Penulis: Agus S

Overcrowded city centers and housing shortages that displace locals are among the many reasons why Spanish residents are protesting the influx of tourists.

Protests against mass tourism are starting up again in southern Europe ahead of the summer vacation season. They follow large-scale anti-tourism demonstrations in vacation hot spots inItaly, Portugal and especiallySpainin recent years.

The coalition of activists and campaigners that make up Sur de Europa contra la Turistizacion (Southern Europe against Touristification) have once again called forlarge-scale demonstrationson June 15 in Venice, Milan, Lisbon, San Sebastian, Valencia,Barcelonaand the Balearic Islands, among other places.

Members of the group recently met for a conference in Barcelona to discussovertourism, which according to the UN World Tourism Organization is usually defined as the point at which locals or visitors feel tourism has negatively impacted the quality of life in a region to an unacceptable degree.

That is the case for many people in Barcelona, where large-scale demonstrations with thousands of participants have taken place in recent years. Also in the mix are attention-grabbing tactics involving water guns.

In 2024, protesters in Barcelona doused unsuspecting tourists dining along the popular promenade of Las Ramblas in order to draw attention to the problem ofovertourism. It worked — a media flurry followed, as did several other incidents involving water guns, which have become something of a symbol of the fight against overtourism in Barcelona. In April, for example, activists blocked a tour bus parked in front of theSagrada Família— one of the city's top attractions — and soaked stunned tourists with water guns. Chants of "tourists go home," were heard.

"The kind of tourism we have today in Barcelona is not compatible with the lives of the local population," Daniel Pardo, a member of the Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth (Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turístic), told DW. Pardo has been involved in organizinganti-tourism campaignsfor years. He and others want to stop rampant tourism growth, which they say has resulted in noisy streets, air pollution, and overcrowding. "The moment when it was still possible to find a balance came to an end a long time ago."

Pardo specifies that it's not only about protesting mass tourism, but rather about going against a "tourism-first culture" that prioritizes the tourism industry over the quality of life of many locals.

Around 30 million tourists visit Barcelona a year, a city that is home to around 1.7 million people. The majority came from Italy, France,the United KingdomandGermany, followed by the United States. According to city officials, the tourism industry generates around 14% of the city's gross domestic product and supports 150,000 jobs.

"Yes, that's always used as an argument for why we shouldn't complain," said Pardo. "But we are still complaining!" Many jobs in tourism are rife with precarious labor conditions with wages that are below average, he said. "Ultimately, dependence on tourismimpoverishes the population."

The level of frustration is also high on the Spanish island ofMallorca. Just like in Barcelona, there will be a demonstration in the capital of Palma on June 15 under the motto: "For the right to a dignified life: Let's stop the touristification." Other popular vacation spots on the Balearic Islands, as well as in Andalusia, in the Basque Country and on theCanary Islandshave also criticized what they see as a "tourism-first" mentality taking over their cities. Topping the list of complaints is the increasing number of short-term vacation rentals, which critics say are partly to blame for rising rents that push out locals.

But the short-term rental market is only one aspect of how touristic areas are changing. In some Spanish vacation towns, traditional retail is also disappearing. It's becoming easier to find an ice cream parlor or souvenir store than say, a bakery or supermarket. As a result, locals feel alienated and are moving away.

"Tourism is driving us out of our homes, villages and neighborhoods," Spanish group Menys Turisme, Mes Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) wrote on their website in their call to protest on June 15.

In 2024, citizens around Spain also took to the streets to demonstrate against rampant tourism, yet despite the backlash — and the water gun splashes — tourists don't seem to be dissuaded from visiting. In fact, the country is predicting record numbers of tourists in 2025.

In 2024, almost 94 million international travelers came to the country, making it the world's second most popular tourist destination afterFrance. According to a recent study by tourism lobby group Exceltur, the number of short-term rentals has jumped 25% in Spain over the last two years, despite the ongoing housing crisis.

The government has, however, made some recent attempts to mitigateovertourism. In recent months, there has been stricter regulation of vacation rentals. The central government inMadridrecently made it obligatory for short-term rental providers to register their properties in a newly created database in an effort to prevent illegal offers. And in mid-May, the Spanish Ministry of Consumer Protection orderedAirbnbto delete around 65,000 apartment listings that did not include the required registration numbers.

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Last June, Barcelona's city council announced it would abolish short-term vacation rentals by 2028, and that licenses will no longer be renewed after they expire. Yet, for better or worse, tourism is one of the main pillars of Barcelona's economy. The growth of the sector has played an important role in the economic revival of the city, say city officials.

However, Jordi Valls, the city official responsible for tourism, admits that tourism in Barcelona cannot continue to grow at the current pace. "We are reaching our limit," he said.

