Mask-off outbursts by Maga insiders and most strikingly, the destruction and reconstruction of the presidential seat, with a huge new $300m ballroom, means Trump isn’t planning to leave the White House when his term ends, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
RELATIONS between the EU and China are at a crossroads. The reception for Chinese Premier Li Qiang and the resumption of German-Chinese intergovernmental consultations in Berlin on June 20 cannot conceal the fact.
On China, as in other matters, Brussels and Berlin seem to be replicating the decisions made in Washington like an echo chamber.
There is no prospect of independent European foreign and trade policy, however much Beijing might long for it. As for readying ourselves for a policy of confrontation with China, the EU even appears to be trying to position itself in the vanguard. Yet there is so much at stake.
In Washington, the willingness to accept an open war with Russia is growing — at Europe’s expense. While Nato states are being drawn into confrontation, Europe risks becoming the battlefield of a potential world war, warns SEVIM DAGDELEN
In a speech to the 12th Xiangshan Forum in Beijing, SEVIM DAGDELEN warns of a growing historical revisionism to whitewash Germany and Japan’s role in WWII as part of a return to a cold war strategy from the West — but multipolarity will win out
In the first half of a two-part article, PETER MERTENS looks at how Nato’s €800 billion ‘Readiness 2030’ plan serves Washington’s pivot to the Pacific, forcing Europeans to dismantle social security and slash pensions to fund it



