Germany

Arriving in Washington for her first face-to-face meeting with President Trump, after months of preparation and one postponement due to snow, Obama's old friend German Chancellor Angela Merkel will likely discuss trade and immigration, though officials said there were few concrete goals.

Last month she met Vice President Mike Pence in Munich, where he was delivering the first major foreign policy address of the Trump administration, and laid the groundwork for Friday's meeting.

Authored by Andrei Akulov via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

With Donald Trump leading the United States, Europe seems to be losing trust in the American nuclear umbrella. As the EU focuses on the need to have its own military, the issue of European nuclear deterrent comes to the fore. The debate has been triggered. This issue is intensively discussed in Germany.

Authored by Vijeta Uniyal,

It is fitting that just a few hours until the Fed's second rate hike in two quarters, and one day after Goldman downgraded global stocks to Neutral for the next 3 months, not to mention with the results of the anticipated Dutch election due shortly, that global stocks as well as S&P futures are higher, while crude oil has finally managed to stage a rebound as the Dollar DXY index is fractionally in the red.

Authored by Peter Korzun via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Hit by a wave of crises, the European Union is urgently searching a new model of functioning in order to survive in one form or another. The need to balance between unity and diversity is a dilemma faced currently by the bloc. Currencies, politics and interests differ to make a new pattern of European integration a reality.