Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said migrants are a factor behind the rise of antisemitism in Germany, vowing to combat "this problem." Meanwhile, Lufthansa says it will restart flights to Tel Aviv on June 23.
This blog is now closed. Read about developments fromGermanyon Friday, June 6, 2025:
Firefighters in the eastern German city ofDresdenon Friday evening were tackling a large blaze that has engulfed a building which formerly housed a state operetta.
More than 60 firefighters have been deployed to put out the fire, which sent large plumes of smoke over parts of the city and forced the evacuation of two nearby residential buildings.
"For reasons still unknown, the building, which was once used as a state operetta, caught fire," astatement from the Dresden Fire Department said.
The fire department said that nobody had been found inside the building, and no casualties have yet been reported.
Residents within a 1-kilometer radius have been urged to keep their windows and doors shut due to the "massive" amounts of smoke, the statement added.
Firefighters were unable to access the inside of the building because the heat and smoke "were too intense."
An operation was underway to prevent the blaze from spreading to neighboring buildings.
Pirnaer Landstrasse, where the building is located, has been completely closed off, with public transport services also affected.
Spokesman Michael Klahre Klahre said he expected the operation to continue for several more hours.
The building has been vacant for years. It used to be home to one of Germany's oldest operetta ensembles that dated back more than 240 years.
TUI, the world's largest travel group, is seeing stronger demand for summer holidays, with over 60% of its summer bookings in Germany already sold by early June.
That's slightly more than at the same point last year, CEO Sebastian Ebel told theRheinische Postnewspaper.
The group has sold 90% of its capacity forSpainandPortugal, with Ebel warning that "Mallorca will be the big hit again, soavailability will be tight."
Mallorca is so popular with German tourists that it is sometimes jokingly referred to as "Germany’s 17th federal state [Bundesland]."
In early May, summer bookings were still 1% below 2023levels, particularly in the German market. The company linked this to slow Easter holiday sales and launched a catch-up campaign.
Cruise travel is performing especially well.
"The boom in cruises is strong and sustainable. We are seeing significant growth," said Ebel.
However, demand for trips to the United States is slipping.
While TUI's US exposure is limited, Ebel noted "some shifts" in bookings. He said more travelers are opting for cheaper autumn and winter holidays in Canada, the Caribbean, Gulf States, and Southeast Asia, driven by the stronger euro.
Germany's government says it's moving to tighten rules on the sale oflaughing gas, targeting its growing popularity as a party drug — particularly among young people.
A new draft law from Federal Health Minister Nina Warken proposes a nationwide ban on sales to minors and tighter restrictions on online and vending machine purchases.
The law would also restrict access to chemicals used in so-called date-rape drugs, as they are often used by predators to spike drinks of targets of sexual assault or robbery.
"Laughing gas is no harmless fun," Warken warned, pointing to serious health risks, especially for young users.
The draft, seen by the DPA news agency, notes that intense use can cause unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, inhaling directly from a cartridge can result in frostbite due to temperatures of minus 55°C —as well aslung injuries from gas pressure.
Nitrous oxide (N2O), long used in medicine as a mild anesthetic, is increasingly being misused as a recreational drug. Users typically inhale the gas from balloons to induce euphoria.
Former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach had also proposed a ban, but it was never implemented, prompting some cities and states to introduce their own rules.
The three Somali asylum seekers whose rejection at the German-Polish borderwas ruled unlawful earlier this weekare now in Berlin, officials confirmed Friday.
"The individuals in question have registered in Berlin with a request for asylum, which is now being examined in accordance with the rule of law," the German DPA news agency quoted a Berlin state authority spokesperson as saying. No further details were provided due to data protection concerns.
The Berlin Administrative Court had ruled Monday that German border authorities acted unlawfully when they turned the three men away at the Frankfurt an der Oder railway station near the Polish border. The court said that without determining which EU country is responsible for their asylum claims, the individuals could not be refused entry.
The asylum seekers had previously been sent back to Poland after fleeing Somalia.
The case comes in the wake of a May 7 order by Germany’s new Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt to intensify border controls and reject asylum seekers at the frontier.
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Meanwhile, German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig on Friday condemned "alarming" attacks on the judges who had delivered the ruling challenging. Hubig said in a statement together with the justice ministers of Germany's federal states that "we condemn such attacks on the judicial system and on judges' independence".
The Berlin judges' association had said on Wednesday that two of its members had been "defamed and threatened" after handing down their decision on Monday.
The head of the organization that represents the German armed forces personnel wants to bring back compulsory military service.
Andre Wüstner, from theBundeswehrAssociation, said on Friday that the recently installed German coalition government should start laying down the foundations for the possible reintroduction of conscription.
In an interview with the Deutschlandfunk radio station, Wüstner also called for voluntary military service to be made more attractive to reach NATO targets.
"In the military, those who plan best get better options. Now we have to plan and prepare," Wüstner said. In view of the threats Germany faces, Wüstner argued that speed is of the essence.
The Bundeswehr Association, with some 200,000 members, speaks for the interests of soldiers and civilian employees.
