Tom Nuttall

We're so back

Naturally I wore these while writing

Why one of Germany’s richest regions is gripped with anxiety Baden-Württemberg’s election is overshadowed by worries over deindustrialisation

Baden-Württemberg is not about to become one giant Detroit. But ahead of what looks like a nail-biting election on Sunday, The Länd is certainly consumed with economic anxiety. My report from Stuttgart and Hohenlohe.
www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

The worst thing about working at the Economist is the appalling clickbait headlines

Can't wait for Janan's nuclear take on this

OK we get it, Trump contradicts himself. He is large, he contains multitudes

Don't start this war with me Stan. You won't win.

I knew you'd all come round in the end.

Maybe they learned he was "liberal" and something got lost in transatlantic translation

The Migrants in the Ancient Forest Five years ago, Belarus began enabling people from high-conflict countries to migrate into Europe. Despite high walls and backlash, they’re still coming.

From www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

The American mind cannot comprehend a country where neither the leading party nor its chief rival sit on the left

Bet he thought no one would notice this act of recycling tho

Good Economist piece on Merz tough China trip.

"For not only has China’s market begun to dry up for Germany, big chunks of German industry now regard China as a direct threat to their interests.."

With a favourite chart of Setser and mine. China's net car exports now dwarf even peak Germany.

1/

"The central front of our China policy is at home in Europe".

Excellent piece by @tomnuttall.bsky.social ahead of German chancellor's first China trip.

Pairs nicely with Christian's piece on the EU's emerging economic security doctrine. www.economist.com/finance-and-...

How Germany fell out of love with China Chinese industry is beating Germany at its own game. Cue panic

Next week Friedrich Merz will embark on his first visit to China since taking office. The vibes, as they say, will be off. My piece on a relationship that has become a lot more complicated in recent years. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

EU's flagship piece of industrial-policy legislation turning into a bit of a clownshow.

In a news item about ICE & deportations ZDF used an AI-generated item. Not labelling it properly seems to me the lesser crime. Why use it in the first place? It also included an unrelated 4-year-old piece of footage of a kid being arrested after a school shooting. What or earth are they playing at?

„Krasse Fälschung“: Heftige Kritik an ZDF für Nutzung von KI-Videos Im „Heute-Journal“ hat das ZDF Videos über US-Abschiebungen ausgestrahlt – ein Clip war mit KI erstellt worden. Der Sender muss harte Kritik einstecken.

If a German public broacaster was deliberately seeking to bolster the accusations of bias and unprofessionalism levelled by its far-right critics, it might well do something like this. www.stern.de/politik/deut...

Skipped MSC this year. This is where all the cool kids are, anyway.

This, basically. What is new is the tone from some European leaders. Witness Friedrich Merz - barely a trace of transatlanticism in the speech from the former chair of the Atlantik-Brücke. And some biting, if belated, responses to Vance's broadside last year, echoed later by Emmanuel Macron.

It would be very funny for a European newspaper to report on a Trump speech and call him an "American official".

I think he cancelled because of the shootings

Can Germany rearm its way to growth? Defence spending may kickstart economic recovery, but it will take a while

This week I ask if Germany can rearm its way to economic growth. Tl;dr - jein.
www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

This is an odd, or perhaps telling, way to describe a set of democratically elected national politicians. www.ft.com/content/4551...

In the "fuck you, Europe!" stakes, Marco Rubio's travel plans after Munich are not quite at Vance-meeting-Weidel levels. But they're not far off. t.co/ddDlUoe2Wu

How “remigration” is penetrating Europe’s political mainstream A meme from the far-right fringe could spell legal trouble for Germany’s AfD

If you've been paying attention to far-right circles in Europe you'll have noticed the growing prominence of the term "remigration".

I dug into its background, interrogated its meaning, interviewed its advocates and looked at the dilemma it poses for the AfD. www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Insufficient attention to Manfred Weber's brain farts.

God I love the British public in one of its periodic fits of morality

Strong "minor cabinet minister asked to defuse scandal on weekend political talk show" look