Luke Mockridge cancels tour start after Paralympics joke scandal

Top news compact

Things that Germany is talking about today: Every day you can find the compact top news on watson, which is of course constantly updated. So you know what’s going on in just a few minutes.

Luke Mockridge cancels tour start

Comedian Luke Mockridge has drawn consequences from his scandal surrounding a joke about disabled sports. The planned start of his “Funny Times” tour has been cancelled. The tour kick-off this Thursday in Bünde, East Westphalia, and the second show on Friday in Paderborn will not take place, tour organizer MTS live announced upon request.

The cancellation was made “due to the current situation”. Mockridge actually wanted to perform his program “Funny Times” around 30 times in Germany and Austria by November. It is still unclear whether further dates of the tour will be cancelled, MTS live announced.

Carola Bridge: Video shows collapse in Dresden

In Dresden, parts of the Carola Bridge have collapsed and the fire department is assuming there is an acute risk of collapse. “We expect that further parts of the bridge could collapse,” said a fire department spokesman on site on Wednesday morning. He called on people to stay away from the bridge if possible. “There is a danger to life” on and around the bridge, it was said. A drone squadron is currently in operation to assess the extent of the damage.

As a result of the collapse, the supply of hot water in Dresden was interrupted, but now at least the old town is back on the gridas the “Sächsische Zeitung” reports. The collapse also tore up district heating pipes, from which hot water was constantly leaking. A newly released video shows the moment when the bridge collapsed into the Elbe.

The authorities currently assume that corrosion caused the collapse. Holger Kalbe, head of the Dresden construction department, attributed this to legacy pollution from the GDR era. According to him, chloride deposits could have destabilized the bridge. However, this is still speculation at this point.

The Carola Bridge in Dresden has partially collapsed.Image: REUTERS / Matthias Rietschel

Migration: Scholz attacks Merz after retraction

During the general debate on the budget, the parties engaged in a heated exchange of blows. The dispute was sparked by the failed migration talks between the traffic light coalition and the Union. Friedrich Merz (CDU) rejected further offers of talks from the government this morning.

The traffic light coalition’s proposals fell far short of what was needed. “And that is why we are not going to enter into an endless loop of talks with you, I ask for your indulgence,” said Merz.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) reiterated his accusations that the CDU was staging the dispute for election campaign reasons. In the afternoon, he accused the opposition leader in the Bundestag of a lack of seriousness: “You are the type of politician who believed that he had already solved the migration issue with an interview in ‘Bild am Sonntag’.”

CDU leader Friedrich Merz denies tactical motives for the failure of the migration meeting. Photo: dpa / Kay Nietfeld

Harris and Trump engage in a heated TV debate

At their first ever personal meeting, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump engaged in a heated TV debate. At the beginning, the Democrat shook her opponent’s hand and introduced herself as “Kamala Harris.” The two then went into attack mode during the duel in Philadelphia.

Harris lamented that Trump left the country in a disastrous state in 2021 – with the highest unemployment since the Great Depression, the worst health epidemic in a century and the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War. “And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”

Trump spread absurd lies about migrants in TV debate

Trump, in turn, complained that Harris and US President Joe Biden had plunged the country into the abyss during their time in office. “We have a nation that is dying,” he said. In various questions, Republicans raised the issue of migration and accused Harris and Biden of allowing millions of migrants and criminals into the country unchecked. “They have destroyed the fabric of our country.” Trump even accused migrants of eating pets. “In Springfield, they eat the dogs – the people who came here – they eat the cats. They eat the pets of the people who live there,” he claimed without any evidence.

After the polite handshake at the beginning, Harris and Trump soon find themselves fighting tough battles.Image: AP / Alex Brandon

Harris accused Trump of wanting tax cuts for the rich and not caring about ordinary Americans. She appealed to citizens to see for themselves at one of his campaign appearances. “I’m going to do something really unusual and call on you to attend one of Donald Trump’s rallies,” the Democrat said to the audience. Trump spread absurd claims there, such as that wind turbines cause cancer. “The only thing you won’t hear him talk about is you.” Trump has no plan for the people of the country. Trump responded, offended, that people weren’t going to Harris’ campaign events in the first place.

Perhaps even more important than the actual debate: Immediately afterwards, Taylor Swift spoke up and expressed her support for Harris. This step had been expected for a long time.

Olympic breaker Raygun new world number one

Her performance at the Olympics in Paris caused laughter, ridicule and a boost in attention for her sport. Now Rachael “Raygun” Gunn is celebrating a late revenge. The 37-year-old Australian leads the world rankings of the World DanceSport Federation (WDSF). This makes her, at least temporarily, officially the best breaker in the world. The ranking is based on the four best performances over the last twelve months.

The breaker Raygun was born at Olympia. Photo: AP / Frank Franklin II

As the association clarified, the results of Olympic qualifying competitions and the Olympic Games, where Gunn did not convince the jury, were not included in the ranking due to limited athlete quotas. In addition, “many athletes only had a single competition result that contributes to their ranking” because few ranking events took place between December 2023 and the Summer Games.

DFB team draws against the Netherlands

The German national football team drew with the Netherlands in the Nations League. Coach Julian Nagelsmann’s team played the classic match in Amsterdam 2-2 (2-1) after falling behind early on through Tijjani Reijnders in the 2nd minute. Stuttgart’s Deniz Undav (38′) scored the equalizer with his first international goal. Captain Joshua Kimmich (45’+3′) made it 2-1 before the half-time whistle. Denzel Dumfries (51′) equalized for the hosts after the break.

This is what the weather will be like in Germany today

The cool week continues, autumn is squeezing the remaining warmth of the past heat wave out of us. At night the maximum temperature was 13 degrees Celsius. On Wednesday the temperatures fell a little compared to the previous day.

During the day, temperatures nationwide will be between 14 and 17 degrees Celsius. “It will be a battle to reach the 20 degree mark,” says meteorologist Dominik Jung on “wetter.com”. This will be accompanied by isolated rain showers, “towards the south and southeast”.

There is a risk of heavy, persistent rain again on Thursday. There could also be flooding. Then something special will happen during the day: “Snow in the higher elevations, later also further down,” predicts Dominik Jung for the south. Even if the weather models do not agree, early snow is still very interesting.

News preview: This will be important today

Remembrance Day for the terrorist attacks on September 11

It has been 23 years since Al-Qaeda terrorists carried out four coordinated airplane hijackings and then flew them into symbolic civilian and military buildings in the United States. Brutal attacks that left around 3,000 dead and around 6,000 injured.

The fight against terror became a matter of state and a global earthquake occurred. In addition to political upheavals, the cultural industry tried to address the issue with films, series, documentaries and music. Yes, politicians are taking tough action, but the rest of the population has yet to recover from a state of shock.

Since then, a wedding ceremony has taken place every year with the US President and his deputy. This year there will be a speech by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. For the latter, switching to mourning mode is likely to be a mammoth project, especially shortly after the TV debate with US President Donald Trump.

Worth reading: Recommendations from the watson editorial team

(with material from dpa and afp)

Things that Germany is talking about today: Every day you can find the compact top news on watson, which is of course constantly updated. So you know what’s going on in just a few minutes.

Comedian Luke Mockridge has drawn consequences from his scandal surrounding a joke about disabled sports. The planned start of his “Funny Times” tour has been cancelled. The tour kick-off this Thursday in Bünde, East Westphalia, and the second show on Friday in Paderborn will not take place, tour organizer MTS live announced upon request.