You know what you could do on this amazing day? Read Five Things and then become a paid subscriber! Awesome idea, right? ✌🏻 Oh, by the way, if you do not want to subscribe to Five Things, Five Things Tech and Five Things Running, you can select which one of the newsletters you want to read in your account settings. Five Things: Free Speech, American Authoritarianism, Damascus, Coffee, SmartphonesIt's Sunday. Read this now.
Hello and welcome back to Five Things! This last week was full of travel. I went to Berlin on Monday, which was a wonderful trip because I reconnected with an old friend whom I lost track of, so we had lunch and talked about lots of things. This was also the first time I went to the remote southwestern part of Berlin since the 80s, when my mother had a boyfriend in Berlin and we visited the city often. In the evening I went to a late summer event hosted by my party, the Social Democrats (SPD). I met tons of people and it was wonderful to reconnect with old friends. I usually joke that the best part of Berlin is the last train home to Hamburg, but this time I was wrong. Currently the train has to take a detour between Berlin and Hamburg, so it runs almost three hours instead of 1:45. But on Monday night there was a fire somewhere so instead of being home a bit after 1 am, I got home a bit before 3 am. This was no fun, especially since I had to get up in the morning to wake up the kids, as I promised them. Around noon I took the train to Cologne to attend a digital marketing trade show that I have been attending most years for the last two decades. I spent three days in Cologne and since I worked in Cologne for two years, this was another nice trip down memory lane. I even had plenty of Kölsch beers, which is something I usually don’t drink. But as a waiter explained: it’s good to rinse your kidneys every once in a while. Drop everything and read these Five Things now! Without free speech, America is nothing
This is such an evil shitshow. The Weakness and Incompetence of American Authoritarianism
My uncomfortable feeling is that Trump and his croonies might be weak and incompetent, but they will nonetheless push forward and make the lives of many Americans miserable by taking away their personal freedoms. 48 surreal hours in Damascus — an Israeli reporter’s travelogue from an enemy capital
This is quite a story. Just imagine traveling to a neighboring country that has just ended a civil war, but you travel as a Jew to a country that used to have many Jewish communities and now only six Jews are still living there. This must be an emotional rollercoaster. Coffee naps might be the weirdest—and smartest—way to recharge
This is what home office was invented for. You're being rude. Put away your phone.
And yet, smartphones are so wonderful if you want to get distracted. That’s it. Have a great Sunday! If you missed last Sunday’s edition of Five Things, have a look here: — Nico You're currently a free subscriber to Five Things. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |