Jill Petzinger

Ever seen fireworks on Jupiter? It’s quite something.

Could UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn’s week get any worse? He campaigned against Brexit, which didn’t go his way, but he also hardly had any time as leader of the opposition to enjoy the subsequent turmoil in soon-to-be-former prime minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party.

Pumping music, flashing disco lights, and free sparkling wine: What better setting to learn about the proper use of power tools?

A German court has convicted 94-year-old Reinhold Hanning, a former guard at the Auschwitz death camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, of being an accessory to the murder of 170,000 people. It is expected to be one of the last trials of Nazis involved in the Holocaust.

Germans, globally notorious for their love of sunbathing in the nude, are being outshone by their Austrian neighbors.

Europe’s economic engine, political hegemon, and home to the most powerful woman on the planet. Generally, just the best country out there. Germany tops many rankings, but this dominance isn’t absolute, and what’s more it isn’t always a good thing.

Berlin

This weekend’s presidential battle was one of the most dramatic in Austrian election history, with two candidates from opposite ends of the spectrum in a dead heat after Sunday’s run-off vote. Norbert Hofer, the gun-toting far-right Freedom Party candidate, almost had victory within his grasp, until the postal ballot results clinched it for independent candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, who eked out a win with 50.3% of the vote.

When the German government’s Center for Health Education launched a website earlier this year to explain the various aspects of sexual relationships, health and rules to some of the country’s newest residents, the timing was unfortunate.

Germany seems to be trying to clear up some legal hangovers from the past. Last month, Berlin announced it would abolish the 1871 lèse majesté law that recently empowered the Turkish president to prosecute a German citizen for insulting him.

The British monarch was caught on camera yesterday (May 10) accusing Chinese officials of being “very rude” to the British ambassador when president Xi Jinping visited the UK last year.

The crumbling hulk of the Olympic beach volleyball stadium in the Faliro suburb of Athens is set for a new lease on life. The empty facility will be turned over to the Ministry of Justice for the next 20 years to use as a courthouse.

The head of the BND, the German equivalent of the American CIA, has been booted out of his job on the orders of chancellor Angela Merkel, two years before he was officially due to retire. No reason for the leadership change was disclosed.

During his first campaign for US president, in 2008 Barack Obama received a rapturous reception in Berlin, with some 200,000 people packing into a square to see him deliver a speech that bolstered his credentials as a statesman.

Angela Merkel has approved the prosecution of a little-known comedian who read a crude poem about the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan on TV last month.

When a German comedian on a niche TV show prepared to read a poem about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he said: “What I’m about to read is not allowed. If it were to be read in public, that would be forbidden in Germany.”

Since Iceland’s prime minister was forced out of office last week, after the Panama Papers revealed his offshore assets, the anti-establishment Pirate Party has emerged as a serious contender in the Icelandic political landscape—and that means newfound fame and scrutiny for party leader Birgitta Jonsdottir.

Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson resigned as Iceland’s prime minister today (April 5) after the Panama Papers leak revealed his secret holdings in the Central American tax haven.

After receiving more than a million new refugees and migrants in the last year, Germany thinks the crisis may finally be receding.

Turkey has summoned the German ambassador to Ankara for a scolding, after a German TV network aired a scathing satirical song about Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Over 12 million Germans will pass judgement on chancellor Angela Merkel and her party during ”Super Sunday” state elections tomorrow (Mar. 12).

What to watch for today

Refugees from Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and Eritrea took a big step towards making a new life in Germany this week.

Comedian Jerry Lewis has spoken at length for the first time about his never-released 1972 movie, “The Day The Clown Cried,” in a German documentary. Financed with his own money, Lewis wrote, directed, and starred in the story of Helmut Doork, a clown who criticized the Nazis and ended up entertaining children in a concentration camp.