Ned Richardson-Little

I have thoughts about the election of the AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt and how an election steeped in symbolism of the GDR is not actually a problem of re-litigating German reunification.

Solar has overtaken nuclear. A decade ago it supplied 1% of the world's power. In 2025 it met three quarters of global demand growth. Almost nobody saw it coming. I spoke to Jocelyn Timperley at BBC Future about why. www.bbc.co.uk/future/artic...

Der Kurs der letzten Wochen von Boris Rhein (Stadtbild-Debatte, Wahl von AfDlern) zahlt sich für die CDU offenbar sehr aus. 👇 www.tagesschau.de/inland/regio...

Z not only has the best opening music by Mikis Theodorakis, it also has this spectacular opening disclaimer.

@artede.bsky.social mal wieder komplett am abliefern mit der Costa-Gavras Kollektion in der Mediathek. Absolute Empfehlung an alle dieses Brett von einem Film zu gucken, lange nicht mehr so begeistert von einer Neuentdeckung gewesen: www.arte.tv/de/videos/03...

Not only a vital defeat of the far right, but also a win of inestimable value for the planet.

@tabouchadi.bsky.social und ich schlagen einen neuen Blick auf das Verhältnis von Arbeiter:innen und AfD vor. Die Arbeiterklasse ist nicht nach rechts gerückt. Stattdessen wurde ihr rechter Flügel mobilisiert, ihr linker demobilisiert. Für linke Parteien birgt das strategische Potenziale. Mehr hier:

"Interbrigadisten vor Teruel" (International Brigades at Teruel) by Gerhard Kurt Müller 1966-67. The town+ looming sky behind reminds me of El Greco's view of Toledo, as do elongated characters. Criticised at in GDR for unheroic portrayal of fighters. Feel of cold is patent.NewMastersGallery,Dresden

Starting collecting used Quetschie lids and now the older child has used them to open a restaurant and is serving me a bowl of pho and a drink

It's wild how fast an apocalyptic millenarian cargo cult has been completely normalized. Who knows, this one may turn to be true. But if it were expressed in any other terms, it would be dismissed as madness by the people amplifying it.

Berlin when?

"Alexander says he didn’t come back to Ingram to help deport his neighbors... he just ended up making it part of his job. Alexander and Ingram’s other patrol officer had delivered at least 70 people to immigration agents. Within a year, they would hand over the equivalent of 10% of Ingram to ICE."

Suprematist composition https://www.wikiart.org/en/kazimir-malevich/suprematist-composition-1915

In a new publication, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow @veghzsuzsanna.bsky.social maps the ties between AfD politicians and MAGA policymakers and how these networks are complicating and testing the transatlantic partnership: americangerman.institute/publication/...

The only way to operate the child lock on my dishwasher requires you to connect it to an app on your phone. That app is now complaining that I don’t use it enough and it is sad. I just wanted to stop my toddler from turning it off mid-cycle and I’m now getting accused of emotional neglect.

Obligatory modified xkcd.

Amazingly, the entire trackage of the old Prussian-Eastern Railway (the Ostbahn) is still active and maintained, technically all the way to Kaliningrad/Königsberg (but of course the sanctions mean trains don't go there). One hardy traveler has actually done it. trainstobeyond.com/2022/09/20/2...

Christdemokratie in der letzten Woche.

Selbst Teile der CDU bedienen inzwischen den Verschwörungsmythos vom „Großen Austausch“ und behaupten Linke würden sich ihre Wähler*innen ins Land holen, um an der Macht zu bleiben. Wie wenig da empirisch dran ist, belegt schon diese Studie der "checks notes" CDU-nahen Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.

A worthy sequel to Marshall McLuhan appearing from behind a bush in Annie Hall to say “You know nothing of my work.”

👀 At least 11 EU countries rely on US tech giant Palantir for defense, intelligence, healthcare and other critical sectors. Experts and officials warn that Europe's growing dependence on the controversial company poses serious risks. @ftm.nl VSquare.org

Anlässlich der geplanten AfD Veranstaltung in Düsseldorf "Kulturpolitik von rechts!", unter anderem mit Matthias Helferich, wehren sich zahlreichen Galeristen gegen die rechte Vereinnahmung von Kunst und Kultur. Über 50 Galerien aus Düsseldorf und Köln haben die Stellungnahme unterschrieben.

If you are wondering with this name sounds familiar, it is because he was part of the far right meeting in Potsdam in 2023 on remigration. www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...

There has been a constant campaign against aid to Ukraine, but I see this as another victim of austerity politics. You can’t keep saying the country is broke and cut things close to home and not expect some people to turn on foreign aid.

Far right Verfassungspatriotismus is a strange thing to behold. But it does line up with the American far right where the constitution is less a text and a body of law than a free floating signifier about who has the right to rule.

www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...

The AfD win in Saxony-Anhalt was no great surprise to anyone paying attention. Now that the worst has come to pass, the question is: Who is to blame? https://dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/far-right-elections-saxony-anhalt-germany/

“Keeping essentials tethered to fossil fuels [leaves] ordinary people exposed to the price volatility of oil and gas that generates the economic insecurity on which authoritarian politics feeds.”

77 Prozent der Grün-Wähler:innen in Berlin wollen Rot-Grün-Rot, nur 15% eher nicht. Wenn die Berliner CDU nicht dauernd anti-grüne Politik gemacht hätte, dann wäre das vielleicht anders. Aber die abgewählte CDU baut sogar noch nach der Wahl Radwege zurück. Wundert sich da jemand über diese Zahlen?

My essay on early firearms is now up @aeon.co

Death by malicious negligence is a defining characteristic of concentration camps

„Wir wissen nicht, ob es uns im nächsten Jahr noch gibt.“ Im Dez könnte die AfD in Sachsen-Anhalt reagieren. Erstes mögliches Opfer: Demokratieprojekte. Bundesministerien suchen nun Gelder, um diese zu retten. Das Landesdemokratiezentrum könnte zu einem freien Träger wechseln. taz.de/Demokratiepr...

historiography now banned from historiography class in Texas

Nearly four weeks later, this is now finally confirmed: the Linke has managed to come up with a compromise package with the SPD and the Greens to create a ruling coalition in Berlin. www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/liveb...

Zum Todestag von Lesser Ury werfen wir einen Blick auf sein Berlin. Er zog 1887 nach Berlin, lebte und malte in einer Atelierswohnung am Nollendorfplatz. Lesser Ury (7. November 1861 - 18. Oktober 1931): Vor dem Café, 1920er. 🧵

This week on the blog - more discussion of Hearts of Iron IV and this week's topic is a heavy one, assessing how the decision not to acknowledge or address war crimes and crimes against humanity causes the game to blunder into being a 'clean Wehrmacht' myth simulator. acoup.blog/2026/10/16/t...