The Defense Ministry is dropping a multi-billion-euro project to build F126 frigates, media say. And train services have resumed after a communications glitch overnight halted Germany's rail network . DW has more.
What you need to know
Germany's Defense Ministry has confirmed reports that it is to scrap its biggest-ever naval armament project, reports say
Train services have resumed after being paralyzed by a communications failure
The trial of a man accused of fatally assaulting a train conductor set to begin
These updates are now closed. This was a roundup of the top headlines from and about Germany on June 24, 2026:
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WATCH - Germany's train system faces big questions after tech glitch
A fault with a communication network halted DB's train services across Germany on Tuesday night. The disruption left passengers stranded in trains and on platforms, and services were only restored after a few hours.
Deutsche Bahn: Reliable no more?
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Merz urges lawmakers to be 'constructive' in pension reform debates
Chancellor Friedrich Merz called on mamebers of the Bundestag to support planned pension reforms his government has now agreed on.
He said the plans would lead to a "lasting stabilization of incomes in old age."
"This is a major step, if we here in the German Bundestag can agree and pass it by the end of the year," Merz said, calling on members to "now go constructively into the negotiations."
Merz also said he supported the notion of increasing the retirement age in some cases.
"If people are living longer and growing older, then — in order to qualify for a sufficient income in old age — at least some of them must also work longer," he said. "That's possible, and we're going to have to do that, so that the system can support itself."
For more details on the plans, read Jenni Graham's deep dive here .
German pension plans draw praise, criticism
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Germany's Merz rejects charges of government 'normalizing' ties with Taliban
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faced his monthly question-and-answer session in the Bundestag parliament on Wednesday.
He touched on several issues, including the accusation that his government is "normalizing" the Taliban by working with Afghanistan's de facto government on returning Afghan nationals denied asylum in Germany.
"We are not normalizing this regime," Merz said on Wednesday, responding to a challenge from the Greens.
He said that diplomatic relations existed between states , not between specific governments, and said Germany had always maintained diplomatic relations with Afghanistan. No country but for Russia officially recognizes the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
"We are not extending a hand to this Taliban regime," he said. "Rather, cooperation is being sought at the necessary technical level that serves the national interest of our country."
He said Berlin was engaging at the lowest possible technical level to achieve the repatriation of Afghan men who had committed criminal offenses, and said his government would continue to do so.
Similar technical-level talks between the EU and the Taliban have also prompted criticism in some quarters in recent months, nearly five years after the Taliban's return to power amid the sudden US and by extension NATO pullout in August 2021.
EU-Taliban talks spark debate over normalizing Taliban rule
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Top court lifts murder conviction against US soldier pending retrial, 48 years after the crime
Germany's top civil and criminal court, the Bundesgerichtshof (BGH) in Karlsruhe, has nullified a murder conviction against a US soldier, decades after the case.
The court has ordered a retrial and renewed investigation of the homicide on April 20, 1978.
The successful appeal did not pertain to the details of the case or prosecution, the court said, but rather the fact that the presiding judge should have recused themselves at the time.
"The defendant successfully demonstrated that the presiding judge was legally not eligible to hear this criminal case because of her prior involvement in extradition proceedings" in her capacity as a public prosecutor, the BGH said in a statement .
A German jurist in ineligible to preside over the trial of an individual if they have worked as a prosecutor, defendant or police officer in cases involving the defendant, or if they have legally represented the victim.
The conviction was the most serious available in Germany, the country's equivalent of first-degree murder in the US.
According to the prosecution's version of events at trial, the soldier was involved romantically with the victim. They then had an argument in which she said she was pregnant and demanded the man leave his wife, after which she was stabbed multiple times and died as a result of blood loss a few minutes later.
German prosecutors probe alleged Russia-linked 2022 gas supply sabotage
Germany's federal prosecutors are investigating a Russian national over suspected sabotage of German gas supply following the start of the war in Ukraine.
The investigation comes amid suspicions that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was accompanied by a deliberate attempt to disrupt Germany's gas supply, prosecutors said.
The probe centers on the former Gazprom subsidiary Gazprom Germania, which held at least a quarter of Germany’s gas storage capacity at the time.
Authorities said premises in Berlin and Frankfurt were searched on Wednesday as part of the investigation. No arrests were made.
A few weeks after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, German officials said the parent company announced that it was withdrawing from the Gazprom Germania unit.
They said the buyer, a Moscow-based company with no link to the industry, ordered its liquidation, something that is illegal before a purchase has been approved.
