Europe

For Europe, AUKUS feels like the security outcome of a bull’s run through a China shop. Only China will be happy about the weakening of Europe – and Europe’s new divisions – that AUKUS has created.

Is there anything about this worldwide pandemic that we have not talked about sufficiently after one and a half years?

If the EU is not careful and cannot stop Lukashenko soon, the damage to the EU’s integrity and its credibility could be severe. Lithuania badly needs more than just warm words of support.

On the sidelines of profit maximisation, appeasing questionable regimes and political symbolism occurred 51 football matches. That is the summary of Euro 2020.

These sober findings put debates around New Zealand’s housing crisis into a different perspective. As bad as the housing market situation is today, there is worse to come if we do not unlock the supply side of the housing market now.

Healing US politics will be a tough challenge for Biden. If he wants an easier task, he should try healing trans-Atlantic relations first. After all, most European leaders want him to succeed so they can rule out a return to the frostiness of Trump.

Perhaps only one thing might eventually lead Turkey back onto a more sustainable path, both economically and politically. And that is a change in the presidency.

If only the EU was a community of values, it would have underlined its commitment to the rule of law in last week’s budget. It did not.