On the occasion of International Press Freedom Day, Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has criticized the fact that journalists were subjected to reprisals. “Journalism is not a crime and must not be a risk, sometimes life-threatening. We must ensure that information remain a public good,”…

by Thorsten Koch After violent attacks on journalists by demonstrators, including by those operating against the Corona measures, the Federal Government has announced to offer media representatives better protection. The risk should be “taken into account” better by the police forces, as a spokesman for…

Queen Elizabeth II has received congratulations on her 95th birthday, celebrated on Wednesday, from Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany. Steinmeier wrote on behalf of his German compatriots, expressing his hope that the British sovereign could celebrate this special day with Her…

by Thorsten Koch The CDU chairman and Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet, has thanked Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) for his fairness in negotiating with the newly appointed candidate for Chancellor of the two Union parties. Laschet promised to involve Söder closely…

by Thorsten Koch This Wednesday, the Bundestag voted on the amendment to the Infection Protection Act, passing it after deliberations. The law includes the power to impose restrictions on contacts and closings, for which only the Federal States were previously solely responsible. First of all,…

The Grand Coalition is debating whether to extend insolvency protection for commercial companies in view of the Corona pandemic. So far, the regulation applies until the end of April. The SPD would like a longer period of validity. A spokesman for the Union parties’ parliamentary…

by Thorsten Koch Alena Buyx, Chairwoman of the German Ethics Council, would like to see data protection law revised. You have to adjust data protection in the sense of using big data, she said in an interview with the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Germany”. A change in the…

Annalena Baerbock, the Green Party’s designated candidate for Chancellor, has no preference for a specific coalition after the election campaign leading up to the Federal Elections in September. She wants to lead the next government, said the co-speaker of the Green Party. It is about…

Survey data published on Friday suggest that the Corona measures are supposed to be tightened, to judge from public opinion. 43 percent of those asked in the framework of the representative survey for the ZDF Politbarometer – instead of 33 percent at the end of…

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced in Berlin that an additional 500 soldiers would be stationed in Germany. At a meeting with his German counterpart Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, he named autumn as the time window. Austin wants to see conflicts prevented, for example in cyber…

Germany wants the withdrawal of its soldiers from Afghanistan synchronized with 30 partner states from May 1 to be “orderly, coordinated and deliberate”. The withdrawal should be completed within a few months. In press reports, the time window for the German withdrawal was set from…

In the West African country of Mali, the number of German soldiers participating in the EU training mission EUTM is to be increased from a maximum of 450 to 600 armed forces, the Union faction’s vice-president Johann Wadephul (CDU) announced. Germany will take over the…