Germany updates: Merz set for inaugural trip to US

The World War II bombs found on the banks of the Rhine in Cologne have been safely defused, city officials have confirmed.

Streets and bridges in the area were gradually reopened, and evacuated residents were allowed to return to their homes in the evening.

The process of defusing World War II bombs in central Cologne has been delayed because of a resident refusing to evacuate, according to a city spokesperson.

An individual living in the old town resisted orders to leave their apartment, with public order officials, police, and the fire department enforcing removal measures.

The bomb squad cannot begin defusal until the area is fully cleared.

Large areas of the city center of Cologne were closed off on Wednesday as experts prepared to defuse three bombs left over from World War II, with some 20,000 people ordered to leave the affected area.

Read about the large scale evacuations in Cologne here.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul says Chancellor Friedrich Merz will use his upcoming visit to Washington to tell US President Donald Trump that Europe stands firmly with Ukraine in opposing Russia's invasion  — and that no opportunity for peace should be missed.

"Europe expects us — the United States and Europe — to bring Russia to the negotiating table," Wadephul said during a news conference alongside his Polish counterpart.

"This opportunity for peace must not be missed. And this war must finally be brought to a just end."

In response to Germany's decision to deny a Russian state media journalist a residency permit renewal, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced that Russia will take retaliatory measures against German journalists currently in the country.

Zakharova added that Moscow has repeatedly warned Berlin of retaliatory measures.

"In this case, we will quickly develop and implement retaliatory measures. Therefore, there is no need for Berlin to pretend that they were unaware of this," she concluded.

In November, Russia expelled two German reporters in a tit-for-tat move after Berlin informed two employees at Russian state broadcaster Channel One that they would have to leave Germany.

The German government is looking at a simpler process when it comes to declaring countries of origin as safe, under a push by the new conservative-led coalition to reduce the number of asylum seekers.

Chancellor Merz's Cabinet approved a draft policy in which a country can be declared safe with a simple statutory order and where the consent of the Bundesrat (Germany's upper house of parliament) is no longer needed.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the move was part of a whole package of "national measures (...) to implement the asylum turnaround."

Under German asylum law, "safe countries of origin" are seen as those where people are not subject to political persecution or inhuman punishment. 

Migrants seeking asylum from these countries are likely to have asylum applications rejected, apart from exceptional cases. 

Deportations back to safe countries will also face fewer legal obstacles. Opposition lawmakers from the Green party have criticized the draft as contrary to German law, as have asylum and immigration NGOs.

The reform still needs to be approved by the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.

The announcement comes just days after a court declared the government's tightened border security, including the turning back of asylum seekers, to be illegal under German law.
 

German mechanical engineering firms reported a drop in orders in April. This decrease came amid concerns over US tariff policies.

According to trade group Association of German Mechanical and Plant Engineering (VDMA), orders declined by 6% year-on-year in April, though they were 1% higher in the first four months of 2025 than in the same period the previous year.

Domestic orders in April were 4% below last year's level, while foreign orders dropped 7%, exacerbated by a 13% decline in non-euro countries, the trade group said in a statement.

"In view of the many tariff threats and announcements by US President Donald Trump and the great uncertainty this has caused, this was an expected setback," said VDMA chief economist Johannes Gernandt.

"Global uncertainty remains high. This makes it all the more important that we set the right course ourselves in Germany and Europe," he added.

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) said there had been a 77% increase in antisemitic incidents across Germany last year.

In its latest report, RIAS said 8,627 such cases had been documented when compared to the 4886 incidents recorded in 2023.

The consequences of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led terror attacks and the subsequent war were found to have had "a decisive influence on the number of antisemitic incidents," RIAS said.

"With 5857 cases, Israel-related antisemitism was the most common manifestation of antisemitism in 2024," RIAS said in a summary of its findings.

The organization said it documented 8 incidents of extreme violence, 186 assaults, 443 cases of targeted property damage, 300 threats, 176 mass mailings and 7514 instances of abusive behaviour.

