A tale of two corners. On one side that leads to Kiel town centre’s main shopping precinct is a poster for Germany’s first military veterans day taking place on Sunday.
The slogan invites passers-by to Show Respect and reminds the former armed forces members that Once Connected, Always Together.
On the other corner that leads to the bayside harbour wall is the anti-war slogan Kreig dem Kreig (war against war) scrawled in paint and red paint blotches cover the doorway.
The target was the offices of the Foundation Science and Democracy, a 30-year-old think tank dedicated to Germany’s constitution and the fight against populism and extremism.
Local shopkeeper Luca Olivieri says the graffiti is the work of fringe local activists, but he also reflects that Germany’s new announcements of more defence spending have left many with questions.
“Sometimes there are little groups of people here who are protesting against the foundation,” he says.
Recent announcements about a pipeline of extra spending on defence have been unsettling to more than just the violent fringe groups.
“It feels like they are openly saying they want to be prepared for war and I think that is just the wrong way,” he said. “It feels like this could be a way to trigger war. Its anyway very expensive and not good for this country.”
Not far from the town centre, the researcher Ivan Kharitonov, who works for another Kiel-based policy institution, can claim to have a front-row seat to the military build-up, which has been on the cards since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The build-up is known as the Zeitenwende, or turning point, and new Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said he plans to go further and faster.
Mr Kharitonov works at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy collating information on the expansion of Europe’s defences. The Institute gained an international following for its Ukraine support and assistance tracker, launched soon after the Russian invasion. Now it has started publishing the Kiel Military Procurement Tracker at a time when Europe’s Nato members are promising to more than double annual military spending over the next decade. Germany’s defence budget rose by 23 per cent in 2024 alone.
Overlooking the Bay of Kiel, the offices of the institute have both a physical and a data-driven vantage point on the arms race.
As the attack on the sister think tank in Kiel demonstrated, it is not just work of quiet academic interest. Kiel has a historic link to Germany’s military, in particular the Navy, as it hosted the High Seas fleet. To this day there is a naval base, dockyards and armament factories in the area.
Germany’s government took office in early May promising to boost already rising defence spending. In the two years after the 2022 invasion orders for military equipment just about doubled to €90 billion over the previous two year period, according to a May report.
Even so the gaps to be filled are yawning. For example, Germany ordered 18 main battle tanks until July 2024. It then placed an order of 105 tanks a year ago, but when these are delivered the country will still have 2,000 fewer tanks than it had in 2004.
While it will take years for European countries to catch-up with Russia’s capacity, there is a real change in the demand for military equipment. “Real in the sense that it seems there is a willingness to do a defence build-up even if it not decided where the funds will come from or, in terms of production, if they even have the capacity,” Mr Kharitonov told The National.
The pipeline of orders is certainly a boost for German defence companies. Industry giant Rheinmetall’s shares, which traded at €604 at the start of 2025, are now up at €1,745. “Defence stocks have risen well ahead of the timing of placing the orders or the recruitment of the personnel on the assumption overall revenue would be boosted at the same pace as those factors,” Mr Kharitonov said.
On a visit to Kyiv on Thursday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius made additional pledges of extra money that would bring Germany’s total support for Ukraine to about €9 billion this year. In a demonstration that the relationship is now extending to arms factories, the two countries are jointly planning to develop “long-range weapons systems”.
The Kiel Institute researchers suggest a two-fold impact on Germany’s build up from Ukraine. First that most of its own replenishment is replacing materiel shipped to Ukraine and second most of the pledges have not yet been fulfilled, implying some of the new factory output will be directed to the front-line country in the future.
“Most of the supplies from Germany that have been going to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, as result of the US and Europe sending weapons, have been from their stockpiles,” he said. “There is a shift to towards factory procurement, so, when there is a pledge to Ukraine, we will have to supply ourselves and Ukraine and build even more.”
One young German air force flight lieutenant encountered at a railway station both welcomed the extra spending and added a caveat: “We need the tools to work with, every member of the military knows this, but at the same time we deeply hope we never have to use them.”
Military veteran Dirk Meyer was at the same railway station and said a big change was coming for Germany’s coming of age generation. “Most people have spent the last 30 years wanting to live in peace. They don’t want to kill someone, they want to party and have a good time,” he said. “I think we need some military but I don’t think we need the level of spending we are reading about. It is still better to talk to each other.”
The economic impact on towns such as Kiel can be expected to be good even if not quite the boon that Russian conscription bonuses have provided to military families.
“There is a positive impact on GDP from opening a factory or expanding production lines. It creates jobs and demand for factory resources. For Russia the war economy has boosted the economy and with those mobilised it has created relatively high salaries, so there is an incentive to continue the conflict.”
In the town centre there is a rebuilt church, St Nikolai, which established a relationship with the cathedral in Coventry, England, which was also bombed to rubble in the Second World War. It was one of the earliest gestures of peace between former enemies for the pacifist movement in Europe.
