worldisfullofinterestingstories

The bronze figure of shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt by the Köpenick town hall serves as a reminder of the famous 1906 scam
But who was this guy? A war hero? A famous general? Why did he become a symbol of the area?
"The Captain still exists as a symbol of Köpenick and as a legend," says German actor Max Hopp, who grew up in the area. "I heard this story back in my childhood, it wasn't part of the school curriculum - it's just something everyone knows."

On Thursday, June 11, the match between the national teams of Mexico and South Africa kicks off the World Cup. The main tournament of the number one sport will last over a month and wrap up with the final in East Rutherford, New Jersey on July 19. Key facts about the host countries and participants of the 2026 World Cup, the political context, changes in rules, and ticket prices - available at DW.

Food prices in Germany since the beginning of 2020 until mid-2025 rose significantly more than overall inflation, the Rheinische Post newspaper reported on Wednesday, 15 July, citing a reply from the Ministry of Agriculture to an official request by the Left Party faction in the Bundestag. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, food prices rose by a total of 36.3 percent over that period. Inflation over the same period was only 22 percent.

Russia has maintained its presence in Syria and plans to build a logistics hub on the territory of the naval base in Tartus, Reuters reported on Sunday, July 12, citing Syrian officials. According to them, the countries agreed to use one of the two piers of the facility for a commercial center, while leaving the second for the needs of the Russian fleet. The project was presented in late January 2026 at another meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syria’s interim president, Ahmed ash-Sharaa, the article уточняют notes.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham died on Saturday evening, July 11, after an unexpected and brief illness at the age of 71. This was reported early on Sunday, July 12, by the director of communications for his office on the social media platform X.
According to NBC News, which gained access to police radio recordings, the cause of death was a heart attack.

On July 3, 110 years had passed since the death of Hetty Green, the “witch of Wall Street.” Even before Benjamin Graham was born, she followed the principles of value investing that he himself later systematized. What lessons from Green’s legacy can modern investors draw?
Cassandra of the early 20th century

In Newton Abbot, a British city, a 26-year-old man suspected of murdering a member of the right-populist Reform UK party, Anne Widdecombe, was detained and later released.
The body of 78-year-old Widdecombe was found on July 9 at her home in Heitor Vale, on the outskirts of Dartmoor National Park in the south-west of the UK, but authorities reported the incident only on Friday, July 10, after the suspect was detained. According to Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable’s assistant Matt Longman, as quoted by the Associated Press, the woman suffered “serious injuries”.

July 11 will see one of the most anticipated matches of the FIFA World Cup: in the quarterfinals, teams from England and Norway will face off. For the latter, this is a historic event—at the World Cup, they have never reached this stage. The star of the season will take the field: the Norway national team’s striker Erling Haaland, whom The New Yorker described as playing “like a Viking.” Haaland is fourth on the list of Forbes’ highest-paid footballers at this World Cup; ahead of him are only Ronaldo, Messi, and Mbappé. Since 2023, he has also been an investor. What is his strategy?

At railway stations, airports, at the state border, and in other places under the responsibility of the German Federal Police, violent crimes increased by 4.2% in 2025 compared with the previous year. Their number amounted to around 35.4 thousand, according to the agency’s annual report published on Thursday, 9 July.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov was questioned again in Paris as part of an investigation into the messenger’s possible involvement in criminal activity. Late on Wednesday, July 8, the newspaper Le Figaro reported this, citing sources. According to them, the new interrogation of Durov lasted more than six hours and was the fourth since charges were brought against him in 2024.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has annulled the decision to suspend the Olympic Committee of Russia (OCR) and recommended removing all restrictions on Russian athletes. The IOC said this on Tuesday, July 7.
Restrictions on the IOC’s actions in the rights sphere were in effect from October 2023—after Russia’s inclusion of its national committee in the Olympic councils of the annexed Ukrainian territories. The IOC regarded this as a violation of the Olympic Charter and Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Singapore for the fourth year in a row has taken first place in the ranking of the most expensive cities for affluent people, which is calculated based on the cost of real estate, cars, and luxury items. This comes from the Global Wealth and Lifestyle Report released on July 7 by the Swiss bank Julius Baer (the document is available on Oninvest). Bloomberg drew attention to this.

Bookstores in Germany that deal in rare antique editions have faced unexpected demand. Companies specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) are purchasing large quantities of these books to use them for training language models and chatbots.

A scandal erupted at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Forward and one of the key players of the United States national team, Folarin Balogun, received a red card in the Round of 16 match of the World Cup against Bosnia and Herzegovina—for a rough but unintentional foul. According to the rules of the International Federation of Football (FIFA), he was supposed to miss the next match. But now he will still be able to play against Belgium on July 6.

FIFA's Appeals Committee dismissed the appeal by the Royal Belgian Football Federation regarding the eligibility of American forward Folarin Balogun to take part in today's match.
The committee decided that the request from KFFB is inadmissible, since the federation is not an active party in the current dispute between FIFA and the United States soccer federation.

Turkey has banned a cruise ship, the Scarlet Lady ("Crimson Lady"), from entering the ports of Kuşadası and Istanbul. The ship was chartered by the U.S. company Atlantis Events for a cruise featuring representatives of the LGBT community, the German newspaper Die Zeit reported on Saturday, July 4.
According to the office of the governor of the western Turkish province of Aydın, docking a vessel in Kuşadası is not considered under any circumstances, as the passengers belong to a community whose "behavior contradicts local customs and moral norms."

About a year ago, Hamid Nangialay Kabiri found himself in a difficult situation. Kabiri, who had previously worked for 6 years at the Afghan general consulate in Bonn and recently headed it, left his position in September 2025—because he did not want to cooperate with representatives of the radical Islamist movement "Taliban".

As part of an investigation into suspicions of corruption related to the 2024 UEFA European Championship in Germany, investigators carried out searches at municipal offices across the country, as well as at the headquarters of the German Football Association (DFB) in Frankfurt am Main. This was reported on Wednesday, July 1, by a representative of the state criminal affairs office (LKA) of North Rhine-Westphalia and a representative of the DFB. The public prosecutor’s office in Bochum and the North Rhine-Westphalia LKA are investigating allegations of the receipt and granting of benefits.

Do you want to quickly gain access to the Schengen area without being a European citizen? Or become a citizen of an EU country for a certain fee? For this, there are so-called “golden visas” — including in Portugal. Anyone who invests at least 250 thousand euros first receives a residence permit, and later, if desired, even a Portuguese passport. However, the government has changed the requirements, and many who have been waiting for years for the cherished residence permit are now planning to sue.

On Tuesday, June 30, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a decree by President Donald Trump limiting the right, provided by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, to automatic citizenship for all children born on the territory of the country was unlawful. The corresponding decision has been published on the website of the highest judicial authority in the United States.