Breakdown of Können Sie bestätigen, wie aktuell diese Nachrichten sind?
sein
to be
Sie
you (formal)
wie
how
die Nachrichten
the news
Questions & Answers about Können Sie bestätigen, wie aktuell diese Nachrichten sind?
Why is sind at the very end of the sentence?
This is an indirect question. The main clause is Können Sie bestätigen (Can you confirm), and the indirect question is wie aktuell diese Nachrichten sind. In indirect questions, the conjugated verb (sind) gets kicked to the very end of the clause.
Is the question word just wie or wie aktuell?
The whole phrase wie aktuell (how current) acts as the question word here. It stays together at the beginning of the indirect question, just like in English.
Does aktuell mean actual?
No, aktuell is a classic false friend! It means current or up-to-date. If you want to say actual in German, you would use a word like tatsächlich or eigentlich.
Why does it say diese Nachrichten sind when in English we say this news is?
In English, news is a singular uncountable noun. In German, Nachricht means a message or a single piece of news. When talking about the news in general, German uses the plural form die Nachrichten. Therefore, it takes the plural verb sind and the plural word diese.