Author: staff
By Laura Fleischmann Published on 04/06/2026 – 15:19 GMT+2 The number of naturalisations in Germany has risen to a new record high, with 332,500 people acquiring German citizenship in 2025. Compared with the previous year, that marks an increase of 14 percent, according to the Federal Statistical Office. The largest group, at 20 percent, were Syrians. However, almost 20,000 fewer Syrians naturalised than in 2024. In second place came Turks, with 10 percent of all naturalisations, followed by Russians with 6 percent. Naturalisation among Bosnian (+126 percent to 8,800), US (+100 percent to 6,600) and Albanian (+97 percent to 6,100) citizens…
The 19th century was a great time to be an explorer. John Hanning Speke found the source of the Nile; Sir Robert McClure discovered the Northwest Passage; and it was the start of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Now, you can travel back in time to this golden age thanks to the launch of HX Expeditions’ new limited-edition cabin. Harking back to when the DS Lofoten left mainland Norway for Svalbard as the world’s first expedition cruise 130 years ago, the cabin aboard MS Fridtjof Nansen has been designed to look like it was built in 1896 – without…
Asked about Musk’s posts — which include a claim that police “cravenly kowtowed” to Nowak’s murderer — Starmer said: “We need to also assert who we are as a country, because Musk, again, has been interfering in our politics in the last few days, trying to whip up division, that is not who we are in Britain. “In Britain, we are reasonable, tolerant people. When we have a terrible case like Henry’s case, Henry Nowak, we react calmly, as his family have done.” Starmer said lessons should be learned from Nowak’s murder, and has not ruled out supporting a misconduct…
After 16 years of Angela Merkel, marked by major policy mistakes in energy, economic, and migration policy, followed by three disastrous years of a dysfunctional coalition under Olaf Scholz, Friedrich Merz’s government is now drifting towards a historic low point. Germans might still find ways to rationalise the fact that the international community placed more trust in much smaller countries such as Portugal and Austria than in Germany, Europe’s leading power. Portugal has many friends around the world, enjoys considerable goodwill in Africa, and the UN Secretary-General is Portuguese. But the fact that neighbouring Austria has received significantly more votes…
The world is consuming more oil, gas, coal and renewables than ever before, the International Gas Union’s chief of staff told the final day of Baku Energy Week, challenging the conventional understanding of energy transition. “There is not so much energy transition as there is an energy addition,” said Damjan Krnjević Mišković, chief of staff to the IGU secretary-general. “We’re consuming more and more oil and gas and coal and nuclear and biomass and renewables than we ever have before in the world,” Krnjević Mišković explained. The dominant theme of the day revolved around how to expand renewable capacity without…
Bitcoin’s slide deepened on Wednesday, with the price dropping as low as $61,300 for the first time since February, extending one of the most turbulent periods for the world’s largest cryptocurrency this year. The price is down more than 25% from its high earlier this month and over 30% since the start of the year, making 2026 one of Bitcoin’s weakest years in recent memory relative to other major risk assets. At the time of writing, Bitcoin has bounced slightly and is trading around $63,000. What makes the current sell-off particularly significant is not just its scale but its source.…
The last time Scotland qualified for a World Cup, Scottish indie rockers Belle and Sebastian were about to release their seminal album ‘The Boy with the Arab Strap’. Now Scotland is back, and so is the band – with a World Cup anthem for a generation of Scots who weren’t even alive the last time their country made the tournament. As football fever grips Scotland ahead of its opening match against Haiti on 14 June – its first appearance on football’s biggest stage since France 1998 – the Glasgow indie icons have released ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, an unofficial…
The remarks came shortly after Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen unveiled a new coalition government on Wednesday, ending months of political uncertainty. Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen retained his post and is expected to remain Copenhagen’s key interlocutor with Washington on Greenland. Trump’s bid to acquire the Arctic island in January this year rattled European allies and prompted Denmark to prepare contingency plans for a worst-case scenario involving U.S. action against its territory. Relations within NATO members deteriorated further when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February — and several European capitals declined to offer military help. Madrid denied…
Cyprus and Kazakhstan signed five cooperation agreements and pledged to deepen economic ties during the first official visit by a Cypriot president to Kazakhstan, as the two countries opened embassies simultaneously in Astana and Nicosia. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides in Astana, where they held bilateral talks followed by discussions with government delegations from both countries. The meeting produced memoranda of understanding covering higher education and research, culture, sport, information and communication technologies, cybersecurity and e-government, as well as a separate agreement between the two countries’ chambers of commerce. Tokayev awarded Christodoulides the First Class…
A Sherpa guide who went missing on Mount Everest was found alive after spending nearly a week alone on the mountain. Dawa Sherpa, 52, was discovered crawling toward base camp by a cleanup team near the Khumbu Icefall, just above Everest Base Camp. He had last been seen descending the mountain on May 29 after guiding a Polish climber. While his client reached base camp safely, Dawa never arrived, prompting concerns for his safety. Rescuers carried him down the mountain before he was flown by helicopter to a hospital in Kathmandu. His wife and daughter, who had already begun funeral…