Lots of outrage in Germany when Trump admin slashed foreign aid, cut state media (e.g. Voice of America & Radio Free Europe), and went after university funding. What's Germany doing, though? Foreign aid slashed, cuts at state broadcaster DW, and universities facing mounting budget problems.

Frankfurt (AFP)—German business morale fell in March due to the fallout from the war in the Middle East, a survey showed Wednesday, as the conflict roils energy and financial markets." From the ifo Institute report: "The war in Iran has put any hope of a recovery on ice for the time being."

things were better when the computer lived in its own specific room and you only went in there sometimes

It is a German conceit, that the vertebræ are absolutely undeveloped skulls.

"Practically overnight, we took an ancient vice—long regarded as soul-rotting and civilizationally ruinous—put it on everyone’s phone, and made it as normal and frictionless as checking the weather. What could possibly go wrong?" www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

"The goal of having soldiers on land in Greenland – with as many different flags on their shoulders as possible – was, according to six of the sources, so that the Americans would be forced to take a major hostile action...to occupy Greenland militarily." www.dr.dk/nyheder/indl...

when will we get the video of sad kash patel in the team usa clubhouse drinking whiskey with depressed baseball players?

They’re telling me a great empire will be destroyed if I attack Persia. Even the oracles who don’t like me very much, very nasty, they all said to me, “Sir, it’s one of the great empires, and it’ll be destroyed. And all because you attacked Persia.” That’s what they’re telling me.

002: The Train HEIST 🚆 Our second newsletter just went out. Featuring a fun dispatch from @biettetimmons.bsky.social, who spent the last week betting cold, hard caßh on how delayed individual Deutsche Bahn trains will be. Missed it? Sign up → heistberlin.com

bundesverdienstkreuz für diesen mann. nie hat sich jemand deutscher verhalten.

“As a place for consultation and decision-making, the [NATO] alliance is basically over, because the Americans are not interested.” www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/w...

New York taqueria prevails in lawsuit brought by German tourist who couldn't handle the hot salsa at Los Tacos No. 1: "For someone like me living in Germany and eating nothing spicy, it was a very big shock physically and mentally." eu.usatoday.com/story/money/...

WSJ: Trump knew risks of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz before going to war, but was confident Tehran would capitulate first. www.wsj.com/politics/nat...

New - Europe warned: weaponise EU market against China or face manufacturing collapse My report on new research from @ruehlig & @Aligarciaherrer that says: 1. China's economy is not as strong as Europe fears 2. Europe has leverage, use it or lose it

still waiting for that pivot to asia

"The prospect that “the Torygraph” — as it has been dubbed — could soon be in the hands of German owners for the first time in its 168-year history will send shockwaves through the ranks of conservative power brokers in Westminster." www.ft.com/content/e5cb...

FT comments section this morning - saying what everyone else is thinking, right?

i really recommend "the belgrano diary" podcast series about the sinking of an argentine warship by a british submarine during the falklands war—& the lies & political intrigue that follow. from lrb / andrew o'hagan. www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

"It takes an immensely talented writer to draw us through all this material and keep the story humming with dramatic tension. Ismaïl delivers." A stunning review of HYPER by @brynstole.bsky.social theauflauf.substack.com/p/march-book...

"Trump’s moment of peak potency was choosing to go to war with Iran. From then on, Trump lost his monopoly on how the war unfolds. Many others—not just Iranians—now have a say over its direction." www.ft.com/content/611e...

„Doch laut Dokumenten, die der taz vorliegen, ermittelt die Polizei gegen den Schuldirektor im Fall nun sogar wegen ‚falscher Verdächtigung’. Weder auf Deutsch, Arabisch oder Englisch lassen sich zudem Belege für seinen imposanten Lebenslauf finden.“ Starke Recherche! taz.de/Mutmassliche...

the best new books publication the western hemisphere is THE AUFLAUF: theauflauf.substack.com

subscribe to the auflauf! undoubtably berlin's premier gossip-mongering literary review!

