Category Archives: Germany

Spain and Morocco feel the heat as unseasonal snow falls on Colorado

Posted on by

Analysis: high temperatures affect southern Europe, while in US state mercury rapidly drops more than 30C

Extremely hot and mostly sunny conditions have been experienced across southern Europe this week. Parts of Spain have had record-breaking temperatures for the month of May, with the southern city of Jaén in Andalucia recording 40.3C (104.5F) on Friday 20 May, according to the Spanish weather agency Aemet. Meanwhile, in the nearby town of Andújar, temperatures exceeded 42C two days in a row.

Intense heat also affected northern Africa, with Sidi Slimane city in Morocco recording its hottest day in recorded history, reaching a scorching 45.7C. Although one particular weather event cannot be directly attributed to the climate crisis, scientists believe the severity and duration of heatwaves are expected to increase in the future in response to a warmer global climate.

Continue reading...

Germany to relax visa rules for Russian workers despite spy warning

Posted on by

Process to be eased to exempt applicants with special expertise from case-by-case assessment

Germany is to relax visa requirements for skilled workers from Russia, just as the country’s domestic intelligence agency warned of a heightened risk that Russian nationals working for German firms could be recruited for industrial espionage.

The chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is streamlining the visa application process by exempting Russian workers with specialised expertise in areas such as IT and communication technology from case-by-case assessments through the federal employment department.

Continue reading...

Genteel German island balks at prospect of anti-capitalist ‘chaos’ party

Posted on by

Islanders fear government’s €9-a-month travel pass will encourage a stampede of visitors

Anti-capitalist protesters have called on Germans to take advantage of a heavily discounted public transport pass to “storm” a holiday island frequented by the rich and famous.

Sylt, an island off Germany’s North Sea coast, is seen as one of the more sought-after destinations for buyers of the €9-a-month ticket being introduced from 1 June.

Continue reading...

‘In no city have I felt as unsafe as Berlin’: opera singer sues metro over racism claims

Posted on by

The German capital’s liberal reputation has been derailed by clashes between subcontracted ticket inspectors and black people

A Berlin metro ticket controller squeezes through a throng of old-school punks, mariachi band members and burly men in leather chaps, all while jauntily humming Is’ mir egal, “It’s all the same to me”.

The 2015 viral ad, featuring Turkish-German Neukölln rapper Kazim Akboga, was a great marketing success for the German capital’s public transport company, BVG: if you ride on our metros, trams and buses, it said, you can be whoever you want to be – as long as you remember to buy a ticket.

Continue reading...

Putin’s daughter flew to Munich ‘more than 50 times’, investigation suggests

Posted on by

Investigation also suggests president’s youngest daughter is in a relationship with ballet dancer Igor Zelensky

Since the start of his military campaign against Ukraine, Vladimir Putin has railed aggressively against pro-western Russians, whose appetite for European cuisine and climates meant “their mentality is there, not here, with our people”.

Yet his own daughter’s enthusiasm for sojourns to western Europe at least matches that of the oligarch “scum and traitors” he has decried, a joint investigation by independent Russian media outlet iStories and German magazine Der Spiegel suggests.

Continue reading...

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine brings shame on Russia, G7 leaders say

Posted on by

Statement to mark 77th anniversary of end of second world war condemns ‘an attack on feeding the world’

Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has brought shame on Russia and the sacrifices its people made to defeat Nazi Germany in the second world war, leaders of the G7 group of leading western economies have said in a statement marking the 77th anniversary of the end of the global conflict.

The statement, made on Sunday after a video conference between the G7 leaders and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was intended as a rallying call by liberal democracies in advance of Russia’s 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow.

Continue reading...

Ukraine will prevail as Europe did in 1945, Scholz to say in VE Day speech

Posted on by

German chancellor will draw parallel with second world war defeat of Nazi dictatorship in TV address

Ukraine will prevail over Russia as freedom prevailed over the Nazi dictatorship in 1945, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will say in a TV address to mark the 77th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, in which he will accuse Vladimir Putin of falsifying history.

