Author: Spiegel.de

With police firing on protestors and students undergoing weapons training, the situation has escalated dramatically in Hong Kong in recent days. The city is rapidly moving toward the precipice as the opposition’s original goals fade into the background

For many of the protesters in South America, democracy has not been the guarantor of stability and prosperity it promised to be. Leaders remain corrupt, inequality is still rampant and no one has a viable economic plan for the future.

Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar defends his government’s isolation of Kashmir and explains how his country is doing better on climate protection than the Europeans.

Electric automaker Tesla announced its plans to build a major factory just outside Berlin this week. The move is a major development in an industry shakeup that is causing the upheaval of the entire German automobile industry. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

French President Emmanuel Macron has a grand foreign policy vision for Europe and he has been energetically pushing it forward. In the process, though, he has angered Germany and other European Union allies.

Kashmir has been largely cut off from the outside world for months and the internet remains cut off. Residents share stories of state violence and terror.

Shortly before its completion, the United States aims to torpedo the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project that would carry natural gas from Russia to Germany. Berlin is caught between the fronts in a global conflict over energy.

German politicians and activists have been the focus of a wave of vicious, neo-Nazi threats of late, many of them signed by a new extremist group from the U.S. called the “Atomwaffen Division.” Security officials in Germany are concerned.

So far, no cure has been found for Parkinson’s. It is only possible to treat the symptoms. But a nurse in Scotland can smell the disease before it is diagnosed, and researchers are hoping she can help on the search for a breakthrough.

In a DER SPIEGEL interview, former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev speaks about the fall of the Berlin Wall, why perestroika was unavoidable and the present-day relationship between the West and Russia.

Prominent U.S. conservative Robert Kagan warns that it is time for Europe to “grow up.” In an interview, he talks about Trump’s stance on foreign policy, the crumbling liberal democratic consensus and the precarious future of Germany and the EU.

Montenegro is the only country in the world to describe itself as “ecological” in its constitution. But the exploitation of its Adriatic coastline, where developers are given free rein, tells a different story.

A debate over the limits of free speech is exploding in Germany, with the left and the right seeking to outdo each other. The political debate has grown intense in this polarized country, but it’s also more vital than ever. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

U.S. President Donald Trump has been extremely critical of German defense spending. But in a midterm government report, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz successfully prevented an explicit pledge to increase the defense budget.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was 35 when the Berlin Wall came down. In an interview, she speaks of her dreams as a citizen of East Germany, the divide between Germany’s East and West and the rise of the populists during her tenure.

The Arab Spring may have passed over Lebanon and Iraq eight years ago, but now protestors in both countries are taking to the streets to demand changes to the system. The regime in Iran is unlikely to sit idly by.

In one of Rio de Janeiro’s most dangerous areas, one woman is using ballet to guide young girls away from a future of poverty and crime. But to keep her dance academy alive, she must constantly bend to the laws of the favela — and contend with drug dealers and hostile politicians alike.

Threatened by entrepreneurs in California and by Chinese upstarts, German automakers are urgently trying to find their place in a new world of robots and electric cars. BMW, Daimler, Audi and VW set the standards for a century but have now fallen behind. By SPIEGEL Staff

In an interview, outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker discusses his regret over not fighting Brexit, the special rapport he established with Trump and the prospects for Ursula von der Leyen, his successor at the helm in Brussels.

For years, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was the world’s most-wanted terrorist. Last weekend, American elite soldiers managed to find and eliminate him in compound in northeastern Syria. How did he end up there?

Christine Lagarde is seeking to shake things up at the European Central Bank: better communication, a broader palette of issues and an examination of the instruments used by the bank. Will she also change monetary policy?

In an interview, Wolfgang Ischinger, head of the influential Munich Security Conference, praises the German defense minister for her push for a security corridor in northern Syria and explains why Vladimir Putin might even agree to it.

By proposing a security zone in northern Syria, Germany’s defense minister has irked important allies in Berlin and taken international partners by surprise. It is a risky move and could determine whether she will succeed Merkel as chancellor. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

In what has grown into a major battle between the former royal family of Prussia and the state of Brandenburg, Germany, historian Christopher Clark prepared an expert opinion on behalf of the Hohenzolllerns. In an interview, he comments on the controversy that has unfolded around the legal altercation.

The Holocaust Museum in Buenos Aires recently obtained alleged “Nazi treasures” seized by Argentinian police in 2017. The objects are set to go on display in December, despite the fact that German criminal investigators have concluded just about everything in the collection is fake.

