In The News

Australia’s China Challenge: New York Times

Damien Cave May 26, 2019
The Chinese government, under President Xi Jinping, has expanded its covert sphere of influence in countries like Australia. China relies on the substantial ethnic Chinese population and Chinese economic ties representing 24 percent of Australian imports and exports to push its agenda within Australia with a say on the nation’s foreign trade policy. Beijing has weaponized economics, and Chinese...

Foreign Policy Challenges for Modi: Economic Times

Raj Kumar Sharma May 24, 2019
Economic and other domestic policies typically sway India’s voters, but India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi won his second term by focusing on foreign policy and security issues, explains Raj Kumar Sharma for the Economic Times. Modi must be wary as the United States could expand its trade war with China to other nations like India and the rivalry could spur China’s dominance in Asia. For now,...

Theresa May Resigns: Politics.co.uk

Ian Dunt May 24, 2019
Theresa May will resign as Britain’s prime minister June 7 after failing to achieve Brexit. She tried multiple approaches including a second referendum – but could not win over a majority in parliament. British voters, given many false assurances, chose to leave the European Union by a close margin in June 2016. Brexit proponents maintained that Brexit was easy, relyng on populism’s tools of...

The Strache Recordings: Spiegel Online

Maik Baumgärtner, Vera Deleja-Hotko, Martin Knobbe, Walter Mayr, Alexandra Rojkov and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt May 23, 2019
Democracy depends on the rule of law and transparency. Politicians with extreme ideologies, who reject critical inquiries of journalism and education in the name of tradition, are ready to disrupt democratic norms to achieve money and power. A meeting secretly recorded in 2017 suggests Heinz-Christian Strache and three other Austrians plotted to ensure government contracts for a woman claiming to...

Australia’s Election Message: The Age

Ben Oquist May 21, 2019
Australian voters gave a surprise win to conservatives and Scott Morrison who ran on a platform of tax cuts and strengthening the economy. The result does not mean that Australians have forgotten climate change, explains Ben Oquist for the Age. Morrison as prime minister rejected renewable energy targets and supported $25 billion in renewable energy investment as candidate. Renewable energies...

How Trump Thinks He Can Outsmart Putin: Atlantic

Peter Nicholas and Kathy Gilsinan May 21, 2019
Former and current members of US President Donald Trump’s inner circle are not doves when it comes to Russia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has had harsh words for the Russian president and his influence in Venezuela, for instance. The command in chief himself, however, stands alone in his outwardly manifested trust in Vladimir Putin. Trump supporters explain this “good-cop, bad-cop” scheme is...

Trump and Kushner Accounts: New York Times

David Enrich May 20, 2019
Deutsche Bank employees flagged transactions of the Trump Foundation and other entities controlled by Donald Trump and Jared Kushner in 2016 and 2017 and prepared suspicious-activity reports for federal review. “But executives at Deutsche Bank, which has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies, rejected their employees’ advice,” reports David Enrich for the New York Times....