New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz spent his first full day in office paying respect to his neighbors. Pledging a reset in his country’s relationship with France, Merz first flew to Paris to meet President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders wrote they’ll work together “to make Europe more sovereign,” according to a joint statement published in Le Figaro. Merz is scheduled to meet his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk later today in Warsaw. 

Issues including US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Russia’s war on Ukraine and irregular migration were expected to dominate today’s talks between the leaders. Countries across the world are fortifying their economies against the possibility of an all-out trade war. 

Meanwhile in Brussels, the European Union is said to be preparing to strike back against Trump’s imposition of trade duties. Should negotiations with the US fail, the bloc will propose counter-tariffs targeting Boeing aircraft among some €100 billion ($114 billion) of other US goods. Jonathan Tirone

What You Need to Know Today

Russia and China are expected to resume discussions over a natural gas pipeline connecting their countries this week. We’re told negotiations over the cost and route of the stalled mega-project will pick back up when Chinese leader Xi Jinping meets Russia’s Vladimir Putin this week in Moscow. Pressure is increasing on the Kremlin to find new revenue sources as Russia’s budget gap widens because of lower oil sales. 

Donald Duck is booked for Abu Dhabi. Disney announced today it plans to build a new magic kingdom in the United Arab Emirates. The company’s 13th theme park will be built, owned and operated by the Miral Group. It’s the first all-new location since the Shanghai Disney Resort opened in 2016.

An artist’s rendering of a new theme park Disney plans to open in Abu Dhabi. Source: Disney/Disney

Nuclear power advocates must be willing to pay the price for keeping aging reactors online. That was the message Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez delivered to high-earning electricity executives today in Madrid. Speaking before parliament for the first time since Spain’s national blackout, he said taxpayers shouldn’t be burdened with keeping power sources online that aren’t economically viable. 

Romania’s far-right leader standing in this month’s presidential runoff told us in an exclusive interview that he draws inspiration from Argentina’s leader Javier Milei. George Simion, leader of the ultranationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians, said the only answer to a widening budget deficit and lingering inflation is to shrink the state. His plan could also draw inspiration from Trump’s controversial Department of Government Efficiency. 

There’s a desk shortage at HSBC’s London headquarters, where executives are discovering they might have downsized a little too much following pandemic-induced work-at-home trends. The bank faces a shortfall of 7,700 desks for staffers, some of whom are busy creating new products to protect clients from Trump-tariff effects. 

Trump’s drawing cheers from a remote corner of Africa. The territory of Western Sahara is turning into an ‘El Dorado’ after the US recognized Morocco’s claim over the region. A $1 billion highway will soon connect Dakhla, a small city in the far south, with Tangier on the Mediterranean, a key access point to the European Union. Tourism is expanding, with more flight connections, larger hotels and a new airport planned.

Dakhla is a crop of low-lying apartment buildings and markets near the tip of the peninsula with a population of just over 100,000 people. Photographer: Raquel Maria Carbonell Pagola/LightRocket

The bishops are behind locked doors at the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, deliberating who among them may become a moral compass for the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.  The proceedings are cloaked in secrecy, making them the subject of speculation and intrigue. Learn more about how new popes are selected by reading our explainer. 

What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow

For Your Commute

The White House effort to scrub government websites of environmental data has researchers and activists trying to recreate several lost mapping tools to protect communities vulnerable to pollution and climate change. One of them pinpointed existing air and water pollutant risks nationwide, for example. Another mapped low-income areas facing high energy costs, while a third showed the location and costs of future climate threats. Government officials, academics and activists used that data for everything from studying environmental harms at the local level to funneling money to help those communities protect themselves against those threats.

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