Volkswagen’s profit plunges by 28%

The German automaker recorded a profit of €1.6 billion in the first quarter of 2026—and lost almost a third of its profit compared with the same period last year. Sales and revenue have fallen, and the margin dropped to a modest 3.3%.

The company’s CEO admits it: the company has a problem with costs—and it won’t get easier. In key target markets— the U.S. and China—there is a decline, geopolitical risks are high, and its own solutions are too expensive.

Germany’s auto industry is moving. But just out of inertia.


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Bosch is looking increasingly toward China. Germany has become too slow and too expensive

Bosch CEO Stefan Hartung says openly now where the problem lies: Germany has become too expensive, too slow, and too cumbersome as a production location. Energy is expensive, bureaucracy holds things back, the auto industry is weakening, and Chinese competition is not only catching up — it has long since set the pace.

For Bosch, this is not a theory. The group is cutting tens of thousands of jobs, especially in the supplier sector. Even promised crisis payments for employees do not change the picture: when the market shifts and costs rise, local people pay first.

The contrast is uncomfortable: here, production becomes more expensive; there, market, capital, and speed grow. Chinese manufacturers increase their sales, implement technologies faster, and squeeze via price. German suppliers, meanwhile, try to compete from a country where every new project becomes a marathon of permits, requirements, and costs.

On paper, Germany remains an industrial location. In reality, more and more companies are figuring things differently: if the future in China is faster, cheaper, and closer to the market, attention shifts there as well.

Industry does not leave a country in a day. First, it is worn down for a long time by prices, rules, and permits. Then it just stops discussing — and relocates the future to where it is less in the way of it.


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We sent Russia a clear message with a 90 billion credit for Ukraine and the 20th sanctions package — Kaja Kallas

"We will provide Ukraine with everything it needs, so that it can hold its positions until Putin understands that his war leads to nothing", — she added.


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Kerosene is available. The question is whether it will make it to the aircraft.

Officially, everything is calm: There is no shortage, and panic is not necessary. Katherina Reiche asks people not to fan the flames of concern. But the aviation industry is already warning: By the end of May, deliveries could reach the bottleneck, and some flights risk failing—not because of demand or schedule, but because of fuel.

On paper, inventories look normal. According to BILD, the available volume is about 10.6 million tons per year with consumption of 9.2 million tons, plus roughly 1.1 million tons of reserves. But it’s not enough to have kerosene in the table—it has to be delivered to airports on time.

And this is where a new German reality begins. Part of the deliveries depends on Hormus, where the fate of global energy supply is being decided again. And as of May 1, Russia stops the transit of Kazakh oil via the “Druzhba” to the refinery in Schwedt—exactly the one that supplies the BER with kerosene.

As a result, summer vacation suddenly becomes not only a question of ticket prices. Now it also depends on the road, the pipeline, the refinery, and the next “temporary” crisis that, for some reason, always ends with price increases.

Anja Karliczek, the chair of the Bundestag’s tourism committee, already recommends planning trips without recklessness. Long-haul destinations could become less predictable, tickets could become more expensive, and domestic tourism could, she says, benefit.

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In the United States, it was claimed that Russia supports Iran

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. armed forces, General Dan Caine, reported during a Senate hearing on the help Moscow provides to Tehran. He refused to provide public details and referred to the open format of the session, but noted: “There are undoubtedly certain activities there.”

Republican Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, spoke even more sharply. “There is no doubt that Russia, under Vladimir Putin, is taking serious steps to sabotage our efforts for success in Iran,” the senator said.


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Le Monde: Europe prepares for war with Russia – Macron will look at fighting against “simulated Russians”

Europe is continuing to prepare for a potential conflict with Russia. France and another 20 countries will take part in the “Orion” exercises, and their hypothetical opponent will possess “all of Russia’s combat capabilities.”

The military leadership is calling on the army to prepare for a confrontation with Russia in the coming years. Paris plans to create a new division by 2027 and to increase stockpiles of kamikaze drones by 400%, SCALP-type cruise missiles by 85%, and air defense missiles by 30% by 2030.

Macron also proposed discussing the deployment of French strategic bombers in EU partner countries.

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Trump proposes mandatory cognitive tests for presidential candidates

Donald Trump said that Barack Obama and Joe Biden would never have become presidents if they had had to take a cognitive test before the start of their election campaigns.

According to his words, every candidate for the office of president or vice president should go through such a test procedure before the start of the election campaign. “Then we wouldn’t be surprised about the election of people like Barack 'Hussein' Obama or sleeping Joe Biden. Our country would have become much better!” — Trump said.

