Again, the beat continues to be whatever dumb thing the Chancellor said lately until morale improves www.thelocal.de/20251120/stu...

My beat will continue to be 'whatever racist / xenophobic thing German Chancellor Merz has said lately' until morale improves www.thelocal.de/20251119/how...

I'll admit I tried this once with Robitussin in high school. Vision went white for like 5 minutes and later I threw up a bunch of purple goo in my friend's backyard. 0/10 absolutely do not recommend.

Ewe really need to see these photos of sheep marching through Nuremberg www.thelocal.de/20251117/in-...

Also in Europe I'd reckon

From a news report on a protest camp against a Gravel mine in Hesse: "The forest was also damaged by the camp. Nails and wood screws were driven into trees..." The plan is to cut down the forest where the camp is. But yeah, let's focus on those nails and screws. www.tagesschau.de/inland/regio...

Since 1990, the emissions share of the richest 1% has increased by 13%, and the richest 0.1% has grown by 32%, while the poorest 50% has decreased by 3%. policy-practice.oxfam.org/resources/cl...

Rosalía on learning different languages: "through understanding the other better maybe you can understand yourself better, and you can learn how to love better" www.thelocal.de/20251030/why...

I just found out that @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social and I share the same birthday. Same day and same year. So that's pretty cool. (In honour of the German custom I'll refrain from wishing him a happy birthday ahead of time)

In the midst of writing this I asked a German to guess how many Bürgergeld recipients were Germans versus foreigners and they assumed WAY more of them were foreigners than the actual number. Anyone else want to take a guess?

Who wants to tell the CDU/CSU?

Demonstrations are taking place in major German cities on Saturday October 18th, as part of the wider 'No Kings' Rally against rising authoritarianism in the United States.

📣 Germany's close to reversing its opposition to mass surveillance & private message scanning, & backing the Chat Control bill. This could end private comms-& Signal-in the EU. Time's short and they're counting on obscurity: please let German politicians know how horrifying their reversal would be.

The kids are out here eating pudding with forks! Honestly, very pleased to have brought what I'm pretty sure is the first English language report on this trend. www.thelocal.de/20251001/why...

Taking this story as a nice reminder that the bad news tends to make the headlines (Trump blocks mega wind project) but sometimes there's good news to be found too (wind project gets go ahead becuz Trump had no good reason)

This is excellent, peeps. Well worth your time (and you can sip it in parts, no need to read all at once)

Honestly, would've been a lot cooler if they'd just made it the 69-euro ticket www.thelocal.de/20250918/e63...

Kind of an amazing story: Pakistan installing solar like crazy becuz conventional electricity prices shot up. If that pattern applies in Germany, the conservative govt move to NOT lower elec taxes for homes could actually end up promoting household solar.

A short list of things you wouldn't expect are banned at Oktoberfest: -Scooters -Backpacks -Chugging a whole beer More here: www.thelocal.de/20250918/the...

At a time when my social media feed is just nonstop bad news and really ugly politics, every message I see from Zohran is a breath of fresh air... Like of course the ppl of NYC would vote for this guy! The question is why other leaders aren't taking notes.

Didn't have Germany setting up a national ravioli reserve on my 2025 bingo card but here we are...

Props to @rachloxton.bsky.social who found the answer to a Q I've heard many times: What happens to citizenship applications if the law changes while they are waiting to be reviewed? Put simply: they are decided based on the laws THAT DAY. More here⬇️ www.thelocal.de/20250904/wil...

The news we need: www.thelocal.de/20250902/wha...

This graph is amazing, a better future is completely within pur grasp if we simply care a little.

Chemical firms are lobbying MPs not to follow proposed EU ban on “forever chemicals” - their arguments are disputed by scientists and described as “big tobacco playbook” tactics By ‪@tesscolley.bsky.social and @pippaneill.bsky.social @endsreport.com www.theguardian.com/environment/...

When leaders come out and say things about immigrants being lazy, unemployed, welfare leeches people should scream at them - it's just not true. www.thelocal.de/20250826/in-...

