Latest news with #Cologne-based
Fashion United
01-08-2025
- Business
- Fashion United
Mark Petereit returns to Snipes as senior head of buying
Mark Petereit takes up the role of senior head of buying and planning at Snipes. Petereit announced his new position, which he assumed on 1 August, on Friday on the career network, LinkedIn. He returns to the Cologne-based streetwear retailer after around four and a half years. Most recently, Petereit was active as buying director for 11teamsports Group. He took on this role last year after the team sports specialist acquired Kickz in 2023. After leaving Snipes, he took on the role of co-CEO at the basketball and streetwear retailer. Before that, he was active for more than 15 years at Snipes in various positions in buying, most recently as general manager group, strategic brands and head of buying.
DW
30-07-2025
- Politics
- DW
German council orders demolition of mosque near Stuttgart – DW – 07/30/2025
Despite being nearly completed, a mosque in southern Germany has been marked for demolition. The Muslim group that built it refuses to tear it down, but the city says it will sue to make sure it happens. The city council of the town of Leinfelden-Echterdingen near Stuttgart in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg ordered the demolition of a nearly completed mosque. The council, in a majority vote, said the Cologne-based Islamic association that built the mosque must tear it down by the end of the year at its own expense. The Association of Islamic Culture Centers (VIKZ) was granted the right to build the Leinfeld-Echterdingen mosque in 2014. However, the association was told that the building had to be completed within four years, an obligation it failed to fulfill. When VIKZ exceeded the contractual limit, authorities in Leinfelden-Echterdingen took legal steps to revoke its building permit. A legal battle ensued, with Germany's Federal Constitutional Court intervening in January 2024 to rule in favor of municipal authorities. When further talks to resolve the situation remained unsuccessful, the council ordered the building be torn down. Although the council also voted to help the Islamic association find an alternative site for a new mosque, VIKZ has said it will not tear down the Leinfelden-Echterdingen building. "We, the Association of Islamic Culture Centers (VIKZ), in accord with our local association in Leinfelden-Echterdingen, cannot consider the demolition of the mosque. We cannot and will not carry out such a demand," a VIKZ spokesman told the local newspaper. Mayor Otto Ruppaner told the paper that the city was simply enforcing the terms of the original contract and that he was "prepared to take the case to court" if necessary.
Local Germany
24-07-2025
- Business
- Local Germany
Germans reluctant to spend despite easing inflation
Inflation in Europe's biggest economy has fluctuated between 1.6 and 2.6 percent over the past year, far below the 70-year high reached in 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered an energy crisis. The European Central Bank looks set to hold interest rates steady Thursday for the first time in almost a year after a lengthy easing cycle, with officials increasingly confident that prices have stabilised. But with the domestic economy still stuck in the doldrums and the threat of US tariffs looming, Germans are hesitant to start spending again. Here are some questions and answers on the topic. Why are Germans still worried about inflation? While inflation rates have been steadily easing for months, prices remain around 20 percent over 2020 levels, and consumers complain about elevated costs of everything from electricity to groceries and leisure activities. Chemistry student Tim Scheider has had to forgo attending his favourite music festival outside Berlin after the price of a three-day pass increased to €220, more than double the cost in 2019. "It has become incredibly expensive over the last two or three years... It's madness," the 27-year-old told AFP. Advertisement "Life has become a bit more difficult with the rising prices," said Alkim, a Turkish aeronautics student in the western city of Osnabrueck, who has had to cut back on his diving hobby and only buys the cheapest pasta. Persistent inflation has also fuelled calls for some unusual measures. During a heatwave earlier this month , Greens party MPs in Berlin urged an "ice cream price cap" limiting the cost of a scoop to 50 cents so children from poorer families could still enjoy the treat. How do we know people are not spending? According to a regular survey published by pollsters GfK and Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM) in May, saving rates are on the increase. Consumer sentiment "remains extremely low," according to the survey, blaming US President Donald Trump's unpredictable trade policy and worries about the weak domestic economy, which has been in recession for the past two years. There is also little sign of shoppers starting to hit the streets in greater numbers -- German retail sales fell in May, April and March, according to official statistics. Why is there such caution? As well as worries about Trump's tariff blitz and the crisis-wracked domestic economy, experts say many consumers are still scarred from the 2022 inflation shock. "It can take one to five years for consumer perception to align with reality," said Matthias Diermeier from the IW economic research institute. On average, 3,000 people surveyed in December by the Cologne-based institute estimated 2024 inflation at 15.3 percent -- in reality, it was only 2.2 percent. The gap is even more pronounced among supporters of radical parties, such as the far-right AfD and far-left BSW. Historical experience has also left Germans with a deep aversion to rising prices -- a bout of destabilising hyperinflation in the 1920s paved the way for the rise of the Nazis. A recent survey by an army research centre showed German consumers fear rising prices more than a war between the West and Russia. Advertisement A pick-up in consumer spending is crucial to help revive the eurozone's traditional powerhouse economy and offset prolonged weakness in the manufacturing sector, which has historically been a key source of growth. But with memories of the inflation surge still raw, consumers seem unlikely to come to the rescue any time soon. "People may well suspect that -- since the news has constantly been repeating in recent years that everything is more expensive -- it is indeed still getting more expensive," said Lisa Voelkel, from the Federation of German Consumer Organisations.
