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Russian and Belarusian forces are starting a 10-day large-scale military exercise in Belarus on Thursday. The drills come amid rising tensions over Russia's buildup of troops near its border with Ukraine. NATO has described the "Allied Resolve drills" as Russia's biggest deployment to ex-Soviet state Belarus since the Cold War. US General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, spoke to his Belarusian counterpart, Maj. Gen. Viktor Gulevich, on Thursday, the Pentagon said.  In a release, the Pentagon said, "The phone call facilitated communication between both leaders to reduce chances of miscalculation and gain perspectives on current European security." The release concluded that the two sides had "agreed to keep the specific details of their conversation private." According to Russia's Defense Ministry, the drills will take place at five military training areas over the course of 10 days, mostly in western and southwestern Belarus, near the country's borders with Poland and Ukraine. It is unknown how many troops are taking part in the drills. Moscow Carnegie Center researcher Artem Schreibman wrote that "there had never been such a large number of Russian military personnel on Belarusian soil in the entire post-Soviet period." NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg estimated the number of troops as being around 30,000. Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minister and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, told DW the buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine "is the largest such buildup we have seen in Europe for decades." It is unclear whether nuclear weapons would be part of the drills. According to Russia's Defense Ministry, shortly before the military exercise started medium-range strategic bombers were on patrol over Belarus. Wolfgang Richter, a military expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), told DW there was nothing unusual in such patrol flights: "the US does this as well, these are political signals." He added that such flights are normally carried out without the involvement of nuclear weapons. "Iskander-M" rockets, which NATO says were brought to Belarus, can also be equipped with nuclear weapons. Richter pointed out that in Russia these weapons have so far been equipped with conventional weapons. Ukraine is starting military exercises on Thursday in response to the drills in Belarus. Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said this week Ukrainian training would also run from February 10 to February 20. Ukraine has not reported the number of military personnel and weapons involved in its exercises. Lithuania's Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte said her country would send US-made Stinger missiles to Ukraine in the coming days while on a visit to Kyiv Thursday ahead of a trip to Berlin to meet the German Chancellor. On Twitter, Simonyte wrote, "I hope and sincerely wish that Ukraine never has to use them."  An additional 350 British troops arrived in Poland on Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said following a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. After the meeting, Morawiecki said Russian President Vladimir Putin aims to "tear NATO apart." The new deployment of 350 troops adds to the 150 troops the UK sent last December when Poland was confronting a migrant crisis provoked by Belarus on its eastern border. Britain has also ordered 1,000 additional to be "put at readiness in the UK to support a humanitarian response in the region should it be needed," the prime minister's office said. In the meantime, the UK is nearly doubling its NATO deployment in Estonia from 900 to 1,750. Last week, US President Joe Biden approved the deployment of additional forces in eastern Europe. Under the plan, the US will send about 2,000 troops to Poland and Germany, and 1,000 will move from Germany to Romania. Many Western analysts do not see NATO troop deployments to eastern Europe as a direct defense of Ukraine. "In terms of numbers, this is a symbolic show of resolve that NATO is united and will defend its members of attacked," Kurt Volker from the Center for European Policy Analysis told DW. "For Ukraine, we’ve provided arms and training but we are not providing direct forces, nobody is." The US described the exercises as "escalatory." "As we look at the preparation for these military exercises, again, we see this as certainly more an escalatory and not a de-escalatory action," said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement that "the accumulation of forces at the border is psychological pressure from our neighbours." German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that all diplomatic channels must be pursued, but allied forces must be prepared to act if Russia invades Ukraine. "The task is that we ensure security in Europe, and I believe that will be achieved," he said after talks with his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Inter radio that the maneuvers in Belarus were "extremely large." "This is a very violent gesture that concerns us," Le Drian said. Moscow and Minsk deny that the drills could serve as cover for an invasion of neighboring Ukraine, and Russia has said it has no intention of establishing a permanent deployment in Belarus. Belarus' General Staff announced that Russian military personnel would leave the republic after the drills, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov that "the troops will return to their bases." Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu said that the drills were being held for the "military security of both countries and the fight against terrorism." According to Carl Bildt, Russia is attempting to "change the entire European security order." Tensions around Russia's military buildup near Ukraine have launched a flurry of diplomatic activity, with talks among different European countries continuing Thursday. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Roman Goncharenko contributed to this report sdi, ar/sms (AP, Reuters, AF, dpa)

7Politics

This live updates article has been closed. For the latest developments in Ukraine, please click here.  Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Russia's invasion of Ukraine a "barbaric war" at a Wednesday trade union event. According to a participant in the event cited by Reuters, Merkel said that she would not offer advice from the sidelines but supported the government's efforts to "find an end to this barbaric war." The event in question was a farewell ceremony for the outgoing president of the DGB trade union confederation. This is the second time Merkel has publicly commented on the war. In February, the former chancellor gave a brief statement in which she said there was no justification for the blatant breach of international law. Germany and The Netherlands will jointly drill for a new gas field in the North Sea, the Dutch government said. The plan to drill for gas 10 nautical miles (19 kilometres, 11 miles) offshore on the Dutch-German border is not new, but has taken on a new urgency in recent months. Deputy minister of mining Hans Vijlbrief "issued permits for the Dutch part today," it said in a statement, adding that "an accelerated procedure for the required permits is underway" in Germany. Although the German state of Lower Saxony had opted not issue permits because of ecological concerns near the islands of Schiermonnikoog and Borkum, officials there are "now making a different decision because of the war in Ukraine," the Dutch ministry said. The first gas from the platform is expected to be extracted by 2024, it added. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed that he had convened a meeting of senior officials from Finland, Sweden and Turkey to address and seek to resolve Ankara's objections to the two Nordic countries joining the alliance.   Finland and Sweden have sought to join NATO, due to security concerns over Russia's war on Ukraine, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected their bids, saying they're not doing enough to fight Kurdish extremism. Stoltenberg said the talks will be held in Brussels "in a few days with senior officials,'' but provided no further details.  "I'm confident that we will find a way forward,'' he said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Washington expects Russia's war in Ukraine to continue for "many months" ahead despite pushbacks on the battlefield, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. "As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict," Blinken told a joint news conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. "That could be over tomorrow if Russia chose to end the aggression. We don't see any signs of that right now," Blinken said. Blinken's remarks come as the US announced they would be supplying Ukraine with the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, which can carry and fire up to six medium-range rockets or can carry one long-range missile. "The Ukrainians have given us assurances that they will not use these systems against targets on Russian territory," Blinken said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said there was some "progress" regarding talks to tackle the global food crisis triggered by Russia's assault on Ukraine. "I think that there is progress, but we are not yet there. These are complex things and the fact that everything is interlinked makes the negotiation particularly complex," Guterres told the media in Stockholm along with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson. Ukraine is a major exporter of wheat. along with corn and sunflower oil. Russia, meanwhile, is a major fertilizer exporter. Ukrainian ports have been blocked from sending exports out to sea amid a Russian blockade. Russian ships, meanwhile, have reportedly had difficulty exporting grain due to sanctions.   Guterres is hoping to resume both Ukrainian and Russian exports in order to prevent a food catastrophe in the developing world, particularly in many African countries.  "As I said to the security council, I'm hopeful, but there is a ways to go and we are totally committed to make things happen," Guterres said. The US and Germany's decision to supply Ukrainian forces with rocket and air defense systems was "good news for Ukraine and very bad news for Russian artillery crews and artillery commanders," Frank Ledwidge, a military analyst from the University of Portsmouth, told DW. Ledwidge said it would take months before the American High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems could be effectively used in Ukraine. Ukraine would probably use them in conjunction with the IRIS-T air defense and radar systems that Germany would send. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Moscow has expressed concern over the move, warning that enabling Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia would elevate the West's role in the war to a more direct involvement. However, Ledwige said that at least in some sense, the West has been involved in the conflict for some time. "The West's objectives were set out by Lloyd Austin a few weeks ago, which was to grind down the Russian army, so it can't be a threat to its neighbors. And that's being done by the Ukrainian army with Western weapons. So, yes, of course, we're involved," Ledwidge said, referring to the US Secretary of Defense. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland and Ukraine will both benefit from several new economic agreements. "Today we are preparing several agreements between specific ministries, which will help Ukraine and give Poland an economic impulse," Morawiecki said while on a visit to Borodyanka, a town near Kyiv which was devastated by Russia's military assault. "For example these are agreements concerning the export of Ukrainian grain," he said. He said Poland could serve as an economic hub for Ukraine. Polish railways, for example, could benefit by transporting Ukrainian grain to Baltic sea ports. "Polish companies will take part in rebuilding [Ukraine], but first we must free Ukraine," he asserted. During a speech to German parliament, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russia intends to "depopulate and extinguish civilization" in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. "City by city, village by village, Russian troops are destroying them from a safe distance," she said. "First the missiles, then the warplanes with artillery, and then, when everything is flattened, the tanks roll in." Baerbock said Ukraine needs weapons such artillery, drones and air defense weapons to defend itself from Russia's assault. She believes Ukraine needs support over the long term. "We are defending the people of Ukraine the best we can," Baerbock emphasized. She said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's announcement that Berlin would send IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine was one means of support. Baerbock also acknowledged that the delivery of the air defense systems would take months.   Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist told DW that his country's bid to join NATO does not mean that it is abandoning its role as a neutral peacemaker. At the same time, he said Russia's assault on Ukraine has "fundamentally" changed the situation in Europe.   "Our values are the same values as other countries in Europe... that we try to create peace and we try to create peaceful solutions," he told DW anchor Gerhard Elfers. "But we are not native, we see the development around us and we must make conclusions from that situation."    He discussed the main reasons for Sweden's aspirations to join NATO. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "The whole idea is to be a member of NATO is also that we will have NATO represenations in different sort of exercises and activities on Swedish soil," Hultqvist said. "I think we can build a higher level and higher threshold towards with Russia with NATO membership." Russia said it will "minimize" the consequences of an partial oil imports ban imposed by the EU. "Sanctions will have a negative effect for Europe, us and the whole energy market," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said. "But a reorientation is underway (in Russia) that will allow us to minimize the negative consequences."    The EU will prohibit 90% Russian oil imports by the end of the year in an attempt to hurt the Kremlin financing towards the war in Ukraine.  Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told state-run media outlet RIA Novosti that Moscow sees US military aid to Ukraine "extremely negatively." The remarks came after US announced it would send "advanced rocket systems" to Ukraine.  Ryabkov said arms shipments increase the risk of confrontation between the US and Russia. "Any arms shipments that continue, that are on the rise, increase the risks of such a development," Ryabkov said.  Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Pesko told journalists that the US "is deliberately pouring oil on the fire" with the decision.  Russia Defense Ministry claimed it had destroyed dozens of weapons systems the West had sent to Ukraine. Luhansk region governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram that Russian forces now control 70% of the critical city of Sievierodonetsk. Haidai said the evacuation of civilians in the city had been halted. "There is no possibility to bring in humanitarian aid," he said.     Meanwhile, he said the city of Lysychansk remains "fully" under Ukrainian control. Lysychansk is the only city in Luhansk that has not been taken by Russia or Russian-backed separatists.     Russian energy firm Gazprom said its gas exports to nations outside of the former Soviet Union has dropped 27% year-on-year between January and May.  Gazprom has lost European buyers such as Poland and Bulgaria amid Russia's demands for gas clients to pay in rubles. Pope Francis has urged authorities to stop the blockade of wheat exports from Ukraine.  "The blocking of exports of wheat from Ukraine is very worrying because the lives of millions of people depend on it, especially in poorer countries," the pope said.   He said grain cannot be used as a "weapon of war." Ukraine is one of the world's top wheat exporters.  The African Union has already warned that the blockade could result in a food crisis on the continent. Russian ships are blockading Ukrainian ports, preventing exports from moving through the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Ukraine has also called for the blockade to be lifted, while Russia claims the Ukrainian sea territory near the ports are mined.    A major energy firm in Denmark said Russia is cutting off natural gas to the Scandinavian country, after Copenhagen declined to pay in rubles.  The energy company, Orsted, said it would still be able to meet the needs of its customers despite the cutoff.  "We stand firm in our refusal to pay in rubles, and we've been preparing for this scenario," Orsted CEO Mads Nipper said. "The situation underpins the need of the EU becoming independent of Russian gas by accelerating the build-out of renewable energy." Russian energy firm Gazprom later confirmed it halted gas supplies to Orsted on its website.   Russia has already stopped natural gas supplies from reaching Finland, Poland and Bulgaria after those nations refused to pay in Russian currency.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In his speech to the Bundestag, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany would deliver modern IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine.  The German leader said with the help of these systems, Ukraine will be in a position "to protect an entire major city from Russian air attacks."  Scholz also said Germany has vowed to give Ukraine tracking radar which is capable of detecting enemy howitzers, mortars and rocket artillery. In addition, Scholz said Berlin would send multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine in close coordination with the United States. Ukrainian officials have said these systems would not be used to target Russian territory.      German news outlet dpa reported that Berlin plans to send four of the launchers to Ukraine, with the US training Ukrainian soldiers to use the systems.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke in parliament on Wednesday, outlining his government's spending priorities — with a particular emphasis on how Berlin is approaching the war in Ukraine. Scholz emphasized the impact that Russia's invasion in Ukraine is having on rising prices, with the chancellor vowing to do what he can to ease the burden. He is set to share details on how a €100 billion ($107 billion) fund would be used to revamp and update the German military's weapons and equipment. Follow our coverage here. Fighting intensified in the streets of Sievierodonetsk in recent days, as Russian troops push to take control of more of the strategic city, the UK Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. "Over half of the town is likely now occupied by Russian forces, including Chechen fighters," the ministry said in an intelligence update. Fighting in Sievierodonetsk, the regional capital of the eastern Luhansk region, intensified on May 30 and 31, the ministry said. The city is one of the last areas in the Luhansk region that is under control by Ukrainian forces. Heavy casualties have been reported on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides. Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian forces are targeting key infrastructure — particularly bride links that have been critical to ensuring the flow of some Ukrainian exports after Russian forces blockaded the country's Black Sea ports. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Russia's nuclear forces are holding drills in the Ivanovo region northeast of Moscow, the Interfax news agency cited the Russian defense ministry as saying. Some 1,000 servicemen are exercising in maneuvers using over 1,000 vehicles, the ministry said. More than 5 million Ukrainian children are dependent on humanitarian aid, according to the UN's children's fund (UNICEF). Within Ukraine, about 3 million children are in need of support and 2.2 million that have fled Ukraine require assistance. At least 262 children have been killed since the war began and hundreds of schools have been damaged, UNICEF said. "Instead of celebrating the occasion, we are solemnly approaching June 3 — the 100th day of a war that has shattered the lives of millions of children," UNICEF Director Catherine Russell said, referring to the Children's Day commemorations observed in Ukraine, Russia and other countries on June 1. "Without an urgent ceasefire and negotiated peace, children will continue to suffer — and fallout from the war will impact vulnerable children around the world." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the EU for its sixth package of sanctions imposed on Russia. Zelenskyy said that a seventh package would be needed once the terms of the sixth round of sanctions had been implemented. "At the end of the day, there should be no significant economic ties at all between the free world and the terrorist state," Zelenskyy said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "We will work on new restrictions against Russia for this war." Ukraine's president said that Russia was losing "tens of billions of euros" due to the EU's partial oil embargo. He argued that a full embargo would assist EU countries in their transition to renewable energies. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video US President Joe Biden said that Washington will send Ukraine "advanced rocket systems" to hit "key targets." The advanced rocket systems are part of a $700 million (€653 million) weapons package expected to be unveiled on Wednesday. Officials said that the package will also include ammunition, counterfire radars, a number of air surveillance radars, additional Javelin anti-tank missiles and anti-armor weapons. Washington is providing Ukraine with high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) after Kyiv gave "assurances" they would not use the missiles to strike inside Russia. Earlier, the US government said it was weighing up sending multiple rocket launchers to Ukraine. White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre added that the delivery of US-produced multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and HIMARS was being considered. On Monday, Biden said that no missile systems that could strike Russian territory would be sent to Ukraine. Jean-Pierre said Biden meant no systems would be sent "for use beyond the battlefield in Ukraine." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Moscow of "madness" after Russian forces hit a chemical plant in the eastern city of Severodonetsk. French President Emmanuel Macron called for a UN resolution to lift Russia's blockade of Odesa. The Ukrainian prosecutor's office said it had uncovered a "few thousand" cases of war crimes in the eastern Donbas region. Oil prices spiked following the EU's announcement it would ban most Russian imports of the commodity. Russia's Ministry of Defense said its forces found "152 bodies of dead militants and servicemen of Ukraine's armed forces" underneath the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Two Russian soldiers were sentenced to 11 years and six months in jail for shelling Ukrainian villages by a court in central Ukraine. You can revisit our live updates from May 31 here. rs, sdi/jsi, sms (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

2Conflicts

"I'm a man, and I love men. This is normal. So please get used to it or stay out of football. Because the most important rule in football is: football is for everyone. "So abolish the death penalty — abolish all the penalties regarding sexual and gender identity." A brave statement and impassioned plea made by fan representative Dario Minden in the midst of a two-hour long "Sport and Human Rights" congress hosted by the German Football Association (DFB) and aimed at "intesifying the discussion." The criticism leveled at organizers and world governing body FIFA certainly was intense. Minden's words were aimed at Abdulla Bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani,Qatar's ambassador to Germany, who was in attendance at the congress held just 62 days before the 2022 FIFA World Cup gets underway. The ambassador acknowledged that the rights situation is "not perfect yet — it's not at 100%, it's a journey." But he was not able to brush aside the disapproval as prominent representatives from politics, trade unions, independent organizations and fan groups used unflattering terms on stage. The managing director of Reporters Without Borders, Christian Mihr, described Qatar as an "absolute, autocratic monarchy" that wants to "conceal" the situation regarding freedom of the press and freedom of opinion through its investments in sport, the media and internet surveillance. FIFA President Gianni Infantino was referred to as the "chief cynic" of a "mafia bunch" by Minden, second chair of Unsere Kurve, an interest group representing active football supporters. Of all the speakers, Minden minced his words the least as he called for the DFB to be part of a "progressive alliance" so that German football fans could "look forward to football festivals" again in the future. The sentiments shared are the reason the German national team is facing a difficult "balancing act," according to national teams director Oliver Bierhoff. "We have to be careful when finding this balancing act between the responsibility and awareness that we have as human beings," Bierhoff said. "On the other hand, we're traveling as the German national team, we're representing our country, we want to play football successfully," he added. "We're looking forward to a World Cup, to measuring ourselves against the best in the world and excited to represent Germany." Bierhoff's sentiments were shared by the president of the Norwegian Football Federation, Lise Klaveness. At the FIFA Congress in Doha in March, she said that World Cups were awarded in "unacceptable ways with unacceptable consequences" in 2010.  "Human rights, equality and democracy — the core interests of football — were not in the starting XI," Klaveness said. "These basic rights were pressured onto the field as substitutes, mainly by outside voices. FIFA has addressed these issues, but there is still a long way to go." Six months later, speaking as at the DFB Campus, Klaveness admitted that football associations are on a "steep learning curve" and "still exploring" where their responsibilities lie.  "We have to admit and realize that what football associations did before on human rights was not good enough," the former Norwegian international said. "It's not a Qatar question," she added. "It's a FIFA, UEFA, Norwegian Football Federation, DFB question — but it should be a balancing of responsibility. "From the FIFA, the federation's perspective, the most important thing is that we lean in now. That we’re now present in the game of human rights, so we learn, so that when we go into the next stage after the World Cup in a better stage." "When it comes to FIFA, Qatar and this arrangement, I think it's very important to get a compensation fund because we're obligated to do it as it states in Article 6," Klaveness said, citing the FIFA Human Rights policy. "It's how we move from policy to impact." With her closing remarks, Klaveness also addressed the issue of LGBTQ+ rights in the Gulf state and called for "better guarantees" during and after the World Cup — guarantees that people are "not more in danger because of the World Cup and because the tension the World Cup brings to the country." Her words were echoed by Minden, of Unsere Kurve. He opened by talking of fans' "shame" when it comes to how easily their beloved sport can be bought, Qatar's "bloody exploitation" of migrant workers and the fact that human rights "are once again being used as bargaining chips."  Minden's closing statement though, was directed at ambassador Abdulla Bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani. "I'm a man, and I love men," Minden said. "I do, please don't be shocked, have sex with other men. This is normal. So please get used to it or stay out of football. Because the most important rule in football is: football is for everyone. "So abolish the death penalty — abolish all the penalties regarding sexual and gender identity. The rule that football is for everyone is so important. We can't allow you to break it no matter how rich you are. You're more than welcome to join the international football community and to host a big tournament. But in sports it is how it is: You have to accept the rules." And as several speakers at the congress on the DFB campus stated, the rules when it comes to human rights "cannot be compromised." Edited by Chuck Penfold. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

9Sports

Sci-fi epic "Dune" swept the BAFTA awards last night in London with five wins, but it was Jane Campion's dark Western "The Power of the Dog" that took home the coveted best director and best film gongs. Despite not winning the top prizes, Denis Villeneuve's "Dune," which had 11 nominations, won for special effects, cinematography, sound, score and production design. Best original screenplay went to Paul Thomas Anderson for the coming-of-age story "Licorice Pizza." Will Smith won best actor prize for his role as the Williams sisters' father and tennis coach in "King Richard," while Joanna Scanlan won best actress for her lead role as a widow in the drama "After Love." US actress and singer Ariana Debose won the award for best supporting actress for her role in Steven Spielberg's "West Side Story" remake.  By winning the best supporting actor prize for his role as the deaf Massachusetts fisherman father of a high school student in "Coda," Troy Kotsur became the first deaf actor to win the award. "Coda" director Sian Heder, winner for best adapted screenplay, honored the deaf community, who "shared their stories with me and trusted me." British film academy chairman Krishnendu Majumdar opened the show with a message of support for Ukraine. "We stand in solidarity with those who are bravely fighting for their country, and we share their hope for a return to peace," he said. Presenting the prize for best director, British actor and director Andy Serkis made mention of British Home Secretary Priti Patel and her unwillingness to give visas to Ukrainian refugees. According to Patel, he said, "all refugees are welcome, but some are more welcome than others."   With the event simultaneously signed in British and US sign language, the host, Australian actor-comedian Rebel Wilson, used the opportunity to take a swipe at Russian president Vladimir Putin for his role in the invasion of Ukraine: "Luckily though, in all sign languages, this is the gesture for Putin," Wilson said, raising her middle finger. Several actors on the BAFTA red carpet wore blue and yellow badges in solidarity with Ukraine, including "The Power of the Dog" star Benedict Cumberbatch, who accepted the best director award on behalf of Campion — only a day after she was also honored by the Directors Guild of America. Last year's awards ceremony was largely conducted online, with only the hosts and presenters appearing in person. This year's celebration of film saw celebrities again flock to the red carpet at London's Royal Albert Hall. The live ceremony took place without social distancing. Campion's psychological drama about the dangers of toxic masculinity is her first film in eight years. Via a video call after the ceremony, the New Zealand-born director told journalists that she was "speechless" to win the UK's best film award. With the BAFTAs a bellwether for the Oscars, "The Power of the Dog" is a hot favorite for the top prizes in Los Angeles on March 27 —  Campion previously won the Academy Award for best original screenplay for "The Piano" (1993). Producer Tanya Seghatchian called Campion "a visionary whose trail has blazed through the last 30 years of cinema." Accepting his prize, actor Troy Kotsur joked about the event's celebration of the James Bond franchise's 60th anniversary, asking in sign language: "Have you maybe considered a deaf Bond, 008?" Jazz great Shirley Bassey, now 85, was accompanied by a live orchestra as she performed "Diamonds Are Forever'" to mark the Bond anniversary. "Bond is turning 60, and his girlfriends are turning 25,'' joked host Rebel Wilson. Lashana Lynch, the double-0 agent in Bond thriller "No Time To Die,'' took the rising star award, the only category chosen by public vote. She thanked "the women of this country who taught me what it is to be in this industry as a dark-skinned woman. I thank you for laying the foundation for people like me.'' The award comes after the BAFTAs — and numerous other major awards such as the Oscars — have been called out for a lack of diversity. The British Film Academy has since expanded its voting membership and has attempted to address the problem, with Campion winning best director this year after no women were nominated in 2020 — for the seventh consecutive year. Krishnendu Majumdar said this year's more diverse field showed that "change has come." The Disney feature "Encanto," the story of an extended Colombian clan with magical powers, was named best animated feature; the 1960s-era Harlem music extravaganza "Summer of Soul'' won the best documentary prize. Director and actor Kenneth Branagh won for outstanding British film for his semiautobiographical "Belfast," about civil strife in late 1960s Northern Ireland. He celebrated the made-for-cinema production as streaming starts to dominate the format.       "All hail the streaming revolution, but all hail the big screen too, it's alive! And long may they live together," he said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video sb/eg (AP, AFP, dpa)

4Culture

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video During his visit to Kyiv in early May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "there are powerful interests lined up against reform, against anti-corruption efforts…those include external forces, like Russia, but also internal forces, like oligarchs and other powerful individuals who are pursuing their own narrow interests." The visit served as a strong reminder of the magnitude of the threat that the US and Kyiv's other foreign underwriters see in Ukraine's corruption, which the US has called "endemic." Two years after arriving to power riding on the promise of a comprehensive fight against corruption, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy has found himself hard-pressed to deliver — costing him political capital, as last year's local elections showed. But the endemic corruption has meant that Zelenskyy's reputation and the prospect of Ukraine receiving much-needed political and financial assistance has suffered. This week, asked by Conflict Zone host Tim Sebastian whether the government had overpromised and underdelivered, Dmytro Kuleba acknowledged the debt that the government owes the Ukranian people and its aim: "we are doing it for ourselves, not for the sake of support." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The arrival of US President Joe Biden in the White House has seen the Kyiv government put in place a new drive to root out the shadow of oligarchic power from the Ukrainian political and economic fabric. Asked what the US top diplomat's promises of support mean to the government in Kyiv, Kuleba said "that means political and military and reforms support for Ukraine. We count on our partnership with the United States as much as we count on the partnership with the European Union and its key capitals." But for American and European partners, who see Ukraine as a bulwark against Russian interference, widespread corruption represents a severe weakness which opens Ukraine to Russian destabilization. Blinken has said that "corruption is a tool that Russia uses to try to erode Ukrainian sovereignty from the inside." And a 2017 report by Transparency International explained the way in which Russia weaponized corruption in Ukraine. Numerous reports have emerged that the corruption continues in the new administration. Zelenskyy himself has had close relations with various figures within those circles now targeted by anti-corruption drives. Perhaps most important among them was Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a media tycoon whose station allowed Zelenskyy to craft his media persona and the platform on which his 2019 presidential run was built. Kolomoyskyi also controls a faction of Zelenskyy's party, Servant of the People, and operates to some degree as kingmaker, guaranteeing the president the support of a parliamentary majority. Kuleba hit back at accusations that the administration was not getting to grips with corruption, saying "this country is moving in the right direction. And those who are calling on us to move faster, they are cordially invited to come and join us and help us." Meanwhile, in the east of the country, tensions with Russia and separatist forces have erupted into new skirmishes, along with a buildup of Russian forces on the other side of the border in response to what the Kremlin claims were threats from NATO. Russian President Vladimir Putin's military maneuvers, which were larger than the 2014 troop movement on the eve of the invasion of Crimea, showed that Zelenskyy's promise to bring the conflict with Russia to an end are far from being delivered. However, the recent escalation has given Kyiv new impetus in its demands for membership in NATO and in the EU. Relevant voices in the defense and geostrategic circles of western capitals now take the position that given an emboldened Moscow, the only deterrent to further expansion and destabilization is to arm Ukraine. Asked about these developments, Kuleba said: "We do not expect foreign troops to arrive and help us. But we do expect from partners to provide Ukraine with all assistance they can offer to make us prevail in this struggle for our country."

7Politics

Jhumur Akther (not her real name) lost her job two years ago due to the coronavirus pandemic and hasn't been able to find a new one since. Akther, a resident of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has noticed a sharp increase in commodity prices and living costs in recent months, which has meant her family has had to eat less. "We have decided to eat less to survive in this difficult time. From house rent to the edible oil price, every cost of living has been on the rise," Akther told DW. "Our only son hasn't got a haircut since last year, and we haven't bought anything new since the pandemic started two years ago," she added. Tawsia Tajmim, another resident of Dhaka, a megacity of over 10 million people that often tops the list of most polluted cities in the world, feels the pinch of surging commodity prices in every aspect of her life. "I have stopped using Uber and pushed myself to use public transport to adjust to the price hike. The number of beggars is also increasing in the streets," she told DW, adding, "our economy is becoming weaker day by day, and the poor as well as lower-middle-class people have been suffering the most as a result." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has forecast the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Bangladesh to rise to 5.9% in the fiscal year 2022, due to higher international commodity prices. Rising prices of food and other daily commodities have increasingly become a point of concern in the Muslim majority country in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a survey published at the end of last year, the pandemic has pushed an estimated 32 million people into poverty. Critics blame the government for the spike in people living below the poverty line. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics' latest data shows that general inflation in the South Asian country in February climbed to 6.17%, the highest since October 2020. The price of edible oil, sugar, and eggs have increased sharply, which contributed largely to the inflation. "Bangladesh imports 95% of its edible oil from abroad. Before the Ukraine war, the price of edible oil per barrel was $700 (US) (€629); it went up to $1,940 after Russia invaded its neighbor," Mohammad Ali Bhutta, a Bangladeshi importer of edible oil, told DW. "We can't sell oil at any subsidized price as businessmen," he added. Bangladesh also increased the price of liquified petroleum gas (LPG), used in the country for cooking, by 12% this month in response to the instability in the global market. Many households across the country use LPG as an alternative to the natural gas supplied by the government. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The Bangladeshi government says that the price hike of consumer goods has been connected to the international market, and it won't go down until the global market is stable again. "As the commodity price has increased in the international market, it has also affected our local market," Tipu Munshi, Bangladesh's commerce minister, told DW, adding, "we have been offering some consumer goods at a subsidized price to people in need to manage the situation." The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) offers commodity goods at subsidized prices to poor people in the South Asian country. Last month, Dhaka announced to extend this offer to 10 million low-income families, around 50 million people, out of the country's 35 million families. "We are selling edible oil, sugar, lentils, and onions at a subsidized price across the country," Humayun Kabir, a director at TCB, told DW. "1.2 million families in Dhaka and 8.8 million elsewhere will get this support till April this year." While experts think offering consumer goods to low-income families at a subsidized price will help in a short time, they blame the government for not being able to control the market. Nazneen Ahmed, the country economist of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), pointed out that the prices of edible products that Bangladesh produces have also gone up in recent months.  "Our rice production was excellent this year. Still, its price has got higher without any reasonable cause," she told DW. "The government has to play a role here to control the market." Economist Mustafizur Rahman echoes that opinion. He thinks the government should draft a long-term plan to keep the market safe from price hikes. "A monitoring mechanism is needed to stop unscrupulous businessmen, who tend to increase prices on different occasions. Government agencies should act together in this regard," Rahman told DW. Meanwhile, thousands of people took to the streets across Bangladesh this week to protest against the price hike following calls from left-wing political parties. They demanded the "business syndicate" be broken up and called for the market manipulation of essential commodities as well as ration cards for people in need. Edited by: John Silk

7Politics

The Philippines reported its first two cases of the Indian COVID-19 variant on Tuesday. The country's health ministry said that the variant, B.1.617, was identified in two Filipino workers who returned to the island country in April from the UAE and Oman. Aletha Guzman, director of the ministry's epidemiology bureau, said that the identified individuals were in isolation since coming back. The Philippines has temporarily barred flights from India to the country. Here's a look at some of the other most notable pandemic-related stories around the world at present. Hong Kong has scrapped its plan to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for foreign workers in the region. Hong Kong, which had planned to roll out jabs for 370,000 foreign workers, scrapped the move after the proposal caused a diplomatic problem with the Philippines. The island country had alleged the decision as discriminatory. Under the plan, foreign domestic workers would have had to show proof of receiving two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to renew their current visas or get new ones issued. Hong Kong had decided to make vaccinations mandatory for foreign domestic workers after two domestic workers were found infected with virulent strains of COVID-19. India reported 370,000 new infections and 3,700 deaths from COVID-19 on Monday. The country is in the midst of a dangerous wave that has overwhelmed the country's health care system. Experts believe that the official death count is much higher. India's new infection numbers came on the heels of the WHO declaring the Indian variant a "variant of concern." The Indian mutation has also spread to India's neighbors, hitting Nepal particularly hard. Belgium said on Tuesday that it will scrap most of its coronavirus lockdown rules and reopen most of its economy -- provided that its vaccination drive continues at the same pace and intensive care admissions stay below 500. From June 9, Belgians will be able to sip their world-renowed beers inside their local pubs, which have been closed since October. Live music events and gyms will also reopen next month, but will have a cap on the number of people who can attend. "The more people are vaccinated, the faster we will get our freedom back," Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told a news conference. A man in Austria has been convicted of intentionally infecting his ex-wife with the coronavirus by coughing at her. The Linz regional court said Tuesday that the 63-year-old was given a nine-month sentence, suspended for three years. Judges had convicted the man Monday of attempted serious bodily harm for giving the victim COVID-19 while they were still living in the same house pending the finalization of their divorce last November. Slovakia said it has halted the uses of the two-dose AstraZeneca vaccine after authorities there said the death of a 47-year-old woman was “likely” linked to the Oxford University-backed jab. Millions of doses of AstraZeneca have been safely administered in Europe, but concerns linger over a rare type of blood clot seen in an extremely small number of recipients. On Tuesday, Germany reported 6,125 new cases of COVID-19, over 1,400 less than one week ago. It takes the total case count to 3,533,376, according to latest figures released by the Robert Koch Institute. The country's death toll rose by 283 to 85,112. The head of the European Medicines Agency told German business daily Handelsblatt that the BioNTech-Pfizer jab could soon be approved for children from 12 to 15 years old in the EU. The European Commission's second case against AstraZeneca, over delays in delivering the COVID-19 vaccine, has started in a court in Brussels. The EU has asked for symbolic compensation of €1 ($1.21) for a breach of contract by AstraZeneca. A lawyer representing the bloc said that the European Union was willing to give the company three months of leeway to deliver 120 million doses of the vaccine. The lawyer added that the bloc was also willing to accept AstraZeneca's full obligation of 300 million vaccines by September. The United States has authorized use of the BioNTech-Pfizer jab for children between the ages of 12 and 15. This is the second authorization for children, following emergency authorization of the vaccine for those 16 and older. US president Joe Biden said that this was a "promising development" against the virus. In a separate announcement, the White House said it had tapped ride-sharing apps Uber and Lyft to offer free journeys to people who were going to get vaccinated. The move is part of President Biden's bid to reopen the country completely on July 4. am/rt (dpa, AP, AFP)

5Health

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a ban on the sale of flavored heated tobacco products amid a "significant increase" in use in the EU.  "With nine out of 10 lung cancers caused by tobacco, we want to make smoking as unattractive as possible to protect the health of our citizens and save lives," European Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said in a statement. A recent report from the EU's executive arm showed a 10% increase in sales volumes of flavored heated tobacco products in more than five EU countries between 2018 and 2020. Overall in the European Union, these products exceeded 2.5% of total tobacco product sales in 2020.  The move is part of the European Union's "beating cancer plan," which envisions less than 5% of the population using tobacco by 2040.  Kyriakides said regulators would need to "keep pace" with new developments to "address the endless flow of new products entering the market." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video She said new regulations were especially aimed at preventing younger people from using any kind of tobacco product.  The proposal will need to be examined and passed by the governments of the EU's 27 member states and the European Parliament before it can go into force.  The ban would not cover all vaping products, only those using heated tobacco.  Flavored heated tobacco products use a device that heats a small cigarettelike stub containing tobacco, which vaporizes but does not burn the plant matter. The products differ from e-cigarettes or vape pens, which vaporize a flavored liquid containing nicotine.  Producers of heated tobacco devices claim that their product is a less harmful alternative to conventional cigarettes.  wmr/fb (Reuters, AFP, AP)

5Health

World Health Organization (WHO) investigators visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology on Wednesday, as the team of experts continue to seek answers in their pursuit of the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 was first identified in China's central city of Wuhan in December 2019 and the WHO team, led by virus expert Peter Ben Embarek, arrived at the heavily guarded laboratory at around 9:30 a.m (0130 GMT) local time. "I am looking forward to a very productive day, meeting the key people here and asking all the important questions that need to be asked," WHO team member Peter Daszak, who is the president of NGO the EcoHealth Alliance, said as he arrived at the facility. Reporters followed the WHO investigators to the facility, but as with past visits, there was no direct access to the team of experts. Security guards paid close attention to onlookers, and journalists in particular, amid thick morning fog. The Wuhan Institute of Virology has been subject of several conspiracy theories that suggest a leak could have caused the city's first outbreak of COVID-19. Most scientists reject the notion, but some have speculated that a virus captured from the wild could have figured in experiments at the lab, before escaping via an infected member of staff. The WHO investigators, meanwhile, said they would not rule anything out prematurely. "We're all aware of the hypotheses around the potential involvement of the lab in this and we're certainly going to ask questions about all of the key aspects of the Wuhan Institute of Virology," the WHO's Peter Daszak told Sky News ahead of the visit. "Everything's on the table and we're keeping an open mind." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Some scientists have asked China to reveal details of all coronavirus samples examined at the lab, to see which most closely resembles SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the respiratory disease. Following 14 days in quarantine, the WHO team, made up of specialists from 10 different countries, has visited hospitals, research institutes and a wet market linked to many of the early coronavirus infections. jsi/msh (AP, Reuters)

5Health

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, clad in military fatigues, visited the Zapad military exercises underway with Russia Sunday and announced his country's plans to acquire $1 billion (€850 million) worth of weapons from Russia by 2025. During a visit to a military site not far from the town of Baranovichi in western Belarus, Lukashenko praised the readiness of Russian and Belarusian troops and said together the two nations were prepared to counter "hybrid aggression" from the West. The live fire drill is the culmination of a week's worth of maneuvers that are set to conclude later in the week. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to pay a visit to the troops Monday. Zapad involves 200,000 military personnel and has unsettled neighboring Ukraine and Poland. For the first time since the fall of communism in 1989, Poland has declared a state of emergency on its eastern border in part due to the exercises. On the eve of the drills, Putin said Zapad was defensive, not offensive, and on Sunday, Lukashenko struck a similar tone. "We are not aiming our rockets at neighboring countries; we are getting ready to defend our land," Lukashenko was quoted as saying by the Telegram channel of the Belarusian presidency. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, however, warned of "provocations." On Thursday of last week, Putin and Lukashenko met in the Kremlin for seven hours to discuss greater integration between the two countries. Lukashenko later said half of the time was spent on defense talks, with Belarus eyeing the acquisition of the S-400 air defense system. On November 4, Putin is expected in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, to sign a host of agreements on deepening ties between the two countries. The Russian Ministry of Defense said troops involved in Zapad will all have returned to their bases by mid-October. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video ar/mm (AFP, Reuters)

7Politics

In a deal brokered by Turkey, Russia and Ukraine had agreed on a deal that saw Ukraine export its grain via the Black Sea. The agreement allowed ships to travel without being attacked on specific routes from Ukraine to the Bosphorus. On the weekend, Russia said it would suspend participation because Ukraine and the UK had allegedly attacked the Russian Black Sea fleet with drones. Moscow said the attacks affected civilian ships in the grain corridors as well as a minesweeping ship.  Both Ukraine and the UK have dismissed the allegations and say that Russia staged the attack. Despite Moscow withdrawing from the deal, grain vessels are to continue to use the corridors. Whether Russia will let them pass, is not yet clear.  Ukraine is one of the world's major grain producers. The country mainly grows and exports wheat, corn and barley. According to the European Commission, Ukraine accounts for 10% of the world wheat market, 15% of the corn market, and 13% of the barley market. With more than 50% of world trade, it is also the main player on the sunflower oil market. Ranked in first and second place respectively, corn and wheat are also the world's most widely grown cereals. A major exporter like Ukraine dropping out can have serious consequences for global food security. According to statistics by the US Department of Agriculture, Ukraine was the world's seventh-largest producer of wheat in 2021/22 with 33 million tons. Only Australia, the United States, Russia, India and China produced more — with the EU actually ranked first place if you count the union's member states together. Ukraine ranks sixth on the corn market. From mid-2021 to mid-2022, only Argentina, the EU, Brazil, China and especially the US grew more corn. The most barley is grown in the EU, followed by Australia, Russia and Ukraine. The largest wheat importers in 2020, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), a visualization site for international trade data, were Egypt ($5.2 billion), China ($3.47 billion), Turkey ($2.44 billion), Nigeria ($2.15 billion) and Indonesia ($2.08 billion). Egypt was also the biggest buyer of wheat specifically from Ukraine, statistics show. When it comes to corn, the most recent OEC figures available were from 2018, with top importers Mexico ($3.14 billion), Japan ($2.94 billion), South Korea ($1.92 billion), Vietnam ($1.85 billion), and Spain ($1.72 billion). Major buyers of corn from Ukraine included the Netherlands, Spain, and China. Leading barley-importing countries in 2020 included China ($1.77 billion), Saudi Arabia ($1.38 billion), the Netherlands ($512 million), Belgium ($369 million), and Germany ($307 million). China was the largest buyer of Ukrainian barley. Grain deliveries were initially suspended as a result of Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports, fueling fears of shortages worldwide and price hikes. By mid-May, export prices for wheat and corn had skyrocketed to unprecedented heights. That has had far-reaching consequences, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, according to the UN, — countries where the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout had already exacerbated the food situation. In the meantime, pressure on the grain market has lessened somewhat. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that, despite the Ukraine war, the 2022 global grain harvest will likely be only marginally smaller than in 2021. It remains to be seen whether Russia's suspension of the grain export deal will affect the global market.  As part of the agreement reached in Turkey, the 20-25 million tons of grain currently blocked in Ukraine could finally be exported. Exports of Russian grain and fertilizer — restricted as a result of the sanctions against Russia — were also facilitated. The agreement also provided for secure corridors in the Black Sea between Ukraine and the Bosporus; ships in the area and ports involved would not be attacked. A control center in Istanbul, headed by the United Nations and staffed by representatives from Russia, Ukraine and Turkey was to monitor the grain exports. The agreement between Ukraine and Russia was important for global food security. Grain remains urgently needed on the world market, especially in Asia and Africa. In the wake of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, the United Nations had warned of the biggest food crisis in decades. This article has been translated from written in German. It was originally published on July 27 and updated on November 1 to reflect Russia's withdrawal from the grain deal.

