politicodiary

A post Merkel era is going to be a new birth for Germany- growing up from being protected and hand held from running the show on your own, for a change.... Termed as the ‘traffic light coalition’, there is a wave of change to see, with the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) having agreed to form a new government headed by the SDP’s Olaf Scholz. It is going to be a rough ride- with all three parties having to come to a common ground and footing. While the Greens are hugely focused on the environment, the FDP is looking at pushing for its agenda of a free market orthodoxy, and the SDP is obsessively for redistributive social democracy. Will they find a common ground to work on after a successful 16 years of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) dominating the highest levels of Germany politics? Time will tell! One can also look at the way all three are functioning vis-a-vie the distribution of ministries is concerned. It s...

  The world’s busiest coal port in Australia, the Newcastle coal port was put to halt by two climate activists, Zianna and Hannah, who strapped themselves atop equipment at the Port of Newcastle and stopped work there late November 16 th night. They represent the climate group, Blockade Australia, which is focused on “strategic direct action,”. They have to be removed before the port resume normal work. They said, “This is the tenth consecutive day of disruption to Newcastle coal port and its supply rail network.” The group shared that, there were 16 similar activities being conducted over the last week or so, some targeting the rail line near the port, the world’s largest for coal exports. In another incident, a group of activists breached the port and ‘hit emergency stop buttons’ on machines before strapping themselves to different pieces of equipment. Later they were brought down and arrested after ‘several hours’ and are now expected to appear in court in the ...