President Vladimir Putin has said at Russia's showpiece investment conference that the country's economy will overcome sanctions that he called "reckless and insane."

Putin began his address Friday to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum with a lengthy denunciation of countries that he contends want to weaken Russia, including the United States. He says the U.S. "declared victory in the Cold War and later came to think of themselves as God's own messengers on planet Earth."

Russia came under a wide array of sanctions after sending troops into Ukraine in February. Putin said trying to damage the Russian economy "didn't work."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday that it's still "absolutely necessary" for some leaders to talk directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine. He told German news agency DPA on Friday that he and France's president will continue to do so.

Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have held several telephone conversations with Putin, separately and together, since Russia's invasion began in late February. Those contacts have drawn some criticism — including from Poland's president, who said recently that they achieve nothing and serve only to legitimize the Russian leader.

Scholz said some leaders need to talk to Putin "and it is necessary that they are clear."

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — German officials say water levels on the Rhine River could reach a critically low point in the coming days, making the transport of goods along the river increasingly difficult.

Weeks of dry weather have turned several of Europe’s major waterways into trickles, posing a headache for German factories and power plants that rely on deliveries by ship and making an economic slowdown ever more likely.

“This is particularly the case for the Rhine, whose nautical bottleneck at Kaub has very low water levels but which remains navigable for ships with small drafts,” said Tim Alexandrin, a spokesman for Germany's Transport Ministry, to the Associated Press.

Authorities predict water levels at the town of Kaub will dip below 16 inches early Friday and keep falling over the weekend.

While this is higher than the record low seen in October 2018, many large ships could struggle to safely pass the river at that point.

Low water levels isn't the only thing causing a headache in Germany.

Prices on natural gas have skyrocketed due to flows of it shrinking.

AL KHOR, Qatar (AP) — Soccer powerhouses Belgium and Germany made early exits at the World Cup on Thursday, which many considered a wild day in group play.

Back-to-back early exits at the World Cup have Germany coach Hansi Flick wanting to go back to basics.

The four-time champions were again eliminated from the group stage four years after their embarrassing display as defending champions in Russia.

Something has to change, Flick said after a 4-2 victory over Costa Rica on Thursday that still wasn’t enough to secure a spot in the round of 16.

“I believe for the future of German football we need to do things differently in training,” said Flick, who took over as coach after last year’s European Championship. “For years we are talking about new goalkeepers and wingbacks, but Germany was always able to defend well. We need the basics.

“For the future, for the next 10 years, it is very important to focus on the new generation of players.”

It was only eight years ago that Germany won its fourth World Cup title, beating an Argentina team led by Lionel Messi in his prime in the final at the Maracana Stadium. With that victory, Germany became the only European team to win a World Cup in either North or South America.

In Qatar, it was an opening loss to Japan that set the stage for the disappointing finish this time. Germany was beaten 2-1 in that match last week, and followed it with a 1-1 draw against Spain.

That gave the Germans a chance in its last match at Al Bayt Stadium, and for a few minutes during the simultaneous final group matches on Thursday, it was enough. At halftime, for example, Germany was beating Costa Rica and Japan was losing to Spain — results that would have put the Germans into the round of 16.

It was Japan’s 2-1 victory over the Spaniards that essentially cost the Germans a chance to play at least one more match in Qatar.

Flick cited Spain as an example for his country to follow.

“Spain is very good in defense,” he said, even though the 2010 World Cup champions ultimately lost to Japan at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha. “It focuses on training young players. They know the tactics well.”

It all started so well for Germany on Thursday with Serge Gnabry scoring a 10th-minute header and Spain taking an early lead against Japan.

Both matches were turned upside down in the second half.

Yeltsin Tejeda evened the score in the 58th minute and Juan Vargas scrambled another in the 70th, putting Costa Rica ahead 2-1 and all of a sudden on target to advance.

“There were a lot of individual mistakes and these are things that make me very angry,” Flick said.

But Germany substitute Kai Havertz made it 2-2 in the 73rd minute and then restored Germany’s lead in the 85th. Another substitute, Niclas Füllkrug, added the fourth.

Costa Rica had lost its opening game against Spain 7-0. The team then put on a much better display and beat Japan 1-0.

“We are not what we saw in our first game,” Costa Rica coach Luis Fernando Suarez said. “We had to go back to what made us qualify for the World Cup.”

Spain will take on Morocco, who took the top spot in Group F after defeating Canada 2-1, ESPN reported.

Belgium, ranked No. 2 in the world and finished third at the World Cup four years ago, was also eliminated from the world's biggest sporting event after a goalless tie against Croatia, who will play Japan in the round of 16, The Washington Post reported.

