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chassnews.bsky.social
FT Berlin bureau chief, former Companies editor, World editor and Paris bureau chief
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#EUDefence: #Germany’s #Merz strikes debt deal to fund defence and infrastructure, by @chassnews.bsky.social and Laura Pitel | Financial Times

Unglaublich, Merz did it - debt brake reform AND EU500bn for Germany's infrastructures Germany’s Merz strikes 'sea-change' debt deal to fund massive boost to defence and infrastructure www.ft.com/content/316e...

Remarkable how fast the debate over debt has shifted in Berlin - top economists are urging up to EU800bn in new borrowings for defence and infra ->Germany’s Friedrich Merz weighs ‘double bazooka’ for defence and infrastructure ft.com/content/1996... @ft w/ @olafstorbeck.ft.com

As European finance ministers gather at the G20 🇿🇦 to discuss increasing defence spending, we explain their options - with @chassnews.bsky.social and Sam Fleming on.ft.com/43gCjeg

How Scholz’s party is losing ground in Germany’s industrial heartland - @chassnews.bsky.social in Bochum on.ft.com/4hEnRAZ

“When I listen to Scholz, it’s ‘we did this, we’ve done that’. And everyone is wondering: where? You would think he lives in another world” - Dispatch from the Ruhr valley, where Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats are losing ground www.ft.com/content/27c9...

Der polnische Premier hat auch was zu sagen.

Vance Lays Blame For Europe's Plight On 'Treat From Within' ▫US vice-president sparks fury ▫Democratic values questioned ▫Russia menace played down @henryjfoy.ft.com @felschwartz @laurapitel @chassnews.bsky.social #frontpagestoday #UK @FT

A few thoughts on where we stand after the opening night of Trump does Ukraine. The first glimpse of substance from Hegseth suggests huge concessions will be demanded from Kyiv with no sign of similar pressure on Moscow - rather the reverse, with Trump running hard after Putin. My conclusion? 1/7

As Germany's center right flirts with loosening austerity and assails incumbents for ignoring deindustrialization, the center left attacks them for trying to privatize Deutsche Bahn, per @chassnews.bsky.social. "That will end as badly as in England, where nothing works." www.ft.com/content/1601...

The way things are going in the US, the rest of the world have to become imaginative about the scenarios that would best safeguard their interests. Today I ask if the world could decouple from US trade. For most countries, the answer is yes, at a significant but bearable cost. on.ft.com/41eWTKF

A Forsa poll today shows Friedrich Merz's migration maneouver to lure back voters tempted by the AfD may have backfired. My take on his campaign and plan for Europe's largest economy: Can Friedrich Merz fix Germany? ft.com/content/4dcf... via @financialtimes.com #Wahlkampf

My Brussels colleagues reveal the EU is preparing to use its newly-created "anti-coercion instrument" against the US, a highly flexible and potentially v powerful tool which allows it to target tech by suspending IP, stopping software downloads etc. 1/2 on.ft.com/3Er4tsq

A Forsa poll today shows Friedrich Merz's migration maneouver to lure back voters tempted by the AfD may have backfired. My take on his campaign and plan for Europe's largest economy: Can Friedrich Merz fix Germany? ft.com/content/4dcf... via @financialtimes.com #Wahlkampf

But flirting never works, does it? My update on Merz’s campaign gambit www.ft.com/content/58e7...

But flirting never works, does it? My update on Merz’s campaign gambit www.ft.com/content/58e7...

“My father was more about how you get closed societies to become open, and my task within the foundation is how do you renew open societies from within?” www.ft.com/content/fdde...

www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/w...

“Last time the Democrats brought a knife to a gunfight,” Marsh said. “Now there’s not even a knife.” www.ft.com/content/862e... @guychazan.bsky.social

The oligarchy is snapping up houses in DC www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/u...

Say Hello to Florian Müller, the FT’s new Frankfurt Banking Correspondent - and his fist splash Commerzbank explores thousands of job cuts in answer to Andrea Orcel on.ft.com/40EpEjA

Canada’s former finance minister Chrystia Freeland is running to be the country’s next prime minister after Justin Trudeau stepped down earlier this month. www.ft.com/content/f34e...

