In Germany, "thieves have been blowing up ATMs at a rate of more than one per day in recent years"

CNN:

Germany has become Europe’s prime target for ATM bombings. And with its penchant for cash payments, it’s not hard to see why.

The country has more than 51,000 ATMs. In comparison, the Netherlands has around 5,000. The majority of Germany’s 83.3 million citizens have to travel no further than one kilometer to reach their nearest ATM, according to the central bank, Bundesbank.

Unlike its European neighbors, who largely transitioned away from cash payments due to the Covid-19 pandemic, cash still plays a significant role in Germany. One half of all transactions in 2023 were made using banknotes and coins, according to Bundesbank.

...

In terms of location, Germany is also an ideal target for cross-border crime: Neighboring the Netherlands and linked by motorways on some of which speed limits don’t apply. 

"Germany to welcome 250,000 Kenyans in labour deal"

That's the headline on the Yahoo-hosted version of the BBC's article published yesterday:

Kenya is struggling with increasing difficulties in providing work and sufficient income for its young professionals, while Germany is facing a shortage of skilled labour.

...

Migration agreements are a central pillar in the German government's efforts to curb immigration.

Seemed like surprising news, and something about the article seemed off.

Here's the third sentence of the current version of the same BBC article as hosted by the BBC:

The German government has said the deal does not specify the number of workers who will be allowed in.

The BBC-hosted article ends with the following note that has not been added to the Yahoo-hosted article:

Correction 14 September 2024: An earlier version of this article put a figure on how many Kenyan workers would be allowed into Germany under the deal. The German interior ministry corrected this to state that the deal did not specify a figure. 

Poland's prime minister "denounced as 'unacceptable' Germany's decision to extend temporary controls to all its land borders"

BBC:

Germany and all its neighbours are part of the Schengen border-free zone and under European Union rules temporary controls are allowed "as a last resort measure, in exceptional situations" for up to six months.

...

The three-parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government have come under increasing pressure to respond to poor results in state elections in eastern Germany where immigration was the biggest issue.

"Air traffic at Stockholm's Arlanda airport was disrupted for the third night in a row Tuesday after a drone was observed near the airport"

A brief summary.

Drone sightings prompted Sweden to temporarily halt air traffic at Stockholm's Arlanda airport

"four drones of varying sizes were sighted from the air traffic control tower"

A water emergency prompted the mayor of Capri to order a halt to the arrival of tourists

AP:

The emergency was caused by a failure in the mainland's water system that provides vital supplies to the world-known island.

...

Ferries and hydrofoils that had already departed for Capri were contacted by radio by the maritime authorities, which ordered their return to port and disembarkation of passengers.

Later last night:

On Saturday evening, however, the island’s mayor Paolo Falco said the ban had been “revoked” after a technical issue preventing the arrival of water from the mainland had been fixed. 

"Police find one of Europe's most wanted drug smugglers...in a luxury pad with drugs, guns and the ex-wife of a top government aide in Bosnia"

Vice:

they were not expecting to also find ... the ex-wife of ... a top Bosnian judicial official and a key advisor to Milad Dodik, president of the Republika Srpska

...

Under Bosnia’s complex government, the country is divided into semi-autonomous sections partially based on religion. [The fugitive] and [the ex-wife] were detained in the Republika Srpska, which is run by the autocratic-leaning Dodik, who has been sanctioned by the US Department of Treasury for corruption and attempts to destabilise Bosnia’s fragile government. 

...

“The Kotor clans have essentially wiped themselves out” 

In the last week, undersea cables between Estonia and Sweden, and Estonia and Finland were damaged

Guardian:

Damage to a gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland was discovered last week, which then led to the discovery of damage to a data cable. A preliminary investigation into sabotage is under way.

From a few weeks ago, "Germany's former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder to join Gazprom board"

DW:

Schröder, who was the head of the Social Democrat-led German government from 1998 to 2005, has attracted controversy since leaving office due to his close ties to Russia, including a personal friendship with President Vladimir Putin.

