The mystery we call God

The Thinking Anew column in The Irish Times today.

Michael Commane 

We are told that more than 20 million people around the world looked on as King Charles III was crowned. It was a religious service celebrated in Westminster Abbey by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby. 

Leaving aside one’s views on  Irish-British relations, it is fair to say the coronation was some spectacle and the size of the audience for an act of worship makes it significant. Millions of people were drawn to the ceremony just as they are by monarchy. Has it something to do with the untouchable, the person who is different, different, beyond us, beyond our normal experience and everyday lives? 

I mean no offence to those involved in the coronation when I say that a similar aura or mystique surrounds Donald Trump. Didn’t Trump boast that he could kill someone on a New York street and get away with it? He appears to have that X-factor that makes him untouchable, as if he is ‘out there’, different to the rest of us.

Tomorrow is the feast of the Ascension. It’s the day that we are reminded of Jesus returning to the Father in Heaven. All during the Easter season we are constantly reminded of the loving relationship between the three Divine Persons, indeed the relationship is so strong, beyond our understanding, that it is one God.

I’m often surprised by what we retain and what we forget over the years. But I can still remember a lecturer in theology talking about a transcendent God, a God out there and an immanent God, or God among us.

Is it fair to say that before the Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965) our emphasis was on a transcendent God? We stood back and worshipped the all-powerful God, who was in many respects beyond us. In the Catholic Church the Mass was in Latin, which emphasised the mystery of a distant God. The Vatican Council came along, attempted to open the windows and placed far more emphasis on an imminent God, a God in our midst. All the liturgical reform that has taken place since the Vatican Council has helped us place more emphasis on a God who is among us, a God who is present in the world.

It would seem there is always going to be tension between our understanding of a transcendent God and of an immanent God. In terms of faith they are two ideas in our attempt at getting to grips with God, each pulling us in a different direction. And when  we try to give an explicit reality to God, to put words on our understanding we naturally fall far short, as God is beyond our understanding. 

I’m a child of the Second Vatican Council, which means I’ve been greatly influenced with the idea of an immanent God. It’s clear to me that the generations coming up behind me have grown somewhat tired of that idea and seem to want to return to seeing God in terms of transcendency.

But that’s not happening just within the context of faith and religions, it is also a move that is taking place right across society.

The coronation of Charles III reminded us of the importance we place in having a figure beyond us, someone who is in many respects untouchable. The same goes for Donald Trump, love him or hate him, to his followers and maybe to others, he is in many respects ‘unworldly’.

The entrance antiphon in tomorrow’s liturgy goes: “Men of Galilee, why gaze in wonder at the heavens? This Jesus who you saw ascending into heaven will return as you saw him go, alleluia.” (Acts 1:11) And then in the Gospel (Matthew 28: 16 - 20) we see how the disciples “fell down before him, though some hesitated”.

Yes, there will always be tension between the transcendent God and the immanent God. But the life of the historical Jesus, who lived and breathed, the person who lived a life of kindness and goodness, surely must always point us in the direction of the God out there. The person of Jesus is our pathway to the sublime God, the God beyond our understanding. I for one prefer to set my sights on the immanent God. I feel more at home with such thoughts. 

Tomorrow’s feast is a powerful reminder of two great aspects of the mystery we call God. There may well be more. 

Hilary Benn explains what leaving the EU means for the UK

Labour MP Hilary Benn gives a brilliant account of what Brexit has actually done for the UK.

https://youtu.be/YZ2G-o_SVb8

The funeral Mass of my novice master

The funeral Mass and burial of Anthony Morris took place in Sligo yesterday.

The provincial of the Irish Dominicans, John Harris was the president of the assembly and approximately 15 priests, Dominicans and diocesan, concelebrated.

The provincial in his nine-minute talk after the Gospel hit the right note and caught the man who was Anthony Seamus Morris.

It’s strange going back to somewhere you left 34 years earlier. You meet people, their faces changed and you wonder are they who they are, and likewise they wonder are you whom they might think you are.

The interior of the Dominican church had been altered and from my perspective not for the better.

Following the burial there was a meal in a nearby hotel to which the family and Anthony's Dominican confreres were graciously invited.

