Russian oil keeps flowing despite US pressure – Bloomberg
RT | September 30, 2025
Russia’s seaborne crude exports have remained near a 16-month high over the past four weeks, showing little impact from US President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure global buyers into halting imports from Moscow, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
According to vessel-tracking data through Saturday compiled by the outlet, average daily shipments held steady at 3.62 million barrels, matching the highest level since May 2024. The continued flow comes despite targeted US efforts to persuade countries to curb imports.
Trump has pressured the EU, India, and China to stop purchasing Russian oil, describing the move as an effort to advance a potential Ukraine peace settlement. Moscow has criticized Washington’s strong-arm tactics, saying that sovereign nations have the right to choose their trade partners.
New Delhi’s continued purchases of Russian oil have in particular drawn the ire of the US. In August, Washington imposed 25% punitive tariffs on India on top of the earlier 25% tariff imposed after the two countries failed to reach a trade deal. India has refused to scale back imports from Russia and described Washington’s policy as economic coercion.
China has taken an even firmer stance, with its Ministry of Commerce reaffirming intentions to deepen energy cooperation with Russia. The ministry says Beijing will defend its interests as the US pushes G7 nations to impose 100% tariffs on Chinese imports.
European buyers are also resisting. Hungary and Slovakia, which are both reliant on pipeline shipments, have cited economic and logistical obstacles to ending Russian oil imports. Turkish imports have remained steady as well, averaging around 300,000 barrels per day.
Meanwhile, the redirection of oil from Russian refineries damaged by Ukrainian drone strikes may be contributing to the continued export volumes, according to Bloomberg. Export terminal capacity, however, could become a limiting factor if strikes intensify, the outlet adds.
In the most recent week, 36 tankers carried 26.75 million barrels of Russian crude, a rise from the previous week’s 23.69 million, Bloomberg data shows. The total value of exports in the week to September 28 rose by $240 million to $1.57 billion.
Brussels finds a way to bypass Orbán’s veto on initiation of EU accession talks
Remix News | September 30, 2025
European Council President António Costa has proposed how to bypass Hungary’s veto and advance EU accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
Current rules mandate that all 27 EU member states approve each stage of the accession process. Costa’s proposal would allow a qualified majority vote to open so-called negotiating clusters for the two countries, notes Hirado, citing an article by Politico.
However, despite this move speeding up the accession process, final accession approval would still require unanimity.
Guillaume Mercier, the European Commission’s spokesperson for enlargement, said on Monday: “The possibility of the Council deciding by qualified majority on certain intermediate steps in the enlargement process would be worth exploring.”
This would help candidate countries, such as Ukraine and Moldova, to start the necessary reforms to align with EU standards, even if one or two member states officially oppose the start of negotiations.
EU diplomats say Costa’s proposal would offer a way to overcome Viktor Orbán’s repeated vetoes. “When a country is obstructed without any objective reason, despite fulfilling the criteria, the credibility of the entire enlargement process is at risk,” Mercier said.
Regarding “no objective reason,” however, is questionable, as Orbán has offered plenty of reasons. Notably, Ukraine is still at war, and even if the war should end, may be threatened with war once again in the future. Furthermore, Ukraine, even before the war, was rated as the most corrupt country in Europe, and since the war, corruption has only grown worse. Rebuilding the country is also expected to take hundreds of billions of euros, which EU taxpayers will increasingly be on the hook for if Ukraine joins the EU.
Costa nevertheless added, “It is really up to the Member States to decide on the next steps and we hope to open the first cluster soon.”
As Hirado notes, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has also strongly supported extending qualified majority voting in certain areas such as foreign policy, but she has also clearly indicated that it could benefit other areas as well.
Asked whether EU enlargement could fall into this category, Paula Pinho, the Commission’s senior spokeswoman, responded on Monday: “That could indeed be examined.”
Nuclear-Armed Sweden: Blueprint or Bluff?
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 29.09.2025
Fresh from abandoning centuries of neutrality, Swedish politicians are now openly discussing nuclear weapons. What’s really behind this dramatic shift? Mikael Valtersson, former Swedish Armed Forces officer, breaks it down for Sputnik.