7Politics

Seven German cultural organizations, including Berlin's Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, have appealed to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas "to stand up for colleagues in Afghanistan who have worked for years with your support to preserve Afghanistan's cultural heritage." Numerous cultural workers have also signed on to the appeal. They include Ute Franke, an archaeologist at the Islamic Museum in Berlin who has spent many years researching in Afghanistan. From 2004 to 2012, Franke documented archaeological sites and cataloged the museum collection in the Herat province in western Afghanistan, as part of the German-Afghan Archaeological Research Mission. DW spoke with Franke about the precarious situation for cultural workers in Afghanistan. DW: What kind of contact do you currently have with colleagues in Afghanistan? Have you received any messages from people you have worked with? Ute Franke: We're in relatively close contact right now, to the extent that the lines and the connections allow. The networks are often overloaded, making exchange impossible. There's lots of information being exchanged. What has happened? What happens now? What do we do? There are, of course, efforts to keep vulnerable people safe and secure. You signed a letter along with various other archaeological organizations and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Organization, in which you asked the German government for help for the people who work in cultural institutions in Afghanistan. Have you received an answer? We are in close contact with the German Foreign Office and with the departments that manage and coordinate these things. How concrete is the threat to the people you have been working with? Have there already been attacks? I haven't officially heard of any direct attacks. But naturally, this always depends a lot on who you are in contact with. The situation in Kabul is definitely different than the situation in rural areas, where there isn't any press and it's hard to get news out. In Kabul, people are scared for themselves, their families and their security. Some of them had even started trying to leave the country before the Taliban's advance, because they had received threatening letters or other threats for various reasons. Are any of your colleagues among those who have beenevacuated? No one I know has been among the first contingents that left the country over the past few days. We are, of course, now waiting for information about what happens next. People first have to make it to the airport and then get through the American controls [of the US military there]. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video You yourself worked for quite a while in Kabul and in Herat. The citadel of Herat is said to have already been taken by the Taliban. What information do you have? I know that the Taliban captured the city a week ago Saturday and then occupied the citadel. Without a fight, though, so there was no damage. I don't know exactly what happened to the museum. A new administration has been appointed, and at the moment I assume that everything is okay in the citadel. It's said that cultural artifacts should be moved to safe places. Is there any infrastructure like a depot in which the most important artifacts could be protected from attack? That has been the plan, of course. It was easier a good 20 years ago. But now there was not enough time. In Herat, for example, there are no facilities for such a depot in the citadel. You worked in Afghanistan at a time when it was relatively safe. You were protected by various armed forces. How important was this time for antiquities research? The last 20 years have been enormously important. Afghanistan was an El Dorado for archaeologists even before 1979. The country is very rich in cultural treasures from a wide variety of periods and regions. In the last 20 years, research has progressed enormously. Did you work a lot with local people? What did your work look like? We first excavated the Bagh-e Babur (a garden complex in the old city of Kabul, editor's note) in Kabul for four years as part of a training program. At that time, I was working for the German Archaeological Institute. That started in 2002 — a time when everyone was optimistic, and Kabul was a partly destroyed but still very beautiful city. The spirit of optimism was incredible. I started working in Herat in 2005. A lot has changed in the time since then. Would further destruction of these heritage sites void all the research? Destruction would not nullify the research that has been done so far because it has been well documented. But of course the physical objects, monuments, and sites would be lost for the future. Do you believe the Taliban's assurances that they will respect cultural treasures in the future? I can't assess that at the moment. I hope that it is true. But there is a certain skepticism based on past experiences — and they go beyond the destruction of the Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley. After all, one hears that there have already been attacks in Bamiyan, including on the depots. It would be nice if the promise to protect the archaeological sites and to prohibit robbery excavations would be kept. That will be seen in the near future. How confident are you that your colleagues will get out of Afghanistan and possibly be brought to Germany? I very much hope that it will work out. It depends on many factors. And luck is certainly also involved. This article was translated from German. 

4Culture

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that there was "still a long way to go" in resolving the global food crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. On a visit to Ukraine's port city of Odesa, where grain exports are flowing after a nearly six-month Russian blockade, he said developing countries now needed financial aid to buy Ukrainian wheat and barley. "It is time for massive and generous support so developing countries can purchase the food from this and other ports — and people can buy it," Guterres said. Between them, Russia and Ukraine export a quarter of the world's wheat and 15% of corn and, without Ukraine's contribution, many parts of the world are facing severe food shortages after prices skyrocketed. Last month, Moscow and Kyiv signed a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey to unblock millions of tons of Ukrainian grain. The agreement allows ships to leave via the Black Sea without the risk of Russian attack through safe corridors through the naval mines laid by Ukraine. "This is an agreement between two parties locked in bitter conflict. It is unprecedented in scope and scale. But there is still a long way to go on many fronts," Guterres said, during his visit to Odesa. The UN chief had previously spoken about the need to "scale up" the deal ahead of winter. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Kyiv said Thursday that 25 boats carrying some 600,000 tonnes of agricultural products have left from three designated Ukrainian ports. Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said Friday that 10 more cargo ships were being loaded with grain in Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Meanwhile, Guterres spoke of the need for unimpeded access to Russian food and fertilizers, which are subject to export delays. He reiterated that, without the speedy return of Russian fertilizer to global markets, the world may not have enough food in 2023. Russia blames US and EU sanctions for the shortage of exports, but Western leaders have accused Moscow of using food insecurity as a weapon. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday vowed that his country would be "the guarantor of global food security," in the absence of Russian exports. He made the comments after talks in Lviv with Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On another hot topic related to the conflict, Guterres called for the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station not to be cut off from Ukraine's grid. Kyiv says the plant, which has come under shelling for several days, was set to have its electricity diverted to Crimea, the region of Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014. Any cut to Ukraine's electricity grid from Zaporizhzhia would exacerbate a winter fuel crisis as the country's cash reserves dry up. mm/sms (AFP, Reuters)

0Business

When 40-year-old Green co-chair Annalena Baerbock was nominated as chancellor candidate in April, German media wrote of "a breath of fresh air." The Greens rose to 28% in opinion polls in April, a spectacular increase on the 8.9% of the vote that the party got in the last general election, in 2017. The rise of the Greens coincided with a drop in support for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Baerbock was credited for the boost, with many wondering whether she might really succeed Merkel, who is not running for reelection in September's vote. A Green chancellor? It seemed almost thinkable. But the tide has turned. Opinion polls now put the Greens at barely 20%, while the CDU is gradually approaching 30%. Support for Baerbock individually has also gone down, putting her behind her two male competitors: Armin Laschet, from the CDU, and Olaf Scholz, from the Social Democrat SPD. The fall has been linked to a barrage of personal attacks on Baerbock, and she has been on the defensive. Her competitors point out Baerbock's lack of experience, as she has never held a government office. But criticism quickly targeted her personal credibility: She was accused of minor inaccuracies in her resume, published on the Greens' website, stating that she had been a member of the German Marshall Fund, a renowned think tank, when she had never been more than a supporter. Baerbock admitted a lack of oversight and a regrettable "sloppiness" on her part. In an interview with public broadcaster ARD, Baerbock tried to put things into perspective: "I obviously made a mistake, and I am very, very sorry. Because we should be focusing on other more important issues at this point in time," she said. Then reports surfaced on how she paid tax on sizable Christmas bonuses only years after having received them. Baerbock was quick to again admit to annoying oversight and call it "mist" (unfortunate). In June, Stefan Weber, a media expert and publisher from Austria, took a close look at Baerbock's new book, Jetzt: Wie wir unser Land erneuern (Now: How We Renew Our Country), and found several passages to have been lifted from other publications. Since then, there have been piecemeal revelations from various quarters on how bits of text closely resemble various newspaper articles. Part of the book, a personal account of Baerbock's trip to Iraq, was even traced back to a DW article describing the fate of Yazidi children. Baerbock rejected the notion of copyright infringement and plagiarism allegations, pointing out that she was "very aware of using facts from open sources." "No one writes a book alone," she said. The Greens' reaction has been more and more thin-skinned. The party is speaking of libel and slander and says it is considering taking matters to court. Even Baerbock's political opponents have now entered the fray, calling out the attacks on Baerbock. In an interview with the national paper Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer from the conservative CSU said he saw no indication of wrongdoing and called the allegations exaggerated. "This is not a thesis, there is no obligation to quote every source," he said. "It is not uncommon for passages in books to resemble parts of newspaper articles," he noted. A touchy subject in German politics, where a number of Cabinet ministers have resigned over recent years following reports of plagiarism in their doctoral theses. Rolf Pohl, is a sociologist and psychologist who specializes in gender studies. In the attacks on Baerbock he sees "recurring references to her looks, her family life," he told DW. "She has become the target for a wide range of prejudice and even antisemitic slurs," Pohl said. Social media posts spread photos of Baerbock with US investor George Soros, falsely alleging that he had made a donation to her campaign. There were posts of fake nude photos of Baerbock had allegedly posted online in her youth. At an event in early July, hosted by women's magazine Brigitte, Baerbock said she had expected to face close scrutiny in the election campaign, "but I have seen from the beginning of my candidacy that falsehoods have been put out there deliberately, by whomever.'' The Greens seemed unprepared for the onslaught, Pohl said. Baerbock's party called the attacks on their candidate an "attempt at character assassination.'' "They seem surprisingly naive in this respect, I believe," he said. "We have known for a long time that women in prominent positions regularly become the targets of sexist attacks." "The Greens have to take matters to court," Pohl said. "But they have to pick their battles, and make sure that their main focus is on election campaigning rather than legal procedures." The personal attacks on Baerbock coincided with a backlash against some of her political proposals. In line with the Green party platform, she spoke out against short-haul flights and demanded a dramatic hike in petrol prices to the tune of €0.15 ($0.20) as measures to combat climate change. Greens general secretary Michael Kellner reiterated the party's commitment to its candidate and her team. This includes party co-chair Robert Habeck, who had conceded the position as lead election candidate to Baerbock in April. Whether he might take over from her has become a recurring question. Jens Thurau contributed to this report. While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society, with an eye toward understanding this year’s elections and beyond. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

7Politics

The United States will review the peace agreement struck with the Taliban signed last year, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told his Afghan counterpart in a call on Friday. Sullivan "made clear the United States' intention to review the February 2020 US-Taliban agreement, including an assessment of whether the Taliban was living up to its commitments to cut ties with terrorist groups, to reduce violence in Afghanistan, and to engage in meaningful negotiations with the Afghan government and other stakeholders," the White House said in a statement. US President Joe Biden's pick for his top diplomat also said earlier this week that he would undertake a review of the deal with the Taliban. "We want to end this so-called forever war. We want to bring our forces home. We want to retain some capacity to deal with any resurgence of terrorism, which is what brought us there in the first place," Antony Blinken, Biden's nominee for secretary of state, told his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday. "We have to look carefully at what has actually been negotiated. I haven't been privy to it yet." The US-Taliban agreement came with annexes that remain classified, leading to criticism in the US that there were secret understandings with the Taliban. The US signed a peace deal with the Taliban in the final year of Donald Trump's presidency, paving the way for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan — a longstanding demand of the Islamist group. The agreement, signed on February 29 in Doha, laid out a 14-month period for the withdrawal of "all military forces of the United States, its allies, and Coalition partners, including all non-diplomatic civilian personnel, private security contractors, trainers, advisors, and supporting services personnel." Weeks ahead of the 2020 election, Trump said all US soldiers stationed in the war-torn country would return home by Christmas this year, an announcement welcomed by the Taliban. But when President Joe Biden took office, 2,500 troops were still stationed in Afganistan — the lowest levels in the conflict began in 2001. In return, the Taliban agreed to not allow extremists to operate from Afghanistan and give some security guarantees. It also agreed to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government aimed at ending the country's war. The intra-Afghan talks, however, have been marred by a surge in violence, with a recent spate of high-profile killings of officials, judges, journalists, and activists leaving the war-weary country reeling. The first session of the second round of talks began on January 6 in Doha but there has been no significant announcement about how negotiations were proceeding. The government accused the Islamist group of failing to actively participate in the peace talks.  "The Taliban not only did not reduce the violence, but they increased the violence," said Waheed Omar, media advisor to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.   adi/aw (Reuters, AFP)

2Conflicts

Australia's most populous state of New South Wales (NSW) braced for its worst flooding in decadeson Sunday, with authorities issuing warnings of a potentially "life-threatening" situation. Sixteen areas of NSW, primarily in the north, were declared "disaster ridden," NSW Police and Emergency Services Minister David Elliott said during a press conference, adding that emergency services responded to 640 calls for help, including 66 for flood rescues. Residents in flood-hit areas west of Sydney were evacuated overnight after heavy rainfall caused its largest dam to overflow. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the region was experiencing a "one-in-100-year event" and that a national disaster had been declared, adding that some locations in Western Sydney recorded more than 300 millimeters (11.8 inches) of rain since Friday morning, breaking records. "Whilst we don't think things will worsen on the Mid North Coast, definitely conditions will continue, so the rainfall will continue across the parts that have already been affected," Berejiklian told journalists. So far there are no reports of deaths. The NSW Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) warned that the Nepean Valley, which incorporates the major urban center of Penrith – part of Greater Western Sydney –  was set to experience its worst flooding in 50 years as overflowing of the Warragamba Dam caused river levels to rise along the Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers. Severe flooding struck parts of Port Macquarie, some 400 kilometres north of Sydney, including several nearby towns. Local television showed footage of a three-bedroom cottage in the town of Mondrook being swept away from its foundation by floodwater.   "It is one of the biggest floods we are likely to see for a very long time," Bureau of Meteorology flood operations manager Justin Robinson said. NSW police said they were looking for a bodyboarder believed to be "missing in waters" at Coffs Harbour, some 430 kilometers north of Sydney. So far, 13 evacuation centers have been opened across NSW. More evacuations are expected as the bad weather is forecast to last into the middle of the week. A severe weather warning was also in place just west of the capital Canberra. Deputy Commissioner Daniel Austin told Australia's Channel Nine's Today Show on Sunday morning that emergency services were planning their operations "well past Easter." "Just because the rain stops it doesn't mean that the rivers go back to normal levels straight away," he said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video mvb/aw (AP, AFP, dpa)

6Nature and Environment

The Solomon Islands saw anti-government riots for a second day on Thursday as thousands of protesters swarmed the capital Honiara, setting fire to buildings in the city's Chinatown. Eyewitnesses and local media showed images of buildings engulfed in flames and plumes of thick smoke billowing above the capital.  The unrest defied a 36-hour lockdown declared a day after protesters attempted to storm parliament and topple Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare. The prime minister said his government was still in control. "Today I stand before you to inform you all that our country is safe — your government is in place and continues to lead our nation," he said, adding that those responsible "will face the full brunt of the law." Opposition leader Matthew Wale called on Sogavare to resign, saying frustration at controversial decisions made during his tenure had led to the violence. "Regrettably, frustrations and pent-up anger of the people against the prime minister are spilling uncontrollably over onto the streets, where opportunists have taken advantage of the already serious and deteriorating situation," Wale said in a statement. The Pacific nation has been gripped by inter-island tension which is believed to be the cause of the latest crisis.  Most of the protesters had reportedly traveled to Honiara from the island of Malaita, which is separated from the capital by water and where people have long complained about neglect by the central government. The province opposed a 2019 decision to end diplomatic ties with Taiwan and establish formal links with China.  This led to an independence referendum last year which the national government dismissed as illegitimate.  The Solomon Islands also saw riots in 2006 after general elections with much of Honiara's Chinatown razed amid rumors of Beijing's involvement in rigging the vote. Australia's National Security Committee, which advises the prime minister on foreign affairs, met on Thursday to discuss the mounting unrest in the Solomon Islands. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that police and military peacekeeping force will be deployed to the Islands, adding that he received a request for assistance from Prime Minister Sogavare. Morrison said 23 members of the Australian Federal Police would be deployed "immediately," with a further 50 personnel to enforce security at critical infrastructure. Morrison said another 43 military troops would be sent to aid the Australian police officers. "Our purpose here is to provide stability and security," he added. The two governments had been speaking over the past 24 hours about the worsening situation in Honiara. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video adi/msh (AFP, Reuters)

2Conflicts

A fire damaged the doors of the Old Parliament House in the Australian capital city of Canberra on Thursday. The historic building, home to the Australian Federal Parliament from 1927 to 1988, has been the site of protests for the last few days. The cause of the fire has not been ascertained yet. All those inside the building have been evacuated and the blaze has been extinguished, emergency services said. The Australian Capital Territory emergency services said they were called to the site a little before noon and saw the doors alight.  Social media footage showed flames leaping up the door and a thick plume of smoke rising above the building.    Local reports also showed protesters at the site after the blaze was put out. Barnaby Joyce, Australia's deputy prime minister, said it would be an "absolute disgrace" if the fire had been deliberately lit. Protesters had previously lit a fire next to the doors of the building on December 21. "This is the Parliament that for so long underpinned the freedoms we have as a democracy, and made the decisions that formed us as a nation, fighting for the increase of rights and corrections to our colonial past," Joyce said. "If someone is trying to make a statement then it is a very bad one that will be received with overwhelming disgust," he added. rm/fb (AP/AFP)

7Politics

The latest cover of Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, a weekly supplement to Germany's daily newspaper of the same name, is a tribute to the legendary 1971 Stern magazine cover on which 374 women, celebrities and non-celebrities proclaimed that they had had abortions. Back then, the signatories were taking a stance against the controversial article 218 of the German Penal Code, which at the time still made abortion a punishable offense, almost without exception. The action not only caused an enormous stir nationwide — it ultimately triggered change.   The latest montage of public figures to come out en masse in the magazine was published on Friday under the headline "We are already here" and the hashtag #actout.  The 185 lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, non-binary and trans actors are demanding more recognition in theater, film and television. With their joint public coming out and manifesto, they are standing up for more public visibility for diverse gender identities and sexual orientations on German stages and screens.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In the group coming-out, six of the initiators speak about their experiences in the film, TV and theater industries. Many of their statements might not be surprising; yet they are no less shocking.  They speak about the few role models they had as young people, or how often they were asked during their careers to "play as if they were heterosexual." Agents advise actors not to make their sexual orientation public, or not to bring their respective partners along to red carpet events so they are still considered for straight roles.  Their experiences reinforce the ongoing difficulty for people in the spotlight to stand by their sexuality if it strays from the so-called mainstream.  Diversity has long been a social reality in Germany, however, this fact is still not reflected enough in the nation's cultural narratives and stories, says the manifesto. "Our industry should stand for togetherness and reflect society in all of its diversity," it reads. Under similar pressure, cultural institutions in the US like the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that oversees the Oscars has promised to promote greater diversity of sexual orientation and gender identity when honoring the film industry.  A number of high profile German cultural institutions have come out in support of the initiative, including the Berlinale. The #actout statement outlines the opportunities for more diverse ensembles and narratives in the culture industries, for re-imagined camera angles for sex or kissing scenes, or woman being cast for male roles in period pieces  — an echo of the so-called color-blind casting, which brings more racial diversity to shows, such as the Bridgerton streaming series, for example.  The manifesto ends with the words: "We are looking forward to all the new stories we’ll be able to tell and the characters we can portray. The world is changing and we are all playing a part in it." 

4Culture

It's constructed from scrap metals and painted in vibrant colors: a car sitting in the middle of an office. Surrounding it, chairs made from tires. If you removed all the people working at their computers nearby, you could confuse this place for a garage. This is how the Nairobi Garage coworking space started in 2011. That was back when coworking spaces were taking off in America and Europe. But there wasn't a flexible office space for young, local businesses in Kenya. "There were kind of serviced offices for international companies that didn't want to take too much risk or get too much operation on the African continent […] and these were super expensive and not aimed at the local market at all," said Hannah Clifford, co-founder and director of Nairobi Garage. Back then, not many people were interested in coworking. But demand grew and in 2014, Nairobi Garage revamped its brand. Today, it caters to more than 400 businesses and operates in four locations across the Kenyan capital. It plans to open two more locations in the next year. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Clifford said, coworking has boomed in Africa. Once perceived as only for tech companies, startups and freelancers, Clifford believes everybody is "moving there."  "Even large companies. banks would like to be working in coworking spaces," she said. Doing so will allow companies to attract new talent, and workers can learn from each other more easily. But most importantly, companies can outsource the hassle of dealing with office logistics. "Dealing with suppliers is also difficult in Nairobi. So you will have only one supplier instead of 20," she said. As the world becomes ever more digitalized, the demand for hybrid working models, mobile offices, flex offices and coworking spaces is getting higher and higher. This is also true for Germany's national railway company, Deutsche Bahn. Digital transformation has changed not only how Deutsche Bahn works, but also where its employees work. "Our motto is: An office must fit the needs of our employees, their tasks, and provide our staff not only with a space for creativity and collaboration, but also concentration," said Bettina Munimus, project manager for Deutsche Bahn's mobile work unit. This is what drove them to develop modern office concepts that meet the needs of their employees. The COVID pandemic has shown that collaboration can work just as well digitally. With that realization, the DB Group Management Board decided last summer to firmly integrate mobile working into everyday working life. "DB does not dictate a full-time home office, nor does it dictate a full-time presence in the office," said Munimus. Apart from revamping its working spaces for its employees, Deutsche Bahn is also extending this offer to digital nomads. In August 2020, Deutsche Bahn opened its first coworking space in Berlin. Business travelers, commuters and, of course, startups can book their station-based coworking workspace. Located on the 10th floor of the central station building, the space is 1,500 square meters (16,100 square feet) big. The aim is to provide easy access to those who want to spend some minutes or hours concentrating on their tasks. And via Deutsche Bahn's free everyworks app, a person or team can book individual workplaces by the minute or even become a long-term tenant. This Berlin coworking space is part of Deutsche Bahn's Smart City initiative. With a whole network of station-based working spaces, the state-owned enterprise wants to promote environmentally friendly train travel. In Hanover and soon in Frankfurt, remote workers can book workspaces in the train stations in those cities as well. Critics have pointed out the weaknesses and downsides of flexible and mobile working. But the advantages, such as connecting like-minded professionals and improving workers' well-being and effectiveness, are speaking for themselves. Many employees would rather work remotely or in coworking spaces than commute to work every day, the results of employee surveys at Fujitsu Limited in Japan show. Speaking at the Diversity Global Forum in October 2021, Hiroki Hiramatsu, chief human resources officer at Fujitsu Limited, highlighted the fact that "the average monthly commute time for my employees across Japan has decreased by about 30 hours per person for 80% of employees." He added that the demand to use flexible offices had also skyrocketed. This follows several initiatives started by the company in 2020 that aimed to change the way its employees work and live. Among the initiatives was Work Life Shift, which allows employees to choose the best time and place to work. "We redesigned our offices to enable effective and, above all, active exchange," said Hiramatsu. He believes that for his company to succeed, the company has to become more purpose-driven in the middle of major social changes. "It is crucial that employees think and act independently about their own 'work style' and 'lifestyle.' And that the company supports them in their well-being and diversity," he said. Edited by: Kristie Pladson

0Business

Vladimir Putin exuded satisfaction as he appeared before journalists after a 3 1/2-hour meeting with Joe Biden in Geneva. And he had good reason. With the summit, the US president had single-handedly lifted the Russian strongman out of international isolation and given a green light to other Western leaders, including the German chancellor and the French president, to do so more frequently as well — should they wish to. Putin's press conference was mostly the usual game of Soviet-style "whataboutism" — including comparing the Kremlin's anti-media and anti-NGO legislation with the US "foreign agents" legislation, which in contrast is mostly aimed at lobbyists. When speaking on the substance of talks, Putin also seemed pleased that planned discussions around strategic stability will address a broad range of subjects and not only the New START treaty, which must be renegotiated anyway. It looks as if cybersecurity was a top priority for the Americans. Putin must have known this, and how it should not be too difficult for him to accede to US demands — at least as far as Russian special services cyber teams are concerned. Putin must have also been pleased with the fact that Ukraine — a singular issue around which most of his self-image and domestic prestige revolves — did not feature prominently in the discussions in Geneva. As is frequently the case at such summits, Biden and Putin traded well-prepared giveaways. US and Russian ambassadors John J. Sullivan and Anatoly Antonov will return to their respective posts in Washington and Moscow. Putin also hinted at a possible exchange of two US citizens jailed in Russia for Russian nationals imprisoned in the US. It was clear Biden came to the summit very well briefed and ready to confront Putin, should he need to. As a career politician, Biden's experience is vast; his first visit to the Soviet Union was back in 1979, as a young senator. But he may have committed a conceptual error by judging Putin on Cold War merits, as he might have done with former Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev or Mikhail Gorbachev. Not only is modern Russia weaker than the USSR in almost every respect — militarily, economically or demographically — but also, the nature of its leadership is now radically different. The Soviet Politburo acted on what it presumed to be in the national interest, and wasn't much concerned about losing power or property. For Putin and his close circle, the biggest worry is the survival of their regime. They are playing a weaker hand than the Communists of old. And as opposed to them, the current ruling class also happens to own Russia's most valuable assets — oil, gas and other commodities — through the network of state corporations they manage. In such circumstances, national interests give way to the personal ones. And in modern Russia, the former has long since become a way to camouflage the latter. This makes unpredictability the Kremlin's tool of choice in dealing with the outside world — especially the West, which Putin believes is bent on regime change in Moscow. In order to deal with Putin with at least a modicum of confidence and trust, the West must give him the guarantees he has long been seeking. This consists of letting him do what he wants domestically and leaving countries of the post-Soviet space under his unofficial tutelage, especially when it comes to deciding on issues like NATO membership. And this is something no Western politician is prepared to grant — and yet, they are not prepared to forcefully confront the Kremlin, either. In Putin's universe, strength breeds respect. For Russian leadership, Cold War-style entreaties about common interests and "win-win" are either seen as a trap, or as a sign of weakness. The former has to be unmasked; the latter, taken advantage of. In this respect, Ukraine remains the main political battlefield where the Kremlin will test America's new Russia policy. Correction, June 17, 2021: A previous version of this article stated that Leonid Brezhnev and Mikhail Gorbachev were Russian leaders. This has now been corrected. We apologize for the error.

7Politics

Germany may be forced to close its borders to neighboring countries if they do not take action to stem coronavirus infections, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff said on Thursday. Helge Braun told public broadcaster ARD that Germany must take measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak so that countries could protect themselves from new and more transmissible strains of the virus. "The danger is that when the infections in a country go up, this mutation becomes a quasi-majority variant and then the infection can no longer be controlled," he said. "Therefore, even stricter entry rules at our borders are unavoidable, and since everyone does not want that, it is important that we act together now," he added. Braun told DW on Wednesday that border closures in Europe would "worst way" to go but possibly "unavoidable" without a joint European agreement. He said controlling new coronavirus strains should be a top priority for the European Union and called members to act "synchronously" to "suppress the mutation as much as possible." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also spoke out against border controls. "I think we have to do everything we can to prevent this from happening again," Maas told ARD. "To prevent border controls and 50-kilometer-long (31-mile) traffic jams at the borders." European Council President Charles Michel will chair a video conference on Thursday with EU national leaders to discuss coordination on the response to the pandemic, including stricter travel regulations and the mass roll-out of vaccines. The summit will be about "very practical issues" such as how tens of thousands of commuters can be tested for the virus and how to prevent infections from being brought across the border, he said. Franziska Brantner, a Greens Party spokesperson, told French news agency AFP that member states should focus on establishing common rules for travel. "Border controls are not a solution, but only complicate the situation in border areas," she said. EU countries should jointly address the production of COVID vaccines "in order to even come close to the targeted vaccination rate of 70% by the summer," she added. EU leaders are also expected to discuss the idea of using vaccine certificates as a form of travel passport in the bloc, but the proposal is still at its early stages. The conference will also address bringing in antigen tests that are cheaper and less invasive than the widespread PCR swabs.  Braun has said he felt confident that "with the effects of spring and vaccinations, we will return to normality and that problems will not come again — especially not from a contagious viral mutation —  which will then be even more difficult to control." The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on Thursday released data on the 14-day notification rate of new newly reported COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population by week and country. The latest figures found Germany reported an infection rate of 319.4. Other EU countries recorded 14-day rates as follows: Austria 299.6; Belgium 248.3; Denmark 364.9; France 380.9; Greece 79.3; Ireland: 1,444; Italy 374.1; Netherlands 555.4; Spain 804.5; and; Sweden 669. The UK, meanwhile, reported a rate of 1,112.1. mvb/sms (dpa, AFP)

7Politics

Last August, Belarusians took to the streets across the nation to protest 26 years of autocratic rule. They claimed that President Alexander Lukashenko had again rigged the vote to claim an overwhelming victory in the latest presidential election. Under the red and white flag of the uprising, hundreds of thousands of protesters demanded free and fair elections, and for strongman Lukashenko to step down in the face of arrests, torture and intimidation. Six months later, the protests have started to dissipate. But opposition to the regime remains strong. Figures in culture and the arts who are the subject of increasing suppression are risking jail to speak out. World Press Freedom Day on May 3 also remembers the increasing number of journalists who refuse to be silenced in Belarus, despite the threat of persecution. "Everyone has understood that being active can endanger your life," said Belarusian writer Volha Hapeyeva, who is currently a Writers in Exile fellow at the German PEN Center. "In Belarus, you can literally be arrested for wearing red-and-white socks," she said. The white-red-white flag flown by the opposition commemorates the flag of the first independent Belarusian state proclaimed in 1918. President Lukashenko abolished the flag in 1995 and introduced state symbols strongly reminiscent of the Soviet era — an era when Belarusian traditions and language were lost. Tatsiana Hatsura-Yavorskaya, director of the Watch Docs human rights documentary film festival in Minsk, is one example. She was detained by police after co-organizing "The Machine Breathes, and I Don't," an exhibition dedicated to medical workers on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Noting how the regime is playing down the pandemic by withholding reliable data regarding infections and deaths, the exhibition was shut down by the authorities just days after it opened. Hatsura-Yavorskaya was then apprehended, while her apartment, computer and cell phone were confiscated. "I spent 10 days in detention, in the end I was released because I have a child," she said, adding that some colleagues remain in detention. She is pessimistic about her own short-term future and is not allowed to leave Belarus. "I expect to be arrested again any day now." The literary world is also being suppressed by the government. Publishers including Henadz Viniarski, of Knihazbor Publishing, and Andrei Yanushkevich, founder of Yanushkevich Publishing, have been arrested and their bank accounts frozen. The situation is tense. Hardly a day goes by without more arrests. Many people vanish or go into hiding. "The situation is getting more difficult every day for us who work in the culture sector, as well as for everyone in the opposition," said an artist from Minsk who asked to remain anonymous. "I am considering whether to exhibit the paintings I made of the events last August — honestly, I am afraid to do so." Police patrol her neighborhood daily, she said. "I was on my way to work yesterday wearing a red coat. If I had been wearing something white as well, they would have stopped me for sure. They distrust everyone." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Like many others, the writer and poet Julia Cimafiejeva fled into exile. But she continues to write passionately about events in Belarus. "We all thought you were a woman," she begins in the poem My Homeland, referring to her native country in the female form. "Blue-eyed, wheat-haired, / life-giving," she continues. "But we didn't notice ... how you bared your teeth, / how you put on khaki pants, / how you put a special helmet on your shaved skull and painted a beard. / How you took the baton ..." My Homeland appeared in the anthology, Belarus! The female face of the revolution, which was published in November in Germany after Cimafiejeva actively participated in the protests at home. "I was lucky not to be arrested," she said. "I don't want to live in a repressive police state," she added. "That's why I decided to flee." "Just about every time Lukashenko was reelected, there were repressions," said Cimafiejeva, who has been living abroad since the end of 2020. But she explains that until 2019, cultural life in Belarus was relatively stable."The state never really accepted independent culture, and yet they left us alone, they didn't interfere the way they do now. But today, it seems to me, public cultural life is almost paralyzed." The member states of the European Union have not recognized the election results, and solidarity demonstrations are held regularly in many European cities.  But so far there has been little more than appeals. "Last year we had beautiful, colorful pictures with women holding flowers, with white-red-white flags, the world was interested in us," said Cimafiejeva. "What is going on now is not so photogenic, it is impossible to take pictures in prison cells where people are tortured every day." This article was been adapted from the original German version.

