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Thousands to be released in Belarus amnesty
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has issued an amnesty for thousands of prisoners, on the anniversary of the liberation of the capital Minsk from Nazi occupation. The World War II anniversary was also celebrated with a military parade on Wednesday. Deputy Interior Minister Gennady Kazakevich said earlier that 7,850 convicts would be covered by the amnesty, according to the Belarusian media. Independent Belarusian media in exile reported however that the text of the amnesty means it is unlikely to cover political opponents of Lukashenko, who is sometimes referred to as Europe's last dictator. Lukashenko announced on Tuesday that political prisoners suffering from cancer, for example,...
Beer price at Germany's Oktoberfest exceeds €15 for first time
The price of beer at Germany's Oktoberfest is to rise by an average of 3.9% and exceed the €15 ($16) mark for the first time, the City of Munich announced on Wednesday. A 1-litre glass of beer at the festival in the Bavarian capital will cost between €13.60 and €15.30 this year, the city said. Last year, the price range for a litre of festival beer was between €12.60 and €14.90. As the organizer of the Oktoberfest, the city checks whether the prices calculated by the pub owners are reasonable. To do this, it compares them with the prices charged by large catering...
Germany's Kroos confident Spain won't send him into retirement
Germany midfielder Toni Kroos is confident that the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Spain will not mark the end of his glittering career which he wants to end with the continental title that is eluding him. Kroos, 34, ended his club career with victory in the Champions League final with Real Madrid's victory over Borussia Dortmund. He said he will quit for good after the Euros where he wants to lift the trophy with Germany on July 14. Kroos upbeat despite poor German record Saturday's date with Spain, widely considered the best team so far in the tournament, will be a huge challenge for...
Ukraine receives €2-billion boost in government funding from IMF
Ukraine has received more than €2 billion ($2.2 billion) in funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Wednesday on the messaging platform Telegram. The tranche is part of an ongoing loan programme amounting to some €15 billion, Shmyhal said. It will be used to fund vital government expenditure such as welfare spending and salaries for state employees, including doctors and teachers, he said. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev has received more than €80 billion in aid from foreign partners for its government expenditure, Ukrainian figures show. British magazine The Economist on Sunday...
Stopping antidepressants? Withdrawal symptoms uncommon, reseach shows
If you have been taking antidepressants for a spell and are considering stopping taking them but are worried about any withdrawal symptoms, then have no fear, say scientists. Those who experience discontinuation symptoms are often influenced by negative expectations, rather than by the medication itself, according to a new study. That means if you expect symptoms, you are more likely to experience them, say scientists from Berlin and Cologne. It is an area that is ripe for research as some have been concerned about stopping taking their antidepressants. The good news is that only 16% to 17% of people actually suffer medication-related discontinuation symptoms,...
Third defendant in Wirecard fraud case to testify for first time
A third defendant in Germany's sprawling fraud trial involving disgraced payments group Wirecard plans to testify for the first time. The defendant identified only as E, the former chief accountant of the group, is to break his year and a half-long silence on July 17, presiding judge Markus Födisch of the Munich court said on Wednesday. In mid-2020, the former DAX-listed group collapsed because €1.9 billion ($2 billion) in alleged revenues could not be found. The trial began in December 2022. E confirmed his personal details at the start of the trial, but otherwise has not given any statements. The Munich Regional Court under...
Israel kills four Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants in West Bank
Four militants from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group have been killed in an Israeli military operation in the West Bank. The PIJ, which is active in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, said the four men were members of its organization. According to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, the four men were between 20 and 24 years old. The Israeli military confirmed that it conducted an operation in Tulkarm, in the north-east of the West Bank. It said an army aircraft "struck a terrorist cell in the Nur Shams area" which was allegedly planting an explosive roadside device. Local...
German parliament ditches last fax machines for digital communication
Germany's lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, has stopped using fax machines, the Bundestag press office announced in response to a dpa enquiry. The Bundestag administration has ensured that all work processes and activities for which fax machines were previously used can now be carried out completely digitally, the press office said. "The fax machines have therefore been dismantled in recent weeks." In November last year, the Budget Committee called on the Bundestag administration to remove all fax machines from its premises by June 30, 2024, at the latest. Some of the machines still standing around are to be collected by employees from the IT warehouse over the next few days. However, the Bundestag plans to continue to have a fax number where it can still be reached for enquiries from citizens, for example. The messages are then to be digitized accordingly. The move was long overdue, said the parliamentary secretary of the Free Democrats (FDP) parliamentary group, Torsten Herbst. A modern Bundestag must consistently continue the digitalization of communication, he said. "In recent years, visitors have repeatedly wondered why there are still fax machines outside the committee meeting rooms."
Germany's Kroos confident Spain won't send him into retirement
Germany midfielder Toni Kroos is confident that the Euro 2024 quarter-final against Spain will not mark the end of his glittering career. Kroos, 34, ended his club career with victory in the Champions League final with Real Madrid's victory over Borussia Dortmund. He said he will quit for good after the Euros where he wants to lift the trophy with Germany on July 14. Saturday's date with Spain, widely considered the best team so far in the tournament, will be a huge challenge for the German team but Kroos is upbeat. "I don't expect it to be my last game," Kroos told reporters...
AI driving rise in Google's greenhouse gas emissions, says company
Google’s greenhouse gas emissions have risen 48% since 2019, according to the firm’s latest environmental report, driven by the increasing power demands of artificial intelligence (AI). The tech giant has set itself the goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2030, but said the increasing amount of energy needed by its data centres to carry out the more intense levels of compute required to power AI services made reducing emissions challenging. One of the major concerns around AI has been the potential environmental impact of its development, with a recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasting that the amount of electricity...
