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:
- Transport ministers are set to discuss possible measures as river cargo shipping is hampered by low water levels
- The Cabinet is expected to approve reforms to the foreign and domestic intelligence agencies amid rising hybrid threats
- The military has reported a large increase in drone overflights of sensitive sites in recent years
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Skip next section Transport ministers to meet over low river levels08/12/2026August 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.
https://p.dw.com/p/5IfHWSkip next section Welcome to our coverage08/12/2026August 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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