The long-delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed (since 2011) opening of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) will finally go ahead as planned, planned, planned and planned.
Clever, really. Almost diabolical.
‘No risks’ ahead of Berlin Brandenburg (BER) airport opening in October 2020 – According to its operator, there are no more obstacles to get in the way of the BER airport finally opening its doors in October this year.
“We do not see any risks ahead of the first operations in October 2020.”
And no Wiesn-Madl? Now we know this is getting serious, folks.
Germany cancels Oktoberfest beer festival due to coronavirus – Germany’s Oktoberfest, the world’s largest folk festival, where revellers from all over the world gather to swig large quantities of beer, has been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, the southern state of Bavaria said on Tuesday.
Endgültiges Aus für die Wiesn 2020!
That means the Corona invoice or bill.
China has launched a furious war-of-words over a letter by German magazine Bild editor accusing China of being the cause of the Covid-19 outbreak and demanding massive reparations…
“What China owes us,” a provocative article in German tabloid Bild published on 15 April, put a price tag of nearly €150 billion for damages inflicted on the country by Covid-19 pandemic.
The itemized “invoice” included €24 billion in lost tourism revenue from March to April, €7.2 billion in losses for the German film industry, €1 million per hour in costs for Lufthansa, and €50 billion in lost profits for German small businesses.
China responded in anger an open letter to Bild editor Julian Reichelt pointing out that China warned the world early of the dangers of the virus, while rejecting any obligation to pay damages. It also reproached Bild “nationalism, prejudice, and hostility against China.”
Was China uns jetzt schon schuldet.
A government program that’s easy to scam? Wow. That’s never happened before.
It’s not the government’s money in the end anyway so who cares, right? Money for nothing and the click’s for free.
The government of North Rhine-Westphalia, a province in western Germany, is believed to have lost tens of millions of euros after it failed to build a secure website for distributing coronavirus emergency aid funding.
The funds were lost following a classic phishing operation.
Cybercriminals created copies of an official website that the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs had set up to distribute COVID-19 financial aid.
Crooks distributed links to their sites using email campaigns, lured users on the sites, and collected details from locals. They then filed requests for government aid on behalf of the real users but they replaced the bank account where funds were to be wired.
Having read the book…
Not. If it weren’t for Corona, I’d go watch Corona – The Movie. I mean, if it were a movie that acutally existed and all that.
‘Corona – The Movie’ is our project. First we need the kind of director who nails the son of a bitch, a guy who will not rest until the virus is turned into lasagna, in its own movie. We need a director who rocks big-time, a man whose name is Martin Scorsese.
The Cast?
Mrs. Corona: Balle Herry
The bad virologist, Professor Pandemia C. Galore: Sigourney Beaver
The good virologist, Professor Vacuna Matata: Sandra Bullocks
The protective mask: Jim Carrey
The individual on the respirator: Brad DiCaprio
The narrator: Bernie Sanders
The arrogant ICU doc: Harrison Dodge
The helpful nurse: Angela Merkel
The Sheriff: Clint Westwood
The Plot? Who cares.
That means the mandatory wearing of face masks (Mundschutz actually means mouth protection in German).
Coming to your German neighborhood soon – as soon as the face masks the German government failed to hold ready in stock are available.
Then everybody can move on to the “new normalcy,” whatever that’s going to be. Anything’s better than the old normalcy, I suppose.
Zusammen mit Lockerungen der Corona-Beschränkungen – Mundschutz-Pflicht wird immer wahrscheinlicher.
And again and again and again.
In this episode we die of coronavirus. Stay tuned for the next one.
How Trump Is Fueling a Corona Disaster – Donald Trump’s disastrous crisis management has made the United States the new epicenter of the global coronavirus pandemic. The country is facing an unprecedented economic crash. Are we witnessing the implosion of a superpower?
“German schadenfreude knows no bounds, particularly when it comes to the United States. The country loves to feel superior to a superpower like America. The reasons are psychological. The criticism of America has always been a bit infantile. One is familiar with the theory from psychoanalysis, when people talk about transference, or when suppressed feelings or emotions are overcome by projecting them onto others. It may work for a while, improving one’s feeling of self-worth by devaluing an imagined adversary. But it always falls short. Which is why the ritual must be constantly carried out anew.”
– Jan Fleischhauer (a German journalist who used to work for Der Spiegel itself)
PS: The quality of Spiegel journalism should never be placed in doubt.
Perhaps. But who cares? It’s politically incorrect. Angie says something else.
A virologist from the University of Bonn is using the hard-hit region of Heinsberg, Germany, as a living laboratory to study the coronavirus…
The death rate in the district is five times lower than what has been recorded by Johns Hopkins University as the national average, according to the German newspaper Die Welt.
Only 44 people — or 0.37% of people who lived in the district — have died from the disease…
Streeck went on to say that though the virus could “live” on various surfaces for up to seven days, he believed there was little chance that someone could become infected via surfaces, contradicting both the Center for Disease Control and National Institute of Health guidelines…
“There is no significant risk of catching the disease when you go shopping. Severe outbreaks of the infection were always a result of people being closer together over a longer period of time.”
That means to “create the conditions” or “lay the foundation” or “pay the baksheesh,” if you prefer.
That’s what Angela Merkel just did during a direct call to her Virenschleuder (virus spreading) buddy Xi Jinping. She has layed the foundation for an “airlift” of face masks and other protective clothing to be flown from China to Germany using passenger planes that are no longer in use.
You got to have friends. And money. Not necessarily in that order, though.
Mit gegenwärtig nicht genutzten Passagierflugzeugen der Lufthansa werde zudem eine “Luftbrücke” zwischen China und Deutschland eingerichtet, um die Masken zu transportieren.
Observing Hermann 