Heavy snow and ice continues on Thursday
Hundreds of vehicles got stuck on the Autobahn in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate on Thursday night due to icy conditions and snow. In eastern Hesse, the occupants were provided with blankets and hot drinks by emergency services in kilometre-long traffic jams, according to the police.
Many flights at Frankfurt Airport were also cancelled for Thursday due to the continuing risk of icy conditions. In Cologne, no buses were in service due to the winter weather. The weather situation remains tense due to freezing rain and snowfall in parts of Germany: The German Weather Service is expecting masses of snow on Thursday.
From the Eifel and the Cologne area to the Rothaargebirge and Thuringia, people must be prepared for "persistent and sometimes heavy snowfall".
READ ALSO: Hundreds of flights cancelled in Germany amid heavy snow and black ice
Arnold Schwarzenegger held over luxury watch at Munich airport
Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger was held at Munich airport on Wednesday for failing to declare an expensive watch, a customs spokesman said.
The Austrian-born actor and former governor of California, 76, was detained in the customs area on Wednesday afternoon after arriving from the United States, spokesman Thomas Meister said.
Schwarzenegger was expected to be able to continue his journey later in the day but "the watch will probably have to stay", Meister said.
Criminal proceedings were initiated against the "Terminator" star and former bodybuilding icon for tax evasion, he said.
Tax should have been paid on the watch because Schwarzenegger was intending to sell it in the European Union, according to Meister.
The luxury timepiece was due to be auctioned at a fundraising dinner for Schwarzenegger's climate initiative in Kitzbuehel on Thursday, the Bild daily reported.
Chemical giant Bayer confirms 'significant' cuts in Germany
Pharmaceutical giant Bayer confirmed late Wednesday that it will be making "significant" cuts to its workforce in Germany by the end of 2025, as part of a restructuring that follows huge third-quarter losses.
"The job cuts are to be implemented swiftly over the coming months and completed by the end of 2025 at the latest," the group said in a press release.
Bayer, the maker of Aspirin, employs around 22,000 in Germany and more than 100,000 worldwide.
The group's companies in Germany will face "significant staff reductions", the press statement added, without specifying the number of cuts, which come following an agreement between management and employee representatives.
The restructuring aims to "reduce hierarchies and complex structures within the company" and will "include employees with management or coordination tasks", it said.
New surveys show far-left and far-right surges in eastern states
If current polling numbers hold up, it will be impossible to form a government in either Thuringia or Brandenburg without either the far-right AfD or Sahra Wagenknecht's new far-left BSW.
The INSA poll has the AfD in Thuringia on 31 percent and the BSW on 17 percent - for a combined total of 48 percent of all votes in the state potentially going to fringe parties.
Brandenburg sees a similar picture, with the AfD on 28 percent and BSW on 13 percent.
EXPLAINED: Could the far-right AfD ever take power in Germany?
Conservative faction of CDU confirms attendance at "Remigration" meeting
The Werte Union or "Values Union" has confirmed that some of its representatives were at a controversial meeting with AfD party members in November, which saw a "master plan" for mass deportations of people from Germany who had not assimilated enough - including of people of migration backgrounds who had German citizenship.
The faction within the centre-right Christian Democrats is known for being considerably further right politically than much of the CDU.
It insists that the two members who were there were present in a personal capacity, and not as representatives of the Werte Union or the CDU as a whole.
READ ALSO: 'Remigration' named Germany's ugliest word of the year
With reporting from AFP.
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