Category: Politics

The "city of peace" Augsburg is mobilizing against the AfD party conference this weekend. The demonstrators also include representatives of the CSU.

In Augsburg, a broad protest is forming against the AfD party conference Photo: dpa

The appeal is flowery: "Show yourself Augsburg, show your attitude, show your heart, show your courage and show your tolerance," reads the call for demonstrations and rallies against the AfD party conference. This will take place this weekend in Augsburg’s Schwabenhalle in the fairgrounds, five kilometers south of the city center. Officially, 2,500 demonstrators are registered, but meanwhile significantly more are expected. Nevertheless, the numbers are unlikely to approach those of the anti-AfD rally in Berlin with 25,000 participants or the protests at the last party congress in 2017 in Cologne, where about 12,000 opponents of the AfD protested. This may also be due to the fact that Augsburg has only 290,000 inhabitants and a very rural environment.

On Tuesday, the car summit meets with Chancellor Merkel. The organization Campact and Fridays before Future protest against a new purchase premium.

Environmental activists believe a new car scrappage scheme would do enormous harm Photo: Kai Pfaffenbach/reuters

Ahead of Tuesday’s car summit at the Chancellor’s Office, activists from Fridays for Future, environmental groups and the campaign organization Campact are demonstrating against a new scrappage scheme. Demonstrators also plan to protest online and in front of the factories of major car manufacturers.

In NRW, 29 police officers are suspended for exchanging information in right-wing extremist chat groups. Interior Minister Reul speaks of a "disgrace".

Expresses horror at the police affair: NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul Photo: Marcel Kusch/dpa

North Rhine-Westphalia is rocked by a police scandal. Since early Wednesday morning, searches have been underway in several cities against 29 police officers. They are alleged to have shared right-wing extremist content in Whatsapp chat groups. Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) spoke of "the most evil and disgusting neo-Nazi, racist and anti-refugee agitation." The incidents hit the police "to the core". They are "a disgrace for the NRW police".

Now it’s getting dangerous: Trump is clearly ahead. Hillary Clinton must score with content if the country is not to fall into political frenzy.

Wobbly figures of Clinton and Trump in the White House Gift Shop. Photo: dpa

Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump: this will almost certainly be the duel the U.S. can look forward to. After their victories on Super Tuesday – in which the competition was beaten off – the nomination is hardly to be taken away from both of them. One is as expected as the other has long been inconceivable.

Mao’s movement continues to shape Chinese society to this day. Sinologist Daniel Leese explains its causes and consequences in his booklet.

Mao Zedong’s visible influence: statue in Wuhan, China Photo: reuters

The Chinese Cultural Revolution took place literally in front of the eyes of the world public, but without providing a view behind the scenes. Its image is still dominated today by the mass marches of young schoolchildren and students between 19, who, on the orders of Mao Zedong, wanted to drive those "who took the capitalist path" out of office.

Legendary prosecutor Fritz Bauer died 50 years ago. Unjustly, he was not as revered as the 68er icons Dutschke and Langhans.

A picture of Fritz Bauer in a Frankfurt exhibition in 2014 Photo: dpa

Sunday, some people will remember him, but an honorable part of the collective memory is not the day: on July 1, 1968, the most prominent prosecutor of the then still young Federal Republic, Fritz Bauer, was found dead in his bathtub. In the middle of the agitated time of (not only) student unrest, the symbolic figure of a humane rule of law, of a liberalization of mores, dies in a still authoritarian-minded Federal Republic – could that be?

The Lower Saxony state parliament passes a tougher police law. Not without a hefty exchange of blows between the deputies.

The "hard dog" and his drone: CDU interior politician Uwe Schunemann Photo: dpa

When Uwe Schunemann, CDU member of parliament and former interior minister of Lower Saxony, speaks of criminal gangs "who rake in money and even use child pornography and child abuse to do so," even guests in the gallery have to laugh. Schunemann does not make a plea for better child protection or, for example, tougher action against sex offenders on Tuesday in Lower Saxony’s state parliament.

China’s retaliation to the escalation from Washington is only a matter of time. Meanwhile, plumes of smoke rise from the consulate’s courtyard.

The Chinese Consulate General in Houston Photo: Adrees Latif/reuters

Tense relations between the United States and China are worsening at an alarming rate. First, Washington accused two Chinese hackers of targeting millions of dollars of U.S. companies’ data on the Covid 19 vaccine search on behalf of the intelligence agency. Just hours later, the U.S. government ordered the Chinese consulate general closed within 72 hours.