Benjamin Fox with Alexandra Brzozowski Archives

If nothing else, there is something truly impressive about Theresa May’s sheer bloody-minded resilience. Humiliated in London, Salzburg and elsewhere, she just keeps hanging on.

Talks on the successor to the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) community will start in earnest on Friday (28 September). Cotonou, it is fair to say, is not well-loved, particularly in Africa and Europe, the two main blocs.

Theresa May’s whistle-stop tour of three African capitals this week offered an insight into the UK’s post-Brexit trade priorities, but also hinted at the changing power dynamic in world trade.

The Brexit poll was billed by David Cameron as the once-in-a-generation opportunity to resolve Britain’s tortured relationship with the EU. It hasn’t worked out that way. Instead, it appears to have condemned Britain to a tortured conversation with itself.

No one can say that the EU and its leaders are not exorcised by migration. Its next seven-year budget is expected to include a plethora of new tools, including a “migration management window”. An investment fund for African countries has been set up to “tackle the root causes of migration”.

Like the Olympics, the World Cup is one of life’s great distractions. Its enduring popularity ensures that it is also an obsession for politicians. Argentina’s military junta was so desperate to win the competition it hosted in 1978, that it is …

‘Better to be lucky than good’ is one of the truisms in politics, even if the line itself came from the mouth of a baseball player with the New York Yankees. Theresa May may not be lucky, but she is a political survivor.

Westminster is aflutter with talk of resignations and betrayal after 24 hours in which the fragile unity of the UK government shattered like a cheap vase.

As the chief EU adviser to David Cameron and then Theresa May, Ivan Rogers has seen the EU and British political class up close and knows where the bodies are buried. And hell hath no fury like a civil servant scorned.

Canada aside, Australia and New Zealand have been among the most enthusiastic about inking trade deals with the UK after it leaves the EU. International Trade minister Liam Fox, and his team, see the Commonwealth countries as ‘low hanging fruit’ when it comes to brokering new trade deals.

The European Parliament has a great talent for snatching defeat from the jaws of a PR victory.

China’s ‘Belt & Road’ initiative, a network of overland road and rail routes and maritime links meant to transport oil and gas from China to Europe, has been described as a 21st century silk road. But how long can it last?

Such is Emmanuel Macron’s ‘golden boy’ status that he is the subject of the Brief for two days in a row.

To most on the Calais side of the Channel, Brexit is a rejection of Europe and Europeans. They can, perhaps, draw a crumb of comfort that it’s not just them who are not welcome.

The House of Lords, with its ermine clad members, is hard to love. Unelected, the members have an average age of 69. A retirement home for political grandees and business moguls, it makes the House of Commons seem like a beacon of multi-cultural modernity.

Propaganda is as old as language, and political campaigning is a grubby old game. As long as there have been elections, politicians and their advisors have been lying to voters.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement – a political deal that put an end to decades of terror and tensions.

The EU’s migration pact with Turkey is one of the few successes in the bloc’s attempts to move together on migration.

Ask someone in the Brussels bubble what the biggest breakthrough in improving global health would be, and they will probably talk about the need for effective vaccines for malaria, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis.

The iconic Harley-Davidson is the most American of institutions. Incidentally, it is also one of the first targets in a transatlantic trade war.

Barring any last-minute hitches, this week’s EU summit will not burn much midnight oil, at least where Brexit is concerned.

Getting young people out to vote has frustrated national politicians across Europe for a generation.

Another day, another Groundhog Day debate on Brexit.

In the simplistic world of debate on global commerce, you are either a protectionist or a free trader. In truth, the free trade vs protectionist debate has always been something of a false dichotomy.