Why Nukes are on Sweden’s Agenda
It’s driven by a “fear of a Russian threat” which is “a consequence of Sweden’s and its European allies’ provocative policies against Russia,” Valtersson explains.
“We will see more of the fear-mongering from Europe in the coming years.”
Sweden wasn’t neutral in the Cold War:
- Airfields readied for NATO jets
- Military intelligence was shared between Sweden and NATO
- Even during tensions over the Vietnam War, military cooperation with NATO never stopped
Though sided with NATO, Sweden doubted its nuclear shield. Therefore, in the 1950s–60s Sweden ran its own nuclear weapon program.
“When the politicians stopped the fission weapons program the Swedish Defense forces continued with fusion weapons instead until the politicians banned all nuclear weapons development when they realized this.”
Nuclear Plan is Not Viable
But an independent Swedish nuclear program isn’t viable. Why?
- It would come at enormous economic costs
- Already very large amounts of money are spent on rearmament and supporting Ukraine
- Swedes don’t want to spend even more on nukes
Europe might start a common nuclear weapons program, but Sweden will not do it on its own, according to the pundit.
“Europe’s military-industrial complex is using the ‘Russian threat’ to strengthen its very reduced size after the Cold War.”
Pezeshkian slams US proposal to trade uranium for sanctions relief
Al Mayadeen | September 27, 2025
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Saturday dismissed what he described as an unacceptable proposal from Washington that would have required Tehran to surrender all its enriched uranium to the United States in exchange for a short-term easing of sanctions.
“Naturally, we did not reach an agreement on the snapback mechanism because the US demands are unacceptable. They want us to transfer all our enriched uranium to them in exchange for three months, and this is by no means acceptable,” Pezeshkian told Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB.
The Iranian president said the plan would have left Tehran vulnerable to renewed US pressure. “Had Tehran agreed, the US would have presented Iran with new demands or threatened to bring the sanctions back,” he added.
Snapback, Sovereignty, Defiance
Pezeshkian’s comments came as the United Nations prepares to reinstate sanctions on Iran under the so-called “snapback mechanism,” after Western powers blocked Russian and Chinese efforts to delay the move. The reimposition would restore arms embargoes, asset freezes, and restrictions on enrichment, signaling a further breakdown in nuclear diplomacy.
The Iranian leader stressed that his government will continue to withstand Western sanctions by deepening economic and strategic cooperation with BRICS partners and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, noting that Iran will rely on “the pride of the Iranian people and their yearning for independence.”
The stance aligns with the position of Sayyed Ali Khamenei, who this week ruled out any direct negotiations with the United States, calling them “a sheer dead end.” Analysts say this reflects a unified leadership intent on avoiding concessions that could weaken Iran’s deterrence or domestic legitimacy.
Resistance, Retaliation, Resolve
Pezeshkian’s defiance comes amid US concerns over Iran’s reported expansion of underground nuclear facilities near Natanz, where construction has accelerated since the June aggression on Iran, when “Israel” carried out coordinated strikes on Iranian military and nuclear sites under the pretext of halting a clandestine weapons program, a charge Iran categorically denied.
The nearly two-week confrontation drew in the United States after its forces struck Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22, prompting Tehran to retaliate by targeting the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The escalation raised fears of a regional war before June 23, when US President Donald Trump announced that “Israel” and Iran had reached a ceasefire, ending what he described as “the 12-day war.”
Observers say Pezeshkian’s remarks reflect Iran’s determination not to trade its sovereignty or nuclear achievements for fleeting concessions, as Tehran shifts toward non-Western alliances and hardens its position against US-Israeli pressure. His message serves both as a rejection of coercive diplomacy and as a signal of Iran’s intent to pursue strategic autonomy in the face of revived sanctions and renewed isolation attempts.
