Author: Christine Schier

The conflict in Ukraine, following on the global disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic, is contributing to a growing shift in trade flows internationally. It is coherent with the emerging new economic order. Realignment underway in Eurasia. Exports from Asia to America declined by 11% in Oct. 2022 compared to one year earlier. In terms of manufacturing, orders from the […]

The “milestone” 3-day visit of President Xi to Saudi Arabia December 13-16, featured three summits: one with the Saudi leadership, one with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the first ever China-Arab summit. As a result, the China-Arab relationship will move to an entirely new level, from economics and trade to increasing cooperation in the areas of culture, politics […]

While some leaders in NATO countries have dropped hints that it may soon be time to try negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, the word came from a leading British intelligence institution that that is out of the question until Russia is defeated and humiliated. A round table discussion at Chatham House on Dec. 6 featured two long-standing Russophobes, […]

The European Commission’s warning to Elon Musk that Twitter “must obey EU rules or else”, not only sounds like a Mafia warning, but reveals the dictatorial nature of the censorship of free speech and free press imposed by EU institutions. And it unmasks the role of the Commission, which has drafted the so-called “code of practice on disinformation”, while acting […]

On Dec. 7, the national Journalists Club of Mexico issued their annual awards to 46 Mexican and international journalists, media and institutions chosen by a 20-person independent jury for their exemplary journalism and for work on behalf of freedom of speech. The Schiller Institute received the award for “Fostering freedom of expression from the academic realm”. The master of ceremonies […]

Some leading voices in Europe, especially among military experts, may be looking for a way out of what has become NATO’s full-fledged war against Russia, if only to stop the economic debacle in their own countries (see below). But that is apparently not the case with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and her crew, who are intent on […]

German Chancellor Scholz initiated a telephone call with Russian President Putin on Dec. 2, for their first conversation since last September. Both leaders reportedly stressed their interest in talks to end the Ukrainian conflict. Vladimir Putin called on Germany to no longer take part in “flooding the Kiev regime with weapons and training Ukrainian troops”, noting that as a result […]

Reality is often more surrealistic than fiction. On Nov. 30, FTX chief fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried was featured in the New York Times’ annual Dealbook Summit, a major “financial analytical” event, along with Volodymyr Zelensky, Mark Zuckerberg, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. The composition of the panel is weird in itself, but then again we are used […]

Culminating a two-year investigation dubbed “Desert Light”, the EU’s Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) has busted at least partially one of the “super cartels” inundating Europe with cocaine. Between Nov. 8 and 19, coordinated raids were carried out by the relevant authorities of Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, the Emirates and the United States. A breakthrough in the investigation […]

In an article titled “How Peter Thiel bets on cannabis” the French economic daily Les Echos wrote in 2018 that Peter Thiel, a U.S. libertarian billionaire, “was the first venture capitalist to invest in the legal cannabis market”. A co-founder of Paypal and an early investor in Facebook, Thiel is most known for creating, with CIA funding, the AI firm […]