Germany news: Berlin officially withdraws Olympics bid

Here is a roundup of the top news stories from and about Germany on Thursday, September 24, 2026: Tired of missing our real-time updates? Click here to add DW as a Preferred Source on Google. The socialist Left Party won the Berlin election partly on the promise to implement the city's 2021 expropriation referendum to address the city's rent crisis. But can it really happen? The monthly business climate index put out by the Ifo economic research institute has risen 1.1 points to 89.9 points, the highest level in more than three years. The index, Germany's most important economic barometer, has been rising constantly over the past five months, indicating that the country is slowly returning to economic health after years of struggle.