Category: News In English

About an international controversy and vision By Youssef Kanjou and Michael Seifert On 24th July 2020 the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was reopened as a mosque. Before that it was a museum, which is the main tourist attraction in Turkey with over three million visitors annually. The Turkish president had decided and announced this a few weeks earlier, after the highest Turkish court had cleared the way for it. Recep Erdoğan, thus, triggered an international controversy with several protests. But why does half the world seem to be arguing about this? The Hagia Sophia has been on the UNESCO World… Read More

Liam Fitzstevens waited in the Tübingen citizens’ office in December 2017. There he leafed through number 74 of tünews INTERNATIONAL. A story fascinated the American biologist who came to Tübingen to do his doctorate at the Max Planck Institute. It was about a swimming course for refugee girls – a project of the voluntary initiative “Swimming for all children”. At the beginning of 2018, Liam spoke to Dagmar Müller, the founder and manager of the project. Since then, the former competitive swimmer has been a voluntary trainer and trains lifeguards with Adrian Wendt, who is also 25 years old. Yusuf… Read More

“The rich are at war and the poor are fighting against it,” said a Syrian who has been suffering due to the war in Syria for nine years, especially at hands of the massive monetary inflation. The Syrian Pound fell to a record level. At the beginning of June, money changers on the black market asked 3000 Lira for one dollar. However, the official price remained at 700 Lira, which caused retailers to close their stores in many cities. At the beginning of the Syrian war in 2011, a dollar was said to have cost 47 lira. According to the… Read More

by Ademola Adetunji   The world seems to be surprised that Covid-19 is contained in some African countries. Compared to Western and some Asian countries, the health system in many African countries is poorer. Many hypotheses and predictions are circulating that the poor African continent is on the verge of collapse. But the continent of Africa was better prepared for the outbreak than some developed continents like Europe, Asia and North America. Africa seems to have learned from past experiences. Nigeria is a sovereign state in West Africa, which borders Niger, Chad and Cameroon and has a population of around… Read More

By Youssef Kanjou In 2016, I was able to visit Idrimi, the King of Aleppo in his last exile in the British Museum to know him better and read his famous story. He himself wrote it on his statue and it begins with his family which ruled the city of Aleppo around 1500 BC. His father had a conflict due to a revolt in the city. Therefore, Idrimi and his six brothers had to flee to the city of Emar on the Euphrates east of Aleppo. This city was ruled by his uncles. But Idrimi was not treated as a… Read More

By Will Thomas  The author is a volunteer in the editorial department of tünews INTERNATIONAL. After staying in Tübingen and Berlin as part of a federal scholarship, he returned to the USA in April 2020. There he found a country in unrest. We have offered him the chance to share his experiences with us. In the German text, he uses certain English phrases where he found no suitable translation.   Battles are breaking out in US-American cities. In my previous article, I explained the origins of the current unrest. In this article, I am recounting my own on the ground… Read More

By Batool Hadous, Danyah Mahfouz, Hanin Kanjou, Hayet (name changed), Majd Kanjou, Meryem (name changed),Michael Seifert, Mohammed, Oula Mahfouz, Roula Al Sagheer, Sara Al Sagheer, Yousof Mahfouz   Soon, all pupils will be able to go to school temporarily, but still for most of them, online-learning in home-schooling is on the agenda. How do kids from refugee families experience this situation, to which they have been exposed since March 17th? The editorial staff of tünews INTERNATIONAL posed this question when Sara, a 5th grader at secondary school, handed in a text about this very topic. Her opinion is unambiguous: “We… Read More

By Will Thomas The author is a volunteer in the editorial department of tünews INTERNATIONAL. After staying in Tübingen and Berlin as part of a federal scholarship, he returned to the USA in April 2020. There he found a country in unrest. We have offered him the chance to share his experiences with us. In the German text, he uses certain English phrases where he found no suitable translation.   The United States of America are burning. On Monday, May 25th, 2020, police killed another Black man, George Floyd. This was the spark in the gas tank, but the fuel piled… Read More

By Youssef Kanjou Corona has forced us to learn German from home via the Internet. My course started in March at the Volkshochschule, which got interrupted shortly after the start because of Corona. This also led to the closure of all schools in Germany. Volkshochschule decided to continue the course online. Currently we have two hours of lessons every afternoon on video conference with the Zoom program. This is the first time I have to learn a language online; after everything in life has gone online. It seems to be a very significant experience for me. The teacher teaches with… Read More

From Sajia Yarmal Afghanistan has been embroiled in devastating wars for many years now. People have suffered severe psychological hardships. Millions of people were killed or displaced. Taliban, the terrorist group that has claimed the lives of thousands of Afghans over the past ten years by claiming jihad and enforcing Islamic law, and has never allowed the Afghan people to live a prosperous life. The war continues and dozens of military and non-military people are killed every day. Alongside war, poverty and hunger are other big threats to Afghanistan, a country with a population of over 30 million. Based on… Read More