Picture Perfect: Decoding the Billionaires❜ Secret Partnership [VID]

𝖳𝗁𝖺𝗍'𝗌 𝗐𝗁𝗒 𝖫𝖾𝗀𝖾𝗇𝖽𝖺𝗋𝗒 𝖶𝖺𝗅𝗅 𝖲𝗍𝗋𝖾𝖾𝗍 𝗂𝗇𝗌𝗂𝖽𝖾𝗋 𝖢𝗁𝗋𝗂𝗌 𝖱𝗈𝗐𝖾 𝗋𝖾𝖺𝖼𝗁𝖾𝖽 𝗈𝗎𝗍 𝗍𝗈 𝗍𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗅𝗂𝗍𝗍𝗅𝖾 𝗄𝗇𝗈𝗐𝗇 𝖼𝗈𝗆𝗉𝖺𝗇𝗒… 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗀𝗈𝗍 𝗁𝗂𝗌 𝗁𝖺𝗇𝖽𝗌 𝗈𝗇 𝗋𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗉𝗋𝗂𝗏𝗂𝗅𝖾𝗀𝖾𝖽 𝖿𝗈𝗈𝗍𝖺𝗀𝖾 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝗂𝗇𝗌𝗂𝖽𝖾 𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗂𝗋 𝗁𝖾𝖺𝖽𝗊𝗎𝖺𝗋𝗍𝖾𝗋𝗌. [Invest Knowledge Media]( While you probably haven't heard about it… two of the wealthiest men in the country are betting on one little known company… Elon Musk and his secret new business partner… Everything can be explained just by understanding what is happening in this one picture… [Tesla car]( This picture simply explains a partnership… between two billionaires that have the same dream. To achieve something that was once thought impossible… but is coming to life this year in 2023. That's why Legendary Wall Street insider Chris Rowe reached out to this little known company… and got his hands on rare privileged footage from inside their headquarters. And he wants to share it with you right now. This company has become his #1 investment of the year… [and he is giving it away completely free in this video](. You will find the name of this little known company, the ticker symbol, and all of the critical details surrounding their legendary technological advancements. [Click here to see for yourself](. gela Dorothea Merkel (German: [aŋˈɡeːla doʁoˈteːa ˈmɛʁklÌ©] (listen);[a] née Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A meber of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union from 2000 to 2018.[9] Merkel was the first female chancellor of Germany.[b] During her chancellorship, Merkel was frequently referred to as the de facto leader of the European Union (EU) and the most powerful woman in the world. Beginning in 2016, she was often described as the leader of the fre world.[13] Merkel was born in Hamburg in then-West Germany. Her family moved to East Germany when she was an infant. Merkel obtained a doctorate in quantum chemistry in 1986 and worked as a research scientist until 1989.[14] She then entered politics in the wake of the Revolutions of 1989, briefly serving as deputy spokeswoman for the first democratically elected government of East Germany led by Lothar de Maizière. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. As the protégée of chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merkel was appointed as Minister for Women and Youth in 1991, later becoming Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in 1994. After the CDU lost the 1998 federal election, Merkel was elected general secretary of the party. She then became the party's first female leader, and the first female Leader of the Opposition two years later. Following the 2005 federal election, Merkel was elected chancellor, leading a grand coalition consisting of the CDU, the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). She was the first woman to be elected chancellor, and the first chancellor of reunified Germany to have been raised in the former East Germany.[c] In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote, and Merkel subsequently formed a coalition government with the Fre Democratic Party (FDP), an alliance more favourable to the CDU than the grand coalition.[16] In the 2013 federal election, the CDU on a landslide victory and formed a second grand coalition with the SPD, after the FDP lost ll of its representation in the Bundestag.[17] In the 2017 federal election, Merkel led the CDU to become the largest party for the fourth time, resulting in the formation of a third grand coalition with the SPD.[18] In foreign policy, Merkel emphasised international cooperation, both in the context of the EU and NATO, and the strengthening of transatlantic economic relations. In 2008, Merkel served as president of the European Council and played a central role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon and the Berlin Declaration. Merkel's governments eat Recession. In domestic policy, Merkel's Energiewende program supported the development of renewable energy sources and eventually phased out the use of nuclear power in Germany. Reforms to the Bundeswehr, health care reform, the 2010s European migrant crisis, and the CVID-19 pandemic were major issues during her chancellorship. Merkel stepped down as leader of the CDU and did not seek a fifth term as chancellor in the 2021 federal election. Background and early lif Merkel's paternal grandparents when engaged: Margarethe and her betrothed, Ludwik Marian Kaźmierczak, in his Polish Blue Army uniform See also: Family of Angela Merkel Merkel was born Angela Dorothea Kasner in 1954, in Hamburg, West Germany, the daughter of Horst Kasner (1926–2011; né Kaźmierczak),[19][20] a Lutheran pastor and a native of Berlin, andme Kasner.[21][page needed][22] Merkel is of German and Polish descent. Her paternal grandfather, Ludwik Kasner, was a German policeman of Polish ethnicity. After being captured by Polish forces during World War I, he joined the Blue Army and likely fought against Germany.[23][24] He married Merkel's grandmother Margarethe, a German from Berlin, and relocated to her hometown where he again worked in the police. In 1930, they Germanised the Polish nw Elbląg, Poland) Emil Drange. Since the mid-1990s, Merkel has publicly mentioned her Polish heritage on several occasions and described herself as a quarter Polish, but her Polish roots became better known as a result of a 2013 biography.[29] Religion played a key role in the Kasner family's migration from West Germany to East Germany.[30] Merkel's paternal grandfather was originally Catholic but the entire family converted to Lutheranism during the childhood of her father,[26] who later studied Lutheran theology in Heidelberg and Hamburg. In 1954, when Angela was just three months old, her father received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow [de] (a district of Perleberg in Brandenburg), which was then in East Germany.[31] The family moved to Templin and Merkel grew up in the countryside 90 km (56 mi) north of East Berlin.[31] In 1968, Merkel joined the Fee German Youth (FDJ), the official communist youth movement sponsored by the ruling Marxist–Leninist Socialist Unity Party of Germany.[32][33] Membership was nominally voluntary, but those who did not join found it difficult to gain admission to higher education.[34] She did not participate in the secular coming-of-age ceremony Jugendweihe, however, which was common in East Germany. Instead, she was confirmed.[35] During this time, she participated in several compulsory courses on Marxism–Leninism, with her grades ost possible average Abitur grade of 1.0.