Author: Peter Powell

This Policy Brief focuses on possible new Trump tariffs, based on statements made by the President-elect President-elect Trump has threatened to increase United States tariffs to 60 percent on imports from China and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other trading partners, including the European Union. In doing so the US would be ignoring its World Trade Organisation commitments and would also rollback the substantial liberalisation that has taken place during the past 80 years, with a potentially major negative impact on the world economy. In response to this threat, the EU should pursue a three-pronged strategy. First, the…

The love story behind the biggest scandal to ever hit the European Parliament — and the cozy, transactional world in which it took place. Eva Kaili and Francesco Giorgi had left nothing to chance. The duo that would later become the most famous — many would say infamous — couple in the European Union capital had been gearing up for this moment for years. As Qatar prepared to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, they were among the Gulf state’s fiercest advocates in Brussels, defending its record on human rights and fending off criticism of its treatment of migrant workers.…

Frankfurt, Paris (14/7 – 23) United States presidential candidate Donald Trump was shot while giving a speech in Pennsylvania, on Saturday (13/7) local time. Trump’s speech to his supporters in Butler City about illegal migration. Suddenly, a gunshot was heard and Trump immediately stopped talking. He covered his bleeding ears and sat behind the podium surrounded by Secret Service escorts. A few minutes later, officers evacuated Trump from the stage, and the former president’s right ear was covered in blood. The US presidential election is scheduled for November 2024. The main contestants expected on the ballot are Joe Biden and…

Budapest (5/7 – 11.11) Former European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker defended U.S. President Joe Biden after his disastrous debate performance last week and warned of his rival Donald Trump’s “incomplete mind and flawed reasoning,” in an interview with Brussels Playbook. Juncker, who was Commission president from 2014 to 2019 during much of Trump’s presidency, said he had yet to watch last week’s debate, which triggered calls for Biden to step aside and make room for someone else to run as the Democratic presidential candidate. Still, Juncker insisted that “one can be of a certain age … and do a good job.” But Juncker…

Dual Haitian-American citizen attended meetings in south Florida and Haiti ahead of the assassination and faces life imprisonment A former confidential informant for the US Drug Enforcement Administration has pleaded guilty to conspiring to assassinate President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti, whose killing in 2021 caused unprecedented turmoil in the Caribbean nation. Joseph Vincent, a dual Haitian-American citizen who lived in the US and attended meetings in south Florida and Haiti ahead of the assassination, is the fourth of 11 defendants in Miami to plead guilty. He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on charges including conspiracy to kill and kidnap a person…

Ava DuVernay’s new feature film, adapted from the Isabel Wilkerson book “Caste,” turns the journalist into a character who examines oppression. Ava DuVernay’s “Origin” is as audacious as it is ambitious. At its core, it concerns an intellectual argument about history and hierarchies of power, but it’s also about the fraught process of making this argument. It’s a daunting conceit that DuVernay has shaped into an eventful narrative that is, by turns, specific and far-ranging, diagnostic and aspirational. It is a great big swing about taking a great big swing, and while the film is more persuasive as a drama…

Copenhagen (13/11 – 37.5) When Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as Sri Lanka’s president in July after a popular uprising ousted his predecessor, the South Asian island nation was engulfed in its worst economic meltdown in 75 years. Since then, President Wickremesinghe has managed to a keep a lid on mass protests, improve supplies of essentials and on Monday, secured a nearly $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that opens the door to restructuring about $58 billion of debt and receive funding from other lenders. He has done that despite a deeply unpopular government, his own party commanding just one…

Hip-hop mogul, who has faced three sexual assault lawsuits recently, accused over 2003 incident when alleged victim was 17 Sean Combs, the rapper known as Diddy, has again been accused of rape in a new lawsuit by a woman who says Combs and two other men raped her nearly two decades ago, when she was 17 years old. The most recent lawsuit is the fourth filed against Combs in recent weeks. Combs has been accused of sexual assault by several women, including his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, AKA Cassie. Combs and Ventura settled her lawsuit to their “mutual satisfaction” one day after it…

COLUMBUS, Ohio — As a private investigator, Melanie Torres isn’t afraid to get “down and dirty.” Sometimes she uses her skills going through people’s trash. Sometimes, it’s secretly placing tracking devices on cars. She said she uses these and other tactics to gather information for schools to present to the state Board of Education about “out of district” kids who lied about their residency to enroll in a preferred school. Torres was among a stream of private investigators who testified last week at an Ohio House committee against proposals that would outlaw using tracking technology to monitor another person without their permission. The bills were introduced…

West Virginia is no stranger to spooky sights. The Mountain State boasts of its haunted happenings. Many of these haunted places are linked to Civil War history or paranormal activity. The places on this list will certainly frighten you—and maybe force you to sleep with one eye open for a bit. Check out the five most haunted places in West Virginia. 5. Harpers Ferry Harpers Ferry is a National Historical Park in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle. Best known for its Civil War history and quaint architecture, Harpers Ferry has frequent visitors. For the braver folk, there are evening Ghost Tours where you…