We looked at the legacy of the Scholz's shortlived coalition - in charts : www.ft.com/content/be14... w/ @olafstorbeck.bsky.social Laura Pitel and @data.ft.com team

“it would take me 20 years” to make the same progress in the more centre-right Christian Democrats. - Laura Pitel and @chassnews.bsky.social talked to an old Goldman colleague of Alice Weidel www.ft.com/content/2219...

‘Meta loosened rules so people could post statements saying they hated people of certain races, religions or sexual orientations.. It removed a rule that forbade users from saying people of certain races were responsible for spreading the coronavirus.’ www.nytimes.com/2025/01/10/t...

The correlation between distance from Moscow and military aid to Ukraine / #defence spending is quite strong. This and more in my latest for @economist.com on divisions within Europe. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

so much to enjoy in this gem of a story. on.ft.com/4jaW3Wc

German elex: We've looked at party donations and made a few interesting discoveries: www.ft.com/content/5ebe...

“If you stop being the devil, if you ‘detoxify’, then you just become the rightwing,” he told the FT in 2015 at his mansion, which featured a life-size painting of him dressed as a pirate. “There is no longer a raison d’être for the FN.” @chassnews.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/da4f...

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Lars Kenseth. #NewYorkerCartoons

Die #Welt veröffentlicht morgen einen Gastbeitrag von Elon Musk, in dem dieser für die AfD wirbt. Die Leiterin des Meinungsressorts hat jetzt ihre Kündigung eingereicht, Kritik kommt außerdem vom Redaktionsausschuss. medieninsider.com/elon-musk-he...

German election 2025: What are the main campaign pledges?—On February 23, they will decide which parties will be given the task of reviving the Eurozone’s largest economy, which faces… www.ft.com/content/2e47... @financialtimes1.bsky.social @chassnews.bsky.social

“Es war die Tat eines Islamisten«, ruft Weidel in die Menge, und es scheint ihr egal zu sein, dass der Todesfahrer von Magdeburg genau das offenbar nicht war: ein Islamist www.spiegel.de/politik/deut...

“A 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar.” Peter Neumann, expert in terrorism at King’s College

“Germany could be the canary in the coal mine for Western societies” www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/o...

We have a Hub Page on the 2025 German elections - Los geht's ! www.ft.com/german-elect...

“We need radical change now. The business model is just going to have to be a different one. It’s no longer going to be based on cheap Russian gas, the US for security and China for exports. This time is over.” - @guntramwolff.bsky.social on EU to @chassnews.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/39d8...

Vertrauensfrage Tag in Germany - Scholz has to suffer the parliamentary defeat to allow early elections, according to the Constitution. (The last one was in 2005, Schröder went on to lose narrowly to Merkel)

The Financial Times uncovered records showing that Assad’s regime, while desperately short of foreign currency, flew banknotes weighing nearly two tonnes in $100 bills and €500 notes into Moscow’s Vnukovo airport to be deposited at sanctioned Russian banks between 2018 and 2019. on.ft.com/3DdReLh

Pope Francis arrived in Corsica, a stronghold of the Catholic faith, on Sunday, with locals hotly anticipating the first-ever trip by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean island. tinyurl.com/4b4h6sd2

“Hours before he escaped for Moscow, Assad assured a meeting of about 30 army and security chiefs at the defence ministry on Saturday that Russian military support was on its way and urged ground forces to hold out.“ Great reporting here. www.reuters.com/world/middle...

And the most-read story on FT website is : www.ft.com/content/7cc7...

The secret talks are partly in anticipation of the return of Donald Trump, who in his first presidency threatened to take the US out of Nato if Europe did not spend more on defence. www.ft.com/content/c494...

I mean. Leaving aside everything else they’ve done the Murdochs have added so much to fractious billionaire family canon

There is an incredible essay by Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on imprisonment & the meaning of freedom in the FT Edit app today. She writes about what books meant to her during that time in Iran, and how taking away a person’s ability to think herself away to a different place is a form of torture.

"Merkel, a one-person case for constitutional term limits..." Janan Ganesh at his (nasty) best : www.ft.com/content/ee6e...

Wonderful on Notre Dame www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Macron’s ex-PM wardrobe getting full