Germany

BERLIN, July 25 (Reuters) - Germany's conservative candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor apologised on Sunday for laughing on a visit to a flood-stricken town last week, a gaffe that has hit his ratings two months before a federal election.

Armin Laschet's conservative bloc is around 10 points ahead of the Greens in most polls, but his lapse last weekend at Erftstadt, when he was caught on camera laughing at a joke while the country's president was giving a sombre speech, has cost him.

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff has warned that restrictions for unvaccinated people may be necessary if case numbers reach new heights in the coming months.

But Helge Braun said in an interview with the newspaper Bild am Sonntag that he doesn’t expect another coronavirus-related lockdown in Germany.

Braun said that unvaccinated people may be barred from entering venues like restaurants, movie theaters and stadiums “because the residual risk is too high.”

23 July 2021; MEMO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday reiterated her opposition to Turkey's full membership in the European Union but voiced support for closer ties with Ankara by updating the EU-Turkey Customs Union and a key refugee agreement, Anadolu Agency reports.

AHRWEILER, Germany (AP) — Like other residents of his town in Germany, Wolfgang Huste knew a flood was coming. What nobody told him, he says, was how bad it would be.

The 66-year-old antiquarian bookseller in Ahrweiler said the first serious warning to evacuate or move to higher floors of buildings close to the Ahr River came through loudspeaker announcements at around 8 p.m. on July 14. Huste then heard a short emergency siren blast and church bells ring, followed by silence.

“It was spooky, like in a horror film,” he said.

BERLIN, July 22 (NNN-Xinhua) — Germany would pay 400 million euros for victims of last week’s floods, which were supposed to be available immediately, Minister of Finance and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced at a press conference.

It was necessary to quickly send the message to people in the affected areas “that there is a future, that we care together, that this is a matter for us as a whole country, that we are helping,” Scholz said.

BERLIN, July 22 (Reuters) - Germany's Angela Merkel made clear on Thursday she would keep working on issues such as climate change till her last day as chancellor but, inscrutable as ever, gave little away about her plans once she leaves office after a September 26 election.

Merkel has led Germany for 16 years, steering Europe's biggest economy through a global financial crisis, the euro zone debt crisis, a migrant crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, but she is not running for a fifth term.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s Cabinet met Wednesday to decide on a package of immediate aid for victims of last week’s floods and consider longer-term plans to rebuild devastated areas.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and ministers are expected to approve a package of around 400 million euros ($472 million), financed half by the federal government and half by Germany’s state governments, to help people deal with the immediate aftermath of the flooding and repair some of the damage.

BERLIN, July 20 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel headed again to the country's flood disaster zone on Tuesday, her government besieged by questions over how Europe's richest economy was caught flat-footed by flooding that had been predicted days earlier.

The floods have killed more than 160 people in Germany since tearing through villages, sweeping away houses, roads and bridges last week, highlighting gaps in how warnings of severe weather are passed on to the population.

20 July 2021; MEMO: German journalist associations on Monday demanded clarification and counter-measures in the wake of revelations about the use of an Israeli-made spying software against activists and reporters, says Anadolu Agency.

BERLIN (AP) — German officials are defending their preparations for flooding in the face of the raging torrents that caught many people by surprise and left over 190 people dead in Western Europe, but they concede that they will need to learn lessons from the disaster.