[38] Academic career Merkel continued her education at Karl Marx University, Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978.[31] While a student, she participated in the reconstruction of the ruin of the Moritzbastei, a project students initiated to create their own club and recreation facility on campus. Such an initiative was unprecedented in the GDR of that period, and initially resisted by the university. With backing of the local leadership of the SED party, the project was allowed to proceed.[39] Near the end of her studies, Merkel sought an assistant professorship at an engineering school. As a condition for getting the job, Merkel was told she would need to agree to report on her colleagues to officers of the Stasi. Merkel declined, using the excuse that she could not keep secrets well enough to be an effective spy.[40] Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. At first she and her husband squatted in Mitte.[41] At the Academy of Sciences, she became a mmber of its FDJ secretariat. According to her former colleagues, she openly propagated Marxism as the secretary for "Agitation and Propaganda".[42] However, Merkel has denied this claim and stated that she was secretary for culture, which involved activities like obtaining theatre tickets and organising talks by visiting Soviet authors.[43] She stated: "I can nly rely on my memory, if something turns out to be different, I can live with that."[42] After being awarded a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986,[44] she worked as a researcher and published several academic papers.[45][46] In 1986, she was able to travel freely to West Germany to attend a congress; she also participated in a multi-week language course in Donetsk, in the then-Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.[47] Early political career 1989–1990: German reunification Lothar de Maizière and Merkel, 1990 The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 served as the catalyst for Merkel's political career.[48] Although she did not participate in the crowd celebrations the night the wall came down, one month later Merkel became involved in the growing democracy movement, joining the non the election in a landslide, the DA was included in the government coalition. Merkel was appointed deputy spokesperson of this last pre-unification government under Lothar de Maizière.[49] De Maizière was impressed with the way Merkel handled journalists investigating Schnur's role in the Stasi.[40][48] In April 1990, the DA merged with the East German Christian Democratic Union, which in turn merged with its western counterpart after reunification.[50][51] 1990–1994: Minister for Women and Youth Elections In the German federal election of 1990, the first to be held following reunification, Merkel successfully stood for election to the Bundestag in the parliamentary constituency of Stralsund – Nordvorpommern – Rügen in North Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.[52] She received the crucial backing of influential CDU minister and state party chairman Günther Krause. She was re-elected from this constituency (renamed, with slightly adjusted borders, Vorpommern-Rügen – Vorpommern-Greifswald I in 2003) in every election until the CDU lost its direct mandate [de] from the constituency in the 2017 federal election.[53] Almost imediately following her entry into parliament, Merkel was appointed by Chancellor Helmut Kohl to serve as Minister for Women and Youth in the federal cabinet. In November 1991, Merkel, with the support of the federal CDU, ran for the state leadership of the CDU in the state of Brandenburg, which neighbours Berlin. She lost to Ulf Fink.[54] In June 1993, Merkel was elected leader of the CDU in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, succeeding her former mentor Günther Krause.[55] Policy Although Merkel had little interest in the political position as such, it has been described as instrumental in building her early political image.[56][57] During her tenure, the government codified the right to preschool education, although the law oly went into effect in 1996.[58] In June 1992, § 218 of the StGB, which governed abortion rights, was rewritten to allow abortions until the 12th week of pregnancy.[59] Though she was personally opposed to abortion at the time, Merkel abstained during the vote on the bill.[60] The law was later overturned by the Federal Constitutional Court on the basis that there must be a general prohibition of abortion.[59][61] 1994–1998: Minister for the Environment Merkel in a CDU campaign poster, 1995 In 1994, she was promoted to the position of Minister for the Environment and Nuclear Safety, which gave her greater political visibility and a platform on which to build her personal political career. As one of Kohl's protégées and his youngest Cabinet Minister, she was frequently referred to by Kohl as mein Mädchen ("my girl").[62] During this period, she was closely mentored by Kohl.[57] As Minister of the Environment, Merkel was instrumental in setting up the United Nation's 1995 Berlin Climate Change Conference. She is often credited as having brought about its most notable result, the first international commitment to a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.[63][56][64] Around this time, she also first hired Beate Baumann, who would remain a close advisor to Merkel.[57] Merkel's performnce as Minister of the Environment was criticised as "pitiful" by Gerhard Schröder.[56] 1998–2000: General Secretary of the CDU 1998 CDU campaign poster depicting Merkel between Wolfgang Schäuble and Matthias Wissmann After the Kohl Government was defeated at the 1998 election, Merkel was appointed Secretary-General of the CDU.[57] The 1998 election had widespread impacts; it was the CDU's worst peformance in a federal election since 1949, and it resulted in Germany's first post-war left-wing[d] government, led by the SPD.[65] In the wake of this defeat on the federal level, Merkel oversaw a string of CDU election victories in six out of seven state elections in 1999, breaking the long-standing SPD-Green hold on the Bundesrat. Following a party funding scandal that compromised many leading figures of the CDU – including Kohl himself and his successor as CDU Leader, Wolfgang Schäuble – Merkel criticised her former mentor publicly and advocated a fresh start for the party without him.[57] Early 2000s Chairperson of the CDU On 10 April 2000, Merkel was elected to replace Schäuble as Chairperson of the CDU, becoming the first female leader of a German party.