NATO in Transition - A Year with the Soldiers – DW – 06/06/2025

DW06-06-2025

Are the German armed forces prepared for the challenges of the future? With the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, German defense policy arrived at a so-called "turning point'.
But can it succeed?
Image: SWR
The German army is facing enormous challenges: It has too few personnel, too little equipment, too little budget. And, for many years, it was not geared towards the kind of war for which it must now prepare.
Image: SWR
Namely, a possible defensive war within its own national borders, as well as the capacity to fight alongside NATO partners in the event of an attack on a NATO member.
Image: SWR
The film explores this dramatic upheaval, from the perspective of the people who must shoulder the task of "national and alliance defense' in their everyday lives, within their units.
Image: SWR
Yannick recently started training in a new tank. Samira is a recruit - one of a group the German army is desperately looking for. Andreas pilots a 30-year-old reconnaissance aircraft along NATO's eastern border.
Image: SWR
Joachim is a lecturer and is supposed to make sure that his soldiers understand what this "turning point' means for them. Three male soldiers and one female soldier are the focus of this film.
Broadcasting Hours:
DW English
FRI 13.06.2025 – 01:15 UTC
FRI 13.06.2025 – 04:15 UTC
SAT 14.06.2025 – 13:15 UTC
SUN 15.06.2025 – 19:15 UTC
MON 16.06.2025 – 09:15 UTC
MON 16.06.2025 – 16:15 UTC
MON 16.06.2025 – 21:15 UTC
WED 18.06.2025 – 12:15 UTC
Lagos UTC +1 | Cape Town UTC +2 | Nairobi UTC +3
Delhi UTC +5,5 | Bangkok UTC +7 | Hong Kong UTC +8
London UTC +1 | Berlin UTC +2 | Moscow UTC +3
San Francisco UTC -7 | Edmonton UTC -6 | New York UTC -4

Hashtags

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Local Germany

2 days ago

Local Germany

Fête de la Musique 2025: How to make the most of Germany's all-night music party

Fête de la Musique, held every year on June 21st, began in France but is increasingly popular in other countries, including Germany. This year, it falls on a Saturday, so festivities should be doubly raucous. Here's a look at what you need to know about this massive street party and how you can make the most of it. What is Fête de la Musique? Fête de la Musique was first held in France in 1982. In France, the evening features tens of thousands of musicians of all stripes playing in the street, from jazz quartets to underground DJs. The idea has caught on internationally, though usually on a smaller scale. It always takes place on the summer solstice, meaning there is plenty of sunlight to continue enjoying the performances as the evening goes on. Events usually begin in the afternoon, lasting well into the early hours. Performances are often free. Despite seeming to be very French, the idea for Fête de la musique came from an American - Joel Cohen - in the 1970s. He was at the time working for French national radio and he had the idea of spending a whole day - the longest day of the year - celebrating music. What's on this year In Germany, more than 140 towns and cities across the country will hold events. READ ALSO: Seven unmissable events happening around Germany in June 2025 Advertisement Fête de la Musique is most popular in Berlin, which was the first German city to hold the event in 1995, but other cities including Hannover, Munich and Stuttgart will also host festivities. A full list of events can be found on the Fête de la Musique Germany website . Breakdance and hip-hop artists perform on the stage at the Brandenburg Gate as part of the Fête de la Musique in 2023. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Soeren Stache Here is a selection of a few events to look out for around the country: Berlin Pankow is this year's partner borough, so expect especially joyous festivities in the northern neighbourhood. Over 40 venues will take part this year, including French Night at the Kesselhaus to the Evangelisches Gemeindehaus in Alt-Buch. Friedrichshain disco band Tango Bravo will play at 7:30pm in the Bärenzwinger in Mitte. The four-man band won the SPH Music Masters, Europe's largest live music competition, this year, so expect a packed-out venue. Classical music fans can head to Kulturforum Berlin at 7pm to see the Berlin Philharmonic play works by Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, completely free. You can find the complete Berlin Fête Programme here . Hannover At the Hohes Ufer, Bazzookas from the Netherlands return for the sixth time with skapunk performances atop their yellow school bus, playing sets throughout the evening. The Ballhof stage promises eclectic and experimental sounds. The Pariser KunstKollektiv curates an adventurous program ranging from soulful pop and artsy electro to experimental funk and drum & bass. For a more relaxed setting, the singer-songwriter stage outside Fairkaufhaus on Limburgstraße 1 will host acoustic sets from artists including Nora Lotz and Frederik Tietz from 3pm to 8pm. More events in Hannover are found here . Advertisement Hamburg From 2pm, Altona train station will host live performances by the Knut Richter Duo, classic French songs with Rendez-Vous Chansons Swing, and the Balkan-inspired Strandgut Plus band. The Institut français will host Kumulo, a young German-French band with jazzy undertones, from 6:30pm. Later, THORD1S will play 80s-inspired pop, layered with deep bass, live vocals, and saxophone. More events can be found here . Rostock Over 20 stages will host diverse acts around Rostock on the Baltic coast. At Circus Fantasia, rock takes centre stage with bands including In Ora Mundi, Morpheme, and Richtungswexel. Klostergarten, meanwhile, will lean into the heavy side of music with melodic death metal, modern metalcore, and progressive noise acts. Other highlights include the eclectic Am Brink stage featuring funk, indie, and jazz and punk rock at Haedge Halbinsel. See this website for more details. Munich A small event will be held at the Institut Français de Munich from 5pm, featuring the Munich Franco-German choir, a jazz band, and an afro-house DJ set by DJ Linola. READ ALSO: How to make the most of Germany's long summer days