Int'l Business Times
24-07-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
Germans Reluctant To Open Wallets Despite Easing Inflation
The cost-of-living crisis may be easing in Germany but that has not sparked a shopping frenzy just yet in a country where, as a recent survey suggests, people fear inflation more than war. Inflation in Europe's biggest economy has fluctuated between 1.6 and 2.6 percent over the past year, far below the 70-year high reached in 2022 after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered an energy crisis. The European Central Bank looks set to hold interest rates steady Thursday for the first time in almost a year after a lengthy easing cycle, with officials increasingly confident that prices have stabilised. But with the domestic economy still stuck in the doldrums and the threat of US tariffs looming, Germans are hesitant to start spending again. Here are some questions and answers on the topic. While inflation rates have been steadily easing for months, prices remain around 20 percent over 2020 levels, and consumers complain about elevated costs of everything from electricity to groceries and leisure activities. Chemistry student Tim Scheider has had to forgo attending his favourite music festival outside Berlin after the price of a three-day pass increased to 220 euros ($260), more than double the cost in 2019. "It has become incredibly expensive over the last two or three years... It's madness," the 27-year-old told AFP. "Life has become a bit more difficult with the rising prices," said Alkim, a Turkish aeronautics student in the western city of Osnabrueck, who has had to cut back on his diving hobby and only buys the cheapest pasta. Persistent inflation has also fuelled calls for some unusual measures. During a heatwave earlier this month, Greens party MPs in Berlin urged an "ice cream price cap" limiting the cost of a scoop to 50 cents so children from poorer families could still enjoy the treat. According to a regular survey published by pollsters GfK and Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions (NIM) in May, saving rates are on the increase. Consumer sentiment "remains extremely low," according to the survey, blaming US President Donald Trump's unpredictable trade policy and worries about the weak domestic economy, which has been in recession for the past two years. There is also little sign of shoppers starting to hit the streets in greater numbers -- German retail sales fell in May, April and March, according to official statistics. As well as worries about Trump's tariff blitz and the crisis-wracked domestic economy, experts say many consumers are still scarred from the 2022 inflation shock. "It can take one to five years for consumer perception to align with reality," said Matthias Diermeier from the IW economic research institute. On average, 3,000 people surveyed in December by the Cologne-based institute estimated 2024 inflation at 15.3 percent -- in reality, it was only 2.2 percent. The gap is even more pronounced among supporters of radical parties, such as the far-right AfD and far-left BSW. Historical experience has also left Germans with a deep aversion to rising prices -- a bout of destabilising hyperinflation in the 1920s paved the way for the rise of the Nazis. A recent survey by an army research centre showed German consumers fear rising prices more than a war between the West and Russia. A pick-up in consumer spending is crucial to help revive the eurozone's traditional powerhouse economy and offset prolonged weakness in the manufacturing sector, which has historically been a key source of growth. But with memories of the inflation surge still raw, consumers seem unlikely to come to the rescue any time soon. "People may well suspect that -- since the news has constantly been repeating in recent years that everything is more expensive -- it is indeed still getting more expensive," said Lisa Voelkel, from the Federation of German Consumer Organisations. German retailers are struggling to draw in shoppers AFP Germany's traditional industrial titans are facing myriad headwinds AFP
India Today
10-07-2025
- Health
- India Today
Shubhanshu Shukla: Powering India's new space odyssey
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated July 14, 2025)When Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla floated into the International Space Station (ISS) from the Crew Dragon capsule that had docked with it on June 26, he wasn't feeling too good. Despite being a test pilot in the Indian Air Force, like most astronauts on their maiden flight into orbit, Shukla admitted that his head felt heavy and he was slightly disoriented. That's because he was still adjusting to the near-zero gravity conditions he endured during the 28-hour space flight that brought him and his three compatriots to the ISS, which orbits the earth at a height of 400 km. Dr Brigitte Godard, a former spaceflight surgeon at the Cologne-based European Astronaut Centre who was in Delhi recently, describes the effect this way: 'Despite the lack of gravity, the heart continues to pump at the same rate as it does on earth and blood tends to rush to the head, and the face and tongue swell up. All these are symptoms of motion sickness. The body takes anything between 24 and 36 hours to adjust to zero gravity.'advertisementSoon after lift-off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA, Shukla also experienced the tremendous gravitational force or G-force that Rakesh Sharma, India's first astronaut, talked about when his Soviet Soyuz T-11 spacecraft took him to space in April 1984. Sharma recalled, 'Because you are seated in the spacecraft looking upwards for lift-off, the G-force that you feel on your rib cage is four times the amount you feel on your waist. It presses against the spine, leaving very little space for the lungs to expand. So, breathing becomes difficult.'By launch day on June 25, Shukla was only too eager to get off the ground. He had waited a month in quarantine and then faced several postponements of the Crew Dragon's launch for technical reasons. 