Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) said on Tuesday that it was looking into the theft and subsequent online publication of emails stolen by unidentified hackers during a cyberattack last month.
An AfD spokesperson said the hackers had targeted a hosting provider used by the party and appeared to have copied data from a small number of mostly inactive email accounts.
"The recent online publication of what is presumably a portion of this data is currently being investigated," the spokesperson said. "A preliminary assessment can only be provided once this investigation has been concluded."
Although the spokesperson did not say how much data was stolen, an earlier report by the mass-circulation daily Bild put the number of AfD-linked emails published at more than 420,000.
According to Bild, the material published included not only emails sent by party figures such as co-leader Alice Weidel but also bank statements, academic certificates and membership lists.
The website hosting the material was offline by Tuesday afternoon. However, archived versions showed a volume of 281 gigabytes of data under the headline "The party's own records, unedited."
While Berlin hosts a summit on investment in Germany, an increasing amount of US capital is flowing into Germany's traditional industrial firms and family-owned businesses. As many business owners struggle to find successors, more companies are becoming acquisition targets.
German economic confidence — like that across the eurozone in general — deteriorated in October, according to experts at the Mannheim-based Center for European Economic Research (ZEW). The ZEW's monthly economic confidence index fell to a three-month low on Tuesday, down to 28.1 from 34.7 in September.
"Private consumption and investment remain weak because of high energy prices: They put real incomes under pressure, increase production costs and keep inflation higher for longer," said ZEW President Achim Wambach.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has indulged in an abundance of the most common cliches about his country and compatriots while trying to portray Germany as the ideal place to do business at an investment summit. "Germans are hardworking, going to bed early, rising before dawn," he told the domestic and international guests at the Invest in Germany Summit.
More than €225 billion ($252.5 billion) has so far been pledged in investments in Germany at a summit in Berlin attended by top business leaders, German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said on Tuesday. Among those planning to invest in Europe's largest economy is online retail giant Amazon, which said it intended to pour some €16 billion into Germany next year for various schemes.
The Left Party in Berlin, which has faced accusations of being antisemitic, is holding a meeting to discuss how to deal with its parliamentarian Vanessa Emde, who has raised controversy with pro-Palestinian statements. Both the Berlin Green Party and the Social Democrats (SPD) confirmed that they were ready to begin coalition negotiations with the Left Party on forming a joint government in the city-state.
The Invest in Germany Summit in Berlin entered its second and final day on Tuesday. The summit has already yielded an agreement to deepen cooperation on artificial intelligence (AI) in German industry between Germany and US tech giant Nvidia.
Nine protesters have glued themselves to the road outside a plant run by defense contractor Rheinmetall in Berlin's Wedding district, police said on Tuesday. Officers have been trying since the early morning to detach the group, a police spokeswoman said.
German industrial giant Siemens has warned against eliminating entry-level jobs that are now increasingly left to artificial intelligence (AI), saying young workers could be left without essential skills, including those needed to monitor AI-generated work.