4Culture

US President Joe Biden said Friday he will soon send a small number of US troops to bolster the NATO presence in Eastern Europe, amid concerns around a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. The United States and other Western nations have voiced concern over the buildup of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, claiming that Russia is planning an incursion. Russia has insisted it does not plan to invade Ukraine and has demanded security guarantees from NATO, including a promise that Ukraine will not join the military alliance. "I'll be moving US troops to Eastern Europe and the NATO countries in the near term. Not a lot," Biden told reporters. This week, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said 8,500 troops were on "heightened alert" for possible deployment to assist NATO. Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but the US fears spillover into neighboring NATO countries if Russia does attack Ukraine. In a press conference last week, Biden said the US would increase troop presence in the region in the event of a Russian invasion. "We're going to actually increase troop presence in Poland, in Romania, etc. if, in fact, [Putin] moves [troops into Ukraine]," Biden said. "They are part of NATO." Meanwhile, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday that the buildup of Russian forces near Ukraine's border has reached the point where Russian President Vladimir Putin has a complete range of military options. "While we don't believe that President Putin has made a final decision to use these forces against Ukraine, he clearly now has the capability," Austin said at a Pentagon news conference. Austin said Putin could use any portion of his force to seize Ukrainian cities and "significant territories" or to carry out "coercive acts or provocative political acts," like the recognition of eastern Ukraine's pro-Russia breakaway states. Earlier this week, the US and NATO formally rejected Russian demands around security guarantees, while sending counterproposals to Russia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the counterproposals sent by the United States were better than those sent by NATO. sdi/sms (AP, AFP)

7Politics

Japan has a long history of consuming insects. Packets of fried or sugared crickets are sold to children as snacks in many rural towns. But companies are now developing insect farms on a larger scale, marketing the insects on their high nutritional value and environmental benefits. Across Japan, specialist shops sell foodstuffs incorporating everything from spiders to crickets, weevils and cicada. Meanwhile, restaurants stage promotional events with bugs on the menu.   Gryllus Co. is a food technology company set up in 2019 by Takahito Watanabe, a professor of developmental biology at Tokushima University, to raise crickets and develop them into a food source.   The company says its philosophy is to create a "new harmony" that helps solve the problem of protein going to waste, builds a global food cycle and provides healthy food.   "Crickets have long been eaten in Japan, and we see them as potentially an important and useful resource," Fumiya Aokubu, a spokesman for the company, told DW. "Raising crickets is environment-friendly. It requires very little land, water or feedstock, while the food conversion rate is far superior to livestock such as pigs, beef cattle or chickens." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Watanabe and his team are presently carrying out research to determine the exact nutritional values of crickets and the best ways in which they can be incorporated into food, Aokubu said, although much of that data is at present a closely guarded company secret.   The research has so far determined that crickets are high in calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, vitamins and dietary fiber. Additionally, crickets can be processed into cosmetics and pharmaceutical products, as well as fertilizers.   "At the moment we are turning crickets into oils and powders that can be used in cooking, to make biscuits, curries and other meals, and we are planning to expand our research into other insects in the future," Aokubu said.   Take-Noko restaurant in Tokyo holds tasting events for insects. "We have seen a really big increase in interest in insects as food in the last couple of years, with people keen to try something different, something unusual," said Ryota Mitsuhashi, who oversees product development for the company. "Crickets and grasshoppers are the most familiar to many people, but we are also selling a lot of silkworms and spiders as food."  Mitsuhashi said his favorite insect was the larvae of wasps, traditionally prepared in the mountain towns of central Japan in the autumn months with miso, ginger and ground peanuts. Mitsuhashi admits that he's not a fan of the edible zebra tarantulas that Takeo stocks, however, as he is afraid of spiders.   The shop's customers are "more adventurous" than most, he said, and are of all ages and genders.   To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "The most important message that we have to communicate to customers is that the foods we sell actually taste very good," he said. "We can tell people that they are cheap to buy, that they are good for the environment and that they are healthy, but, if people are too worried about the taste, then they are not going to buy them."   Other companies in Japan are also exploring the possibilities of insect-based food products. Bakery Pasco initially began selling home-baking kits with flour made from ground crickets and now making a range of foods that incorporate silkworms under the Silkfood brand.  In the southern city of Kumamoto, a vending machine that sells precooked insects has attracted a good deal of attention from the public. It sells diving beetles, insect pupae and rhinoceros beetles alongside crickets as snacks. For those with a sweet tooth, some of the offerings in the machine are coated in chocolate.   Shoichi Uchiyama is an insect-eating advocate who has published a number of culinary books with recipes such as bug-based sushi. He has called on people to overcome their reservations about what is edible. He points out that insects have for generations provided nutritionally balanced and healthy meals. With the rise of bugs on the menu across Japan, his message may be becoming more palatable. Edited by: Kate Martyr

6Nature and Environment

Many Ukrainians woke up on Friday away from their home as they fled a Russian invasion. The UN has reported that at least 100,000 people have been displaced by the war, and predicted the number could rise as high as 4 million. The first Ukrainian refugees have started to arrive in Romania, Hungary and Poland. Some of them spent the night at a train station in neighboring Poland, where reception centers were being hastily set up. More people were trying to flee from Kyiv to western Ukraine "with whatever they are able to carry," DW correspondent Fanny Facsar said from Ukraine.   Dima Khilchenko, a consultant for DW Academy, shared his experience of moving his family out of Kyiv to the west of the country. "It was quite complicated yesterday," Khilchenko said. "We woke up at 5:30 a.m. because we heard the explosion and it's very hard to confuse this sound with something else and we understood straight away that the war has started." Khilchenko said moving his two children from Kyiv to his hometown in western Ukraine took about 10 hours, a journey he said usually takes three.  "It was massive traffic jams, and you could see buildings on the horizon burning, and smoke was going out of them. It was pretty scary." Thursday was mainly about making sure the family is safe, Khilchenko said. "To my understanding, Kyiv will be the main goal [of the invasion], and we already hear the news," he said, so he moved his family to the west for now but will potentially have to send them abroad as the situation escalates. Khilchenko himself is, however, unable to leave Ukraine, as mobilization was announced. "My daughter, who is 6-years-old, asked me if I'm going to war, and I said if I have to, I will, and of course, she asked me not to do that. But you see, like when your country is invaded, who, if not us, will do it," he said, adding that he has no military training and has never shot a gun.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video As fighting intensifies, a lot of people are leaving from the east to the west of Ukraine, Ole Solvang of the Norwegian Refugee Council told DW.  Solvang stressed that the humanitarian situation had already been dire in Ukraine before the full-scale war.  "It is very important to keep in mind here that even before the latest hostilities, there were very significant humanitarian needs in the country," Solvang said.    About 3 million people were estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance, and the number will likely increase amid the Russian offensive, he added.  The UN announced it was allocating $20 million (€17.9 million) to increase humanitarian operations in Ukraine. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN and its partners "are committed to staying and delivering, to support people in Ukraine in their time of need... regardless of who or where they are."  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video On Thursday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was "immediately" ready to host and welcome refugees fleeing Ukraine. Von der Leyen also vowed financial assistance to Ukraine.  The EU's interior ministers are due to meet this weekend for talks over Ukraine, including the expected arrival of a large number of refugees to EU countries, which have so far expressed solidarity with those fleeing. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said Germany would offer support to Poland and other countries in eastern Europe that are receiving large numbers of Ukrainian refugees. Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his country was opening a humanitarian corridor for citizens from third-party countries, like Iran or India, who are fleeing Ukraine. Those citizens would be allowed in Hungary without visas and then taken to the nearest airport in the northeastern Debrecen city, Szijjarto said.  Edited by: Sean Sinico

2Conflicts

Tohar Butbul has said it "pinches my heart" to see fellow athletes being forced to withdraw from the Olympics. Judokos Mohamed Abdalrasool, of Sudan, and Algeria's Fethi Nourine both dropped out of bouts against Butbul in the under-73kg class at the Tokyo Olympics. While the official reason for Abdalrasool's withdrawal was a shoulder injury, Nourine was suspended by the International Judo Federation (IJF) after admitting he didn't want to face an Israeli athlete in competition. "It’s against the spirit of the sport," Butbul tells DW. "In many cases, the athletes aren’t the ones making those decisions. Athletes are human beings, they want to compete. They’re the victims here, absolutely." Butbul said it was nothing unusual for Israeli athletes. Sudan normalized its relations with Israel in January 2021 as part of the Abraham accords. The agreement was widely protested in the country. Algeria, meanwhile, has no official ties with the Jewish state. After withdrawing from the Games on Saturday, Algerian judoka Nourine said he was "fully behind the Palsetinian cause." The 30-year-old later took to Facebook to answer alleged criticism directed at him from within the Algerian Judo Association. "The President of the Judo Association was surprised by my decision not to take part in the fight. He said I represent Algeria, not Palestine," wrote the 30-year-old. "It was an honor for me to represent Algeria in different sporting competitions. By withdrawing, I also represented Algeria." Many Algerian social media users took to Facebook to criticize Nourine's decision to withdraw from the contest, with some perceiving his action as "unsportsmanlike behavior." "Sport and politics need to be separated, he’s rightly been suspended," said one Facebook comment. "Athletes need to bear in mind they could face Israelis before the competitions. Either stay until the end or don’t compete altogether to avoid the whole circus," said another. Israeli sportspeople are no strangers to boycotts they've mostly taken place in other sports, international attention is often garnered when it involves judo, a sport in which Israel is known to excel. Five out of Israel's 10 Olympic medals of all time have been won in the discipline. The most high-profile boycott on political grounds took place in September 2019, when Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei was ordered to intentionally lose the semifinal of the Judo World Championship in Tokyo to avoid a potential bout against Israel's Sagi Muki in the final. Mollaei chose to defect from Iran as a result and now represents Mongolia and is known to be good friends with Muki. Butbul hopes that he too can reconcile with the opponents who didn't show up to face him in Tokyo. He would like to have a Tikkun, Hebrew for a correcting experience, by competing against them in the future. "I want us to show things can be different, that it can be about the sport," Butbul says. Given that the phenomenon is nothing new, the news of the boycotts were met with a decidedly sarcastic reaction back in Israel. "A few more boycotts and the gold medal is ours," one user tweeted in Hebrew. Butbul went on to finish seventh in the under-73kg category and was clearly disappointed with the result. "I came here with the pure goal of winning. That's what I've wanted my whole career, but in Judo sometimes there's a small gap between the plan and the reality," said the 27-year-old. However, it is once again the decisions made by his opponent's and not his sporting achievement that have been at the foreground of his Olympic experience. Israeli politician Yoel Razvozov, a former judoka himself who experienced a boycott at the Judo World Championships in 2001, took to Twitter to welcome the decision to suspend Algeria's Fethi Nourine: "There's no place for politics in sports. If you don't want to compete against us, stay at home."

9Sports

A boat carrying more than 70 people sank in Bangladesh’s Brahmanbaria district on Friday after a collision that involved a sand-laden cargo ship. At least 21 people died and close to 50 were missing, as rescue operations took place late into the night. The incident took place in the Bijoynagar area, about 82 kilometers (51 miles) east of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.  "We have recovered 21 bodies including nine women and six children so far," said local government administrator Hayat-Ud-Dola, adding that the toll would likely rise. He said the boat and the cargo ship's steel tip collided, causing the passenger vessel to capsize. "I was grazing cattle on the bank of the pond. I heard a loud noise and saw the cargo vessels hitting the passenger trawler. I saw the trawler sinking quickly," witness Nurul Amin told local media. He said two cargo vessels hit the boat. Akhi Akter was traveling on the boat with her son, mother-in-law and brother-in-law when it capsized. "When the accident occurred, I managed to swim back to the bank. But the rest of my relatives are still missing," she said. While waterways are a common way to move people and goods in Bangladesh, poor enforcement of safety measures has led to deadly accidents in the past. In April and May, at least 54 were killed in two separate boat capsizing accidents in the country. see/mm (AP, AFP, Reuters)

1Catastrophe

The US drugs company Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday that it had submitted a request for emergency authorization of its one-shot vaccine to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA's independent vaccine advisory board will meet on February 26 to make a decision on the vaccine's approval. Johnson & Johnson said that they would also request approval in Europe in a matter of weeks. The most recent player to join a growing field of approved vaccines around the world has the benefit that it requires only one jab and does not need to be kept at super cool temperatures like the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. However, the company's recent report shows that the vaccine only has a 66% efficiency, significantly lower than some of the other vaccines on offer. The US already ordered 100 million doses, for a cost of $1 billion (€827 million). The EU secured up to 400 million doses. Johnson & Johnson aims to produce 1 billion doses this year. Here's a rundown of some of the other most notable pandemic-related stories around the world at present.  The UK government said on Friday that it had reached a deal with the German biotech firm CureVac to rapidly produce vaccines for COVID-19 mutations if it proved to be necessary. They also placed an order for 50 million doses of these potential vaccines. Regulators also said the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine has been found to be effective against the British variant of the virus. France has recorded four new cases of people infected with the new coronavirus variant first detected in Brazil. The French prime minister rejected the idea of taking the country back into lockdown. Germany's Robert Koch Institute reported 12,908 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, over 1,000 fewer than the previous week. The number of deaths in the country increased by 855. The country's top disease control official also warned on Friday that the new variants of COVID-19 had been discovered aross Germany and data has revealed that they are more dangerous than previously thought. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Researchers from Germany's Merseburg University have found that the sex lives of most Germans has not deteriorated during the coronavirus pandemic with some 30% of German women reporting having better sex. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, following a meeting with the Russian foreign minister in Moscow, that he hoped the EU would approve the Russian Sputnik V vaccine to make up for supply shortages. The head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen admitted to faults in the EU's vaccine procurement program in an interview on Thursday saying that the bloc should have put a greater focus on the challenges of mass production. In Denmark, one in five new coronavirus infections in the final week of January came from the more contagious British variant, experts there said. Denmark imposed strict lockdown measures in December as cases stemming from the mutant variant soared. Poland said on Friday it will open up its hotels, cinemas and theaters as a trial from next week. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said there is a "fragile stabilizilation" in coronavirus cases. Officials will also open operas, philharmonic venues, outdoor sports ground, ski slopes and swimming pools. However, face masks will remain mandatory. China recorded its lowest number of new cases in over a month on Friday less than a week before the Lunar New Year holiday kicks off. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Recent measures to crack down on the spread of the virus in northern regions of the country seem to have been successful as the infection rate subsides. Authorities have been warning people not to travel or hold big parties for the new year festivities, worried about the possibilities of large outbreaks of the virus. BioNTech-Pfizer withdrew its application for emergency authorization of its vaccine in India on Friday after meeting with officials from the country's drug regulator, Reuters has reported. The World Health Organization's COVAX vaccine-sharing program announced its distribution plans on Thursday, aiming to supply some 90 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Africa with shipments starting in February. China also announced it would donate 100,000 doses to the Republic of Congo and forgive $13 million of debt. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video New Zealand announced on Friday that it would open its borders to refugees once more almost a year after they closed to stop the spread of coronavirus.  The country planned to welcome 35 refugees in February with around 210 expected to arrive by June. All arrivals will be obliged to stay in a 14-day quarantine in government managed isolation facilities. No kindergarten or school, no play dates or sports — the corona crisis has dramatic consequences for children.  Pediatricians observe deteriorating health conditions and a dramatic increase in behavioral disorders. Read the full story here. An IP waiver by the WTO would have made it easier for developing countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines and drugs. Wealthy countries opposed the move, arguing that a suspension of patents would stifle innovation. Read the full story here. Mexico is running short of oxygen for COVID-19 patients. With the country's health care system at its limit, many people are caring for their loved ones at home, but the demand for privately sourced oxygen has led to price-gouging. Watch the report below. ab/rt (Reuters, dpa)

5Health

At least 49 bodies were found in mass graves uncovered in the Democratic Republic of  Congo, the United Nations said on Wednesday. The UN deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, told reporters in New York that the bodies were found lying in the graves in two villages in the restive Ituri province, near the border with Uganda. The province in northeastern Congo was the target of attacks blamed on a local militia group over the weekend. Haq said they were investigating whether the mass graves were linked to the fighting linked to local militants. Haq said that a total of 42 victims, including six children, were discovered in a mass grave in the village of Nyamamba, and the bodies of seven other men were found in Mbogi village. "Peacekeepers launched a patrol to the area immediately after receiving reports of attacks on civilians by the CODECO militias over the weekend. This is when they made the gruesome discoveries," Haq said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video CODECO — Cooperative for the Development of Congo —  is one of many militias operating in Congo’s conflict-ridden east and its fighters are mainly from the Lendu farming community. The Lendu community has long been in conflict with Hema herders and local authorities have said that CODECO militants have also abducted a number of women during attacks on villages recently. Clashes between groups have flared this month, and at least 195 people have been killed since December in attacks blamed on the CODECO militia and other armed groups, the UN has said. CODECO factions announced an end to violence against civilians in Ituri last June, but have gradually resumed attacks in the area. More than 1.5 million have been displaced in Ituri province as a result of fighting.  rm/rc (AP, AFP)

2Conflicts

Brazilian defender Dani Alves was arrested on Friday and later denied bail by a Barcelona judge amid allegations he sexually assaulted a woman.  He had answered a police summons for questioning by the judge earlier in the day. The judge later agreed to prosecutors' requests that he remain in custody without bail.  The court said in a statement he had been questioned about "events that allegedly took place in a nightclub."  The allegations stem from the night of December 30-31, 2022, and had been fairly broadly reported in Spanish media.  A woman told nightclub security staff, and then police, that Alves had touched her inappropriately under her underwear in the club. She filed a criminal complaint with Catalan police on January 2.  Alves later appeared on television station Antena 3 saying he had "never seen" the woman before.  "I was there, at that place, with more people having fun. Everybody knows I love to dance. Having a good time but without invading the space of others," the former Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain player said. His wife, Joana Sanz, spoke to the same channel in his defense but said her husband had been out with friends that night. Alves and his representatives did not immediately comment publicly on Friday. Although Alves, 39, now plays in Mexico with the Pumas UNAM club, he has close personal ties to Barcelona, having spent some of the most successful years of his career there. He was part of the club's golden era, fueled in no small part by Lionel Messi's prolific scoring and Pep Guardiola's coaching for some of the period, between 2008 and 2016. During his first stint with the Catalan club in his prime he made 391 appearances, and another 17 on returning there last season. The 39-year-old was also the oldest player to represent Brazil at the World Cup in Qatar earlier last December. He was on holiday in Barcelona following that competition. Alves also has a reputation as one of the game's more extrovert and charismatic players. He attracted widespread attention and praise in 2014 when he calmly responded to racist fans throwing a banana in his direction during a game by picking it up and eating it. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Mexico's top-flight football division, Liga MX, said it was following the case and Alves' legal situation alongside his club Pumas UNAM, to determine "what is appropriate regarding his participation in the League."  Pumas UNAM said it would "take appropriate actions," and apply sanctions as "stipulated in the employment contract signed with the athlete."  It said it would make its decision public as soon as possible. msh/rt (AFP, AP, Reuters)

9Sports

US President Joe Biden will mark 100 days in office on Wednesday with an address to Congress in which he will announce a new historic spending plan for children, families and education, senior administration officials said. During the televised speech, the president will lay out his American Families Plan. He is hoping to get approval from a deeply divided Congress for a further $1.8 trillion (€1.49 trillion) in government spending. The program follows on the heels of the president's American Jobs Plan for infrastructure spending, which he unveiled at the beginning of April, and would be largely funded by reversing tax cuts for the rich introduced by his predecessor, Donald Trump. "The president will be proposing a set of measures to make sure the wealthiest Americans pay the taxes that they owe, while also ensuring that no one making less than $400,000 a year will see their taxes go up," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The official cited by AFP said one of the main aims is to reduce child poverty while also supporting parents with childcare so that they, especially mothers, can remain in work. The Biden administration is hoping that raising taxes on only the wealthiest people will increase voter support. The Democrats are aiming to get key legislation through before the midterms in 2024 when there is a good chance that they will lose their razor-thin majority in Congress. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The spending and tax hikes will likely be unpopular with Republicans. Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill was passed by the Senate last month with no Republican votes. The American Families Plan will, however, need Republican support in the Senate in order to become law. ab/nm (AP, AFP, dpa)

7Politics

A worryingly high prevalence of "sextortion" within the sport sector has been highlighted in the latest report from Transparency International. A survey of German athletes, one of four countries alongside Romania, Mexico and Zimbabwe focused on by the corruption watchdog, saw slightly more than one in three report they had experienced at least one situation of sexual violence in organized sport. While recent high-profile cases in sports such as gymnastics and football have underlined the extent of sexual abuse, the issue remains largely underreported within the industry. Sextortion — defined as the abuse of power to obtain a sexual benefit, a form of both sexual abuse and corruption — is yet to be widely recognized. "What I found striking is the sports sector provides all the conditions needed to be met to perpetuate this issue of sextortion," Marie Chene, head of research at Transparency International, told DW. "The power differentials are huge, there are a lot of children in vulnerable positions, coach and athlete relationships that are very close, emotional and physical because of the nature of sport. "The relationship has the power to make or break your career in some cases and there is a general governance environment which is very weak. It creates an explosive environment," she said. Due to the relatively new definition of sextortion, the report relied upon statistics compiled on sexual abuse within sport, which was found to be rife across all sporting disciplines around the globe. Nevertheless, a key component behind TI's decision to investigate sextortion within the sporting industry was the belief that the sector holds the power to provide a basis of real change. "We consider the sport sector to have a key role to play in shaping values," Chene explained. "In principle sport is about social justice, it's about fair play and merit. "If sexual abuse, which is one of the two components of sextortion, is happening in sport it undermines the mission that the sector has. Sport is very visible and if we want to make this issue visible, and have sextortion recognized as a form of corruption, we felt the sport sector could be a good vehicle for that." Although many of the cases from which statistics were drawn showed both genders were affected by sextortion, the report confirmed that studies consistently proved the perpetrators of sexual abuse to be overwhelmingly men. The proportion of male abusers ranged from 96%-100% across various studies, with TI criticizing what it termed a "hyper-masculine culture." This, coupled with a lack of gender equality for female athletes in terms of pay and visibility, and few women in organizational positions of power, only further propagates the issue. "Women's sports is not valued as much as men's sport," Chene added. "There is a huge gender pay gap, very little representation of women athletes and women in leadership and governance roles. "There is this 'old boys network' where old men stay in positions of power for decades have no incentive to change the status quo, so the system perpetuates itself." Sylvia Schenk, chair of the Working Group on Sport at Transparency International Germany, explained in a statement: "From China's Peng Shuai whose alleged assault by a senior government official was covered up, to the US' Kylie McKenzie, who no longer has a chance to compete after facing long-term harassment and abuse from her association-assigned coach —  far too many have faced the consequences of a sexist and exploitative system." Attempts to change have lacked true oversight with the German Olympic Sports Confederation's (DOSB) adoption of the Munich Declaration for the Protection against Sexualized Violence in Sport in 2010 falling flat. The declaration's 15 measures include the prevention of sexual violence as a mandatory topic in sport qualifications and the adoption of a code of ethics. Nine years later, a study showed that fewer than half of the national sport federations included the prevention of sexual abuse in their statutes. It forced the DOSB to introduce a policy which has made public funding for the federations conditional on the adoption of prevention measures. Equally, inadequate reporting systems for sports organizations also continue to further hamper progress in addressing and preventing sexual abuse. "To stop enabling abuse, sports organizations and governments must act," Schenk continued in a statement. "The first line of defense is to prevent abuse before it happens with a transparent culture, strong prevention frameworks, including education on sextortion and other sexual abuse as well as the broader ramifications of sexism. The report included a series of recommendations, and for the first time in relation to sextortion, TI put particular emphasis on prevention. Although many are long-term suggestions, Chene reiterated the urgent need for change to begin swiftly. "During our research we have heard so many horror stories, so many dreams smashed," she said. "It's not just about the sexual abuse, it also about how reports of the sexual abuse are being received and survivors are being shut up." Chene added in a statement: "It is time to change the culture of silence and impunity for all forms of abuse in sport. "Sports organizations, governments and civil society must take abuse seriously and act now to stop sextortion." Edited by: Matt Pearson

9Sports

Anecdotally, I can tell you that astrology has gotten more popular lately. If you want data, Google Trends can also back it up. Sure, many of us talk about our star signs "ironically," saying it's just for fun. But you wouldn't know it were you to see me racing to open my monthly horoscope email (especially during Sagitarrius season). It's easy to mock people for looking at the stars for hints about future events. But the impulse is understandable when you look around and see how we're swimming in data and hard facts, yet avoidable catastrophes seem to take us by surprise all the same. It's been the case with climate change, something scientists have warned about for decades. And it was the case with the pandemic, which experts had also predicted (as a side effect of climate change, as it were). Now, Germany is in a similar pickle as it grapples with a severe shortage of medicine for children. Like a lot of news today, it might be shocking, but it's no surprise. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video For years Germany has suffered from a medicine shortage. As an American transplant, I'm always grateful that living in Germany means access to universal healthcare. But it's not been lost on me that I've defaulted more than once to getting basic vaccines while on trips back home, simply because Germany didn't have any doses left. So how did we get here? Germany, like the rest of the world, spent much of the last few years huddled indoors, avoiding the coronavirus. The wave of other infections that would inevitably follow the lockdowns became a new topic of small talk with colleagues and friends. Today, lockdowns are over in most of the world, and that wave has finally crashed. And it's those with the least developed immune systems – small children – that are being hit the hardest. Many countries are experiencing a massive wave of respiratory illnesses, including the human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a highly contagious virus that infects babies and toddlers. German doctors warn the increased demand for treatment has brought the country's pediatric intensive care system close to collapse. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Theoretically, we knew this was coming. But still, we were surprised to hear of distressed parents who, seeking relief for their feverish babies, have been turned away from German pharmacies and hospitals. Among other basic medicines, children's paracetamol and ibuprofen, which help relieve pain and fever, are in short supply, according to Germany's Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. "It's the supply chains!" some might shout, a familiar refrain to anyone working in business journalism during the pandemic. And yes, it's true that today China and India produce much of the world's active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), a key component used in medicines, and that China's commitment to its zero-Covid policy continues to strain the global economic order. But the supply chains didn't cause demand for fever-reducing medicines like liquid ibuprofen to spike 800% compared to last year. Even a well-functioning system would struggle to respond quickly to that sort of increase. It also wasn't the supply chains that regulated medicine prices in Germany. Price caps for medicine are a good idea. No one should struggle for access to medical treatment. But a price cap for consumers in an otherwise largely free market environment leads to dilemmas like Germany now faces, where medicine prices have remained largely the same but production costs have risen significantly. According to Pro Generika, a German manufacturer of generic label medicines, producers of children's paracetamol have received €1.36 ($1.45) per bottle for around ten years. Meanwhile, active ingredients have gotten 70% more expensive. Twelve years ago there were eleven producers of children's paracetamol in Germany; today there is only one. There's a debate to be had about the best way to ensure that people have access to necessary medicines. For now, I'd merely say Germany should have read the writing on the wall. Humans have never had more access to facts and knowledge. There's a reason "follow the science" has become a popular refrain. The science and the data are there. But when the institutions responsible for public well-being fail to follow them in a meaningful way, it will be a shock, but no surprise, when desperate people take less predictable paths. At least, that's what my horoscope says. Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey

0Business

The Houston Astros beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Game 6 to claim their second World Series title in six years. After falling behind 2-1 in the best-of-seven series the Astros roared back with three straight wins, including just the second no-hitter in World Series history in Game Four. A three-run home run by Yordan Alvarez helped secured the Houston side's victory on Saturday night. "I just tried to stay a little calm and get a good pitch to swing at and that's what I did," Alvarez said of his third game-winning playoff homer. "It was amazing. When I was rounding second base I felt the whole stadium moving." The team's victory also means Dusty Baker captured his first World Series title as a manager. At the end of the game, the coaching and training staff circled around Baker, jumping up and down, chanting "Dusty! Dusty! Dusty!'' in the dugout before joining the players on the field. The 73-year-old Baker, who had been to the World Series twice before as a skipper, is the oldest championship manager. Astro's Rookie shortstop Jeremy Pena was named the World Series most valuable player. Pena also won a Gold Glove Award and American League Championship Series Most Valuable Player, all in his rookie season. "This is what we dream about,'' he said. The Astros would hope that Saturday's victory would go a long way in restoring their image from one that has been dubbed the most hated team in baseball. The Astros won their only prior title in 2017, but many baseball fans regard that effort as a tainted crown. A Major League Baseball (MLB) investigation revealed the team had illegally used technology to steal opposing teams' signs during their 2017 championship season. The franchise was fined $5 million and were stripped of draft picks. lo/ar (AP, AFP, Reuters)

9Sports

Rights advocates in Hungary were dismayed on Tuesday at the news that soon, women seeking abortions will be forced to listen to the fetal "heartbeat" before doctors can go ahead with the procedure. "It is definitely a worrying step back, a bad sign," said Aron Demeter, spokesman for Amnesty International Hungary, told French news agency AFP. "This amendment achieves nothing, but will further traumatize women, put additional pressure on women who are already in a difficult place." The amendment, which was published late on Monday, will go into effect on Thursday.  Women in Hungary are allowed to access an abortion up until 12 weeks of pregnancy, sometimes later if there are severe health complications at play. They are also required to complete a counseling session first. Under the new law, doctors must also issue a report that records that the pregnant woman was presented "with the factor indicating the functioning of fetal vital functions in a clearly identifiable manner." Doctors and reproductive rights researchers have pointed out, in response to similar laws in other countries, that a "fetal heartbeat" is something of a misnomer, as the heart is not yet fully formed and the fluttering sound where a heart might develop comes long before limbs grow and brain activity begins. Moreover, studies have shown that putting up such hurdles to terminating pregnancy makes it harder to access legal and safe abortions.  The new amendment to Hungary's reproductive rights statute was pushed largely by the far-right Mi Hazank (Our Homeland) party, with lawmaker Dora Duro calling it a "chance for life" on her Facebook page. While other EU countries have been expanding reproductive rights, the administration of arch-conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling Fidesz party has also supported rolling back laws amidst a drive to protect what it sees as traditional values and gender roles. This has included increasing benefits for mothers who stay at home and have more children and introducing anti-LGBT+ legislation. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), the London-based think tank that monitors extremism, found in a 2021 report that Fidesz was working with "an international network of ultra-conservative organizations working to undermine and restrict sexual and reproductive health rights for women," with now-President Katalin Novak leading the charge in her previous role as family affairs minister. Abortion was legalized in Hungary in 1953, and enshrined again, though with slightly more restrictive language, in 1992 following the demise of the Soviet Union and its influence in Budapest. In 2012, Hungary adopted a new constitution that said "the life of the fetus is protected from conception," though it stopped short of outlawing the procedure. es/wd (AFP, dpa)

5Health

Recently inaugurated South Korean PresidentYoon Suk-yeol is requesting an investigation into the 2019 case of two North Korean defectors who were allegedly sent back without due process. North Korean refugees who have made the perilous journey to the South say the case is widely known in the North and could dissuade future would-be defectors.  Video footage released in July shows the men struggling as they are forced toward the border at Panmunjom, with one man throwing himself to the floor.  "I cried when I saw on the news the images of the two men being handed back to North Korea," Yuna Jung, who defected in 2006 and today lives in Seoul with her family, told DW. "Those two men knew at that moment that they were going to die," she said. The incident occurred in November 2019, when South Korean naval units monitored a North Korean squid-fishing boat as it crossed into the South's territorial waters off the east coast of the peninsula. After tracking the vessel for two days, South Korean forces stopped the boat and brought two men ashore. The former South Korean government of President Moon Jae-in soon announced that the two men had killed the 15 other members of the crew and thrown their bodies overboard, and were fleeing justice in the North.   Five days after they had first set foot in the South, the men were secretly handed over to North Korean officials. There was concern at the time about the haste with which the two men were sent back to the North. Critics accused Moon — a well-known human rights lawyer before he became president — of attempting to curry favor with the North for his own political agenda and for failing to legally protect the defectors' human rights. That criticism has snowballed since the recent release of the video footage. The defector community in South Korea is angry at reports that much of the documentation and evidence in the case was destroyed by the outgoing administration earlier in the year, which will complicate the investigation.  NK News, a Seoul-based dissident media organization, has reported that the footage has elicited "shock and outrage" in the North that the South Korean government forcibly repatriated the two men, despite being aware that they would likely be executed.   Citing a source in the North contacted by mobile phone, NK News reported that would-be defectors are now "reconsidering their plans." "We do not know what they did in the North and we cannot trust what Pyongyang says, but, even if they were murderers, then they should have been put on trial in the South," Jung said. "They said they wanted to stay here, so it was against their human rights and the South's constitution to send them back," she added. The former defector believes that many people in the North think the South Korean government would accept them and help them. "To see defectors being forced to go back is shocking," Jung said. Jung, 33, said escaping from the North had become far more difficult in recent years. Traveling in a group of 11, Jung was able to cross the border into China undetected. She avoided patrols, and the likelihood of being returned to North Korea, before entering Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, from where she flew to South Korea. The entire journey took four months.   To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "It's harder for several reasons now," Jung said. "The government has blocked all the borders because of the coronavirus, and they are now building a new wall on the Chinese border to stop defectors," she said. "The cost of escaping has also risen, with brokers now charging $100,000 (€98,393) per person because the risks are so high." "Even after you cross the river," Jung said, "you are not really safe as the Chinese police are always trying to catch defectors and send them back." "With all the changes, it has effectively become mission impossible now," she said. Sokeel Park, director of research and strategy for Liberty in North Korea, an NGO,told DW that there has been a sharp decrease in the number of defectors reaching the South. Government statistics indicate that there were 1,047 arrivals in 2019, which was the lowest annual figure since the turn of the century. In 2020, that total fell to 229 defectors and just 63 completed the journey in 2021.   In the first six months of 2022, there have been 19 arrivals, and the annual total is likely to be around 40 individuals, Park said. "The numbers have just fallen off a cliff," Park said. "We are hearing that it is now almost as difficult to cross the border into China as it is to cross the Demilitarized Zone between North and South. The Chinese border is being heavily fortified and that work is also being accelerated," he added. Because of coronavirus restrictions in China, it is also far more difficult for defectors to travel through the country en route for a safe third country, Park said. Defectors who are presently in China are opting to sit tight because it is so difficult to move and hoping that travel eventually becomes easier, he added.   Park also believes that the case of the two fishermen will make more would-be defectors think again.   "The pictures are out there now, the controversy in South Korea is huge, and none of this is going to be helpful for defectors or potential defectors," he said.   Edited by: Wesley Rahn

2Conflicts

At the start, nothing pointed to an exceptional career. No one could have predicted that the man who once directed a few TV films for a German broadcaster would be among the very few film directors to win two Palme d'Or awards in Cannes. Followed by an Oscar. And Golden Globes. And almost a dozen European film prizes. Over the past years, Michael Haneke has been overwhelmed by awards. It wasn't until he began to work as a director for the big screen in 1989 that he really found his own style. He has directed 11 movies since then. His debut, "The Seventh Continent," was a movie packed with relentless intensity that borders on the unendurable about a family that deliberately commits suicide. It is utterly disturbing. His next films are also characterized by glacial intensity and razor-sharp analysis. Michael Haneke appears to have little pity for his protagonists. He tells stories on the screen like a pathologist dissects bodies. "This is what it's like, take a look," he seems to be telling the viewer. "Life happens to be just the way I'm showing it to you." Distraction and escapism are not his thing, nor is glossy superficiality. In 2007, Haneke went to Hollywood to film the remake of his 1997 film "Funny Games" ⁠— but not before he had made sure he would also be granted the final cut. No one meddles with the likes of Haneke — that was a precondition for the Austrian director for his US stint. In 2013 the German-born Austrian director won an Oscar for "Amour," the captivating romantic drama revolving around an elderly couple. A few years before winning an Oscar, he had already made waves at festivals, award ceremonies and at the box offices with "The White Ribbon," a film about a family in northern Germany before World War I. Haneke is one of the very few directors to have one the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival twice. Though he is bound to be proud of the many honors, it's unlikely the director has an eye out for sparkling awards. The intellectual with the keen analytical mind is likely to find more gratification in the enthusiasm of a sophisticated movie audience than in a stroll over the red carpet. His latest film, "Happy End," came to the cinemas in 2017. Starring longtime Haneke collaborators Isabelle Huppert and Jean-Louis Trintignant, the film tells the story of a family who live in Calais in northern France, whose wealth contrasts with the refugee tragedy there.  Since then, the director has earned even more accolades. In 2018 he received the French order Pour le Mérite, as well as the Bavarian Maximilian order for science and art. The Grand Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany followed in 2019.   This article was originally written in German and is an updated version of a profile of the filmmaker.

