Youpe Last Week

Little green men in Estonia and the best garbage man in Great Britain

Another week and another look at another week’s goings-on in Europe, or as Grandma Riva, born in Horadenka, Ukraine, circa 1888 — featured here holding a very young Jack Friedman after being called away from her weekly poker game — called it, “Youpe.”

After German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said America was being “humiliated” by Iran, US President Donald Trump said he will withdraw at least 5,000 troops stationed in Germany. As of December, 2025, 36,436 US active service members were in the country, according to the US Defense Department. Trump then made a similar threat against Spain, after its prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, spoke out against the US-Israeli war on Iran, and against Italy, after Prime Minister Giorgio Meloni refused the use of an airbase in Sicily to US war planes that were headed to Iran. France’s Foreign Minister France Jean-Noël Barrot said that a new US-led coalition to reopen the Strait of Hormuz will complement, not compete with, his country’s mission with Great Britain, adding the two missions are “not of the same nature.” The UK and France have held meetings with more than 50 countries. The Romanian leu weakened to a new all-time low against the Euro last week. Romania’s finance minister Alexandru Nazare said internal political tensions have led to a deterioration of market sentiment. Romania, which is a member of the European Union, cannot use the euro due to its failure to meet strict economic conditions set upon by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty.