Anyone who managed not to see the show.
Eurovision. It’s a thing. Still. “For the benefit of anyone who knows nothing about Eurovision, simply imagine everyone who has ever claimed they were abducted by aliens at a 70s-themed gay disco, tripping.”
Everybody hates family get-togethers
So way to go, Germany!
Germany plans to suspend family reunification – The new German government has agreed to stop family members of refugees with subsidiary protection status from moving to Germany. The controversial move will particularly affect Syrian families.
Roots
Merz woos Trump with invitation to German ancestral village – The chancellor appears to want to appeal to the American president’s German ancestry in order to improve frayed relations.
Check out this pre-Trump hysteria film report about this village (Heinz came from here too). Start watching around 34:50. It’s positive. It’s friendly. Times (and attitudes) change.
Delusions of Grandeur V9.0
Version 9 as in nein as in it ain’t never gonna happen.
Aiming to strengthen the Bundeswehr to match the size and punch of a medium-sized American city’s police force…
Germany’s Merz vows to build Europe’s strongest army – “Our friends and partners also expect this from us, and what’s more, they are actually demanding it,” said the new chancellor.
It’s good to be the King
German democracy is saved once again! Yawn.
Germany arrests self-declared ‘king’ and bans his extremist group – A self-declared “king” of Germany and three of his senior “subjects” have been arrested and their group banned for attempting to overthrow the state.
Good thing the American pension system works
Only it doesn’t. None of them work.
It’s the 800-pound gorilla locked away in every country’s closet – for now.
Germany struggles to fix its pension system – Germany’s aging population is putting the country’s pension system under strain. The new Labor Minister Bärbel Bas has ruffled feathers with a proposal for how to fix it.
Good luck with that.
German Greens seek relevance through innovation
Still losing votes after their recent attempt to ban fire, Germany’s Greens are now taking a more innovative approach to reduce the country’s carbon footprint by launching a newly discovered Neanderthal technology.
Wooden spears made of spruce and pine will now be used to fend off wolf attacks while collecting nuts and berries in the pristine German forest. Gunfire is way too yucky.
Neanderthals were not, after all, the brutish loners of early scientific portrayals. Instead, they too may have been innovative, social hunters with advanced toolmaking and social strategies, just like the Greens of today.
German of the day: Märchenwald
That means fairytale forest.
You know, the German Brothers Grimm kind. The kind Germans these days level for wind parks.
Plan for windfarm in German ‘fairytale forest’ stokes green energy culture war – Far right accused of misinformation over turbines at Reinhardswald, which has left local people divided.
Deep in the woods that inspired the Brothers Grimm, past the tower from which Rapunzel threw down her hair and the castle in which Sleeping Beauty slumbered, lies a construction site that the far right has declared a crime against national soil and identity.
In this quiet corner of Germany’s “fairytale forest”, workers are clearing land and building access roads to erect 18 wind turbines.
Clean and lean
Very, very, lean.
But at least it’s clean. Whatever that should mean.
Clean energy sources generated the smallest amount of Germany’s electricity in over a decade so far in 2025, dealing a blow to the energy transition momentum of Europe’s largest economy.
Electricity generation from clean power sources totalled just under 80 terawatt hours (TWh) during the first four months of the year, according to data from energy think tank Ember.
That clean energy volume is down 16% from the same months in 2024 and is the lowest for that period since at least 2015.
German of the day: Trittbrettfahrerei
That means free-riding.
After solomnly commemorating the end of World War II 80 years ago…
German politicians solomnly commemorated the end of 80 years of free-riding on defense spending.
It was emotional.
Newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined a wreath-laying ceremony in Berlin. The Bundestag also held its own remembrance service.
Observing Hermann 