An elderly patron of the Church, Franz Claussen, said the town was both a haven for the military and beneficiary of the peace tradition. “To this day there are exports from here to Israel, Singapore, Egypt – there is enough work they say to keeping going until 2040,” he said.
As a personal observation, Mr Kharitonov concurs the embrace of the town for the military build-up is nuanced. “In Germany there is the historical context that means there are some doubts. Out on the street in Kiel people are surrounded by what has been done in the war – this is not a handsome, Hanseatic old city centre,” he said.
“People who work in defence sector will of course be satisfied there is more work but there is also more awareness here of what it means ultimately to have that build up locally, and be a target as a result.”
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
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- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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Aldar Properties Abu Dhabi T10
*November 15 to November 24
*Venue: Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
*Tickets: Start at Dh10, from ttensports.com
*TV: Ten Sports
*Streaming: Jio Live
*2017 winners: Kerala Kings
*2018 winners: Northern Warriors
‘Munich: The Edge of War’
Director: Christian Schwochow
Starring: George MacKay, Jannis Niewohner, Jeremy Irons
Rating: 3/5
‘The Lost Daughter’
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Starring: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson
Rating: 4/5
Normcore explained
Something of a fashion anomaly, normcore is essentially a celebration of the unremarkable. The term was first popularised by an article in New York magazine in 2014 and has been dubbed “ugly”, “bland’ and “anti-style” by fashion writers. It’s hallmarks are comfort, a lack of pretentiousness and neutrality – it is a trend for those who would rather not stand out from the crowd. For the most part, the style is unisex, favouring loose silhouettes, thrift-shop threads, baseball caps and boyish trainers. It is important to note that normcore is not synonymous with cheapness or low quality; there are high-fashion brands, including Parisian label Vetements, that specialise in this style. Embraced by fashion-forward street-style stars around the globe, it’s uptake in the UAE has been relatively slow.
Find the right policy for you
Don’t wait until the week you fly to sign up for insurance – get it when you book your trip. Insurance covers you for cancellation and anything else that can go wrong before you leave.
Some insurers, such as World Nomads, allow you to book once you are travelling – but, as Mr Mohammed found out, pre-existing medical conditions are not covered.
Check your credit card before booking insurance to see if you have any travel insurance as a benefit – most UAE banks, such as Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, have cards that throw in insurance as part of their package. But read the fine print – they may only cover emergencies while you’re travelling, not cancellation before a trip.
Pre-existing medical conditions such as a heart condition, diabetes, epilepsy and even asthma may not be included as standard. Again, check the terms, exclusions and limitations of any insurance carefully.
If you want trip cancellation or curtailment, baggage loss or delay covered, you may need a higher-grade plan, says Ambareen Musa of Souqalmal.com. Decide how much coverage you need for emergency medical expenses or personal liability. Premium insurance packages give up to $1 million (Dh3.7m) in each category, Ms Musa adds.
Don’t wait for days to call your insurer if you need to make a claim. You may be required to notify them within 72 hours. Gather together all receipts, emails and reports to prove that you paid for something, that you didn’t use it and that you did not get reimbursed.
Finally, consider optional extras you may need, says Sarah Pickford of Travel Counsellors, such as a winter sports holiday. Also ensure all individuals can travel independently on that cover, she adds. And remember: “Cheap isn’t necessarily best.”
The specs: 2018 Infiniti QX80
Price: base / as tested: Dh335,000
Engine: 5.6-litre V8
Gearbox: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 400hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 560Nm @ 4,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.1L / 100km
The specs: 2019 Mercedes-Benz C200 Coupe
Price, base: Dh201,153
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Power: 204hp @ 5,800rpm
Torque: 300Nm @ 1,600rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
How has net migration to UK changed?
The figure was broadly flat immediately before the Covid-19 pandemic, standing at 216,000 in the year to June 2018 and 224,000 in the year to June 2019.
It then dropped to an estimated 111,000 in the year to June 2020 when restrictions introduced during the pandemic limited travel and movement.
The total rose to 254,000 in the year to June 2021, followed by steep jumps to 634,000 in the year to June 2022 and 906,000 in the year to June 2023.
The latest available figure of 728,000 for the 12 months to June 2024 suggests levels are starting to decrease.
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Squid Game season two
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Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Infiniti QX80 specs
Engine: twin-turbocharged 3.5-liter V6
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MATCH INFO
Manchester United 2
(Martial 30′, McTominay 90 6′)
Manchester City 0
THE LOWDOWN
Photograph
Rating: 4/5
Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies
Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz
Biography
Favourite Meal: Chicken Caesar salad
Hobbies: Travelling, going to the gym
Inspiration: Father, who was a captain in the UAE army
Favourite read: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter
Favourite film: The Founder, about the establishment of McDonald’s
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.