Latest news with #Brussels
The National
2 hours ago
- Business
- The National
'Gulf citizenship' is a powerful idea that can bolster GCC states' national identities
The Gulf Co-operation Council member states recently agreed to jointly introduce a special part on Gulf citizenship into their educational curriculums. This timely and far-sighted step will improve the bloc's internal cohesion, ultimately contributing to the six countries' security and economic prosperity. The 1980s and 1990s were a time of great economic and political integration in the EU. They witnessed the launch of the common market, allowing EU citizens to freely move throughout the bloc while guaranteeing equal status to the citizens of the country they decide to settle in. In 1999, the single currency – the euro – was formally launched, creating a unified monetary system for 300 million Europeans. During this era of European amalgamation, I was growing up in the UK – the EU's reluctant adopted child. Owing to its unique history and island geography, the UK always retained a schizophrenic relationship towards the continent, with the public simultaneously being anxious about committing to the EU and fearing being left out. Overall, however, the sentiment was definitely Eurosceptic compared to the UK's long-standing French and German rivals across the channel, ultimately spawning the Brexit referendum decision in 2016. I clearly remember visiting the EU capital, Brussels, in December 1999 to experience the millennium transition. At that time, even though the procedural elements of European integration were very advanced, Brussels was still very much a Belgian city, full of Belgians speaking French. This helped reinforce my British-inspired impression that the EU project was very much a top-down affair, with ordinary citizens a long way from developing a European identity. Almost 20 years later, I returned to Brussels, this time as a resident of Bahrain who had conducted a lot of research on integration within both the EU and the GCC. I was pleasantly surprised to see a European identity everywhere I walked: the city had transformed into a home for people from every corner of the now enlarged bloc, and every group of people I encountered seemed to be speaking a different one of Europe's main tongues. The bank notes in my wallet were covered in European-themed images celebrating the continent's history. While the EU's capital city is not necessarily representative of the rest of the Union, it was evident to me that imbuing children with a set of European values – and teaching them to be proud of European history – played a central role in the development of European identity. As the EU has demonstrated, cultivating a bloc-level identity need not come at the expense of a national one In 2025, while the EU continues to face significant challenges of internal cohesion, on the whole, it is in a much better position economically and militarily than it would have been had each country continued to go it alone. The chastening speech delivered by US Vice President JD Vance in Munich earlier this year has further assured Europeans that they need to stick together, amplifying the value of educational curriculums that emphasise the notion of a European identity. For this reason, the GCC's decision to integrate a Gulf identity into their educational curriculums is a sage one. The evolving geopolitical constellation is creating a pressing need for the six countries to further strengthen their ties. As the EU example shows, it is critical that the top-down procedural steps be mirrored by a change in the mindset of ordinary citizens. Moreover, as the EU has demonstrated, cultivating a bloc-level identity need not come at the expense of a national one – in fact, it can reinforce the national identity. Germans today are proud to be both German and European, in the same way that Bahrainis are proud to be citizens of Bahrain and the Gulf. Educational reforms are an accelerant in this regard. Having a unified perspective throughout the population about what it means to be a Gulf citizen plays an important supporting role in striving for higher levels of economic and security co-operation between the six GCC member states. Reforming educational curriculums is the natural first step.
Washington Post
3 hours ago
- General
- Washington Post
Europe's leaders are scolding Israel over Gaza, but will they go further?
BRUSSELS — A rare rebuke of Israel by Germany this week underscored Europe's growing willingness to pressure the Netanyahu government over its siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip, which is testing the tolerance of some of Israel's staunchest allies. After a deadly Israeli strike on a Gaza school turned shelter this week, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the harm to civilians could 'no longer be justified by a fight against Hamas terrorism' — a sharp departure from Germany's blanket defense of Israel during the war. Merz cautioned Israel against doing 'anything that at some point its best friends are no longer willing to accept.'