Another great set of books this month: Matthew McDonald's debut poetry collection @ajbwells.bsky.social; Julia Franck's autobiographical novel @return2sanders.bsky.social; and Agri Ismaïl's account of dislocation and late capitalism @brynstole.bsky.social. Plus some EXPLOSIVE new gossip...

As the laid off Middle East News Editor, I concur. Management eliminated the positions of every single staff correspondent and bureau chief in the Middle East.

“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said nypost.com/2026/03/02/u...

“all the fun stuff – books, sports, local news – has been blotted out by the shrill melodrama of partisan politics.” a lovely lament for the book world. www.the-tls.com/regular-feat...

"One of every 15 residents in Dublin’s trendy Grand Canal Dock district was born in the U.S., according to realtors, higher than the percentage of Americans born in Ireland during the 19th-century influx following the Potato Famine." www.wsj.com/us-news/amer...

Not often you seen "Oi!" in European cultural discourse: it can only be @ajbwells.bsky.social, here with his "extra scoop of Auflauf": namely on great book openings... theauflauf.substack.com/p/oi-quick-q...

My latest — on Malaparte in @nybooks.com www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

lol this twist in a "pc magazine" article headlined "the unabomber was right"

BOOM. www.ft.com/content/8017...

i finally read the mellon foundation story in the atlantic and the annoying thing is there is no attempt to actually establish the central claim—that mellon has a "virtual monopoly on humanities funding"—beyond an offhand comparison to the (much diminished) national endowment for the humanities.

Berlin (AFP)—Some Russian and Belarusian athletes will be allowed to compete under their own national flags at the 2026 Paralympics in Milan-Cortina, the Games' governing body confirmed to AFP on Tuesday.

pretty stunning chart

amazing how many well-informed people i meet continue to think that pageviews / ad impressions is a meaningful and healthy revenue source for news outlets.

"Eighty percent of Americans said voters have a responsibility to keep up with the news, but just 8% said they had a responsibility to pay for it." www.semafor.com/newsletter/0...

one of the truly great american novels

the tone was very different, but marco rubio's speech in munich was every bit as hostile to european centrism as the vance speech last year and recent u.s. "national security strategy." not really sure why wolfgang ischinger was talking about a "sign of relief."

London Literary Gazettem 1851, on all the whale stuff in MOBY-DICK: "Bad stuffing it makes, serving only to try the patience of [Melville's] readers, and to tempt them to wish both him and his whales at the bottom of an unfathomable sea." bookmarks.reviews/the-original...

When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. “Do they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. “What else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up”

The 2024 H1B visa record showing The Washington Post CEO being paid $3 million can be seen here. (There's no similar record for 2025, including under variants of the company name.) h1bdata.info/index.php?em...

the strange lives of europe’s lesser fascists

"It doesn’t earn him any technical points. It puts his whole body at catastrophic risk...But now this one act of pure showmanship has become the electrifying coda of Malinin’s programs as he stakes his claim as the greatest figure skater of all time." www.wsj.com/sports/olymp...

Europe faces a “geopolitical and geo-economic state of emergency” Macron told us, and will be “swept aside” if it does not reform. After its “Greenland moment”, Europe can’t go on as before. The US is “openly hostile” to Europe and wants it “dismembered” economist.com/europe/2026/...

i mean, if only the story gave some sense of what even a minor respiratory infection could do to a nordic skier.

is it a scandal that the **norwegian** olympic team outfits are made by a **swedish** sportswear brand?

Sleuth @ruthbetold.bsky.social was hot on the potato trail around Berlin in search of free spuds amid the great glut. Really delightful dispatch in the FT magazine. www.ft.com/content/1554...

I'll say more before too long, but for now: Thanks to anyone who has ever read and supported the Post's books coverage.

i am so incredibly depressed by the news.