Germany updates: Railroad operator seeks modernization delay

The eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt was hit with a cyberattack that rendered several government websites inaccessible, authorities said. The websites were down briefly but are now up and running again. 

Saxony-Anhalt's Digital Affairs Ministry said the attack was a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and it was launched by the pro-Russian hacker group NoName057(16).

DDoS attacks deliberately flood servers with massive amounts of traffic, rendering websites temporarily unavailable. 

The digital affairs ministry said that the government has been using new technology since early 2024 to better detect and defend against such attacks.

"These technologies are currently working in the background to ensure that the state portal is accessible with minor restrictions," the ministry said.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome on Thursday that Germany is prepared to purchase US-made Patriot surface-to-air missile defense systems for Kyiv.

His pledge came as Russia continued its daily aerial bombardment of Ukraine, involving hundreds of drones and missiles.

Read more on what Merz had to say about the Patriot missile systems.

 

A cyclist who vanished in Iran and reportedly holds both French and German citizenship has been arrested in the country, according to Iranian officials.

Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghtschi told France's Le Monde newspaper on Thursday that the young man was "arrested for committing a crime."

The French embassy has been formally notified.

The disappearance of 18-year-old Lennart Monterlos had been announced by French diplomatic sources on Sunday. France's Foreign Ministry said it is in contact with Iranian authorities and Monterlos' family.

Germany's Foreign Office said only that it is "aware" of the case.

According to a missing persons appeal posted on Instagram, his family has heard nothing from him since June 16.

France advises its citizens against travelling to Iran, accusing Tehran of taking Westerners as political "hostages."

Germany's Foreign Office also warns against travel, citing a "clear risk of arbitrary arrest, interrogation and long prison sentences," and urges any Germans still in Iran to leave immediately.

Munich-based carmaker BMW says it remains on course this year despite US import tariffs and weaker sales in China, according to analysts — a rare positive sign as Germany's automotive sector remains mired in crisis.

BMW shares rose more than 4% on the news.

After a recent investor update, Metzler Bank analyst Pal Skirta said BMW still expects to hit its full-year profit margin target of 5–7% in its automotive business.

"In my view, that's a strong signal — especially because the forecast holds firm despite ongoing tariff pressure and the challenging situation in China," Skirta wrote Thursday.

Regionally, BMW and Mini sales in Europe jumped 10%.

In China, the group's biggest single market, sales slid 13.7% to about 162,000 as demand stayed weak and competition stayed fierce.

In the US — where a higher 27.5% import tariff has applied since April — deliveries rose 1.4% to 98,504 vehicles.

Since Germany introduced border controls, police have seen their workload increase.

This adds to stress over racism, sexism and even sanitary facilities. The federal police commissioner wants solutions.

DW looks at the mounting pressure Germany's police is under and its effect on working conditions.

Germany's Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media (KJM) has ordered a block on the website "Kalifat" for spreading Islamist propaganda and violating democratic principles.

The German-language site threatens Germany's free democratic order, the KJM said Thursday in Berlin. The action was initiated by the state media authority in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Despite a ban on the group behind the site since 2003, the site remained accessible in Germany. Regional media regulators have now ordered the country's five biggest telecom companies to block it, and the orders have already been enforced.

"We oppose anyone who spreads hate and agitates against our free democracy," said Tobias Schmid, director of the North Rhine-Westphalia state media authority, which launched the case.

KJM chair Marc Jan Eumann added: "Anyone who incites hatred against people of other faiths stands against all of us and will be stopped with every legal tool we have."

The KJM, part of Germany’s network of state media authorities, is responsible for tackling illegal hate and extremist content online.

The German Football Association (DFB) has surpassed 8 million members for the first time, posting a 3.86% increase over the past year.

Youngsters in general — and girls in particular — have been the driving force.

"It's a strong sign that football in Germany continues to grow in our 125th anniversary year," DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said on Thursday in Frankfurt.

The biggest boost came among girls under 16, where membership rose by 9%. Compared to 2021, the DFB has gained nearly a million new memberships overall.

"Our clubs provide a great service to society and our communities. That’s more important than ever in these turbulent times," Neuendorf said.

The number of referees is also on the rise: for the first time in nearly a decade, more than 60,000 officials are active. While the share of female referees remains steady at 4.5%, the overall share of girls and women in DFB membership continues to grow.

Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the largest opposition party in the German federal parliament, will not be allowed to take on jobs within the public service in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the state government has said.

Anyone applying for a position in public service will have to declare that they are not a member of an extremist organization and have not been one for the past five years, said state Interior Minister Michael Ebling.

He said the state's domestic intelligence agency has found enough evidence of extremist activities by the local AfD branch for the party to be put on a list of anti-constitutional bodies whose members will be banned from public service jobs.

The move by the state comes after Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, classified the AfD as a confirmed right-wing extremist group in early May, a classification that is currently suspended during an appeal by the party.

