Germany

SONNEBERG, Germany (AP) — Mike Knoth is more than thrilled that a far-right populist party’s candidate recently won the county administration in his hometown in rural eastern Germany for the first time since the Nazi era.

The gardener despises the country’s established parties, he doesn’t trust the media and he feels there are too many migrants in the country. The far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, he hopes, will improve everything that’s not going well in his eyes in Sonneberg, which is in the southeastern state of Thuringia.

BERLIN, July 4 (Reuters) - German industry on Tuesday warned that Europe must become more self-reliant in the hunt for raw materials needed for cleaner, more digital economies, after China caused alarm by announcing restrictions on some metals used for semiconductors.

China's commerce ministry said on Monday it would require export permits for eight gallium products and six germanium products from Aug. 1 to protect national security.

The metals are used in high-speed computer chips and for the defence and renewable energy sectors.

FRANKFURT, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Joachim Nagel, president of the central bank of Germany (Deutsche Bundesbank), on Monday said that inflation in the eurozone remains too high and that the European Central Bank (ECB) still has "a way to go" to bring it down to the target level.

Addressing the 2023 edition of the Euro Finance Summit here, Nagel defended the ECB's decision to aggressively hike interest rates in a bid to tame the eurozone's "stubborn" inflation.

BERLIN, July 2 (Reuters) - Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that Germany was watching the unrest in France "with concern".

French President Emmanuel Macron postponed a state visit to Germany that was set to begin Sunday because of turmoil on French streets in the wake of the police shooting of a teenager of North African descent.

Scholz, in an interview with Germany's ARD television, said that, while watching with concern, he was confident that Macron would successfully calm the situation.

01 July 2023; AA: Germany said the move to annul the validity of the Constitutional Court’s decisions by Bosnia and Herzegovina's Republika Srpska entity violates the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

The law adopted by the entity's National Assembly is another serious step toward the separation of the entity from the state, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger.

He said the move also puts the unity and territorial integrity of the country at risk.

BERLIN, July 1(Reuters) - Germany's coalition government is at odds over whether to bow to British pressure and approve the production of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets for Saudi Arabia, the newspaper Welt Am Sonntag reported on Saturday, citing anonymous sources.

A deal struck by Riyadh and BAE Systems (BAES.L) five years ago for the arms maker to supply 48 such jets was put on hold due to the war in Yemen, where Saudi-led Arab forces intervened in 2015.

A third of the components for the jets come from Germany, industry sources told Reuters at the time.

BERLIN (AP) — Leaders of Germany’s main opposition bloc called Friday for voters turned off by the government to back them in two major state elections this fall, arguing that they are the best bet for stability while voting for a burgeoning far-right party would bring no change.

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation in Europe slid again in June but fell too slowly to offer much relief to shoppers grumbling over price tags or to stop more interest rate hikes that will raise the cost of borrowing across the economy.

The annual rate of 5.5% was down from 6.1% in May in the 20 countries that use the euro currency, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said Friday.

28 June 2023; MEMO: The number of people filing discrimination complaints increased by 14 per cent in Germany in 2022 compared to 2021, to a total of 8,827, the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency said Tuesday.

"We have never had so many people submit applications to the Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency as we did last year," said Ferda Ataman, the head of Germany's anti-discrimination office, in announcing the report at a news conference in Berlin, Anadolu Agency reports.

BERLIN (AP) — Russian forces carried out widespread and systematic torture of civilians who were detained in connection with its attack on Ukraine, summarily executing dozens of them, the United Nations human rights office said Tuesday.

The global body interviewed hundreds of victims and witnesses for a report detailing more than 900 cases of civilians, including children and elderly people, being arbitrarily detained in the conflict, most of them by Russia.