Overview

• Police kettled about 70 activists during a sit-in blocking a Bundeswehr personnel facility in Cologne, recorded identities, and dissolved the assembly after roughly five hours.
• The Bundeswehr said service operations were not disrupted and affirmed support for freedom of expression and assembly.
• The federal cabinet advanced legislation creating a new military-service framework that registers young men and initially relies on voluntary service to expand the force.
• Cologne police restricted a planned march in Meerbusch from entering the street of Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger’s private home and announced a large deployment for the event.
• Rheinmetall held an inauguration for a new artillery-ammunition plant in Unterlüß with CEO Armin Papperger and senior political and NATO figures expected to attend.