Wednesday's top story: Germany sees temperatures rise above 30C almost everywhere
The heat is back in Germany. On Wednesday the German Weather Service (DWD) has predicted sunny weather across almost all regions, with high temperatures at 30C or above.
Highs of 31 to 35C are expected in large parts of the country, and in in the west and southwest, even 34 to 38C
On the northern coasts, onshore winds will keep temperatures down a bit, but still temperatures here are expected to get up to 31C in some places.
Sunny skies are expected to hold out throughout the day in most places. Only in the Alps are some bigger cumulus clouds expected, which may develop into thunderstorms toward the evening.
High temperatures can be expected to stick around through Thursday and even for the following week in many places. Nights will also be warm.
Again, the highest temperatures will initially be seen in the west and southwest -- temperatures will only drop to 24 to 20C at night in these regions.
Berlin Pride attacker pledged allegiance to Islamic State, confirms prosecutors
The man blamed for the deadly attack near Berlin's Pride parade at the weekend pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in a video, prosecutors told reporters Tuesday.
The video clip was found on the phone of Abdul Rahman Ballout, 21, and was recorded on Saturday, the day of the attack that killed a 65-year-old Polish woman and injured 31 people, they said, confirming media reports.
A Public Prosecutor's Office spokesperson told reporters that the clip shows a masked individual, presumed to be Ballout, pledging allegiance to IS.
Bild daily reported that Ballout's phone was found inside the rented minivan the attacker ploughed into a crowd near the parade before he crashed it into a tree in the Tiergarten park.
Alongside the phone in the van was a sheath for the machete the attacker is thought to have used to attack more people after leaving the crashed vehicle, Bild reported.
Germany sees record number of tourist bookings
Hotel and vacation rental bookings climbed to a new record in Germany last year.
Travellers booked 68.3 million overnight stays through Airbnb, Booking.com and Expedia in 2025, the Federal Statistical Office said on Tuesday.
That's up 13 percent compared to the year before, and more than 83 percent up from the pre-covid year of 2019.
Domestic demand, that is travel within Germany by the country's own residents, was a primary growth driver -- German travellers booked 48.5 million overnight stays last year, more than 15 percent from the previous year.
Travellers from the Netherlands accounted for the next most stays, followed by travellers from Poland and the US.
In terms of favourite German destinations, Bavaria got the highest number of overnight stays, with 10.6 million. Baden-Württemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia followed with 8.1 million each.
Meanwhile Berlin saw the highest proportion of international visitors. More than two-thirds (67.7 percent) of visitors to the capital city came from abroad.
Merz demands EU spend less and boost competitiveness
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday the EU needs to save hundreds of billions of euros and show more "ambition" on competitiveness as haggling starts over the bloc's 2028-2034 budget.
The European Commission has proposed a two-trillion-euro ($2.3 trillion) spending plan for that period but Germany and other members of the so-called "frugal" bloc within the EU have made clear this is too high.
"We need a budget proposal with cuts in all areas adding up to several hundred billion euros," Merz said at a press conference alongside Micheal Martin, prime minister of current EU presidency holder Ireland.
Merz said "we cannot afford exorbitant increases in spending" at a time when budgets are being consolidated at a national level.
Martin said the bloc needed a budget "that meets its future needs and ambitions" while "reflecting our current economic situation", adding that Ireland would work towards a "compromise".
Brussels had proposed funding new spending with a tax on big businesses but Merz said that while he was prepared to discuss "new resources" for the EU, "an additional tax on business at a European level is not something we can consider".
Berlin's health office reports three vibrio infections including one death
Three swimmers who live in Berlin have been infected with vibrio bacteria this year. In two of these cases the swimmers were said to have become infected while swimming the in the Baltic sea in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.
All three affected persons had a wound at the time they went swimming, which was infected by vibrio bacteria. All those affected were over 75 years old.
Vibrios are bacteria naturally occurring in fresh, brackish and salt water.
With summer heat, the risk of vibrio infections in increasing, especially on the Baltic Sea coast where shallow polls of less salty brackish water are common.
At water temperatures above 20C, vibrios can multiply strongly in surface waters, according to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
According to the Lageso report, Berlin's health authorities recorded two vibrio infections in the whole of 2025 and five each in 2023 and 2024.
The infections reported so far have come early in the year, probably due to the early warming of coastal waters caused by high temperatures.