Why the US has sanctioned the Chabahar Port in Iran
By Salman Rafi Sheikh – New Eastern Outlook – September 27, 2025
US sanctions on Iran’s Chabahar Port may look like just another chapter in Washington’s “maximum pressure” playbook, but they are far more ambitious and dangerous.
The move simultaneously aims to discipline India, ratchet up economic warfare against Tehran, and force Afghanistan into a position where ceding Bagram airbase seems unavoidable. In pursuing all three goals at once, the US may be setting the stage for strategic overreach.
US axe falls on Chabahar
On September 16, the US announced that it was reimposing sanctions on Iran’s Chabahar Port that it co-developed with India. Revoking “the sanctions exception issued in 2018 under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act (IFCA) for Afghanistan reconstruction assistance and economic development,” the announcement further said that any “persons who operate the Chabahar Port or engage in other activities described in IFCA may expose themselves to sanctions under IFCA”.
The reference to any “persons” operating the port is to India, which has invested millions of dollars in the port in the last few years. India began to develop this port in a certain geopolitical context. Back then, New Delhi, supported by Washington, used this port to counter China’s Gwadar port in Pakistan. Accordingly, the US granted this port an exemption from sanctions. That exemption has now been taken away. Another imperative at that time was to allow India to use the port to provide supplies to Kabul to support the Karzai and Ghani administrations. Bypassing Pakistan—which Washington understood was supporting the Taliban—the US co-opted India to support the US-backed civilian regime. That geopolitical context, as it stands, no longer exists. The US no longer needs to support avenues to support the regime in Kabul that is no longer a Washington ally. In fact, Washington now prefers using the Chabahar Port issue to equally punish Kabul.
The Geopolitics of Sanctions
By sanctioning Iran’s Chabahar Port, Washington is pursuing more than just another chapter in its “maximum pressure” campaign. It has three critical objectives in mind, the first of which is to punish India. The Trump administration’s ongoing trade war with New Delhi has already seen tariffs climb as high as 50 per cent on Indian exports to the US, dramatically undercutting India’s competitiveness. The withdrawal of the 2018 sanctions waiver on Chabahar effectively expands this economic conflict into the strategic realm. Not only are Indian goods 50 per cent more expensive in the US market, but now Indian exports to Central Asia through Chabahar are threatened by US sanctions as well. The message is blunt: New Delhi cannot expect privileged access to either American markets or regional transit corridors if it resists Washington’s terms.
Yet the dispute is not only about tariffs or trade balances. Chabahar has long symbolised a broader geopolitical opening—an India–Iran–Afghanistan transport corridor that could eventually link New Delhi to Russian and Central Asian energy markets. For India, the project promises a vital alternative to reliance on Persian Gulf suppliers or US-aligned routes. For Washington, this is precisely the problem. By crippling Chabahar, the US seeks to stymie the emergence of an energy corridor outside its sphere of influence and to foreclose India’s access to Iranian and Russian hydrocarbons. The ultimate goal is not simply to weaken Tehran but to pressure India into diverting its purchases toward US liquefied natural gas and crude exports.
The sanctions also reflect a deliberate attempt to recalibrate India’s relationship with Iran. If New Delhi is forced to retreat from Chabahar, Washington calculates, Iran’s isolation will deepen. The State Department’s September 16 statement left little ambiguity, identifying the “networks” that generate “millions for the Iranian military” as key targets of the new restrictions. Chabahar, as Iran’s flagship connectivity project with India and Afghanistan, sits squarely within those crosshairs. Unsurprisingly, the port will dominate the agenda when Ali Larijani, Tehran’s national security adviser and one of the most influential figures in the Iranian establishment, arrives in Delhi in the coming weeks.
The third objective at play is Afghanistan. In recent months, President Trump has openly pressed Kabul to hand back the Bagram airbase to American control, a demand the Taliban leadership has flatly rejected. For the Taliban, acquiescence would be politically ruinous, signaling subservience to the very power they fought for two decades to expel. By sanctioning Chabahar, Washington is attempting to narrow Afghanistan’s options, undermining its role as a vital overland bridge that could connect India and other South Asian states—excluding Pakistan—to Central Asian markets. This is not a trivial calculation. With relations between Kabul and Islamabad deteriorating, the Taliban regime has been cautiously exploring new partnerships in the region, and India has emerged as an obvious candidate. Earlier this year, the Taliban went so far as to call India a “significant regional partner.” Washington’s sanctions strategy is designed precisely to choke this opening, shrinking the diplomatic and economic space available to Kabul as it manoeuvres for new allies.
