Lucian Kim, Reuters
There is a time-tested European tradition of sneering at the crassness of American capitalism and the blowhards it produces. But Germans in particular are discovering that their society is not as equitable as they once believed, nor immune to the blather of populists.
Paul Salopek, Politico Mag
South Ossetian troops and their Russian allies had worked through the night, sinking new border-marking poles across fields outside a hamlet called Tamarasheni in the golden hills of central Georgia. The Russians granted the local farmers 72 hours for an emergency harvest then ordered them to leave—forever. Piling out of a military truck the next day, the soldiers inspected their night’s handiwork: expanding Moscow’s perimeter of influence in the Caucasus.
Richard Brooks, The Guardian
With around tn a year still flowing out of developing countries to tax havens, it is clear that coaxing these territories into increased transparency can achieve only marginal gains. The recent series of leaks poses a more potent threat: anybody contemplating hiding income offshore must now factor in the risk that many years later the details could make their way from an office such as Mossack Fonseca’s into the wider world. Far better, even the greediest might think, simply to pay the tax and get on with life.
Neeta Lal, The Diplomat
India’s PM has been aggressively promoting the practice. Not everybody is happy about it.
Jackson Diehl, Washington Post
Georgia offers perhaps the clearest example of how the prospect of NATO membership and progress in consolidating democracy have been intertwined. In 2012, the pro-Western government was ousted in a parliamentary election — itself a democratic achievement of sorts. The new coalition was led by Bidzina Ivanishvili, a billionaire with distinctly Trump-like qualities, including a penchant for populist demagoguery and an inclination to autocracy.
Michael Weiss, The Daily Beast
Years of rumors about the Russian ruler’s incredible fortune moved a step closer to fact over the weekend with a leak that far eclipses WikiLeaks’ cables or Snowden’s revelations.
Dan Larison, American Con
War crimes committed by the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen are treated as accidents even when they aren’t. Despite the fact that they illegally declared an entire region of the country to be a military target, Saudi claims that they don’t attack civilian targets deliberately are often accepted at face value. Client governments are usually given the benefit of the doubt even when they don’t deserve it.
Adnan Amer, ALM
Dismissed Fatah leader and former member of Fatah’s Central Committee Mohammed Dahlan has been active on the regional and international levels in the past few months. Surprisingly, Dahlan has been more present on the regional and international scenes than any other Palestinian leader. While these activities are not directly linked to the Palestinian issue, it is important to note that Dahlan was dismissed from Fatah in 2011.
Leon Aron, AEI
From Alabama to Denmark, Nevada to the Netherlands, and from Arizona to Sweden and Germany, Hungary and Poland, voters are flocking to right/left populist, nationalist, isolationist, and nativist demagogues, parties, and movements.
Garry Kasparov, Reuters
The 21st century has been marked by two complementary trends in global security: the rise of new and unexpected threats and the return of old ones. Terrorist organizations have adapted modern technology to deadly purpose and paired it with global ambition. Nineteen well-trained individuals killed more Americans on 9/11 than the entire Japanese fleet killed in Pearl Harbor. Our ubiquitous smartphones and social networks turned out to be agnostic tools, serving both good and evil. Читать дальше...
Andrey Kortunov, ECFR
In a thought-provoking paper, “How to talk with Russia?”, Kadri Liik singles out three types of Russian analysts: “Many experts undoubtedly serve as spokespersons for the regime, many others have retained a desire to actually understand events, and some are balancing between the two”. I do not know what category I fit into and whether I can be qualified as an analyst at all. Nevertheless, I would like to look at the paper through Russian eyes and to share some of my immediate reactions to it.
Yanis Varoufakis, Der Spiegel
The feud between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European side of Greece's troika of creditors is old news. However, Wikileaks' publication of a dialogue between key IMF players suggests that we are approaching something of a hazardous endgame.
Simon Johnson, Project Syndicate
WASHINGTON, DC – On June 23, the United Kingdom will hold a referendum on whether to leave the European Union. On the economic side of the “Brexit” debate are three main questions: Do European rules impose growth-stifling regulation on the UK? Would leaving the EU increase opportunities for British exports? And what would be the likely impact of withdrawal on financial stability?
Michele Barbero, New Statesman
What's fascinating, when reading Herg's series today, is how clearly its values evolve in line with a changing world.
Boris Johnson, Telegraph
Everyone feels sorry for the 15,000 steelworkers at Port Talbot; everyone in this country will be hoping for a solution that will keep them in work. That is partly because their fate seems so unjust. This disaster isn’t their fault. They don’t have some new strain of the Seventies “British disease”. The plant is not a hotbed of union activity.
Catalano Ewers & Goldenberg, TNI
America must build on positive momentum without turning a blind eye to Tehran's aggressive moves. Here's how to strike that balance.
Doyle McManus, Los Angeles Times
The danger stems not only from terrorist groups like Islamic State, which would gladly steal or buy nuclear material on the black market, but also from the huge nuclear arsenals the United States, Russia and other big powers maintain more than 20 years after the end of the Cold War. Those nuclear forces are bigger than they need to be — almost 16,000 warheads in all. And they still include hundreds of missiles on hair-trigger alert.
Fred Kaplan, Slate
Trump may regard his recent, long interview with two New York Times national security reporters as affirmation of his gravitas (certainly the reporters treated him with respect), but read the transcript. It’s an incoherent babble reminiscent of a Samuel Beckett monologue. Think Krapp’s Last Tape, without the humor.
Guardian
A network of secret offshore deals and vast loans worth bn has laid a trail to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Roy Gutman, Politico EU
DIKILI, Turkey — Closing the migrant escape valve provoked an unexpected event in this beach resort, one of the closest points on the Turkish mainland to the European Union. The asylum seekers, who were risking their lives to get to Europe and got stopped when its shores appeared in plain sight, became angry and turned on the local authorities.
Steve Coll, New Yorker
Defense treaties among democratic societies are really compacts among peoples, through their elected governments, to sacrifice and even die for one another if circumstances require it. Demeaning those commitments as if they were transactional protection rackets is corrosive and self-defeating.
Jeremy Kryt, Daily Beast
As the murder rate in Mexico rises yet again, it’s time to admit current policies aren’t working—and start looking for new solutions.