Germany News and Discussion

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Germany announces 65bn package to curb soaring energy costs
Source: BBC
Germany has announced a €65bn (£56.2bn) package of measures to ease the threat of rising energy costs, as Europe struggles with scarce supplies after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The package, much bigger than two previous ones, will include one-off payments to the most vulnerable and tax breaks to energy-intensive businesses.

Energy prices have soared since the February invasion, and Europe is trying to wean itself off Russian energy.

Ukraine has urged Europe to stand firm.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62788447
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:shock:

Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting coup

21 minutes ago

Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government.

German reports say the group of far-right and ex-military figures planned to storm the parliament building, the Reichstag, and seize power.

A German man referred to as a prince called Heinrich XIII, 71, is alleged to have been central to their plans.

According to federal prosecutors, he is one of two alleged ringleaders among those arrested across 11 German states.

The plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63885028
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Germany, Europe’s Powerhouse, is Slowly Rearming
by Cain Burdeau
March 31, 2023

Introduction:
(Courthouse News) — Slowly, cautiously and proudly, Germany is rebuilding its armed forces and beginning to flex its military muscles – a development long desired by the United States, NATO and hawks in Europe, but regarded with unease by those who dread seeing Berlin's return to militarism.

In a first timid show of global prowess last August, Germany's air force – the Luftwaffe – launched six Eurofighter jets from the Neuburg an der Donau airfield in Bavaria to join Western military exercises in Australia meant to deter China's rising power.

The fighter jets, accompanied by seven massive transport planes that provided in-air refueling, made it to Singapore in just over 20 hours with a stop in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, to change pilots.

In Australia, 250 German soldiers took part in the drills and one of the transport planes continued on its way across the Pacific Ocean to circumnavigate the globe – a first for Germany's post-war air force – on its return to Germany after stops in Tahiti and Bolivia.
Germany's armed forces, the Bundeswehr, declared it an unprecedented mission to the Indo-Pacific and a major success.
Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/germany ... t-slowly/
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Why Ultra-green Germany Turned Its Back on Nuclear Energy
by Markham Heid
July 19, 2023

Introduction:
(Vox) FREIBURG, Germany — Earlier this spring, the German government closed down the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants — the last vestiges of what was once a large domestic fleet.

While not everyone in Germany supported the closures, many here — particularly supporters of the Greens (Die Grünen), one of the world’s strongest and most powerful environmentally focused political parties — viewed the event as the happy culmination of a decades-long battle to rid the country of nuclear energy.

“We are embarking on a new era of energy production,” said Steffi Lemke, a Greens member and Germany’s federal minister for the environment and nuclear safety, in a CNN interview following the plant closures.

Nuclear energy is a controversial topic in most places, but Germany is notable for its historic antipathy toward the technology. “Anti-nuclear sentiment in Germany is widespread and longstanding, and it’s highly correlated with concern for climate change,” says Pushker Kharecha, deputy director of the Climate Science, Awareness, and Solutions Program at Columbia University’s Earth Institute.
Further extract:
What’s harder to square is that as Germany was finalizing its plans to shutter its remaining nuclear plants, it was also reactivating old coal-fired power facilities, mining more lignite (a.k.a. brown coal), and generally ramping up its use of fossil fuels to address energy shortages brought on by the conflict in Ukraine. According to figures from Germany’s Federal Statistical Office, one-third of Germany’s electricity in 2022 was generated from coal. That represents an 8 percent increase compared to 2021. Meanwhile, the country’s use of nuclear-generated electricity fell by almost 50 percent during the same period.
Read more here: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/202 ... -warming
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Germany bans neo-Nazi group with links to US, conducts raids in 10 German states
Source: AP
https://apnews.com/article/germany-far- ... 70e4c12bc2
By KIRSTEN GRIESHABER
Updated 5:35 AM CDT, September 19, 2023
BERLIN (AP) — The German government on Tuesday banned the neo-Nazi group Hammerskins Germany and raided homes of dozens of its members. The group is an offshoot of an American ring-wing extremist group and plays a prominent role across Europe.

The Hammerskins Germany is an offshoot of the Hammerskins Nation founded in the United States in 1988, according to the interior ministry.

It plays a prominent role in the right-wing extremist scene in Europe. Worldwide, members of this association refer to themselves as “brothers” practicing their subcultural way of life. The group also sees itself as the elite of the right-wing extremist skinhead scene, according to the ministry.
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Musk wants migrants to die in the Mediterranean, calls for German voters to support that
Earlier this month, Germany's foreign ministry announced it was dispersing funds to two nonprofit organizations that assist asylum-seekers, including a group that conducts search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Already this year, more than 2,500 people have died or gone missing while trying to cross the sea, compared to fewer than 1,700 in all of 2022, the head of the UN refugee agency said on Friday.
...
"Is the German public aware of this?" Musk asked in a Friday post on X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, which he purchased for $44 billion last year. Musk embedded a post from an account that frequently shares racist attacks on migrants.

In the post shared by Musk, the account lamented the presence of humanitarian groups in the Mediterranean Sea that rescue migrants from distressed vessels.

"These NGOs are subsidized by the German government," the account posted. "Let's hope AfD wins the elections to stop this European suicide."
https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-mu ... r-x-2023-9
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