Germany news: Transport ministers to talk low river levels

Germany's domestic and foreign intelligence services are to get greater powers to deal with hybrid threats. Meanwhile, transport ministers are meeting to find solutions to increasingly low river levels. 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 No accompanied drinking for 14-year-olds, Cabinet decides The German Cabinet also on Wednesday approved a draft bill abolishing a previous law allowing 14- and 15-year-olds to buy and drink beer, wine or sparkling wine when accompanied by their parents or guardians.

According to the bill, the current exception to the general ban on under 16-year-olds drinking any form of alcohol "weakens the protection of young people from the considerable health and social consequences of alcohol consumption."

In Germany, under 14-year-olds are currently not allowed to buy or drink alcohol in any form, while 14-15-year olds are permitted to purchase and drink undistilled alcohol in public places in the company of their parents or legal guardians.

From the age of 16, people are permitted to buy and consume undistilled alchohol without accompaniment, while those aged 18 and over, as legal adults, can buy and consume all alcoholic beverages.

08/12/2026 August 12, 2026 Cabinet approves child pension subsidy Among the draft bills approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday is a plan for children from the age of 6 to receive €10 ($11.54) from the state every month for a pension deposit .

Under the plan, the child's parents or carers would open the account and be able to deposit money there themselves as well.

The state payments would continue until the child turns 18.

Pension payments from the account would flow only after the now-adult turns 65.

According to the Finance Ministry, the state subsidies would amount to around €2,200, which "could become around €53,000 by pensionable age without any additional payments."

With the plan, the government aims not only to guarantee better financial security in old age for the younger generation but also to educate it in financial matters.

"Someone who experiences the capital market already at a young age and has positive experiences with it develops an understanding of long-term investment and will tend to invest in the capital market during his or her life," the Finance Ministry said.

The bill still needs approval by both chambers of parliament to go into force.

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 Ansah has 'no fear' of losing bronze despite looming doping ban Sprinter Owen Ansah, Germany's 100-meter record holder, delivered his country's first men's 100-meter European Championship medal in 40 years, despite facing a potential doping suspension.

Ansah won the bronze at the European Championships in Birmingham, England on Tuesday night, to take the biggest win of his career.

The 25-year-old posted a time of 10.19 seconds, managing to shut out the considerable noise surrounding his looming suspension by Germany's National Anti Doping Agency (NADA), which accuses the sprinter of refusing to take a doping test on July 9.

But Ansah insists that he failed to provide a urine sample because the doping control officer arrived outside of the requested time slot and Ansah had to leave to travel to Monaco for a Diamond League event. He also says he had just used the restroom before the officer arrived.

He said he is "not afraid" of having his medal revoked. "I trust my team, which has my back. I can’t influence the other stuff. I can only influence how fast I am on the track. And I showed that well today," Ansah said.

The sprinter is now turning his attention to the 200-meter dash on Friday, where he is eyeing a second medal at the Championships.

08/12/2026 August 12, 2026 Drone-related security incidents on the increase — military Several hundred security incidents involving drones have been registered by Germany's armed forces in the past years, a military spokesman has said.

"Since the start of the illegal full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 , reports on drone sightings affecting the Bundeswehr have greatly increased," the spokesman told the media outlet Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.

"Over the past few years, several hundred suspected drone overflights in Bundeswehr-related areas have been reported," he said, adding that whole swarms of drones had been sighted on ...

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