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Germany news: Transport ministers to talk low river levels
Federal and state transport ministers are to discuss the challenges to river shipping as water levels drop, whilst Cabinet is to decide on reforms giving new powers to intelligence agencies. DW has more.
https://p.dw.com/p/5IfD9 Advertisement Skip next section What you need to know What you need to know Here's a roundup of the biggest stories hitting the headlines in Germany on Wednesday, August 12, 2026:
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08/12/2026 August 12, 2026 Cabinet set to pass controversial intelligence agency reform The German Cabinet is set to approve a more than 700-page package of laws granting much greater powers to both the domestic intelligence agency (BfV) and the foreign intelligence agency (BND) .
The package will allow the agencies more latitude in the gathering and storage of information and data, along with new options to actively combat acts of sabotage and hacking attacks.
The government says the package aims to enable the agencies to operate more effectively in the face of a myriad of hybrid security threats.
"We will not look on passively as foreign interference, sabotage and threats to the pillars of our constitution and our free society continue to grow," chancellery head Nina Warken told the daily Rheinische Post .
"Our [intelligence] services can only take targeted action against these hybrid attacks if they have more liberties and up-to-date measures" at their disposal, she said.
However, the planned reform has also met with considerable criticism from those who see the extended powers as a threat to civil rights.
The leader of the Free Democrats (FDP) , Wolfgang Kubicki, accused Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of "breaking a taboo."
"It can hardly be imagined that the Constitutional Court will not intervene here," he told the Augsburger Allgemeine daily.
"I do not want any secret police in Germany," he said. "I want full court control in the case of attacks on basic rights and a state that understands that you don't defend liberty by curbing it."
08/12/2026 August 12, 2026 Transport ministers to meet over low river levels Transport ministers from Germany's state and federal governments are to hold a video conference on Wednesday to discuss the challenges to inland shipping as rivers across the country run low.
Federal Transport Minister Steffen Bilger said the ministers would, among other things, talk about ways to compensate potential supply shortages as ships transport less cargo.
Several states have already lifted a ban on trucks using highways on Sundays in a bid to shift some cargo transport to other routes.
Ahead of the conference, Bilger, who belongs to the center-right Christian Democratic Union of Chancellor Friedrich Merz , told the daily Rheinische Post that there were currently no supply shortfalls.
However, he also said that cargo transport needed to be shifted more to road and rail to reduce the risk of supply problems to industry.
Bilger said the current river water shortages would likely continue until the end of August at least.
08/12/2026 August 12, 2026 Welcome to our coverage Timothy Jones | Rob Turner Editor DW's newsroom in Bonn wishes all its readers guten Tag on what promises to be another very warm summer day.
Amid the hot and dry weather, water levels in rivers such as the Rhine are continuing to drop , causing problems to inland shipping and to companies that rely on it for their supplies.
The situation on Germany's waterways will thus be a main topic in today's blog once again, as transport ministers meet to discuss how best to remedy the situation.
A planned reform granting new powers to intelligence agencies is also causing a stir, with some saying they go too far while others maintain their necessity as Germany faces ever more hybrid security threats .
One of those threats has been highlighted in a military report saying that hundreds of drone flights over army sites have been sighted in the past few years.
Read on for more on these and other stories hitting the headlines in Germany.
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