Man drives car into bus stop in Giessen – DW – 12/22/2025

A 32-year-old man rammed his car into a bus stop in the city of Giessen, 50 kilometers (31 miles) north of Frankfurt, on Monday afternoon, injuring at least four people, one of them seriously.

the police told the man , An Azerbaijani citizen who lives in Giessen , He crashed into two other vehicles at a junction before continuing on, driving to a bus stop shortly afterwards.

After walking a little further he stopped before being arrested.

A police spokesperson said, “The exact circumstances of the incident are currently unknown and are the subject of investigation,” but declined to comment on whether the incident was considered an accident or deliberate behavior.

The police have cordoned off the area.

Germany’s Interior Ministry confirmed that a plane carrying 141 Afghan nationals landed in the city of Hanover.

This happened after the German government promised them that they would be taken to Germany after their capture by the Taliban.

The plane took off from Islamabad, Pakistan, after the Pakistani government told Germany it would have to hold the Afghans by the end of the year before it could deport them to their home country.

141 will be distributed among the federal states of Germany.

German exports to the United States have declined sharply this year after significantly higher tariffs were imposed.

An analysis by the Institute for the German Economy (IW) said shipments to the US are down 8% in the first three quarters of 2025 compared to the same period last year.

The institute said the decline has hit key industrial sectors the hardest. About 70% of the decline in exports came from the automotive, chemical and mechanical engineering industries, which have traditionally been pillars of transatlantic trade.

The automotive sector has been particularly affected. The analysis found that exports of passenger cars and auto parts declined by about 15% during the period.

Mechanical engineering exports have been particularly hurt by heavy US tariffs on steel and aluminum as well as products made from those metals, currently at 50%.
For chemical products, IW said lower production linked to higher energy prices in Germany also hit exports.

The recession marks a clear break from previous years. According to the institute, between 2016 and 2024, German exports to the US were expected to increase by an average of about 5% per year.

Despite a slight improvement in economic prospects, most German companies are not in festive spirits.

A new survey from the IFO Institute shows that less than 15% of firms expect their situation to improve in 2026, while 59% expect no change and 26% expect a decline.

“Companies remain very restrained – there are no signs of new beginnings anywhere,” said Ifo survey chief Klaus Wohlrabe.

The Munich-based institute surveys several thousand companies every month to assess their business environment.

Industry, Germany’s largest sector, is slightly more upbeat than average, with 18.2% of companies expecting better conditions. But pessimism is widespread in manufacturing and retail.

In the construction sector, 33.2% of companies expect their situation to worsen over the next year, while only 10.3% see an improvement – ​​despite the federal government’s key infrastructure spending plans.

“The figures are surprising, given what the region can actually expect from the announced investment package,” Wohlrabe said.

Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has recorded more than 1,000 suspicious drone flights since the beginning of 2025, according to a mass-circulation report. Picture Newspaper.

The drone threat assessment has been conducted since the beginning of the year and includes findings from Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr.

“Military installations in Germany are often full of people – including those where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained – who may have smartphones,” said BKA president Holger Munch. Picture,

“The drone records which smartphones are present at the site and may later be able to identify them again on the Ukrainian front.”

He also said that capturing and interrogating drone pilots remains a challenge. Asked whether drones were always controlled by Russian actors, Munch said this had not been established with “100% certainty”, but also doubted that many instances of drone activity were directed by state actors aimed at creating insecurity.

Read DW’s full report on the suspicious drone sighting in Germany here.

Nearly half of Germans now doubt that Germany’s conservative-led coalition will last until the next scheduled election, according to a new poll.

A YouGov poll for the DPA news agency found that 49% do not expect the government to survive a full term, with 17% predicting the coalition’s collapse early next year.

Another 32% believe that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) will reach 2026, but will fail to reach the end of the legislative period.

The centre-right CDU/CSU bloc and the centre-left SPD won a narrow majority in the Bundestag following the 23 February election, winning 328 seats together. Any alliance needs at least 316 seats to govern.

The CDU/CSU received 28.5% of the vote and the SPD 16.4%. However, both parties have since lagged behind in opinion polls, with the Union now at 24–27% and the SPD at 13–14%, leaving them short of a majority in every recent poll.

After seven and a half months full of continuous disputes, only 9% of respondents believe that the level of infighting will reduce over the next year, while 49% expect tensions to remain unchanged and 21% think they will intensify.

The alliance is set to contest elections in five states in 2026.

German defense companies have conducted explosive tests of weapons for kamikaze drones.

Defense firms TDW and Stark Defense said the industrial test on a test range in Bavaria was successful, producing a powerful explosion that tore deep holes through armored steel plates.

The companies said the test laid the groundwork for rapid deployment of the drone system with the German armed forces.

The weapon, known as Virtus, is classified as a so-called roving munition – a drone fitted with a warhead that can hover over a target area for an extended period of time before striking via data link.

Germany’s industrial demand for raw materials is declining as both domestic production and imports declined again last year, according to the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) in Hanover.

The latest research, published on Monday, looks at data recorded through 2024. According to the report, domestic production of mineral raw materials fell to a new low of 475 million tonnes, down from an already weak 534 million tonnes last year.

BGR Vice President Volker Steinbach said the decline reflects ongoing economic stagnation, with high interest rates, persistent inflation and increased energy and transportation costs weighing on the industry and reducing demand.

The recession has been widespread. Over five years, Germany’s domestic raw material production has declined by nearly a third. Imports also declined and fell 2.8% from the previous year to 288 million tonnes.

The sharpest decline was seen in energy raw materials. Imports of coal, oil and gas fell again, while imports of metals and non-metallic raw materials rose slightly over 2023.

good day In the heart of Europe, from Bonn, the capital of former West Germany.

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