Geothermal energy and Arctic routes. China filled the void Europe left in Iceland
To know how Iceland’s referendum was going to turn out, instead of poring for months over polls that never moved, the European Union should have looked at the flight schedules: it would have discovered that on October 26, the first direct route between Beijing and Reykjavík is set to launch, and it would also have […]
Von der Leyen will test the Parliament’s patience and celebrate her guest of honor
Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union It’s the big “rentrée” moment after the summer break. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will deliver her State of the Union address on Wednesday, September 16, before the European Parliament in Strasbourg. It’s the occasion to set priorities for the year ahead, but also to take […]
The tapestry of reconciliation, Taiwan’s flowers and an economist’s love affairs
SEPTEMBER 18-26. QUEER LISBOA / LISBON, PORTUGAL The film festival with a queer flavor While Futuro Nazionale, the far right Italian party, in its election platform, declares its intention to ban “genderist/homosexualist” programs, TV scenes, and ads from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., Lisbon’s Queer International Film Festival is launching a new section, “Queer Families,” […]
Barcelona, a pioneer in the satellite industry
It’s mid-2020, in Catalonia. Covid is claiming victims every day, and the authorities’ only concern remains buying ventilators and protective equipment, and stopping the advance of the virus. And yet, in a Barcelona office that has nothing to do with healthcare, someone sits down at their desk, takes off their mask, and thinks it would […]
Porto, an “authentic city” turned crowded, transformed by tourism and social media
“This is what the traveler takes away from Porto, a mystery made of gloomy streets and earth-colored houses, all of it as captivating as, at dusk, the lights that gradually come on along the hillsides, a city joined to a river they call the Douro.” That’s how writer José Saramago described Porto’s discreet, mysterious charm […]
Munich, the virtuous convergence of universities and defense investment
Every year around 6.5 million people travel to Munich for Oktoberfest. Bavaria’s capital is known for its beer, pretzels, lederhosen, and Bayern Munich, Germany’s most decorated football club. But for the past few years, Munich has had another distinguishing feature. Since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine, one of Europe’s most dynamic hubs for […]
Small and great places of the heart in Europe. The experts talk
The Ukrainian city that is like a miniature Europe: cultured, tenacious, cosmopolitan. The British Orkney Islands, Bertolt Brecht’s home and the magnificent Trieste. A round-up of opinions on the places where the European spirit resides. What makes a city European? Each of us has in mind a place – both real and ideal – that […]
In the Ukrainian rooms where the betrayal of the Budapest Memorandum played out
Lukashivka (Mykolaïv region), from our correspondent When one of the most secretive places in the world becomes a museum, it often means that the nation revealing its own secrets has lost a war, lost a struggle, or has changed and no longer needs hidden places — that it has settled into peace. That’s not the […]
The European art of iiving, inspired by Jean Monnet
Europe’s tragedy is to have made Jean Monnet boring. This extraordinary figure, who crossed the world for decades, living incredible adventures and relentlessly pursuing the mad ideal of a united Europe, has been turned into a dusty reference point, a stuffed founding father, good only for quoting in the most conventional speeches on the state […]
How a vineyard can save us from wildfires. The story of Fire Wine
These past weeks we’ve learned the frightening technical vocabulary of wildfires: firestorms, zombie fires, pyrocumulonimbus clouds. Climate conditions are becoming more extreme and fires are increasing: in 2026 alone, Spain and France have seen more than 300,000 hectares burn — an area equal to twice the size of Rome. Take Les Landes, in Gironde, in […]