Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, in Frankfurter Allegemeine newspaper laid out ideas for more European integration, including the creation of a joint refugee agency that would determine asylum requests on the continent’s borders. “In a changing global order, Europe must be able to act, internally and externally, to be taken seriously by the world”, said. Merkel,…
President Donald Trump announced on 8 May to pull the US out of the deal expected to limit Iran’s nuclear program and to reintegrate the economic sanctions. The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed on 14 June 2015 by the Islamic Republic of Iran and the P5+1 countries in Vienna is the agreement reached…
“Divided we fall” said the front page of the British newspaper, The Economist, in the days leading up the vote. The debate over the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union ended the 23 June 2016, when the British electorate voted in favour of quitting the EU. Appealing to the Article 50 of…
The materials we call “plastic” were developed in the 1930s and 40s and mass production began in the 1950s. Since then, the diffusion and use of different plastics have been continuously increasing and projections suggest that this trend will continue.This lightweight, durable, cost-effective and versatile material has some disadvantages that had not been foreseen. For…
“It was late evening when K. arrived. The village lay deep in snow. There was nothing to be seen of Castle Mount, for mist and darkness surrounded it, and not the faintest glimmer of light showed where the great castle lay. K. stood on the wooden bridge leading from the road to the village for…
The UK daily papers are full of outrage that Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) blocked proposals yesterday that would have moved Northern Ireland’s customs border to the Irish Sea. The 10 DUP MPs are currently propping up Theresa May’s minority Conservative government on a confidence and supply basis. Theresa May’s premiership could not continue…
This morning, I read this piece on hurricanes, climate change and human responsibilities in Social News by Max Fanni Canelles. It made me think of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s recent visit to Derry, the walled city in Northern Ireland, as a guest of the organisation ‘Children in Crossfire’ which is marking 20 years of…
Trafficking in human beings has ancient origins, dating back millenniums before the Roman Empire. Although it is considered a totally inhuman practice to our day, it still persists, and it has intensified especially in the area of prostitution. According to the Financial Times, in 2015, this deal covered 21 million people worldwide, of which 4.5…
Europe, the false myth of invasion of migrants. Eurostat and Istat data point to the need for migration flows: with closed borders Italy would risk the demographic decline. The false myth of invasion “There is an invasion” has become one of the mantras of the current populist demagogy related to the issue of migratory flows.…
‘April is the cruelest month’ is the first line of T S Eliot’s 1922 poem The Waste Land – his searing indictment of the global desolation that followed the end of World War I. April 2017 shows every sign of following in its path. On Easter Sunday, Turkey voted by a narrow majority (51%) to…