Federal prosecutors said they suspect the sale to the company and the attempted liquidation were meant to disrupt gas supply in Germany, a backer of Ukraine.
The attempted liquidation was blocked by Berlin by having a government agency take over Gazprom Germania as a unit that was vital for the trade, transport and storage of natural gas in Germany.
It later nationalized the company, now known as Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE).
Germany hurried to reduce its dependence on Russian gas after Russia launched its invasion. Moscow cut off its remaining gas supply to Germany within months
Germany signs Canadian LNG deal to cut energy risks
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Memorial to Jehovah's Witnesses persecuted by the Nazis inaugurated in Berlin
Bundestag speaker Julia Klöckner led a ceremony in Berlin's Tiergarten park on Wednesday, inaugurating a monument to Jehovah's Witnesses 81 years after the fall of the German Nazi regime.
More than 1,800 Jehovah's Witnesses were killed amid Adolf Hitler 's dictatorship.
"This monument is for people who suffered bitter injustice but still showed their humanity over and over," Klöckner said at the ceremony.
In rather stark contrast to more mainstream Christian denominations and churches in the 1930s, Jehovah's Witnesses resisted the Nazi regime, refusing to perform the Hitler salute or join party organizations or the military, and providing help to others persecuted by the authorities.
Artist Matthias Leeck said the bronze statue was supposed to evoke a tree whose branches were cut off but which nevertheless remained standing.
The location of the monument is near a pond in the Tiergarten park where Jehovah'sWitnesses would regularly meet and exchange information.
"At this exact spot the Gestapo [secret police] once executed a raid after which 17 courageous people promptly lost their lives," state minister for culture and media Wolfram Weimer said at the ceremony.
He said that inaugurating the monument closed "a gap in our culture of remembrance."
Commission recommends partial ban of smartphones at schools
An expert commission appointed by Family Minister Karin Prien has recommended that the private use of smartphones should be banned for pupils at schools across the country up to the seventh grade.
In Germany, such a ban would thus apply to children aged 12 to 13.
The commission on "Child and Youth Protection in the Digital World" said that the private use of digital devices during lessons was a major distraction, while it dampened social interaction during breaks.
It said schools should be required to come up with binding guidelines for mobile phone usage for pupils beyond eighth grade in consultation with them.
The commission, which was appointed in September, said such a ban would not preclude the use of digital learning tools at school.
In all, it presented 56 recommendations aimed at protecting children and young people from the dangers of digital media while still allowing engagement with them.
Germany 'Europe's hotspot for ransomware' — cybersecurity expert
Germany has seen a rise in ransomware attacks that is nearly twice as high as in France and is the main European target for such crime, a German cybersecurity expert has said.
"Germany is Europe's hotspot for ransomware," Christian Dörr, a cybersecurity expert at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam, said on Wednesday ahead of a national cybersecurity conference in the city.
He said that such attacks, which often trace back to Russia, targeted Germany due to a certain lack of cybersecurity awareness combined with the presence of innovative companies holding valuable information.
According to Dörr, criminals using such methods made ransom demands averaging in the thousands of euros, while the disruption they caused to operations sometimes drove companies to bankruptcy.
He said the biggest increase was being seen in attacks on public administration, whose structure often made them hard to protect against cyber attacks.
The health care sector saw the highest ransom demands, he said, with criminals even using sensitive health data to extort payments from patients in a second round of blackmail.
Ransomware attacks use malicious software to encrypt data and systems so that victims cannot access them, with the criminals then demanding payments from victims in return for decrypting them.
How much are hackers making?
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Business morale rising again slightly in Germany — Ifo institute
German businesses are more positive about their situation today than they have been in almost two years, a survey has shown.
The Ifo institute said its business climate index rose in June to 85.6 compared to a revised 85.0 in May.
Businesses were also more satisfied with their current operations, with the index rising to 87.0 from 86.1 in May.
Companies' expectations for the coming months were a little more optimistic as well, Ifo said, with the business outlook index increasing to 84.1 from 83.9 in May.
"The German economy is hoping for an easing of the global political situation," Ifo President Clemens Fuest said, in likely reference to reported advances in the current peace process between the US and Iran.
The end of a prestigious project; DW's security and defense reporter on the F126 frigate scrapped deal
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius halts construction of the F126 Frigate. The case shows again that not all of the Bundeswehr's major defense projects go off without a hitch.
While the design for the German Navy's largest combat vessel was initially celebrated with great enthusiasm, disillusionment quickly set in during construction: The prime contractor, the Dutch shipyard Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding (DSNS), was unable to fulfill the contract signed in 2020.