Activist Daniel Pardo acknowledges that "at least no politician dares to openly call for further growth" of the city. But he pointed out that more concrete action needs to be taken to mitigate the problem and improve the lives of residents.

"We need a real debate about the limits of tourism," he said. The upcoming protest, he hopes, will see that debate happening sooner.

This article was originally written in German.

Short-term rentals are worsening Spain's housing crisis, while investor demand continues to drive up prices. For many locals, the situation is devastating.

The real estate agent Juan Sanchez, who didn't want his real name published in this article, pushes open the frosted glass door of an apartment that used to be a shop. Visitors step directly into the kitchen from the streets of Spain's capital. The ceilings are very high.

"You could easily add a mezzanine here," Sanchez says, and explains that the two bedrooms advertised are in the basement, and rather tiny. One of them doesn't even have a window.

However, the space could be "easily rented out to students" for €1,300 ($1,484) if the prospective buyer is willing to ignore what he calls "a small catch."

"Downstairs is officially listed as a storage space in the property registry, because we couldn't get a residential permit. But that's not a problem for renters," he tells DW.

The 55-square-meter (592 square-feet) space, advertised as an apartment, located in a middle-class neighborhood in central Madrid, is listed to sell for over €300,000.

Unlike a decade ago, when cheap credit boosted thehousingprices in Spain, today, the sky-high prices even for mid-range apartments are driven by foreign investors with deep pockets. They've invested huge sums in Spain's lucrative housing sector and boomingtourism industry, driving up prices in the entire housing market in the process. According to areportby the Spanish institute BBVA Research, demand is outstripping supply significantly.

Those living in Spain, meanwhile, are struggling to afford skyrocketing rents, a situation compounded by the growing share of homes being rented out to international tourists visiting Spain, and students seeking accommodation.

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Spain's worsening housing crisis has already sparkedrepeated protestson the Canary Islands, in Barcelona and in Madrid.

These days, internet platforms like habitacion.com sell even small living spaces to investors. The Spanish property startup allows users to purchase — rather than rent — individual rooms in a shared property as an alternative investment and living option.

For the Madrid tenants' union Sindicato de Inquilinas de Madrid, the practice amounts to "rampant speculation" fueled by tourism and investment funds. The group has estimated that this has resulted in more than 4 million homes and 400,000 vacation rentals currently standing empty — in a country of 47 million people.

But the housing shortage isn't just due to external demand. Locals are contributing to it, too. According to the Spanish national statistics office INE, over 2.5 million homes in Spain are only used occasionally, with many of them presumed to be second or third residences — often reserved for holidays, and rarely rented to others.

Private investors and hedge funds are less reluctant to rent. In the first quarter of 2025, short-term leases, not counting tourist rentals, accounted for 14% of the rental market, or a 25% increase from the previous year, according to data compiled by the real estate platform Idealista.

The platform reported the largest growth of short-term rental listings in cities like Bilbao (up 36%), Alicante (33%), Barcelona (29%), and Madrid (23%).

In May, the Spanish ministry for consumer rights made headlines when it ordered the short-term rentals platformAirbnbto remove nearly 66,000 unlicensed listings. The Spanish Housing and Urban Planning Minister Isabel Rodriguez is also pushinga bill that would require vacationers to pay 21% VAT on apartment rentals— double the rate applied to hotel stays.

But tenant groups like Sindicatos de Inquilinas say that's not nearly enough.

Similar to the years preceding the 2008 financial crisis, Spain's real estate market is showing signs of overheating again.

A house that cost an average of €138,000 in 2014 was valued at €178,700 in 2024, according to data from the US-based investment firm MD Capital. In places like the Balearic Islands, prices have more than doubled.

Tim Wirth, a real estate lawyer based in Palma, says that the sharp rise in prices "inevitably leads to protests from local residents." He told DW that rentals in Spain must be made more attractive again with "legal and tax security for both sides."

But he also acknowledges theacute social challengein the fact that average wages have grown by a little over 23% in the past decade, while property prices have shot up by at least 29% in the same time period.

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In 2024, the average monthly gross salary in Spain was €2,642, according to the economic and socio-demographic information platform Datosmacro. An ordinary 80-square-meter apartment now costs about €1,100 a month to rent, as data from the real estate portal Fotocasa shows, with rental costs for a similar apartment in major cities like Madrid or Barcelona ranging between €1,400 and €1,500.

Unlike people living in cities such as Paris or London, Spanish residents do not receive a supplement to their salaries to offset higher housing costs.

Each year, some 90 million international tourists visit Spain. Many remote workers have set up residence in the Canary Islands and Barcelona, while students from across the world flock to the country's 90 universities and dozens of business schools.

In the 2024/2025 academic year alone, more than 118,000 students came to Spain under the European Union students' exchange program Erasmus. Spain, however, lacks publicly funded student accommodation, and there is no financial support from the state equivalent to Germany's BAföG aid program for students from low-income households.

