Ollly Robbins says he was subject to “constant pressure” when he arrived in the Foreign Office to get Peter Mandelson into the ambassador post as soon as possible
www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Breaking:
Chinese rail giant CRRC's Portuguese subsidiary withdrew from a consortium to provide trams to metro project in Lisbon after EU foreign subsidies regulation probe - replaced by a Polish company
Story to follow with Xiaofei Xu
Marine Le Pen's niece Marion Maréchal tells the FT that the far right in France should emulate how Giorgia Meloni rose to power in Italy by uniting the far right and traditional right.
www.ft.com/content/40a6...
New: Beijing has issued a direct threat to retaliate against EU companies, should the EU move forward with its proposed cybersecurity act, which would hit Chinese firms
"The route taken by the Chinese ships is much closer to the Japanese mainland than the one usually taken to pass between the East China Sea and the western Pacific and is part of a pattern of increasing military assertiveness around Japanese territory."
www.ft.com/content/61f8...
Orban is not Trump. And Hungary is not the United States. But Peter Magyar’s crushing victory last week does offer lessons to Democrats in the US: keep it simple, focus on corruption, don’t preach to the choir, Make America Fun Again
podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...
“One can envision a post-Trump world where tensions between the US & EU are dialed down. But we won’t return to anything resembling the transatlantic relationship of past decades. The damage that has been done in a single year has been enormous" @fbermingham.bsky.social
www.scmp.com/news/china/d...
Trump has mused about giving himself the Medal of Honor, meant to honor bravery, courage and sacrifice. He points to a surprise holiday visit to US troops in Iraq in his first term in which his jet descended in the dark toward an unlit runway, scaring the president
www.wsj.com/politics/nat...
These people don’t understand Europe. They think they can bring their MAGA grievances and impose them one-for-one on a diverse continent that increasingly sees Trump as a threat. I suspect they will vanish as quickly as they came
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/w...
Another example of ICE being used by American citizens to exact revenge on foreigners in the country when the disputes should have been adjudicated in the courts
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/17/u...
A 5-day trip to China with very little to show for it, apart from some good propaganda for Beijing
asia.nikkei.com/politics/int...
You’re forgetting Volkswagen 😉
France has rejected a British proposal that NATO SecGen Mark Rutte and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attend their Strait of Hormuz meeting in Paris today.
There’s also this: “The whole point is to pretend there is a plan, when there isn’t.”
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Germany cutting its growth forecast for this year in half to 0.5% and increasing inflation projection to 2.7%, Reuters reports
www.reuters.com/business/ger...
Rhodium is hard to spell
Great story from Reuters. This is a significant move by China as the Iran mess deepens and ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting in mid-May. A test - and surely not the last - of the US and it’s ability to mount an effective response
www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...
Interesting new Pew survey on US views of China:
- 27% of Americans have a favorable opinion of China, nearly twice as high as the 14% registered in 2023
- 60% of Americans are not confident in Trump's handling of China, up from 49% in 2024
www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...
Who knew that the Iranians were world-class trollers?
From a new EUCCC report on China's export control regime: It would not be prudent for the EU or European firms to bet that the US & China will reach a deal to further delay implementation of Beijing's Oct 2025 controls or trust that a delay would last
www.europeanchamber.com.cn/en/press-rel...
Germany’s far-right AfD is four points ahead of Merz’s CDU/CSU in this new poll. I believe that is a bigger lead than in any prior survey. Those who see Orban’s demise as a death knell for all populists in Europe are mistaken
www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/you...
Iran secretly acquired a Chinese spy satellite that gave the Islamic republic a powerful new capability to target US military bases across the Middle East during the recent war, according to a @financialtimes.com investigation.
www.ft.com/content/1fdd...
If you don’t do exactly what Trump wants you to do, then you lack courage. And those who bow to his will are courageous. Makes a lot of sense
www.ft.com/content/284f...
Le Pen & Bardella have been more circumspect than others in Europe, including the AfD. Their strategy has been to broaden their appeal by moderating their messages. Aligning with Trump runs counter to this. Did they hope for a far-right wave? Sure. But I haven’t seen an overt embrace of Trump
I’m not sure this applies to all far-right parties in Europe. Ties between the Rassemblement National - which has always leaned anti-American - and MAGA have been rocky. Zemmour - not Le Pen - was invited to the inauguration. Bardella pulled out of CPAC and sparred w/Bannon. Then Greenland, Iran.
Pretty underwhelming deliverables from the Pedro Sanchez trip to China
- Agreement to "facilitate" exports of Spanish pork and cherries
- Bilateral working group on medical devices, medicines and cosmetics
- Limited science, education and cultural cooperation
www.lamoncloa.gob.es/lang/en/pres...
Hungary chose to be a member of the EU. And Hungarian voters overwhelmingly rejected Orban’s anti-EU stance. MAGA can’t get its head around this.