It was a most pleasant experience. I found myself in the company of three fellow Dominicans and Anthony’s nephew, Shea, called after his uncle, and his wife Celette, who is Canadian Irish.

Like at all funerals there were moments of nostalgia, jokes too and then each person recalling how they remembered the man.

The consensus was that Anthony was the kindest of men, gentle too, loved his family and was a keen Sligo Rovers supporter.

Just as I knew nothing about his family, it would seem he seldom if ever discussed his Dominican world with his family.

But there was a howl of laughter when I recalled the incident back in the late 1960s when he told two of his novices that it was not appropriate for them to be seen eating ice cream in public.

It turns out Anthony loved his ice cream, indeed was a guzzler of sweets.

I can never imagine Anthony eating ice cream or having a sweet tooth.

I was laughing, and back thinking of that day when he told us not to do what he did but rather do what he said.

Anthony was a fine man. There was an inspiring honesty about him and you knew with certainty that he never sneered or laughed at you behind your back.

There are seven of Anthony’s novices still in the Order and two were present in Sligo yesterday.

It was a privilege to attend his funeral Mass and to meet his family.

A moment in time.

The Dublin and Monaghan bombings

On this day, May 17, 1974 33 civilians were killed and another 300 people injured in Dublin and Monaghan when four bombs were detonated by the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Catholic bishops attend coronation of King Charles III

This week's Mediahuis/INM Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

I missed the coronation of King Charles III as I was travelling from Tralee to Dublin by rail. Thinking about it, I could of course have watched it on my tablet. I read instead.

Ireland was represented by President Micheal D Higgins, his wife Sabina, and Taoiseach Leo Varadker. 

The first time an Irish President and Taoiseach attended a coronation in Westminster Abbey. The world and its mother know of the significant relevance of the attendance of President and Taoiseach. But maybe it has escaped people’s attention that the Holy See was represented by its Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. Also present was the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who formally participated in the ceremony. 

It was the first time since the Reformation that a Catholic prelate was invited to give a blessing to the new monarch. Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin was another invited guest.

Whatever about my own personal views on kings and queens, the pomp and ceremony, and the €100 million the coronation cost the British tax payer, it was wonderful to see the high-ranking Catholic bishops at the ceremony. 

We need far more inter church exchange and dialogue. Parolin is Pope Francis’ righthand man and Nichols is the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

It was great to see them there and of course it’s the only way to go. But it did set me thinking.

I’m old enough to remember a time when it was forbidden for Catholics to attend Church of Ireland services, indeed any Protestant religious function. 

I recall my mother telling stories about the nonsense that bishops went on with, warning her generation to stay away from non-Catholic churches. And they kept it up in the early years of my generation too.

It’s easy to look back in history and see the silly things that people, organisations, states and churches do. But I have a problem. How can the institutional church keep a straight face when it tries to tell us, down to the last detail, what sin is. I like to think of sin as the breaking of a relationship with God. How can the church tell us that not going to Mass on Sunday is a mortal sin? And then all the minutiae which the Code of Canon Law deals with, especially in matters of human sexuality. 

What actually is the stance of Irish bishops on the use of contraception? Does every priest in Ireland believe it is a grave sin to use contraception? I doubt it. Of course they don’t but would they say it in public?

Back to the coronation: Camilla is a divorced woman. Would Pietro Parolin, Vincent Nichols or Eamon Martin bless my friends who are divorced and remarried?

Pope Benedict had serious problems with a la carte Catholicism and there is a strong emphasis within the Catholic Church that says truth can’t be changed. But what exactly is truth and who exactly knows how to deduce or discover it?

I was delighted to see Pietro Parolin, Vincent Nichols and Eamon Martin at the coronation. May it be a metaphor or example for all of us how the church is willing to change and see life in the light of the now. 

Fr Seamus Anthony Morris OP (1929 - 2023) - an obituary

Unless the person is a proper

demon I think it’s fair to say that most people, women

and men in religious life, look back on their novice mistress/master with a great degree of kindness.

Seamus Anthony Morris, who died yesterday in a nursing home in Sligo, was my novice master in Pope’s Quay, Cork. He welcomed all nine of us to the noviciate on September 4, 1967. 

At the time I was just out of school and probably did not consider Anthony a young man. He was 38.

