Chancellor Merz is giving a major policy statement. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian man is going on trial in Hamburg in the case of a 2022 attack on major gas pipelines. DW has more.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is delivering a major policy statement amid sinking popularity and coalition infighting.
Serhii K. is believed to be one of several people involved in the September 2022 explosion at the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Germany's foreign minister will meet his Bulgarian counterpart following drone attacks in the Black Sea.
Here is a roundup of all the headlines across Germany on Wednesday, October 14:
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to outline Germany's priorities on Ukraine, European defense and economic competitiveness in a parliamentary address ahead of an EU summit in Brussels.
His government statement is scheduled for 14:05 local time (12:05 UTC), followed by a 90-minute debate. EU leaders meet on Thursday and Friday, with the Middle East, the bloc's next long-term budget and EU enlargement also on the agenda.
After the speech, the opposition Greens are set to put forward two motions calling for faster bloc enlargement and stronger measures to counter economic coercion and protect the bloc's market.
Merz's address follows a more domestic-focused speech on planned reforms at an employers' conference in Berlin on Tuesday. There, he said he would press ahead with changes to Germany's welfare system even at the expense of his own popularity, arguing that younger generations stood to benefit.
Germany's annual inflation rate rose to 3.3% in September, its highest level since December 2023, as fuel and heating oil prices surged.
The Federal Statistical Office confirmed its preliminary estimate, up from 2.9% in August and 2.8% in July.
The increase was again driven by energy prices, said the office's president, Ruth Brand, highlighting higher costs at gas stations and for heating oil.
Energy prices rose 14.9% compared with September last year, their steepest annual increase since February 2023. That followed increases of 10.5% in August and 8.3% in July.
Motor fuel prices jumped 37.1%, while heating oil rose 74.9%. Firewood, wood pellets and other solid fuels became 15.6% more expensive.
However, electricity prices fell 5.5%, natural gas prices dropped 2.8% and district heating cost 1% less.
The office attributed those declines partly to government measures implemented since the start of the year.
The trial of a Ukrainian man accused of leading the operation that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022 has begun in Hamburg.
The 50-year-old, identified under German privacy rules as Serhii K., faces charges including a war crime, causing explosions, destroying structures and disrupting public services.
DW correspondent Matthew Moore was there as court doors opened at 07:30 local time in Hamburg.
A small pro-Ukraine protest held up a banner saying, "Russia is a terrorist". One participant from Germany told DW that they wanted to remind the world of "the war crimes taking place against the Ukrainian people."
Inside, a Ukrainian student also told DW that he and others had made the journey from Kyiv to show support for the defendant, Serhii K.
"Serhii K is a hero." In the eyes of the German prosecutors, it is another matter. They accuse him of carrying out a war crime. If found guilty of his part in the gas pipeline bombing, K faces a lengthy prison sentence.
Prosecutors allege that he planned the attack with other Ukrainian military personnel on behalf of unidentified Ukrainian state bodies. They say the aim was to prevent Russia from using gas export revenues to finance its war against Ukraine.
Serhii K., who was arrested in Italy last year, denies involvement. Ukraine's government has also denied any role in the attack.
Police in the town of Dorsten, just north of the city of Essen, said that they had detained three people who were blocking the A31 motorway.
The group was attempting to stop trucks carrying radioactive waste.
After repelling down from a bridge above the highway, they unfurled a banner reading "stop this crap."
The incident was the latest in Germany's decades-long protest movement against nuclear weapons and atomic energy.
Although the last of the country's nuclear power stations went offline in 2023, transporting and storing the waste remains a divisive topic.
This particular convoy was headed for a facility in Ahaus, near the Dutch border. Authorities believe it could take until 2028 to safely store all the remaining waste from Germany's decommissioned atomic reactors.
The suicide rate in Germany has continued to climb, according to official statistics just released by the Federal Ministry of Health.
In 2025, at least 11,334 people killed themselves in Germany. That is a 9.3% increase on the previous year, and 15.6% higher than the average over the past decade.
This is higher than the number of deaths due to traffic accidents, AIDS, murder and manslaughter put together.
The data shows that this is partly due to more women (a 17.9% increase since 2021) taking their own lives, though most suicides are still carried out by men. The increase is also due to an increase in assisted suicides for the elderly and infirm, amounting to over 1,000 people.
In a 2020 decision, Germany's top court struck down a 2015 ban on organized assisted dying providers like Switzerland's Dignitas, and called on the Bundestag to create regulations for the practice. However, lawmakers have declined thus far to do so, putting assisted suicide in a legal gray area in Germany. Direct euthanasia by a single doctor remains illegal.
In August, the Health Ministry proposed reforms such as a national suicide prevention hotline, more support for local and state networks, as well as the creation of a federal office for suicide prevention.
However, medical groups and charities have both said that the proposed €1.4 million ($1.6 million) budget would come nowhere never covering such a scheme long-term.
According to German media reports, the ruling coalition of Chancellor Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) has found a compromise for a planned tax increase on sugar.
The law would impact sugar drinks in particular, and is set to come into effect on July 1 of next year. There is reportedly going to be an exception for small-scale producers.
CDU state premier of Hesse, Boris Rhein, slammed the plan on Wednesday. Rhein told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper that this "expensive tax" would simply result in companies passing on the extra expense to consumers.
Rhein accused the coalition of pretending the measure was about health when really it was so "the populace can continue to plug up holes in the federal budget at the cash register."
A hearty guten Morgen from the DW newsroom in Bonn.
It's a day for political and legal battles today, as a man suspected of being part of a conspiracy to blow up a major gas pipeline between Russia and Europe goes on trial.
Later, Chancellor Friedrich Merz will give a sweeping address on his future policies as government approval ratings sink to a record low.
All this and more is coming up in our Germany blog.