HISTORY MADE

The match was also notable because French referee Stéphanie Frappart became the first woman to officiate a men’s World Cup match.

RECORD SET

Manuel Neuer played in his 19th World Cup match to set a record for a goalkeeper — overtaking German great Sepp Maier and Brazil keeper Cláudio Taffarel.

GINTER’S WAIT

Matthias Ginter was participating in his third World Cup, but going into the match against Costa Rica he had yet to play a single minute at any of those tournaments. That all changed when he came on as a substitute in the 89th minute.

German media reported that at least six people were killed in a shooting in the northern German city of Hamburg, the second-largest city in the country.

The city's fire service confirmed the number of dead, but it was unclear if there were any people taken to area hospitals, the Guardian reported, citing Focus Online.

German news outlet Deutsche Welle cited police information reporting that law enforcement converged on the city's Alsterdorf area. Reports said that police also announced a "large-scale operation" was carried out in the city's Gross Borstel district nearby.

Germany's RTL News reported, citing officials, that the shooting happened at around 9 p.m. local time when a person or multiple people inside a place of worship began firing upon those inside.

DW reported that the location of the shooting was a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses on Hamburg's Deelböge street.

Police asked residents in the area to evacuate, according to reports.

Authorities in Hamburg used cell phone push alerts to warn residents that the suspects were on the run and had fled the scene after the shooting.

For the first time in league history, the National Football League will host a regular-season game in Munich, Germany, in 2022.

In a press release, the league announced on Wednesday that they would host four other international games in 2022, including three in London and one in Mexico.

"We are very pleased to welcome Munich and Frankfurt to the NFL family and are excited to reward our fans in Germany for their passion by bringing them the spectacle of regular-season NFL football," said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in the news release. "We look forward to staging our first game in Germany at FC Bayern Munich's fantastic stadium later this year and to exploring areas of [a] broader collaboration with the Bundesliga."

Two of the games in the UK will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and the Jacksonville Jaguars will host their home game at Wembley Stadium.

The NFL is set to play games in Germany over the next four years, with two games being hosted at Bayern Munich Stadium, the home of the Bundesliga champions, and the other two will be played at Frankfurt Stadium.

The 2022 NFL schedule will be announced later this year.

Amid heightened tensions between Ukraine and Russia, lawmakers are looking at the potential implications of the next moves. 

The Pentagon announced it planned to send forces to Poland, Romania and Germany to bolster NATO's eastern flank, while more forces remain on standby. 

The U.S. Helsinki Commission, a commission independent of the federal government, met Wednesday to discuss the developing situation and hear insight into the implications beyond Ukraine and what messages potential U.S. actions send. 

"The Kremlin's threat menaces not only Ukraine, our partners in Georgia, and the wider region but also the long-cherished dream and long-standing bipartisan U.S. policy to work towards a Europe whole and free," said Sen. Ben Cardin, the commission's chairman. 

It comes as Congress debates sanctions on Russia. Ukraine's foreign minister said it's preparing for all possible scenarios, but that active diplomacy works. 

"It puts a lot of pressure on us but it is still insufficient for a large-scale military operation against Ukraine," said Dmytro Kuleba in a video released by the Ukranian Foreign Ministry. 

During the commission hearing, lawmakers heard expert testimony into Ukraine and Russia from high-profile witnesses. Experts told lawmakers unity seen surrounding the conflict may have surprised Putin. 

Former ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor explained it can't be assumed Putin’s bluffing since he’s invaded before, but that he’s looking at unity and the possibility of severe sanctions. Taylor said actions have appeared to deter an invasion for now, but reiterated strong steps until Putin withdraws military force.

Former U.S. National Security Council official Fiona Hill told lawmakers Russia may feel emboldened by developments in Eurasia, and look at the U.S.' role in addressing upheavals.

 

"We should continue to make clear to Moscow we are open to negotiation as Chairman Cardin has said … but not under the current coercive circumstances," said Hill. "We need to reframe this crisis for what it is as the administration has just done in the United Nations. This Is not a proxy conflict, this is not aggression by the United States or NATO, this is not a righteous effort to counter some great historic wrong as President Putin says. This is an act of post-colonial revisionism."

On the Hill, the move to send troops to Europe drew praise, as well as a split reaction between high-profile Republicans. 

Senator Lindsey Graham said he completely supports the decision, while Senator Josh Hawley called it a mistake, pushing for a focus on China instead. Senator Mitch McConnell praised it, but also called for more assistance to Ukraine and sanctions now. 

