Skip next section Fewer asylum-seekers receive state aid in 2024
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Fewer asylum-seekers receive state aid in 2024
The number of receiving welfare payments in Germany dropped some 10% — from 513,700 to 461,000 — between the end of 2023 to the end of 2024, official statistics have shown.
The reduction was accompanied by a fall in the number of asylum applications overall.
According to figures from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), 64% of those receiving the welfare payments due to asylum-seekers at the end of 2024 were male, and 29% were minors.
Most of those entitled to payments were from (15%), (14%) and (11%), with Turkish nationals overtaking people from Syria as the top recipients.
New figures from the EU’s asylum agency have also shown that for the first time in more than a decade, Germany is not the EU country with the most new asylum applications.
In its mid-year review for 2025, the agency said there were 70,000 new applications in Germany, putting the country in third place behind France (78,000) and Spain (77,000).
https://p.dw.com/p/50JN9
Skip next section Most pilots nap during flights, German pilots’ union says
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Most pilots nap during flights, German pilots’ union says
Most pilots on allow themselves quick naps during flights, the union Vereinigung Cockpit has said.
According to a survey conducted by the union of more than 900 of its members, 93% said they had snatched forty winks while in the air during the past months.
The deputy chair of the union, Katharina Dieseldorff, said the figures indicated that pilots were suffering under growing work strains.
“Something that was originally meant as a short-term measure to gain relief has grown into a permanent way to combat structural overload,” she said.
She stressed that short naps were “uncritical” in themselves, as two pilots were always present in the cockpit and mostly used autopilot while in the air.
“But a permanently exhausted cockpit team is a considerable risk,” she said.
The union said it had been highlighting pilot exhaustion for years.
https://p.dw.com/p/50JNf
Skip next section Berlin rebukes Belgian festival over cancelation of Israeli conductor
09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Berlin rebukes Belgian festival over cancelation of Israeli conductor
German Culture Minister Wolfram Weiner has spoken of a “disgrace for Europe” after a Belgian festival canceled a performance by a top German orchestra to be given with an Israeli conductor.
Weimer accused the Flanders Festival Ghent of carrying out “a cultural boycott” disguised as criticism of Israel.
Festival organizers late on Wednesday announced that the Munich Philharmonic would no longer perform on September 18 as planned, saying they were concerned about conductor Lahav Shani’s attitude to the Israeli government.
Shani, who is to , currently serves as music director of the Israel Philharmonic.
In a statement, the organizers said they were “unable to provide sufficient clarity about his attitude” towards the Israeli government, which is , triggering a .
“We have chosen to refrain from collaboration with partners who have not distanced themselves unequivocally from that regime,” the organizers said, though they noted that Shani had “spoken out in favor of peace and reconciliation several times in the past.”
In March 2022, the orchestra itself after he failed to denounce Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The orchestra and the city of Munich also criticized the festival’s move, calling it a collective punishment of Israeli artists and saying that excluding people from cultural venues because of their origin or religion was “an attack on fundamental European and democratic values.”
https://p.dw.com/p/50JLr
Skip next section Welcome to our coverage09/11/2025September 11, 2025
Welcome to our coverage
In this blog, DW brings you an array of stories that are causing a stir in Germany at the moment.
They cover not only urgent political issues but also topics of human and cultural interest in a country that sits at the heart of the European continent.
So read on to find out what people are talking about on Thursday in Europe’s largest economy!
https://p.dw.com/p/50JOB
The post Germany updates: Belgian festival drops orchestra over Israeli conductor appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
