Agathe Demarais

The EU is India's largest trading partner, accounting for 12% of country's trade flows
• New free-trade agreement could help to deepen EU-India trade ties, notably for machinery and chemicals
• Deal highlights how global response to US tariffs is increasingly taking shape
www.ft.com/content/b03b...

EU-India trade deal leaves bloc's carbon border tariff intact A landmark trade deal struck by India and the European Union on Tuesday will not trigger any changes to the bloc's carbon border tariff, EU officials said, despite India's concerns over the scheme.

Good news re #CBAM in the EU-India trade deal: It's intact, and, even better, the EU committed not to give other countries a break. They also committed to support decarbonization in India to the tune of 500 million euros.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

EU-India free-trade agreement will reduce or slash tariffs on 96.6% of EU exports to India
• Indian tariffs of up to 44% on machinery, 22% on chemicals and 11% on pharmaceuticals will be lifted
• 30+% tariffs on many EU food products will also be reduced or removed
www.ft.com/content/b03b...

African trade may have been vastly underestimated
• Officially, just 15% of continent’s trade is internal, notably for lack of transport infrastructure
• Yet official estimates could omit large volume of continent’s internal trade, particularly in food
www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Trump Family’s US$7.2bn wealth is increasingly linked to cryptocurrencies
• Digital assets added US$1.4bn to the Trump family's wealth since Trump's return to the White House
• Meanwhile, shares of Trump Media & Technology Group Corp are down 66% over past 12 months
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Power Blackout Hits Russian Arctic Region After Aging Grid Fails Russia’s Arctic cities of Murmansk and Severomorsk, along with surrounding areas, are without power for a fourth day after aging infrastructure failed amid freezing temperatures.

Meanwhile in the 9th largest economy of the world... "region without power for the fourth consecutive day" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Odds of a mining bonanza in Greenland are abysmally low
• Getting mine running in Arctic can cost 2-3 times as much as equivalent project at lower latitudes
• Island’s two big rare-earth projects have been plagued by difficulties and have yet to start operations
www.economist.com/briefing/202...

Le "Mage du Kremlin" fantasme-t-il la Russie de Poutine ? Adaptation du roman de Giuliano da Empoli, "Le mage du Kremlin" interroge sur la fascination pour les hommes de pouvoir. Anna Colin Lebedev et Sylvie Bermann débattent de ses implications.

Ce n'est pas du pinaillage de chercheur qui est vexé qu'on fasse des erreurs à l'écran. C'est un appel à la responsabilité des médias et des artistes: on ne peut plus être naïfs et refuser de voir les implications politiques de nos récits / discours sur la Russie.
www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/...

Exclusive: India to slash tariffs on cars to 40% in trade deal with EU, sources say It's the biggest opening yet of the country's vast market as the two sides close in on a free trade pact that could come as early as Tuesday.

Exclusive: India to slash tariffs on cars to 40% in trade deal with EU - www.reuters.com/world/india/...

Odds of a mining bonanza in Greenland are abysmally low
• Getting mine running in Arctic can cost 2-3 times as much as equivalent project at lower latitudes
• Island’s two big rare-earth projects have been plagued by difficulties and have yet to start operations
www.economist.com/briefing/202...

AI boom is driving rise in private sector's share of top 100 listed Chinese companies
• Private sector owns 40% of aggregate market capitalisation of China's top 100 listed firms
• Even so, private sector's share remains far below its mid-2021 peak of 55.4%
www.piie.com/research/pii...

Moderna curbing investments in vaccine trials due to US backlash, CEO tells Bloomberg TV Moderna does not plan to ‌invest in new late-stage vaccine trials because of growing opposition to immunizations from U.S. officials, CEO Stephane Bancel said ‌in an interview with Bloomberg TV ​on Th...

One of the things I was most worried about is starting to come to fruition.

RFK Jr. will succeed in eliminating all of our vaccines if allowed to remain in office. His disinformation campaign and the falling demand for vaccines will cause American companies to stop making them.

Chart from Economist on unemployment in Southern and Northern Europe since 2005 now converging.

Amazing chart with horrible acronyms - for the first time in my living memory, unemployment in Northern Europe and Southern Europe seems to have converged. Seemed unthinkable during the Eurozone crisis.

Defund Science, Distort Culture, Mock Education It’s not just about cuts to research. It’s about power.

Those cuts to science, culture, medicine? They aren't just about research, they are about power.
Episode Three of Autocracy in America:
www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/202...

Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ Would Have Global Scope but One Man in Charge

1/Board of Peace is not about peace through cooperation but peace through dominance and extraction. Clear effort to replace rules-based international order with a structure that bolsters Trump and his effort to create a neo-royalist system.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/21/u...

My own interpretation regarding the Nobel :)

Keep ice cool: How Europeans should respond to Trump’s Greenland tariff threats  – European Council on Foreign Relations Rather than panicking or posturing, European leaders should prioritise EU unity, pinpoint their leverage and consider buying time

🇬🇱 Groenlandia: anziché farsi prendere dal panico, i leader europei dovrebbero dare priorità all'unità dell'UE, individuare i propri punti di forza e valutare la possibilità di guadagnare tempo.
✍️ @agathedemarais.com. x @ecfrpower.bsky.social @ecfrgeotech.bsky.social

How Trump is making China great again—and what it means for Europe – European Council on Foreign Relations A post-Western world is learning to love China, while Europeans are starting to fear America.

Hi Alan - there you go 🙂
ecfr.eu/publication/...

Fresh @ecfr.eu global data show many people do not share Trump's view that he should get Nobel peace prize
• Global appraisal for Trump's impact on peace in the world is falling nearly everywhere, except in Brazil and UK
• India remains outlier, with consistently positive views of Trump's actions

Keep ice cool: How Europeans should respond to Trump’s Greenland tariff threats  – European Council on Foreign Relations Rather than panicking or posturing, European leaders should prioritise EU unity, pinpoint their leverage and consider buying time

🧊 «"KEEP ICE COOL": CÓMO LOS EUROPEOS DEBERÍAN RESPONDER A LAS AMENAZAS ARANCELARIAS DE TRUMP SOBRE GROENENLANDIA»

📝 @agathedemarais.com

🎯 Apostar por la unidad 🇪🇺, identificar su influencia y considerar ganar tiempo

🔗 Puedes leerlo de nuevo aquí ⬇️
ecfr.eu/article/keep...

Many western multinationals are losing enthusiasm for China
• European and US firms cut employment in China by almost 10% between 2019 and 2023
• Several big US firms like Starbucks, IBM and Airbnb have pulled out of China, completely or in part
www.economist.com/briefing/202...

Carney’s new global order needs a huge shift in political will [FREE TO READ] Middle-power diplomacy of the sort the Canadian PM calls for requires governments to throw off domestic constraints

My Trade Secrets today. Mark Carney’s speech: nice truth bomb even if not totally original.

But the middle powers finding a new way to run the world requires a massive shift in political will which Carney’s Canada itself has had trouble making.

Russia's oil income has dropped to lowest level since full-blown invasion of Ukraine
• On four-week average basis, gross value of Moscow’s crude exports fell to US$900m/week on Jan. 18th
• This represents ~60%-drop in Russian oil earnings compared to mid-2022 peak
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

(Hom)mage du Kremlin. « ‘Le Mage du Kremlin’ (le film) est à peu près le meilleur cadeau que nous puissions faire au Kremlin (le vrai). » J’ai posté ce commentaire hier sur les réseaux sociaux, en sortant de l…

Comme promis, un texte où je persiste et signe : le film "Le mage du Kremlin" est dangereux, car il se met au service du pouvoir russe en diffusant une vision du pays exactement conforme à ce que le Kremlin veut nous faire penser.
colinlebedev.fr/2026/01/22/h...

New @ecfr.eu global data show vast majority of people around the world do not see US as an ally
• Just 25% of Brits think US is an ally that shares their values, with share dropping to 16% in ten EU countries
• Data show how Trump's actions hurt US's global reputation over long run (except in India)

just like to emphasize again here that almost all Greenland mining is *extremely* theoretical, because the conditions are so bad that prices would have to be sky-high or other reserves largely exhausted to make them viable.

Agriculture is only a tiny part of EU-Mercosur free-trade agreement
• EU tariff cuts on Mercosur-made meat will apply only to small share of European imports
• Real economic rationale of deal could lie in industrial and services trade, as well as mineral products
www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

Fresh @ecfr.eu global poll show most people expect China's influence will grow over next decade
• Idea that China will dominate in clean tech no longer prevails in China alone, but also in America and the EU
• Only in Ukraine and South Korea do majorities of people view China as rival or adversary

Dollar slips as Donald Trump’s Greenland threats reawaken ‘sell America’ fears Euro and sterling gain against US currency despite potential economic damage from new American tariffs

Dollar slips as Donald Trump’s Greenland threats reawaken ‘sell America’ fears www.ft.com/content/4e54...

😍