Germany

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — At a gas station near the Cologne, Germany, airport, Bernd Mueller watches the digits quickly climb on the pump: 22 euros ($23), 23 euros, 24 euros. The numbers showing how much gasoline he’s getting rise, too. But much more slowly. Painfully slowly.

“I’m getting rid of my car this October, November,” said Mueller, 80. “I’m retired, and then there’s gas and all that. At some point, you’ve got to scale back.”

Berlin, Jun 19 (AP-PTI) Germany's economy minister said on Sunday that the country will limit the use of gas for electricity production amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a reduction in supplies from Russia.

Germany has been trying to fill its gas storage facilities to capacity ahead of the winter months, when gas is more urgently needed as a heating fuel.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s health minister urged residents and visitors to wear face masks indoors to protect themselves and others from the coronavirus, but he acknowledged that current data doesn’t justify making mask use a legal requirement.

An indoor mask mandate largely lapsed across Germany this spring, with the requirement remaining for places such as hospitals and care homes. The libertarian Free Democratic Party, which is part of the country’s governing coalition, has been particularly vocal in pressing for an end to COVID-19 measures.

17 June 2022; MEMO: More than 800 mosques in Germany have been the targets of threats and attacks since 2014 but, in most of the cases, the crimes were not properly investigated, according to Brandeilig, an initiative of rights group FAIR International, Anadolu News Agency reports.

The group, which has founded Germany's first reporting centre for attacks on mosques, recorded nearly 840 incidents of attacks, vandalism and threats between 2014 and 2022.

BERLIN, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Leading German economic institutes expect inflation in the country to remain high in 2023, due to soaring energy prices, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and supply bottlenecks.

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel) and the ifo Institute on Wednesday raised their 2023 inflation forecasts to 4.2 percent and 3.3 percent respectively.

Recent signals from the European Central Bank (ECB) to normalize their monetary policy came "too late and have so far been too timid," said Stefan Kooths, vice president and head of forecasting at IfW Kiel.

BERLIN (AP) — Rich countries including the European Union and the United States have pushed back against efforts to put financial help for poor nations suffering the devastating effects of global warming firmly on the agenda for this year’s U.N. climate summit.

Observers and campaigners attending a ten-day preparatory meeting in Bonn, Germany, that’s wrapping up Thursday expressed frustration at the resistance shown by developed nations to formally discussing how poor countries can get more aid when they’re hit by climate disasters.

BERLIN, June 14 (Reuters) - The training of Ukrainian troops on German howitzers will soon be completed, paving the way for the use of the weapons in the war in Ukraine, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Tuesday.

Ukraine has pleaded for the West to send more and better artillery as the country runs out of ammunition for its existing Soviet-era arsenal, which is dwarfed by Russia's.

Western countries have promised NATO-standard weapons but deploying them is taking time.

FRANKFURT, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The Group of Seven (G7) countries are determined to rein in the spiraling inflation, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said on Friday.

Speaking at a press conference after the G7 finance ministers and central governors meeting held in Germany's Petersberg, Lindner called on central banks to bring down the surging inflation.

"Across most G7 countries, inflation rates have reached levels not seen for decades," said a communique released after the meeting.

21 May 2022; MEMO: Qatar and Germany have signed an energy partnership agreement on Friday focusing on hydrogen trade and liquefied natural gas.

KOENIGSWINTER, Germany (AP) — The Group of Seven leading economies are set to agree on more than $18 billion in aid for Ukrainian defense efforts as meetings of finance ministers close Friday, Germany’s finance minister told Bloomberg Television.

“I think it’s a very good signal that the G-7 nations are standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine because they are not only defending themselves, they are defending our values,” German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said in an interview with Bloomberg.