Sunday May 1, Treptow Park, East Berlin, Soviet Memorial honoring the victory of the Red Army over Hitler-Germany. Not so many visitors. A Swiss family, on bicycles, gets an explanation. Hitler was like Putin, but different, declares the father in the vernacular of...
The other week, I drove from New York City to Kansas. With the events in Ukraine the trip became a probe into middle America’s outlook on war. Yes, the accidental encounter with the man and woman in the street does not amount to an opinion poll and most of times it...
Actually, I am once again motoring through the US of A, this time focusing on West Virginia, the home state of Senator Joe The Powerful, who is strangling President Biden’s “Build Back Better” bill, with my antennas out for the odd and the wacky along the road. But...
On 2 February in Punxsutawney PA, a groundhog named Phil predicted six more weeks of winter by casting a shadow. He had company. The annual tongue-in-cheek ceremony on Groundhog Day has attracted ever larger crowds over the years (the 2020 edition allegedly saw 40 000...
On 11 September 2001 I was a journalist reporting from the Federal Palace in Bern for “Der Bund” newspaper. The news of the events in New York City dropped during a press conference of the defense minister. Among my beats was Swiss defense policy, and that Tuesday...