🇩🇪 One in three German firms still reporting too few orders

More than a third of companies in Germany say they are struggling with a lack of orders, according to new data published by the ifo Institute. The July survey shows that 36.7 percent of businesses across the country are facing insufficient demand, a figure only slightly lower than in April and still far above historical norms.

“Despite slight progress, the bottom has not been reached,” said Klaus Wohlrabe, Head of Surveys at the ifo Institute. “The persistent lack of orders remains a key obstacle to a substantial economic recovery.”

The situation has deteriorated further in industry, where 38.3 percent of companies now report too few orders. In the automotive sector, that figure jumped sharply from 35.4 percent in April to 42.6 percent in July. Mechanical engineering firms are reporting a 46.1 percent shortfall, while 40.6 percent of electrical equipment manufacturers and nearly half of all metal industry businesses are also affected.

Trade is still facing broad challenges. In wholesale, 66.2 percent of firms now say they are short on orders — up from 61.7 percent in the previous quarter. In retail, the figure has risen slightly from 50.6 percent to 51.0 percent, meaning half of all retailers are struggling to maintain demand.

🔗 https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/business/27628-one-in-three-german-firms-still-reporting-too-few-orders-says-ifo.html

🇷🇺🇺🇦 The Pokrovsk-Myrnograd front mapped from July 15th to August 5th 2025.

🔗 WarMaps78

🇩🇪 Germany's energy-intensive industrial production revisits the lows (last data point is June, which came out today). Energy-intensive industrial output is now >20% below what it was a decade ago. For Germany, the European energy crisis isn't over.

🔗 Javier Blas

🚨🇮🇱✡️❌☦️🇵🇸 BREAKING: Israel has frozen all of the bank accounts of the Orthodox Christian Patriarchate of Jerusalem today.

🎙️📰 Andrew Cusack: “Today the Municipality froze all bank accounts of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

City is attempting to impose (and backdate) property tax on religious sites — from which properties used for religious purposes have always been exempt.

The Patriarchate now has no access to any form of payment for anything.

They were in talks to find a solution with the Municipality, who had promised not to act unilaterally in the mean time.”

🔗 Andrew Cusack

🇺🇸❌🇮🇱 Republican Representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene on X/Twitter:

Good morning to everyone who is fed up with AIPAC, foreign aid and funding foreign wars, being enslaved in $37 trillion in debt, our dollar being weak, high cost of living, high cost of housing, property taxes, and H1B visas stealing American jobs.

I hope you have a wonderful day! 😊

🔗 MTG

🇺🇸🇲🇽 “Trump has told confidants and some GOP lawmakers that he plans to tell the Mexican government they need to stem the flow of fentanyl to America — somehow, in a span of several months — or else he’ll send in the U.S. military”

"How much should we invade Mexico?” says a senior Trump transition member. “That is the question.”

📎 All Source News

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-mexico-drug-cartels-military-invade-1235183177/

🇺🇸🇾🇪 bonzerbarry on X: Trump called off operation rough rider because of a lack of intelligence on Houthi leadership and growing fears over an anti ship missile hitting the USS Truman, which would have created an image disaster for the US. -Calcalist

the real reason for stopping the attacks was a pragmatic consideration: American intelligence understood that without knowing where the Houthi leaders were hiding and where their missiles were hidden, the bombing campaign was doomed to failure -Calcalist

The operation became increasingly expensive: the Americans lost dozens of very expensive drones trying to find targets, and it was simply a waste of money -Calcalist

if an American ship is hit and the sailors are killed, the American public will demand revenge - led by his Republican voters. The Pentagon explained to the president that there was no way to take revenge without invading northern Yemen -Calcalist

The USS Truman performed those evasive zigzag maneuvers on April 28th in the Red Sea because the support ships could not shoot down all the missiles according to this article. This event spooked the entire military leadership.

Like I said on the day that Trump announced the “ceasefire”; it was so obvious that trump had capitulated to Ansarallah. Trump is always so full of shit.

After redrawing the missile patterns and reviewing radar logs from the april 28th event, navy experts reported to the admirals that “it might hit next time”. This was likely the death knell of operation rough rider.

https://www.calcalist.co.il/calcalistech/article/b1eodndwex

🔗 bonzerbarry

🇺🇸🇷🇺 Trump says he’ll meet Putin in Alaska next week

The plan, which Putin presented to Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff in a meeting in Moscow on Wednesday, would require Ukraine to cede the eastern Donbas region — the majority of which is currently occupied by Russia — as well as Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/08/politics/trump-putin-meeting

🇺🇦🇷🇺🇺🇸Zelensky:

Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine are simultaneously decisions against peace. They will bring nothing. These are dead decisions; they will never work.