Recently, the Australian bank Westpac was accused of facilitating the single biggest case of money laundering in the country’s history. Allegedly, $7.5bn of transactions – including those lined to child trafficking and exploitation – was waved through without appropriate due diligence, and in some cases breached anti-terrorist financing restrictions. Although this amount is an outlier […]
It has been two years since investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb after exposing the ties of Malta’s rich and powerful to offshore companies in Panama. Her expose had significant impact at the time, acting as catalyst for a general election, but her tragic death did not have the same
If you are a university professor widely regarded for his work on money laundering, corruption and organised crime, and you are arrested on charges of money laundering and corruption, then congratulations, you are Professor Bruce Bagley. This unfortunate academic, operating at the very top of his field, has been accused of conspiracy to commit money
Of Mice and Conmen Read More »
In a political environment light on policy and heavy on rhetoric and tribalism, a refreshing back marker in the Democratic primaries is making waves. Andrew Yang’s futuristic policies, that may seem at times gimmicky or fanciful, focus on the future direction of the world economy, the role of Artificial Intelligence in that economy and most
A President for the Future Read More »
While protests in Hong Kong and Catalonia dominate the Western news cycles, Latin America is seeing a surge in violence and activism on a par with either. Chilean anger towards an elite perceived as thieves has finally reached tipping point, while Ecuador saw the largest strikes and riots in its history – to say nothing
What chance a Latin American Spring? Read More »
Peru’s politics is self-imploding once again as the President Martin Vizcarra has dissolved Congress in order to further an anti-corruption push, but is himself facing accusations of becoming a dictator. When Congress voted to remove him from office and install a more amenable premier, the government itself declared this void as Congress had already been
Peru: Shady Marmalade Read More »
Fake news may be politicised more than ever with the revelation that the Singaporean government will now decide what is real and what is not. Social media providers in the state will now be required to display warnings next to content alleging that it is false, if the authorities deem it to be so, with
Singapore has always been at war with Oceania Read More »
In a video clip a few years old, Russian president Vladimir Putin can be seen handing out prizes to a group of geography students. He asks one the question, where do the borders of Russia end? When the child cannot answer, Putin smiles and says, Russia has no borders. For a President more typically given
My land’s only borders lie around my heart! Read More »
Russia has accused America of hacking into its power grid and planting viruses. Not for the first time – and coincidentally only a few days after much of South America was blacked out – the two old foes are stoking fears not that a new cyberwar is on the way, but that it has already
Power to the people? Read More »
Russian television channels Sputnik and RT have been banned from a conference on media freedom to be held in the UK, with the organisers citing their ‘active role in spreading disinformation’. And while it is certainly true that these Russian institutions have a history of purposefully reporting lies and distorted truths, it can be just
Confirmation of bias Read More »