🇮🇹 Italian car workers go on strike for the first time in 20 years as pressure mounts on Stellantis

Oddly enough, the workers demands are not about inadequate salaries but rather, a lack of predictability from the company's board of directors and, in general, the uncertain future of their jobs as car sales go down.

"We are working one to two days a week when it goes well. So, what we are saying today is that the (ecological) transition cannot be exclusively paid for by the workers," said Riccardo Falcetta, an official of the UIL metalworker union in Bari.

The world's fourth-largest car manufacturer is under pressure to provide clarity about its future production plans as it faces growing competition and financial strains.

Italy's government has accused the company of relocating assembly plants to low-cost countries.

According to production figures for the first nine months from the trade union, the Italian Federation of Metal Mechanics, Stellantis' production plunged by 40% in 2024 compared with last year.

"In order to meet the government-established target of 1 million vehicles in 2030, the Stellantis Group would have to double production," the report said.

The multinational group, created in 2021 from the merger of Fiat-Chrysler and PSA Peugeot, recorded a sharp drop in output at most of its Italian plants in the first half of 2024. Over the past 17 years, the car maker has slashed its Italian production by nearly 70%.

CEO Carlos Tavares has recently blamed EU carbon emission rules for raising production costs, suggesting that the group may be forced to close some assembly plants to meet competition from China. He said he "could not rule out" job cuts, reiterating a need for additional state incentives to spur demand for electric cars.

Stellantis, which makes Jeep and Chrysler vehicles, has been in the spotlight following a profit warning in which it said it expected to finish the year with a loss of up to €10bn ($11.2bn).

The company announced this week that it would pause the production of the Fiat Panda in November. The decision followed a similar one a month ago concerning the Fiat 500 electric.

🔗 https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/10/18/italian-car-workers-go-on-strike-as-pressure-mounts-on-stellantis

🇺🇸📁⚡️🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 — 🇺🇸 Axios | Pro-Iranian account leaks alleged U.S. intel on Israel's attack plans | October 19, 2024:

"U.S. officials are extremely concerned about a potentially major security breach after two alleged U.S. intelligence documents about Israel's preparations for an attack on Iran were published by a Telegram account affiliated with Iran."

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🇺🇸📁⚡️🇮🇱❌🇮🇷 — 🇺🇸 CNN | Leaked documents show US intelligence on Israel’s plans to attack Iran, sources say | October 19, 2024:

"(CNN) — The US is investigating a leak of highly classified US intelligence about Israel’s plans for retaliation against Iran, according to three people familiar with the matter. One of the people familiar confirmed the documents’ authenticity.

The leak is “deeply concerning,” a US official told CNN.

The documents, dated October 15 and 16, began circulating online Friday after being posted on Telegram by an account called “Middle East Spectator.”

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🇺🇦We reinvent anti-drone weapons every month. If we don’t, we die

Ukrainian arms plants are using frontline experience to create defence tech at a speed ‘unthinkable’ in Britain. Outpacing Russia is a matter of survival

Hedgehog-style backpacks and land robots with “dome shields” designed to disable Russian drone swarms are being developed and will be rolled out to the Ukrainian front line in as little as four weeks.

Serhii Skorik, commercial director of the Ukrainian company Kvertus, said he usually spent his time either on the front line in Ukraine or in one of several heavily guarded laboratories churning out defensive weapons for under-fire troops on the battlefield.

Although the UK industry can take years to develop drone and counter-drone technology, Skorik says in Ukraine they are having to create new technology every few weeks to keep pace with Russian development of novel weapons.

When senior army chiefs in the Ministry of Defence in London discuss the Ukraine conflict, they refer to “the war of one-day ideas”. Weapons that make it to the front line don’t last long before the Russians have worked out a way to destroy them. The same goes for the Ukrainians, who are developing new defensive measures so quickly that Moscow is having to constantly reinvent new technology.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/9e7a4ed5-7307-46b5-b0f0-1c810f388d73

https://archive.ph/64ADp

🇨🇺💥 — In Havana, Cuba, the people have taken to the streets banging pots and pans in protest against the power outages occurring on the island due to the regime's poor financial management, despite receiving funds from countries like Russia to invest in electrical improvements.

🇷🇺❌🇺🇦🏭 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | Russia Poised To Cripple Ukraine Steel Industry By Seizing Vital Coal Mine | October 19, 2024:

"In what promises to be a major milestone in more than two-and-a-half years of war, Russia is closing in on the capture of a vital industrial asset: a Ukrainian coal mine that's a cornerstone of the country's steel industry.