The move has sparked a renewed debate about banning the AfD. 
 

State-owned German national railroad operator Deutsche Bahn has said it wants to delay modernization plans for key routes by another year to 2036 after it previously suggested a four-year delay to 2035 in late June.

The refurbishment of more than 40 high-use railroad lines nationwide is now to take at least five years longer than was originally planned.

The modernization of German railroads is seen as urgently needed to prevent the frequent delays and malfunctions currently suffered by passengers and freight companies.

The Association of Freight Railways has said it approves of the planned further postponement of the modernization projects, saying it will allow them to be better prepared.

Last year, Deutsche Bahn successfully refurbished the line between Frankfurt and Mannheim, the first such project to be completed.

From August, the key line between Berlin and Hamburg is to be closed off for months while modernization is carried out.
 

Authorities in eastern Germany have arrested two people, a 53-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman, who are suspected of holding a 19-year-old woman hostage in a barn.

Police freed the woman from the barn in the town of Vogelsberg in the state of Thuringia on Tuesday after being alerted by her calls for help during a search of a property, according to broadcaster MDR.

She was reportedly trapped in a box.

The young woman had been reported missing in Vogelsberg on Sunday, with police launching an immediate search operation, as she was reported to be on medication.
 

Germany's Federal Statistical Office on Wednesday confirmed that the country's inflation rate was at 2% in June, the lowest monthly figure since October 2024.

The figure is down 0.1 of a percentage point from May.

The European Central Bank (ECB) has set a target of precisely 2% inflation for the eurozone.

In recent years, consumer prices have stabilized in Germany after the high of 8.8% inflation in late 2022 driven by the coronavirus pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, has forecast inflation to remain around 2% in the coming months.
 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has called on Israel to save "hundreds of thousands" of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip from dying of starvation and to give them the aid they need.

"That is Israel's obligation. International aid organizations must immediately be granted comprehensive access to be able to bring humanitarian aid to the people," he said on Thursday before traveling to Vienna, Austria, where he was to meet his Israeli counterpart.

Wadephul also called on the Palestinian militant group Hamas to lay down its arms and to release any hostages it is still holding in the Gaza Strip.

He said Palestinians needed to have a future in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem for there to be a long-lasting peace, but that it should be without Hamas as rulers in Gaza.

"Never again must a massacre like that on October 7, 2023, be conducted," he said, referring to Hamas-led raids in southern Israel on that date in which some 1,200 people, most civilians, were killed and around 250 hostages taken.

Israel responded to the attacks with an offensive in Gaza against Hamas in which more than 57,000 Palestinians have so far been killed, according to figures provided by authorities in the Hamas-run enclave.

Police in Australia have issued a public appeal for help as they continue their nationwide search for a 26-year-old German woman who went missing more than a week ago while backpacking in the state of Western Australia.

Carolina Wilga was last seen on June 29  at a general store in the small agricultural town of Beacon, situated to the northeast of the state capital, Perth.

"Carolina departed that area about five minutes later and has not been seen or heard from since," homicide squad detective senior sergeant Katharine Venn told reporters.

Venn said Wilga had planned to travel into remote areas of the state but also to the eastern coast, meaning that the search needed to cover a huge area.

She said there was so far no evidence that a third party was involved in the disappearance, but that all lines of inquiry were being followed.

Police said Wilga has spent two years in Australia backpacking and working at mine sites in Western Australia.

The West Australian daily later reported that a van belonging to Wilga had been found unattended near Karroun Hill, some 300 km (186 miles) northeast of Perth.

The paper said that the vehicle appeared to have suffered mechanical issues.
 

Residents living at the border between Germany and Poland have long been used to traveling freely and easily between the two countries.

But now, Poland has introduced spot border checks, following a similar move by Germany in October 2023.

And although authorities promised that EU nationals would not suffer inconvenience, people in the region say otherwise, as this report from DW describes: German-Polish border checks: 'They make our life difficult'

German carmaker Volkswagen is currently not delivering its ID.Buzz model to the US, according to the daily Handelsblatt.

The paper cited sources at the company as saying that the high tariffs imposed by the US Trump administration were one reason for the cessation of deliveries, along with a recall because of the dimensions of the electric van's third-row seat.

Two people at the company said the tariffs of 27.5% imposed by the US in April on imports of new cars constructed in Europe had been a factor in the move. Previously, tariffs of just 2.5% had been in place.

The ID.Buzz has also faced a recall by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) because its third-row seats do not meet US federal safety standards. These require seats of that size to have three seatbelts rather than the two currently fitted.

VW is reportedly responding to the recall by reducing the size of the seats.

On Wednesday, VW said its total vehicle deliveries to North America had fallen almost 7% in the first half of the year, although overall deliveries worldwide had risen by 1.3%.