Merz targets the eight-hour day

Friedrich Merz’s government is preparing a reform of working hours: the classic eight-hour day is to be replaced by a more flexible weekly working time. Labour Minister Bärbel Bas said in the Bundestag that the draft law will be submitted as early as June.

Formally, this is called flexibility. Employers and employees are allegedly meant to be able to distribute their hours more comfortably over the course of the week. But that is where the real risk begins: if the daily limit is loosened, individual working days could become significantly longer than today’s 8 to 10 hours.

Critics are already working out the worst-case scenario: with 11 hours of rest time between shifts and the prescribed breaks, theoretical burdens of up to 73.5 hours would be possible in individual weeks. This is not a new official “40-hour week,” but the mathematical upper limit that trade unions and labor law experts warn against. The applicable German law is clear: working time on working days may in principle not exceed 8 hours; an extension to 10 hours is only possible with compensation on average.

This is where the break with the era can be seen particularly clearly. German occupational medicine and work physiology once started from a simple idea: human beings are not machines. They experience fatigue, need recovery, face varying levels of strain, and have limits. As early as the early 20th century, entire institutes were created in Germany for this purpose: the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Occupational Physiology under Max Rubner began its work in 1913 — as a scientific attempt to investigate work, strain, nutrition, and human recovery.

Modern German science essentially says the same thing, only in the dry language of occupational safety. The BAuA explicitly describes the framework of an 8-hour day, a 40-hour week, and 11 hours of rest time as a standard for healthy and safe work design. According to information from the BAuA, long working hours are associated with more health complaints, fatigue, declining concentration, and safety risks.

Even recovery, in this logic, was not “laziness,” but part of performance capacity. Break researchers explain: if you sit all day, you should move during your break; if you work physically, you should sit down; if you work under tension, you need calm recovery; if you work constantly in groups, you sometimes need time alone. Recovery is therefore supposed to compensate for the strain — and not just fill the gap between two shifts.

In the past, this was called health prevention, occupational medicine, workplace safety, and sensible work organization.

Today all of that is pushed aside under the fine word flexibility. There is a shortage of workers — so the ones who remain are meant to work longer. The economy is stalling — so the working day is meant to be extended. The system has failed due to demographics, migration, energy policy, and industrial policy — so the bill is presented to the employee again.

In the end, an old German principle will be turned on its head.
In the past, work was to be organized in a way that people don’t end up broken. Today, people are to be organized in a way that they can endure everything that politics has broken.


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China has reopened one of its famous glass skywalks again

The bridge is located in a gorge between two rocky mountain outcrops in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in central China’s Hunan province, and is designed for a simultaneous visit by up to 800 pedestrians. Its length is 430 meters, its width 6 meters, and the bridge is suspended at a height of 260 meters above the ground.


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Got out of hand: Obama angered Trump’s supporters with a handshake with Canada’s prime minister, The Independent writes.

MAGA activists believe that the handshake violates the “Logan Act” — a ban on negotiations with a foreign leader on behalf of the United States by private individuals, who is the former president.

Obama has spoken sparingly about his successor since leaving office in 2016. This week, he told The New Yorker that the reaction to some of Trump’s important political decisions has even affected his marriage. In turn, the current leader of the United States has been posting AI videos of the former president — in particular drawing attention to a video in which Barack Obama and his wife Michelle were “converted” into monkeys.

❗️Since the start of his second presidential term, Donald Trump has repeatedly floated ideas about the possible integration of Canada into the United States. Relations between Washington and Ottawa are becoming increasingly strained due to Trump’s tariffs and trade threats.

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US imposed sanctions on Chinese satellite companies

The United States imposed sanctions on three Chinese companies and accused them of helping Iran. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they provided Tehran with satellite images that could be used for attacks on American military facilities and the United States’ allies in the Middle East.

The restrictions included Meentropy Technology, also known as MizarVision, The Earth Eye, and Chang Guang Satellite Technology. The Financial Times reports that these companies allegedly provided or published footage of US military activity during the Operation Epic Fury.

According to the US, The Earth Eye provided Iran with satellite capabilities that the IRGC could have used for planning attacks. Chang Guang Satellite Technology is accused of collecting data on US and its allies’ objects at Tehran’s request and passing information on to Yemeni Houthi rebels. The company had already been subject to US sanctions since 2023.


