Author: Spiegel.de

As negotiations for the future EU budget heat up, Germany has angered some member states by demanding that the money available to Brussels not exceed 1 percent of the bloc’s GDP. But Berlin has some allies.

Even as climate change represents an enormous challenge, it is essential that we not abandon our democratic principles to address it. That might not be as easy as it sounds.

Many in the Middle East view homosexuality as a sin. The Jordanian Khalid Abdel-Hadi started an Arabic LGBT magazine as a teenager to combat the many taboos and stereotypes in the region. Now he has many thousands of readers.

The London-based company Sidefloor was part of the tax-evasion structure for which Lionel Messi and his father Jorge were convicted. Now it has been revealed that FC Barcelona spent years paying agent fees to this letterbox company, payments apparently destined for Jorge Messi.

This spring, Austria’s youngest-ever chancellor was felled by a political scandal. But Sebastian Kurz could soon be back at the helm. A majority of Austrian voters seemingly can’t wait to have him back.

Religious orders in Germany are disappearing because so few people want to dedicate their entire lives to God anymore. Some monasteries and convents find novel ways to make money and survive, but even their days are numbered.

Rui Pinto is the whistleblower behind Football Leaks and has been in jail in Portugal for months. In an interview, his lawyer William Bourdon talks about how his client is doing and what he is doing to get Pinto out of prison.

Several Germans have managed to procure diplomatic passports from African countries, including former tennis star Boris Becker and figures with criminal histories. Now authorities are investigating a suspected network of intermediaries. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

In a DER SPIEGEL interview, whistleblower Edward Snowden talks about how he managed to mislead the most powerful intelligence agency in the world, about his life in Russia and about why the internet must be reinvented.

Benghazi was the center of the revolution against former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. After driving out the Islamists, warlord Khalifa Haftar has set up a culture of surveillance and fear in the city. Now he aims to conquer the rest of the country.

In recent state elections, the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany won almost a quarter of the votes. It was primarily radical candidates from the right-wing fringe who emerged triumphant. The party is continuing its slide into extremism. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Why did the 14-year-old football prodigy Thierno Ballo transfer from Bayer Leverkusen to the amateur club Viktoria Köln? He was apparently parked there as part of a contract with FC Chelsea.

University student Yegor Zhukov was arrested for participating in a Moscow protest and thousands of young Russians threw their support behind him. A new generation of youth in Russia is standing up to Kremlin oppression.

In Bangladesh, the children of poor families are often forced to work as domestic help for richer families. Many receive neither payment nor free time, nor even a proper place to sleep. Most of them are girls.

The fight over Brexit is becoming increasingly absurd. In this week’s epic clash between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the House of Commons, parliament appears to have won round one. But Johnson is going for broke.

Beijing is building a megacity in the Pearl River Delta that it hopes will one day rival New York and Tokyo. This colossal urbanization project is a bold attempt at metropolitan integration — and perhaps also a plan by the Chinese leadership to keep Hong Kong under its thumb.

UEFA transferred around 380 million euros intended for the Football Federation of Ukraine to a company in the British Virgin Islands without knowing who controlled the firm. It was the oligarch Igor Surkis, president of Dynamo Kyiv, who finance his club using the offshore company.

Adidas and Nike are locked in bitter competition for the right to represent players and teams with the greatest global reach. It is a battle that cements the gap between the rich and the poor in world football. Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract is perhaps the most astonishing.

I grew up in Germany making my own granola bars and relying on my bicycle for transportation. Now that I am in Denver, though, I drink coffee out of a Styrofoam cup and eat my meals off of plastic plates. In America, there’s no way around it.

Europe has been largely peaceful since the end of World War II. The shock of that conflict was simply too great. But with memories of the violence now fading and nationalism on the rise, it is far from certain that peace will remain the status quo.

Recent experiments in sustainability mean you can now purchase shrimp from Bavaria and pike perch from Berlin. “Urban gardening” promises healthy and fresh products without long transportation routes.

Maracaibo used to be the Dallas of Venezuela, it’s wealth fueled by oil. But today, residents are fighting for survival and the city is experiencing an exodus. The collapse of Maracaibo is emblematic of what may lie in store for the country at large.

Taking food out of supermarket dumpsters is illegal in Germany. But the practice is growing in popularity. Even as some stores try to keep the dumpster divers away, those interested can sign up for courses in “beginner diving.”

Boris Johnson is putting all his eggs in one basket in the final run-up to Brexit. But by sending parliament on forced leave, he is damaging democracy and also one of the last intact pillars of the United Kingdom: Queen Elizabeth II.

The right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) insists that it has nothing to do with neo-Nazis. But its lead candidate in the state of Brandenburg, where voters will cast their ballots on Sunday, has deep extremist roots.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have fled hunger and violence at home and come to Europe. Most of them go to Spain, where they easily integrate. But life as a refugee, even in a familiar culture, isn’t always easy.

