Berlin

Between the beginning of July and the beginning of September, the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) imposed only 470 contractual penalties for violating the mouth and nose covering. This emerges from a request to the Berlin Senate from an AfD MP. If the acceptance was 70% at peak times, according to the BVG, around 95% of passengers would now adhere to the Corona regulations.

A new center for the fight against cancer is to be built in Berlin. The German capital has been chosen as one of four new locations for the National Center for Tumor Diseases, as the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) announced on Wednesday. Existing locations are Heidelberg and Dresden.

The Governing Mayor Michael Müller has stated that Berlin "plays a key role in decisively advancing cancer research and developing new approaches in the early detection and treatment of cancer". The new center will have 10,000 square meters and contain research laboratories, an outpatient clinic and an information center.

The Norwegian billionaire and adventurer Ivar Tollefsen enters the Berlin market for residential real estate through the Swedish housing group Heimstaden Bostad, which he controls. For approximately €830 million he will buy 3902 apartments in central situations of Berlin, according to Heimastaden Bostad.

According to the company, the rental space totals 282,000 square meters. This means that these are smaller apartments and stores with an average floor area of just under 67 square meters.

Protest against the project has already been organized in some apartment buildings. The Berlin district Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg has stated that they are examining the possiblity of a exercising a pre-emptive right of purchase.

The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny has been discharged from the Berlin Charité hospital. He had been treated for 32 days at the hospital after being poisoned in Russia.

The hospital has stated that "the patient's state of health has improved to such an extent that the acute medical treatment could be terminated".

On his Instagram account, the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been pictured walking down stairs, days after the Charité hospital in Berlin said he had been taken off a ventilator and could breathe independently.

In the Instagram post, Navalny wrote: "Let me tell how my recovery is going. It is already a clear path although a long one."

He also stated "Quite recently, I did not recognize people and did not understand how to talk," Navalny wrote. "Every morning the doctor came to me and said: Alexey, I brought a board, let's figure out which word we can write on it. This drove me to despair because although I understood in general what the doctor wanted, I did not understand where to get the words from."

Novichok, the nerve agent used to poison Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was detected on an empty water bottle from his hotel room in the Tomsk. His team now believes that he was poisoned in that hotel room, not at the airport as they had initially suspected.

In a video posted on Navalny's Instagram, his aides are seen collecting items from the hotel room an hour after they learned he had fallen sick in suspicious circumstances.

Navalny fell violently ill on a domestic flight in Russia last month and was transferred to Berlin for treatment. Germany says he was poisoned by a Novichok nerve agent, while Russia says it has seen no evidence he was poisoned.

After an analysis, the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution classified the events on the stairs of the Reichstag on August 29, in the context of the Corona demonstration in the House of Representatives. According to the security authorities, the action was spontaneous and unpredictable. There were announcements on the Internet, but these were classified as verbal aggression together with the State Criminal Police Office.

A total of around 2,500 to 3,000 people from the Reich citizen scene and other right-wing extremist organizations took part in demonstrations in Berlin this weekend.

The drug trade continues to flourish despite Corona and thanks to digital sales channels. In 2019, the offenses in this context continued to increase, with cocaine in particular increasing.

The German "Federal Criminal Police Office's report on drug crime 2019" shows an increase of 2.6% compared to the previous year.

Above all, the sales channels in the Darknet would take retail off the street and make investigations more difficult. The Berlin trend of so-called "coke taxis" (mobile delivery) would also increase constantly.

The federal government would like to continue to focus on prevention, especially in schools.

The Berlin university hospital Charité has announced that the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny "has been removed from his medically induced coma and is being weaned off mechanical ventilation".

Navalny is able to respond to verbal stimulation, but "it remains too early to gauge the potential long-term effects of his severe poisoning".

On Monday, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned as "shameful" an attempt by protesters angry at Covid-19 restrictions to storm parliament, saying they had abused the right to demonstrate peacefully.

Several hundred people tried to get into the Reichstag building during a rally against coronavirus rules in Berlin on Saturday.

Some 38,000 people have protested Saturday in the German capital, Berlin, against the coronavirus restrictions. While most of the protest was peaceful, hundreds of protestors attempted to storm the Reichstag parliament building.

Members of Germany's far-right scene were also present, many of them visible with the flags of the German Empire and The Kingdom of Prussia. Both have become synonymous with the Reichsbürger movement that denies the legitimacy of the modern German state. Others waved placards affiliated with the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon.