The US risks a massive backfire
Yet Washington’s gambit carries the risk of a serious backlash. Kabul has little incentive to heed American preferences, particularly after the Biden administration’s refusal to release Afghanistan’s frozen financial assets. The Taliban leadership, already charting its course independently, is unlikely to view US sanctions as anything more than another act of hostility. More consequential, however, is the potential fallout with India. By undermining New Delhi’s flagship connectivity project, Washington risks inflicting lasting damage on a relationship it has spent years cultivating. Alienated, India may lean more heavily on alternative partnerships with Russia and even China, eroding the very strategic alignment the US has sought to build through the Indo-Pacific framework. And if New Delhi ultimately withdraws from Chabahar under sanctions pressure, Washington may not secure the energy dominance it envisions. Instead, the vacuum could invite Beijing to step in, transforming Chabahar into a Chinese-controlled gateway for Central Asian energy, a scenario that would decisively undercut American aims.
Salman Rafi Sheikh is a research analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs.
German industrial giant poised for major job cuts – media
RT | September 25, 2025
Leading German automotive supplier Bosch is set to slash a “five-digit number” of jobs as part of a major cost-cutting exercise, Handelsblatt reported on Thursday, citing anonymous industry sources.
Germany and other EU members have seen their industries lose ground globally after switching from inexpensive Russian oil and gas imports to costlier alternatives following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.
Earlier this month, Bosch HR director Stefan Grosch revealed that the company’s mobility division, which produces fuel injectors and driver-assistance software among other items, was staring at an annual shortfall of approximately €2.5 billion ($2.95 billion).
In an email statement to the press, Bosch said it would be “cutting costs across the board – from materials and logistics to capital spending and jobs.”
In its report on Thursday, Handelsblatt noted the German company had already axed 4,500 jobs last year in its largest division at home.
In late July, BMW reported a 29%-year-on-year-drop in first-half profits. The German auto giant attributed the poor showing to the import duties on cars and vehicle parts imposed by US President Donald Trump in April as well as intense “competitive pressure,” particularly from China.
Fellow German automaker Volkswagen saw its after-tax earnings slump by 36% in the second quarter of the year, with Mercedes posting yet worse results.
In June, the German Press Agency (dpa) estimated that Germany’s industrial sector had lost more than 100,000 jobs over the past year.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last month acknowledged that the country was “not just in a period of economic weakness, we are in a structural crisis of our economy,” caused by a loss of competitiveness.
Commenting on the economic woes witnessed across multiple EU member states, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described it in April as “the true cost of the EU’s anti-Russian agenda.”
Last February, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the German government was “destroying their auto industry.”
China signs $2.5bn seawater contract to sustain Iraq’s oil output
The Cradle | September 23, 2025
China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPPE) has secured a $2.5 billion contract to design and build a massive seawater distribution system across southern Iraq, Iraq Business News (IBN) announced on 23 September.
The agreement with Iraq’s Basra Oil Company covers a 950-kilometer network that will deliver treated seawater to multiple fields, with Australian consultancy ILF tasked with supervising the works.
The project centers on a treatment plant built to handle five million barrels of treated seawater each day, with future phases allowing the volume to increase to seven to eight million.
The treated seawater will be pumped into the reservoirs of Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna 1 and 2, Majnoon, and other fields in Maysan and Dhi Qar to keep underground pressure high, which allows the crude oil to be more easily extracted.
The pipeline will also help protect freshwater sources that are currently being diverted from rivers and aquifers, which will instead remain available for use in agriculture and households.
The scheme forms a central pillar of Iraq’s Common Seawater Supply Project, first outlined as part of wider efforts to stabilize crude output.