It so happens Anthony died on the same day the Dominicans in Sligo were celebrating the 50th anniversary of the opening of the present church, the fourth Dominican church in the town since 1252.

The new design was in accord with the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

Anthony was born in Sligo on October 24, 1929. He joined the Dominicans in September 1952 and was ordained a priest on July 13, 1958.

After ordination he did post graduate studies in the University of St Thomas in Rome and Le Saulchoir in Paris, obtaining a doctorate in theology.

On completion of his studies he taught theology in St Mary’s Priory, Tallaght and was sub-master of students.

Anthony was a keen footballer and a lifelong Sligo Rovers supporter. He was known by his contemporaries and indeed by his novices as Dixie. He acquired the name because of his keen interest in soccer. William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean, was a famous English footballer, who played for the majority of his career with Everton. After Everton he played for Notts County and eventually for Sligo Rovers, which must be how Anthony acquired the nickname.

In 1965 Anthony was appointed novice master in Pope’s Quay. A post he held for three years. We were his last group of novices. The plan was that he was to go to Nagpur in India, where the seminary of St Charles had been committed to the Irish Dominicans in 1958.

There was a delay with his moving to India. At the time the Indian authorities were making it more difficult for certain categories of foreigners to obtain work visas. Anthony eventually arrived in Nagpur, where he taught for a number of years.  He suffered ill health on the Indian sub continent and found the extreme heat a great burden. India was not for Anthony and he returned to Ireland. 

In the following years he was prior in St Mary’s Priory, Popes, Quay, Cork; Holy Cross, Tralee; Black Abbey, Kilkenny and St Saviour’s in Dublin.

In every priory where he lived he was greatly appreciated by the people who attended our churches. Every Sunday Anthony would be at the back of the church, greeting the people as they arrived for Mass and then as they departed.

He was a most dedicated man and gave his entire life to the service of others, his Dominican colleagues and those to whom he ministered.

Anthony was a tall man with a slight stoop. Yes, he was strict, strict on himself, but he also had a great sense of humour. He was well able to play practical jokes on people and while he was in Cork he regularly sparred with the late Fr Leo Lennon, who was at the time port chaplain in the city. Leo was an extremely funny man and enjoyed life to the full, though, as is often the case with funny, gregarious people, he experienced moments of darkness. The two men had a great sense of humour and had no trouble calling each other to account. The third man in that triangle was Fr Cathal Hutchinson, who was in many respects the ‘nutty professor’. All three men, besides their wit and their ability to poke fun at one another in the most jovial of ways, had a profound sense of caring for people, especially those who were on the margins or experiencing difficult times. The three men were fine preachers of the Word, all with different styles. All three men believed every word they said.

Anthony would often quote to us novices the famous French Dominican, Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire (1802 – 1861), who was renowned for telling his fellow Dominicans that if there were going to be one good Dominican then he was going to be that good Dominican.

Anthony, in a self-deprecating way would tell us not to do what he did but rather do as he said.

While introducing his novices to the history of the order he would point out how so many famous Dominicans died in their 40s. He would then quip that all good Dominicans should die in their 40s. Anthony was 94 when he died, and a great Dominican.

As novice master he accompanied us on Thursday cycles to Kinsale and Fountainstown, where we had the use of a house right on the sea. We went swimming in the city baths. It was a different Ireland back then and we had the exclusive use of the pool between 2pm and 3pm every Wednesday. We played football in the ‘Camp Field’, part of the campus of Collins Barracks in the city. Anthony joined us on all our adventures. We played snooker and table tennis but I can never remember our novice master play either game.

I can still remember a Sunday afternoon out cycling with fellow novice Billy Lee, we were eating ice creams, Anthony passed us on his bicycle. Later that day he called us aside and explained to us that Dominican novices should not be seen eating ice cream in public. It was another world. In 1967/’68 a novice wore a black suit, white shirt, black tie and yes, a black hat too.

Anthony was a strikingly fair person. He would not countenance  being deceitful. You always knew Anthony would never laugh behind your back. I never heard him speak badly of another person. Any laughing he ever did was to your face and done in a true sense of fun.

