Merz open to social media ban for under-16s

The German men’s ice hockey team’s hopes for a Winter Olympic medal melted in the face of Slovakia on Wednesday.

Slovakia comfortably won the quarterfinal match 6-2 against the German team led by NHL star Leon Draisatl of the Edmonton Oilers. 

“This hurts,” Draisatl said after the game. “There were simply too many mistakes today: I don’t even know how many counterattacks we allowed.” 

“We deserved to be eliminated,” he concluded. 

Although bookmakers did not anticipate a German medal, and indeed slightly preferred Slovakia’s chances for success in Milan, Germany was expected to put up a sterner fight against the same country that eliminated it from the 2022 Games in Beijing. 

Coach Harold Kreis said that although he did not want to make excuses, the fact that Germany played two games in consecutive games while Slovakia had three rest days could have played a role. 

Germany’s last Winter Olympic ice hockey medal was silver in 2018.

Germany’s slowing property construction industry picked up pace slightly in 2025, new figures from the government’s Destatis statistics office showed on Wednesday.

In 2023, authorities approved the construction of a total of 238,500 new houses and apartments, combining both all-new constructions and renovations of pre-existing buildings. 

That’s a 10.8% increase, or 23,200 more residences, than in 2024. It also bucks a consistent downward trend since 2021, when the overall figure was considerably higher even than last year. 

Construction Minister Verena Hubertz, a Social Democrat, welcomed the figures, saying “the trend turnaround in house building has begun.” 

“The atmosphere in the industry has improved and investments are also rising,” she said. 

She said that reduced bureaucratic hurdles and other promotional project would lead to the positive trend continuing in 2026, 

However, the German construction industry federation’s head tim-Oliver Müller struck a more cautionary tone, saying: “Not everything that gets approved necessarily gets built.” 

Deutsche Bahn says it has been targeted by a cyberattack that disrupted its digital services.

The German railway company said a so-called DDoS attack hit its IT systems around midday Tuesday, causing outages in travel information and booking tools on its website and in the Navigator app.

In a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, an IT system is effectively bombarded with requests from a large number of sources, causing it to become overloaded and, in the worst case, crash. Many such attacks are considered a form of digital vandalism.

Deutsche Bahn had informed customers about the disruptions on Tuesday afternoon, and by the evening said the systems were largely running stably again.

On Wednesday morning, further problems occurred, and the company later cited the cyberattack as the cause.

“Our defensive measures took effect in order to keep the impact on our customers as low as possible,” Deutsche Bahn said.

Read more about the cyberattack here. 

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is contesting the official outcome of Germany’s 2025 federal election, with the Constitutional Court now set to review the case.

The populist left party has filed an election review complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court, the news magazine Stern reported, with a court spokesperson confirming this to news agency DPA.

In the 177-page submission, the BSW cited eight sworn affidavits from voters as evidence of alleged counting errors.

Party leader Amira Mohamed Ali told Stern the results were “provably false” and pointed to structural problems in the vote count that disadvantaged the BSW.

Sahra Wagenknecht said the party had demonstrated “irregularities and systematic counting errors” against it, stressing that the complaint is not about forcing entry into parliament but about correctly determining the election result and maintaining public trust in democracy.

The BSW narrowly missed the 5% threshold in the Feb. 23, 2025 election, winning 4.981% of second votes, falling short by 9,529 votes nationwide.

The party argues that miscounts could mean it should have secured seats, which would have changed the distribution of mandates and left Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU-SPD coalition without its own majority.

The Bundestag’s election review committee examined the objections for months, but a majority found them unfounded, and parliament rejected a recount.

Racism in German public authorities is often embedded in routine, according to a new study.

Researchers at Leipzig’s Research Institute for Social Cohesion, known as FGZ, have published the findings after a three-year review of job centers, immigration offices, police and customs, courts, health, youth and public order agencies, and social work.

The study found evidence of racist discrimination across all institutions when it comes to discretion and organizational culture. This occurs in different forms and levels of intensity, it said.

The researchers said language barriers pose a key structural risk, with support Germa application procedures varying widely depending on the case.

They reported that some applicants receive proactive help, while people with limited German skills are sometimes turned away or told their language ability is the problem.

The study also said regional differences in public attitudes and the broader social climate can be reflected in administrative practice.

Researchers recommended setting up independent complaint offices, expanding anti-racism training and reflection programs, and actively recruiting people from groups affected by discrimination at all levels of the civil service.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he has been surprised by the standing ovation for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the Munich Security Conference last week.

Merz told the podcast “Machtwechsel” on Tuesday, ahead of the CDU party congress, that he would have struggled to stand up even if he had been in the room.

Last year, US Vice President JD Vance caused a stir at the conference with his sharp criticism of European allies.

Merz said Rubio’s speech had reflected the worldview of the current US administration “in friendlier packaging.”

Merz argued the reaction in the hall was driven by low expectations among participants.

“The community was pleased that an American was standing at the front who still addressed them as friends. That alone triggered a certain emotion.”

For him personally, Merz said, this wouldn’t have been enough.

Before the speech, the chancellor said he had spoken at length with Rubio and discovered some common ground. “For example, he still considers NATO important,” said Merz.

Iran has summoned Germany’s designated ambassador in protest, citing what it called “anti-Iranian activities” in Germany.

State media reported that Axel Dittmann was told of the Iranian government’s objections during a meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran.

The broadcaster said the move was linked to what it described as “destructive” positions taken by German politicians. It was unclear when the meeting took place, and Germany’s Foreign Office did not initially comment.

The backdrop appears to be a large demonstration against Iran’s leadership in Munich, where around 250,000 people gathered on Saturday. Several German politicians expressed solidarity with the protest movement, including Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann of the FDP and CDU foreign policy lawmaker Armin Laschet.

The rally was held on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference and was called for by Reza Pahlavi. Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, has emerged as a prominent opposition figure abroad.

Iran’s security forces cracked down violently on mass protests in early January. The activist network HRANA has reported that more than 7,000 people were killed.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also sharply criticized Iran’s leadership.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he supports raising the minimum age for platforms like Instagram and TikTok, warning that teenagers spending five hours or more a day on screens can face social and personality problems.

Merz made the comments on the politics podcast “Machtwechsel” as a state branch of his conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) from Schleswig-Holstein submitted a proposal to set the minimum age at 16, paired with mandatory age verification.

“If children today, at the age of 14, have up to five hours or more of screen time a day, if all socialization takes place only through this medium, then we shouldn’t be surprised about personality deficits and problems in the social behavior of young people.”

Merz said he has “a lot of sympathy” for the idea, as well as a similar proposal from his party’s coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats, who have outlined a tiered model including a full ban for children under 14.

The chancellor stressed he is usually cautious about bans but argued the priority must be protecting children at an age when they need time to play, learn, and focus in school.

Merz added that while children should learn how to handle electronic media in school, the argument that they must be introduced early “does not hold up,” comparing it to giving alcohol to elementary school pupils.

Guten Tag from the DW newsroom in Bonn.

As you join us, the debate on a social media ban for children up to the age of 16 has attracted comment from Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Merz says he is open to the idea, preferring that youngsters should be protected and have time to play and learn in the real world.

Stay with us for this story and more of what is happening today in Germany