Germany news: IS video found on Berlin Pride suspect's phone

Here is a roundup of some of the top headlines from and about Germany on Tuesday, July 28, 2026:

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has again called for the EU's upcoming 2028-2034 budget to be cut by several hundred billion euros .

In a meeting in Dublin with Prime Minister Micheal Martin, with the Republic of Ireland currently holding the rotating EU presidency, Merz said cuts to the European Commission 's proposed spending plans were necessary in all areas.

"These cuts are essential, regardless of how far we get on new own resources," Merz said.

The budget is negotiated for seven years at a time among member states, in a process that can be very laborious and drawn out .

As the EU's largest economy, and also one of the wealthier members by GDP per capita, Germany pays the largest contribution among member states and receives less in EU investment in return. It's therefore typically reticent to see large increases in spending.

Merz said that the "wide and large expansion" of the budget currently proposed "is not acceptable to us," saying "the figures are not balanced." He said he was optimist that Martin would counter with a "realistic proposal" during Ireland's presidency.

Martin said the bloc needed a budget "that meets its future needs and ambitions" while "reflecting our current economic situation," adding that Ireland would work towards a "compromise."

The Commission is proposing a budget of around €1.76 trillion (roughly $2 trillion) in inflation-adjusted terms at 2025 prices for the next seven-year period.

This only represents around 2% of public spending across the EU, with the vast majority spent at the national level.

The EU budget is designed to complement national budgets. Well over half of the funds go to agricultural subsidies, a rare area that operates on a bloc-wide basis and not nation-by-nation, and a large chunk of the remainder is spent on regional development projects.

The budget requires unanimous approval from members to be adopted. Germany is not the only so-called "net contributor" to the EU budget to be seeking adjustments: the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark have made similar appeals.

A man has been arrested in Italy more than a week after an injured baby disappeared from a hospital in south-western Germany.

Police had been searching for him under a European arrest warrant and are investigating him on suspicion of child abuse.

"The child was in the hospital under observation following the alleged assault," a spokesman told the DPA news agency.

The baby was reported missing from the hospital close to the Black Forest in southwestern Germany on July 16 after being taken away by its mother without authorization.

The Schwarzwälder Bote newspaper reported that the child has since been found, although police initially provided no further details.

A patient infected with Ebola has been discharged from Frankfurt University Hospital after making a full recovery.

The US patient had been treated in a specialist isolation unit since mid-July and was able to leave on Tuesday "fully recovered" and "symptom-free," the hospital said.

It was the second US Ebola patient from the Democratic Republic of Congo to be successfully treated in Germany in recent months. The first patient was brought to Berlin's Charité hospital in May and discharged in early June after recovering.

German investigators have found a video on the phone of suspected Berlin Christopher Street Day Pride attacker Abdul B. in which he pledged allegiance to the "Islamic State" militant terror group.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office confirmed a report by the Bild newspaper about the footage. The news magazine "Spiegel" reported that the masked man spoke Arabic in the recording and was believed to be Abdul B.

A woman was killed and 31 people were injured, some seriously, when the suspected attacker drove a car into people near the event on Saturday . He is also suspected of using a machete.

The 21-year-old, who was known as a possible terror threat, died the following day after being shot by police officers who confronted him.

People in Germany bought sharply more ice cream and bottled water during the late-June heatwave , according to supermarket checkout data.

Ice cream sales between June 22 and 28 were 90% higher than in an average summer week from 2023 to 2025, the Federal Statistical Office said.

Sales of still water rose by 77%, while sparkling water increased by 63%. All three products reached their highest sales levels since the data series began in early 2023.

Other drinks also sold more strongly. Beer-mix beverages were up 63%, alcohol-free beer 38%, carbonated fruit drinks 34% and cola 32%.

The figures were based on scanner data collected from branches of several major food retailers across Germany.

The heatwave lasted from June 18 to 28 and peaked during the final weekend, according to the German Weather Service.

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Bookings for tourist accommodation in Germany through major online platforms have reached a record high.

Travel patterns varied considerably between Germany's states.

Persistently low water levels on the Rhine River could shave as much as 0.2% off Germany's economic output in the third quarter, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

Prolonged dry weather has continued to lower levels on the river, one of the world's busiest inland waterways.

"The effects could be strong enough to reduce gross domestic product in the third quarter by 0.1% to 0.2%," Stefan Kooths, director of the institute's business cycle and growth research group, told the Reuters new agency on Tuesday.

Many economists expect growth of no more than 0.2% during the summer months, meaning the disruption could push Europe's largest economy into stagnation.

At Kaub, a crucial bottleneck between the cities of Koblenz and Mainz, the gauge fell to 30 centimeters (12 inches) on Tuesday. Germany's waterways authority expects it to drop to around 25 centimeters by Friday, matching a record low reached in October 2018.

"As water levels are unlikely to rise suddenly above the critical threshold at the beginning of August, transport capacity is likely to remain impaired for some time next month," Kooths said.

The Rhine carries key commodities including grain, minerals, ores, coal and petroleum products such as petrol.