Friday, January 26, 2024

26 Jan 2024: Twelve German News Stories

 1.  Weather guy is suggesting winds from the Sahara are arriving to the west coast of France, and this warm wind (with sand mix) will come to Germany in the next couple of days....extremely warm temperatures predicted for several days.

2.  455 voting stations in Berlin are in serious preparation for the repeat of the 2021 federal election....which got goofed up (the court system ordered a repeat).

What the parties say...oddly enough....it's a whole new theme for this election, with different promises.  

Date?  11 Feb 2024.  

3.   Federal Office of Statistics says....population of Germany has grown to 84.7-million.

4.  If you make money in Germany off E-Bay....the data of funds exchanged....will flow to the German tax office.  Starts end of January.

Yeah, there's probably over 10,000 Germans who make a regular income off sales via E-Bay, and this is going to crimp their profit model.

5.  I was reading a piece over the cost of driver's license training.  Since Covid, it's gone up....so at the very minimum....it's 2,000 Euro (in the more rural areas), and in most cases....it'll range from 3,000 to 4,000 Euro. Fair chunk of money.

6.  Thuringia region....the new immigrant charge card 'test' is being engaged.  It used to be that you got pocket-money in cash.  It's now a charge-card.

Well...in the first 135 cases, where the card was issued.....roughly 92 declined it, and in 35 cases....the applicant actually packed up and left...indicating they were going somewhere the card was not mandated.  

7.  This thesis scandal accused against Alice Weidel (AfD Party)?  After a long survey, the college said there were a couple of citation errors, but nothing worthily of removing the degree for plagiarism.  

8.   New political survey in Saxony....for fall election.  AfD leads with 35-percent of the vote....Linke/FDP will not make enough to earn seats.

9.  NTV report....for 2023, each German employed averaged 20 days of sick-leave being used (record level).

10.  Just a rather odd thing about this Russian military IL-76 plane that crashed about two days ago....with the claim that there were Ukrainian POWs onboard.  You see...what is now said....is that the plane is typically ONLY for use for Russian military VIP travel.  

Yeah, no believes the POW story now, and that a couple of Russian commanders were probably onboard.

11. Odd trend brought up in German real estate news.  To beat the debt 'brake' law....more and more apartments  are being rented as partially or fully furnished.  They figure  out of each three apartments now on the market....one will be partially/fully furnished.

12. Leading off the prime-time news of both ARD/ZDF (public TV) last night....a  independent research team brought in by the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) concluded a study on abuse within the church.

Over the years....at least 2,225 people affected with 1,259 suspected perpetrators.

The end?  Well....no, it begs more questions.  Lot of people think that they barely found the iceberg and that more people will come forward now.  

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