German coalition in row over push to bring back conscription

German coalition in row over push to bring back conscription

Parties blame each other after bill halted at last minute, as fears grow over voluntary service and lottery idea is vetoed Germany’s ruling coalition is locked in a furious row over how to plug severe manpower gaps in the country’s military as it seeks to fulfil Nato obligations and prepare for the looming threat from Russia. A scheme agreed by the governing parties over the summer under a plan laid out by the popular defence minister, Boris Pistorius of the Social Democrats (SPD), would have relied on voluntary recruitment to draw tens of thousands of young men to military service. Continue reading...

Photos show polar bears chilling at home in abandoned Russian research station

Photos show polar bears chilling at home in abandoned Russian research station

Polar bears that have taken over an abandoned polar research station off Russia’s far eastern coast were intimately captured in drone footage by Vadim Makhorov. The photographer was filming the landscape of Kolyuchin Island during a cruise in the Chukchi Sea in September, when he noticed polar bears using one of the abandoned buildings as a shelter. The small island is about 11 kilometers (nearly 7 miles) off the northern coast of the Chukotka Peninsula, which faces Alaska across the Bering Strait . “ Bears are no strangers to the feeling of comfort and coziness,” Makhorov said in a social media post. “They perceive homes as shelter.”