There was a time when nightclubs were the meeting point for young people (and not so young) who wanted to have fun, show off the steps they practiced at home in front of the mirror on the dance floor and flirt.. And I write in the past tense because the trend is that pop, hip hop, techno or perreo will become ballroom dances in a few years, like chotis, tango or pasodoble.

Statistics say that in the last 12 years two thirds of the nightclubs in Germany have disappeared from the map, and Covid has little to do with that. Of the 2,300 nightclubs that existed in 2011, in 2019, before the coronavirus arrived, only 1,400 remained, that is, one in three. The pandemic arrived, the closures continued, and when the authorities lifted the ban on discotheques, clubs and brothels – all in the same bag – only 860 reopened, which is what there are currently.. Of course, each one has its own doorman because without the adrenaline of passing through their filter there is no nightclub worth its salt or worth remembering.

Apparently, the blame for the fact that only Zumba classes are left for collective contortion must be found in the United States, since everything that begins there is exported to the world as a trend.. Young Americans spend their weekends surfing the Internet, playing video games or celebrating parties at home with alcohol from the supermarket, drugs and music downloaded to their phones, something similar to the parties of the second half of the 20th century but without Peter Sellers .

“The sector is fighting for its existence,” says Kurt Walsen, president of the German Association of Dance Venues and Nightclubs.. Walsen doesn't know for sure if young Germans avoid getting out of hand in public places for fear that someone will take a photo of them that will later appear on social media or if people don't need to go to the club to hook up, because that's what the internet is also for.. “Generation Z dances less and also has less sex. Given the choice, they prefer Netflix,” says Axel Ballreich, owner of two stores in Nuremberg, ironically.

Opening a nightclub in these times is not profitable, and not only because the change in the habits of youth is palpable.. Costs have gone up the vine with inflation, permits are tightened, complaints about excessive noise from neighbors are counted in fines and there is a lack of personnel, the endemic evil of Germany. The situation in clubs is similar, despite the added value of having a DJ and live performances.. “The best option for this ruin is to sell the surface or use it for another type of business,” says Jan Ublacker, professor of neighborhood development at the University of Bochum.

To see first-hand the state of the slopes, I took a night tour in Berlin. With Walsen's inside information, I bet my godly husband that, even though we were both in our fifties, there would be no goalkeeper who could resist us.. I won, including in Berghain, the impassable cathedral of techno and excess, where its famous and very tattooed doorman arbitrarily selects who moves forward in the queue or discards anyone who does not know the name of the guest DJ. I saw many things in Berghain and among them a huge line waiting to get in, although inside it was half empty. Survival marketing.

More than 72 hours after the devastating earthquake that shook Morocco, the king, Mohamed VI, went this Tuesday to visit the wounded admitted to the Marrakech University Hospital that bears his name.

It was his first public appearance on the ground since an earthquake measuring 7 on the Richter scale shook several provinces in the country on Friday, causing almost 3,000 deaths and more than 5,000 injuries.

The gesture was longed for after several days of silence on the part of the monarch. Since the tragedy broke out, Mohamed VI took hours to react, unleashing all kinds of speculation. Finally, on Saturday, local media reported that he chaired an emergency meeting where he ordered the deployment of the Armed Forces to the areas affected by the earthquake, especially the provinces of Marrakech, El Houz and Taroudant.

Mohamed VI dedicated 20 minutes to the wounded at the Marrakech hospital, after arriving in a large security delegation made up of more than 40 vehicles and motorcyclists.. He visited the intensive care unit and the unit where the earthquake victims are admitted. There, the Alawite sovereign was informed of the state of health of the wounded and the care they were receiving from the medical teams, reports the official media Le Matin.. Upon leaving the hospital, he extended his hand to the people who had gathered to see him, before leaving again.

The absence of the king had caught the attention of the population, who demanded a gesture from their authorities. According to information from several media outlets, Mohamed VI was on a private visit in Paris when the tragic landslide occurred.. Some in Morocco speculate that he was being treated for his ailments in a clinic.

Equally striking is the disappearance from the scene of the Prime Minister, Aziz Ajanouch.. The head of the Government only issued a statement of condolences on Sunday, while yesterday Monday he announced aid for the reconstruction of homes destroyed by the earthquake. In the towns affected by the wrath of nature, more actions were demanded from the authorities, but also a gesture of consolation by showing up at ground zero.

Mohamed VI donating blood for those injured in the Moroccan earthquake

“We need tents, blankets, food, but the most important thing would have been words of comfort and support from the Moroccan Government,” complained Samira, one of the neighbors who has been left homeless in the town of Mulay Ibrahim, in the High Atlas.. “All our politicians are asleep while we are on the street,” criticized Yasin Numghara.

It is said in Morocco that Achanuch was at a private party in Agadir on Friday night, where he danced until late into the night. Achanuch is the second fortune of Morocco, after the king. Owner of the most important companies in the country, Mohamed VI is estimated to have a fortune valued at 5 billion dollars. Forbes places him as the fifth richest person in all of Africa.

In the areas affected by the earthquake, troops from the Cherifian Phosphate Office (OCP) have been deployed to distribute food and tents to the most vulnerable. The OCP group is the main exporter of phosphates in the world, owned by the Royal Family. It is the closest to their king that the victims of the catastrophic shock have been.

The Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, has ordered the start of an investigation to determine whether the President, Joe Biden, benefited from his son Hunter's businesses.. McCarthy justified his decision by alleging that there are “allegations of abuse of power, obstruction and corruption” in the activities of Hunter Biden, who could be charged by Justice later this month for not paying taxes and having a firearm without a license.