[66] Her election surprised many observers, as her personality offered a contrast to the party she had been elected to lead; Merkel is a centrist Protestant originating from predominantly Protestant northern Germany, while the CDU is a male-dominated, socially conservative party with strongholds in western and southern Germany, and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, has deep Catholic roots.[67] Merkel and Russian president Vladimir Putin, 2002 Following Merkel's election as CDU Leader, the CDU did not obtain electoral victories in subsequent state elections. In February 2001, her rival Friedrich Merz voiced his intention to become Gerhard Schröder's main challenger for Chancellorship in the 2002 election. Merkel's own ambition to become Chancellor was well-known, but she lacked the support of the most influential members within her own party. Rival candidate and leader of the CSU Edmund Stoiber was much more popular within the party at the time. In a private negotiation that came to be known as the Wolfratshausen Breakfast [de], Merkel agreed to cede the opprtunity to challenge Schröder to Stoiber; in exchange, she was to become leader of the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag following the election.[68][69][70] Although pre-election polling had indicated that voters strongly favoured Stoiber, he went on to loe the election by a thin margin. The election campaign was dominated by the Iraq War. While Chancellor Schröder had made clear he would not join the war in Iraq,[71] Merkel was in support of the war at the time, although she later claimed that she had opposed it.[72][73] 2002–2005: Leader of the Opposition After Stoiber's defeat in 2002, in addition to her role as CDU Leader, Merkel became Leader of the Opposition in the Bundestag, as had been agreed upon between her and Stoiber. Friedrich Merz, who had held the post prior to the 2002 election, was eased out to make way for Merkel.[74] Merkel supported a substantial reform agenda for Germany's economic and social system, and was considered more pro-market than her own party (the CDU). She advocated German labour law changes, specifically removing barriers to layings when business was slow.[75] Merkel argued that Germany should phase out nuclear power less quickly than the Schröder administration had planned.[76][77] Merkel advocated a strong transatlantic partnership and German-American friendship. In the spring of 2003, defying strong public opposition, Merkel came out in favour of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, describing it as "unavoidable".[72] She also criticised the government's support for the accession of Turkey to the European Union, instead arguing in favour of a "privileged partnership".[78] 2005–2021: Chancellor of Germany 2005–2009: First CDU–SPD grand coalition Main article: First Merkel cabinet Election On 30 May 2005, Merkel on the CDU/CSU nomination to challenge Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of the SPD in the 2005 federal elections. Her party began the campaign with a 21–point lead over the SPD in national opinion polls, although her personal popularity lagged behind that of the incumbent. However, the CDU/CSU campaign suffered[79] when Merkel, having made economic competence central to the CDU's platform, confused gross and net inome twice during a televised debate.[80] She regained some momentum after she announced that she would appoint Paul Kirchhof, a former judge at the German Constitutional Court and leading fiscal policy expert, as Minister of Finace.[79] Merkel and the CDU lost ground after Kirchhof proposed the introduction of a flat tax in Germany, again undermining the party's broad appeal on economic affairs.[81] This was compounded by Merkel's proposal to increase VAT[82] to reduce Germany's deficit and fill the gap in revenue from a flat tax. The SPD were able to increase their support simply by pledging not to introduce flat taxes or increase VAT.[79] Although Merkel's standing recovered after she distanced herself from Kirchhof's proposals, she remained considerably less popular than Schröder, who had been perceived as the more generally competent and trustworthy candidate.[83] The CDU's lead was down to 9 percentage points on the eve of the election, with Merkel having a significant leaed in popularity based on opinion polls.[84][85] On 18 September 2005, Merkel's CDU/CSU and Schröder's SPD went head-to-head in the national elections, with the CDU/CSU wl was approved by both parties at party conferences on 14 November 2005.[87] Merkel was elected Chancellor by the majority of delegates (397 to 217) in the newly assembled Bundestag on 22 November 2005, but 51 members of the governing coalition voted against her.[88] Reports at the time indicated that the grand coalition would pursue a mix of policies, some of which differed from Merkel's political platform as leader of the opposition and candidate for Chancellor. The coalition's intent was to cut public spending whilst increasing VAT (from 16 to 19e tax.[89] When announcing the coalition agreement, Merkel stated that the main aim of her government would be to reduce unemployment, and that it was this issue on which her government would be judged.[90] Healthcare reform Reform of the German healthcare system was a salient issue during the 2005 election; the previous system had been criticised as inefficient and overly bureaucratic.[91] After a significant period of negotiations, a ngly cannot be uninsured.[94] The reforms also targeted preventive healthcare as a priority, particularly with regards to eldercare.[94] Eurozone crisis Main articles: European ll.[96] However, two days later, on 6 October 2008, it emerged that the pledge was simply a political move that would not be backed by legislation.[97] Most other European governments eventually either raised the limits or promised to guabt management issues.[103] A Bloomberg opinion piece noted that "irresponsible borrowers can't exist without irresponsible lenders"; accrdingly, "Germany's banks were Greece's enablers."[104] In the course of the finanial crisis, the Merkel cabinet increased the budget of the Kurzarbeit program significantly and extended the permitted duration of such contracts from 6 months to 18 months.[105] Although similar provisions had existed previously, the Merkel cabinet's expansion of the program was widely praised and is credited with having saved 500,000 jobs during the finncial crisis.[106][107][108] 2009–2013: CDU–FDP coalition Merkel's CDU was re-elected in 2009 with an increased number of seats, and could fo unemployed people in 2011.[112] Abolishment of conscription Following increased debate on the subject in the summer of 2010,[113] the German government announced plans to abolish conscription in Germany, making the Bundeswehr a volunteer military, in November 2010.[114] The decision was finalised in December that year,[115] and conscription was suspended on 1 July 2011.