Germany news: First evacuees arrive from Middle East

The US tech giant Google opened its new AI center in the German capital on Thursday as part of the €5.5 billion ($6.4 billion) investment drive it announced for Germany last November.

Politicians welcomed the new center despite general concerns over Europe's overreliance on US tech companies. Google is one of the major US players in the AI race, alongside OpenAI, Anthropic and Microsoft.

In a blog post about the center, Google said the site will "serve as a hub for leading AI researchers and developers from Google DeepMind, Google Research and Google Cloud to meet thought leaders from science, business, academia and politics."

The search giant also announced on Thursday that it was launching a research partnership with the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

"This center is intended to enable exchange with the academic community, with policymakers, and ultimately also with companies that are driving forward the application of AI," Google's top representative in Germany Philipp Justus said at the launch.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner said the move "underscores Berlin's international significance as a science and technology hub — with a dynamic start-up scene, strong universities and an open society that enables and promotes innovation."

Germany has said it will give Ukraine another €200 million ($230 million) to help protect the country's energy infrastructure from Russian attacks.

"These funds are intended to further strengthen Ukraine's protection against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's bombing campaign," Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said during a meeting with his Moldovan counterpart in Berlin.

Wadephul said the money would help finance reconnaisance drones as well as civil defense. He added that the funding "strengthens Ukraine's resilience and also benefits Moldova."

The foreign minister also stressed that the war in Ukraine was still Berlin's main focus despite the new war in Iran, saying "for Germany, Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law, and the associated threat to all its neighboring states remains the number one security policy issue."

A major EU funding package for Ukraine has been thrown into doubt by bloc member Hungary who has vetoed the move over claims Ukraine is blocking Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline.

Cologne's iconic cathedral will begin charging visitors an entrance fee starting from the second half of this year, its chapter announced on Thursday.

In a press conference, the cathedral chapter said the fee is meant to cover the increasing cost of operating, maintaining and securing the facility.

Entrance to the cathedral will remain free of charge for churchgoers, worshippers and members of the Central Cathedral Building Association.

Read our full story here.

IG Metall, Germany's largest union, lost a vote to take control of the workers' council at the Tesla "Gigafactory" outside Berlin, it said on Thursday.

Workers' councils have long been a key aspect of German industry. Workers are elected to the council to negotiate pay deals and working hours with management.

IG Metall had sought to win a majority of seats on the council to help its fight against what it calls poor working conditions. But it only came in second place behind the management-aligned "Giga United" list.

IG Metall official Jan Otto said the result of the vote was due to pressure placed on workers by Tesla owner Elon Musk.

"It was made very clear that supporting IG Metall, or indeed any trade union, can only lead to disadvantages within the company," Otto said.

"It's clear that [Musk] has here used the power of capitalism and of money to hollow out democracy," he added.

"We should ask whether what has happened here should be acceptable in a country like Germany, whether management should be allowed to campaign so hard for a list."

The Tesla factory has been at the center of numerous controversies before it even opened. Musk's close relationship with US President Donald Trump, as well as several other incidents involving the billionaire, appear to have had an impact on Tesla sales in Europe, with the company losing its previous popularity.

Germany's parliament on Thursday heard debate on a motion to "systematically investigate" potential Germany ties to deceased ex-financier and convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The US Department of Justice's release of a trove of evidence gathered in the case revolving around Epstein has triggered repercussions around the globe — though admittedly less so in the US, the epicenter of the massive corruption and sexual abuse scandal. 

The far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party put forth the motion, which was referred to respective parliamentary committees following debate.

On Thursday, AfD's Götz Frömming reiterated calls for the German federal government to create a special commission to investigate the matter. Frömming cited, among others, ties between Epstein and royals in both Norway and the UK, as well as his business relations with German financial institutions.

Frömming name-checked Deutsche Bank on Thursday, which he said maintained, "no less than 40 accounts" for Epstein, even after his conviction.

Frömming vowed his party would not let the issue go, and said the AfD is seeking answers to whether Epstein's network exerted "influence over German budget or finance policy."