"Yesterday, I was glad to hear that U.S. forces are finally moving to reinforce our Eastern Flank allies. I urged President Biden to take this step nearly two months ago. I hope this belated action will lead other NATO allies to follow suit," McConnell said.

This story was originally published by Haley Bull of Newsy.

VATICAN CITY — Retired Pope Benedict XVI admitted Monday he attended a meeting in 1980 regarding a case of sexual abuse of a child.

The meeting happened when Pope Benedict was the archbishop of Munich, Germany.

In a statement published in the German Catholic newspaper, Die Tagespost, the former pope’s personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein clarified that contrary to what was stated during a hearing, Benedict did attend the Ordinariate meeting.

This comes after a report faulted Benedict for not taking action against four abusive priests in Germany.

The newspaper reports that the former pope is “very sorry for his mistake.”

The priest involved in the investigation was allowed to resume pastoral work.

This is a decision that could have only been made with the consultation of the archbishop.

Gänswein said Benedict plans to explain how the error happened after he goes through the nearly 2,000-page report.

Benedict lives in the Vatican today.

He resigned from the papacy in 2013.

Airbus is preparing to make the final delivery of its iconic A380 jumbo jet in the coming days. With the model officially being retired following the delivery, Airbus officials decided to send the A380 out with extra love.

Flight Radar 24 reports that Airbus pilots routed the A380's final test flight in the shape of a heart over northeast Germany.

The test flight took off from an Airbus facility at Hamburg-Finkenwerder Airport and took a haphazard tour of the region. But before returning to the airport, test pilots drew a miles-wide heart in the German sky.

According to CNN, the Airbus A380 has been flying since 2007. The massive plane can carry up to 850 passengers on a single flight.

CNN reports that the plane is "the largest mass-produced civil airliner in history."

Airbus announced it would stop producing the A380 in 2019 and has since pivoted to making smaller and more fuel-efficient aircraft.

The final A380, registered as MSN 272, will be delivered to Emirates Airlines later this month.

The head of Germany's disease control agency has warned that the country faces a "really terrible Christmas" unless steps are taken to counter the sharp rise in coronavirus infections.

German lawmakers are debating measures Thursday that would replace the nationwide epidemic rules, which will expire at the end of the month.

The Robert Koch Institute, Germany's disease control agency, said Thursday that 65,371 newly confirmed cases had been reported in a single day, continuing the upward trend that experts have been warning about for weeks.

"We are currently heading toward a serious emergency," agency director Lothar Wieler said, according to Sky News. "We are going to have a really terrible Christmas if we don't take countermeasures now."

Wieler said Germany needs to increase its vaccination rates to significantly above 75%, from 67.7% at present. Some regions in Germany have vaccination rates as low as 57.6%.

Wieler also noted that some hospitals in the country are nearing a breaking point.

The current surge in cases represents Germany's "fourth wave" since the start of the pandemic.

"The current pandemic situation in Germany is dramatic, I can't say it any other way," chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday, according to Sky News. "The fourth wave is hitting our country with full force."

CINCINNATI — Serving his country was always part of Jason Snow’s journey, but doing that with the Ohio National Guard was never on the radar.

After graduating high school in 1993, he joined the U.S. Navy to get money to further his education. He served for four years, hanging up his service uniforms in 1997.

But the pull of duty would come back to him four years later, on Sept. 11, 2001.

Snow was working a forklift at the time in a factory.

“Someone came up and told me that a plane crashed into the Twin Towers," Snow said. "I said, 'Well, an air traffic controller must have really messed up on that one.' Then the second one. Then, I started to think, like what's going on? And then another co-worker said the Pentagon just got hit. And I said, 'Well, that's impossible. You can't get to the Pentagon.'

"I knew at that moment that we are under attack, and I need to do something personally.”

Four months later, Snow joined the Guard.

“I was mentally prepared, yes," Snow said. "Already having the military background and knowing what it takes to be successful and to lead. I had those already.”

And Snow’s nearly 20-year journey sent him all over the world.

“There's been a series of deployments, from Germany to Iraq, to Washington, D.C.,” he said.

Fellow Ohio National Guard member Dylan Stenski, on the other hand, has no memory of that day. He had just turned 21 months old.

Provided photo

“I have absolutely no recollection of anything that happened," he said. "I don't remember anything."

While Stenski would learn the historical significance of 9/11 in school, he also learned that his father wanted to step up and enlist. It would prove to be a tall task with a toddler and another baby on the way.

Now Stenski is tasked with signal system support for the Ohio National Guard, in the same unit as Sgt. 1st Class Snow.