It also links with other ventures such as TotalEnergies’ expansion at the Artawi (Ratawi) field, where output is targeted to rise to 210,000 barrels per day (bpd).
China National Petroleum Corporation had disclosed in August that its subsidiary, CPPE, was the winning bidder, with the contract awaiting final signature. The company stated that execution would commence after the contract was signed, with a duration of 54 months.
China has steadily deepened its position in Iraq’s energy sector.
Senior executives from four Chinese oil firms told Reuters in August that their collective production in Iraq is set to double by 2030, reaching half a million bpd.
Baghdad has also invited Beijing to anchor other strategic initiatives. In 2023, Iraq’s transport minister said China was expected to play a major role in the $17 billion Development Road linking West Asia to Europe.
In July, PowerChina was awarded a $4 billion contract for Iraq’s first major seawater desalination facility in Basra, reinforcing Beijing’s growing weight in Iraq’s reconstruction and resource management.
Marine Le Pen pressures Macron as calls for French election grow
Al Mayadeen | September 25, 2025
Marine Le Pen is intensifying her offensive against French President Emmanuel Macron, seeking to exploit his political vulnerability as his fifth prime minister in two years, Sebastien Lecornu, struggles to form a stable government.
The National Rally leader is pushing for a snap French election, aiming to increase pressure on Macron and his allies. By framing the president and his centrist camp as the source of France’s political dysfunction, Le Pen is attempting to present her party as the only credible alternative.
“The people on the ground are fed up with them,” National Rally Vice President Louis Aliot told Bloomberg, confirming that the far-right party will not back Lecornu’s government.
Lecornu’s immediate challenge is passing a budget in the National Assembly. He has been reaching out to moderate-left lawmakers to secure votes, but their demands are unlikely to align with Macron’s agenda.
The difficulty is compounded by recent political upheaval. Francois Bayrou’s government collapsed after lawmakers across the spectrum blocked a €44 billion package of tax increases and spending cuts. Now, Lecornu faces a similar risk of defeat.
National rally pushes for snap French election
Le Pen has shifted her strategy, adopting a harder line against Macron after months of balancing disruption and restraint. Her party helped bring down Bayrou’s administration and is now demanding concessions from Lecornu that he is unlikely to make.
By doing so, the National Rally hopes to fracture Macron’s centrist bloc or portray its rivals as complicit in France’s political paralysis. Le Pen has made clear she could support ousting Lecornu if his budget proposals fail.
Public frustration appears to be on Le Pen’s side. A recent poll found that 61% of respondents favor dissolving parliament. The National Rally, already the largest party in the National Assembly, believes a snap vote could bring it closer to a majority.
In last summer’s snap election, the party finished first in more than half of constituencies but was blocked from power after centrist and leftist parties united in the second round. Party officials argue momentum is now shifting in their favor.
Legal challenges add personal stakes for Le Pen
For Le Pen, the stakes are both political and personal. She is appealing a conviction tied to the misuse of European Parliament funds that currently bars her from running for office for five years. She has described the ruling as politically motivated.
A decision on her appeal is expected before summer 2026. Some National Rally figures have floated the idea of passing an amnesty law to clear her path to the 2027 presidential race if the party secures a parliamentary majority.
Le Pen has derided Lecornu’s appointment as the “final cartridge of Macronism” and hinted at further escalation if the deadlock continues. She has even suggested broader constitutional options, including a referendum or the resignation of the president.
“If dissolution is not sufficient, there is the potential resignation of the president of the republic, and the possibility of holding a referendum,” she told Europe 1 radio last week.
By linking Macron’s presidency to political paralysis, Marine Le Pen is betting that her National Rally can transform mounting voter frustration into a decisive advantage in France’s shifting political landscape.
Hungary pledges to keep buying Russian energy
RT | September 24, 2025
Hungary will continue importing Russian oil and gas, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said, rejecting pressure from Washington and Brussels for a clean break from Moscow’s energy supplies.
