout this year is more likely to come from the finance ministry than the central bank, no matter what President Donald Trump says. If tariffs begin to really hurt China’s growth this year, there’s plenty of direct fiscal firepower left to stoke the economy before the People’s Bank of China would have to cut interest rates, according to an analysis of government spending by Bloomberg. Data released Wednesday showed an across-the-board slowdown in April. Central and local authorities in China have at least 25.1 trillion yuan ($3.65 trillion) unspent in their budgets this year, data compiled using official budget plans show. That’s two trillion yuan more than the ammunition China had in the same period last year — and about equivalent to the entire annual output of Germany. “Chinese leaders will be able to better utilize different kinds of policy tools than their U.S. counterparts if the trade war persists, and that’s where China’s confidence comes from,” said Serena Zhou, an economist at Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd in Hong Kong. “From monetary policy and fiscal policy to the dominant role of the state-owned enterprises, China’s control on the economy is obviously stronger than the U.S.,” she said.

China and Russia are waging a “shadow war” against U.S. and we’re not fighting back, author says(Source cbsnews.com) President Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit in Japan next month amid an escalation of what author and national security expert Jim Sciutto calls a new type of warfare. His new book, “The Shadow War: Inside Russia’s and China’s Secret Operations to Defeat America,” highlights tactics he says both countries use to attack the U.S. and its allies, but fall below the threshold of starting a shooting war. Sciutto told “CBS This Morning” that the U.S. isn’t doing enough about it. “It’s a war they’re waging, Russia and China are waging on the U.S., and we’re not fighting back. “I think Americans are aware of some of the fronts of the war, certainly election interference, which continues, but they’re not aware of others … Russia and China have both put weapons in space: Lasers, kamikaze satellites. Kidnapper satellites. China has developed a satellite that can grab other satellites out of orbit. These are satellites we depend on for the way we live every day of our lives, GPS, et cetera, but also the military does, crucially.”

Sciutto, a CNN national security correspondent and anchor, also highlighted a “new great game” playing out under the waves with submarines.

“Submarines are quieter, they’re getting closer to U.S. shores. That’s a way to project nuclear power without warning right up to the U.S. homeland – multi-front war,” he said.

China, Sciutto said, is trying to surpass the U.S. as a world superpower – and they’re not shy about it. It’s something they’ve made clear in both public speeches as well as in national security documents.

FARMAGEDDON LOOMS: ONLY 30% OF US CORN FIELDS HAVE BEEN PLANTED, 5 YEAR AVERAGE IS 66%(Source Zero Hedge)

2019 is turning out to be a nightmare that never ends for the agriculture industry.  Thanks to endless rain and unprecedented flooding, fields all over the middle part of the country are absolutely soaked right now, and this has prevented many farmers from getting their crops in the ground.  I knew that this was a problem, but when I heard that only 30 percent of U.S. corn fields had been planted as of Sunday, I had a really hard time believing it.  But it turns out that number is 1005 accurate.  And at this point corn farmers are up against a wall because crop insurance final planting dates have either already passed or are coming up very quickly.  In addition, for every day after May 15th that corn is not in the ground, farmers lose approximately 2% of their yield.  Unfortunately, more rain is on the way, and it looks like thousands of corn farmers will not be able to plant corn at all this year.  It is no exaggeration to say that what we are facing is a true national catastrophe.

This Is What a Chinese Nuclear War Against America Would Look Like (Source The National Interest)

Let’s hope that these are just academic discussions in the Chinese context and do not reflect actual weapons under development. When one reads enough Chinese naval literature, diagrams of multi-axial cruise missile saturation attacks against aircraft carrier groups may begin to seem normal. However, one particular graphic from the October 2015 issue  of the naval journal Naval & Merchant Ships. stands out as both unusual and singularly disturbing. It purports to map the impact of a Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) strike by twenty nuclear-armed rockets against the United States. Targets include the biggest cities on the East and West Coasts, as well as in the Midwest, as one would expect. Giant radiation plumes cover much of the country and the estimate in the caption holds that the strike “would yield perhaps 50 million people killed”. The map below that graphic on the same page illustrates the optimal aim point for a hit on New York City with a “blast wave” that vaporizes all of Manhattan and well beyond.

Rabbits, sharks, whales, and bees — species are threatened with extinction in New England (Source bostonglobe.com) Scientists sounded the alarm on the sad state and frightening future of the natural world in a report saying extinction looms for more than 1 million species of plants and animals worldwide. There are endangered species in our own backyard, here in New England. Biologists at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, maintain a detailed online database of threatened species, known as the “Red List.” So far they’ve only studied a small fraction of the Earth’s 8 million species. But already, they’ve found more than 27,000 species are threatened with extinction out of nearly 100,000 examined in depth. In New England, there are eight “critically-endangered” species, including a type of turtle, two kinds of bees, as well as several trees and other plants. More turtles, including the wood turtle, and bees are on the list of 18 “endangered” species in our region, along with the North Atlantic right whale, a species of mussel, a type of beetle, a type of bat, and two types of fish called skates, which resemble stingrays. Another 33 species that can be found in New England are considered “vulnerable,” including types of sharks, the New England cottontail rabbit, the American horseshoe crab, and a species of seahorse. And then there are 37 more species in our region that are considered “near threatened” — more sharks, skates, fish, turtles, bats, plants, fungi, mussels, and a type of snail.

N. Korea fires 2 suspected missiles in possible new warning (Source Associated Press)

North Korea fired two suspected short-range missiles toward the sea on Thursday, South Korean officials said, its second weapons launch in five days and a possible warning that nuclear disarmament talks with Washington could be in danger.

The latest launches came as U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun visited South Korea, and hours after the North described its firing of rocket artillery and an apparent short-range ballistic missile on Saturday as a regular and defensive military exercise. North Korea also ridiculed South Korea for criticizing those launches. U.S. President Donald Trump said he was not happy about North Korea’s recent military tests. Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday that “we’re looking” at the situation “very seriously right now.”

South Korean President Moon Jae-in urged North Korea to refrain from actions that could impede diplomacy. In an interview with the KBS television network, Moon also said Seoul will explore various options to help revive the talks, including providing food aid to the North and pushing for his fourth summit with Kim.

‘We are shooting ourselves in the foot’: Business groups, farmers urge Trump not to slap new tariffs on China (Source usatoday.com)

Businesses support the administration’s efforts to secure “a meaningful trade deal” with China, “and we want to see concessions from China to remedy its unfair trade practices,” French said.

But, “we remain concerned that we are shooting ourselves in the foot by big new taxes on Americans,” he said. The U.S. and China have been negotiating for months and appeared close to striking a new trade deal, but the Trump administration accused the Chinese of backing out of some of its commitments, prompting Trump to issue his threat on Sunday.

Trump said he would increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods to 25% from 10%. He also threatened a 25% tariff on an additional $325 billion of imported goods. China threatened to retaliate by slapping tariffs on U.S. goods if Trump follows through with his threat. The tariffs could result in 2.1 million job losses and cost the average American family $2,300 if they remain in place for up to three years, said Laura Baughman, president of The Trade Partnership, an economic analysis firm based in Washington.