'When I was sitting in the capsule on the launch pad,' he says, 'the only thought on my mind was: let's just go this time. When the ride started, I kept getting pushed back strongly in the seat. Then, suddenly, I felt nothing. There was silence and we were floating in vacuum. What a ride—it was amazing.' Far below, in the computer-lined control room of Launch Complex 39A, his mother, Asha Shukla, who anxiously watched the spacecraft's ascent on a screen, wiped the tears from her eyes and broke out into a huge smile of joy and relief. When he reached the ISS, Shukla brushed aside the motion sickness and smiled a lot. Along with his three team members on Axiom Mission 4, he hugged the seven astronauts who had come to the space station earlier. Shukla joked, 'I am learning like a baby, how to walk, speak and eat in space.' Ax-4 mission commander Peggy Whitson fixed a silver pin on the lapel of his deep blue overalls, designating Shukla as astronaut number 634—the 634th human to have orbited in space. The ISS is a multinational collaborative effort, involving the US, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, and was built in phases from 1998 to 2011. It is now an orbiting space laboratory the size of four tennis courts. So far, 280 astronauts from 23 countries had spent time at the ISS. Shukla is the first Indian astronaut to live on the ISS and only the second Indian to go into orbit after Rakesh Sharma's historic feat 41 years ago. Aware of the weight of the moment, Shukla said, 'It is a privilege to be among the few who have had the chance to see Earth from this vantage point.'Two days later, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to him, Shukla had to strap his legs to the ground to stop bobbing around. How was the view from ISS, Modi asked. Shukla's words were as resonant as Sharma's in 1984. 'The first thought was the feeling of oneness of the Earth—there were no boundary lines or borders of countries,' he said. 'The second was when I saw India for the first time. It looked very big and grand, not like the 2-D paper maps of it.' A smiling Modi then told Shukla that he is giving him some homework, saying, 'We have to take Mission Gaganyaan (India's indigenous human space exploration programme) forward, we must build our own space station and also have to land Indian astronauts on the moon. Your experiences will be very helpful for these missions.'advertisement MEN ON A MISSION: From left, Wearing dark suits, members of the Ax-4 Mission relax after reaching the ISS: Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski (Poland), Peggy Whitson (US), Shukla and Tibor Kapu (Hungary), Jun. 2 NO FREE RIDEadvertisementModi was also disarmingly telling the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which sponsored Shukla's Rs 500 crore trip, that there were no free lunches or, in this case, space rides. Not that ISRO needed much goading. In the past five decades, it has fulfilled its objectives of indigenously building rocket launchers and satellites for development purposes at reasonable cost. These include satellites for telecommunication, remote sensing, navigation and even defence. Now, the prime minister wants India to venture to the final frontier by joining the big league, putting crewed missions in Yuri Gagarin's historic first spaceflight on April 12, 1961, in a Soviet Vostok 1, only three countries—US, Russia and China—have had their own crewed spacecraft. While the US and Russia are veterans, China joined this exclusive club on October 15, 2003, when it launched Shenzhou-5, its first crewed spacecraft. Since then, China has launched 13 other crewed missions and established the Tiangong-1 space station, a permanently crewed research platform, in 2011. When it completed its three modules in 2022, the new Chinese space station, also called Tiangong, measured about half the length of the ISS. The country has also set an ambitious goal to land its astronauts on the moon by on its part, had initially focused on sending unmanned missions to the Moon and Mars. However, in his first term, Modi decided India must make the big leap towards human spaceflight and exploration. He sanctioned the Gaganyaan project in December 2018 to send up a crewed orbital mission by the first quarter of 2027. Simultaneously, Modi cleared the building of the first module of the Indian orbiting space station—Bharatiya Antariksh Station or BAS-1—by 2028. The combined cost of Rs 20,193 crore is among the single largest budgets set aside for an ISRO prime minister didn't stop at that and enunciated a longer-term vision for a project that will facilitate the landing of Indian astronauts on the moon by 2040. Shukla, in that sense, is the first Gaganyatri in India's new space odyssey. As Modi told Shukla, 'Today, I can say