So where’s the Taliban ban?
Outrage after Taliban member speaks at German mosque – German politicians have demanded answers after the head of Afghanistan’s food and drug body spoke at a mosque in Cologne. Abdul Bari Omar was previously in the Netherlands for a World Health Organization event.
Videos shared on social media show Abdul Bari Omar, the director of Afghanistan’s food and drug authority, speaking at the mosque on Thursday.
It’s just not our thing. In Turkey.
Germany has ‘psychology of guilt’ when it comes to Holocaust, Israel, Erdoğan says – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz acknowledged the two countries’ very different perspectives on the Israel-Hamas war.
“Since we’re in a kind of psychology of guilt here, you can’t judge it that way, but we have no debt to Israel. If that were the case, then perhaps we wouldn’t be able to talk so easily. Nor have we gone through the history of the Holocaust,” the Turkish president said via an official German translator.
So it didn’t. Even though it did. And does. And even is, happening as we speak.
Pay close attention: This report will be diligently ignored by the powers that be.
BKA Report: Sharp Uptick in Violent Crime Committed by Migrants Against Germans – New figures from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) that detail the demographic makeup of serious violent crime suspects in 2022 have been called “frightening” by the chief of the Federal Police Union, who urged both state and federal authorities to take swift action to put an end to the problem.
The BKA’s 2022 “Federal situation report on crime in the context of immigration” revealed that 47,923 German citizens fell victim to violent crimes carried out by immigrants—defined by the office as foreigners who came to the country as refugees or asylum seekers—last year, up 18% from 2021, BILD reports.
“What many have always suspected is now proven.”
That face you make when you can’t spend as much of other people’s money as you’d planned.
German court deals 60 billion euro budget blow to Scholz government – The German government froze major spending pledges focused on green initiatives and industry support on Wednesday after a constitutional court ruling on unused pandemic emergency funds blew a 60 billion euro ($65 billion) hole in its finances.
The decision threw into disarray budget negotiations taking place this week within Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way ruling coalition, whose popularity has slumped as Europe’s biggest economy teeters close to another recession.
About getting serious?
Don’t take that nonsense seriously, folks. I’m serious.
Wind of change: Germany gets serious about plans to make military ‘fit for war’ – The return of full-scale armed conflict to Europe has Germany dramatically reframing its security policy.
With Russia and Ukraine still locked in combat after nearly two years and a major Israeli-Palestinian conflict underway, the European Union and NATO are feeling their way into a chaotic new world security order – and Europe’s largest economy is shaking up decades-old ideas on what its military is actually for.
OK then. How about twenty bucks?
Germany: 4.6 million adults addicted to gambling or at risk – After a new report revealed the extent of gambling addiction in Germany, a government minister has called for measures including a ban on sports betting advertising on television before 11pm.
Approximately 1.3 million adults in Germany suffer from a gambling disorder and a further 3.3 million show initial signs of gambling addiction, according to a new report presented by the country’s Federal Drugs Commissioner Burkhard Blienert on Monday.
According to “The Gambling Atlas,” which draws on data compiled in 2021, 30% of German adults gamble. The figure represents a reduction on the 55% calculated in 2007, but the report nevertheless found that 7.7% of adults suffer financial, social or health problems associated with addition.
That means collapse.
German homebuilding collapse threatens wider economic damage – Once-thriving residential construction industry has slumped, posing drag on EU’s largest economy.
Across Germany, homebuilders are facing such a sharp reversal in their fortunes that the downturn in residential construction is threatening to have broader repercussions across Europe’s largest economy.
Many have declared themselves insolvent, dampening Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s target of building 400,000 new homes a year to tackle a housing affordability crisis in several of the country’s largest cities.
You know. To get “fit for war?”
Germany Set to Double Its Ukraine Military Aid Under Scholz Plan – SPD-led coalition parties agree on funding boost to €8 billion. Germany is Ukraine’s biggest military backer in Europe.
If approved by the parliament in Berlin where Scholz’s parties hold a majority, the boost would lift Germany’s defense spending beyond the 2% of gross domestic product target pledged by all North Atlantic Treaty Organization members, according to the people.
In German. “Was,” in English.
So that headline down there doesn’t make much sense – in my mind. The German army was never “was ready” and never will be.
Germany aims for a ‘war-ready’ military – It’s the most momentous shift in German defense priorities since 2011.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing Germany to turn its military into a powerful and well-financed fighting force focused on defending the country and NATO allies, Germany’s chancellor said on Friday.
“Today, nobody can seriously doubt what we in Germany have been avoiding for a long time, namely that we need a powerful Bundeswehr,” Olaf Scholz said on the second day of a political-military conference presenting the deep change in Berlin’s strategic thinking.
“Our peace order is in danger,” he warned, also mentioning the war between Hamas and Israel and adding that Germany needs “a long-term, permanent change of course.”
Has a nice ring to it. It’s kind of cute, even.
Sure glad we displayed it on Brandenburg Gate so everyone could see that we displayed it on Brandenburg Gate.
But now it’s back to business. Now it’s time to accuse Israel of genocide. You know, for, well, letting Hamas attack it like that? How dare they fight for survival. Damned Jewish Nazis.
‘Never again is now’: 1938 Nazi pogrom anniversary marked in Germany – ‘Antisemitism is poisoning our society’ says Olaf Scholz at Berlin synagogue that was destroyed 85 years ago and is again target of firebombing.
Observing Hermann 