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The rule of the strongest is back: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke of a "new world of great powers" at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week. There was much talk of armament, economic might, power plays — and of course US President Donald Trump. In contrast, German Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan was calmly

Decades of successful scientific collaboration could be at risk if political relations between Europe and the US continue to fray over trade and defense issues. For more than 30 years, Arctic nations have worked together across the physical, biological and social sciences to understand one of the world's fastest-changing regions. Since the late 1970s, the

"With a four-day week and an exaggerated work-life balance, prosperity cannot be maintained," Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in early January, despite OECD data that shows Germans work even more than they did in previous years. He also complained that Germans call in sick for work too often, and in general, suffer from a lack of

Amazon confirmed a further 16,000 job cuts in its corporate sector in a blog post to employees on Wednesday, completing a move to cut around 30,000 corporate jobs that began last October.  The job cuts aimed to strengthen the company by "reducing layers, increasing ownership and removing bureaucracy" at the online retail giant, top human resources

Iranians are running out of water and choking on some of the world's worst air pollution, environmental crises that critics say exemplify the failures fueling anger at the country's theocratic regime. "If I want to use one word, it's mismanagement," Hamid Pouran, an environmental technology researcher who studied in Iran and is now based in

In a classroom in Chennai, India, around 20 nurses are learning German at breakneck speed. They have six months to become fluent enough to work in Germany. Ramalakshi, one of the nurses, says her family struggled financially, but still managed to pay the equivalent of several thousand euros for her nursing college. Ever since completing

A dictator wearing reflective sunglasses, medals arrayed across his chest; a parliament in disarray; a people silenced by impunity. These are images we may envision when we hear the phrase "banana republic." The term was coined by US writer O. Henry (real name: William Sydney Porter), who'd fled to Honduras in 1896 to escape embezzlement charges

Germany has no equivalent of the specialized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in the United States, though that would change if the Bavarian branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had its way. Apparently directly inspired by the actions of ICE under US President Donald Trump's administration, an internal paper from the anti-immigration party

FIFA's previous president, Sepp Blatter, weighed in on discussions about attending the upcoming World Cup in North America this week, saying he thought it was "right to question" this World Cup.  Blatter made the comments in reference to an interview by Swiss lawyer and anti-corruption expert Mark Pieth, who urged fans to stay away from

Green Party co-chair Franziska Brantner seemed very uncomfortable when she held a press conference in Berlin this week. She had intended to speak about the flashpoints in international politics, Greenland and Ukraine, and US President Donald Trump, but the journalists present kept returning to the issue of the European Union's recent trade agreement with Mercosur — and how