Free Republic

It's a great time to be a candlemaker in Germany. "Candle demand is very strong right now," says Stefan Thomann, Technical Director of the European Candle Manufacturers Association. The candle boom began during the pandemic, after the government imposed lockdowns and Germans began spending a lot more time at home. The industry expected the boom to end once the nation opened back up, Thomann says. "But then the war (in Ukraine) started." Prior to Russia's invasion, Germany was getting more than half of its natural gas from Russia. It was Russia's biggest natural gas customer in the European Union, and...

German energy giant Uniper has been forced to tap into its emergency supplies before the winter season after Russia's Gazprom shut off natural gas deliveries to the country.According to a Financial Times report, the Düsseldorf-based company, which is Europe's biggest buyer of Russian gas, said that beginning earlier this week it's been taking gas from storage units amid dwindling supplies.The company has had to lean on its emergency winter supplies to meet contractual obligations to its customers, per the report, as it hasn't received any supplies via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline which is undergoing maintenance through July 21.Germany has...