Author: Press Room

‘Standing together’: Macron and Scholz try to mend differences in Paris lunch meeting

Europe

Olaf Scholz on Wednesday played down rumours that the Franco-German engine is spluttering following a meeting with Emmanuel Macron.The working lunch between the German chancellor and French president was in lieu of a cancelled ministerial meeting, initially scheduled for this week but now postponed to January.The meeting typically is held annually but hasn’t taken place in person since the COVID-19 pandemic.Officially, the reason for the postponement of the meeting is that several German ministers are unavailable due to school holidays.But difficulties in finding common grounds on a host of topics including how to best tackle skyrocketing energy prices as well…

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Opinion: Do not fall for the symbolism of Rishi Sunak’s premiership

United Kingdom

Editor’s Note: Kehinde Andrews is professor of Black studies at Birmingham City University and the author of the book “The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World.” The opinions in commentary are his own. View more opinion on CNN. CNN  —  Britain welcomed its first non-White Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, a practicing Hindu, on the first day of the festival Diwali. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a ray of light for British race relations, and it has already been heralded as a “historic moment,” marking a change from when Sunak was born…

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Europe’s space sector hesitates between independence and cooperation

Europe

Europe’s space sector is debating this week how to find the perfect balance between encouraging a dynamic new commercial sector and taking into account hyper-sensitive questions around sovereignty and security. Finding the best compromise on those two issues is at the heart of discussions this week at the European Space Forum 2022 in Brussels.The two-day conference has attracted 700 industry leaders in a hybrid format, with the European Space Agency’s Director General opening the event in a keynote speech. Josef Aschbacher stressed the need for more private investment into European space exploration, while at the same time making reference to…

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