Rio residents react to football star Neymar’s New Year party rumours

Germany's Social Democrats have been on the upswing in pre-election opinion polls. DW looks back at the party's over 150 years of tumultuous history.

This week at United Nations headquarters in New York, Joe Biden sat down with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison. The meeting came at a time when France, Washington's oldest ally, had recalled ambassadors to both countries – an unprecedented reaction to the blindside of a dropped submarine contract with Canberra and a surprise military alliance that brings in the UK and shuts out Paris.

Both the Greens and the pro-free market FDP are likely to join a three-party coalition government. But do they have anything in common? 

There was praise for Green Party co-chair Robert Habeck when he accepted his party's choice of Annalena Baerbock as candidate for chancellor. After the election his party is in a pivotal position, and he is stepping up.

Footballers in Australia and Venezuela have revealed harassment and sexual abuse within their respective countries. The new claims comes in the wake of a sexual misconduct case in the United States.

Brazil star Neymar greets fans in Barranquilla just before the World Cup qualifier against Colombia. Neymar said Sunday that the 2022 World Cup will be his last as he "doesn't have the strength to put up with more football".

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro says he was prevented from seeing a football match in the city of Peruibe when he could not provide a Covid pass. The mandate applies for access to popular tourist spots and other public spaces such as cinemas, theaters, gyms, museums, sports stadiums and conference venues -- but not restaurants, bars or shopping malls. Brazil had a late start with coronavirus vaccination but is now the country with the fourth-most doses administered.

Former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo vowed on Sunday (October 17) to continue in politics "until my death" as he launched a new party following his acquittal by the International Criminal Court and return from a decade abroad. Gbagbo, president from 2000-2011, returned to Ivory Coast in June after being acquitted in 2019 by the Netherlands-based court on war crimes charges for his role in a civil war sparked by his refusal to concede defeat in an election.

Party delegates have voted by a large majority to join formal negotiations with the Social Democrats and the neoliberal FDP to form the next government.

The far-right Tehreek-e-Labbaik party has called off a march on the capital, and the government has said allowing the party back into the political mainstream is in the "national interest."

Top Communist Party officials meeting in Beijing are likely to issue a resolution putting the Chinese president on an equal footing with Mao Zedong. The way seems clear for Xi Jinping to claim a third term.

Germany defender Niklas Süle is in quarantine after testing positive for COVID. Several of his teammates must now also isolate just days before an international game.