Germany: Evacuated villagers return after Eifel wildfire eases
Deutsche Welle · LC · trust 50/100
Most residents evacuated from the village of Gey have returned home after firefighters brought a major wildfire in Germany's Eifel region largely under control. DW has more.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Irtl Residents thanked emergency responders after they returned home after being evacuated on Friday after the fire came within 300 metres (1,000 ft) of the community Image: Christian Knieps/dpa/picture alliance Advertisement Skip next section What you need to know What you need to know Germany is increasingly revoking protections for Syrian refugees, according to a government response in parliament Russia adds Germany's Research Centre for East European Studies (FSO) to its list of 'undesirable' organizations A techno parade in Berlin takes place under heightened security following last month's deadly attack during a Pride march Johannes Liebmann breaks the world record in the men's 1,500m freestyle at the European Aquatics Championships in Paris Below is a roundup of the top headlines from and about Germany on Saturday, August 15 and Sunday, August 16, 2026:
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For coverage of the wildfire in western Germany, head over to our dedicated blog.
Published 08/16/2026 Published August 16, 2026 last updated 08/16/2026 last updated August 16, 2026 Residents of evacuated village return home as Eifel fire subsides The village of Gey, seen here on Friday, is now safe to return to Image: Federico Gambarini/dpa/picture alliance A wildfire in the western Eifel region that forced the evacuation of the village of Gey on Friday has been brought enough under control that residents can return, local authorities have said..
"Firefighting operations are continuing but the situation continues to ease up," the Düren district administration said on Sunday.
It said around two-thirds of Gey residents, who number around 1,800, had returned by Sunday morning after being given the all-clear on Saturday evening.
The blaze, which has burnt out some 300 hectares (741 acres) has been described as the most serious wildfire in the recorded history of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
It has, however, now been dwarfed a nearby fire in Belgium's High Fens region , which is raging across 3,000 hectares and has approached to within 3 kilometers (2 miles) of the German border.
The fires in western and other parts of Europe come amid a prolonged period without meaningful rain that has left undergrowth and many trees parched and highly inflammable.
Climate scientists say that such conditions are occurring ever more frequently as the Earth warms owing to the human use of fossil fuels.
08/16/2026 August 16, 2026 WATCH: Germany reviews Berlin Pride attack security failures What can surveillance, electronic ankle monitors and deradicalization programs realistically achieve? And what are the limits of Germany's justice and security system?
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08/16/2026 August 16, 2026 Russian authorities open criminal case against German reporter Russian authorities have opened a criminal investigation against a journalist from the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on suspicion of inciting hate and hostility, Russia's state-run TASS news agency has reported.
The case centers on a question asked by the journalist to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this month.
The reporter asked Zelenskyy at a press conference in Belgrade what Europeans could do to help Ukraine kill more Russian soldiers as it fights Moscow's full-scale invasion .
According to TASS, the journalist could face up to six years in a penal colony if convicted in Russia.
Russian courts also hand down sentences in absentia.
The paper has previously said it regrets that the question had been phrased ambiguously, saying that killing as many Russian soldiers as possible was not the FAZ's editorial position.
It, however, also criticized as "unacceptable" what it described as "defamation and threats" against its correspondent.
"We will respond to threats against our employees using legal means," it said.
The FAZ press office told the DPA news agency that it was not aware of the proceedings in Russia.
The journalist concerned covers southeastern Europe for the newspaper from Vienna.
08/16/2026 August 16, 2026 Yiddish festival in Weimar draws thousands of visitors Ahead of the festival, Weimar saw numerous events associated with Yiddish culture Image: Shendl Copitman/Religion News Service/AP Photo/picture alliance The 26th edition of a festival celebrating Yiddish and related cultures in the eastern city of Weimar ended on Saturday evening after some 12,000 people attended.
This year, the focus was on women in Yiddish culture.
Organizers said more than 300 people from around the world participated in workshops on the Yiddish language, music and dance, as well as youth projects.
"From the beginning, (the idea was) to present Yiddish culture as something which is alive, and not something that was entirely destroyed by the Shoah (Holocaust)," said Alan Bern, the founder and artistic director at Yiddish Summer Weimar, the body behind the festival.
The Yiddish language first emerged in the Middle Ages in the German-speaking regions of Europe and later spread to other parts of Europe in various waves of Jewish migration.
It is a Germanic language and partially mutually intelligible with German. In its written form it typically uses a modified form of the Hebrew alphabet.
In the 1930s, Yiddish was spoken as a vernacular by around 11 million Central and Eastern European Jews. The number of speakers was drastically diminished by the murder of some 6 million Jews in the Holocaust under Nazi…
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