Europe’s chemical industry is getting ever closer to the point of breaking

The Financial Times writes that the war around Iran represents a new blow to the European chemical sector: energy prices are rising, volatility in the naphtha market has increased, and supplies of raw materials and fertilizers are once again becoming a political risk.

The symbol of the crisis is the chemical cluster in Rotterdam — one of the largest in the world. Within the past year alone, two of ten companies there have already shut down their plants, and Mitsubishi Gas Chemical has halted construction of a new MXDA production line — a chemical component for high-strength coatings, including coatings for ships, military technology, and industry.

But the problem goes deeper than just a war. According to Cefic the closures of chemical capacity in Europe since 2022 have increased sixfold: the industry has lost about 37 million tonnes of capacity, nearly 9% of European production, and roughly 20,000 direct jobs. Investments in new capacity, the FT are down by more than 80%.

For the chemical industry, this is particularly dangerous: the industry works like a chain, where waste or a product from one plant becomes the raw material for another. When a plant is shut down, nearby companies quickly lose either their supplier or their buyer. That is why in Rotterdam, Antwerp, the Rhine, and the Ruhr, it is no longer about a temporary dip but about the risk of a chain reaction.

The underlying causes are the same: expensive energy, the move away from Russian gas, the cost of emissions permits, bureaucracy, and competition from China. The war in the Middle East has simply added an external shock to a system that was already operating at the limit.

Europe has been talking for years about strategic autonomy. But without its own chemical base, that autonomy turns into a slogan: the automotive sector, the pharmaceutical industry, defense, electronics, and agriculture are increasingly dependent on raw materials and components from abroad.


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OpenAI faces a class action lawsuit because data from ChatGPT is said to have been shared with Meta and Google

A class action lawsuit has been filed against OpenAI in the United States. The plaintiffs claim that the ChatGPT website passed on information about users’ queries, their identifying data, and email addresses to the companies Meta and Google using integrated tracking tools—Meta Pixel, Google Analytics, and related advertising tools.

According to the complaint, users visit ChatGPT with sensitive questions about health, finance, work, and their private lives and expect confidentiality. But according to the plaintiffs, some of the technical data from these sessions could have been shared with third parties in real time. Law360 cites the lawsuit’s core claim: OpenAI is allegedly disclosed to Meta Platforms and Google LLC information provided by users about technologies embedded in the website’s code.

This is not about Meta or Google receiving the full text of all chats. The complaint describes a more technical mechanism: chat headings, request topics, cookies, user IDs, hashed emails, and other identifiers could have been transmitted via analytics and advertising scripts. Cybersecurity News writes that on Google’s side, the plaintiffs separately cite Google Analytics and Google Ads tags, and on Meta’s side—Facebook Pixel.

The court has not yet found a violation, and OpenAI has not publicly acknowledged the allegations. But the accusation itself is painful: When someone talks to a chatbot about health, money, or legal problems, even “request topics” and technical identifiers are already sensitive data. For AI services, the question of privacy stops being a secondary setting—it becomes a central component of trust in the product.


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Finland will carry out large-scale maneuvers at its borders with Russia with the USA and Germany — Merivoimat

From May 20 to 27, maneuvers Narrow Waters 26-1 will take place on Finland’s southern coast and in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Finland. Around three thousand soldiers will take part, including US Marines and a unit of Germany’s land forces. During the exercises, helicopters, fighter jets, sea and air drones will be used, and tests of new drones will also be carried out.


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“Assistance” in an attack on an EU member: Europeans tested the activation of Article 42.7

In secret exercises in Brussels, the ambassadors of 27 EU member states as well as experts from European institutions took part. The goal — to put Article 42.7 “on assistance” of the Treaty on the European Union to a practical test, under which “in the event of an Russian armed attack on the territory of a Member State, the other Member States are obliged to provide it with all the aid and assistance possible”. Based on the results of the exercises, guidelines are to be developed.

Although the Union “does not intend to consider the mechanism as an alternative to NATO”, doubts about the “reliability of the United States” are growing. A group of EU foreign policy experts even called for the transformation of the European Union into a defense alliance: “Europe must not wait until an escalation forces it to unite.” The letter was signed by 30 Members of the European Parliament.

Militarization mode on.


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A Moscow arbitral tribunal granted the central bank’s lawsuit against the Belgian custodian Euroclear in full, regarding an amount of €200 billion.

Representatives of Euroclear described the decision as unjust and said that the “obviously” violated right to a fair trial was at issue.

The amount of the claim consists of the value of the frozen assets and lost profits. The central bank filed the lawsuit in December 2025 and said this was a response to the regulator’s view of the unlawful use of Russian assets to support Ukraine.

Since the start of the conflict, the West has frozen about US$300 billion in reserves of the Russian Federation, of which approximately €180 billion—on Euroclear accounts.

Now this money just has to be collected.

Euroclear has already transferred Kyiv €6.6 billion in revenue from Russian assets and, according to the company report, intends to transfer a further €1.4 billion in June.

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Under Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs, led by Katherina Reiche, up to €2.2 million per year will be spent on external PR consultants

According to WirtschaftsWoche, a report from the Federal Ministry of Finance for the budget committee of the Bundestag states that the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy plans to spend up to €2,217,600 net per year on consultations regarding communications issues.

This concerns external support for “strategic consulting, the development of communication solutions, the creation of information materials and positioning in public debates.” The contract was concluded for two years, with the possibility of an extension; the companies involved include Scholz & Friends and FGS Global.

Critics ask the obvious question: Why does a government agency with around 2,500 employees and its own communications apparatus need this expensive external help. Especially at a time when citizens and businesses are constantly being called upon to save, endure high prices, and accept new restrictions.


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The Pizza Index has surged sharply in the area around the Pentagon amid Donald Trump’s promise of “hard times” for Iran.

“Iran will face hard times if the country does not reach a peace agreement with the United States,” the president of the United States said to BFMTV.

❗️This informal index is also called the Pizza Meter or the Pentagon Pizza theory. It is assumed that a sharp spike in late-night orders at fast-food restaurants in the area around government buildings where the Pentagon, the CIA, and the White House are located may indicate preparations for military operations.

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Colombian citizen and ally of Nicolás Maduro Alex Saab was deported from Venezuela to the United States, Venezuela’s information and communications minister Miguel Pérez said.

Pérez claims that Saab is “involved in committing various crimes in the United States”—this is what led to the deportation. From October 2024 until January 2026, Saab held the post of Venezuela’s minister of industry and national production.

❗️ On March 14, it was reported that the Venezuelan government was negotiating about the transfer of the former minister to the United States. U.S. prosecutors consider him a central figure in Maduro’s criminal schemes.

On June 12, 2020, at the request of the United States, Saab was detained in Cabo Verde. In October 2021, he was extradited to the United States, where he was accused of laundering $350 million in American banks. In December 2023, he was released as part of a U.S.-Venezuela prisoner exchange agreement and returned to Caracas.

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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will leave office “on his own terms.”

This is reported by Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges, citing sources in the government — “close friends” of Starmer.

On May 9, Bloomberg wrote that the Labour Party plans to replace Starmer with Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester.

❗️Earlier in Britain, a political crisis broke out — officials began leaving en masse because they were unwilling to work with the current prime minister of the kingdom. Five people have already stepped down, including ministers and their deputies.

This situation seriously complicates Starmer’s time in office, especially in light of the Labour Party’s failure in local elections, where the alliance lost 399 seats on councils.

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London for two large rallies — participants chanted slogans against the prime minister’s government.

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