The German chancellor, Angel Merkel, has arrived in southern Turkey to inaugurate the EU aid programme for Syrians in the country, amid concerns that her visit validates Turkey’s creeping authoritarianism and overstates the EU’s humanitarian contribution to the Syrian crisis.

Valentina Simeone hails from the city of Cagliari on the Italian island of Sardinia, but has spent the past six months a world away — in Iran. The 21-year-old became the first ever European Union exchange student to the Middle Eastern country, studying Farsi at Tehran University under the Erasmus Program, a EU student exchange program established in 1987. 

From the earliest moments of Barack Obama’s candidacy for president, there was an interesting debate about whether he would enhance America’s soft power in the world or not. Over the past eight years there have certainly been some data points that offer evidence of Obama’s soft power — but there has also been a legitimate debate about whether it means all that much for American foreign policy.

The visit of the British royal couple, Prince William and Princess Katherine, is a demonstration of Britain’s use of soft power in buttressing the relationship with India built on a not always happy colonial past. Today’s thriving trade relationship, the interaction between millions of Indians settled in the UK and their original home are reasons enough, particularly with an eye on a possible future outside the European Union.

Brexit is in many ways just the British manifestation of the broader problem that the EU has never solved: There is a common European institution, but not a common European identity. [...] Obsessed with its own internal problems, it will fail to take the lead in standing up to Russia, it will fail to contribute to security in Africa or the Middle East...

The European Union is facing increasing pressure to speak out against the erosion of media freedom in Turkey following the forced take-over of the country’s largest-circulation newspaper, but few expect it to take a bold stance toward Ankara while trying to assure its help in dealing with the migration crisis.

More than two-thirds of people in the UK believe that aid to developing countries should increase, with nearly as many agreeing that overseas aid is an effective way to tackle irregular migration from poorer nations, according to a Europe-wide survey.

Google’s new chief executive [...] Sundar Pichai makes his first trip as CEO to the European Union capital Thursday for the high-stakes visit with the competition commissioner who wields scepter-like power over the company’s future on the Continent.