Germany
Rescuers rush to help as Europe’s flood toll surpasses 125
Emergency workers in western German and Belgium rushed Friday to rescue hundreds of people in danger or still unaccounted for as the death toll from devastating floods rose to more than 125 people.
Authorities in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate said 63 people had died there, including 12 residents of an assisted living facility for disabled people in the town of Sinzig who were surprised by a sudden rush of water from the nearby Ahr River. In neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia state officials put the death toll at 43, but warned that the figure could increase.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “stunned” by the devastation caused by the flooding and pledged support to the families of those killed and to cities and towns facing significant damage.
“In the hour of need, our country stands together,” Steinmeier said in a statement. “It’s important that we show solidarity for those from whom the flood has taken everything.”
A harrowing rescue effort unfolded In the German town of Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne, where people were trapped when the ground gave way and their homes collapsed.
“We managed to get 50 people out of their houses last night,” county administrator Frank Rock told German broadcaster n-tv.
Aerial photos showed what appeared to be a massive landslide at a gravel pit on the town’s edge..
“One has to assume that under the circumstances some people didn’t manage to escape,” Rock said.
Authorities were trying to account for hundreds of people listed as missing, but they cautioned that the high number could be due to duplicated reports and difficulties reaching people because of disrupted roads and phone service.
Also read: Over 60 dead, dozens missing as severe floods strike Europe
After Germany, where the death toll stood at 106, Belgium was the hardest hit by the floods that caused homes to be ripped away. Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told the VRT network Friday that the country had confirmed the deaths of 20 people, with another 20 still missing.
Water levels on the Meuse Rriver that runs from Belgium into the Netherlands remains critical, and several dikes were at risk of collapsing, Verlinden said. Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Venlo evacuated 200 hospital patients due to the looming threat of flooding from the river.
Flash floods this week followed days of heavy rainfall in Western Europe. Thousands of people remained homeless in Germany after their houses were destroyed or deemed at-risk by authorities.
The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, who is hoping to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel as the nation’s leader after Germany’s election on Sept. 26, said the disaster had caused immense economic damage to the country’s most densely populated state.
“The floods have literally pulled the ground from beneath many people’s feet,” Gov. Armin Laschet said at a news conference. “They lost their houses, farms or businesses.”
19 dead, dozens missing in Germany floods; 2 die in Belgium
At least 19 people have died and dozens of people are missing in Germany after heavy flooding turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars and causing some buildings to collapse.
Authorities in the western county of Euskirchen said Thursday that eight deaths had been reported there in connection with the floods. Rescue operations were hampered by the fact that phone and internet connections were down in part of the region, which is southwest of Cologne.
Police in the western city of Koblenz said four people had died in Ahrweiler county, and about 50 were trapped on the roofs of their houses awaiting rescue.
Six houses had collapsed overnight in the village of Schuld. “Many people have been reported missing to us,” police said.
Read:Tropical Storm Elsa nears Cuba amid fears of flooding
Schuld is located in the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys southwest of Cologne.
The full extent of the damage in the region was still unclear after many villages were cut off by floodwater and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos posted on social media showed cars floating down streets and houses partly collapsed in some places.
Authorities have declared an emergency in the region after days of heavy rainfall that also affected large parts of western and central Germany, as well as neighboring countries, causing widespread damage.
Police said four people died in separate incidents after their basements were flooded in Cologne, Kamen and Wuppertal, where authorities warned that a dam threatened to burst.
Authorities in the Rhine-Sieg county south of Cologne ordered the evacuation of several villages below the Steinbachtal reservoir amid fears the dam there could also break.
A fireman drowned Wednesday during rescue work in the western German town of Altena and another collapsed during rescue operations at a power plant in Werdohl-Elverlingsen. One man was missing in the eastern town of Joehstadt after disappearing while trying to secure his property from rising waters, authorities said.