4Culture

These live updates are now closed. For our latest from April 26, click here Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of the besieged city of Mariupol, said a new mass grave had been identified 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the city. Several victims were located there, though authorities are trying to identify how many victims are in the unmarked graves. Over the past several days, satellite photos have shown what appear to be images of mass graves on the outskirts of the city.  Mariupol has been under siege for two months, with 100,000 civilians remaining trapped in the city. The remaining Ukrainian forces in the city are holding out in a sprawling steel factory. Ukrainian officials have been trying for weeks to secure the safe evacuation of civilians.  Should Russian forces succeed in completely capturing Mariupol, they will have a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state television that NATO weapons deliveries mean that the alliance is "in essence" engaged in war with Russia through a proxy, adding that Western arms deliveries in Ukraine would be "legitimate targets" for Russian forces.  "Storage facilities in western Ukraine have been targeted more than once [by Russian forces]. How can it be otherwise?" Lavrov said. "NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war," he added.  In another interview late Monday, Lavrov vowed peace talks with Ukraine would continue even as he warned of a "real" danger of the conflict in Ukraine escalating into a third world war.  "The danger is serious, it is real, you can't underestimate it," Lavrov told the Interfax news agency. The foreign minister also told Russian state television that Moscow wants to reduce the chance of "artificially" elevating the risks of a nuclear conflict. "This is our key position on which we base everything. The risks now are considerable," Lavrov said.  When asked if the current situation in Ukraine was comparable to the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Lavrov said that "back then there were actually only a few rules, written rules." However, Lavrov said that during that time, there were "clear rules of conduct" and a channel of communication between the leaders of the US and Soviet Union that doesn't exist today. The foreign minister also criticized Ukraine's approach to negotiations following Russia's invasion of the country on February 24. Lavrov accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of "pretending" to negotiate. He told Russian news agencies the content of peace talks would depend on the military situation and added, "Good will has its limits. But if it isn't reciprocal, that doesn't help the negotiation process." "We are continuing to engage in negotiations with the team delegated by Zelenskyy, and these contacts will go on," Lavrov said.   UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said the British government believes Russia has lost approximately 15,000 soldiers since Russian forces invaded Ukraine February 24. By contrast, Ukraine has claimed 22,000 Russian troops were killed since the invasion. Russia has acknowledged only 1,351 military deaths. Additionally, Wallace said the UK believes Russia lost 60 jets and helicopters, 2,000 armored vehicles and 530 tanks, saying they were either destroyed or captured, some by Ukrainian tractors.  Ukraine has stated Russian losses of materiel at 181 fighter jets and 154 helicopters, 2,258 military vehicles and 884 tanks. Wallace added Russia deployed 120 tactical battalion groups during the invasion of Ukraine, amounting to 65% of Russia's total infantry units. Wallace said at least 25% of Russia's ground forces are no longer combat ready. The UK defense secretary said his country would soon send "a small number" of Stormer armored vehicles equipped with missile launchers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in New Delhi that Russian aggression in Ukraine is a direct threat to European security. Speaking at a geopolitical conference, von der Leyen said that Russia was: "Targeting and killing innocent civilians. Redrawing borders by force. Subjugating the will of a free people. This goes against core principles enshrined in the U.N. Charter." She added that Russia's "unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine" would be a "strategic failure." She said the EU was "doing all we can to help Ukraine fight for its freedom." The German government wants to use rail transport to arrange alternative means of exporting grain from Ukraine. "I am committed to ensuring that the 20 million tons of grain can be transported to avert a global food catastrophe," Michael Theurer, a Bundestag member with a role at the Transport Ministry, told the German business daily Handelsblatt. According to Theurer, talks were being held with the Ukrainian railways and other European railways — with Deutsche Bahn also set to play a role. Owing to the blockade of Ukrainian ports, it is not currently possible to export Ukrainian grain by sea. Both Russia and Ukraine are among the most prolific exporters of wheat on the planet. On April 23, Ukraine and Poland announced that they would create a joint logistics company to increase the volume of rail transportation of Ukrainian goods to the EU and world markets via Europe. Russian state-run media outlets are reporting explosions near a government building in the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova, where Russia backs its proxy forces who call themselves separatists. Trans-Dniester, also referred to as Transnistria in English, is a narrow strip of land on the east bank of the Dniester River, sandwiched between Ukraine and Moldova. The breakaway region seceded from Moldova after a brief military conflict in 1992 following the break up of the former Soviet Union. Earlier, Putin accused the West of "terror" while urging prosecutors to be tough after Russia accused "neo-Nazis" from Ukraine of attempting to assassinate numerous Russian state media personalities and bosses including presenter Vladimir Solovyev and state media head Margarita Simonyan. Finnish newspaper Italehti reports Finland and Sweden have agreed to submit NATO applications at the same time during the week of May 16. Swedish paper Expressen writes that its sources confirm there is an agreement between the two countries.  Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is scheduled to arrive in Stockholm in the middle of that week. Germany Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has condemned Russia's announcement that it will expel 40 German diplomatic staff. The move by Moscow was said to by a symmetrical response to Germany's expulsion of the same number of staff from Russian diplomatic missions earlier this month. However, Baerbock said the Russian staff expelled from Germany had been spies, rather than diplomats. "We expected today's step, but it is in no way justified," Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said in a statement. Baerbock said that the 40 Russian diplomats expelled by Berlin "did not serve diplomacy for a single day" while those who were expelled by Russia had "not done anything wrong." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Russia's Foreign Ministry says it has declared 40 employees of German diplomatic institutions in Russia "persona non grata." In a statement, the ministry said it had summoned Germany's ambassador in Moscow and handed him a note. The ministry said it was "a symmetrical response" to the German government's decision to expel 40 Russian diplomats from Germany on April 4. Moscow's letter of protest said statements made at the time by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock were unacceptable. Baerbock had spoken of "a significant number of members of the Russian embassy, undesirables who have worked every day here in Germany against our freedom, against the cohesion of our society." The Russian Foreign Ministry said it also objected to "insinuations" Baerbock had made about events unfolding in Ukraine. An assessment by the German news agency DPA said the number corresponded to about one-third of the German diplomatic corps in Russia. The RIA news agency also reported that Russia's foreign ministry has said that unfriendly actions against Russians will not go unanswered. It cited the ministry as saying Moscow could seize assets held in Russia as a response. Greenpeace activists in Norway have chained their boat to a Russian oil tanker in protest oil imports from Russia. The aim was to prevent the shipping of thousands of tons of oil to Norwegian ports, Greenpeace Norway said on its website. The four activists, who held up banners with "Stop fuelling the war" and "Oil fuels war" from three small boats and kayaks, called on the Norwegian government to halt the import of Russian fossil fuels. "I'm shocked that Norway is operating as a free port for Russian oil, when we know it is financing Russian President Vladimir Putin's war," Frode Pleym, Greenpeace's head in Norway, said. Pleym is among the activists who chained their boat to the Russian tanker's anchor chain off the Oslofjord terminal. Norwegian police later said they had arrested 20 Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion activists who blocked the Russian tanker. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has told DW that her country expects Germany to show strong leadership and deter Russian aggression. The comments come with the German government facing criticism over its reluctance to ban Russian oil and send heavy weapons such as tanks to Ukraine. "Our neighbors' problems today are our problems tomorrow," said Kallas. "If we don't help our neighbors when their house is on fire, the fire will also catch your house." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Kallas welcomed Germany's commitment to NATO's Article 5 on collective defense. However, she said tough decisions now could reduce the likelihood of an attack against the alliance further down the line. "Germany has said Article 5 is ironclad and Germany will come to help if necessary, but then it is also important for everybody, including Germany, to make those decisions so that we make NATO stronger — and there will be no need to come to any help at all." "Of course, gas or oil could be expensive, but freedom is really priceless," Kallas said, adding: "Strong sanctions, hitting hard, would be something that would maybe end this war." Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that Kyiv had not reached any agreement with Moscow on establishing a humanitarian corridor out of the southeastern city of Mariupol. Russia said it would open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. "It is important to understand that a humanitarian corridor opens by the agreement of both sides," Vereshchuk said on Telegram. "A corridor announced unilaterally does not provide security, and therefore is not a humanitarian corridor." In an interview with DW, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the chairman of the state-run Ukrainian Railways, said that five railway facilities in central and western Ukraine were significantly damaged on Monday after the numerous rocket strikes. "Today in the morning, the Russians shelled five stations. Some stations were shot twice. Some stations were shelled once and some missiles were blocked by Ukraine’s air defense system," he told DW. The Russian troops "shelled stations, bridges, tracks and railway stations hundreds of times. And meanwhile, we suffer much. But we keep running operations," Kamyshin said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video According to Kamyshin, the railway maintains the "lifeline of the country," because the air space above Ukraine cannot be used because of the war. "We don't have airplanes. We have only cars and trains now," he said. The still-operational rail links in the country have also come into political focus in recent weeks, with various foreign leaders using the trains to visit Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine.  "All Western leaders who arrived to Ukraine, arrived by train. […] We call it Iron Diplomacy, and we will keep bringing more people to Kyiv. For us, it's important to give the opportunity to those leaders who want to show their support of Ukraine by visiting Kyiv, to travel to Kyiv safe, and travel back safe," Kamyshin said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video President Joe Biden has named Bridget Brink as the new US ambassador to Ukraine, the White House said in a statement. Bridget Brink currently represents the United States in Slovakia. Brink's nomination must be confirmed by the US Senate. Earlier on Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that US diplomats would begin to return to Ukraine starting next week. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Russia's foreign ministry has denied claims that Moscow is planning a referendum on the secession of the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson. "I have not heard anything about that," deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told journalists. Rudenko also said that a face-to-face meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers was not planned at present. Moscow has accused Kyiv of dragging out negotiations and claims to have handed over proposals to Ukraine last week, which Kyiv has denied. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday accused Moscow of planning to "falsify" a referendum in parts of Ukraine's south that are under Russian control after Russia's Central Military District (CFD) command said that Moscow was planning to seize the region. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video DW correspondent Emmanuelle Chaze said that half of the $700 million in military assistance announced by the US will go directly to Kyiv, and half will go to NATO allies that have been supporting Ukraine. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Speaking from the western city of Liviv, Chaze added that $165 million worth of ammunition will be delivered to Ukraine. Chaze said that the situation in Mariupol is "dire," adding that Ukrainian soldiers and hundreds of civilians are still trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in the city. She added that there would soon be water shortages in the area. "Right now, I'm talking to you from a bunker because most of the country is on air strike alert," Chaze reported. "The offensive is continuing. Mariupol is still being shelled," Chaze said. "This is the everyday life here in Ukraine." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Russia said on Monday it would investigate the cause of a large fire that erupted in the early hours of the morning at an oil storage facility in the city of Bryansk 154 kilometers (96 miles) northeast of the border with Ukraine. According to Russia's Ministry of Emergency Situations, nobody was hurt in the incident. The ministry said in a statement that the fire had broken out at a facility owned by oil pipeline company Transneft at 2 a.m. Moscow time (23:00 GMT). There was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has denied or not responded to previous suggestions that it has struck targets inside Russia. Last month, Russia said two Ukrainian helicopter gunships hit an oil reservoir in Russia's Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, causing a fire. Russia's Defense Ministry said its troops would "unilaterally cease any hostilities" to allow civilians to leave the besieged steel plant Azovstal in Ukraine's port city of Mariupol. The ceasefire is set to begin at 2 p.m. Moscow time (1100 GMT) on Monday. The ministry said any civilians trapped at the facility could leave in whichever direction they chose. On April 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he cancelled plans to storm the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. He said he wanted the plant to be securely blockaded instead. However, Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal plant reported heavy shelling and Russian attacks in recent days. Azovstal is the last remaining pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the key port of Mariupol. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with Ukrainian Holocaust survivors in Berlin and said that he hoped that refugees in Germany would feel safe from further attacks. Steinmeier met the survivors during a visit to a care facility in Berlin's eastern neighborhood of Marzahn. The six Holocaust survivors told Steinmeier stories of their escape from Ukrainian cities, which in some cases lasted several days. The four women and two men were brought to Germany with the help of Jewish organizations. According to a spokesperson for the president's office, around 70 Holocaust survivors from Ukraine who are in need of serious care have so far been admitted in 11 German cities. In a morning video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia "greeted" Ukraine with missiles strikes over the weekend, when Orthodox Easter was celebrated. The majority of population in both Russia and Ukraine are Orthodox Christians. "Why was this blow needed at Easter? There is no military threat from which this could protect Russia. This is just a deliberate destruction of life in Ukraine. Destruction that did not stop even on the biggest Orthodox holiday," Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian president also spoke about yesterday's visit by top US officials. "Assistance to Ukraine was the number one issue in talks with representatives of the United States of America, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin," Zelenskyy said. "We share the same understanding with the United States: when democracy wins in one country, it wins all over the world. When freedom is defended in one country, it is defended all over the world," said the Ukrainian president. In his address, Zelenskyy also mentioned the morning air raids in the Vinnytsia, Rivne, Lviv and Odesa regions. However, he did not provide any information on the rocket attacks reported at train stations in western Ukraine. Two towns in Ukraine's central Vinnytsia region came under fire on Monday, causing an unspecified number of deaths and injuries, according to local officials. The cities of Zhmerynka and Koziatyn were struck by "rocket fire," local governor Serhiy Borzov said on Facebook. The attacks reportedly targeted "critical infrastructure" in the region, he said. Both cities are important railway junctions on the route from Kyiv to western Ukraine. Borzov also said the strikes caused deaths and injuries, but he did not give any numbers. Five train stations in central and western Ukraine have been hit by missile strikes, according to the head of the country's railways, Oleksandr Kamyshin. "Russian forces are systematically destroying the infrastructure of our railways," Kamyshin said on his Telegram channel. Kamyshin added that trains are being forced to alter routes and schedules for security reasons. Reports of missile attacks also emerged in the western city of Lviv and southwestern city of Vinnytsia. According to Maksym Kozytskyy, the governor of the western Lviv region, an explosion occurred on Monday morning at the traction substation of the Krasne railway station as a result of a missile strike. One missile was destroyed by Ukrainian air defense. The missiles flew to western Ukraine from the southeast, Kozytskyy wrote on Twitter. He added that the missiles were likely fired from Russian strategic aircraft. He had no information yet about possible victims. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the nature of the fight in Ukraine had changed and that Kyiv now needs long-range fires for both artillery and missiles, as well as tanks. Austin said that he and Blinken had discussed "security assistance" and "training" with Ukrainian officials. He said that the meeting was to talk about things that would "enable us to win the current fight and also build for tomorrow." "We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can't do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine," Austin said. Austin is scheduled to go to the Ramstein US Air Base in western Germanyon Tuesday to speak with allies on how best to support Ukraine. The Secretary of Defense said it is difficult for the US to track what happens to weapons transferred to Ukraine as there are no US forces on the ground, but added that he spoke to Kyiv to make sure weapons were tracked as best as possible. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press conference following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russia has been "failing" when it came to its war aims in Ukraine, while Kyiv is "succeeding." "Russia has sought as its principal aim to totally subjugate Ukraine," Blinken said. "That has failed." Blinken said that Russia's military was underperforming and its economy was "in shambles" due to sanctions and a mass "exodus" from the country. "A sovereign, independent Ukraine will be around a lot longer than Vladimir Putin's on the scene," Blinken said, adding that US support for Ukraine will continue until Kyiv sees "final success." Blinken said that Washington was committed to the return of American diplomats to Ukraine starting next week, and that US President Joe Biden intended to nominate a new ambassador to the country. Asked about his impression of the situation on the ground, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said "things are beginning to get back to normal" in Kyiv, but noted that "that's in stark contrast to what's going on" in southern and eastern Ukraine. Britain's defense ministry said in an intelligence update that Moscow has made minor advances in some areas since shifting its focus to Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. However, "Russia has yet to achieve a breakthrough" due to insufficient logistical and combat support, the ministry said. According to the intelligence update, Ukraine's defense of Mariupol has exhausted Russian units and reduced their combat effectiveness. The ministry added that the fact that Moscow chose not to attack the Azovstal steelworks means "Russian units remain fixed in the city and cannot be redeployed." Moscow claimed victory in the long-besieged southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol late last week, a claim Ukraine and its Western allies have disputed. British intelligence said that Russia's defense ministry has proposed compensation for the families of deceased serviceman be overseen by military rather than civilian officials. Britain's defense ministry believes this "reflects a desire to hide the true scale of Russia's losses from the domestic population." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video World military expenditure surpassed the $2 trillion mark (€1.8 trillion) for the first time in 2021, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI). The report released on Monday shows Russia increased its military expenditure to $65.9 billion in 2021 to reach 4.1% of its GDP. It was the third consecutive year of growth and Russia's military spending. Moscow was the fifth largest spender in the world, behind the United States, China, India and the United Kingdom. Ukraine's military spending has risen by 72% since Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. It spent $5.9 billion, or 3.2% of the country's GDP, in 2021. Total spending in Europe in 2021 amounted to $418 billion, 3% higher than in 2020 and 19% higher than in 2012. Many European countries have contributed substantial military aid to Ukraine since February 2022, and third-largest spender Germany boosted its military aid budget to €2 billion a little over a week ago. The United States saw a drop in expenditure in 2021 due to a drop in American spending on research and development. The US is the largest supplier of military aid to Ukraine, having provided an additional $800 million in mid-April and another $322 million this Sunday. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The United States will provide Ukraine with $322 million in foreign military financing and has approved a $165 million sale of ammunition to the war-ravaged country. The announcement came after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday. It was the highest-level visit by an American delegation since the start of the war. The US officials also pledged further assistance worth $713 million in foreign military financing for Ukraine and 15 allied and partner countries, with the $322 million earmarked specifically for Kyiv. The new money brings the total amount of US military assistance to Ukraine to $3.7 billion since the invasion, officials said. The two returned overland to Poland after their meeting. While Blinken was returning to Washington, Austin would head to Ramstein in Germany, for a meeting Tuesday of NATO defense ministers and other donor countries. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A large fire was reported at an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk. The emergency services ministry told Russian news agencies it was a single large fire. It was not immediately not clear how the fire started. Bryansk is located about 380 kilometers (236 miles) southwest of Moscow.  The city is the administrative center of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine. Russian officials on Thursday had said Ukrainian helicopters hit residential buildings and injured seven people in the Bryansk region. There was no immediate indication the fire on Monday at the oil storage facility was related to the war in Ukraine. The European Union is preparing "smart sanctions" against Russian oil imports, the UK newspaper The Times reported. Quoting the European Commission's executive vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis, the paper reported that the precise details of the oil sanctions had not yet been agreed but could include a gradual phasing-out of Russian oil or imposing tariffs on imports beyond a certain price cap. "We are working on a sixth sanctions package, and one of the issues we are considering is some form of an oil embargo. When we are imposing sanctions, we need to do so in a way that maximizes pressure on Russia while minimizing collateral damage on ourselves," Dombrovskis said. Europe spends around $450 million (€417 million) per day on Russian crude oil and refined products. The leaders of Australia and New Zealand used their annual speeches on Anzac Day to show support for Ukraine. Anzac Day marks the anniversary of Australian and New Zealand soldiers landing on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915 during World War I but is now used to commemorate troops from all conflicts. "The invasion of Ukraine is a senseless act of war, one that is taking the lives of innocent people. It is a threat to the international laws that a nation like ours relies on — but it is also a threat to our sense of humanity. And that makes it a threat to all of us," New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was physically distanced from the conflict but "inextricably linked" to what it represented, Ardern added. Across the Tasman sea, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison paid tribute to the people of Ukraine, who are fighting a Russian invasion. "On this particular day, as we honor those who fought for our liberty and freedom, we stand with the people of Ukraine who do the same thing at this very moment," Morrison said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in Kyiv. A senior Ukrainian official confirmed the meeting. Zelenskyy was expected to push Washington for more powerful weapons. Russia's forces sought to dislodge the last Ukrainian troops in the battered port of Mariupol. Ukraine's armed forces command wrote on Facebook that Russian forces were firing and performing "offensive operations" at the Azovstal steel plant. The UN refugee agency said 5,186,744 Ukrainians have fled since the start of Russia's invasion, an increase of 23,058 on Saturday's figures. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has said it is "extremely concerned" after several of its Ukrainian members were believed to have been arrested in pro-Russian separatist territories in the country's east. In a tweet, the organization said it was using all available channels to facilitate their release. The UK Ministry of Defense said Russia was planning a "staged referendum in the southern city of Kherson aimed at justifying its occupation." In 2014, Russia held a sham referendum in Crimea to retrospectively justify its annexation of the territory. dh, si, lo/sri,rs (AP, AFP, dpa, Reuters)

2Conflicts

The Congolese presidency said on Thursday that the first round of peace talks to end one of the world's worst and longest-running humanitarian emergencies had concluded.  This past week, about 30 delegations representing armed groups from DR Congo's Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu states, as well as the Congolese government, met in Kenya's capital, Nairobi. More than 27 million people face food shortages, and nearly 5.5 million have been displaced in eastern DR Congo, according to the United Nations.  Some armed groups snubbed the Nairobi talks; others could not attend for logistical reasons. Most notably absent was the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which operates near the border of the eastern Congo and Uganda. The ADF, which had been designated a terror organization by Uganda, was not invited. Another significant player, the M23, left after the first day, when skirmishes between its fighters and the Congolese army were reported in the Rutshuru region. Both sides accused each other of starting the fight.  Still, the talks went ahead. In his closing remarks on Wednesday, President Felix Tshisekedi said he hoped armed groups would accept the government's demand to stop fighting, and "join a track of unity with the Congolese state."  But many Congolese people are not optimistic that the talks will bring peace, or even a meaningful cease-fire, because there is not enough political will from neighboring regional countries.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The Nairobi talks were planned as a thinly veiled attempt to figure out what to do with M23, DW correspondent and regional analyst Saleh Mwanamilongo said. The Rwanda-backed rebel group — which mainly operates out of the North Kivu state, bordering Uganda and Rwanda — was defeated in 2013 but has resurfaced and has military positions in Rutshuru.  "The talks are aimed at giving M23 a way to go back home if they can," Mwanamilongo said. "But they are already home — the trouble is to get them to lay down their arms." Some Congolese are angry that the Congolese government has even engaged with the rebel groups. Opponents of the talks want the rebel groups to be defeated militarily. Others, such as the human rights advocate and former combatant Didier Bitaki, say too many lives will be lost in military action, and that the only solution is peace.    Mwanamilongo said the instability in the eastern DRC, and Kinshasa's inability to control national territory had led to a bizarre situation where "each regional actor is playing his game or agenda for Congo."  Policy and ambitions of the geographically much smaller Rwanda and Uganda significantly affect stability in the mineral-rich DRC, because Rwanda and Uganda have backed and supplied different militias with weapons to carry out operations that benefit Kigali and Kampala, respectively.  "M23 were never really defeated, only disbanded, and Uganda has always seen M23 as a Rwandan problem," the analyst Phil Clark, from SOAS University of London, told DW.  Indeed, with the talks ongoing, Rwandan leader Paul Kagame was in Uganda visiting President Yoweri Museveni for talks widely interpreted as a sign of thawing relations between the two nations.  "To really simplify it, Rwanda sees its relationship with Uganda as more important than its relationship with Congo," Clark said. "And one of the demands that Uganda has made in this new period of detente is for Rwanda to deal with the M23."  He pointed out that improved relations between Rwanda and Uganda was a new development.   "It seems Uganda has told Rwanda that, if this new relationship is to go forward, Rwanda must deal with M23. But Rwanda doesn't want M23 on their soil either. So it seems then Rwanda has reinvigorated M23 across the border in Congo, which has undermined its relationship with Congo," Clark said. Ostensibly, creating lasting peace was the aim of the Nairobi talks. But many talks and negotiations have come and gone since the eastern Congo devolved into sporadic fighting, and continual instability, in the late 1990s.  In Nairobi, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta welcomed the delegates, and pledged to facilitate travel and attendance for groups who stop fighting.  "I think this is really about the East African Community's attempt to be seen as a much more serious regional bloc within Africa," Clark said, adding that the EAC makes "some big demands at AU level." The bloc's ambition to integrate the massive Congo, with its potential wealth, into its sphere of influence is a double-edged sword. "One of the things that always gets thrown back at the EAC is: 'You've got some of the most intractable conflicts on the continent in your own backyard,'" Clark said. This limits the EAC from becoming a bigger player, Clark added. Integrating the DRC into the East African bloc was another strategic driver for Nairobi to hold the talks.  The Congolese commentator Didier Bitaki told DW that the premise that the DRC's fate would essentially be decided by outsiders is "inappropriate." "This is an internal problem, and has to be resolved by the Congolese themselves," he said. Bitaki said the externally supported militias' tendency to use "local people" to create problems meant that instability would continue if all foreign support and weapons were to dry up. "Local governance regarding natural resources and the economy is a problem. We have leadership in Kinshasa that doesn't care about the well-being of citizens, and local militias with weapons destabilize the country for their own survival," he added.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video AU Commission chairperson Moussa Faki welcomed a motion to deploy a regional peacekeeping force to clamp down on groups that refuse to surrender. But the move has already been criticized as unworkable.  Clark said the situation in the eastern DRC could not be solved by "military means," while acknowledging that incentives such as political appointments, resource concessions and promises of amnesty have not really worked in the past either.  Bitaki said previous significant deployments of troops through the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC and the African Union had failed to bring stability to the eastern Congo.   "It's like they're doing the same thing and expecting a different result," he said.  "Instead of bringing peace," he said, "it's going to increase the severity of the conflict."  Edited by: Keith Walker 

7Politics

Italy underlined their status as one of the teams to beat in this tournament after their second-string eleven beat Wales in Rome. With two wins already under their belt, Italy coach Robert Mancini rested several key players including Ciro Immobile and Lorenzo Insigne – but the Italians continued their fine start to this tournament. They also extended their extraordinary clean sheet record to 11 straight games, stretching back to October 2020. The only goal of this game came in the 39th minute, a free-kick routine off the training ground as Marco Verratti cleverly picked out Matteo Pessina, who diverted it beyond the wrongfooted Wales keeper Danny Ward. A second half red card for Wales and former RB Leipzig defender Ethan Ampadu, who at 20 becomes the youngest player to be shown a straight red in a European Championship, saw Wales' chance ebb away further – and Gareth Bale spurned a fine opportunity to salvage a draw. But with four points, Wales finish second in Group A and are likely to play Finland, Russia or Denmark in Amsterdam on June 26. Switzerland finish third in the group but remain likely to progress following their win in Baku. Switzerland must hope that other results go their way in the next few days, but appear likely to join Italy and Wales in the last 16 following a rousing 3-1 win over Turkey, who go home having lost all three games and scored just one goal – a consolation in Baku. Knowing only a win would do, Switzerland got up and running with a screamer from former Eintracht Frankfurt striker Haris Seferovic, who lashed in from distance. Xherdan Shaqiri added another fine goal to double the Swiss lead and, despite a beautiful strike by Irfan Kahveci for Turkey, Shaqiri added his second and Switzerland's third to secure the points. Turkey bow out of the tournament having produced three poor performances in a group from which they were expected to progress — but Switzerland are still alive.

9Sports

The city of Brest is ready for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France. For months now, on the Place de la Liberte in front of the city's town hall, a large clock has been counting down the days, hours, and minutes to the start of the first stage on June 26. Publicans and hoteliers are daring to dream again. "The hotels in the immediate vicinity of the Grand Depart were booked out early on by teams and organizers. But we also have additional capacity for visitors," Olivier Henne, spokesman for the city's tourism office, told DW. There is no estimate on the number of people who will descend on the port city in Brittany for the Tour. "We also don't have exact numbers from the last Grand Depart in Brest in 2008. But we know from experience that the Tour attracts many first-time visitors to the region," Henne said. "Many of them didn't have an exact idea of what they could expect. About three-quarters said they would like to come back. So, there are long-term effects." The Grand Depart will cost Brest about €420,000 ($502,000) and the metropolitan region will contribute a further €420,000. Overall, the municipalities and entire region will transfer €3.6 million to Tour organizer ASO. It's business as usual — and that's the case for the entirety of the Tour this year. It will be held in summer again, as usual, instead of in autumn as it was in 2020. The declining number of infections has led to an increase in normality. Across France, the incidence rate over the past week was 32 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. In Brittany, it was 28. "The situation is developing positively, all traffic lights are green thanks to our measures, but also thanks to the Bretons' sense of responsibility," Stephanie Mulliez, the director general of regional health authority ARS, told a press conference last month. Back in April, the incidence rate was 10 times as high in Brittany, at 337. At the beginning of last year's Tour at the end of August, 58.9 newly infected people per 100,000 were counted across the country. That increased to 112.8 by the end of the Tour. Another positive sign: Brittany started its vaccination campaign early and has led the charge in France. "51% of all Bretons have so far received at least one vaccination dose," Mulliez said. However, the highly contagious delta variant of the virus is causing concern. It has been detected in at least one person in the region, and health authorities assume there are more cases present. But that does not translate into another lockdown. On the contrary, the COVID-19 restrictions in France are being relaxed. Since last week, it's no longer mandatory to wear a mask when out on the streets, squares or beaches. Bars and restaurants are open to 50% capacity inside and full capacity on outside patios. The only restriction is that "no more than six people may sit together at one table," said local tourism authority spokesman Henne. Restrictions on numbers of spectators have also been put in place, with up to 5,000 people allowed to attend sporting events in stadiums. However, Tour organizer ASO isn't planning to come close to the new limit when introducing the teams. "We are planning on 1,000 spectators for the team presentation," an ASO spokesperson told DW.  Organizers are also appealing to fans to maintain physical distancing as a matter of principle and to avoid grouping together.  "The spectators can come, but they should spread out over the entire stage route if possible, and not just concentrate at the start and finish," Brest's sub-prefect Ivan Bouchier told French media. Yet how this will be achieved is unclear.  "We will certainly not put a gendarme behind every spectator," Bouchier said. The plan is for fans to be able to access the mountain stages only on foot. Be that as it may, the riders are happy to have the fans back. "I'm really happy that after a difficult 2020, there will be more fans lining the route again this season," Peter Sagan, three-time world champion and seven-time winner of the green jersey, told DW. "We've already seen that at the Giro d'Italia. And it will happen on such iconic climbs as Mont Ventoux on the Tour. "We ride for the spectators, after all, and their encouragement spurs us on. We'll see if I have another opportunity like in 2019 on the climb to the Tourmalet, when I signed a copy of my book held out to me by a fan during the race," the Slovakian said.  Much more of a return to normality is difficult to imagine. Team managers are also pleased. "Last season was tough. Fortunately, we were able to run quite a few races after all," Ralph Denk, manager of Sagan's Bora hansgrohe team, told DW. "But the lack of entry fees and the increased expenses for hygiene measures generated extra costs of about €1 million," he added. The teams have tried to compensate for the deficit by canceling training camps and adjusting salary structure. "The riders capable of winning races are still very much in demand and earn well. The good helpers, however, have had to accept cuts," Denk explained. So for many riders, the Tour is also about showcasing themselves in a way that will help see this return to reality also reflected in their bank accounts. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

9Sports

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday that he expected rapid progress on Finland and Sweden's NATO accession bids. Asked in Sweden whether he expected continued resistance from Turkey on Stockholm's bid to join NATO, Scholz said "I have great confidence that it will now progress very quickly."  He said he expected every NATO member still to ratify the Nordic countries' bids "to do so soon, including Turkey." "In Finland and Sweden, we are gaining two valued allies, who will strengthen NATO's defensive capabilities and therefore our collective security," Scholz said in Stockholm alongside the country's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.  Sweden and Finland, both neutral throughout the Cold War, applied to join NATO in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Turkey had resisted the bid, arguing that the two countries harbored what it considers "terrorists" from Turkey, usually referring either to Kurds or to allies of Fethullah Gulen, an opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Sweden's Andersson said her government would stick to the terms of the memorandum of understanding signed with Turkey on the issue. She gave the example of a man extradited to Turkey on suspicion of fraud last week, saying the decision was made "according to Swedish and international law, and we will continue to work that way."  Scholz said that Russia's invasion had shown that the rules of the past decades appeared to have been thrown out of the window. He even used the German phrase that roughly translates as "epochal change" (Zeitenwende) that he also used when announcing an overhaul to German defense policy soon after the invasion.  "We can no longer be certain that what applied in previous decades — that borders should not be redrawn by violence and that one doesn't try to attack one's neighbor to take some of its territory — still applies," Scholz said.  He said he was looking forward to Sweden and Finland entering NATO, saying "we need them," adding that he believed this would make already "close and trusting" bilateral ties even closer.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Andersson said that in "dark times" for Ukraine and Europe, "European cooperation and unity is our strongest asset." She went on to praise rapid decisions such as EU sanctions and to note that for Sweden and Germany — both largely pacifist since 1945 —  electing to provide Ukraine with weapons had not been a trivial decision. Germany, in particular, faced criticism for its perceived sluggishness on this issue as one of the world's major arms exporters. "The unity European countries showed in response to this war was important and was impressive. We very quickly decided on sanctions against Russia, unprecedented in their scope and size," Andersson said. "And both our countries and other European countries made historic decisions, such as electing to send military support to Ukraine and bolster our own defenses."  Both leaders made repeated reference to their strong past working relationship, dating back to the time when they were both their countries' finance ministers.  Andersson even quipped that it was "no bad thing" for two former finance ministers to be leading the German and Swedish governments at the moment, when mentioning how the pair had been discussing the economic impact of the war and other related factors.  "Energy supply and uncertainty has led to rising prices, and we haven't experienced that in the last decades, and that is having an effect on the economy in Europe and globally too," Andersson said.  Scholz's government on Monday faced calls for more spending and relief measures as a 2.4 cent per kilowatt hour levy on gas for consumers was announced to handle rising costs. Both Sweden and German are running year-on-year inflation well over 7%, figures neither country has experienced in decades.  Andersson warned that while consumers were currently feeling the pinch and needed relief, in some cases because of phenomena which economists hope will prove transitory, it was also important for governments to act responsibly and think longer-term when deciding how to try to limit the impact of rising costs of living.  Both leaders also said that the gas delivery issues brought about by the war had served as a further reminder of the need for Europe to limit its dependence on fossil fuels.  To that end, they were set to leave to inspect a Scania facility south of Stockholm, operating as part of a bilateral partnership, that is working on building viable electric heavy goods vehicles. To oversimplify, the heavier a vehicle is, the harder it is to power it using electricity, meaning HGVs are still seen as the toughest e-mobility nut to crack on public roads. The other notorious difficulty, range, is also of crucial importance to the freight industry in a way it is not for most road users. msh/aw (AFP, dpa, Reuters) While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

7Politics

Residents in Germany will from Saturday have to adjust to a new set of rules aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The rules are being introduced as the country is seeing a steady rise in infections amid colder weather, with officials recording 96,367 new cases in the past 24 hours, around double the number recorded a week ago. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach called the new rules strict compared with other European countries but said Germany was being "not smarter but more cautious" in its approach. From Saturday, passengers over the age of 14 on long-distance trains will be obliged to wear FFP2 masks — similar to the US-standard N95 respirator — rather than the less-protective surgical masks that have hitherto been compulsory. Health ministers in all 16 German states have agreed that passengers on local buses and trains will be required to wear at least surgical masks, although that is not mandatory under the new federal rules. Air travelers will, on the other hand, be able to dispense with masks, which is in line with the practice of other EU countries and airlines. FFP2 masks are now also to be worn in hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' offices. Before visiting a nursing home or hospital, a negative test must be presented and employees at such facilities must be tested several times a week. If the infection situation worsens, states have the power to impose further measures, such as requiring masks to be worn in indoor areas such as shops and restaurants. Tests can also be made compulsory at schools and day-care centers. At schools, states can also reintroduce mandatory mask-wearing but only for children aged over 11. The Deutsche Stiftung Patientenschutz, an organization that represents the interests of severely ill and dying people and those in need of permanent care, has criticized the new rules, saying they either go too far or not far enough. Its director told the German news agency epd that there were no humane and efficient protective strategies in place for elderly care. He said there was a need for "task forces that could give immediate support in cases of outbreaks" and called for facilities allowing the separation of infected and non-infected residents of care homes. He, however, called it excessive that care home residents were now expected to wear FFP2 masks when outside their rooms. That measure was also condemned by the German National Association of Senior Citizens' Organisations (BAGSO), which pointed out that no other sector of the population was expected to wear a mask at home despite having had four vaccinations. It said the new rules ignored the needs of care home residents for social and physical contact. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video tj/sms (AP, dpa, epd) While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

8Society

A German federal court on Tuesday rejected the appeal of two defendants who had been jailed for stealing a massive gold coin from Berlin's Bode Museum. The court in the city of Leipzig concluded that there were no "legal errors to the disadvantage of the defendants" in their February 2020 sentencing and, as such, their prison terms were found to be legally binding. In total, three men were convicted of stealing the coin. Two defendants, aged 23 and 21, were tried as juveniles and were handed four and a half years in prison. The third convicted defendant, a 21-year-old, was sentenced to three years and four months. Two of the defendants were from an organized crime clan and were known to law enforcement before the theft. The other man worked at the Bode Museum as a security guard and was found to have helped the other two gain entry to the facility. The solid gold coin, dubbed the "Big Maple Leaf," was one of a set of six made by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2003. They were thought to be the world's second-largest coins, weighing roughly 100 kilograms (220 pounds) and with an estimated value of around €3.75 million (roughly $4 million). Authorities have not yet recovered the coin and police believe it was melted down and sold. Traces of the gold were found in the defendants' clothing and belongings. The German government announced in May that it had created a program to improve security at select museums. The move was in response to a growing number of thefts targeting valuable artifacts and works of art, with probably the most famous other example being the robbery of Dresden's Green Vault. Some €5 million would be allocated to improve security for 41 projects in 11 of the country's 16 states, Culture Minister Monika Grütters said. The projects include installing sensor-controlled surveillance systems, electronic access controls and locking systems, as well as improved alarm systems and video surveillance. jcg/msh (epd, dpa) To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

3Crime

It was difficult for Marco Reus to hide his frustration at full-time. Moments after he and Erling Haaland combined to grab a priceless away goal and a draw at Manchester City, they threw it away. Dortmund switched off and, just like that, their hopes of an impressive result were dashed. “It was so unnecessary,” Reus told broadcaster DAZN. “We weren’t concentrating for two seconds and they scored. If we stop the cross then it doesn’t happen. It’s a shame we didn’t reward ourselves for the fight we showed tonight.” Dortmund rolled up their sleeves for this one, playing like a team keen to remind themselves more than anyone else exactly what they’re capable of. Bellingham was superb, Haaland was industrious and Reus was ice cold when his moment came. But as Dortmund showed last weekend when they stumbled to a home defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt, they’re a team who are frustratingly inconsistent. “We’ve been talking about consistency for a year,” Reus added. “We’ve had too few games like tonight where we’ve showed our level.” Despite the defeat, Dortmund would have taken 2-1 and that potentially pivotal away goal at the start of the game. A 1-0 victory back in Dortmund next week would do it for them. Dortmund fell behind in a fashion all too familiar to them this season. A slack pass by Emre Can allowed City in, and the rest was almost a formality. The impressive Riyad Mahrez with the touch and pass, the irrepressible Kevin de Bruyne with the finish from close range. However, Dortmund were on the receiving end of some abysmal refereeing decisions, which had threatened to drag Dortmund down. The first was a penalty call against Emre Can, who didn’t make contact with Rodri, the second was a goal disallowed by the excellent Jude Bellingham. The reason given was a foul by the English 17-year-old – but it was a foul invisible to everyone except the Romanian referee. City’s failure to double their advantage it two was less about Dortmund and more about the wayward finishing of Phil Foden. The Manchester City teenager was unable to convert the two clear chances that had been crafted for him. That left the door open ajar for Dortmund, who were much-improved after the break. They were getting Haaland into the game with increasing frequency and showing a willingness to pour forward in numbers when in possession. The game was open, absorbing and just the feast of attacking football that had been on the cards. Time seemed to be running out for Dortmund, but they struck in the 84th minute. Bellingham’s strong run and pass found Haaland, whose deft throughball was brought down by Reus, and the veteran kept his cool to slot the ball past Ederson. His goal, nine years on from his last goal at the Etihad, saw him overtake Robert Lewandowski as Dortmund’s all-time top Champions League marksman.  That should have been the moment Dortmund shut up shop for the final five minutes, but they couldn’t see it out. De Bruyne was given space to pick out former Dortmund midfielder Ilkay Gündogan, who teed up Foden to tuck into the bottom corner just as the clock struck 90. There was little in the way of celebration for Foden, whose winner atoned for his earlier misses. Dortmund should have closed it out, but with the second leg coming up next Wednesday, they will know that this race still has a long way left to run. As Dortmund coach Edin Terzic put it, “we showed that we can annoy them”.  

