German lawmakers have finalized the country’s long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source, backing a plan that environmental groups say isn’t ambitious enough and free marketeers criticize as a waste of taxpayers’ money. Bills approved by both houses of parliament Friday envision shutting down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 and spending some $45 billion to help affected regions cope with the transition.

Gas stations in Germany will be required to provide charging for electric vehicles as part of the country’s €130 billion coronavirus stimulus package, Reuters reports. In addition, the government is also increasing its subsidy for electric vehicles by €3,000 to €6,000 for cars costing less than €40,000. Combined, these measures could be a big boost for electric car adoption in a country where many of the world’s biggest automakers are headquartered.

As part of a 130 billion euro stimulus plan, Germany will require every gas station in the country to install electric vehicle charging stations. According to Germany’s Motor Transit Authority, out of 168,148 cars registered in May, only 3.3 percent were electric.

After more than a year of legal disputes, a hostel on the grounds of the North Korean embassy has closed for good. Non-diplomatic use and foreign income generated for Pyongyang was considered a breach of sanctions.

Little remains of the Berlin Wall, but a new monument in the German capital will honour the protesters who defied the communist state in 1989 and led the divided nation to reunification.

Germany's Constitutional Court ruled on Tuesday that monitoring the internet traffic of foreign nationals abroad by the BND intelligence agency partly breaches the constitution.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said there is "hard evidence" that she was targeted by Russian hackers in what she called "outrageous" spying attempts. The comments follow reports in German news outlet Der Spiegel that Russian military intelligence had obtained emails from her parliamentary office in 2015.

The Humboldt Forum, a new exhibition venue in Berlin, has raised questions about museum restitution and the importance of researching objects' provenance.

In a statement shared with German website Macerkopf, Apple said the stores will initially be focusing on Genius Bar service and support. Enhanced health and safety measures will be implemented, such as body temperature checks prior to entry, limits on how many customers can be in the store at once, social distancing, and reduced hours of operation. Apple operates 15 retail stores in Germany and will be posting specific hours of operation for each location on its website.

The chancellor’s rigor in collating information, her honesty in stating what is not yet known, and her composure are paying off.

The number of new infections has fallen significantly in Germany, where testing is at a high level.

The coronavirus is sending a zoo into a feeding frenzy.

In 2006, bear JJ1 kept Germans in suspense for weeks. JJ1, or Bruno, as the media called him, was the first wild bear in Germany in 170 years. He ventured into the Bavarian Alps from Trentino, Italy, where bears have been reintroduced in 1996. After he killed livestock, the Bavarian government declared him a ‘problem bear’. After several failed attempts of capturing Bruno, it ordered his death. The hunt for Bruno took over a month and cost over € 125 000. The Bavarian ministry even hired bear hunting experts from Finland. He was eventually shot by a local hunter, which created a massive outcry.

German financial watchdog provides clarity on the legal status of cryptocurrencies.

Germany's harvest of ice wine - a dessert wine produced from grapes that have frozen while still on the vine - has failed for the first time because the winter has been too warm. None of Germany's 13 wine-growing regions had the necessary temperatures of -7C to produce the wine in 2019. 2019 was the second-warmest year on record globally, according to the US National Oceans and Air Administration.

A German court has ordered Tesla to stop clearing forest land near Berlin to build its first European car and battery factory, in what is being hailed as a victory for environmental activists. The US electric carmaker announced plans last November to build a “Gigafactory” in Grünheide in the eastern state of Brandenburg.

Protesters have broken into a German coal plant, saying plans to open it this summer were "a nail in the coffin for our future." The government's coal commission has advised against opening the plant.

They were once military bases at the centre of a 50-year war between the world's two superpowers. They will soon become a haven for rare birds and other animals. The German government has announced plans to convert 62 disused military bases just west of the Iron Curtain into nature reserves for eagles, woodpeckers, bats, and beetles.

Germany plans to phase out coal power by 2038. The embattled Hambach Forest is now protected, but some villages will still have to make way for the last open-pit mines. Activists and local residents are appalled.

Germany will pay utility companies billions of euros to speed up the shutdown of their coal-fired power plants as part of the country’s efforts to fight climate change, the government said Thursday. The agreement reached after late-night deliberations between federal ministers and representatives of four coal-mining states removes a key hurdle in Germany’s plan to curb greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades.