After signing the deal, Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan hailed the joint venture between the Romanian state and Europe’s largest arms producer as a sign that Romania is “emerging as a player with potential in the defense industry of Southeast Europe.”
Construction of the 535 million-euro ($616 million) plant in the town of Victoria in Brasov County is expected to start in 2026, take three years to complete and create about 700 local jobs, he said. Romania will seek to finance part of its contributions through the European SAFE mechanism to encourage defense readiness.
“After many years in which our defense industry was in little demand, Romania is entering a new stage because of the security situation in Eastern Europe,” Bolojan said. “I’m glad Rheinmetall sees us as an important and serious partner and is strengthening its presence in Romania.”
Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said the ammunition powder to be produced at the factory is “needed worldwide and especially in Europe,” and will make Romania a key player in the continent’s defense ecosystem.
“The strategy is to make Romania an integral part of the European ecosystem,” Papperger said. “Romania will also be an integral part of the NATO ecosystem.”
Since Russia launched its full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in NATO. It has donated a Patriot missile system to Ukraine and opened an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries, including Ukraine.
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will visit Berlin to address a conference next week, her office said on Wednesday, as the diplomatically isolated island pushes ahead with a new outreach to Europe.
Chinese-claimed and democratically governed Taiwan has formal diplomatic ties only with the Vatican in Europe, but countries from Britain and France to Lithuania and Poland have disregarded Beijing’s complaints to allow visits by acting or former senior Taiwan officials.
Tsai, who left office last year, will leave for Berlin on Saturday and speak on Monday at the Berlin Freedom Conference, her office said.
“Former President Tsai hopes this trip will help deepen cooperation and exchanges between Taiwan and Germany, as well as with like-minded democratic countries in Europe,” it said in a statement.
China cut off a regular dialogue mechanism with Taiwan after Tsai took office in 2012 and has an especial dislike of her successor Lai Ching-te, whom it calls a “separatist”. Both are members of Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party.
China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tsai’s trip.
On Monday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his German counterpart Johann Wadephul that Berlin should oppose “Taiwan independence”. Last month, Wadephul postponed his first trip to Beijing.
In September, Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung made two trips to Europe, visiting countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland and Italy.
Speaking to reporters in Taipei earlier on Wednesday, Lin said he went to Europe to strengthen relations, adding that his ministry had set up a “Europe task force”.
Tsai, a fluent English speaker who remains an influential political figure in Taiwan, has already visited other European countries since stepping down, including Britain and France.
Last year before Tsai headed to Europe on a similar visit, Taiwan’s presidential office said she had Lai’s full support to promote the island’s relations with the continent.
China says Taiwan is one of its provinces with no right to the trappings of a state, a position Taipei’s government strongly rejects.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
MILAN (Reuters) -A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines has begun a hunger strike, demanding respect for his fundamental rights in prison, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
An Italian appeals court in Bologna last month ordered that the suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, should be transferred to Germany, confirming a previous ruling that it had issued last month.
However, the former Ukrainian officer is currently held in an Italian high-security prison pending a further hearing at the Court of Cassation, the top court, which is expected to take place within about a month.
“Since October 31, SK has been refusing food to demand respect for his fundamental rights,” his lawyer Nicola Canestrini said in a statement.
The Ukrainian is demanding adequate nutrition, a healthy environment, dignified detention conditions and “equal treatment with other inmates regarding family visits and access to information,”, Canestrini added.
The lawyer called for urgent intervention by the prison administration and the Italian Ministry of Justice “to ensure conditions consistent with constitutional and international standards”.
The justice ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Serhii K was arrested in August near the Italian town of Rimini on a European investigation and arrest warrant issued by Germany in connection with the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
In a hearing in September, Canestrini said his client denied any involvement in the attacks.
The explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi. Writing by Cristina Carlevaro. Editing by Mark Potter)
VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania is in talks with German defence conglomerate Rheinmetall for a second investment project, a Lithuanian presidential advisor said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -EU climate ministers will make a last-ditch attempt to pass a new climate change target on Tuesday, in an effort to avoid going to the U.N. COP30 summit in Brazil empty-handed.
Failure to agree could undermine the European Union’s claims to leadership at the COP30 talks, which will test the will of major economies to keep fighting climate change despite opposition from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Countries including China, Britain and Australia have already submitted new climate targets ahead of COP30.
But the EU, which has some of the world’s most ambitious CO2-cutting policies, has struggled to contain a backlash from industries and governments sceptical that it can afford the measures alongside defence and industrial priorities.
EU members failed to agree a 2040 climate target in September, leaving them scrambling for a deal days before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meets other world leaders at COP30 in Belem, Brazil, on November 6.
“The geopolitical landscape has rarely been more complex,” EU climate policy chief Wopke Hoekstra told a gathering of climate ministers in Canada on Saturday, adding that he was confident the bloc would approve its new goal.
“The European Union will continue to do its utmost, even under these circumstances, in Belem to uphold its commitment to multilateralism and to the Paris Agreement,” he said.
