EUROPE

  Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) have nominated Martin Schulz as their chairman and chancellor candidate for the country’s next elections. The former European Parliament president was unanimously chosen by the party’s executive committee on Sunday (29 January) to run against Chancellor Angela Merkel of the centre-right CDU at the next general polls on 24 September. Accepting the nomination in front …

Videos of a young African man who jumped into the waters of Venice’s Grand Canal in front of hundreds of people and drowned are currently trending on the Internet. The man, who has been identified as a Gambian, is suspected by the Italian authorities of throwing himself into the icy canal on Sunday, 22 January probably in a bid to …

UK Prime Minister Theresa May will have to obtain the consent of parliament before triggering Article 50, the exit procedure from the European Union, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday (24 January). The panel of judges rejected by eight to three the government’s argument that it had the power to start the exit procedure based on the result of last …

The former European Parliament president, Martin Schulz, is to be the candidate of the Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) in its bid to unseat Chancellor Angela Merkel in this year’s election. Schulz should be officially confirmed at a meeting on Sunday, after the party’s leader, Sigmar Gabriel decided to stand aside. The SPD has been in government with Merkel’s Christian …

Members of the German chapter of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which won Ghana’s presidential election in December, will celebrate their victory on Saturday, 11 February. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on his third attempt defeated incumbent President John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress at the 7 December election, marking the first time in Ghana’s history that a sitting president …

Gambian refugees across the world are following the political crisis in their home country with both apprehension and hope. DW’s Daniel Pelz met some of them in Germany’s capital Berlin. General’s hands were glued to his smartphone, even when he spoke. “I am so scared. I am always thinking about Gambia, about what’s happening next,” the 30-year-old refugee from The Gambia said in …

The German parliament has voted to allow the use of the drug for medical purposes. The issue had been a point of heated discussion in the country for a long time. Members of Germany’s parliament Bundestag voted unanimously on Thursday 19 January to legalize the use of medical marijuana. Seriously ill patients will qualify for medical marijuana if they have …

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government Wednesday [18 January] set 24 September as the date for a general election in which she will seek a fourth term, facing populist headwinds over a record migrant influx. The date, adopted by Merkel’s right-left coalition cabinet, must still be formally approved by President Joachim Gauck. But the decision fires the starting gun for an …

British prime minister Theresa May outlined on Tuesday (18 January) a strategy leading to a so-called hard Brexit from the EU. “What I’m proposing cannot mean membership of the single market,” she said in a speech to ambassadors called Plan for Britain.
 She explained that the UK could not accept the four freedoms of goods, capital, services and people attached …

The number of asylum seekers arriving in Germany last year has dropped by two-thirds to about 280,000. Berlin said the decrease signals that measures to reduce migration are working. Some 280,000 migrants arrived in Germany last year, a stark reversal in numbers after the country received nearly 890,000 refugees during the 2015 migration crisis, according to year-end government figures released …

Germany is set to launch tougher security measures for asylum seekers and refugees who are not properly documented or deemed to pose a security threat. The new measures, agreed upon on Tuesday, 10 January will make it easier for the authorities to electronically tag immigrants considered a security risk, as well as those required to leave Germany but who have …

Muslim girls at Swiss schools must attend swimming lessons including both boys and girls, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled, rejecting a case filed by two parents who wanted their daughters exempted from the classes on religious grounds. The court found on Tuesday, 10 January that, although the Basel school had “interfered with” religious freedom by insisting …

The northern German city of Braunschweig has launched a special commission to investigate more than 300 cases of welfare fraud by asylum seekers. One fraudster is believed to have used as many as 12 different identities. Regional German broadcaster NDR reported on New Year day that the majority of more than 300 cases of welfare fraud in the northern city …

In a bid to prevent a repeat of last year’s sex attacks, state police focused on men of North African descent on New Year’s Eve. Police Chief Jürgen Mathies has faced criticism for praising the success of the practice. In the face of a heated debate in Germany over the alleged use of racial profiling during New Year’s Eve celebrations …

For many the current position of Britain’s Black population is one that is mired between achievement and marginalisation, reports Alasdair Soussi Glasgow, United Kingdom – They are one of Britain’s most dynamic and enduring communities whose presence in the UK dates back hundreds of years. From serving Britain with distinction in the first and second world wars to their modern-day …

In her New Year’s speech, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on citizens to go into 2017 with optimism and defy terrorism. But to guarantee “security in freedom,” she said new security measures may be necessary. With Germany still reeling from the deadly Berlin truck attack, Angela Merkel has used her annual New Year’s message to insist the country and …

Black people often experience prejudice from landlords or estate agents when they look for an apartment in Europe. However, most times they’re not able to prove that racism is responsible for why they’re not able to rent an apartment. Landlords always emphatically reject any accusation of bias. Now a case in France has shown that indeed landlords do specifically discriminate …

Dr Adebisi Laja, one of the oldest members of the Nigerian community in Germany, has passed on. According to his associates, the retired medical doctor died peacefully at home in the western German town of Lindenfels on 12 December at the age of 84. Laja arrived in Europe in June 1954 to study in Glasgow. He moved to Germany in …

Anis Amri, the chief suspect in Monday’s truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market, has been shot dead by police in Milan. Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti told a news conference on Friday morning that Amri was killed during a shootout with police at 3am. Amri opened fire during a routine check when he was asked for his identity documents …

By Eric Maurice, EUObserver │The EU approved a new Swiss law on Thursday (22 December) that will allow EU citizens to work in Switzerland, opening the way to solve a two-year crisis.
 An EU-Swiss joint committee, where all 28 EU states are represented, said that the law passed last Friday in the Swiss parliament would limit the effect of a …