Germany and France were negotiating with Vladimir Putin to supply Russia’s coronavirus vaccine to the EU. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron were on a video call with the Russian president on Tuesday night. The leaders discussed ‘cooperation’, which would see the Sputnik jab made used in the European Union once regulators give … Read more
Chemicals and pieces of plastic produced through the use of packaging are migrating into food and harming plants and soil ecosystems, scientists warn. Ecologists from the Free University of Berlin contributed one of three evidence-based essays exploring the problem of microplastics and how best to tackle them. The German team, led by Matthias Rillig, they … Read more
Berlin and Munich have banned AstraZeneca jabs for under-60s over blood clot fears a day after Canada also stopped administering the vaccine to under-55s. The suspension was taken as a ‘precautionary measure,’ Berlin’s health minister said, ahead of a meeting later today of 16 state representatives. Earlier the prestigious Charite hospital in Berlin announced it … Read more
Berlin has banned AstraZeneca jabs for under-60s over blood clot fears a day after Canada also stopped administering the vaccine to under-55s. The German capital’s health minister Dilek Kalayci said the ban was a ‘precautionary measure’ as she cited ‘new data about side effects.’ Earlier the prestigious Charite hospital in Berlin announced it would no … Read more
Angela Merkel is ‘definitively a lame duck’ after she was forced to make a humiliating U-turn by scrapping plans for a strict Easter lockdown, a former German government spokesman has said. Bela Anda, a press secretary under Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, said Merkel had seen her power ‘eroded’ by the fiasco – with her party’s … Read more
Angela Merkel made an astonishing plea for forgiveness today as she scrapped plans for a strict Easter lockdown in Germany which she said were ‘my mistake, and my mistake alone’. The planned five-day shutdown – in which even grocery stores would have shut on all but a single day – was agreed between Merkel and … Read more
Protesters clashed with police in Germany and Croatia on Saturday as new lockdowns were introduced in France, Poland and Ukraine to battle a third wave of coronavirus. Demonstrators took to the streets in the central German city of Kassel and were pictured engaging with lines of riot police. Several groups, most of them far-right opponents … Read more
Save my sole (till last!): German pensioner, 72, is country’s most tattooed man with 98% covered, leaving only the bottom of his feet bare Wolfgang Kirsch, who calls himself Magneto, has had 86 tattoos in 20 years He had to wait until the fall of the Berlin Wall to get his first body art The … Read more
Sunny Spanish holidays could be back on for Britons within weeks as the tourism minister revealed a vaccine passport system was planned for the middle of May. It comes after Greece announced plans to reopen to holidaymakers from mid-May and Cyprus said it would welcome fully-vaccinated Britons from May 1. But those hoping to jet … Read more
Greece gives green light for tourists from May 14: Holiday hotspot will reopen to international visitors who are vaccinated or can show proof of a negative Covid test, minister says Greece plan to reopen to Brits from mid-May if they have negative Covid test Greece will reopen borders on May 14, three days before Brits … Read more