Read:Storm floods German vaccine center, 5 injured by heavy hail
Rail connections were suspended in large parts of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. Governor Armin Laschet, who is running to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in this fall’s German election, was expected to visit the flood-hit city of Hagen later Thursday.
German weather service DWD predicted the rainfall would ease Thursday.
Relentless rains through the night worsened the flooding conditions in eastern Belgium, where one person was reported drowned and at least another was missing.
Some towns saw water levels rise to unprecedented levels and had their centers turned into gushing rivers.
Major highways were inundated and in the south and east of the nation, the railway service said all traffic was stopped, adding that “alternative transport is highly unlikely.”
In eastern Eupen, on the German border, one man was reported dead after he was swept away by a torrent, a local governor told RTBf network.
In Liege, the main city in eastern Belgium, the Meuse river could break its banks by early afternoon and spill into the heart of the city. Police warned the citizens to take precautionary measures.
Read:Floods and mudslides kill 4, another 7 missing in Sri Lanka
Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Valkenburg, close to the German and Belgian borders, evacuated a care home and a hospice overnight amid flooding that turned the tourist town’s main street into a river, Dutch media reported.
The Dutch government sent some 70 troops to the southern province of Limburg late Wednesday to help with tasks including transporting evacuees and filling sandbags as rivers burst their banks. There were no reports of injuries linked to flooding in the Netherlands.
Unusually intense rains have also inundated a swath of northeast France this week, downing trees and forcing the closure of dozens of roads. A train route to Luxembourg was disrupted, and firefighters evacuated dozens of people from homes near the Luxembourg and German border and in the Marne region, according to local broadcaster France Bleu.
The equivalent of two months of rain has fallen on some areas in the last one or two days, according to the French national weather service. With the ground already saturated, the service forecast more downpours Thursday and issued flood warnings for 10 regions.
Neck rubs, tapped phones: Merkel has history with US leaders
Neck rubs, pricy dinners, allegations of phone tapping, awkward handshake moments.
Angela Merkel has just about seen it all when it comes to U.S. presidents.
The German chancellor is making her 19th and likely final official visit to the U.S. on Thursday for a meeting with President Joe Biden — her fourth American president — as she nears the end of her 16-year tenure.
Merkel, who turns 67 on Saturday, will be heading into political retirement soon after deciding long ago not to seek a fifth term in Germany’s Sept. 26 election.
Read: Biden backs Trump rejection of China’s South China Sea claim
One of the longest-serving leaders of one of the closest U.S. allies, Merkel is set for a warm welcome when she meets Biden during her first visit to Washington since he took office in January.
Still, contentious issues are on the table — notably the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany, which the U.S. has long opposed, and Biden’s efforts to convince European allies to drop objections to intellectual property waivers for sharing COVID-19 vaccines with the developing world.
It’s a fitting coda for Merkel’s dealings with American leaders. A look at some of the highs and lows over the years:
GEORGE W. BUSH
Merkel came to power early in Bush’s second term and set about repairing relations chilled by predecessor Gerhard Schroeder’s vocal opposition to the war in Iraq.
She quickly became a close ally, perhaps finding that the way to the president’s heart was through his stomach. During a visit to Merkel’s parliamentary constituency in northeastern Germany in July 2006, Bush couldn’t stop talking about a wild boar roast the chancellor laid on for him.
At a Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, a few days later, Bush gave Merkel an impromptu neck-and-shoulder rub that quickly spread across the internet. Merkel hunched her shoulders in surprise, threw her arms up and grimaced, but appeared to smile as Bush walked away. When Merkel visited the White House the following January, Bush promised: “No back rubs.”
In November 2007, Bush welcomed Merkel to his Crawford, Texas ranch. “In Texas, when you invite somebody to your home, it’s an expression of warmth and respect and that’s how I feel about Chancellor Merkel,” a jeans-clad Bush said as he greeted Merkel at the property’s helipad and drove her in his pickup to his home.
BARACK OBAMA
Merkel’s relationship with Obama didn’t have the greatest start. In July 2008, the chancellor squashed the idea of candidate Obama delivering a speech at Berlin’s signature Brandenburg Gate, saying it was a backdrop for speeches by presidents. Obama switched to another Berlin landmark, the Victory Column.
Still, the chancellor — who shared Obama’s businesslike manner but, unlike the new president, never had much time for soaring political rhetoric — forged a strong working relationship with him. It appeared to gain personal warmth over time.
During Merkel’s 2011 visit to Washington, the two leaders caught dinner at a high-end restaurant, an unusual overture by Obama. A few days later, he hosted Merkel at the White House for a formal state dinner, where he awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest U.S. honor bestowed upon civilians.
Obama got his chance to speak at the Brandenburg Gate in June 2013. Merkel was there to introduce him.
Read:Merkel: Europe ‘on thin ice’ amid delta virus variant rise
A tough test followed with reports later that year that the U.S. National Security Agency had listened in on German government phones, including Merkel’s. Merkel declared that “spying among friends” was unacceptable. But she didn’t let it cast a lasting shadow over trans-Atlantic ties.
Obama made a last visit as president in November 2016, dining with Merkel at his Berlin hotel. He was back as ex-president a few months later, participating in a public discussion with Merkel and calling her “one of my favorite partners throughout my presidency.”
DONALD TRUMP
Merkel’s congratulations to Trump after his 2016 election set the tone for much that followed. In a pointed message, she offered “close cooperation” on the basis of shared trans-Atlantic values that she said include respect for human dignity regardless of people’s origin, gender or religion.
The former physicist and the former reality TV star were never an obvious personal match but generally kept up appearances when in public together.
Merkel’s first visit to the Trump White House in March 2017 produced a famously awkward moment in the Oval Office. Photographers shouted “handshake!” and Merkel quietly asked Trump “do you want to have a handshake?” There was no response from the president, who looked ahead with his hands clasped.
Trump never made a bilateral visit to Germany in four years in office, though he did come for the Merkel-hosted Group of 20 summit in Hamburg in 2017.
At the 2018 Group of Seven summit in Canada, Merkel’s office released a photo of her leaning on a table in front of Trump, surrounded by other apparently frustrated allied leaders.
Merkel’s Germany was a favorite target of Trump’s ire. The president called the NATO ally “delinquent” for failing to spend enough on defense and announced that he was going to pull out about 9,500 of the roughly 34,500 U.S. troops stationed in Germany.
Merkel suggested in 2017 that Europe could no longer entirely rely on the U.S. And, speaking at Harvard University in 2019, she said a new generation of leaders must “tear down walls of ignorance” and reject isolationism to overcome global problems.
JOE BIDEN
Merkel greeted Biden’s 2020 election with barely disguised relief, saying he brought decades of experience to the job, that “he knows Germany and Europe well” and citing good memories of previous meetings.
In February, she welcomed his first address to a global audience effusively.
“Things are looking a great deal better for multilateralism this year than two years ago, and that has a lot to do with Joe Biden having become the president of the United States,” Merkel said.
Read: German election year opens with tough test for Merkel party
As vice president, Biden had a rapport with Merkel during the Obama presidency, but the two were never particularly close.
Seeking to strengthen ties, Biden made a priority of engaging with Merkel in several early videoconference meetings shortly after taking office. He also waived sanctions on the company behind the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, even as he reiterated his preference that Germany abandon the project.
Since Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration, there hasn’t been much opportunity for in-person interaction. Both attended last month’s G-7 summit in England and NATO summit in Brussels, but Thursday will be their first significant bilateral meeting.
Merkel will be the first European leader to visit the White House in the Biden administration.
Tk 330 cr disbursed from EU funds to strengthen social security during pandemic
The European Union (EU) and Germany on Wednesday transferred EUR 33 million or approximately Tk 330 crore to the government of Bangladesh to strengthen key areas of its social security system and build resilience to Covid-19, with a particular focus on the affected workers in export-oriented industries.
