Germany’s state-owned train operator Deutsche Bahn has said that its year-on-year net losses soared 16-fold in the first half of 2024, reflecting the impacts of extreme weather, strikes and upgrades to its ageing network.

The net loss for the first six months of the year reached €1.2 billion, compared with a loss of €71 million in the period last year.

Its operating losses also stood at €1.2 billion, after €339 million in the first half of 2023.

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CEO Richard Lutz blamed an “ageing network prone to malfunctions” as well as “extreme weather events” and labour strikes that caused the company “considerable economic damage”.

Deutsche Bahn’s creaking infrastructure and poor punctuality have becoming running jokes in Germany and were put under the spotlight by the increased demand when the country hosted this summer’s Euro 2024 football tournament.

“The infrastructure is too old and worn to cope with this sort of situation with no problems,” Lutz said at a press conference.

The company is spending billions to repair and upgrade and extend its network after decades of under-investment.

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Debate rages in Germany after latest climate protests 

A debate on how best to handle disruptive climate protests has once again broken out after activists grounded more than a hundred flights at Frankfurt airport on Thursday.

Writing on X in the aftermath of the event, Hesse’s Minister President Boris Rhein (CDU) sharply criticised the demonstration. “These irresponsible and criminal climate hooligans are only interested in causing as much damage as possible,” he wrote.

Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) also took a hard line on the protesters, who belong to the controversial Last Generation activist group. “Legislators must react to this with maximum severity,” he told Bild. “We have already initiated tougher penalties for such criminal behaviour.”

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But protesters, who are calling for an end to fossil fuels, say they are trying to save lives and bring about better climate policies.

Hitting back at comments from Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) calling the protest “dangerous, stupid and criminal”, Letzte Generation wrote on X: “This type of climate politics is dangerous and criminal. Those who block climate protection not only risk their own lives, but also endanger others and harm everyone. These acts must be punished more severely. We have proposed a Fossil Fuel Treaty.”

Cured HIV patients ‘living proof’ of hope in fight against virus

Three people effectively cured of HIV spoke about their experience at the International AIDS Conference in Munich on Thursday, which has gathered experts, researchers and activists to discuss developments in the HIV epidemic.

To date seven people are considered to have been effectively cured after receiving a stem cell transplant, a painful and risky procedure only suitable for patients who have both HIV and aggressive leukaemia.

The seventh successful case – dubbed the “next Berlin patient” – received a bone marrow transplant for his leukaemia in 2015 and stopped taking antiretroviral drugs in late 2018.

Medical researchers said he now appears to be both HIV and cancer free.

Previously, Marc Franke, 55 – the “Düsseldorf patient” – also experienced the painstaking process.

“The doctors did so many tests to really be 100 percent sure before the antiretroviral therapy was discontinued,” Franke said.

The bone marrow transplant, which in itself carries a 10 percent risk of death, essentially replaces a person’s immune system.

Pointing to the “enormous” mortality rate and other complications, Franke went so far as to say: “I can’t recommend it to anyone.”

The procedure had effectively cured just “seven people out of 40 million people living with HIV”, said Sharon Lewin, President of the International AIDS Society. “These are very rare cases, but they inspire new directions in science.”

All but one of the seven patients received stem cells from donors who had a rare gene mutation which effectively makes people immune to HIV.

Timothy Ray Brown – the original “Berlin patient” – was the first person declared cured of HIV back in 2008. 

German man sentenced to death in Belarus asks for pardon

A German man sentenced to death by a court in Belarus appeared on television Thursday to ask for a pardon.

Rico Krieger, 30, was convicted under six articles of Belarus’s criminal code in a secretive trial held at the end of June, the Viasna Human Rights Centre reported.

“I really hope that President (Alexander) Lukashenko will forgive me and pardon me,” the German national told Belarusian public television, according to a statement quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.

He said that he had been asked by Ukraine to photograph military sites in Belarus in October 2023 and that he had placed an explosive device on a railway line near Minsk under their orders.

“I deeply regret what I did and I am relieved that there were no victims,” he said, adding that he had been “abandoned” by the German government.

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According to a LinkedIn profile that Viasna said belonged to Krieger, he worked as a medic for the German Red Cross and had previously been employed as an armed security officer for the US embassy in Berlin.

A source at the German Foreign Ministry told AFP last week that it and the embassy in Minsk were “providing the person in question with consular services and are making intensive representations to the Belarusian authorities on his behalf.”

Belarus is reported to have executed as many as 400 people since it gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, according to Amnesty International, but executions of foreign citizens are rare.

The country is run as an authoritarian regime by long-time leader Lukashenko, who has detained thousands of dissidents and civic activists who oppose him.

With reporting by DPA.