Germany

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Bank will cut more costs, Germany’s biggest bank said on Wednesday, as it confirmed a key profitability target for 2022 that analysts are not convinced it will achieve.

The bank is in the midst of a major overhaul under Chief Executive Christian Sewing and has already announced plans to cut headcount by 18,000 and exit some businesses.

It is aiming to return to profitability after five years of losses totalling more than 15 billion euros ($18.2 billion).

08 Dec 2020; MEMO:  Germany, France and Britain said yesterday that they are "deeply concerned" by Iran's announcement that it intends to install additional, advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges at the Natanz plant, and of parliamentary legislation that could lead to expanding its nuclear programme.

The three countries – dubbed the E3 – said in a joint statement that "if Iran is serious about preserving a space for diplomacy, it must not implement these steps".

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s highest court upheld on Saturday a ban on a demonstration in the northern city of Bremen planned by opponents of lockdown measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus.

Lower courts had already denied permission for the protest, planned for Saturday afternoon, at which 20,000 demonstrators were due to convene in the city centre of Bremen.

Last month, German police unleashed water cannon and pepper spray in an effort to scatter thousands of protesters in Berlin angry about coronavirus restrictions.

TRIER (Reuters) - A 51-year old German man suspected of murdering five people, including a baby, by ploughing a speeding car into a pedestrian zone in Trier on Tuesday, is to be held in prison after a judge decided he did not need to be sent to a psychiatric institution.

The man, who had been drunk, had shown psychological abnormalities during and after his arrest on Tuesday, said the Trier prosecutor, adding an expert would examine him and issue an official opinion.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Police found a crossbow, machete, knives and Nazi symbols in early-morning raids on Tuesday after banning a far-right extremist group called “Wolf Brigade 44” which the government says wants a Nazi state.

Swastikas were among the Nazi symbols uncovered in searches of the homes of 11 members of the group in the states of Hesse, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and North Rhine-Westphalia in the early hours of Tuesday, the interior ministry said in a statement.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany aims to have the first vulnerable people and caregivers vaccinated against the coronavirus in January, the health minister said on Tuesday, as the European Union’s (EU) most populous country battles a second wave.

“But it remains true, and we have always said, that the cold winter months, in which we spend more time indoors, will be the harder part. That actually applies until the end of winter,” Jens Spahn told public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk.

BERLIN (Reuters) - The number of COVID-19 infections is still much too high in most German regions and people must do more to reduce their contacts to slow the spread of the disease, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said on Monday.

With ministers due to meet later to discuss further responses to the greatest public health crisis in a century, Altmaier added that pandemic relief aid for companies cannot be extended indefinitely.

27 Nov 2020; MEMO: Germany is to donate €55.56 million ($65 million) to fund projects in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as Jerusalem, in the coming year.

The announcement was made yesterday by Estephan Salameh, special advisor to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank expects prices in the euro zone to keep falling this year and rebound more slowly in 2021 than it previously thought even as the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine boosts the growth outlook, ECB vice president Luis de Guindos said in an interview published on Saturday.

The ECB is due to unveil its new projections on Dec 10, along with a new stimulus package. De Guindos’ comments suggest a cut to the inflation forecast for this year, next year and possibly even 2022 is on the cards.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany’s partial lockdown measures could be extended until early Spring if infections are not brought under control, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.

Altmaier told Die Welt it was not possible to give the all-clear while there were incidences of more than 50 infections per 100,000 inhabitants in large parts of Germany.

“We have three to four long winter months ahead of us,” he was quoted as saying. “It is possible that the restrictions will remain in place in the first months of 2021.”