WHO, Paris Climate Agreement: The US is back The US is back. Joe Biden signals that. The former US Vice President is on Wednesday as 46. President of the United States of America sworn in. He did not hesitate and within hours of taking office 15 issued decrees and two further orders to federal authorities. That is a new record. Biden’s predecessors in office issued at most one decree on the first day. Among other things, the US is rejoining the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Agreement. A number of further decrees and orders are to follow in the next nine days.

Tesla in Grünheide: Federal government allows first work for planned battery factory Tesla can start early with preparations for its planned battery factory near the car factory in Grünheide near Berlin. The Federal Ministry of Economics announced that the electric car manufacturer had been allowed to start preliminary work on application. This also applies to other companies that are part of a major Europe-wide battery cell production project. Tesla is building its electric car factory in Grünheide with early approvals. So far, there is no environmental permit. Production is scheduled to begin in July.

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LG is considering withdrawal from the smartphone market In an internal message to the employees of LG, major changes in the smartphone department are indicated. LG’s mobile phone division has been losing money for more than four years, making a withdrawal from the smartphone market more and more likely. LG confirms such considerations, but all possible measures are being examined and nothing has been decided yet. Market observers suspect that LG will focus on the development of innovations and the design of smartphones in the future. Production and marketing could, however, be outsourced to partners.

New payment methods for private sales on eBay From now on, private sellers will gradually be given the option of moving payment processing to the eBay payment platform. This is accompanied by new ways of getting the money from buyers. Payment methods such as credit card, online direct debit or instant transfer will now be added to the previously usual methods of cash payment for collection, bank transfer and PayPal. After deducting all fees, the sellers receive their money directly into their current account; eBay carries out the transaction itself.

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