“It's an opportunity; it's a privilege,” Stenski said. “I grew up not having to worry about an attack on American soil because there were other people out there protecting me. So now there's me in that position. “

Sfc. Snow is the 1-174^th Air Defense Artillery Regiment’s battalion master gunner and readiness NCO.

Provided photo

“That gives me the opportunity to get the soldiers ready for these higher op-tempo deployments that we have, you know, around the country and overseas, as well,” Snow said.

The Guard changed after 9/11. It is no longer just sent out on humanitarian missions domestically. Many soldiers spent months, if not years, overseas in Iraq or Afghanistan.

As Sfc. Snow reflects on 9/11, the day that pulled him back to duty, and Cpl. Stenski looks back to a day he doesn’t remember but feels its effects daily on his enlistment, each say it is both history and reality.

Angela Merkel will leave office later this year as one of modern Germany's longest-serving leaders and as a global diplomatic heavyweight.

Her legacy has been defined by her management of a succession of crises that shook a fragile Europe rather than any grand visions for her own country.

In 16 years at the helm of Europe's biggest economy, Merkel ended military conscription, set it on course for a future without nuclear and fossil-fueled power, enabled the legalization of same-sex marriage and introduced a national minimum wage, among other things.

But a senior ally recently summed up what many view as her main service, as an anchor of stability in stormy times.

"You protected our country well," he told Merkel.

"All the major crossroads you had to navigate ... we never mapped out in any election program — they came overnight and you had to govern well,” Bavarian governor Markus Soeder said, according to the Associated Press.

The German chancellor, who has been in power since 2005, has promised to leave the country after the outcome of Sept. 26's election has been determined.

BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors say they have charged the elderly secretary of the former commandant of Stutthof with 10,000 counts of accessory to murder on allegations that she was part of the apparatus that helped the Nazi concentration camp function.

The 95-year-old also faces an unspecified number of counts of accessory to attempted murder for her service at the camp between June 1943 and April 1945, said Peter Mueller-Rakow, spokesman for prosecutors in the northern town of Itzehoe, on Friday.

No trial date has been set.

According to The Associated Press, the suspect is believed to be in good enough health to stand trial.

The suspect had previously been identified to be Irmgard F. by Germany’s NDR public broadcaster after interviewing her, The AP reported.

But Mueller-Rakow would not confirm the suspect's identity due to German privacy laws, The AP reported.

BERLIN —

In one flooded German town, the ground collapsed under family homes. In another, floodwaters swept through an assisted living center, killing 12.

Rescue workers across Germany and Belgium rushed Friday to prevent more deaths from some of the Continent's worst flooding in years as the number of dead surpassed 125 and the search went on for hundreds of missing people.

Fueled by days of heavy rain, the floodwaters also left thousands of Germans homeless after their dwellings were destroyed or deemed to be at risk, and elected officials began to worry about the lingering economic effects from lost homes and businesses.

Elsewhere in Europe, dikes on swollen rivers were at risk of collapsing, and crews raced to reinforce flood barriers.

Sixty-three people perished in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, including 12 residents of an assisted living facility for disabled people in the town of Sinzig who were surprised by a sudden rush of water from the nearby Ahr River, authorities said.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he was “stunned” by the devastation and pledged support to the families of those killed and to cities and towns facing significant damage.

“In the hour of need, our country stands together,” Steinmeier said in a televised statement. “It’s important that we show solidarity for those from whom the flood has taken everything.”

By Friday evening, waters were receding across much of the affected regions, but officials feared that more bodies might be found in cars and trucks that were swept away.

A harrowing rescue effort unfolded in the German town of Erftstadt, southwest of Cologne, where people were trapped when the ground gave way and their homes collapsed.

Fifty people were rescued from their houses, county administrator Frank Rock told German broadcaster n-tv. Aerial photos showed what appeared to be a massive landslide at a gravel pit on the town’s edge.

“One has to assume that under the circumstances some people didn’t manage to escape,” Rock said.

Authorities cautioned that the large number of missing could stem from duplicated reports and difficulties reaching people because of closed roads and disrupted phone service.

After Germany, where the death toll stood at 106, Belgium was the hardest hit. The country confirmed the deaths of 20 people, with another 20 still missing, Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden told the VRT network Friday.

Several dikes on the Meuse River that runs from Belgium into the Netherlands were at risk of collapsing, Verlinden said. Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Venlo evacuated 200 hospital patients due to the river's looming threat.

Utility companies reported widespread disruption of electricity and gas service that they said could last for days or weeks.

