29 May 2020: While initially it was expected that Beijing would send troops into Hong Kong which in fact later was confirmed that this was the plan, it does not come as a surprise China's parliament has backed a new security law for Hong Kong which would make it a crime to undermine Beijing's authority in the territory. There is a new brand of diplomacy taking hold in Beijing and its chief architects have a suitably fierce nickname to match their aggressive style, they are the wolf warriors. China’s move however also has implications far beyond Hong Kong. China's larger geostrategic game.

1 June 2020: As recently once more explained in The Yogasūtra of Patañjali: A New Introduction to the Buddhist Roots of the Yoga System by Pradeep P. Gokhale (29 May 2020) much of what is said about yoga is misleading. It is neither five thousand years old, as is commonly claimed, nor does it mean union, at least not exclusively. In perhaps the most famous text, as Gokhale details, the aim is separation, isolating consciousness from everything else. As for the popularization of Yoga in the West, this in turn was influenced by the notion of occultism and modern physical culture. The re-invention of Yoga.

2 June 2020: Invoking an 1807 law threatening military to take control throughout the USA President Trump next posed with a bible in front of a church:

4 June 2020: On 28 May 2020 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, and others paid tributes to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, who popularized the term Hindutva. Today exemplified by Modi Savarkar is loved by the Hindu right with centrists and Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, and Buddhists, in India, not to mention Kashmir, having a different opinion. Major Case Study: The Hindu right in context.

5 June 2020: In an interesting twist today reporting came in that three men were arrested Saturday on the way to a protest in downtown Las Vegas after filling gas cans at a parking lot and making Molotov cocktails in glass bottles. An informant stated that the “idea behind the explosion was to hopefully create civil unrest and rioting" whereby the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas on Wednesday said they self-identified as part of a movement, which U.S. prosecutors said in the document is to signify coming civil war and/or fall of civilization. White Supremacists as a growing menace.

8 June 2020: Because I soon will be involved with a number of travels and upcoming presentations one earlier subject that I like to bring to a degree of completion is the Wandering Bishop subject at the end of a discussion about the mimic Order of St John that I hoped to come back to that at a later point. From tribulations of the Old Catholic Church to an alleged order of St.John.

9 June 2020: Dickens on Westminster Abbey:

10 June 2020: With protesters who have created an“Autonomous Zone” in the center of Seattle, A&E announcing today that itis stopping production of "Live PD", various mayors in the US that ban chokehold, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti who said today that the United States past few days have been traumatic. The keystone of a worldwide movement.

12 June 2020: Beijing fears second wave of coronavirus after spike shuts market:

13 June 2020: Atlanta police chief resigns after officer fatally shoots black man on Friday night:

17 June 2020: Worst India-China clash in decades: 20 Indian troops killed, see our updated article about the Ladakh fighting. The genesis of the current crisis has to do with India's revocation last year of the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir, and the splitting of the former Indian state into two territories.

20 June 2020:  Yesterday a monument of Albert Pike was removed in Wahington D.C. The statue was erected by the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and depicted Pike on a granite pedestal, which features the allegorical Goddess of Masonry, who holds the banner of the Scottish Rite. And while protesters accurately saw Pike as a senior officer in the Confederate Army, the US Congress at the time was satisfied with the Masons’ reassurance that Pike would be depicted as a civilian rather than as a soldier. But so one of the interesting questions here also is: What was the Scottish Rite to begin with?

21 June 2020: First day of summer (summer solstice) with the Fête de la musique in Paris today:

25 June 2020:  Seventy years ago today, the North Korean People’s Army of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) swept south across the 38th parallel. This had divided the Korean peninsula as Japanese troops were driven out by the Allies at the end of the Second World War. On the 27e the US announced it would send troops that soon were to rule Pyongyang. But the US never declared war. Apart from the US fifteen other nations sent combat troops in aid of South Korea under the United Nations Command. Chinese troops intervened on the North Korean side. A war that for many however is still very much alive. Major Case Study: The Korean War in context.

   29 June 2020:

People celebrate COVID Farewell on Prague's Charles Bridge:

1 July 2020:  Filling the news cycle since 25 May has been the issue of racism in the US which soon also led the UK to re-examine its colonial history. A recent development came yesterday when the Belgian King gave in to a standing recommendation by the United Nations to apologize, by sending his 'regrets' to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (but stopped short of apologizing). Staying with the US, we delved into the surprisingly under-researched history of how modern slavery developed. Or when a Spanish-led invasion in 1526 brought enslaved Africans who together with American Indians rebelled and destroyed the Spanish capacity to sustain their would-be colony, in turn, made place for the English to establish a permanent settlement. Major Case Study: London, Madrid, and the creation of Washington, D.C.