Szijjarto made the comments in an interview with The Guardian published on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. For landlocked Hungary, he said, the issue of energy security is a matter of physical infrastructure – pipelines, refineries and existing contracts – that limit where it can source energy.
“We can’t ensure the safe supply for our country without Russian oil or gas sources,” he said. “It can be nice to dream about buying oil and gas from somewhere else … but we can only buy from where we have infrastructure.”
In recent weeks, Washington has increasingly pushed its European NATO partners to stop purchasing Russian energy – and to introduce secondary tariffs on India and China – while refusing to impose any new sanctions unilaterally. President Donald Trump mocked them in his UNGA address on Tuesday, claiming “some in NATO are funding the war against themselves.”
Hungary’s state-owned MOL Group imports about five million tonnes of crude annually via the Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline, which also supplies Slovakia. The route has come under direct threat in recent months, with Ukrainian forces striking pumping stations and other facilities along the line, causing temporary disruptions to shipments.
The European Commission has set a goal of phasing out Russian fossil fuels by 2027. Brussels has reportedly included twelve Chinese and three Indian entities in its 19th sanctions package, which must be unanimously approved before being adopted.
Brussels has also been weighing separate trade measures that could curtail oil deliveries through Druzhba, even without unanimous consent, effectively allowing other EU members to outvote Budapest and Bratislava, according to Bloomberg.
When asked about mounting European pressure, Szijjarto said it was “totally impossible to carry out a fact-based, rational dialogue based on common sense” with Western officials, whom he described as “fanatics.”
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, has argued that maintaining Russian supplies is essential to protect households and industry. He has maintained relations with Russia and often criticized Western military support for Ukraine, even as most EU states have cut ties since 2022.
US Attempts Won’t Affect Russia-China Contracts on Energy Resources – Chinese Mission
Sputnik – 24.09.2025
GENEVA – The US’s attempts to force China to abandon the purchase of Russian energy resources will not affect the contracts between the countries, the Chinese permanent mission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) told Sputnik on Wednesday.
When asked if the US’s position on energy contracts between China and Russia will have an impact, Charge d’Affaires Li Yihong replied in the negative, adding that relations between Russia and China are comprehensive and deep, which has been recognized and repeated more than once at the highest level.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump blamed the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to China and India for their purchases of Russian oil.
Germany’s Machinery Industry Faces Catastrophic Collapse
By Thomas Kolbe | Zero Hedge | September 21, 2025
The collapse of the German economy continues unabated. The German Engineering Federation (VDMA) now expects a dramatic decline in production this year and lashes out at the federal government.
A rebound in the German economy this autumn has failed to materialize. Just a week ago, the Federal Statistical Office revised the country’s GDP decline for Q2 2025 from –0.1% to –0.3%. Now, the German machinery association follows suit with its forecast for the full year, confirming the ongoing downward trend in production: “We had previously expected a decline of 2 percent, now we anticipate minus 5 percent for 2025,”says VDMA President Bertram Kawlath, who expects production to grow by just 1 percent in 2026. Was 2025 really the trough?
Kawlath Goes Political
Kawlath warns that the industry is facing a critical moment – both economically and socially. He describes the situation as a “tipping point,” where the economy is faltering and the political center continues to erode. “If action is not taken now, voters will be pushed into the arms of the political extremes,” he cautions.
Without explicitly naming them, the VDMA chief pointed to the AfD, which recently climbed to 27 percent nationwide in Sunday polls. Remarkably, even at this stage of the crisis, where the structural damage caused by ideology-driven policies is obvious, Kawlath speaks out politically for the first time yet still refrains from naming the culprit: the Green Deal’s ecological transformation is left untouched by his critique.
Meanwhile, the “silent cartel” of business elites continues to call for cosmetic deregulation and subsidies, rather than tackling the root of the problem.
Problems Are Now Impossible to Ignore
The issues are glaring: weak orders, crushing bureaucracy, lengthy approval processes, excessive taxes and labor costs, as well as severe location disadvantages in Germany. Add to that the massive burden of U.S. tariffs: roughly 40 percent of EU machinery exports to the United States are currently hit with a 50 percent duty on the metal content. Unstable, unpredictable rules, Kawlath says, force many companies to halt exports entirely.
