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Merz often adds to his own problems, critics contend, pointing to his sometimes forthright remarks and reportedly hot temper.

Merz’s struggles mount as he marks a year as German leader

After a year in office, his coalition is beset by infighting and Europe’s top economy is still weak

China has long been the world’s workshop, producing goods for Western companies. In the process, suppliers learnt not only how to make goods, but how to brand, distribute and sell them at scale.

Hotpot, bubble tea and sportswear: China’s new exports take on the world

Step into pretty much any shopping mall in Singapore and you’re likely to find queues snaking outside shops with catchy names and bright-coloured branding.

Europe is still a long way from being able to truly claim strategic autonomy, both because it lacks the physical means to do so, and because many of its leaders still lack the political will to fully lean into the concept. Europeans bear a sizeable part of the responsibility for having refused to see the reality of what the United States has been turning into over the past decade.

Europeans Are Quiet Quitting the United States

European leaders have now not only lost faith in Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency, but also in America’s hegemony as a whole. But short-term challenges make an immediate divorce unwise.

The EU’s ambivalence on Turkey is a long-standing theme. For a long time, the main intellectual cleavage was about the country’s eventual union membership. Despite being a candidate country and having started formal accession negotiations in 2005, the prospect of Turkish membership remained a controversial issue.

The EU Equivocating on Turkey Is Bad Geopolitics

Following Ursula von der Leyen’s gaffe equating Turkey to Russia and China, relations with Ankara risk deteriorating even further. Without better, more consistent diplomatic messaging, how can the EU pretend to be a geopolitical power?

Over recent months the Prime Minister has taken an increasingly strident stance on Brexit in an apparent attempt to appeal to Labour MPs and members.

Starmer to lobby Macron for closer EU ties

PM to use summit to gain access to £52bn of weapons contracts in exchange for helping cover interest on Ukraine loan scheme

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Merz made no mention of Trump’s comments during a visit to German soldiers in northern Germany on Thursday, although he went out of his way to stress the importance of the Nato defensive alliance and "transatlantic solidarity".

World

Trump says US studying troop cuts in Germany, as spat with Merz intensifies

Monday, May 4, 2026

The US is "studying and reviewing" whether to reduce the thousands of troops it has stationed in Germany, President Donald Trump has announced via social media.

more on World

The EU–India deal shows Brussels can negotiate with geopolitical intent when it chooses to: embedding standards, diversifying supply chains and deepening political alignment. Applying the same logic to Africa means co developing value chains, from cobalt and copper processing in the DRC and Zambia to green hydrogen and renewable projects across North and West Africa.

Europe

The EU–India Deal Is Done. Africa Must Be Next

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

The EU-India FTA deal showed Brussels can move when the stakes are high; Africa is the real test of whether Europe can protect its economic security in a more fractured world.

more on Europe

Many executives cite regulation as an obstacle to reinventing business models. Resilient leaders engage in dialogue with policymakers, individually and through business associations, proposing functional alternatives rather than merely complaining about inefficiencies.

Management

CEO in a World of Pressure: Real Challenges, Real Lessons, Real Resilience

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

There comes a moment in every chief executive’s life when the tools that once brought success no longer work because the playing field has changed.

more on Management

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Spain has refused to allow the use of air bases on its territory for attacks on Iran. The US has two military bases in Spain, Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base.

World

Nato says ’no provision’ to expel members after report US could seek to suspend Spain

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Nato says there is no provision for member states to be suspended or expelled from the military alliance after a report said the US could seek to suspend Spain over its Iran war stance.

The Iran shock is accelerating a reordering with a redistribution of hydrocarbon rents. The diffusion of EV’s is being forced via through price pain at the gas station. Trade and currency blocs may also be hardening.

Analyses

Ten Inconvenient Truths About the Energy Implications of the Iran Crisis

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Yes, the Iran crisis is a matter of global security. But it is also an event redistributing market shares in a declining hydrocarbon system.

