The success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the election is history’s revenge against the idea that Germans had to be a model for the rest of the world.
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Germany, Welcome To The New Normal
Tag: merkel
China, for one, sees the incumbent German Chancellor as the ‘mother if not grandmother’ of all of Europe. Her likely victory will be good news for her nation, and the planet.
Britain, Poland and even Germany are all examples of how having women in power doesn’t necessarily translate into greater social or economic power for women.
-Analysis- SAO PAULO — The G20, the club gathering the world’s biggest economies, is the offspring of two crises. First, the 1997 Asian financial crisis led to the creation of the group in 1999, as an annual summit for finance ministers and central bank governors. Their objective back then was to coordinate policies to stabilize […]
-OpEd- BERLIN — Last year Angela Merkel said that “the welfare of Africa is in the German interest.” Since then, the Chancellor has spoken more about Africa than any of her predecessors and has made the continent a priority for Germany’s G-20 chairmanship this year. On Monday, the German Chancellor invited eight African leaders to […]
PARIS — When the migrant crisis started spinning out of control in the summer of 2015, a deep fracture appeared inside the European Union, between countries willing to open their doors and countries ready to erect walls to block the flow of incoming migrants. The tension culminated in late September of that year, when the […]
Yesterday, as he announced the United States’ withdrawal from the historic Paris climate agreement, President Donald Trump appeared particularly eager to deride the perceived exploitation of America in past international negotiations. “We don’t want other leaders and other countries laughing at us anymore, and they won’t be.” No, Mr. President, no one is laughing today. […]
-Analysis- Donald Trump makes a lot of noise. In the past week alone, he made headlines for saying he thought being president of the United States “would be easier” and for calling North Korea’s Kim Jong-un “a tough cookie.” But friends and foes alike have advised us to pay attention to what he does more […]
Monday’s edition of Die Tageszeitung features a front page that, at best, we can call overly creative. The Berlin daily’s editors unlikely photoshopped mash-up is a blend of two big stories from over the weekend : the death Saturday of rock’n’roll legend Chuck Berry at the age of 90, and the unanimous selection Sunday of […]
-Analysis- BERLIN — On Saturday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Donald Trump released a joint statement regarding their first phone call earlier that day. The statement about their 45-minute conversation noted — in the neutral tone common to all statements of this kind — that a wide range of topics were discussed: NATO, […]
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Merkel After The Christmas Market
For some, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has become both the economic and moral leader of Europe. From tackling the eurozone’s debt crisis to countering Russian ambitions to bucking the tide of populism to welcome a million refugees into her country last year, Merkel has been lauded for her quiet but principled pragmatism in the face […]
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Charlie Hebdo Goes To Germany
Angela Merkel — and well, just about everyone else in Germany — better brace themselves. French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo launched a German version Thursday, the first version of the often cheeky, sometimes offensive weekly, in another language and country. The new version comes nearly two years after a jihadist attack at the Charlie Hebdo […]
–OpEd- BERLIN — It’s been said that house guests are like dead fish: After three days they start to smell. When it comes to government officials, it usually takes a little longer. Americans make a president clear out of the White House after eight years, at the latest. That’s smart. Heads of government in Germany […]
We first had “Merkozy,” a marriage of convenience between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy made to counter the European debt crisis. Then the pair was forced to part ways when Sarkozy lost to current French President Francois Hollande. Merkel and Hollande’s relationship was always awkward, with one newspaper saying “there […]
Not much is known for sure of Trump’s foreign policy agenda, which is why Angela Merkel does not stop at the perfunctory congratulations to Donald Trump.
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Germany Caught Between Its Past And Turkey
Turkey, past and present, is a particularly tough balancing act for Angela Merkel. On the one hand, Germany’s own past means its leaders face a bigger responsibility than those of other nations to officially recognize the 1915 killings of 1.5 million Armenians as a genocide. But Berlin knows that it is an immensely sensitive topic […]
SPOTLIGHT: TERROR REACHES GERMANY Though Germany has been at the center of Europe’s debate over refugees, it had largely been spared the kind of terrorist attacks that have struck neighboring France. But now, in the span of just a few days, Germany suddenly finds itself struggling to make sense of a string of violent attacks […]
SPOTLIGHT: WHY ORLANDO IS DIFFERENT After every horrific attack on the innocent, the press and public take stock of what has been wrought by turning to the past. And so it is with the cold-blooded killing of 50 people early Sunday in a nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We recall mass shootings in places like Columbine, […]
On the front page of its Monday edition, Düsseldorf-based daily Rheinische Post ran a solemn picture of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande standing side by side at a cemetery in northeastern France, to mark “100 years after” the World War I Battle of Verdun. The Battle of Verdun was one of […]
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It’s Trump, Water Scarcity, Yogurt Dreams
TRUMP TRIUMPHS, CRUZ QUITS The improbable and, in the view of some prominent Republicans, unacceptable, has come to pass: It will be Trump. The Washington Post reports that short of some unforeseen twist, the controversial real estate tycoon Donald Trump will become the GOP’s presidential nominee after a landslide victory in Indiana yesterday pushed his […]
CRUZ AND KASICH TEAM UP AGAINST TRUMP U.S. Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich have announced their plan to team up against rival Donald Trump in order to prevent him from gathering the 1,237 delegates needed to win the Republican nomination outright, The Washington Post reports. Sen. Cruz (Texas) is set to stop […]
SYRIA PEACE TALKS IN GENEVA Syrian opposition negotiator Mohamad Alloush said during the Geneva Syria peace talks Saturday that Syria’s political transition could only start once Bashar al-Assad was no longer president. “We consider that the transitional period starts with the fall of Bashar al-Assad or his death,” The Jerusalem Post quoted him as saying. […]
DESPITE VIOLATIONS, SYRIA TRUCE STANDS Saudi Arabia accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and its ally Russia of “ceasefire violations” yesterday, Al Arabiya reports. “We are discussing this with (the 17-nation) Syria Support Group,” co-chaired by Russia and the United States, said Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. Despite the accusations of 15 ceasefire breaches of […]
TALIBAN AIRPORT SIEGE FINALLY ENDS Afghan forces have broken the Taliban siege on the Kandahar airport more than 24 hours after the attack began, AP quotes the country’s Defense Ministry as saying. The assailants killed at least 50 people, among them 38 civilians, 10 Afghan soldiers and two police officers. The 11 gunmen who carried […]
CALIFORNIA SHOOTING: 14 DEAD, COUPLE SUSPECTED Photo: David Bauman/Press-Enterprise/ZUMA Police have identified a couple in their late 20s as the two shooters in the latest mass killing in the United States that left at least 14 people dead and 17 injured Wednesday in the southern Californian city of San Bernardino. UK BEGINS SYRIA STRIKES Britain’s […]
Faced with enormous challenges both at home and abroad, China reveals itself as a land of double standards and growing uncertainty.
