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Any Brexit deal is better than no deal
PARIS — Despite the mantra on both sides that “no deal is better than a bad deal,” almost any agreement on future trade relations between the U.K. and the EU would be better than none. As the tortuous...
View ArticleFlanders’ dark stain
Othman El Hammouchi is a Flemish author and columnist based near Brussels. There is something rotten at the heart of Belgium. For decades, the country has used its particular position — as the...
View ArticleDon’t stop saving ‘zombie’ jobs
Paul Taylor, a contributing editor at POLITICO, writes the Europe At Large column. PARIS — Across Europe, finance ministries are pressing to phase out the furlough schemes that have kept workers idled...
View ArticleEye of the storm: Lombardy faces second COVID-19 nightmare
MILAN — In the capital of Italy’s northern Lombardy region, those who live near hospitals have started counting ambulance sirens again. Until a few weeks ago, it seemed Italy might be spared the...
View ArticleTwo years on, (some) Yellow Jacket supporters no longer hate Macron
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — Two years ago, in November 2018, the anti-establishment...
View ArticleCoronavirus pushes Bulgaria’s Roma further into the shadows
SOFIA, Bulgaria — Krasimira Alexandrova was struggling to make ends meet for her family, who live in Fakulteta, a Roma neighborhood on the outskirts of Sofia, well before the pandemic hit. Her...
View ArticleItaly’s doctors face new threat: Conspiracy theories
MILAN — From “heroes” to “terrorists.” In Italy, the doctors and nurses lauded for their exhausting, dangerous work in the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic are facing a new challenge: conspiracy...
View ArticleWhat Macron forgot about ‘Islamist separatism’
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. Emmanuel Macron got it right the first time. In a speech last month, the French...
View ArticleWhat Macron could learn from Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — The death of Jacques Chirac was the occasion for a great...
View ArticleLessons from Giscard d’Estaing for the EU’s future
Tim King writes POLITICO‘s Brussels Sketch. Even in death, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing can still exert influence over the European Union. The former French president has died at just the moment when...
View ArticleHow business lost the Brexit battle
Nicole Sykes is the former head of negotiations at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). July 2016. The captains of British industry have congregated in a glass-walled City conference room. The...
View ArticleThe US election’s other loser: European populists
Paul Taylor, a contributing editor at POLITICO, writes the Europe At Large column. PARIS — However narrow and contested, Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election will have a salutary...
View ArticleItaly worries about high death toll among coronavirus patients
MILAN — As Italians gear up for a COVID-era Christmas, a nagging worry is clouding celebrations: Why, despite the lockdowns and personal sacrifices made, is COVID-19 more lethal in Italy than...
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4 women protest leaders who shaped 2020
A global pandemic would have been disruptive enough. But 2020 was not just the year the world ground to a halt and went to battle against the coronavirus. It was also a year of mass protests and major...
View ArticleNever mind Brexit. Britain and France are condemned to work together.
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — It didn’t have to be this way. Just before the Treaty of Rome...
View Article5 reasons the UK failed in Brexit talks
Jonathan Powell was Downing Street chief of staff and chief British negotiator in Northern Ireland from 1997-2007. I have spent the last 40 years involved in international negotiations of one sort or...
View ArticleThe US election’s other loser: European populists
Paul Taylor, a contributing editor at POLITICO, writes the Europe At Large column. PARIS — However narrow and contested, Joe Biden’s victory in the U.S. presidential election will have a salutary...
View ArticleTwo years on, (some) Yellow Jacket supporters no longer hate Macron
John Lichfield is a former foreign editor of the Independent and was the newspaper’s Paris correspondent for 20 years. CALVADOS, France — Two years ago, in November 2018, the anti-establishment...
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In pictures: The stories of 19 COVID-19 survivors
In Spain, as in the rest of the world, people are living in uncertainty caused by the pandemic. The coronavirus has tested our strength and exposed the fragility of our health systems. More than 2.8...
View ArticleGeorgia ‘doesn’t care about me’: LGBTQ struggles worsen under lockdown
TBILISI — Two months into Georgia’s coronavirus lockdown, Madona Kiparoidze felt she had no options left. Kiparoidze, a 19-year-old transgender sex worker, had seen no clients for 45 days, leaving her...
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