This is the second disbursement from the joint EUR 113 million grant made available by the EU and Germany as part of Team Europe’s response to fight Covid-19 and its consequences beyond their own borders too.
Funds are channelled through the budget support programme on National Social Security Strategy reforms in Bangladesh.
EU Ambassador to Bangladesh Rensje Teerink said they encourage the government to ensure appropriate social protection systems and measures that protect those who are in need.
Also read: EU, Germany contribute to strengthen social security in Bangladesh with EUR 80mn
"Beyond the immediate Covid-19 response, this programme represents a concrete first step towards the longer-term objective to establish adequate and sustainable social security for workers addressing different risks."
She said the EU and its Member States are committed to support efforts to establish adequate and sustainable social security for workers, with the shared objectives to protect lives and livelihoods.
German Ambassador Peter Fahrenholtz said they are pleased to join forces with the EU and support the Government of Bangladesh in mitigating the negative effects of the covid-19 pandemic on vulnerable workers in key export sectors like the RMG and leather sectors.
"We hope that the support will reach as many eligible workers as possible and we count on the joint efforts of the Government, the associations and the factories to achieve this.”
Also read: EU contributes to strengthen social security in Bangladesh with EUR 24mn
The programme was designed to run for two years (2020-22).
It provides direct cash transfer allowances (up to 3 months) to unemployed workers who meet the eligibility criteria and whose data is verified/validated as per the guidelines.
The establishment in October 2020 of the Government’s Social Protection Programme for Unemployed and Distressed Workers in the Ready-Made Garment (RMG), Leathergoods and Footwear Industries features as an important response measure.
With this grant, the EU and Germany recognize and support the Government’s commitment to strengthen social security in Bangladesh, along with its commitment to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
England beats Germany 2-0 to reach Euro 2020 quarterfinals
England is unburdened by the weight of agonizing history: Germany has finally been beaten in a tournament again.
No need to endure more penalty heartache or disallowed goals this time.
Just like in the 1966 World Cup final, England triumphed over a German team at Wembley Stadium on Tuesday, winning 2-0 to reach the European Championship quarterfinals.
And just like in England’s two group wins, Raheem Sterling was on the scoresheet, breaking the tense deadlock in the 75th minute in a move he started and completed.
The round of 16 finally saw England net more than once at Euro 2020, and for Harry Kane to shed the pressure on his shoulders by finally scoring. The striker headed in Jack Grealish’s cross in the 86th minute.
“With all the expectation and pressure,” Kane said. “We delivered.”
Also read: Swiss beat France on penalties at Euro 2020
It was England’s second-ever win in the knockout stage of the European Championship. The last such triumph came on penalties against Spain at Euro ’96 before the hosts were denied a place in the final by Germany in a shootout at Wembley.
It was on penalties that Germany also beat England in the 1990 World Cup semifinals. Then there was the English goal wrongfully disallowed as Germany knocked the English out of the 2010 World Cup.
Now England will play either Sweden or Ukraine in the Euro 2020 quarterfinals on Saturday in Rome, eying a return to Wembley for the semifinals and the final on July 11.
There will still be questions about England coach Gareth Southgate’s team selection and persistence with Kane when he managed only one touch in the opposition penalty area in the first half. And it was a bad one, taking a ball too far past Manuel Neuer while trying to go around the goalkeeper.
But while Sterling’s goals are spearheading England’s progress at this largely-home tournament, the saves of Jordan Pickford are proving vital, too, including using one hand to push over Kai Havertz’s shot at the start of the second half.
“We had to be brave on and off the ball,” England defender Harry Maguire said. “It was really important.”
Also read: Belgium edges Portugal, reaches quarterfinals at Euro 2020
The clamor to introduce Grealish was growing in the second half. It’s what got fans chanting inside Wembley, with a crowd of about 40,000 the biggest in Britain since the pandemic began in March 2020.
The winger finally entered with about 20 minutes to go and played a role in the opening goal.
