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The German Ambassador to China, Jan Hecker, has died suddenly less than two weeks after taking up the job in Beijing. The 54-year-old’s death was confirmed by Germany’s Foreign Ministry on Monday. Hecker, who was a former foreign policy adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel, began his posting on Aug. 24. Hecker had arrived in Beijing on Aug 1. with his wife and three children, according to German outlet Deutsche Welle. The details surrounding his death have not yet been disclosed. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said there was no indication Hacker’s death was linked to his diplomatic role.

Germany has to agreed to pay Namibia €1.1bn (£940m) to fund projects among communities affected by the Herero-Nama genocide at the start of the 20th century, in what Angela Merkel’s government says amounts to a gesture of reconciliation but not legally binding reparations. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were shot, tortured or driven into the Kalahari desert to starve by German troops between 1904 and 1908 after the Herero and Nama tribes rebelled against colonial rule in what was then named German South West Africa and is now Namibia. Since 2015, Germany has negotiated with the Namibian...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas speaks during a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, following a meeting in Moscow, Russia, May 10, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Sergei Karpukhin. The foreign minister of Germany was criticized on Monday after he expressed disapproval of the sabotaging over the weekend of Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility, which has been widely attributed to Israel. The details of the Natanz incident remain unclear, but reports indicate that it involved a systemic power failure caused by a massive cyber-attack, resulting in serious damage to the facility. There were no casualties in the incident. On...

President Trump is planning to leave Washington DC next Wednesday morning... Federal prosecutors are now claiming their belief that people who entered the US Capitol on January 6th intended to capture and kill... Was Qanon really linked to the FBI?... Up to 25-thousand troops now authorized to be in Washington DC for Joe Biden's inauguration next Wednesday... Virginia officials already closing some bridge access to Washington DC with all bridges into Washington DC from Virginia closing for 48 hours... Joe Biden planning to spend 1.9 trillion dollars more to deal with the coronavirus... Governors and local officials in the US...

Turkey and Qatar have reiterated their support for Libya's internationally recognised government during a trip by their defence chiefs to the capital, Tripoli, where Germany's foreign minister also paid an unexpected visit... The country has been split since 2014 between factions based in the east and west, and regional powers have aligned themselves with the competing sides. While Turkey and its regional ally Qatar support the GNA, forces in the east led by renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar have received backing from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Russia. "We believe that we will achieve the wanted results by supporting...

Israel's Annexation Plan of the Jordan Valley European thinking, Abdullah’s reaction, and Israel’s rights. Thu May 28, 2020 Joseph Puder The new Israeli government is considering extending Israeli law and sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, which is within area C of the Oslo Accords. The Accords, which gave Israel both military and administrative control in the area, also contains a large bloc of Jewish-Israeli communities. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a short visit to Israel (April 22, 2020) told reporters: “As for annexation of the (Jordan Valley) West Bank, the Israelis will ultimately make those decisions.” He added,...

Germany slammed Wednesday the US decision to suspend payments to the World Health Organization (WHO), as Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned against “blaming others” for the coronavirus crisis. US President Donald Trump announced the funding freeze on Tuesday, accusing the WHO of “severely mismanaging” the spread of the virus. “Blaming others won’t help. The virus knows no borders,” Maas wrote on Twitter. “One of the best investments is to strengthen the UN, above all the under-financed WHO… in the development and distribution of tests and vaccines.” Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert, meanwhile, said that the WHO was doing “unbelievably important work”....

"The Republic of North Macedonia is officially the new, 30th NATO member," the government in Skopje said in a statement. "We have fulfilled the dream of generations." From NATO headquarters, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared: "North Macedonia is now part of the NATO family.” It was a family of 30 nations and almost 1 billion people "based on the certainty that, no matter what challenges we face, we are all stronger and safer together,” Stoltenberg added. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said a long journey had finally come to an end. "North Macedona's NATO accession increases security and stability across...

TOKYO -- Countries with citizens in the central Chinese city that’s the epicenter of a viral outbreak are planning evacuations as the number of illnesses grow and China takes drastic measures to try to stop the spread of the virus. A look at steps being taken: CHINA: The government cut transportation links to and from the city of Wuhan on Jan. 22 and has since expanded those controls to several nearby cities. JAPAN: Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said 560 Japanese citizens are confirmed in Hubei and chartered evacuation flights are being prepared to leave “ as soon as possible....

Germany’s foreign minister said Saturday he is hoping for direct talks with Iran, in addition to the country’s European partners and the United Nations, as a way of de-escalating tensions in the Middle East following the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani. Heiko Maas told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag: “In the coming days, we will do all we can to counteract a further escalation of the situation — in the United Nations, the EU and in dialogue with our partners in the region, including in talks with Iran.” Despite heightened anxiety in the region, Maas said he had no...

A report by the Swedish Defense Research Agency found that Russia has threatened to cut energy supplies to Central and Eastern European more than 50 times. Even after some of those states joined the European Union, Russian threats continued. Not surprisingly, Germany's current Social Democratic Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, has criticized the U.S. sanctions as foreign interference. "Decisions on European energy policy are made in Europe, not the USA," he tweeted on December 12. "We fundamentally reject foreign interventions and sanctions with extraterritorial effects." U.S. President Donald Trump, like his predecessor Barack Obama, has opposed the pipeline project. Trump in...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visited Hiroshima on Friday to commemorate victims of the 1945 nuclear attack and promote a nuclear-weapon-free world. “One day living in a nuclear-weapon-free world has to remain our goal,” he said. “Even though that will not be easy and may take a long time.” However, the foreign minister said he was against a unilateral German withdrawal of nuclear weapons. “It’s no use if nuclear weapons are just moved from one country to another. If they are to disappear then they should disappear everywhere,” he said. “As far as nuclear disarmament is concerned, we need agreements...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a sudden, unscheduled trip to Baghdad on Tuesday, as an aircraft carrier and Air Force bombers headed to the Middle East amid warnings that Iran was contemplating an attack on U.S. troops in the region. The surprise visit came after Pompeo abruptly canceled a trip to Germany, where he was scheduled to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. The State Department initially said only that the change was made because “pressing issues” had arisen. Pompeo’s visit to Baghdad, which followed an Arctic Council meeting in Finland, took on an air...

Germany was voted onto the United Nations Security Council for the sixth time on Friday, after it secured a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly. The place was effectively guaranteed going into the vote: Germany and Belgium ran unopposed for the two spots in the Western European and Others category. Israel was initially also in the running, but withdrew its bid last month. Germany received 184 votes from the 190 cast ballots. […] In a tweet, the German Foreign Office in Berlin said: “We are looking forward to this huge task and responsibility. Many thanks to all those who placed...

Germany’s foreign minister says his government will exert “considerable efforts” to protect the Iran nuclear deal despite Berlin’s misgivings about Iran’s ballistic missiles program and its involvement in the Syria conflict. In a visit to Jordan, Heiko Maas called for a “firewall” between the nuclear deal and Iran’s other activities. Under the deal, Iran agreed to curbs and inspections on its nuclear program in exchange for relief from international sanctions. …

Germany’s new foreign minister has urged the Palestinians “not to tear down bridges,” an apparent reference President Mahmoud Abbas’ contentious relationship with the U.S. and political rival Hamas. Heiko Maas spoke Monday, after meeting with Abbas and the Palestinian foreign minister. Maas says the new German government remains committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Trump administration has refused to make such a commitment. …