A MORE FLEXIBLE EU TARGET
The starting point for talks is a European Commission proposal to cut net EU greenhouse gas emissions by 90% from 1990 levels by 2040, to keep countries on track for net-zero by 2050.
Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic are among those warning this is too restrictive for domestic industries struggling with high energy costs, cheaper Chinese imports and U.S. tariffs.
Others, including the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, cite worsening extreme weather and the need to catch up with China in manufacturing green technologies as reasons for ambitious goals.
The draft compromise ministers will discuss, seen by Reuters, includes a clause demanded by France allowing a weakening of the 2040 goal in future, if it becomes clear EU forests are not absorbing enough CO2 to meet it.
Brussels has also vowed to change other measures to attempt to win buy-in for the climate goal. These include controlling prices in an upcoming carbon market and considering weakening its 2035 combustion engine ban as requested by Germany.
A deal on Tuesday will require ministers to agree on the share of the 90% emissions cut countries can cover by buying foreign carbon credits – effectively softening efforts required by domestic industries.
France has said credits should cover 5%, more than the 3% share originally proposed by the Commission. Other governments argue money would be better spent on supporting European industries than buying foreign CO2 credits.
Support from at least 15 of the 27 EU members is needed to pass the goal. EU diplomats said on Monday the vote would be tight and could depend on one or two flipping positions.
Ministers will try first to agree the 2040 goal, and from that derive an emissions pledge for 2035 – which is what the U.N. asked countries to submit ahead of COP30.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Alexander Smith)
Former Germany international Gerald Asamoah was awarded the country’s Order of Merit on Monday, with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honouring him as a “bridge builder” between his native Ghana and Germany.
Asamoah, who is currently accompanying the German head of state on a multi-day visit to several African countries, was presented with the Federal Cross of Merit – Germany’s highest civilian honour given for outstanding service to the nation – in Accra.
Advertisement
The former Bundesliga striker was honoured for his contribution to German-Ghanaian friendship and for the work of the Gerald Asamoah Foundation for Children with Heart Disease, which he founded in 2007.
“The foundation regularly sends German medical personnel to Ghana,” Steinmeier noted, with doctors, nurses and carers performing life-saving operations.
The ex-footballer, who suffers from a heart condition himself, also works with a project that aims to tackle racism at German schools.
“I still can’t believe I’ve received something like this,” an excited Asamoah said at the awards ceremony in Accra, dropping the certificate shortly after it was handed to him.
Advertisement
“But it’s just pure joy,” he added.
Asamoah, 47, was born in Ghana and moved to Germany at age 12.
Besides stints at Hanover and Schalke, he made 43 appearances for Germany between 2001 and 2006. Asamoah retired from professional football in 2015.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Five million of the more than six million Jews killed in the Holocaust have now been identified, and with the further help of artificial intelligence (AI), even more names could be recovered, Israeli researchers said on Monday.
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, said the milestone marks seven decades of work and is at the heart of its mission to recover the identities of those murdered by the Nazis during World War Two.
Some one million Jewish victims are still unknown “and many will likely remain so forever,” Yad Vashem said. But with tools such as AI and machine learning, it believes it could recover another 250,000 names by analysing hundreds of millions of documents that have been too extensive to research manually.
With the number of Holocaust survivors shrinking and the world soon to be without first-hand witnesses, Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan said reaching the five million milestone was a reminder of an unfinished obligation.
“Behind each name is a life that mattered – a child who never grew up, a parent who never came home, a voice that was silenced forever,” Dayan said. “It is our moral duty to ensure that every victim is remembered so that no one will be left behind in the darkness of anonymity.”
In May 2024, Yad Vashem had said it had developed its own AI-powered software to comb through piles of records to try to identify hundreds of thousands of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust whose names are missing from official memorials.
At the time, it had tracked down information on 4.9 million individuals by reading through statements and documents, checking film footage, cemeteries and other records.
The names of Holocaust victims, as well as personal files that tell about the lives of many of them, are compiled in an online Yad Vashem database in six languages.
This database, it noted, has helped countless families reunite with lost relatives and families to commemorate loved ones, particularly as most victims were left without graves.
“The Nazis aimed not only to murder them, but to erase their existence. And by identifying five million names, we are restoring their human identities and ensuring that their memory endures,” said Alexander Avram, director of Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names, who heads the central database of victims’ names.
(Reporting by Steven ScheerEditing by Peter Graff)
The European debt crisis of the early 2010s created an image of a continent cleaved in two: The fiscally responsible core countries led by Germany versus the spendthrift southern periphery of Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain—disdainfully dubbed PIGS.
Nowadays, there has been a role reversal. Europe’s three biggest economies are stuck in a cycle of weak growth, leading to widening budget deficits. France is the epicenter of this shift and remains mired in a budget and political crisis, while the U.K. is eyeing tax hikes to try to narrow the gap and avoid spooking markets. Famously frugal Germany and the Netherlands are taking on debt, albeit from lower levels.
Flight operations were temporarily suspended at Germany’s Bremen airport after a drone was spotted near the site, police said on Sunday evening.
