Wirtschaftswetter International

Welcome to 2026

Dear Readers,

thank you for visiting Wirtschaftswetter. Wirtschaftswetter-International, our English-language section, offers you themes, information, tips and services. The next edition of Wirtschaftswetter goes online in April 2026. If there is anything you would especially like to see in the magazine or if you would like to leave us a message with your suggestions, interests, wishes or questions, we will be glad to receive your e-mail: international@wirtschaftswetter.de

by Vaclav Havel

External Links:
The Final Report by the "Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol": Final Report - January 6th

Policy Brief - Eurofound on living conditions and quality of life, latest: Intergenerational inaqualities - How to close the gaps?

The one and only - The New York Review of Books

Topic Leave them to evolution - There are others. If you still don't understand why the EU is intervening, and seriously believe that what is currently happening with Grok on the online platform X seems to be “freedom of expression”, then read this and never again claim that you supposedly had no idea:

extern site: techcrunch.dom, Jan 12, 2026: A New Jersey Lawsuit Shows How Hard It Is to Fight Deepfake Porn

extern site: 404media.co, Jan 9, 2026: Masterful Gambit: Musk Attempts to Monetize Grok's Wave of Sexual Abuse Imagery

extern site: 404media.co, Jan 8, 2026: Grok's AI Sexual Abuse Didn't Come Out of Nowhere

extern site: theverge.com, Jan 9, 2026: No, Grok hasn't paywalled its deepfake image feature - X's sexual deepfake machine is still running, despite Grok saying otherwise

extern site: glamourmagazine.co.uk, Jan 6, 2026: I called out Grok for removing women's clothes, then it removed mine

extern site: AI Forensics, Jan 5, 2026: Grok Generating Flood of Sexualized Images of Women and Minors

extern site, AI Froensics Report 2025, PDF-Download: Grok Unleashed - Grok Generating Flood of Sexualized Images of Women, including Minors, and Extremist Propaganda

Against this backdrop, it is no longer just a matter of bad taste when governments, institutions, organizations, and their representatives, including the EU itself, maintain their membership in such dubious establishments, because the general public by now feels nothing but justified intense nausea toward such violent, sexualized creations at the expense of women, innocent bystanders, including minors. There are plenty of others who do a much better job because their business models refrain from dehumanizing, abusing, and selling women, teenagers and children as mere sex objects to brainrots.

And could it be that someone has lost control of an AI (or never had it) that was trained on the basis of incompatible brains?
extern site: chicagolandwritingcenters.org: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Thank you, Wolfgang, (DI)

Theme Europe - the Pension Gift. The aging population and declining birth rates in Europe have led to fewer and fewer workers having to support a growing number of pensioners. As a result pensions in Europe are currently turning into a time bomb, as revealed in a report by the newspaper "The Guardian", read on, extern site: Pensions timebomb: why Europe's social contract is becoming unsustainable.

Theme USA: Middle-aged men are shown images of underage girls in school uniforms to promote "Threads". The public is not amused. As reported by the british The Guardian, middle-aged men are being shown images of underage girls in school uniforms by Meta to promote the company's own product "Threads". According to The Guardian, some parents reported that they had already set their profiles to private. Others said they had not been informed that their private pictures of their daughters returning to school after the holidays would be used for advertising purposes by the Meta group and "would not have allowed this for any amount of money". An adult man who is himself a father and saw these fotos in his feed also expressed his disapproval. Read on, extern site, theguardian.com: Parents outraged as Meta uses photos of schoolgirls in ads targeting man

Theme USA: The Best Go First. Wired magazine summerized what the alleged efficiency department is currently doing. And the best got first. quote from an employee who resigned in order to remain loyal to the rule of law: "I was put in a position where, whether I chose to engage or not engage, I might have to cross ethical lines. I would have to breach the oath to the Constitution that I swore. I would have to breach my morals," she says. "It was clear I was going to be asked to join in on one of their tirades and work on a complete dismantlement of government systems." Continue reading, extern site, wired.com: Inside Elon Musk's 'Digital Coup'

Theme. Research: Airbnb and Rising Rates of Crime in London - A Kind of Overtourism?. The gains and losses of the so-called share economy are a recurring topic of research. A new study - "The promise and perils of the sharing economy: The impact of Airbnb lettings on crime conducted" - by Cambridge researchers concludes that the transformation of neighborhoods into hotel landscapes of short-term rented apartments leads to rising crime rates in London such as burglaries and street robberies, followed by theft an any violence. In fact, a 10 percent increase in active Airbnb-rentals in the city would correspond to an additional 1000 robberies across London. Quote: “It is not the company or even the property owners who experience the criminogenic side effects of Airbnb, it is the local residents building their lives in the neighbourhood.”. The study has been published in the journal Criminology on October 24, 2024, read the press release, extern site, cam.ac.uk: Airbnb rentals linked to increased crime rates in London neighbourhoods