Irish Times
4 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Truth Social diplomacy, a shock court ruling and fashion magnate advice: A week inside the EU-US tariff talks
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is not short of advice about how to handle Donald Trump. Bernard Arnault, founder and chief executive of French luxury brand giant LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Moët Hennessy and Dior, privately chipped in with his opinion in recent days. The French businessman sat down with Ms von der Leyen late last week, the day before the US president threw European Union-US negotiations into another tailspin, by threatening to introduce blanket 50 per cent tariffs on June 1st. Mr Trump was later persuaded to push his sudden deadline out to July 9th , the date an original 90-day pause on the higher rates of his 'liberation day' tariffs was due to end. READ MORE Mr Arnault, who runs one of Europe's biggest companies, met Ms von der Leyen in the European Commission's headquarters in Brussels to talk about how to avert a transatlantic trade war. The commission, the European Union's (EU) executive branch that sets the bloc's trade policy, has been making little progress in talks with the Trump administration. [ US federal court blocks Trump from imposing sweeping tariffs Opens in new window ] The LVMH executive told Ms von der Leyen he was concerned about the uncertainty caused by Mr Trump's tariffs on global trade. Mr Arnault singled out the champagne wing of his empire, Moët & Chandon, during the discussion. In the May 22nd meeting, the details of which have not been reported before, Mr Arnault stressed the need to reach a deal on tariffs with Mr Trump. That is easier said than done. Ford Chief Lisa Brankin on accelerating the switch to EVs Listen | 41:35 For the last two months European businesses have been facing 10 per cent tariffs, which are import taxes, when selling goods into the US. Cars and steel products sold from the EU to the US have been subject to 25 per cent levies. The threat of across-the-board tariffs of 20 per cent, or even 50 per cent, if negotiations failed, has caused growing alarm across European industries. Separate duties targeting pharmaceutical imports are being considered, which would be a big economic blow to Ireland. But the New York-based Court of International Trade on Wednesday struck down Mr Trump's sweeping 'liberation day' tariffs, ruling these were not legal. The US administration has said it will appeal. 'It's a very significant ruling by the court. It gives you some hope that the rule of law still applies in the United States. Let's see what happens,' said Ignacio Garcia Bercero, who was the commission's chief negotiator on an EU-US trade deal abandoned in 2016. Current talks should pivot to focus on steel, aluminium and automobile tariffs, which are not affected by the ruling, the former senior official told The Irish Times. Negotiators had been racing to hammer out a deal with Mr Trump and head off the worst of his damaging trade levies before July 9th. The court ruling may buy the EU side more time. Sources in Dublin and in Brussels are optimistic the US president ultimately wants an agreement, despite the distance between negotiating positions at the moment. [ Court tariffs bombshell should inspire trading partners to defy Trump ] Mr Trump's post on Truth Social threatening 50 per cent tariffs took people by surprise last Friday, even if it was quickly walked back. 'It's all very volatile,' one Government source said. The shopping list of demands put forward by the White House at one point or another is long. It includes the EU rolling back tech regulations, lowering food safety standards that bar US chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-treated beef and scrapping digital services taxes in France and other countries. Mr Trump has also criticised value-added tax (VAT) charged on goods and services. Working out what is negotiating bluster and what the US side is genuinely interested in has been difficult. 'Don't ask me to predict what a final deal will look like,' one commission official said. The EU has offered to buy more US soybeans and liquefied natural gas (LNG) and to make it easier for the US to sell fish and lobster to the EU and for both sides to drop pre-Trump tariffs on industrial goods to zero. Some easing or tweaks to EU laws have reportedly been mentioned as another possible concession, but a rollback of online guardrails or food safety standards is a red line the commission won't cross. Before the New York court ruling there was a growing expectation the EU would have to stomach some baseline level of US tariffs, likely to be the global 10 per cent rate. Irish businesses were concerned about a no-deal scenario that would leave exports, such as Jameson whiskey or Kerrygold butter, facing a 20 per cent tariff. Irish products would then be sitting on a US supermarket shelf beside Scotch whiskey or a UK butter brand subject to a lower 10 per cent levy. Ms von der Leyen's top adviser, Bjoern Seibert, is right at the heart of the EU's response, directing the strategy behind the scenes. It is understood many of the decisions made inside the commission on this flow through him. He briefed representatives from the 27 EU states at the start of this week. The influential adviser suggested a clearer picture of what the US wanted in a deal was starting to emerge, two people said. Exact details of the ongoing negotiations are being kept under wraps. EU trade commissioner Maros Šefčovič and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick had planned to focus their discussions on key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, cars, steel and computer chips. The pair speak on the phone regularly and have met several times. Other contested points were being discussed by officials. A delegation of commission trade staff is scheduled to travel to the US next week for talks. The two sides have been exchanging papers setting out their positions, something seen as a forerunner to intensive negotiations taking place in June. The commission has a set of retaliatory tariffs ready to go, if talks stall. These tariffs on US soybeans, Harley-Davidson motorbikes, oranges, steel and other products were paused until mid-July to signal to the US that Europe wanted to talk. A second, larger package of counter-tariffs under consideration would hit US aircraft manufacturers, bourbon whiskey, the automobile industry and many other sectors. 