7 July 2020: After a deadly clash with India, China today makes a new claim on the eastern border with Bhutan. Tenzing Lamsang, Editor of the Bhutanese newspaper in Thimphu typified the Chinese claims as a pressure tactic. China's new claim about the border with Bhutan.

9 July 2020: On 7 July 1898, the US annexed the Hawaiian Islands while deposing the last Hawaiian Monarch Queen Liliuokalani. This paved the way for the islands to become a territory (1900) and later a U.S. state (1959). Yet it deserves mentioning that the Hawaiian Kingdom was the first non-Western state to achieve full recognition as a co-equal of Western powers notably England France and Belgium. The Hawaiian kingdom’s nineteenth-century vision of a Polynesian confederation furthermore was a political project to create a Hawaiian-led entity encompassing Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, and Tonga. Rediscovering Hawaii's place in the pacific.

11 July 2020: Floodwaters are discharged at the Three Gorges Dam in China

12 July 2020: Voting underway in Poland:

13 July 2020:  The sweeping new security law in Hong Kong has further eroded what little support there was in Taiwan for unifying with the mainland. If China makes Taiwan its next target, it would not be surprising. However, if Beijing takes recourse to similar measures in Taiwan, it would have serious geopolitical consequences and the implications would be far-reaching. After Hong Kong deterrence vs Taiwan?

14 July 2020: On July 14, 1789, Paris was in a state of alarm as crowds were storming the Bastille. Meanwhile, celebrations held in Paris today to commemorate the event’s 231^st anniversary were firmly characterized by European history’s latest chapter, the coronavirus pandemic. “To all those involved in the fight against the pandemic, to all the caregivers who have saved so many lives since the start of the crisis: July 14 pays you homage,” read a message posted on the Elysée’s official Twitter account.

15 July 2020: Dr. Fauci on the cover of Style Magazine:

16 July 2020: As the reason for his currently bestselling book, Michael Shellenberger writes: Much of what people are being told about the environment, including the climate, is wrong, and we desperately need to get it right. I decided to write Apocalypse Never after getting fed up with the exaggeration, alarmism, and extremism that are the enemy of a positive, humanistic, and rational environmentalism. Apocalypse Never:

17 July 2020: A member of the expedition sent to Everest to find George Mallory's camera

18 July 2020: From Oxford University offers the best hope for the Covid-19 vaccine this year, or Coronavirus Vaccine developers rise after Dr. Fauci's comments (not to mention that the Russians tried to hack them) the new  Moderna vaccine and a 'game-changing' coronavirus antibody test, Vaccine research is worth delving into. How the coronavirus pandemic will play out in the next few years.

8 Jan. 2020: Assessment of what will be leading trends in 2020 including the US-China relations, Hong Kong, North Korea, Taiwan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Algeria, United Kingdom, Germany, European Union,  Italy,  Argentina,  Venezuela,  Russia and China, Ukraine and Russia, Russian Foreign Policy, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Indian Foreign Policy,  South Africa, Ethiopia, The Sahel, Guinea, Sudan. Major Case Study: The outlook of the world in 2020.

9 Jan. 2020: The alert came to the White House shortly after 2pm Tuesday 8 January, a flash message from US spy agencies that officials sometimes call a "squawk". In the coming hours, it warned, an Iranian attack on American troops was almost certain. The warning sent Vice-President Mike Pence and Robert O'Brien, the White House national security adviser, to the basement of the West Wing, where aides were assembling in the Situation Room. The early warning provided by intelligence helps explain in part why the missiles exacted a negligible toll, destroying only evacuated aircraft hangars as they slammed into the desert sand in barren stretches of the base. No Americans or Iraqis were killed or wounded, and Trump, who indicated to advisers he would prefer to avoid further engagement, was relieved.

12 Jan. 2020:  While Turkey had successfully deployed an army of high-priced lobbyists to stop the measure for years, on its fourth try, the US Senate voted on Thursday to recognize the Armenian genocide as a matter of American foreign policy, a move that was made over the objections of the Trump administration. So what really happened in Armenia.

