China is challenge and opportunity, NATO chief tells DW

India is in the middle of a second deadly wave of coronavirus infections, with the number of new infections skyrocketing in recent days. The medical response is hampered by shortages of oxygen, drugs and hospital beds.

This week, Talking Europe is taking a closer look at how the EU hopes to bounce back from the pandemic and create jobs, this after a year of economic stasis with businesses closed, workers furloughed and job prospects curtailed. Last weekend's Social Summit in Porto outlined how the EU hopes to increase employment levels to 78 percent, reduce the number of people living in poverty by 15 million and propose training schemes for 60 percent of the European workforce, all by 2030.

Thousands of Aghan interpreters are fearing for their lives, after NATO announced its forces are withdrawing from Afghanistan. Under threat of reprisals from the Taliban, they’re demanding to be resettled in the countries that employed them -- and with troops already leaving, the clock is ticking.

NATO leaders issued a lengthy communique from their Brussels summit, touching on everything from China to Russia, Iran to Afghanistan, and climate change to outer space.

Beijing said NATO was exaggerating the "China threat theory" after the alliance declared China a challenge to the global order for the first time.

Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer called allegations of racist and antisemitic behavior "a slap in the face of all those who serve our country." The soldiers were in Lithuania as part of a NATO mission.

Afghan immigrants living in the German city of Hamburg are wary of the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan. They told DW that the Taliban's gains have dashed their hopes of returning to their country one day.

DW presents a timeline of US and NATO activity in Afghanistan over the recent decades and the causes that led up to it.

The US withdrawal and rapid deterioration of the security situation in Afghanistan has prompted criticism among some NATO alliance members.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says Afghanistan's "situation is extremely serious and unpredictable" after the Tabiban takeover and that what is happening in the country "is a tragedy".

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has met with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. He pressed for a firm commitment on NATO membership from the US, but got little encouragement.

It’s a big moment for Germany: Chancellor Angela Merkel is due to end her 16-year stint at the head of government of the EU's biggest economy. In this edition of Talking Europe, we speak to one of Angela Merkel's close CDU party allies, German MEP David McAllister.