Lufthansa halts flights to Tel Aviv until August 8th

German airline group Lufthansa has said it will suspend all flights to Tel Aviv until August 8 and will extend its suspension of flights to Beirut by a week until August 12.

“Due to current developments, the Lufthansa group is once again adjusting its service to the Middle East,” said a spokesman for the airline, which also includes SWISS and Austrian Airlines on Thursday. 

German chancellor says ‘difficult’ prisoner swap has saved lives

Germany’s release of a convicted murderer in order to facilitate the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War has garnered praise from Washington but stirred controversy at home.

Those freed in the deal include US journalist Evan Gershkovich, several high-profile Russian opposition figures and five German nationals who were being held in Russia and Belarus.

But of the countries who released Russian prisoners in return, Germany has had to pay a particularly high price, setting free a man who committed murder in broad daylight in the centre of Berlin.

Russian citizen Vadim Krasikov had been serving a life sentence for the brazen assassination of a former Chechen rebel commander in the German capital in 2019, a case which shocked the country.

In his press conference celebrating the exchange, US President Joe Biden acknowledged that he “particularly” owed “a great sense of gratitude to Chancellor” Olaf Scholz.

Scholz acknowledged the decision to release Krasikov, who was convicted in December 2021, had been “difficult”.

After a “moving” meeting with some of the prisoners on their arrival Cologne airport, Scholz however insisted the swap was “the right decision, and if you had any doubts, you will lose them after talking to those who are now free”.

“Many of the prisoners feared for their health and even their lives,” he added, saying the swap had “saved lives”.

Millions of diesel cars could be forced off the road, warns German Transport Minister 

Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) fears that more than eight million diesel cars could be forced off the roads this year.

In a letter to the EU Commission, Wissing said millions of vehicles could be threatened with decommissioning due to a possible new interpretation of compliance with pollutant limits.

“I am very worried,” he said in the letter to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that the commission should act quickly to avoid this.

In the letter to von der Leyen, Wissing refers to proceedings before the ECJ on a so-called preliminary ruling request from the Duisburg Regional Court. This concerns compliance with emission limits for Euro 5 diesel vehicles. Euro 5 is an emissions standard.

The ADAC said clarification was urgent in order not to further unsettle consumers, a spokeswoman told DPA. The affected vehicles were registered at the time of commissioning. “In the opinion of ADAC lawyers, changes to the measurement procedure for the type approval of a vehicle at a later date cannot be applied retroactively,” the spokeswoman said, adding that an operating ban is therefore “absurd”.

Guided tours to launch on Germany’s melting glaciers 

The last German glaciers are on the brink of extinction due to climate change.

Now the Bayerische Zugspitzbahn wants to familiarise visitors with the precarious situation by launching themed panels and three free glacier tours a day.

By the end of this decade, scientists predict that the Nördlicher Schneeferner, one of the last four glaciers in Germany, will have melted away. According to scientists, the Watzmann and Blaueis glaciers near Berchtesgaden will be affected even sooner. Only the Höllentalferner glacier on the Zugspitze is likely to survive a little longer.

“The Bayerische Zugspitzbahn transports guests from all over the world to the Zugspitze, right next to the dying glacier,” said spokeswoman Verena Tanzer. “In this context, we also have a duty to our guests: to inform, sensitise and educate.”

Smaller Bundestag ‘will save taxpayers up to €125 million per year’

After the next Bundestag elections in 2025, there will be fewer members of parliament due to electoral reform.

And an estimate by economic researchers at IW Köln shows that this will save up to €125 million a year.

Germany’s coalition government launched a reform, which was passed last year, to shrink the Bundestag.

Under the law, the number of seats in parliament were to be slashed at the next elections in 2025 from 736 to 630.

On Tuesday this week, the federal constitutional court ruled that part of the reform is “not compatible with Basic Law”, although it upheld the overall decision. 

READ ALSO: Top German court rules electoral reform partly unconstitutional 

With reporting by Rachel Loxton