During one operation, Ukrainian forces quickly captured a column of Russian armored vehicles. But instead of simply blowing up the tanks and IFVs, Ukrainian crews did something the Russians never expected.
They climbed into the captured Russian tanks, switched on the Russian radios, and calmly drove deep into enemy territory pretending to be Russian forces.
The Russian convoy had been moving in tight formation. Ukrainian soldiers rapidly neutralized the crews, seized the vehicles, and within minutes were driving along the very road the occupiers had just used. They spoke Russian over the radio, used Russian call signs, and even copied the style of Russian communications. At checkpoints, Russian troops simply waved them through, believing they were friendly units returning from a mission.
The Ukrainians then drove straight onto the grounds of a Russian brigade headquarters.
Once the tanks were inside the base, Ukrainian crews suddenly turned their turrets and opened fire. Headquarters buildings, ammunition depots, and vehicle parks instantly descended into chaos. Russian troops ran between tents in panic, shouting and firing in every direction — but it was already too late. They had allowed a “Trojan horse” directly into their own base.
The entire operation lasted only minutes. Ukrainian forces captured the headquarters, took Russian officers prisoner, destroyed key military targets, and withdrew without losses.
Watch Nigel Farage openly say we should privatise the NHS and move to an insurance-based system instead.
He really couldn’t care less about you or your health.
Watch Nigel Farage openly say we should privatise the NHS and move to an insurance-based system instead.
He really couldn’t care less about you or your health.
WSJ: "Germany’s famously open economy was its greatest economic asset, delivering almost 20 years of uninterrupted growth and turning it into one of the biggest winners of globalization."
I think I would have framed this differently.
Germany's trade competitiveness for a long time was based on its ability both to suppress household income growth relative to productivity growth (as it did, for example, after the 2003-5 Hartz reforms), and to keep its currency cheap (as it did, for example, through adoption of the euro).
Under our current form of globalization, in other words, we experience an example of the Kalecki paradox, in which wage-suppression policies that allow one country to grow faster than its trade partners are actually bad for overall global growth – to the extent, anyway, that consumer demand drives investment among its trade partners.
In this system, all countries are under pressure to suppress wage growth in order to expand manufacturing and retain manufacturing employment, but the "winner" is the one who is able to do it most effectively.
For many years, when much of China's high saving was directed into domestic investment, Germany was one of the main winners from this system. But as Chinese investment became increasingly unproductive, Beijing began trying to rein in the debt needed to fund so much unproductive investment.
This process, of course, took off after the 2021-22 property crash, and once that happened, Germany's ability to benefit from the Kalecki paradox evaporated, as it quickly became one of the main losers of the system.
The point is that the problem isn't China. The real problem is a system that rewards countries for implementing policies that undermine overall global growth. The good news is that for many years, when Germany was able to exploit the global trade regime, it was also one of the greatest defenders of this system. Now that it is on the losing side, German policymakers are increasingly recognizing how damaging a system it is.
There is nothing new about this. If you read the economic debates between the UK and the US in the 1920s, a period when US productivity soared even as wages remained stagnant, it was the UK that complained about the trade imbalances. The US insisted that its huge trade surplus was simply the consequence of more efficient manufacturing techniques and harder-working people. The US of course abandoned that argument in the 1970s, when it lost its trade surplus.
In the economic debates of the 1980s, it was the US who complained about trade imbalances, and Japan who insisted (what else?) that its huge trade surplus was the result of more efficient manufacturing techniques and harder-working people. No one in Japan makes such a silly claim anymore.
In the 2000s, of course, Germany rather patronizingly explained to the rest of Europe that if only they could become as efficient in manufacturing and as hard-working as the Germans, they too would be in just as good a shape. So much for that claim.
Meanwhile our trading system continues to reward policies that depress global growth by putting downward pressure on wage growth, or that, alternatively, force the world to encourage rapid increases in debt in order to counter the impact of lower wage growth.
That is why the real solution isn't a global alliance against China. While this may help defuse current tensions, it won't change a system that will continue to reward bad behavior – i.e. household income-suppressing policies – by allowing countries to externalize the costs of this bad behavior through large, persistent trade surpluses. And this means that it will continue to support increases in income inequality within countries.
https://t.co/9g6zh3ET99
Gute Nachrichten aus Serbien:
Präsident Vucic ist zurückgetreten.
Massive und beharrliche Demonstrationen können so einiges bewirken!
https://t.co/Fj74pvcnxh
Jeder der die Abläufe und Prognosen in solchen grosskonzernen kennt weiss dass das nicht überraschend kommt. Aber noch x Mrd Euro Dividenden und Boni ausschütten. Bevor wieder der Staat einspringen sollen die Aktionäre zahlen
Wenn die BILD-Informationen stimmen, dann ist das bei VW kein normales Sparprogramm mehr.
Das ist ein Konzernumbau mit Ansage.
Bis zu 140.000 Jobs im Fokus.
Vier deutsche Werke ohne neue Modelle.
15.000 Stellen in der Entwicklung.
5.000 in der Produktion.
Verwaltung und Gemeinkosten danach.
Mehr als 5.500 Manager weniger.