The drone was seen at around 7:30 pm (1830 GMT), which led to take-offs and landings to be halted immediately, a police spokesman said.
Air traffic was resumed at 8:22 pm, he said.
It was initially unclear who controlled the drone.
According to local outlet buten un binnen, a flight from London had to be diverted to Hamburg due to the disruption, while a London-bound flight was unable to take off on time.
It comes after operations were suspended for about two hours at Berlin’s international airport pn Friday following a drone sighting.
The number of incidents involving drones of unknown origin is increasing in Germany and beyond.
Operations at Germany’s second-largest airport in Munich were disrupted by drone sightings at the beginning of October.
Drones are banned within a 1.5-kilometre radius of German airports to prevent interference with take-offs and landings. Sightings can force partial or full suspension of operations, and illegal flights near airports are treated as dangerous interference with civil aviation and can be severely punished.
Drones also recently caused the temporary closures of several Danish airports.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s defence minister is confident its fractious ruling coalition can agree on a new model of military service in time for it to come into effect next year as planned, given security concerns over Russia, he told Reuters on Saturday.
The cabinet has already agreed to minister Boris Pistorius’ proposal for a new voluntary military service to help boost the number of recruits and reservists.
The plan still requires approval by German parliament, however, and it has met with resistance from lawmakers within Pistorius’ own party, the Social Democrats, and some of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives.
“Everyone is aware of the seriousness of the situation,” Pistorius said. “I am therefore confident that the law will come into force at the beginning of the year.”
MORE TROOPS TO MEET NATO TARGETS, BOLSTER DEFENCES
Pistorius last month rejected one compromise, which had put forward the idea of a conscription lottery for young men if voluntary recruitment falls short. That proposal also called for scrapping a universal medical evaluation of young men’s ability for service.
But the arbitrary nature of a lottery could frustrate younger generations, he said, and result in recruiting candidates who were not motivated.
“We must convince the younger generation with arguments instead of frustrating them,” Pistorius said. “We must make it clear to them that it is worthwhile to have a strong army that is a deterrent to states like Russia.”
Universal medical examinations, meanwhile, were necessary, he said, so that, in the event of an attack, Germany would not waste time determining “who is operationally capable as a homeland protector and who is not”.
Germany ended its previous compulsory military service programme in 2011 and has since struggled to meet troop targets.
Pistorius wants to increase the number of active soldiers from 180,000 currently to 260,000 by the early 2030s to meet new NATO force targets and strengthen Germany’s defences – part of a planned surge in military spending.
‘KAMIKAZE DRONES’: CRUCIAL TECH ON UKRAINE’S BATTLEFIELDS
Separately, Pistorius said Germany aims to finish testing the loitering munitions – so-called “kamikaze” single-use drones – of three companies by the end of this year before choosing one and submitting an order proposal to parliament.
The procurement of loitering munitions has been controversial in Germany, with some politicians associating the weapons with targeted extrajudicial killings by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
But the army is now rushing to catch up and arm itself with the technology, which has proven crucial in the war in Ukraine and is being used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces.
“At present, three companies are participating in this testing phase,” Pistorius told Reuters. “It will last until the end of the year.”
The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Germany planned to award a contract for kamikaze drones to defence start-ups Helsing and Stark as well as defence giant Rheinmetall. They would each receive a share of the contract, worth close to 300 million euros ($350 million) each, it said.
Pistorius, however, said no agreement had been reached yet.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Joe Bavier)
Germany will provide another €52.6 million ($60.8 million) in humanitarian aid to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on a surprise visit to Damascus on Thursday.
Wadephul was visiting the north-eastern suburb of Harasta, which was largely destroyed during Syria’s civil war that broke out as the regime of long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad violently suppressed pro-democracy protests in 2011.
The new funds, €39.4 million of which has been earmarked for Syria, are to go to international humanitarian groups as well as non-governmental organizations working on food security, civil protection, accommodation and health issues, according to the Foreign Office.
Minister urges inclusive rehabilitation
Earlier, Germany’s top diplomat met Syria’s new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led a rebel alliance that ousted al-Assad in December.
Ahead of the meeting, Wadephul called on the country’s new government to guarantee citizens “a life in dignity and security.”
“This is the prerequisite for laying the foundations for a free, secure and stable Syria,” the minister said in the Jordanian capital Amman, the first stop on his latest Middle East tour.
Wadephul called on the Syrian government to include all citizens in the country’s rehabilitation, regardless of gender, religious, ethnic or social affiliation.
Germany is committed to helping lay new foundations by supporting efforts to clear mines and explosive ordnance, providing humanitarian aid and investing in the Syrian economy, the minister said.
Events in Syria, which lies in the immediate vicinity of the European Union, also have “a direct and indirect impact” on Germany, Wadephul noted.
As the first anniversary of al-Assad’s ouster nears, the situation in Syria remains fragile.
While the new transitional government says it is striving to stabilize the country and create a “Syria for all,” those efforts have been marred by repeated fatal clashes, including between government troops and minorities.
