Today in Germany: A roundup of the latest news on Wednesday
More public transport strikes announced, Carnival revellers mark end of celebrations with 'Aschermittwoch', and more news from around Germany on Wednesday.
More strikes announced for Thursday
A warning strike on Thursday will bring large parts of local transport in North Rhine-Westphalia to a standstill.
On Tuesday, trade union Verdi called on employees from around 30 transport companies to go on a day-long warning strike. The chief negotiator for Verdi NRW, Peter Büddicker, told DPA that he expected between 10,000 and 15,000 employees to take part.
Among other things, Verdi is calling for more annual leave, as well as better pay and working hours. Following a first round of negotiations, the collective bargaining talks will continue on Thursday, February 22nd, according to the union.
READ ALSO: Why Germany is being hit by strikes almost every day
Germany spends record amount on NATO
For the first time in three decades, Germany's planned planned defence spending for 2024 amounts to two percent of gross domestic product (GDP). NATO will be presenting the figures for all member states on Wednesday.
The German government submitted an amount for the current year that corresponds to 73.41 billion dollars when converted into comparable figures for the defence alliance. This is a record figure for Germany in absolute terms.
In the past, according to documents from the NATO archives, Germany last spent two per cent of its GDP in 1992. In the years of the Cold War, the ratio was usually over three percent.
In the last public report on the defence spending of the alliance states for 2023, Germany spent 56.64 billion dollars, or a a GDP ratio of 1.57 percent was given for Germany for 2023.
Some Germans celebrate Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday marks the end of the festive season and the beginning of Lent. According to Christians, it lasts 40 days until Easter, not including Sundays. During the Ash Wednesday mass, Catholic believers have an ash cross drawn on their foreheads to remind them of the transience of life.
It has a slightly different significant for Karneval-goers, who meet to eat fish as per tradition. In Düsseldorf, the jester figure Hoppeditz is publicly burnt. People in Cologne already set fire to the Nubbel, a life-sized straw puppet, on Tuesday evening to atone for their carnival sins. The celebrations continue on November 11th, when the new session begins.
One more issue for Deutsche Bahn - train tracks are being plundered by metal thieves
According to DB, the company experienced 450 cases of metal theft last year, up from the year before. The company claims that cases of metal theft were responsible for the delay of 3,200 trains in 2023, for a combined total of 40,000 minutes.
The rising price of scrap metal makes copper and other precious metal theft increasingly appealing to would-be robbers.
Still, in a long-term comparison, the number of thefts has fallen by about 90 percent since 2013, when 3,200 cases were reported.
The state-owned company has put considerable effort into theft prevention. "Where possible, alternative materials will be used, and existing facilities and construction sites will be protected and better guarded," a spokesperson for DB said.
Deutsche Bahn is also working closely with the Federal Police. Metal thieves are regularly caught red-handed. However, a "comprehensive and complete monitoring" of the approximately 34,000-kilometre route network is not feasible.
Bavaria has big power plans but not all of its neighbours are on board
A planned power line project, called Südwestlink is planned to bring energy from Northern Germany to Bavaria, via above ground cables through Thuringia.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow called the project “an unparalleled audacity,” reported the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
For his part, Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs, Hubert Aiwanger, rejected Ramelow’s criticism. He told the DPA that, "The routes are not planned by the federal states, but by the transmission system operators and the Federal Network Agency."
In addition to projects bringing power from the South and Southeast, the so-called Südwestlink is planned above ground from Schalkau in Thuringia via the Münnerstadt area to Grafenrheinfeld.
The Federal Network Agency in Bonn is expected to rule on the necessity of the expansion of the transmission grid in a few weeks.
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More strikes announced for Thursday
A warning strike on Thursday will bring large parts of local transport in North Rhine-Westphalia to a standstill.
On Tuesday, trade union Verdi called on employees from around 30 transport companies to go on a day-long warning strike. The chief negotiator for Verdi NRW, Peter Büddicker, told DPA that he expected between 10,000 and 15,000 employees to take part.
Among other things, Verdi is calling for more annual leave, as well as better pay and working hours. Following a first round of negotiations, the collective bargaining talks will continue on Thursday, February 22nd, according to the union.
READ ALSO: Why Germany is being hit by strikes almost every day
Germany spends record amount on NATO
For the first time in three decades, Germany's planned planned defence spending for 2024 amounts to two percent of gross domestic product (GDP). NATO will be presenting the figures for all member states on Wednesday.
The German government submitted an amount for the current year that corresponds to 73.41 billion dollars when converted into comparable figures for the defence alliance. This is a record figure for Germany in absolute terms.
In the past, according to documents from the NATO archives, Germany last spent two per cent of its GDP in 1992. In the years of the Cold War, the ratio was usually over three percent.
In the last public report on the defence spending of the alliance states for 2023, Germany spent 56.64 billion dollars, or a a GDP ratio of 1.57 percent was given for Germany for 2023.
Some Germans celebrate Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday marks the end of the festive season and the beginning of Lent. According to Christians, it lasts 40 days until Easter, not including Sundays. During the Ash Wednesday mass, Catholic believers have an ash cross drawn on their foreheads to remind them of the transience of life.
It has a slightly different significant for Karneval-goers, who meet to eat fish as per tradition. In Düsseldorf, the jester figure Hoppeditz is publicly burnt. People in Cologne already set fire to the Nubbel, a life-sized straw puppet, on Tuesday evening to atone for their carnival sins. The celebrations continue on November 11th, when the new session begins.
One more issue for Deutsche Bahn - train tracks are being plundered by metal thieves
According to DB, the company experienced 450 cases of metal theft last year, up from the year before. The company claims that cases of metal theft were responsible for the delay of 3,200 trains in 2023, for a combined total of 40,000 minutes.
The rising price of scrap metal makes copper and other precious metal theft increasingly appealing to would-be robbers.
Still, in a long-term comparison, the number of thefts has fallen by about 90 percent since 2013, when 3,200 cases were reported.
The state-owned company has put considerable effort into theft prevention. "Where possible, alternative materials will be used, and existing facilities and construction sites will be protected and better guarded," a spokesperson for DB said.
Deutsche Bahn is also working closely with the Federal Police. Metal thieves are regularly caught red-handed. However, a "comprehensive and complete monitoring" of the approximately 34,000-kilometre route network is not feasible.
Bavaria has big power plans but not all of its neighbours are on board
A planned power line project, called Südwestlink is planned to bring energy from Northern Germany to Bavaria, via above ground cables through Thuringia.
Thuringia’s Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow called the project “an unparalleled audacity,” reported the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
For his part, Bavaria's Minister of Economic Affairs, Hubert Aiwanger, rejected Ramelow’s criticism. He told the DPA that, "The routes are not planned by the federal states, but by the transmission system operators and the Federal Network Agency."
In addition to projects bringing power from the South and Southeast, the so-called Südwestlink is planned above ground from Schalkau in Thuringia via the Münnerstadt area to Grafenrheinfeld.
The Federal Network Agency in Bonn is expected to rule on the necessity of the expansion of the transmission grid in a few weeks.
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