海角大神

Welcome to today鈥檚 Daily. We鈥檝e got stories for you on the new U.S. Supreme Court term, which will aim to deepen the court鈥檚 conservative revolution, as well as our weekly roundup of progress around the world. (No, the Republic of Super Neighbors is not the next Marvel film.)聽

Meanwhile, New Hampshire is fighting tooth and nail to keep its place on the presidential primary calendar, though many Democrats are not impressed. And Pakistan appears to finally be realizing that its long-standing support of the Taliban might not be the greatest idea.聽

But Ned Temko鈥檚 Patterns column prompted me to reach out to him. Is it really as big a deal as it sounds? Yes, he says. It is.聽

The subject of the column is the European Union. But it鈥檚 really much more about what Ned calls 鈥渢he third seismically redefining event of modern European history.鈥� So, a big deal. It鈥檚 about Europe鈥檚 vision for what it wants to be going forward.聽

For years, admitting additional Eastern European members was not a priority. The EU had other things to deal with, most particularly the historic number of migrants arriving from Africa and the Middle East.聽

But the Ukraine war has underscored the importance of rethinking Europe鈥檚 most prestigious club. Ned says it is a new inflection point in European history, following World War II and the Cold War. There鈥檚 a new desire to expand the tent of membership 鈥� to bring more countries in and trust the influence of the EU to drive change where democratic or economic progress is needed.聽

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has a compelling argument. Central to his plea to join the EU, Ned says, has been the fact that Ukrainians 鈥渁re sacrificing their livelihoods and even their lives not merely to defend their country against an invader, but in defense of a Western, democratic way of life.鈥