Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany, announced on Friday that he had cut a deal with the Green Party to allow extensive new government spending for defense, infrastructure and projects related to climate change, appearing to seal the votes for a stunning turnabout in German fiscal policy before he even takes office. The…
Germany’s centrist politicians are losing votes to the far right and the far left. They are losing faith in America, their longtime friend and protector. And they are rapidly losing what could be their best chance to address both those problems at once. The German government in waiting, led by the likely next chancellor, Friedrich…
Almost since Amtrak’s creation in 1971, the 21,000-mile U.S. intercity passenger rail service has been fighting calls that it should be privatized. Now it may have met one of its most aggressive and powerful skeptics yet. Speaking at a tech conference on Wednesday, Elon Musk added Amtrak to the list of government-funded services on his…
Ever since the Berlin Wall fell and the country reunited, Germans could be expected to keep budget deficits relatively low, military spending even lower, and politics at a plodding pace. The next German government is smashing all those traditions before it even takes office. Friedrich Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democrats and the…
The leaders of more than half of Africa’s nations gathered this week in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s sprawling seaside metropolis, to commit to the biggest burst of spending on electric-power generation in Africa’s history. The World Bank, African Development Bank and others are pledging at least $35 billion to expand electricity across a continent where…
Mark Zuckerberg spent all of 2024 telling investors that artificial intelligence would be key to the future of his company, Meta. In 2025, he plans to put his money where his mouth is. On Friday, Mr. Zuckerberg said the company expected its capital expenditures in 2025 to come in at an estimated $60 to $65…
The morning the cease-fire in Gaza went into effect, masked members of Hamas’s military wing drove through the streets of Gaza in clean, white pickups, carrying Hamas flags and automatic rifles. The militants were also carrying an unambiguous message: However weakened, Hamas survived Israel’s 15-month bombing campaign in Gaza and remains the most powerful Palestinian…