Tuesday's top story:Â Merz says Iran War talks are exposing US weakness
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz criticised the United States over its handling of the war with Iran on Monday, describing stalled negotiations as a humiliation for Washington.
Speaking to students in Marsberg, Merz said he saw little chance of a quick end to the fighting, arguing that Iran had proved far stronger than the US had anticipated.
He also accused Washington of entering the war without a clear exit strategy, drawing comparisons with the long and ultimately failed US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The chancellor said he had already conveyed his doubts directly to President Donald Trump on two occasions. The war, he added, was not only strategically flawed but was also harming Germany’s economic performance through higher energy costs and global uncertainty.
Berlin has reiterated its willingness to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz by deploying minesweepers, but Merz stressed this could only happen once hostilities have ended.
The Chancellor’s visit to the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg was part of EU Project Day, during which schools across Germany organise activities related to the European Union.
Court rules German–Luxembourg border checks unlawful
A German court has ruled that border checks introduced at the Luxembourg–German border violate European law, dealing a blow to the federal government’s migration policy.
The Administrative Court in Koblenz upheld a lawsuit brought by a law professor who was subjected to checks while travelling by bus from Luxembourg to SaarbrĂĽcken in June 2025.
The judges found that the controls breached the Schengen Borders Code, which guarantees passport‑free travel within much of Europe and allows internal border checks only in narrowly defined exceptional circumstances.
While temporary controls can be justified if public security is seriously threatened, the court said the German government had failed to provide a sound factual basis for claiming such a threat at the time.
In particular, the ruling criticised Berlin for not sufficiently demonstrating a concrete risk of increased migration that would overwhelm state authorities. Without this analysis, the court said it could not accept the justification for the controls.
READ ALSO: What have three months of stricter border controls in Germany achieved?
The decision formally applies only to the Luxembourg border and the specific case before the court.
Interior Ministry officials stressed that border checks elsewhere would continue and confirmed plans to appeal.
Legal experts have welcomed the ruling as an important affirmation of the rule of law within the Schengen area. But further clarity is expected only once Germany’s Higher Administrative Court – or ultimately the European Court of Justice – rules on the broader legality of internal border checks.
Large scale police raid taken against the Hell's Angels in North Rhine-Westphalia
According to the Interior Ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the raid is one of the largest operations to combat "rocker crime" in the history of the country.
NRW's interior minister said that more than 50 locations had been searched since the early hours of Tuesday morning. Around 1,200 police officers had been deployed across 28 cities.
The investigation is about the suspicion of formation and membership of a criminal organisation.
Some Hell's Angels chapters had been banned in recent years including the associations "Hells Angels Motorcycle Club Leverkusen" and "Hells Angels MC Concrete City".
According to reporting by the Neue Westfälische, the Hell's Angels most recently had 29 chapters in NRW with 469 members. This made the Hell's Angels the largest "rocker group" in NRW - ahead of the "Freeway Riders" with 403 members across 37 chapters.
Obama praises German climate activist Luisa Neubauer
Thirty-year-old Luisa Neubauer is well known in Germany for her work as a climate activists and organiser.
Now, as a member of former US President Barack Obama's foundation, she has been highlighted as one of the people who give him hope.
"The young people in the leadership program of our Obama Foundation give me hope," Obama had written on X and Instagram on "Earth Day", which takes place worldwide on April 22nd.
In a short video, he introduced Neubauer as a woman who didn't wait for someone else to make change, but instead took action to lead change herself.
The young people in our @ObamaFoundation Leaders program give me hope. One of those leaders, Luisa Neubauer, is working to fight climate change and recently traveled to Antarctica.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 22, 2026
This Earth Day, I hope you'll check out her incredible story. pic.twitter.com/T3yqryHRj2
In Germany, Neubauer has been a central figure in Fridays for Future and has helped organise enormous rallies in Hamburg, Berlin and elsewhere.
She was also closely involved with protests against open-pit coal mining in the west of Germany.
According to Neubauer, the ruling in the 2021 case "Neubauer et al. vs. Germany" confirmed that all generations have an equal right to freedom. It follows that today's politicians must protect future generations.
"What once seemed impossible is now reality: Germany will phase out coal by 2038," she added.
But she sees that there is still a long way to go, especially as climate targets are being softened under Germany's current leadership.
German tourist dies after snake bite in Egypt
A German tourist has died after a snake crawled into his trousers and bit him as he watched a show in Egypt on a family holiday, German police said Monday.
The 57-year-old man was watching the snake-charming show at a hotel in Hurghada, a popular beach holiday destination on the Red Sea, in early April.
The two reptiles involved, thought to be cobras, were draped over the necks of audience members, police in southern Bavaria state said.
"The 'snake charmer' then let one of the snakes crawl into the trousers" of the German man and it bit him in the leg, they said in a statement.
The victim showed "clear signs of poisoning" and had to be resuscitated before being taken to hospital, but he later died, it said.
The man -- who was not named in the statement -- came from the Unterallgaeu district in Bavaria and was on holiday with two relatives.
German police and prosecutors are investigating his death and are awaiting the results of a toxicology test.
When contacted by AFP, Egyptian authorities said they were not aware of the incident.
With reporting by DPA, AFP and Tom Pugh.
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