Syria held its first parliamentary elections since the fall of the regime in September, though the vote garnered international criticism because representation of women and minorities was low.
Fallout from civil war
In Harasta, which had a pre-war population of 30,000, including 2,500 Christians, Wadephul visited a humanitarian project supported by Germany.
Since 2012, the suburb was repeatedly targeted by airstrikes and shelling, pushing out the civilian population and destroying crucial infrastructure.
Ahead of his talks with al-Sharaa, Wadephul said he also planned to discuss the many Syrians who fled the civil war and sought refuge in Germany.
Berlin is counting on many of those former refugees to return to their homeland and help with reconstruction.
However, due to the uncertain situation in the country, only a few Syrians have decided to return so far.
According to official figures, around 951,400 Syrian nationals were based in Germany at the end of August, down from 974,395 at the end of November 2024.
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the U.S. military on Thursday to immediately resume testing nuclear weapons after a gap of 33 years, minutes before beginning a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
How many nuclear weapons tests have there been, why were they stopped – and why would anyone start them again?
The United States opened the nuclear era in July 1945 with the test of a 20-kiloton atomic bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico, in July 1945, and then dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 to force Japan to surrender in World War Two.
The Soviet Union shocked the West by detonating its first nuclear bomb just four years later, in August 1949.
In the five decades between 1945 and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), over 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out, 1,032 of them by the United States and 715 of them by the Soviet Union, according to the United Nations.
Britain carried out 45 tests, France 210 and China 45.
Since the CTBT, 10 nuclear tests have taken place. India conducted two in 1998, Pakistan also two in 1998, and North Korea conducted tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, 2016 (twice) and 2017, according to the United Nations.
The United States last tested in 1992, China and France in 1996 and the Soviet Union in 1990. Russia, which inherited most of the Soviet nuclear arsenal, has never done so.
Russia held nuclear drills last week and has tested a nuclear-powered cruise missile and a nuclear-powered torpedo but has not tested a nuclear warhead.
WHY WAS NUCLEAR TESTING ENDED?
Concern mounted about the impact of the tests – above ground, underground and underwater – on human health and the environment.
The impact of the West’s testing in the Pacific and of Soviet testing in Kazakhstan and the Arctic was significant on both the environment and the people. Activists say millions of people in both the Pacific and Kazakhstan had their lands contaminated by nuclear testing – and have faced health issues for decades.
By limiting the Cold War bonanza of nuclear testing, advocates said, tensions between Moscow and Washington could be reduced.
The CTBT bans nuclear explosions by everyone, everywhere. It was signed by Russia in 1996 and ratified in 2000. The United States signed the treaty in 1996 but has not ratified it.
In 2023, President Vladimir Putin formally revoked Russia’s ratification of the CTBT, bringing his country in line with the United States.
WHY WOULD YOU TEST AGAIN?
To gather information – or to send a signal.
Tests provide evidence of what any new nuclear weapon will do – and whether older weapons still work.
In 2020, the Washington Post reported that the administration of U.S. president Donald Trump had discussed whether or not to conduct a nuclear test.
Apart from providing technical data, such a test would be seen in Russia and China as a deliberate assertion of U.S. strategic power.
Putin has repeatedly warned that if the United States resumed nuclear testing, Russia would too. Putin says a global nuclear arms race is already underway.
WHAT ARE BIG POWERS DOING WITH THEIR NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
The exact number of warheads each country has are secret but Russia has a total of about 5,459 warheads while the United States has about 5,177, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Those number include deployed, stockpiled and retired warheads.
The Washington D.C.-based Arms Control Association says the United States has a stockpile of 5,225 nuclear warheads and Russia has 5,580.
Global nuclear warhead stockpiles peaked in 1986 at over 70,000 warheads, most in the Soviet Union and the United States, but have since been reduced to about 12,000, most still in Russia and the United States.
China is the third largest nuclear power with 600 warheads, France has 290, the United Kingdom 225, India 180, Pakistan 170, Israel 90 and North Korea 50, according to the Federation of American Scientists.
Russia, the United States and China are all undertaking major modernisations of their nuclear arsenals.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
(Reuters) -Global companies have a long list of concerns around the U.S.-China trade war. They will closely monitor President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s expected meeting in South Korea on Thursday, hoping that the world’s two biggest economies begin to resolve their differences.
Below are the biggest issues for global companies.
The U.S. semiconductor industry will closely watch the talks for indications of a deal over whether U.S. firms can sell powerful artificial intelligence chips to China. While Nvidia is the market leader, Advanced Micro Devices and Intel are trying to gain market share, and a raft of other chip companies from Broadcom to Marvell Technology that help develop AI chips will feel the impact. Also critical will be discussions over critical minerals and materials, which affect chip manufacturers such as Intel and GlobalFoundries. Those materials have become a flashpoint in the tussle between the U.S. and China over Chinese access to the tools needed to build out its own semiconductor manufacturing industry. Those tools come from U.S. firms such as Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA.
China is an important manufacturer of both finished pharmaceutical products and key ingredients of drugs used in the U.S.