[116] Although somewhat popular at the time, the decision has later come under scrutiny, particularly following to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[117][118] It has also been criticised in conjunction with Germ of gross wages.[121][122][123] The reforms also established that future contribution increases would oly affect the contributions by employers, which was criticised by opposition parties and trade unions.[121] 2013–2017: Second CDU–SPD grand coalition Merkel at the signing of the coalition agreement for the 18th election period of the Bundestag, December 2013 In the election of September 2013, Merkel wst result for the CDU/CSU since reunification and coming within five seats of the first absolute majority in the Bundestag since 1957.[124] However, their preferred coalition partner, the FDP, failed to enter parliament for the first time since 1949, being below the minimum of 5 of second votes required to enter parliament.[17][125] The CDU/CSU turned to the SPD to fom the third grand coalition in postwar German history and the second under Merkel's leadership. The third Cabinet of Angela Merkel was sworn in on 17 December 2013.[126] Merkel scored well in opinion polls on her handling of the recent euro crisis (6 in February 2012 and again in July 2014.[127] 2015 European migrant crisis Main article: 2015 European migrant crisis See also: Wir schaffen das Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and Merkel in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, 2018 Throughout the course of the European migrant crisis, Merkel encouraged cooperation between EU at "as a whole".[128] In late August 2015, at the height of the crisis, Merkel's government suspended the Dublin Regulation, which stipulated that asylum seekers must seek asylum in the first EU country they arrive. Merkel announced that Germany would also process asylum applications from Syrian refugees if they had come to Germany through other EU countries.[129] That year, nearly 1.1 millin asylum seekers entered Germany.[130][131] Merkel coined the phrase Wir schaffen das (transl. We'll manage this) around this time.[132][133] Junior coalition partner and Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said that Germany could take in 500,000 refugees annually for the next several years.[134] German opposition to the government's admission of the nw wave of migrants was strong and coupled with a rise in anti-immigration protests.[135] Merkel insisted that Germany had the economic strength to cope with the influx of migrants and reiterated that there is no leal maximum limit on the number of migrants Germany can take.[136] In September 2015, enthusiastic crowds across the country welcomed arriving refugees and migrants.[137] Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU)—the sister party of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union—and then-Bavarian Minister President, attacked Merkel's policies.[138] Seehofer criticised Merkel's decision to allow in migrants, saying that "[they were] in a state of mind without rules, without system and without o of asylum seekers arriving in Germany claiming to be from Syria are in fact from other countries.[140] He argued for a punitive reduction in EU funding for meber countries that rejected mandatory refugee quotas.[141] Meanwhile, Yasmin Fahimi, secretary-general of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior partner of the ruling coalition, praised Merkel's policy allowing migrants in Hungary to enter Germany as "a strong signal of humanity to show that Europe's values are valid also in difficult times".[138] Merkel's approval rating dropped to 54 in October 2015, the lowest it had been since 2011.[142] In November 2015, there were talks inside the governing coalition to stp family unification for migrants for two years and to establish "Transit Zones" on the border. Additionally, there were plans to provide housing to migrants with a low likelihood of getting approved for asylum until the processing of their application. This led to increased tensions between the CSU, who were generally in favour of these measures and threatened to leve the coalition without them, and the SPD, who opposed them; Merkel agreed to the measures.[143] The November 2015 Paris attacks prompted a reevaluation of the German government's stance on EU migration policy.[144] While she did not directly limit the number of immigrants, Merkel tightened asylum policy in Germany, for example through more thorough vetting of migrants with respect to internal safety and security.[145][144] In August 2016, following the Würzburg train attack in Germany and various other Islamist terror attacks in Europe, Merkel's approval rating dropped to 47 Germans were found to be satisfied with the work of Merkel as Chancellor.[148] According to another poll taken in November 2016, 59were to found to be in favour of a renewed Chancellorship candidature in 2017.[149] According to a poll carried out shortly after the 2016 Berlin truck attack, 56 of Germans named Merkel as a political leader they trusted to solve their country's problems.[150] Migrants in Germany, October 2015 In October 2016, Merkel travelled to Mali and Niger. The diplomatic visit took place to discuss how their governments could improve conditions which caused people to flee those countries and how illegal migration through and from these countries could be reduced.[151] The migrant crisis spurred right-wing electoral preferences across Germany with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) gaining 12 of the vote in the 2017 German federal election. These developments prompted debates over the reasons for increased right-wing populism in Germany. Some researchers have argued that increased right-wing preferences are a result of the European migrant crisis, particularly the increasingly common perception that refugees constitute an ethnic and cultural threat to Germany.[152] Some observers have described Merkel's policymaking with respect to the migrant crisis as a sucess.[153] In 2022, the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees granted Merkel the Nansen Award for her "courage and compassion" during the crisis.[154][155] However, Merkel has also faced significant criticism, particularly with regards to her policymaking early in the crisis, which some critics describe as hypocritically unilateral.[156][157] 2018–2021: Third CDU–SPD grand coalition Election In the 2017 federal election, Merkel led her party to victory for the fourth time. However, both the CDU/CSU and the SPD received a significantly lower proportion of the vote than they did in 2013, and the CDU/CSU subsequently attempted to for a coalition with the FDP and Greens.