Germany - Deutschland, but in English

This choice aged like milk for Germany, the AH64, UH-1Y and AH-1Z hit the ground running as counter drone/air defense platforms and are already highly effective at it.

The H145 can be used as a trainer for the AH64 at least, but these choices have likely fenced in Germany from having a truly effective solution here for several more years.

I'm quite interested to see how this improves the farebox for Fernverkehr. D-Ticket is so ridiculously good for last minute travel that I will change my destination based on where I can get to from my home, even with the time penalty being on a slower train (looking at you Teppich RE Berlin - Dresden). This might tempt me back to Fernverkehr for extra trips especially if it can match or even beat Flix prices.

As some of you may know, Germany has one of the shittiest “defamation” code that allows any business owner to simply delete the reviews they don’t like. For a long time this had made Google Maps ranking useless: a rating of 4.9 could mean the store is really good, or it’s deleting all the bad reviews.

Not anymore.

Now if you click through all the way to the Reviews tab, Maps will tell you how many reviews the business owner has deleted in the past year.

So when choosing where to have lunch, don’t forget to check this tab. Also check the places you usually go: restaurants, stores, car mechanics. Chances are if they’re doing this you should look somewhere else.

A new rule requiring men to get permission to travel abroad recently put Defense Minister Boris Pistorius under pressure. He says he has fixed the situation, but the criticism continues.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/40705966

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul began his first trip in office to Japan by praising his host country as Berlin's "premium partner" in Asia, noting that Tokyo and Berlin share a "longstanding, deep and close friendship."

Wadephul, speaking alongside Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, called democracy and adherence to the rule of law shared values, something he said was important in "a time of crises and conflict."

[...]

The Hamburg Institute of International Economics just published a study that examines how the tariff measures of Trump's U.S. administration are likely to affect Bremen’s economy, particularly its car sector.

The economists simulated two scenarios:

1. In the escalation scenario, it is assumed that the provisional agreement between the U.S. and China, reached on May 12, 2025, does not have lasting effects and that further negotiations lead to an escalating trade war between the two countries.

2. In the relaxation scenario, the trade deal from May 12, 2025, is assumed to be held in the long term. However, instead of a flat 25% tariff, car products are subject to the respective reciprocal tariff rates applicable in the different regions.

TL;DR:

• The economic impact of the assumed U.S. tariff policy on Germany and the rest of the EU is negligible in both scenarios. The People’s Republic of China would experience a moderate decline in GDP and employment. Conversely, the rest of the world would benefit. The United States itself would face a profound recession.
• For Bremen, the HWWI model forecasts a neutral overall effect on GDP with a slight decline in the number of employed people. The decline in net exports is, ex post, offset by increases in private consumption and investment demand.
• In the escalation scenario, simulation results show positive effects on output and employment (+1.45% and +2.76%) in Bremen’s car industry. This is mainly due to a sharp price drop in imported intermediate goods from China, which are essential for car production. This price reduction relieves the cost structure of the sector, leading to increased output and employment.
• In the relaxation scenario, output and employment in Bremen’s car sector would decrease by -0.24% and -0.45%, respectively. In this scenario, the U.S. tariff surcharges on Chinese goods are closer to those applied to products from other non-U.S. regions. As a result, no significant price drop for intermediate goods from China occurs due to the lack of competitive pressure.