Gender switch neo-Nazi sent to men’s prison

Germany’s Diakonie welfare organization has urged authorities to provide more funding to protect social facilities from extreme heat.

Federal, state and local governments must make heat protection a mandatory part of climate adaptation planning, Diakonie President Rüdiger Schuch said.

He called on the federal government to make money from its special infrastructure and climate neutrality fund available to protect social facilities.

“Failing to provide heat protection costs lives,” Schuch said.

Measures in nursing homes, daycare centers and facilities for people with disabilities were “not a luxury, but vital for survival,” he added.

Diakonie said the effects of the climate crisis were also a matter of social justice because people on low incomes were particularly exposed to extreme heat.

Homes in disadvantaged neighborhoods often become excessively hot during the summer, while green spaces and cool places offering relief are frequently lacking.

More than half of Germany’s baby boomers who have reached the statutory retirement age have left working life early, according to a new analysis.

The employer-linked German Economic Institute (IW) said 1.1 million people from the country’s baby-boom generation began drawing their pensions before reaching the standard retirement age in 2024, with the number continuing to rise.

The institute attributed the increase to growing numbers of baby boomers reaching retirement age.

Around 51.2% of people born in 1957 retired early, while the proportion among those born in 1958 is expected to be slightly higher at 51.7%.

Germany has been gradually raising its standard retirement age from 65 to 67 since 2012.

People with 45 years of pension contributions can retire up to two years early without any reduction in their payments.

Germany’s commission on retirement provision has recommended abolishing early retirement without deductions and limiting retirement with reduced payments to no more than three years before the statutory age.

The number of e-scooter crashes that caused injury or death has risen sharply in Germany, with police recording about 16,500 cases in 2025.

The Federal Statistical Office said this represented an increase of about 38% compared with the previous year.

A total of 38 people died in e-scooter crashes last year, up from 27 in 2024. Around 1,900 people were seriously injured and roughly 16,200 suffered minor injuries.

Some 82.4% of those injured or killed had been riding an e-scooter themselves, including 33 of the 38 fatalities. Passengers accounted for 5.5% of the casualties and one of the 33 riders who died.

German traffic regulations allow only one person to use an e-scooter, meaning carrying a passenger is prohibited.

Young people were particularly likely to be involved. Some 53.6% of those injured or killed were under 25, while 83.7% were younger than 45. Just 3.1% were aged 65 or above.

Riders were considered mainly at fault in 38.1% of collisions with cars, 74.3% of crashes involving cyclists and 88.7% of those involving pedestrians. Incorrect use of roads or pavements was cited in 21.6% of cases, while alcohol was involved in 10.9%.

Most of the collisions recorded happened in large cities.

The figures do not include accidents caused by carelessly parked e-scooters.

German neo-Nazi Marla Svenja Liebich has been transferred to a men’s prison, despite being legally registered as a woman.

The management of a women’s prison in the eastern city of Chemnitz made the decision after Liebich was extradited from the Czech Republic on Wednesday.

Liebich was initially taken to the Chemnitz facility but was moved later that day to Zeithain prison in the Meissen district, the state of Saxony’s Justice Ministry told the DPA news agency.

“It is good that the prison quickly provided clarity and did not get drawn into any staging,” Saxony Justice Minister Constanze Geiert said.

Officials said the decision followed a conversation with Liebich and a medical examination. The assessment also considered the safety of women held at the Chemnitz prison.

Liebich changed the legal gender entry from male to female and adopted the first names Marla Svenja in 2025. Critics described the move as a provocation and an abuse of Germany’s self-determination law.

A court has yet to decide whether the changes can be reversed.

Liebich was sentenced in July 2023 to 18 months in prison without parole for incitement to hatred, defamation and insult. The sentence was due to begin in August 2025, but Liebich failed to report to prison and fled Germany.

Czech authorities arrested Liebich in April.

Liebich has regularly organized far-right demonstrations since 2014, many of them in the central market square in Halle. The events repeatedly led to confrontations with counterprotesters and several court cases.

You join us as news arrives that extradited German neo-Nazi Marla Svenja Liebich has been transferred to a men’s prison, despite being legally registered as a woman.

Liebich was first taken to a women’s prison in Chemnitz after being extradited from the Czech Republic. But officials moved Liebich later the same day to Zeithain prison in Saxony.

Meanwhile, e-scooter crashes causing injury or death have risen sharply in Germany.

Officials said incorrect use of roads or pavements was cited in more than one in five cases, while alcohol was involved in roughly one in ten.

Stay with us for these stories and more of the latest things that Germany is talking about today.