That's one reason why Spanish citizens typically leave their parents' home after the age of 30, as official statistics show. In Germany, the average age is 24.

Madrid's tenant lobby, meanwhile, has threatened to escalate public protests if the government doesn't take stronger action: "We'll raise our voices to reclaim what's vacant or being rented to tourists," a spokesperson told DW.

This article was originally written in German.

Concerns about religious freedom in Turkey have been growing since early June, when a new law gave the Diyanet the right to ban translations of the Quran that do not comply with its interpretation of Islam.

Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs, known as the Diyanet, is one of the country's most influential authorities. According to its own figures, it employs over 140,000 people and offers religious services in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1924, the Diyanet has reported directly to Islamic-conservativepresident Recep Tayyip Erdogansince 2018. Its annual budget of around €3 billion ($3.47 billion) also exceeds those of several ministries, including the Ministry of Interior.

The Diyanet manages 90,000 mosques across the country, organizes Quran courses, cultural events and annual pilgrimages, and coordinates slaughters for the Feast of Sacrifice. It also trains imams and deploys them both at home and abroad. Its foundation is active in 150 countries and reaches millions of people through educational programs and scholarships worldwide.

In recent years, the Diyanet's powershave expanded. Most recently, a new law that went into effect on June 4 granted the authority to interpret translations of the Quran. If these "do not correspond to the basic characteristics ofIslam," they may be banned. "Problematic copies" that have already been published can be confiscated and destroyed. This also applies to digital texts, audio, and video recordings online.

Previously, President Erdogan had granted this authority by decree, which allowed the Diyanet to classify some translations as "untruthful." But the decree was struck down by the Constitutional Court. But the new law has ensured that the Diyanet's power would indeed be constitutional.

In Muslim-majority countries, heads of state regularly invoke Islam to justify their actions. For example, in Iraq, the once secular Saddam Hussein used religious tenets to justify his autocratic measures and war with Iran. In Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been accused of using the push for more religious openness as an excuse to crack down on his political opponents. And as the Middle East Institute has noted, Erdogan's political party, theJustice and Development Party, or AKP, "maintains the loyalty of its base through a historical narrative of religion and nationalism."

Now theologians critical of the government allege that Turkey's new law amounts to censorship, calling it state-enforced Islam that endangers religious freedom.

For well-known theologian Sonmez Kutlu, it is a declaration of bankruptcy by the state. A country with over 100,000 Diyanet employees and more than 100 theology faculties should be able to protect the Quran from allegedly problematic translations via intellectual and scientific methods rather than bans, he says.

He also warns that publications containing translated verses that allegedly "contradict the fundamental characteristics of Islam" could also lead to investigations and prosecutions.

Theologian Ihsan Eliacik sees the Diyanet's new authority as a fundamental violation of the faith. "In Islam, no institution is allowed to stand between people and Allah. However, the Diyanet's review of the Quran for 'truthfulness' does exactly that," he says.

Eliacik's own translation of the Quran was previously banned by the Diyanet. He appealed to the Constitutional Court and won. But under the new legal provisions, taking action like this is no longer possible.

In recent years, Eliacik, Kutlu and other theologians critical of the government have repeatedly been the target of smear campaigns by pro-government brotherhoods and Islamist orders. Omer Ozsoy, theology professor at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, suspects the growing influence on the government from these religious orders is behind the new law.

"These circles have been openly opposing academic, critical and pluralistic theology at Turkey's Islamic theological faculties for around a decade," Ozsoy says. He has observed how they "have been conducting systematic campaigns against high-profile theologians for some time."

Ozsoy fears that the new law could be broadly applied with repressive and politically motivated interpretations. "Translator colleagues report that the Diyanet has already prepared to impound a total of 12 translations, including those by Mustafa Oztürk and Edip Yuksel," he adds.

The Quran is written in Arabic. Translations of Islam's holy book are essential to making the texts accessible to millions of people. However, they also contain interpretations, especially in the case of ambiguous words or passages, making them a sensitive topic.

The importance of Quran translations in non-Arabic-speaking countries such as Turkey has increased in recent years. In the past, explained Ozsoy, "it was up to religious scholars to deal with the Quran." Today, however, things are different, he said. "Today, lay believers read the Quran directly and interpret it independently," adding that this is due to critical thinking and the emergence of various movements and social currents.

According to Ozsoy, the number of Turkish Quran translations has increased in recent decades. Among the translators there are many without professional qualifications. This problem is widely discussed among experts and there is extensive academic literature on the subject.

Religion has become a focal point of Turkish social discourse. Young people in particular are engaged in reading scripture and questioning many theories — a cause for concern within the government. President Erdogan has emphasized repeatedly that he wants to raise a "pious generation."

