Quickies -- December 22, 2022

Coal: EU, Turkey only major energy users set to boost coal imports.

Japan: pivots (back) to nuclear power. 

Russia's only aircraft carrier: on fire again -- 

Russia: D5S + 17, link here -- 

Covid-19: China pivots --

• from zero-Covid, to
• herd immunity
• it's not going to be pretty

Merchant ships: pivot to renewable energy --  

Tesla: pivots to discounts --

Tesla Inc. has doubled the discounts offered on its Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles delivered in the U.S. this month, according to its website, fueling concern demand for autos from Elon Musk’s car company may be softening.

“Take delivery of a new Model 3 or Model Y between December 21 and 31, 2022 for a $7,500 credit and 10,000 miles of free Supercharging,” the EV maker says on its website.

The charging credits also apply to the Model S and Model X vehicles, according to the company’s website, but not the $7,500 discount.

A Christmas story:

• how it became a classic;
• how Jimmy Stewart became George Bailey.

Lego: epic models -- link here.

Peter Zeihan: a seven part series. From 2018, it begins:

U.S. President Donald Trump made a… let’s call it a splash, at the G7 summit in Canada June 9. The G7 comprises the seven largest industrialized democracies – the United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy – who also form the core of the entire American alliance network. Their leaders and finance ministers meet regularly to discuss challenges to the global order. Normally, the G7 is a bit of a lovefest with leaders agreeing to push this bit of financial stability or that bit of poverty reduction.

This time was different. The Trump administration is busy belittling and/or wrecking parts of the international order, and a mere week before the summit the United States levied steel and aluminum tariffs on nearly all the G7 members themselves. As such the summit was preceded and followed by quite aggressive statements out of most of the G7 members, most notably from Canada and France, about how American tariffs would not be allowed to stand in specific and a general dissatisfaction with the position of the White House on global affairs in general.

In essence, ahead of the summit the G7 leaders were showing concern that Trump’s rhetoric wasn’t simply rhetoric. And in the summit’s aftermath the emotion could best be summed up as defiant despair that Trump really, truly, means what he says.

I can see why they’re all pretty bummed.