In his elder years he moved to Holy Cross Sligo, the town of his birth. He was delighted to be back home and close to his sister Hilda, who died last year and Madeleine, who is a Mercy Sister in the town.

Because of his interest in sport the community in Holy Cross installed Sky Sports for him on his arrival back in the priory. But it turned out he seldom if ever watched it. Every evening his sister Hilda called for him and no doubt she too had made sure to have Sky Sports available for him.

He was also interested in horse racing and knew the number of times Lester Piggott had won the Epsom Derby.

I have the fondest of memories of Anthony Morris. He was a kind man, a quiet man too. Did I ever have an extended serious conversation with him? Yes, maybe on one occasion when he was my prior in St Saviour’s in Dublin. And that was probably 30 years after we had first met.

May he rest in peace.

Anthony’s body will be lying in state at Holy Cross Friary, Sligo tomorrow Tuesday, May 16 from 11am with removal to the church at 7pm. Requiem Mass at 11.30am on Wednesday, May 17. Burial afterwards in Sligo cemetery.

                                                              Picture courtesy of Pat Lucey

Anthony Morris OP, RIP

Dominican priest Anthony Morris died today in Summerville Nursing Home, Strandhill, Co. Sligo.

May he rest in peace.

Obituary to follow. 

Chinese citizen jailed for eight years on subversion charges

From the Guardian newspaper last week.

A story that tells the story of what happens people in China who oppose the government. If this story is true and factual there world has every reason to be concerned about modern China.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/12/chinese-activist-sentenced-to-eight-years-on-subversion-charges?CMP=share_btn_link 

Adidas: that unYeezy feeling

Because of Adidas’s break with disgraced rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, the company has €1.2bn worth of unsold and unsaleable Yeezy merchandise on its shelves.

A special day to thank our nurses

 Today is International Nurses Day.

Well done and thank you to all our dedicated nurses who bring such kindness, help and professionalism to the sick, the fragile, the old and the young.

IND is celebrated around the world every May 12, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. 

What’s in a name?

The Polish government has decided to rename the Russian exclave Kaliningrad. 

On Wednesday, Poland’s development minister, Waldemar Buda, said Kaliningrad would now officially be called Królewiec, its name when it was ruled by the Kingdom of Poland in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Until 1945 the city was a German city and called Königsberg. After the war it was renamed Kaliningrad to honour politician Mikhail Kalinin.

Opposition, nonconformity, freedom in art keeps us safe

Yesterday across Germany May 10, 1933 was remembered.

It was on May 10, 1933 that the German Student Union ceremoniously burned books that were considered subversive or represented ideologies opposed to Nazisam.

They included books written by people of Jewish faith, communists, pacifists, liberals, in other words, anyone who opposed the Nazis.

As the books were burned, industrialists, academics, wealthy Germans watched on in support.

And those throwing the books in the fires were mainly privileged students.

Heinrich Heine warned: "those who burn books will end up burning people".

As war grinds on Russia is becoming a cultural wasteland

From yesterday’s Guardian. The piece paints a profoundly sad picture of what is happening in the wonderful land of Russia. What one man can do.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/08/vladimir-putin-russia-culture-writers-ukraine-war?CMP=share_btn_link

Crisscrossing Germany by rail for only €49

This week’s Mediahuis/INM Irish regional newspapers’column.

Michael Commane

Over the years I’ve travelled here and there. I lived in Italy and Germany, which meant flying backwards and forwards relatively regularly.

Back home, living in Ireland, I lost interest in foreign travel. My sights instead were fixed on West Kerry.

I was beginning to wonder why so many people were taking to the skies, especially for short visits to crowded cities all over the world. Then came Covid, which means it must be seven or eight years since I sat in a plane.

Some weeks ago two friends and I decided we’d take flight. After work on the Thursday of the May Bank Holiday weekend we met at Dublin Airport to take a Ryanair flight to Nuremberg in the southern German State of Bavaria.

I could not believe my eyes when I saw the milling crowds at the airport. It was a different world from the airport I remember of the 1960s, ’70s, even ’80s. I can recall my parents dropping me at the airport and leaving the car outside the main entrance door.

 

Home now and thinking about the wonderful few days we had, I can’t believe there is not a direct rail service to the airport, which saw 400,000 people go through its doors over the May Bank Holiday weekend.

