Should We All Be ‘House Burping’?

Lüften goes international — about time! I’ve always preferred Stoßlüften, or power-airing. Pretty ambivalent about the term “house burping” though www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/r...

Kudos to France for taking the bull by the horns and putting its money where its mouth is

Spotted in Brussels today: Interesting attempt to Belgicize the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals

It’s voluntary for women.

Wagenknecht resigns as head of party named after her that she founded. It’s literally called the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht.

So will it keep the name?

😂

As we get #BackToSchool in #EUsky, check out POLITICO’s excellent newspaper — with stories on the drive to cut red tape, tanks vs. tractors in the upcoming budget, and construction chaos in the European Quarter.
edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/p…
Was very pleased to shepherd this!

Bill Would Give Newborns $1,000 in ‘Trump Accounts’

Have we seen this? $1,000 per baby born till 2029 into a “Trump account” that will be invested into financial markets

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/u...

The unprecedented failure of Friedrich Merz to gain enough votes to become Germany’s chancellor signifies dissent among his own grand coalition ranks.
Bundestag —
CDU/CSU: 208 seats
SPD: 120
= 328 votes.
He needed 316 but only received 310, meaning at least 18 of his own coalition failed to support

Chinese AI-generated video nailed it

Cory Booker for president 2028!

Spotted in Mechelen, Belgium

From today, it’s legal in Belgium to use plug-in solar panels at home. We’d like to get some for our own home since the Belgian state makes rooftop solar so difficult. But we are thinking of going to Germany to get them, where they’ve been used for a while and where there’s probably a big selection

Rep. Raúl Grijalva dies at 77 The 12-term Arizona Democrat had been under treatment for cancer.

Devastated. Raúl Grijalva was our guy in Congress.

www.politico.com/news/2025/03...

BSW brings legal demand for recount to Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe

Verdachte bekent moord op Heidi De Schepper, die 15 jaar geleden verdween, ook toenmalige partner en vriend aangehouden Het parket van Antwerpen bevestigde eerder vandaag dat 3 mannen waren opgepakt in de zaak. De 3 verdachten zijn 33, 39 en 55 jaar. De 55-jarige man is de toenmalige partner van Heidi De Schepper, de 2 anderen zijn gemeenschappelijke vrienden van de man.

There is this woman in Belgium who people have just now realized has not been spotted for 15 years, she had multiple children and no one ever reported her missing , not even her family

It is just so incredibly sad , you get murdered and no one even notices

BSW says it comes down to 13,000 votes and is looking into an election challenge

Just over 18,000 votes if I’ve done my math right. There were around 210,000 expat voters, unclear how many didn’t get their ballots. But probably thousands. Of course, the biggest question is how many BSW voters were among those!

Sahra Wagenknecht’s alliance BSW is just .03% under the 5% hurdle to get into Bundestag. With these margins, a couple thousand voters would have made a difference. Will be watching closely whether disenfranchised expat German voters challenge this election bundeswahlleiterin.de/bundestagswa...

Was clearly a sieg Heil — just quite short and a little hesitant. The next step in normalizing fascism in the United States

Snap German election leaves many expats excluded from vote Notorious German bureaucracy blamed for voters outside the country not receiving absentee ballots in time.

Genau, im Botschaft wählen zu können … und auch doch vielleicht online! Das haben mir Deutsche erzählt — auch in dem Artikel, was gerade erschienen ist www.politico.eu/article/germ...

Snap German election leaves many expats excluded from vote Notorious German bureaucracy blamed for voters outside the country not receiving absentee ballots in time.

Ich habe Sie in meinem Artikel zum Thema zitiert: www.politico.eu/article/germ...

Snap German election leaves many expats excluded from vote Notorious German bureaucracy blamed for voters outside the country not receiving absentee ballots in time.

German expat voters are being disenfranchised by absent absentee ballots.
Here’s my story for POLITICO: www.politico.eu/article/germ...
Thanks to @huettemann.eu @pouldu.bsky.social @fabschmidt.bsky.social

@fabschmidt.bsky.social

Lieber Herr Schmidt, ich schreibe eine kurze Nachricht zu diesem Thema für POLITICO in Brüssel auf Englisch. Wären Sie interessiert, einen kurzen Zitat zu geben? Gerne per PN. Ich wäre auch bereit, kurz zu sprechen

Was bleibt, Wahlanfechtung?

Allerdings. Ich war voll überrascht, dass ich noch bis drei Wochen vor dem 23.02. meinen Wahlscheinantrag abgeben konnte (und noch per Email — die Digitalisierung kommt doch voran!). War aber nicht überzeugt, dass die deutsche Bürokratie es schafft

Laut Poststempel wurde meins am 01.02. verschickt und ist erst Heute angekommen. Normalerweise dauert es keine zehn Tage, für Post zwischen Belgien und Deutschland

Bei mir auch nicht 😉

Aw shucks, so proud to have made the list 😊