[158][159] The SPD announced that they would go into the Opposition, both due to their loss of popular support and because the idea of another grand coalition was widely unpopular at the time.[160][161][162] The FDP eventually withdrew from negotiations with the CDU/CSU, leading to a stalemate.[163][164] The German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier subsequently appealed successfully to the SPD to change their hard stance against coalition with the CDU/CSU, and the SPD agreed to a third grand coalition with the CDU/CSU.[165] The negotiations leading up to this agreement were the longest in German post-war history, lasting almost six months.[166][167] A YouGov survey published in late December 2017 found that just 36 of al respondents wanted Merkel to stay at the helm until 2021, while half of those surveyed voters called for a change at the top before the end of the legislature.[168] The Fourth Merkel cabinet was sworn in on 14 March 2018.[169] 2018 government crisis Main article: 2018 German government crisis As part of the newly formed government, the CSU's Horst Seehofer took over the role of Interior Minister.[170] Seehofer announced that he had a "master plan for faster asylum procedures, and more consistent deportations."[171] Under Seehofer's plan, Germany would i applicants who had previously registered elsewhere in the EU, no matter if these countries agreed to take them back.[172][173] Merkel feared that unilaterally sending migrants back to neighbouring countries without seeking a multilateral European agreement could endanger the stability of the European Union.[174] In June 2018, Seehofer issued an ultimatum to Merkel; as Interior Minister, he could unilaterally implement the policy without her support. Although he eventually agreed to cooperate with Merkel while she negotiated with other EU mmber countries, he went on to reject the EU agreement that she obtained.[175] On 1 July 2018, during a meeting with party leadership, Seehofer declared his intention to resign from his position in protest.[176][177][178] During the night of 2 July 2018, Seehofer and Merkel announced they had settled their differences and agreed to instead accept a compromise of tighter border control.[179][180] As a result of the agreement, Seehofer agreed to not resign,[181] and to negotiate bilateral agreements with the specific countries himself. Seehofer was widely criticised for his hard-line stance in the context of the crisis.[182][183] CVID-19 pandemic In the initial phases of the pandemic, Germany established a crisis team to manage Germany's containment policy and pandemic response.[184] In late February 2020, referring to this crisis team, Merkel recommended an approach characterised by moderation and an avoidance of extreme or universal measures (Maß und Mitte).[185] On 18 March 2020, Merkel gave a widely publicised speech on the CVID-19 pandemic, comparing its challenges to the Second World War:[186] Pletion in a spirit of solidarity on our part was so important. — Angela Merkel The speech was well-received both nationally and internationally, receiving widespread attention and an award for "speech of the year".[187][188][189] On 6 April 2020, Merkel stated: "In my view... the European Union is facing the biggest test since its foundation and meber states must show greater solidarity so that the bloc can emerge stronger from the economic crisis unleashed by the pandemic".[190] Merkel has on international plaudits for her handling of the pandemic in Germany.[191][14] Later that month, Merkel was praised for her accessible explanation of the basic reproduction number, which had been an important metric in the German government's pandemic response.[192][193][194] Merkel opposed mandatory vaccinations, instead stressing scientific literacy and education.[195] During the German presidency of the European Council, Merkel spearheaded negotiations for the Next Generation EU reconstruction package.[196] Succession On 29 October 2018, Merkel announced that she would not seek reelection as leader of CDU at their party conference in December 2018, but intended to remain as chancellor until the 2021 German federal election was held. She stated that she did not plan to seek any political office after this. The resignations followed October setbacks for the CSU in the Bavarian state election and for the CDU in the Hessian state election.[197][198] In August 2019, Merkel hinted that she might return to academia at the end of her term in 2021.[199] She decided not to suggest any person as her successor as leader of the CDU.[200] However, political observers had long considered Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as Merkel's protégé groomed for succession. This view was confirmed when Kramp-Karrenbauer – widely seen as the chancellor's favourite for the post – was voted to succeed Merkel as leader of the CDU in December 2018.[201] Kramp-Karrenbauer's elevation to Defence Minister after Ursula von der Leyen's departure to become president of the European Commission also boosted her standing as Merkel's most likely candidate for succession.[202] In 2019, media outlets speculated that Kramp-Karrenbauer might take over Merkel's position as Chancellor sooner than planned if the current governing coalition proved unsustainable.[203][204] The possibility was neither confirmed nor denied by the party.[205] In February 2020, Kramp-Karrenbauer announced that she would resign as party leader of the CDU in the summer, after party members in Thuringia defied official party lines and voted with Alternative for Germany to support an FDP candidate for minister-president.[206] Kramp-Karrenbauer was succeeded by Armin Laschet at the 2021 CDU leadership election.[207] In the 2021 federal election, the SPD wrm a government. On 23 November 2021, a ne grand coalition was announced, with Olaf Scholz nominated to succeed Merkel.[208] Merkel continued to serve as chancellor until 8 December 2021, when Scholz was sworn in.[209] 2021–present: Post-chancellorship On 25 February 2022, oe war of aggression led by Russia, which marks a profound break in the history of post-Cold War Europe."[210] In April that year, a spokesperson for Merkel stated that she "stood by her position at the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008," when she had opposed Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, a decision that had come under increased scrutiny.[210] On 1 June 2022, Merkel made her first semi-public comments about political affairs since leaving office, at a retirement party for Reiner Hoffmann [de], the president of the German Trade Union Confederation. She criticised the "blatant violation of international law by Russia", expressed solidarity with Ukraine, and argued that "peace and er be taken for granted."