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Supporters of the far-right Zukunft Heimat (Homeland Future) movement, including some with black T-shirts that read: “Love of homeland is not a crime,” at a gathering on German Unity Day on October 3, 2023.

The ordinary Germans turning to the far-right

It’s not disillusioned old people hankering back to Germany’s past, but overwhelmingly young people who want a future free of multiculturalism.

  • Judith Woods

September

Herbert Kickl, leader of the Freedom Party of Austria, centre, celebrates with supporters during an election night rally in Vienna.

Austrian far right wins vote, but won’t form government

Despite the Freedom Party winning the most votes for the first time in a national election, its leader, Herbert Kickl, appears unlikely to play a role in the next cabinet.

  • Marton Eder and Jonathan Tirone
Boris Johnson at the Yalta European Strategy summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, earlier this month.

AUKUS was part of plan to punish Macron, says Boris Johnson

Writing in his upcoming memoirs, the former UK prime minister accused the French president of being a “positive nuisance” during talks to leave the EU.

  • Updated
  • Daniel Martin
Valeriy Shevchenko at the construction site of the apartment he bought for his family in Berlin.

Zombie construction sites are making German housing woes worse

Half-finished shells of would-be homes have become a regular sight across Germany. More than 1000 companies involved in real estate have collapsed since 2022.

  • Libby Cherry and Laura Malsch
German navy Vice Admiral Frank Lenski in Canberra last week.

Worries over China help Australia find unlikely allies

A top German navy commander is keen to work more with Australia, as Russia and China deepen their own maritime co-operation.

  • Andrew Tillett
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The Patrouille de France, an aerobatics demonstration unit of the French Air Force, trail smoke as they fly over Paris during a parade for French athletes who participated in the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics,

Paris throws a final Olympics bash

It was a day of summer revelry before the autumn doldrums set in, the end of an Olympic bubble that enchanted France and allowed it to forget, for a time, its problems.

  • Aurelien Breeden
Vladimir Putin

Putin warns of uranium export ban in retaliation to West

The Russian president urged officials to consider restricting exports of uranium, titanium and other commodities in retaliation for fresh Western sanctions.

  • Vladimir Soldatkin
Demonstrators in Lyon march against the selection of Michael Barnier as prime minister.

New French PM under pressure to suspend immigration

Michel Barnier is being propped up by Marine Le Pen of the hard Right, who said she supported the three- to five-year moratorium he proposed in 2021.

  • Vivian Song
Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov in 2017. He has historically been wary of getting close to governments.

How France embraced Telegram’s Pavel Durov — before turning on him

Accustomed to mixing with the nation’s elite, the tech billionaire says he was surprised to be targeted by its legal system.

  • Adrienne Klasa
Cleantech businesses have found that winning investments from private equity and infrastructure funds has become more difficult.

More US cleantech companies close as fundraising challenges emerge

Start-up cleantech businesses that easily raised money from venture firms just two or three years ago are now finding it harder to get hold of fresh cash.

  • Patrick Temple-West, Amelia Pollard and George Hammond
The VW Golf assembly line at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg.

Volkswagen mulls closing German plants for first time in its history

The German brand has faced falling sales, amid decreased demand in Europe, especially for its electric vehicles, and cut-throat competition from China.

  • Melissa Eddy

August

Australian tanks exercising in Indonesia would have been hard to imagine ten years ago.

Our new quiet security embrace as Jakarta hedges bets

Indonesia’s strategic wariness of China has culminated in this week’s military co-operation agreement with Australia. But don’t read too much into it.

  • Susannah Patton and Rahman Yaacob
The Paris Olympics are coming to a close after two spectacular weeks.

Tom Cruise dives into star-studded Paris closing ceremony

With golden fireworks, celebrities and thousands of athletes partying into the night, the closing ceremony put a final flourish to Paris’ first Games in a century.

  • Updated
  • John Leicester
Then-prime minister Paul Keating’s principal adviser Don Russell and Robert Zoellick, a senior US president George HW Bush’s White House, sparred by correspondence.

When Keating went to war with the White House

Secret cables reveal for the first time how Keating’s right-hand man and a senior White House official engaged in an extraordinary war of words in 1992, sometimes in personal terms.

  • James Curran
Anti-migration protesters during riots outside the Holiday Inn Express in Manvers, England, at the weekend. The hotel is being used as an asylum hotel.

Populist surge makes it essential to spread gains of migration

Conflict over migration is now breaking out into the open in Western nations. But excessive limits would have a high cost too.

  • Tanveer Ahmed
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Pressure is mounting on Don Meij, the CEO Australia’s biggest pizza group Domino’s, to turn around its fortunes.

Pressure is on Domino’s boss to deliver a turnaround

US parent Domino’s Pizza Inc and local chairman Jack Cowin are each becoming more involved in how ASX-listed Domino’s Pizza Enterprises is run.

  • Carrie LaFrenz
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with President Isaac Herzog, at a state memorial in Jerusalem at the weekend.

Israel braces for attack as US urges Gaza ceasefire

Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting “Israel is in a multi-front war against Iran’s axis of evil”.

  • Alicia Diaz and Jon Herskovitz
Electric vehicles bound for shipment to Europe at the Port of Taicang, in China.

Shouldn’t the world thank China for producing too much stuff?

If trade policy were about consumers, the US and EU would thank China for its cheap EVs, batteries and solar panels and its contribution to lowering carbon emissions.

  • Gary Hufbauer

July

Leon Marchand of Team France celebrates on the podium during the Swimming medal ceremony after the Men’s 400m Individual Medley Final on day two.

French swimming sensation rises as star of the games

Leon Marchand has drawn comparisons to American champion Michael Phelps and has lived up to those staggering expectations with his first gold medal on day two.

  • Paul Newberry
Travellers face delays at the Gare de Montparnasse station in Paris.

Arsonists attack French railways hours before Olympic ceremony

High-speed rail services were suspended after fires were “deliberately set” to damage the network.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/germany-9zg