"Americans have the will to resist because they have weapons. If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power." -- Yoshimi Ishikawa, Japanese author, in the LA Times 15 Oct 1992

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German newspaper Die Welt claims in an opinion piece that Turkey and Hungary should not be trusted within the NATO alliance. The paper writes that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to block Sweden’s NATO accession, and Hungary wants EU money in exchange for approving the membership of both nations.

The West should prepare for a long-term conflict in Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned. He predicted that after the fighting has stopped, the consequences of the confrontation will still persist.

Speaking at a meeting organized by the Rheinische Post newspaper in Duesseldorf on Monday, Scholz asserted that “we must prepare ourselves that it can last a long time,” adding that “even when the war is over, not everything will be normal overnight.

The white-coloured humanoid "Garmi" does not look much different from a typical robot -- it stands on a platform with wheels and is equipped with a black screen on which two blue circles acting as eyes are attached.

But retired German doctor Guenter Steinebach, 78, said: "For me, this robot is a dream."

Not only is Garmi able to perform diagnostics on patients, it can also provide care and treatment for them. Or at least, that is the plan.

Germany said over the weekend that it is ready to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin if he ever travels to its territory, following the Hague-based International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant last week related to alleged human rights abuses in Ukraine.

In the latest round of industrial action to disrupt travel plans, strikes at four German airports led to the cancellation of hundreds of flights on Friday.

The latest round of strikes on Friday, described by the German union Verdi as “warning strikes”, brought to halt airports in Dusseldorf, Cologne/Bonn, Stuttgart and Baden-Baden over pay and working conditions and resulted in the cancellation of at least 144 flights.

Germany’s Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, who once claimed that COVID-19 vaccination is free of side effects, admitted last week that he was wrong, saying adverse reactions occur at a rate of one in 10,000 doses and can cause “severe disabilities.”

 

On Aug. 14, 2021, Lauterbach said on Twitter that the vaccines had “no side effects,” further questioning why some Germans refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

A politician for Germany’s left-wing Green party has been fined $3,800 for faking neo-nazi hate crimes against himself.

Manoj Jansen, a former councillor for the German Greens, was handed a €3,600 (~$3,814) fine by a court in Germany on Wednesday after it was found that he had faked a number of neo-nazi hate crimes against himself.

Jansen had claimed that he was the victim of repeated far-right attacks and hate crimes, with the politician reportedly having his property vandalised and emblazoned with swastikas and SS runes by suspected neo-nazis.

A politician for Germany’s left-wing Green party has been fined $3,800 for faking neo-nazi hate crimes against himself.

Manoj Jansen, a former councillor for the German Greens, was handed a €3,600 (~$3,814) fine by a court in Germany on Wednesday after it was found that he had faked a number of neo-nazi hate crimes against himself.

Jansen had claimed that he was the victim of repeated far-right attacks and hate crimes, with the politician reportedly having his property vandalised and emblazoned with swastikas and SS runes by suspected neo-nazis.

As the Green Party’s fortunes sink, the fortunes of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party rise, with the AfD now polling ahead of the Greens for the first time since 2018 in two separate surveys.

In a survey from YouGovthe AfD jumped to 17 percent, while the Greens were one point behind at 16 percent.

After a highly acclaimed run in North America, Roger Waters will take his “This Is Not a Drill” tour across Europe. The long journey includes shows in Germany, with the final concert in the country originally planned to take place in Frankfurt on May 28.