[210] On 7 June 2022, Merkel made her first public comments. In an interview with journalist Alexander Osang [de], she defended her past decisions on Ukraine and called Putin's aggression "not just unacceptable, but also a major mistake from Russia... It's an objective breach of have war. That's not an option whatsoever."[211] She also said that by the end of her chancellorship in September 2021, it had been clear that Putin was moving in the direction of conflict and that he was finished with the Normandy format talks.[212] Political positions Immigration, refugees and migration In October 2010, Merkel told a meeting of younger members of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party at Potsdam that attempts to build a multicultural society in Germany had "utterly failed,"[213] stating that: "The concept that we are nw living side by side and are happy about it" does not work[214] and "we feel attached to the Christian concept of mankind, that is what defines us. Anyone who doesn't accept that is in the wrong place hre."[215] She continued to say that immigrants should integrate and adopt Germany's culture and values. This added to a growing debate within Germany on the acceptable levels and mechanisms of immigration, its effects on Germany, and the degree to which Muslim immigrants had integrated into German society.[216] Merkel is in favour of a "mandatory solidarity mechanism" for relocation of asylum-seekers from Italy and Greece to other EU mon to Europe's migrant crisis.[217][218] Foreign policy photograph of Merkel and Obama Merkel with US president Barack Obama in the Oval Office, 2015 Main articles: Foreign policy of the Angela Merkel government and List of international trips made by Angela Merkel Merkel's foreign policy has focused on strengthening European cooperation and international trade agreements. She and her governments have been closely associated with the Wandel durch Handel policy.[219] For this, she has come under criticism, especially after the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[220][221] Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union throughout her tenure as Chancellor.[222][223][224] In 2015, with the absence of Stephen Harper, Merkel became the oly leader to have attended every G20 meeting since the first in 2008, having been present at a record fifteen summits as of 2021. She hosted the twelfth meeting at the 2017 G20 Hamburg summit.[225] Merkel favors the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union. In December 2012, she stated that its implementation depends on reforms in Ukraine.[226] Merkel expressed support for Israel's right to self-defense in the context of the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. She telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 9 July to condemn "without reservation rocket fire on Israel".[227] In June 2018, Merkel said that there had been "no moral or political justification" for the post-war expulsion of ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern European countries.[228]   [Invest Knowledge Media]( InvestKnowledgeMedia.com brought to you by Inception Media, LLC. This editorial email with educational news was sent to {EMAIL}. [Unsubscribe]( to stop receiving marketing communication from us. Please add our email address to your contact book (or mark as important) to guarantee that our emails continue to reach your inbox. A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover.[1] The technical term for this physical arrangement is codex (plural, codices). In the history of hand-held physical supports for extended written compositions or records, the codex replaces its predecessor, the scroll. A single sheet in a codex is a leaf and each side of a leaf is a page. As an intellectual object, a book is prototypically a composition of such great length that it takes a considerable investment of time to compose and still considered as an investment of time to read. In a restricted sense, a book is a self-sufficient section or part of a longer composition, a usage reflecting that, in antiquity, long works had to be written on several scrolls and each scroll had to be identified by the book it contained. Each part of Aristotle's Physics is called a book. In an unrestricted sense, a book is the compositional whole of which such sections, whether called books or chapters or parts, are parts. The intellectual content in a physical book need not be a composition, nor even be called a book. Books can consist only of drawings, engravings or photographs, crossword puzzles or cut-out dolls. In a physical book, the pages can be left blank or can feature an abstract set of lines to support entries, such as in an account book, appointment book, autograph book, notebook, diary or sketchbook. Some physical books are made with pages thick and sturdy enough to support other physical objects, like a scrapbook or photograph album. Books may be distributed in electronic form as ebooks and other formats. Although in ordinary academic parlance a monograph is understood to be a specialist academic work, rather than a reference work on a scholarly subject, in library and information science monograph denotes more broadly any non-serial publication complete in one volume (book) or a finite number of volumes (even a novel like Proust's seven-volume In Search of Lost Time), in contrast to serial publications like a magazine, journal or newspaper. An avid reader or collector of books is a bibliophile or, colloquially, "bookworm". Books are traded at both regular stores and specialized bookstores, and people can read borrowed books, often for free, at libraries. Google has estimated that by 2010, approximately 130,000,000 titles had been published.[2] In some wealthier nations, the sale of printed books has decreased because of the increased usage of e-books.[3] Although in most countries printed books continue to outsell their digital counterparts due to many people still preferring to read in a traditional way.[4][5][6][7] The 21st century has also seen a rapid rise in the popularity of audiobooks, which are recordings of books being read aloud.[8] Etymology The word book comes from Old English bōc, which in turn comes from the Germanic root *bōk-, cognate to 'beech'.[9] In Slavic languages like Russian, Bulgarian, Macedonian буква bukva—'letter' is cognate with 'beech'. In Russian, Serbian and Macedonian, the word букварь (bukvar') or буквар (bukvar) refers to a primary school textbook that helps young children master the techniques of reading and writing. It is thus conjectured that the earliest Indo-European writings may have been carved on beech wood.[10] The Latin word codex, meaning a book in the modern sense (bound and with separate leaves), originally meant 'block of wood'.