In the speech, which will be aired on German TV at 8.20pm CET (7.20pm BST) on Sunday, Scholz says the “legacy of 8 May” for his country must be to help to ensure that there will never again be genocide or tyranny in Europe.

Continue reading...

‘We had to do this’: Berlin museum to drop ‘Russian’ from name

Posted on by

Museum on site where Nazis agreed to surrender in 1945 will be renamed Museum Berlin-Karlshorst

A Berlin museum dedicated to German-Russian relations on the site where the Nazis agreed to unconditionally surrender in 1945 is to drop the word “Russian” from its name before anniversary events to mark the end of the second world war in Europe.

With tensions already high in the lead-up to the 77th anniversary on 8 and 9 May of Nazi Germany signing the surrender agreement, the German-Russian museum’s director, Jörg Morré, said he would be renaming it Museum Berlin-Karlshorst.

Continue reading...

Xinjiang cotton found in Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss tops, researchers say

Posted on by

Traces in shirts and T-shirts appear to contradict German firms’ promises to revise supply chains

Researchers say they have found traces of Xinjiang cotton in shirts and T-shirts made by Adidas, Puma and Hugo Boss, appearing to contradict the German clothing companies’ promises to revise their supply chains after allegations of widespread forced labour in the Chinese region.

Recent reports have suggested more than half a million people from minority ethnic groups such as the Uyghurs have been coerced into picking cotton in Xinjiang, which provides more than 80% of China’s and a fifth of the global production of cotton.

Continue reading...

‘Some new evidence’ found against Madeleine McCann suspect

Posted on by

German prosecutor says investigators are sure Christian Brückner killed three-year-old and have ‘new facts’

Fresh evidence has been found against the prime suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a German prosecutor has revealed.

Hans Christian Wolters said in an interview on Portuguese television that investigators believed they had found “some facts, some new evidence, not forensic evidence.”

Continue reading...

European Council president ‘confident’ of imminent sanctions on Russian oil

Posted on by

Pivot by Germany bolsters support for phased-in import ban as Charles Michel says goal is to ‘break Russian war machine’

The aim of EU sanctions is to “break the Russian war machine”, with measures on Kremlin oil now imminent, the president of the European Council has said, as Germany pivoted to back the move.

A proposal to phase in a prohibition on Russian oil imports will be discussed by member state ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday, with the most dependent, such as Slovakia and Hungary, seeking exemptions.

Continue reading...

EU comes to the crunch over Russia’s demands to pay roubles for gas

Posted on by

Brussels commissioner says energy ministers accept bowing to Moscow’s demands would breach sanctions, as payment date looms

Europe is facing a crunch point in mid-May when EU member states will have to reject Moscow’s demands for fuel payments to be made in roubles – despite being without alternative gas supply, Brussels has warned.

Kadri Simson, the European commissioner for energy, said on Monday that the Kremlin’s demands had to be rebuffed despite the risks of an interruption to supply at a time that the shortfall cannot be made good.

Continue reading...

Ukraine refugees flock to Germany after being put off by UK red tape

Posted on by

Ease of finding accommodation and work lures 10 times the number who have made it to Britain

When it became clear to Liliia Fomina that the war raging outside her hometown of Zaporizhzhia would continue not just for days, but months or even years, she decided that she wanted to flee to the UK. A sponsor in Windsor was found, and on 18 March the 29-year-old applied for a British visa for herself and her five-year-old son Lev.

The pair sheltered with friends of friends in a village near Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine, and waited: one week, two weeks, three weeks. By the time her visa finally came through, after almost a month of uncertainty, the lawyer had changed her mind.

Continue reading...

European gas firms seek ways to pay after Putin’s roubles demand

Posted on by

Energy suppliers in Germany and Austria confirm they are looking at sanctions-compliant methods

Energy companies in Europe are considering opening Russian accounts to pay for gas from Gazprom after Vladimir Putin’s regime cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria and insisted other countries must pay in roubles.

Big gas distributors in Germany and Austria confirmed they were seeking ways to continue to make payments after Putin signed a decree at the end of March calling for a “special procedure for foreign buyers’ fulfilment of obligations to Russian suppliers of natural gas”.

