ZYTHI WORLD ANALYSIS

UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations General Assembly has seen many presidential speeches in its long and storied history. But when China’s Deputy President Han Zheng stood to deliver his message during the 81 st session, he was focused on the present rather than the future – and, more specifically, on the perils of abandoning the status quo. His address came as fighting erupts around the world, trade wars limit the growth of the world economy, and the gap between the Global South and the First World becomes more and more apparent. VP Han believes that the time has come for all nations to rally together to maintain the institutions that foster international security and mutual development. Multilateralism as a Choice China’s vice-president, in his speech to the UN General Assembly, made the case for multilateral engagement as an option on the table. VP Han believes that the system which has emerged after WWII and the principles enshrined in the UN Charter should be defended at all costs...

  BERLIN — There is a certain sound that reverberates through Berlin these days. It is not the sound of a protest or the clamor of a crisis meeting. It is the hushed whir of a country idling. The trains still run, mostly. The bakeries still open before dawn. The Bundestag still debates. But something beneath it all has gone quiet and the quiet is not peace. It is the sound of a machine that has been running too long without oil. Chancellor Friedrich Merz came to office promising to change that. After the agonies of the Scholz years — the three-party coalition that specialized in wasting its members — Merz offered a grand coalition of his Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, a government that would finally move quickly, reform heavily and restore Germany’s confidence in itself. Less than two years later, it has the hollow sound of a slogan that outlived its moment. The coalition is not dead. It is simply dying in installments. The first came in September 2026 when voters in...