Petition of Patriots of Ukraine to the Heads of State and Governments of the Member States of the EU

We publish here in full the text of a petition from the Patriots of Ukraine Worldwide addressed to the Heads of State and Governments of the EU Member States.  For the seventh year in a row, Ukraine and Ukrainians have been fighting at the forefront of international efforts to repel Russian armed aggression and the…

COVID-19: Twelve NGOs call upon UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion to address the scapegoating of a church in South Korea

As UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed, solicits submissions from NGOs for the upcoming Report on the Elimination of Religious Intolerance and Discrimination and the Achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16), 12 European civil society organisations have co-signed a document denouncing the scapegoating of the Shincheonji Church in…

EU-UK Trade: Festina Lente

By Denis MacShane One of the biggest red herrings in this year’s Brexit threnody has been the endless words wasted on the question of an extension at the end of June. A completely artificial argument has been created by supporters of Dominic Cummings’s hard / no-deal Brexit coterie, and those like Ed Davey and Caroline…

Russian Connection in US Riots

We republish here in full, with the authors’ permission, the text of an article that first appeared in the blog of the Institute for Global Threats and Democracy Studies (IGTDS) Riots in the US were triggered by the murder of the African-American George Floyd by Minneapolis police after being arrested. CNN has released a story…

The Withdrawal Agreement is leaving Britons abroad behind

By Jayne Adye Chief Brexit Negotiator for the European Union, Michel Barnier, constantly talks about the Withdrawal Agreement’s obligations not being fulfilled by the United Kingdom, as well as implications the UK is not taking the Brexit negotiations seriously enough to secure a Deal. One of the main themes of Barnier’s argument is the matter of ‘EU…

The Recovery Fund Faces a Tricky Passage

By Christian Odendahl and John Springford The Commission’s proposed recovery fund is macroeconomically meaningful. The ‘frugals’ should focus less on negotiating away the transfers to harder-hit countries, and more on how the money is spent. The European Commission has turned the €500 billion EU recovery fund proposed by Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Emmanuel Macron, the…

Riad Salemeh: “Lebanon is not bankrupt”, exclusive interview in Paris Match

The central bank of Lebanon’s Governor, Riad Salameh, gave an exclusive interview to leading French publication Paris Match, in which he explained that the central bank is not the cause of the problems that Lebanon is facing and that the country is better able to tackle its challenges thanks to the actions that the bank has taken….

US Moves to Counter Hezbollah

By Ambassador Nathan A. Sales In April, Germany announced it was formally banning activities of the Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah from its soil. This historic development shows that the rest of the world is increasingly joining America’s efforts to isolate and combat this violent organization, and we urge our allies and partners to follow Germany’s…

The World Should Remember Kashmir This Eid

By John Grogan In the seventeenth century the Mughal Emperor and patron of the arts, Javangir, famously exclaimed when he saw the valley of Kashmir, “If there is a heaven on earth it is here, it is here.” Sadly this weekend as the majority Muslim population in the area celebrate the festival of Eid-Al-Fitr tensions…