However, recent studies by the opinion research institute KONDA show the opposite: The proportion of people who describe themselves as religious has fallen from 55% in 2018 to 46% now, while the proportion of atheists or non-believers has risen from 2% to 8% in the same period.

This article was originally written in German.

Russia returned a total of 4,812 bodies of fallen Ukrainian soldiers to Ukraine this week. Moscow plans to return a further 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers' bodies to Ukraine.

Another transfer of 1,200 bodies fromRussiawas received byUkraineas part of an exchangeagreement that was struck in Istanbul talks earlier this month, Ukrainian officials announced on Sunday.

"Another 1,200 bodies which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel, were returned to Ukraine," the coordination headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war in Kyiv reported, adding that the bodies would have to be forensically identified.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced on Facebook that a total of 4,812 bodies have been returned this week. "I am grateful to everyone involved in this humanitarian mission," he said.

Ukraine has not commented whether it has sent any bodies to the Russian side.

Russian news outlets also reported on the handover, which was part of a series of agreements reached between the two warring sides in Istanbul on June 2, that included alsoseveral prisoner exchanges.

According to the media reports, Russia did not receive any of its fallen soldiers from Ukraine on Sunday. Russia plans to return the bodies of 6,000 Ukrainians.

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SinceRussia's full-scale invasion of Ukrainebegan in February 2022, neither Moscow nor Kyiv has typically disclosed its military losses.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC, a US news channel, earlier this year that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died and some 380,000 were hurt.

Russia has not disclosed the number of its military fatalities since September 2022, when it reported that fewer than 6,000 soldiers had died. This figure is widely considered to be significantly lower than the actual number of casualties.

Multiple independent investigations have reported significant losses of life among Moscow's army, using open sources such as death announcements that local officials and family members published.

The Russian website Mediazona and the BBC's Russian service claim to have identified the names of approximately 111,000 deceased Russian soldiers.

Edited by:Jenipher Camino Gonzalez

A dangerous new nuclear arms race is emerging at the same time as arms control is severely weakened, according to the latest SIPRI assessment. AI and space technologies are also radically redefining nuclear capabilities.

There are nine nuclear-armed states in the world and nearly all of them continued with intensive nuclear modernization programs in 2024, upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions.

That is one of the key findings of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute's (SIPRI) Yearbook 2025, an annual assessment of the state of armaments, disarmament and international security.

In the mid-1980s,nuclear warheads, bombs and shellsworldwide numbered around 64,000. Today, the figure stands at an estimated 12,241. That trend now looks set to be reversed, according to the latest assessment.

"The most worrying single thing that we see in the nuclear arsenals at the moment is that the long-term reduction in the numbers of nuclear warheads is coming to an end," SIPRI Director Dan Smith told DW.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the end of theCold War, the dismantling of retired warheads — warheads removed from the nuclear stockpile — has outpaced the deployment of new ones.

While it is common practice for nuclear-armed states to modernize and upgrade their nuclear capabilities, Smith says there has been an intensification of this process since late in former US PresidentBarack Obama'sfinal term, with more investment in new generations of missiles and carriers.

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"Already for several years before then, the security horizon worldwide had been darkening and the nuclear-armed states were already starting to introduce these processes of what we would call this 'intense' process of modernization, so not just a little bit of tinkering, but some real steep changes," Smith said.

SIPRI researchers conclude that of the world's estimated 12,241 nuclear warheads in January 2025, about 9,614 were in military stockpiles: either placed on missiles or located on bases with operational forces, or in central storage that could potentially be deployed.

An estimated 3,912 of those warheads were deployed with missiles and aircraft, with around 2,100 of those kept in a state of high operational alert on ballistic missiles. Nearly all of those belonged to Russia or the US, but China may also now keep some warheads on missiles, according to the assessment.

Among the world's nuclear-armed states — the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel — Russia and the US possess 90% of all nuclear weapons.

SIPRI analysts now warn that more and more states are considering developing or hosting nuclear weapons, with revitalized national debates about nuclear status and strategy.

This includes new nuclear sharing arrangements:Russiaclaims to have deployed nuclear weapons onBelarusian territory, while several EuropeanNATOmember states have signaled willingness to host US nuclear weapons.

In 2007, Russian PresidentVladimir Putin delivered a speech at the Munich Security Conferencein which he railed against the US-dominated world order, NATO's eastward expansion and disarmament.

But just two years later in 2009, Obamaannounced the goal of total nuclear disarmament in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. "The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War," he said.

He went on to say that the US would "take concrete steps towards a world without nuclear weapons" and negotiate a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) with Russia. That treaty was signed, and came into force in 2011.

But in the wake ofRussia's full-scale invasion of Ukrainein February 2022, the Biden administration published its 2022 Nuclear Posture Review which identified the modernization of the US nuclear arsenal as a top priority.

