Germany- Coronavirus restrictions: Germany announces end to most COVID restrictions on March 20

Germany's leaders on Wednesday announced plans to end most of the country's coronavirus restrictions by March 20, a decision that coincided with moves by neighboring Austria and Switzerland to drop many of their curbs sooner.

Read more at: Germany announces end to most COVID restrictions on March 20 - ABC News

Coronavirus: Germany poised to pass 100,000 COVID-19 deaths

Germany is poised to pass the mark of 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 this week, a sombre milestone that several of its neighbours crossed months ago but which Western Europe's most populous nation had hoped to avoid.

Discipline, a robust health-care system and the rollout of multiple vaccines — one of them homegrown — were meant to stave off a winter surge of the kind that hit Germany last year.

Read more at: Germany poised to pass 100,000 COVID-19 deaths | CBC News

COVID in Europe: Germany latest country to restrict unvaccinated - by A.Tidey, A.Brezar & A. Sandford •

COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in various parts of Europe as the cold weather has affected the spread of the virus.

Countries on the Old Continent are attempting to curb the spike through various means -- from introducing lockdowns for the unvaccinated to limiting access to certain services, or pushing for an increase in vaccination rates.

Around 60% of people in Western Europe are fully immunised against COVID-19, but only about half as many are vaccinated in Eastern Europe.

Read more at: https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/18/covid-19-spike-felt-across-europe-as-vaccination-remains-stagnant

Germany: COVID: Germany to offer booster shots for all

All people in Germany will eventually be offered a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine six months after receiving their previous injection, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Friday.

The measure had been agreed with regional health ministers, Spahn said.

"This should become the norm, not the exception," Spahn added.

Read more at: COVID: Germany to offer booster shots for all | News | DW | 05.11.2021

Germany: COVID: Germany cases hit record daily high

Germany registered a record number of COVID-19 cases on Thursday, breaking a record set in December 2020. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the country's disease control agency, reported 33,949 new infections in a single day.

The news came a day after Health Minister Jens Spahn declared that Germany was living in a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and that the fourth wave of the virus was "in full force" across the country.

Read more at: COVID: Germany cases hit record daily high | News | DW | 04.11.2021

Europe: Covid-19 surge: Morocco suspends flights from the UK over fears of Covid surge

Morocco is suspending until further notice all flights to and from the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands amid rising coronavirus infections in those countries.

The new restriction will come into force just before midnight Wednesday, the North African kingdom's airports authority said.

In a tweet, national carrier Royal Air Maroc said the move was due to "the pandemic situation." It did not provide further detail.

Read more at: Morocco suspends flights from the UK over fears of Covid surge

Germany: Corona Vaccine: Booster Shot - Germany recommends booster shots for over 70s

Germany's vaccination authority, STIKO, recommended COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for people older than 70 on Thursday.

All residents of care homes, as well as workers who come into direct contact with them, should also be offered a third vaccine dose, the body said. The same was also recommended for medical workers in direct contact with patients.

Read more at: Germany recommends booster shots for over 70s | News | DW | 07.10.2021

EU _Floods: At least 60 dead, dozens missing as severe floods cause havoc across western Europe

More than 60 people have died and dozens were missing Thursday as severe flooding in Germany and Belgium turned deadly. Great damage was also done in the Netherlans and Switzerland

Recent storms across parts of western Europe made rivers and reservoirs burst their banks, triggering flash floods overnight after the saturated soil couldn’t absorb any more water.

Read more at: At least 60 dead, dozens missing as severe floods cause havoc across western Europe - National | Globalnews.ca

EU: Austerity is risking our future! – by Carl Mühlbach and Felix Kösterke

With hindsight, such thinking seems petty, considering the success of vaccination campaigns in Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States. Those countries outspent the European Union many times over, per capita, on vaccine procurement.

Read more at:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/FMfcgxwLtkZwjPLPwDNLdzLvQFzkrqCP

Germany must reduce its current-account surplus – by Jan Behringer, Till van Treeck and Achim Truger

The German economy has been running persistently high current-account surpluses for more than 15 years. Over the last decade, the surplus was between 6 and 9 per cent of gross domestic product, mainly because Germany exported much more than it imported. This is a drag on other countries’ exports and employment and can also lead to financial imbalances.

A large majority of economists outside Germany thus see the surpluses as a serious threat to macroeconomic stability. The European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the United States government have repeatedly called for a rebalancing. So far, however, none of the various German governments in power since the early 2000s has seen the need to take action.

Read more at: Germany must reduce its current-account surplus – Jan Behringer, Till van Treeck and Achim Truger

Germany: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that it would send a bad signal to the world if a Brexit trade deal could not be reached, as an EU negotiating team stayed in London for additional talks.

With just one month remaining for the European Union and the UK to come to an agreement, Merkel told a virtual gathering of parliamentarians from across the continent: "Britain and the EU share common values. If we failed to reach a deal, it would not send a good signal."

Read more at: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world | News | DW | 30.11.2020

Germany: Berlin landlords forced to reduce rents

From November 23, landlords in the German capital must lower excessively high rents — that is, if they exceed a standardized limit by more than 20% — or face heavy fines. The German constitutional court dismissed the landlord associations' attempts to halt the imminent reductions at the end of October.

