Andreas Kluth

As the coronavirus spread through Europe last year, cartoons and posts began going up on French social media that might as well have come straight from the 14th century. In one series, Agnes Buzyn, who is Jewish and was France’s health minister until February 2020, was depicted with grotesquely…

Germans are known for angst in general, and angst about inflation in particular. After all, hyperinflation during the Weimar Republic led to the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, right? That collective memory has been cited countless times both inside and outside of Germany as the…

Let me ask you an honest question. How do you feel about Mindestbeitragsbemessungsgrundlage? Your answer could determine how you’d vote in Germany’s federal election on Sept. 26, because the center-left Greens make much of it in their party platform — although it’s not entirely clear what it is, or…

There must be no repeat of 2015. That’s been the refrain from politicians across the European Union as they watch the unfolding humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, which can be expected sooner or later to cause renewed mass migration. These European politicians include candidates for…

To mitigate a huge problem like climate change, we need to be open to big ideas. One of these has been around since the 1990s but may only now be ready for prime time: the issuance of tradable carbon allowances not only to companies (as in existing cap-and-trade systems) but to all of us…

Was the revelation shocking or not? It’s hard to say. On the face of it, the new satellite evidence should have all of us gasping. China appears to be building between 100 and 200 silos to store and potentially launch intercontinental missiles with nuclear warheads. We previously knew of only about…

As long ago as 2010, an innocent time when borders were open and pandemics were the subject of TED talks rather than daily headlines, Dutch researchers discovered that most people who go on holiday trips are no happier when they return. Americans, notorious for their workaholism, were said to be…

There she was again, the proverbial mother of the nation, walking somberly through the rubble and mud of a nearly destroyed town called Schuld, which happens to be German for “guilt.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, two months before an election that will usher her out of politics and into…

Just months before she retires from politics, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is jetting to Washington to meet US President Joe Biden. The event will be staged to show a return to transatlantic harmony after four years of acrimony under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump. But to keep up those…

Japan, the country that gave us the word “karoshi” for “death from overwork,” is thinking about introducing an optional four-day workweek. The idea has also come up in Iceland, New Zealand, Spain and other places. It’s in fact so obvious, some wise people in the past would be gobsmacked to learn…