Germany

Germany holds roughly a quarter of the EU's total gas storage capacity, so its own fill rate sits at the centre of the bloc's winter-preparedness arithmetic regardless of what other states do.

By 29 July, caverns that had restarted injection on 22 July after a one-day stall were still tracking toward only 58.5% full on 1 November, short of the 80% Germany's own ordinance demands, even as a wind collapse flipped domestic gas-fired power back into profit.

Germany's Bundestag passed StromVKG, its gas-plant capacity-payment law, on 9 July 2026, raising the scheme's bid ceiling by 41% and keeping 1 September as the date for the first 4.5 GW capacity auction.

Yet by 10 July, Bundesnetzagentur was still publishing bid deadlines for both tranches even though Brussels had not yet granted the EU state-aid clearance the scheme legally needs, meaning bidders would be committing to a subsidised capacity contract European competition law has not yet approved.

Until 29 June, Germany had never lost a World Cup penalty shoot-out. Paraguay ended that run 4-3 in Foxborough after normal time finished 1-1, with three missed German spot-kicks doing the damage.

Commentators have offered competing explanations, nerve under pressure or a scouting gap on Paraguay's goalkeeper, without settling on either. What is not in dispute is the timing: the exit falls four years into Julian Nagelsmann's rebuild around Jamal Musiala and Florian Wirtz, turning a four-decade shoot-out record into the clearest marker yet that the post-2014 German team has not found its footing.