Germany

Germany: Can a chatbot preach a good sermon? Hundreds attend church service generated by ChatGPT to find out

FUERTH, Germany (AP) — The artificial intelligence chatbot asked the believers in the fully packed St. Paul’s church in the Bavarian town of Fuerth to rise from the pews and praise the Lord.

The ChatGPT chatbot, personified by an avatar of a bearded Black man on a huge screen above the altar, then began preaching to the more than 300 people who had shown up on Friday morning for an experimental Lutheran church service almost entirely generated by AI.

German, Indian companies sign accord on possible India submarine project

BERLIN (AP) — German and Indian companies signed an agreement Wednesday that envisions the possible building of six military submarines for India.

The memorandum of understanding was signed in the presence of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who was in India on a visit.

The agreement calls for Germany’s Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems to engineer and design six non-nuclear submarines that would be built and delivered by India’s Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders with “significant local content.”

Germany: With oil prices slumping, OPEC+ producers weigh more production cuts

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The major oil-producing countries led by Saudi Arabia and Russia are wrestling with whether to make another cut in supply to the global economy as the OPEC+ alliance struggles to prop up sagging oil prices that have been a boon to U.S. drivers and helped ease inflation worldwide.

Berlin calls on China to stop enlisting former German military pilots

BERLIN, June 3 (Reuters) - German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Saturday called on China to stop enlisting former German military pilots for the training of its own forces.

"I have made it clear that I expect this policy to be stopped immediately," German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters after meeting his Chinese counterpart at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Asia's most important security conference.

He added the Chinese defence minister had not denied the practice of hiring former German military pilots, but played down its significance.

Germany: Emirati hosts want UN climate talks to deliver ‘game-changing results,’ with big oil at the table

BERLIN (AP) — A senior United Arab Emirates official says the Gulf nation wants the U.N. climate summit it’s hosting later this year to deliver “game-changing results” for international efforts to curb global warming, but doing so will require having the fossil fuel industry at the table.

Germany: Berlin aware of media reports about Ukrainian suspect in Nord Stream blasts case

BERLIN, June 2. /TASS/: The German Cabinet is aware of the reports about a possible Ukrainian suspect in the blowups of Nord Stream gas pipelines but will not comment on them until the end of the investigation, Cabinet spokesperson Christiane Hoffman told reporters on Friday.

"We certainly have taken note of this publication. I request patience until the actual completion of the investigation," Hoffman said. "We have no position [on this matter] at the moment," she noted.

Berlin set to close consulates in three Russian cities by November — German diplomat

BERLIN, May 31. /TASS/: The German government made the decision to close by this November its consulates general in the Russian cities of Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad and Novosibirsk, after Moscow’s earlier decision to cap Germany’s diplomatic staff stationed in Russia at no more than 350 people, a German diplomat said on Wednesday.

Number of new German citizens reaches 20-year high as many Syrians naturalized

BERLIN, May 31 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Germany saw a 28 percent increase in the number of people gaining its citizenship last year, with people from Syria accounting for more than a quarter of those who were naturalized, official data showed Tuesday.

Preliminary figures show that about 168,500 people were granted German citizenship in 2022, the Federal Statistical Office said. That was the highest number since 2002.

Germany arrests seven suspected Daesh fundraisers

BERLIN, May 31 (NNN-AGENCIES)– German prosecutors said they arrested seven people accused of collecting money to send to the Daesh group in Syria.

The four Germans, a German-Moroccan dual national, one Kosovar and a Turkish citizen, were accused of belonging “to an international network that supported the terrorist activities of the Daesh in Syria through financial donations”, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

Starting in 2020, the group used the Telegram messaging service to appeal for contributions, prosecutors said.

Subscribe to Germany