From immigration to the energy transition, the success of Germany's biggest economic priorities relies on an increasingly older, paper-bound bureaucracy getting its act together.

F1 boss Stefano Domenicali said it would take a "meteorite" to improve the prospects for female drivers at the pinnacle of motorsport. Sebastian Vettel hit back, saying he encourages "every girl to prove Stefano wrong."

Functioning democracy completes peaceful transition of power. These days, that is no longer always a given. Germany's story is one of continuity but also change, even if the new chancellor is a familiar face who has been dubbed the Scholzomat for his monotone ability to stay on-message. Olaf Scholz may sound boring, but the platform of the country's first three-party coalition since the 1950s reads like a manifesto for wholesale reform.

Have we already bungled the green recovery? One year on, post-pandemic plans to turbocharge energy transition with massive next-generation infrastructure investment are still on the rails, but have taken their knocks from fiscal hawks, vested interests and infighting over what it really takes to make the planet great again.

Several EU member states are seeking a bloc-wide rapid reaction force. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says the defense efforts should not duplicate existing structures.

Foreign ministries from Germany and the UK have released a statement suggesting closer collaboration as well as the UK's backing for Germany to have "a new permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council."

Lion and dragon dancing has normallu been seen as a male pursuit in Vietnam, but young female performers are challenging that assumption.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un salutes as ranks of goose-stepping soldiers followed by tanks and another military hardware parade in Pyongyang for a show of strength with tensions mounting over his nuclear ambitions.