Germany

Events in Ukraine ‘resurrected’ NATO, ‘awakened’ EU — French Foreign Minister

BERLIN, April 5. /TASS/: Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine has already caused three main consequences: ‘awakening’ of the EU, ‘resurrection’ of NATO and cohesion of the Ukrainian nation, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview for Die Welt, published Tuesday.

"It [operation] has caused awakening on three directions. First, it has reinforced the Ukrainian nation," Le Drian said. "Second, it has led to an awakening inside the EU."

Germany: UN panel to release report on efforts to curb climate change

BERLIN (AP) — A U.N.-backed panel will release Monday a highly anticipated scientific report on international efforts to curb climate change before global temperatures reach dangerous levels.

Reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are considered the most authoritative assessments of the state of global warming, its impacts and the measures being taken to tackle it.

Germany plans to relax COVID quarantine rules as cases soar

BERLIN, March 31 (Reuters) - Germany plans to end mandatory quarantine for most people who catch COVID-19, the health ministry proposed on Thursday, as numbers isolating with the infection top four million.

Under the existing rules, people with COVID must quarantine for at least seven days.

But Health Minister Karl Lauterbach wants to change that to a voluntary five days of self-isolation with the recommendation of a COVID test at the end of that period, proposals seen by Reuters showed.

Germany declares early warning level of gas emergency plan

BERLIN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Germany's Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) on Wednesday announced the first stage, or the early warning level, of the gas emergency plan, saying that it's for "precautionary purposes."

"Security of supply continues to be guaranteed," said Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck, stressing that there were "no supply bottlenecks currently."

Germany triggers warning over gas amid Russian ruble demand

Berlin, Mar 30 (AP) The German government said Wednesday it was triggering the early warning level for gas supplies amid concerns that Russia could cut off supplies unless it is paid in rubles.

Western nations have rejected the Russian demand for ruble payments, arguing it would undermine the sanctions imposed against Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

Holocaust survivors flee from Ukraine to Germany for safety

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — When the bombs started falling on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, last month, Tatyana Zhuravliova had a horrible deja vu: the 83-year-old Ukrainian Jew felt the same panic she suffered as a little girl when the Nazis were flying air attacks on her hometown of Odesa.

“My whole body was shaking, and those fears crept up again through my entire body — fears which I didn’t even know were still hidden inside me,” Zhuravliova said.

German state election offers 1st test since Scholz took over

BERLIN (AP) — The western German state of Saarland is holding an election Sunday that offers the country’s first test at the ballot box since Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s national government took office in December.

Polls before the election for the state legislature point to a solid lead for Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats in a region led since 1999 by the center-right Christian Democratic Union party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

War shakes Europe path to energy independence, climate goals

BERLIN (AP) — Before Russia’s war in Ukraine, Europe’s most pressing energy policy goal was reducing carbon emissions that cause climate change.

Now, officials are fixated on rapidly reducing the continent’s reliance on Russian oil and natural gas — and that means friction between security and climate goals, at least in the short term.

To wean itself from Russian energy supplies as quickly as possible, Europe will need to burn more coal and build more pipelines and terminals to import fossil fuels from elsewhere.

Nearly 239,000 refugees from Ukraine in Germany so far -interior min

BERLIN, March 23 (Reuters) - Nearly 239,000 refugees from Ukraine have been recorded in Germany so far, the German Interior Ministry said.

Federal police said 238,932 people - mostly women, children and the elderly - have arrived from Ukraine as of Wednesday, according to the ministry.

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