Multiplexer

Oh no, this is getting increasingly complicated... from a combinatorical perspective alone I now already see the potential of mortally insulting 3/4 of the people I will be meeting... 😯

You are right. Just remembering e.g. the recent farce with the voting for Bundesverfassungsgericht...

Ok, this is bonkers. Although the risk of contamination with foreign insects via transit is real (we e.g. imported the Tiger Mosquito from the US via tire shipments from the U.S. into Europe some years ago...), using that as an excuse to search passenger cars is quite a stretch...

Well, Bundestag is dominated by the CDU and she is a CDU member. So... 🤷‍♂️

And yes, the article is written more like a casual political comment and the German original also is a bit awkward, so your impression is right.

California has done searchs for ‘bugs’ before but don’t know if the still do.

I guess that is not "Bugs" as in butterfly?

Just owning them or actually using them? What are the fines?

Ok, expected this to be covered legally somehow.
Also as I assume that freedom of movement would be a value you are regarding highly in the States.

Makes sense. Would also just generate work for the police forces with probably only low level violations to be uncovered.
Being practical is a good approach.

Well, as almost all our industrial scale electrical energy sources boil down (this pun definitely intended) to rapidly heating up huge amounts of water, the pun seems to be obvious for a nuclear fusion power plant. But maybe it isn't and it is just a coincidence. Who knows...

One comment mentioned that some things are legal in one state but illegal in another.
And I also remember that laws in general are often quite different between states.

So, I am wondering if there exist some kind of controls near state borders to catch illegal stuff and practices (or even wanted persons?) crossing the border?

Well, an AI is incredibly patient and you can toy around with the language freely without perhaps feeling embarrassed. That alone lowers the entry bar (especially for slightly awkward persons like myself...) considerably.
On top of that AI is dirt cheap compared to a personal tutor or traveling around the world.
So it would open effective language learning to a much broader audience than before, which undoubtedly is a good thing!

I had to check and it seems you are right. Next vote of EU Commission president would normally be in 2029, so she would have to go two years early.