One of my favourite quotes of all time was when I interviewed @tadziomueller.bsky.social and he said something like: "whenever you hear 'climate neutral 2050' they may as well be saying they're gonna have dancing polar bears wearing tutus on the moon by 2050..."

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Update from the 'Free State' of Bavaria: chips may no longer be sold after 8pm www.thelocal.de/20250821/chi...

Thank you for your service, Britain!

I'm generally against the use of generative AI in journalism, but I just admit it was fun 'chatting' with GPT for this one: www.thelocal.de/20250814/hel...

This just in: It's hot! www.thelocal.de/20250813/dan...

Temperature records are going to keep getting broken until morale improves (or until we stop burning fossil fuels).

I heard about jellies shutting down power plants in my past life when I was a part-time 'naturalist' at an aquarium in uni. An irony is that jellies are getting more abundant as climate impacts worsen, and therefore could disrupt nuclear power plants more and more. www.thelocal.fr/20250811/jel...

This article, and particularly this excerpt, concisely sums up my qualms with a lot of mainstream US reporting

Germany's conservatives are so damn sneaky: -promise huge spending for climate transition and also electricity tax cuts *Win election* -scrap electricity tax cuts for households -use climate transition funds to subsidize GAS prices -take a victory lap on reducing energy prices for households

Tesla news is wild becuz you learn something so wildly disastrous about the company and you think, ok that's definitely as bad as it can get and then later you learn about something much worse

I think the idea that climate change is something that happens to people 'over there' is still deeply ingrained in many. But climate-linked natural disasters like floods and fires destroy homes and displace people just about everywhere, including in Germany. I looked into this recently 🧵

Real German insults that when used on police have landed ppl fines: "Du Mädchen!" (You girl!) - €200 "Leck mich doch!" (Lick me) - €300 "Am liebsten würde ich jetzt Arschloch zu Ihnen!" (I would like to call you an asshole right now) - €1,600

*consciously resisting the urge to say something about how well this kind of political thinking worked out last time* www.thelocal.de/20250723/how...

To anyone with an upcoming appointment at the foreigner's office in Germany: -be early -have all your documents -dont wear shorts or tattered jeans -bring a German speaker & 'press your thumbs' www.thelocal.de/20250722/exp...

Someone asked me yesterday why Berlin's S-bahn was so messed up... Well it turns out they didn't have the personnel to manage the signal switch at one station (among other issues, surely) www.thelocal.de/20250721/whe...

ICYMI (because it wasn't announced very loudly): If you live in Berlin you'd better not have a knife on your person next time you catch an U-bahn / S-bahns train www.thelocal.de/20250717/mes...

"The IAE anticipates global oil demand to grow by 700,000 barrels per day this year." Is this as good as it gets for a real positive climate news these days? A surge in EV sales (and also tariffs, solar etc.) means not an actual decrease in oil use but at least slowing down demand growth a bit.

I've heard this sort-of adage from climate journos and photogs that the climate crisis gets closer and closer to all of us - from reports from far away on the TV, to the local news on the radio...until it's you taking a video on your own phone. This story demonstrates that intensely.

CDU: 'we must digitalise and reduce bureaucracy' Also CDU: 'Citizenship at the click of a mouse!? This must be stopped!' www.thelocal.de/20250715/fac...

When a German friend told me killing wasps was a punishable offense I didn't believe them at first...but it does in fact check out. Here's your German fun fact of the day: www.thelocal.de/20240715/can...

Great 🧵 on what exactly is unique about this moment in US history... It's notably *not* that right-wing leaders are trying to lead a massive deportation program - it's the widespread, organized resistance

Fishing for fuel for their anti-immigrant agenda the AfD had requested a list of names of the most common names of unemployment cash recipients... The answer they got is pretty funny (and not really surprising) www.thelocal.de/20250704/the...

Just back from a week-long micro retirement myself... What's more, being employed in Germany, I can take another 20ish days of micro-retirment within the next calendar year.