14 Jan. 2020: Tomorrow 15 January it will be exactly 49 years ago when Charles Manson puts a nation on trial. Also keenly timed to the 50th anniversary of the series of murders is Quentin Tarantino’s celebrated new film, “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood,” where characters bump up against the Manson “family” of Charles and his followers and their legend. But contrary to popular belief while Manson’s cult arose out of San Francisco’s predatory hippie culture and ended in the shadow of Hollywood, the murders had nothing to do with the occult or were a countercultural revolt. Here is a primer that untangles the who, what, where, and why of the case.

15 Jan. 2020:  As predicted by us on 8 Jan. Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen won re-election by a historic landslide on Saturday, a decisive result widely seen as a rebuke to Beijing’s efforts to gain control over the island democracy. Taiwan was the center of propaganda from both sides. The CPC wanted to "liberate" Taiwan, while Kuomintang wanted to "recapture the mainland." And in a way, similar propaganda is still used by China today. Taiwan offering an alternative model of Chinese modernity is one that carries deep challenges, and often real threats to Beijing.  And, through the immense importance of this region for the rest of the world, that is why this problem is not just a local, but a global one. Taiwan going forward.

16 Jan. 2020: Final part of our study about Palestine /Israel, the involvement of the KGB in the invention of Palestinians, the use of Jezus Christ as Palestinian, plus answers the question of what are potential solutions to the current problems going forward. A critical history of Palestine P.2.

17 Jan. 2020: In a major move that rattled the White House today European countries trigger a dispute mechanism in their nuclear deal with Iran. Thus they are not joining a campaign to implement maximum pressure against Iran. They also start a clock that the Europeans may not be able to control. What to Watch for.

19 Jan. 2020: What is the matter with the Julian calendar? For one 14 January, 2020 was/is January 1 in the Julian calendar. Used worldwide for over 16 centuries, some like for example, the Christian Eastern Orthodox Church. still use the Julian calendar to this day. Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran among them, still have not officially adopted the Gregorian calendar. India, Bangladesh, Israel, Myanmar, and a few other countries use various calendars alongside the Gregorian system, and still, others use a modified version of the Gregorian calendar, including Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Thailand, Japan, North Korea, and China. So the second question is: What is the matter with the Gregorian calendar.

22 Jan. 2020: The history of the twentieth century, worldwide, was marked by the two world wars. The Russian Revolutions of 1917 were a consequence of the First World War, the Cold War of the Second. And as stated recently was a product of security concerns, Stalin’s character and mishaps in diplomacy. But one question still remains: Major Case Study: Was the Cold War inevitable?

24 Jan. 2020: It is known that modern colonialism began when Spain’s and Portugal’s profits in Asia and the Americas encouraged other European states to support rival ventures of trade, private conquest, and privateering, with the individual efforts culminating in the Dutch and British East India Companies. Yet without the Mongols, the plague might not have reached western Europe. Britain would then have had no new draperies and perhaps even no Industrial Revolution either. The counterfactual view that explains colonialism.

25 Jan. 2020: People wearing masks as they pray at Wong Tai Sin temple on the first day of the Lunar New Year of the Rat in Hong Kong.

26 Jan. 2020:

30 Jan. 2020:  While it might soon reach the capital cities of all 'regions' there are some 'places' in China where the coronavirus will not reach... But having already spread to other parts of the world in the short term, the virus will hit the world economy.  We will also cover the "yellow peril" backlash. Following what will happen with the virus in the world going forward:

31 Jan. 2020:  Israel postpones its move to annex parts of West Bank. In reality, the plan's promises are nonstarters for the Palestinians as well as for some Israelis, and they amount to the United States pushing both sides toward a one-state solution by prolonging the current status quo.

Grand Place in Brussels is lit up in union jack colors to say goodbye to the UK:

1 Febr. 2020:  As we have seen in part one, the huge sums of money showered on fighting in Europe gave military leaders the flexibility to buy new weapons and battleships and try out new tactics, fortifications, and methods of supply. In the process, they learned from their mistakes and improved their technologies. And because European countries were small and geographically close, they could easily learn from their rivals’ errors and copy their improvements. As for the ultimate cause behind the European conquest of the world, it was not frequent war or physical geography: The economics of colonialism part two.