13-06-2025

Producing news for kids in Ukraine

What kind of news and entertainment content do children who spend their childhood in a war zone actually need? The public broadcaster Suspilne in Ukraine has set out to produce helpful content for young audiences. "We want to make something for the children in Ukraine, a place where they can find information but also entertainment," says Olga Avrakhova, a producer for kids' content for the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne . Since Russia's full-scale invasion more than three years ago, an entire generation in Ukraine is destined to spend their childhood between bomb attacks, destruction of their home country and anxiety about the future. Adding to their distress is the fact that an end to the war seems a long way off. "For the children it is important to understand what is happening around them," Avrakhova explained. "Many of them are still consuming Russian media out of habit and because the Russians simply produce a lot more than we do. But these children live in the middle of a news hurricane, not always knowing what is true and what is fake. So, it is very important to sort everything for them and give them true, healthy information. We try and speak their language, give them reliable sources, so they have someone they can trust. This is important for their everyday life and for their future." Suspilne has produced content for children and young adults, including cartoons and audio-stories for those aged 2 to 6 under the program name "Brobaks" and TikTok- and Youtube videos and Instagram reels with breaking news content for older children between 9 and 14 years under the program name "Collider ". "The attention span of our young users is extremely short," said Avrakhova. "Therefore, it is our task to always find hooks, something fun and interesting that really catches their attention and makes them watch the news until the end." 100 percent reality, no taboos According to Avrakhova, it is critical to meet young viewers at eye level and to not refrain from discussing sad or difficult topics. "Our aim is 100 percent reality, no taboos," she said. "But of course, there are topics that are more difficult to approach and where we really need to think about how to tell them to young audiences. We are quite new to this and sometimes we are still searching for the right language to tell these stories, because it is very sensitive." But this should not deter the producers of kids' content from addressing the war's consequences, she added. "One of our cartoons is about a dog named Toto and his friends, other small animals, who go to kindergarten every day," she said. "In one of the episodes, you see a dad wearing a volunteer uniform. Or you will see that one of the kids has a prosthetic body part. We will not explain how exactly this happened, but we show aspects that children might come across in their daily lives." Another Brobaks format is "Brave Tales," therapeutic fairy tales that aired shortly after the Russian invasion and that aim to help children and parents deal with chaotic or even life-changing events. The 'Brave Tales' are therapeutic fairy tales in audio format designed to help children and their families deal with traumatic experiences Image: Suspilne Ukraine Producing captivating, interesting and informative content for young Ukrainians is a Suspilne aim. To attract younger audiences, 'Collider' features popular influencers such as Lera Peshka, who in his show 'Cyber House' advises on cyber security. The Youtube format Ta Nevzhe? [EN: Really?] and the TikTok-News-Format [EN: Whover, whatever] focus on political events but also popular culture and entertainment. Show host Vlad Rudnitskyy said working with influencers is important. "My audience already knows me as a blogger, so they might also be interested in news content coming from a familiar face," he said. "To get young people interested, we use modern slang, memes and internet trends, things that are all part of their culture." His colleague Yuliia Petrenko adds that experimenting with different formats is another way to capture attention: "We use a lot of different formats such as classic news, blitz polls, blogs, vlogs and sketches. I think sketches are particularly fun because they allow you to act out and explain a complicated topic in a simple and entertaining way." In the 'Cyber House' programme, young people learn how to deal critically with the media Image: Suspilne Ukraine Media production in a war zone The war, like with all matters of life in Ukraine, also affects media production. "So far - and we can almost say, fortunately - most of the attacks have taken place at night, when we are not working," said Avrakhova. "During attacks, of course we need to halt the entire production. But we have adapted many of our processes and routines to the war. Many of us are working remotely, we also have people replacing each other in case a moderator doesn't manage to get to the studio in time. For us, this is part of our daily lives, we are used to it, and it does not stop us from doing our work. The production must continue." Learning from other media houses The Suspilne team draws support and inspiration from other broadcasters when creating their programs. Team members visited Germany in 2024, and the following year, others visited Belgium, the Netherlands and France, with the aim in each country to meet other children's programming producers. In spring 2025, members of the Suspilne team visited content producers for young audiences in the Netherlands, Belgium and France. Image: Suspilne Ukraine "Everyone faces very similar challenges," said Avrakhova, including, "the short attention span of our audiences, and the strong competition with other online sources of entertainment and information." But one thing surprised her: "Many of the other media houses have been producing kids' content for several decades. Compared to this we are very new – and the parents' generation in Ukraine also did not grow up with children's programs, so they also need to be convinced. We can still learn a lot from other broadcasters." Meeting up with schools and students At the same time, Suspilne aims to include more young people and schools into the editorial process and production. The "Collider" team visits schools across the country to meet with students from grade 5 to 8. They present their programs, gather feedback, discuss new format ideas with the students and offer them the chance to practice working behind and in front of the camera. From summer 2025, the Suspilne team will be visiting schools across the country to get in touch with the young target groups Image: Suspilne Ukraine "We asked our audiences to contact us via social media and tell us where they are waiting for Collider to visit, and we received more than 100 responses asking us to visit their schools," said Yulia Dychuck, Suspilne's director of children and youth content. "Those include the regions Zhytomyr, Volhynia, Zaporizhzhya, Kiev, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and many other cities where the children are watching our content and waiting to get to know our team." Members of the Suspilne team, Olga Avrakhova, Daria Yanushkevych, Vlad Rudnitskyy and Yuliia Petrenko, show young people throughout the country that there are alternatives to the Russian-language programme Image: Suspilne Ukraine According to Olga Avrakhova, the team will continue the visits at the beginning of the new school year in the fall. "We want to visit as many schools as possible so that the children even in the smallest villages know that there is news and content just for them," she said. "We want to give them something that offers them hope and shows them that in addition to their parents, there are other people who care and worry about them, about their mental health and education. This is very important for us." Together with the Ukrainian public broadcaster (Suspilne) and the media organization Lviv Media Forum , DW Akademie is working on the project "Strengthening Independent Media for a strong democratic Ukraine" (2024-2026), financed by the European Commission and supported by the German Federal Foreign Office. The project aims to sustainably increase the capacity of independent media, including Ukrainian public service broadcasting, to promote constructive and open dialogue among the Ukrainian population and to support the National Council for Television and Radio Broadcasting on its way to meeting EU standards. DW Akademie provides comprehensive support to the Suspilne Kids News team in its professionalization and international networking. This is done through strategic consulting, mentoring, training and providing equipment, as well as through targeted exchange with German and European public broadcasters.

