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BBC's Europe Editor Katya Adler talks to EU officials and gives this assessment of how the situation in Britain after the elections looks from the European Union. The elections in France with pro-EU Macron winning with a large majority, the increasing support for Angela Merkel in Germany, the drubbing for the Five Star Movement in Italy, all point to increasing confidence in the EU, and willingness to let Britain sort its mess out while the EU focusses on more pressing issues. Adler calls the first day of talks on Brexit a Mad Hatters Tea Party, showing how Britain is seen in the EU as having a huge complicated mess to sort out. British politicians are seen from the outside as having ruffled up the electorate on migration, the European Court of Justice and other issues, just to make their own points and for their own ends, not necessarily having the best interests of Britain in mind.

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French parliamentary election first round results show Macron's party neck and neck with the left parties bloc led by Jean Luc Melenchon. Melenchon is shown in polls to be slightly ahead. The second round of the election is on June 19. Macron is unlikely to have a majority and may need the support of the centre right Les Republicains. The voter demographic of the Macron party and the Les Republicains is older voters, centre right, who tend to vote in larger numbers than younger voters. Voter abstention is high with 48% of the voters having voted in the first round and shows deep voter dissatisfaction with the political elites in France. Before Macron two one term presidents led the government- Sarkozy of the Les Republicains and Hollande of the Socialist party. Macron was Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs minister in the Socialist party Hollande government before he formed his own party in April 2016 months before the election calling for a revitalization of French politics away from the two leading parties. His party was named Le Republique En Marche with younger people not connected to traditional parties.   Macron won a second term with the help of Mr. Melenchon's socialist supporters. Melenchon called for not a single vote for Marie Le Pen the far right candidate in the second round of the presidential election. Melenchon and Marie Le Pen were neck and neck in the first round.  Within Macron's party Louis Philippe a popular prime minister leads a faction that Macron will need to negotiate with in addition to Mr. Melenchon for parliamentary support. There is also a situation of cohabitation that would happen if Mr. Melenchon wins a majority in the National Assembly. Melenchon says the results in the first round "offer an extraordinary opportunity for the destiny of the common homeland to defeat the disastrous politics of the majority, of Macron." In 1997-2002 France went through cohabitation with the president and prime minister from different parties. Lionel Jospin was prime minister with Jacques Chirac as president. Yellow vest protests in 2018, gilets jaunes, were a result of increase in automobile fuel prices and the cost of living, and the general sense of dissatisfaction with policies of president Macron that were seen as not favoring workers and families finding it hard to make ends meet. The working class vote and vote of younger people is evenly split between the far right of Marie Le Pen which does well in rural areas, and the socialists under Melenchon in working class districts of larger cities. In providing support for the European Union and traditional French foreign policy, Macron and the socialist parties have common ground compared to the anti- EU policies of Le Pen resulting in votes cast for Macron that were really for melenchjon in the presidential election in which Macron secured a second term. Cohabitation then offers the popular alternative for a prime minister such as Melenchon for domestic policy and a president in the form of Macron for foreign policy at a critical time for Europe with the EU response to Russia including the embargo. ...

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WSJ looks at the 75 years of the US Saudi Arabia relationship that started when US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt met Saudi king Ibn Saud at Bitter Creek, Egypt, on a US Navy destroyer ship in 1945. It has gone through many phases over this period and mainly involved the Saudi kingdom maintaining its supply of oil to the US and Western Europe. This relationship went through an oil embargo during tense periods of Israeli Palestine conflict as in 1983 with an oil embargo that pushed up oil prices. What is different this time is the situation in Yemen where Iranian supported Houthi rebels near the border with Saudi Arabia are engaged in a conflict with the Saudis. Democratic administrations under first Obama and Biden today support reaching a deal with Iran on nuclear weapons development and limit US military support for the war in Yemen. The Saudis for their part are not keen on a regional war and turned down efforts by president Trump to respond to attacks from Yemen. Mr. Biden's envoy has arranged for a deal to reduce tensions between the Houthis in Yemen and Saudis. The diplomatic impasse in relations stems from the Kashoggi incident and president Biden's concern for the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia. Other factors making relations difficult are the economic interests of the two countries diverging. The relationship Roosevelt started in 1945 has changed in its fundamental character. Oil supplies for imports into the US is no longer a factor for the US which was the original interest of president Roosevelt in Saudi Arabia. This changed by 2015 as the US fracking industry enabled US to become self sufficient in oil and able to supply LNG to western Europe. Instead of the US Saudi oil now goes to China. Russian oil also goes to China as its industry expanded with American investment. This has led to a new Saudi relationship with China which has changed the dynamic of the American Saudi relationship. Some of the new aspects of this can also be seen in Saudi relationship with South Asia. Saudi ties have increased with India and India in 2021 was the first country to provide vaccine supplies to Saudi Arabia. Saudis, Qatar, United Arab Emirates are building relationships with India as a close neighbor in the region. Relationships are in some ways improving in the Asian region compared to the period when oil was simply exchanged as a commodity for defense supplies from the US without regard to cultural, educational and other changes in Saudi society. In a sense US and Western Europe paid little attention to the huge democracy of over 1 billion people right in the middle of Asia and followed policies that led to major investments in China and little or no investment in India, and without realizing it followed a policy that the British had pursued in the British Empire of treating different communities and religions as separate as opposed to one community of people in South Asia that were engaged in modernizing, building infrastructure and changing centuries old ways of living. The British Empire was sustained by this kind of thinking, and as long as Indians were complacent and lacked the will to make their aspirations for a better life and infrastructure for modernization this kind of thinking prevailed. The economic crises in Asia have reinforced the idea that there is one community entirely focused on development and modernization in South Asia. The people in South Asia care most about the cost of living and the infrastructure and services for the quality of life they live and their children can aspire for- same in European Union that chose the Greens and chancellor Scholz, and same in the US that chose president Biden to invest infrastructure and people, the same in China and the same in India and the rest of Asia. This is the situation that the US and Britain, and the European Union are now beginning to learn and adapt to that is a constructive aspect of these changes to rebuild the connections and supply chains that were sorely neglected before now. ...

