


Germany’s debt brake and the art of fantasy budgeting
The country is tiring of its self-imposed fiscal straitjacket
Like A SQUIRMING Harry Houdini, Germany’s government has once again wriggled its way out of a straitjacket it applied to itself. On July 5th, having blown through one self-imposed deadline to conclude a draft budget for 2025, the coalition’s negotiators pulled an all-nighter to avoid missing a second. The result, said a bleary-eyed Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, was a “work of art”.
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When will Ukraine join NATO?
Its road to membership could be blocked if Donald Trump becomes president

The Kremlin is rewriting Wikipedia
A new version of history is taking shape

After a deadlocked election, can anyone govern France?
The country is scrambling to find a new prime minister

When will Ukraine join NATO?
Its road to membership could be blocked if Donald Trump becomes president

The Kremlin is rewriting Wikipedia
A new version of history is taking shape

After a deadlocked election, can anyone govern France?
The country is scrambling to find a new prime minister
A shock election result in France puts the left in the lead
But they are well short of a majority; uncertainty looms
Europe faces a new age of shrunken French influence
Sharing power will weaken the federalist president’s sway in Brussels
The EU should be the world’s heat-pump pioneer
But the union is falling behind in its efforts