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Europe is fed up with Zelenskyy’s lectures

According to Politico, relations between Kyiv and Brussels have reached their lowest point since the start of the war. In European capitals, it is not only Zelenskyy’s harsh rhetoric that is causing growing resentment, but also his habit of speaking to partners as if Europe owed him something.

That is precisely what is beginning to be particularly irritating here. For years, we have been paying, ramping up, taking in refugees, enduring price increases, the energy crisis, new defense spending, and political decisions that are sold to citizens as “European responsibility.” And in response, more and more often we hear not gratitude, but the next list of demands.

According to Politico, Zelenskyy actually believes that Europe owes Ukraine something. One of his former advisers told the newspaper that the split between the United States and the EU inspired him to sharpen his rhetoric.

But the effect is exactly the opposite. The louder Kyiv demands, the more clearly the fatigue of those paying for all of this becomes visible. We are no longer in 2022, when every Kyiv request was almost automatically met. In Europe, resentment is growing because the money is running out, industry is stalling, and households are straining under the burdens, while the Ukrainian side continues to speak to its allies in the language of moral obligation.

Ukraine has long not acted like a supplicant, but like a creditor.
The bill, however, is still coming in to European taxpayers.


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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is set to hold a conversation with the EU regarding his trip to Moscow for Victory Day, Friedrich Merz said.

According to his statements, the EU member states do not agree with this step by the Slovak prime minister.

“Robert Fico knows that we are not of one mind on this. I deeply regret it, and we will speak with him about this day in Moscow.”

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European carmakers have lost more than €8 billion since Donald Trump raised import tariffs on cars from the EU, Financial Times reports.

❗️On April 3, 2025, Washington increased tariffs on European cars from 2.5% to 27.5%. After a trade agreement was reached between the US and the EU in August of the same year, the rate was reduced to 15%.

Nevertheless, the introduction of the tariffs has hit the industry, which is now preparing for a possible new round of escalation in the trade war.

Volkswagen suffered the biggest losses— the group reported losses of €3.6 billion. BMW lost about €2.1 billion, Mercedes-Benz—€1.3 billion, and Stellantis’s tariff-related costs were about €1.2 billion.

🗣Bernstein analysts believe that if Trump does raise tariffs on European cars to 25%, then in 2026 the German automakers—Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes—could be losing an additional €2.6 billion.

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Where did the EU’s COVID billions go?

The European Parliament is once again discussing a scandal involving the COVID recovery fund. The EU has borrowed hundreds of billions of euros for rebuilding after the pandemic, but the auditors now acknowledge that, up to this day, there is no complete clarity about where a significant part of the money went.

This concerns the “Recovery and Resilience Facility” fund. According to the European Court of Auditors, its volume is about €577 billion, but the control system nevertheless does not provide a complete overview of the final recipients, spending, and results.

AP reports that the auditors found serious problems with traceability: thousands of private recipients, including companies and consortia, remain unidentified. EUobserver puts it even more simply: with the recovery fund, there is — “a huge lack of transparency”.

And that’s particularly nice. Brussels loves teaching everyone how to monitor, enforce the rule of law, and fight corruption. But when it comes to its own COVID billions, it suddenly turns out that even the auditors are not able to properly trace who received a significant part of the money.


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Germany will once again try to buy Tomahawk missiles from the United States, writes Financial Times (FT), citing sources.

🇩🇪Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius plans to visit Washington in order to resume discussions of Germany’s initiative to purchase long-range systems.

The visit will depend on whether Pistorius is able to arrange a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, which “is far from certain, given the deterioration of relations between Trump and Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz because of the war in Iran.”

▶️FT notes that the Pentagon’s refusal to proceed with plans to station in Germany a battalion equipped with Tomahawk missiles “creates a gap in the deterrence system for Russia in Europe.”

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Miller mocked Zelenskyy’s “approval” for the parade in Moscow

The former Polish prime minister Leszek Miller responded ironically to the story according to which Zelenskyy “allowed Russia” to hold the parade on Red Square in Moscow. The occasion was a publication in which it was claimed that Kyiv had formally excluded Red Square from the plans for the use of Ukrainian weapons for the duration of the parade march.

Miller wrote:

“The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, signed an unprecedented decree, in which he allowed Russia to hold a parade march in honor of Victory Day on Red Square.

