News

Staff councils go to court: bamf wants to respect the law in the future

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees is fighting with its staff councils in court. Employees distrust the authority’s management.

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has lost the trust of its employees Photo: dpa

Munich, Bavarian Administrative Court, Room 1. Theresia Koch seems close to despair. The judge is presiding over an appeal hearing on the hiring policies of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (Bamf). "I don’t know how to solve anything in these proceedings," she complains right at the beginning, "if it’s always just about little things." Only to say a few sentences later, "Surely it must be possible to find a solution."

News

Therapy for hiv-positive people: no fear of aids

As an HIV-infected person, sex without a condom? Unimaginable! What hardly anyone knows: medication is the safest safer sex method for positive people.

Nice and colorful and even nicer if you leave it out? Image: dpa

"It may be that the cure for AIDS was on that plane," says Travor Stratton on Australian television. The Canadian has lived with HIV for more than 20 years, and has been an activist and consultant on the subject since 1999. On Friday, news of a setback in the fight against AIDS reached him as well.

News

New mayor in johannesburg: optimists feel a breath of fresh air

The new mayor from the opposition inherited a huge debt budget. He wants to crack down harder on corruption.

Has many ideas: Herman Mashaba Photo: imago/Gallo Images

The opposition government in Johannesburg is not yet old. It has been about five months since the Democratic Alliance (DA) took over the affairs of South Africa’s largest city, sending the African National Congress (ANC) into opposition. This historic result in the August municipal elections came as a shock to the erstwhile liberation movement. In the meantime, the DA, with millionaire Herman Mashaba as mayor, has presented a 10-point plan.

Music

Petition of the week: dim headlights, turn off music!

Grocery shopping is not much fun. For some, it’s pure stress – for autistic people, for example. Yet stores could do a lot about it.

For autistic people, supermarkets mean sensory overload; shopping usually ends with screaming, hitting, running away and knocking things over Photo: dpa

Katja Cragle’s four-year-old son Emil likes to go shopping. He often asks her about it. But shopping with him is not so easy. She always has to put him off or come up with excuses. Emil was diagnosed with autism last fall. "Taking him shopping basically ends in disaster," Cragle says over the phone. "It only takes about a minute, and he’s yelling, crying, hitting, knocking things over." The problem is supermarket sensory overload, which overwhelms people with autism: bright lights, too loud, too many people, too much clutter.

News

Constitutional court on “berlin advertising-free”: direct democracy sabotaged

There have been repeated complaints about the shameful handling of referendums. Now the Berlin Constitutional Court has read the Senate the riot act.

Advertising is everywhere in the city, usually far too much – but there is also some that is okay Photo: picture alliance/Paul Zinken/dpa

Stop your Sunday speeches about strengthening direct democracy! Stop pretending to value the engagement of your citizens!

Finance

Feature film “before the dawn”: the great powerlessness

Maria Schrader tells the love story between the exiled writer Stefan Zweig and Europe in a few exemplary excerpts.

Europe, where are you? Photo: X Verleih

You can almost smell the lush flowers on the dining table, around which servants scurry, busily polishing cutlery and straightening plates. Finally, the buzz of voices from the next room grows louder. The doors open and the gala dinner can begin.

News

New eu commission: european label swindle

Ursula von der Leyen has fulfilled too many wishes. Some of her candidates are completely unsuitable for the intended post.

Ursula von der Leyen presents her "dream team" Photo: ap

On paper, she looks good, the new EU Commission around Ursula von der Leyen. The first woman to head the powerful Brussels agency has fulfilled all the wishes EU leaders asked of her during the controversial nomination in July.

Finance

Dispute over broadcasting fees: culture war in saxony-anhalt

The fee dispute is not about 86 cents. The AfD and the right wing of the CDU want to weaken a supposedly left-green broadcasting.

Cover letter of the dispute Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa

It’s not about the 86 cents. CDU Secretary General Paul Ziemiak is setting a false trail when he describes the coalition crisis in Saxony-Anhalt as a dispute over a "sober factual issue." What is really at stake was clearly stated in an interview by the ousted Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht. The right wing of the state CDU is fighting back against the alleged moral apostasy of an intellectual, naturally left-green minority, against gender language and political correctness.

Music

New album from beyonce: perfection makes you sick

The queen is back. Beyonce Knowles released an album last Friday – which has sold more than 828,000 copies so far.

Feminism and self-promotion: Beyonce at the Super Bowl in February 2013. image: dpa

Overnight, Beyonce Knowles released an album – without interviews, without promotion. The industry makes the product and we, the listeners, produce the hype for free. "Beyonce" sold 828,000 copies in the first three days.

News

Rescue plan for insects: “we must act now”.

More diversity in the fields and less pesticides: with this plan, more than 70 researchers want to save the insects.

This busy little bee is to be saved Photo: imago images /blickwinkel

Smaller arable land with more diversity and fewer pesticides: this is how more than 70 international researchers want to save insects. "It’s not too late, but we have to act now," explains Viola Clausnitzer, a scientist at the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Gorlitz.