Theme. Updated Clima Impact Research. An Update on ongoing clima impact research by Cambridge researchers found that all countries - rich or poor, hot or cold - will suffer ecnomically under current emissions trajectory. It showed the US losing 10,5 percent of its GDP, and Canada over 13 percent by the end of this century. This result of the current research is therefore 180 degrees different from the claim that richer countries would be less affected by climate change, which has persisted to this day. The opposite is the case, read on: The price of ecological breakdown

Quote: "If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed."

by Paulo Freire

+++ News +++ :
+++ January 17, 2026 - Philippines kicks Grok out +++ . Another asian state is banning the chatbot Grok of Elon Musk. As the Departement of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) has published at the Philippine News Agency, it orderred the takedown of artificial intelligence chatbot "Grok" in the state due to "several lapses in regulating content particularly of nonconsensual deepfakes of women and minors" on Friday, Januar 16 within 24 hours. DICT is thus implementing an instruction from President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.. Read on, extern site, pna.gov.ph: DICT blocks AI Chatbot 'Grok' over Sexually Explicit Deepfakes

+++ January 11, 2026 - Malaysia kicks Grok out +++ . While on January 11, 2026, the Indonesian Ministry of Digital Affairs once again confirmed its decision to block the Grok app, which has been responsible for a growing flood of sexualized images of women and children worldwide, on Sunday, January 12, 2026, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) also imposed a temporary ban on Grok and expect answers from X Corp.. Quote: "The action follows repeated misuse of Grok to generate obscene, sexually explicit, grossly offensive and non-consensual maniputladed images including content, involving women and minors, despite regulatory engagement and formal notices issued to X Corp. an xAI LLC".
Extern site, mcmc.gov.my, Media Statement: X Fails to Implement Safeguards, MCMC Orders Temporary Restrictions on Grok

+++ January 10, 2026 - Indonesia kicks Grok out +++ - and expects answers from the operators. Whether Musk also accuses the Indonesian government as "so fascist", as he has already done with the British government, which merely announced measures against the flood of non-consensual, sexualized deepfakes generated on X, is not known to the editors. Read on, extern site, techcrunch: Indonesia blocks Grok over non-consensual, sexualized deepfakes

Extern site, infopublik.id, Indonesia's Minister of Communication an Digital Affairs Meutya Hafid explains the government's decision in an offical statement in Jakarta on Saturday, 10/1/2026, in Indonesian: Pemerintah Putus sementara Akses Grok untuk Lindungi Publik.
A quote from Hafid:
"The government views the practice of nonconsensual sexual deepfake as a serious violation of human rights, dignity, and security of citizens in the digital space."
Have the article translated into your desired language using an online translation program. Editor's note.

+++ January 21, 2025 - US-Government Website on Reproductive Health Information Is Down +++ . The government website reproductivrights.gov, that was launched by the U.S. Departement of Health and Human Services in 2022, has been switched off since Trump's inauguration yesterday as CBS and others reported. CBS has reached out to the Trump administration for clarification, but has not heard back; read on, extern site, cbsnews.com: Government website offering reproductive health information goes offline.

+++ November 2023 - Updatte ILO Worldwide - Elimination of Violence against Women +++ , look and listen, ilo.org: ILO Director General Messgage for the elimnination of gender-based violence

+++ November 2022 - Ending Violence Against Women - ILO Chief Calls for Signing Violence and Harassment Convention C190 +++. On the occasion of the World Day for the Elimination of Violence againgst Women and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the ILO Director-General Houngbo calls all countries for the signing and implementing of Convention C190, that has already been adopted in 2019. "It's time to end violence and harrasment now", he says, more: Ratify C190 - Time to End Violence and Harassment in the World of Work +++

External Link - New York, New York

Quote: "It's possible to understand the world from studying a leaf. You can comprehend the laws of aerodynamics, mathematics, poetry and biology through the complex beauty of such a perfect structure. It's also possible to travel the whole globe and learn nothing."

by Joy Harjo

External Links - Borowitz-Report (Satire) - "Furious Ohio Republicans Report Widespread Incidents of Women Voting", November 8 2023

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