In 2024, China was the eighth-largest exporter of pharmaceutical products to the U.S., accounting for more than 3.5% of those products imported for the year, according to U.S. trade data.
More importantly, China is the largest manufacturer globally of the key building blocks used to make pharmaceutical ingredients. According to a report published earlier this month by U.S. Pharmacopeia, China is the sole supplier of over 40% of the key starting materials for U.S.-approved pharmaceutical ingredients.
The top Chinese drug companies include Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, WuXi AppTec, CSPC Pharmaceutical Group and Sinopharm Group.
U.S. energy companies, particularly LNG exporters including Venture Global LNG and Cheniere Energy, will be paying close attention to see if the Trump-Xi meeting can restart frozen energy flows after China levied a 15% tariff on American LNG in February.
China had been a major buyer before that, purchasing nearly 6% of U.S. exports of the fuel in 2024. Since the tariffs were imposed, Chinese companies have not signed any new long-term supply deals with U.S. LNG producers, and the country has been diverting U.S. cargoes to the European market in a move that has tempered global prices.
The U.S., meanwhile, has not exported any oil to China since February, when a 10% tariff was also imposed on crude. Exports to China totaled only about 4% of American shipments abroad – about 150,000 barrels per day – in 2024, down 42% from the previous year.
Top exporters of U.S. crude to China have previously included Occidental Petroleum; Unipec, the trading arm of China’s Sinopec; and Atlantic Trading & Marketing, an arm of French oil major TotalEnergies, according to shipping flows data from Kpler.
A wide range of global companies will be watching to see if the Trump administration intends to follow through on a plan to curb an array of software-powered exports to China. If implemented, it would make good on Trump’s threat earlier this month to bar “critical software” exports to China by restricting global shipments of items that contain U.S. software or were produced using U.S. software. It could disrupt global trade, given that many items are made with U.S. software, like jet engines from General Electric, or cars from companies like Toyota that use software in safety features. Chips worldwide are also produced with U.S. chip-design software from Cadence Design Systems and Synopsys.
Carmakers have much riding on the geopolitical dynamics between Trump and China, including a slate of still-unresolved tariffs between the two countries. Most pressing, though, is the threat of a shortage of chips from Chinese-owned firm Nexperia. China has banned exports of Nexperia’s finished products amid a dispute with the Dutch government. The inexpensive chips are used widely in car electronics, and automotive lobbying groups that represent Volkswagen, General Motors and Ford have warned of likely factory disruptions if the dispute is not quickly settled. China’s stepped-up export controls on rare-earth metals as well as battery materials and equipment also have raised fears among automakers and suppliers of production snags.
Agribusinesses including Archer-Daniels-Midland, Bunge Global and privately held Cargill will be watching for any lifting of tariffs that have halted Chinese purchases of U.S. soybeans and other farm goods and driven crop prices to multiyear lows. Soybeans are the largest U.S. farm export by value, with $12.6 billion in shipments to top buyer China in 2024, according to U.S. government data. Farm equipment makers such as Deere, AGCO and CNH Industrial will also be eying any easing of duties that have hammered farmer income and chilled sales of tractors and combine harvesters.
Boeing faces rising pressure as Xi-Trump talks spotlight aerospace trade. Beijing’s push for domestic jets and retaliatory tariffs risk eroding Chinese demand for Boeing aircraft. With China historically a top market for Boeing, escalating trade tensions could threaten the company’s long-term growth. If Trump-Xi talks go well, Boeing could increase its access to China’s aviation market, but if they falter, the company risks deeper isolation. Meanwhile, Trump’s threat to restrict Boeing aircraft parts exports to China could disrupt the nascent jet production of state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, which relies on U.S.-made engines and avionics.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in Chicago, Stephen Nellis in San Francisco, Mike Erman in New York, Mike Colias in Detroit, Chris Sanders in Washington, Nathan Crooks in Houston and Joe Brock in Los Angeles; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
BEIJING (Reuters) -China urged Germany on Monday to take a long-term view of ties between the world’s second and third largest economies, seeking to downplay suggestions of rising tension after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul postponed his first trip to Beijing.
Wadephul was originally due in the Chinese capital from Sunday on the first visit by a minister of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government, but opted not to travel after only one of his requested meetings was confirmed, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
That prompted a senior German parliamentarian to accuse China of having provoked the cancellation from a fear of debate.
“China has always viewed and developed its ties with Germany from a strategic and long-term perspective,” said Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson of China’s foreign ministry.
“The two sides should respect each other, treat each other as equals and cooperate for win-win results to propel bilateral ties along the right track,” Guo told a press conference on Monday.
The “current circumstances” provided further reason for both countries to seek common cause, he added, but gave no details.
Germany is China’s top European trade partner, with two-way trade exceeding $200 billion in 2025, Chinese data shows.
However, neither side has made any official visits since Merz’s Christian Democratic Union party defeated the Social Democrat Party of his predecessors, Olaf Scholz and Angela Merkel, in polls this year.
In comparison, China’s top diplomat has visited Austria, Italy, Poland, Slovenia and Switzerland this year.