Schröder was widely criticized for calling the Russian president a "flawless democrat."

...

His other posts include acting as chairman of the shareholders' committee for Nord Stream AG and president of the board of directors at Nord Stream 2 AG. Both positions involve gas pipelines that connect Russia and Germany and are at the center of an intense debate on the international stage.

...

They worry that they could be used to pressure European governments to back down should Moscow attempt an invasion of Ukraine.

July:

Ten days before the German election in 2005, as the race between Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his challenger Angela Merkel was reaching its climax, the chancellor decided to hold a meeting with a man who had become a good friend: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

...

He was no longer sure he was going to win, and he had some urgent business to sort out that he did not trust his successor to get done.

An idea that had first been floated in the mid-1990s was therefore finally sealed on September 8, 2005, with the joint declaration of intent signed by the German and Russian heads of government. There would be a new natural gas pipeline running directly from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea

...

Schröder promptly lost the election, and a few days after his chancellorship ended, he joined the board of directors of the pipeline's new operating company, which would soon be renamed Nord Stream.

...

So it was left to Schröder's successor to oversee the completion of the project, though the ensuing diplomatic strife appears to have been worth it, because it was under Merkel's tenure that the project was doubled in 2015, with the beginning of Nord Stream 2.

...

In the early 2000s...German politicians had developed a contrary, more liberal theory — that more economic interdependence between Russia and western Europe would create peace in the long run. As trade increased, democracy would inevitably prevail.

More from July:

At the flip of a switch, Russia’s state-owned Gazprom can send gas to Germany at a lower cost with less hassle.

           ... 

German industry, which is in sore need of cheap, reliable energy sources, loves it.

Next year, Germany will switch off its last nuclear reactor and it plans to ban coal-fired electricity production by 2038. Though the share of renewable energy in Germany's electricity mix is growing, it’s still less than 50 percent of the total. That means the country has a big electricity hole to fill and needs natural gas, which pollutes less than coal, to do it. (Gas is also used to heat 45 percent of German households.)  

...

So is Germany willing to sell Ukraine down the river and strain relations with key allies from Warsaw to Washington in order to secure access to cheap gas? In a word, yes. 

And now:

Germany on Tuesday halted the certification of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline designed to bring natural gas from Russia directly to Europe, after Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized breakaway parts of eastern Ukraine and ordered troops into the region.

@POTUS made clear that if Russia invaded Ukraine, we would act with Germany to ensure Nord Stream 2 does not move forward. We have been in close consultations with Germany overnight and welcome their announcement. We will be following up with our own measures today.

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) February 22, 2022

Belgium's "leading virologist has been living in a safehouse" because a "far right . . . military shooting instructor is on the run with a rocket launcher and a machine gun"

BBC:

"The ex-soldier, heavily armed, was on my street for three hours, right in front of my house, waiting for me to arrive home from work."

...

He was already on a terrorist watch list in Belgium because of his extreme right-wing political beliefs. When he disappeared from his barracks, a note left no doubt that virologists were his target.

...

[Authorities] admit that mistakes have been made in the investigation so far, and that questions need to be answered about how a military man on a terrorist watch list was given access to a weapons store.

...

In the days that followed [the ex-soldier's] disappearance, a support group was created for the ex-soldier on Facebook. Before being closed down, it had attracted nearly 50,000 members. 

"Italian mafia boss mistakenly released after his arrest in Barcelona"

El Pais:

Information about the arrest was widely disseminated by the National Police’s press department on October 12. In a media release, the police underscored that Raso is “a leading member of the 'Ndrangheta.” The suspect was also defined as a vangelo, “a leading figure of the Calabrian organization whose criminal activity mainly takes place through drug and weapons trafficking.”

...

The judge issued a new arrest warrant, but by then Raso had walked out of his holding cell inside the City of Justice in Barcelona. “Everyone is looking for him. The homes where he was known to have stayed have been searched, but there is no trace of him,” lamented one police source.

The Atlantic's photo gallery of flooded Venice

24 photos.

