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brief update: I'm now back in Berlin full-time. What Germany stories should the Economist cover? Send me your ideas/invite me to your events/suggest meeting for coffee etc. DMs open
Tom Nuttall
22.3K posts
Tom Nuttall
@tom_nuttall
Berlin bureau chief (again), the Economist. Formerly of Los Angeles, Brussels and London. Polycrisis veteran, music nut.
Berlin
Born October 27
Joined August 2008
- Can't believe I didn't know Folkestone holds an annual Kate Bush day where thousands of women convene on the harbour to dance to Wuthering Heights together
- Don't cry 4-3 Argentina
- Blistering response by Boris Pistorius, Germany's defence minister, to JD Vance's speech at #MSC. "Democracy does not mean that a vociferous minority can decide what truth is...democracy must be able to defend itself against extremists". Transatlantic divide on full display
- Got chatting to two Finns in a Berlin bar last night. Asked them how it felt to be consistently ranked the happiest nation in the world. Their reply: "We don't trust the methodology."Finland has compulsory national service. It's also the happiest country on earth, with unusually high levels of mutual trust. Are the two connected? For the cover of this week's News Review, I spent a week there find out thetimes.co.uk/article/finlan…
- Zelensky delivers a difficult speech to the Bundestag, and MPs immediately, awkwardly move on to other business. If Scholz's Zeitenwende is to be worthy of the name, parliament will have to get stuck in too.
- This clip is all over German and Austrian political Twitter this morning.
- Ukraine's courage and resilience is almost unbearably moving.
- The German press reports that JD Vance met with AfD co-leader Alice Weidel after his speech in Munich today. (Vance refused to meet Olaf Scholz, Germany's chancellor.)Exklusiv: Nach ZDF-Informationen hat sich US-Vizepräsident J.D. Vance am Nachmittag nach seiner Rede auf der Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz mit AfD-Chefin Alice Weidel getroffen. Man habe ca. 30 Minuten gesprochen. Über den Ukraine-Krieg & deutsche Innenpolitik - u.a. Brandmauer.
- This has been retweeted by Germans across the political spectrum, including a cabinet minister. It's genuinely the closest I've seen the country come to patriotism.Boris Johnson confronted over claim no country has working coronavirus app
00:00 - Still two countries: how Germany voted. (Black=Union; blue=AfD).
- For those with whiplash, some of the changes to German foreign & security policy in the last week: - de facto death of Nord Stream 2 - substantial arms deliveries to Ukraine, directly and via 3rd countries - €100bn investment in armed forces & commitment to 2% NATO goal (1/2)
