In The News

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....

US Warns on EU Defense Cooperation: Deutsche Welle

May 15, 2019
Since entering office in 2017, the Trump administration embraced America First policies, urging Europe to spend more on its defense and raising doubts about US commitment for the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance. European Union member states have since pursued greater cooperation on defense and self-reliance. “The United States has decried ‘poison pills’ embedded in proposed rules which could shut...

Viktor Orbán’s War on Intellect: Atlantic

Franklin Foer May 12, 2019
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Hungary was eager to join its Western European peers and was host to some of the best universities. Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister in the early part of this century and again since 2010, is on a mission to systematically stamp out the intelligentsia elite class that he views as an anathema to the right-wing populist policies of his Fidesz party. Public...

Right-Wing Dominates German Social Media: Spiegel

Jörg Diehl, Roman Lehberger, Ann-Katrin Müller and Philipp Seibt May 7, 2019
Alternative for Germany, of AfD, holds less 15 percent of the seats in the German Bundestag, but research suggests the right-wing political party dominates Facebook, representing more than 80 percent of shared German political posts. Such activity, while over-representing actual support for AfD, could still give the party a boost in the May 23 European parliamentary elections. AfD relies on...

Multinationals Brexit: Global Finance

Andrew Woodman May 5, 2019
Early on, multinational companies suggested they would stick with the United Kingdom through Brexit. But uncertainty since the June 2016 election when voters decided to end membership with the European Union vote and a lack of processes to replace EU regulations is prompting many to end expansion plans. The UK and the EU agreed on extension of the March 29 deadline for leaving. Companies to...

Ukraine’s New President: Washington Post

Konstantin Ash and Miroslav Shapovalov May 1, 2019
Comedian and actor Volodymyr Zelensky won Ukraine’s presidential election in a landslide, with some crediting his role as a fictional president in the television show “Servant of the People.” Zelensky's pattern of support upended a divide in place over the past 20 years. “Analysts often depict Ukraine’s politics as a constant struggle between a pro-European West and pro-Russian East,”...

Spain’s Election: El País

Carlos E. Cué April 29, 2019
The Socialist Party and Pedro Sánchez won more seats than expected and an absolute majority in the Senate, in Spain’s election. “Sánchez has even come close to winning a large enough majority to be reinstated without help from Catalan separatist parties,” reports Carlos E. Cué for El País. “Instead, he fell one seat short of the absolute majority (176 seats) that would result from an alliance of...