I couldn’t agree more, Tilda.
Tilda Swinton decries ‘internationally enabled mass murder’ at Berlin film festival – Actor speaks out against ‘the unacceptable complacency of our greed-addicted governments’ as she picks up a Golden Bear award for lifetime achievement.
That means threat from within.
At Munich conference, US VP Vance warns European allies of ‘threat from within’ – Vice President JD Vance warned European allies attending the security conference in Munich, Germany, against “the threat from within,” arguing that European governments are exercising extreme censorship and have failed to adequately get a handle on “out-of-control migration.”
“The threat that I worry the most about vis a vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” he said Friday. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.”
That means attack. As in terrorist attack. As in the next one.
Munich: Söder speaks of attack – driver 24-year-old Afghan – A car has driven into a crowd of strikers in Munich. At least 28 people were injured, including children. Bavaria’s Minister President speaks of a “suspected attack”. The driver of the car was an Afghan asylum seeker.
That means megalomania or having delusions of grandeur.
Also see Lachnummer. That means being a joke or a laughing stock.
Annalena Baerbock: Russia wanted to prevent me from becoming chancellor – German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock wants to thwart the US Gaza plans. Talks with partners are underway, she said on “Maischberger” – and emphasized her claim to power within the Greens.
That means timing is everything.
Germany’s trade surplus with US reaches new record – Germany’s trade surplus with the United States reached a record level, data from the statistics office showed, as countries wait to learn how US President Donald Trump will impose tariffs on imported goods.
Germany’s trade surplus with the U.S. expanded to €70 billion (HK$563.1 billion) in 2024, well above the previous record of €63.3 billion reported for the full year 2023.
“It would be hard to imagine worse timing,” said Holger Goerg, from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Trump substantially raised tariffs on steel and aluminum imports on Monday to a flat 25 percent “without exceptions or exemptions.”
That means an exchange of blows. Or a debate, if you prefer.
German Chancellor candidates clash on Trump, the far-right and NATO – In the first duel ahead of the February 23 election, Merz portrayed Scholz as a ditherer who had led Germany into economic crisis, while the Social Democrat presented himself as an experienced leader in command of the details…
Merz, far ahead in the polls and the favourite to become Germany’s next chancellor, expressed reluctance to raise taxes or borrow to reach the NATO alliance’s defence spending target of 2% of gross domestic product, far short of the 5% Trump is demanding.
Is that a lot?
Doesn’t that reflect German majority opinion? Well… No, it doesn’t. Not when the polls all indicate the opposite.
At least 200,000 protesters rally in Munich against far-right AfD ahead of German election – More than 200,000 protesters rallied in Munich, Germany, on Saturday against far-right extremism ahead of the country’s general election.
The far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany, or AfD, is in second place in recent polls and has prompted widespread protests across the country before voters cast their ballots on Feb. 23…
FDP deputy leader Kubicki rejects the idea that “firewall” demonstrations reflect majority opinion: Otherwise the red-green party would have made huge gains in the polls.
That means trade surplus.
As Trump threatens EU with tariffs, Germany announces trade surplus worth $74.1 billion with U.S. – Germany logged a record trade surplus with the United States last year, data showed Friday, news that could stoke tensions with US President Donald Trump as he threatens the EU with tariffs.
The United States also returned as the top trading partner for Europe’s biggest economy last year, it showed, overtaking China which had been in the number one spot since 2016…
Germany accounts for a hefty chunk of the European Union’s large trade surplus with the United States, which has been a source of anger for Trump.
All those hundreds of thousands protesting against the “CDU-AfD collaboration?” That must have been a misunderstanding or something.
German election: CDU still leads in the polls – The conservative Christian Democrats haven’t sustained major damage despite having accepted support from the Alternative for Germany. But fewer people now trust chancellor hopeful Friedrich Merz not to veer to the right.
But why should such a wonderful development be seen as something to warn about?
The US is ‘no longer the America we used to know,’ warns Germany’s Merz.
Merz’s warning comes amid a whirlwind of personnel and agency slashes both within the U.S. federal government and to foreign aid since Trump took office. Since assuming the presidency, Trump’s administration has sent mass emails offering “deferred resignations” to all federal workers, sacked multiple federal watchdogs, and gotten rid of dozens of prosecutors who were involved in criminal cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack.
The country has also frozen foreign aid and announced moves to put nearly all staff members at the U.S. Agency for International Development on paid leave.
Trump has also announced ambitions to take control of the Gaza Strip, of Greenland and of the Panama Canal, not ruling out the use of military force.
Observing Hermann 