By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning Russia has never been more unpopular in Armenia than nowadays — and it has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, for a change. The former Russian President, loose cannon Medvedev, even resorted to threatening the life of Armenia’s Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan: “Guess…

Mind, Reality, or Mere Language? Polylogue on Reality and Language between Eytan Suchard, Shimon Vaknin, and Sam Vaknin ES: Unless we are more than just biological machines, all physicists will be replaced. See: Sky News Australia interviews ‘free-thinking’ artificial intelligence — YouTube. However, our brain is not a deterministic machine…

Three Seas, One Destiny By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning In a summit in Bucharest, Greece became the 13th (naturally) member of the obscure Three Seas Initiative. Ukraine and Moldova are expected to be granted partner status. The Three Seas are the Baltic, Black, and Adriatic. The membership represents a crosscut…

Europe’s Renewables Energy Crisis By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning The war in Ukraine forced Europe to face up to its energy dependencies and brought it to the brink of a crisis. Net zero emissions regulatory upheavals only enhanced the mayhem. The obvious answer seems to be the diversification of energy…

The Merits of Inflation in Europe By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning Headline inflation fell from 7% in April to an annually adjusted 6.1% in May, announced Eurostat. Retail prices will follow suit in a few months. Core inflation — a more relevant indicator — is down to 5.3%. But is…

Compassion Fatigue: Ukrainians Not Welcome By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning This unsavory turn of events has been predicted long ago: compassion fatigue, the point in time when Ukrainian refugees become a burden rather than welcome guests, subject to outpourings of compassion. The maximal geopolitical and military positions of both Russia…

China’s Ponzi Scheme Economy By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning When COVID-19 struck, China’s exports plummeted by 17.2% (January-February 2020 figures). In July 2023, they fell off a cliff, down by 14.5% on the heels of a 12% year on year drop in June and an almost uninterrupted string of similarly…

Ukraine’s Grain Under Russia’s Reign By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning Here is some breaking news: Russia and Ukraine compete in the same export markets for grain and fertilizer. Russia has zero incentive to help Ukraine with its outflows of both. Russia has all the reasons in the world to obstruct…

Time for #MenToo By: Sam Vaknin, Brussels Morning The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of the United Kingdom (UK) has recently criminalized “lovebombing”: overzealous flirting in the first phase of a relationship. There is no debate that rape and other forms of sexual assault should be punished severely. But we are…