France announced a new month-long national lockdown and Germany imposed drastic new curbs on people’s daily lives as the EU’s biggest countries admitted that hospitals would soon be overwhelmed by patients suffering from coronavirus. The dramatic lockdown decision from French President Emmanuel Macron came after weeks of exponentially rising new infections across Europe that have […]
Champagne corks popped in Australia’s second-biggest city as a months-long coronavirus lockdown ended on Wednesday, contrasting with deepening gloom in Europe where France and Germany were set to reintroduce curbs. The pandemic has unleashed vast devastation across the global economy and in the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment, countries are being forced to […]
Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to push for a “lockdown light” in crisis talks with Germany’s regional leaders Wednesday, as the number of coronavirus cases soars and hospital beds fill up. The proposed new restrictions would include closing restaurants and bars and putting strict limits on private and public gatherings while keeping schools, daycares and […]
The mayor of Donald Trump’s ancestral German village pledged before the US president’s surprise 2016 election that if he did anything “great” for America or the world, he would hang a plaque in his honour. Four years on, there’s still no plaque. Kallstadt is the tiny wine-growing town in Germany’s southwest where Trump’s paternal grandparents […]
German health experts warned on Thursday that the coronavirus could “spread uncontrollably” in the country, as infections surged across Europe and governments prepared to renew some lockdown measures. In Belgium, Brussels’ crowded bars and cafes were shut for a month, a return to the stricter protocols imposed at the height of the epidemic in March […]
Germany and France on Wednesday directly accused Russia of “involvement and responsibility” in the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, announcing that they will seek EU sanctions over the case. Moscow quickly hit back that the accusations were “unacceptable” and amounted to “blackmail”. The European powers have repeatedly asked Moscow to shed light on the […]
Britain’s Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel of Germany and U.S. scientist Andrea Ghez won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Physics for their discoveries about one of the most exotic phenomena in the universe, the black hole, the award-giving body said on Tuesday. Penrose, professor at the University of Oxford, won half the prize for his work […]
Germany will publish a much-anticipated report on right-wing extremism in its security forces on Tuesday after a string of scandals over far-right networks in the police and military. Several regional German police forces have been caught up in far-right scandals in recent months, and a unit of the country’s elite KSK commando force was dissolved […]
Magdeburg (Germany) (AFP) – A German man went on trial on Tuesday for a deadly shooting targeting Jews in the eastern city of Halle last year, one of the worst acts of anti-Semitic violence in Germany’s postwar history.Stephan Balliet, 28, who is accused of shooting dead two people in October after he tried and failed […]
The United States isn’t the only country debating Confederate symbols. The Confederate flag can be seen flying in Ireland, Germany, Brazil and beyond. Sometimes, the red-white-and-blue-crossed flag is seemingly displayed as kitsch, a kind of Americana. Other times, its display conveys a political meaning more reflective of the flag’s origins in the slave-holding, Southern American […]
Germany plans to allow for tougher lockdown measures to contain local outbreaks and ward off the threat of a second coronavirus wave, according to a draft agreement between the federal and regional governments. The new rules would include a ban on travel “in and out of the affected areas” to limit the spread of the […]
Germany takes over the European Union’s six-month presidency Wednesday, with outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel staking her legacy on a massive economic recovery plan to help the bloc cope with the coronavirus fallout. Merkel‘s last major role on the international stage comes as the 27-member club faces its deepest recession since World War II, triggered by […]
Coronavirus misinformation spread by Russian and Chinese journalists is finding a bigger audience on social media in France and Germany than content from the European nations’ own premier news outlets, according to new research. Whether it is distorted coverage or outright conspiracy theories, articles written in French and German by foreign state media are resonating […]
A top German court on Tuesday ordered Facebook to stop merging data collected through its Whatsapp and Instagram subsidiaries or other websites unless users explicitly agree, in a legal victory for competition authorities. Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (FCO) had told Facebook to rein in the data collecting in a landmark decision in 2019, but the […]
The governor of Germany’s most populous state on Tuesday announced lockdown measures in a county that has seen a large increase in Covid-19 cases linked to a slaughterhouse. Armin Laschet, the governor of North Rhine-Westphalia state, said Tuesday that people in Guetersloh county should only have contact with their own household or one person from […]
