"Es gibt auf der Welt Geld wie Dreck. Es haben nur die falschen Leute." Heiner Geißler, CDU

The European Commission allows additional government spending of up to 0.6% of GDP until 2028 to reduce dependence on fossil fuels by broadening the scope of the current National Escape Clause for defence spending. Such extra spending would be exempt from fiscal rules constraints

If you want to kill someone in Germany, just do yourself a favour and use a car. No jail, no problem.

“The real surprise from the OECD’s subsidy numbers is that it cost China less than $18bn in sectoral support over 15 years to build an industry that can now provide more clean power than the world can readily absorb.” Or 2-3 month of German fossil fuel imports giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Great addition to the fascinating Krugman-Aghion et al debate on the idea of a US-EU productivity gap that drives much of EU economic policy rn

“Electrification will be also a global answer, because you can produce electricity from various means and not only from hydrocarbons. So that will be the other big trend, that we will see, because security of supply, because again affordability of energy is of essence.” From an oil company CEO.

Isch over

Green energy: - Massive investment waiting - Massive supply waiting - Massive demand waiting … what are we all waiting for?

Halleluja

another day, another story about the administration's war on knowledge itself, all in service of allow its corporate patrons free rein to rob us blind and poison our world www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/c...

This should push EU nations to proceed with extreme caution when it comes to authorizing autonomous taxis, and private cars. It will not ease congestion. It will not make streets safer by any meaningful margin. It might make transportation a tiny bit cheaper if you’re already taking cabs today…

‘Fomo is a poor motivation for good policy. What matters in the end is not “competitiveness” but productivity growth’ giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Good piece by Palma Polyak. In a sense she is illustrating the global version of the Kalecki Paradox, or what Fed chairman Marriner Eccles explained in the 1930s: without rising consumption you cannot justify rising production, and without rising wages you cannot sustain rising consumption.

Reform UK wants to shut this down. If it did so, it would throw a million people out of work. Why? because it is beholden to the fossil fuel industry. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The far right presents itself as pro-worker and pro-“common man” (yes, man) in its propaganda but its “welfare” policies are always just clientelistic crumbs as massive wealth goes to its own cronies and the rich who jump the bandwagon.

Was einer der führenden Oppositionspolitiker Ugandas zu der Idee von Deutschland und Co sagt, Abschiebezentren in seinem Land aufzubauen. 👇 www.zeit.de/2026/06/bobi...

You thought industrial electrification potential was limited Hahhahaha dumbass!!

2/ Morocco focused its industrialization on 2 sectors - Cars & Planes Became to the EU what Mexico is to the US & Central &EEurope to Germany: a "workbench". Low wage assembly then more more value-added And like Mexico, focused on Aerospace, 150 companies - giants Boeing, Airbus, Safran and Thales

Now the Chinese want to beat us in holidays as well…

Die Sozialwissenschaften sind als eines historischen Reformprojekts entstanden, in Tandem mit egalisierenden Institutionen von Massendemokratie, Wohlfahrtstaat, Arbeitsrecht und einer Kultur gesellschaftlicher Reflexivität und Universalisierung. Links zu sein ist ihre gesellschaftliche Funktion.

taz-WELT-Pipeline nach wie vor intakt.

Stimmt schon. Höhere Rüstungsausgaben braucht man für viele Dinge, für die europäische Verteidigungsfähigkeit nicht. Anderswo wird stets penibel auf die Effizienz der Staatsausgaben geachtet, bei der Rüstung: alles egal. Erst mal die eur. Miniaturarmeen zusammenlegen, dann schauen wir weiter.

Bong Joon Ho on AI 👀 deadline.com/2025/11/bong...

Looks like one of those terrifying 2050 #climate projection graphics, but no, that’s a short-term forecast for France until… May 29th.

Think of CO₂ removal like a time machine. How far back does planting 100 million trees take us? One mature tree takes up ~25 kg of CO₂/year, so 100 million trees will take up 2.5 MtCO₂. That's a time machine that takes us back ~33 minutes in a year. Nature will not save us from fossil fuel CO₂.

Leader of the main opposition party, Ozgur Ozel, walking in the rain to the parliament after he was forced to leave the party HQs by Erdogan’s goons

AI probably has some uses for retail. A much more realistic potential magic bullet here as I discovered when reporting on Finland’s massive grocery coop (50% market share) was no need for profit prospect.org/2023/10/11/2...

We still remember the London Blitz, which lasted eight months. Ukraine has been under attack for fifty-one months. You can help defend Ukrainians from missiles and drones. u24.gov.ua/news/timothy...

Remember Erdogan shut down a university a few days ago? He opened it yesterday. Just like that. Students were protesting non-stop and IMHO there’s nothing that scares him more than protests.

Tbh the big secret carbon capture technology is wetlands restoration

Deregulation under the disguise of simplification? No - rejected by EU Parliament & governments

Yes, it’s hot. More than 10°C above normal for widespread regions of southern England. istheukhotrightnow.com

Donald Trump promised the war in Iran would end with unconditional surrender. But he never said which country would do the surrendering.

BMWE retweetet einfach INSM Propaganda? Aber sicher!

(Taps the sign)

Priorités économiques 🌱 “Aujourd’hui, 15 % du gaz nécessaire à la production de la bière provient d’un méthaniseur installé sur le site et alimenté par les déchets de la brasserie. L’idée en cours de réflexion est de faire basculer le restant de sa consommation énergétique vers l’électrique.”

Back in the day.

Ukraine’s foreign minister:

European red tape is killing its businesses, compared to China and America. All those regulations! In other news 40,000 evacuated in California after a toxic chemical leak, and at least 80 dead in China in a coal mine explosion. So there's that?

European automobile production sites are increasingly used to build Chinese cars www.ft.com/content/5529...

Wäre ein schöner Samstagabend gewesen, gäbe es Hinweise nicht, in der Nacht könnte ein massiver russischer Luftangriff erfolgen. Aus bisheriger Erfahrung muss man besonders die Mitteilung der US-Botschaft Kyjiw ernst nehmen. Nach früheren Warnungen dieser Art wurde tatsächlich Oreschnik eingesetzt.

in short yes. Fressoz is right about the past, wrong about the future. Since 2024, China's emissions have been flat or declining, according to multiple independent trackers. mainly because power demand growth has been fed by explosive renewables growth. www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-chi...

France floods Europe's grid with solar, pushing prices negative www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

„As a result, democracies across the planet are now threatened by what might be called fossil fuel fascism – an extremist political movement that breaks laws, spreads lies and threatens violence in an increasingly desperate attempt to maintain markets for oil, gas and coal“

Now 34 years. I will continue to post the story of Giovanni Falcone because even if just one person who didn't know it reads it, learns about this extraordinary man, and maybe shares it with others, the world will be a slightly better place.

The gap between European and US “economic success” indicators around GDP or GDPpC are to a large extent a statistical artefact.

Europe does need urgent reforms but we need to be serious about what reforms. If we conclude that we need to emulate the US economic model we risk doubling down on the very things that have wilfully damaged Europe’s growth and productivity trajectory. leusderoflastresort.substack.com/p/the-us-is-...

ouch

A Bavaria-shaped grudging acceptance of Germany

Now: If you insist that the question should be 'who is currently richer/poorer?' and if you insist that the answer involves relative measure of GDP and if you insist on looking at aggregates, then the currently most defensible answer is static current GDPPPP/hour: