Severe storms hit southern Germany 

More storms and flooding have been sweeping across the country.

The German Weather Service (DWD) warned of severe thunderstorms in the north and east of Bavaria on Tuesday night into Wednesday – with heavy rain, hail and gale-force winds. The districts of Lower Bavaria, Upper Palatinate and Upper, Middle and Lower Franconia were affected.

In the Upper Palatinate, masses of water swept away cars and people had to be rescued from their homes on Tuesday, reported local media. 

On Wednesday morning, police announced that numerous overnight calls had been made to emergency services, particularly in the north and east of Bavaria, due to the storms. However, the situation has eased since Tuesday. 

In the flood-hit regions of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate, no weather-related incidents were reported overnight. 

Storms are expected to hit the northern half of the country on Wednesday. 

It comes after days of severe weather and storms that have lashed parts of the country, with Saarland being badly hit. 

READ ALSO: Germany braces for more severe storms and heavy rain

Activists and NGOs in Berlin to urge voters to protect reproductive rights 

Activists and NGOs are gathering in Berlin on Wednesday to urge people to safeguard reproductive rights ahead of the EU elections.

On the heels of the recent German government commissioned report calling for abortions to be legalised within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy in Germany, activists from across Europe will be meeting in Berlin and calling on residents to sign up to the My Voice, My Choice for Safe and Accessible Abortion’ initiative which aims to secure over 1 million signatures over the next three weeks.  

READ ALSO: ‘Legalise abortions in first trimester’, urges German commission

The European Citizens’ Initiative allows European citizens to propose legislation. When an initiative collects the target number of signatures, the European Commission evaluates it. If approved, the commission may propose legislation, consulting with EU institutions. For “My Voice, My Choice,” hitting one million signatures would prompt the commission to propose financial support for safe and accessible abortion in the EU. 

Pro-choice advocates fear that abortion rights are under threat in Germany, especially with the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which supports tightening the existing law, rising in the polls in recent months. Campaigners are concerned that Germany will see its reproductive rights backslide as witnessed in Italy under Georgia Meloni’s government.  

While abortion is rarely punished, it remains illegal in Germany, except for specific circumstances including if the abortion seeker receives mandatory counselling, if the pregnancy creates health risks for the woman, or if the pregnancy is the result of rape. Paragraph 218 of Germany’s criminal code outlaws abortion, with possible penalties of up to three years in prison and terminating a pregnancy after 12 weeks remains illegal.

Luisa Neubauer, from Fridays for Future Germany, said “Since the publication of the results of the Expert Commission on Reproductive Self-Determination and Reproductive Medicine,  the debate about the urgently needed abolition of 218 of the German Criminal Code and access to free abortions in Germany has once again become the focus of public attention.

“However, a political implementation of the commission’s recommendations remains unaccomplished, especially by the traffic light government.”

PODCAST: Driving ban threats, Berlin tourist tips and will abortion become legal in Germany?

German football favourite Toni Kroos to retire from football after Euro 2024

Real Madrid’s German international midfielder Toni Kroos has announced he will retire from football after Euro 2024.

“My career as an active footballer will end this summer after the Euro championship,” 34-year-old Kroos, who won the 2014 World Cup with Germany, said on Instagram.

Before the European Championship, Kroos will have a chance to win the Champions League with Real for a fifth time when they face Borussia Dortmund at Wembley on June 1st.

He also won the Champions League with Bayern Munich before joining the Spanish giants.

Kroos joined Real in 2014 and quickly formed a formidable midfield partnership with Croatian national player Luka Modric.

Kroos has also won the Liga title four times and the Bundesliga three times with Bayern.

He announced he was quitting international football in July 2021 but reversed his decision in February after talks with Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann, who persuaded him to play on until the Euro 2024 on home soil.

German ‘prince’ at centre of alleged coup plot denies charges

The self-styled prince at the heart of an alleged conspiracy-fuelled plot to attack Germany’s parliament and topple the government rejected the accusations made against him as his trial opened Tuesday.

In all, six men and three women accused of belonging to or supporting the group face trial in Frankfurt in one of the biggest cases heard by German courts in decades.

Prosecutors accuse the group, which includes a former politician and ex-army officers, of preparing a “treasonous undertaking” to storm the Bundestag and take MPs hostage.

The defendants filed into the purpose-built, high-security court in the western German city ahead of the proceeding.

One woman, wearing a hooded jacket, hid her face from journalists’ cameras with a file, while the alleged ringleader, Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, looked relaxed as he entered the room.

Reuss, a minor aristocrat and businessman, was in line to become the provisional head of state after the current government was overthrown, according to prosecutors.

French far-right splits with German AfD in EU parliament 

France’s main far-right party said Tuesday it will no longer sit in the EU parliament with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, indicating it had lost patience with the controversies surrounding its German allies.

The National Rally (RN) said it was going to create some distance from the AfD afer comments made by the head of the German party’s list in the upcoming EU polls next month about the SS paramilitary force in Nazi Germany.

The head of the AfD’s list in the polls, Maximilian Krah, had said in a weekend interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica that someone who had been a member of the SS was “not automatically a criminal”.

With reporting by DPA