Wednesday's top story: German intelligence reports significant jump in suspected extremists
In 2024, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (or Germany's domestic intelligence agency - BfV) recorded a significantly higher number of extremists and spies than in previous years.
An annual report by the BfV, released on Tuesday, noted that right-wing extremist groups, including the "Reichsbürger", and left-wing extremist groups have grown their numbers.
According to the report the number of people with "potential for right-wing extremism" grew by around 23 percent last year. This coincided with a significant increase in members of the AfD party. The party had around 50,000 registered members last November. Of these, the BfV considers about 20,000 to have right-wing extremist potential.
The report noted a slight rise (around four percent) in the number of people considered to have potential for Islamist extremism, as well as about 1,000 more people with potential for Leftist extremism.
The BfV also recorded an increase in incidents such as attempted or successful arson, vandalism, spying and propaganda activities in Europe that were traced back to Russian intelligence services.
Interior Minister against ban on far-right AfD
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said Tuesday he opposes a ban on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party despite the BfV domestic intelligence service labelling it an "extremist" group.
Dobrindt said this meant "solving the problems" that the anti-immigration AfD capitalised on to achieve its best-ever result in February's general election, when it won more than 20 percent of the vote.
The conservative CDU/CSU alliance of Chancellor Friedrich Merz -- to which Dobrindt belongs -- made a crackdown on irregular migration one of its central election promises.
The BfV's designation of the AfD as a "right-wing extremist" group sparked renewed calls for the party to be banned, including from among the conservatives' coalition partner, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). The BfV has suspended the classification while an appeal from the AfD moves through the courts.
The legal requirements for banning a political party are very high in Germany.
Either the government or one of the two houses of parliament would have to ask Germany's constitutional court to impose such a ban by proving the party poses a serious threat to democracy.
OPINION: The truth is out about Germany's far-right AfD - now ban the party
The last party to be banned in Germany was the Communist Party in 1956.
30 years on, Berlin light show recreates 'Wrapped Reichstag'
Thirty years after Christo and Jeanne-Claude wrapped Berlin's Reichstag building in silver foil, the German capital is paying tribute to the spectacular art event with a light installation.
Every night for the next two weeks, 24 projectors will recreate the mega-event that enthralled the city and the world in 1995, about six years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The late, France-based artistic duo specialised in enormous, ephemeral and eye-catching art projects that also saw them temporarily wrap up bridges and even entire islands.
Since Monday evening and until June 20, the western facade of the glass-domed building housing Germany's lower house of parliament is being illuminated after sunset with a giant projection reproducing the installation.
Back in 1995, when Germany was newly reunified, "art brought people together" as they marvelled at a building wrapped in 110,000 square meters of silver fabric, held together with kilometres of rope, said Peter Schwenkow, one of the organisers of this year's event.
The celebration this year aims to "bring together all those who live in this city or visit it to commemorate what happened at the time," he added.
The art installation runs nightly from 9:30 pm until 1:00 am.
The number of balcony solar systems in Germany passes one million
There are now around one million balcony power plants in Germany after their number roughly doubled within the past year, according to figures from the German Solar Industry Association (BSW).
Balcony power plants - or plug-in solar devices - are small solar systems often attached to balconies. Their connected load is limited to 800 watts. When the sun is shining, they feed their power into the owner's home grid, allowing owners to take less electricity from their supplier.
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An end to the balcony solar boom is not in sight, according to the BSW, because a significant portion of the population could still imagine setting one up.
Car rolls off ferry and lands in the Elbe River
In Sandau in the district of Stendal, in Saxony-Anhalt, a car rolled off the ferry in the evening and crashed into the Elbe.
The water police told MDR they assume that the brakes failed.
The driver was able to leave the car in time and was uninjured. The car ended up in the fairway and is to be recovered today. Oil or fuel have not yet leaked.
The Elbe was closed to shipping traffic in Sandau. The ferry is still in operation.
With reporting by DPA and AFP.
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