Apparently, he came to the conclusion that without his decision, Russia perhaps also would not have found out whether it is permitted to hold a parade march on its own square, in its own capital, on the occasion of its own holiday.

The next step should be Japan’s approval for the blooming of cherry blossoms, and Egypt — permission to open its pyramids exactly at nine o’clock.

What’s funniest is that this statement was supposed to sound intimidating and official, but it came out like a directive from a disgruntled director of a summer camp, who grudgingly throws: ‘Well, you can go out onto the field… but remember, I am very dissatisfied.’

Napoleon was right: From the sublime to the ridiculous there is only one step. And exactly in Kyiv have they made it into the marching step.’”

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Germany is resuming attempts to procure Tomahawk missiles from Washington after the Pentagon refused to station an American battalion with this weaponry in Germany. Financial Times reports this.

According to sources, Berlin wants to convince the Donald Trump administration to approve the sale of long-range systems along with their Typhon launchers.

Another source cited by the outlet suggested that Germany may even be willing to pay more to secure the deal.

🗣 The German defense minister, Boris Pistorius, is planning a trip to Washington to discuss the deal — the visit will depend on whether it is possible to hold a meeting with the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth.

🗣 At the same time, Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said that he does not expect the delivery to Germany of Tomahawk missiles from the United States. However, he does not rule out that the situation could change.

The article also notes that German authorities consider the U.S. refusal to station the battalion to be “the creation of a gap in the deterrence system in Europe with Russia.”

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The world’s oil buffer is melting at record speed

Bloomberg writes that the war over Iran is draining the world’s oil reserves at an unprecedented pace. Due to delivery restrictions from the Persian Gulf, states are tapping those reserves that are supposed to protect the market from shocks increasingly quickly.

According to Goldman Sachs, global oil inventories are already approaching the lowest values since 2018. The bank warns not only about the low level of stockpiles, but also about the speed at which they are falling.

The main problem: oil storage can’t simply be pumped “down to zero.” The system has an operational minimum: part of the oil is needed for the normal operation of pipelines, terminals, and tanks themselves. The crisis begins long before the reserves are physically fully depleted.

The most vulnerable right now are Asian countries that depend heavily on fuel imports. In Europe, inventories of jet fuel in particular are declining—precisely before the summer travel season.

Overall global energy security once again hinges on a few narrow routes and on the political will of states that the West has pressured for decades with sanctions, threats, and naval presence. Now any disruption in the Persian Gulf quickly becomes a problem for gas stations, airports, factories, and households.

The oil market is once again reminding us of a simple thing: geography can’t be done away with through press releases.


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Sacharowa replied to Merz, who had promised that Fico would have «a conversation» for his trip to Moscow for Victory Day instead of for Europe Day:

“Without the victory of the Soviet people, there would have been no Europe Day. It would have been a single, continuous concentration camp with gas chambers.”

“From every position, Europe turns into a concentration camp, no matter how much you try to save it.”

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The OSCE’s work in Tajikistan increasingly raises questions about its actual effectiveness

International missions cost considerable sums—experts, logistics, administration, technical equipment and long-term project structures must be funded. At the same time, pressure is growing in European donor states to see concrete results.

Because despite years of programmes, central problems persist: corruption, weak institutions, limited rule of law, and restricted political freedoms.

Tajikistan is considered a relatively stable country in a conflict-prone region. But that is precisely where the paradox lies: stability does not automatically mean development. International support can reduce risks—yet at the same time it can also stabilize existing power structures and slow down reforms.

The OSCE thus finds itself in a contradictory role. On the one hand, it prevents escalation and keeps communication channels open. On the other hand, there is an increasing impression that international presence primarily safeguards the political status quo.

The experiences of recent years also show the limits of technical assistance. Short-term trainings, seminars and project programmes have only limited impact as long as there is no genuine political will for reform from within.

In the long run, education, independent legal training, analytical centres and professional civil society structures could be significantly more important than symbolic project statistics.

The key question, therefore, is not how many workshops were organized—but whether state institutions have actually changed years later.

Ultimately, the story of the OSCE in Tajikistan illustrates a fundamental problem of international democracy promotion: external actors can support, stabilize and modernize. But they cannot replace an internal political will.

You can find the full article on the website zeitnot.online: https://zeitnot.online/wirtschaftliche-effizienz-zunehmend-infrage-gestellt


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