He calls for lower taxes and levies, reduced bureaucracy, faster approvals – and above all, a stronger defense of German industry against Chinese competition. China, he points out, has not only caught up but also heavily subsidizes its industry, distorting global competition.
Industry Collapse
The situation continues to worsen. The VDMA’s optimistic forecast for next year is likely to be revised downward as no structural improvements are in sight. Meanwhile, policymakers remain in summit mode, with reforms nowhere in evidence.
If the predicted 5 percent decline in production for 2025 materializes, it would mark the peak of a catastrophic trend. Since 2018, machinery production – and roughly speaking, the entire German industrial sector – has fallen by about 20 percent. This has consequences for employment: over 200,000 industrial jobs have been lost since 2020, 68,000 of them just last year. And this may only be the beginning of a devastating employment crisis.
These figures no longer describe an ordinary recession but the onset of an economic depression. The core of the German economy, industry, has been severely damaged by the self-inflicted energy crisis and grotesque regulatory excesses under the Green Deal. It should not be forgotten that countless service sectors, supply chains, and value chains depend directly on industry. German prosperity fundamentally derives from this sector – the very source that supports social programs and helps maintain social stability amid a worsening environment.
Machinery accounts for roughly 3 percent of Germany’s GDP. With a 27 percent share of the global market, it ranks among the heavyweights of European industry. About one million highly skilled workers earn their livelihoods here – jobs once considered secure now caught in the storm.
Production fell by 7 percent in 2024, and a further steep decline looms for 2025. Orders dropped 8 percent year-on-year, and revenue forecasts continue their downward slide.
Germany’s Industrial Base Systematically Devalued
Under these conditions, industrial production in Germany is effectively impossible. Industrial electricity prices are roughly three times higher than in the U.S., a country actively promoting its manufacturing base, cutting red tape, and selectively supporting industry.
When Lower Saxony’s SPD economy minister Olaf Lies calls for subsidized industrial electricity amid the steel crisis and complains about cheap Chinese steel, it is little more than whistling in the wind. The exodus from Germany is already underway – and it is irreversible: once companies leave, they rarely return.
The steel sector is suffering particularly badly. It ranks among the most energy-intensive branches of German industry, and its subsidized dream of “green steel” has been buried after multiple bankruptcies. From machinery to chemicals, construction to steel, the same picture emerges: Germany’s industrial decline is accelerating unchecked.
What we are witnessing is an ideology-driven, systemic failure. Even U.S. tariffs cannot fix it: the problems have accumulated over years and are homegrown. Yet Brussels and Berlin stubbornly cling to climate fanaticism, dreaming their way through the crisis.
Britain’s industrial disaster
By John Redwood | The Global Warming Policy Foundation | September 19, 2025
High energy prices, bans on making and extracting things, changed UK tariff policies and high taxes are a toxic mix. The factory and company closures are coming thick and fast, doing grave damage to the UK industrial base and losing us many jobs.
There are the pending closures of most of the bioethanol industry. It makes fuel from grains. Both the large Redcar and Hull works are at risk, and closure has begun. Bioethanol was meant to be one of the bright spots for green growth, offering a fuel that is to be gradually introduced into petrol and into aviation spirit to cut their fossil fuel dependence. E10 petrol is 10% ethanol with more to come. Sustainable aviation fuel is promised and that could also require bioethanol. The abolition of the 19% tariff on US imports has been the final blow to an industry hit by higher energy and employment costs.
These closures put at risk domestic CO2 supply as this is also produced at one of the plants. It will cut demand for wheat and grains from UK farms damaged by government tax changes. It is another set of policies undermining UK economic security and forcing us to find the money to import more. Imports mean paying the wages and taxes of overseas countries, not our own. How do we earn our living?