The leading Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday introduced legislation to block Donald Trump’s administration from withdrawing troops from Germany. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee and Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NY), the ranking member on the Senate’s counterpart, unveiled the legislation on social media. “The current U.S. […]
President Donald Trump has clashed with plenty of US allies. But toward German Chancellor Angela Merkel, he appears to hold special enmity. Trump’s abrupt announcement that he will reduce US troops in Germany by half to 25,000 — a decision that has brought concern across NATO — is the culmination of mounting tensions between the […]
President Donald Trump said Monday that the US will slash the number of troops stationed in Germany by roughly 9,500 to 25,000, significantly reducing US commitments to European defense under NATO in what one former US military commander said would be a “gift” to Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Trump said in comments to reporters that Germany does not […]
An entire regional chapter of Germany’s far-right AfD party has been placed under police surveillance because of its extremist tendencies, local authorities said Monday, increasing pressure on the anti-migrant group. The Brandenburg chapter of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is now “a suspicious case and an object of surveillance”, said a spokesman for the […]
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pledged a probe Wednesday into complaints of mistreatment of foreign journalists covering the nationwide protests against racism and police brutality. Australia, Britain and Germany have all taken the unusual step of voicing concern about US actions, with Australia stunned by scenes of two of its television journalists attacked by police […]
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg defended America’s military commitment to Europe on Monday, following reports President Donald Trump plans to slash troop numbers in Germany. Berlin has voiced concern at the proposal reported by US media to cut the 34,500 American military personnel posted in Germany by nearly a third. The move would significantly reduce the […]
On Saturday, Bloomberg News reported that Germany is stunned by President Donald Trump’s new order to pull 9,500 troops from the region. “Like Chancellor Angela Merkel, the mayor of Grafenwoehr was caught off guard. It’s the latest sign of the U.S.’s deterioration of ties with a loyal ally, one that not only hosts most of […]
US President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to slash the number of troops it maintains in Germany by more than a quarter in the coming months, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The newspaper said the Defense Department would cut the number of military personnel by 9,500 from the current 34,500 permanently assigned to […]
Police revealed Wednesday they have identified a new suspect in the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann in 2007, saying the 43-year-old German man with a history of child sex abuse may have killed her. The suspect, who was not named, is serving a “long prison sentence” for an unrelated matter, said Germany’s federal criminal […]
Germany will lift its blanket travel warning for European nations from June 15, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Wednesday, as the continent looks to further ease restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus. Germany introduced an unprecedented warning against all foreign travel in mid-March. But with new infections sharply down, the government is looking for ways […]
Austrian officials unveiled Tuesday plans to “neutralize” Adolf Hitler’s birth house by turning it into a police station, with the building receiving some cosmetic changes in the process. The yellow corner house in the northern Austrian town of Braunau on the border with Germany, where Hitler was born on April 20 1889, was taken into […]
The artist known as Christo, who made his name transforming landmarks such as Germany’s Reichstag by covering them with reams of cloth, died on Sunday aged 84, his official Facebook page announced. Christo Vladimirov Javacheff died of natural causes at his home in New York City, the statement said. The Bulgarian-born artist worked in collaboration […]
As the COVID-19 crisis wreaks havoc across the globe, a handful of countries, including Germany, Chile and the United States, are mulling the use of immunity passports to make clear who is immune from coronavirus infection. Several U.S. companies are also examining ways of testing employees, including for COVID-19 antibodies, before allowing them to return […]
A German federal court judge ruled on Monday that Volkswagen has to pay compensation to motorists who purchased vehicles with manipulated diesel engines, a major blow for the carmaker in its home market as it continues to reel from the emissions scandal. Germany’s highest court for civil disputes ruled that those who purchased the vehicles in question […]
Just imagine a rocksinger Calling on white to kill black I can hear the immediate outcry Among all those ghetto rats I’m just so sick and tired Of all your violent and racial loaded stuff I gotta shout it out – “enough is enough!” What sells is violence, sex, drugs and guns And the record […]