Illicit finance is an Achilles’ heel for EU security

Tom Keatinge is the founding director of the Center for Financial Crime and Security Studies at the Royal United Services Institute. Western democracies have, for decades now, been open to finance and investment, seeking to capitalize on the benefits they bring. Gone are the capital controls that used to raise financial borders between allies, as […]

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Ukraine: The critical moment has arrived

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former political prisoner and CEO of Yukos Oil company, is the author of “The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell for Putin’s Power Gambit – and How to Fix It.”  When declaring the annexation of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, and parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin […]

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Liz Truss’ reputation may never recover

Lee Cain is a founding partner at strategic advisory firm Charlebye and a former No. 10 director of communications. “With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed,” Abraham Lincoln once observed. Curiously, it is not a view shared by Liz Truss. The new U.K. prime minister surprised aides on her arrival at […]

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Liz Truss has U-turned. Will it be enough?

BIRMINGHAM, England — So in the end, Liz Truss was for turning. But the damage to her faltering administration may already have been done. On Monday, Truss’ Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng bowed to pressure from Conservative Party colleagues and dumped his flagship cut to the top rate of tax from 45p to 40p — a central […]

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Zelenskyy vs. Musk on Twitter

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took time out of his busy schedule of fighting a war to troll Elon Musk on Twitter. Zelenskyy on Monday asked his followers “Which @elonmusk do you like more?” followed by a poll in which the options were “One who supports Ukraine” and “One who supports Russia.” Unsurprisingly, the former option […]

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Ukraine rains fire on retreating Russians

KYIV — If Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions was supposed to act as a warning to Ukraine to stop fighting, it hasn’t worked. Ukrainian troops on Monday liberated more of the country from Russian occupation — pushing hard in offensives in the east following the successful recapture of the strategic hub of Lyman and […]

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Self-styled ‘Brexit hard man’ goes soft, apologizes to Ireland live on air

DUBLIN – Hard-line Brexit advocate Steve Baker apologized live on Irish airwaves Monday for what he conceded had been a ham-fisted advocacy of anti-EU policies that disrespected Ireland’s own economic needs. Baker’s newfound contrition follows his appointment as the second-most senior minister in Britain’s Northern Ireland Office alongside his fellow European Research Group ally, Northern […]

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