- Germany into Nations League quarters, France and Italy win
- Nagelsmann lauds 'supercharged' Germany's 'best half of the year'
- 'Pandas are coming': Two new bears depart China for US capital
- Dodgers pitcher Kershaw plans to return for 2025
- Mbappe 'investigated for rape' in Sweden: report
- Revived Italy sweep past Israel in Nations League amid high security
- Trudeau slams India as tensions soar over Sikh separatist's murder
- Harris courts Black voters as Trump makes inroads
- Wall Street stocks hit fresh records as oil prices slide
- Nigerian team return home after boycotting AFCON qualifier in Libya
- Nigeria refuse to play in Libya as Algeria, Cameroon qualify
- Strike-hit Boeing leaves experts puzzled by strategy
- Leweling rockets Germany past Dutch and into Nations League quarterfinals
- Kolo Muani double fires France to win in Belgium
- Italy sweep past Israel in Nations League amid high security
- UN peacekeepers to 'stay in all positions' in Lebanon
- NASA launches probe to study if life possible on icy Jupiter moon
- 'Unique' Ronaldo an example to everyone, says Martinez
- New lawsuits against Sean Combs allege sex assault, including of minor
- Italy begins migrant transfers to Albania with first group of 16
- Google signs nuclear power deal with startup Kairos
- Carsley open to foreign England manager amid Guardiola links
- Pogba hungry to have his football cake after doping ban
- India and Canada expel top envoys in Sikh separatist killing row
- Mbappe says victim of 'fake news' after 'rape' report in Sweden
- Lebanon says 21 killed in strike on northern village
- Netanyahu vows no mercy after deadly Hezbollah drone strike
- Russia could be able to attack NATO by 2030: German intelligence
- EVs seek to regain sales momentum at Paris Motor Show
- Clarke backs Scotland to bounce back from 'tough' run
- Harris, Trump target crucial Pennsylvania as US vote looms
- NASA probe Europa Clipper lifts off for Jupiter's icy moon
- Lebanese Red Cross says 18 killed in strike in north
- Mendy borrowed money from Man City team-mates for legal fees
- Palestinian officials say Israeli forces kill two in West Bank
- Football leagues, unions file EU complaint against FIFA in calendar dispute
- Nigeria boycott AFCON qualifier in Libya after 'inhumane treatment'
- India to recall top envoy to Canada: foreign ministry
- Hezbollah, Israeli troops in 'violent clashes' after drone strike
- China insists won't renounce 'use of force' to take Taiwan as drills end
- Painkiller sale plan to US gives France major headache
- Italy begins landmark migrant transfers to Albania
- Russia jails French researcher for three years
- 'Unsustainable' housing crisis bedevils Spain's socialist govt
- Stocks shrug off China disappointment but oil slides
- New Zealand 4-0 up in America's Cup but British show signs of life
- Russian prosecutor demands 3 years prison for French researcher
- 'Innocent' British nerve agent victim caught in global murder plot: inquiry
- Afghan Taliban vow to implement media ban on images of living things
- Russian prosecutor demands 3 years, 3 months jail for French researcher
German activists up their game to keep climate centre stage
With climate change pushed down the news agenda as Germany tackles an energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, environmental activists are resorting to increasingly eye-catching stunts to get their message across.
This week, around a dozen activists sprayed a black liquid that looked like oil on the chancellery in Berlin and stood in front of the building with a banner that read: "Save oil instead of drilling."
Dressed in orange high-visibility jackets and hard hats, the protesters were members of Letzte Generation ("Last Generation") -- a radical protest group that has become the new face of environmental activism in Germany.
"The government has ignored everything else: petitions have been written, a million people have taken to the streets," said Lina Joansen, a 24-year-old student taking part in the protest.
The activists want a promise from the government that it will not drill for oil in the North Sea.
"We know that fossil fuels can only aggravate the climate catastrophe that is already happening," said law student Myriam Herrmann, 25.
Six months ago, a new coalition government was elected in Germany on a promise to make climate change one of its top priorities.
The Greens entered power for the first time in more than two decades, forming a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) under Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the liberal FDP.
- Ambitious climate plans -
Green party Economy Minister Robert Habeck announced an ambitious 60 billion euro ($68 billion) climate investment plan and promised that Germany would end coal power and generate 80 percent of electricity from renewables by 2030.
But since then, climate concerns have been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, an acute energy crisis and record inflation.
Germany has accelerated plans to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) by sea, wants to explore new oil and gas reserves in the North Sea, and has even decided to reactivate mothballed coal-fired power plants.
The government has said it is still on target to meet its 2030 climate targets, but the protesters are not convinced.
Herrmann is "incredibly disappointed", especially with Habeck. "We don't have time for stopgap solutions any more," she said.
Letzte Generation was born following a hunger strike last year by activists demanding a law to ban supermarkets from destroying unsold food products.
Earlier this year, small groups of Letzte Generation protesters blocked busy roads in Berlin by sitting down and glueing their hands to the tarmac. More than 100 were arrested.
A few days after the oil protest, the group once again employed these tactics, with about 65 protesters blocking the Frankfurter Tor intersection in Berlin's Friedrichshain.
- 'Legitimate means' -
Civil disobedience is "an established mode of protest in the German environmental movement", sociologist Michael Neuber told AFP, recalling the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s and blockades by the Extinction Rebellion in 2019.
Such protests have been overshadowed over the past two to three years by the massive student-led demonstrations of the Fridays for Future movement, but have more recently started to make a comeback.
"Civil disobedience attracts more attention than demonstrations," said sociologist Dieter Rucht.
"I see civil disobedience as a legitimate means of political protest, when it is peaceful," 27-year-old Green party politician Deborah Duering told RBB radio this week, claiming to share the "anxiety" of the activists.
In February, by contrast, many voices within the Green party had criticised Letzte Generation for blocking the roads in Berlin.
For Herrmann, if politicians want the protests to stop, there is an easy solution.
"It is enough for Scholz and Habeck to declare that they no longer want to encourage oil drilling in the North Sea," she said.
O.Karlsson--AMWN