German authorities say the deadly vehicle and stabbing attack near Berlin Pride bears the signs of Islamist terrorism. A 21-year-old suspect remains at large after one woman was killed and 29 people were injured.
Germany's pension commission has recommended linking the retirement age to life expectancy from 2031 and adding a funded investment pillar, in the most far-reaching overhaul of the country's state pension in a generation. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to implement it in full, even as unions and the opposition revolt.
Eighteen months after a rented SUV tore through a Christmas market in the heart of Magdeburg, a German court has sentenced the Saudi-born psychiatrist who drove it to life imprisonment, with a finding reserved for the gravest crimes and an order for preventive detention.
The German state has agreed to buy 40% of KNDS through its KfW development bank, matching France and removing the final barrier to an initial public offering of one of Europe's most important arms manufacturers.
Luxembourg, the German Länder of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate, and France's Grand Est say a joint study has confirmed a direct Luxembourg-Saarbrücken-Mannheim railway is feasible "in principle," while flagging technical, legal and financial hurdles that push a regular service to the mid-2030s at the earliest. With 276,360 cross-border workers crossing daily in 2024, the partners are weighing shorter-term fixes too.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin named former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a preferred interlocutor for renewed dialogue with Europe, the SPD's foreign-policy spokesperson on 10 May 2026 said any offer should be examined seriously and that Europe must not be sidelined as the United States and Russia decide Ukraine's future.
Washington will withdraw roughly 14% of its troop presence in Germany following Chancellor Friedrich Merz's criticism of US Iran-war strategy, in a move that has rattled NATO allies.
On 1 May 2026, the Pentagon announced a partial drawdown of US forces in Germany, fulfilling a Trump threat made amid public clashes with Chancellor Friedrich Merz over defence spending and trade.
Friedrich Merz, sworn in on 6 May 2025 at the head of a CDU/CSU-SPD coalition, faces a hardening political landscape one year on. The AfD has climbed from 20.8% at the election to nearly 28% in current polling.