On Thursday,NATOdefense ministers gathered in Brussels and agreed on the largest rearmament program since the Cold War.
Germany's new chancellor,Friedrich Merz, on Friday said he felt confident the US would remain in the military allianceNATOunderDonald Trump. Speaking one day after his Oval Office meeting with the US leader, Merz said, "I have no doubt at all that the American government will stick to NATO now after we all said we're doing more, we're making sure that we can defend ourselves in Europe."
Merz then commented on earlier Trump grumblings about leaving the Alliance if Europeans did not startinvesting more in their own defense, saying, "I think this expectation was not unjustified. We have unfortunately been free-riders on American security guarantees for years and that's changing."
Merz has personally moved to insure that most new defense spending is exempted from the country's strict budgetary rules to unleash tens of billions of euros in new military spending.
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At least twelve people on Friday were reported as feeling unwell after a suspicious package was found in a DHL distribution center in Langenzenn, which lies some 25 kilometers (19 miles) from Nürnberg.
Among those feeling unwell, seven had to got to hospital, police said.
According to initial investigations, a suspicious package was found on Friday morning, with several employees subsequently suffering from health issues. It is not yet known exactly what was inside the package.
The police, the fire department and hazardous goods specialists were deployed, while the DHL building has been evacuated.
Germany could face two more years of recession if a trade war with the United States escalates, the central bank of Germany said Friday.
If US President Donald Trump's tariffs were to be implemented in full from July, and theEuropean Unionwere to hit back with similar measures, then German output would decline 0.5% this year and 0.2% in 2026, theBundesbankpredicted on Friday.
This would be down to a "marked decline in exports and significant uncertainty weighing on investment," the bank, which shares responsibility with the European Central Bank for the euro, said.
There would be a return to growth in 2027, with a rebound of 1%, the bank forecast.
On Thursday, in an interview with Fox News in the United States, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was keen to "find ways" to bring the tariffs "down" and that it is mutually beneficial for both the US and Germany to see them reduced.
"These tariffs are, in our view, something which is threatening our economy. Our conviction is that free trade, open markets, is the best thing for the mutual wealth of our countries, and for our continents, so this is an issue which has to be negotiated between the American government and theEuropean Commission. We are a part of Europe so we are in that discussion."
At the beginning of April, Trump threatened to hit the EU with a 20% tariff over its hefty surplus in goods traded with the US.
Trump subsequently postponed imposing the higher rate until July as the two sides sought to find some common ground.
More recently the US president threatened the EU with a 50% tariff rate as talks stalled.
The bloc still faces a "baseline" 10% levy on all its exports to the United States, as well as higher tariffs on specific sectors.
Toward the end of April, the German government cut its economic growth forecast to zero citing the impact of Trump's trade policies.
The Bundesbank — jointly with the ECB — issues euro notes. It acts as a clearing house and bank supervisor, managing currency reserves in Germany. Unlike the US Federal Reserve, it is not officially responsible for maintaining the stability of the financial system and is not a lender of last resort.
Lufthansa said Friday it would restart flights to and from Tel Aviv on June 23.
The German airline group said the resumption would affect Lufthansa, Austrian, SWISS, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, ITA and Lufthansa Cargo but that "for operational reasons" the individual airlines would resume services "gradually."
"The decision is based on an extensive security analysis and in coordination with the relevant authorities," Lufthansa said in a statement.
The Lufthansa group suspended its flights to Tel Aviv in the wake of a May 4 rocket attack launched byYemen's Houthi rebel group, an Iran-backed Shiite Muslim militia that has fought a civil war inYemensince 2014.
The missile landed near a car park at Ben Gurion International Airport, wounding six people.
Germany will remain dependent on the United States, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday.
"Whether we like it or not, we will remain dependent on the United States, on America, for a long time to come," Merz said.
Merz made the comments just hours after returning from his inaugural visit to Washington, where he met with US PresidentDonald Trump.
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ChancellorFriedrich Merzhas told US media that migration is a factor behind the rise inantisemitismin Germany.
In an interview with Fox News, Merz was asked what he was doing to combat antisemitism in Germany and he said: "This is, especially for Germany, a terrible challenge that we are faced with such an amount of cases of antisemitism in Germany."
"We are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down," Merz continued. "We are prosecuting those who are against the law. And frankly, we have a sort of imported antisemitism with the big numbers of migrants we have within the last 10 years, and we have to tackle this and we have to resolve this problem."
"I would like to make it very clear, that the German government, and the vast majority of the German parliament, is strictly against antisemitism and against these people and we are doing everything we can to bring these numbers down."
Merz's comments come on the back of data which earlier this week showed the rising numbers in antisemitic incidents in Germany.
In 2024, 8,627 antisemitic incidents occurred — 77% more than in 2023.
The data published by the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS) showed that of the cases documented, 5,857 were classified as "antisemitism related to Israel."
A total of 544 cases were attributed to right-wing extremist views.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is rounding off his trip to Washington and has been speaking to US media.
Elsewhere, Lufthansa said Friday it would restart flights to and from Tel Aviv on June 23, having halted them at the beginning of May amid the ongoing regional conflict.