Opposition slams Gulf evacuation strategy

In protest against the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes under their own flag, the German Paralympic team will not participate in the parade of nations at the opening ceremony in Verona.

The German Disabled Sports Association (DBS) announced this decision on Tuesday, three days before the Winter Games start.

Subsequently, Germany’s Minister of State for Sport and Volunteering, Christiane Schenderlein, decided that she would also not participate in the opening ceremony. However, she intends to attend competitions during the Games, as will the athletes, she said in a statement.

Unlike last month’s Winter Olympics, Paralympic officials decided to lift the ban on Russians and Belarussians competing under their own flag, angering Ukraine and other European nations. “This decision allows us both to focus on the upcoming competitions and to respectfully express solidarity with the Ukrainian delegation,” the DBS said in a statement.

The statement added that the German team will participate as planned in pre-recordings during the opening ceremony. Ukraine and Estonia are boycotting the opening ceremony completely.

Founded in 1863, Eterna ultimately could not stand the lofty test of time its name set for itself. 

The Passau-based company’s management announced on Tuesday that it would cease operations in the summer. 

“Unfortunately, the continuation of Eterna’s business operations in Passau is ruled out,” the company’s management stated. 

Despite efforts to save the shirt and blouse manufacturer in recent months, no buyer emerged who wanted to take over the textile manufacturer in its entirety. 

The company employs around 400 people at its Passau headquarters, according to the company website, and is primarily known for its business shirts. 

The company filed for insolvency in December and received a string on enquiries from potential investors, but they all ultimately withdrew. 

Eterna was already one of few remaining companies in Germany’s once-flourishing fashion industry but had long struggled financially and underwent a restructuring in 2021. 

In a sign that some things, perhaps, can endure, the “Eterna” brand name will be put up for sale.

The German customs agency on Tuesday revealed a sizable seizure of the drug ketamine at Germany’s Cologne/Bonn Airport, after an otherwise innocent-looking decoy object drew suspicion.

Read more about the story here.

Sören Pellmann, a senior member of the socialist Left Party, has strongly criticized Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s response to the attack on Iran and specifically his comments about international law. 

Pellmann said that Merz commented “very vaguely and very uncritically” on the question of whether international law had been infringed by the US and Israeli strikes on Iran’s leadership. 

“Merz is evidently flouting international law and putting his stock in the rights of the powerful. To that we the Left say: that is the wrong path,” Pellmann said. 

He referred specifically to comments from Merz saying that international law concerns “will affect relatively little,” and that this applies “all the more when they remain largely without consequence.” 

Pellmann argued that this constituted a “historic caesura” in German post-war politics, calling it “scandalous and clearly worthy of condemnation.”

An Emirates jet from Dubai has landed in Frankfurt after days of cancellations triggered by the Iran war, marking a first return connection since air traffic was halted.

The scheduled flight touched down shortly after 1:30 p.m. local time. The airline did not initially disclose how many passengers were on board.

The United Arab Emirates suspended international flights from Dubai after the US-Israeli attack began, with Iran hitting back against US bases and other infrastructure in several Gulf states. The airport and a hotel in Dubai were also hit.

Other Gulf countries have also had to close their airspace, including the major international hub of Qatar.

Meanwhile, the German government said a flight was planned to Oman’s capital Muscat on Wednesday to evacuate vulnerable German citizens there.

An annual report on the state of Germany’s military for parliament has welcomed the highest recruitment figures in 15 years.

However, the document warns that much more needs to be done to reach the government’s expansion targets.

Read more about the story here.

Germany’s Foreign Office has summoned Iran’s ambassador and demanded an immediate halt to what it called reckless attacks in the region.

The United States and Israel’s bombardment of Iran has unleashed a wave of retaliatory strikes from Iran across the Middle East.

In a post on X, the Foreign Office in Berlin said it had “unambiguously” called on the Iranian regime to stop its missile and drone strikes without delay.

“We condemn the arbitrary and disproportionate missile and drone attacks by the Iranian regime, including against civilian targets,” the statement said.

The ministry added that the strikes endanger Germany’s allies, its military personnel, and its nationals in the region.

Germany’s benchmark DAX has tumbled more as fighting in the Middle East fuels fears of an energy shock.

By midday, the index was down 3.5% at 23,772 points, its lowest level in three months. Since the start of the week, losses have widened to roughly 1,500 points, or about 6%.

Germany’s medium size stock MDAX fell 1.8%, slipping below the 30,000 mark, while the eurozone’s EuroStoxx 50 dropped 3.4%.

Investors are increasingly worried about a broader energy crisis amid the US and Israeli war against Iran, with particular focus on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil and gas shipping route that Iran has now closed.

Part-time employment in Germany has reached a record level in 2025, even as average weekly working hours remained stable.

That’s according to new calculations by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB).

The number of part-time workers rose 1% compared with 2024 to 16.88 million, while full-time employment fell 0.6% to 25.43 million. The part-time rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 39.9%, marking a new annual high, the IAB said.

The IAB attributed the shift partly to job growth in sectors with traditionally high part-time shares, such as health and social services, while employment declined in industries with a high proportion of full-time work, including manufacturing.

