Month: April 2023

The Shield and the Olive Branch

When it comes to the EU’s China policy, the seeming dissonance between Macron’s appeasement and von der Leyen’s hawkishness is in fact a well-rehearsed symbiosis.

Fiscal Forecast Europe: ECB Will Soon Return to Money Printing

With a welfare state that dominates their budgets, European governments are exceedingly vulnerable to a recession. When tax revenue declines and entitlements force governments to spend more, the inevitable result is larger budget deficits. What will the ECB do in response to that?

A Concert Fit for the Cold War: Shostakovich and the American Songbook

A Concert Fit for the Cold War: Shostakovich and the American Songbook

The program gave a splendid overview of ‘America’s Mezzo’ Susan Graham’s legendary career across the operatic firmament as well as in the jazzy tunes of the American Songbook. One only missed her triumphs in the operas of Richard Strauss.

April 11, 2023
Tunisia Considering Joining BRICS, Spokesman Says

Tunisia Considering Joining BRICS, Spokesman Says

Tunisia’s accession into the bloc would provide the country with massive economic benefits, which in turn would improve the country’s social conditions.

April 11, 2023
Ireland: EU Veto Sends Housing Plans into Disarray

Ireland: EU Veto Sends Housing Plans into Disarray

Brussels counters Ireland’s plans to regulate Airbnb as lacking evidence, as the Irish government faces challenges from the Left and a rising populist sentiment against asylum seekers.

April 11, 2023
Resisting the Simulacrum

Resisting the Simulacrum

The Back Rooms, a popular bit of Internet folklore, reminds us of the recurring horror motif of a reality adjacent to ours, familiar but uncanny, whose real-world congealment we may soon be facing.

Rescue Underway After Easter Marked by Migrant Crossings

Rescue Underway After Easter Marked by Migrant Crossings

The Monday rescue followed three others over the Easter weekend, which saw the deaths of at least 50 migrants, and the arrival—on the Italian island of Lampedusa—of 26 boats carrying 974 migrants on Easter Sunday.

April 11, 2023
Swiss Pharmaceutical Exports to Russia at Record High

Swiss Pharmaceutical Exports to Russia at Record High

Pharmaceuticals are considered humanitarian goods and therefore are exempt from sanctions.

April 11, 2023
EU Countries Investigate ChatGPT

EU Countries Investigate ChatGPT

Even Microsoft, OpenAI’s main investor, admitted it does not “have access to the full details of [ChatGPT’s] vast training data.”

Poland Temporarily Halts All Imports of Ukrainian Grain

Poland Temporarily Halts All Imports of Ukrainian Grain

Like Polish farmers, those in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia have also been disproportionately hard-hit by an influx of cheap Ukrainian grain.

April 11, 2023
Vučić: Kosovo Will Still Be Part of Serbia Until End of My Term

Vučić: Kosovo Will Still Be Part of Serbia Until End of My Term

The Serbian President said Kosovo Serbs would not vote in the upcoming elections, since Pristina declined to form a Community of Serbian municipalities.

April 11, 2023
The Great Schism

The Great Schism

A decisive schism in the Catholic Church would ripple through global society and reinforce cultural and political divisions. It will not cease to be universal, but two opposing universal churches, one modernist and one anti-modernist.

April 11, 2023
Saudi Crown Prince No Longer Interested in “Pleasing” the U.S.

Saudi Crown Prince No Longer Interested in “Pleasing” the U.S.

The apparent deterioration in US-Saudi relations comes amid a recent worldwide trend toward de-dollarization with key, ascendent geopolitical actors, including but not limited to China, Russia, India, and Brazil all taking steps to reduce their use of the U.S. dollar.

April 10, 2023