The case for a more muscular posture in Lebanon is self-evident. This would neither be a mandate against Israel nor against the Shia Lebanese. It would be a mandate in favor of international law, and in support of an imperfect and flawed democracy that, in the region, most embodies European values of plurality, liberty, and freedom of speech.

Analyses

France, Italy, and Spain Should Use Force in Lebanon

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Europe has been standing by while its Southern neighborhood is being redrawn by force. To establish a path to peace between Israel and Lebanon, it’s time for Europeans to get involved with hard power.

The reforms strategy stems from hard-hitting analyses by two former Italian prime ministers, Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, of the EU Single Market’s fragmented nature 35 years after its ‘completion’ in 1992. Both have repeatedly voiced concerns that progress is far too slow.

Analyses

The oh-so-slow Draghi/Letta plan to ’save Europe’

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Giles Merritt looks back at the fate of earlier Single Market initiatives, and complains of déjà vu and lessons unlearned.

MORE ARTICLES

On the other hand, flexible work must not be associated with job insecurity, and the existence of mechanisms that ensure a decent guaranteed income and protect labor rights regardless of the type of employment lay the groundwork for secure conditions of resistance and integration in the face of the impending automation of labor. 

Management

A new social contract in the age of social intelligence

Friday, April 17, 2026

When Rousseau spoke of the “Social Contract,” he was referring to labor, stating that it constitutes “a fundamental factor in the integration of individuals into society as well as a dynamic parameter for the redistribution of wealth.”

more on Management

Many airlines around the world have had to take emergency measures to counter the rising cost of fuel, which typically makes up 20-40% of their operating costs.

Europe

Europe has ’maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left’, energy boss warns

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Europe has "maybe 6 weeks of jet fuel left", the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned.

more on Europe

AI accelerates the targeting cycle to a tempo at which meaningful human oversight is too often procedurally present but substantively empty. Meaningful judgment would mean reviewing target identification, assessing proportionality, and deciding whether to strike. Now, the human remains present—but without real time to contest the machine.

Analyses

The Fog of AI War

Thursday, April 16, 2026

In Ukraine, Gaza, and Iran, AI warfare has come to dominate, with barely any oversight or accountability. Europe must lead the charge on the responsible use of new military technologies.

more on Analyses

Romania’s IT services exports have grown at rates that consistently outpace GDP, Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca have established genuine technology ecosystems rather than just outsourcing hubs, and Romanian engineers are present in significant numbers at the upper levels of global technology firms.

Business

Where Romania can build excellence: the sources of future competitiveness

Thursday, April 16, 2026

Romania has been, for most of its recent history, a story of potential deferred. The standard account of Romanian competitiveness, to the extent one exists in international business literature, is a cost story: cheap labor, low corporate taxes, a large domestic market for Central and Eastern European standards.

more on Business

Candidate countries can and should be involved in Europe’s ongoing rearmament and force-modernization drive. These three NATO members have committed to scale up core defense spending from around 2 percent to 3.5 percent of their GDP, a target they could reach by the mid-2030s. They have signed security partnerships with the EU, paving the way for participation in union-wide schemes such as the European defense industry program.

Analyses

How to Join the EU in Three Easy Steps

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Montenegro and Albania are frontrunners for EU enlargement in the Western Balkans, but they can’t just sit back and wait. To meet their 2030 accession ambitions, they must make a strong positive case.

more on Analyses

EU Actually

European Parliament challenges member-states with an additional budget increase of 10 percent

N. Peter KramerBy: N. Peter Kramer

In his weekly column, N. Peter Kramer writes how the EP opposes Commission’s proposal to cut back on traditional programmes such as agriculture and cohesion

Europe

Merz’s struggles mount as he marks a year as German leader

Merz’s struggles mount as he marks a year as German leader

After a year in office, his coalition is beset by infighting and Europe’s top economy is still weak

Business

Hotpot, bubble tea and sportswear: China’s new exports take on the world

Hotpot, bubble tea and sportswear: China’s new exports take on the world

Step into pretty much any shopping mall in Singapore and you’re likely to find queues snaking outside shops with catchy names and bright-coloured branding.

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