12-06-2025

The Light of Women – DW – 06/12/2025

In a remote village in Senegal, a woman is using solar energy to bring progress. Against her husband's wishes, she trains to become a solar technician. In doing so, she initiates a shift in patriarchal traditions. Image: Federation Studios In the former Fulbe kingdom of "Fouta Toro' on the border between Senegal and Mauritania, there are villages so remote that the nearest town is several hours away by car. Image: Federation Studios There is no connection to the electricity grid here. Néné lives in one of these villages. At the market, she heard about an NGO that gives women the opportunity to learn about solar energy. Néné decides to visit the NGO: Her village needs electricity. Image: Federation Studios Before Néné, no woman had ever left her village, attended school or learned anything other than how to feed animals, cultivate fields, look after children and prepare food. Image: Federation Studios Néné's husband doesn't want to let her go, but she resists his wishes. She decides to train as a solar technician. Image: Federation Studios Néné is not alone - other women will be taking part in the training alongside her. As they board the minibus bound for the city, their first step into a new life begins. At the training center, they experience running water and electricity for the first time. Image: Federation Studios The sea and the hustle and bustle of the big city are also new to them. Image: Federation Studios Four months later, the women return to the village, bringing with them much-desired know-how. They explain how the houses can be supplied with solar energy. Little by little, solar power is finding its way into people's everyday lives. Through their actions and their training, the women subtly raise questions about the meaning of modernity -- and the position of women in society. Broadcasting Hours: DW English TUE 24.06.2025 – 01:15 UTC TUE 24.06.2025 – 04:15 UTC WED 25.06.2025 – 09:15 UTC WED 25.06.2025 – 16:15 UTC WED 25.06.2025 – 21:15 UTC THU 26.06.2025 – 12:15 UTC SAT 28.06.2025 – 08:15 UTC SUN 29.06.2025 – 13:15 UTC Lagos UTC +1 | Cape Town UTC +2 | Nairobi UTC +3 Delhi UTC +5,5 | Bangkok UTC +7 | Hong Kong UTC +8 London UTC +1 | Berlin UTC +2 | Moscow UTC +3 San Francisco UTC -7 | Edmonton UTC -6 | New York UTC -4