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Storms in Europe cause huge damage and disruption

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Central Europe, including Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, has been hit by severe storms and heavy rainfall, leading to significant damage and disruptions. Many towns and cities in the region have experienced torrential rain, causing floods and forcing the closure of numerous roads.

The rail traffic has also been affected, with the Hamburg-Berlin line and a major north-south line between Kassel and Goettingen being closed due to storm damage. Switzerland has also faced thunderstorms, resulting in numerous calls to the fire department.

Strong winds reaching speeds of up to 135 km/h have uprooted trees, damaged roofs, and street infrastructure, although no casualties have been reported. Austria has witnessed several landslides that have affected homes, and the state of Carinthia experienced large hailstones of up to 8 centimeters in diameter, causing significant damage to crops.

Videos circulating on social media show violent storms and flooded streets, including the complete submersion of the forecourt and road in front of the Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe ICE train station.

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After discussing a chip facility, Berlin and Intel will sign an agreement

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The conclusion of negotiations for a new chip manufacturing facility on German territory will take place at 12:45 GMT on Monday, according to the German government.

Berlin’s signing will be attended by Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Chancellor Olaf Scholz, according to a statement from the chancellery.

The amount of public support the corporation is expected to get for the project in the city of Magdeburg in central Germany has not yet been verified by the German government.

The U.S. corporation would receive 9.9 billion euros ($10.84 billion), up from a previously guaranteed figure of 6.8 billion euros, the Handelsblatt business newspaper said last week.

The Scholz administration is putting billions of dollars into incentives to entice IT firms to Germany. This occurs at a time when concern over the brittleness of the supply chain and the dependency on South Korea and Taiwan for chips is rising.

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Germans split as last three nuclear power stations go off grid

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On Saturday, anti-atomic activists celebrated a 60-year victory on one side of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, while protests took place on the other side against the closure of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power stations. Germany’s ideological divide on nuclear energy is emotionally charged, and both sides accuse each other of irrational ideology.

Conservative politicians and commentators argue that Germany’s decision to scrap domestic nuclear power is a result of Green Party dogma, and that this move increases reliance on fossil fuels and raises energy prices, while nuclear energy has lower emissions. This issue is particularly contentious as war in Europe looms large.

The Green Party and left-wingers argue that it doesn’t make sense to stick to nuclear power, which is more expensive than renewable sources like wind and solar. The German government believes that keeping the three aging nuclear power stations running would require significant investment, which would be better spent on renewable energy sources. Green Party MPs are skeptical of the Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) sudden support for climate protection, given that the party has traditionally obstructed measures to expand renewable energy infrastructure.

Ironically, it was a conservative-led government under Angela Merkel that decided to phase out nuclear power after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, a decision that was popular with voters due to widespread anti-nuclear sentiment. Some people suggest that Merkel’s decision was influenced by upcoming regional elections at the time.

Germany currently generates 44% of its electricity from renewables, and only 6% from nuclear power, according to the Federal Statistical Office. The country’s Green economy minister, Robert Habeck, predicts that 80% of Germany’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2030, and has implemented laws to streamline the construction of wind and solar farms.

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Hamburg shooting: Seven killed in attack on Jehovah’s Witness hall

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According to authorities, a shooting at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting hall in Hamburg, Germany, left seven people dead, including an unborn child. According to them, the shooter carried out the attack on Thursday alone before killing himself. His motivations are unclear.

The defendant, who has only been identified as Philipp F, allegedly harboured “bad will” towards the religious group he had formerly belonged to. There is video that appears to show him firing through a hall window.

The police announced at a briefing on Friday that four men and two women had been shot to death. German nationals were all of the deceased. There were eight injuries, four of them serious. Those hurt included a Ukrainian and a Ugandan.

Seven months pregnant and shot, the woman’s unborn child perished. Mother made it through. On Thursday at 21:04 local time (20:04 GMT), the police received the first emergency contact reporting gunfire inside a structure on Deelböge Street in the Gross Borstel neighbourhood.

Four minutes later, officers arrived on the scene, and special forces joined them nearly immediately. To get inside the premises where roughly 50 people had congregated, the officers had to shatter windows. The culprit ran to the first floor and was identified as a 35-year-old “sports shooter” with a firearms licence. Shortly later, his “lifeless body” was discovered. Nine magazines of ammunition had been shot by him, and 20 more were discovered in his rucksack.

Senator Andy Grote of Germany claimed that police officers’ “quick and decisive actions” had saved numerous lives. He added that the incident was the “worst crime” in recent Hamburg history.

The police stated that they had previously received a tip-off that was anonymous and raised questions about the mental stability of the culprit. Police had visited him following the tip, but they lacked sufficient evidence at the time to take his pistol away.

“I didn’t realise what was happening,” Gregor Miesbach, who recorded the attacker shooting through a first-floor window, told the Bild newspaper. When I zoomed in while using my phone to record, I saw that someone was shooting at Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Germany has some of the harshest firearms regulations in all of Europe, including a requirement that anybody under 25 must successfully pass a psychological test in order to obtain a firearms licence.

According to the National Firearms Registration, there were about one million private gun owners in Germany in 2021. The majority of them are owned by hunters, and they total 5.7 million legal firearms and firearm parts.

German officials intend to make the nation’s gun restrictions even stricter following a wave of arrests in December in connection with an alleged coup attempt.

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Berlin AquaDom aquarium: Police not seeking suspects over explosion

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Following the explosion of the “AquaDom” aquarium on Friday, Berlin police said they are not looking for suspects and have warned the public about what they claim to be a bogus tweet saying otherwise. One million litres of saltwater were released during the explosion at the Radisson Blu hotel, soaking the establishment and the streets around it.