Getting off the plane at Albrecht Dürer Airport in Nuremberg I felt a great sense of being back in Germany, back to a country where I’ve always felt at ease.

 

It seems everything in Nuremberg is called after the famous engraver, Albrecht Dürer, who was born the city in 1471. His friendship circle included Leonardo da Vinci and Emperor Maxmilian I.

We did many of the touristy things, including a four-hour walking tour of the city. We visited the infamous place where Hitler held his rallies. I cannot believe what I saw there: a newly married couple using the remaining structure, which was a memorial for the war dead, as a backdrop for their wedding pictures. 

The world is indeed, a strange place. And then my mind took a detour and I was thinking of the war in Ukraine and the lives being lost and ruined for ever.

We travelled by rail to nearby Regensburg. On our return that evening we took a regional train, which happened to be a double-decker. When I told my two friends it was most likely a train from the former East German Railway, they laughed, suggesting it could not be so old, as it looked in pristine condition. 

Our stop was the train’s destination so I cheekily went up to the locomotive and asked the driver. He assured me I was correct. All four of us ended up having an animated conversation about trains, his workload, even to the point where he produced his roster sheet and showed us how many hours he worked that day.

 

From May 1 German Rail is offering a €49 monthly unlimited ticket across the German network on all its regional trains.

The highlight of the holiday? Certainly chatting with the train driver was high up on my list.

Thank you to my two friends. That €49 rail ticket is an added incentive to return. And soon.

When there’s no substance mystique fills the gap

"The less substance there is to any political institution, the more it must play up its own mystique.

“British greatness has become a mere bubble of bombast, one that burst along with Boris Johnson’s ill-fated reign as ‘world king’. There has been too much empty bloviation about British exceptionalism in recent years for it to be taken seriously now.”

-From Fintan O’Toole in The Irish Times on Saturday.

Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin and the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Vincent Nichols attended the coronation of King Charles III at Westminster Abbey. The ceremony was conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby.

While it is a positive development to see Catholic prelates attend Anglican services, it’s not that long ago since Catholic prelates forbad  Catholics to attend Anglican services, or indeed any non-Catholic service.

It’s worth repeating what Fintan O’Toole wrote: "The less substance there is to any political institution, the more it must play up its own mystique.”

And the mystique doesn’t exclusively apply to all that happened in Westminster Abbey on Saturday.

Children are children and not young goats

Why have we moved away from calling young people children and are now calling them kids?

Is a kid not a young goat?

Have children had any input into the change?

We live in an age when we are bending over backwards for apologising for what our ancestors did. Words are cheap.

Without any reference to children we have ‘christened’ them with an insulting name. And please I am not insulting young goats.

If I called an adult woman a girl she would rightly correct me.

It is demeaning to call children kids.

A campaign needs to be launched to stop calling children kids.

The travelling Irish and their large carbon footprints

If close to 400,000 people flew in or out of Dublin Airport over the May Bank Holiday Weekend, the majority of them under 50, how concerned are we as a nation about our carbon footprint?

Many Russians victory day parades are cancelled

From the Guardian.

The war in Ukraine must surely sully the memory of what Russia did in World War II to defeat Nazi Germany.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/02/russian-regions-scrap-victory-day-parades-amid-fear-of-ukraine-strikes?CMP=share_btn_link

Dublin City Council talking out of both sides of their mouth

Approximately one kilometre of Orwell Road, the section nearest Zion Road and Marianella in Dublin 6, is being resurfaced. 

A spokesman for the sub contractors carrying out the works said today that Dublin City Council had instructed them not to cover over the cobblestones bordering the footpath. The Council explained that they wanted to preserve something of the 'old look' of the road.

Anyone who cycles this road knows how extremely dangerous the cobblestones make it for cyclists when there is backup of traffic on the road.

It’s fine for the Council to wish to preserve ‘old looks’ but which is more important the safety of cyclists or preserving ‘old look’?

Once again, it’s the incompetency of the management class. One moment they are telling us all to get out on our bicycles and the next moment they are making it as dangerous as possible for us to cycle.

Is there one senior manager in Dublin City Council roads department who cycles this road? Obviously not.

