The Times (December 14)
“Time is running short for Europe to stand together. The worst-case scenario is that America walks away from its commitments entirely. Ukraine’s allies cannot afford to project weakness.” The “crunch point” has come for Europe. “Can it act in a confident, bold, unified manner? Or will it be riven by internal disagreements and petty rivalries?”
Tags: Allies, Bold, Commitments, Confident, Crunch point, Europe, Internal disagreements, Petty rivalries, U.S., Ukraine, Unified, Walks away, Weakness, Worst-case
Wall Street Journal (December 9)
President Trump promised “a manufacturing boom. He got one—in China.” Cementing its ”status as the world’s indispensable factory floor…. Chinese industrial production broke records this year as its factories churned out more cars, machinery and chemicals than ever before. Despite the disruptions of tariffs, the country’s trade surplus in goods has set a record, as growing shipments to Asia, Europe, Latin America and Africa offset the hit from Trump’s levies on direct sales to the U.S.”
Tags: Africa, Asia, Cars, Chemicals, China, Europe, Factories, Indispensable, Industrial production, Latin America, Machinery, Manufacturing boom, Shipments, Status, Tariffs, Trade surplus, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (December 6)
“EUROPE is breathing a sigh of relief” now that “the risk of such an odious stitch-up” initially put forward by Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump, “now seems to have receded a bit.” But it is not time to rest or squabble. “Enough dithering. Europe must pay to save Ukraine. America will not. Europe’s security depends on agreeing” on how to save Ukraine.
Tags: Agreeing, Dithering, Europe, Odious, Pay, Receded, Relief, Rest, Risk, Security, Squabble, Trump, U.S., Ukraine, Witkoff
Institutional Investor (December 4)
UBS released its Billionaire Ambitions Report 2025 showing that “there are now more than 3,000 billionaires globally, holding $15.8 trillion in wealth.” There were “more new, self-made billionaires being minted in the United States than anywhere else,” while Europe boasted nearly thirds of the 91 people who became billionaires through inheritance.
Tags: $15.8 trillion, Billionaires, Europe, Inheritance, Self-made, U.S., UBS, Wealth
Washington Post (November 4)
America may still be “the world’s leading scientific research power, but competition is growing more fierce.” Even though “it’s a dangerous time to dull the country’s competitive edge,” Trump’s moves against universities have done just that. “Scientists in the United States increasingly see European bureaucracy as a safer setting for conducting their cutting-edge research than their home country’s own institutions.” The European Research Council “has seen a surge in applications,” with “nearly triple the number of proposals from Americans compared with the year before.”
Tags: Applications, Bureaucracy, Competition, Competitive edge, Cutting-edge research, ERC, Europe, Fierce, Leading, Power, Proposals, Safer setting, Scientific research, Trump, U.S., Universities
Wall Street Journal (October 7)
“French President Emmanuel Macron has lost his fourth prime minister in just over a year, a sign of how the country’s political crisis has engulfed his ranks and constrained his options for pulling France out of a fiscal spiral.” After just a month in office, “Sébastien Lecornu stunned the country by resigning as prime minister…. Lecornu’s benighted tenure—the shortest in the history of France’s modern Fifth Republic—is a measure of how a political system that was once a cornerstone of stability in Europe has fallen into disarray.”
Tags: Benighted, Cornerstone, Disarray, Engulfed, Europe, Fifth Republic, Fiscal spiral, France, Lecornu, Macron, Options, Political crisis, Resigning, Shortest, Stability, Stunned, Tenure
The Economist (October 4)
“Vladimir Putin is testing the West—and its unity.” Whether it’s “drones over Poland” or airspace incursions, “mysterious explosions and assassinations” or cyber-attacks, “Vladimir Putin is waging a grey-zone campaign against NATO: a cheap, deniable and calibrated effort to unsettle Europe that is carefully short of outright conflict…. NATO must resist Russia’s efforts to corrode it from within.”
Tags: Airspace, Assassinations, Calibrated, Campaign, Conflict, Cyber attacks, Deniable, Drones, Europe, Explosions, Grey-zone, Incursions, Nato, Poland, Putin, Testing, Unity, Unsettle
The Guardian (September 24)
“European leaders have been pulled to the right on migration, the climate crisis and Israel. Their weakness is undermining the democratic principles on which the EU was built.” If they “remain still and silent, hoping Trump will simply fade away, they risk giving up not just their dignity but their political agency. By doing so, they are allowing far-right forces to fill the void and tilt the balance permanently.”
Tags: Climate crisis, Democratic principles, Dignity, EU, Europe, Far right, Israel, Leaders, Migration, Political agency, Risk, Silent, Still, Trump, Undermining, Void, Weakness
The Economist (September 6)
“Insurgents who want to smash the system often end up running it.” Europe’s hard right is a threat to the economy and leading or polling strong in Britain, France and Germany. “In Italy they are in power; in the Netherlands they briefly led a coalition; and in Poland in June their presidential candidate saw off the nominee from the centre. By 2027 the hard right could be in office in economies worth getting on for half of European GDP.” The best case scenario is ” stagnation, at worst a bond-market rout.”
Tags: Bond-market rout, Britain, Economy, Europe, European GDP, France, Germany, Hard right, Insurgents, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Polling, Power, Smash, Stagnation, Threat
The Guardian (July 9)
“As the climate crisis throws its destructive effects ever more fully in our faces, cities during heatwaves are their own type of ground zero.” We need to “create more green spaces and more tolerable streets” Make no mistake, “extreme heat is our future” so “European cities must adapt.” It is true that “greenery, shade and swimming spots won’t solve the climate crisis, but they’re becoming ever more critical.”
Tags: Cities, Climate crisis, Critical, Destructive effects, Europe, Future, Green spaces, Ground zero, Heatwaves, Shade, Streets. Extreme heat, Swimming spots, Tolerable