Although British Prime Minister Boris Johnson seems incapable of governing, his advisers believe he will still win the battle over Brexit. He has called for new elections to take place in December as part of his strategy to force his opponents into a dirty election campaign.

Employees at the Swedish unit of the German travel conglomerate TUI are volunteering to have a microchip implanted in their hands. The technology literally opens doors, but also raises numerous ethical questions.

John Bercow, the speaker in the British House of Commons, has become an international star thanks to his humor and turns of phrase. In an interview with DER SPIEGEL shortly before he steps down, he spoke about Boris Johnson, death threats and the future of the United Kingdom.

With bad air, clogged streets and packed trains, Germany’s major cities are suffocating on their own attractiveness. Now, thousands of e-scooters are also crowding bike lines. Long known as a car paradise, the country is experiencing a revolution. Is anyone noticing? By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Many Europeans are apprehensive about migrants coming to the continent. The United Nations has surveyed some 3,000 immigrants from African countries about their personal histories and plans — and came to some astonishing conclusions.

It was just a couple of months ago that Matteo Salvini tripped over his ego and crashed out of the Italian government. But his right-wing populist Lega party is making a rapid comeback.

In an interview, Thomas Haldenwang, the president of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, discusses the new threat of extremism in the wake of the Halle attack and his agency’s need for greater authority in the monitoring of such threats.

The German government long shied away from bringing German Islamic State fighters and their families back from Syria. But with the Turkish invasion of northern Syria, that hesitancy is coming back to haunt Berlin.

Following the attempted mass murder at a synagogue in Halle, political parties in Germany are debating what action can be taken to prevent radicalization on the internet. Some politicians say surveillance is the answer. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

In an interview, former Tory Party rising star Rory Stewart discusses his views on Brexit, the decline of British politics, his aim of becoming London’s next mayor and why he believes that politics would be healthier if it were a bit more boring.

For a decade, significant amounts of money flowed to a handful of sub-Saharan Africa’s poorest villages. It was earmarked to eradicate poverty, hunger and disease. But did it work?

The war is essentially over in eastern Ukraine, but peace hasn’t yet begun. A visit to the self-proclaimed mini-state known as the People’s Republic of Luhansk shows that the road back to normality is long and full of obstacles.

In an interview, 17-year-old American pop star Billie Eilish discusses the stress of fame, a time she feared was a never-ending black hole and the best coping mechanism.

Now that the U.S. has withdrawn from northern Syria, a trio of autocrats is dividing the country up between them. But with Putin, Erdogan and Assad now having the say in the region, dangers are on the horizon for Europe. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Since the mass influx of refugees to Germany in 2015, one-third have found jobs in the country. We profile four success stories that show just how far some asylum-seekers can get in the country if they remain persistent.

Motorists in Germany are banding together to oppose climate activists’ calls to limit the use of cars. Politicians are taking them seriously because, unlike the Fridays for Future movement and its leader Greta Thunberg, most members of the Fridays for Horsepower group can vote. By SPIEGEL Staff

Jews in Germany are taunted and harassed every day, often — but by no means exclusively — by the far right. This daily discrimination also sets the stage for violence against Jewish people.

Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov spent five years as a political prisoner in Russia. In an interview, he speaks with DER SPIEGEL about the interrogation techniques used by the Russian secret service and the glass jar that gave him hope.

The Arctic is warming faster than any other region on the planet, and dangers lurk in its frozen soil. Nowhere are the effects of global warming more evident than in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

The 27-year-old German man who went on a shooting spree during the Yom Kippur holiday was out to kill Jews. He apparently self-radicalized in the darkest corners of the internet, beyond the reach of police or intelligence officials, who are woefully unprepared for this new breed of terrorism. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Germany is a country where hatred for the other slides effortlessly from a tick on the election ballot to genocide. It’s not enough to install a few security cameras — it’s time for an antifascist consensus.

The right-wing party PiS is heading for another election victory in Poland. To ensure as large a majority as possible, Jaroslaw Kaczynski is seeking to target more moderate voters, but he hasn’t forgotten his party’s core nationalist supporters.

In the battle over the impeachment inquiry, Donald Trump has shown once again just how deft a manipulator he can be. Will it be enough? A failure of American democracy would be a disaster — and not just for the United States.

Hopes for a last minute deal between Britain and the EU are fading and both sides are now preparing for the consequences of an unregulated Brexit, including higher customs duties, long delays and greater uncertainties. There will be plenty of losers, but also some beneficiaries. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Roughly 1.2 million Britons live abroad in the European Union and Brexit is making their lives more expensive and more complicated. For some, it has endangered their livelihoods. Five people talk to DER SPIEGEL about their experiences.