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6 hours ago

Why are Covid-19 infections rising so sharply in Florida, Texas and Arizona? RIAS alumni Kenya Woodard (Tampa), David Wagner (San Angelo, Texas) and Buzz Conover (Tuscson, Arizona) talk about the pandemic in their states to a group of about 20 RIAS alumni and friends of RIAS in a RIAS Zoom talk on July 2, 2020. They also talked about the bleak moments in their states and an ominous dearth of public confidence in many of the elected leaders in their states. Asked by a German RIAS alumni in Cologne if there is any leader in their states or in the US whom the public in their states trust, the surprising answer was: No, not really. Not even Dr. Anthony Fauci, directior of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, garners widespread public trust, they observed. ... Read MoreRead Less

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1 day ago

Members of the #RIASBerlin alumni chapter in Berlin meets — cautiously and with social distancing — for the first in many months. It was generally agreed that it was great to see colleagues in the RIAS community in person again after so many months in isolation. Trying to work and juggle family responsibilities during the coronavirus, coping with rabid skeptics of journalism, the US election, the situation in Hong Kong, rising rent prices in Berlin and the RIAS Zoom talks were among the topics discussed. A great time was had by all. ... Read MoreRead Less

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1 week ago

Mario Voigt, the CDU parliamentary floor leader in the eastern state of Thuringia, talked to a group of #RIASBerlin Commission alumni on Thursday about the state's astonishing success rate during the coronavirus crisis, its recent reopening, the difficult political situation in Thuringia with three parties (CDU, Left and far-right AfD) getting almost the same number of votes and seats -- making it difficult to form a new state government. Voigt also talked about German-US relations, the US election and the 2021 German election ... Read MoreRead Less

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2 weeks ago

Three RIAS zoom talks coming up over the next three weeks. We hope you can take part. Please write info@riasberlin.org for login details.

1 - Why is eastern state of Thuringia in the news about extremely low Covid-19 numbers and reopening the state? And why the far-right AfD upset German politics this year with an election trick?

Thursday, June 25 – Mario Voigt, the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic opposition in the state parliament in Thurginia, can hopefully answer those questions at a RIAS zoom Talk. Voigt is a regular guest speaker for RIAS groups to Germany and knows the US election system well after studying at the University of Virginia – Charlottesville. He has a doctorate in American election campaigning. Voigt can also eloquently and effectively explain the differences between eastern and western Germany after having grown up in Communist East Germany. Most recently, Voigt has been in the news and on talk shows in Germany after taking over the CDU’s leadership in Thuringia in March after a controversy in the state assembly in which the far-right AfD party used trucks and the CDU to unwittingly help elect a leader of the Free Democrats as governor of the state. Voigt can also explain how Thuringia has such low numbers of Covid 19 infections and why the state is one of the first in Germany to relax coronavirus lockdown measures. He is also a professor digital transformation and politics at Quadriga University of Applied Sciences. Here is more information about Mario: www.quadriga-university.com/en/persons/prof-dr-mario-voigt-quadriga-hochschule-berlin-21327
Time: Jun 25, 2020 05:30 PM Berlin 11:30 am EST

2 - Why are the numbers of people infected with Covid-19 rising so rapidly in states such as Florida, Texas and Arizona? Three RIAS alumni who work as journalists in those three states will explain why the numbers are rising, what the state leaders are doing about that and how the public is reacting.

Thursday, July 2 – David Wagner (News Director at KLST TV San Angelo, Texas) Buzz Conover(Reporter Public Radio in Tucson, Arizona) and @KenyaWoodard (freelance jouralist in Tampa Bay, Florida) will try to answer those and other questions at a RIAS zoom talk on July 2.

Time: Jul 2, 2020 05:00 PM Berlin, 11 a.m. EST

3 - where are German-US relations and NATO headed?