Germany has so far not seen the wave of cases affecting some other countries of Europe, but its infection rate has been growing. New case numbers are reaching highs last seen in April.

Anti-Covid-19 protesters in Berlin are planning a large-scale demonstration at the weekend in defiance of a ban imposed by the state's authorities. Police in the capital is preparing for all eventualities. The local court currently has lifted the ban, but the decision is not yet final. In any case, protestors plan on coming to Berlin.

Organizers of the coronavirus skeptics' demonstrations set to take place this weekend expected more than 22,000 people to descend on Berlin, with bus trips organized from around the country.

Following a decision by the Administrative Court of Berlin on Wednesday, the German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) must make direct messages sent from the ministry's official account on Twitter publicly available.

It is still unclear whether details such as names or other information relevant to data protection law can or must be blacked out.

The journalist and activist from the Open Knowledge Foundation and the transparency portal "Frag den Staat" ("Ask the State"), Arne Semsrott, filed a lawsuit against the BMI in September 2018.

The Berlin authorities have banned the large demonstration against the Covid-19 measures planned for this Saturday.

"Freedom of assembly does not mean being able to disregard applicable law"

Among the expected group of participants, violations of the current infection protection ordinance can be expected, said Interior Senator Andreas Geisel (SPD) on August 26, 2020.

In the case of the allegedly poisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Nawalny, the EU is demanding that Russia conduct an "independent and transparent investigation". The European Union strongly condemns the alleged "attack on Nawalny's life", EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell declared in Brussels on Monday evening.

It is "imperative" that the Russian authorities launch an independent investigation "without delay" into the alleged attack on Nawalny's life, Borrell demanded. The Russian people and the international community wanted to know "the facts behind Mr. Nawalny's poisoning. Those responsible for the attack must be "brought to justice".

The Berlin clinic Charité, where the prominent critic is being treated by Russia's President Vladimir Putin, assumes after a thorough investigation that the 44-year-old was poisoned.

The Berlin International Film Festival, Berlinale, announced that the performance awards would be defined in a gender-neutral way. Instead of the awards for the Best Actor and the Best Actress, a "Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance" and a "Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance" shall each be awarded on a gender-neutral basis.

The organisers also announced the 2021 edition is planned to happen from February 11 to February 21 as a physical festival "in accordance with the then-applicable rules and regulations, thus ensuring the greatest possible security for all guests."

Alexey Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and Vladimir Putin critic, has arrived Saturday in the Charite hospital in Berlin, after a evacuation flight from Omsk.

The hospital confirmed Navalny was admitted and that an "extensive medical diagnosis" is being carried out.

Jaka Bizilj, founder of the German NGO Cinemas for Peace, said to reporters: "The good news is that he's stable, so the whole travel did not affect him," Bizilj said. "But there is no reason to celebrate, because he is in a very critical condition. So the real work starts now with the doctors at the Charite."

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated she has "considerable doubts" about backing the EU-Mercorsur deal due to environmental concerns. The chancellor met Thursday climate campaigners in Berlin.

Steffen Seibert, spokesperson for the German government, told reports that "Serious questions have arisen due to the ongoing environmental concerns "as to whether the implementation of the agreement in the intended spirit would be guaranteed at present."

The trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur states of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, would create the world's largest free-trade zone.

The German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin and the non-profit association Mein Grundeinkommen e.V. (‘My Basic Income Association’) have partnered to start a basic income pilot project.

In total 1,500 people will participate in the basic income study out of which 120 people will receive €1,200 per month. The remaining 1,380 people will be part of a control group. The study question that will be evaluated is: "What would be the maximum benefit of an idealized basic income without a financing model?"

From 2022 and 2023 on the initiative aims to try other forms of basic income such as topping up existing monthly income up to €1,200 and another one where all participants receive €1,200, which is offset against a simulated tax of 50 percent on all other income. The difference will be paid out.

Every person 18 and older that has a primary residence registered in Germany can apply to be part of the study. As of writing over 160,000 people have applied during the first day. The project is financed by private people via crowdfunding.

The founder and CEO of the startup bank N26 Valentin Stalf has publicly apologized on LinkedIn for the events of the past days as the management team around him has tried to prevent employees from moving forward with the process of forming a works council.

He stated that "As a founder, it has been hard to see how the discussion has evolved in the last days. This doesn’t reflect how we usually work together as a team. But ultimately, myself and my leadership team at N26 feel responsible for the way this debate has escalated. And we would like to apologize for the last couple of days" and adds later that he would prefer an "alternative to a traditional Works Council".