Heat record broken for the second consecutive day

It’s 10 o’clock at night here in Germany, and we’re putting to stop On our coverage of news from Germany through Sunday morning. Thanks for being with us.

Thousands turn out for the annual pride parade in the southern German city of Munich.

Over 200 groups participated in the event to promote equality for the LGBTQ+ community under the motto “Our Diversity. Our Strength”.

Organizers are also concerned about anti-LGBTQ+ crime, which increased by 43% to 414 incidents in the state of Bavaria last year, according to campaign group Strong!

Police said about 30,000 people participated in Saturday’s parade, along with about 200,000 spectators who lined the route.

Later in the day, many people were expected to attend a street festival.

In Germany, the Pride parade is known as the Christopher Street Day (CSD) parade.

It takes its name from the New York street where the Stonewall Rebellion took place in 1969, a pivotal moment in the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement.

Organizer Conrad Breyer said that despite temperatures reaching 36 degrees Celsius in Munich, no major heat-related incidents were reported.

Germany broke its all-time heat record for the second consecutive day with a preliminary reading of 41.5 degrees Celsius (106.7 Fahrenheit), the German Weather Service (DWD) reported.

The new record was measured in the city of Mockern-Drewitz in eastern Germany.

“It cannot be ruled out that temperatures could reach 42 degrees Celsius,” said the service, which issued a red alert for much of the country on Saturday.

The previous record was set just a day earlier, when temperatures reached 41.3 degrees Celsius in the south-western city of Saarbrucken.

The figures published by DWD are still preliminary and may be revised.

Leaders and representatives of the steel, chemical and automobile industries on Saturday called out Germany’s troubled Deutsche Bahn (DB), saying track closures were costing the rail provider billions in losses in their business.

In a report published by Germany World on Sunday (WaS) Newspaper, industry representatives say that decaying DB infrastructure over the past several years has forced them to shift the transportation of their goods and materials to highways, pointing out that truck transportation is much less efficient than rail.

The steel industry, which transports about 50% of its products and raw production materials by rail, is being particularly hard hit.

“We have had to halt steel production,” a spokesman for Germany’s Salzgitter Steel Company told the newspaper.

And a representative of ArcelorMittal said that ore reserves at the company’s Eisenhuttenstadt steel works had reached “critically low” levels.

Germany’s chemical industry, which transports approximately 25 million tons of products and materials annually by rail, also suffered huge losses.

Wolfgang Gröhe Entrup of the Chemical Industry Association (VCI) told What Deutsche Bahn needed to “urgently adjust” its planning, coordination and prioritization, adding, “Freight transport should be prioritized over detour routes when construction is taking place”.

As politicians in Berlin debate serious structural reforms, Germany’s former federal president, Joachim Gauck, is urging them to put nation before party, saying citizens “expect solutions.”

“Every true reform demands sacrifices. We need political leadership that can muster the strength to convince the public why these sacrifices must be made,” Gauck said in an interview to be published Sunday. World on Sunday (WaS) Newspaper.

Gauk warned against avoiding difficult political decisions, saying that doing so destroys “the core of democracy”.

Gauck’s statement comes as politicians appear unable to agree on long-term reforms, chief among them those related to retirement and pensions.

The current tug of war comes as the government prepares to vote on proposals put forward by a special pension commission.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Labor Minister Barbel Baas promised earlier this week to quickly pass the entire 33-point list of reforms.

However, the fate of the law remains unclear, as voices such as Pascal Redig in Merz’s conservative CDU are calling for its passage and prompt implementation; And others in Bas’s centre-left SPD, such as Manuela Schwesig and Franziska Giffi, are arguing for slow, partial reforms.

Germany’s DWD weather service is predicting another day of record-breaking heat.

DWD meteorologists warned that “temperatures over 36 degrees (96.8 Fahrenheit) can be expected across the country this Saturday, with only a few coastal areas slightly warmer.” They warned that temperatures, “could rise as high as 42 degrees (107.6 Fahrenheit) in some locations.”

The highest temperature ever recorded in Germany on Friday when the mercury soared to 41.3 degrees in southwestern Saarbrucken at 5:00 pm local time (1500 GMT).

DWD said “tropical nights” remain in the forecast, with the lack of cool temperatures at night described as particularly difficult.

Forecasters said people in Germany should expect some relief, however, as high temperatures will last until at least Monday, when temperatures are expected to drop into the 30s with thunderstorms.

DWD warned that scattered thunderstorms coming from the west will begin Saturday evening and continue through the remainder of the weekend, adding that residents should be prepared to see “the full program – from heavy rain to strong winds and even hail.”

good day From DW in Bonn, and Man, it’s hot! (Man, it’s hot!) For those willing to use a little German language related to heatwaves.

Today we will experience record-high temperatures across the country as the European summer continues and slowly moves eastwards from France and the UK. The federal weather service is predicting thunderstorms later in the day, so some relief may be on the horizon, but they warned it will be a while before temperatures drop.

Meanwhile, as former Federal President Joachim Gauck says, “The country is waiting for a solution,” the country’s politicians are caught in a tug-of-war over reforms – especially to retirement rules – with some arguing that the changes are happening too fast, and others saying they are too slow.

In a weekend report by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, several heavy industry leaders bemoaned billions in losses due to the inefficiency of the country’s rail carrier, Deutsche Bahn, saying they have been forced to move most of their transport onto the roads due to poor logistics and slow infrastructure improvements in the rail system.

Finally, outgoing federal anti-Semitism representative Felix Klein expressed regret at the deteriorating quality of life experienced by Jews in Germany, noting that the mixing of Judaism with Israeli politics in particular is one of the many major problems facing the community.

Follow DW for all the latest news from Germany this Saturday, June 27