RIAS Zoom Meeting with Lt General (Retired) Ben Hodges
Time: Jul 8, 2020 06:00 PM Berlin, 12 noon EST

Wednesday, July 8 – Lieutenant General (Retired) Ben Hodges will be talking about U.S.-German relations, NATO and offering insights and backgrounds on the Trump Administration's proposals to move more than one-quarter of the 34,500 U.S. forces stationed in Germany. Hodges, who is a regular guest in the German media and has talked to RIAS groups in Germany before, holds the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis. He joined CEPA in February 2018. A native of Quincy, Florida, General Hodges graduated from the United States Military Academy in May 1980 and was commissioned in the Infantry. General Hodges has also served in a variety of Joint and Army Staff positions to include Tactics Instructor; Chief of Plans, 2nd Infantry Division in Korea; and Commander, NATO Allied Land Command (İzmir, Turkey). His last military assignment was as Commanding General, United States Army Europe (Wiesbaden, Germany) from 2014 to 2017. He retired from the U.S. Army in January 2018

RIAS Zoom Meeting with Lt General (Retired) Ben Hodges
Time: Jul 8, 2020 06:00 PM Berlin, 12 noon EST ... Read MoreRead Less

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2 weeks ago

Legendary RIAS DJ ‘Lord Knud’ dies at 76

Lord Knud, who was one of the best-known DJs at RIAS Radio in both West Berlin and Communist East Germany during the 1970s and 1980s, died recently at his house in Berlin at the age of 76, according to reports on RBB television’s website and Berlin newspapers.

The host of such popular RIAS music programs such as “Schlager der Woche” (Hits of the Week) and “Evergreens a go-go”, Lord Knud was a former rock musician in Berlin before becoming a DJ and gaining fame on both sides of the Iron Curtain for pushing the boundaries with off-color on-air commentaries.

“Lord Knud was a radio star,” wrote RBB Berlin journalist Ulli Zelle in a tribute to the man born Knud Friedrich Martin Kuntze in 1944 that appeared in Der Tagesspiegel newspaper. “He worked as a DJ with his biting Berlin attitude, his rough jokes and acidic jabs against those in power ‘over there’ in the Communist SED party

Lord Knud was a bass player in the Berlin band The Lords in the mid-1960s that was often called Germany’s answer to the Beatles. After losing his right leg in a bus accident during a tour, he started a new career as a DJ for RIAS in 1968 and became a popular fixture at the station until 1986.

amp.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/ulli-zelle-zum-tod-von-lord-knud-eine-berliner-marke-eine-stimme-west-... ... Read MoreRead Less

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The perils of transatlantic decoupling and how to stop it - Atlantic Council

2 weeks ago

"New tensions have highlighted the dangers of transatlantic decoupling," writes Fred Frederick Kempe of the Atlantic Council in an illuminating "Inflection Points" that is well worth reading. "The most recent were triggered by President Trump’s decision last week, though not yet implemented, to withdraw 9,500 troops from Germany, afterward capping them at 25,000. The President’s misplaced argument that the troops are there to defend Germany failed to appreciate that the presence is more in America’s interests. The troop presence allows the United States to deploy more rapidly to other parts of Europe, Africa and the Middle East. It facilitates training with our friends and allies, and it provides deterrence for NATO allies east of Germany. Yet it was less the decision that irked allies than the timing and apparent failure to have consulted them. The withdrawal announcement came just days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision not to attend in-person the G-7 meeting President Trump had hoped to host this month." ... Read MoreRead Less

www.atlanticcouncil.org

COVID-19 has shown both the nature and relentlessness of the Chinese Communist Party’s to place itself at the center of global power and influence.

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3 weeks ago

A leader of the Greens party in Berlin, Özcan Mutlu spoke on a RIAS zoom talk on Friday about racism and police violence in Germany as well as the situation for minorities, immigrants as well as the 2021 German federal election, where the Greens party could end up as a coalition partner in the next German government ... Read MoreRead Less

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