In February 2023, Russian PresidentVladimir Putinsigned a bill halting Russia's participation in the New START treaty.

"The tide of insecurity has been building slowly since 2007-08, through 2014, onto this moment when the waves start crashing down in February 2022," Smith said. "I think that is when maybe many ordinary citizens woke up to this deterioration which was more than a decade old by that time."

The bottom line is: the world's nuclear arsenals are being enlarged and upgraded. SIPRI estimates thatChinanow has at least 600 nuclear warheads and that its nuclear arsenal is growing faster than any other country's.

Indiais also believed to have slightly expanded its nuclear arsenal in 2024, whilePakistancontinued todevelop new delivery systems and accumulate fissile material— a key component of nuclear weapons.

Israel, which on June 13launched strikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, killing military leaders and nuclear scientists, maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity over its own nuclear capabilities. However, it is believed to be in the process of modernizing its own nuclear arsenal, as well as upgrading a plutonium production reactor site in the Negev desert.

In his introduction to the SIPRI Yearbook 2025, Smith warns of the prospect of a new nuclear arms race that carries "much more risk and uncertainty" than during the Cold War era — largely due to the rise ofartificial intelligenceand new technologies in the fields of cyber capabilities and space assets.

"The coming nuclear arms race is going to be as much about AI, cyberspace and outer space as it is about missiles in bunkers or on submarines or bombs on aircrafts. It's going to be as much about the software as about the hardware," Smith said.

This complicates the question of how to control and monitor nuclear weapons and stockpiles when the competition between nuclear-armed states used to be more or less about numbers.

There are long-term discussions about AI in relation to what are commonly called"killer robots" (Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems), and the use of automated and semi-automated drones since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine — but not so much in relation to nuclear weapons.

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Artificial intelligence allows for a large amount of information to be processed extremely quickly and in theory this should help decision makers to react more quickly. However, if something goes wrong within the software or a system totally reliant on LLMs, machine learning and AI, a small technical glitch could potentially lead to a nuclear strike.

"I think there has to be a red line that probably all political leaders and military leaders will also agree with, that the decision on nuclear launch cannot be made by artificial intelligence," Smith said, pointing to theexample of Soviet Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov.

In 1983, Petrov was on duty at the Soviet nuclear early-warning system command center 62 miles south of Moscow when the system reported the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile from the US, with four more behind it.

Luckily, Petrov suspected the warning was a false alarm and waited instead of relaying the information immediately up the chain of command — a decision which likely prevented a retaliatory nuclear strike, and in the worst-case scenario, full-scale nuclear war.

"I suppose the big question is that in a world of artificial intelligence, who plays the part of Lieutenant Colonel Petrov?" Smith asked.

Donald Trump took to Truth Social to urge ICE officials increase arrests in cities which he claimed were "core of the Democrat power center." It comes after deportations in Los Angeles sparked protests.

US President Donald Trumpon Sunday directed immigration officials to prioritize deportations in cities run byDemocrats, amid growingresistance in Los Angelesandother major US cities.

He called on officials to "do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest mass deportation program in history," in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.

The post read: "We must expand efforts to detain and deport illegal aliens in America's largest cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where millions upon millions of illegal aliens reside."

"These, and other such cities, are the core of the Democrat power center, where they use Illegal aliens to expand their voter base, cheat in elections, and grow the welfare state, robbing good paying jobs and benefits from hardworking American citizens," Trump's post added without providing evidence for his claims.

Trump called Democrats "radical left," baselessly claiming they were destroying the "inner cities" with their belief in open borders and transgender rights. He said that is why he has directed his entire administration "to put every resource" to focus on "sanctuary cities."

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Deporting undocumented immigrants has been a prioritze for Trump in his second term. A number of public detentions andhastened deportationshave caused fury among Americans over the last few weeks. Protests have only grown as Trump called in the National Guard andUS Marines. There were reports of anincrease in arrests, clashes, and the use of tear gas.

Trump's post came hours after "No Kings" protests broke out across the United States on Sunday, reportedly garnering a larger crowd than the US president's $45 million (€51 million)military parade.

In these protests, dissenters went beyondanti-ICEslogans to criticize several Trump policies, which they claim eroded the US democracy.

While Sunday's protests were largely peaceful, authorities recorded a few cases of isolated confrontations.

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In Utah, police said they were investigating a shooting"possibly associated" with a march which killed a protester who is said to have brandished a rifle.

A US attorney said the suspected killer of a Minnesota lawmaker visited the homes of at least two other politicians the night of the attack. Governor Tim Walz had characterized the shootings as "politically motivated."

The suspect in the shooting and killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and the wounding of another went to the homes of at least two other state politicians the night of the shootings, a federal US attorney said on Monday.

Vance B., the man suspected of the killings was taken into custody Sunday evening, police said.

The arrest concludes the nearly two-day manhunt that put the midwestern state on edge.