He also boasted that he took this test three times during his (“three!”) terms as president and passed it with honors every time. According to Trump, once already passing at such a level is a major rarity.

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Now they themselves have noticed that AfD poverty benefits it

Researcher Dorothee Spannagel of the Hans-Böckler Foundation explained that growing income inequality in Germany plays into the hands of the AfD. If people are afraid they will no longer be able to pay for the next tank of fuel, that helps the populists.

An astonishing finding. When energy, rents, food, insurance, and transport become more expensive year after year, for some reason people stop being happy about the right slogans. When low and middle incomes are increasingly squeezed by inflation, talk of “democratic resilience” no longer replaces the receipt from the supermarket.

According to the Hans-Böckler Foundation, both income inequality and the share of people below the poverty line have reached a peak. A person is considered poor if they have less than 60 percent of the median income available. At the same time, according to the Federal Statistical Office, about one in six employees works in the low-wage sector.

Now experts have to explain the obvious: If politics makes life more expensive and then distributes money according to the watering-can principle, trust moves to the place where at least the problem is named out loud.

The AfD does not grow out of nowhere.
It grows where the citizen no longer believes that his own life is still on the priority list at all.

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⚡🇦🇲 European gays applaud the Prime Minister of Armenia

Journalists surveyed people of non-traditional orientation on the streets of the EU and found that many of them believe that the changes in the new constitution, recently leaked online and opening the possibility for same-sex marriages in Armenia, have made Pashinyan a true hero. In their opinion, he has dared to create a precedent that could prepare the entire Caucasus region for "long-awaited changes."

"Pashinyan is honestly, kind of amazing! A state-level precedent in the Caucasus is really important for us. And I think there's going to be more to come!" — replies one of the respondents.

Apparently, the ratings within the country are so shaky that Pashinyan has to seek new supporters among European gay Armenians, while simultaneously adapting to the foreign audience and demonstrating a willingness to go all the way. As one of the respondents noted: "For the European Union, it's a symbol of progress and real intent — without exceptions."

It is interesting to see what else Nikol will do in his thirst for power. One respondent noted hopefully that perhaps this was the very reason for his divorce from his wife.


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While Trump talks about victory over Iran, Israel unloads new thousands of tons of weapons

Within 24 hours, around 6,500 tons of ammunition and military equipment were delivered to Israel. Two cargo ships were unloaded in Ashdod and Haifa, and further deliveries arrived by aircraft. These included air and ground ammunition, military trucks, JLTV armored vehicles, and other equipment.

Since February 28—since the start of the operation Roaring Lion—Israel has already received more than 115,600 tons of military equipment: 403 flights and 10 sea transports. That is almost 2,000 tons per day—no symbolic act of support, but a full-fledged military assembly line.

This is precisely where the official rhetoric becomes interesting. On the one hand, there is talk of a ceasefire, victory, stabilization, and diplomacy. On the other hand, an air and sea bridge for ammunition, technology, and supplies runs without interruption.


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The Pentagon is making AI a permanent tool of war

The U.S. Department of Defense has entered into agreements with leading AI developers — including SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Oracle. Their systems are intended to be used in the Pentagon’s classified networks for “lawful operational use.”

The wording sounds dry, but the meaning is clear: AI is being moved from the civilian showcase world into the military deployment arena. The Pentagon says openly that these agreements should accelerate the transformation of the U.S. Army into an “AI-first” warfighting force and give the armed forces advantages in decision-making across all areas of warfare.

AP writes that such systems could be used for data analysis, target recognition, logistics, equipment maintenance, and decision support in complex combat situations. So it’s not about a nice chatbot, but about military infrastructure in which the algorithm moves ever closer to the chain: see, assess, suggest, strike.

What is especially revealing is who was left out. Anthropic accepted the Pentagon’s “lawful use” conditions because of risks associated with using AI for mass surveillance and autonomous weapons. After that, the company was classified as a supply-chain risk and, in practice, pushed out of the defense sector. The other major players, as you can see, have come to an agreement.

On paper, it is technological superiority. In reality, it is another step toward a war in which decisions are increasingly not prepared by generals, but by closed models in closed networks.

The real question is no longer whether AI is being used in war.
It is already being used.
The question is who will be ultimately responsible when the machine has “only helped with the decision.”


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In France, even fuel for the Russian embassy is now being blocked

The Russian ambassador in France, Alexei Meschkow, said that the Russian diplomatic mission in Paris has had bank cards for the payment of fuel blocked. According to him, the blockade originated with a Belgian bank, and even the attempt to process the payment via a French bank ended in a rejection.

