1. There's hype this AM via N-TV news....that Putin is about to announce the next round of mobilization or forced recruitment of reservists, and this will revolve around a new order.....a closed border for x-amount of time.
How many men? Unknown. But I would suggest this....you probably are getting close to the point where the current economy can't function in a competent way because so many guys have been removed from the system.
2. I walked into my local bakery, which has since the summer of 2020....had a plastic shield (basically a standing plexiglass unit extending over a meter long) up as Covid-protection....between the customers and the bakery crew. Apparently, this week.....the bakery proclaimed the epidemic over, and has removed the plastic shield. My humble guess? It's probably stored in the back, and they could bring it back up in a matter of two minutes.
Covid really over? No....it's just that it's regarded more or less like the flu now.
3. WELT says around 200,000 Ukrainian kids are in Germany as students, and the German system is stretched to the limit. More fed funding....they say....will be necessary.
4. Regionally, around Frankfurt, another major activist effort will start on the 6th of January. There's supposed to be a forest area cleared (the Fechenheimer Forest in east Frankfurt) where the construction work will start for the Riederwald tunnel.
A massive old forest? Well....NO. This is an area of roughly 1 km by 1 km. I'd describe it more as a managed forest area, with trails/paths, a kid's playground, skate park, and 'pond'.
There's an effort underway to connect A66 and A661. There's a 2.2 km area missing a 'connection'. To resolve this....for probably 30 years, there's been this evolution of plans and the approved one for now is to build a 1.1 km tunnel under the forest area....to bring A66 and A661 autobahns to a final connected status.
The activist angle? Well....by tearing down this forest path for the tunnel (which the intent is to replant the area at the end)....you are dissolving the 'holy' aspects of the area. The fact that several parking lots, and the kid's playground was built already on the 'holy' land? It kinda makes the agenda business a joke.
But by getting the local environmentalists active....there's to be serious PR work and a chance to get their brand/message out to the general public.
I should note....the autobahn folks say that traffic density on the streets around the wooded area in question...would diminish by one-third, once the tunnel and connection are finished.
5. I sat and watched a regional update over various Christmas markets in the Hessen region. A slide popped up....over profits for 2019 and for 2022. 2019 was the last time we had normal period for the Christmas market business.
According to current data....the average market met and exceeded 2019's numbers by 10-percent....which means it was a pretty profitable episode.
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