Category Archives: Germany

Weather tracker: cyclone drags pollution towards Sri Lanka

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Particulate matter, which is hazardous to lungs, has been pulled in from India by Cyclone Mandous

In Sri Lanka, schools were forced to close on Friday last week owing to high levels of pollution pulled in from India via Cyclone Mandous. The cyclone was situated in the Bay of Bengal, with winds blowing anti-clockwise around the central low pressure, sweeping the polluted air from India across the Palk strait into Sri Lanka. Subsequently, this merged with Sri Lanka’s local air pollution, leading to unhealthy pollutant concentrations that created a haze across parts of the country, including the capital, Colombo.

Most people are aware of air pollutants, such as carbon dioxide and methane, and the impacts they have in contributing to global warming. However, other air pollutants pose a more immediate threat to human health. Particulate matter refers to tiny particles or droplets in the air, and is split into two categories depending on diameter; up to 2.5 microns (0.0025mm, PM2.5) or up to 10 microns (0.01mm, PM10).

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Twitter’s suspension of journalists sets ‘dangerous precedent’, UN warns

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Pressure grows on Elon Musk as EU says social media platform could face sanctions over suspensions

The United Nations is “very disturbed” by Twitter’s abrupt suspension of a group of US journalists, a spokesperson has said, warning that the move sets a “dangerous precedent” – as the EU said the social media platform could fall foul of forthcoming digital regulations.

Stéphane Dujarric said on Friday the UN was “very disturbed” by the barring of prominent tech reporters at news organisations including CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times who have written about Musk and the tech company he owns.

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Huge cylindrical aquarium housing 1,500 exotic fish bursts in Berlin

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Two people injured by broken glass as 1m litres of water pour out of 14-metre-high tank

A freestanding cylindrical aquarium housing about 1,500 exotic fish burst in Berlin on Friday morning, causing a wave of devastation in and around the tourist attraction.

Glass, chairs, tables and other debris were swept out of the DomAquarée complex, which includes a Radisson hotel, a museum, shops and restaurants, as 1m litres of water poured out of the 14-metre-high (46ft) tank shortly before 6am.

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Nosferatu at 100: Berlin exhibition examines vampire classic’s enduring appeal

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Show takes a deep dive into story of 1922 film that spawned an entire genre – with free entry for blood donors

It was a nightmare born out of a pandemic: a silent killer that arrived from a faraway land, rapidly spreading a delirious fever across the domestic population and leaving its hosts in an anaemic stupor.

By channelling contemporary fears around infectious diseases in the wake of the 1918-20 influenza pandemic, the 1922 expressionist masterpiece Nosferatu founded an entire genre of vampire horror movies and inspired claw-fingered monsters that would spook generations to come, from Freddy Krueger to the Babadook.

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European MPs seek to publicise plight of jailed Iranian protesters

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Politicians particularly in Germany taking responsibility for lobbying for the safety of individual prisoners

Politicians from Europe have begun sponsoring jailed Iranian protesters in the hope that by highlighting individual cases of injustice, the authorities will be forced to step back from handing down lengthy jail sentences or carrying out executions.

The executions of two demonstrators and threats to kill others suggest Tehran is set on the use of repression and fear to quell the protests.

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Linz to rename Porsche Street after investigating Nazi past of car creator

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Austrian city also intends to rename three other thoroughfares bearing ‘tainted’ names after commission’s report

The Austrian city of Linz has announced plans to rename a street honouring the founder of the luxury carmaker Porsche after a commission investigating controversial names found his Nazi past “problematic”.

The renaming of streets and other public places is still a hotly debated issue in Austria – Adolf Hitler’s birthplace – which Nazi Germany annexed in 1938 and which long cast itself as a victim.

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Germany at risk of gas shortages as consumption cutting target missed

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Country has scrambled to open up new sources of energy since start of Ukraine war

Germany is saving less gas than necessary to rule out shortages this winter, the head of the German grid agency has said, as the country missed its crucial target of a 20% cut in consumption last week amid dropping temperatures.

Germany, which used to draw about half of its natural gas needs from Russia before the start of the Ukraine war, has scrambled to open up new sources of energy during the last ten months.

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German aid worker freed after kidnapping in Niger four years ago

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63-year-old Joerg Lange’s employer, humanitarian organisation Help, did not say how release secured

A 63-year-old German aid worker, Joerg Lange, has been freed more than four years after he was kidnapped in western Niger near the Malian border, his employer, humanitarian organisation Help, said in a statement on Saturday.

Armed men on motorcycles kidnapped Lange in April 2018 near the Nigerien town of Inates in borderlands where militant groups, some with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State, have carried out frequent attacks for years.

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Suspect died during Dresden hostage operation, German police confirm

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Two apparently uninjured people safe after incident in which shots were reportedly fired

German police said on Saturday that a man suspected of killing his mother and later taking two people hostage in the eastern city of Dresden has died.

Authorities had urged people to avoid an area in the city centre and ordered Dresden’s Christmas market to remain closed while the police operation to free the hostages was under way.

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Celebrity chef among suspects in Germany rightwing coup plot

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Ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities also linked to foiled Reichsbürger plan

A celebrity gourmet chef whose daughter is the girlfriend of the Real Madrid footballer David Alaba and an ex-police officer once tasked with protecting Jewish communities from terror attacks are among the latest figures to have been linked to the foiled Reichsbürger coup plan in Germany, with further arrests expected as investigations continue.

Details emerging after the biggest ever national police operation against rightwing extremism indicate that suspects may have been informed in advance of the raids, in which 3,000 police officers targeted more than 150 addresses across Germany, and in Austria and Italy, making 25 arrests.