[11] History Main article: History of books Antiquity Fragments of the Instructions of Shuruppak: "Shurrupak gave instructions to his son: Do not buy an ass which brays too much. Do not commit rape upon a man's daughter, do not announce it to the courtyard. Do not answer back against your father, do not raise a 'heavy eye.'". From Adab, c. 2600–2500 BCE[12] When writing systems were created in ancient civilizations, a variety of objects, such as stone, clay, tree bark, metal sheets, and bones, were used for writing; these are studied in epigraphy. Tablet Main articles: Clay tablet and Wax tablet See also: Stylus A tablet is a physically robust writing medium, suitable for casual transport and writing. Clay tablets were flattened and mostly dry pieces of clay that could be easily carried, and impressed with a stylus. They were used as a writing medium, especially for writing in cuneiform, throughout the Bronze Age and well into the Iron Age. Wax tablets were pieces of wood covered in a coating of wax thick enough to record the impressions of a stylus. They were the normal writing material in schools, in accounting, and for taking notes. They had the advantage of being reusable: the wax could be melted, and reformed into a blank. The custom of binding several wax tablets together (Roman pugillares) is a possible precursor of modern bound (codex) books.[13] The etymology of the word codex (block of wood) also suggests that it may have developed from wooden wax tablets.[14] Scroll Main article: Scroll Book of the Dead of Hunefer; c. 1275 BC; ink and pigments on papyrus; 45 × 90.5 cm; British Museum (London) Scrolls can be made from papyrus, a thick paper-like material made by weaving the stems of the papyrus plant, then pounding the woven sheet with a hammer-like tool until it is flattened. Papyrus was used for writing in Ancient Egypt, perhaps as early as the First Dynasty, although the first evidence is from the account books of King Neferirkare Kakai of the Fifth Dynasty (about 2400 BC).[15] Papyrus sheets were glued together to form a scroll. Tree bark such as lime and other materials were also used.[16] According to Herodotus (History 5:58), the Phoenicians brought writing and papyrus to Greece around the 10th or 9th century BC. The Greek word for papyrus as writing material (biblion) and book (biblos) come from the Phoenician port town Byblos, through which papyrus was exported to Greece.[17] From Greek we also derive the word tome (Greek: τόμος), which originally meant a slice or piece and from there began to denote "a roll of papyrus". Tomus was used by the Latins with exactly the same meaning as volumen (see also below the explanation by Isidore of Seville). Whether made from papyrus, parchment, or paper, scrolls were the dominant form of book in the Hellenistic, Roman, Chinese, Hebrew, and Macedonian cultures. The Romans and Etruscans also made 'books' out of folded linen called in Latin Libri lintei, the only extant example of which is the Etruscan Liber Linteus. The more modern codex book format form took over the Roman world by late antiquity, but the scroll format persisted much longer in Asia. Codex Main article: Codex A Chinese bamboo book meets the modern definition of Codex. Isidore of Seville (died 636) explained the then-current relation between a codex, book, and scroll in his Etymologiae (VI.13): "A codex is composed of many books; a book is of one scroll. It is called codex by way of metaphor from the trunks (codex) of trees or vines, as if it were a wooden stock, because it contains in itself a multitude of books, as it were of branches". Modern usage differs. A codex (in modern usage) is the first information repository that modern people would recognize as a "book": leaves of uniform size bound in some manner along one edge, and typically held between two covers made of some more robust material. The first written mention of the codex as a form of book is from Martial, in his Apophoreta CLXXXIV at the end of the first century, where he praises its compactness. However, the codex never gained much popularity in the pagan Hellenistic world, and only within the Christian community did it gain widespread use.[18] This change happened gradually during the 3rd and 4th centuries, and the reasons for adopting the codex form of the book are several: the format is more economical, as both sides of the writing material can be used; and it is portable, searchable, and easy to conceal. A book is much easier to read, to find a page that you want, and to flip through. A scroll is more awkward to use. The Christian authors may also have wanted to distinguish their writings from the pagan and Judaic texts written on scrolls. In addition, some metal books were made, that required smaller pages of metal, instead of an impossibly long, unbending scroll of metal. A book can also be easily stored in more compact places, or side by side in a tight library or shelf space. Manuscripts Main article: Manuscript Folio 14 recto of the 5th century Vergilius Romanus contains an author portrait of Virgil. Note the bookcase (capsa), reading stand and the text written without word spacing in rustic capitals. The fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD saw the decline of the culture of ancient Rome. Papyrus became difficult to obtain due to lack of contact with Egypt, and parchment, which had been used for centuries, became the main writing material. Parchment is a material made from processed animal skin and used—mainly in the past—for writing on. Parchment is most commonly made of calfskin, sheepskin, or goatskin. It was historically used for writing documents, notes, or the pages of a book. Parchment is limed, scraped and dried under tension. It is not tanned, and is thus different from leather. This makes it more suitable for writing on, but leaves it very reactive to changes in relative humidity and makes it revert to rawhide if overly wet. Monasteries carried on the Latin writing tradition in the Western Roman Empire. Cassiodorus, in the monastery of Vivarium (established around 540), stressed the importance of copying texts.[19] St. Benedict of Nursia, in his Rule of Saint Benedict (completed around the middle of the 6th century) later also promoted reading.[20] The Rule of Saint Benedict (Ch. XLVIII), which set aside certain times for reading, greatly influenced the monastic culture of the Middle Ages and is one of the reasons why the clergy were the predominant readers of books. The tradition and style of the Roman Empire still dominated, but slowly the peculiar medieval book culture emerged. The Codex Amiatinus anachronistically depicts the Biblical Ezra with the kind of books used in the 8th century AD. Before the invention and adoption of the printing press, almost all books were copied by hand, which made books expensive and comparatively rare. Smaller monasteries usually had only a few dozen books, medium-sized perhaps a few hundred. By the 9th century, larger collections held around 500 volumes and even at the end of the Middle Ages, the papal library in Avignon and Paris library of the Sorbonne held only around 2,000 volumes.