Around eight years after Donald Trumpʼs first win Europe still cant handle its defense needs properly. Germany says its reaching NATOʼs 2% GDP target but its doing some budget-tricks to get there (the real spending stays at 1.2%). Meanwhile Olaf Scholz government doesnt show real progress in military spending
Europes total defense money could work fine against Russia - its near 300-billion euros but the spending isnt smart. While Poland puts 5% of its GDP into defense (matching Germanys regular budget) Berlin just keeps hitting the snooze button on security wake-up calls
The climate-policy world changed since 2015s Paris deal: China made its own path saying itʼll reach carbon neutral by 2060. The US energy scene is super-mixed now – its both the biggest oil-and-gas maker and home to Elon Muskʼs green-tech empire. Even with recent huge storms hitting America climate stuff wasnt big in election talks
Chinese views on US politics are pretty interesting. Many Chinese follow American elections like Europeans watch football matches – its entertainment from far away. Some China-watchers say Trump has fans there: his business-first tough-guy style fits some Chinese views. But for Chinese smart people the 2016 win broke their picture of US politics as some kind of model to follow
If Chinese social media users could vote they would have picked a Trump-like leader yesterday; and tried taking Taiwan already
The Biden-China thing didnt work as Beijing hoped: instead of softer policy they got more organized push-back. With Trump maybe coming back China sees two ways things could go: either a big fight or some kind of deal – both seem more likely than with current US team