'You need to have them ready ... You keep the gun on the table,' one EU official said of the measures. [ Tariff threat undermines State's ability to deliver economic forecasts, says Donohoe Opens in new window ] The European aviation industry previously warned the commission against targeting Boeing and other US manufacturers, correspondence shows. In an April 14th letter to Mr Šefčovič, Airlines for Europe, which counts Ryanair as a member, said import duties would have a 'severe impact' on European airlines. Companies had placed 'significant' orders for US-made aircraft that they could not cancel, the correspondence seen by The Irish Times said. The Government has objected to the inclusion of US bourbon, civil aircraft and medical devices on the commission's tariff list, which will be finalised next month. EU officials have been drawing up a contingency plan to hit the US even harder, should negotiations collapse and steep tariffs kick in. This would focus on services, rather than goods and products. One option is the EU's anti-coercion instrument (ACI), which has been dubbed the 'big bazooka'. This would allow the bloc to put a levy on US tech giants' digital ad revenues in Europe and restrict US firms from bidding on public contracts in the EU. The Government here is fiercely opposed to tech multinationals being dragged into the thick of the tariff dispute, given the number of those US companies with bases in Dublin. It is understood some commission officials believe there is a way to put tariffs on services without having to resort to the bazooka, which requires a months-long investigation first to confirm the EU is facing economic coercion. The federal trade court ruling has certainly strengthened the EU's hand in negotiations. However, if Mr Trump's blanket measures remain blocked, he may be more likely to pursue tariffs on targeted industries. Pharma could be top of the list. A few weeks back a senior commission official said jokingly that if the EU landed a deal in July to suspend all US tariffs, he would head off on a holiday for the rest of the month, plus August. It's fair to say nobody is booking flights or hotels just yet.
The Age
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
One of Melbourne's favourite falafel crosses the river to get to this southside bar
It's worth coming to cocktail bar Nobody's Baby for the crunchy-fluffy falafel alone. Previous SlideNext Slide 14/20How we score It's mid-evening, dark outside, the trams sound like applause and flash like fireworks. People – young, older, shiny, expensively rumpled – are at new bar Nobody's Baby before dinner, after dinner, for dinner or just for drinks. Speaking of, our next round of cocktails arrives: they're called Fat Bottomed Girls, after the Queen song, or maybe after me. Shaken vodka drinks in long-stemmed coupe glasses, they taste of pepper, honey and lemon with the sesame richness of tahini picking up the Middle Eastern flavours of the food menu. It's all timber and curves in here, the components built off-site in Torquay and installed in three days. Arches separate the bar area from the lounge's booths and banquettes, and the bar itself makes a broad sweep to a DJ set-up, where a cruisy guy mixes in a record by The Police (later, there's Khruangbin, and was that Hank Williams?). It's medium-loud: you're not whispering, nor are you needing to shout. My friends and I are full of falafel and love, at that leaning-all-over-one-another stage of the night. Annalisa pulls my hair back into a ponytail. 'Why don't you wear it like this more?' she asks, taking photo after photo. Emma walks in from the toilet out the back. 'There's a tattoo parlour in the yard,' she tells us, presenting un-inked arms in enquiry. Indeed, when the previous bar tenant Raindancer was here, a patron once finished a drink and followed up with a tatt. Not us, not tonight. I pick up a piece of pickled cabbage and swipe it through zhoug, a Yemeni green chilli relish. A small dog – hitherto hidden under the next table – lets out a polite bark. 'The falafel have a thick, crunchy shell that gives way to a herby, fluffy interior: it's worth coming for these alone.' What is a bar anyway? Restaurants have cocktails, bars serve food, so what actually is the difference between a bar and a restaurant (especially when the bar serves food as good as this)? For me, it's the feeling and the flexibility, rolling from drinks to eats and back again, having people join you later or peel off, the possibility of perching on a stool to ponder life with patrons and pourers alike. The team here knows all that stuff. Tim Badura and Gustavo Prince met at retro bar Joe's Shoe Store in Northcote, which Prince founded (he also owns neighbouring Pizza Meine Liebe). When they landed this place, they invited Shuki Rosenboim and Louisa Allan from Brunswick's Very Good Falafel to bring their pulse-fuelled joy southside. What a move. The falafel here, handmade using a metal press, have a thick, crunchy shell that gives way to a herby, fluffy interior: it's worth coming for these alone. But you may also fall for sumac-cured sardines on challah, roasted Brussels sprouts with pilpelchuma, a Libyan-Jewish chilli and garlic paste, or grilled whiting with harissa and latkes, a perfect assembly of sea, spice and starch. Chicken skewers and lamb meatballs are cooked over charcoal; the chicken is interspersed with plump green olives; the lamb is squished in pita with roasted onion, tahini and amba, an Iraqi-Jewish pickled mango condiment. It's simple and excellent: big flavours, sauces you'll want to swipe your fingers through, and sharp and salty enough to keep you drinking. The obvious nightcap is Baby Brulee, a whisky, Baileys and vanilla concoction with a bruleed top. Ask for it to be torched at the table, making your cocktail an event for the whole room and turning Nobody's Baby into everybody's wondrous child. Good Food Guide.