To help end the protests in Hong Kong, the Chinese government is pressuring foreign companies doing business in the country to toe the official position. Any firm that doesn’t can expect punishment — and even ostensibly progressive German conglomerates are playing along. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Syrian forces are targeting individual civilians in Idlib province with drones and fighter jets. Once the last stronghold of anti-government rebels, Idlib is now under the firm control of dictator Bashar Assad. Even Turkey, once the rebels’ protector, is powerless to help.

The days in which Germany can afford to be complacent are over. Europe’s largest economy needs to finally accept that it’s too big and important to simply sit on the sidelines. It needs to invest, innovate — and above all, lead.

Angela Merkel was recently spotted on vacation reading “Tyrant” by Stephen Greenblatt. Was the German chancellor sending a hidden message by reading the book, which has been widely interpreted as being critical of Donald Trump? We asked the author.

The crash of two Boeing 737 Max jets in the course of just months has created an existential crisis for the company. Were the 346 who died in Indonesia and Ethiopia the victims of shortcuts and cutthroat competition in the aviation industry? By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Vitor Constâncio spent eight years as the vice president of the European Central Bank. In an interview, he explains why not him or outgoing ECB head Mario Draghi are to blame for negative interest rates in the eurozone.

Although the United States fits the definition of a tax haven, EU officials in Brussels are weary of publicly shaming it on a “black list” of countries that allow companies to avoid taxes. Given Trump’s harsh rhetoric, the Europeans are worried about a further deterioration of ties.

Alongside Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion is establishing itself as the second arm of a new global climate protection movement. Forged from the lessons of past protest cultures and a present-day understanding of mental health and sensitivity, the group seems to be finding its stride.

Whether a residential project or innovative architecture: SPIEGEL ONLINE and SPIEGEL WISSEN are looking for the best ideas for creating a great neighborhood. Submit your idea by August 31 and you’ll have a chance of winning 2,500 euros.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is still clinging to her policy of a balanced budget, but it is becoming increasingly clear that Germany’s economic downturn could soon usher in a return to deficit spending. Government ministries are already signaling a willingness to abandoned years of cautious fiscal policy.

Never since the founding of postwar Germany have relations between Berlin and the United States been as fragile as they are today. There is virtual radio silence between Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Donald Trump and U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell is doing more to agitate the situation than to mediate.

In Hong Kong, protesters are courageously fighting for democracy, rule of law and human rights — values that the West used to promote. But not anymore, showing just how dramatically the world order has changed.

Beijing is mobilizing troops at the border and the protest movement is hoping to attract thousands of demonstrators following the occupation of the airport this week. The threat of a military intervention appears to be growing in Hong Kong.

Millions of Cambodians rely on microloans to survive, even though the practice drives many of them further into poverty. Some of the money given out to poor farmers comes from Germany, yet Berlin refuses to acknowledge there is a problem.

Thousands of artworks from the Nazi period lie hidden away in storage depots, far from the public eye. The U.S. also holds a number of paintings, drawings and sculptures from the Third Reich under lock and key. It is time that they be more closely examined.

The massacre in El Paso is the consequence of growing racist extremism in the United States. As president, Donald Trump’s task should be that of uniting the country, but he himself has contributed to the climate of hate.

Africa’s largest hydroelectric power station is slated to go online next year in Ethiopia. But the project along the Blue Nile River is also the source of conflict.

Boris Johnson is the 20th prime minister to come out of Eton College. The school represents a system in which the elite stay among themselves and fail to see the problems of others. And it is becoming a serious problem for the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump is using every opportunity to escalate the trade war with China. Now, he is accusing his rival of currency manipulation, a move that could further exacerbate tensions — and might even push the global economy into recession.

After he died in 1953, Stalin was quickly erased from the public eye in the Soviet Union. These days, though, he is making a comeback, with statues and plaques honoring the dictator going up throughout Russia. Why are people honoring a mass killer?

Jamil Hassan is one of the Assad regime’s most brutal henchmen. But despite an international warrant for his arrest, he was able to travel to Beirut for treatment of his ailing heart. Why wasn’t he taken into custody?

In an interview, Middle East expert and former White House adviser Vali Nasr warns of the danger of a new war in the region and calls on Europeans to oppose Washington’s Iran policy.

Iranian provocations in the Strait of Hormuz threaten to torpedo the EU’s balancing act between U.S. President Donald Trump and the leadership in Tehran. Much depends on what British Prime Minister Boris Johnson chooses to do.

In Bosnia, thousands of people are learning German. With a lack of opportunity in their own country, talented young Bosnians are emigrating to what they hope will be a brighter future abroad. Entire towns have emptied out.