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The Economist says British prime minister David Cameron's negotiations with the European Union during the recent summit talks were a failure. The diplomacy of the Cameron administration is described as inept and is seen as damaging British interests severely. It leads to an isolation of Britain in Europe. In this negotiation French President Sarkozy is seen as coming out ahead. The inept efforts to protect Britain's financial sector are unlikely to benefit the sector.

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This article in The Economist magazine looks at the internal debate in Germany after the July crisis in Greece following a "no" referendum and the position taken by Germany on turning down any ideas on debt renegotiation to reduce the debt burden. Centre right parties say this is simply enforcing the rules. The left parties say this is moving Germany to post post-nationalist. German chancellor Kohl and post war Germany took the position that Germany was a "post-national society." Thomas Mann, a well known German writer, said Germany needed to come out " not for a German Europe, but for a European Germany." And Hans Dietrich Genscher, a foreign minister stated that Germany's only interest was that of the EU. This was a recognition of the situation of the idea presented since reunification in 1871 that the new country was too large for a balance of power in Europe, yet too small to impose its will on Europe. This was shown in the July negotiations when chancellor Merkel accepted the position put forward by Valls and Hollande of France that a Greek exit from the eurozone was not an option. Germany did not seek to impose its will, say centre right parties. In fact chancellor Merkel sees Britain as a serious partner and cannot understand why some in her party can see no problem with a British exit from the EU. In fact many people in Germany will be relieved when this phase of the crisis is over, when the diminishing of moral hazard makes it possible to consider debt reduction for Greece and the austerity programs have introduced discipline to national budgets, so that the next phase of tighter and closer union for the European Union can take place- restoring Germany's aspirations for a "post-nationalist society." ...

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Current responses to China's different posture in international relations obscure the huge investments made by US and European Union business in China that lead to about $1 trillion in exports from China to US and EU in 2021. This could not happen without the hyper investment in China by business in the US and EU that not only neglected manufacturing technologies in the home country but did this on a immense scale that would end up shipping almost the whole of the manufacturing supply chains to China from the US and EU. Done as a carefully planned shift of some manufacturing operations it could have benefitted both China and the US and EU. In what way was this hyper move in pace and scale damaging? China's water, air and land was contaminated at a rapid pace never before seen in history, seen as early as 2005. And the hyper shift by 2015 and in 2020 is now showing the severe effects of climate change with droughts, floods and fires all over the world. The German Environment Ministry today counts the cost at 90 times in the use of coal and fossil fuels over time. On the scale that this massive and fast shift was done of manufacturing to China even more so- a hugely imprudent response of US and EU business management and executives. Instead of tackling and confronting head on the challenging problems of quality control and cost in the 1990's through 2000 and beyond at home, management at Apple and other companies simply shifted all manufacturing to China. The other ill effect of the imprudent response of American business was in the massive and wholesale shift of supply chain to China by offshoring practically the entire manufacturing base. It was to lead to the massive losses that workers, families  and communities in the US and EU that countries could not cope with as it moved on an accelerated hyper level and pace. The result was to lead to intense criticism of China and a level of rancor that has poisoned the relations with China. Some of this counsel to China was given to leaders of the Communist party who had little knowledge of American capitalism operating within constraints of social democracy in 1990. Some of that counsel was self interested given by investment banks to Chinese officials- investment bankers that have now disappeared from view- who themselves lacked an understanding of the social constraints of American and European democracies. It is that rancor that is now leading to China and the US disconnecting the supply chains leading to questions one is certain within China about how this will affect unemployment in China in the years to come. The pandemic simply accelerated this realization on both sides of this untenable situation. Still a trillion dollars in exports are taking place even as the political situation is now totally adrift -as the situation in Taiwan in August 2022 shows- the political and trading relationships at opposite ends and seemingly at war with each other. ...

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Issues in dialogue with the Europeans include Guantanamo Bay prisoner relocation, missile bases in Poland and Czech Republic, tensions with Russia, nuclear development in Iran, and Afghanistan.

