Germany reeling after Munich car ramming 'attack'
Germany is in shock after a suspected car ramming attack that injured 30 people, some seriously, in the southern city of Munich on Thursday.
Police who rushed to the scene fired a shot at the battered car and detained the driver, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker who was named by German media as Farhad N.
The incident came ahead of the high-profile security Munich Security Conference, which starts on Friday, and amid a heated immigration debate ahead of February 23rd elections following a spate of similar attacks.
Police said the alleged perpetrator has "indications of an extremist background".
READ ALSO: What we know so far about suspected car ramming attack in Munich
Munich mayor Dieter Reiter said a number of people were being treated for severe injuries and were in a "life-threatening condition".
Media reported that children were among the victims.
The suspect, who was shot at by police before being detained by police, had allegedly been rejected for asylum in Germany.
However, he had subsequently received permission to stay as he was not able to be deported to his home country.Â
CDU leader calls for 'change' in Germany after attack
Tensions remain high in Germany over immigration and security.
Following the incident in Munich on Thursday, conservative chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz, who is frontrunner in the elections, said: "Everyone must feel safe in our country again. Something has to change in Germany."
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the SPD, condemned the "awful" attack and promised severe consequences.
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, of the Greens, urged the country to not become divided "by right-wing extremists nor by Islamists who are challenging our constitutional state from within".
Meanwhile, the Munich-based Afghan cultural association Farhang expressed horror at the incident.
"This is barbaric, this is inhumane," said chairman Mohammad Imran Sediqi. "People like this don't belong in Germany. They are a danger to the whole of Germany and also to the Afghan community."
German carmaker Porsche to cut nearly 2,000 jobs
Sports car manufacturer Porsche is planning to cut 1,900 jobs in Germany by 2029, it has emerged.
The main plant in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen and the site in Weissach are affected, local media reported on Thursday.Â
As employees have job security until 2030, the Group has to rely on people taking voluntary redundancies.
According to figures from the statistics portal Statista, Porsche employed 42,140 people worldwide in 2023.
It comes amid a spate of layoff announcements from carmakers in Germany in recent months, including Volkswagen.
READ ALSO: 'More layoffs' - How Germany's car industry crisis will hit the labour market
British movie star Tilda Swinton lashed out at the "state-operated" crimes of "greed-addicted governments" as she received a special award on the first day of the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday.
The veteran Oscar winner did not name any country but made a fiery 15-minute speech highlighting conflicts and scandals around the world after receiving an honorary Golden Bear award on the first night of the festival.
"State-operated and internationally enabled mass murder is currently actively terrorising more than one part of our world," she said.
"The inhumane is being perpetrated on our watch. I'm free to name it, without hesitation or doubt in my mind," Swinton added.
She spoke of the "development of riviera property" in an apparent reference to US President Donald Trump’s call for Gaza's Palestinian residents to be moved so that it can be rebuilt.
Swinton praised the festival and movie makers for taking up sensitive topics and offered her "unwavering solidarity to all those who recognise the unacceptable complicity of our greed-addicted governments who make nice with planet-wreckers and war criminals wherever they come from."
Swinton, 64, spoke after the festival opened with a screening of German director Tom Tykwer's film "The Light" -- a drama about a Syrian housekeeper, in the midst of a national election campaign that has been dominated by a bitter migration debate.
The film, not screening as part of the Berlinale's main competition, tells the story of a middle-class Berlin family whose lives are upended when they hire a new domestic worker.
Forecasters warn of icy surfaces and snow
Parts of Germany have been hit with icy temperatures and snow this week - and more is expected on Friday.
Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Hesse saw snowfall and freezing rain on Thursday.Â
It was expected to get more snowy and slippery on Thursday night.Â
On Friday, more flakes will fall from the Upper Rhine to south-east Bavaria and in the east.
Forecasters have warned drivers and pedestrians to be careful on roads and pavements.Â
German elections 'targeted by misinformation'
A coordinated disinformation network has been targeting the upcoming German election with claims about vote-related terror threats or corruption allegations against politicians, a research group said Thursday.
The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) discovered a network of around 50 X accounts using AI-generated content or impersonating legitimate media organisations to "undermine trust in German elections".
"This is consistent with information manipulation strategies employed by the Kremlin in recent European elections," ISD said in its report seen by AFP.
Germany's intelligence services have been sounding the alarm for months about possible Russian attempts to meddle in German politics, particularly ahead of the national election on February 23rd.
The network discovered by ISD experts became active in November but last month "turned its attention to the German elections", called after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition collapsed.
It has propagated allegations that the security of the German polls was under threat, targeted political candidates and promoted content discrediting Ukrainian refugees or aid to war-torn Ukraine.
According to ISD, an additional network of more than 6,000 bots -- fake profiles used to artificially increase the visibility of posts -- boosted the doctored content.
The networks posted and shared content in several languages, including English, Spanish and Arabic -- but not in German.
This suggested the network "intends to overwhelm fact-checkers and mislead international observers rather than influence Germans themselves", the report said.
Videos shared as part of the disinformation efforts carried branding from legitimate media outlets such as Deutsche Welle (DW), the BBC and Sky News.
With reporting by AFP and Imogen Goodman
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