Among the eight cases of extreme violence highlighted was the attack in Solingen in which three people were killed and eight others injured. The so-called Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility and RIAS said in a video the group released, the attacker referred to the war between Israel and Hamas.

"Among other things, the attack was stated to be an act of revenge for the Palestinian people who had suffered massacres with the support of "Zionists," RIAS said.

With 544 incidents, Rias 2024 also recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents with a right-wing extremist background since the nationwide comparison began in 2020.

The German Police Union (GdP) in Berlin is pushing for a countrywide ban on private fireworks around New Year's, news agency DPA reported, citing the branch chairman.

"The public is ready to rethink how we celebrate New Year's," said Stephan Weh, who pointed to results from an online survey in April which showed high levels of support for more stringent restrictions on fireworks.

The poll conducted by Berlin GdP showed that 97% of around 178,000 respondents backed banning of firewords for private use, while 93% supported a ban on sales.

The issue was brought into sharp focus at the beginning of this year when 5 people were killed in firework-related incidents and many more were injured.

A video also went viral showing a man shoot a firework into an apartment in Berlin's Neukölln district, sparking anger and debate about the conduct of revelers during this time.

Emergency services are frequently attacked and injured in incidents where fireworks are fired deliberately towards them.

Instead of private fireworks, 91% of respondent supported organized public firework displays, with nearly half saying they would attend such events. 
 

The US has doubled steel and aluminium tariff as President Donald Trump ramps up his sweeping import measures since returning to office.

The tariffs — which came into force at 0401 GMT — doubled from 25% to 50% of the goods' value as Trump seeks to rectify alleged trade imbalances while strengthening US industry.

"We need to come up with negotiated solutions as quickly as possible, because time is running out," German economy minister Katherina Reiche said Tuesday on the sidelines of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) talks. 

The EU has said it "strongly regrets" Trump's measures, cautioning that it "undermines ongoing efforts to reach a negotiated solution" with the US.

The German Steel Industry Association says the US is the most important sales market for the European steel industry.

Germany's aluminium industry warned on Wednesday that the tariffs would harm all parties and called for urgent and constructive dialogue with the Trump administration.

The tariffs come amid a climate of increased pressure and uncertainty in the sector.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will leave for Washington on Wednesday night for his first visit to the US as leader of Europe's largest economy.

Merz will be holding talks with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday.

Talks are expected to center around ending the war in Ukraine and the Trump administration's tariffs, among other issues.

The one-on-one discussion will be followed by an Oval Office press conference, which is highly anticipated considering the manner in which both Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa were dealt with during their respective visits.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called for the preservation of well-established US-German relations on Wednesday. He visited Washington last week where he held talks with US State Secretary Marco Rubio.

"They have made me confident that we can reach agreements in mutual interest even on issues where we have differences of opinion," German news agency DPA quoted Wadephul as saying at a meeting of former Arthur F. Burns Fellowship scholars in Berlin.

The discovery of World War II-era bombs in Cologne on Monday has led authorities to evacuate an estimated 20,000 people from their homes.

City authorities say its one of the largest evacuations in postwar history and affected areas including the entire old part of the city, 58 hotels, three Rhine bridges, the town hall, the railway station in the district of Deutz, which lies across the Rhine from the city center, museums, a hospital and two care homes.

Bomb disposal is a common occurrence in Cologne, which was one of the most heavily bombed German cities during World War II.

Read about the large scale evacuations in Cologne here.

 

Guten Morgen from the DW newsroom in Bonn!

We'll be monitoring developments as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz makes his first visit to the US where he is set to meet with US President Donald Trump.

We're also covering the evacuation effort in Cologne involving tens of thousands of people as authorities work to defuse World War II era bombs.

We'll bring you up to speed with headlines, analyses, multimedia content and DW on-the-ground reporting related to events and developments in Germany. Thank you for joining us.