Key data this week will offer a hint as to whether the eurozone’s powerhouse can shake off recent stagnation
Engine of the eurozone, industrial powerhouse, export world champion – just some of the ways Germany’s economy has been described over the years.
However, recent figures have indicated that the good times have come to an end, with Europe’s largest economy stuck in recession.
Continue reading...Prosecutors say suspect led pro-regime paramilitaries who detained and tortured political opponents
A Syrian man accused of leading a pro-government militia in Tadamon, a Damascus neighbourhood that was the site of a massacre of civilians in 2013 filmed by its perpetrators and revealed by the Guardian last year, has been arrested in northern Germany.
The suspect, identified as Ahmad H in line with German privacy rules, is the first person to be detained in connection with crimes in Tadamon, where militia and soldiers loyal to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, brutalised the local population – recording some of their acts – in the early years of the country’s civil war.
Continue reading...Comments by CDU leader Friedrich Merz could see erosion of political ‘firewall’ separating conservatives and far right
The leader of Germany’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has said his party is willing to cooperate with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) at a local political level, triggering cries of protest from his own party and raising concerns about the firewall between German conservatives and the far right.
In an interview with state broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, CDU leader Friedrich Merz categorically ruled out joining a coalition with the AfD at a national level but said such a taboo should not apply to local politics.
Continue reading...Review could show that thousands more Jews and prisoners of war died on Alderney than previously thought
The full horrors of the only Nazi concentration camps to exist on British soil will finally be investigated in an official government inquiry, the Observer can reveal.
Eighty years on from one of the darkest episodes in British history, the government is to carry out a review into the numbers of prisoners murdered by the Nazis on Alderney, the tiny Channel Island and British crown dependency.
Continue reading...Experts reach conclusion after analysing video of animal that triggered lion hunt
A 30-hour search for an escaped lioness that had residents on the southern fringes of Berlin shelter in their homes and the rest of the German capital on tenterhooks has found that what was thought to be an exotic feline predator was most likely a common wild pig.
After no more sightings of the big cat were reported overnight, Michael Grubert, the mayor of the municipality of Kleinmachnow, said two leading experts had analysed the video that had originally triggered the lion hunt. “With a relatively high degree of certainty the tendency is towards a wild boar,” Grubert said.
Continue reading...People urged to stay inside as officials track down ‘dangerous animal’ in south-west of capital
Residents on the south-western outskirts of Berlin are being urged to stay indoors after overnight sightings of a “loose, dangerous animal”, suspected to be an escaped lioness.
Brandenburg police advised people living in the districts of Kleinmachnow, Stahnsdorf and Teltow on the borders of the German capital to refrain from walking in the woods and to keep pets or farm animals indoors on Thursday. Nurseries were allowed to open but they were urged to avoid letting children play outdoors.
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It will be easier for women to medically terminate pregnancies up to 63 days of gestation, now that the Therapeutic Goods Administration has approved an application from MS Health to amend restrictions on the prescribing of MS-2 Step (Mifepristone and Misoprostol).
MS-2 Step was only able to be prescribed by a doctor certified to prescribe the medicine, and then dispensed by a pharmacist who was a registered dispenser.
We’re investing in the care economy, we’re investing in manufacturing and we’re investing in critical infrastructure to create secure, well-paid jobs for Australian workers.
While we know that slowing global growth, higher prices and higher interest rates will impact our economy and labour market and continue to strain household budgets over the coming months, Australia is in a better position than nearly anyone else to face the challenges ahead.
Continue reading...Berlin to buy 100 Boxer heavy weapon carriers made in Brisbane by German manufacturer Rheinmetall
The prime minister has touched down in Europe, confirming a deal worth more than $1bn to sell Australian-made armoured vehicles to Germany before talks at a Nato summit.
Anthony Albanese landed in Berlin on Sunday night, German time, before a scheduled meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday.
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Continue reading...Foreign minister says Ukraine war has changed country’s mindset about ‘chequebook diplomacy’
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed how Germany views security and made Berlin realise it failed to listen to eastern European allies who warned of threats from Moscow, Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, has written in the Guardian.
In a frank admission about the flaws in postwar German foreign policy, she said countries in eastern Europe had been right to warn Germany that hoping for the best in dealing with the threats from an autocratic Russia was not an adequate response. For too long, she said, Germany had resorted to “chequebook diplomacy”, or a belief that political and economic interaction would lead Russia to a democratic path.
Continue reading...Diplomat says accord could collapse if European signatories retain restrictions on weapon development
The UK, France and Germany should stick to the terms of the Iran nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Iranian missile development, Tehran’s chargé d’affaires to London has said.
Speaking on the eve of a UN security council debate on Iran, Mehdi Hosseini Matin said on Wednesday that such a breach would lead to the collapse of the deal, known as the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA). It would, he added, also affect the atmosphere around recent bilateral talks in Oman between Iran and the US to secure a separate mini-agreement covering the release of US prisoners, maintaining aspects of the nuclear deal and the release of Iranian assets frozen abroad.
