1. The German shoe company....Gortz? Bankrupt as of this morning. Been around since 1875. They had around 2,500 employees on the payroll. Fairly well known company.
2. The Maischberger public forum show from last night (ZDF, Channel Two)? She had the Economics Minister/Vice Chancellor (Robert Habeck, Green Party) on (live) and had a 12-minute conversation. Lot of talk over the nuke plant business, natural gas, the grid, etc.
At some point, she just started laughing at his explanations/details, and this rattled him off a good bit. He couldn't concentrate from this point on.
I sat and watched this.....pretty dismal situation on the interview, and it had to unnerve Germans watching it. Luckily, it's after 10:30 PM and probably 95-percent of Germans were watching something else, sleeping, bowling, or playing cards.
3. Lot of hype going on in Berlin about a reform to work-visas....where a qualified non-German would be recognized and granted the visa. Chief reason for this enthusiasm? Government is now admitting they have a shortage in dozens of areas, without the population in Germany to do the job. Where these people will come from? Unknown.
4. This blackouts threat chatter? You know....up until the past week, it was rarely mentioned. Now? Via the news folks and social media.....it comes up a lot.
5. Review of European nations on returning 'ordered-items' (like Amazon)....shows that Germany is 'king' of returning items. They figure around a quarter of orders get returned.
6. Weirdest thing discussed yesterday? Habeck (Economics Minister) suggested that details are being worked for oil-powered 'rigs' to produce electricity....off-shore and far out into the sea (away from Germany).
7. Belief that the nuke plan.....of the three remaining operational plants....one will close on 1 January, and the other two will shut down by April 2023. Public confidence is crappy at present, and no one believes the FDP Party will agree to the Green Party plan.
8. Yesterday, officially, Chancellor Scholz rejected the reparations business that Poland brought up.
9. It came out yesterday that the 'mother' of the public TV networks (ARD)....knew for years about the RBB (Berlin public TV) network's bonus program. Not a lot of details laid out but I would imagine the names will be printed somewhere and those folks will resign shortly.
10. Federal government says shortly, the requirement to wear Covid masks on planes....will end. This triggered the train folks to demand that requirement end as well.
For bus and train travel, Covid masks are a mandate. If you asked me about grocery stores, it's still optional....probably a quarter of customers still wear the mask.
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