Numerous fish perished, while glass that fell on people harmed two individuals. The structure has now been deemed safe by inspectors. There is no proof the explosion in the 15.85m-high (52 foot) aquarium was the product of a targeted attack, a police source told local media on Friday.

They have also utilised social media to refute a tweet from a replica account that requests public assistance in finding suspects connected to the incident.

According to a tweet from the official Berlin police account, they have encouraged people not to share the phoney message and “expressly distance” themselves from it.

The precise reason of the explosion is still under investigation, however it has been hypothesised that the cold temperatures, which fell as low as -6C over the course of one night on Friday, may have produced a crack in the tank.

Iris Spranger, a senator for the interior in Berlin, told the DPA news agency that early indications point to “material fatigue” as the root problem.

Reynolds Polymer Technology, a US company that worked on the tank’s construction, has announced that it will send a team to analyse the breach but that it is yet too early to tell what caused it.

The largest cylindrical aquarium in the world, AquaDom received the Guinness World Record after it debuted in December 2003. Its construction reportedly cost about €12.8 million (£11.2 million) at the time. It was most recently renovated in 2020.

According to reports, the Radisson Blu hotel lobby has sustained significant damage as a result of Friday’s explosion; a fire department spokesperson told German television Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg that it “looks like a battlefield.” According to Friedrich Engel, a spokesman for the Federal Agency for Technical Relief, which provides assistance in times of need, the structure has been deemed safe and given back to its owners.

According to a spokesperson for the building’s owner, Union Investment, there is no imminent risk of the structure falling. The hotel’s guests have been relocated, and it has been closed indefinitely. According to reports, further companies in the complex of buildings also sustained damage.

The explosion killed the bulk of the 1,500 fish maintained in the aquarium, although some of them made it out alive and were relocated. The power outage that followed the event put hundreds more fish held in the basement for breeding purposes at risk, but they have since all been relocated to safety. An online petition opposing the construction of a new aquarium has been launched by the animal rights organisation Help for Animals in Need.

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Berlin: One dead and others hurt as car drives into pedestrians

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A car slammed into a crowd on a busy Berlin street, killing at least one person and injuring eight others. It’s unclear whether the incident, which occurred around 10:30 a.m. local time (08:30 a.m. GMT), was intentional or unintentional, according to emergency officials.

The driver was arrested at the scene, according to a police spokesperson. The incident occurred in western Berlin, on one of the city’s busiest shopping streets. According to reports, the vehicle veered off the road and climbed the sidewalk before crashing into a storefront.

A silver Renault Clio crashed through a display window in a cosmetics store, according to images from the scene. There are also photos of what appears to be a body in the middle of the road, covered in blankets.

According to Berlin police, around 130 emergency workers are on the scene. Mayor Franziska Giffey of Berlin said on Twitter that she was “deeply affected” by the incident and that “police are working flat out to clarify the matter.”

“Throughout the day, I’ll get a sense of the situation on the ground. I’d like to express my gratitude to the more than 130 emergency services who responded quickly and provided care to those who were affected “she continued.

The actor John Barrowman tweeted that he was nearby when the incident occurred, and that the car had repeatedly mounted the footpath before crashing into the storefront, according to a video posted from the scene.

“The police presence is astounding. They’re removing the debris from the area “”, said the actor. “Right now, helicopters are flying in to airlift people.” The incident occurred near the busy intersection of Rankestrasse and Tauentzienstrasse in west Berlin.

The area is directly across from Breitscheidplatz, where a truck driver deliberately drove his lorry into a crowd of people at a Christmas market, killing 12 people.

The attack, which was carried out by an unsuccessful asylum seeker, was later claimed by IS. Italian police shot and killed the assailant later.

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German police arrest man for cannibalism

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The German police have arrested a person in connection with a cannibalism case. The investigation was commenced after bones were found in a park in the northern region of Berlin.

The victim was identified as a man aged 44. He was one of the persons who were in the list of missing persons.

This complicated case has been cracked with the help of sniffer dogs. The dogs who were brought to the venue has led the investigators to the apartment where the suspect was staying.

The suspect is a man aged 41. As per a preliminary report, he is an active participant of several chat rooms which discusses the evil topic of cannibalism.

The police have found enough evidence to substantiate the suspicion that the suspect killed the victim to fulfil his desire for cannibalism.  

It is the first cannibalism case that has been reported in the recent history of the European country of Germany.

The case has been likened to a case reported several decades back.

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Over 70 artefacts damaged in Berlin

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As many as seventy artefacts have been damaged in the Germany city of Berlin in one of the biggest attacks the city has ever witnessed since the end of the Second World War.

The damage has been made by spraying with an oil liquid.

The damage has been made on the artefacts installed in the Museum Island of Berlin, which is a UNESCO world heritage site

There are as many as five popular museums in the Island.

Actually, the attack has been committed on the day in which the country was celebrating the anniversary of its reunification.

There are speculations that the attack has been committed by the supporters of a far-right conspiracy theory.

Lately, Attila Hildmann, who is one of the chief proponents of conspiracy theories about Covid-19, has claimed that one of the five museums, the Pergamon Museum, is home to the “Throne of Satan”.

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Protest organised in Berlin against Covid-19 restrictions

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Tens of thousands of people have participated in a protest organised at Berlin, the capital of Germany, to express their disagreement against the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The protesters have complained that the restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak have violated their rights and freedoms.

The police has taken action against the protest on the ground that the protesters have violated the hygiene standards introduced as a part of the Covid-19 restrictions.

Germany is one of the few countries in the continent of Europe who has not experienced the ugly part of the virus outbreak.

Only 900 cases of Covid-19 has been reported in Germany so far, when some of its neighbours have witnessed more than double the number of cases witnessed in the European financial powerhouse.

 As many as 2000 people have participated in the protest.

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