Owned by Ukrainian firm Metinvest, the modern facility -- opened in 1990 -- is Ukraine's largest mine for producing coking-coal, a specific grade used to fuel blast furnaces. It's near the village of Udachne, about 10 kilometers west of the city of Pokvrosk, which is itself a key supply hub in Ukraine's Donetsk oblast. Per the latest reports, the Russian army is reportedly just 8 to 12 kilometers east of Pokrovsk. Defensive lines have already been dug to Pokrovsk's west, so Ukrainian units will have positions to drop back to if Pokrovsk falls."

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🇷🇺❌🇺🇦🏭 — 🇬🇧 The Economist | Why Russia is trying to seize a vital Ukrainian coal mine | Without it, the country’s remaining steel industry will be crippled | October 13, 2024:

"(...)

Pokrovsk’s mine is far from being a rickety old Soviet relic. It opened in 1990 and now belongs to Metinvest, a company owned by Rinat Akhmetov, one of Ukraine’s richest men. Metinvest also owned the two Mariupol steel plants, and one of the largest coking-coal production plants in Europe which was in Avdiivka, and which was destroyed last year. Now he faces the loss of this mine too.

(...)

Along with its associated plants and administration buildings, the Pokrovsk mine group employs 6,000 people, of whom some 1,000 are currently serving in the armed forces. It is the largest coking-coal mine in Ukraine. Its coal, used for smelting iron ore, is vital for the country’s remaining steel industry. This year Metinvest hoped to mine 5.3m tonnes of coal there. In 2023 Ukraine’s steel plants produced 6.2m tonnes of crude steel. In 2021 though, before the loss of the two Mariupol plants, Ukraine had produced 21.4m tonnes. In 2021 Ukraine was the world’s 14th largest steel producer but last year it had tumbled to 24th.

According to Andriy Buzarov, an analyst, the Russians do not even need to take the mine to throttle Ukraine’s remaining steel industry. As they advance, they will try to cut its power supply and shell the main road that takes its coal west to the remaining steel plants. They will then do the same at another smaller coking-coal mine 18km north of Udachne at Dobropillia, he thinks."

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🇺🇸📰🤫🌐🌐 — 🏴 ZeroHedge | The US Plans To Let BRICS Fail In A Geopolitically Explosive Environment | Authored by Peter Hanseler via VoiceFromRussia.ch | October 17, 2024:

"(...)

For China and Russia, which play a leading role in BRICS – Russia currently holds the chair – the following questions arise: Should BRICS accept few, no or many new members? Candidates are lining up, but some are under enormous pressure from the US to avoid joining BRICS. Should a new payment mechanism independent of the US dollar be introduced now, further upsetting the balance in already unstable financial markets? Such decisions, or even the mere communication of them, have the potential to significantly alter the entire geopolitical situation within hours – positively or negatively, depending on the observer’s point of view."

#Geoeconomics

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🥇📈🚀GOLD spot reach again a new All Time High over $2740/oz!

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🇮🇱☢️🇮🇷 Leaked US Intel Confirms Israeli Nuclear Weapons

"We have not observed indications that Israel intends to use a nuclear weapon." That sentence is the concluding line from an allegedly leaked (or hacked) U.S. intelligence document posted online this week and later reported on by Axios, CNN, and other outlets.

The Associated Press and independent investigative journalist Ken Klippenstein both cited government sources who said the documents appeared to be authentic. While U.S. officials have yet to comment publicly on the material, reporting confirmed an investigation into their authenticity and how they came to be in the public domain was underway.

Assuming the documents are authentic, what they show is that U.S. intelligence—as is well known and despite being close allies—keeps a close and clandestine eye on Israeli military operations.

CNN cited an unnamed U.S. official who called the documents being made public "deeply concerning," though the outlet did not publish the documents in full. The documents, according to CNN,

🔸 are marked top secret and have markings indicating they are meant to be seen only by the US and its "Five Eyes" allies — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

🔸 They describe preparations Israel appears to be making for a strike against Iran. One of the documents, which says it was compiled by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, says the plans involve Israel moving munitions around.

🔸 Another document says it is sourced to the National Security Agency and outlines Israeli air force exercises involving air-to-surface missiles, also believed to be in preparation for a strike on Iran. CNN is not quoting directly from or showing the documents.

It has long been known that Israel has a nuclear weapons program and maintains a nuclear arsenal, but it remains both Israeli and U.S. government policy never to acknowledge or confirm the existence of either. In one of the documents, the U.S. specifically references Israel's ability to deploy a nuclear weapon, though it categorizes the threat of doing so in this case as low.

🔗 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/leaked-us-intel-confirms-israeli-nuclear-weapons