Here's Fast Company on the flooding:

There was a plan to prevent this sort of flooding: The Moses project, a multi-billion-dollar flood protection system with dozens of sea barriers meant to protect the city, has been under construction since the early aughts, but it’s been plagued with delays and corruption, including the 2014 arrest of the then-mayor and 30 others on embezzlement charges. As you’ve gathered, the Moses system is not yet operational.

"Europe In Autumn" in real life

There's a bike path in Belgium that repeatedly crosses the border into Germany:

The full Vennbahn trail is 128 kilometres long but most of those who ride along it probably don’t know that a 25 kilometre stretch that they think is in Germany is actually in Belgium. It isn’t Belgian because of bikes, it’s because of trains. The Vennbahn trail is the former Vennbahn railway, a minerals line built by Prussia in the 1880s but ceded to Belgium after the First World War … to the victors, the spoils. I’ll let Gilbert Perrin explain some of the history. (I should also add that Gilbert was one of the prime movers behind turning the partly derelict line into a long-distance rail trail.)

...


it was built by the German Empire at that time. And then after the Versailles Treaty after World War One they part of this region became Belgian. So the Belgian community, present Belgian community. Part of it remained in Germany, but the railway was Belgian even across Germany. So it’s it’s very strange. It’s a kind of corridor, Belgian corridors through in some places through the German territory and what is very funny is that the border changes 11 times along the route. So sometimes both the ground is it totally in Belgium or totally in Germany except the railway. So if you are on the Vennbahn you are in Belgium, but on the left on the right, you’re in Germany. Yeah, sometimes you are in Belgium except or the left it’s Germany. Sometimes you are in Belgium but the street is German. It changes 11 times along the route.

...

This switching of borders was once very obvious, with barriers, border guards, and checks. For locals, back in the day, just getting to the shops or to school meant crossing international borders twice in just a few metres.

(Europe in Autumn is really good. Avoid spoilers.)

"Why IVF Has Divided France"

Atlantic:

Perhaps nothing illustrates that tension better than the heated debate unfolding here over the biggest social issue on President Emmanuel Macron’s agenda: a bill that would lift some of France’s restrictions on access to fertility treatments.

The proposed changes, some of which have already been approved and the rest of which are likely to pass, would grant single women, regardless of their sexual orientation, access to treatments such as in vitro fertilization and sperm donation, paid for by the national health system. These have previously been legal in France only for heterosexual couples who have been married or in civil partnerships for at least two years, and whom a doctor has determined are sterile or have medical risks requiring fertility treatments.

...

The reform is being driven by Macron—the youngest president in French history, a childless man who married his former high-school drama teacher—whose campaign promise to extend fertility treatments to lesbians and single women is aimed at bringing France in line with some of its European neighbors, and bringing French law in line with reality.

The City & The City

Foreign Policy:

Mitrovica is itself a divided city. On the south bank of the Ibar River, the Albanians use euros. American flags line the streets. There is a KFC and a hulking mosque and a maze of relief organizations. On the north of the Ibar, which you reach by a bridge blockaded at both ends by dark blue Italian Carabinieri armored vehicles, signs shift to Cyrillic. The Serbs use dinars. The city becomes visibly more bedraggled. Shabby streets are packed with internet gambling joints bearing blacked-out windows. Russian flags hang from banners. Posters of Putin are plastered across apartment buildings. “Crimea is to Russia as Kosovo is to Serbia,” reads a great chalk sketch. Men in black jackets languish at the Gavrilo Princip cafe.

...

Driving toward the Serbian border, what was most clear was that the smugglers had known well in advance about the coming operation. They had had enough time to back themselves against the Serbian border and barricade the road plodding north with one obstacle after another. I passed a wall of tires that had been burnt to goo, leaving a stinging scent in the air. A small bus stop had been overturned and tossed into the street. There were stacked crates of Coca-Cola and Fanta, now smashed. Felled trees had been strewn across the road. The barricades got more imposing the closer one got to Serbia. The police operation had bulldozed through an orange truck, throwing it onto the opposite banks of the road.