Sterling first took on the defenders, going past Antonio Rüdiger before passing to Kane, whose layoff to Grealish then went to Luke Shaw. And it was the left back’s cross that Sterling connected with, shooting past Neuer with his right boot.
For all the experience in Germany’s side compared to the youth of England, it was World Cup winner Thomas Müller who squandered a chance to equalize in the 81st minute. Clean through with only Pickford to beat, Müller put the ball wide to leave him still without a goal at his three European Championships.
England has yet to concede in its four games at Euro 2020.
“It’s a moment none of us will ever forget,” said Kane, who scored his 35th international goal. “The perfect afternoon.”
Storm floods German vaccine center, 5 injured by heavy hail
Officials say a vaccination center was flooded and five people were injured by hail the size of tennis balls during heavy storms in southwestern Germany overnight.
All appointments for Thursday at the vaccination center in Tuebingen were canceled after torrential rain late Wednesday.
Police said five people were injured in the nearby town of Reutlingen after they were struck and injured by large hailstones.
Firefighters were out in force across the region pumping water out of flooded basements and removing toppled trees from roads, police said.
The downpour also drenched players and spectators at the Germany-Hungary Euro 2020 match held in Munich on Wednesday evening, forcing some public viewings to be abandoned. The game ended in a tie.
READ: Dhaka wakes up to flooded roads
In the neighboring Czech Republic, a rare tornado hit towns and villages in southeast part of the country, injuring some 150 people and damaging hundreds of houses. Some 200 police officers have been deployed in the region to help the rescue workers.
Earlier in the day, thunderstorms before dawn Thursday left some 100,000 households in central and southern areas of the Czech Republic without electricity, while fallen trees blocked the tracks on some 30 train routes. About 45,000 households were still without power later Thursday.
READ: New areas flooded as Jamuna continues to swell in Sirajganj
Germany to provide EUR 339.54 to Bangladesh under two deals
Germany will provide EUR 339.54 million or approximately Tk 3463.3 crore technical and financial cooperation support to Bangladesh for development projects in various sectors.
Bangladesh and Germany on Sunday signed the financial and technical agreements on development cooperation, said the German Embassy in Dhaka on Monday.
The cooperation under the agreements will take place in the areas of renewable energy and energy efficiency (EUR237.5 million EUR), sustainable urban development (EUR 30 million EUR), good governance (EUR 5.5 million), displacement and migration (EUR 19 million), training and sustainable growth for decent jobs, (EUR42.5 million EUR) and protection of biodiversity (EUR 5.04 million).
Following the negotiations of the two governments, the available amount totalling EUR 339.54 million (approx. Tk 3463.3 crore) has been allocated with EUR47.04 million for technical cooperation and EUR 292.5million for financial cooperation.
Fatima Yasmin, secretary at Economic Relations Divisions and Peter Fahrenholtz, Ambassador of Germany to Bangladesh, signed the agreements on behalf of the two governments.
The signing ceremony was attended by high officials from the German Embassy in Dhaka, the German Development Bank KfW, the German technical cooperation agencies GIZ and BGR, as well as from Bangladesh government.
“We are glad to continue our support for the Bangladeshi success story,” the German ambassador said.
Germany clicks at Euro 2020 with 4-2 win over Portugal
Germany finally clicked into gear at the European Championship, with a little help from defending champion Portugal.
The Portuguese became the first team to score two own-goals in one game at the continental tournament, giving Germany a 4-2 victory.
Cristiano Ronaldo put Portugal in the lead in the 15th minute against the run of play. It was his first goal against Germany and his third at Euro 2020. It also extended his all-time tournament record to 12 goals.
But defenders Rúben Dias and Raphaël Guerreiro soon put Germany ahead by scoring into their own net in the first half.
Kai Havertz and Robin Gosens then scored two more for Germany early in the second half — becoming the first players within the squad to score at a European Championship.
Diogo Jota got one back for Portugal in the 67th minute.
Both Portugal and Germany have three points in Group F, one behind France, which was surprisingly held to a 1-1 draw by Hungary in Budapest.
