Was reading Berlin-City news....curious problem.
Over 100 e-buses are out of service. The entire Ebusco fleet is waiting for repairs/modifications.
What they say? Well....cracks in the frame....thus making them dangerous.
New buses? No....these are 3 and 4 year old buses.
Slot machines are legal in Germany.....under a fair number of regulations. You (as a pub, bar or restaurant) go to the city and get a permit. You admit....x-number of machines, and pay a taxation fee. Most will tell you that it's a marginal profit by the end.
If you asked me how many Germans actively play slots? I'd say it's 95-percent male-orientated....probably one German guy out of fifty.
So this week....in my town of Wiesbaden....a police raid occurred. What the cops say....they busted the maintenance facility of such machines, and this goes hand-in-hand with a two-year investigation of the region....with unlicensed slots.
Yeah, these pubs/bars....had machines in operation....with no license.
From what they figure....locally....forty-odd machines....there was a five-figure amount of untaxed income flowing back to someone.
So the parties involved....in trouble for unlicensed operations, and then dealing with the German tax folks.
1. Couple of shots fired last night in Dortmund....guy (unknown nationality) was hit and died. Police are investigating. All the cops say....occurred at north part of town....near midnight.
Shootings in 1980s/1990s were awful rare. If you follow the news these days....there's probably one every couple of week...usually crime-clan related.
2. Out of Thuringia.....a 34-year-old man from Georgia on asylum-status (supposed to be deported)....got into some argument with two aid workers. What cops say....the guy beat the two refugee aid workers so badly they required hospitalization.
3. The only 'big' gain in this Trump-Greenland deal? All military facilities on Greenland....end up with US operational control. Besides what the US already had....if Grok/AI is correct....six non-US sites end up in this deal.
Difficult to say if these are going to be US-manned, and 3,000-odd US Army guys end up in some 1-year Greenland temp-duty situation.
Yeah, and most likely they create a medal for the one-year deployment.
4. Out of WELT: now costing 5k Euro a month for a 'spot' in a German retirement home. Reaching a point where half of folks can't really afford the monthly bill.
5. For 25 years....this Mercosur deal has been attempted. The Mercosur-EU deal refers to a comprehensive trade and partnership agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Mercosur trade bloc, which consists of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay (with Bolivia as an associate member and Venezuela suspended).
It was supposed to create one of the world's largest free trade areas, covering over 700 million people and facilitating tariff reductions on goods, services, and investments while enhancing political cooperation.
It settled agricultural standards, environmental protections, and market access.
So....they signed the deal on 9 Jan 2026....done deal.
Well....NO....yesterday....the formal group in the EU....said we want a judicial review. EU court?
First, you can expect the review to take 12 months minimum....maybe on up to 26 months.
Second, this ECJ assessing? It'll list compatibility with EU treaties, focusing on issues like a "rebalancing mechanism" that lets Mercosur countries challenge EU legislation (e.g., environmental or agricultural standards), potential regulatory autonomy erosion, and alignment with EU climate commitments.
Potential destruction? Lot of South American folks figured this was a done deal....hyping up their economy over 2026/2027. Now? Even if the ECJ were 'nice'....saying no issues....you won't see any benefit occurring in 2026, and possibly even in 2027.
If the ECJ fails the deal....go expect a mini-economic crash.
The odds of total abandonment? Well....I'd give it a 10-to-20 percent chance. Maybe there's just one or two problems to re-engage upon and resolve.
The cheap steak path to Europe? This got brought up this past week....where both Argentine and Brazilian beef would be arriving in a few months.
If you go by the European gas storage database....GIE AGSI....the current fill level of German natural gas storage facilities on 21 January....is 40.7 percent.
No one really says the 'breaking' point where leadership gets worried. I would imagine if we reach a 30-percent point before the middle of February....there will be warning given and some lecture on conserving heat.
If you ask me about this current winter season....it's a bit more 'brisk' than most of the past decade.....at least in my valley. Two brief snow falls....most of the past month are minus-5 C temperatures for evenings.
I sat and watched a DEVOS talk....Finland's President, Alexander Stubb, says Europe can "unequivocally" defend itself, without the Americans.
It's pretty much a true statement...ONLY because Putin wiped out his military over a four-year period.
If you add up....rebuilding stage/era required (minimum of 30 years)....with the population issue (1-million dead men, and a bogus advertised population), and a limited manpower situation for decades to come....the Russians are simply not a key-threat anymore.
Keeping Ukraine armed and carving off Russian numbers...month by month....has shown the regional dynamics.
Cherry on this conversation? Well...once you establish that the Putin-team is not a threat....who will be able to dedicate military funding? Very quickly....France and Germany will want a cut in funding.
I sat and read through a news piece today....$150b Danish Pension Fund ‘AkademikerPension’ ready to sell all of US Treasury bonds amid rising Greenland tensions.
So there are three parts of the story left out.
First, the total amount in Treasury bonds....around $100-M or .4-percent of their total.....so it's not exactly a lot.
Second, AkademikerPension is a public pension fund....which is designed for college graduates and government employees....who know their regular pension from Denmark....is limited. You won't find heating technicians, plumbers, or car mechanics participating in their program.
Third, yes....the college graduate crowd probably put a lot of internal pressure on the managers of the fund.
Finally, the prime question I have....after they sold the bonds....did they at least break 'even'? If they didn't break even....how exactly will they explain the loss?
Oh, and a odd final question....you have $100-M now in your hand.....where will you invest it? German bonds? Swedish bonds? Greek bonds?
This is a story I noted about a month ago and I asked Grok/AI to lay out references.
So reports in 2025 indicated that a significant portion of new Berlin police recruits require additional German language training due to insufficient proficiency.
Back in the spring of 2025, out of 240 cadets who began training, 132 of them (around 55-percent) needed remedial German classes, particularly in written skills, during their first semester. (brusselssignal.eu)
What the leadership has said? It's a repeating issue....affecting about half of new entrants on average, and attributed it to broader societal trends like declining language abilities, teacher shortages, and increased classroom diversity rather than a problem unique to the force. (brusselssignal.eu)
Oddly, the requirement now mandates that recruits in training....must ultimately reach C2-level fluency (near-native proficiency) before graduating.
Odds of this occurring across all sixteen states? Well....no one says that. I would imagine have some issue brewing and quietly mandate additional language classes.
German politician Jürgen Hardt (CDU) has proposed a boycott of the 2026 World Cup which is to be held in the United States, regarding Greenland.
Pausing over this....it's a curious idea.
Most breweries, pub and bars in Germany need the European Cup and World Cup (alternating every two years) to occur....for the month-long period in summer.....to help profits and business to 'survive'.
Most German bar owners will tell you that a Cup-action for a month....makes about 40-percent of the yearly income, and it MATTERS. They also do NOT want the televised action to occur at 6 AM or noon.....they'd rather have hefty consumers of beer for late afternoon or evening games.
The same crowd have gotten use to beer-gardens being used....with weather being a major factor for beer consumption. Just having a one single rain-storm cancel out the bar garden situation....could mean a 10-percent loss in beer-profits for the month.
I'm not saying this idea of a boycott is good or bad....just that brewery industry and bar-owners don't agree with the idea.
