Joseph Belbruno Blog

  Ceuta 11 anni dopo la Merkel: quale lezione? Ascolta l'articolo 9 min i new Il 30 luglio 2026 rischia di entrare negli annali della crisi migratoria europea con lo stesso peso simbolico dell'agosto 2015, quando Angela Merkel pronunciò il suo celebre Wir schaffen das, cioè «possiamo farcela» , lo slogan che spalancava le frontiere della Germania a un flusso di migranti che si sarebbe rivelato ingovernabile. L’altro slogan associato alla Merkel era la Wilkommen Politik, la politica del benvenuto. A Ceuta , l'enclave spagnola incastonata sulla costa marocchina, undici anni dopo in appena ventiquattr'ore sono arrivate circa 60.000 persone: più di due terzi della popolazione residente, che si aggira sugli 84.000 abitanti. Migliaia di giovani uomini, in gran parte marocchini, hanno nuotato attorno ai frangiflutti e scavalcato le reti metalliche che dividono il continente africano da quello che, giuridicamente, è già suolo dell'Unione Europea. I negozi e i bar del centro...

Foot ball gives Europe a rare geopolitical win Financial Times Europe4 Aug 2026Gideon Rach man gideon.rach man@ft.com When Bel gium beat the US at the recent World Cup, the Bel gian play ers cel eb ratedby mock ingly imit at ing Don ald Trump’s dad dan cing. It was a poin ted rebuke to theUS pres id ent — who had boas ted about per suad ing Fifa, the world foot ball author -ity, to lift the sus pen sion of Amer ica’s star striker so that he could play against Bel -gium. European foot ball is now doing another vic tory dance. Uefa, the con tin ent’s foot ballfed er a tion, has just forced Fifa’s boss, Gianni Infantino, to with draw a plan to sell astake in world foot ball to private investors. On the sur face, the dis pute was simply about the gov ernance of the world’s mostpop u lar sport. But the geo pol it ical sub text is unmiss able. The lead investor in the pro posed privat isa tion was a mem ber of the exten dedTrump clan — Josh Kush ner, the brother of pres id en tial son-in-law...

  ASML’s hold over the future of chip making  Mono pol ies are like Christ mas cake: they can last a sur pris ingly long time, but musteven tu ally expire. The Eng lish East India Com pany’s strangle hold on trade routeslas ted cen tur ies. In the US, Stand ard Oil man aged a couple of dec ades before theSupreme Court called time in 1911. Where on that spec trum should one put chip -mak ing machine man u fac turer ASML? Wor ries that China is pro du cing its own ver sion of ASML’s chip print ing toolsknocked 8 per cent off ASML’s shares last week. The Dutch com pany’s mono polyisn’t at immin ent risk. China is one tech no lo gical gen er a tion behind the “deep ultra -vi olet” machinery used to etch smal ler cir cuits, accord ing to a report in The Inform -a tion. Moreover, those DUV tools are in turn prob ably a dec ade behind ASML’s moreadvanced “extreme ultra vi olet” machines. While China has shown aptitude forwarp-speed ing indus trial pro cesses, it took ASML 12 years to...

  KILL ALL CHINESE BEASTLY RATS NOW! ERASE THEM FROM THE FACE OF THE EARTH! China Is Getting More Anxious About Mythos Before Trump Meets Xi By Bloomberg News August 4, 2026 at 9:00 AM GMT+10 Save Translate 7:48 Takeaways by Bloomberg AI China is growing anxious that Anthropic PBC ’s Mythos could be wielded against the world’s second-biggest economy, adding a volatile new issue to already heightened tensions before a planned summit between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump. Officials in Beijing are concerned about the cyber capabilities of Mythos and other AI frontier models developed by US companies, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. They see the potential for models like Mythos to be used as an offensive weapon, and question why Anthropic is denying China access to the systems for normal purposes, the people said. China wants to preserve a relatively warm atmosphere before Xi’s planned Sept. 24 visit to the US and...

  L'Unione europea può finire? Dai missili su Lublino alle «bombe umane» su Gibilterra, perché non abbiamo mai avuto tanti nemici di Federico Fubini Forse mai come in questi ultimi anni l’Unione europea si ritrova «accerchiata» da più nemici: dalla Russia, che continua a testare la pazienza di Bruxelles, dall’amministrazione Trump e da una certa destra americana e anche da «figure interne» che vorrebbero che l’Ue si dissolvesse, come l’Urss nel 1991 Ascolta l'articolo 13 min i new Questo articolo è stato pubblicato sulla newsletter «Whatever It Takes» di Federico Fubini: per iscriverti clicca qui L'atmosfera delle vacanze, oltre all'accavallarsi dell'attualità, mi induce a proporre ai lettori un nuovo gioco enigmistico nel primo lunedì di agosto. Trovate i punti in comune tra la foto sotto...  ...quest’altra foto sotto... ...e questa terza foto sotto. C'è a stento bisogno di dirlo, ma la prima in alto ha tre giorni e rappresenta l'assalto disperato alle rive...

Why the Rare Earths Weapon Is Losing Its Force August 3, 2026 at 5:00 AM GMT+10 Not-so rare earths. Source: AFP/Getty Images Save Translate Every time China tightens its grip on rare earths, the rest of the world becomes a little better at finding them. Rare-earth permanent magnets — which help stick charging cables to laptops, clamp mobile phones to mounting devices, and click earbuds into their cases — have become a central battleground in China’s trade wars with its rivals. Beijing used export controls on the devices to force US President Donald Trump into a humiliating retreat on his Liberation Day tariffs last year. The same tactic is being deployed against Japan following a diplomatic spat with Tokyo.  

  The Islamist Threat Isn’t Only Terrorism By Lorenzo Vidino The Trump administration has shown a strong commitment to combating political Islam, a clear break from previous administrations. For years, Washing--ton has neglected the Islamist threat by using a divided and simplistic approach. Since 9/11, resources have been allocated to pursuing groups designated as terrorists, like ISIS and al Qaeda. Islamist organizations that adopted mostly nonviolent tactics and weren’t formally blacklisted—like the Muslim Brotherhood—fell under no agency’s remit and were largely ignored. Groups try to push their agenda through politics, schools and grassroots activism. This security-based view of Islamism misses the mark. The challenge is more complex than a terrorism threat. In both the Middle East and the Western world, political Islam— with the Muslim Brother--hood its main proponent—operates in many arenas, including politics, education and grassroots activism. Washington’s European partner...