We have just seen the closure of two large refineries at Grangemouth and Lindsey, making us more dependent on imported fuels and oil products. The damage at Grangemouth is not over yet, with the threat that the large olefins and polymers petrochemical plant will also have to close, driven out by high energy costs. Sabic has announced its closure of another olefins plant at Wilton with the possible loss of 330 jobs.
An industrial nation needs to produce more of its own fuel and chemicals if it is to retain the businesses dependent on these basics. The UK was an important exporter of refined oil products to the EU as well as meeting more domestic demand. Taken together with closing down of our own oil and gas production which could have fed these works, we are witnessing an industrial disaster.
The ceramics industry has been in full retreat for some time. This has also been badly hit by dear energy which it needs for its kilns. This year Royal Staffordshire and Moorcroft have closed, following on from Johnson Tiles last year. Great names of a once flourishing industry are now available for foreign producers if they want to buy or licence the brands. Most of the jobs and tax revenues pass elsewhere. Wedgwood has announced this week a 90-day manufacturing pause as it has too much product for current sales levels. High costs of energy are a problem.
Nippon Electric has decided to close its large glass fibre facility in Wigan with another 250 jobs to go. Dunbar Cement says it will stop producing 700,000 tonnes a year that is needed by the construction industry owing to cost pressures. The UK is moving over to more imports of cement, just in time for the CBAM high tariff to deter imported CO2 heavy products being introduced. This will add to UK construction costs. At Birtley the aluminium extrusion plant is being shut. Three aluminium door and window manufacturers are cutting capacity. The government wants construction-led growth, but it is casually allowing the production of building materials to pass abroad, diluting the beneficial jobs effect of more building.
Jaguar Land Rover’s car output is currently halted owing to a cyber-attack. It is also the case that the car industry is struggling to sell its new emphasis on electric cars to the non-fleet buyer, and is actively closing its substantial capacity to make petrol and diesel cars ahead of the 2030 ban.
The Government needs to wake up to the reality. This is not a series of one-offs. It is not a chain of bad luck from different sources. It is the direct result of very expensive and unreliable energy, of bans on activities and of tax changes that make it dearer and less attractive to make things in the UK.
The collapse proceeds outwards from the bad decision to wind down the UK oil and gas industry prematurely and abruptly with bans and early closures, leading to the closure of petrochemicals and other feedstock dependent businesses. Dear energy lies behind the collapse of our blast furnace steel making, our glass industry, and all other energy-intensive industrial activities.
We choose instead to buy from a China that uses masses of cheap coal, and from an EU that still uses plenty of coal and gas, with some of that gas still bought from Russia. Why is the government so mad keen on imports, and so negative about UK industry? Why the bans on making petrol cars here from 2030 when elsewhere they will still be made? Why agree to the closure of the Gryphon platform in the North Sea which could still be used to bring more oil and gas ashore? Another bizarre tragedy. Can we end this self-harm? Can we go for cheaper energy and understand that using our own gas would be so much better for jobs and taxes than turning to imports? Policy is even boosting world CO2 output at the same time. We need to make more things to help pay for the NHS and get more people back to work.
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From glorious millennia to death and destruction: Zionists rewrite Palestine’s story
By Miko Peled | MintPress News | September 20, 2021
One of the great tragedies of Palestine is that almost every day there is a commemoration of one massacre or another, the death of a child or destruction of a home or village, leading one to think that the Palestinian narrative is one of death and destruction, which is what Israel wants people to think. But the truth is that this is not the case. The Palestinian narrative is one of a glorious history with periods of great sadness and tragedy. It is the Zionist story that is full of killing, stealing and destruction and not, as they try to sell it, one of creation and growth.
September 16, 2021, marked 39 years since the massacres at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon. As people remember and mourn the thousands of unarmed civilians who were butchered and the countless who survived suffering terrible injuries and emotional scars, we must also remember the man that stood behind this bloodbath.
This was a man whose complicity even the Israeli authorities could not ignore, the former general and renowned war criminal Ariel Sharon. And although he was momentarily penalized and banished from politics, he very quickly returned, and for a quarter of a century, he was the most powerful and influential man in Israeli politics. … continue
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