One of the other lawmakers the suspect intended to kill was not home, US Attorney Joseph Thompson said at a press conference Monday, adding that the suspect went to the other house after police arrived.

"The details of [the suspect's] crimes are truly chilling. They are the stuff of nightmares," said Thompson, Minnesota's acting US attorney.

Investigators have said they discovered a list in his car that included the names of dozens of legislators.

"Political assassinations are rare," Thompson said. "They strike at the very core of our democracy."

The county's chief prosecutor, Mary Moriarty, added that her office would seek first-degree murder charges, which carry a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Earlier on Sunday, GovernorTim Walzannounced at a press conference that Vance B. was arrested "after a two-day manhunt, two sleepless nights."

"One man's unthinkable actions have altered the state of Minnesota," Walz said.

"A moment in this country where we watch violence erupt, this cannot be the norm. It cannot be the way that we deal with our political differences. Now is the time for us to recommit to the core values of this country, and each and every one of us can do it," he said.

Walz has previously called the shooting a "politically motivated assassination."

Police said that the man, posing as a police officer,shot and killedformerDemocraticHouse Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in their Brooklyn Park home early Saturday in the northern Minneapolis suburbs.

Before the arrest, authorities had said they had found a car, hat and other items belonging to the suspected shooter. The man had fled on foot early on Saturday when officers confronted him at Hortman's home.

Police say this was the same person who shot and injured Senator John Hoffman, also a Democrat, and his wife at their home nine miles (14 kilometers) away.

Hoffman was undergoing surgery after being hit with nine bullets, according to a text message his wife sent to Democrat Senator Amy Klobuchar.

"We are both incredibly lucky to be alive," his wife, Yvette Hoffman, said in the message that was shared on social media.

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Friends and family of the suspected shooter said he was deeply religious and went to campaign rallies for US PresidentDonald Trump.

In the car, officials found fliers for a local'No Kings' rallyscheduled for Saturday and a notebook with name of other lawmakers. This list also included names ofabortionrights activists and healthcare officials, the Associated Press reported citing unnamed police officials.

Both Hortman and Hoffman have defended abortion rights in the state legislature.

Drew Evans, Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, had earlier said that the suspect was not believed to have made any public threats before the attacks.

As for the motivation of the shootings, he said, "We often want easy answers for complex problems. Those answers will come as we complete the full picture of our investigation."

*Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.

Edited by: Wesley Dockery and Zac Crellin

A Frankfurt court has sentenced a Syrian doctor to life in prison for crimes against humanity. Meanwhile, in sport, Bayern Munich began their Club World Cup campaign with a thumping win. DW has more.

Welcome to DW's coverage of developments in Germany on Monday, June 16. Refresh page for updates.

Germany has unveiled a temporary memorial in Berlin honoring Polish victims of World War II, nearly 86 years after theNazi invasion of Polandlaunched the conflict.

"This memorial is necessary because we Germans are far too little aware of the disaster, pain and destruction that Germany brought upon Poland during World War II," said former foreign minister Heiko Maas at Monday’s ceremony.

The commemorative stone stands near the Chancellery in central Berlin. Maas, now president of the German Poland Institute, said it should serve as a signal that "Poland is important for us," adding that "we are aware of our guilt and accept our responsibility."

According to the German government, more than 5 million Polish citizens were killed between 1939 and 1945, including around 3 million Jews.

The temporary site is expected to be replaced by apermanent memorial and a German-Polish House, pending approval by the Bundestag.

German investigators have taken down one of the largest and oldest criminal platforms on the so-called darknet, prosecutors in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt said on Monday.

The domain, known as Archetyp Market, was reportedly a major trading platform for drugs, with about 612,000 customer accounts, 3,200 sellers and a turnover of at least €250 million ($290 million).

The investigation saw over 300 officials carry out 25 house searches in severalEuropean Unioncountries across several days. A suspected site administrator, a 30-year-old German man, was arrested at his home in Barcelona,Spain, last week, while servers in the Netherlands were turned off by police.

Further raids targeting website moderators and sellers reportedly took place inRomania,SwedenandGermany– in Lower Saxony, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg, to be precise.

The entire operation recovered dozens of mobile phones, computers, hard drives and cash worth around €7.8 million ($9 million).

German investigators on Monday raided the house of a suspected supporter of a far-right organization whose plans to topple the German government in a violent coup d'etat were exposed in 2022.

The residence near the city ofRostockin the northeastern state ofMecklenburg-Western Pomeraniareportedly belonged to a 54-year-old man linked to the so-calledReichsbürgermovement, which doesn't acknowledge the authority or even the existence of theFederal Republic of Germany.

The man, who has not been arrested and whose precise whereabouts is unknown, is suspected by prosecutors of having attended meetings and expressed readiness to take part in a coup. He is accused of supporting a terrorist organization and of aiding the preparation of treasonous activities.