9Sports

  In centuries past, countries at loggerheads might have turned to armoured vehicles and machine guns, nuclear warheads and aircraft carriers to show their might and secure their interests. These days, however, states are more likely than ever to use economic sanctions as weapons to push through their political agendas.  Rather than tanks and torpedoes, tariffs and trade restrictions seem to be the weapons of our time.  Particularly important in this landscape are critical raw materials, a group of 30 resources — mostly metals — held up by the EU as irreplaceable for developed industrial economies.  As demand rises, these materials increase in value, exposing the vulnerabilities of industries that depend on their accessibility. According to a European Commission study, aerospace, defense, electronics, automotive and energy-intensive industries all need access to at least 21 of the 30 listed materials. The renewables sector needs slightly fewer, but is also entirely dependent on imports. Without them, the manufacture of photovoltaic, wind energy and electric vehicles which rely on lithium-ion batteries becomes impossible. So too, 3D printing, drones, robotics and other digital technology. Of the 30 critical raw materials, bauxite, silicon metals, borate and cobalt are regarded as most critical for technology. "Future demand depends greatly on how technological developments evolve," said Hanns Günther Hilpert, Head of the Asia Research Division of the German think tank SWP. "Industry will probably find ways to substitute some of them, or they will develop alternative technological solutions."  Batteries for electric vehicles, for example, could continue to increase demand for Chilean lithium, yet equally, that technology could be overtaken by hydrogen propulsion which requires few critical metal materials.  As a group, however, Hilpert says these raw materials will likely remain important — just as bulk commodities such as iron ore, copper, nickel and aluminum were in the past. "In future, conflicts will be about critical raw materials", he said. Industrialized countries including the US and European Union member states have tried to predict their future needs. The study by the European Commission calculates a maximum 44-fold rise in lithium demand for use in electric vehicles by 2050. Graphite and cobalt usage, however, might be just eleven times greater than current levels. Tapping new deposits would be the easiest way to meet growing demand, and for some of the 30 critical raw materials, unmined reserves have been identified. Rare earths deposits in Brazil and Vietnam for example, cobalt in Cuba and Russia, and titanium in Brazil and Kenya.  Another option is recycling — in theory, at least. Yet as things stand, the process is generally complicated and expensive, and because companies manufacturing laptops, mobile phones and wind turbines don't publish the components they build into their products, they alone would be in a position to recycle them.  Melanie Müller, raw materials expert at SWP, who is researching resource governance, with a particular focus on Sub-Saharan African states, is critical of the lack of legislation forcing companies to be accountable for what they produce.   "Our cities are full of raw materials that are simply lying around, not being used. There is a lot of room for improvement."  Yet, while some metals, such as tungsten or cobalt could be recycled in noteworthy amounts, that doesn't apply across the list. Another European Commission study found that raw materials like gallium and indium can't be recycled at all. In those cases, the only other option is substitution. "A lot of research is being done in the area of substitution", Müller said. "For some critical raw materials, this is possible, but for others, it is not."  One researcher working on substitues is Stefan Weber, a German physicist specializing in polymer research. He is part of an international team at the Max Planck Society research institute looking for a way to replace silicon in solar panels.  "Silicon is actually not an ideal material for photovoltaic because it is a lousy absorber,” he said. "To absorb light, you need a relatively large amount of silicon.”  He is exploring a so-called thin-film technology called perovskite, which works likes "making pancakes."  "You mix it like a sauce and smear it over a surface until it crystallizes and forms the perovskite material", he said, adding that the "crystal is very messy."  In its current form perovskite isn't energy-efficient enough to be economically feasible, but the team is trying to tweak the nanostructure production without having to compromise on energy efficiency. Piggybacked on a silicon cell for example, energy efficiency increases by around 50 percent compared to conventional solar panels.  Relying on perovskite alone holds promise: Conventional solar panels include a silicon layer of 100 to 200 micrometers, about as thick as a hair. According to Weber, thin-film solar cells would only need half to one micrometer of perovskite — just one percent of the amount of material currently used. But there are some problems: Perovskite cells are considerably less durable than their regular counterparts. While existing models last around thirty years, perovskite cells only have a two-year lifespan. In addition, they contain lead, a heavy metal that is toxic for the human body.  "The legal requirements are very strict, and they are strict for a good reason", Weber said. Though he anticipates that the first modules could become available in three to five years, he says it will take at least another decade before perovskite technology becomes established. "There is still too much we don't know." This article is part 2 of a series. Read more Part 1: How China's mines rule the market of critical raw materials Part 3: Toxic and radioactive: The damage from mining rare elements

6Nature and Environment

Thousands of Iraqi followers of Iran-backed paramilitary groups chanted anti-American slogans in central Baghdad on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the US killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and an Iraqi militia commander. Thousands of Iraqi mourners chanted "revenge" and "no to America" one year after a US drone strike killed Soleimani and his Iraqi lieutenant Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Pro-Iran demonstrators, many dressed in black, massed in the city's Tahrir Square to also condemn Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, labeling him a "coward" and an "agent of the Americans." Protesters waved the flags of Iraq and the PMF — an array of militia groups known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces —  and carried portraits of Soleimani and Muhandis. Both men were widely revered as leading Shiite Muslim commanders in a region where politics is commonly seen through a sectarian prism. The anniversary was also marked in recent days across Iran and by supporters in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere. Iran has held a series of commemorative events for Soleimani, who is celebrated as a "martyr." He has been immortalized in works of art, songs, and an upcoming TV series. Tehran has also unveiled a Soleimani autobiography — focusing largely on his childhood and early adulthood — and a postage stamp in his honor. The assassinations looked close to bringing Washington and Tehran to the brink of war in early 2020. The rallies have been led by the powerful, state-sponsored pro-Iranian Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary network, which Muhandis had commanded. After the killings, the Iraqi parliament initially voted to expel US forces after popular protests demanded such a move. But despite some withdrawals, about 3,000 American troops remain in the country. With tensions still high and even on the rise, Iraqis and observers in the region are watching for signs of escalation before US President Donald Trump, who ordered the killings, leaves the White House on January 20. Trump recently tweeted that US intelligence had heard "chatter of additional attacks against Americans in Iraq." He warned that "if one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over." For the second time in a month, US B-52 bombers have flown across the region in recent days. However, in what some interpret as a sign of de-escalation, the US has also reportedly ordered an aircraft carrier to leave the Gulf. rc/nm (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)

7Politics

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Twitter late Wednesday in the US that he had tested positive for COVID after his appointments with the International Monetary Fund and the G20 in Washington.  "After two years without a COVID-19 infection, after a negative result yesterday in a test center and another negative rapid test earlier today: positive," Lindner wrote. "Thanks to three vaccinations only mild and already fading cold symptoms."  Lindner was taking part in various appointments in the US capital, focused on the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund as well as a G20 session he participated in and a smaller G7 finance ministers' meeting he chaired, as Germany is the current G7 presidency holder.  According to Finance Ministry officials, he had been undergoing regular tests, all of them negative, until recording one positive rapid test late on Wednesday.  The 43-year-old had further appointments scheduled for Thursday in the US, and then a late evening return flight. The impact on his travel schedule was not immediately clear.  Here are the latest major developments on coronavirus from around the world: Germany reported 186,325 new COVID infections on Thursday, taking the total number of cases to 23,844,536, according to the latest figures from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. The rolling seven-day average of cases per population of 100,000 was recorded at 720.  German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said he expects the coronavirus situation in the country to ease during the summer but warned the country must prepare for a fresh wave of infections in the fall. He claimed that there are likely twice as many coronavirus cases in the country than are currently being officially reported and voiced concern over the existence of new virus variants. A labor court in the German city of Cologne has ruled that an employer was within its rights to terminate without notice an employee who presented forged vaccination documents to comply with company coronavirus rules. The court ruled the employee at a health consultancy firm had broken her obligation to customers and the company by flouting its vaccination requirement. The employee presented a fake vaccination document to her supervisor after the company announced that only fully vaccinated individuals would be allowed to conduct personal customer consultations. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The UK parliament has voted to investigate Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ascertain whether he lied over breaking his own government's coronavirus lockdown rules. Johnson, who is currently under police and civil-service investigation over what has come to be known as the "partygate" scandal, claims he has nothing to hide and has refused to step down. Historically, contempt of parliament has been a resigning offense if proven. Hong Kong has reopened gyms, beauty parlors, theme parks, and cinemas for the first time in over four months as COVID infections fell below 1,000 for the past six days, down from a peak of more than 70,000 on March 3. The city also extended restaurant dining until 10 p.m. and lifted restrictions on group gatherings of up to four people. Several schools also resumed in-person classes after months of online learning. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Taiwan has approved a second COVID booster for people over the age of 65, as well as a third booster dose for the immunocompromised, including dialysis patients and those who have received organ transplants. Residents of long-term care facilities can also get their second booster. The government said those getting their boosters should get them at least five months after their last shot, choosing among the Moderna Inc, BioNTech-Pfizer, Taiwan-made Medigen or Novavax brands. In mainland China, an Associated Press (AP) examination of coronavirus death toll numbers in Shanghai claims official statistics have been clouded by the way health authorities tally COVID-19 deaths. AP claims China applies far narrower, less transparent, and at times inconsistent standards than the rest of the world, leading to a far lower death toll. Whereas most countries, including the US, must count any death in which COVID-19 is a factor or contributor as a COVID-related death, Chinese health authorities count only those who die directly from COVID-19, excluding all others whose underlying conditions were worsened by the virus.  Shanghai, a city of more than 25 million, has reported 25 coronavirus deaths during the course of a nearly two-month outbreak that has infected hundreds of thousands of people in the world's third-largest city. In response to questions about Shanghai's COVID-19 figures, China's National Health Commission said there is "no basis to suspect the accuracy of China's epidemic data and statistics." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The US Justice Department has appealed a federal judge's ruling that ended a mask mandate on public transportation and airplanes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the measure was still required.  Earlier this week, the district judge had ruled that the 14-month-old mandate, which applied to planes, trains and other public transportation, was unlawful. The US Justice Department has charged 21 people as a part of a nationwide push to root out people who exploited the pandemic through health care fraud schemes. The cases involved about $150 million in alleged false billings and theft from federal pandemic assistance programs.  In New York, a federal district judge sentenced a Chinese man to more than four years in prison after he admitted to fraudulently attempting to secure $20 million (€18.5 million) in federal coronavirus-relief funds earmarked for distressed businesses. The judge said the prison term was necessary because of the seriousness of the crimes and the need for others to be warned against abusing government programs meant to help people in a national emergency. More than $8 million in cash and other fraud proceeds was seized over the last 10 days. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video US airlines say they have finally reached a turning point after years of flagging business as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Several carriers, including American Airlines, say they are seeing their biggest number of passengers since the coronavirus pandemic began. On Thursday, American said that despite losing $1.64 billion (€1.5 billion) in the first quarter, it saw record sales in March giving hope that he company will again be profitable in Q2. "Demand is as strong as we have ever seen it," said American CEO Robert Isom. The Biden administration on Thursday said it would extend a requirement that non-US citizens crossing land or ferry terminals at the US-Mexico and US-Canada borders be vaccinated against COVID-19. The requirements were first adopted in November as the US reopened land crossings to foreign tourists. These had been closed to most visitors since March 2020. Unlike international air travelers destined for the US, people traveling over land or sea do not need to provide a negative COVID-19 test. Hospitals in Canada are canceling or postponing some medical procedures as the country braces for another wave of coronavirus infections. Health experts say it will take years to work through a growing backlog of procedures and could cost many more lives as exhausted health workers are becoming increasingly sick themselves, leading to staff shortages. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video js,see/wmr (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)

5Health

At least three people have been killed and five have been injured in a shooting on the campus of Michigan State University (MSU), authorities said on Monday. The MSU police, on Tuesday, confirmed that the suspect died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  At least five people have reportedly been wounded.  The Detroit News reported that one death had been confirmed, citing a university spokesperson. At 8:30 p.m. local time (0130 GMT/UTC), the campus police sent an alert which reported "shots fired incident occurring on or near the East Lansing campus." They advised the students and staff to "secure-in-place immediately." The East Lansing High School auditorium, where a school board meeting was being held, was locked down and people were prevented from leaving, the Lansing State Journal reported. The campus police updated on Twitter that there appeared to be only one suspect, who they described as a "short male with a mask."  Those on campus were asked to continue taking shelter as the police were still receiving "multiple calls of an active shooter on campus."  The MSU police confirmed that three people were killed in the shooting.  In a televised late-night briefing, Chris Rozman, the interim deputy chief said that the five injured people, some with life-threatening injuries, were transported to the hospital.  Four hours after the shooting began, the police confirmed that the lone gunman killed himself outside the campus.  Authorities said that "there is no longer a threat to campus and the shelter-in-place has been lifted." Michigan State University has about 50,000 students. The East Lansing campus of MSU is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Detroit city.  ns/jsi (AP, Reuters, dpa, AFP)

2Conflicts

The UN Security Council wants Sudan's military to relinquish power and restore the civilian-led transitional government, the international body said on Thursday. In a statement, agreed by consensus, the 15-member Council called on all parties to exercise maximum restraint. The Council also called for the immediate release of all those who have been detained by the military and urged "all stakeholders to engage in dialogue without pre-conditions." The international peace and security body expressed "serious concern" regarding Monday's power grab by the military in the poverty-stricken African nation, which has enjoyed only rare periods of democracy since gaining independence in 1956. The British-drafted statement comes after laborious talks, which have been ongoing since Tuesday, among Security Council members. The wording of the text was somewhat diluted after pressure from Russia. The statement expresses concern over the "suspension of some transitional institutions, the declaration of a state of emergency" and the detention of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok. Hamdok was taken on Monday by the military and is now under guard at his home. Previously, he had been held at the residence of General Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the man who led the military coup. Other ministers, however, remain under full military arrest. According to the AFP news agency, one diplomat said China insisted upon including Hamdok's return to his home in the carefully worded text. The UN, however, maintains he is still denied his freedom. The discussions among the Security Council members came against a backdrop of a renewed struggle between Western nations and Russia for influence in Sudan. A first draft statement floated early this week condemned the coup "in the strongest terms," but this terminology was eventually dropped. In the version that was ultimately adopted, the council "called upon all parties to exercise the utmost restraint, refrain from the use of violence and emphasized the importance of full respect for human rights, including the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression." Later on Thursday, US President Joe Biden also demanded that Sudan's military authorities step aside and immediately restore the East African country to civilian rule. "Our message to Sudan's military authorities is overwhelming and clear: the Sudanese people must be allowed to protest peacefully and the civilian-led transitional government must be restored," Biden said in a statement. The president described the events of recent days as "a grave setback" for Sudan. "I urge Sudan's military leaders to immediately release all those detained and restore the institutions associated with the transitional government," he added.       In the wake of Monday's coup, clashes have broken out between soldiers and protesting civilians. Several people have been killed, with well over 100 injured, according to Sudan's Health Ministry. jsi/wd (AFP, dpa, Reuters, AP)

7Politics

Weather stations across Europe have been recording all-time-high daily temperatures for the months of December or January, according to the World Meteorological Organization. Several European countries saw record-breaking heat on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, the WMO reported. The unseasonable warmth comes on the heels of a very hot summer and a drought of dimensions that have not been seen in centuries. Snow has been lacking in many regions that are normally covered in white at this time of year, among other places in the Alps and Pyrenees. This has an effect not only on winter sports but is also likely to exacerbate drought conditions later in the year, as winter snow in European mountains such as the Alps is an important natural water store. Experts say this season's lack of snow is a harbinger for the future as human-driven climate change forces global temperatures up. Humanity has already heated the planet by 1.1 degree Celsius (1.9 F) by burning fossil fuels, destroying land and farming livestock. At today's 1.1 C of warming, heat waves that used to hit once in 50 years have already become five times more likely. If global warming hits 4 C — an unlikely but possible scenario — such heat waves will become 40 times more likely than otherwise. tj/aw (AP, AFP)

6Nature and Environment

The silos are full and other storage almost at capacity. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 20 million tons of grain, originally destined for the global market, are currently stuck in Ukraine. Ukraine used to ship over 50% of its exports from its largest Black Sea port in Odesa. But since the Russian invasion in late February, the loading cranes have stopped operating. A blockade by the Russian Black Sea fleet is preventing exports and imports. Moreover, all shipping is dangerous, as there are numerous sea mines along the Ukrainian coast, although it is hard to tell how many exactly. What is certain is that Romania and Turkey have already detected and defused several potentially dangerous naval mines, which were adrift in the Black Sea after coming loose from their anchors. Meanwhile, grain is urgently needed: There is a shortage of bread and other wheat products in several African and Middle Eastern states. And Ukraine is in desperate need of the revenues generated by grain exports. It has tried to export grain via rail in recent weeks, but this is a much slower process given that Ukrainian trains are not compatible with much of the European network rail because of differences in gauge widths, and there is also a lack of freight wagons.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Frantic attempts to relaunch exports via the Black Sea are currently underway and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov traveled to Turkey this week to discuss the issue. "We are ready to ensure the safety of ships that leave Ukrainian ports," he told a press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara on Wednesday. "We are ready to do this in cooperation with our Turkish colleagues," he added. The idea is that a UN coordination body be set up in Istanbul to regulate how the grain is distributed across the world market. Three Ukrainian ports are currently under consideration for loading the wheat: Apart from Odesa, Chornomorsk and Yuzhne are in question, but there is also talk of exporting the wheat from Mykolaiv, which is currently a battleground, or the ports of Kherson and Mariupol, which are under Russian occupation.  In principle, Ukraine would be interested in such an agreement, but the government has a variety of reservations. Thus, the UN has proposed establishing a contact group with representatives from the UN, Turkey, Russia and Ukraine to create a control mechanism for a possible safe grain export corridor. Beate Apelt, the head of the Turkey office of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, said that it would be possible "to establish such a corridor if everybody wants it." However, there are a number of sticking points, largely to do with the barriers of mines that both Russia and Ukraine have established along the coast. "The Ukrainian navy wants to prevent Russian warships from launching landing operations near Odesa," Apelt said. It would be necessary to remove the mines so that freight ships transporting grain could pass, but Turkish experts calculate that this would be doable within one or two weeks. Yörük Isik from the Middle East Institute in Istanbul said that the Turkish navy was "one of the most experienced in NATO" for the task since it had at least 11 minesweepers and trained personnel. However, if the mines were to be cleared, Odesa could be left without defenses and thus the Ukrainian government fears that Russian warships might use a safe corridor to attack Ukraine's largest port city. Kyiv is demanding security guarantees, such as Western anti-ship missiles, which the Russian government refuses to allow. "Given the monstrosities so far, I find it hard to imagine that Kyiv would believe a pledge of non-aggression from Moscow," said Apelt. "This is where Turkey comes into play. It not only wants to arbitrate the corridor but also secure it with its own ships." The Turkish government has effectively declared its willingness to do this, but what remains doubtful is whether Kyiv would be satisfied with security provided only by Turkish ships. Yüsük Isik thinks that other states would have to put forward security guarantees for Ukraine to agree. For example, Turkey could work in cooperation with Britain and the US. However, even this safeguard would not be risk-free. So far, NATO has kept its own troops out of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. If a protective convoy were to be attacked by either side, NATO warships could find themselves directly involved in fighting. This in turn could trigger an escalation of the war. For its part, Russia insists on being allowed to inspect international freight ships before they enter a Ukrainian port. Otherwise, it fears, weapons for the Ukrainian army could enter the country. So far, Kyiv refuses to allow such inspections. Another bone of contention is how to distribute revenues from the grain, which will not only be exported from the greater Odesa area, but also from areas currently in Russian-occupied territory, such as Kherson and Mariupol. Kyiv has already accused Russia of stealing grain from Ukrainian ports and exporting it, to Syria for example, but possibly also to Turkey. The Ukrainian embassy in Ankara has demanded that Turkey carry out stricter inspections of Russian ships in the Bosporus but so far to no avail. There is some way to go before an agreement is met and it could well end up being painful for the West. "Moscow will presumably agree to a grain corridor only in return for the lifting of certain sanctions," predicts Apelt. At the press conference in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu hinted at possible concessions: "If we need to open up the international market to Ukrainian grain, we see the removal of obstacles standing in the way of Russia's exports as a legitimate demand." "It is a difficult decision for Ukraine and its Western partners," said Apelt, adding that time was running out. According to the FAO, the world has about 10 weeks to find a solution. That is when its next wheat harvest is due to begin. Until then, the silos will have to be emptied. Elmas Topcu contributed to this article, which has been translated from German.

2Conflicts

"As a scout in the NBA, your mind is about 'how do we find the next big talent, the next Hakeem, the next Dikembe, the next Manute Bol?'" says Masai Ujiri about his vision to empower young Africans through the game of basketball. "But the more we held these camps, it dawned on me that not all these kids will make it to the NBA or go to college in the United States. So, how do you teach them life skills? And so, it expanded into more." Every summer, Ujiri travels across several African cities preaching the joy and discipline of basketball. The 52-year-old Nigerian is the vice chairman and president of the Toronto Raptors, the Canada-based National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise. In 2019, Ujiri's Raptors won the NBA Championship, the first for a team outside of the US. His pioneering role as the first African to head a North American sports franchise has come with a lot of responsibilities to his continent. After starting his development work with Basketball Without Borders, Ujiri co-founded the Giants of Africa, a foundation to develop basketball growth in Africa in 2003. When this reporter first met him in 2017 at one of his camps in Lagos, Nigeria, Ujiri had around 60 boys in training. He taught them about time management, honesty, integrity, respect for authorities and importantly, respect for women. He has since expanded the outreach to include girls, too. As a basketball scout for NBA teams, Ujiri realized that the US educational system offered a lot of opportunities for sports people to gain a foothold in life. He knows that not all of them will play in the NBA, but they can still find a life in other aspects of the industry. "There is a path that basketball creates," Ujiri tells DW. "You can use it as a tool to get an education and use it to work in your passion in sports – from law to medicine to management and beyond." Ujiri guides his young mentees throughout these camps and, since our last conversation, two of the former campers have made it to the NBA: Precious Achiuwa, who now plays in Toronto under Ujiri, and who first came to the Giants of Africa when he was 14, as well as center Charles Bassey, a 2021 draftee of the Philadelphia 76ers. "There's so much talent in Africa, and the chances of making it are greater now because the game is even more global," explains Ujiri, adding a note of caution: "But still, many of these kids come through and you don't know if they're going to become NBA players." The successes of Achiuwa, Bassey and many others who have made it to US colleges keep him motivated even as he is faced with the challenge of poor basketball infrastructure in many African countries. Despite the increasing global interest in the sport occasioned by the improved access to it through the internet, many young Africans that want to play are still hampered by a dearth of good facilities. Unlike football that can be played on just about any surface, basketball requires a court with standard hoops, shoes and a ball. Ujiri decided in 2021 to build courts on the continent to enable access to further develop the game. "We made a commitment to build 100 courts around the continent because, going from country to country, I saw that infrastructure is something we need to build. When we go to organizations and ask for sponsorships or partnerships, everybody wants to do programming but where do you do the programming?," he says. "Are you just going to do it all on waste ground? Because we lack the facilities. In the West, every high school has a gym, but it is not the same, unfortunately, in Africa. So, we have to get it there and then the youth can start to play earlier." In August, the Giants of Africa launched its 15th court in Mbuji Mayi in the Democratic Republic of Congo at a school founded by NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo. They have also built new courts in Lagos, Nairobi, Kigali, Ouagadougou, and many more are waiting to be delivered to hopeful communities. "The biggest thing for me is when somebody sends me videos of a court we built in Tanzania and you see kids playing there every day. It takes them off the streets from doing things that they shouldn't be doing, and they can sharpen their skills," Ujiri concludes. And even if their skills on the court don't quite make the grade, those learned off it can still help set them up for life. Edited by Matt Ford.

9Sports

It's always an interesting exercise to wonder what the world would look like today if past events had unfolded differently. In Timur Vermes' satirical novel Look Who's Back, Adolf Hitler wakes up in present-day Berlin thinking the war has not yet ended; the Amazon series The Man in the High Castle, based on a novel by Philip K. Dick, played out how the world would be divided if the Nazis had won World War II. Experimenting with alternative history, reinterpreting it and placing it in a current context — that is also what the Israeli artist Yael Bartana has devoted herself to in the exhibition "Redemption Now," currently on show at the Jewish Museum Berlin. A key work is the video "Malka Germania," in which the artist takes up the megalomaniac idea of the world capital Germania by Hitler's architect Albert Speer. Bartana, who lives in Amsterdam and Berlin and whose father once told her never to set foot on German soil, is concerned with power, communities, utopia and gender roles. Her messiah figure Malka is androgynous. "I feel there is a need for change in Germany, for a new vision for all the different minorities, including the Israelis living here," Yael Bartana argued in an interview on the museum's website. Her protagonist Malka walks through a Berlin with street signs in Hebrew. The figure of a savior is associated with a promise that times will get better, a phenomenon observed in many contexts — in the current pandemic as well as, for instance, concerning the election of leaders like Hitler or, much later, Donald Trump. "Leaders disappoint us very quickly," says the artist. Bartana has explored propaganda and its aesthetic characteristics for quite some time. The video series "And Europe will be stunned" processes Polish-Jewish history: How do political movements react to the return of millions of Jews to Poland? The multimedia artist presented it at the Polish pavilion at the 2011 Venice Art Biennale. Reality and fiction are blurred In Yael Bartana's works. There has been confusion about whether the Jewish Renaissance Movement, the fictional movement that called for Jews to return to Poland, is real. The Jewish Museum has added information about how that came about. The museum presents more than 50 of Bartana's early and more recent works, including video works, photographs, and light sculptures, grouped in seven sections. In "The Cycle of the End of the World" she looks at expectations of salvation, linking them to the mood of the end of time and the search for a Messiah in the Jewish tradition. Whether redemption solves every problem is a question she asks in "The Study Room," for which Yael Bartana portrayed herself as, among others, the Austro-Hungarian publicist Theodor Herzl, asking, "What if Women Ruled the World?" The exhibition "Redemption Now" will be on display in Berlin until October 10, 2021. T​​​​his article has been translated from German.

4Culture

Simran Tandon, a top graduate of a commerce degree program, was preparing to join an investment banking firm before the coronavirus pandemic hit India in March last year. The firm then revoked the offer, and the economic havoc caused by COVID-19 led to rejections from several other firms. Tandon is just one of millions of young people who have recently joined the vast pool of freshly minted graduates who are still struggling to find jobs in the pandemic-hit economy. The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), an independent think tank, said the pandemic has led to a major impact on the job market, especially for young people. The center conducts one of the world's largest continuous surveys to track household incomes, expenses and assets. Its latest data reveals that urban 20 to 24-year-olds have one of the highest rates of unemployment in India, with 37.9% currently out of work. "The pandemic has left me with an uncertain future," Tandon told DW. Instead of continuing a difficult search for employment, Tandon, who had studied at Delhi's Janki Devi Memorial College, decided to continue her education and enroll in a chartered accounting program. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Swati Luthra, 22, completed her journalism and mass media degree through Pearl Academy, a media institute with campuses across India. But she has been struggling to find a job for over a year now, as news outlets across the country have resorted to downsizing with drastic layoffs and salary cuts. "Opportunities for me in the media industry are vastly diminished in the current environment. Business and financial stress caused by the pandemic has left me unsure whether a job in media is feasible at all," Luthra told DW. Almost one in four urban women with bachelor's degrees and one in five women with postgraduate education are unemployed, according to the CMIE. "The 2020 lockdown robbed youngsters who had just graduated of the opportunity to find a good job. The second wave in 2021 only makes the job market worse," Mahesh Vyas, the managing director of CMIE, told DW. "As a result, if there is no third wave in 2022, three cohorts of fresh graduates will be jostling for jobs," said Vyas. More than 85% of India's roughly 20 million university and college students are enrolled in standard degree programs. The remaining 15% are enrolled in engineering, technology and medical schools. Many students who have graduated from the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), who would normally easily find jobs with lucrative salary packages, are still searching for employment or are waiting for the economy to recover before resuming the application process. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, Indian youth faced challenges in a stressed labor market with high unemployment rates. Last year, India's GDP contracted by 23.9% from April to June, as coronavirus lockdowns brought key industries to a halt and rendered millions of people jobless. The situation has only been made worse by the catastrophic second wave in April and May. Various studies show that job losses and the economic malaise in the country show no sign of slowing, as the impact of the coronavirus continues to batter almost every sector. The path to economic recovery will be long and difficult. "There is a lack of sufficient jobs for young graduates, and with nearly 10 million youth entering India's job market annually, the downturn does not bode well for their economic future," Vinod Khatri, an entrepreneur, told DW. According to the India Skills Report, graduating students will have even more troubles finding employment in 2021 than in 2020. "We are aware that unemployment is a very big issue facing Indian youth," Neharika Vohra, the vice chancellor of the Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University, told DW. "Yet if we look at the data on unemployment a little more closely, we find that it is those who do not have a specific skill set that are most likely to be unemployed." Given the uncertainty, graduates are either focusing on learning new skills or trying to adjust to the new normal, hoping that the situation will become better in the coming months. But many know that it is going to be a long time before the economy fully recovers. "I am looking at another difficult year ahead, as many firms have deferred graduate recruitment drives," said Priti Kaur, an economics graduate from Mumbai. "I am currently freelancing but it is not what I want to be doing after receiving a good education." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video  

0Business

Following the publication of cartoons depicting Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian tweeted: "The insulting and indecent act of a French publication in publishing cartoons against the religious and political authority will not go without an effective and decisive response. We will not allow the French government to go beyond its bounds. They have definitely chosen the wrong path." On Thursday Iran closed a Tehran-based French research institute in protest against the cartoons, according to press agency AFP. Reuters also reported that Iranian authorities summoned France's envoy in Tehran to protest against the cartoon.  "The Islamic Republic of Iran does not accept insulting its Islamic, religious, and national sanctities and values in any way," Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani told the French envoy on Wednesday, according to state TV. Reacting to the events in an interview with French news broadcaster LCI on Thursday, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna dismissed the Iranian demands, stating that freedom of the press rules in France and pointing out that Iran should first look at what is going on at home before criticizing French journalists. The weekly published dozens of cartoons Wednesday ridiculing the top religious and political figure in Iran. In December, the magazine launched a caricature competition, following months of protests triggered by the September 16 death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurd who was arrested for allegedly violating the country's strict dress code for women. According to the magazine, the contest would "support the struggle of Iranians who are fighting for their freedom." The cover of the magazine reads, "mullahs, go back where you came from" with a drawing of small men marching into the vulva of a naked woman. Iranian authorities have described the protests as "riots" and say hundreds of people, including members of the security forces, have been killed and thousands of civilians have been arrested. The government has alleged that hostile foreign powers and opposition groups are stoking the unrest. Charlie Hebdo published the caricatures in a special edition to mark the anniversary of a deadly attack on its Paris office on January 7, 2015, by assailants who said they were acting on behalf of al-Qaida to avenge the magazine's decision to publish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video kt/mkg (AFP, dpa, Reuters) Update: This article, first published on January 4, 2023, was updated a day later with comments from the French Foreign Minister.

7Politics

The prime ministers of Finland and Sweden said on Thursday that they remain committed to joining the NATO alliance at the same time, despite comments from Turkey that it may approve Finnish accession without Sweden. "I don't like this atmosphere, position where Sweden is presented as a sort of trouble child in the classroom. I don't think this is the case," Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in response to Turkey's continued opposition to Sweden joining the alliance. "Sweden also ticks all the boxes that are needed to become a member of NATO," she added during a visit to Stockholm. The two Nordic nations applied to join NATO in May 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, following years of neutrality during the Cold War. But Turkey has blocked the accession with various demands regarding Kurdish opposition figures residing in Sweden. Ankara has demanded that Sweden extradite individuals that it claims are members of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) — a group categorized as terrorist by both Turkey and the EU. Sweden and Finland signed a memorandum with Turkey that laid out their path to NATO membership but Ankara has repeatedly criticized Stockholm for its perceived lack of cooperation. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The situation deteriorated on Wednesday when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded to the burning of the Quran in Stockholm by a far-right activist. "Sweden, don't even bother! As long as you allow my holy book, the Quran, to be burned and torn, and you do so together with your security forces, we will not say 'yes' to your entry into NATO," Erdogan said. Erdogan has already hinted that Turkey could approve Finland's membership without approving that of Sweden. An agreement must be unanimous among all NATO countries for another to join. So far, Hungary and Turkey are the only ones yet to give their approval. Thursday's comments from Prime Minister Marin come after Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto appeared to suggest that Finland was considering joining NATO ahead of Sweden. At the same time, a slight majority of Finns appeared to be in favor of joining NATO even without Sweden, according to a poll reported by AFP. However, the joint news conference has confirmed Finland's commitment to the trilateral agreement. "We embarked on this journey together and we do the journey towards membership together," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Thursday. ab/jcg (Reuters, EFE, dpa, AFP)

7Politics

Russian President Vladimir Putin can already claim one success in the Russia-Ukraine crisis: German-Ukrainian relations, which have been good in recent years, are suffering. There is deep-seated frustration amid the Ukrainian elites because of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline on the one hand and now because Germany has decided not to supply weapons to Ukraine. There is currently quite a lot of discussion about how much support Germany has given Ukraine since the pro-European Maidan protests, also known as the "Revolution of Dignity," that took place seven years ago. In early February, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz did the math to counter criticism from Kyiv. He said that nearly €2 billion ($2.75 billion) in direct aid had flowed from Germany to Ukraine since the country had spoken out in favor of democratic elections, a pro-European course and against the Kremlin-friendly government that was toppled in 2014. In addition, there had been €3.8 billion (ca. $4.3 billion) from the EU budget, whose biggest net contributor is Germany, he pointed out. Furthermore, Scholz said that there was a debate about who had given "more aid" to Ukraine since 2014 — the US, which is now supplying weapons, or Germany. The Ukrainian government recently calculated that all of its partners together had directed $1.5 billion (ca. €1.3 billion) in "military defense aid" to Ukraine. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Military aid is clearly a priority in Kyiv at the moment. In a recent interview with German public radio Deutschlandfunk, the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, criticized the fact that nobody had been able to explain how to break down the aid from Germany since the Maidan revolution. He said that he thought Germany had given Ukraine about €771 million (ca. $876 million) in "development aid" since 2014. That ranked "Ukraine 13th behind Congo and Tunisia," he added. "We appreciate the aid that we have received from Germany. There is no doubt that we are very grateful," he insisted, at the same time saying that everything had to be put in perspective. There is clearly a deep sense of frustration. Since the Maidan revolution, Berlin has helped Ukraine to maintain its pro-European course, by setting up hundreds of consulting contracts and aid programs. Many economic experts from Germany have done the rounds of Kyiv hotels. Via the International Monetary Fund, Germany has also helped stabilize Ukraine's economy and its currency, the hryvnia. Without this help, Kyiv would probably have had to implement a currency reform. According to the German Foreign Ministry, Germany has supported Ukraine "with over €1.8 billion" (ca. $2 billion). On top of that, it says, the state measures have been expanded by "projects such as political foundations, associations, NGOs." It also says that some 200 projects with "civil society in the countries of the Eastern Partnership and Russia" are being funded and Ukrainians are involved in about half of them. There has also been financial support for the development of an "independent public broadcaster" in Ukraine and for strengthening youth exchange programs. The German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development has drawn up a detailed overview, which shows that 350 kindergartens and 50 schools have been renovated with German funds and that €300 million (ca. $340 million) has been provided by Germany "to strengthen eastern Ukraine," predominantly to help internally displaced people from the occupied territories.  Funds will continue to be provided in future. The ministry has explained that at the end of 2021, the German government agreed to a €96.5 million (ca. $110 million) deal with its Ukrainian counterpart "for the stabilization of eastern Ukraine, to implement the EU Association Agreement, for energy efficiency, good governance and vocational training." In actual fact, Germany is more involved in Ukraine than any other EU member. This is particularly evident in bilateral economic relations, which have proven to be surprisingly robust since Russia started its aggressive buildup of troops in the vicinity of Ukraine. German companies maintain their interest in doing business in Ukraine. "We have never had as many inquiries as in the past few months," Alexander Markus, the chairman of the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, told DW. Moreover, last year, he said, the trade balance between the two countries had recovered from the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in just 12 months. It is now back up to €7.7 billion (ca. $8.7 billion), which is almost as high as that between Germany and Ukraine's neighbor, EU member Romania, which has half as many inhabitants as Ukraine. Ukraine exported goods and services worth €2.8 billion (ca. $3.2 billion) to Germany. German companies conducted €4.9 billion (ca. $5.6 billion) worth of transactions in Ukraine. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video No other EU state has an economic relationship with Ukraine that is as strong as Germany's. According to the Chamber of Industry and Commerce, some 2,000 German companies are active in Ukraine. They do good business and export everything that the German industrial sector produces - except arms. This story was originally written in German.