The governor of North Rhine-Westphalia, who hopes to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel as the nation's leader after Germany's election on Sept. 26, said the disaster had caused immense economic damage to the country's most populous state. The number of dead in North Rhine-Westphalia stood at 43.

“The floods have literally pulled the ground from beneath many people’s feet,” Gov. Armin Laschet said at a news conference. "They lost their houses, farms or businesses.”

Manfred Pesch, a hotel owner in the small village of Gemuend, recounted how the floods came suddenly and rose to 2 meters (over 6 feet).

“Our hotel needs to be rebuilt,” he said. “We need a lot of help.”

Wolfgang Meyer, owner of a painting business in Gemuend, said his family escaped the rising water, but his business was swamped.

“The machinery, equipment, the entire office, files, records ... everything is gone actually," he said. "We’re going to have some work to do there.”

Malu Dreyer, the governor of Rhineland-Palatinate state, said the disaster showed the need to speed up efforts to curb global warming, which experts say could make such disasters more frequent.

She accused Laschet and Merkel’s center-right Union bloc of hindering efforts to achieve greater greenhouse gas reductions in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy and a major emitter of planet-warming gases.

“Climate change isn’t abstract anymore. We are experiencing it up close and painfully,” she told the Funke media group.

Steinmeier, the German president, echoed her calls for greater efforts to combat global warming.

“Only if we decisively take up the fight against climate change will we be able to limit the extreme weather conditions we are now experiencing,” he said.

The World Meteorological Organization said some parts of Western Europe have received up to two months of rainfall in the space of two days.

"What made it worse is that the soils were already saturated by previous rainfall,” WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said.

She said it was too soon to blame the floods and preceding heat wave on rising global temperatures but added: “Climate change is already increasing the frequency of extreme events. And many single events have been shown to be made worse by global warming.”

The German military deployed over 850 troops to help with flood efforts, and the need for help was growing, Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz said. He said the ministry had triggered a “military disaster alarm.”

Italy sent civil protection officials, firefighters and rescue dinghies to Belgium to help in the search for missing people.

In the southern Dutch province of Limburg, which also has been hit hard by flooding, troops piled sandbags to strengthen a 1.1-kilometer (0.7 mile) stretch of dike along the Maas River, and police helped evacuate low-lying neighborhoods.

Caretaker Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the government was officially declaring flooded regions disaster areas, making businesses and residents eligible for compensation. Dutch King Willem-Alexander visited the region Thursday night and called the scenes “heartbreaking.”

Meanwhile, heavy rain in Switzerland caused several rivers and lakes to burst their banks. Public broadcaster SRF reported that a flash flood swept away cars, flooded basements and destroyed small bridges late Thursday in the northern villages of Schleitheim und Beggingen.

Erik Schulz, the mayor of the hard-hit German city of Hagen, 50 kilometers (31 miles) northeast of Cologne, said a wave of other regions and ordinary citizens were offering to help.

“We have many, many citizens saying ‘I can offer a place to stay. Where can I go to help? ... Where can I bring my shovel and bucket?’” he told n-tv. “The city is standing together, and you can feel that."

____

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson and Emily Schultheis in Berlin, Raf Casert in Brussels, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Angela Charlton in Paris, Mike Corder in The Hague and contributed to this report.

BERLIN (AP) — Germany is officially recognizing the colonial-era massacre of tens of thousands of people in Namibia as genocide and has agreed to provide funding to help the communities affected.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas made the announcement in a series of tweets.

"We cannot change the past, but we can look to the future together," Maas said.

But it is stopping short of formal reparations, which some have demanded.

The move announced Friday is the result of more than five years of talks about killings between 1904 and 1908 when Germany was the southern African country's colonial ruler.

Germany said it will provide $1.3 billion for projects that will occur over a 30-year span, the Associated Press reported.

Some groups protested Friday in the Namibian capital amid complaints the accord did not go far enough.

Historians say German Gen. Lothar von Trotha, who was sent to put down an uprising by the Herero people in 1904, instructed his troops to wipe out the entire tribe.

About 65,000 Herero were killed and at least 10,000 Nama.

Health officials say they have quarantined the residents of two high-rise buildings in the western German town of Velbert after several people tested positive with the coronavirus variant first detected in India.

Officials from the county of Mettmann said “there are currently several infections with the Indian virus variant in Velbert.”

They said several families who were in close touch with each other were affected and that everyone was being tested. Local broadcaster WDR reported about 200 people in the two buildings were affected. They have been quarantined, are getting tested and the Red Cross is providing food and other help.

So far, the COVID-19 variant that was first detected in India has not been found a lot in Germany but is said to be more contagious than other variants currently more prevalent in Germany.