with confidence that yours is the first chapter of success of India's Gaganyaan mission. India is opening the doors of new possibilities of space for the world. India will not just fly, but will prepare the platform for new flights in the future.'Conscious of the nation's enormous expectations of ISRO, Dr V. Narayanan, its chairman, who had just returned to the space headquarters in Bengaluru after participating in the launch of the Ax-4 mission, told India Today, 'Gaganyaan is a national project that not only involves ISRO but also the Indian navy and air force, apart from a whole host of industries in the public and private sector.' THE BIG TASKS BEFORE ISROWith Shukla going up in space, what India gains is the good exposure and experience needed for human interface processes, which is important, but only one part of the entire programme. India not only has to build and validate a suitable launch vehicle but also orbital and crew modules. This is in addition to training astronauts and ensuring their safety at launch, in space and on their return to earth. 'It's a whole new and challenging game for us, but our scientists and collaborating institutions are up to it,' says the first things ISRO did was to build Launch Vehicle Mark3, or LVM3, which would be capable of lifting heavy payloads of 10 tonnes to low earth orbit. To make these launch vehicles human-rated, numerous test firings will be needed. The redundancies, too, have been trebled so that if one system fails, there are enough back-ups to prevent a catastrophe. Narayanan says, 'When there is human life involved, we have to be thrice as careful. We have to score 100 out of 100 when it comes to safety protocols.' In fact, at the Ax-4 mission involving Shukla, it was Narayanan who refused to give his clearance for launch after mission control reported a slight glitch. His insistence saw the Axiom technicians discover a hairline crack in one of the engines that could have proved disastrous on flight. Only after it was rectified did Narayanan give his home, on its own projects, what ISRO had to do from scratch was build a crew module that can carry three or four astronauts with adequate Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS). These maintain comfortable room temperatures, the right cabin pressure and adequate oxygen levels, apart from food, living quarters and waste disposal. Former ISRO chairman S. Somanath points out, 'These are essentially 'do it yourself' or DIY technologies. Initially we thought we could just buy these and then later develop them. But they didn't materialise because they came at a high cost and were unable to meet our schedules.' ISRO also had to develop the technologies for the re-entry of the crew vehicle, then the soft landing at sea using parachutes, and recovery by the armed forces. It has also tested the crew escape system where the crew module is ejected at a safe distance in case of rocket failure on the launchpad or during other systems ISRO has to perfect are communications, navigation and a high degree of automation. As important is the selection and training of astronauts. The first four astronauts for Gaganyaan, including Shukla who went up in Axiom, are all Indian Air Force pilots selected after a range of tough tests. Besides developing an astronaut training centre in Bengaluru that currently focuses on physical and mental fitness, the astronauts have been sent to the cosmodrome in Moscow for rigorous tests, including a sub-orbital flight to experience zero gravity briefly. The test is called vomit-comet because, invariably, the trainees throw up on their first attempt. LESSONS FROM SHUKLA'S TRIPRakesh Sharma recalls that no amount of training on the ground helps you prepare for all that happens in orbit, including withstanding G-force or motion sickness. Shukla himself revealed that he found 'drinking water, walking, sleeping a big challenge—you can sleep on the roof, or the walls and on the ground'. Aboard the ISS, astronauts sleep in compartments the size of a phone booth and equipped with sleeping bags that are secured to the walls of the spacecraft, so that they don't float away. They cannot use showers to bathe as water doesn't flow in microgravity. Instead, as Sharma did 40 years ago, they use wet wipes, rinseless shampoo and liquid soap. Shukla seemed to have dispensed with shaving as well, sporting a thick stubble within days of arrival. Going to the toilet, as Sharma recalls, 'is a well-practised art because even your bodily effluents are weightless just as you are. So, you have to make sure that they are captured effectively. It does take some practice.' Space food, though, has evolved and moved beyond the food tubes that Sharma snacked on. Shukla can choose between vacuum-packed, freeze-dried, dehydrated or canned items. He has also carried some gajar ka halwa, moong dal halwa and aamras to share with fellow astronauts. Fortunately, as Godard points out, microgravity has no bearing on the peristaltic movement (muscle contraction and relaxation) of food down the digestive tract. Meanwhile, Shukla is busy absorbing the celestial joy of witnessing 16 sunrises and sunsets daily at the ISS as the spacecraft's speed of 28,000 kmph means it orbits the Earth once every 90 observations, therefore, will prove valuable not only in understanding some of the challenges faced aboard the ISS but also the rigorous protocols to be observed for a human spaceflight. ISRO is