Moldova's image in European media carries an aura of geopolitical suspense—a faceless country described either as 'a territory sandwiched between Romania and Ukraine', the 'poorest country of Europe', or a vital source of migrants, sex workers and illegal organ transplants. Often, Moldova is painted in khaki by drawing attention to the frozen conflict in neighbouring Transnistria. Everything changed dramatically after $1 billion disappeared from three of the country’s banks at the end of last year. Reports about Moldova in the European media in 2015 focused much more on 'Moldova's endemic corruption' rather than mass migration and Transnistria. An August 2015 article by Thorbjørn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, added…

People who lean toward cynicism tend to feel one of two ways about sportscasters. They either think that commentators are jaded members of the sports industrial complex who view games as a business, or that they are just regular fans who do nothing but watch sports all day and still aren’t half as knowledgeable as a coworker from accounts receivable. While distrust of the sports media may not rival that of the news media, you don’t have to work too hard to find examples that prove both sentiments. That’s a big part of what makes Mike Greenberg so refreshing. Those who listen to or watch ESPN’s morning drive show “Mike…

Federico Scoppa/Demotix. All rights reserved. Reports of a Russian military presence in Latakia, as well as lingering suspicion of both wider logistical and intelligence support to the Bashar Al Assad regime, add a new dimension to Vladimir Putin’s motives in the Syrian conflict. There have also been claims that Russian military technical personnel have taken over the running of key airports including Damascus international airport. The ongoing Syrian tragedy has demonstrated more than anything else that Putin is the consummate opportunist. While his endgame is still open to question, he has been masterful and ruthless in taking advantage of President Obama’s jelly-kneed foreign policy and European divisions to expand Russian…

Press Association/AP/Amr Nabil. All rights reserved.Several articles in the Italian press – by journalists and others with no experience or knowledge of research in the Middle East – have suggested that Giulio Regeni’s supervisors bear responsibility for sending him into a dangerous situation, alleging that they knew that it would put his life at risk. These are preposterous claims and those who make them are both irresponsible and despicable. They are irresponsible because one does not make such a serious accusation – of having deliberately sent someone to death – without having full knowledge of the situation and holding irrefutable proofs. And even if you believe that you hold such…

Every week, we’re privy to newer and newer stories that suggest the age of autonomous or “self-driving” cars is nearing. With the promise of leisurely riding to and from work also comes the expectation that putting cameras, computers, and machines in charge will make the roads safer.  And it undoubtedly will.  But as we near the reality of self-driving cars, we’re also reminded that machines are cold and calculating. Their decisions will not be based on emotion, but on preprogrammed logic. So now ethicists, engineers, programmers, consumers, and lawmakers are all faced with the question of “What happens when harm is inevitable in a crash?” Who does the car decide…

Anti-Pegida march in Vienna, 2015. Christian Michelides/Wikimedia Commons. Some rights reserved.2015 was the year that concerns about the return of fascism went mainstream, thanks to the popularity of the likes of Donald Trump, who leads the polls to be the Republican presidential candidate in the US, and Marine Le Pen, whose Front National topped the polls in the first round of the French regional elections (before defeat in the second). How should we understand and respond to these phenomena? First, see the bigger picture For all the liberal soul-searching, most of the commentary missed the key point: the legitimacy of Trump, Le Pen and the like comes not from the…

A picture of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, altered to look like Adolf Hilter, 6 June 2013. Thanassis Stavrakis/PA Images. All rights reserved. “Humanitarian aid to [civilians] must be allowed immediately. ‘Surrender or starve’ tactics are directly contrary to the law of war.” Any western leader might easily use these words to scold the Turkish state, and its starvation of Kurdish towns to the south-east of the country. But it would be highly unlikely. In fact, John Kerry’s tweet was aimed at the Syrian regime, not the Turkish one. Why do American leaders describe Assad’s strategy of ‘surrender or starve’ as a war crime, while they ignore Erdoğan’s? Perhaps because…

Here, in Kharkiv, the frontline isn’t far away, just a few hours drive. Routes into town are fortified with checkpoints. People in camouflage, military hardware, and reports on casualties from the ‘Anti-Terrorist Operation’ have become part of everyday life. News of explosions in the city no longer provoke panic or fear as the bombings are quickly forgotten in the daily barrage of information. But in the past nine months, Kharkiv has been rocked by a series of bombings, with targets including Stena, a rock pub, in November 2014, and a rally near the Palace of Sport in February 2015.   ‘What do the people want?’ In spring 2014, during the…

Click:vanilla prepaid card balance Everyone knows President Trump has thin skin when it comes to criticism of himself or his White House team. But the war of sensitivity is escalating in a major way with the Department of Homeland Security attempting to force Twitter to unmask the identity of a rogue Twitter account that is critical of Trump’s immigration policy. And now Twitter is fighting back by suing the White House. And the American Civil Liberties Union has their back. “The rights of free speech afforded Twitter’s users and Twitter itself under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution include a right to disseminate such anonymous or pseudonymous political speech,” reads…

Opposition Leader Margaret Thatcher shows her European colours in Parliament Square, June 1975. PA Archive/ Press Association. All rigths reserved.Not even the enormity of the recent terrorist attacks in Brussels has managed to shake national and European leaders out of their political torpor. In every statement they make there is a mantra, which is heard over and over again: ‘we must improve coordination among the national security and intelligence systems’. The same mantra was repeated at the peak of the euro crisis, and is still used in the face of the arrival of millions of migrants to our continent. The keyword of the mantra is always the same: coordination. Faced…