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Germany assesses credibility of rightwing coup plot amid further arrests

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Number of suspects revised upwards to 52, 23 of whom are currently in custody, and more police raids are planned

Germany is trying to get the measure of how imminent a threat to the state was posed by the rightwing terror ring exposed on Wednesday, as police made further arrests in connection with the coup plot.

In their biggest ever raid targeting rightwing extremists, German authorities arrested 25 people suspected of plotting to overthrow the government, install a shadow regime led by a 71-year-old aristocrat, and seek talks with Russia to renegotiate its post-second world war settlement.

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Reichsbürger: the German conspiracy theorists at heart of alleged coup plot

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Despite description of alleged plotters by prosecutors as a ‘motley crew’, the threat was considered very real

At 6am on Wednesday, German special forces stormed a house in the Berlin lakeside villa quarter of Wannsee and arrested a former MP of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Birgit Malsack-Winkemann. Three minutes later, they entered the Waidmannsheil hunting lodge in Bad Lobenstein in Thuringia. Simultaneous raids took place in 30 other locations, including a car repair shop and a carpenters’ studio, as well as in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel and the Italian city of Perugia.

Twenty-five people were arrested, and by lunchtime eight of them were in police custody, among them a serving soldier of the elite KSK unit, a lawyer, a pilot, a gourmet chef and a prince, the alleged ringleader who had led the plans to overthrow the German state and replace it with a “monarchistic order”.

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German police raids target far-right extremists ‘seeking to overthrow state’

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Thousands of officers search 130 sites across country in operation against Reich Citizens plotters

Twenty-five people including a 71-year-old German aristocrat, a retired military commander and former MP for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) have been detained in Germany on suspicion of a terrorist plan to overthrow the state and renegotiate the country’s post-second world war settlement.

Thousands of police carried out a series of raids across Germany on Wednesday morning in connection with the far-right ring.

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German trains to offer coffee in porcelain cups to cut waste

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Deutsche Bahn passengers will be able to opt for reusable cups, plates and bowls for their food and drink from next year

Deutsche Bahn passengers will be able to get their coffee in a porcelain cup from next year, the German rail operator has announced, as it seeks to cut waste.

Travellers would be able to choose a “high-quality porcelain or glass” option when ordering food and drink on its intercity and high-speed services, the company said in a statement.

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Campaigners celebrate changing of colonial street names in Berlin

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Street and square in north-east of city renamed in tribute to figureheads who resisted forced rule in Africa

Campaigners who have fought for decades for Germany to confront its colonial past celebrated the renaming of a square and a street in the north-east of Berlin on Friday in tribute to figureheads who resisted forced rule in Africa.

Manga Bell Platz in the so-called African Quarter of Berlin’s Wedding district was renamed in memory of Rudolf and Emily Duala Manga Bell, a king and queen of Duala in Cameroon who fought against German colonialism. Rudolf Duala Manga Bell, who had been educated in Germany, was executed along with about 100 other people by German authorities in August 1914 after a sham trial.

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Germany faces ‘catastrophic’ paediatric bed shortage as RSV cases soar

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Rising cases of respiratory syncytial virus after pandemic leading to critical hospital pressures

Intensive care doctors in Germany have warned that hospital paediatric units in the country are stretched to breaking point in part due to rising cases of respiratory infections among infants.

The intensive care association DIVI said the seasonal rise in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases and a shortage of nurses was causing a “catastrophic situation” in hospitals.

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Max Beckmann self-portrait breaks German art auction record with €20m sale

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Beckmann painted work in Amsterdam after fleeing Nazi Germany and shows him as younger man with enigmatic smile

A rare and remarkable self-portrait by the 20th-century German expressionist Max Beckmann has sold in Berlin for €20m (£17m), breaking the record for a work of art sold at auction in Germany.

The striking Selbstbildnis gelb-rosa (Self-portrait Yellow-Pink) was painted by Beckmann during his wartime exile in Amsterdam after he fled Nazi Germany. The identity of its new owner was not immediately available. With fees and other charges, the cost to the buyer was €23.2m.

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Germany agrees 15-year liquid gas supply deal with Qatar

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Racing to wean itself off Russian gas supplies, Germany is set to buy 2m tonnes of liquid gas from Gulf state

German firms have signed a 15-year deal to buy 2m tonnes of liquid gas from Qatar, sending out mixed signals over the priority Germany places on human rights in the Gulf and its commitment to a carbon neutral energy supply.

The deal was announced by state-owned Qatar Energy and deliveries will start from 2026. The gas will be sold by Qatar to the US company ConocoPhillips, which will then deliver it to the LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel, Qatar’s energy minister said in the capital, Doha.

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Criticism mounts of ‘climate killer’ modern art museum in Berlin

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Calls for construction on Museum of the 20th Century to be halted until energy efficiency issues addressed

A vast modern art museum under construction in Berlin has been castigated by conservation experts and architecture critics for its poor environmental credentials, as the energy crisis intensifies scrutiny of the efficiency of new buildings.

The Museum of the 20th Century, designed by the Swiss star architects Herzog and de Meuron, is intended to propel the German capital into the top tier of world cities for modern art, competing with New York’s Moma and London’s Tate Modern.

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Candle fever strikes as blackout-fearing Germans revive festive flames

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The country has been told the chances of power cuts are low, but demand for old-school wax lighting is hot

Germans are seeking comfort in the warm yellow glow of open flames this Christmas, as a revival of festive traditions coupled with blackout fears make candles the target of the latest stockpiling frenzy.

On Sunday, many German households will follow tradition to light the first of four candles on their Adventskranz wreath, which is typically laid on or hung above the dining-room table.

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