Author: M Barbu

Germany was the engine of Europe because it used Russian fuel

The question now hangs in the air: will Berlin reconsider its role with Russia, or let the engine seize up?

Recently, an important Brazilian geopolitical channel invited me to shed some light on the political situation in Europe and especially in Germany. Since I’ve been in Berlin, I’ve also been closely following the reaction of the Brazilian internet public to the decline of the EU and Germany, which is already impossible to hide. As far as I can tell, Brazilians still admire a country they have come to know as a global economic power and “the engine of the European project”, but there is also a growing contempt for the Atlanticist foreign policy that Germany has pursued in recent years, which is seen as forced and not particularly genuine.

Le monde est désormais multipolaire, n’en déplaise les nostalgiques de l’unipolarisme débridé

L’Occident impérialiste, ce colosse aux pieds d’argile, s’effondre sous le poids de ses propres contradictions. La domination est remplacée par la décadence, l’hégémonie par la déroute. Le roi est nu, et le Sud global rit de sa misère. Bienvenue dans le monde post-impérialiste, où les anciens maîtres deviennent les nouveaux sujets.

La crise silencieuse de l’armée israélienne

Un nombre croissant de soldats israéliens refusent discrètement l’ordre de retourner au combat à Gaza.

Après un an de génocide à Gaza, de plus en plus de soldats israéliens tentent discrètement de se soustraire au combat dans la bande de Gaza, se disant déprimés, épuisés, psychologiquement affectés et démotivés, selon un rapport publié le 20 octobre par le magazine Ha-makom.

Germany sent back 570 migrants to Poland in 2024, below media forecasts

Some 570 migrants were sent back to Poland from Germany in 2024, according to the official data by the Polish border guard, far from the 40,000 cited in Polish media last week.

Under the readmission agreements and the EU’s Dublin rules, German officials sent the migrants between January and the end of September, compared with 1,922 according to the German government.

Spain considers regularising hundreds of thousands of migrants

The Spanish government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is finalising the details of a massive regularisation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the country, in sharp contrast to the recent migration control plans of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

‘Surrender or starve’: What are Israel’s plans for north Gaza?

Analysis: Israel is trying to depopulate the north to geographically reconfigure Gaza into disconnected enclaves and maintain indefinite control, analysts say.

Residents of northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, along with those in the nearby towns of Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, were urgently ordered to evacuate on 6 October as Israel launched a new ground operation in the enclave’s northern region.

Islamic State Sahel Province is consolidating territory, reviving economies

After almost 10 years of insurgency in the Sahel, the group has made significant territorial gains in the last two years.

Since 2023, Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel), a violent extremist organisation affiliated with the Islamic State, has shifted from perpetrating high levels of indiscriminate violence against civilians towards building community support in areas where it has consolidated its influence. It has also begun actively reviving local economies (including illicit activities) that had been heavily undermined by its earlier indiscriminate use of violence.

ANTISEMITISM: A HISTORY

ournalists and historians have warned about a “new antisemitism” in the twenty-first century United States comprising a repackaging of historic antisemitic tropes presented by the far right and the far left as part of a struggle between neo-fascism, anti-fascism, and anarchism. Both the far left and the far right are challenging the liberal world order established after World War II and targeting Jews as responsible for the ills during the post-war period. This has led to a worrisome trend of violent antisemitism such as the October 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the April 2019 attack on a Chabad house in Poway, California, the December 2019 attack on a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey, as well as an increase in antisemitic hate crimes.1 To understand the modern incarnation of antisemitism requires an examination of the roots and evolution of institutional antisemitism and how it led to events such as the Spanish Inquisition and the Holocaust.

ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency in September 2024

Following is the September 2024 installment of “ISIS Redux: The Central Syria Insurgency,” a monthly chronicle of attacks by the terrorist group ISIS in central Syria. All previous 2024 monthly installments can be found here, as well as a review of developments throughout 2023, 2022, and 2021. A full background and analysis of ISIS’s resurgence in Syria, including the methodology used to collect this data, can also be explored here, here, and here.