Storms and flooding hit Germany

Major storms hit parts of Germany on Thursday, leading to flooding. 

In parts of Baden-Württemberg, streets were flooded and rivers swelled. Bisingen, southwest of Tübingen, was particularly hard hit, where cellars and streets were plunged under water in the early evening.

According to police, there was also traffic disruption. 

In the state capital Stuttgart, severe storms and lightning strikes caused issues and some roads were closed.

A lightning strike in the Sigmaringen area caused a broken signal box on the railway line. According to Deutsche Bahn, no train journeys were possible in the region in the early evening with several delays and cancellations.

Other states were also affected, including Hesse which saw heavy rainfall. 

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Eifel region was particularly affected, with reports of flooded streets after heavy rain and hailstorms.

North Rhine-Westphalia also saw storms late in the afternoon on Thursday. 

The German Weather Service (DWD) said it is expecting some heavy rain and hail in some parts of the country on Friday.

Major drop in the number of people getting married in Germany 

Significantly fewer people are getting married in Germany, new figures from the Federal Statistical Office show.

The number of marriages recorded in Germany fell last year to the second lowest level since 1950. In 2023, 361,000 couples wed – this number is slightly higher than the record lowest year of 2021 when Covid pandemic rules significantly restricted weddings. 

The vast majority of marriages were between a man and woman, while 9,200 people of the same sex marrying in Germany in 2023. 

The Federal Statistical Office also announced that last year fewer children were born in Germany than in a decade.

The number fell by 6.2 percent to around 693,000 new babies being born in 2023. The last time the number fell below the 700,000 mark was in 2013.

Germany to host French President Macron for state visit 

Emmanuel Macron will make a state visit to Germany in May, the German presidency said Thursday, the first trip of its kind by a French president in 24 years.

The state visit was originally scheduled for last July, but was postponed because of riots in France.

Although Macron travels regularly to Berlin for dialogue with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a state visit is handled at a higher protocol level, usually involving more pomp and ceremony.

An invitation for such a trip can only be extended by a nation’s serving head of state. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will receive Macron in Berlin at his official residence Schloss Bellevue on May 26th.

READ ALSO: Germany to host French President for state visit in May 

Germany busts ‘Europe’s largest scam call centre network’

Germany said Thursday that police had busted what was probably Europe’s largest network of fraudulent call centres, responsible for thousands of calls a day trying to scam people.

An international police operation involving officers from Germany, Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo and Lebanon raided 12 call centres and detained 21 people on April 18th, Europol said in a separate statement.

Searches also took place in Serbia, German authorities said.

The complex investigation dubbed Operation Pandora “successfully uncovered what is probably the largest call centre fraud scheme in Europe,” said Thomas Strobl, the interior minister of the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

The callers would pose as “close relatives, bank employees, customer service agents or police officers”, according to Europol, and would use “a variety of manipulation tactics” to “shock and cheat their victims out of their savings”.