December 22, 2025 – Germany Headlines

Story gist: Steve Witkoff and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks on Ukraine-Russia negotiations in Miami, Florida. Participants noted progress amid exclusively negative signals from Russia.

Bias summary: No left-leaning outlets covered the story, leaving that perspective absent. Center outlet tagesschau.de emphasizes progress reported by Witkoff and Zelenskyy. Right-leaning WELT frames it as a trilateral meeting with US pushing Kyiv and Moscow to negotiate, set against the Ukraine war context.

Story gist: Some published datasets from the Jeffrey Epstein files were reportedly removed from the US Department of Justice website.

Bias summary: Left-leaning Spiegel frames it as a ‘scandal,’ highlighting US Justice restoring a deleted photo linked to Donald Trump, implying political favoritism. Center Deutschlandfunk reports neutrally on dataset removals without specifics or tone. Right-leaning outlets provide no coverage, absenting conservative framing on DOJ actions or Epstein implications.

Story gist: Israel approved new settlements in the West Bank. One report specifies 19 additional settlements.

Bias summary: Left-leaning outlets like DIE ZEIT specify ’19 weiteren Siedlungen’ (19 more settlements) and contextualize under ‘Nahost,’ emphasizing expansion. Center outlets like tagesschau.de use neutral, title-matching phrasing without added details. Right-leaning outlets are absent, omitting potential emphasis on security justifications or Israeli sovereignty claims.

Story gist: The German federal government plans to require storage of IP addresses for three months under data retention measures. The proposal has sparked debate.

Bias summary: Left-leaning Spiegel frames the story directly with ‘Vorratsdatenspeicherung,’ emphasizing government surveillance. Center tagesschau.de neutrally explains government plans in ‘What the government plans with IP address storage.’ Right-leaning FAZ downplays it as ‘Fight over a bogeyman,’ dismissing privacy concerns as exaggerated. Left stresses intrusion, center informs without tone, right minimizes controversy.

Story gist: A family reported their five-year-old son went missing after the attack on Magdeburg’s Christmas market. Memorial events occurred in Magdeburg for the victims.

Bias summary: Left-leaning taz.de frames the memorial by emphasizing ongoing fears of racist attacks. Center tagesschau.de neutrally reports the memorial for Christmas market attack victims. Right-leaning outlets absent, omitting potential focus on perpetrator motives, security lapses, or immigration angles.