EU politics
Al Jazeera – Germany and Italy block bid to suspend EU-Israel trade pact
Remarkably, the EU-Israel association agreement remains standing, despite Israel’s murderous rampage across the Middle East. Read the article HERE.
Articles by Ben
Energy
Euronews – Zelenskyy announces Druzhba oil pipeline repaired and ‘can resume operation’
How long before Nord Stream is back on line and Russian gas is reaching Germany again? Six months? A year? Read the article HERE.
Finance
Michael Hudson – Postponing the World’s Financial Winter, But For How Long?
A long read on the consequences of the current Strait of Hormuz crisis. Michael Hudson’s Killing the Host, The Collapse of Antiquity and The Destiny of Civilization are published by CounterPunch Books. Cross-posted from Counterpunch Announcing that “A whole civilization […]
Geopolitics
Nicolas J.S. Davies – Iran’s 10-Point Plan Is Still a Workable Basis for Negotiations
The two-week ceasefire is nearly over and we are no closer to a deal than when it started. The US will have to take Iran’s 10 points seriously if an economic catastrophe is to be […]
Corruption
Nico Schmidt, Ella Joyner – How Big Tech wrote secrecy into EU law to hide data centres’ environmental toll
‘Microsoft and DigitalEurope, a lobby group whose members include Amazon, Google and Meta, secured a secrecy provision in EU law to block public access to critical information on data centres’ environmental impact, Investigate Europe can […]
Fake News
Carsten Eickhoff – AI health answers sound convincing but are wrong about half of the time
People are increasingly getting their information from profit-driven chatbots which present their recommendations as full-proof when they are anything but. Carsten Eickhoff is a Professor of Medical Data Science and Computer Science at the University […]
EU politics
Kristof Szómbati – What Viktor Orbán’s Downfall Hasn’t Settled
‘In Hungary’s election, Péter Magyar rallied urban white-collar workers, business figures excluded from state patronage networks, intellectuals, and youth. It’s much less clear that his new government can satisfy all these groups’ expectations.’ In Jacobin. […]
National Politics
BBC – Irish PM announces €505m in fuel-cost measures after days of protests
Blockades are proven again and again to be an effective means of getting what you want. It’s a wonder why more workers do not use this method. Read the article HERE.
EU politics
Filip Balunović – Serbia’s Israel problem
‘When UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese visited Serbia in March, the government cast her as an interfering foreigner. Yet it was happy to back the Israeli embassy’s campaign to silence pro-Palestinian speech in Serbia.’ In […]
EU politics
Molly O’Neal – What Viktor Orban’s crushing defeat in Hungary really means
Peter Magyar will distance Hungary from Russia diplomatically, but he will continue to buy Russian gas for the foreseeable future. Molly O’Neal is a university lecturer and research scholar, with a long diplomatic career focused […]