According to German authorities, the so-calledKaiserreichsgruppeplanned to violently topple the German government and replace it with an authoritarian regime modeled on the former German Empire (orKaiserreich, hence the name), which collapsed in 1918 following Germany's defeat in the First World War.

The coup was reportedly supposed to begin with the abduction of former Health MinisterKarl Lauterbach, who regularly featured in far-right conspiracy theories due his prominence during theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Several ringleaders – who referred to themselves as "united patriots" – were sentenced to prison sentences of up to eight years in Koblenz in March, while further trials took place in Hamburg and Munich.

A court in Frankfurt has sentenced a Syrian doctor to life in prison after finding him guilty of torture, murder and other crimes against humanity committed under the dictatorship ofBashar Assad.

Presiding judge Christoph Koller said defendant Alaa M. had "severely injured nine people and killed two more" while serving in a military hospital in the Syrian city of Homs from 2011 through 2012.

Koller said the doctor had been "part of a brutal reaction by Assad's dictatorial, unjust regime" and added: "Above all, the accused enjoyed harming people that seemed inferior and low-value to him."

The judge also revealed that the Assad regime had, prior to its toppling in December 2024, attempted to influence the trial. The court suspected that non-public information had been transmitted back to Syria and that relatives of witnesses had been threatened.

"No torturer, regardless of where they commit their crimes, can expect to escape justice," said Koller.

M. had lived in Germany for ten years and had worked as an orthopedic surgeon in several clinics, most recently in the central state ofHesse. He was arrested in summer 2020 after some of his victims recognized him from a TV documentary about Homs.

Monday's ruling was not the first in Germany concerning state torture inSyria. In January 2022, a court in Koblenz sentenced a former Syrian secret service official to life in prison and an accomplice to four-and-a-half years.

Last month, a Syrian man was arrested in the southwestern state ofRhineland-Palatinateon suspicion of having been involved in torture in his role as a prison guard. He remains in custody.

Bayern Munichgot their Club World Cup campaign underway with a thumping 10-0 win over Auckland City in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sunday.

The game between the German champions and the semiprofessional outfit fromNew Zealandquickly proved to be a mismatch as Bayern flew into a 6-0 halftime lead, before adding four more after the break.

"It's difficult to accept too much praise for such a game," admitted head coach Vincent Kompany after Jamal Musiala scored a hat-trick and Thomas Müller, Michael Olise and Kingsley Coman all scored twice.

"The most important thing for me was that the players took it seriously," continued Kompany. "There will be tougher challenges to come." Bayern next faceArgentiniangiants Boca Juniors in Miami on Friday before playingPortugueseside Benfica.

During the game, some of the traveling Bayern supporters expressed criticism of world football's governing body and tournament organizers FIFA.

"Ten years [on from]Baur au Lac, world football is more poorly governed than [ever] before!" read a banner unfurled behind the goal, referring to the luxury Swiss hotel in which several high-ranking FIFA executives were arrested on corruption charges in May 2015.

The political circumstances surrounding FIFA's newly expanded Club World Cup, including itsQatarisponsorship,Saudi-fundedbroadcasting arrangements and FIFA President Gianni Infantino's proximity to US PresidentDonald Trump, have kept the organization firmly in the sights of critics.

Back on the pitch,Borussia Dortmundbegin their campaign on Tuesday when they face Brazilian giants Fluminense.

Germany's all-inclusive, nationwide public transport pass, known as theDeutschlandticket, has proven a popular product since its permanent introduction in May 2023. But its financing continues to be a subject of political contention.

Around 13 million people subscribe to theDeutschlandticket, which allows for unlimited travel on all regional trains and buses across Germany – with the exception of high-speed inter-city trains (ICE, IC, EC).

It currently costs €58 ($67) a month,up from €49 in 2024.

The ticket is jointly financed by the federal German government inBerlinand the 16 state governments to the tune of €3 billion ($3.5bn) per year, money which compensates regional public transport enterprises whose own travel tickets had previously been significantly more expensive.

The current financing is guaranteed by law for 2025 and the new coalition government has committed to theDeutschlandticketbeyond that, but its future financing remains unclear. Some state governments want to reduce their contributions, but the transport companies argue that the current subsidies aren't enough.

"Given the current strain on the public purse, the states can't afford to contribute more than €1.5 billion per year," said a spokesperson for theBavarianTransport Ministry, calling on Berlin to increase its share.

"It's important that we agree on a clear financing plan to provide planning security," said Oliver Krischer (Green Party), the regional transport minister of Germany's most populous state,North Rhine-Westphalia.

"The constant discussions about the future of theDeutschlandticketand its cost are counterproductive and don't help us move forward," added his counterpart from the southwestern state ofBaden-Württemberg, Winfried Hermann (also of the Green Party).

