Germany

12 July 2023; MEMO: German authorities have handed over to Egypt more than 40 artefacts that were smuggled out of the country and discovered at Frankfurt airport, reports the Egypt Independent.

The artefacts came from Thailand and were on their way to the UK when they were seized, according to Khaled Galal, the Egyptian ambassador to Berlin.

Galal told the Egypt Independent that this is the fifth time Egyptian artefacts have been smuggled into Germany.

BERLIN (AP) — The German government is considering whether it can make former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer foot at least part of the quarter-billion euro compensation it has to pay a private company over a failed plan to introduce highway tolls.

09 July 2023; MEMO: A German town has sworn in a former Syrian refugee as its mayor, in the first case of a German municipality voting in someone who had arrived in the country as a refugee.

At a municipal council meeting on Friday evening, former Syrian refugee Ryyan Alshebl took the oath as mayor of Ostelsheim, a town 30 kilometres from the southern city of Stuttgart.

SONNEBERG, Germany (AP) — Mike Knoth is more than thrilled that a far-right populist party’s candidate recently won the county administration in his hometown in rural eastern Germany for the first time since the Nazi era.

The gardener despises the country’s established parties, he doesn’t trust the media and he feels there are too many migrants in the country. The far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, he hopes, will improve everything that’s not going well in his eyes in Sonneberg, which is in the southeastern state of Thuringia.

BERLIN, July 4 (Reuters) - German industry on Tuesday warned that Europe must become more self-reliant in the hunt for raw materials needed for cleaner, more digital economies, after China caused alarm by announcing restrictions on some metals used for semiconductors.

China's commerce ministry said on Monday it would require export permits for eight gallium products and six germanium products from Aug. 1 to protect national security.

The metals are used in high-speed computer chips and for the defence and renewable energy sectors.

FRANKFURT, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Joachim Nagel, president of the central bank of Germany (Deutsche Bundesbank), on Monday said that inflation in the eurozone remains too high and that the European Central Bank (ECB) still has "a way to go" to bring it down to the target level.

Addressing the 2023 edition of the Euro Finance Summit here, Nagel defended the ECB's decision to aggressively hike interest rates in a bid to tame the eurozone's "stubborn" inflation.

BERLIN, July 2 (Reuters) - Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday that Germany was watching the unrest in France "with concern".

French President Emmanuel Macron postponed a state visit to Germany that was set to begin Sunday because of turmoil on French streets in the wake of the police shooting of a teenager of North African descent.

Scholz, in an interview with Germany's ARD television, said that, while watching with concern, he was confident that Macron would successfully calm the situation.

01 July 2023; AA: Germany said the move to annul the validity of the Constitutional Court’s decisions by Bosnia and Herzegovina's Republika Srpska entity violates the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement.

The law adopted by the entity's National Assembly is another serious step toward the separation of the entity from the state, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger.

He said the move also puts the unity and territorial integrity of the country at risk.

BERLIN, July 1(Reuters) - Germany's coalition government is at odds over whether to bow to British pressure and approve the production of Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets for Saudi Arabia, the newspaper Welt Am Sonntag reported on Saturday, citing anonymous sources.

A deal struck by Riyadh and BAE Systems (BAES.L) five years ago for the arms maker to supply 48 such jets was put on hold due to the war in Yemen, where Saudi-led Arab forces intervened in 2015.

A third of the components for the jets come from Germany, industry sources told Reuters at the time.

BERLIN (AP) — Leaders of Germany’s main opposition bloc called Friday for voters turned off by the government to back them in two major state elections this fall, arguing that they are the best bet for stability while voting for a burgeoning far-right party would bring no change.