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Asylum-seekers board a flight from Athens to Luxembourg.

Manolis Kefalogiannis

Joe Hullman, 13, works at San Pedro de Macoris municipal dump during his summer vacations looking for metal scraps in San Pedro de Macoris, in Dominican Republic.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Peacekeepers of the UN Mission in Sudan (UNMISS) man a guard post overlooking a POC (Protection of Civilians) site in Juba.

In the present historical period—in which virtually all seemingly reliable assumptions about society are becoming obsolete, and everyone senses that we are faced with the heavy issues of war and peace, of ‘to be or not to be,’ of collapse into chaos or a new Classical Renaissance—Germany is one of the few actors on the grand stage of world politics that can help determine which of the two alternatives comes to pass.

Secretary-General press encounter with the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Too little has been done to safeguard citizens' fundamental rights following revelations of electronic mass surveillance, say MEPs in a resolution voted on Thursday. They urge the EU Commission to ensure that all data transfers to the US are subject to an "effective level of protection" and ask EU member states to grant protection to Edward Snowden, as a "human rights defender". Parliament also raises concerns about surveillance laws in several EU countries.