Modellangebot halbieren.
Varianten um bis zu 75 Prozent runter.
Seat auslaufen lassen.
Beteiligungen verkaufen.
Die Volkswagen AG zur schlanken Holding umbauen.
Klingt nach Rettungsplan.
Ist aber auch eine Machtverschiebung.
VW baut in China längst nicht mehr nur Autos für China. VW baut dort Entwicklung, Software, Tests, Plattformen und Geschwindigkeit auf.
Früher war Wolfsburg der Kopf und China der Markt.
Heute baut VW in China ein zweites Wolfsburg.
Und Deutschland?
Deutschland wird plötzlich zu teuer.
Zu langsam.
Zu kompliziert.
Zu mitbestimmt.
Zu tarifgebunden.
Zu deutsch.
Bürojobs werden gestrichen, verlagert oder irgendwann von KI erledigt. Entwicklung geht stärker an billigere internationale Standorte. Tests sollen durch KI reduziert werden. Prozesse sollen schneller werden.
Übersetzt aus Konzernsprache:
Weniger Menschen.
Weniger Standorte.
Weniger Mitbestimmung.
Weniger Deutschland.
Mehr Druck.
Natürlich hat VW echte Probleme.
China verschlafen.
Software vergeigt.
Modelle falsch gesetzt.
Kosten aufgeblasen.
Managementebenen gezüchtet wie Zimmerpflanzen im Vorstandsbüro.
Aber am Ende wird daraus wieder die bekannte deutsche Industrieoper:
Oben entscheidet.
Unten bezahlt.
VW ist nicht morgen insolvent.
VW verdient immer noch Geld.
Nur verdient VW offenbar nicht mehr genug für den eigenen Apparat, die alten Versprechen, die globale Konkurrenz und die Renditeerwartungen.
Und jetzt wird aus Managementversagen ein Standortproblem gemacht.
Der Arbeiter am Band war nicht derjenige, der China falsch eingeschätzt hat.
Die Entwicklerin war nicht diejenige, die Software verschlafen hat.
Der Sachbearbeiter war nicht derjenige, der 2.000 Gesellschaften gebaut hat.
Aber zahlen sollen sie es jetzt alle.
So sieht moderne Konzernrettung aus:
Das Gehirn wird global verteilt.
Die Arbeit wird billiger gemacht.
Die Verantwortung bleibt oben.
Die Rechnung landet unten.
One way to push back against an authoritarian is to mock him.
trump is so weak and insecure he is now demanding our respect.
So I’m sending him my favorite picture below.
Feel free to retweet and send your favorite picture or video to @realDonaldTrump.
Lukashenko was suddenly summoned to Putin. Then he vanished. Is the dictator being held hostage?
His plane still hasn't departed for Minsk. There have been no new statements and no fresh photos from the meeting. The Kremlin has even suggested that the talks may continue today.
And judging by recent events, it was unlikely to be a pleasant conversation. Zelensky forced Lukashenko to shut down Russian TV retransmitters, while the Belarusian dictator publicly pleaded not to drag Belarus into the war.
What was said behind closed doors remains anyone's guess. Let's just hope Lukashenko's knees won't be hurting after this meeting.
BBC isn’t backing down.
Trump sued them for $10 billion, which means discovery cuts both ways. Now the BBC wants his phone logs, private schedules, daily diaries, and communications from November 2020 through January 20, 2021.
They aren’t just defending the case. They’re asking a simple question: did their documentary damage Trump’s reputation, or did January 6 do that all by itself?
Lawsuits open doors, and discovery is fair game 💥
WWII Veteran and Purple Heart recipient Robert Hilliard:
"Next week I'll be 101 years old. In February 1944 when I was 18 years old I was inducted into the army and what they taught me to do there was to kill people who set up detention camps. Can you imagine how I felt earlier this year when they announced that one of the future detention camps would be at that same camp landing in Florida? We have a fascist, a fascist government, that allows innocent people to be put in detention camps and incarcerated."
Source: @tomaskenn
Wir machen Druck in Brüssel für das Auto: Die europäische CO₂-Flottenregulierung muss konsequent technologieoffen ausgestaltet werden. Wer eine funktionierende Spitzentechnologie stilllegt, vernichtet Arbeitsplätze und Wertschöpfung. Die EU muss umsteuern: Technologieoffenheit statt Verbote. Bayern, Baden-Württemberg und Niedersachen sind die Herzkammern des deutschen Automobilbaus. Wir brauchen jetzt eine Politik, die Klimaschutz, Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Beschäftigung zusammen denkt.
https://t.co/37LfthfZxb
Less than 48 hours after betraying the Russian dictator by agreeing to Zelensky's demands that dismantled important Russian military equipment in Belarus, the Belarusian dictator lands in Altai for a one on one meeting with Putin.
Isländisch ist für Deutsche eine nicht sehr einfache zu erlernende Sprache.
Beide Sprachen kommen zwar aus der germanischen Sprachfamilie, aber ggü dem Deutsch hat Isländisch eine archaische Grammatik und ein sehr umfangreiches System aus vier Fällen und drei Geschlechtern.