At dusk each evening, 60-year-old Gertrud Schop makes the rounds of an imposing cross marked out with candles on the grass in Zella-Mehlis, a small town in Germany's central Thuringia state. Each of the flickering flames represents one of the 8,000 people who has died in Germany since March.

Schop is determined to continue lighting the candles “until a vaccine is found”.

“Three numbers on a sheet of paper, a statistic, that doesn’t touch people’s hearts like this installation that grows day by day,” she said.

Read the full story here.

60-year-old Gertrud Schop lights candles arranged in the shape of a cross, with one candle dedicated to each of the more than 8,000 German Covid-19-related victims, in Zella-Mehlis, eastern Germany on May 19. — AFP
60-year-old Gertrud Schop lights candles arranged in the shape of a cross, with one candle dedicated to each of the more than 8,000 German Covid-19-related victims, in Zella-Mehlis, eastern Germany on May 19. — AFP

Opinion

Editorial

Exit strategy
Updated 18 Mar, 2026

Exit strategy

MOST members of the international community, particularly states in the greater Middle East, are gravely concerned...
Unsafe trains
18 Mar, 2026

Unsafe trains

SUNDAY’S accident involving the Shalimar Express has once again brought into sharp focus the deep structural and...
Disappointment in Dhaka
18 Mar, 2026

Disappointment in Dhaka

FOR a side looking for lift-off after a disappointing T20 World Cup, it was despair for Shaheen Shah Afridi’s ...
Missing in action
17 Mar, 2026

Missing in action

NOT exactly known for playing a proactive role in protecting the interests of Muslim nations and populations...
Risk to stability
Updated 17 Mar, 2026

Risk to stability

THE risks to Pakistan’s fragile economic recovery from the US-Israel war on Iran cannot be dismissed. Yet the...
Enrolment push
17 Mar, 2026

Enrolment push

THE federal government has embarked upon the welcome initiative to enrol 25,000 out-of-school children in Islamabad...