In The News

Spiegel: EU Helped Fortify Turkey's Border

Maximilian Popp March 29, 2018
The European Union has funded Turkey to block Syrians fleeing the brutal war. “In March 2016, the EU and Ankara closed a deal under which the Europeans would pay 3 billion euros to Turkey if the country kept the refugees inside its borders,” writes Maximilian Popp for Spiegel Online. The funding contributes to harsh security measures from Turkey including a border wall, deportations, surveillance...

Reuters: Brexit Transition Offers Little Certainty for Banks

Huw Jones and Andrew MacAskill March 21, 2018
The United Kingdom has reached a conditional agreement on a transition period, ending in December 2020, for withdrawing from the European Union. But banks and other financial firms may continue to make contingency plans including for relocating offices and staff from London. The agreement won’t be formally ratified until October, and uncertainty continues. British leaders are divided about a...

Channel 4: Cambridge Analytica Election Consultants Filmed

March 20, 2018
Cambridge Analytica executives claim to have consulted on more than 200 elections around the globe - the website claimss 100 - and an undercover investigation in London suggests the company may have used extreme measures to support candidates in violation of the UK Bribery Act and the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Channel 4 News reporters posed as prospective clients over four months, filming...

The Observer: Facebook Profiles Harvested

Carole Cadwalladr and Emma Graham-Harrison March 19, 2018
A whistleblower has exposed how Cambridge Analytica, a data analysis firm, relied on a software program and Facebook user profiles to target voters with political advertisements. The number represents about a quarter of the US electorate. “Documents seen by the Observer, and confirmed by a Facebook statement, show that by late 2015 the company had found out that information had been harvested on...

New Statesman: Putin’s New Cold War

Lawrence Freedman March 14, 2018
The Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok sickened a Russian man, his daughter and a police officer in a small British town. Prime Minister Theresa May gave Russia a deadline for an explanation, and after no serious response, she expelled 23 undeclared Russian intelligence officers. Such incidents increase Russia’s isolation and increase wariness about Vladimir Putin’s expected victory in Russia’s...

BBC: Nerve Agent Attack in Britain

March 12, 2018
The British Foreign Office summoned Russia’s ambassador to explain the death of a former spy with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok, a chemical weapon developed by the former Soviet Union. Sergei Skripal and his daughter were found ill on a bench in the city of Salisbury, population of 45,000. A police officer also fell ill. Prime Minister Theresa May expects a credible response from Russia...

The Telegraph: Victory for Eurosceptic, Populist Parties in Italy Election

Nick Squires and Peter Foster March 5, 2018
Italian voters supported anti-establishment, populist and Euroskeptic parties in Sunday’s election, but no party received the required 40 percent for running the government and a coalition will be necessary. Europe’s fourth largest economy is flailing and concern runs high about unrestrained migration. Unofficial results suggest that Five Star Movement lead by capturing about one-third of all...