As a result, construction was delayed, and costs rose — much to the displeasure of the Ministry of Defense: The new frigates are urgently needed, especially for anti-submarine warfare as part of NATO commitments.
The Ministry of Defense reportedly considered transferring the contract to the shipyard Naval Vessels Lürssen (NVL), which was acquired by defense giant Rheinmetall in March. However, this option was rejected due to the threat of additional costs.
Now, the defense minister has pulled the plug: The once-prestigious project has been scrapped. Originally, €10 billion ($11.3 bn) had been budgeted for six F126s. Reportedly, more than €2 billion had already been invested — some of the money appears to have been lost.
The German company TKMS is now expecting to benefit from Pistorius' decision. The German Armed Forces plans to purchase eight MEKO A-200-class frigates from TKMS, a leading global manufacturer of naval vessels and submarines, provided the Bundestag approves the deal.
The advantage? This model has already been built for export, so the plans are ready. TKMS has promised to move quickly and deliver the first frigate to the navy as early as 2029.
Germany to scrap order for F126 frigates — Defense Ministry
The Defense Ministry has said it is ditching an order for six F126 frigates and ordering eight smaller warships instead, confirming earlier media reports to that effect.
"The Defense Ministry has decided not to proceed with the construction of a total of six F126-class frigates," it said in a statement.
"This is in response to the significant delays affecting the project," it added, saying expected cost increases and the risks associated with a change of main contractor were also factors in the decision.
As an alternative, it aims to buy 8 MEKO frigates, primarily for anti-submarine warfare, it said.
Shares for defense group Rheinmetall, which had reportedly been due to take over the F126 project from Dutch shipbuilder Damen in the second quarter, plunged at the news of the change in plans.
Employment in renewable sector hits record high in 2025
Some 436,000 people were employed in Germany's renewable energy sector last year — a record — but planned energy reforms by the government could put thousands of those jobs at risk, a leading think tank says.
The employment figures are 4% above those for 2023, with wind power the largest employer with 131,000 jobs — an increase of some 30% over 2023, according to the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Photovoltaics accounted for almost 100,000 employees, followed by the production and installation of heat pumps , with around 72,000 people employed in that sector last year.
Jana Fingerhut, a labor market expert at the foundation, said, however, that the government needed to continue to invest in the sector to maintain the jobs.
She said that in the photovoltaic sector, for example, the number of jobs was falling because most solar modules are now produced abroad.
" The manufacturing base that was still so strong in Germany 15 years ago has disappeared . We must not allow the same thing to happen with the production of wind turbines, heat pumps and inverters," Fingerhut warned.
Economy Minister Katharina Reiche is planning to link the expansion of wind and solar power to the development of Germany's electricity grid, but critics worry plans are progressing too slowly .
She is also considering scrapping subsidies for new rooftop solar systems in private households, which many fear could deter people from having them installed.
Merz to host five major European leaders ahead of NATO summit
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited the leaders of France, Italy, Poland and the UK for discussions in Berlin, two weeks before a NATO summit in Turkey .
The leaders of the so-called E5 countries are expected to discuss support for Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, the role of Europe in bringing the Iran conflict to an end and burden-sharing within NATO.
NATO chief Mark Rutte is expected to join Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron , Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni , Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the meeting online from Washington.
The NATO summit is scheduled to take place on July 7-8 in the Turkish capital, Ankara.
Trial to begin over fatal assault on train conductor
A 26-year-old Greek national is to go on trial on Wednesday accused of having assaulted a train conductor who later died of his injuries.
The incident, during which the accused is alleged to have punched the conductor in the head, occurred during a ticket inspection aboard a regional train near the southwestern town of Landstuhl on February 2.
Prosecutors have charged the accused with murder.
However, the regional court in Zweibrücken, where the trial is to take place, has classified the case as bodily harm resulting in death, as it says there is no evidence so far of intent to kill.
According to the indictment, the suspect was asked by the 36-year-old conductor to present his ticket during a routine inspection, but had no valid ticket and also refused to show identity documents.
Prosecutors said the accused seemed to become angry and turned violent when told to leave the train.
The conductor died from a brain hemorrhage at hospital two days later.
READ: Train services resume after major stoppage
Train services across Germany were brought to a halt for more than two hours late on Tuesday night after a communications system failed.
National rail operator Deutsche Bahn says it is now investigating the cause of the glitch.
You can read more details about the stoppage and its impact on travel within Germany in our detailed coverage here.