Border controls tightened ahead of Euro 2024 football championship
The UEFA Euro 2024 football championship kicks off in a week on June 14th.
To help improve security, border controls are being stepped up in Germany from Friday, June 7th.Â
It means that there will be more checks at borders by federal police and that could mean longer waiting times for travellers.Â
The aim is to increase insecurity and spot any terror threats.Â
All travellers - regardless of where they are from - are asked to carry valid travel documents including their passport or ID and permits if they have them.Â
READ ALSO:
- Germany to enforce tighter border controls for Euro 2024 tournament
- Euro 2024 - Six things to know about visiting Germany this summer
Southern Bavaria could see more heavy rainfall over the weekend
According to the German Weather Service (DWD), parts of southern Germany are likely to face heavy rainfall again - coming in shortly behind last week's storm which caused severe flooding and claimed lives.
In southern Bavaria, up to 60 litres per square meter of precipitation is expected from Saturday evening to Monday noon, DWD meteorologist Dirk Mewes told the German Press Agency on Thursday.Â
The rainfall will not likely be as intense as last week's. But with water levels still high, further rain could again bring considerable danger. Thunderstorms, heavy showers and landslides are possible.
READ ALSO: Record heat deaths and floods - How Germany is being hit by climate change
For Baden-WĂĽrttemberg, local thunderstorms with hail, stormy gusts and squalls are to be expected from Thursday afternoon to Friday from the High Rhine to Upper Swabia.
On Saturday rain can be expected nationwide.
Scholz slams far-right AfD over praise from Putin
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday said comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin in support of the far-right AfD were "embarrassing" as controversy swirls around the party ahead of EU elections.
"It's embarrassing that you received high praise from the Russian president," Scholz said after lawmakers from the AfD heckled him during a speech to parliament.
Asked about a visit to Moscow by AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla in 2020, Putin on Wednesday told journalists that Russia had no regular relations with the party.
But he also said he saw "no signs of neo-Nazism in the activities of the AfD" and it was not up to Russia to judge whether the party was acting in accordance with the German constitution.
"If someone speaks out in favour of normal relations with our country, with Russia, we only support this," he said.
German intelligence services have classified the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist organisation, with several local branches of the party classed as "confirmed" extremist groups.
READ ALSO: Why has Germany's far-right AfD party crashed in the polls?
Last month, one of the AfD's most controversial politicians, Bjoern Höcke, was convicted of deliberately using a banned Nazi slogan at a rally.
Days later, the AfD was expelled from its far-right group within the European Parliament after its top candidate Maximilian Krah made comments minimising the crimes of the Nazis' feared SS. Since April, Krah has been caught in a scandal over claims he accepted money in return for spreading pro-Russian propaganda.Â
The European Central Bank makes first rate cut since 2019
The European Central Bank cut interest rates on Thursday as eurozone inflation gradually eases. The key deposit rate was lowered a quarter point to 3.75 percent, bringing it down from a record high.
Following an unprecedented streak of eurozone rate hikes beginning in mid-2022 to tame runaway energy and food costs, inflation has been slowly coming down towards the ECB's two-percent target.
Thursday's cut, the first since September 2019, came after the central bank kept rates on hold since October and will provide a much-needed boost for the beleaguered eurozone economy.
At a press conference following the rate decision, Lagarde insisted that the Frankfurt-based institution was not "pre-committing to any particular rate path".
"What is very uncertain is the speed at which we travel and the time that it will take," she said. "We know its going to be a bumpy road."
The eurozone economy has expanded a bit faster than expected in the first quarter as it emerged from recession.
While inflation has eased, Lagarde noted that it still remained high, pointing to the fact that "wages are still rising at an elevated pace, making up for the past inflation surge."
READ ALSO: Germany's biggest companies campaign against far right parties ahead of the EU elections
German industrial orders drop again
German industrial orders unexpectedly fell for a fourth straight month in April, official data showed Thursday, as Europe's beleaguered top economy struggles to get back on its feet.
New orders, closely watched as an indicator of future business activity, slipped 0.2 percent month-on-month, according to provisional data from federal statistics agency Destatis.
Analysts surveyed by financial data firm FactSet had expected an increase of 0.5 percent.
While the figure was only a "mini-decline", it "nevertheless shows how difficult the economy is currently finding it to regain its footing," said LBBW bank economist Jens-Oliver Niklasch.
There was a "lack of growth impetus", he said, adding that a boost would need to come in the form of improved exports
WWII veteran airlifted to Germany dies during D-Day commemorations
A 102-year-old World War II veteran has died after suffering a medical emergency en route to commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the Allies' D-Day invasion of Europe, a veterans organisation said.
Robert Persichitti flew overseas along with his guardian and was sailing on a ship down the coast to France when the emergency occurred, the Honor Flight organisation said in a Facebook post.
He was airlifted to Germany for emergency treatment but died shortly thereafter, according to the post, which cited veterans who were traveling with him.
Persichitti was named to the New York State Senate's Veterans Hall of Fame in 2020, which includes a biography that said he served in the Navy during WWII as a radioman aboard the command ship USS Eldorado.
Persichitti was among a group of surviving WWII veterans on their way to Normandy, France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day - the day in 1944 when allied forces landed in occupied France, which marks the beginning of the defeat Nazi Germany.
Eighty years later, the remaining veterans of WWII are now in their late 90s or older.
With reporting by DPA and Paul Krantz
Comments