KONTRAFUNK aktuell · Kontrafunk AG

KONTRAFUNK aktuell vom 10. April 2026

April 10, 2026·56 min·4 clips
Pakistan mediates talks between Iran and the U.S. today in Islamabad to find an exit from the war.
1. KONTRAFUNK aktuell airs on 10 April 2026, hosted by Benjamin Gollme, presenting itself as an independent alternative to mainstream German public broadcasting. 2. The show's guests include Shams ul Haq (journalist in Islamabad), Thomas Globig (meteorologist and former ARD/NDR weather presenter), and Christian Beißner (potato farmer from Rinteln, Lower Saxony). 3. The episode's connective thesis is that major institutions — governments, military, public broadcasters, international organisations — are failing to communicate honestly with citizens about the Iran war, climate change, and food security. 4. Shams ul Haq reports from Islamabad that J.D. Vance's expected arrival to conduct direct Iran-US ceasefire talks has created overnight security chaos: US agents swept the airport, all top hotels were commandeered, and two public holidays were declared without notice. 5. Ul Haq names Afghan Taliban-affiliated groups and Indian intelligence as the primary security threats, both having reasons to disrupt Pakistan-mediated talks that would strengthen Pakistan's regional standing. 6. On the ceasefire's credibility, ul Haq corroborates a claim by ZDF's Daniel Gerlach that the ceasefire was known before Trump's Tuesday ultimatum, suggesting Trump's public threats were diplomatic theatre rather than a genuine escalation. 7. The ten-point negotiation framework was rejected by Iran initially, reworked through Pakistani intermediaries, then returned to Washington before being resubmitted — a process ul Haq describes as 'chaos pure' reflecting Trump's moment-to-moment reversals. 8. Ul Haq identifies Israel as the primary saboteur of ceasefire efforts: Israel continued to bomb Beirut after the ceasefire announcement, and Iran had expected Lebanon to be included in the agreement. 9. On China, ul Haq argues that clearing the Strait of Hormuz primarily served Chinese shipping interests, and China's dependence on Iranian oil exports through the strait is the underlying geopolitical prize Trump exploited. 10. Meteorologist Thomas Globig, 40-plus years as a public broadcaster weather presenter before retiring four months earlier, argues that temperature increase is primarily solar-driven: sunshine hours have grown measurably, creating more blue sky and more direct solar radiation reaching Earth. 11. Globig states the Antarctic has been cooling rather than warming — citing a recent record low of minus 76 degrees Celsius — as a 'litmus test' disproving CO2-driven global warming theory, and notes this finding rarely appears in mainstream German media. 12. He argues CO2's primary observable effect is as a fertiliser that has caused measurable greening of the Sahel zone and other arid regions, rather than warming. 13. Globig rejects solar geoengineering proposals supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — specifically proposals to disperse atmospheric particles to reflect sunlight — as potentially harmful and wasteful. 14. On the Ahr Valley 2021 flood disaster (used repeatedly in climate movement campaigns), Globig argues that similar floods occurred there one hundred years ago and one hundred years before that, and attributes the recurring damage to houses being rebuilt with flood-plain views. 15. Farmer Christian Beißner explains that the Iran war caused fertiliser costs to jump by over 40 euros in two days at the same dealer from the same tank, adding 80 euros per hectare for nitrogen alone. 16. Beißner calculates combined diesel and fertiliser increases of 150-200 euros per hectare across approximately 200 hectares, against a backdrop where potato prices have simultaneously collapsed to a record low of 1.50 euros per 100 kilos sold to biogas plants. 17. He supports the permanent removal of Germany's CO2 tax (currently 17 cents per litre of diesel) and reduced import levies on foreign fertiliser as emergency measures to keep German agricultural production viable. 18. The episode maintains a consistently critical stance toward mainstream media, the German federal government, NATO, and international institutions, presenting contrarian expert voices as suppressed dissidents from official consensus. 19. German-speaking listeners sceptical of mainstream media narratives on the Iran war, climate change, or agricultural policy will find KONTRAFUNK aktuell's expert-interview format aligned with their perspective. 20. Listeners who accept mainstream consensus on climate science or who prefer news sources with institutional accreditation will find the show's framing of climate scepticism and anti-establishment commentary uncomfortable.
Listen to the show on