SYRIAN ARMY TAKES BACK KEY AIR BASE FROM ISIS The Syrian army has regained control of the Kwairis military airbase, near the northern city of Aleppo, ending a siege that started in April 2013 and was reinforced by ISIS in the spring of 2014, the Syrian Arab News Agency reports. According to experts quoted by […]
BEIJING — Over the past month President Xi Jinping made a state visit to the United States and to the United Kingdom. In the U.S. he was welcomed with a 21-gun salute on the south lawn of the White House followed by a state banquet. In Britain he was greeted by the Queen, and rode […]
XI IN THE UK Chinese President Xi Jinping will arrive in Britain today for his first state visit to the country, a sign of the current “golden era” between London and Beijing, The Guardian reports. In contrast to Xi’s recent U.S. visit, which was marked by tensions over cyber security, the two countries are expected […]
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EU Migrant Meeting, VW Recall, Boorish Boris
EU LEADERS TO DISCUSS REFUGEE SOLUTIONS EU leaders are set to meet in Brussels today to discuss measures that could help stem the flow of refugees, with a focus on countries outside of Europe such as Turkey, Euronews reports. In a speech to German parliament this morning, Chancellor Angela Merkel said providing more support to […]
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Hillary Holds, Dilma Sinks, Sodom Found
U.S.-RUSSIA TALKS OVER SYRIA CAMPAIGNS U.S. and Russian officials are expected to meet today for a third round of talks to discuss safety procedures in their respective Syrian campaigns after what the BBC describes as a “near-miss” on Saturday. American and Russian warplanes were reportedly in visual contact and within miles of each other. According […]
The bloody Syrian stalemate unites Russia and the West, in a shared urgency to defeat ISIS. But the Syrian dictator, also an ISIS foe, should not be seen as a lesser evil.
BERLIN — German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière has leveled harsh criticisms of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to allow refugees to enter the country from Hungary earlier this month, describing the migrant situation in the country as chaotic, the weekly Der Spiegel reports. Speaking on the television network ZDF (at 33:30), de Maizière, a member […]
Despite some hopes inside and outside of Greece that a political coalition will emerge in Athens to lift the country out of crisis, the nation’s deeper forces do not bode well.
GERMANY REINSTATES BORDER CONTROLS In an unexpected reversal of Germany refugee policy, the country has introduced temporary controls on its border with Austria and halted all cross-border train traffic with its neighbor. The decision to temporarily exit the Schengen open-border system comes after German regions said they could no longer cope with a record influx […]
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Extra! Merkel’s Border U-Turn
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sept. 14, 2015 Germany introduced temporary controls at its border with Austria Sunday in an attempt to slow down the influx of refugees into the country, as the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote on its front page Monday. Shortly after Berlin’s unexpected move, border control officers started conducting passport checks near Austria. […]
ISIS MAKING CHEMICAL WEAPONS U.S. officials believe that ISIS has a specific cell dedicated to making chemical weapons, and they’ve identified at least four occasions when the terrorist group used them, the BBC reports. “They’re using mustard. We know they are,” an unnamed official said. Yesterday, the BBC reported about new evidence showing that all […]
BANGKOK BOMBER STILL AT LARGE Bangkok police are still looking for a man in a yellow T-shirt who was shown on CCTV footage dumping a backpack Monday at the scene of the Bangkok Erawan shrine bombing that killed at least 20. VERBATIM “Is it even possible that four men can rape a woman? It’s not […]
Banks are back, the stock market has reopened and all economic signs (including the banks and stock market) are disastrous. Normalcy has returned to Greece! The more serious truth is that the deal signed last month by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras — which includes new austerity measures in exchange for a third bailout to […]
GREEK BANKS REOPEN Photo: Marios Lolos/Xinhua/ZUMA Greek banks reopened today for the first time in three weeks, marking the return of some semblance of normalcy for the bankrupt country. VERBATIM “The conditions of the agreement, however, are positively alarming for those who still believe in the future of Europe,” former International Monetary Fund director Dominique […]