A worker pours a copper alloy bar in a melting furnace at the MPG (Mendener Präzisionsrohr GmbH) tubes plant in Menden, western Germany, on June 18, 2026. MPG Tubes, fairly typical among "Mittelstand" small- and medium-sized businesses in Europe's top economy, faces a huge challenge to heat metal to 1,500C without producing any of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Its foundry is partially electrified but still uses two gas-fired furnaces to reach the temperatures needed to create tubes with a perfectly smooth finish, used in areas including construction of power plants, the automotive industry and shipbuilding. (Photo by SASCHA SCHUERMANN / AFP via Getty Images)

A worker pours a copper alloy bar in a melting furnace at the MPG (Mendener Präzisionsrohr GmbH) tubes plant in Menden, western Germany, on June 18, 2026. MPG Tubes, fairly typical among "Mittelstand" small- and medium-sized businesses in Europe's top economy, faces a huge challenge to heat metal to 1,500C without producing any of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Its foundry is partially electrified but still uses two gas-fired furnaces to reach the temperatures needed to create tubes with a perfectly smooth finish, used in areas including construction of power plants, the automotive industry and shipbuilding. (Photo by SASCHA SCHUERMANN / AFP via Getty Images)

A worker moves freshly cast copper alloy bars at the MPG (Mendener Präzisionsrohr GmbH) tubes plant in Menden, western Germany, on June 18, 2026. MPG Tubes, fairly typical among "Mittelstand" small- and medium-sized businesses in Europe's top economy, faces a huge challenge to heat metal to 1,500C without producing any of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Its foundry is partially electrified but still uses two gas-fired furnaces to reach the temperatures needed to create tubes with a perfectly smooth finish, used in areas including construction of power plants, the automotive industry and shipbuilding. (Photo by SASCHA SCHUERMANN / AFP via Getty Images)

An Afghan man cuts used tyres at a recycling yard in Faizabad district of Afghanistan's Badakhshan province on July 1, 2026. (Photo by OMER ABRAR / AFP via Getty Images)

A visitor walks past a Starbucks store offering a view of North Korea at a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. The contrast cannot be starker: people sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalisation and capitalism -- while looking out over the world's most reclusive nation, communist North Korea. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images) / To go with 'SKOREA-NKOREA-ECONOMY-CULTURE-COFFEE,FOCUS' by Kang Jin-kyu

A general view shows a North Korean guard post and military fences in North Korea's border county of Gaepung on the North Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), as seen from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. The contrast cannot be starker: people sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalisation and capitalism -- while looking out over the world's most reclusive nation, communist North Korea. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images) / To go with 'SKOREA-NKOREA-ECONOMY-CULTURE-COFFEE,FOCUS' by Kang Jin-kyu

A general view shows a North Korean guard post and military fences in North Korea's border county of Gaepung on the North Korean side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), as seen from a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. The contrast cannot be starker: people sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalisation and capitalism -- while looking out over the world's most reclusive nation, communist North Korea. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images) / To go with 'SKOREA-NKOREA-ECONOMY-CULTURE-COFFEE,FOCUS' by Kang Jin-kyu

A visitor walks past a Starbucks store offering a view of North Korea at a South Korean observation deck at Aegibong Peace Ecopark in Gimpo on July 1, 2026. The contrast cannot be starker: people sipping coffee at Starbucks -- an icon of globalisation and capitalism -- while looking out over the world's most reclusive nation, communist North Korea. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP via Getty Images) / To go with 'SKOREA-NKOREA-ECONOMY-CULTURE-COFFEE,FOCUS' by Kang Jin-kyu