Perhaps most remarkable of all, Merkel, who enjoys an 80% popularity rating, has overseen vastly expanded job opportunities for women and the old, all while taking in more than a million refugees ft.com/content/259523…
With unemployment near a two-decade low, almost 70% of Germans say they are happy with their economic situation. However, not all of that success is thanks to Merkel, but to her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder ft.com/content/259523…
Arguably, the Merkel era’s biggest achievement has been an extraordinary rate of job creation — especially for women. Germany today has the highest rate of female labour force participation among all G7 countries ft.com/content/259523…
Despite the growth and rise in jobs, there has been little modernisation in Germany. Critics say that low rates of public investment have left the country ill-prepared for the future ft.com/content/259523…
Germany’s shift to the digital economy has also not been strong. Lack of investment has led to low penetration of high-speed broadband and below-average mobile broadband data consumption ft.com/content/259523…
Who will succeed Angela Merkel to become Germany's next chancellor? Follow our poll tracker here: ft.com/content/5885e9…
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The north of England is turning Tory – and it can’t be blamed on Brexit alone. Things have shifted in Labour’s heartlands, and to understand why we need to look at how the region has changed since 1980👇 ft.com/content/929022…
Our Whitehall editor @SebastianEPayne has travelled 6,000 miles over the past year through 10 English constituencies that have traditionally been part of the ‘red wall’ of Labour’s northern strongholds – but fled the party for the first time in 2019 ft.com/content/929022…
Labour’s worst defeat since 1935 was instantly pinned on Brexit, combined with the unpopularity of its then leftwing leader Jeremy Corbyn. But @SebastianEPayne sensed something deeper had shifted ft.com/content/929022…
If you like beer, meat or soft drinks, you should care about surging gas prices.
Europe's food industry is braced for major disruption because of them. Here’s what has happened so far: ft.com/content/22497c…
Gas prices in the UK and Europe have surged to new highs in recent weeks, with traders warning that the region is heading into winter with record-low inventories ft.com/content/22497c…
Soaring natural gas prices are causing chaos among makers of ammonium nitrate, a staple fertiliser derived from the fuel which is critical to the supply of carbon dioxide ft.com/content/22497c…
The hits – and the killer business deals – just keep coming from the music industry’s most powerful CEO, Lucian Grainge. Beloved of stars like Taylor Swift, Elton John and The Weeknd, he’s about to take Universal public – with a potential $50bn valuation on.ft.com/2Xz2vBh
What does Lucian Grainge have that others don’t? In 2011, he scooped up most of EMI's labels, adding The Beatles, Coldplay & Katy Perry to his roster. A bigger market share allowed him to set terms with streaming platforms that powered an industry revival on.ft.com/2Xz2vBh
No music business legend – from Motown’s Berry Gordy to Atlantic Records’ Ahmet Ertegun – has ever controlled as much of the industry as Lucian Grainge does, says Chris Blackwell, who founded Island Records and signed Bob Marley on.ft.com/2Xz2vBh
China has hit out at Australia, the UK and US for playing ‘geopolitical games’ after they struck a new security pact to let Australia acquire eight nuclear-powered submarines. France is also upset by the deal.
'The creation of AUKUS fills the most important gap in the security web of the entire western Pacific,' said one Taiwanese national security official ft.com/content/6c1375…
Taiwan and Japan have hailed the Australia, UK and US security pact for its potential to offset an increasingly assertive China. But China’s foreign ministry spokesperson has accused the three countries of double standards ft.com/content/6c1375…
China has shaken markets and cryptocurrencies with its new regulations and tech crackdown. But why is the country taking such a hard stance and overhauling its governance? on.ft.com/3llFmKh
China’s president Xi Jinping is reinserting the party into the private sector and into family lives in a way that has not been seen since Deng launched the ‘reform and opening’ era in 1978 ft.com/content/bacf9b…
In a series of dramatic moves over the past year, from a crackdown on China’s biggest tech companies to strict time limits on playing video games, Xi Jinping is flirting with propaganda tools and intimidation tactics that many see as similar to the Mao era ft.com/content/bacf9b…
When Angela Merkel came to power the iPhone had yet to be launched, ExxonMobil was the US’s most valuable company and George W Bush and Tony Blair were still in office. What is her legacy as she steps down 16 years on? We asked Germany’s youth 👇ft.com/content/dab5f8…
Merkel steered Germany through shockwaves such as the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the EU’s sovereign debt crisis and the arrival of millions of refugees as new populist leaders stirred up nationalisms and questioned the European project ft.com/content/dab5f8…
One of those affected by Merkel’s immigration policy was Mohamed Sahly, a 13-year-old who fled Syria with his family in 2015, crossing the Aegean Sea on a small rubber dinghy with 40 other migrants. Today he lives in Berlin & dreams of becoming an engineer ft.com/content/dab5f8…