Europe's new London?
Immigration is making this tiny country even more multilingual.
I was lucky enough to spend a good chunk of my young adulthood in pre-Brexit London. At the time, most of my friends, neighbors, housemates, and colleagues came from outside the United Kingdom. Often, those people came from somewhere in the European Union, and their native language wasn’t English. According to some of the most recent data, the number of students from EU member states choosing to study in the UK has dropped by half since Brexit. Sad!
So, I was intrigued when Sydney Baker, a travel writer and outdoor enthusiast, wrote to me about an EU member state that’s taken a completely different approach. They’ve made it easier for people outside the EU to obtain citizenship, cut tuition costs for foreign students, and embraced official multilingualism. These efforts are being pursued primarily to attract workers and boost the economy. But they’ve created something of a multilingual paradise.
Luxembourg has had three official languages for decades, but Sydney writes for Lazo Magazine that many more languages are spoken in the country today. I don’t personally think Luxembourg could possibly be sprawling and urban enough to compete with London, but I liked the comparison one of Sydney’s sources made.
You Can Read Sydney’s Article on Multilingualism in Luxembourg By Clicking Here.
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What I’m writing:
• I wrote about all the ways that Trump has helped Vladimir Putin during his first 50 days in office. They are numerous. This story is unlocked and free to read.
• Europe plans to send about $158 billion in loans to European Union member states to help them boost their national defense spending. However, the now shaky relationship between Washington and Brussels could negatively impact U.S. defense contractors since much of the newly mobilized money will likely remain in the European Union. This story is unlocked and free to read.
• You can also listen to me speaking to Julie Mason on SiriusXM about the changing European security landscape.
My weekly news blurbs:
What I’m reading:
• Russia presented the United States with a list of demands for a deal to end its war against Ukraine and reset U.S. relations, Reuters reports. The demands reportedly mirror similar previously presented demands, including no NATO membership for Ukraine, no foreign troops in Ukraine, and international recognition of Putin’s claim that Crimea and four provinces belong to Russia.
• Russia should seek to undermine the U.S. negotiating stance on Ukraine by fueling tensions between the Trump administration and other nations while continuing its efforts to dismantle the Ukrainian state, according to a document prepared for the Kremlin by a Moscow-based think tank close to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The Washington Post has the write-up.
• In the first such contact in over two years, the heads of U.S. and Russian spy agencies have spoken via telephone and agreed to continue regular contacts to lower tensions in U.S.-Russia relations, CBS reports.
• Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to the terms of a peace agreement to end nearly four decades of conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, CNN reports.
• Romania’s central election authority barred the far-right pro-Russian candidate Calin Georgescu from running in May’s presidential election re-run, Politico Europe reports.
• Poland must “drastically” increase the size of its military and even “reach for opportunities” related to “nuclear and unconventional weapons,” Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. The New York Times has the story.
• In an interview with the Financial Times, Polish President Andrzej Duda also called on the United States to move some of its nuclear warheads to Poland as a deterrent against Russia.
• NATO’s secretary general pledged the military alliance’s “unwavering” support for Bosnia’s territorial integrity after a series of Bosnian Serb separatist moves raised tensions nearly 30 years after the end of a bloody war, the Associated Press reports.
• Bosnia's constitutional court recently temporarily suspended separatist laws passed by the country's Serb Republic parliament and signed by the region's nationalist leader, Milorad Dodik, seen as an attack on the constitutional order. Reuters has the story.
• Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany, secured the votes to allow for extensive new government spending, including on defense, clearing the way for a stunning turnabout in German fiscal policy, the New York Times reports.
• Greenland’s opposition party, which favors a slow approach to independence from Denmark, won parliamentary elections on the territory, Reuters reports.
• More than 1,000 people were killed in clashes between government security forces and Assad regime loyalists on Syria’s Mediterranean coast over the last four days, the New York Times reports. Eyewitnesses say that armed men loyal to the new Syrian government committed atrocities during the unrest, including by carrying out field executions.
• Armed groups killed entire families during an outbreak of sectarian violence in Syria last week, with attacks targeting predominantly Alawite cities and villages, CNN reports.
• Thousands of primarily Alawite Syrians crossed into Lebanon after attacks on Syrian security forces by Alawite gunmen affiliated with the Assad regime triggered a surge of sectarian reprisals, the Washington Post reports.
• Syria’s Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have agreed to integrate into state institutions of the new Syrian government, CNN reports. The landmark deal would also recognize Syria’s Kurdish community as an integral part of the state.
• Syria's interim President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, signed a temporary constitution that will leave the country under Islamist rule for the next five years, the Associated Press reports. The Kurdish-led administration in north-eastern Syria criticized the document.
• Turkey’s military continued deadly attacks in Syria and Iraq on fighters linked to the Kurdish insurgent group, the PKK, in the two weeks since the group issued a disbandment call and declared a ceasefire, the New York Times reports.
• Israel cut off the electricity supply to Gaza, disconnecting power to a desalination plant producing drinking water for part of the territory, the Associated Press reports.
• The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom announced they support Egypt’s “realistic” plan for the reconstruction of Gaza that would avoid displacing Palestinians from the territory, the BBC reports.
• The United States and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss the potential resettlement of Palestinians on their land, the Associated Press reports.
• Hamas offered to hand over the governance of Gaza in exchange for a five-to-10-year truce in its war with Israel, the Hill reports.
• More than 80 Afghan women who fled the Taliban to pursue higher education in Oman say they now face imminent return back to Afghanistan due to the Trump administration’s foreign aid cuts, the BBC reports.
• The Philippine government arrested former President Rodrigo Duterte after receiving an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant accusing him of crimes against humanity, CNN reports.
• Activist groups from Myanmar are calling for the United Nations to investigate its special envoy to Myanmar, Julie Bishop, over her consulting company’s alleged links to Chinese mining and construction companies, the Associated Press reports.
• Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum imports entering the United States from any country went into effect, with the European Union announcing tariffs on up to $28 billion worth of U.S. goods in response, the New York Times reports.
• The Trump administration asked the Pentagon to draw up “credible military options” to ensure unfettered U.S. access to the Panama Canal, NBC News reports.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com.