Germany
Operators worldwide invested billions in new data centers to power artificial intelligence, expanding capacity especially in Germany but sparking environmental and grid‑strain concerns and widening the US–China gap.
Three major Chinese firms offered a €6,000 electric car with swappable batteries in China, heightened pressure on BYD, Volkswagen and other automakers amid a subsidy-driven market slowdown.
Taleb al‑Abdulmohsen went on trial in Magdeburg charged with deliberately driving an SUV into a Christmas market last December, killing six and injuring more than 300 people.
Sahra Wagenknecht relinquished the chair of her BSW party in Germany, said she would not seek re‑election, and endorsed Fabio de Masi and Amira Mohamed Ali as successors.
Experts and youth representatives told the Bundestag defense committee in Berlin that the government's proposed Wehrdienst reform fell short and left key selection questions unresolved, Union expert Röwekamp said.
In Magdeburg, the defendant in last year’s Christmas-market vehicle attack stood trial today and provoked uproar by accusing German authorities and alleging “Merkel betrayed Germany” and AfD ties.
Europe's pornography industry grew more mainstream and amateur-driven, with participants from varied backgrounds, while media highlighted rising female consumption and ex‑performers' career changes.
Sahra Wagenknecht resigned as chair of her Germany-based BSW party, saying she would not seek re-election but would remain to lead a "Grundwertekommission."
Germany's economy minister Katherina Reiche called for an "Agenda 2030" of wide structural reforms to restore growth, urging subsidy reviews and risking friction with the SPD.
A documentary about rapper Haftbefehl propelled Reinhard Mey's 55-year-old song "In meinem Garten" into the German charts, and Mey thanked Haftbefehl.
A German appeals court ruled Christian B., the suspect in the Madeleine McCann case, could live abroad because a residency ban breached his freedom of movement, though other conditions remained.