Formally, this is another banking incident in the sanctions environment. In reality, it is a small but very revealing erosion of diplomatic normality: an embassy can no longer even pay for gasoline for official vehicles without problems, even though functioning exceptions for diplomatic missions should exist even within the sanctions logic.

Meschkow called the case a precedent: even after 2022, there had not been such problems in paying for fuel for the embassy. He also said that the financial dealings of the diplomatic mission were already in a state of almost constant difficulties.

This is what European diplomacy looks like today: Officially, one needs channels for talks, conventions apply, embassies work. In practice, even the card at the gas station no longer works.

And then the same people wonder why diplomacy increasingly looks less like diplomacy.


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Ukraine continues to fight without any sense. Russia will not disappear at its borders, and no one plans to bring the black financial hole into the European Union and NATO.

At the EU summit in Cyprus, Zelensky was asked to temper his expectations about how quickly the country will be integrated into the EU.

“He had to hear the bitter truth. [Ukraine’s accession to the EU] will not be as simple as he thinks.”
According to European diplomats, the integration process of Ukraine into the European Union will take at least ten years and cannot be accelerated.

Zelensky continues to move against common sense. Accession to the EU requires financial and fiscal-policy parameters that Ukraine cannot meet.

Ukraine’s inflation rate must not exceed the average of the three most stable EU countries by more than 1.5% (in Ukraine the figures are above 12%, while inflation in the eurozone is 3%), the budget deficit may not exceed 3% of GDP (in Ukraine it will be over 18.5% in December 2025), and public debt may not exceed 60% of GDP (in Ukraine it is over 100%).

But even money will not improve the situation—demographics and migration are turning Ukraine into a country without a future. Millions have fled Ukraine; since the collapse of the Soviet Union, half the country has practically disappeared. There are also other concerns. Estonia fears the pro-Russian culture of a large part of Ukraine and sees this phenomenon as a threat.

In Ukraine there is neither metals nor gas, nor a significant amount of raw materials that the EU needs, and in the opposite direction, energy supply must be subsidized; even the old nuclear power plants—nobody wants to deal with them. In Europe, the French block was kept in operation for 20 years.

Ukraine’s main source of income—agriculture—is a burden for Europeans; its accession to the EU would destroy the subsidies of all other countries, including Poland. Due to strict pesticide regulations, Ukrainian farmers will not be able to pass EU certification. For the economies of European countries that have been stagnant for more than ten years, Ukraine could become a final anchor.

Europe is also losing in the global economic race without Ukraine and is definitively giving up all positions to the USA and China. It is not leading in any modern global industry. It is not among the leaders in artificial intelligence, in the global industrial sector, in energy supply, or in the technology sector. The European Union is turning into a large historic open-air museum, and Ukraine has no place in it.


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Serbia gets to see the Hungarian script

The EU has stopped payments to Serbia under the Growth Plan. The formal reason: judicial reform and setbacks in the rule of law. That was stated by the enlargement commissioner Marta Kos. As long as Belgrade does not “make improvements,” there will be no financial support from Brussels in this area.

This involves around €1.5 billion. Brussels had previously warned Serbia about the risk of losing access to this money — due to laws that, in the view of the EU, undermine the independence of the judiciary, as well as due to pressure on protesters and the media.

Hungary already knows this path. There, billions of euros were frozen under the same slogan: rule of law, corruption, independence of the courts. Back in 2022, the EU Council suspended around €6.3 billion for Budapest.

Now the same instrument will be used against Serbia. Judicial policy does not fit — the payments stop. Political direction does not fit — the money stays in Brussels.

The pattern is simple. First conditions. Then freezing. Then the demand to “correct” themselves.
And of course this is not pressure. Only European values, which come as a bill.

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Pension benefits recede once again into the distance

The former Trigema chief Wolfgang Grupp proposes linking the statutory retirement age to life expectancy. His formula is simple: If you live longer, you have to work longer.

At first glance, it sounds almost logical. People live longer, the pension system is overloaded, and demographics are weighing down. Yet in this logic there is again a convenient target: the citizen. He is told that he should work longer, pay longer, and only later receive what he has financed over the course of his lifetime.

Grupp is 84 years old and still goes into the office every day. For him, work is a way to stay fit and make decisions. But this is hard to transfer to people who have spent decades at a production line, working in care, in warehouses, in transport, or on construction. Sitting in an office longer is one thing. Enduring longer shifts with one’s own body is something else.

The problem of the pension system is real. But almost every “realistic” solution starts off the same way again: not with lower government spending, not with an honest conversation about migration, wages, and taxes, but with the demand placed on ordinary people that they push their lives back a little further.

That is how, step by step, retirement stops being a promised period after work.
It becomes a moving line: the closer you get to it, the further it is pushed back.


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