BUSINESS

Plans for possible direct trains from London to Berlin will be drawn up by a joint UK-German taskforce, reigniting hopes for better rail connections across Europe. The partnership, announced as part of the bilateral treaty to be signed by the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, and his German counterpart, Friedrich Merz, could eventually lead to … Read more

Like a chronic ailment, strategic incoherence gnaws at everything Britain does in the world. Keir Starmer’s real achievement in resetting relations with mainland Europe – witness the recent visits of the French president Emmanuel Macron and the German chancellor Friedrich Merz – does not obscure, and in a way even highlights, this deeper confusion. After … Read more

Every nation has literary classics that shape its cultural identity. Germans have Faust, Goethe’s play about the successful but dissatisfied scientist Dr Heinrich Faust, who makes a deal with the devil. Faust has been performed, referenced and read in schools for more than two centuries now. Interestingly, the most tragic character in this tragedy is … Read more

When I was little I imagined, as most children probably do, that the grownups had things all worked out and someday I would find myself on the other side of a clear boundary. Adolescence on one side; maturity, responsibility, self-assuredness, composition on the other. A few weeks ago I turned 35. As the day ticked … Read more

It wasn’t quite le bromance of last week’s press conference with Emmanuel Macron. Then Keir Starmer and the French president had made no effort to conceal their affection for one another. A thousand ways to say je t’aime. They had even concluded their hour in front of the cameras with an awkward hug, unsure if … Read more

Merz says he ‘deplores deeply’ UK’s decision to leave EU In his opening remarks during the press conference with Keir Starmer, Friedrich Merz said that he deplored Brexit. He said: The United Kingdom, and I personally deplore this deeply, decided to leave the European Union. He added that “it is together that we respond to … Read more

Look at the Germany shelf of your local British bookshop and, if one exists at all, it will almost certainly be filled with tomes about the Nazis and the two world wars. To write a book about contemporary Germany, to write anything complimentary – as I have done – is to buck the trend, even … Read more

Starmer says Tory ministers have ‘serious questions’ to answer about Afghan data leak Keir Starmer starts by saying MPs across the house have always supported the UK supporting Afghans who helped the British army. Yesterday the government set out the failings that Labour inherited. Starmer says ministers in the last government have “serious questions” to … Read more

Before Donald Trump was a politician he was a property tycoon. Naturally, he thought he could fix the Ukraine war with a real-estate deal. In exchange for a ceasefire, Vladimir Putin would get to keep territory he had already seized. But before Putin was a politician he was a KGB agent who mourned the collapse … Read more