Sydney Morning Herald
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
One of Melbourne's favourite falafel crosses the river to get to this southside bar
It's worth coming to cocktail bar Nobody's Baby for the crunchy-fluffy falafel alone. Previous SlideNext Slide 14/20How we score It's mid-evening, dark outside, the trams sound like applause and flash like fireworks. People – young, older, shiny, expensively rumpled – are at new bar Nobody's Baby before dinner, after dinner, for dinner or just for drinks. Speaking of, our next round of cocktails arrives: they're called Fat Bottomed Girls, after the Queen song, or maybe after me. Shaken vodka drinks in long-stemmed coupe glasses, they taste of pepper, honey and lemon with the sesame richness of tahini picking up the Middle Eastern flavours of the food menu. It's all timber and curves in here, the components built off-site in Torquay and installed in three days. Arches separate the bar area from the lounge's booths and banquettes, and the bar itself makes a broad sweep to a DJ set-up, where a cruisy guy mixes in a record by The Police (later, there's Khruangbin, and was that Hank Williams?). It's medium-loud: you're not whispering, nor are you needing to shout. My friends and I are full of falafel and love, at that leaning-all-over-one-another stage of the night. Annalisa pulls my hair back into a ponytail. 'Why don't you wear it like this more?' she asks, taking photo after photo. Emma walks in from the toilet out the back. 'There's a tattoo parlour in the yard,' she tells us, presenting un-inked arms in enquiry. Indeed, when the previous bar tenant Raindancer was here, a patron once finished a drink and followed up with a tatt. Not us, not tonight. I pick up a piece of pickled cabbage and swipe it through zhoug, a Yemeni green chilli relish. A small dog – hitherto hidden under the next table – lets out a polite bark. 'The falafel have a thick, crunchy shell that gives way to a herby, fluffy interior: it's worth coming for these alone.' What is a bar anyway? Restaurants have cocktails, bars serve food, so what actually is the difference between a bar and a restaurant (especially when the bar serves food as good as this)? For me, it's the feeling and the flexibility, rolling from drinks to eats and back again, having people join you later or peel off, the possibility of perching on a stool to ponder life with patrons and pourers alike. The team here knows all that stuff. Tim Badura and Gustavo Prince met at retro bar Joe's Shoe Store in Northcote, which Prince founded (he also owns neighbouring Pizza Meine Liebe). When they landed this place, they invited Shuki Rosenboim and Louisa Allan from Brunswick's Very Good Falafel to bring their pulse-fuelled joy southside. What a move. The falafel here, handmade using a metal press, have a thick, crunchy shell that gives way to a herby, fluffy interior: it's worth coming for these alone. But you may also fall for sumac-cured sardines on challah, roasted Brussels sprouts with pilpelchuma, a Libyan-Jewish chilli and garlic paste, or grilled whiting with harissa and latkes, a perfect assembly of sea, spice and starch. Chicken skewers and lamb meatballs are cooked over charcoal; the chicken is interspersed with plump green olives; the lamb is squished in pita with roasted onion, tahini and amba, an Iraqi-Jewish pickled mango condiment. It's simple and excellent: big flavours, sauces you'll want to swipe your fingers through, and sharp and salty enough to keep you drinking. The obvious nightcap is Baby Brulee, a whisky, Baileys and vanilla concoction with a bruleed top. Ask for it to be torched at the table, making your cocktail an event for the whole room and turning Nobody's Baby into everybody's wondrous child. Good Food Guide.