Continue reading...

How worried should Europe be as Russia starts cutting off gas supplies?

Posted on by

Analysis: Putin is determined to use resource as a weapon, as shown in move to cut off Poland and Bulgaria

The unavoidable truth looming over Europe’s response to the invasion of Ukraine is that Russian gas heats the continent’s homes and powers its industries.

While European leaders have vowed to wean themselves off Kremlin-controlled supplies, both of gas and oil, the reality is that this is very hard to do in short order. There will be at least one more cold winter to come before major energy-hungry economies that rely heavily on Russia, such as Germany and Italy, can tap other sources.

Continue reading...

Klaus Schulze, German electronic music pioneer, dies aged 74

Posted on by

Multi-instrumentalist who played with Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel before admired solo career is hailed for his ‘innovative spirit’

Klaus Schulze, the German multi-instrumentalist whose work with drones, pulses and synthesisers was hugely influential on generations of electronic music makers, has died aged 74.

Frank Uhle, managing director of Schulze’s label SVP, wrote: “We lose and will miss a good personal friend – one of the most influential and important composers of electronic music – a man of conviction and an exceptional artist. Our thoughts in this hour are with his wife, sons and family. His always cheerful nature, his innovative spirit and his impressive body of work remain indelibly rooted in our memories.”

Continue reading...

Germany’s SPD calls on Gerhard Schröder to quit party over Russia links

Posted on by

Former chancellor says he has no intention of resigning his seats on boards of Russian energy firms

The co-leader of Germany’s Social Democratic party (SPD) has urged the former chancellor Gerhard Schröder to hand in his party membership after he made clear in an interview that he had no intention to resign from his seats on the boards of Russian energy companies over the war in Ukraine.

Schröder, who was Germany’s head of government from 1998 to 2005, presides over the board of the Russian oil company Rosneft and is chairman of the shareholder committee of pipeline company Nord Stream.

Continue reading...

Madeleine McCann: Portuguese authorities declare man formal suspect

Posted on by

German police had previously said Christian Brueckner, 44, was probably responsible for toddler’s disappearance in 2007

A German man has been formally identified as a suspect in the disappearance of British toddler Madeleine McCann 15 years ago, Portuguese prosecutors have said.

Christian Brueckner, a convicted rapist, has been made an “arguido”, translated as “named suspect” or “formal suspect” who is treated by Portuguese police as more than a witness but has not been arrested or charged.

The German’s lawyer said that his client has not been charged over the case.

Prosecutors in Faro did not publicly name the man but said in a statement he was identified as a suspect by German authorities at their request.

The timing of the move could be related to Portugal’s 15-year statute of limitations for crimes with a maximum prison sentence of 10 years or more. Madeleine disappeared on 3 May 2007, while on holiday with her parents in Praia da Luz in Portugal.

It is the first time that Portuguese prosecutors have identified an official suspect in the case since Kate and Gerry McCann, Madeleine’s parents, were named suspects in 2007. They were later cleared.

Prosecutors said the investigation has been carried out with cooperation from British and German authorities.

Continue reading...

EU chief urges member states to give Ukraine weapons quickly

Posted on by

Ursula von der Leyen says she doesn’t distinguish between heavy and light arms and suggests Sberbank could face sanctions

The president of the European Commission has urged member states to supply Ukraine with weapons systems “quickly” and suggested that a next round of EU sanctions could target Russia’s powerful Sberbank and include an embargo on Russian oil.

“It applies to all member states: those who can should deliver quickly, because only that way Ukraine can survive in its acute defensive battle against Russia,” Ursula von der Leyen told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Continue reading...

Ukraine snubs German president over past ‘close ties to Russia’

Posted on by

Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejects request by Frank-Walter Steinmeier for meeting in Kyiv, Bild reports

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has rejected a request by the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to visit Kyiv along with other European politicians on Wednesday.

Steinmeier, a former foreign minister and erstwhile ally of the ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder, is on a state visit in Poland, where he is discussing the implications of the Russian war in Ukraine with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda.

Continue reading...