A landmark moment for Nollywood and African storytelling has arrived with the launch of the critically acclaimed Nigerian thriller The Weekend on HBO Max across Central and Eastern Europe, showing the growing global appetite for bold African cinema. HBO Max is a major global streaming platform operated by Warner Bros. Discovery, offering movies, TV series, documentaries and original programming to …

Millions of people living in Germany regularly support parents who live abroad – but doing so often comes with significant financial, emotional and professional strain, according to a new study by the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research (DeZIM). The research sheds light on what scholars call “transnational family relationships” – family ties that extend across national borders. In …

After nearly three years of operating without ambassadors in many diplomatic missions, the Nigerian government has finally begun redeploying envoys to its embassies around the world, including several key posts in Europe. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently approved the posting of 65 ambassadors and high commissioners to Nigerian missions worldwide, bringing an end to a prolonged period during which many …

A free online information session on 24 March will connect asylum-seekers, refugees and other newcomers from Africa with one of Berlin’s leading student advisory services to help them navigate the city’s higher-education system. ________ For many asylum-seekers and newly arrived migrants in Berlin, the path to university education can seem daunting — complicated by unfamiliar bureaucracy, language barriers and uncertainties …

Discrimination remains a widespread reality in Germany, affecting millions of residents in their daily lives — from interactions with public authorities to experiences in shops, workplaces and public spaces, according to new research. A large-scale study based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) reveals that 13.1% of adults in Germany, roughly one in eight people, experienced discrimination within a …

Germany is poised to make political history as Cem Özdemir, a veteran Green Party politician and the son of Turkish immigrants, prepares to become the first person with Turkish roots to lead a German federal state following his party’s victory in the Baden-Württemberg state election. In the vote held on 8 March, the Green Party narrowly won the election with …

With Angola as official partner country, a continent-wide showcase at the world’s largest travel trade fair signals a new era of African tourism confidence. Femi Awoniyi reports When the doors of Messe Berlin swung open on 3 March 2026 for the 60th edition of ITB Berlin — the world’s leading travel trade show — Africa was not merely a guest. …

Germany’s parliament voted on Thursday to overhaul the country’s social welfare system, replacing the Bürgergeld — an unemployment benefits system introduced in 2023 — with a new one called Grundsicherung (Basic Security). The vote passed with 321 members of the Bundestag in favour and 268 against, with two abstentions, backed by the ruling coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD. The …

The German Bundestag has passed a major overhaul of the country’s asylum laws. The new rules — enacted on Friday, 27 February 2026 — implement a European Union asylum reform while also introducing new national measures that go further. They aim to process asylum applications faster, reduce so-called “secondary movement” across EU borders and return people who are not eligible …

A series of new laws and regulations, affecting retirees, consumers, women, migrants and businesses alike, will enter into effect in March 2026. Key changes include reforms to credit scoring, expanded breast cancer screening, higher health insurance contributions, extension of war refugee protection and updates to vehicle registration rules. Here are the most important changes in March SCHUFA: Transparency in Credit …

More than 350 business leaders, policymakers, diplomats and development experts gathered in the western German city of Dortmund on 3 March for the 9th German-African Business Forum NRW, an event aimed at strengthening economic cooperation between Germany and African countries. Organised by Auslandsgesellschaft.de on behalf of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the forum has been held regularly since 2010 and …

The number of asylum-seekers challenging rejected protection claims in Germany has risen sharply in recent years, putting growing pressure on the country’s administrative courts, according to media reports. Figures reported by the Deutsche Richterzeitung (German Judges’ Journal) show that the number of lawsuits filed by rejected asylum-seekers has doubled within two years. In 2023, Germany’s administrative courts received 71,885 appeals …

The UK has announced an immediate suspension of education visas for nationals of Cameroon, Sudan, Myanmar, and Afghanistan, countries that are battling serious internal security crisis. London argues that the measure is necessary after a sharp rise in asylum claims linked to student visa holders from the four countries. According to the Home Office, such applications rose by more than …

Angola, the official Host Country of ITB Berlin 2026, is the focus of the international travel industry from 3 to 5 March. At the World’s Leading Travel Trade Show the country from southwest Africa is showcasing its cultural diversity, spectacular natural beauty and a vision for sustainable development. Events kick off with the opening press conference and opening gala on …

A migration expert, Olayinka Adekunle, has called on Africans living in Berlin to actively seek out and make use of the wide range of support services provided by public and private institutions across the city. She made the appeal at an information and networking event on Social Participation and Community Networking organised by the German-African Initiative for Development and Integration …

Germany is preparing to overhaul its asylum rules to give people seeking protection quicker access to the labour market, as part of broader migration reforms. The federal government announced plans in Berlin to enable asylum-seekers to start working and integrating into society sooner, even while their applications are being processed. Under the new proposal, asylum-seekers who have been in Germany …

Berlin rejected almost one in every 20 citizenship applications in 2025, as the city’s immigration authorities combine faster digital processing with significantly tougher checks aimed at combating fraud. According to figures released this week by the Landesamt für Einwanderung (LEA), 4.9 percent of all naturalisation applications reviewed last year were refused. At the same time, the authority approved a record …

African-American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson died on 17 February. The Baptist minister and two-time US presidential candidate was a towering moral voice whose powerful oratory helped shape the civil rights movement in the decades following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Widely regarded as one of the most respected global moral figures of the past 70 years, Rev …

The European Union and India formally signed a far-reaching Free Trade Agreement (FTA) at a high-level summit on 27 January 2026 in New Delhi, after almost two decades of intermittent negotiations. Once ratified by the European Parliament, EU member states and India’s institutions — a process expected to run through 2026, with entry into force likely in 2027 — the …

Brussels, 24 February 2026 — The European Union has adopted a controversial revision of its asylum and deportation rules that will allow member states, including Germany, to deport asylum applicants to countries outside the EU — even when they have no personal connection to those states. The decision, finalised by EU governments this week in Brussels, forms part of the …