NYT Berlin correspondent. Former correspondent for the FT in the Mideast and Berlin; learned the ropes at Reuters. RTs, favorites not endorsements etc.
Issam was the sweetest colleague. He let me take a kitten I was nursing on assignment once, and made it a bed in his helmet. But he always reminded me, whenever I got careless: “Our goal is to cover the news, not become it”. I am so sorry this happened to you my dear Issam. RIP.
Excited to share my 1st feature for
@nytimes
, about the amazing Holocaust survivors who fled war once more, via an amazing rescue by
@TheJDC
&
@JewishClaimsCon
“They told me Germany was my best option. I told them, ‘I hope you’re right”
Debate over
@MelnykAndrij
comments stirred questions over how 🇩🇪 & 🇺🇦see a dark chapter of their shared history. More important, it exposed how diverging views of history shape one of the tensest European partnerships against Russia’s invasion -
“Is it any surprise that Jews in Germany worry that the country’s obsession with Israel has more to do with the German psyche than their own sense of safety and belonging?” - fascinating piece by
@Deborah_Feldman
| The Guardian
"Most Germans thought he was the man who was best prepared for the job, but it seems he wasn’t really ready" - Olaf Scholz's terrible week, by
@kbennhold
"It’s turning my world upside down" - Many Russian-speaking Ukrainians are abandoning their native tongue for Ukrainian to reject "the language of the occupier". Language activists in western Ukraine have formed "language clubs" to promote the switch.
I said goodbye to the
@FT
this month— thank you to my editors and colleagues for 8 fantastic years. Can’t recommend it enough as a place to work for those that get the chance!
Germany’s domestic intel agency released its annual report today, & called China “the greatest threat in terms of economic and scientific espionage”—Awkward timing, as 🇩🇪 gov & biz hold talks with 🇨🇳 gov delegation 😬… via
@NYTimes
“The trend across the board in European armies has been cutting, cutting, cutting,” says
@Ce_Moll
, of the
@dgapev
"But at the end of the day, many were on the same track as Germany: War is a theoretical thing. So we have theoretical tanks.”-
“It feels a bit like Psalm 23: ‘You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies”-says an MP whose office sits across the Russian Embassy in berlin. He was told to stop using Bluetooth & close the blinds in the hopes of hindering spies.
@NYTimes
Exporting the grain trapped in Ukraine by land requires about 400,000 train wagons. “If you lined those wagons one behind the other, it would be 7,500 kilometers long. That is like the distance from New York to São Paulo. It’s impossible.”
@NYTimes
In his address to Bundestag,🇺🇦 Pres. Zelensky uses Berlin wall as metaphor for a new, invisible wall he says his country is being dragged behind. Referencing Reagan speech, he addresses
@Bundeskanzler
Scholz sayiing: "tear down this wall" so your descendants will be proud of youi
Was waiting for a Syrian to show up... "I was born in Syria but raised in Ukraine. Russia destroyed my home country but I will not allow it to destroy Ukraine. These men with me are all ready."
Tarek Al Jassem, a Syrian-Ukrainian businessman from Aleppo raised a platoon with his own money.
Translation:
My dear Ukrainians sons of my city Odessa. I am here and have not departed. We will defend our land. The Russians have destabilized the security of our homes and lands.
Language fluidity among Ukrainians meant it was not uncommon to hear one person speak Ukrainian & the other reply in Russian
@oonuch
says. But war could change that: “To switch over to Ukrainian is a power. They are so powerless right now. This is the one power they have.”
"It’s turning my world upside down" - Many Russian-speaking Ukrainians are abandoning their native tongue for Ukrainian to reject "the language of the occupier". Language activists in western Ukraine have formed "language clubs" to promote the switch.
You don’t get quotes like this every day: “They immediately blurted out such vulgar things it would make any mother cry. The conversation was hard, and as I was told, masculine”— via
@NYTimes
@VALERIEinNYT
The Berlin police are banning a demo planned by Jewish Berliners whose stated message was “Against the murder of our fellow human beings in Gaza1-Jewish and Palestinian people have the same right to live”.
Nach Bewertung aller Umstände und Erkenntnisse sowie der Abwägung sämtlicher Interessen – insbesondere dem Grundrecht auf Versammlungsfreiheit – wurde die für morgen angezeigte Versammlung auf dem
#Oranienplatz
„Jüdische Berliner*innen gegen Gewalt in Nahost – Gegen den Mord an
“The B.N.D. has been considered by all partner services to be a complete molehill… its internal security has failed over the years — time and time and time again.”
@NYTimes
Tragic & beautiful piece. "Even before Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, the world had moved on from Homs. One of the most destroyed cities in Syria became a footnote. But not to me." - Nor to me
@Dr_Ammar_Azzouz
-
“Germany and Europe need to become the engine room for innovation again”—
@ABaerbock
lays out her vision for Europe to the
@FT
with very different plans on fiscal policy & tougher lines on China & Russia than either of her competitors for chancellor
After much cheering over 'Zeitenwende', Germany seems to drag its feet. "We need to recognize that this is about us — that power politics are back and Germany must play a role"
@ClaudMajor
tells
@kbennhold
and
@StevenErlanger
"The school could accommodate a former CIA director who leaked classified information and a former senior CIA official who apologized for torture—but not the person who led Human Rights Watch for three decades."