taking no chances with its first crew spaceflight: it is planning three unmanned tests that will fully validate all the critical systems (including a robot called Vyommitra on board as a substitute) and ensure they are all error-free before it attempts one with the selected astronauts experience will also be crucial in the construction of India's first space station, the BAS-1. While the first module of BAS-1 was sanctioned along with the Gaganyaan project, the ultimate aim is to have five modules in space, including the living quarters for astronauts and orbiting laboratories. Already, the technology for docking spacecraft with BAS-1 has been validated with the Space Docking Experiment (SpaDeX) earlier this year, using two satellites as a demonstration. Autonomous rendezvous apart from docking and undocking capabilities were validated and these would be used for future space endeavours, including in BAS-1. Of course, the technology needs to be human-rated and would require many more SpaDeX tests. 'It will not be like a five-star hotel,' says Narayanan. 'Within the minimum space, we aim to provide maximum comfort and utility so that it will be cost-effective.'India is keen to use its own upcoming space station for many cutting-edge experiments, some of which Shukla is already conducting in his two-week sojourn aboard the ISS. These include examining human interaction with electronic displays in microgravity and identifying any musculoskeletal dysfunctions in Zero-G as well as the effects of metabolic supplements. There are many studies designed for Shukla to analyse the impact of microgravity on cultivating food crops like moong dal, methi sprouts and on edible microalgae. There is also an indepth experiment on tardigrades—microscopic aquatic animals—and their functioning in such harsh conditions. All these experiments have been devised by key scientific institutions across the country and many more would be done when BAS-1 comes up. The idea is to prepare for the exploitation of lunar resources and possibly Mars in the near future. JOINING THE TITANSAll these programmes segue neatly into the long-term strategy of India becoming a major player in the lunar race. After ISRO successfully demonstrated its capability of landing a spacecraft on the moon surface and operating a rover in August 2023, the Modi government sanctioned the ambitious Chandrayaan-4 project in September 2024. It involves the development of technology to land a spacecraft on the moon, collect rock samples and then fly them back to Earth for analysis. Estimated to cost upward of Rs 2,000 crore, Chandrayaan-4 is expected to be launched in 2027-28, and will demonstrate foundational technological capabilities for an Indian astronaut landing on the moon by 2040 and returning safely to the earth. It will be followed by Chandrayaan-5, a joint mission with Japan that will have a powerful, long-lasting rover to explore resources for human sustenance on the lunar doing so, India will join the global Moon Rush, with the US sanctioning the Artemis projects, which will mark American astronauts' return to the moon after a hiatus of over 50 years. China has been actively exploring the Moon, even robotically collecting lunar samples and flying them back for analysis. Half a dozen other countries, including Russia, Japan and South Korea, have joined the lunar bandwagon with ambitious flights. This coincides with the increasing interest within countries to establish space stations of their own. Russia has announced its withdrawal from the ISS and plans to develop its own Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS). Apart from India and China, there are three major private players who are keen to develop commercial space stations. These include Orbital Reef, a joint project by Blue Origin and Sierra Space; Starlab by Voyager Space and Airbus; and Axiom. Jitendra Singh, the Union minister of state for science and technology, earth sciences and space, says, 'From a follower, India intends to be a frontliner in space. India is now an equal global partner in space endeavours.'To trigger an unprecedented boost in private participation in Indian space, the Modi government in June 2020, in the thick of the Covid pandemic, ended ISRO's monopoly to build and launch rockets and satellites. It not only allowed entry to private players but also opened up ISRO facilities for them to use on payment. Subsequently, it also allowed 100 per cent FDI in the space sector. Close to 200 space start-ups have come up in the past four years, and many of them have been extremely successful. This is in keeping with the international trend of private giants like Elon Musk's Space-X and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin, competing with established giants like Boeing and Lockheed space market was worth $8.4 billion (Rs 71,800 crore) in 2024, just 2 per cent of the global space market, way below its potential. The Modi government is pushing for an aggressive target of reaching $44 billion (Rs 3.75 lakh crore) by 2033, accounting for 8 per cent of the global share, with its ambitious human space exploration mission being a major driver. Up in space, Shukla's advice to youngsters is, 'There is no one path to success, but there is one common thing—Never Stop Trying.' That is something India, too, can follow in its giant ambitions for human spaceflight in the wake of Shukla's to India Today Magazine- EndsTune InTrending Reel
