On the other side of the Gate, there were protests, as demonstrators marched against the closure of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power stations.
By midnight on Saturday, Isar 2, Emsland and Neckarwestheim 2 had all gone offline.
At the Brandenburg Gate, where the Wall once divided Cold War Berlin, nuclear energy is an ideological fault-line that splits the country. It is an issue that is emotionally charged like few others. And particularly now as war in Europe again looms large.
First, France’s Macron said Europe shouldn’t follow the US on Taiwan. Then, Germany’s top diplomat said France’s China policy reflected the policy of the EU as a whole. How are these comments seen in Taiwan?
France’s Emmanuel Macron has prompted backlash by saying that Europeans should not be “followers” of either US or China when it comes to Taiwan and urging for more EU autonomy in international policy.
His statements came as China was conducting a massive three-day military drill around the self-ruled island, which Beijing sees as a part of its own territory. On Wednesday, Macron said he was standing by his comments and that “being an ally does not mean being a vassal” of the US. At the same time, he emphasized that France supported “the status quo in Taiwan” and was in favor of solving the situation peacefully.
At the end of March, Germany’s Environment Minister Steffi Lemke of the Green Party used just a few words to put an end to the dispute that has kept the country in suspense for years: “The risks of nuclear power are ultimately uncontrollable; that’s why the nuclear phase-out makes our country safer, and avoids more nuclear waste.”
Idiots.
The German reserve forces are only a fraction of the officially stated size, lack equipment and training, and is a force “that still largely exists on paper”, says the chief of the German reserves association.
Germany’s federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), says she wants to take stronger action to combat knife crime.
“We should think about banning knives on public transport, on buses and trains,” Faeser told the Funke Media Group. “After all, anyone traveling by plane is not allowed to take a knife with them.” Apart from increasing security measures on public transport, Faeser said another solution could be weapon-free zones in certain urban areas.
The arrest of Querdenken leader Michael Ballweg raises some troubling questions.
For much of the pandemic, Michael Ballweg was a thorn in the side of Germany’s pro-lockdown establishment. Now, the 48-year-old businessman has become one of Germany’s most famous prisoners.
The typically open boarders government of Germany announced a temporary halt on admissions of asylum seekers from Afghanistan after claims that some migrants may have been abusing the system.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock stated that the country would be halting asylum applications for Afghan nationals on a temporary basis after sources within Berlin indicated that some may have tried to abuse the system.
“Rechte Richter” (“Right-Wing Judges”; no English edition so far) is a book published in 2022 by journalist and trained lawyer Joachim Wagner. Its subtitle asks the question: “A danger to the rule of law?”
Wagner is referring to cases like that of Jens Maier, who was a member of Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party between 2017 and 2021. After his spell in parliament, he wanted to return to his post as a judge in the eastern state of Saxony.
This, however, didn’t happen, because Saxony’s Justice Minister Katja Meier took the matter to court and was successful: Maier, categorized as a right-wing extremist by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), was sent into early retirement. The verdict is not yet final, however, because the suspended judge can appeal the decision.
When Lotte Mies went topless at an indoor swimming pool in the Berlin district of Kaulsdorf last December, she was asked to either cover her chest or leave the pool. The 33-year-old activist had already called ahead to check with staff that she could go topless and was told it would not be a problem. But when she refused to cover up, the police were called and Mies was forced to leave.
“It was more than humiliating for me that day and it really wasn’t nice to be treated like a second-class citizen on the basis of my gender and not to be able to decide for myself how to [present] my own body,” Mies told DW.
What could possibly go wrong?
Europe seems determined to go all the way down the road to the end of the nation state.
“Bilingual road signs are a symbolic expression of social inclusion. They show that people identify with their district and diversity.” Thus Samy Charchira, councilor of the Greens in Düsseldorf (very German name), where for the first time in Germany road signs in Arabic have been inaugurated – you know, such as in Cairo, Baghdad or Damascus.
