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)

Managing Director of MPG Andreas Gahl poses behind a coil of seamless drawn smooth tubes made of copper alloys 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 labels 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)

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