Five German News Stories

 1.  Someone added up the carbon 'footprint' of the Foreign Minister (Baerbock, Green Party) and she's used the most carbon of any minister.  

Yeah, it'll be openly discussed if she really needs to travel as much as she does....for appearances.

If you watch public TV (ARD or ZDF) nightly, I'd say at least three days a week....Baerbock is on the road outside of Germany.  Internationally, she might be more 'known' than Scholz (the Chancellor).  

2.  What's all this refugee chatter going on between the states and the German federal gov't?

Well....this gets down to a large segment of non-German kids who need extra attention in schools, and the current program doesn't really budget for what is required.  Then you toss in living costs, and language classes.  The sixteen German states are saying 'enough'.....you need to put more money into the pot.

The Interior and Finance Ministers?  The kind of money discussed....is simply not there....because they spent a lot on the Ukraine issue.

I would imagine we are two or three months from a showdown where the sixteen states refuse to accept any more migrants.  

3.  Via Focus this AM....some NATO folks have now said that 'elite' Russians units is a joke, and for offensive value....it's pretty marginal.

4.  The head of the Duma (Russia's parliament) has now said he wants the US to compensate for the destruction of the Nord Stream I/II pipelines.  It'll be curious how this works its way through court, and if they have 'other' evidence.  

Estimated cost?  About a month ago, I read one estimate that placed the repairs at around one-billion dollars. 

5.  Offering comments on public TV stories?  

There is typically a brief period (sometimes no longer than 8 hours) that you can offer up a comment about a story on their web site.  Chief reason?  The commentary has to be evaluated by a public TV host, and then moderated.  

So, yeah, there might forty critical comments made over some story, and in the end....only five make it through the moderation process.  

Course, the opposite is true as well....forty positive comments might be made, and only a dozen of those might survive the moderation process.  

I should note.....emoji language never gets past the moderation process on public TV boards.  

I will say this....if you wanted to offer a critique or criticism....over a public TV story....you might as well write it with chalk on the sidewalk for public consumption (you'd have better odds of reaching more people).