[21] The scriptorium of the monastery was usually located over the chapter house. Artificial light was forbidden for fear it may damage the manuscripts. There were five types of scribes: Calligraphers, who dealt in fine book production Copyists, who dealt with basic production and correspondence Correctors, who collated and compared a finished book with the manuscript from which it had been produced Illuminators, who painted illustrations Rubricators, who painted in the red letters Burgundian author and scribe Jean Miélot, from his Miracles de Notre Dame, 15th century The bookmaking process was long and laborious. The parchment had to be prepared, then the unbound pages were planned and ruled with a blunt tool or lead, after which the text was written by the scribe, who usually left blank areas for illustration and rubrication. Finally, the book was bound by the bookbinder.[22] Desk with chained books in the Malatestiana Library of Cesena, Italy Different types of ink were known in antiquity, usually prepared from soot and gum, and later also from gall nuts and iron vitriol. This gave writing a brownish black color, but black or brown were not the only colors used. There are texts written in red or even gold, and different colors were used for illumination. For very luxurious manuscripts the whole parchment was colored purple, and the text was written on it with gold or silver (for example, Codex Argenteus).[23] Irish monks introduced spacing between words in the 7th century. This facilitated reading, as these monks tended to be less familiar with Latin. However, the use of spaces between words did not become commonplace before the 12th century. It has been argued that the use of spacing between words shows the transition from semi-vocalized reading into silent reading.[24] The first books used parchment or vellum (calfskin) for the pages. The book covers were made of wood and covered with leather. Because dried parchment tends to assume the form it had before processing, the books were fitted with clasps or straps. During the later Middle Ages, when public libraries appeared, up to the 18th century, books were often chained to a bookshelf or a desk to prevent theft. These chained books are called libri catenati. At first, books were copied mostly in monasteries, one at a time. With the rise of universities in the 13th century, the Manuscript culture of the time led to an increase in the demand for books, and a new system for copying books appeared. The books were divided into unbound leaves (pecia), which were lent out to different copyists, so the speed of book production was considerably increased. The system was maintained by secular stationers guilds, which produced both religious and non-religious material.[25] Judaism has kept the art of the scribe alive up to the present. According to Jewish tradition, the Torah scroll placed in a synagogue must be written by hand on parchment and a printed book would not do, though the congregation may use printed prayer books and printed copies of the Scriptures are used for study outside the synagogue. A sofer "scribe" is a highly respected member of any observant Jewish community. Middle East Text document with red question mark.svg This section possibly contains inappropriate or misinterpreted citations that do not verify the text. Please help improve this article by checking for citation inaccuracies. (September 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) People of various religious (Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Muslims) and ethnic backgrounds (Syriac, Coptic, Persian, Arab etc.) in the Middle East also produced and bound books in the Islamic Golden Age (mid 8th century to 1258), developing advanced techniques in Islamic calligraphy, miniatures and bookbinding. A number of cities in the medieval Islamic world had book production centers and book markets. Yaqubi (died 897) says that in his time Baghdad had over a hundred booksellers.[26] Book shops were often situated around the town's principal mosque[27] as in Marrakesh, Morocco, that has a street named Kutubiyyin or book sellers in English and the famous Koutoubia Mosque is named so because of its location in this street. The medieval Muslim world also used a method of reproducing reliable copies of a book in large quantities known as check reading, in contrast to the traditional method of a single scribe producing only a single copy of a single manuscript. In the check reading method, only "authors could authorize copies, and this was done in public sessions in which the copyist read the copy aloud in the presence of the author, who then certified it as accurate."[28] With this check-reading system, "an author might produce a dozen or more copies from a single reading," and with two or more readings, "more than one hundred copies of a single book could easily be produced."[29] By using as writing material the relatively cheap paper instead of parchment or papyrus the Muslims, in the words of Pedersen "accomplished a feat of crucial significance not only to the history of the Islamic book, but also to the whole world of books".[30] Wood block printing Bagh print, a traditional woodblock printing technique that originated in Bagh, Madhya Pradesh, India In woodblock printing, a relief image of an entire page was carved into blocks of wood, inked, and used to print copies of that page. This method originated in China, in the Han dynasty (before 220 AD), as a method of printing on textiles and later paper, and was widely used throughout East Asia. The oldest dated book printed by this method is The Diamond Sutra (868 AD). The method (called woodcut when used in art) arrived in Europe in the early 14th century. Books (known as block-books), as well as playing-cards and religious pictures, began to be produced by this method. Creating an entire book was a painstaking process, requiring a hand-carved block for each page; and the wood blocks tended to crack, if stored for long. The monks or people who wrote them were paid highly. Inception Media, LLC appreciates your comments and inquiries. Please keep in mind, that Inception Media, LLC are not permitted to provide individualized financial advise. This email is not financial advice and any investment decision you make is solely your responsibility. 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