BERLIN — When Angela Merkel became chancellor 16 years ago, George W. Bush was in the White House and Tony Blair was prime minister of Britain. There was no Twitter and no iPhone. Liberal democracy was in seemingly irreversible expansion, with the Orange Revolution having swept Ukraine. On Wednesday, asContinue Reading
BERLIN — They promised they would “hunt” the elites. They questioned the need for a Holocaust memorial in Berlin and described Muslim immigrants as “head scarf girls” and “knife men.” Four years ago the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, arrived in the German Parliament like a wrecking ball, the firstContinue Reading
BERLIN — The head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Sunday that the security bloc would grant fast-track membership to Sweden and Finland, raising the pressure on Vladimir V. Putin, who justified his invasion of Ukraine by what he cast as the need to keep the military alliance awayContinue Reading
BERLIN — Ukrainians fleeing war in their homeland remain vulnerable when arriving in Germany, the authorities in Berlin have warned, saying that thieves have been targeting the refugees — mostly women and children — at Berlin’s main train station and bus depot. The police have hung fliers printed in bothContinue Reading
LONDON — Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office at 10 Downing Street on Thursday afternoon, waving Ukrainian flags and demanding more stringent sanctions and broader action from Britain in response to Russia’s military action. Chants of “Putin, hands off Ukraine” and “U.K. support Ukraine” echoed fromContinue Reading