Wadephul has struck an increasingly tough stance on China since he took office as foreign minister in May.
He has highlighted Beijing’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, its “increasingly aggressive behaviour” in the Indo-Pacific region, and its export curbs on rare earths and semiconductors.
In doing so, he has gone further than predecessor Annalena Baerbock, already known for being outspoken, who labelled Chinese President Xi Jinping a “dictator”.
On Friday, Agnieszka Brugger, a senior leader of the opposition Greens, said “the cancellation of Foreign Minister Wadephul’s trip to mainland China is only logical and consistent”.
She added, “The list of extremely difficult issues with China, which is a relevant player in many global political issues, is growing ever longer.”
(Reporting by Liz Lee; Writing by Joe Cash; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Clarence Fernandez)
BERLIN (Reuters) -A senior lawmaker from Germany’s Social Democrats, a junior partner in Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government, called on Saturday for a change of China policy after Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul postponed a trip to Beijing.
Wadephul, a member of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), cancelled the trip on Friday after Beijing confirmed only one of his requested meetings, a move that pointed to rising tensions over trade and security matters.
“The short-term cancellation of the trip to China does not bode well for an improvement in tense German-Chinese relations,” said Adis Ahmetovic, foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democrats (SPD).
“We need to rethink Germany’s China strategy. More than ever, we need an active, strategic foreign policy that focuses on dialogue, clarity and long-term interests,” he said.
Germany is Europe’s biggest economy. China is Germany’s biggest trading partner and the largest economy in Asia.
The only meeting Beijing had confirmed during Wadephul’s planned trip had been with his direct counterpart, Wang Yi. A German foreign ministry spokesperson, commenting on the trip’s postponement on Friday, also said Germany was concerned about constraints placed on rare earth exports.
WADEPHUL UNDERLINED IMPORTANCE OF FAIR TRADE
Wadephul told Reuters this week he planned to urge China to relax export restrictions on rare earths and semiconductors during his trip, which had been due to start on Sunday, and underlined fair trade as a cornerstone of successful relations.
In a strategy on China agreed in 2023, Berlin urged the “de-risking” of the two countries’ economic relationship, calling Beijing a “partner, competitor and systemic rival”.
China provides Germany with critical components such as rare earths and chips, two areas that have been subject to severe bottlenecks as global trade tensions intensify.
“Direct dialogue with China is particularly important in a phase of global tension,” Ahmetovic said.
Talks should be deepened “especially on issues of peace, security, the economy, trade and human rights,” he said.
Juergen Hardt, foreign policy spokesperson for the CDU, said China was trying to use trade policy as a means of exerting pressure and that Wadephul had been right to postpone the trip.
“The German government is not playing along with this game,” he said, adding that Germany continued to value good and fair relations with Beijing.
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, Writing by Christoph Steitz, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
German businessman Alexander Böcker was reading the news with his wife last Sunday when she told him about a robbery at the Louvre in Paris.
“My wife said, ‘Well, look at this: Somebody broke into the Louvre. There’s a robbery going on!’” he recalled in an interview with CBS News.
Right away, his wife, Julia Scharwatz, noticed something familiar: the lift used in the robbery looked just like one that their company makes.
“If you know the product, you can really quickly identify that it was your product,” Böcker said on Friday.“It became clear to us that this is a reprehensible act, and they have used our machine for it.”
The machine was the Böcker Agilo, a lift that can be used in construction or to hoist furniture to apartments through upper-story windows.
French police officers stand next to a furniture elevator used by robbers to enter the Louvre Museum, on Quai Francois Mitterrand, in Paris on October 19, 2025.
DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
It is just one of the machines that Böcker’s company — called Böcker — manufactures. And as more details of the robbery emerged — particularly that no one had been hurt — Böcker and Scharwatz, who works alongside her husband as the company’s head of marketing, began getting messages from colleagues and employees asking: “Can’t we make something out of it?”
The next day, the brainstorming began as they tried to think of new ways to advertise in the wake of the heist, which saw thieves run off with an estimated $102 million in jewels. The robbers used the Böcker lift to get to a second-story balcony where they accessed the Louvre by cutting through a window, and officials say they got in and out in just four minutes.
One proposed ad slogan was: “‘Well even criminal professionals are using the best machinery,’ something like that,” Böcker said.
But it was Scharwatz who had the winning idea — to focus on the speed of Böcker machines.
“We bought the picture, and then we had to decide: Shall we do it or not? And I said, ‘Well, I hope everybody gets our sense of humor.’ You know, normally, the Germans are not very famous for having a sense of humor,” Böcker said.
He said he felt like it was “a very thin line,” but because no one had been hurt, “we said: ‘Let’s go for it.’”
The final ad, published on social media, shows an image of the Böcker machine positioned outside the Louvre after the robbery.
“If you’re in a hurry,” the tagline says. That’s followed by details about the product: “The Böcker Agilo carries your treasures up to 400 kg at 42 m/min — quiet as a whisper thanks to its 230 V electric motor.”
The response to the campaign has been mixed. Many have found it funny, with some who work in marketing and advertising reaching out to the company calling it smart.
