Tehran (AFP)—Strait of Hormuz 'completely open' for rest of ceasefire: Iran FM

Quite the story from @thediasporist.bsky.social, and a real window into the strangely (& uniquely) German discourse on Israel, Palestine, racism and antisemitism.

Ein Abend an der BURG – the Diasporist What happens when the fight against antisemitism ends up obscuring racist violence? What if defending oneself against a physical attack is considered antisemitic simply because the attacker presents h...

Vor dem Amtsgericht Halle soll nächste Woche geklärt werden, wer Opfer einer Campusattacke war. Der Fall zeigt wie stark Antisemitismus-Diskurs in Deutschland politisiert wird – mitunter durch staatlich geförderte Organisationen wie RIAS @thediasporist.bsky.social
thediasporist.de/de/ein-abend...

Malle-Revolution nach 30 Jahren: Bierkönig am Ballermann wechselt Biersorte Im Bierkönig an der Schinkenstraße endet eine Ära. Ab jetzt fließt ein anderes Bier durch die Leitungen. Für König Pilsner ist Schluss!

apparently a huge deal that the mecca of drunk german tourists—the “bierkönig” bar on the spanish island of mallorca—is going to have krombacher pils on tap, after three decades of serving könig pilsner (honestly all sausage to me, as the germans say). m.bild.de/news/ausland...

Exclusive | Europe Is Accelerating a NATO Fallback Plan in Case Trump Pulls Out The Continent is drawing up a contingency for greater European involvement as tensions rise over the Iran war.

Finland's president on military conscription: "I’m not going to give advice to any European countries, but in terms of civic education, national identity and national unity, there is probably nothing better than compulsory military service." www.wsj.com/world/europe...

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Saved From Closure by Nonprofit

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, newspaper threatened with imminent closure after a bruising yearslong labor battle, will be bought by the Baltimore Banner's nonprofit owner:
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/b...

what if they can express gratitude for each particular dollar individually?

Reading between the lines, seems like it still means defeat for the Post-Gazette's unions: "Because the Venetoulis Institute is buying only the assets of the paper, it is not required to assume the contracts of Block Communications."

Hungary's communist leaders organized competitive elections in 1990, lost decisively, and then peacefully conceded and handed over power. Does that prove that the Hungarian People's Republic was democratic?

Well, 2008 was an absolutely brutal time to be freshly on the job market, or looking for part-time student work, etc.

➸ Current Synopsis at 06:54 ➸

Low 50 miles south of Iceland 998 losing its identity

Watching an ARD documentary about Herbert Grönemeyer and something that must be kinda nice about being a big German-language star is that you can just go abroad and no one has even a remote idea who you are.

‘A full-on embrace’: how the EU’s largest news publisher fell in love with the US Mathias Döpfner, ‘guru-like’ CEO of Axel Springer, wants to expand – but critics say his stated values sometimes don’t line up with what appears in his titles

“The romantic view of the Anglosphere runs deep inside Axel Springer,” said one company insider. “And Mathias is the biggest romantic of them all.” www.theguardian.com/media/2026/a...

on today's episode of imperial decline

what a glorious time capsule of this broken moment we are in

Where Does a Dog Belong? Tensions between canine lovers and other New Yorkers are boiling over.

"In seemingly every argument, someone brings up children. 'Well, my dog,' someone inevitably says, 'is better behaved and less disruptive and more pleasant than your disgusting child.' This is very likely true and generally irrelevant. Dogs are not children." www.curbed.com/article/dogs...

One month ago.

a crypto use-case spotted in the wild!

“These are the utterances of a man casting about for an act of sufficient magnitude to substitute for the coherent strategy he never bothered to contemplate,” @hbanai.bsky.social writes in a tour-de-force, must-read @newlinesmag.bsky.social essay.

newlinesmag.com/argument/the...

Copies of Görlitzer Park "Master Key" Distributed By Mysterious Bunnies The masked "Union of Easter Bunnies" handed out chocolates with the master key to the park's controversial fence locks – and also hid a few for members of the press.

Masked Easter bunnies in berlin handed out master keys to the controversial new security gates closing Görlitzer Park. The news today from @heistberlin.bsky.social: www.heistberlin.com/news/copies-...

The sequencing is a bit off, but "gigantic global investment in electricity generation capacity that seems unlikely to ultimately be fully utilized" combined with "massive oil shock" does sorta seem like the formula for green electrification.

hard to believe such statements coming from a recipient of the hallowed FIFA Peace Prize.

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/u...

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.

one is glad that burns seems vaguely aware of the existence of the central time zone, but one sometimes is left wishing he’d do something with that awareness.

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.

My Year as a Degenerate Sports Gambler Practically overnight, America made wagering on a game as frictionless as checking the weather. I was determined to understand the consequences—for my country, and for myself.

"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...

Danmark forberedte sig på muligt angreb fra USA: Fløj poser med blod til Grønland og gjorde klar til at sprænge landingsbaner i luften Nøglekilder i Danmark og Europa fortæller nu for første gang, hvad der skete i de mest kritiske dage, hvor Donald Trump truede med at tage Grønland "på den hårde måde".

"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...