“For several generations, many people, families and traders of Moroccan and North African origin have lived in the district” and “have contributed to building” Germany. “For this they deserve respect, admiration and representation”, underlined the Greens. Morocco’s consul Lalla Loubna Ait-Bassidi also praised the decision: “I am grateful that integration is being expressed in a way that people from 20 Arab nations can read and understand.”
Multiculturalism is the end of nation state and Europe seems determined to go down that road all the way.
German companies love America. According to the German-American Chamber of Commerce, around 5,600 of them have invested in the US market. As of September 2022, that’s an investment volume of almost $650 billion (€605 billion). And it’s not only big firms like Siemens, Volkswagen or Linde that are currently looking to strengthen their commitment to the United States — in some instances, even building entire new production facilities.
“There are various reasons for it,” says Dirk Dohse, who heads the Innovation and International Competition Research Center at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). “One is the increase in geopolitical tensions. Many German companies see the US as a ‘safe harbor.’ Other reasons are the comparatively low energy costs and the very generous subsidies provided under the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Germany’s military communications are so poor that soldiers in armoured vehicles are forced to open the hatches or clamber out and shout rather than use the radio, according to a damning report on the wider dysfunctionality in its armed forces.
The commission identified kit shortages, shoddy infrastructure and stifling red tape, ranging from dilapidated barracks with walls propped up by sandbags to 66 accidents caused by a standard-issue parachute that cannot be steered at high speeds or when the wind changes.
Note Google Translate – In the Alsterdorf district of Hamburg, there was a bloodbath in a church that left several dead. The fatal shots were fired just after 9 p.m. in a Jehovah’s Witnesses “Kingdom Hall” — a building used for worship.
According to BILD information, seven people were killed and at least eight others injured. Among them are several seriously injured, according to investigators. The police spoke of a large situation. The population was warned of “extreme danger” via the disaster warning app.
Twitter – Alsterdorf
BREAKING:
At least 14 shot in a mass-shooting in Hamburg, Germany.
6 people have been killed. pic.twitter.com/yJ0Ju6dCkG
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 9, 2023
From the DM – At least seven dead, ‘dozens injured’ in Hamburg bloodbath: ‘Gunmen’ open fire at Jehovah’s Witness church sparking ‘mass casualty incident’ in Germany’s second-biggest city – unclear if ‘shooters’ are dead or alive
They believe that a or the shooter may be among the dead, no motive.
A bit clearer picture emerging at the Guardian – At least seven killed and others wounded in Hamburg shooting
At least seven people have been killed and several more injured after a shooting in the northern German city of Hamburg, German media have reported, citing police and emergency services.
Police said the gunman was believed to be among the dead. “We have no indications of a perpetrator on the run,” a spokesman said.
Hamburg police tweeted earlier on Thursday evening that a major police operation was underway in the GrossBorstel district of the city, adding that they were urgently investigating the background, but gave no further details.
All we know – 7 dead, total likely includes the shooter, unconfirmed number of wounded as high as 14 according to reports, shooter not ID’d, no motive known. Police are calling it an “Amok” shooting according to Bild.de.
h/t HallsofMacadamia
The state intelligence chief in Saxony, one of the former states of the German Democratic Republic, has labeled Germans seeking to escape the multiculturalism of big cities for the more tranquil countryside ‘right-wing extremists.’
Dirk-Martin Christian, the president of the Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV)—the East German state’s domestic intelligence agency—smeared those fleeing the “multicultural life” of large urban areas in search of an “intact national community” in more “remote areas” as radical extremists, the Berlin-based newspaper Die Welt reports.
The head of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) has said he expects Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to continue to hamper growth and inflate costs in the German economy.
German government interventions and a mild European winter have cushioned the blow of the war and its consequences, but Europe’s largest economy is likely heading for a recession.
DIW President Marcel Fratzscher said the war and its effect on driving up energy prices have already cost the German economy about €100 billion ($107 billion), or about 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
