Germany news

Germany news

For the ECB, today's German inflation data will not change the course of monetary policy. The figures confirm that at least for the time being, inflation no longer tops the list of concerns for European policymakers.

While the previous law required most newly installed heating systems to use at least 65% renewable energy, often with a heat pump, the reformed legislation will allow households to keep using oil and gas. It also removes a mandate for expert consultation when installing a new heating system.

Muge Tuzcu Karakoc is certain that without an integration course, she would probably still not have properly settled in Germany by now. The Turkish journalist has been living in Germany for seven years. But it was only in 2024, when she started studying German every day alongside Ukrainians, Syrians, and Iranians that she felt the country she now lives in really opened its doors to her.

Lifestyle and a four-day week. All nice, you can do all that,

Germany's HapagLloyd, the world's fifth-largest container shipping line, has signed a deal to acquire its Israeli rival Zim Integrated Shipping Services for $4.2 billion (3.5 billion). The merger agreement was signed on Monday, following advanced talks. It was unanimously approved by Zim's Board of Directors but needs the formal sign-off from Israel's government, which holds special rights embedded in Zim's founding charter.

Due to clashes between Syrian interim government forces and the Syrian Kurdish militias that controlled much of the northeast, the prisons and detention camps holding "Islamic State," or IS, members changed hands. In the ensuing chaos, some IS members and their relatives escaped from detention camps. Others were moved to Iraqi prisons. Between January 21 and February 12, the US military helped transport more than 5,700 prisoners out of Syria.

Germany's industrial companies have cut around 124,100 jobs last year, showing an increasingly negative trend after 56,000 positions were lost the year before, according to an analysis by auditing firm EY. EY said employment in industry has fallen by about 266,200 jobs, or nearly 5%, since the pre-pandemic year of 2019, with the sharpest reductions recorded in the automotive sector.

Prosecutors in the German town of Aschaffenburg have charged a man with murder more than 41 years after the violent death of a trainee nurse in northern Bavaria. Authorities said the former boyfriend of 19-year-old Maria Koehler was accused of strangling her with a mesh scarf on July 30, 1984, out of jealousy and revenge. "Based on its investigations, the public prosecutor's office assumes that he acted treacherously," they said.

Whether it's called Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day or Mardi Gras, many countries choose to celebrate the last day before Lent by indulging in something sweet or fatty. In the UK and parts of the US, this usually means a big plate of pancakes in the morning. In Denmark there are special buns known as Fastelavnsbolle, Whether you celebrate it for religious reasons, or just because of a love of pancakes, it can be a real treat during these winter days.

"European NATO members are under pressure from the United States to build up their defence spending. Though they pledged last June to raise their defence and security-related outlays to five percent of GDP by 2035, Wadephul said progress in Europe so far had been lacking. "Unfortunately, efforts in the French Republic have also been insufficient to achieve this so far," Wadephul said. "France, too, needs to do what we are doing here with difficult discussions."

Or take Cologne's opera house. Built in the 1950s as a symbol of modern democracy, it was a cultural jewel. By 2012, it needed renovation. The plan sounded simple: three years of work, reopening in 2015. Fast-forward to today: The building, which comprises the opera itself, a theater with two stages, and a children's opera with its own stage, remains a construction site.

Elections in Moldova and Romania are recent examples, and we expect more hybrid campaigns throughout this election year in Germany,

The western German state North Rhine-Westphalia is proposing a new package of measures and is calling on the federal government to strengthen safety on trains ahead of a Deutsche Bahn security summit in Berlin. The state, Germany's most populous, wants to expand the use of two-person teams among train conductors. It is also urging the national government to provide legal clarity for the wearing of body cameras on public transport, which is currently voluntary.

Flights are grounded at Cologne-Bonn airport on Friday morning due to a security incident that may be connected to a technical failure. According to police, the security area of the airport has been evacuated. No further details have been released. A statement on the airport's website said: "Due to police action, flight operations are currently suspended. Passengers are kindly requested to pay attention to the information provided in the terminal. We will keep you informed."

To manage the crowds, the public order office is deploying up to 400 staff, along with around 2,600 security personnel from external service providers. Police are also sending up to 1,500 additional officers. Last year, Islamists suspected of belonging to so-called Islamic State (IS) used social networks to call for attacks including on Cologne's celebrations. The security assessment remains one of caution.

In Mannheim we were welcomed with open arms, but when we played in other rinks, not so much even though other teams had their own Canadians,

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A reward of up to 1 million has been fofered for information regarding the suspected far-left arson attack that plunged parts of Berlin into a blackout in January Germany's economy has suffered nearly 1 trillion in losses from overlapping crises, according to experts The losses reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia's war in Ukraine, and tougher US policy from the Trump White House Thousands of protesters expected at next week's Munich Security Conference

It is an act that has shocked Germany: a Deutsche Bahn employee checked the ticket of a man traveling alone on a regional train, who turned out not to have a valid ticket. When the train conductor asked him to leave the train at the next stop, he was attacked and punched repeatedly. The train conductor lost consciousness, had to be resuscitated, and died a day later in a hospital from a brain hemorrhage as a result of blunt force trauma.