“Part-time work has not been a losing proposition so far. Nevertheless, there is still much to gain, especially in terms of stronger career development for women,” IAB expert Enzo Weber said.

According to the Federal Employment Agency, more than every second woman in Germany worked part-time last year, compared with roughly one in seven men.

The ruling conservatives of Chancellor Friedrich Merz have proposed restricting the right to part-time work to get more people into full-time employment. They claim the move would boost the economy, but the proposal has been opposed by their coalition partners and unions.

Social media use in Germany has risen markedly over the past five years, with 59% of people aged 16 to 74 active on such platforms in 2025, up 12 percentage points from 2021.

The Federal Statistical Office said messenger services were not included in the data.

Usage increased across all age groups. Among 16- to 24-year-olds, the share rose from 78% to 85%. For those aged 55 to 64, it climbed from 29% to 42%, and among 65- to 74-year-olds from 15% to 25%.

In 2024, 81% of 25- to 34-year-olds used social media, as did 72% of those aged 35 to 44. No 2021 comparison was provided for those groups.

Despite the growth, Germany remains below the EU average. Across the bloc, 67% of people aged 16 to 74 used social media last year, 8 percentage points higher than in Germany.

Denmark recorded the highest share at 90%, followed by Cyprus at 87% and Malta at 82%. Italy was the only country with a lower rate than Germany, at 56%.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has arrived in Washington for talks with President Donald Trump, with the widening war in the Middle East expected to dominate their meeting.

Three days after US and Israeli strikes on Iran, Merz is holding his second White House visit in 10 months. His first meeting with Trump was described as cordial, but the current talks come amid heightened tensions across the region.

Thirty minutes are scheduled in the Oval Office, followed by a working lunch, though such meetings often run longer. Since returning to office, Trump’s Oval Office appearances with foreign leaders have drawn attention, including tense exchanges with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

The conflict with Iran is set to be the central issue.  Trump and Hegseth have criticized European allies for what they see as limited support.

Merz has expressed understanding for the strikes but stopped short of full endorsement, warning that escalation carries risks and questioning whether external military action can trigger internal political change. He referenced past US interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya as cautionary examples.

Travel group TUI expects to bring back customers stranded in the Middle East within several days, its chief executive has said.

CEO Sebastian Ebel told broadcaster n-tv that the company plans to repatriate holidaymakers using partner airlines including Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad, with the first flights expected to depart later today, initially bound for Munich.

TUI-Fly aircraft are also on standby and will operate “as soon as we receive permission,” Ebel said.

He added that the company is in contact with nearly all affected customers, saying it has reached almost 100% of guests through its app.

The timeline for the return flights depends on the security situation, which Ebel said cannot be reliably predicted at this stage, though he expects the process to take several days.

Up to 30,000 customers travelling with German tour operators are believed to have been affected by flight cancellations as attacks on Iran and counterstrikes continue. The German shipowners’ association on Monday said 25 ships belonging to seven different companies were affected, leaving some 7,000 passengers unable to pass through the Strait of Hormuz for security reasons.

Police have warned of fraudulent flight rebooking hotlines after a woman in Lower Bavaria was scammed out of €2,500 (about $2,900).

Investigators said criminals are placing paid ads on search engines that direct travelers to fake service numbers posing as airlines or booking portals.

The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office advised consumers to obtain hotline numbers only from the official website of the airline or booking platform and not from online advertisements.

Travelers are urged not to respond to callback numbers or unfamiliar support links included in cancellation notices unless they have verified them. Booking changes should be made exclusively through a personal customer account.

If a supposed service employee requests remote access to a smartphone or computer, police say to end the call immediately, disconnect from the internet, and contact the bank.

Criticism has also come from the socialist Left Party, with foreign policy spokesperson Cansu Özdemir calling the government’s crisis communication on Gulf evacuations inadequate.

“With the current statement by Foreign Minister Wadephul that initially only older people, children, the sick and pregnant women are to be evacuated, the federal government is creating further uncertainty,” Özdemir she told the Funke media group.

In this situation, it was crucial to act calmly and prudently. “The government is failing to do so,” Özdemir added.

She called for plans to be presented as quickly as possible, outlining how an evacuation of all approximately 30,000 people can be carried out.

On Monday, Wadephul announced that the federal government intended to send charter flights to Saudi Arabia and Oman in order to airlift stranded German travelers from there. In addition to the charter flights, the Foreign Office plans to dispatch crisis support teams to Muscat, Doha and Dubai.

After Germany said it would begin evacuating the first German travelers from the Gulf war zone, opposition parties are criticizing the approach taken by Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul.

The Foreign Ministry is currently preparing the repatriation of “particularly vulnerable groups” — the sick, children and pregnant women — from the conflict region, in measures announced on Monday.

For the Greens, the response is insufficient and comes too late.

“What we are currently witnessing in the Middle East is an escalation that had been emerging as a possible scenario for weeks,” Green foreign affairs expert Luise Amtsberg told the Funke Media Group.

“The fact that the federal government nevertheless appears unprepared and overwhelmed in this now acute threat situation is alarming.”

“Announcing only on the third day after the outbreak of war that it intends to evacuate individual vulnerable groups from the region is not sufficient,” Amtsberg added.