Category: News

Ideas News Politics

Debate dealing with right-wing populism: fairness first

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Just laughing at Trump & Co. won’t get us anywhere. We need to convey complex interrelationships instead of suppressing them.

Laughing doesn’t help here either Photo: dpa

There is recently a nice promotional video for the Netherlands. It’s cynical, wicked, clever – and it casually takes the new American president’s oppressively nationalistic promise for a ride. "We understand, it’s America first. But can we just say Netherlands second?" The film has become a YouTube hit, and I too spent a Saturday primarily watching this video and the subsequent satirical parodies from other European countries.

News Politics

Comeback of alternative consumption styles: hip instead of hippie

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Swapping, sharing, trading, giving away: alternative consumption styles help against the sell-out of limited resources in real and virtual networks.

Born to share: Monkeys. Image: dpa

Barter rings, producer groups, car sharing and a global network community that exchanges, shares, trades, gives away and practices new techniques of togetherness as a natural lifestyle: Alternative consumption and production styles are making a comeback. Hip instead of hippie! For the time being in a small, manageable community. And yet: Will the mainstream follow?

News Politics

Comcast swallows time warner cable: “like the bully in the schoolyard”.

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The two major U.S. cable TV operators are planning their merger. Politicians and consumer advocates warn that the deal threatens democracy and is anti-customer.

Two become one: with the acquisition of Time Warner Cable, Comcast would control 30 percent of the pay-TV and video market. Photo: dpa

Significant opposition is stirring in the U.S. against the planned billion-euro merger of the two cable TV providers Comcast and Time Warner Cable.

Corona Ideas News

Bergfriedhof in heidelberg: grave with a view

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The cemetery on the former vineyard is one of the most beautiful churchyards in Germany. Even from a distance, the terraced grounds are striking.

Jewish cemetery at the Bergfriedhof am Ameisenbuckel in Heidelberg Photo: Werner Otto/imago

In pre-Corona times, a visit to Heidelberg’s old town could be quite exhausting. Hordes of tourists meandered through the narrow streets, flooded the countless souvenir stores with an extremely high kitsch factor or almost went into ecstasy at the sight of the romantic Heidelberg Castle. They purposefully stormed the restaurants and reliably occupied every tourist hotspot that one would have liked to take a look at oneself in peace.

Ideas News Politics

Colson whitehead’s “the nickel boys”: inside the house of lies.

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Abuse and racism were systemic at the Dozier School for Boys in Florida. This is what Colson Whitehead’s "The Nickel Boys" is about.

Bloodstains on the wall of the "White House" at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys Photo: imago images/ZUMA Press

Political novels are an ambivalent matter. They are suspected of using the means of literature as an instrument of propaganda. James Baldwin’s severe verdict on Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom’s Cabin" is well known.

News

College football ahead of season finale: chaos ahead

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The college football season is a superspreader event with little athletic value. Now it’s time to do away with the outdated structures.

Contentious: Justin Fields and the Ohio State Buckeyes are in the semifinals despite playing fewer games Photo: AJ Mast/ap

Even in ordinary years, college football is a confusing pleasure. A not inconsiderable part of the fun is debating anew each winter whether the process used to determine which university in the great country has the best football team makes any sense at all, or at least a little.

Ideas News Travels

Mountain idyll on elba: between mines and sea

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Once Monte Calamita was famous for ore mining. The mines shaped the region. Now the mountain calls vacationers who are looking for more than just beaches on Elba.

Hard past: Ore mining has shaped the region Photo: Bertrand Rieger

When the sun sets on Monte Calamita, the iron ore begins to sparkle. The black-red stones lie everywhere on the ground, with fragrant helichrysum, also known as curryweed, growing in between. The skeleton of a rusted winding tower towers above everything. In the background, hills carved by ore mining spread out. Below them are hidden coves with pebble beaches. In front of them is the blue sea and, in the middle of it, the small island of Monte Christo.

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Mining accident in soma, turkey: prison sentences for those responsible

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It has been four years since the fatal mining accident in Turkey. A court sentenced several of those responsible to long prison terms.

Rows of open graves, shortly after the mine accident in May 2014 Photo: dpa

Four years after the mining accident that killed 301 people in Soma, Turkey, several people responsible have been sentenced to long prison terms. A court in the western Turkish city of Akhisar sentenced former mine chief Can Gurkan to 15 years in prison on Wednesday, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu and Dogan news agencies reported.

Corona News

Argentina threatened by corona poverty: basic income for millions

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For more than four months, Argentina has been suffering from the lockdown, with half of the population threatened with poverty. Now the social system is being discussed anew.

Half of the population is threatened by poverty, like this demonstrator in Buenos Aires Photo: Agustin Marcarian/reuters

In Argentina, the dramatic increase in poverty has accelerated the discussion about the introduction of a basic income. According to estimates, half of the 45 million inhabitants will live below the poverty line after the Corona pandemic.

News

Mountain thriller on zdf: big rocks, small story

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ZDF is trying its hand at a mountain thriller again: "Die Tote im Eis". The result is a beautifully filmed, but unfortunately rather crude story.

Secretly afraid of heights: Gregor (Benjamin Sadler). Image: ZDF

Oh, family! You Schufa entry in individual life design, you Achilles heel of self-confidence. What would art and the culture industry do without you, you constructed group of people of the most diverse colors, who are supposed to be chained to each other forever and ever, just because at some point in the distant past a man and a woman had unprotected sexual intercourse with each other?