The Athens metro, which is used by almost one million people every day, was shutdown in the strike, prompting traffic chaos in the capital. The bill, set for parliamentary approval on Monday, would restructure family benefits, introduce a new process for foreclosures on overdue loans and make it more difficult to call a strike. Angry locals marched through the capital, holding banners and chanting “hands off strikes!”

Protestors clashed with police outside the parliament building, who responded by firing teargas. The draft law which is set to be approved by parliament next week has infuriated Greeks, who have seen their incomes fall and living conditions worsen since the Mediterranean country first sought international aid to stave off bankruptcy in 2010, and required another two bailouts thereafter.

Syriza, the dominant party in the government elected in 2015, has its roots in left-wing labour activism and its role in the new reforms has prompted widespread criticism from supporters. Retired ship officer George Papaspyropoulos, said: “This essentially abolishes the right to strike… such things only happened during the junta,” referring to the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974.

Two sentences from Angela Merkel come to mind. One, focused on domestic politics, was an entreaty: "We can do it." It was a pledge and a plea to all Germans in the face of the huge influx of Syrian refugees who entered Germany in 2015.

The other, focused on foreign policy, was earthshaking. "The times in which we could completely depend on others are, to a certain extent, over," Merkel said on May 28 during an appearance in Munich. She did everything she could to make the sentence seem as offhand and trivial as possible. She wasn't speaking in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin - she was at a festival in Munich, the smell of beer hanging in the air. She hemmed and hawed, she relativized, toned down her language and spoke of "others," even though it was clear that she was referring to the United States.

Still, the sheer impact of her words was undeniable. The German chancellor had essentially announced the end of an alliance that had guaranteed Germany's security for half a century and shaped its politics and values. When she made the statement in May, Germany was in the middle of an election campaign, which informed the manner in which it was interpreted and discounted.

Even today, its radicality has been largely ignored - perhaps because to do otherwise would be too painful or unsettling. Germans prefer to avoid such introspection. The US remains our most important partner, government officials are fond of saying, and the NATO alliance is still intact. That may be true. But for how much longer?

In a veiled shot at Washington Post-owner Bezos, Trump repeated skepticism that he first expressed in a tweet late last year about Amazon's impact on the US Postal Service as it struggles to keep up with all the online orders while sinking into financial insolvency.

Why is the United States Post Office, which is losing many billions of dollars a year, while charging Amazon and others so little to deliver their packages, making Amazon richer and the Post Office dumber and poorer? Should be charging MUCH MORE!

— Donald J Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017

Officers made a review of every comment on the page after a member of the public complained that a number of posts referred to the race and religion of the 18 people convicted following the operation. A spokesman from Northumbria Police said: “As a result of a complaint, we can confirm we looked into a number of comments posted on the force’s Facebook page.

“Following an investigation, which has now concluded, we spoke to two males as voluntary attenders and visited a further four people in their homes, and provided them with words of advice.

Campaigners and MPs had demanded that the crimes of groomers who target white girls be treated as “racially aggravated”, urging Britain’s Attorney-General to review the Newcastle gang members’ sentences after claims that the racist nature of the crimes was not reflected in their punishment.

But despite the abuse having been labeled “profoundly racist” by former director of public prosecutions Lord MacDonald, members of the grooming gang escaped the harsher sentences which accompany racially motivated crimes, with Judge Penny Moreland claiming victims were targeted “not because of their race, but because they were young, impressionable, naive and vulnerable”.

With attempts to form a government in their fourth month, following an unexpectedly poor election performance by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, it’s in Berlin that things are looking desperate. Never mind trying to lead Europe. It’s not clear that Berlin can even lead Germany. Many in the country now associate the decision to briefly open the country’s doors to refugees with a loss of control (Kontrollverlust).

Some even go further, claiming that it was not a loss of control, but a decision not to control (Kontrollverzicht). And indeed, Germany’s judicial system, municipal administrations and regional authorities are at breaking point. They do not have the capacity to handle the sheer volume of asylum seekers. 

For a stability-centered society like Germany, the perception that state institutions are losing control and cannot deliver, is political dynamite. And the refugee issue is just one way in which Kontrollverlust is being felt.