Hungary has one point before its final group game against Germany on Wednesday in Munich. France will play Portugal in Budapest.
Spectators injured by parachuting protestor
UEFA says “several people” are being treated in the hospital for injuries caused by a protestor who parachuted into the stadium before France’s 1-0 victory over Germany in Munich.
UEFA says “law authorities will take the necessary action” for what it called a “reckless and dangerous” act.
Debris fell on to the field and main grandstand when the parachutist got tangled in wires carrying an overhead camera.
France coach Didier Deschamps was filmed ducking into the team dugout.
READ: Ronaldo scores 2, Portugal beats Hungary 3-0 at Euro 2020
The protestor had the slogan “KICK OUT OIL!” and “Greenpeace” written on it.
Mats Hummels scored an own-goal and France beat Germany 1-0 at the European Championship.
The experienced defender was attempting to stop Lucas Hernández’s cross from reaching France forward Kylian Mbappé when he diverted the ball into his own net in the 20th minute.
Both teams had chances to score. İlkay Gündoğan wasted Germany’s best opportunity of the first half when he couldn’t direct his shot on target.
France twice put the ball in the net in the second half but both were called back for offside. Mbappé sent a curling shot inside the far post midway through the half and then set up Karim Benzema for another late in the match.
Last of Soviet soldiers who liberated Auschwitz dies at 98
David Dushman, the last surviving Soviet soldier involved in the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, has died. He was 98.
The Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria said Sunday that Dushman had died at a Munich hospital on Saturday.
“Every witness to history who passes on is a loss, but saying farewell to David Dushman is particularly painful,” said Charlotte Knobloch, a former head of Germany’s Central Council of Jews. “Dushman was right on the front lines when the National Socialists’ machinery of murder was destroyed.”
As a young Red Army soldier, Dushman flattened the forbidding electric fence around the notorious Nazi death camp with his T-34 tank on Jan. 27, 1945.
Read: Germany extends virus lockdown till mid-April as cases rise
He admitted that he and his comrades didn’t immediately realize the full magnitude of what had happened in Auschwitz.
“Skeletons everywhere,” he recalled in a 2015 interview with Munich newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “They stumbled out of the barracks, they sat and lay among the dead. Terrible. We threw them all of our canned food and immediately drove on, to hunt fascists.”
More than a million people, most of them Jews deported there from all over Europe, were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau between 1940 and 1945.
Dushman earlier took part in some of the bloodiest military encounters of World War II, including the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk. He was seriously wounded three times but survived the war, one of just 69 soldiers in his 12,000-strong division.
Read: WHO, Germany to launch new global hub for pandemic, epidemic intelligence
His father — a former military doctor— was meanwhile imprisoned and later died in a Soviet punishment camp after falling victim to one of Josef Stalin’s purges.
After the war, Dushman helped train the Soviet Union’s women’s national fencing team for four decades and witnessed the attack by eight Palestinian terrorists on the Israeli team at the 1972 Munich Olympics, which resulted in the deaths of 11 Israelis, five of the Palestinians and a German policeman.
Later in life, Dushman visited schools to tell students about the war and the horrors of the Holocaust. He also regularly dusted off his military medals to participate in veterans gatherings.
“Dushman was a legendary fencing coach and the last living liberator of the Auschwitz concentration camp,” the International Olympic Committee said in a statement.
Read:Legendary Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov buried in Russia
IOC President Thomas Bach paid tribute to Dushman, recounting how as a young fencer for what was then West Germany he was offered “friendship and counsel” by the veteran coach in 1970 ”despite Mr Dushman’s personal experience with World War II and Auschwitz, and he being a man of Jewish origin.”
“This was such a deep human gesture that I will never ever forget it,” Bach said in a statement.
Dushman trained some of the Soviet Union’s most successful fencers, including Valentina Sidorova, and continued to give lessons well into his 90s, the IOC said.
Details on funeral arrangements weren’t immediately known. Dushman’s wife, Zoja, died several years ago.