Continue reading...German man says he first contacted Scotland Yard about suspect Christian Brückner in 2008
The man who tipped off police about Christian Brückner, the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, has said his initial approach to the Metropolitan police in the year after she disappeared was ignored and he was only taken seriously when he contacted them again nine years later.
The German man, identified only as Helge B, said he had approached Scotland Yard in 2008, suspecting Brückner’s involvement in the child’s abduction, but he heard nothing back from them. Publicity around the 10th anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance in 2017 prompted him to contact them again, after which they acted on his information, he said.
Continue reading...German Chancellor says uprising shows ‘cracks’ in autocracy in Moscow, after Vladimir Putin greeted crowds of fans in unusual tour of southern city
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said the failed Wagner mutiny last weekend has weakened Vladimir Putin’s authority, as the Russian president sought to repair the damage to his standing by meeting military staff at the Kremlin and greeting crowds on a rare public walkabout.
Speaking in a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with the ARD broadcaster, Scholz said: “I do believe he is weakened as this shows that the autocratic power structures have cracks in them and he is not as firmly in the saddle as he always asserts.”
Continue reading...The recent college graduates were visiting Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria when man allegedly shoved them down a steep slope
Two US women who had just earned computer-related college degrees had gone to southern Germany to celebrate when a fellow American whom they met while hiking shoved them both down a steep slope last week, killing one and seriously wounding the other, according to officials.
Eva Liu, 21, had received her bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May. Authorities say she was sexually assaulted and pushed to her death near Neuschwanstein Castle, a famous tourist destination in Bavaria. Her 22-year-old friend Kelsey Chang had also just graduated from the same school with a bachelor’s in computer engineering – reports say she was attacked, too, but survived.
Continue reading...Wooden artefacts dating from 15th century and bought from indigenous people were treated with pesticides while in museum
Germany has returned two wooden masks of the indigenous Kogi community to Colombia but conceded that wearing the sacred artefacts in ceremonies may come with a health risk because they were treated with toxic pesticides during their time in German museums.
The masks, which date back to the mid-15th century and have been held in ethnological collections in Berlin for over a century, were handed over to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, by his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in Berlin on Friday.
Continue reading...Object from mid-bronze age, in ‘extraordinary’ state of preservation, was found in grave in Bavaria
A bronze sword more than 3,000 years old , which is so well-preserved that it “almost still shines”, has been unearthed in southern Germany, officials say.
The Bavarian state office for the preservation of historical monuments (BLfD) said the sword, which is believed to date back to the end of the 14th century BC — the middle of the bronze age — was found during excavations last week in Nördlingen, between Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
Continue reading...Investigators seek photos and videos of incident in which US man allegedly pushed two women down slope, killing one
Police in southern Germany are appealing for photos and videos taken by witnesses of an attack near Neuschwanstein Castle after an American man allegedly pushed two American women down a steep slope, killing one of them. A suspect was arrested following the attack.
The German news agency dpa quoted police on Friday as saying they had so far received about a dozen submissions on a specially created website, but assume many more images were taken by tourists present at the site.
Continue reading...Berlin prosecutors say investigation against German singer is based on suspicion of abuse after concerts
Berlin state prosecutors have launched an investigation into sexual assault allegations against the lead singer of the German metal band Rammstein, Till Lindemann.
The prosecutors confirmed to German media that the investigation was based on the initial suspicion of sexual abuse as well as drug-related activity. The announcement follows allegations made by a number of women that they were picked out to have sex with Lindemann at concerts.
Continue reading...Environmental groups criticise revision of law that would have banned installation of gas and oil systems
The German government has staved off a power battle that threatened to cause the ruling coalition to implode after finally agreeing an 11th-hour amendment to a controversial new heating law.
Negotiations over the legislation have dominated the headlines for weeks, with the economy minister, Robert Habeck, of the Greens clashing with the pro-liberal Free Democratic party (FDP) over how much consumers should be burdened with the costs of replacing fossil fuel heating systems with cleaner, climate-neutral energy.
Continue reading...Mudflats are littered with bones, some of which may be remains from battle 80 years ago near Nikopol
The emptying of the vast reservoir along the Dnipro River in Ukraine as a result of the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam last week has left mudflats littered with skeletons, according to footage posted online, in a reminder of the region’s violent past.
Videos taken on Ukrainian-held and Russian-occupied sides of the Dnipro where the reservoir used to be, show skulls scattered in the ooze, one wearing a second world war helmet. The footage could not be independently verified due to fighting in the area.
Continue reading...The rider of a motorbike has died following a crash with a competitor in an Ironman European championship race on Sunday, police in the host city of Hamburg said.
Police said there was a head-on crash when a race support motorbike carrying a rider and a passenger collided with a triathlete who was cycling in the opposite direction.
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