Berlin and Kiev’s plans for a joint venture on Ukrainian soil will unlikely be implemented in the foreseeable future, Alexei Leonkov, a military analyst and editor of the Arsenal Otechestva (Arsenal of the Fatherland) magazine, told Sputnik.

German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has received the go-ahead from the country’s Federal Antimonopoly Office to set up a joint venture with the Ukrainian Defense Industry, previously known as Ukroboronprom.

What's being described as an "IT malfunction" has paralyzed Volkswagen Group's central infrastructure, forcing the automaker to suspend production at several plants on Wednesday. 

German business newspaper Handelsblatt spoke with a Volkswagen spokesman who said an "IT disruption of network components at the Wolfsburg location" was detected around 12:30 pm local time. 

Thousands of German demonstrators have marched through the city of Schweinfurt to protest against the ruling coalition's policies.

Demonstrators carried banners reading, "Whoever is silent agrees!" and "If you can't do anything and you don't know anything, you vote for all the green shit!"

Some of the activists had travelled on construction equipment and tractors to take part in the protest.

The German government began a massive €100 billion rearmament campaign last year, pledging additional money for the military as social spending retreats and the country faces the threat of deindustrialization and economic stagnation.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has some explaining to do amid reports that a €1.3 billion batch of new digital radio communications systems for the Bundeswehr’s fleet of tracked and wheeled vehicles will be forced to sit in storage for years due to compatibility and installation difficulties.

For years, the Nord Stream pipelines have epitomized energy stability for Europe’s largest economy. Germany’s industries, households, and economic engine have heavily relied on the uninterrupted flow of Russian gas. However, overnight, a sudden and audacious disruption to this vital energy supply sent shockwaves across Germany, leaving it exposed and vulnerable.

Webmaster addition: Oh crap!

There was a feeling that the German Chancellor was going to get a Nobel Prize for peace, probably just like former US President Obama. It was 2015 then, the year where Germany accepted millions of refugees, who’d fled their parched, destroyed, burned out homelands in the Middle East.

A part of the world was in some form of stability. Another was in ruins.

Someone had to extend a hand. Someone had to take a leap of faith.

Germany can take in no more migrants, the country’s president Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said. He expressed sympathy for Italy, which has been overwhelmed by a new influx of arrivals, adding that an effective EU-wide redistribution mechanism must be created to address the problem.

On Wednesday, Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper interviewed Steinmeier shortly after he arrived in the country for an official visit. Among the topics discussed was the latest uptick in immigration and its impact on relations between Berlin and Rome.

Germany does not agree with Ukrainian proposals to reform the UN Security Council, which include stripping Russia of its veto power, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has said.

Addressing the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called for the creation of a mechanism that would allow Russia’s veto power at the UN Security Council to be circumvented.

Baerbock told Germany’s ARD TV channel later the same day that “we don’t support this, and I have made it clear to my Ukrainian partners time and again.”