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France's response to the Paris attacks in Nov. 2015 was to invoke the Lisbon Treaty for aid from other states in the European Union, and not to invoke a clause in the NATO agreement because this would be seen differently by Russia. Another reason is that by avoiding invoking the NATO Article 5 clause France decided not to ask for something that was not going to happen considering president Obama's reluctance to intervene in the Syrian conflict, say French diplomats. President Hollande plans a visit to Washington and Moscow for coordinated action against terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq. Strobe Talbott, former deputy secretary of state in the Clinton administration (1994-2001), and president of the Brookings Institution, one of America's most respected diplomats, says Russia has still to prove that it is a part of the solution as the talk does not match its actions on the ground. President Obama is deeply skeptical as he points to Russia's initial incursion into Syria as creating the problems taking place there....

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Summer tourism is helping support a second wave of the pandemic. This report says Croatia is a case study on how the opening of tourism can trigger a second wave. Because Croatia depends on tourism and Croatia had controlled coronavirus cases in May, the government decided to open its coastline areas to tourists from Europe. These tourists returned home with the infection and spread the virus. Clubs and bars were allowed to reopen for the summer season after the lockdown in April along the Adriatic coast attracting visitors. With 500 miles of coastline and Mediterranean climate, ancient towns and affordable stay, Croatia is crowded with tourists. In 2019 21 million visitors came here according to the Croatia Tourist Board. On Italian visitor from Parma cited here says she found crowded parties and bustling bars and restaurants where hardly anybody kept social distancing and wore masks. People in shops and bars she says told people they did not need to wear masks. The governments in Europe were keen on making up for the economic costs of the pandemic and opened the internal borders of the European Union in June. The opening of resorts in the sunbelt of Europe in Spain and Portugal has led to the spike in cases in Madrid and other cities in Spain. The same is happening in France. But vigilance dropped especially in Croatia where little or no restrictions were visible. Not only were bars allowed to open but the social distancing rules and mask rules were never practiced. Some Croatians call it incomprehensible. It has led to the spike in Germany, Czech Republic and Austria. The Koch Institute says 12% of all new German cases are traceable to Croatia. It is now a fact that international travel is a way the coronavirus accelerates. Governments in France, Germany, and the UK which are not especially dependent on tourism have the option to encourage people to stay in their home countries and remove this cause of acceleration while keeping shops and offices open so that business and jobs are preserved. For people hurt by lack of employment in the hospitality industry and others with lost wages from being in an occupation that acts to accelerate the virus it is a better option to offer financial assistance than to end up closing offices and shops in another partial lockdown. Opening bars helped accelerate the pandemic in California after the lockdown with steeply rising numbers of new cases. Educating the public to the extent that it should be about the dangers is also missing.    ...

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Jack Horton of BBC Verify screens the former president Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention. “Our crime rate is going up, while crime statistics all over the world are going down".  Fact: FBI data shows crime down 6% and a drop in the murder rate by 13% in 2023. For the First Quarter of 2024 crime down by 15% and recorded murder rate down 26%. "We've had the worst inflation we've ever had under this person [Biden]. I will end the devastating inflation crisis immediately, bring down interest rates and lower the cost of energy . We will drill, baby, drill."  Fact: Inflation went up to 9.1% from 1.4% at the end of the Trump term in the first 2 years of of the Biden Administration by June 2022. Biden and Federal Reserves Powell brought this down to 3%. Explained: This inflation jump to 9% would have happened from supply chain in China for Trump administration as well. Trump's last year was 2019 the Covid pandemic started in January the lockdown by midyear meant sharp drop in demand and little room for inflation. The concentration of supply chain in China was the cause of the surge in inflation as China shut down and restarted late into 2022 causing shortages in factory parts and supplies. Biden focused on vaccination in 2020-2021. This inflation would have happened under Trump- this concentration of supply chain started with Reagan economic philosophy to ship production (and jobs) overseas, Clinton Bush Obama and Trump did little about it. Biden invested heavily in Make in America manufacturing and jobs at home. Biden and Powell did a good job of bringing this inflation down by 2023 to 3% before the European Union and UK. Younger voters don't know this they get their news from the internet and show little interest, see only that the low inflation under Trump and the higher inflation during the pandemic recovery under Biden and blame Biden. will Trump do better on inflation in 2024-2028. The WSJ does not think so its analysis shows inflation higher under Trump than Biden because of a planned 60% tax on imports from China. Trump follows Reagan/Friedman theory of the old Republican party of higher tax cuts for the wealthy, so no money is left for investing in American manufacturing and jobs as Biden free of this theory is able to do, leading to slowing growth with inflation under Trump.        ...

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Alissa Rubin of NYT covers a visit by Emmanuel Macron, French presidnetial candidate, to a village in the mountains on the Spanish border where his grand parents lived and where he visited often as a child, and where he learned to cycle, ski and appreciate the outdoors. Macron was born and raised in Amiens, near Paris. His parents are both doctors. He attended a parochial school run by Jesuits, and at age 15 met a teacher of French and drama, Brigitte Trogneux, with whom he fell in love and later married in 2007.