Israeli drone kills Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon
A Hezbollah commander and his bodyguard were killed on Wednesday in an Israeli drone strike near the port city of Tyre, security and Hezbollah sources said. The car was targeted in the area of al-Hosh, east of Tyre. Hezbollah confirmed the deaths of the two people without providing further details. Lebanese security sources said the commander who was killed was Mohammed Naameh Nasr, who goes by the name of Abu Nameh, and is the head of a Hezbollah brigade. Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah have been fighting almost daily since the beginning of the Gaza war. There are fears that the conflict could spread as Israel wants Hezbollah to withdraw behind the Litani river, 30 kilometres from the border - as stipulated in UN resolution 1701. The Iranian-backed militia only wants to stop its shelling once there is a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Chancellor Scholz to attend German Euro quarter-final against Spain
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend a fourth game of the natioal team at the home Euros on Friday, the big quarter-final showdown with Spain. Government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said on Wednesday that Scholz will be present for the match in Stuttgart. "The Chancellor is looking forward to the continuation of this European festival, where people meet with respect and appreciation," Hoffmann said. Scholz was also in attendance when Germany beat Hungary 2-0 and drew 1-1 with Switzerland in the group stage, and he returned for the 2-0 victory over Denmark in the last 16.
Modern dating distorted by apps and racy online content, survey shows
Social media and online dating options are leaving young adults "confused" about romance and creating unrealistic perceptions of the opposite sex, with women seemingly worse affected than men, the authors of a new study say. Although smartphone chat and so-called hook-up apps make it easier for 18-30-year-olds to glimpse more potential boyfriends or girlfriends than in the past, the array of choices can be too much, going by survey findings presented at the annual Society for Ethnobiology conference in Prague. Meanwhile, deceptive photo enhancement tools and sex-related content are affecting people's perceptions of reality, according to Chayan Munshi, executive director of the...
Faux fur and new money: How to pull off the 'mob wife aesthetic'
The so-called "mob wife aesthetic," characterized by oversized sunglasses, extravagant gold jewellery, animal prints and vintage fur coats or faux fur, is making waves across TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms. This trend draws inspiration from 90s films portraying mafia women, such as Sharon Stone in "Casino" and Lorraine Bracco in "Goodfellas," the fashion magazine Glamour has reported. Also described as "mob wife maximalism," this style stands in stark contrast to the minimalist and restrained looks that have dominated in recent years. The look has made such waves that even Francis Ford Coppola, the creator of the above-mentioned mob classics, has even...
One half of the Coen brothers opens photography exhibition in France
Joel Coen, the cult filmmaker who made "The Big Lebowski" and "No Country for Old Men", nurtures a love of photography, leading him to dedicate a show to star photographer Lee Friedlander at an international photo festival in southern France. Coen has created a show featuring 70 of the US photographer's images to tell the story of his unusual career as a chronicler of everyday life, from his humorous and poignant images of city life to rich rural landscapes. Coen said in the coastal city of Arles that he knows Lee and greatly appreciates his work. "As a filmmaker, I liked the...
Egypt names new defence, foreign ministers amid regional unrest
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi on Wednesday swore in a new government that comprises new defence and foreign ministers amid regional turmoil and domestic economic woes. Egypt, which hosts an estimated 9 million refugees and migrants, has been hard hit by the fighting between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in the neighbouring Gaza Strip and Sudan's civil war. State Egyptian media said Lieutenant-General Abdel-Maguid Saqr has been appointed defence minister replacing General Mohammed Zaky. Egypt's veteran foreign minister Sameh Shoukry is replaced in the post by Badr Abdel-Atty, an ex-ambassador to Germany. A televised swearing-in ceremony also showed newcomers to the portfolios of...
German prosecutor arrests four suspected members of Syrian militia
Germany's public prosecutor has arrested four suspected members of a Syrian militia and one suspected member of the Syrian secret service, it said on Wednesday. The detained are suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians in what amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Four of them are also accused of torture. The four alleged militia members are said to have joined the "Free Palestine Movement" (FPM) group in Syria in 2011 at the latest, which controlled a neighbourhood in the capital Damascus on behalf of the Syrian regime, according to the statement from the federal prosecutor's office. The Yarmouk neighbourhood...
Report: Regional economic, social differences decreasing in Germany
German regions with shrinking populations are currently facing major challenges, according to a report by the German government on the equality of living conditions. However, the Equivalence Report 2024, which was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday, also shows that the differences between the regions have decreased in the majority of the economic, social and other indicators analysed in recent years. The government coalition emphasized that these questions have not been investigated in this comprehensive form to date. According to the information provided, 27 of a total of 38 equivalence indicators are levelling out across regions. These include municipal tax revenue, the unemployment rate,...
German prosecutor arrests four suspected members of Syrian militia
Germany's public prosecutor has arrested four suspected members of a Syrian militia and one suspected member of the Syrian secret service, it said on Wednesday. The detained are suspected of killing and attempting to kill civilians in what amounts to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Four of them are also accused of torture. The four alleged militia members are said to have joined the "Free Palestine Movement" (FPM) group in Syria in 2011 at the latest, which controlled a neighbourhood in the capital Damascus on behalf of the Syrian regime, according to the statement from the federal prosecutor's office. The Yarmouk neighbourhood...
More security issues at Euros: Another roof climber, violent stewards
The man who climbed under the roof of the Dortmund stadium during Germany's last-16 win over Denmark on Saturday was not the first one as police confirmed a similar incident four days earlier at the same venue. Dortmund police spokesman Peter Bandermann told dpa on Wednesday that a Polish fan was caught under the roof as well during his team's group match against France on June 25. "The man was brought to the stadium police office by stewards. Criminal proceedings for trespassing were initiated," Bandermann said. A internet video shows the man walking down the catwalk under the roof which is reserved for...
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