2Conflicts

The new British monarch on Tuesday promised that he would follow in the footsteps of his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and strive for peace in Northern Ireland. King Charles III was visiting the province as part of his tour taking in the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom. While in Northern Ireland, the king met the country's political leaders, including those from nationalist parties who want Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland. King Charles told politicians he would draw on his mother's "shining example" when it came to promoting the welfare of all of Northern Ireland's residents. "My mother felt deeply, I know, the significance of the role she herself played in bringing together those whom history had separated, and in extending a hand to make possible the healing of long-held hurts," the king said. Hundreds of people gathered along the roadside leading to Hillsborough Castle near Belfast, the official residence of the royal family in Northern Ireland. Floral tributes carpeted the area in front of the gates to the castle. While crowds of well-wishers gathered to greet the new king, Northern Ireland is deeply divided over the British monarchy. The institution draws mixed emotions in the province, where there are two main communities: largely Protestant unionists who view themselves as British and mainly Roman Catholic nationalists who consider themselves to be Irish. While he was heir to the throne, Charles visited Northern Ireland 39 times. His 40th visit comes as unionists feel their place in the wider UK is under greater threat than ever before, with nationalists set to lead the province's devolved government for the first time. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video After returning to Scotland from England on Monday, Charles's trip to Northern Ireland comes ahead of his visit on Friday to Wales. Charles and his siblings, Anne, Andrew, and Edward, on Monday night stood vigil around their mother's flag-draped coffin in Edinburgh's St. Giles' Cathedral. Members of the public filed past the casket, which was draped in the Royal Standard of Scotland and topped with the ancient crown of Scotland. Queen Elizabeth died on Thursday in her holiday home at Balmoral in the Scottish Highlands. Her coffin was flown to London on Tuesday and arrived at Buckingham Palace ahead of a state funeral next Monday. The queen's death and the ascent of King Charles to the throne have raised questions about the public space for dissent. British police faced criticism from civil liberties groups on Tuesday over their treatment of anti-monarchy protesters and the right to exercise free speech. A female protester holding a protest placard reading "Not My King" was confronted by at least four officers outside the UK parliament in London, with footage going viral on social media on Monday. The woman was escorted away and reportedly made to stand at another location, but police did not arrest her. Meanwhile, lawyer and climate activist Paul Powlesland tweeted that a police officer had warned him that he risked arrest by holding up a blank piece of paper opposite parliament. "He confirmed that if I wrote, 'Not My King' on it, he would arrest me under the Public Order Act because someone might be offended," Powlesland wrote. However, in some cases people did actually face prosecution. Police charged a woman in Edinburgh with a breach of the peace after holding aloft a sign reading "F*** imperialism, abolish the monarchy." A man who heckled Prince Andrew as the former monarch's hearse passed through Edinburgh on Monday faced the same charge. rc/wd (Reuters, AFP, dpa, AP)

8Society

They did, opening up a seven-point lead at the top in the process. The 4-0 win against Schalke was fairly routine, although had Manuel Neuer not made a couple of big saves in the first half the Royal Blues might have had a chance. Instead, goals from Thomas Müller and Robert Lewandowski ended the contest before Müller and David Alaba added gloss to the scoreline. No, they did not. In one of the most exciting games of the season, Dortmund came from 1-0 down against Gladbach to lead 2-1 only to end up losing 4-2. All the talk was of the same defensive issues for Dortmund, but Marco Rose and his boys won't mind. They were furious on Friday night and climbed above Dortmund in the process. Yes, they did. In the fifth league sacking of the season, Hertha Berlin finally pulled the cord on both head coach Bruno Labbadia and general manager Michael Preetz after a 4-1 home defeat to Werder Bremen. It wasn't unexpected for the club who wanted to push for a European spot, but it will be a big change. Former head coach Pal Dardai is expected to be announced as the replacement. The top four losing to open the door for Bayern was not a surprise at all, but Mainz's win over RB Leipzig was a huge shock. With new signings Danny Da Costa and Dominik Kohr in the team, Mainz took advantage of set-pieces and left RB Leipzig frustrated in a game that felt like a cup upset.  Mainz's win was exciting and Frankfurt scoring five to stay unbeaten in seven was fun, but it's hard to look past Friday night's thriller between the two Borussias. The tempo of the game was incredibly high and while the defending might have been less than perfect at times, the back-and-forth nature made it so much fun to watch. And then there were the goals... Matheus Cunha's penalty miss might go down as the worst attempt at scoring a goal this weekend, but for those on target there were some fine choices. Christoph Baumgartner's flick of the heel for Hoffenheim was lovely, Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski both scored goals defying the angles in front of them, but Filip Kostic's long-range drive for Frankfurt might be the best of the lot. Bielefeld's Stefan Ortega didn't move and Kostic's strike flew in, Ronaldo-like. Lars Stindl had another stellar day, both Augsburg keeper Rafal Gikiewicz and Freiburg's Florian Müller saved penalties in wins, but it was Mainz's Moussa Niakhate who stole the show. The defender not only helped form part of the defensive wall that kept RB out but he also scored two to seal the win. A special day for the Frenchman. "There are definitely worse things to read, but I know that not everything in the papers is true." Julian Nagelsmann's response to Sky about the returning rumors that Real Madrid are interested in him as a potential successor should the Spanish club move on from Zinedine Zidane.

9Sports

A concrete obelisk topped with Soviet stars, which was the centerpiece of a monument commemorating the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany, was demolished in Latvia's capital, Riga, on Thursday. Two diggers with pneumatic hammers brought the 79-meter (261-foot) obelisk down to the applause of numerous onlookers. A number of large-scale bronze statues had already been removed from the monument in the preceding days. In view of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Latvia issued a decree that all objects glorifying totalitarian regimes must be destroyed by November 15. This included the Soviet victory monument erected in 1985. "This monument was a steady reminder of our occupation and the associated fate of many people: deportation, repression, and so on. We do not need this kind of monument," Latvian President Egils Levits said during a livestream of the demolition. Mayor Martin Stakis called the demolition a "historic moment for Riga and all of Latvia." Some members of Latvia's ethnic Russian community had protested the removal of the monument. Every year on May 9, thousands of ethnic Russians gather at the monument to commemorate the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. Most Latvians see this date as the start of the Soviet occupation, which lasted until 1991. A group of activists attempted to demolish the monument with dynamite in 1997 but the explosives detonated unexpectedly, killing two people. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in late February has prompted authorities in several Eastern European countries to speed up the removal of Soviet-era symbols. Latvia's parliament voted in May to demolish the victory monument, and Riga's city council followed suit. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Riga's monument was dismantled a week after neighboring Estonia took down a Soviet-era memorial of its own in Narva, a city with a large Russian-speaking minority. Tallinn had accused Russia of using such monuments to stir up tensions. There were concerns that Moscow might try to exploit differences between the Russian-speaking minorities and the national governments in Estonia and Latvia to destabilize the countries. Estonia's removal of the Soviet monument prompted the Russian hacker group Killnet to hit back with a major wave of cyberattacks on public and private facilities last week Estonia called the cyberattacks the "most extensive" it has faced since 2007, but said they were "ineffective." dh/fb (AP, AFP, dpa)

7Politics

At least 105 people have died from injuries sustained in a series of explosions in Equatorial Guinea, state television said on Tuesday, two days after the blast. Initially, the authorities estimated 31 people were killed in the Sunday afternoon blasts at a military complex in the coastal city of Bata. Both civilians and military personnel were among the victims. At least 615 people were injured, out of which 299 remained hospitalized, the health ministry wrote on Twitter, citing the vice-presidency. Television station TVGE showed Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue visiting a hospital in Bata where the victims of the blast were being treated. Local media reports showed children being pulled out from underneath the piles of broken concrete and twisted metal, as well as bodies wrapped in sheets lined up on the side of the road. The health ministry also tweeted earlier in the day that it had prepared a "mental health brigade" made up of psychiatrists, psychologists, and nurses to attend to the victims of the explosion in Bata. "Because the damages are not only physical but also mental," the ministry said. There were four explosions that rocked the Central African country's largest city and main economic hub on Sunday. The initial explosion happened around 1 pm local time (1200 UTC/GMT). A fire near a weapons depot at the city's Nkoantoma Military Base is believed to have caused the blasts. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the vice president's father, attributed the blasts to "negligence and inattention" related to the handling of dynamite. Depots holding explosives ignited "when neighbors at nearby farms lit fires," and flames spread to the barracks, he said. He said the explosion had damaged nearly all homes and buildings in Bata, a city with just over 200,000 residents, adding that he had ordered a probe to hold those responsible to account. Hospitals in the city have been overwhelmed and were pleading for blood donations. Obiang Nguema has ruled Equatorial Guinea — a former Spanish colony — since 1979, becoming Africa's oldest serving president. The oil-producing nation is under economic duress, facing a double shock because of the coronavirus pandemic and a drop in the price of crude oil, which accounts for about three-fourths of its revenue. "Following the devastating explosions in Bata yesterday...Spain will proceed with the immediate dispatch of a shipment of humanitarian aid," Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya tweeted. adi/aw (dpa, Reuters)

1Catastrophe

Before being elected president of Brazil in 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was granted seven terms in Congress by voters. Up for reelection in October and facing the first possible ballot box defeat of his career, Bolsonaro has suggested several times over the past year that he would not concede defeat if voters choose his opponent. "Only God can remove me from the presidential chair," Bolsonaro said in more than one political rally over the last two years, apparently threatening to defy the very democratic system that put him in power in the first place. Around the world, countries are facing threats posed by would-be autocrats. And the road to restoring democracy is long and hard, as a DW analysis of century-spanning data shows. Brazil is one of 12 countries where domestic democratic systems are tilting toward autocracy, according to data published by Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), an independent research institute based at the University of Gothenburg. The other 11 countries span the globe: Poland, Niger, Indonesia, Botswana, Guatemala, Tunisia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Guyana, Mauritius and Slovenia.  In addition to these 12 countries where crises of democracy are still unfolding, another 17 have lost the fight in the past decade alone — including Turkey, the Philippines and Hungary. Not only are long-established democracies turning toward authoritarianism, but autocratic regimes are tightening their grips on power. In countries such as Russia and Venezuela, authoritarian rule has been entrenched and civil liberties further curtailed.  Though far more countries can now be called democratic than could have 100 years ago, the process of democratization stalled globally in the early 2000s — and the process of autocratization stopped its decline.  Democracy is usually thought of as a binary. Either a country is democratic or it isn't.  In reality, the picture is more nuanced. V-Dem researchers classify countries in four broad categories. In closed autocracies such as China and Qatar, there are no multiparty elections for the chief executive or legislature. In electoral autocracies such as Turkey and Venezuela, there are elections, but they are not free and fair.  In electoral democracies such as Brazil and South Africa, there are free and fair elections, but inequality and a lack of effective rights for some minority groups. In liberal democracies, such as Germany and Sweden, there are free elections, guaranteed rights for minorities, and functional checks and balances between powers. The 179 countries classified by V-Dem are almost evenly split between electoral or closed autocracies and liberal or electoral democracies. Some countries recognized by the United Nations, such as the Vatican or San Marino, have no data available. This division can hide some important subtleties, said Bastian Herre, a researcher at the nonprofit organization Our World in Data, who researched the relationship between governmental ideologies and democracy while working toward his PhD in political science at the University of Chicago. "With that, we can know that North Korea and Iran are not democracies while Chile and Norway are," he said. But, he added, we can't know how much more democratic Iran is than North Korea, nor how less democratic Chile is than Norway.  Herre said such categories weren't necessarily useful for detecting decays in democracy as they happen. "If we want to have an early-alert system, these are not the right measures," Herre said. "They would only kick in when democratic breakdown already happened." That's where the Liberal Democracy Index comes in. The LDI ranges from 0 to 1. The higher the value, the closer to the ideals of liberal democracy a country is. Important differences between countries within the same category become apparent. The LDI also allows researchers to see how the state of democracy in a country changes every year. This is especially significant because, nowadays, democracies don't usually die overnight.  Tanks rolling, troops mobilized and democracy going out with a bang (or series of bangs) — coups often come to mind when we think of countries that have turned to authoritarianism.  Though these kinds of takeovers still happen, the current shifts to autocracy are often more gradual, incrementally building to the point where little of the old system remains.  This is what has occurred in the most recent examples of established democracies that have become autocracies. It is also playing out in countries that are still democratic but on a slippery slope. The sharpest turns toward autocracy have frequently coincided with the election of illiberal leaders such as Bolsonaro in Brazil, Andrzej Duda in Poland, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and Narendra Modi in India. The aggravation of existing problems is often a factor in the rise of such anti-democratic politicians, said Fernando Bizzarro, a Brazilian researcher of government institutions at Harvard University. "For these leaders to come to power, you need other elements, such as a crisis of traditional parties," Bizzarro said, adding that increased political hostility can also play a role. "Polarization creates the feeling that, as you detest your opponent so much, anything goes to get rid of them — including destroying democracy." V-Dem has chronicled 81 periods of democratic decay in countries since 1900 — 50 of which have occurred since 2000. In roughly 75% of cases, the crisis resulted in a complete transition to autocracy. "The actors that promote autocratization are usually the chief executives, and they can have large parliamentary majorities," said Sebastian Hellmeier, one of the researchers who examined episodes of backsliding. "In the end, it is a kind of death by a million cuts, with a lot of smaller changes that are difficult to stop until it's too late," he said. Apart from simply detecting when a crisis in democracy happened, the research by Hellmeier and his colleagues aims to understand why some democracies fall apart and others remain intact. As the researchers were mostly concerned with the competitiveness and fairness of elections, they used a slightly different measurement: the Electoral Democracy Index. The EDI works much like the LDI, but without considering elements such as civil liberties or checks and balances between powers. According to the research, democratic resilience appears in two stages. At first, countries can avoid the start of a democratic crisis altogether. This is what the researchers call "onset resilience." As countries that haven't had recent episodes of democratic backsliding, Finland and Canada are examples of onset resilience. "Breakdown resilience" occurs in nations where democratic crises take hold but are stopped before the political system breaks down. Rarer than onset resilience, breakdown resilience was recently observable in countries such as Ecuador and South Korea. A high level of economic development correlates with onset resilience — but it doesn't seem to affect the outcome of a crisis of democracy should one begin. Having neighboring democracies seems to be an important factor in a country's ability to survive backsliding.  A longer tradition of democracy and an influential independent judiciary are associated with both kinds of democratic resilience. The presence of long-standing democratic institutions can help citizens think of democracy as the "only game in town," Hellmeier said, forcing political actors to restrict their actions to within the established rules. A strong judiciary might act as the last bulwark should a self-aggrandized leader overreach, Hellmeier said. In some cases, especially in countries with relatively weaker institutions, external factors might play an important role.  In 2013, Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa won his third consecutive election. He was a popular politician, bolstered by economic growth and the expanding of welfare protections. His tenure, however, was also marked by diminishing liberties for media, the opposition and civil society.   Correa was the kind of leader democracies have trouble pushing back against. This changed when economic growth stalled, and Correa saw his government engulfed in a corruption scandal involving the Brazilian engineering conglomerate Odebrecht. Correa decided to not run again in 2017, instead supporting his vice president, Lenin Moreno. Moreno did win, but broke ties with his former mentor and went on to undo some constitutional changes and restrictive regulations.   Melis Laebens, a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University, said this was an example of a recovery path for democracies under threat. Even when would-be autocrats have a strong grip on domestic politics, unexpected events such as economic crises and corruption investigations can leave them vulnerable.  "In the case of Odebrecht, the fact that the investigation was international made a lot of difference in terms of pressuring Correa's allies into changing their positions," she said. "What matters is that the opposition, when it gets an opportunity, even if it's not able to unseat the incumbent, can at least maintain some legitimate sources of power. "Ecuador also serves as a cautionary tale about what happens after democratic backslide is apparently reversed. Since then, the country has seen seemingly non-stop protests. The current president, Guillermo Lasso, just survived an impeachment vote. Correa was found guilty of corruption and left the country. However, he still maintains political influence and heavy, if diminished, support.  "Sometimes an excessive executive power can just be alternating with an excessive weakness of government," Laebens said. "These events can transform politics in the long run. It's rare that they just disappear." In the case of Brazil, Bolsonaro will face the electorate in a first-round presidential vote on October 2. Cleared by a judge of the charges that prevented him from running in 2018, Bolsonaro's main opponent, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, is currently the favorite in the polls. Whether "only God can remove" Bolsonaro from power remains to be seen, but millions are casting their ballots with that goal in mind.  Edited by Milan Gagnon, Peter Hille and Gianna Grün.

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Whether on the training field, social media or during a game, a laugh and a joke from Thomas Müller is never far away. As Germany's players signed autographs on Saturday for around 300 fans from around the area near their base camp in Bavaria, Müller was full of jokes. When Kai Havertz responded to a question as to who would win the Euros with "Germany," Müller responded: "Great work Kai, you've qualified for the team!" The proud Bavarian's return to the Germany side was, in the end, unsurprising. His form and the lack of a clear attacking leader left Joachim Löw with little choice and, spurred on by the renewed energy of this being his final tournament, Löw brought back the man he banished in 2018. With his loud voice — hence the nickname "Radio Müller" — Müller has always been a big personality in any squad. But beyond the noise lies a brilliant, unique player, as he made clear back in an interview in 2011 when he described his role using the German term Raumdeuter, the space interpreter. Already at Euro 2020, Müller has made clear how important his interpretation is to this team. "At Bayern, we play with two wide attackers who we give the ball to and ask them to go into one-on-one situations, which means, I have more time to find space and become a finisher again," said Müller at a press conference on Saturday, elaborating on the differences between his roles for Germany and his club. "Here, though, I am more in the half spaces," he explained, referring to those important areas of the field in between the center and the wings. "It's more of a precursory role. I'm drawn to the ball, my job is to create and to give impetus to the team." Even though he is interpreting less and instigating more for Germany, the pockets of space he finds, occupies and exploits and the ripple effect that he has on both the opposition and his teammates is immense. Without Müller's movement, Kai Havertz could not have delivered the performance he did against Portugal. And, despite not being fully fit, his presence in the final 20 minutes against Hungary helped make life harder for a tiring Hungarian defense. As for that troublesome knee injury, the plasters were off and Müller was back fully involved with the team on Saturday. The day off Löw had given the players on Friday appears to have done him some good. "If I had problems, I wouldn't have trained today," he said. "I'm confident it won't be a problem for Tuesday." Müller's return is enormous for Germany, and will pose problems for last 16 opponents England. The 31-year-old's ability to find or arrive in the space when the time is right has so far enabled his teammates to shine. "We are a team that can only be successful if the collective works," Müller said. "We don't have one player who dominates world football; we have a lot of team players who understand how to play a key role. That is a strength of football in Germany. Whenever we've been successful, it was as a team." The team-first mentality is what most champions are made of but, in Müller and his ability to manipulate space, Germany do indeed have a player who dominates. His understanding of movement is what separates him from so many, and what Germany miss so much when he's missing. The only thing missing for Müller now are the goals. "I haven't got into shooting positions as much as I would have liked but you can't have it all," said the Bayern Munich man. "I would like to score my first goal at the Euros but it's important that we win. If I have fewer goals or assists in my position, even though I'm still on the hunt for them, then I can also sleep well with that. I'll do what is needed to win." With Havertz in great form and the likes of Leon Goretzka also stepping up from midfield, perhaps Germany need Müller's movement more than his goals at the moment. However, when Müller was asked about England captain Harry Kane's troubles in front of goal, were it not for the word striker it sounded like Müller was talking about himself. "The great strikers are patient. A striker is always waiting for his chances. Usually he has the fewest touches and, if it goes well, the biggest picture in the newspaper afterwards." Other than his injury, Müller hasn't made the headlines so far this tournament. However, come Wednesday morning, it won't be a surprise if his face is on the front pages. After all, his timing — if not his jokes — has always been impeccable.

9Sports

For 55-year-old President William Samoei Ruto, clinching Kenya's top job was difficult. After all, the outspoken politician has defied all odds, including a rebuff from his former boss President Uhuru Kenyatta, to ascend to the country's highest office.  Wafula Chebukati, the chairman of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC), said that Ruto had won almost 7.18 million votes (50.49%) against 6.94 million (48.85%) for his rival Raila Odinga in the August 9 vote. The announcement came on the heels of a statement by the IEBC's deputy chairperson and three other commissioners disowning the election results. "We cannot take ownership of the result that will be announced," Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) vice chair Juliana Cherera told reporters, saying the process was "opaque".  A protest that remained without concrete consequences, but which political observers believe will continue to cause political conflict in the East African country. The outgoing president backed Ruto's main rival, opposition leader Raila Odinga. But even that was not enough to stop the "hustler nation" — a term Ruto coined to refer to most of Kenya's informal sector workers.  Ruto has pledged to implement a new bottom-up economic model. But how precisely that will work remains to be seen. His party's manifesto also calls for drastic economic changes to help the less fortunate. In addition, Ruto has promised to create a cabinet that is equally split between men and women.  In a recent interview with DW, Ruto spoke of his plan to transform the agricultural sector to ensure food security. "Agriculture is the most important sector that we have in Kenya ... There is absolutely no reason why we cannot produce enough food. There is no reason why 4 million Kenyans are starving," he said. William Ruto was born on December 21, 1966, in Sambut Village, Kamagut, Uasin Gishu County. He completed his elementary schooling at Kerotet Primary School. He later attended Wareng Secondary School before transferring to Nandi County's Kapsabet Boys High School. In 1990, he graduated in Botany and Zoology from the University of Nairobi, where he would later earn his Ph.D. A confessed Christian, Ruto, met the late President Daniel Arap Moi during a church event. Moi is credited for exposing Ruto to Kenyan politics in 1992, following the country's move to multi-party democracy. His humble beginnings — Ruto says he sold live chickens to make ends meet in his youth — seemed to have resonated well with the Kenyan voters, who currently have to deal with the rising cost of living. But President Ruto is a different person from the boy who got his first pair of shoes at the age of 15. Today, Ruto is one of the wealthiest Kenyans, boasting a 2,500-acre ranch, a massive poultry farm, and investments in the hotel industry.   Ruto launched his political career through the Youth for KANU '92 lobby, which supported late President Daniel Arap Moi, the president, during Kenya's first multi-party elections in 1992. After the defeat of KANU in 2002, Ruto reinvented himself and later partnered with Odinga during the disputed 2007 elections, which turned violent. The post-election violence claimed more than 1,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of others. As a result, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Ruto and Kenyatta, accusing the two of committing human rights abuses. However, the ICC dropped its charges in 2016. At The Hague, Ruto and Uhuru bonded and would later bid for the presidency — Kenyatta as the candidate and Ruto as his deputy — in 2013. They won that vote against Raila Odinga, which would make this loss more painful for Odinga. In 2017, he and incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta were running mates for a second time and were re-elected again. The two then started to fall out in what was still not clear. Ruto and Kenyatta parted ways in 2021, and he was endorsed in March by the UDA party to contest the presidential vote. William Ruto has been Kenya's deputy president since 2013. He has previously served as minister of home affairs, minister of agriculture, and minister of higher education. Ruto is married to Rachel Chebet, and the two have seven children. Edited by Keith Walker

7Politics

The Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, is Germany's key foreign intelligence agency. It is tasked with collecting, collating and evaluating information, and with providing the government with an early warning system on critical developments in the fields of foreign and security policy. Now the BND's image has been seriously tarnished, both at home and abroad, by its failure to alert the German government of the impending disaster in Afghanistan. This has in turn put the government itself under massive pressure to explain how such a fiasco was possible. As recently as June, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the German parliament, the Bundestag, that it was inconceivable "that the Taliban would, within just a few weeks, be able to seize power." The German government gets regular reports from the BND as well as from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Military Counterintelligence Service on the overall security situation. These bulletins are of huge significance for Bundeswehr forces deployed abroad and for German embassy staff and ancillary personnel from the local population. The possibility that so many people employed in Germany's interest in Afghanistan were to find themselves in such acute danger as the withdrawal of international forces began, was apparently overlooked by the intelligence gatherers. "There is nothing to gloss over," admitted Heiko Maas this week. The Social Democrat foreign minister and Chancellor Merkel of the conservative Christian Democrats will certainly face some very serious questioning in the days and weeks to come. The same goes for the BND. Social Democrat Uli Grötsch is a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel — the Bundestag committee responsible for monitoring the activities of the intelligence agencies: "The government, the intelligence services, and our international partners," he says, "misjudged the situation as it developed when the troop withdrawal began." Grötsch wonders whether it was not possible to predict the escalation and the Taliban's rapid seizure of power. Former BND intelligence officer Gerhard Conrad had an answer to that question when he appeared on Germany's public broadcaster ARD shortly after the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Intelligence services, he said, must have a strong presence on the ground. Which was, he argued, apparently not the case in Afghanistan. When one side gets the feeling that it can "go on a victory march," then that is precisely what it will do: "At least, that is what you have to expect," he said. So, it looks very much as if Conrad's former employer failed to pick up on what was really bubbling under the surface in Afghanistan. Andre Hahn of the socialist Left Party is, like Grötsch, a member of the Parliamentary Oversight Panel. Speaking to DW, he accused the intelligence agencies of gross negligence. "The people at the BND appeared to have relied entirely on information from US sources," he said. And once the American withdrawal began, what intelligence there had been dried up. An angry Andre Hahn asks: "What do you have an intelligence service for?" However, Jan Koehler, Afghanistan researcher with the SOAS University of London, and a regular advisor to the Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs, emphasizes that "both locally-based organizations with big networks of contacts and development agencies working in the region for decades were surprised and overwhelmed by the speed of the Taliban advance." Nevertheless, Koehler, who has been a frequent visitor to Afghanistan since 2003, has his own explanation for what he calls the "sudden regime death" of the government led by President Ashraf Ghani, who has now fled Afghanistan. He says thata lack of trust among the Afghan security forces in their own government led them to lay down their arms. It was a development that was not in itself impossible to predict. But the sheer speed of events was, Koehler adds, "incredibly dramatic." "Afghans do not fight for losers," says Koehler. All this he sees as linked to the negative image that so many people had of the central government in Kabul. People did not believe that they would be capable of, "winning this war for the future of state and government in Afghanistan without international military backing, especially from the Americans." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "I really don't think that either the German government or the German military have got very much room for maneuver," argues Koehler. Especially given that Washington has already made up its mind. He points to the notorious decision by former US President Donald Trump to completely sideline the Afghan government and negotiate directly with the Taliban over a possible withdrawal. "The Taliban certainly saw that initiative as a form of capitulation," says the Afghanistan expert. Then the withdrawal plans were simply accelerated by Trump's successor, Joe Biden. And Koehler is convinced that no US allies, including Germany, had any say in the decision-making process. "So, the speed of the operation had been set." For the intelligence community and the chancellor's office, where ultimate responsibility lies, the blame game has only just begun. And it will certainly cast a big shadow over the crucial national election at the end of September. Whichever government replaces the current coalition led by Angela Merkel will likely face a Herculean task to clear up who got what wrong — possibly involving a full parliamentary investigation. If that is the scenario, Angela Merkel might be faced with the unsavory prospect of giving evidence to a parliamentary committee even after she has left office. After all, it might have been close to the end of her long term in the chancellory that the intelligence debacle had such a devastating impact in Afghanistan. There is no denying that this historic failure took place on her watch. This article has been translated from German. While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society, with an eye toward understanding this year's elections and beyond. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

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After being engulfed in political drama over the last few days, Austria has a new head of government; however, apparently, a reluctant one. Alexander Schallenberg, who has taken over from Sebastian Kurz, describes himself as being "chancellor against his will." At his inauguration in the chancellery on Vienna's Ballhausplatz, the former foreign minister said the post was an honor that "he had never wanted for himself." But he also said it was an honor that he could not refuse. After all, Schallenberg, a close ally of the former leader, had been asked to take on the job by Kurz himself. Kurz resigned on Saturday amid serious corruption allegations against him and a number of his allies in the conservative Austrian People's Party (ÖVP). He was forced to step down after the party's coalition partners, the Greens, threatened to pull out of government.   Kurz sees himself as the victim. The world's youngest head of government had a meteoric rise in his career; he was only 31 when he became chancellor. "This is not about me, this is about Austria," he said in a television address. But many of Austria's political commentators don't quite buy the former chancellor's unusual selflessness. After all, the revelations of the recent corruption scandal laid bare that a "Kurz system" had existed years before. The aim of what was dubbed "project Ballhausplatz," named for the location of the chancellery, was for Kurz to take over the conservative party and then the position of chancellor. Sebastian Kurz used political instinct, cunning and intrigue to maneuver himself to the top of the beleaguered party in 2017. He gave the conservative People's Party (ÖVP) a makeover, rebranding the party as "Liste Sebastian Kurz," and changing the party colors from black to turquoise. Kurz won the elections and ejected the center-left Social Democrats (SPÖ) from the chancellery. With its staunchly conservative course and fresh faces, Kurz's party won the most votes. When it came to forming a coalition government, Sebastian Kurz didn't shy away from getting into the political bed with the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ). He even took over many of their populist policies toward immigrants and buddied up to far-right governments in Poland and Hungary. Kurz categorically refused to accept asylum-seekers under the European Union's refugee relocation scheme. When the People's Party's coalition partners, the Freedom Party, was forced out of government in 2019 after a distasteful scandal, Sebastian Kurz had no misgivings about forming a coalition with the Greens despite their many political differences. He proved himself to be flexible. Some politicians within the far-right Freedom Party, like Gottfried Waldhäusl, see him as an opportunist. After Kurz's election victory in 2019, the Freedom Party politician from Lower Austria predicted that his coalition with the Greens would only last two years. "He is Austria's biggest opportunist," said Waldhäusl. He says there was no way that Kurz could keep all his promises. Perhaps Waldhäusl was only upset because Kurz's revamped People's Party managed to steal the Freedom Party's thunder and attract far-right voters. Text messages from Kurz and his entourage that have recently come to light speak of becoming a "more modern" version of the Freedom Party. Austria is unlikely to change its political course much under its new chancellor. In his first appearance in office, Alexander Schallenberg promised (or, one could say, threatened) to collaborate closely with Sebastian Kurz. The former chancellor will remain the People's Party leader, as well as the head of the parliamentary faction. "Kurz is pursuing the plan of, figuratively, stepping aside — but then standing side-by-side with the new chancellor, Schallenberg," says Petra Stuiber, deputy editor-in-chief of the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. She says Kurz expects to be "the one who is continuing to pull the strings in the background." The Greens want to remain in government and have gone along with this change at the top. A no-confidence vote against Sebastian Kurz that was slated for Tuesday ended up not taking place. But the opposition Social Democrats are now setting their sights on Finance Minister Gernot Blümel, another close ally of Kurz, who is alleged to be deeply mired in a bribery scandal. It is not yet clear what else Austrian prosecutors might reveal about the goings-on in the People's Party and in the upper echelons of government during their investigations. Sebastian Kurz has denied any wrongdoing — as did the management of the newspaper Österreich, which was alleged to have published trumped-up opinion polls in return for advertisements paid for by the Austrian Finance Ministry. It is possible that once the new chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg, has overcome his reluctance to take on the new job, he will get a taste for power and attempt to escape the clutches of Sebastian Kurz. However, this route would not be likely to change much politically for the European Union or many of Austria's neighbors. Schallenberg says he is committed to the party's migration policy, which means closed borders and the further undermining of asylum laws. The new chancellor thinks that the EU's criticism of infringements of the rule of law by Poland and Hungary is exaggerated. He says it's important to talk to one another, and not about one another. Austria's Balkan neighbors, on the other hand, are likely to be happy with the new man. As foreign minister, Schallenberg was always a vehement advocate for western Balkan states hoping to join the EU — even more engaged, perhaps, than his former boss Sebastian Kurz. This article was originally written in German.

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Over 200,000 people took to the streets of French cities on Saturday to protest against a new "health pass" designed to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The protesters waved French flags and held signs such as "No to the health pass" and "Liberty!"  "We want none of this!" a 53-year-old female protester in Paris told French news agency AFP.  "It is a political crisis disguised as a health crisis." The French Interior Ministry said nearly 215,000 people took part in the demonstrations nationwide, short of the 250,000 expected. In Paris alone, some 1,600 police officers were tasked with responding to three separate marches.  Eleven people were arrested at the demonstrations, which were mostly peaceful. The protesters included members of the far-right, anti-vaccine activists and supporters of the populist "Yellow Vest" movement, among others. Protests also took place in other French cities, such as Toulouse and Montpelier in the southern part of the country. Some 7,500 people took part in the Montpelier demonstrations. It was the fifth weekend in a row that France has experienced mass protests against coronavirus restrictions and vaccines. About 237,000 people across France took part in protests last Saturday, according to French authorities. Residents of France are obliged to show the health pass, which shows proof of vaccination,  to go to restaurants, movie theaters, or ride a train, among other activities.  The policy, backed by French President Emmanuel Macron, was approved by the French Constitutional Council earlier this month, as France grapples with the more contagious delta variant. The French government has also forced health workers to receive the vaccination by September 15. "The equation is simple. The more we vaccinate, the less space we leave this virus to circulate," Macron said during a televised address in July. Recent polling in France suggests that the majority of people support the health pass policy. In addition to France, Italy and Greece have implemented similar health pass policies, resulting in mass protests in those countries, as well. wd/wmr (AFP, dpa)

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French President Emmanuel Macron met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Paris on Tuesday, as the US seeks to repair diplomatic damage over a sunken submarine deal. Ties between the long-time allies have been strained in recent weeks following the announcement of a new defense agreement between Australia, the UK and the US — which led to the cancellation of a deal for Australia to buy French submarines. The one-on-one meeting came as a surprise, as Blinken and Macron were not scheduled to meet during the US top diplomat's two-day visit to Paris. During the 40-minute meeting, the two came to a "common agreement that we have an opportunity now to deepen and strengthen the coordination," a State Department official told reporters. Blinken told Macron that the US was "certainly supportive of European defense and security initiatives" that boost defense but do not undermine NATO. The official, however, noted that "a lot of hard work remains to be done." Macron's office also confirmed the meeting took place, saying that Blinken's visit to France would help "contribute to restoring confidence." They also discussed setting up a meeting later this month between Macron and US President Joe Biden to discuss rebuilding trust. Earlier, Blinken also met with his French counterpart, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The French government said it had been "stabbed in the back" over the new defense alliance, dubbed AUKUS. The announcement on September 15 also meant an end to a multibillion-dollar submarine contract between France and Australia — with Canberra instead opting to purchase nuclear-powered US submarines instead. In an unprecedented move, Macron briefly recalled France's ambassadors to the US and Australia. The Biden administration has since said that the announcement of the new defense alliance could have been handled differently and "would have benefited from better and more open consultation among allies." Tensions appeared to relax slightly following a call between Biden and Macron. But the French leader has warned that the episode shows that Europe will need to develop its own security strategy. rs/wmr (AFP, AP, Reuters)

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Tunisians on Saturday overwhelmingly boycotted an election for a new parliament that will have virtually no authority following a power grab by President Kais Saied. Electoral Board President Farouk Bouasker said just 8.8% of the country's 9 million eligible voters had cast their ballots.  The turnout compares to about 40% in the 2019 parliamentary election. Saturday's election came after months of political turmoil and economic hardship in the North African country, the birthplace of the 2010-11 Arab Spring revolts. "What happened today is an earthquake," said Nejib Chebbi, the leader of the opposition coalition Salvation Front. "From this moment we consider Saied an illegitimate president and demand he resign after this fiasco." Initial results are expected by Monday. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The vote was part of a series of political changes made by Saied since he shut down the previous, more powerful, legislative chamber in July 2021 and moved to rule by decree. This year, Saied wrote a new constitution that diluted the parliament's powers, making it subordinate to the presidency and with little influence over government or policy. The constitution empowers the head of the state to appoint the prime minister and the government as well as to dismiss them without the need for parliament's approval. According to a new electoral law, the number of seats in the legislature will be reduced from 217 to 161. A total of 1,055 contenders, including 120 women, stood for office. The president has presented his political changes as necessary to save Tunisia from years of political paralysis and economic stagnation. "Let sovereignty be for the people to achieve freedom and dignity, as well as to entrench Tunisia's sovereignty so that laws, to be issued by the coming parliamentary assembly, will express our people's wishes and aspirations," Saied was cited as saying by the state news agency TAP. Most political parties labeled the vote a charade aimed at shoring up Saied's authoritarian drift and boycotted the poll. Their decision will likely lead to the next legislature being subservient to the president. Even if they had taken part, party affiliation was not included on ballot papers next to candidate names. "It's really a stretch to call what occurred today an election,'' said Saida Ounissi, a former member of the parliament. Few Tunisians asked by news agencies said they were interested in the election, seeing the new parliament as irrelevant and the vote as a distraction from an economic crisis wrecking their lives and causing food shortages. "No one here is interested or knows about the candidates," Yassin El Ferchichi told the dpa news agency on the eve of the vote. "Can they [the candidates] change people's lives and get prices down? They are a mere decoration." Hedia Sekhiri, a retired private sector worker, said she came out to vote to set an example for young people. "It's my duty as a citizen ... to build a better future for our country,'' Sekhiri told The Associated Press. "People no longer have confidence in the political process and the political representatives," Malte Gaier, of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation's office in Tunis, told dpa. "They don't expect any improvement from this election either." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Tunisia was once considered the sole democratic success story of the Arab Spring, but many people believe their country's revolution has failed. The election took place on the 12th anniversary of the event that sparked the Arab Spring, when a Tunisian fruit vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire because of the dire economic situation under the long-time strongman rule of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. His act of desperation prompted protests that led to the dictator's ouster and provoked similar uprisings around the Arab world. mm/sms (AFP, AP, dpa)

7Politics

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has lifted its 2021 global growth forecast to 5.6%. The deployment of coronavirus vaccines and a huge US stimulus program have greatly improved the world's economic prospects. Tuesday's figure is an increase of 1.4% from the Paris-based organization's December forecast, and welcome news for the world economy. It plunged into recession last year, when governments introduced restrictions to curb the coronavirus pandemic. The report analyzed data from across the OECD's 36 wealthiest member states. During the presentation of its report, the OECD said: Germany's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow by 3%, the report said. France's growth is forecast to be greater than Germany's, at 5.9% this year. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Chief economist Laurence Boone said the top priority should now be to produce coronavirus vaccines. She warned delays and further coronavirus mutations that defy treatment could weaken the expected recovery. Fully deploying vaccines "throughout the world" as quickly as possible would "save lives, preserve incomes and limit the adverse impact of containment measures on well-being,'' the report said. kmm/rt (AP, dpa) 

