German of the day: Redefreiheit war gestern

That means free speech was yesterday.

The threat to free speech in Germany – One of the freest countries in the world takes a hammer to its own reputation.

Freedom of expression jeopardized by coalition agreement?

A paragraph in the coalition agreement is now causing new concern online about the right to freedom of expression. “The future black-red coalition does not respect freedom,” according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. According to Cicero magazine, the potential new government is “alienated” from the “responsible citizen” and Die Welt warns of a new “kind of truth law.”

We’ll show those Russkies…

This time.

Russian, Belarusian ambassadors not invited to German parliament’s WWII memorial event – The German parliament has kept the ambassadors of Russia and Belarus off its guest list for a special sitting on May 8 marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two in Europe, a spokesperson for the legislature said on Thursday.

“Free money”

Brilliant. This is better than free lunch!

Why didn’t anyone ever think of this before?

Free money for all: Germany’s basic income experiment – One of the world’s most extensive studies on unconditional basic income was held in Germany. What does the experiment reveal?

… It is seen as a redistribution of wealth through taxes. In the activists’ calculation, Germany’s top earners — 10% of the population — would end up contributing a part of their income to everyone else. They estimate that 83% of the population would thereby have access to more money. The remaining 7% mid-earners would be unaffected by the redistribution scheme.

In times of rising populism, the basic income activists believe that this is a way to combat the population’s dissatisfaction due to wealth inequality.

Keep on fighting with what?

And with whom?

Ukraine will be able to keep fighting, say Britain and Germany – Germany and Britain sent a message to Russia on Friday that Ukraine will be able to keep up its fight thanks to Western support, even as the U.S. pushed ahead with talks with Moscow.

The European powers for the first time co-led a meeting of the so-called Ramstein group of some 50 countries that give military support to Ukraine after Washington gave up the chair, and said they could not detect any signs that Vladimir Putin was ready for peace.

As they met, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff flew into Russia for what looked likely to be talks with the Russian president.

Just your run of the mill knife attack

In Berlin. Every day now (they forget to mention the one in Berlin Steglitz this morning).

Knifeman on the run after Berlin tram passenger seriously injured in stabbing – The victim was attacked around 2.30am on the M2 tram at Karl-Liebknecht-Straße in the city’s Mitte district…

“Knife violence is a city-wide problem, and many young men in particular seem to have one in their pockets.”

German of the day: Erholung

That means rally.

Dow surges 2,300 points for biggest rally in 5 years after Trump pauses some tariffs – Stocks surged Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced a pause in some of the ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, causing a market that’s been under extreme pressure for the last week to explode higher.

The S&P 500 skyrocketed 7.6%, on pace for its biggest one-day gain in five years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 2,423 points, or 6.4%, also its biggest gain since 2020. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 9.8%.