There is another one between Ksi Lisims and Uniper as well.

https://www.uniper.energy/news/uniper-and-the-canadian-project-ksi-lisims-lng-sign-landmark-long-term-lng-agreement

US LNG was rather happily competing with Russian pipeline gas before the invasion. Also friends?

Canadian LNG is slightly more expensive then Russia one, due to the longer transport. However it is much cheaper one a systems scale, as the Canadians do not use that money to threaten other countries.

Ten years down the line, say, can they be acquired by a company based elsewhere?

That needs EU permission anyway.

When you cancel auction because the interest is to high, but debt is not a problem…

Mercedes is about where it is with cars in general.

What is more striking is how many German brands are still in the Top20 for EVs. In terms on none Chinese brands it is Tesla, Volvo(Chinese owned though) and Toyota. There are some massive brands like Ford fully missing on the EV list.

As for Mercedes it is 15 for EVs and 12 for car sales in general. It is not that bad of a position to be in.

The first thing in the article:

Mercedes-Benz is demanding cost cuts at its German plants and a review of benefits. Otherwise, production could be relocated to Eastern Europe.

Call me crazy, but I do not consider China to be part of Eastern Europe.

But Asia, Africa and possibly South America will switch from European to cheaper Chinese imports.

China is also a big exporter of lower end manufacturing products like clothes, furniture, toys and so forth. Europe and the US might not care about that, but countries with cheap workers, might well shut China out to produce those locally. There are also a lot of countries especially in Asia and South America on a similar economic level to China. Brazil, Thailand or Malaysia come to mind. They are all able to produce some more advanced products like cars or electronics. Again shutting out China makes some sense for them.

Not when you want to go into a polar orbit. That is flying over the earths poles and have the earth spin under the orbit. That allows satellites to take photos or use other sensors over every part of the planet. However to do that you need to have as little spin as possible hence being close to the poles is a good idea.

It is also the first successful launch of this launch system. That is not happening that often.

The copper rings were used in the bronze age and not just in Sweden, but basically everywhere in Europe.

In the olden days most countries struck coins of standard weights. So a coin is popular and then copied with different motives all over the place. The drachme, which initially was developed in Athens ended up as the first big standard coin spreading via Alexander the Great all over the place. The Sasanian Empire struck coins like those for example and that is centuries later. The Roman Solidus gold coin was very commonly used as a standard size in India as well.

I see a massive modern war in Ukraine, where Ukraine is fighting for survival. The number one system they want are missile interceptors like Patriot. They spend a lot of money and political capital on getting them. More then on any other system.

Israel has supplied Ukraine with air defence interceptors last year. That was months after the the US halted all military aid to Ukraine.

Have you read the first article?

Quote by you:

who was it again who launched a war THEY KNEW would consume all of Europe’s ballistic missile interceptors?

From the first article:

Germany has donated about one-third of its Patriot systems to Ukraine,

Oh and also from the article:

Israel is a unique case in the region but faces similar constraints. Its indigenous missile defense capabilities—including Arrow 3, Arrow 2, and David’s Sling—give it options that other US partners in the region do not have.

In other words Israel can build missile interceptors.

And then you even quote the article:

If US intelligence assessments are right that Putin plans to “test NATO resolve” in the coming years, then the replenishment clock matters on both sides

In other words, being able to access more interceptors is a key thing for European NATO members. Israel can make more of those.

Oh and this is from the US, who stopped Patriot missile sales to Ukraine BEFORE the war against Iran for months, because Zelensky did not war a suit. I would not be surprised if US stockpiles do not matter in a war at all, because the US is unwilling to sell them to Europe. That obviously would make Israel an even more important option.

Actually that is one of the best arguments for selling arms to Israel. Germany bought Arrow from them, which is perfect against Russian longer range missiles. Nobody in Europe produces a system with similar capabilities and the only alternatives to that are being sold by the US, Russia and China.

As for Patriot interceptors, those are used by the US and Arab countries. Israel has a system called Davids Sling, which has similar capabilities. They actually sold that to Finland and Greece. Currently Volkswagen is in talks with Israel to produce parts of that in Germany. That would be a useful factory to have in case of a war with Russia.

Also no European country has send missile interceptors to Israel or any country in the region. The most are shooting down some Iranian drones attacking Cyprus, but that is to be expected.

That is why they do it. They do not want Germany and the UK to send even more aid to Ukraine or do some more sanctions related stuff, making the Russian position even worse. Starting a war with NATO or the EU would be insane. Even just Germany or the UK would cause hard to win.

France has basically all of its gold reserves in Paris, since Charles de Gaulle moved them there. Germany has 37% of its gold reserves in the US and there is talk about bringing them back. Italy is at 43% and there seems to be basically nothing, but some discussion in some newspapers.

https://www.ft.com/content/e39390cc-ea02-4197-843a-1e4c242422cc?syn-25a6b1a6=1

One thing which is really important here is that the Dutch just sold their gold in New York and at the same time bough gold in London. They did not ship it at all. For Germany and Italy that is not an option, as the gold reserves in the US are so massive, that it would destroy the market. Both combined have about 1% of the gold in the world sitting in the US. Obviously a lot less is physically traded.

EDIT: Also this has to be done fairly quickly. As to not spook the market and piss of Trump.

Emden and Zwickau are EV only plants. Emden and Hannover are also in Lower Saxony, which is a major shareholder. I would have guessed a plants like Chemnitz and Kassel would be closed. As those produce combustion engine parts.

Russia was at half of the EUs gas supply and it was also mostly pipeline gas. For LNG it is possible to buy from other suppliers. Unless the US cuts all LNG exports, that is probably going to be a matter of paying enough.

Then the goal of the EU is to cut gas consumption. This is happening as gas boilers are replaced by heat pumps and gas power plants by wind, solar and batteries. It will take years to be really felt, but we see some of it. The key part here is that it is much cheaper to use a pipeline than LNG to transport gas. That obviously hits all LNG, but the US is the largest supplier.

US LNG makes up about a quarter of EU fossil gas imports. That is during a time, when Qatari LNG is cut off, due to the US war against Iran and most EU members not buying Russian gas. So if there is peace in either war, this is sure to fall.

There are also signs of some deals away from the US. SEFE signed a deal for 1 Mt/year from Canada and Uniper another 2Mt/year.