0Business

Australia's parliament voted on Wednesday to censure former Prime Minister Scott Morrison for secretly appointing himself to five key ministries during the COVID-19 pandemic. From 2020 until mid-2021, Morrison progressively took on the roles of minister for health, finance, resources, and home affairs, as well as treasurer — all without telling the existing ministers or the public. The appointments were only revealed in August 2022 when an excerpt of a new book about Australian politics during the pandemic was published in The Australian newspaper. On Wednesday, the Australian parliament said the former prime minister's actions "eroded public trust in Australia's democracy. The 86-50 vote fell largely along party lines. "He owes an apology to the Australian people for the undermining of democracy," said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, whose center-left Labor Party defeated Morrison's conservative coalition in the most recent election last May. The rare vote makes Morrison the first former Australian prime minister to be censured by parliament. Morrison, who presided over a hard border closure and various state lockdowns that shielded Australia from the early waves of the pandemic, stood by his tenure as prime minister. "For those who wish to add their judgement today on my actions in supporting this censure motion, I simply suggest that they stop and consider the following: have you ever had to deal with a crisis where the outlook was completely unknown," he said before the vote. "I acknowledge that the non-disclosure of arrangements has caused unintentional offense and extend an apology to those who were offended," he added. Morrison said he only used these secret powers once to block a gas exploration project that had been approved by the sitting resources minister. A recent inquiry by a former high court judge Virginia Bell found that although Morrison's actions were technically legal, they were nevertheless "corrosive of trust in government." The inquiry recommended closing the loopholes that allowed Morrison to secretly appoint himself to the ministries in the first place, including a mandatory public disclosure of every ministerial appointment. zc/ar (AFP, Reuters)

7Politics

Germany's Development Minister Gerd Mueller said a major global effort was required to combat climate change, urging poorer countries to also invest more in climate protection policies. Mueller told the German Funke media group that only 8 out of 191 countries in the world were adhering to the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, in which nations set a goal of capping global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The German development minister's remarks come as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new assessment on the impact of global warming. In the report, scientists have warned that without "immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions" to greenhouse gas emissions the Paris goals will not be reached. "We need a global green deal, with huge private investments to expand renewable energies as well as technology transfers and an investment offensive by industrialized countries in emerging and developing countries," Mueller said. Mueller urged the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the development banks and above all the EU to step up.  "Hundreds of new coal-fired power plants are being built or planned around the world," the German minister said. "If all of these 'climate killers' go online, we will never achieve the Paris goals."  German Green party chancellor candidate in the 2021 elections, Annalena Baerbock, also called for increased international engagement against global warming ahead of the COP 26 climate change conference in Glasgow, Scotland in November.  "The climate conference in Glasgow must become a climate turning point," Baerbock told newspaper Die Welt on Monday "Only then will we have the chance to move from the current over-three-degree path to the 1.5-degree path of Paris," she warned. The Green party chairwoman stressed that Germany needed to employ a rapid expansion of renewable energies, while also leading a "passionate climate foreign policy."  "That's why we will work to ensure that the major emitters in particular submit higher national climate contributions at the World Climate Conference in November," Baerbock said. German Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze reacted to the IPCC report, saying "it makes it unequivocally clear that we must prepare for more and more extreme weather events in Germany." "They are not going away because we can't reverse the climate change that has already taken place. We can, however, slow it down," she added. Schulze also urged for greater action at home, saying Germany should adopt an amendment in its constitution, so that the federal government can be more involved in protecting against the consequences of climate change.  "I plead for funding together with the federal government, because we need to prepare permanently for more frequent extreme weather events," she added. jcg/wmr (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

6Nature and Environment

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held telephone calls on Friday with several world leaders following clashes at the border with Azerbaijan. Pashinyan spoke separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and French President Emmanuel Macron. In a statement, the government said Pashinyan "stressed that despite the fact the border is relatively calm at the moment, the situation continues to be very tense." Macron's Elysee office said the French President had reaffirmed to the Armenian Prime Minister France's support for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Armenia. The UN also issued a statement welcoming the ceasefire. A day earlier, Armenian security officials announced a truce with Azerbaijan after two days of fighting near the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Armen Grigoryan, the secretary of Armenia's Security Council, said that "with the participation of the international community, a cease-fire has been reached." The tentative true appeared on be holding on Friday, though the recent outbreak in violence has already claimed the lives of 71 Azeri soldiers and 135 Armenian troops, according to official sources. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also said she would be traveling to Armenia on Saturday following a G7 summit in Berlin. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Both countries have blamed each other for the initial provocation. The recent clashes are the bloodiest since the two countries went to war in 2020 over control of Nagorno-Karabakh — a region within Azerbaijan with a large Armenian population that had been under de-facto Armenian control. That conflict was brought to an end by the involvement of Russian peacekeeping forces. But some 6,500 troops from both sides were killed and Armenia was forced to give up control of the contested region. es/rt (AFP, Reuters)

2Conflicts

Football fans are to return to a German stadium for the first time since October on Saturday after the Berlin state senate approved a request by Bundesliga side Union Berlin to allow 2,000 supporters to attend their final game of the season against RB Leipzig. With the coronavirus infection rate in Berlin sinking to beneath 100 new infections per 100,000 people on five consecutive days, the nationwide "emergency brake" set out by the federal government can be lifted, allowing for applications for test events to be submitted. Union Berlin submitted such an application on Sunday and, with the local infection rate now at 68.6, it was approved on Monday. "Union Berlin's comprehensive hygiene concept envisages mandatory testing for all visitors to the stadium," read a club statement. "People who have been fully vaccinated or who can prove a full recovery from COVID-19 are exempt from testing." Union will distribute 2,000 tickets for the match at the Stadion an der Alten Försterei (the "stadium at the old forester's house") in the south-eastern Berlin suburb of Köpenick among its season ticket holders, by way of a ballot which is already underway. "The approval for a home game with spectators on the final matchday is dependent upon the current pandemic situation," continued the statement. "The situation will be monitored and updated continuously." Union Berlin were one of the last Bundesliga clubs to stage a match with fans when 4,500 attended the home game against Freiburg on October 24. Later that evening, the Revierderby between Borussia Dortmund and Schalke took place in front of 300 fans in what was, up until now, the last Bundesliga game with fans in a stadium. Unable to attend games inside the stadium, some Union supporters have taken to supporting their team from the forest outside throughout the season. Meanwhile, Bundesliga 2 side Holstein Kiel have turned down the chance to play their final home game of the season in front of supporters, despite the local city council allowing for the possibility. "Professional football should not benefit from a special status in society when it comes to relaxing restrictions, and Holstein Kiel does not want preferential treatment ahead of other sports clubs," read a club statement ahead of the game against Darmstadt on Sunday, where second-placed Kiel could secure promotion to the Bundesliga.  "Even when a potential pilot project could allow us to play in front of a limited number of fans, we will play our final home game in the way we have been doing for the last seven months," added club president Steffen Schneekloth.

9Sports

They pose in ball gowns in front of ancient columns, publish photos with pop stars and advertise their products in English on social media: Afghanistan too has a lively scene of influencers who drive fads and fashions online. Young women are especially active. But they have only been able to participate in public life — and get an education — since Taliban militants were ejected from power following the NATO military intervention of 2001. Afghan pop singers, fashion designers and beauty bloggers have since gained a large following on social media. One is a fashion designer with around 750,000 dedicated followers on her social media channels. Since she couldn't find the fashion she liked to wear herself in Afghanistan, she started designing and selling her own clothes and accessories. Now a fashion icon on Instagram, she poses in silk dresses or knitted sweaters and jeans — sometimes with and sometimes without a headscarf. She shoots her photos in a restaurant in Kabul, on the riverbank in Dubai or in Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city and home to the reconstructed ancient Citadel that once housed Alexander the Great — a perfect Instagram backdrop. The images could just as easily be from a restaurant in Berlin, the banks of the Thames in London, or an ancient site in Athens. They also employ uplifting slogans like "you can all do it!" that are synonymous with social media influencers globally. But since the Taliban seized power again across Afghanistan in early August, these influencers face a grave threat. That's because the militant Islamist group has also long been "digitally armed," Caja Thimm, professor of media studies at the University of Bonn, told DW. "We all knew how well the Taliban were doing digitally. There, too, you find a young, tech-savvy generation that is shaped by people who have studied abroad or are not necessarily Afghans at all. They use translation software, speak European languages." "No one should be surprised if the Taliban had a 5G mast in the middle of the desert," added Thimm about the integral role of mobile internet for the militant group who might soon engage in a form of digital persecution known as "transnational repression." "Social and digital media allow regimes to monitor exiled activists much more effectively, as well as to probe their networks," political scientist Marcus Michaelsen of the Free University of Brussels told DW. He explains how activists can be paralyzed by internet trolls, or have targeted spyware installed on their devices unbeknownst to them. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda — the list of regimes that engage in cross-border persecution is long. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video But transnational repression often affects women, with female journalists who have worked in Syria a prime target, said Michaelsen. "In the case of exiled activists, repression often takes place against the family, which is often still in the country. This is to be expected in Afghanistan as well," he added. However, the activists themselves can also be affected, as in the case of the Saudi Arabian journalist and blogger Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in the Saudi embassy in Turkey. According to Michaelsen, one problem is that this cross-border oppression has not yet been clearly named and condemned by liberal democracies, including Germany. He says it will be important to give activists who have managed to escape the necessary security, including ensuring that they do not have to fear their right to asylum. "The receiving society must provide support for the exiled activists." Despite the danger, Afghan influencers are currently also getting involved from exile. For the national holiday on August 19, for example, videos were posted of people raising the national flag in Afghanistan, which is read as a protest against the Taliban — not least by the Taliban themselves. According to Caja Thimm, Instagram has become increasingly political; the hashtag #SaveAfghanistan is being employed by female influencers in particular when drawing attention to the role of women in the protests. But the danger for anyone opposing the Taliban remains great — whether in Afghanistan or in exile. While Afghan female influencers continue to show a lot of courage, Thimm would like to see more restraint and sensitivity among their colleagues in Europe and the United States. She cites a British female influencer who recently posted a photo in a burqa with green fingernails as a sign of diversity. "Absolutely unbelievable," said Thimm of what she labels "naivety" and "ignorance," something she says that female influencers from Afghanistan could not afford. That is why the latter are attempting to flee the country in the wake of the Taliban takeover. The fashion designer has already left the country. But even there, she could still be persecuted by the Taliban. This article was translated from the German.

4Culture

Suman Adhikari was 23 when his father was killed by Maoist rebels during a bloody conflict in Nepal. "They dragged him to the hills with his hands and knees tied. Then they hung him from a tree using his own muffler. They shot him in the head and stabbed him in the chest and stomach. This is how they killed my father. For refusing to give the rebels money," Adhikari told DW. Adhikari has told this story countless times over the past 19 years. He still awaits justice for his father and closure for himself. "It's a painful story to share over and over again, but, with no help from any state mechanism, we don't know where to turn," he said. In 2004, Ganga Maya Adhikari lost her teenage son to rebel violence and then lost her husband during a hunger strike to demand justice for their son. In December Adhikari, who is now 61, started her own hunger strike, vowing not to eat until her son receives justice. According to media reports, Adhikari's health condition has been deteriorating, but she remains undeterred. These people are among the thousands in Nepal who have been demanding justice many years after the armed conflict between the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal and government forces ended with the Comprehensive Peace Accord (CPA) in 2006. The conflict lasted a decade, and tens of thousands of people were tortured, raped, killed and forcibly disappeared. The CPA cleared the way for the establishment of two transitional justice mechanisms — the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and the Commission of Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) — to investigate violations and crimes against humanity. The post-conflict political instability in Nepal has been seen as a key factor in delaying investigations.  With the dissolution of Nepal's Parliament in December and the recent split in the ruling party, victims and their families feel that justice will once again take a backseat in the face of political problems. According to a report by Human Rights Watch and Advocacy Forum-Nepal published in November, there have been "hardly any successful prosecutions" since the end of the fighting. "The main problem with the law is its amnesty provisions. The commissions can recommend amnesty even in cases of severe human rights violations," Om Praksh Sen Thakuri, the director of Advocacy Forum-Nepal, told DW. Shortly after the law was enacted in 2015, the blanket amnesty provisions were challenged before the court. Following this, the Supreme Court gave the order to amend the law, ruling that people accused of serious human rights violations cannot be pardoned. The order is yet to be implemented. Conflict victims and activists say the political fragility in the country is to be blamed for the delay in the implementation of the Supreme Court order. "The political uncertainty in Nepal has a huge impact on transitional justice because the government is changing time and again," Thakuri said. "You also see that from the peace agreement: that the main political party that was accused of human rights violations is always in power whether in a coalition government or a full government. It has hugely impacted transitional justice and victims rights," he added. Several governments have also been accused of protecting people accused of war crimes. "Accused perpetrators are in power. They don't want to amend the law because they fear that if they amend the law, they might be arrested. There is impunity. The political changes, combined with political shielding have affected transitional justice," Thakuri said. The transitional justice commissions were established nine years after the signing of the peace accord. Currently, the TRC has more than 63,000 complaints of human rights violations from the conflict-era while the CIEDP has over 3,200 complaints. Victims say that, because the commissions were formed on a flawed law, there has been little progress on transitional justice. "The commissions have failed. They don't investigate and they don't work for justice. The TRC and CIEDP have been around for six years but we have no trust in them because the law is faulty. The process is not credible and transparent," said Suman Adhikari, who is also the founder of Conflict Victims Common Platform, an umbrella network of victims organizations. Adhikari said scores of victims had died without justice and reparations, while their family members have never learned the truth about what happened to their loved ones. For a society transitioning to a post-conflict phase, confidence-building measures are critical. A failure to achieve political stability, and the perceived inaction by the commissions, have made many victims lose trust in the state machinery as a whole. "The government has no clear cut idea of how the confidence-building measures work," said Khima Nanda Bashyal, the focal officer of transitional justice at Nepal's National Human Rights Commission Nepal. "Peace should be kept in the center." "We cannot give blanket amnesty," Bashyal said. "So how do we cluster the cases? Which sort of cases are to be prosecuted and which can be brought in the reconciliation process is what needs to be looked at." Meanwhile, Suman Adhikari and others are increasingly feeling alienated. "We are left doubting whether we are citizens of this country or not," Adhikari said. "It is the state's responsibility to investigate human rights violations. But we have been struggling. We were victimized before and we are being victimized after the conflict. We have never received the guardianship of the state. Now we don't even care if there is a parliament, justice is all we want."     

2Conflicts

Ninety-five-year-old Friedrich Karl B. has escaped trial in Germany. On February 20, the former concentration camp guard was extradited from Tennessee to Frankfurt after a US court found him to be a Holocaust perpetrator.  B. had admitted to having served as a camp guard, but he told a US immigration court in 2020 that he hadn't seen any prisoners abused, hadn't known of any deaths among the inmates and had not been posted to guard the evacuation marches of the camp. Since there are no surviving witnesses to give testimony, when B. announced that he was unwilling to be questioned again, on March 31, prosecutors in Celle, central Germany, declared that their investigation was over: There was no new evidence, and that was that.  B., who had been living in the US since 1959, is now likely to spend the rest of his life in Germany. Christoph Heubner, executive vice-president of the International Auschwitz Committee in Berlin, finds it "strange" that the US and German judicial systems have such different interpretations of the case: "If the Americans are sending people back the German prosecutors have a duty to clear that up," he told DW.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video But the German authorities' reluctance to confront the case is not unusual: In the last four decades, the US has deported 70 aging Nazi perpetrators to Germany, and the vast majority have never faced a German court.   Many, such as the Polish-born Jakiw Palij, a 95-year-old SS collaborator who was deported from his home in New York to Germany in 2018 after a long diplomatic battle over where he should be sent, simply end up living out their final days in a care home at the expense of the national insurance system.  The relevant US law, a 1978 immigration law amendment, rules that anyone found to have participated in Nazi "persecution" can be removed from the US — though of course only if another country is prepared to take them in. But Germany has no law specifically covering participating in the Holocaust. Decades after the war, ex-Nazis can only be tried for murder or accessory to murder. The statute of limitations on all other relevant crimes — rape, kidnapping, torture, manslaughter — have long since expired. And finding proof for specific crimes is hard.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Thomas Walther knows this only too well. The 77-year-old lawyer and former judge has played one of the leading roles in investigating and prosecuting former Nazis in Germany over the last 20 years, often struggling to explain the vagaries of German law to the Holocaust survivors he has represented.   "In a US immigration court, it's enough to conclude that the suspect is lying," he told DW. "That he was keeping his Nazi past secret, and that he served in some concentration camp, whichever one it was and whatever actually happened there," he said.  In Germany, prosecutors need evidence of a specific crime to have any hope of making a charge stick — and for that the crime scene has to be established. "You have to prove he was [a guard] in camp X and not in camp Y," said Walther. "It's only when I have a crime scene that I can determine what the principal crime was — the murder of specific people, for example. And then you have to answer the question: In what way did the accused commit accessory to murder?" This makes things very difficult for prosecutors, especially when — as in the case of Friedrich Karl B. — it comes to clarifying events that took place in the chaos of northern Germany at the end of the war.  The Neuengamme memorial in Hamburg played a significant role here, specifically its chief archivist, Reimer Möller, who sent a list that included B.'s name to Germany's Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist crimes in Ludwigsburg. The list was compiled from a set of Nazi personnel cards salvaged from a ship sunk by the Royal Air Force in May 1945.  With this evidence, Möller was able to piece together what is known of B.'s story. In January 1945, B. was a 19-year-old Navy private who the SS drafted to guard two Meppen concentration camps, part of the Neuengamme "system," which comprised more than 80 camps that stretched from Hamburg to the North Sea coast.   B. guarded prisoners on the island of Langeoog, one of the many places where Jews, Danes, Poles, Russians, Italians and other incarcerated people were forced to build gigantic defenses along Germany's northern coast. According to the Neuengamme memorial, hundreds of them died because of inadequate food, clothing, and shelter. A presiding US judge also found that prisoners at the Meppen camps were held in "atrocious" conditions and were worked "to the point of exhaustion and death," but no one can be certain where B. served. The camps were evacuated in March 1945 — and at least 70 prisoners are known to have died on the subsequent "death marches" from the Meppen camps — but Friedrich Karl B. denies that he guarded the marches, and Möller cannot say for sure that he was one of the Navy soldiers who guarded prisoners during those marches.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video That is a familiar problem for Eli Rosenbaum, perhaps the investigator most responsible for tracking down Holocaust perpetrators in the US. For three decades, Rosenbaum has been "hunting Nazis" — as he does not like calling it — first as director of the DOJ's Special Office of Investigations, and now for the last 11 years as director of the DOJ's Human Rights Enforcement Strategy and Policy department.  For Rosenbaum, a lack of political will in Germany has led to much frustration. "The larger problem vis-a-vis the German government over the decades has been that they have typically refused to accept people we wanted to deport for involvement in Nazi crimes," he told DW.  "They normally tell us: Sorry, can't prosecute that case — our policy is to only admit people who we can prosecute," he said. "As a result, a number of Nazi perpetrators have died in the United States even though we won our cases in court here, and proved that they took part in Nazi crimes, but Germany just wouldn't take them."  Rosenbaum has personally interviewed many of the more than 100 Nazi perpetrators that his organization has been responsible for tracking down in that time. "In some respects, the later the cases are brought, the more powerful the message," he said. "If you dare to act on orders to commit such crimes ... there is a real chance that what remains of the civilized world will pursue you for as long as it takes," he said.   For Rosenbaum, there is no reason why nonagenarians should not be brought to justice, however minor their role in the Holocaust might have been. "I'm not in the habit of ranking them," he said. "To the individual victim, this was the most important perpetrator. All of these cases send a crucial message, and in some respects, the later the cases are brought, the more powerful the message." That message is simple, he said, and it's directed at would-be participants in future atrocities: Those acts won't be forgotten.   While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round-up what is happening in German politics and society, with an eye toward understanding this year's elections and beyond. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing, to stay on top of developments as Germany enters the post-Merkel era.

3Crime

The United States is canceling $130 million (€117 million) in military aid to Egypt over human rights concerns, the State Department said on Friday. The announcement comes just days after US President Joe Biden's administration approved a $2.5 billion arms sale to Egypt on Tuesday. This included 12 Super Hercules C-130 transport aircraft and air defense radar systems. The State Department said Friday that Egypt had not met the conditions to receive the $130 million in foreign military financing that had been on hold since September. In its announcement, the State Department made no mention of the $2.5 billion arms sale, which included military transport planes and radar systems. Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved the release of $300 million in aid to Egypt, while withholding another $130 million unless the government addressed "specific human-rights related conditions" by the end of January. "The deadline for meeting those conditions will soon pass,'' the State Department said. "The (government of Egypt) made notable progress on the conditions but to date has not met them all. Therefore, after January 30, the secretary intends to reprogram the $130 million to other national security priorities.'' The AP news agency cited US officials as saying that the withheld military aid and the Tuesday arms sale are unrelated. Sarah Holewinski, Washington director at Human Rights Watch, welcomed the decision to withhold military aid while expressing disappointment on the arms sale. "This was the right decision," Holewinski said, referring to the withholding of military aid. "Egypt's atrocious human rights record should leave no room for compromises from the US government." Speaking on the $2.5 billion arms sale, she added that denying the $130 million was "not much more than a slap on the wrist given those handouts." Egypt has in recent years engaged in a broad crackdown on dissent, jailing thousands of people. The country imposed a state of emergency in April 2017, following deadly church bombings and attacks on Coptic Christians that killed more than 100 people. The state of emergency allowed for arrests without warrants, swift prosecution of suspects and the establishment of special courts. The state of emergency expired in October 2021, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi announced that his government will no longer renew it. sdi/sms (AP, Reuters)

7Politics

Alyona and Denys decided to flee Kyiv on the eve of the war, sitting on packed suitcases in their fourth-floor apartment on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. When it got dark, the young couple boarded a bus and traveled west. At 4 a.m., they got a call from Denys' mother: She was still back in Kyiv, and could hear the first explosions. A few weeks later, Alyona and Denys are in the central German city of Hanover. They tell their story seated at a table in a refugee center, where more and more people are arriving every day. The facility has been set up to relieve the pressure on a center in Berlin that has been the main destination for Ukrainian refugees. Another facility has been set up in Cottbus, near the Polish border. It's 2:37 p.m., and a train has just rolled in from a town on the German-Polish border. Helpers give each of the 285 passengers a protective FFP2 face mask, bottled water and a sandwich as they disembark. Nearby, those who are continuing their journey can pick up tickets at three temporary counters. In the station's main hall, representatives from mobile phone carrier Vodafone are handing out free SIM cards. Within 20 minutes, the new arrivals have all left the train station. Those arriving in Hanover have three options: They can board a different train and travel on, they can rest in the refugee center nearby, or they can travel onward by bus to a destination that will be determined by German authorities. Alyona and Denys arrived in Hanover by bus from Poland. The 23-year-olds don't yet know where they want to go next, so they haven't yet registered with the German authorities. Because of the circumstances, Ukrainians don't have to do that anywhere in the European Union at the moment. They can enter with their biometric passports, and don't need a visa. Since the start of the war four weeks ago, Germany has registered around 300,000 displaced persons from Ukraine. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Further west, in Cologne, Krystyna Wierzbicka usually works full time in a laboratory. These days, however, the 54-year-old spends most of her time as a volunteer, helping refugees to fill in official documents and accompanying them to government offices. Last week, she recalls, she took three women who fled Lviv to the immigration office to apply for a temporary residence permit. They stood in line for six hours, but before it was their turn, the counter closed for a lunch break. Wierzbicka says she cannot understand why, in such an emergency situation, the office sticks to its usual opening hours. Wierzbicka is part of a group helping refugee women called  Sei Stark e.V., which translates to "Be Strong." She says the volunteers are constantly having to pay for food, medication and other necessities. Refugees are entitled to financial assistance once their own savings have been used up, but they sometimes have to wait for two weeks to get an appointment at the social welfare office. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "A state functions not only through its authorities, but also through civil society. That's good, that's gratifying," Wede Büchner, of the Interior Ministry, recently told journalists. Politicians on the federal level haven't missed an opportunity to thank municipalities and volunteers, with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser emphasizing that it's all about "helping in an unbureaucratic way." When she hears that, Emitis Pohl gets angry. She set up the "Sei Stark" network in Cologne and coordinates the work of 15 volunteers, among them Wierzbicka, who organize housing and translations, and help refugees deal with bureaucracy. Every day, she says she gets calls from real estate agents offering vacant apartments. The city, however, has not been able to find a swift and simple way to cover the rent. "The authorities should, for once, consider the situation from a human perspective, not administratively," she says. "Our donors appreciate our association because we act quickly and are unbureaucratic." According to the UN Refugee Agency, an estimated 3.6 million people have left Ukraine since the war began. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expects that number to rise to 8 million. Politicians are trying to prepare for this scenario, but much is still unclear. Funds for accommodation and transport, social benefits and the cost of running the new registration centers, supported by Bundeswehr soldiers — it's not yet known who will pay for all that. Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey has said that about two-thirds of all refugees from Ukraine have been able to find accommodation through private channels. But so far, there has been no word on reimbursements, or financial assistance for volunteers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Finally, there is the issue of redistribution. So far, Germany has been allocating refugees among the 16 states by taking tax revenue and population size into account. But states and municipalities are already feeling overburdened, and the calls for a European-wide mechanism for redistribution are growing louder. In Hanover, Alyona and Denys are considering their next steps. They can still afford a cheap hostel, but they're longing for a little more privacy, their own bathroom — something that resembles normal. This article was originally written in German. While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

8Society

Scotland 0 - 2 Czech Republic (Schick 42', 52') Hampden Park, Glasgow Euro 2020 is only four days old but it may already have its goal of the tournament. Picking up the ball near the halfway line against Scotland, Czech Republic striker Patrik Schick took one look up and, seeing goalkeeper David Marshall way off his line, fired a lofting ball that dropped just under the Scottish bar — leaving Marshall chanceless as he rushed back only to collapse into the back of his goal's netting. It was a spectacular finish and it put the Czechs 2-0 up and on course for victory in their Group D opener in Glasgow. "I noticed the situation in the first half," Schick told the BBC in a postmatch interview. "I knew the goalkeeper was stood very high, so I had that in mind." The Bayer Leverkusen striker had already beaten Marshall with a powerful and well-placed header to give his team the lead just before half-time. Following a corner that the Scottish defense failed to completely clear, the Czechs whipped the ball back into the area. Schick easily outjumped his marker to direct a downward header that left Marshall without a chance. Every major tournament tends to produce a breakout player and, although this was just one game, after that performance, you have to wonder if Schick just might be one of those players at Euro 2020. Still just 25 years old, Schick is already on to his sixth club since making his professional debut at the age of 18 for the club of his youth, Sparta Prague, in 2014. After that, Schick had spells at Serie A outfits Sampdoria and Roma, before arriving in the Bundesliga on loan at RB Leipzigin the autumn of 2019. Schick had a decent season in Leipzig, finding the back of the net 10 times in 22 appearances. With fellow striker Timo Werner on his way to Premier League side Chelsea, it looked like perfect timing for the Bundesliga club to trigger an option to purchase the Czech forward. With the financial uncertainty that the pandemic brought with it, Leipzig were apparently unwilling to pay the reported €29 million ($35 million) that Roma were seeking for him. This is where Bayer Leverkusen stepped and paid what is reported to have been a similar fee to bring Schick to the Rhineland, where he scored nine goals in 29 matches last season. He also netted four times for his country as the Czech Republic qualified for Euro 2020, and his first two tournament goals silenced the vast majority of the 12,000 fans inside Hampden Park, who had created a stirring prematch atmosphere ahead of Scotland's first appearance at a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup. In an entertaining game, the Scots had their chances to get on the scoreboard, with Liverpool's Andy Robertson forcing a good save from Tomas Vaclik, Jack Hendrys hitting the bar and Lyndon Dykes shooting just wide. They would come to rue those missed chances when Schick broke the deadlock and then capped off the win with his stunning long-range effort. With their striker in this form, the Czech Republic will approach their next two games against Croatia and England with added confidence. "We know that Croatia are very strong and we're expecting a different sort of game," Schick said.

9Sports

Republic of Congo opposition leader Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelae died of coronavirus while he was being transferred to France for treatment, his campaign director said Monday. The news came a day after presidential elections in which he was the main challenger. Kolelas "died in the medical aircraft which came to get him from Brazzaville on Sunday afternoon," his campaign manager Christian Cyr Rodrigue Mayanda told the AFP news agency. The 61-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday afternoon, and could not host his last campaign meeting in Brazzaville. The presidential election had been boycotted by the main opposition and took place under an internet blackout. Mayanda called on Kolelas' supporters to rally at 11 a.m. local time on Monday. "We'll continue to count the ballots," he said. "He was ahead in a number of areas." Critics had voiced concerns about the transparency of polls, which were seen as tilted in favor of veteran leader Denis Sassou Nguesso. Kolelas was the main rival to Sassou Nguesso, who has been the Republic of Congo's leader for total of 36 years since 1979. On Saturday, the challenger had posted a video after being taken ill, declaring he was "battling against death." "Rise up as one person... I'm fighting on my deathbed, you too fight for your change," he urged his supporters. Kolelas added that the election was "about the future of your children". Although provisional election results are not expected for days, Sassou Nguesso is widely predicted to be the winner. rc/aw (AFP, Reuters)

7Politics

Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, erupted for the first time in nearly four decades the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The volcano's eruption began late Sunday night at the summit on Hawaii's Big Island. The eruption moved from the summit to the northeast rift zone on Monday, where fissures are feeding several lava flows the USGC said.  The agency however added that they weren't threatening communities down the mountain, a message reinforced by the Big Island mayor. "At this time, it's not a time to be alarmed,'' mayor Mitch Roth said. The USGS has warned residents at risk from lava flows to review their eruption preparations. "Based on past events, the early stages of a Mauna Loa eruption can be very dynamic and the location and advance of lava flows can change rapidly," the USGS warned. The agency said it was impossible to predict how long the eruption would last and whether it could cause lava to flow to populated areas of the island. "But I can tell you, we're in constant communication right now with Hawaii Civil Defense, and they're providing updates to community members,'' Miel Corbett, a USGS spokesperson said. The National Weather Service in Honolulu issued an ashfall advisory warning, saying up to a quarter-inch (0.6 centimeters) of ash could accumulate in some areas. Mauna Loa, which takes up more than half of the Big Island in Hawaii, last erupted in 1984, sending a flow of lava within 5 miles (8.05 km) of the city of Hilo. It is one of five volcanoes that together make up the Big Island of Hawaii, and has erupted 33 times since 1843, according to USGS. During a 1950 eruption, the mountain's lava traveled 15 miles (24 kilometers) to the ocean in less than three hours. lo/rt (AP, AFP, Reuters)

6Nature and Environment

A nurse accused of injecting people with saline solution instead of the COVID-19 vaccine said she did it to save her job, according to her lawyer's testimony on Thursday. Some 8,557 people who received a jab between March 5 and April 20 may have been affected and have been called up for reinoculation in the northern German district of Friesland in the state of Lower Saxony, authorities said. "I am totally shocked by this episode," Sven Ambrosy, a local politician in Friesland, wrote on Facebook. The 40-year-old woman is accused of having used the saline solution at least six times in April at a vaccination center. The woman's lawyer Christoph Klatt told news agency DPA that it had been "a one-time incident." She'd panicked after breaking a vaccine vial — and out of fear of dismissal, filled the vial with saline solution to continue doing her job. The shots administered to patients did contain the vaccine, just diluted with saline, Klatt said. But investigators suspect that the woman had done it many more times than the six times she admitted. Witness accounts at the vaccination center raised the possibility that a larger number of people were affected. The nurse was ultimately fired from the job. While authorities said the nurse's motive was unclear, they did note that she aired skeptical views about vaccines in social media posts. Her lawyer said on Thursday that there was no political motive behind the act. Approximately 3,600 affected people have made new vaccination appointments with the district, and around 2,000 more people have also contacted the information hotline, authorities said.  "The citizens are reacting very prudently," a spokeswoman for the state Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Although saline solution is harmless, most people who were vaccinated in Germany during the months of March and April were elderly people, who tend to have a high risk of severe illness if infected with COVID-19. A spokesperson for Lower Saxony's health ministry there was no indication that severe COVID-19 infections occurred as a result of saline injections.  jcg/rs (dpa, epd)

5Health

In Myanmar, resisting the military's coup is a perilous affair. Activists are constantly on the run — moving from one safe house to the next while carrying a burner phone. And, each evening, they delete every image from it.  For it is in the dark of night, when the internet has been disconnected by the junta, that the army swoops in, abducting activists, journalists, and anyone else it suspects of resisting its takeover on February 1, from their homes.  Since then, thousands have taken to the streets across Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Hundreds have been killed in the protests, with many more arrested.  Citizens are also resisting the coup in other ways. Phone apps have begun to crop in Myanmar, such as one called "Way Way Nay," meaning "go away." Protesters use the app to identify which businesses have ties to the military — and boycott them. For the Tatmadaw, as the army is called, has built a vast business empire. It consists of two major holdings, and a myriad of intertwined subsidiaries, joint ventures and smaller companies that enrich both the army and individual generals.  And the spouses and children of military personnel are also an integral part of this opaque network, according to a DW investigation.  It's impossible to fathom the extent and depth of the Tatmadaw's economic power without first delving into the army's two holdings: Myanma Economic Holding Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC).  Both were established in the 1990s when the country was ruled by a previous iron-fisted military junta.  They are run by both active and retired military personnel, operating in the shadows without any independent oversight. Business interests span gem production and mining, oil and gas extraction, banking, tourism and telecommunications. Dozens of companies across diverse sectors of the economy are owned by the two holdings, many others are affiliated with MEHL and MEC.  A 2019 UN Fact-Finding Mission identified more than 100 businesses fully owned by MEHL or MEC, noting that it was certain that it had not been successful in identifying all subsidiaries. The authors concluded that "MEHL and MEC and their subsidiaries generate revenue that dwarfs that of any civilian-owned company." The two holdings do not openly declare their revenue, making it impossible to gauge the extent of their revenues.  As the country carefully transitioned to democracy in 2010, the Tatmadaw and high-ranking military officials further built and consolidated vast business empires through the acquisition of capital, land and assets. In numerous cases, analysts say, state assets were sold to favored companies, including those controlled by high-ranking officers and their families. The children and spouses of many military leaders own and run numerous personal economic ventures. In some cases, they were awarded lucrative contracts and joint ventures with MEHL, MEC, and their subsidiaries.  Take, for example, the military's commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, who in late March gravely warned protesters: "You should learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly deaths that you can be in danger of getting shot in the head and back." He has been targeted for sanctions by the European Union, UK and US for serious human rights abuses committed by Myanmar's military following the coup and the earlier brutal crackdown against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Myanmar.    The US Treasury went a step further and, on March 10 of this year, targeted his son, Aung Pyae Sone, and his daughter, Khin Thiri Thet Mon. The reason, according to a Treasury statement, is their control of a "variety of business holdings, which have directly benefitted from their father's position and malign influence." The Treasury listed six businesses run by Min Aung Hlaing's two children, who are both in their 30s.  These include a somewhat eclectic portfolio, including a medical import business, restaurant, art gallery, chain of gyms, and a TV entertainment business.  DW has identified three additional companies controlled by the commander-in-chief's son or daughter by trawling through company registration data, namely Pinnacle Asia Company Limited, Photo City Company Limited, and Attractive Myanmar Company Limited.  Pinnacle Asia Company Limited is controlled by the army chief's daughter, the latter two by his son.  So far, none of these companies has been targeted by sanctions. In a statement to DW, a US State Department spokesman did not directly address whether additional companies would be sanctioned, but emphasized it would "continue taking further action to respond to the brutal violence perpetrated or enabled by Burma's military leaders." The data was scraped from the company registry of DICA, Myanmar's Directorate of Investment and Company Administration, and made publicly available by DDoSecrets, a US-based group that publishes information sourced from whistleblowers and activists.   This data also includes loan agreements and other business documents.  Pinnacle Asia, the data shows, was registered in November 2016 and lists its main business activity as "telecommunications." In May 2020, another document shows, it was awarded a loan by a Myanmar bank to build 17 cell phone towers across Myanmar for Mytel. According to the loan agreement, Pinnacle Asia had already set up 60 towers in various regions.  Mytel is one of four telecommunications providers in the country and was set up as a joint venture by the militaries of Myanmar and Vietnam.  Since the coup, all four telecommunications providers in Myanmar have been ordered to severely limit access to the internet.   Right now, the only way to access the internet is through fiber optic cable, meaning Wi-Fi and mobile phone data have been completely cut off for a majority of internet users.  Activists also fear that Mytel may be used to track protesters' phones.  "The army chief's daughter's closed-door dealings not only channel profits to the family of war criminal Senior General Min Aung Hlaing but also support the military's other abuses of Mytel, including to build military communications infrastructure, access international technology and to conduct surveillance," says Yadanar Maung, a spokeswoman for Justice for Myanmar, a group of Myanmar activists who document the Tatmadaw's abuses.   On March 17, a week after the US sanctions were imposed, Khin Thiri Thet Mon was removed as Pinnacle Asia's company director, company registration documents show.  Pinnacle Asia did not respond to DW's requests for comment on its investigation, including why Khin Thiri Thet Mon had been removed as director.   In the case of Attractive Myanmar and Photo City, Aung Pyae Sone was not removed as director following his designation by the US.  Photo City Company Limited was registered in January 2021 — but did not list any business activity in its registration documents. DW did not find any online presence for the company.  The exact nature of Attractive Myanmar is equally unclear. Company records show that it was registered in late 2019 as providing services in a wide range of almost 30 distinct activities, including accounting, advertising and travel services. A website registered to the company shows glossy pictures of tourist destinations in Myanmar but has no information on the company's actual activities.  It is not unusual for military-linked and owned companies to cover such a wide range of business activities, according to rights group Justice for Myanmar.  In doing so, the commander-in-chief and his children may be staking out their claim in emerging sectors and squeezing out any potential competition.  And, given that they are often awarded contracts through contacts rather than fair and transparent bidding procedures, there is no need to advertise their companies or services online.   Recent moves by the now-deposed government of Aung San Suu Kyi to implement an anti-corruption framework were unlikely to have been viewed favorably by the military and its crony companies.  Myanmar's Embassy in Germany did not respond to DW's request for comment on the regime's business ties involving Min Aung Hlaing and his two children. Foreign companies, too, have established links with military ventures in Myanmar. Activists are rushing to compile lists to pressure them to sever all ties and pull out their investments.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video One such company, Kirin Holdings, a Japanese beverage company, announced it would end its partnership with MEHL shortly after the coup.  Both the UK and US have targeted MEC and MEHL with economic sanctions in recent weeks. This includes a freeze of all assets in both countries.   The European Union may soon move to target the military's business interests, too. A spokeswoman for the European Council told DW that its policy recently changed to also allow for the sanctioning of business entities — but stopped short of saying whether the bloc would target the two Myanmar companies.  But it is unclear if these moves can dislodge the junta.  While observers note that the ongoing boycotts and walkouts by Myanmar people may have a destabilizing effect, many of the Tatmadaw's business interests are domestic — and so potentially less impacted by any international sanction.  Those that rely on exports, namely the country's natural resources, including oil, gas and gems, are to a great extent traded with its Asian neighbors. And they have, so far, shown little appetite to sever ties with Myanmar.   For many protesters in Myanmar, like Htay, the sanctions are toothless, allowing the army to go untethered.  "International sanctions have been imposed on the Burmese military junta for many years," Htay says, adding that such measures have failed to rein in the regime. This, however, hasn't stopped Htay and other activists from risking it all each night, hurrying from one safe house to the next, armed with only a burner phone to document the junta's crackdown.   "My personal protests will continue until we get democracy and end the military dictatorship," he says. Editor's note: DW has changed the name of the activist to protect their safety. Anrike Visser contributed to this report. 

