Tag Archives: Germany

Reuters reports: Berlin is racing to open six mass vaccination centres capable of handling up to 4,000 people per day by mid-December, the project coordinator told Reuters on Thursday, as the city waits for authorities to approve the first vaccines. An empty trade fair hall, two airport terminals, a concert arena, a velodrome and an ice rink will be turned …

The Associated Press reports: German police fired water cannons Wednesday at demonstrators protesting coronavirus restrictions in Berlin’s government district, after crowds ignored calls to wear masks and keep their distance from one another in line with pandemic regulations. As the cannons soaked protesters outside the landmark Brandenburg Gate, police in riot gear moved through the crowd carrying away some participants. …

The Associated Press reports: Germany became the latest European country to embark on a partial shutdown Monday as authorities across the continent scramble to flatten a rapid rise in coronavirus infections that threatens to overwhelm their health care systems. In parts of Europe, the new restrictions — which vary in strictness — are prompting sometimes violent protests by people frustrated …

Reuters reports: The waxwork museum Madame Tussauds in Berlin loaded its effigy of TV star-turned Republican president Donald Trump into a dumpster on Friday, a move apparently intended to reflect its expectations of next Tuesday’s presidential election. In what seemed a further calculated insult, the statue of his predecessor and nemesis Barack Obama, who counted Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel among …

Bloomberg News reports: Chancellor Angela Merkel will impose the toughest restrictions on Germany since a national lockdown in the spring, closing bars and restaurants in Europe’s largest economy to regain control of the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The one-month partial shutdown, which will go into effect on Monday, is designed to keep most businesses operating, Merkel said Wednesday after …

The New York Times reports: Just before hundreds of far-right activists recently tried to storm the German Parliament, one of their leaders revved up the crowd by conjuring President Trump. “Trump is in Berlin!” the woman shouted from a small stage, as if to dedicate the imminent charge to him. She was so convincing that several groups of far-right activists …

Agence France-Presse reports: German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Sunday that an “unscrupulous” President Donald Trump was trying to sow doubt about the US presidential election by urging his supporters to vote twice, which is illegal. “We owe an incredible number of things to the United States and the country remains one of our closest partners but… it is disturbing …

The New York Times reports: In France, President Emmanuel Macron warned on Friday that the authorities were doing “everything to avoid a new lockdown.” A day later, the country reported over 7,300 new virus cases, its highest daily tally since March 31 and a number that sent its seven-day average to a new record of 4,668. As Germany faces its …

The Associated Press reports: Thousands protested Germany’s coronavirus restrictions Saturday in a Berlin demonstration marking what organizers called “the end of the pandemic” — a declaration that comes just as authorities are voicing increasing concerns about an uptick in new infections. With few masks in sight, a dense crowd marched through downtown Berlin from the Brandenburg Gate. Protesters who came …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s decision to pull nearly 12,000 US troops from Germany triggered an onslaught of disapproval from Republicans, Democrats and former senior military officials, who said the move will benefit Russia, degrade US national security and military readiness, cost US taxpayers billions and undermine US relations with Germany, NATO and Europe. Trump’s explanation to reporters about the …

Deutsche Welle reports: Researchers in Germany have found that army sniffer dogs can discern between samples from coronavirus-infected and healthy patients. So high is the level of accuracy, they hope this can be used in real-life scenarios. Scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover have found that trained sniffer dogs could be used to detect COVID-19 in human samples …

The Insider reports: German officials were so alarmed by President Donald Trump’s “very aggressive” conversations with Chancellor Angela Merkel that they kept their calls secret, sources told CNN. In calls with the German chancellor, Trump bullied and disparaged Merkel in a “near-sadistic” fashion, according to the CNN report by Carl Bernstein, the longtime journalist known for his reporting on the …

Reuters reports: President Donald Trump’s decision to cut U.S. troop levels in Germany blindsided a number of senior national security officials, according to five sources familiar with the matter, and the Pentagon had yet to receive a formal order to carry it out, Reuters has learned. Sources familiar with the matter said a number of U.S. officials at the White …

Radio Free Europe reports: German neo-Nazis are conducting paramilitary training with a Russian ultra-nationalist group at a camp near St. Petersburg, German magazine Focus reported on June 5. Citing German security sources, Focus said members of the far-right National Democratic Party’s (NDP) youth wing and neo-Nazi The Third Path completed training at the camp run by the Russian Imperial Movement. …

Last week Merkel rebuffed Trump’s G7 invite. So now this: President Trump has signed off on a plan to permanently withdraw up to one-third of about 34,500 U.S. troops currently based in Germany, bringing the total down to no more than 25,000, according to U.S. officials. Implementation of the plan is being turned over to the Defense Department, a senior …

Politico Europe reports: Angela Merkel has rebuffed Donald Trump’s invitation to attend a G7 summit, which the U.S. president is keen to portray as a symbol of a return to normality from the upheaval of the coronavirus crisis. “The federal chancellor thanks President Trump for his invitation to the G7 summit at the end of June in Washington. As of …

Agence France-Presse reports: Local authorities in Germany on Friday said they would reimpose some lockdown measures after seeing a cluster of new coronavirus infections, just days after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a gradual reopening of the country. In Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the regional government said there had been a spike in cases at a slaughterhouse in …

Pink News reports: On Thursday evening, May 7, the Bundestag passed a law which completely bans any so-called “therapy” that aims to change the sexual orientation of minors, and the crime will carry a prison sentence of up to one year. According to Badische, conservative German health minister Jens Spahn [photo] stressed: “Homosexuality is not a disease. Therefore the term …

Reuters reports: Germany’s state premiers will agree on measures to further ease coronavirus restrictions in a teleconference with Chancellor Angela Merkel scheduled for Wednesday, two people familiar with the preparations told Reuters on Monday. The state premiers are expected to give the green light for large shops to reopen, probably from May 11, the sources said. Smaller shops are already …

NBC News reports: German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday warned that the battle against the coronavirus was in its early stages and that the pandemic looked set to be part of life for the long term. The leader of Europe’s largest economy also lent her support to the embattled World Health Organization, which has come under fire from President Donald …