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The German word Zeitgeschehen is a noun that describes present happenings in general.

Zeitgeschehen is most commonly used as the name of a section in media. Society, culture, news, and so on are put together and summed up in that section.

I think current events or similar words don't work because that would exclude the society and culture part of the term and would be more comparable to current news.

Is there an English word for this?

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    "Current events" is not really used as "current news" in the US. "News" is used for the news. However, it seems that every newspaper has it's own way to parse that information between sections entitled "Happenings", the "Society" section, the "Metro" section, "Events", "Lifestyle" section, etc. Maybe one of our members has a good hypernym for that collection of assorted data.
    – Kristina Lopez
    Commented Aug 7, 2015 at 21:12
  • I don't think there is. This perhaps reflects a more analytical mindset in the English-speaking world. The Sunday Times has the section and subsections: News >> UK News >> National / Education / Royal / Society / People / Green / Arts / Science / Defence / Health / Tech //, as well as Culture and Style (and other) sections.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 7, 2015 at 21:36
  • Sounds like whazzup.
    – bib
    Commented Aug 7, 2015 at 21:45
  • Why not incorporate zeitgeschehen into English? It happened with kindergarten, gesundheit and quite a few more. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em (although of course Germany was licked twice in the past 100 years).
    – Joost Kiefte
    Commented Aug 7, 2015 at 22:14
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    It is not a newspaper expression but current affairs is a well-understood term in Britain. BBC Radio4 has many excellent current affairs programmes.
    – WS2
    Commented Aug 8, 2015 at 6:39

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There are many terms that are used in American mewspapers to distinguish the types of news in the section. But all of the newspaper (except the ads) could be said to "news" or "current events". So this is much too broad. A few more specific section titles that you might find, standalone or in combinations:

  • Around the Town (society news, gossip, "human interest" stories)

  • Arts (art shows, artist interviews—sometimes includes architecture and architects)

  • Books (reviews, new releases, best-seller lists, book fair info)

  • Culture (dance, drama, opera, symphony & classical music)

  • Dining (restaurant reviews and "guides")

  • Entertainment (see Arts, Music, Culture)

  • Lifestyle (anything from recreation to home remodeling, to cooking, to anything else people do that's worth writing about)

  • Movies

  • Music (new releases, reviews, top-seller list, performer interviews, upcoming concerts, etc.)

  • Television (weekly schedule, higlights and reviews of shows)

  • Travel (ideas for car trips, tours, etc)

  • Weekend (what's going on during the upcoming weekend)

Generically speaking, these are all subsets of events, happenings, or goings-on (though the latter is rarely heard anymore in AmE).

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Perhaps the English word you're looking for is 'zeitgeist'. I'm sure you can guess its etymology.

You're right that 'current events' (or more usually 'current affairs') would be understood to mean political news or world events. The term doesn't really capture social trends or cultural mood in the same way as 'zeitgeist'.

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    Zeitgeist is more of a philosophical term to denote the way people feel, think, political developments. etc. whereas zeitgeschehen has more of an active connotation, of things happening now.
    – Joost Kiefte
    Commented Aug 8, 2015 at 6:28
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It may be counter-intuitive, but perhaps "the events of the day" can be an appropriate translation.

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Does situation work for you?

OED:

A set of circumstances in which one finds oneself; a state of affairs:

  • The political situation in Russia
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