The mistaken US assessment of the Taliban came down to something simple: “Wishful thinking seeking to provide a justification to leave.”
@FT
by
@KatrinaManson
Eight years ago, Ryyan al-Shebl journeyed across the Mediterranean and trekked over Europe fleeing war. Now, he is mayor of a tiny 🇩🇪 town. His story reveals interesting lessons about a nation still wrestling with its new multicultural identity-
A chronicle of Lebanon's annus horribilis & reflections on its once-lauded "resilience." Why does Lebanon have so few heroes? “Well, they’re all dead "
@thebeirutbanyan
tells
@ChloeNCornish
via
@financialtimes
@GretaThunberg
will head to Berlin for next week's
@FFF_Berlin
protest. She "emphasized that she was not promoting a particular party - 'We are not lobbyists for the Greens'." -
"I chose journalism so I can be close to human beings. Maybe it's not easy to change the reality, but at least I was able to deliver that voice to the world"
- Shireen Abu Aqleh, a Palestinian journalist who's shot dead by 🇮🇱 forces today.
Rest in power!
#JournalismIsNotACrime
Angesichts der sich zuspitzenden Sicherheitslage am Flughafen, bin ich froh und erleichtert, dass unsere Soldatinnen & Soldaten, die diesen gefährliche Einsatz ausgeführt haben, soeben sicher den afghanischen Luftraum verlassen haben. 3/15
About 11 yrs ago I left Syria after an Arabic fellowship and an editor joked I'd never return: "there's no news there". 10 yrs ago, the Arab Spring transformed people's lives across the region, mine too. It can be hard to look back. Here's a great overview by
@LizSly
.
Ten years ago, the Arab Spring swept across the Middle East. Today, the hopes awakened by the pro-democracy uprisings have vanished—but the underlying conditions that drove the unrest are as acute as ever.
“Frustration with the United States has grown across the region as Mr. Blinken’s diplomatic tour presented the unusual spectacle of authoritarian Arab rulers lecturing American officials about human rights.” via
@NYTimes
In Germany, "no politician, no politician, no party treats the climate crisis like an emergency," Thunberg told Tagesspiegel, not even after the "terrible flood tragedy in the summer".
@GretaThunberg
will head to Berlin for next week's
@FFF_Berlin
protest. She "emphasized that she was not promoting a particular party - 'We are not lobbyists for the Greens'." -
The top rights officer at Europe’s border agency said in a confidential report that it should stop working with Greece because border guards there were mistreating asylum seekers.
By
@MonikaPronczuk
@MatinaStevis
@NYTimes
Meet the men&women making your sausages &cutlets in some of Europe's biggest abattoirs. Here's how they were tricked out of wages 4decades. Germany's new law can hopefully change a lot. Here we show challenges workers, unions, & some devoted lawmakers faced/ may still face ahead
The four staffers paid by German taxes to work in the office of ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who refused to relinquish board positions on Russian state companies, have reportedly resigned
Ex-Kanzler Gerhard
#Schr
öder verliert seine aus Steuergeld bezahlten Mitarbeiter:innen. "Ich kann bestätigen, dass die 4 Mitarbeiter in dem Büro gebeten haben, wieder in anderen Funktionen zu arbeiten", sagt Schröders bisheriger Büroleiter.
THREAD >
I went to a luxury getaway in the Bavarian Alps where some locals say the presence of 2 oligarch villas, which became a public debate since Russia’s invasion, has made them rethink the air of silence long kept about the source of wealth among many of their superrich guests
I was so moved speaking to gravediggers & morgue workers handling Ukraine’s war dead with
@DiegoIbarra_S
. They feel a special responsibility to handle what others can’t— but now they bear psychic wounds of this war, to which few can relate.
This man at
#Berlin2908
anti corona measures protest is challenging critics with a sign asking where the far-right are. I may have found some potential candidates
Bundesminister Volker
@Wissing
befürwortet die Sperrung des deutschen Luftraums für russische Luftfahrzeuge und hat die Anordnung getroffen, alles hierfür vorzubereiten.
For three years now the Green leadership has gone on a “listening tour” to get to know biz says
@DerDanyal
and what they learned “has been sucked into the DNA and thinking of the party”
Nasrallah responds to Saudi comments that Lebanese ppl are innocent ("lucky you") and then brings up Yemen and the high civilian death toll and destruction "Is that the way you're going to rescue the Lebanese people?"
She says EU, US learned from suspending 🇮🇷from Swift. It was hard to fund humanitarians. Imagine a Russian abroad unable to send $ to a grandmother."This may sound small...but those responsible for this bloodshed will have ways and means to carry out financial payments anyway."
In Brussels,
@ABaerbock
makes a case against Swift suspension:"In these moments, despite everything going through your heart right now, you have to keep a cool head. It's important we get sanctions in place that have a targeted effect on the power system & don't just sound big."
🇷🇺war on 🇺🇦 finds new foe as Berlin clubs re-open this weekend: "Berlin's club culture, closely linked to Kyiv's club culture, is launching a solidarity campaign ... A portion of proceeds from the first club weekend will go to humanitarian aid organizations" -
@clubcommission
Great
@ftweekend
on Generation Merkel, the kids who have only known her government by
@GuyChazan
:
“Whenever a new issue came up, you always kind of knew how Merkel would react. It was somehow predictable.” The future will be anything but.