Angela Merkel 2015 portrait by Colin Davidson.
Raymong Tang
Germany was steady under its longstanding chancellor, but also stagnant.
Shutterstock
How many other world leaders can claim to have become a verb?
SPD main candidate Olaf Scholz meets voters on the campaign trail.
Alamy/Reuters
After a rocky start, the social democrats are on the up as polling day approaches.
Hundreds of Afghan citizens, fleeing their home country, await takeoff after packing inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Afghanistan.
AP Photo/Capt. Chris Herbert/U.S. Air Force
Don’t be misled by the scenes from Kabul airport. Most Afghan refugees don’t leave in an airplane and few will settle in the United States.
A road sign directs traffic to the entrance of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, north-east Germany.
Odd Anderson/AFP
By waiving sanctions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia and Germany, the United States is paving the way for the controversial project to go ahead.
Rolling the dix.
Imelda
If insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, what does that say about the EU?
Looted Benin Bronzes on display at the Linden Museum in Stuttgart, Germany.
Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images
While some German museums are returning some of the famous Benin Bronzes, most remain in museums in the UK and the US even as calls for restitution grow.
Bad Neuenahr, Germany on July 16 2021, where massive rainfall caused widespread flooding.
Philipp von Ditfurth/DPA/Alamy Live News
I helped forecast disaster – but nothing prepared for me what happened next.
Consulting with the communities that have suffered the most harm from past acts of mass violence is a key part of a successful reparations process.
Steven Senne/AP
From Germany to Georgetown, the Global North has a lot to learn about reckoning successfully with past human rights wrongs.
Two members of the G-7 exchange an elbow bump.
Phil Noble, Pool via AP
The G-7 nations, which include the US and UK, form the foundation of the modern global economy.
Protesters took to the streets in Poland to protest the country’s crackdown on abortion access.
Silar
Some countries made abortion access easier during the pandemic. Others used it as an excuse for a crackdown.
By the end of April, 19 EU member states, including France, had approved the text paving the way for the launch of the recovery plan.
Shutterstock
National procedures for approving the financing of the European recovery plan are delaying its implementation. But the horizon seems to be clearing.
A COVID-19 surge has pushed hospitals in India beyond their capacity. A stadium in New Delhi was being used as a makeshift ward on May 2, 2021.
Getty Images
The process will take months, if it’s even approved. But just the threat of waiving intellectual property rights could spur faster action.
Triadic Ballet costumes by Oskar Schlemmer, 1922.
Wikimedia Commons
Stuttgart flies under the radar as a tourist destination but it is a treasure trove of Expressionist art and works that exemplify post-war modernity.
EPA/Sean Gallup
After a prolonged campaign, Germany’s biggest coalition has chosen the man who will lead it into September’s general election.
There are so many different states – and provinces, districts, regions and lander!
Getty Images
The U.S. is broken up into 50 states, plus territories like Puerto Rico and Guam, and a federal district, Washington, D.C. Most other countries have smaller parts too.
‘Onkel Toms Hütte’ – or Uncle Tom’s Cabin – is the name of a subway station in Berlin.
DXR via Wikimedia Commons
Why did Confederate flags start appearing in the country’s anti-lockdown protests?
A man receives the first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a private medical office, in Paris.
Christophe Petit Tesson/EFA-EPE
Stockpiles of this vaccine are going unused in France and Germany, and unfounded criticism of it may be partly to blame.
Representatives from LGBTQ+ Compass Community Center in Florida pose in front of a 2012 exhibit called Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals 1933-1945.
ZUMA Press Inc / Alamy Stock Photo
Tens of thousands of gay men and lesbians were persecuted by the Nazis but stigma and a lack of research funding has kept their history hidden.
The feeling of solidarity towards other EU countries differs from one area to another.
Michal Cizek/AFP
A recent survey conducted in eight European countries provides a snapshot of citizens’ views of their own countries’ leaders as well as those who influence the future of the EU.