1. Just an odd 'cold-war' story....up off Kiel (Baltic Sea) rests a Russian 'spy-ship'. German authorities are concerned (at least talking about it). I guess they might be getting some cellphone traffic. There is some perception that they might be messing with GPS satellites/regional tracking.
2. This 'honor-killing' of the 15-year old Afghan female by the father and mother? Well...it took a turn.
Cops say after interviewing the arrested father....he pointed the finger at the wife....saying she was the one pushing for the 'honor-killing'. The reason given? The young lady had a 'lifestyle' issue....at least that is the talk of the police about cause.
3. Focus wrote up a long piece....you can read it completely (here).
Emphasis? Well....journalists from the New York Times came to the Euro Cup games, and among non-game news....started talking about breakdowns in German rail traffic. They started up talking about the past experience....German rail being efficient and functional, and now being disappointed.
Then the Times got into "miserable conditions" for the fans trying to get to or from the Munich stadium.
The Times slant? For visitors.....this was a shock, but locals just accepted as a normal thing.
My take? I rode German rail first in 1978....throughout the 1980s/1990s, and since entering retirement in 2013....have lessen my use. I might make five or six extended trips per year these days of German rail.
My gut says they added an awful lot of technology....with people thinking it improved the system. I'd argue that with each new piece of technology....you made the network more complex, and more breakable. The Bahn App? Well....it's a fantastic tool, but it also tells you the tracking time, and it's a constant remainder about late arrivals or cancellations.
I also think urbanization has crept into the mess...where living around Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, or Munich....is a mess by itself.
4. Meeting of NRW state Green Party. They started talking up a new view of politics....wanting to focus themselves on 'everyday-problems'.
This aimed at youth voters? Yeah.
Meaning less environmental chatter? I'm not sure about that. They seemed careful not to say what 'everyday-problems' were listed.
5. Over 100 lawsuits pending against the Health Ministry of Germany. This group goes back to the 2020 era (Merkel's crew were still in charge)....and in the Covid crisis. The Health Ministry then....needed the stupid masks.....so they had a open contract, without really managing things.
Well....a ton of suppliers started to deliver the masks, and there were just too many, and some were of crappy design.
What this amounts to....if the court says pay? Over 1-billion Euro. Some people think it might get up to five or six billion if you take in delayed payment/damages.
Legal standing? I read through a WELT piece and would suggest that there's an enormous amount of incompetence on the part of the Health Ministry. But adding to it....a fair amount of masks arrived and were proclaimed 'defective' when they came off the truck.
6. That Mannheim knife incident of 31 May, with the dead policeman (about 6 weeks ago)? It's taken an odd turn. Local prosecutor has reported that six locals filed 'complaints' over the way that the event was handled by the police (the necessity of shooting the Muslim guy). The attacker survived the gunshot.
Basic suggestion? Police did not maintain control or should have provided more security.
7. Long piece in WELT. If you can find the paper....worth reading. They wrote up article how cocaine has become a normal part of life in Germany, and there's some fear that political and judicial corruption might be a new problem because of the drug.
8. I sat and watched a N-TV news piece this AM....discussion? Forced heat planning, drawn up by the federal folks....dumped upon individual municipalities. Yeah...all 11,000 of them.
The comical side of this? The SPD-coalition says that chief problem is heating is not a national issue....it's a municipal issue.
The mandate is that you (the mayor/city council) need to wrote a report and explain how you (the city) intend to supply home-owners/businesses with heat in the future. Key point? Well....your report needs to state how climate-friendly your design will be and how you 'might' do this in some inexpensive way.
Yeah, it's a massive BS dump on the 11,000 towns, cities and villages.
Prior to this....it was simply shifted to individual owners (homes and apartment buildings) to gear some heat plan that 'worked', and it wasn't the government business how this was designed.
This pressuring municipalities to hire some idiot to write a bunch of BS.....giving fake goals/agendas, and just turning in a BS-report? Yeah....that's about the whole perception of this effort. The odd thing? Someone at the federal level would have to read all 11,000 reports.
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