She said her conservative Christian Democrats would "work constructively to find the necessary compromises but we are also aware that we need to execute the right policies for our country". After her earlier attempt at forging a coalition with two smaller parties collapsed, she is now pinning her hopes on renewing an alliance with the Social Democrats (SPD).

SPD leader Martin Schulz also spoke of "big obstacles" as he arrived for the final day of preliminary talks on whether there is enough common ground to move on to formal coalition negotiations. He said his party wanted to ensure that the new government committed "above all to working toward renewal of the European Union".

“In the past, we could rely on the French, the British and, especially, the Americans, to assert our interests in the world. We have always criticized the US for being the global police, and it was often appropriate to do so. But we are now seeing what happens when the US pulls back. There is no such thing as a vacuum in international politics.

If the US leaves the room, other powers immediately walk in. In Syria, it's Russia and Iran. In trade policy, it's China. These examples show that, ultimately, we are no longer achieving either, neither the dissemination of our European values nor the advancement of our interests.”

Our parents and grandparents built an incredibly prosperous and peaceful country. One shouldn't, of course, play down the degree to which this is dependent on our economic strength. The truth is that Moscow, Beijing and Washington have one thing in common: They don't value the European Union at all. They disregard it.

According to a May 2016 study by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, in 2015, 63% of Jerusalem’s 870,000 residents were Jewish or members of other non-Arab demographic groups, compared to 37% of the population which identified as Arab.

Among the city’s non-Arab residents, 32% identified as haredi, 17% identified as religious, 13% as traditional-religious, 15% as traditional but not strictly religious, 21% as secular, and 2% as other or not Jewish. In 2015, a total of 62% of the city’s non-Arab residents identified as religious – amounting to just under 40% of the city’s total population of 870,000.

Politically, new and divisive narratives are transforming governance. Economically, policies are being formulated to preserve the benefits of global integration while limiting shared obligations such as sustainable development, inclusive growth and managing the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Socially, citizens yearn for responsive leadership; yet, a collective purpose remains elusive despite ever-expanding social networks. All the while, the social contract between states and their citizens continues to erode.

The 48th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting therefore aims to rededicate leaders from all walks of life to developing a shared narrative to improve the state of the world. The programme, initiatives and projects of the meeting are focused on Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.

By coming together at the start of the year, we can shape the future by joining this unparalleled global effort in co-design, co-creation and collaboration. The programme’s depth and breadth make it a true summit of summits.

Perhaps the biggest single issue looking ahead is President Trump's hints that he might revert to his previous more confrontational approach to trade relations with China. During the election campaign Mr Trump spoke aggressively on trade, about US agreements and about some of the country's trading partners. He made an early start on his agenda after taking office.

One of his first acts was to withdraw the US from a trade agreement that had not come into force, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He has started the renegotiation of another, the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with Canada and Mexico that took effect in 1994, although he has so far stopped short of earlier threats to pull out of it altogether. Another proposed agreement that was under negotiation between the US and the European Union has gone into the deep freeze, perhaps permanently.

He also has serious doubts about the World Trade Organization. The United States' lack of enthusiasm was a central factor behind a lacklustre outcome at the WTO's conference in December. It ended without new deals or even the usual agreed declaration of commitment to the system that the WTO manages.

Relations with the US under President Donald Trump have gone from bad to worse; those with Turkey have come close to breaking down altogether; those with central Europe are stretched thin. The shock therapy inflicted on the Greeks in 2015 at Germany’s instigation gave Latin countries a chilling glimpse of the fate awaiting those who refuse austerity. And the UK vote for Brexit in June 2016 deprived Chancellor Angela Merkel of a European ally in favour of free trade.

Some of Germany’s key economic allies have become political, ideological and cultural adversaries. The US, German industry’s biggest export market, is challenging Germany’s commercialism and social choices more and more openly. The countries of central and eastern Europe – the biggest providers of subcontracted labour to German industry, with a little-known role in its success – are rebelling against the policies Germany imposes, especially on migration.

Gideon Rachman noted in the Financial Times on 7 March 2017: ‘The situation threatens to revive an old German nightmare: the fear of being a large, isolated power at the centre of Europe.’