An eventual impeachment of Biden would not cost the president his position, but it would save McCarthy's position. The president of the House is under tremendous pressure from the most far-right wing of his party, whose opposition to Biden is total. If McCarthy does not at least open the investigation against the president, it is highly likely that this faction will force his dismissal and the House of Representatives will once again fall into chaos, just as happened in January when McCarthy needed 15 votes to come to office due, precisely, to the opposition of the ultras of his own party. Not since 1860 – on the eve of the United States' Civil War to abolish slavery – had it taken so many votes for a House leader to be confirmed.

For this reason, McCarthy has taken the unusual decision of ordering Biden's investigation without first submitting it to a vote by the full House.. This is because the centrist Republican sector opposes impeachment, alleging that there are no reasons to carry it out.. The investigation will be carried out by three committees, all of them controlled by members of the Freedom Caucus, the far-right wing of the Republican Party.

If the House finally launched an impeachment process, it is not clear that it would go ahead.. Firstly, because the Republican majority is very slim – just five seats in a chamber that currently has 434 – and it is possible that some congressmen from that party will vote against. If the impeachment were approved, it would go to the Senate, where Biden's removal would be debated.. The chances of that happening are zero.. On the one hand, Democrats have the majority in the Senate and, on the other, several prominent senators – including Republican leader Mitch McConnell – oppose impeachment.

The impeachment is, thus, a movement of the most conservative wing of republicanism, which will mobilize the bases of the party but will probably also mobilize those of the Democrats in view of the 2024 elections, which is what moderate Republicans and members of that party's Senate they want to avoid.

With the decision to open the investigation, McCarthy also shows once again that he is not in a position of strength to resist his party colleagues to his right.. Until this week, the Republican leader had insisted that he would only take that step if it was approved by the full House.. Now, with his capitulation, McCarthy makes it clear that this minority of legislators, who represent approximately one-third to one-half of the Republican caucus, has effective control of the party.

But McCarthy also pursues another objective: to ensure that, in exchange for the promise of impeachment, the Republicans raise their opposition to approving the new budget allocations that must be passed by the House between this week and next.. Many Republicans oppose this, which would mean, once again, the closure of the Public Administration, which is almost a tradition in American political culture.. The problem is that the closure of the State is, once again, a risky step, which can cause a part of the citizens who have not decided their vote in 2024 to blame the Republicans for inventing a crisis.. Among the aid that must be approved is, in addition, a package of 24.1 billion dollars (22.4 billion euros) to Ukraine.

The Russian president is preparing for a long war in Ukraine. His vision of a future end to the fighting fits rather with a scenario prepared for Russian victory: “Only when Ukraine is exhausted in terms of men, equipment and ammunition will it be able to talk about peace.”.

Vladimir Putin does not see an armistice now.

According to their reasoning, Russia can hardly stop fighting when faced with a Ukrainian counteroffensive.. For there to be any chance of talks, Putin said, Ukraine would first have to lift its self-imposed legal ban on peace talks and explain what it wants: “Then we'll see,” Putin said..

The Russian leader criticized the West's decision to supply Ukraine with F-16 aircraft and any possible US supplies of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS). But Putin said that regardless of who wins next year's US elections, he does not expect any change in Washington's policy towards Russia: “US authorities perceive Russia as an existential enemy.”. Putin explained that the West is trying to dissuade China from having close relations with Russia, but that these attempts have failed as ties with Beijing are at an unprecedented level.

Partially isolated since its large-scale invasion, Russia has turned towards Asia. Putin admitted that this turn was accelerated by the war and the West's attempt to contain the Russian economy..

Putin praised his central bank for keeping inflation at bay with double-digit interest rates and noted that there are no insurmountable challenges when it came to limiting ruble volatility.. The Russian leader, who faces presidential elections in March next year, used his speech at the Russian Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok to project an atmosphere of financial calm, just weeks after the ruble fell beyond 100 to the dollar provoked criticism from the Kremlin of the bank's monetary policy. Speaking to businessmen across the country, he promised there would be no sudden measures to limit such ruble volatility for now.

IN PRAGUE BAD, IN kyiv GOOD.

Looking back, Putin also noted that the Soviet Union's decision to send tanks to Hungary and Czechoslovakia to crush mass protests during the Cold War “was a mistake.”. The president gave his point of view on the perception of Russia as a colonial power due to Moscow's decision to send tanks to Budapest in 1956 and Prague in 1968..

Both interventions have similarities with Russia's attack on kyiv last year. The Hungarian uprising of 1956 was crushed by tanks and Soviet troops with a bloody outcome.. The Prague Spring of 1968 was an attempt at openness, within socialism that Moscow saw as an open door to Western influence.. The process ended when Soviet forces invaded the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic..

The so-called special military operation in Ukraine has caused the biggest war in Europe since World War II, in addition to a wave of repression in Russia never seen in this century. Putin joked about that when he spoke of “160 or 170” people from the cultural sector who have left the country: “They have gone abroad; they do not agree with the policy of the Russian state. But you can disagree and be here and talking about it, no one forbids it. But some decided to leave.” In reality, mere criticism of the war has led to the erasure of various artists in Russia and there are several people prosecuted in Russia for “discrediting the army” for the mere fact of not repeating the lies of the Russian government, such as that it is not attacking the civilian population or that there are many Russians who do not want to fight in this war that Moscow does not dare to call by its name