Germany

Archeologists and craftspeople are building a village and monastery following, for the first time, the only blueprint that survived the early Middle Ages — a medieval plan for a utopian community sketched on calfskin.

A recent survey indicates much less species growth in Germany’s Black Forest. Two plant species have gone extinct, and several more will likely disappear in the next 15 years.

More than a year after thousands of Russians who opposed the war fled abroad for safety, they now face deportation and other challenges in the countries that initially received them, such as Kazakhstan, Estonia and Georgia.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year upended energy markets throughout Europe. No country was hit harder than Germany. At the time, more than half of Germany’s gas came from Russia.  In the short term, the country had to double down on fossil fuels: keeping coal-fired power plants open longer and building new liquefied natural gas terminals.  But in the long term, the war pushed a government falling behind on renewable energy goals to enact some ambitious new policies.

This is an important case. It was the first time a court recognized the persecution of trans people in Nazi Germany. It was followed a few months later by the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, formally releasing a statement recognizing trans and cisgender queer people as victims of fascism.