Welcome to the first special pop-up edition of Foreign Policy ’s Situation Report at the 2026 Munich Security Conference (MSC), coming to you from the cavernous basement café of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel. Proceedings have been relatively muted so far (though it is hard to top the fireworks that happened this time last year), but there have been a few pointed words and tense exchanges onstage. Here’s what’s on tap for today: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tells the United States that