It has also gotten a lot of attention. Posts on the company’s social media sites typically draw 15,000-20,000 views per post, Böcker said, but this one garnered more than 4.3 million views on Instagram and Facebook.
“So, yeah, it is quite an unusual event for us,” Böcker said.
That publicity, though, has not translated into sales, at least yet.
“The normal customer base, especially in Europe, they know the product pretty well. We are (a) market leader in that segment,” Böcker said. “Maybe now, in other countries where this product is not so well known or not so known at all, there is maybe an interest.”
Böcker wanted to make clear, though, that neither he nor his company support the robbery at the Louvre.
“We are against, completely against, criminal activities, and we are also a serious company. 620 employees in Germany. Everything is produced in Germany, and we are also for safety,” Böcker said. “It was just a world event happening with one of our machines, and we tried to use it. And we really do not want … anybody to get bad feelings about that. And if so, we are sorry for that.”
BERLIN (Reuters) -German police said they broke up a painting forgery ring that allegedly asked millions for canvases they claimed were by masters including Pablo Picasso and Rembrandt, including a painting that had hung in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum for decades.
Police last week arrested and then conditionally released the alleged ringleader, a 77-year-old from southwestern Germany, they said on Friday. He and 10 accomplices face charges of organised conspiracy to commit fraud with forged artworks.
In synchronised dawn raids on Wednesday, October 15, police descended on premises across Germany and Switzerland and seized documents, mobile phones and multiple suspected art forgeries, police in Bavaria, who led the operation, said in a statement.
Police first caught on to the group’s activities when the main suspect offered for sale two supposedly original Picassos, including one purporting to be of photographer and activist Dora Maar, Picasso’s long-time muse and partner.
Further investigations found he was also asking 120 million Swiss francs ($151 million) for a forged copy of Rembrandt’s 1662 De Staalmeesters, or The Sampling Officials, a stern collective portrait that has hung in the Rijksmuseum since 1885, according to police.
The painting was in the possession of an 84-year-old Swiss woman, who was also under investigation, police said. The suspected fraudsters claimed that the canvas hanging in Amsterdam was a copy.
The group had offered at least 19 other forgeries for sale, including works purportedly by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Joan Miro, Amedeo Modigliani and Frida Kahlo, for which they were asking prices between 400,000 and 14 million euros, police said.
Police said they did not yet know if any painting was actually sold.
($1 = 0.7931 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Alex Richardson)
MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would never bow to pressure from the United States or any other country, and cautioned that the response to any strikes deep into Russia would be very serious and overwhelming.
U.S. sanctions are an “unfriendly” act and “will have certain consequences, but they will not significantly affect our economic well-being,” Putin said. Russia’s energy sector feels confident, he said.
“This is, of course, an attempt to put pressure on Russia,” Putin said. “But no self-respecting country and no self-respecting people ever decides anything under pressure.”
Putin said breaking the balance in the global energy markets could lead to a hike in prices that would be uncomfortable for countries such as the United States, especially given the internal political calendar in the United States.
Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that the Trump administration has lifted a key restriction on Ukraine’s use of some long-range missiles provided by Western allies, and remarks by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy about domestic missiles with a range of 3,000 km (1,900 miles), Putin said: “This is an attempt at escalation.”
“But if such weapons are used to attack Russian territory, the response will be very serious, if not overwhelming. Let them think about it,” Putin said.
(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
ANKARA (Reuters) -Anxious to bolster its air power, Turkey has proposed to European partners and the U.S. ways it could swiftly obtain advanced fighter jets as it seeks to make up ground on regional rivals such as Israel, sources familiar with the talks say.
NATO-member Turkey, which has the alliance’s second-largest military, aims to leverage its best relations with the West in years to add to its ageing fleet 40 Eurofighter Typhoons, for which it inked a preliminary agreement in July, and later also U.S.-made F-35 jets, despite Washington sanctions that currently block any deal.
Strikes by Israel – the Middle East’s most advanced military with hundreds of U.S.-supplied F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighters – on Turkey’s neighbours Iran and Syria, as well as on Lebanon and Qatar, unnerved Ankara in the last year. They laid bare key vulnerabilities, prompting its push for rapid air power reinforcement to counter any potential threats and not be left exposed, officials say.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has sharply criticised Israel’s attacks on Gaza and elsewhere in the Middle East and once warm relations between the two countries have sunk to new lows. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Turkey’s bases, rebel allies and support for the army in Syria posed a threat to Israel.
Greece, a largely symbolic but sensitive threat for Turkey, is expected to receive a batch of advanced F-35s in the next three years. In years past, jets from the two NATO states engaged in scattered dogfights over the Aegean, and Greece has previously expressed concerns about Turkish military build-up.
TURKEY WOULD BUY SECOND-HAND PLANES TO GET THEM FAST
For the Typhoons, Turkey is nearing a deal with Britain and other European countries in which it would promptly receive 12 of them, albeit used, from previous buyers Qatar and Oman to meet its immediate needs, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Eurofighter consortium members Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain would approve the second-hand sale proposal, in which they would provide Turkey with 28 new jets in coming years pending a final purchase agreement, the person said.
Erdogan is expected to discuss the proposal on visits to Qatar and Oman on Wednesday and Thursday, with jet numbers, pricing, and timelines the main issues.
Erdogan is then expected to host British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later this month, when agreements could be sealed, sources say.
A UK government spokesperson told Reuters that a memorandum of understanding that Britain and Turkey signed in July paves the way “for a multibillion-pound order of up to 40 aircraft,” adding: “We look forward to agreeing the final contracting details soon.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who was in Ankara last week, said Berlin supported the jets purchase and later told broadcaster NTV that a deal could follow within the year.
Turkey’s defence ministry said no final agreement had been reached and that talks with Britain were moving in a positive direction, adding other consortium members backed the procurement. Qatar and Oman did not immediately comment.
TURKEY, US HAVE POLITICAL WILL TO RESOLVE ISSUES
Acquiring the advanced F-35s has proven trickier for Ankara, which has been barred from buying them since 2020 when Washington slapped it with CAATSA sanctions over its purchase of Russian S-400 air defences.
Erdogan failed to make headway on the issue at a White House meeting with President Donald Trump last month. But Turkey still aims to capitalise on the two leaders’ good personal ties, and Erdogan’s help convincing Palestinian militant group Hamas to sign Trump’s Gaza ceasefire agreement, to eventually reach a deal.
Separate sources have said that Ankara considered proposing a plan that could have included a U.S. presidential “waiver” to overcome the CAATSA sanctions and pave the way for an eventual resolution of the S-400 issue and F-35 purchase.
Turkey’s possession of the S-400s remains the main obstacle to purchasing F-35s, but Ankara and Washington have publicly stated a desire to overcome this, saying the allies have the political will to do so.
The potential temporary waiver, if given, could help Ankara increase defence cooperation with Washington and possibly build sympathy in a U.S. Congress that has been sceptical of Turkey in the past, the sources said.
“Both sides know that resolving CAATSA needs to be done. Whether it is a presidential waiver or a congressional decision, that is up to the United States,” Harun Armagan, vice chair of foreign affairs for Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, told Reuters.
“It looks awkward with all of the other diplomacy and cooperation happening at the same time.”
Turkey’s foreign ministry did not respond to questions about floating a waiver to U.S. counterparts or discussions on resolving the S-400 issue. The White House did not immediately comment on whether Ankara raised a waiver option.
A State Department spokesperson said Trump recognizes Turkey’s strategic importance and that “his administration is seeking creative solutions to all of these pending issues,” but did not elaborate further.
Asked about Turkey’s separate agreement to buy 40 F-16s, an earlier generation fighter jet, a U.S. source said that talks have been dogged by Turkish concerns about the price and desire to buy the more advanced F-35s instead.
TURKEY HAS DEVELOPED ITS OWN STEALTH FIGHTER
Frustrated by past hot-cold ties with the West and some arms embargoes, Turkey has developed its own KAAN stealth fighter. Yet officials acknowledge it will take years before it replaces the F-16s that form the backbone of its air force.
Jet upgrades are part of a broader effort to strengthen layered air defences that also includes Turkey’s domestic “Steel Dome” project and an expansion of long-range missile coverage.
Yanki Bagcioglu, an opposition CHP lawmaker and former Turkish Air Force brigadier general, said Turkey must accelerate plans for KAAN, Eurofighter and F-16 jets.
“At present, our air-defence system is not at the desired level,” he said, blaming “project-management failures.”
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk in Washington; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
A woman stands in an office by the window and makes a phone call via a headset. The top female managers of Germany’s largest companies earned significantly less in 2024 and fell behind their male colleagues, according to the findings of a study by the consulting firm EY which was seen by dpa. Annette Riedl/dpa
The top female managers of Germany’s largest companies earned significantly less in 2024 and fell behind their male colleagues, according to the findings of a study by the consulting firm EY which was seen by dpa.
The salary of female board members in the DAX, MDax and SDax has fallen sharply, while men have earned slightly more.
This reverses a long-standing trend: for the first time since 2014, women on the boards of top companies were paid less than men.
Just a few years ago, there were very few women on the boards of stock exchange companies, which buoyed their salaries and meant that female managers overtook men.
But that has changed, explains EY Partner Jens Massmann: “The times when female board members were a rare species and could demand very high salaries are over.”
In 2024, the remuneration of female board members in the companies from the three DAX indices fell to an average of €2.15 million ($2.51 million), excluding chief executive positions. This was 11% less than in the previous year.
In contrast, their male colleagues recorded a slight increase of 0.4% to €2.27 million.
Overall, the remuneration of management board members fell by 3% to an average of €2.57 million. The salaries of the chief executives fell just as sharply.
According to the study, the best-paid female manager was Merck boss Belen Garijo with €7.6 million. She was followed by Deutsche Bank board member Rebecca Short with €6.5 million and Helen Giza, the chief executive of Fresenius Medical Care with a salary of €5.7 million.