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🇸🇪🇪🇺🔋 Northvolt has led a wave of European startups investing tens of billions of dollars in battery production to serve the continent's automakers as they switch from internal-combustion engines to EVs.

But EV demand is growing at a slower pace than some in the industry had projected, and competition remains stiff from China, which controls 85% of global battery-cell production.

Northvolt said the $100 million in a new loan is part of $245 million in financing support for the bankruptcy. Swedish truck maker Scania, a shareholder and its biggest customer, said on Thursday that it was loaning $100 million to Northvolt to support the manufacturing of electric vehicle battery cells in Skellefteå, northern Sweden.

"This decisive step will allow Northvolt to continue its mission to establish a homegrown, European industrial base for battery production," Tom Johnstone, interim chairman of Northvolt's board, said in a statement, noting the support Northvolt has received from existing lenders and customers.

As part of the restructuring, Northvolt will evaluate proposals for new money investment from strategic and financial investors, as well as existing lenders, shareholders and customers, he said.

Volkswagen, Northvolt's top shareholder with a 21% stake, said it had taken note of the filing and was in close contact with the Swedish firm. It declined to comment on potential repercussions on its own business.

Despite Northvolt's attempts at creating an industry of battery manufacturing in Europe without relying on Chinese-made components, the company failed and signed a partnership with the Chinese firm Wuxi Lead, and thus, Northvolt began building "European" batteries which were actually made in China.

Then problems soon arose as the machinery which was using Northvolt's batteries were breaking down far too easily leading some suspect industrial sabotage from China. Because the batteries were now unreliable, demand fell, and it started Northvolt's financial troubles which culminated today with bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, the company resorted to bringing 500 workers from China to Sweden to remedy its operations, but it was too little too late. With Northvolt's collapse, so do the dreams of the EU of becoming independent from Chinese EVs.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/technology/northvolt-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy-us-2024-11-21/

🇸🇪🇪🇺🔋 Northvolt CEO steps down after bankruptcy filing

The chief executive of Northvolt, Peter Carlsson, has quit just 24 hours after the Swedish battery maker filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States, in a major blow to Europe’s electrification ambitions.

The bankruptcy filing follows months of financial strain on Northvolt, until recently the poster child of Europe’s efforts to build an EV battery industry.

Carlsson admitted the firm had only enough cash to sustain operations for one more week. He also said that while the Stockholm-based company secured a $100 million financing package to support it through the bankruptcy process, it would need between $1 billion and $1.2 billion to stabilize its finances.

Northvolt was once heralded as a cornerstone of Europe’s push to rival Tesla and Chinese EV manufacturers in the burgeoning battery industry. The company produced lithium-ion, sodium-ion, and lithium-metal battery cells and secured significant contracts with major automakers, including Volkswagen.

The battery maker’s fortunes began to falter amid a decline in global demand for EVs earlier this year. Northvolt scrambled to implement cost-cutting measures, attract fresh investments, and apply for government grants, but these efforts fell short.

🔗 https://www.mining.com/northvolt-ceo-steps-down-after-bankruptcy-filing/

In 2002 the US signed the Hague Invasion Act into law, which states that if any US, NATO or Israeli official is charged with war crimes, arrested and brought to the International Criminal Court, the US will invade and destroy the city and court

🧵https://fxtwitter.com/zei_squirrel/status/1859746931284836857

Philip Pilkington examines how “political warfare” was developed to fight the Cold War, but soon became used domestically against the bonds of the American Republic itself.

https://www.postliberalorder.com/p/a-republic-to-keep-an-empire-to-lose

🇩🇪🇮🇱🇵🇸 How German foreign policy oriented itself to promoting feminism but quietly supports the mass murder of women in Gaza

Last year, Germany’s Foreign Office spelled out guidelines for a “feminist” foreign policy, focused on defending marginalized women. Today in Gaza, this same ministry is arming the deadliest war on women and girls this century.

The German Foreign Office first announced its guidelines for a “feminist foreign policy” back in March 2023, yet public debate over the meaning of this policy has never been more heated than in the past month. On October 21, the international research organization responsible for the development of the concept, the Center for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP), along with the human rights NGO HÁWAR.help, hosted a press conference on the topic “preventing femicides, legalizing abortions.” German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, of the Green Party, took center stage at the conference, along with other high-profile women from the worlds of politics and culture.

These sorts of demands are the lowest common denominator of all feminist movements — and yet hostility was stirring both inside and outside the event, mainly due to Baerbock’s presence. Someone in the audience stood up in protest and shouted, “Stop the genocide of Palestinian women!” and was eventually removed by security. Outside the conference, women protested with signs reading, for example, “Women’s rights shouldn’t mean white privilege.”
The images and videos from the conference and the associated protests have trigged strong responses on social media: the founders of the CFFP were accused of “white feminism,” and prominent international feminists have since resigned from the organization’s advisory board.

This debate has brought to the surface an issue that has been simmering for some time: even though the German Foreign Office claims in its guidelines for a feminist foreign policy to “focus on the rights, representation and resources of women and marginalized groups,” in practice it undermines exactly those rights. In practice, feminist foreign policy is simply meant to give the German government a progressive veneer. The fact that ultimately there is nothing feminist about Baerbock’s policy is made perfectly clear by her policy toward Gaza.

Between August and October 2024, Germany approved more than €94 million worth of arms deliveries to Israel. The foreign minister’s near unconditional support for Israel, even when its army attacks schools and other civilian infrastructure, was made clear when she falsely claimed last month that “civilian sites could lose their protected status [under international law] if terrorists abuse this status.”

In Gaza, more than half a million women are affected by food insecurity, and 175,000 are exposed to life-threatening health risks. In no other conflict in the last two decades have as many women and girls been killed in just one year as in Gaza. If these facts aren’t clear enough, even the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) has recently begun taking legal action against German’s arms deliveries to Israel.

🔗 https://jacobin.com/2024/11/germany-feminist-foreign-policy-gaza

🇲🇱 Mali's PM fired after criticizing prolonged junta rule, state TV says

Last week, Maiga said there had been no debate on the elections' postponement within the government and that he found out about the junta's decision from the media.

"It's all happening in total secrecy, without the prime minister's knowledge," Maiga told reporters on Saturday.

His comments sparked tensions with the junta, forcing it to postpone a ministerial council meeting planned for Wednesday, and chose to fire him.

🔗 https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/malis-pm-fired-after-criticizing-prolonged-junta-rule-state-tv-says-2024-11-20/