Police say a man injured 4 with an axe on German train before he was detained – German police say a man attacked and slightly injured four people with an axe on a long-distance train in Bavaria before he was detained by police.
Generations of Germans believe Frederick the Great brought the beloved potato to Germany.
The legend is this: King Frederick II of Prussia wanted his subjects to eat potatoes, introduced to Europe in the 16th century from South America. But the people of Prussia, which later became part of a united Germany, wouldn’t touch the tuber.
So the 18th-century monarch resorted to trickery. He placed royal guards and soldiers along the edge of his palace garden — thus creating the illusion that potatoes were a rare and valuable crop reserved for the royal family and its aristocratic friends. But the guards withdrew from their posts each night, creating an opportunity for enterprising locals to sneak in and “steal” the spuds…
The unexciting truth is that the potato has been cultivated in Germany’s Bavarian region since 1647, Luh said. Frederick’s great-grandfather, Elector Frederick William, introduced it to the Brandenburg area of Prussia in the 1650s, but only because he liked the aesthetics of the plant’s leafy greens.
Merz ‘delusional’ over US sparing German cars in EU trade deal – Brussels has warned German chancellor not to expect UK-style carve-out for car sector in EU deal with Donald Trump.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is “delusional” in his expectation that Germany’s car industry will be spared from US tariffs, according to EU officials involved in trade talks with the Trump administration.
Merz has been pressing the European Commission, which manages trade policy on behalf of the EU’s 27 member states, to sign a “framework” deal with Washington aping the US-UK agreement signed earlier this month, which included a special dispensation for cars.
But Brussels officials have privately told Berlin that such an arrangement would not be possible, as reducing German car imports is a big focus for US President Donald Trump, two people briefed on the discussions told the Financial Times.
Trump says Israel and Iran have negotiated ‘complete’ ceasefire – After the president announced the ceasefire would start in coming hours, Iran and Israel exchanged several waves of strikes…
Iranian state TV said that a ceasefire was coming into effect, which it described as a being “imposed on the enemy.”
That means jail for life. Which actually means only fifteen (15) years in Germany.
German court sentences Syrian doctor to life in jail for crimes against humanity – Alaa Mousa accused of torturing detainees at military hospitals during Syrian civil war under former ruler Bashar al-Assad…
Mousa has lived in Germany for 10 years. He worked in various clinics over five years as an orthopaedic medic, most recently at a hospital in Bad Wildungen in the state of Hessen, in western Germany, until his arrest in summer 2020. He was recognised and reported to the authorities after some of his victims saw him in a TV documentary about the Syrian city of Homs and was placed in custody. The court case against him at Frankfurt’s higher regional court started in January 2022 and took place over nearly 190 days.
Germany’s first since, well, ever. Breaking taboos is hard to do.
Germany will hold its first celebration of veterans since the second world war on Sunday, as the nation recalibrates its complex relationship with the armed forces in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Germany breaks taboo with first celebration of veterans since second world war
Russian aggression in Ukraine has helped drive a historic shift in attitudes towards military.
Defence minister Boris Pistorius will join current and former soldiers and members of the public taking part in a day of events across the country — including at a “veterans’ village” constructed in front of the Reichstag in Berlin.
It marks a historic shift in a nation where anything that could be viewed as a display of militarism was for years seen as taboo.
I’m not kidding. That’s the international media language, I guess. Does somebody press a button somewhere to distribute this nonsense because they all mimic the same thing.
Mostly peaceful protests in LA: Trump warns of “city on fire” – and sends more soldiers.
According to city officials, the predominantly peaceful protests only affect a very small area. Nevertheless, Trump is sending another 2000 National Guard soldiers.
Russia could send “little green men” to test NATO’s resolve, German intelligence boss warns – Russia is determined to test the resolve of the NATO alliance, including by extending its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, the Germany’s foreign intelligence chief told the Table Media news organization.
Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said his agency had clear intelligence indications that Russian officials believed the collective defence obligations enshrined in the NATO treaty no longer had practical force…
Without detailing the nature of his intelligence sources, Kahl said Russian officials were envisaging confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement that would test whether the U.S. would really live up to its mutual aid obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
“They don’t need to dispatch armies of tanks for that,” he said. “It’s enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities.”
Germany plans to revamp shelter system in case of Russian attack as fears of a major war rise – Fearing Russia could attack another European country within the next four years, Germany is planning to expand its network of bomb-proof bunkers and shelters, according to reports.
“For a long time, there was a widespread belief in Germany that war was not a scenario for which we needed to prepare,” Ralph Tiesler, the head of the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance, said in a recent interview as reported by The Guardian.
“That has changed,” Tiesler said. “We are concerned about the risk of a major war of aggression in Europe.”