Germany has had a less-than-stellar 2018. With a weakened chancellor, squabbling government, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD) firmly ensconced in parliament, and neo-Nazi riots in Chemnitz, the country has been through a lot. But the challenging year has given a party started by anti-establishment radicals in 1980 the opportunity to shine.
It’s the end of an era for Carlos Ghosn. Nissan voted unanimously to get rid of its chairman over a finance scandal that has gripped Japan, where the car boss was revered, and freaked out France about the future of the longstanding alliance between Nissan and Renault.
The world’s biggest automotive partnership took a major blow today with news that Carlos Ghosn, leader of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, has been arrested by authorities in Tokyo over alleged financial violations.
Since the election of Donald Trump and the UK’s decision to exit the European Union, German chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly stressed the need for Europe to come together and take its fate into its own hands. On Sunday, she spoke at a Paris Peace Forum against governments only looking to their national interests, saying an agreement like the 1948 UN Declaration of Human Rights wouldn’t be achievable in today’s world. “If isolation wasn’t the solution 100 years ago, how can it be today in such an interconnected world?” Merkel said.
This month is one of significant anniversaries in Germany. On Nov. 9, the country celebrated 29 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall, and commemorated 80 years since the horrific Night of Broken Glass, which preceded World War II. Sunday marked 100 years since the end of World War I. And today, Nov. 12, marks 100 years since German women were granted the right to vote, with the birth of the new Weimar Republic.
Eighty years ago today, the Nazis instigated a horrific two-day mob attack against Germany’s Jews, smashing and looting thousands of Jewish homes and businesses and destroying more than 1,000 synagogues. The Nazis called it “Kristallnacht.” In English it became known as the Night of Broken Glass. At least 91 Jewish people were killed, and the Nazis rounded up some 30,000 Jewish men and sent them to concentration camps. Those who could, fled. Millions who couldn’t escape would later perish in the Holocaust.
Filmmaker and vintner Francis Ford Coppola is jumping on the California cannabis bandwagon, announcing this week that he’s launching a cannabis lifestyle brand called the Grower’s Series. Under it, he’ll sell a limited-edition collection of three different weed strains offering “distinct and memorable experiences.”
Warren Buffett, perhaps the world’s most famous investor, recently had a novel idea for where to put his company’s cash: for the first time since 2012, Berkshire Hathaway bought stock in… Berkshire Hathaway.
North Korea is upping the ante ahead of a possible second summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, with a threat to resume its nuclear development program if the US-led sanctions against it are not lifted, AP reports.
Angela Merkel’s sudden announcement this week that she would step aside as leader of the Christian Democrats, and would not seek reelection as chancellor again in 2021, sent shock waves around Germany and Europe. Even though the chancellor had not been expected to run again after her fourth term ended, that didn’t stop the media from pulling out all the stops with wistful “end of an era” headlines and pictures of a solitary Merkel.
Formula 1 is one of the few sports in which both sexes are free to compete on a level playing field. Yet it persists as one of the last male-dominated bastions in the sporting world. The last woman to score a point in a F1 race was Italian Lella Lombardi, who came in sixth in the Spanish Grand Prix in 1975.
German chancellor Angela Merkel has begun the end of her long political career. Saying it was “time to open a new chapter,” Merkel announced today (Oct. 29) that she would not run again for leadership of the Christian Democratic Union at the party’s next congress in December. She also confirmed that she would not run for chancellor in the 2021 general election, after 13 years at the country’s helm.
In 2016, Google announced its plans to convert a former electrical substation into a new 3,000-square-foot campus in Berlin’s trendy Kreuzberg district. Locals have been protesting ever since.
In the wake of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and the eventual admission by Saudi Arabia that he’d been murdered in its Istanbul embassy, pressure has been building for governments to take a stand against the kingdom.
The Spanish can lay claim to a beautiful country, huge amounts of sunshine, and an enviable lifestyle. Now, according to a new survey from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, published in the Lancet, its inhabitants can look forward to the longest life expectancy in the world—an average of 85.8 years by 2040.
Herbert Diess is full of doom and gloom. Addressing an automotive supplier’s conference in Wolfsburg today (Oct. 16), the Volkswagen CEO painted a dark picture of what’s ahead for the German auto industry as it faces big, urgent changes, such as adapting to new EU emissions regulations, diesel bans, and the switch to electrification.
With the rise of nationalist, populist parties across much of Europe, taking a hard line on immigration has proved to be a winning strategy for many politicians seeking power. But that tactic backfired badly on Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU) this weekend.
German cities suffer from terrible air quality, partly as a result of the thousands of old, pollution-spilling diesel cars clogging up their streets. Despite this, government officials have been tying themselves in knots to avoid bans on diesel cars in the country’s most polluted cities, ostensibly to protect the country’s powerful car industry.
UK prime minister Theresa May sounded steely today (Sept. 21) as she made a surprise speech in the wake of stalled Brexit talks with the European Union. But despite her fierce tone, analysts pointed out that her speech contained no changes to the current Brexit proposals—and was more about saving political face.
Does Jeff Bezos dream of being chased through a dark forest by Margrethe Vestager? He should. This year alone, the European Union’s competition commissioner stalled Apple’s Shazam acquisition (it’s cleared now), fined Qualcomm $1.23 billion, and hit Google with a $5 billion fine for Android anti-trust violations.
Angela Merkel’s fourth term has been anything but easy so far. Perhaps the biggest thorn in her side has been interior minister Horst Seehofer, whose hardline stance on migration has forced the chancellor to steadily rein in her open-door refugee policy.
The world’s first commercial train powered entirely by hydrogen fuel cells took to the tracks today in northern Germany. The Coradia iLint, developed by French rail company Alstom, will now ferry passengers on a 100km (62-mile) stretch of rail line between the towns of Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde, and Buxtehude in Lower Saxony.
VW announced on Thursday that the final Beetle will roll off the production line next year. “The loss of the Beetle after three generations, over nearly seven decades, will evoke a host of emotions from the Beetle’s many devoted fans,” said Volkswagen America CEO Hinrich Woebcken.
Germany may have set laudable goals for its ambitious “Energiewende”—or shift to a low-carbon economy—but it is still struggling to free itself from fossil fuels, in particular electricity generated from coal’s dirtier cousin lignite. In the latest demonstration of this struggle, an ancient forest is about to be razed in order to expand what is already Europe’s largest opencast mine.