"Dutch ‘Singing Road’ Silenced After Villagers Complain: ‘I’m Going Nuts’"

NYT:

Instead of putting “rumble strips” on a road in a small Dutch village to warn drivers who veered onto the shoulder, officials installed musical strips.

Workers painted the stretch of road near the village, Jelsum, last Friday to “play” music from the regional anthem when tires rumbled along the raised strips. But soon, the biggest rumbling was coming from the village as residents begged the authorities to make it stop.

...

Signs told drivers, “You are approaching a singing road.” When drivers hit 60 kilometers per hour, about 38 m.p.h., the regional anthem rang loud and clear. And if drivers wandered onto the shoulder at a lower speed?

“If you go too slow, it’s the same thing like if you play a normal record: brr-brr-brr,” Ms. Poepjes said, imitating a slowed-down record.

And if a driver drove on the shoulder backward?

"The strangest accusation was that the Chinese in Tuscany weren’t dying—or, at least, that they weren’t leaving any bodies behind"

"The Chinese Workers Who Assemble Designer Bags in Tuscany"

In 1991, the regional government began an investigation into why, during the previous twelve months, not a single Chinese death had been officially recorded in Prato or in two nearby towns. In 2005, the government was still mystified—that year, more than a thousand Chinese arrivals were registered, and only three deaths. Locals suspected that Chinese mobsters were disposing of corpses in exchange for passports, which they then sold to new arrivals, a scheme that took advantage of the native population’s apparent inability to tell any one Chinese person from another.

German's military "is virtually not deployable for collective defense'"

WaPo:

Three years ago, Germany's military made headlines when it used broomsticks instead of machine guns during a NATO exercise because of a shortage of equipment

...

In October, reports emerged that not a single German military submarine was operational — at a time when Russian submarine operations in the Baltic Sea were raising new concerns. Bundeswehr pilots are using choppers owned by a private automobile club to practice because so many of their own helicopters are in need of repair.

Related:

The U.S. Navy’s newest Littoral Combat Ship, USS Little Rock, will have to spend its winter up north instead of Florida’s warmer waters after the ship became stuck in ice in Montreal.

"Portugal Dominated Angola for Centuries. Now the Roles Are Reversed"

NYT:

On the Portuguese coast of Cascais, where the nation’s royal court used to summer, a new 14-story condominium building looms confidently by the sea. So many of its apartments have been bought by Angola’s ruling class — sometimes a handful at a time — that the development has a nickname: the “Angolans’ building.”

Along the grandest shopping boulevard in the capital, Lisbon, Angola’s elite buy designer suits and handbags by the armful. And on one corner, above Louis Vuitton, sits the local office of Africa’s richest woman, Isabel dos Santos, a billionaire from Angola who has become one of Portugal’s most powerful figures by buying large chunks of the country’s banking, media and energy industries.

The money flowing into Portugal comes from the colony it dominated, often brutally, for hundreds of years, Angola. Now, the African nation is a major oil producer that has been led for the last 38 years by Ms. dos Santos’s father, President José Eduardo dos Santos.

Angola’s ruling class has profited so much during his tenure — and channeled so much of that money into Portugal — that when Angola threatened to cut off ties in recent years in response to reports that Angolan officials were being investigated for corruption in Portugal, Portugal’s foreign minister promptly apologized, setting off an intercontinental debate about the changing power dynamics between the nations.

...

Angola is often listed as one of the world’s most corrupt nations. And Portugal has been singled out for its laxness in reining in money laundering and bribery, particularly in its dealings with Angolans

"Switzerland puzzles over citizenship test after lifelong resident fails"

TG:

after two rounds of interviews and more than 100 questions, a jury of local councillors from the municipality of Buchs rejected Yilmaz’s application by 20 votes to 12, reasoning that she “lives in a small world and shows no interest in entering a dialogue with Switzerland and its population”

...

Another complaint centred around her unfamiliarity with “typical Swiss sports”, such as Hornussen, an indigenous cross between baseball and golf, or Schwingen, a style of folk wrestling