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Playing the tough guy

Angela Merkel is losing her patience.

Gone is the calm, the poise and the consistency that has defined so much of the German Chancellor's persona: a political veteran who saw through a euro crisis, a refugee emergency and stoically endured the Donald Trump era.

But Covid-19 has taken its toll on Europe's elder statesman as she nears the end of her 16 years running the continent's economic motor with a steady hand. Germany is flailing as the pandemic strikes again, not enough people are vaccinated and state leaders are dragging their feet.

Merkel is now threatening to assert federal authority over measures to stem infections. It's a blunt political instrument, and one rarely used.

It's a sign of her exasperation that Merkel's even considering it. But lately, she's acted increasingly out of character. Last week, she hastily announced a hard lockdown over Easter, only to quickly back out when it proved politically unpopular, publicly apologizing for the bungled plan.

The scale of the crisis demands harsher restrictions that state leaders are unwilling to enact. People are fed up of being cooped up.

For Merkel, it might be easier to play the bad guy. Her chancellorship ends in September. In the background, the race to succeed her is wide open with lots of politicking.

Her uneven stewardship of the pandemic threatens to taint her legacy and, with the little time she has left, she needs to restore a sense of order. — Flavia Krause-Jackson

Merkel speaking in the Bundestag last week on the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg

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Global Headlines

Biden's gambit | U.S. President Joe Biden will this week unveil his roughly $3 trillion infrastructure-and-jobs program as well as a glimpse of his 2022 budget, setting the stage for a bitter fight on Capitol Hill. As Erik Wasson and Justin Sink explain, the announcements will offer the first concrete details of Biden's plan to expand and reorient the federal government.

  • The White House is boosting efforts to protect the U.S. power grid from hackers, sources said.

Not sorry | President Emmanuel Macron says he has "no remorse" over France's handling of the Covid-19 epidemic, even after infections spiraled out of control. A year from now voters will cast their verdict on Macron's performance amid mounting evidence his self-confidence is a turn-off. By contrast, far-right leader Marine Le Pen is striking a humble tone and the rivals are practically neck and neck in the polls.

Rising protectionism | Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has sent a bill to congress that would give state oil company Pemex greater control over the domestic fuel market. Lopez Obrador is seeking to burnish his nationalist credentials two months from a midterm election, even as the move to protect aging state companies may further harm Mexico's business climate.

Supply shock | The pandemic-fueled explosion in demand for chips vital to everything from cars to smartphones has triggered an unprecedented global shortage and pushed politicians from Washington to Beijing into crisis control. With the two producers of the vast majority of the most advanced silicon — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics — lacking capacity to meet demand, the bottleneck could last several quarters or even into next year.

A fabricated wafer at a Samsung showroom in Seoul on Aug. 2, 2019. 

Photographer: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images 

In a corner | Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is under pressure to join other countries in sanctioning China over human-rights violations as he prepares for his first face-to-face summit with Biden. Isabel Reynolds explains that Japan has long resisted economic penalties on its largest trading partner, but some in the ruling party are calling for Suga to take a more radical line.

What to Watch This Week

  • The Ever Given container ship stuck in the Suez Canal has been refloated, and its position moved about 80%, but maneuvers will continue this morning around high tide, the Canal Authority said.
  • Trump's planned social-media platform should debut within four months, the former president's one-time campaign manager and senior adviser said.
  • An attack by Islamic State-linked militants on a Mozambican town near a $20 billion liquefied natural gas project that Total is building killed dozens of people, the government said yesterday.
  • Slovakia's government parties agreed to a cabinet reshuffle that will likely lead to the resignation of Prime Minister Igor Matovic to quell a political crisis triggered by the purchase of Russian Covid-19 vaccines.

Thanks to the more than 50 people who answered our quiz on Friday and congratulations to Karen Myers, who was the first to name H&M as the European clothing chain that was targeted by a Chinese consumer boycott after saying it wouldn't use cotton from Xinjiang.

And finally ... While there's talk in Washington and Riyadh of facilitating the end of the war in Yemen that's spread death, disease and hunger for six years, intensified fighting in the mountains guarding the oil-rich Marib province could render diplomacy futile. As Mohammed Hatem and Vivian Nereim report, the views of fighters loyal to both the Saudi-supported government and Iranian-backed Houthi rebels give little hope for peace.

A fighter loyal to the Saudi-backed government keeps watch over a valley near Yemen's third city of Taez on March 8.

Photographer: Ahmad Al-Basha/AFP/Getty Images 

 

 

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