1. A few days ago, I essayed over the newest plagiarism episode unfolding....the vice-chief editor of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Alexandra Föderl-Schmid).
Well....since yesterday, she's been missing, and there's a 'final' letter indicating that she might be suicidal.
At least 100 folks are involved in the search....in a wooded region of Bavaria.
2. The Finance Minister showed up at Leipzig University for a 'talk'. The 'Last Generation' protest folks showed up at the 'talk' as well. This may be their new dynamic....instead of gluing themselves to pavement.
3. Curious scandal brewing with the Job-Center folks in Germany. They'd approved some Ukrainian family (several members) for financial help, and a few weeks into this....the family quietly went back to the Ukraine. The money? It kept flowing into a German bank account. They figure up toward 40,000 Euro. Whether the Germans get the money back or not? Unknown.
4. Wiesbaden had a ceremony....welcoming 80 new 'extra' police out of the school. This is 80 new billets....designed for western Hessen (the state)....from Wiesbaden to Limburg. Another effort to lessen crime.
5. WELT piece this AM....suggesting a NY bank deeply involved in commercial real estate....is about to collapse, and there's some connection to German banks. So the word 'crisis' is uttered a good bit.
Note, you dig into US banks....three different avenues of failure going on....commercial real estate (especially on the west coast), private home real estate, and cars at a record rate being repossessed.
6. Health Minister (Lauterbach) appeared live last night on a public forum show, and got into chatter about cannabis. It was more or less a talk on the 'evils' of cannabis....while admitting that the SPD-coalition is about to approve public sale of cannabis (2 weeks away). Rather odd forum.....most of the guests weren't as dramatic or negative on cannabis use or the 'evils'.
Anyone's guess how the legalization will go. Locally in Wiesbaden (295k population), I'd suspect around 8-percent are weekly consumers of weed. My best guess is that six shops end up licensed to operate.
7. Odd event in Switzerland last night....western side of the country.....train is taken over by one guy (armed with a ax). Fourteen passengers and the train driver taken hostage. Several hours spent with the police talking to the guy. Then police rushed the guy...shooting him (mid-30s Iranian guy on asylum bid). No one injured except for the Iranian.
Oddly, police had issues trying to communicate with him (none of them spoke the native language, and this Iranian didn't speak German, English or French). In the end....they did chat back and forth using WhatsApp and its translation capability (probably through Google).
What the police say at the end.....Iranian never got into motive other than wanting asylum. Rushing the guy....they shot him dead as he raised his ax.
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