7Politics

A murder inquiry was opened Saturday after the body of a 12-year-old girl was found in a trunk outside her family's building in Paris late Friday evening. Four people have since been taken into custody, AFP reports. Le Parisien said the four were taken in Bois-Colombes, a northwest suburb of Paris. The family lives in the 19th arrondissement in the northeast of the French capital. The young girl's father became concerned after his daughter did not return home from school. He is said to have shared his concerns with his wife who reported their daughter missing to police. Le Parisien reports the girl's parents said she had shoulder-length blonde hair and was wearing frayed white jeans, a white hoodie, a puffer vest and white sneakers at the time of her disappearance. According to the French paper, surveillance footage shows the girl entering the lobby of the building she lived at around 3 p.m. local time. It is unknown what happened between then and 11 p.m. when her body was discovered. Cameras also show a woman dragging a trunk with some difficulty outside the building that night. Nothing is known about the cause of death of the victim. ar/dj

3Crime

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that Vladimir Putin had made a fundamental miscalculation by  sending troops into Ukraine, adding that the Russian president had not achieved "a single goal" set before the attack. Addressing lawmakers in Germany's Bundestag, Scholz said that Putin's conviction that Russia would win and Ukraine would fall within days, was a massive underestimation. Putin "believed he could dry up Europe's solidarity by turning off our gas tap," Scholz said but he was wrong "about the courage of Ukrainians, about Europe, about us, about the character of our democracies, about our will to resist big power mania and imperialism." Scholz emphasized the EU's support for Ukraine and said that attempts to undermine that backing are doomed to fail, in a thinly veiled message to Hungary who earlier this week dropped objections over the aid for Kyiv. "Anyone who thinks he can undermine the values of the EU, to which every member state has committed itself, by blocking its foreign and security policies, will fail," he said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In his address, Scholz also said that it's in Germany's and Europe's best "interest" for the Balkan countries that are currently not in the EU to join the bloc. Many observers have previously warned that Russia might try to use its influence in the region to destabilize the EU. On Wednesday, Scholz welcomed the revival of EU accession talks with the six Western Balkan countries in recent months, and the decision this week to grant Bosnia candidate status, joining Albania, Moldova, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia who all aspire to join the bloc. The comments from the German chancellor come a week after Austria blocked Romania and Bulgaria, who became EU members in 2007, from joining the bloc's Schengen area. jsi/dj (AP, dpa, AFP, Reuters) While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

7Politics

Seven or eight people were wounded, two of them seriously, in a shooting in the northern Italian city of Trieste early Saturday, public broadcaster Rai and local media reported. One person was shot in the chest and was said to be in a life-threatening condition. Il Piccolo newspaper reported that the shooting took place at around 8 a.m. local time (0600 UTC/GMT) on a main road through the city. A large brawl broke out initially between two groups of Kosovars and Albanians outside a bar, reports said. According to witness statements, the shooting started shortly after several vehicles arrived, from which more people got out and started fighting. A witness told the ANSA news agency that the fight lasted about 10 minutes and that iron bars, chairs and bar stools had also been used as weapons. Police then launched a large-scale manhunt and arrested two people around an hour after the shooting. Local media said a similar brawl broke out in the city in July. With material from DPA news agency

3Crime

The trauma for Valery Samalazau continues each day. "I barely get any sleep, and have been prescribed antidepressants and sleeping pills," he tells DW. "My fingertips are numb since the torture; I have a hard time talking about how I was beaten, humiliated, and how they threatened to shove a baton into my anus," says Samalazau, his voice shaking. "You don't want to remember it." In 2020, Samalazau was working as an IT specialist in the UK. That summer, he traveled to his native Belarus to sort some paperwork and cast his ballot in the presidential election on August 9. During his stay, Samalazau lived on the outskirts of the Belarus capital Minsk. Authorities declared long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko the winner soon after polling stations shut. The next day, country-wide demonstrations were staged to protest against the contested result — and Belarus authorities responded by arresting protesters en masse. Samalazau was detained while on the way to visit a friend in central Minsk on August 10. "I was walking along the pavement when I was suddenly encircled and questioned," he recalls. "I answered politely and showed my ID." At the time, Samalazau was wearing a T-shirt bearing the skull logo of The Punisher, a Marvel comic book character. Because of the T-shirt, Belarus police accused him of sympathizing with the Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi volunteer regiment fighting in eastern Ukraine. The group's logo, however, does not actually feature a skull. Police officers were also intrigued by Samalazau's British bank cards, SIM cards and phone records showing calls to the UK. "They thought they had nabbed the protest organizer," he says. Soon after, in a backyard near Minsk train station, police officers began beating Samalazau. After this, he was remanded in custody. Belarus authorities vowed to keep a close eye on the "foreign spy." Samalazau says the brutality was most severe at the police station and in the prisoner transport vehicle. "The van is a torture chamber on wheels. Many people screamed, cried, prayed, vomited in it. I lost consciousness twice from pain,"  he says. His hands were tied behind his back — and though grimacing in pain, he remained silent. Officers then twisted his arms further behind his back and began beating him, he says, and whispered into his ear: "Apparently, you don't fear pain…but we will make you suffer." Samalazau says his arms went numb all the way down to his elbows. The pain, he recalls, was unbearable. He gathered all his courage and begged his captors to free up his hands a little, adding that he's a father of three. But police officers further tightened the hold until he lost consciousness. He and others were driven to a detention center in the city of Zhodzina, but he was the only one who had to stay longer in the police van. "I was told to kneel, then get on my feet, but I lost my balance." They leaned him against a wall and pummeled his head, chest, stomach and legs, Samalazau says. "I was thrown out of the van and made to kneel until they called my surname. Once again, masked officers said they would be paying extra attention to me." Kacper Sienicki, a Polish freelance journalist, was arrested in central Minsk on August 10. "I was walking alongside a photojournalist, who happens to be my friend," he says. Out of the blue, they were taken by bus to a police van, and then transferred to a police station. "Once there, we were beaten and insulted based on our nationality. We were accused of being puppet masters, orchestrating the protest movement and organizing a color revolution." Sienicki, who was based in Warsaw, had traveled to Belarus to cover the election for Polish audiences back home. But instead, he was snatched from the streets and locked up at the Zhodzina detention center for some 72 hours. He was beaten on the way to the police station. His friend was beaten on the bus until he lost consciousness. "But the beatings were worst at the police station; my hands were tied behind my back and I was laid on the ground, face down." They could not move, and officers threatened to punch their teeth out. They were made to kneel, face down. Sienicki says at that stage, his legs went numb. The journalist says anyone who could not handle the abuse was beaten with a baton. "We were taken to the hallway and beaten. We heard peoples' screams and saw bloodstains." He says officers were wielding baseball bats, leaving those detained uncertain about would they would suffer yet more abuse. "We were denied water and food, prevented from sleeping, and not permitted to use the toilet." Valery Samalazau and Kacper Sienicki are among the 10 individuals who have tasked German lawyers with taking legal action against Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko. They accuse him of having ordered his security forces to use brutal force to crack down on civilians. The lawyers argue that the 10 individuals were tortured during their arrest in Belarus. As no legal action has been taken inside Belarus against security personnel, or Lukashenko, the lawyers hope an independent court case could be launched in Germany. Germany's Belarus community has documented more than 100 cases of violent abuse over the opposition protests. "Several of the victims reside in Germany, others are still in Belarus. We're in contact with many initiatives to reach out to these people," Anton Malkin, of theBelarus diaspora, tells DW. Valery Samalazau says he spent 84 hours remanded in custody before he was released. He was then hospitalized for two weeks to treat a head and arm injury. He has documents confirming his pre-trial detention and hospitalization, yet none about his arrest. "There was no police record, they found nothing on my case, not even in Zhodzina — there was no court case." Kacper Sienicki wants to see the Lukashenko government classified as a terrorist regime. "That's why I will participate in this legal action and testify. I want justice for the people of Belarus and for myself." The journalist hopes the case will draw further attention to Belarus and its repressive regime. Kacper also wants the people of Belarus to know they can call on foreign courts to seek justice. According to official data, some 1,800 complaints have been filed in Belarus over the heavy-handed crackdown on protesters last summer. Not a single court case ensued. In addition to Germany, complaints have also been reported in Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic, where these countries are also planning to launch legal inquiries into the regime's conduct. Lukashenko has slammed the torture trial in Germany as "a dumb move." In March 2021, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a special resolution on Belarus that will see the UN document crimes against humanity committed in the country and gather evidence to perpetrators to justice. This article has been adapted from German and Russian

7Politics

Imagine setting your alarm only on four days instead of five. And having a three-day weekend that can be used to rest, relax, and rejuvenate. But is such a shortened working week viable in the modern industrial world? This is a question many have been debating, and a number of countries and companies around the world have tried reducing either working hours or the number of working days to see which model fits best for them, if any. DW explored the results of those experiments in some of the countries to find out what would boost productivity. The latest country to join the discussion has seen overwhelming support for the four-day working week. A poll conducted by Scottish think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that 83% respondents preferred to work for fewer days than they do now. The government already had plans to try the model. The governing Scottish National Party (SNP) announced plans to support businesses to trial a four-day work week in its party manifesto in April this year, The Scotsman reported. The pro-independence party approved a small-scale experiment and set aside funds to support businesses as they shift to shorter working hours without a pay cut. There is a push for Scotland to move toward being a "high well-being economy," Rachel Statham, senior researcher at IPPR, told DW. She explained that trials needed to be expanded and held in different sectors such as retail, tech, and hospitality to see how each coped with it. Expansion of the shorter work week should also be studied in different job markets such as the police, health workers, and those running on longer shifts, Statham added.  Scotland will be able to shape its own style of incorporating the shorter work week after a comprehensive trial that includes different shift workers, she said. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video From 2015 to 2019, the country conducted the world's largest pilot of the four-day working week. The length was cut down from the traditional 40 hours to 35-36 hours. It was dubbed a success by researchers. And as a result, more than 80% of Iceland's work force are opting for shorter hours without a pay cut. Iceland's economic system is part of the "Nordic Welfare Model," which means the country offers many social benefits to its citizens. The economy borrows from both capitalist and socialist models, combining them to create a structure in which shorter work hours can be implemented and tested. This year, the Japanese government announced a plan to achieve a better work-life balance across the nation. As part of the new economic policy guidelines, employees can opt to work four days a week instead of five. There are several reasons that this may be good for Japan, where death by overwork or "karoshi" claims many lives. Staff working extra hours can often fall ill due to excessive work or become suicidal. In 2019, Microsoft Japan played around with the concept and gave all Fridays in August as "special paid leave" for its employees. The move boosted productivity by 40% and resulted in more efficient work. The southern European country plans to conduct a nationwide trial of the shortened work week. The government has approved a three-year pilot plan. The country's small left-wing party Más País has been calling for this experiment since before COVID, and renewed its call after the pandemic showed very clearly how much flexibility is possible in the workplace. The government accepted the proposal. "A hundred years have passed since we last shortened the working day," a Spanish leader said in an interview in Madrid. According to Bloomberg, hundreds of Spanish companies are expected to sign up for the program to test whether the four-day model is efficient on such a large scale. The country's reaction was mixed after multiple experiments were set up in 2015 to measure the impact of working shorter hours. The proposal was to try six-hour workdays instead of eight-hour ones without loss of pay. Not everyone was pleased at the idea of spending money on this trial. "We can't pay people not to work," one deputy mayor told the New York Times in 2016. However, the experiment yielded success in some instances. For example, the orthopedics unit in a university hospital switched 80 nurses and doctors over to a six-hour workday and hired new staff to make up for the lost time. The response from the medical staff was positive. Yet the experiment also faced a lot of criticism and was not renewed for a longer period. Germany is home to one of the shortest average working weeks in Europe. According to the World Economic Forum, the average working week is 34.2 hours. Yet there are calls for reduced working hours. In 2020, the country's largest trade union, IG Metall, called for shorter working weeks, arguing it would help retain jobs and avoid layoffs. The leader of the union said last year that it was in companies' interests to shorten working hours instead of cutting staff numbers — it ensured specialists were retained and saved on redundancy costs. However, whether such a measure will be implemented or discussed is yet to be seen.

8Society

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday told the German parliament, the Bundestag, that members of the NATO alliance could rely on Berlin. With Russia's invasion of Ukraine top of the agendas for three major summits — of the EU, G7 and NATO — Scholz's speech focused on Berlin's support for NATO and Kyiv.  In his speech, the chancellor stressed that Germany not only took responsibility for its own security, but also for that of its allies. He said this was underlined by a €100 billion ($107 billion) upgrade of the Bundeswehr agreed by both houses of parliament. "Security is the most fundamental promise that a state owes its citizens," Scholz said, citing a turning point in history. "The German armed forces will be equipped so it can protect our country and our allies against any attack," Scholz told the parliament. "That is the standard for the new Bundeswehr." The chancellor also said Ukraine was getting the weapons it most urgently needed at the current phase of the war. He said the German government had decided to list all of the weapons it had already sent to Ukraine, as other NATO allies have done. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The speech came a day after Ukraine confirmed that it had received heavy weapons from Germany. Self-propelled howitzers, the Panzerhaubitze 2000, are the first heavy weapons sent by Germany to arrive in Ukraine. Berlin had been accused of a slow response to Kyiv's appeals for arms, and slower deliveries of weapons that Germany had pledged. Scholz said negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow remained remote, with Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently determined to unilaterally dictate the terms of any peace. A partnership with Moscow is "unimaginable for the foreseeable future with Putin's aggressive, imperialist Russia," he said. The chancellor also said the reconstruction of Ukraine would be a "task for generations," referring to the Marshall Plan, a US initiative that provided billions of dollars to rebuild Western Europe after World War II. He said he had invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to participate in the G7 summit starting this Sunday, to "agree on what such a 'Marshall Plan for Ukraine' would look like." Leaders of the 27 countries of the EU are meeting this Thursday. Their discussions are expected to center around the decision to grant Ukraine and Moldova EU candidate status, the first step in a long process to becoming members of the bloc.  On Sunday, leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized nations convene to address aid for Ukraine and climate-related policies.  On the agenda of the NATO summit next week, meanwhile, is strengthening the alliance's eastern flank, as well as the issue of Turkey blocking Finland and Sweden's membership bids.  fb/kb (dpa, AFP)

7Politics

Andriy Melnyk,Ukraine's outspoken ambassador to Germany, drew the ire of Poland, Israel, and Jewish groups on Friday when he defended Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera in an interview. Melnyk has made himself one of the most well-known ambassadors in Berlin, appearing regularly on talk shows and speaking his mind about the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He was particularly strident in his criticism of the time it took for the German government to agree to send heavy weapons to Ukraine. In an interview with German journalist Tilo Jung on Thursday, Melynk defended the World War II-era figure, saying that "Bandera was not a mass murderer of Jews and Poles," arguing that there was no evidence for such accusations. Stepan Bandera is an extremely controversial figure in Ukraine, with some hailing him as a hero in his fight for Ukrainian statehood against the former Soviet Union, but with most acknowledging that he was a fascist who collaborated with Nazi Germany and participated in massacres of Jews and Polish citizens. "The statement made by the Ukrainian ambassador is a distortion of the historical facts, belittles the Holocaust and is an insult to those who were murdered by Bandera and his people," the Israeli embassy said. Polish deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz wrote on a local online platform that "such an opinion and such words are absolutely unacceptable." Ukraine's Foreign Ministry quickly moved to distance itself from Melnyk's comments.  "The opinion that the Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany Andriy Melnyk expressed in an interview with a German journalist is of his own and does not reflect the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement late on Thursday night. It also expressed its gratitude to Poland "for its unprecedented support in the fight against Russian aggression," and emphasized the need for "unity in the face of shared challenges." es/msh (dpa, Reuters)

7Politics

It was one of the most important decisions Chancellor Angela Merkel had to make in her long tenure as German leader: In the summer of 2015, she decided to allow hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees into the country. They had fled the horror of the civil war that began on 15 March 2011. Only a few refugees made their way to Germany during the first years, but during the course of 2015, their number began to grow — many of them heading north via what became known as the Balkan route. And when it came to the moment of truth: the German border remained open in what was widely viewed as a remarkable gesture of solidarity. It was a decision that Angela Merkel had in very large measure made on her own. There was no consultation with Germany's European partners. No debate in the German parliament. No wonder, perhaps, that it has proved so controversial. There was warm and welcoming applause from some when large numbers of refugees began arriving at Munich's Central Station. Some others, however, responded in a different way: by attacking asylum hostels. Time Magazine named Angela Merkel its Person of the Year 2015. For his part, Donald Trump called the open-door policy a "catastrophic mistake." In the end, nearly a million people were to apply for asylum in Germany in 2015 alone. The interior minister at the time was Thomas de Maizière: He later admitted that there had been "moments when things got of control." His successor, Horst Seehofer, went even further. For him, there had been a breakdown of law and order that he described as "the rule of injustice." There were several occasions when differences over refuge policy threatened to break apart Merkel's coalition government of her own CDU/CSU conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD). Looking back, the spectrum of political responses to the events of 2015 is and was very wide. In August last year, on the fifth anniversary of Angela Merkel's famous appeal — "We can do this!" — politicians reflected on the significance of those historic words. Irene Mihalic of the Green Party said: "At the time, the chancellor was right not to close the border. The alternative would have been the prospect of chaos in the heart of Europe, with an incalculable potential for conflict." Lars Castellucci of the social democrats was more cautious. He backed the dramatic course adopted by the chancellor. But he believed that it had been, "a mistake not to bring our European partners sufficiently on board. A decision that," he added, "created enormous difficulties that still resonate today." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Gottfried Curio, from the populist anti-asylum Alternative for Germany (AfD) was more critical: "It would have been both realistic and relevant to have stuck to the letter of the law. (...) If people had been turned away from the very start, fewer would have followed and fewer would have drowned in the Mediterranean." Angela Merkel's "welcome culture" suffered a huge reversal on New Year's Eve 2015 when hundreds of women were reportedly sexually abused and assaulted in and near the Central Station in the western city of Cologne. The far-right AfD got a massive boost from the shocking scenes and in the 2017 parliamentary election, the populists would emerge as Germany's largest opposition party. Merkel has always stood by the lonely decision she made in 2015. But, at a conservative party conference in December 2016, she did backpedal by saying that the situation that evolved in the late summer of 2015, "cannot, should not, and must never be repeated." As a result, Germany's policies on refugees and asylum were tightened. Meanwhile, the number of people applying for asylum fell dramatically as the countries along the Balkan route made it increasingly difficult for anybody to make their way to northern and western Europe. The German authorities, charities, and other private initiatives have worked hard for many years now to try and ensure that refugees are integrated into German society. The focus has been on language skills and access to the labor market. Nevertheless, employment rates are still well below the national average. Which can, at least in part, be put down to the fact that many refugees have uncertain residency status. The Covid pandemic has also led to setbacks because refugees and asylum seekers tend to be among the first to be laid off by employers. The chancellor has always firmly maintained that migration means opportunities. However, in early 2016, she told a regional CDU gathering that the intention was only for the refugees to remain in Germany temporarily: "We expect that when peace has returned to Syria, when ISIS has been defeated in Iraq, they will take the knowledge that they have acquired here and return to your homeland." But the reality is that the security situation on the ground in Syria is catastrophic. As is the supply situation. Still, a moratorium on deportations to Syria that had been in place since 2012 was lifted at the end of last year following pressure from conservative ranks. In principle, that means that people categorized as "potentially-dangerous" can since the beginning of the current year be deported. The Interior Ministry says 89 "potentially-dangerous" Islamists from Syria are believed to be living in Germany. People, that is, who the authorities suspect could carry out serious politically-motivated offenses. It goes without saying, however, that each case must be individually and carefully investigated. Meanwhile, the human rights organization Pro Asyl explains on its website why the vast majority of Syrians currently resident in Germany have little to fear: "For the time being, deportations to Syria are practically impossible." First of all, the German government would have to reopen diplomatic relations with the Assad regime. "The Syrian authorities would have to make commitments to their German counterparts that people deported there would not become victims of human rights violations. Given the stranglehold that Assad and his henchmen once again have on power, that would seem to be completely unrealistic." To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video It is "super election year" here in Germany. People will be going to the polls locally, regionally, nationally. And they are set to decide who will replace Angela Merkel as Germany's next chancellor. Of course, containing the Covid pandemic remains the top priority. But refugee and asylum issues could still play a central role. And indeed, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has already warned the political parties not to lose sight of their obligation to defend the vulnerable. The UNHCR has in fact praised Germany for being a "trailblazer in global efforts to protect refugees. At the same time, however, the organization has warned that refugee policies and interests often only tend to be "prioritized when it comes to combatting abuse of the asylum system and tackling threats to domestic security." It would, says the UNHCR, be equally important to highlight the successes there have been in Germany in terms of protecting and integrating refugees. The message is: "During their election campaigns, the political parties have a special responsibility." The story of Tareq Alaows might help to underscore just how successful integration measures can be. The 31-year-old former refugee will be a Green Party candidate for a seat in parliament when he stands in September's Bundestag election. This text was translated from German.

8Society

A UN-backed Special Criminal Court (SCC) in the Central African Republic on Monday convicted and sentenced three militiamen for their role in a 2019 massacre in country's north.  The three members of the armed group known as 3R, which stands for Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation, were accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for attacks which claimed the lives of 46 villagers in May 2019.  After its first-ever trial, SCC handed down guilty verdicts along with one sentence of life imprisonment and two twenty-year sentences. Prosecutors had been seeking life terms for all three of the accused. On May 21, 2019, the villages of Koundjili and Lemouna in the north of the country were attacked by members of the 3R group. The court found that armed assailants targeted "a civilian population not participating in hostilities." According to evidence submitted to the court, men in the villages were rounded up, tied up and then shot. The court noted that victims had been subjected to psychological violence by being verbally abused before their executions, and that those found to still be breathing were shot to death. One of the accused, who was a military chief, was also convicted for rapes committed by subordinates. The court noted that the accused did not express any remorse or regret for their actions, while a lawyer for the convicted men indicated that they would appeal the ruling. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The ruling was greeted by relatives of the victims.  "I was there at the attack on Koundjili, where my elder brother ... was killed, along with 13 other people I knew," a 34-year-old man speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP news agency. "I am pleased with the ruling and also that the court mentioned the rape, which affected six of my sisters." Rights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the verdict and sentence was a "major step for justice." "Today's conviction sends a strong signal that those who commit the worst crimes in the Central African Republic can be held to account, even after so many years of widespread impunity," Elise Keppler, associate international justice director for HRW said. "The verdict is a milestone for the victims and communities that have been terrorized during the country's conflicts," Keppler added.  The Special Criminal Court is a domestic tribunal composed of local and international magistrates. The court's officials were mandated by presidential decree to investigate, prosecute and judge serious human rights violations in CAR since 2003. While the tribunal was initially established in 2015, various challenges led to it only becoming fully operational in June 2021. CAR is one of the world's poorest countries and has been embroiled in successive armed conflicts along largely sectarian lines. The country is majority Christian with a Muslim minority, and home to more than 80 ethnic groups. Tensions have been further compounded by decades of violence that forced people to band together for their own defense. AFP material contributed to this report. Edited by: Darko Janjevic

2Conflicts

Lebanon's Information Minister George Kordahi told media that he intended to step down, weeks after televised comments he made that were critical of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen.  The remark sparked a diplomatic crisis as Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador and banned all  imports from Lebanon, which is in the middle of economic meltdown. "After some thinking, I decided the time is suitable to offer something that gets Lebanon out of the crisis," Kordahi said Friday. "I hope that this resignation opens the window, or a gap in this wall'' for better relations with the Gulf, he added. Kordahi had said he remained unconvinced about resigning due to Saudi pressure, adding that "Lebanon does not deserve this treatment." However, he said he had decided to step down "based on new developments" and because he refused to be "the reason for harming Lebanon and Lebanese in the Gulf and other places." Kordahi said he had resigned before the French President Emmanuel Macron visited Riyadh, in the hope this would help ease the crisis. In his comments, Kordahi had said the war in Yemen was futile and that it amounted to an act of aggression by the Saudi-led coalition. Saudi Arabia responded by recalling its ambassador and banning all Lebanese imports, which totaled some $240 million for 2020.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The response hit hundreds of businesses and cut the flow of vital foreign currency to Lebanon. Kordahi had initially refused to resign over the comments, which were made before he became a member of the Cabinet. This remained the case even as Prime Minister Najib Mikati had asked him to put "national interest" first. Riyadh had said the comments were a symptom of Iran-backed Hezbollah's grip on Lebanon. The war in Yemen started with the 2014 takeover of Sanaa by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who are in control of much of the country's north. The Saudi-led coalition entered the war the next year, with the objective of ousting the rebels and restoring the country's internationally-recognized government. rc/rt (AFP, AP)

7Politics

Located on an unpaved side street near the international airport of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),the Hotel Mbiza usually caters to businesspeople or government delegations from the capital, Kinshasa. But since around Christmas of 2022, white military personnel from Eastern Europe have fully booked the hotel. "There are dozens, maybe even a hundred white men in uniform," a local journalist said. He asked for anonymity for security reasons. "They wear a variety of uniforms with no national flags, and pistols on belts," he said. The journalist added that soldiers of the Congolese presidential guard closely guarded the hotel entrance. They told him foreigners had booked all the rooms for an extended period. "It is now the headquarters of the whites," explained a soldier at the entrance, who refused to say more. Diplomatic circles have been speculating for weeks on the meaning of the presence of these armed Eastern European men in Goma amid a new round of fighting in eastern DRC.The war erupted last spring after Tutsi rebels of the M23 (March 23 Movement) seized a vast swath of land along the border with neighboring Rwanda and Uganda. Congo's army has been incurring heavy losses in the fighting. The presence of white armed men at the Mbiza Hotel sparked rumors that the government had hired the notorious Russian mercenary Wagner Group to help fight the rebels. The Wagner Group is seen as Russia's "shadow army." It is stationed at the front lines in the Ukraine war and is accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity there. In Africa, Wagner mercenaries have been hired to help fight Islamist insurgents in Mali and rebels in the Central African Republic. Rwandan social media accounts say that the Wagner mercenaries are now in Congo. Rwanda, which the United Nations accuses of supporting M23 rebels in Congo, is interested in casting Kinshasa's government in a bad light by spreading rumors of possible ties to the Wagner Group. Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has consistently denied the presence of Wagner mercenaries on his country's territory. "I know it's fashionable now," he had said in a recent interview, adding: "No, we don't have to use mercenaries." However, in January, photos began circulating on Twitter showing the corpse of a white man in a camouflage uniform lying in the dirt. "This is what happens to the Russians of Wagner," someone commented underneath. According to research by the German newspaper taz, the M23 leadership confirmed that the white man was killed in the village of Karenga on December 30. But the journalist who spoke to DW emphasized that most Congolese really can't tell if the men are Russian or from other Eastern European nations. Still, the Congolese in Goma refer to the mercenaries as "Russians," clearly linking them to the Wagner Group. Congo's government recently explained why it does not need to hire Wagner's mercenaries. "If we get Sukhoi aircraft [Russian fighter planes], we need the technical personnel to maintain them. If we don't have that manpower, what do we do?" said Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya. He said that the military should be trained with existing resources. He mentioned former members of the French Legion as an example. In May, Defense Minister Kabanda watched a flight demonstration of Sukhoi jets at the Congolese Air Force airfield in Kinshasa. On the tarmac, there were Eastern European men in uniforms with the insignia of the private Bulgarian company "Agemira." Kabanda praised them for having repaired old combat helicopters in only 57 days.   UN investigators confirmed that Agemira had stationed some 40 engineers and flight technicians at the airport in Goma to carry out repairs. Among them were Bulgarians, Georgians and Belarusians, who are familiar with Russian aircraft. In addition, Congo's air force employs Georgian pilots to fly fighter jets. Romanian mercenaries from Potra's company now guard the Goma airport while Agemira technicians oversee aircraft maintenance. Congo's army wants to ensure that the strategically important tarmac, just a few dozen kilometers from the front line, will not fall into rebel hands, as it did during the last war in 2012. Back then, M23 fighters looted the army depots at the airport, including medium-range missiles from Russia. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Another picture, posted online on January 2 by Fiston Mahamba, a journalist with the fact-checking portal Congo Check, provided more concrete clues, says taz's report. It shows a white, fairly mature-aged man with an AK-47 assault rifle standing between two soldiers on the road, presumably north of Goma. This is believed to be a photo of a seasoned mercenary from Romania named Horatiu Potra. He was a member of the French Foreign Legion in the 1990s and was known to be very active in Africa in the following decades. He trained the bodyguards of then-President Ange-Felix Patasse in the Central African Republic and taught insurgents in Chad how to fight. He also knows his way around Congo. In 2002, he contacted Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, who helped Patasse in the neighboring Central African Republic, according to the taz article. The publication asked several international Wagner experts and UN investigators, but no one could confirm ties between Potra and Wagner. Potra, in turn, is the managing director of the Romanian mercenary group Asociatia RALF, based in Sibiu. Its website states that the company trains bodyguards for VIPs, protects "sensitive areas" such as mines, and trains special forces. The firm did not respond to email inquiries. An employee of Congo's immigration authority stationed at the airport in Goma said that he stamped Romanian passports of the white military personnel on arrival. Kinshasa has strengthened ties with Russia over the past year. As recently as August, Defense Minister Gilbert Kabanda was invited to a security conference in Moscow, where he praised Russia's support.  Moscow, in turn, had promised to help to equip Congo's ailing army with new, modern military gear, especially tanks, helicopters and combat aircraft. Until recently, the promise was not easy to fulfill because of the arms embargo that the UN Security Council imposed on Congo in 2003. Under a new resolution adopted by the Security Council on December 20, countries are no longer required to inform the UN about arms sales or military support for the Congolese government. Two days later, the white mercenaries with Romanian passports started arriving in Goma. Congo's army can use all the help it can get. Its air force consists mainly of old Russian planes. One of two much-needed transport helicopters crashed in action last year. The rest of the equipment, in constant use in the fight against M23, is in urgent need of maintenance. But Russia needs its weapons in the war against Ukraine. Supply by the world market has shrunk and has become very expensive. This article was translated from German  

2Conflicts

Rich countries are making little progress towards meeting their pledge to provide annual climate change mitigation funds, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Friday. Developing countries bear the brunt of the climate crisis but only received $79.6 billion of the pledged $100 billion (€84.9 billion) in 2019, according to an OECD report. That represents an increase of less than 2% on the previous year. "The limited progress in overall climate finance volumes between 2018 and 2019 is disappointing, particularly ahead of COP26 (the UN climate summit in November)," OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann said. According to the OECD, Germany and Canada are moving forward a plan to mobilize the additional finance required to reach the $100 billion annual goal. Without promised support, many vulnerable poorer nations say they cannot take more action to cut emissions or deal with the impacts of a warmer world. The international community committed to providing the annual funds during a 2009 UN climate summit in Copenhagen. The $100 billion is sourced from both public and private sources. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The 2019 figure is the most recent made available to date. Data from the following year will be made available in 2022. "While appropriately verified data for 2020 will not be available until early next year, it is clear that that climate finance will remain well short of its target," Cormann said. Although the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic is still unknown, "more needs to be done. We know that donor countries recognize this," Cormann added. The EU committed to increased climate funding for developing countries this week. The topic is expected to be high on the agenda at Novermber's climate summit in Glasgow. go/rt (AFP, Reuters)

7Politics

Mali is withdrawing from a five-country military alliance fighting a jihadist insurgency in the Sahel region of West Africa. The alliance, called Group of Five (G5) Sahel, includes Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso. "The government of Mali is deciding to withdraw from all the organs and bodies of the G5 Sahel, including the joint force" fighting the jihadists, the country's military junta said in a statement on Sunday, claiming Mali was being exploited by unnamed foreign powers. The G5 was created in 2014 and its anti-jihadist force was launched in 2017 to combat an Islamist insurgency that has swept across the region in recent years. The statement by Mali's junta blamed a lack of progress in the fight against the jihadists and the failure to conduct recent meetings in Mali. A summit of the G5 heads of state was slated to take place in Mali's capital Bamako in February this year. It was due to mark "the start of the Malian presidency of the G5". However, the conference  "has still not taken place", the statement said. Bamako "firmly rejects the argument of a G5 member state which advances the internal national political situation to reject Mali's exercising the G5 Sahel presidency", the statement said, without identifying the nation. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The decision comes at a time of political friction between Mali and France. The exit also further isolates Mali, which has received sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), affecting  jobs and industry in the poverty-stricken nation. dvv/kb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

2Conflicts

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Hossein Mahini, another Iranian international, was arrested and his home searched after he offered support for the protests that followed the death of Mahsa Amini. Amini died while in custody after being detained by Iran's "morality police"who enforce rules on hijabs and other conservative Islamic modes of dress and behavior. Mahini is now part of a broad front of prominent Iranians athletes who are condemning the violence and positioning themselves against the regime. Iranian football icon and former Bayern Munich player, Ali Karimi, publicized Mahini's arrest via his closely-followed social media accounts. He had previously condemned the unexplained circumstances surrounding Amini's death. Not even holy water could "wash away this disgrace," Karimi wrote. Protesters have reportedly been chanting Karimi's and Mahini's names in demonstrations around the country. Last week, Karimi's house in Tehran was seized for several days. Fans of Karimi's former club, Bayern Munich, offered support to the protests in Iran when during Friday's Bundesliga match against Bayer Leverkusen, fans unfurled a banner that read: "Women, Life, Freedom! Solidarity with the feminist revolution in Iran!" Werder Bremen fans also put up a banner during their club's match on Saturday against Borussia Mönchengladbach reading: "Down with the patriarchy, down with the Mullah regime. Long live the feminist revolution in Iran." Iranian athletes from other sports are also standing up to those in power. Sadjad Estaki, who in 2015 became the first Iranian to play in Germany's renowned national handball league, announced his resignation from the Iranian national team in protest of the heavy-handed response to Iranian demonstrations. Mojtaba Abedini, the country's most successful fencer and captain of the national team, has also quit. "Out of solidarity with the oppressed citizens of my homeland," Abedini posted. "I see it as my duty to declare my resignation from the national team in light of these events and out of respect for them." Active players have also offered their support to the protests. "Shame on you all, how carelessly people are murdered! Long live Iranian women!" posted Sardar Azmoun, the Bayer Leverkusen attacker. His post was later deleted, however, and an apology posted in its place. But other Iranian teammates condemned the violence against the demonstrators. "We are always on the side of the people who demand nothing but their basic rights these days," wrote Iran national team captain Alireza Jahanbakhsh. The response to these statements, however, has been divided. Many fans on social networks were angry that the criticism was too hesitant and timid. For the national team, which is the center of the sporting world for the football-loving people of Iran, support is crumbling shortly before the World Cup in Qatar. The Iranian women's rights group known as Open Stadiums has called on FIFA to expel Iran from the upcoming men's World Cup. "Why should FIFA give the Iranian state and its representatives a global stage?" reads a letter that the organization sent to FIFA President Gianni Infantino. "This state not only refuses to respect fundamental rights and human dignity. It tortures and kills its own people." The purely sporting perspective seems to have faded completely into the background in Iran. Solidarity and the fight for more women's rights has united many. Record-appearance holder Ali Daei spoke out against oppression and violence via Instagram, while former international Mehdi Mahdavikia was not afraid to warn those in power after the arrest of Hossein Mahini: "These days will go down in the memory of history," the 45-year-old former Hamburg and Eintracht Frankfurt player wrote. In addition, he posted in symbolic fashion eight hands and arms holding each other. They stand for the country's various ethnic groups, which, according to the repeated concern from Tehran, could fall apart if there is no longer a strong central leadership. Their power is being shaken by the protests. This article was adapted from German.

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