Read more at: Berlin landlords forced to reduce rents | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 23.11.2020

America's Latest Export: The Conspiracy Theorists Crazies have crossed the Atlantic and QAnon is now in Europe–by Mark Scott

If you don't know what QAnon is this is how wikileaks divines the cult - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon.

At first glance it’s not a natural fit. The U.S. conspiracy theory — now with millions of acolytes worldwide — alleges a vast deception to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump. It blends anti-government, anti-lockdown and anti-Semitic rhetoric with unfounded beliefs about a vast pedophile ring run by the global elite. Its followers adhere to a quasi-religious belief that a great savior — aided by “Q,” an anonymous government insider from whom QAnon gets its name — will protect followers from the dark forces behind the conspiracy.

In the U.S., discussion about QAnon has broken into the political mainstream. When Trump was asked to disavow the group at a recent town hall event, he first said he knew “nothing about QAnon” but then added: “I do know that they are very much against pedofiles.

Despite its digital roots, this conspiracy based, populst, ultra -right-wing QAnon has extended its reach into the real world, with attendees at protests against anti-coronavirus measures and supportive of conspiracy theories spreading its talking points across Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world.

Read more at: QAnon goes European – POLITICO

Germany: Oktober Fest Cancelled

There will be no Oktoberfest this year because of the coronavirus.  Although Munich residents are understanding, it's a heavy financial and  emotional blow for people whose livelihood depends on the festival, like show booth operators. 

Read more: News | DW

USA: Will Donald Trump′s visa restrictions slow down America′s economic revival?

Stefan Heffner's business plans for the United States have been turned upside down. The US representative of German medical equipment maker Richard Wolf moved to Chicago about a year-and-a-half ago with the ambitious goal of cracking the company's US sales record of $100 million (€85.3 million) by the end of this year.

Read more at:
Will Donald Trump′s visa restrictions slow down America′s economic revival? | Business| Economy and finance news from a German perspective | DW | 28.07.2020

Germany: Retailers urge fresh stimulus to prevent US-style apocalypse

Germany's city centers may be bustling again, but not at the same level as before the coronavirus lockdown. Worse still, early indications suggest people aren't spending with the same enthusiasm.

The country's retail sector expects this year's loss innon-food trade to hit €40 billion ($45.6 billion). Sales will end 2020 udown 22% compared to last year, according to the Germantretail federation HDE.

Figures published this week showed clothes and shoe stores were the hardest hit during the stay-at-home orders introduced in March and April, with sales plummeting 65% and 61% respectively. German jewelers and toy stores, meanwhile, saw theirrevenues cut almost in half.

"Retailers in large city centers that draw a lot of tourists have been affected the most. Asia and Russia's wealthy are missing," Markus Wotruba, head of research at theetail analyst BBE, told DW. He added that Germans are, for the timebeing, more likely to shop in their immediate vicinity, which has shrunk the catchment area of many regional shopping malls.

Read more at:
Germany: Retailers urge fresh stimulus to prevent US-style apocalypse | Business| Economy and finance news from a German perspective | DW | 17.07.2020

Germany: Social market economy in Germany: growth and prosperity

The goal of the market economy is the greatest possible prosperity with the best possible social protection. It is about benefiting from the advantages of a free market economy, which include free choice of workplace, pricing freedom, competition and a wide range of affordable goods, while at the same time absorbing its disadvantages, such as monopolization, price fixing, and existence-threatening unemployment. This is why the state to a certain extent regulates the market and protects its citizens against illness and unemployment through a network of social insurance

Read more at:
https://www.deutschland.de/en/topic/business/social-market-economy-in-germany-growth-and-prosperity

Weapons Industry: India seeks shift from buying weapons to exporting them

India's arms imports account for nearly 10% of the global total, with Russia being the country's main supplier. However, New Delhi is now seeking to become a big exporter of weapons to the rest of the world.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/india-seeks-shift-from-buying-weapons-to-exporting-them/a-52270331

German Economy: Germany posts record-breaking budget surplus

Germany had a record budget surplus of € 13.5 billion ($15 billion) at the end of 2019, the Finance Ministry announced on Monday.

"We've had a bit of luck, and of course we've economized well," German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said in Berlin on Monday, just a year after he claimed the "fat" years were over for Germany.

It is the third time in the last five years that Europe's largest economy closed the year with a budget surplus. The 2019 surplus overtook a 2015 budget surplus of €12.1 billion.

Added to that figure is an additional €5.5 billion from a fund earmarked for refugees that went unspent, making a total surplus of €19 billion.

In contrast the US budget deficit topped $1 trillion in 2019.

Read more at: Germany posts record-breaking budget surplus | News | DW | 13.01.2020

Russia-Germany relations: Kremlin: US sanctions won′t stop Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany

Russia has slammed US sanctions over the mammoth gas pipeline to Germany as illegal and an example of "unfair competition." The measures, which still need Donald Trump's approval, target firms involved in the project.

Read more at:

https://www.dw.com/en/kremlin-us-sanctions-wont-stop-nord-stream-2-gas-pipeline-to-germany/a-51720728