Political opponents such as the environmentalist Greens say the AfD is simply grandstanding instead of waiting for the result of investigations that have already begun. 

Critics also say the motion ignores the plight of victims, with the center-left SPD's Ralf Stegner going so far as to accuse the AfD of engaging in "political theater" designed to curry favor with US President Donald Trump by creating a noisy distraction from his well-documented, decades-long friendship with Epstein. 

The Left party's Maik Brückner said the Epstein files read like a "who's who" of international AfD supporters, with Trump, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Steve Bannon featuring prominently.
 
AfD representatives are in Washington DC today, taking part in a Make America Great Again and Turning Point USA event bringing together far-right parties from the US and Europe.

Students across Germany are participating in nationwide "School Strike Against Conscription" demonstrations this Thursday to voice opposition to a potential return to military conscription.

Berlin now sends all citizens a questionnaire when they turn 18 years of age to gauge interest in the Bundeswehr army in an effort to attract volunteer service members.

Germany long maintained a conscription army before it was done away with in 2011. 

In December, the CDU/CSU/SPD governing coalition passed a new conscription law that went into effect on January 1. 

The new law requires all 18-year-old males to register for potential military service starting January, 2027.

Should the Bundeswehr fail to meet volunteer numbers at the levels outlined by the federal government, mandatory conscription could once again become the norm.

Many young people say they feel overlooked when it comes to the issue. 

Amy Kirchhoff, Secretary General of the Federal Student Conference (Bundesschülerkonferenz), said students are angered that the decision had been made by those "up top" without anyone asking for youth input on yet another issue that will fundamentally shape their future.

Kirchhoff called on politicians to give young people a seat at the table when it comes to such decision making in the future.

The leaders of Germany's 16 federal states are gathering in Berlin on Thursday for a meeting that is expected to be dominated by concerns over municipal finances, specifically financial responsibility for rising costs triggered by the passage of national laws.

Modernization as well as energy and competition policies are expected to be covered during the one-day event. Moreover, train security will be discussed in the wake of aknife attack that killed a train conductor in southwestern Germany in February.

State leaders are not scheduled to meet with Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

A Syrian refugee was sentenced to 13 years in prison for a knife attack that he carried out last year at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.

The defendant, whose hands were soaked in blood when he was apprehended near the site on February 21, 2025, was found guilty of attempting to murder a Spanish tourist who suffered life-threatening injuries and had to undergo emergency surgery after being stabbed in the back.

Berlin's Higher Regional Court also found the man guilty of attempting to join a foreign terrorist organization. 

Prosecutors argued that the attacker was motivated by antisemitism and a radical Islamist ideology.

Berlin's Holocaust Memorial commemorates those six million Jews killed by Germany's Nazi dictatorship.

A Lufthansa passenger plane carrying stranded German nationals arrived in Frankfurt on Thursday morning from the Omani capital, Muscat.

It is unclear how many individuals were on the flight, though the Airbus A340-300 seats 279.

The plane was the first chartered by Berlin for this purpose. 

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, the sick and children, were prioritized for evacuation.

Like other international passport holders, many Germans have been stranded across the Gulf and Middle East after Israel and the United States launched massive military attacks on Iran.

Guten Morgen from the DW newsroom, where the sun is glistening on the Rhine. 

Today, we start our coverage with the first German nationals arriving in Frankfurt after being evacuated from the Middle East as war between the US, Israel and Iran intensifies.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said vulnerable groups, including pregnant women, the sick and children, are being prioritized for evacuation.

In Berlin, a Syrian refugee was sentenced to jail on charges of attempted murder for carrying out a anti-Semitic, Islamist attack last year at the city's Holocaust Memorial.

Meanwhile, state leaders are meeting in Berlin on Thursday with the problem of rising federal costs incurred by local communities expected to be high on the list of topics discussed.

Among the other stories we expect to cover today are Google opening its first AI center in Germany, Tesla workers shunning union representation and the Bundestag debating an AfD motion calling for a wide-ranging investigation into the Epstein files.