The day that Ireland was divided by Britain

On this day, May 3, 1921 Ireland was partitioned under British law by the Government of Ireland Act 1920, creating Northern Ireland and Southern Ireland.

Would they do the same all over again?

Neither notes nor coins and no winning Lotto number

This week’s Mediahuis/INM Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

Earlier this month I wrote a column about how difficult it can be to navigate across some websites. I was pleasantly surprised with the feedback I received. 

A millennial complimented  me on the piece, suggesting ‘we turn off the machine and go back to the 1990s’. He was of course referring to our modern technology.

Last weekend I paid my television licence on line. Older people will remember the rigmarole and the time it took to renew all types of annual payments.

 

I’m scared of becoming a victim of a scam and they are growing more sophisticated by the day. On a positive note, a work colleague showed me how I can freeze my Visa card using my mobile phone. Earlier in the day I had panicked having lost my card. I phoned the bank and cancelled the card. It meant I had to go through all the nuisance and inconvenience of obtaining a new one. And that was before I found the old one under my desk.

Like everything in life there are the swings and the roundabouts with modern technology.

But every day I’m learning the importance of being on my guard and having Plan B up my sleeve.

A friend of mine arrived back in Dublin after a day’s trip to Wexford, where she was delivering a parcel to someone.

It had been a hectic day for her and she had little or no time to sit down to eat a meal. 

On arriving back in the city centre she went into a shop to buy food and some other provisions, and while she was at the counter also bought a Lotto ticket. 

She packed her purchases, tapped the card machine, the machine did not accept the card so she was asked to insert the card. No luck. She tried a second time, punching in the four digits she thought was her pass code. Again out of luck. 

A queue began to form behind her. She is a retiring, almost shy person, which meant she was now in panic mode. She aborted the card transaction and went to pay with cash to discover she had none.

It meant she had to unpack all that she had bought and was now feeling greatly embarrassed. The shop assistant was most helpful. In the confusion she forgot to return the Lotto ticket. When reminded of it she went looking for it in her purse and as she was searching, the kind assistant nodded and told her to forget about it and keep it as a gift from the shop.

She left the premises, exhausted, greatly embarrassed and traumatised too.

She went searching again in her purse, this time for her Travel Pass. ‘Michael, what would I have done had I not got that with me,’ she said.

All our modern technology is great, debit cards, credit cards, ATMs are brilliant inventions. But you must always have a Plan B, which means never go anywhere without having old fashioned legal tender notes and coins in your pocket, wallet, purse, or wherever is the safest place to keep your cash.

And not one winning number on that Lotto ticket. That’s life. 

Dmitry Medvedev calls for the return of all the old lands

This is a May Day message from Dmitry Medvedev, an ally of Vladimir Putin, and currently deputy chair of the Security Council

 "Seriously, we can do without [Twitter]. After all, this is just a foreign social network operating in the interests of the American establishment. We quite cynically used it to advance our propaganda goals.

"Our main task is completely different: to inflict a devastating defeat on all enemies – the Ukronazis, the US, their minions in Nato, including vile Poland, and other western nits.

"We must finally return all our lands. Forever protect all of our people. We will work hard for this.

Happy 1 May everyone!”

 It means it’s out in the open now what the aims of the Russian Empire is. 

Pope Francis works for peace behind the scenes

An interesting story about the diplomacy of Pope Francis.

Pope departs Hungary pleading for peace in Ukraine, warning against isolationism

 

Germany introduces the €45 nationwide travel ticket

DB, Deutsche Bahn, German Railway in conjunction with the German state is about to introduce a monthly nationwide cheap ticket on all state-run trains and buses.

From Monday, May 1 DB is introducing an all German rail ticket for €45. For that price you can travel across Germany in any and every direction.

The ticket can be used on all regional trains and all city trains, Underground networks and buses. It is not valid on the ICE rail network.

It will mean that regional trains will be extremely busy. And it’s best to buy the ticket on the DB website, which is fahrkarten.db.de, or simply db.de.

Is it the beginning of free transport? Already in Luxembourg all transport is free.

The strange worlds of Tucker Carlson and Rupert Murdoch

 From yesterday’s Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/apr/28/why-tucker-carlson-fired-fox?CMP=share_btn_link