A court ruling is expected inFrankfurton Monday in the case of aSyriandoctor accused of crimes against humanity.

German state prosecutors have accused Alaa M. of deliberately torturing and murdering prisoners at a military hospitals in the Syrian cities ofDamascusand Homs under the dictatorial regime of former PresidentBashar Assad.

The crimes, which were allegedly committed on 18 occasions between 2011 and 2012, are said to have included dousing a teenage boy's genitals with alcohol before setting fire to them.

One former inmate and witness at the trial, which began in 2022, said he had been forced to carry the bodies of patients who had died after being injected by M., according toDer Spiegelnews magazine. Another described the Damascus site where he had been detained as a "slaughterhouse."

M. arrived inGermanyin 2015 on a visa for highly skilled workers and continued to practice medicine in Germany, working as an orthopedic doctor until he was arrested in June 2020. He denies all charges against him, saying he was too afraid of the military police "in control" at the hospital to speak out.

"I felt sorry for them, but I couldn't say anything, or it would have been me instead of the patient," he told the court.

Prosecutors have called for a life-long prison sentence, while the defense has demanded acquittal.

Germany hastried several supporters of Assad's regimeunder the legal principle of "universal jurisdiction," which allows for the prosecution of serious crimeseven if they were committed abroad.

Guten Tag!Welcome to DW's coverage of developments inGermanyon Monday, June 16.

A court ruling is expected in Frankfurt today in the case of a Syrian doctor accused of torture and murder under the former Assad regime.

Elsewhere, there is uncertainty over the future financing of Germany's nationwideDeutschlandtickettrain pass.

And in sport, Bayern Munich got their Club World Cup campaign underway on Sunday with a thumping win.

India's Modi is likely to discuss Cyrpus' potential role in the India-Middle East-Europe trade corridor — a venture seen as a counter to China's Belt and Road Initiative.

IndianPrime MinisterNarendra Modiis set to advance talks aboutCyprus'potential role in linking India to Europe through a trade corridor on Monday.

On the second day of his visit, Modi is expected to hold formal talks with Cypriot leaders where the corridor is likely to be a key topic of discussion.

The visit has also grabbed attention in India where it is seen as a message toTurkey— a rival neighbor to Cyprus — whichopenly supported Pakistan over Indiain their recentcross-border hostilities.

India has been pursuing the so-calledIndia-Middle East-Europe Corridor(IMEC) trade link via sea and railway.

"One of the objectives of our discussions is the connection of India with Europe through the region of the wider Middle East, (and) its entry into Europe through the Republic of Cyprus," Cypriot PresidentNikos Christodoulidestold journalists earlier Sunday.

The IMEC is widely seen as a counter to China'sBelt and Road Initiative.

Modi arrived in Cyprus on Sunday and carried out a full day of activities including meeting the Indian diaspora, an informal meeting with President Christodoulides, followed by a business roundtable.

Indian media, citing unnamed officials, reported that leaders facilitated a memorandum of understanding between the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Eurobank of Cyprus to introduce UPI services in Cyprus for cross-border transactions.

The visit is part of a larger diplomatic outreach to European nations.Modi is set to visit Canada for the G7 summitand end the tour with Croatia.

The UN disaster relief agency said it was having to dial back aid plans as the humanitarian sector faced "the deepest funding cuts ever." It comes after the Trump administration said it would reduce funding to the UN.

TheUnited Nations (UN)Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday it was forced to drastically scale back aid plans due to "brutal funding cuts."

OCHA is seeking $29 billion (€25.7 billion) in funding ina drastic revision of their budgetary priorities.

In December the UN had said it needed $44 billion to help in over 70 countries, providing assistance to "180 million people, including refugees" under the Global Humanitarian Overview 2025 (GHO).

The OCHA said that as the year's halfway mark approached, only $5.6 billion — less than 13% — had been received.

"We have been forced into a triage of human survival," said Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief, Tom Fletcher.

In a statement OCHA said it was presenting "the global 'hyper-prioritized' appeal aiming to help 114 million people facing life-threatening needs across the world."

Under the new guidelines, OCHA aid will be directed so that it can "reach the people and places facing the most urgent needs."

Support will be directed "on the planning already done for the 2025… This will ensure that limited resources are directed where they can do the most good — as quickly as possible," the OCHA said.

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Fletcher said that "brutal funding cuts leave us with brutal choices."

"All we ask is 1% of what you chose to spend last year on war. But this isn't just an appeal for money — it's a call for global responsibility, for human solidarity, for a commitment to end the suffering."

The United States is the largest contributor to UN funding, but in Februarythe Trump administration announced that it was cutting funding to various UN agencies, including those responsible for administering aid and peacekeeping.

Other donor countries have also cut back contributions amid an atmosphere of global economic uncertainty.