2 Febr. 2020: Nguyên Phúc Vietnam

3 Febr. 2020: America and Iran, Iran and Israel, Saudis and Houthis, Sunnis and Shiites, the ruler of Oman shuttled between them all. Because of its earlier history as an Indian Ocean empire, Oman has an unusually diverse population, including large numbers of Baluchis, South Asians, and Swahili-speaking East Africans, as well as Arabs. With Sultan Qaboos being replaced by its new ruler Haitham bin Tariq Al Said new challenges appear with the Saudis and the Emiratis not to mention President Trump we analyze what is at stake. Major Case Study: Charting the future of Oman.

4 Febr. 2020:  Sri Lanka's 72nd Independence Day celebrations in Colombo:

Update 5 Febr. 2020: Ultimately, the breadth of the impact depends on how far the virus spreads beyond its current location:

6 Febr. 2020: 10th annual Sharjah light festival:

7 Febr. 2020: A subject covered by me before, both UK and EU have now given an appreciative nod to the ICOE's recommendations in reference to faulting Myanmar.

8 Febr. 2020: The third day of celebrations in honor of the patron saint of Catania, Italy:

Update 8 Febr. 2020: Today, Saturday a march by a white nationalist group Patriot Front took place in Washington D.C. The group shouted “Reclaim America” and other slogans in line with my earlier article about the great replacement conspiracy theory.

9 Febr. 2020: Between 1492 and 1914, Europeans conquered 84 percent of the globe, establishing colonies and spreading their influence across every inhabited continent. This was not inevitable. In fact, for decades, historians, social scientists, and biologists had wondered: Why and how did Europe rise to the top, even when societies in Asia and the Middle East were far more advanced? This sai one should also ad that for example Portugal was simply never convinced that the Safavid empire or Ming China or the Indian kingdoms were primitive societies - and that shaped its outlook as Europe entered its years of Enlightenment, revolution and industrialization. The economics of colonialism part three.

Map shows the remaining parts of the British Empire as of 2020:

Bushfires (as seen in Australia) can create their own clouds and storms today:

10 Febr. 2020: The current situation confirms our earlier assessment here. It is clear that it is on the way to be a pandemic. A vaccine is one to one and a half year away.

12 Febr. 2020: Buddhist monks chanting during a religious memorial service held to commemorate the victims of a mass shooting at a shopping mall:

13 Febr. 2020: As an addition to what we recently covered here,  it is worth to remind ourselves of Svalbard, a remote Arctic archipelago that has been back in the news of late, and not only because of the islands is the subject of a nine-day, ‘slow TV’ documentary featured this month by the Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. Norway, which administers Svalbard under the terms of the Spitsbergen/Svalbard Treaty, (a document which observed its hundredth anniversary on 9 February this year), is feeling a diplomatic chill from Russia over the regulation of the islands. This comes at a time when relations between Moscow and Oslo have become more difficult as both governments are seeking to improve their security situation in the Arctic. But is it Spitsbergen or Svalbard? The Answer Includes both Politics and History. The Svalbard/Spitsbergen Saga.

14 Febr. 2020: People standing along the Elbe River across from the historic Dresden city center link hands to create a human chain in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Allied firebombing of Dresden. This while German president throws cold water on nationalist myth (referring to the Alternative for Germany party AfD) by stating it was important to recall who had started the devastating conflict.

Manila, Philippines Brides, and grooms attend a mass wedding ceremony in celebration of Valentine’s Day:

Update 14 Febr. 2020: While China reports 5,000 new coronavirus cases, Hun Sen yesterday looking like the man of the hour after letting rejected cruise ship dock in Cambodia.

15 Febr. 2020: Residents in Reykjavík (Iceland) have been asked to remain indoors. With storm Dennis now moving into the UK where experts warn to prepare for worst floods of the year, 70mph winds and 140mm of rain forecast in some areas Chaos expected for trains, roads, and airports:

Update 15 Febr. 2020: With Freemasonry quite well known and contrary to the US still growing in England, following an earlier £2million donation in the UK fire brigade trucks and emergency vehicles now show freemasons' symbol:

16 Febr. 2020: Following as a first-ever in English history of Russian Freemasonry showing among others how in eighteenth-century Russia, Freemasonry was inseparably intertwined with a crash course of Westernization. Major Case Study: The History of Russian Freemasonry Unveiled.

17 Febr. 2020: Russia, Participants in a religious procession to the Kazan Cathedral on International Orthodox Youth Day:

18 Febr. 2020:  With some important centennials coming up in 2020 like (already in the course of 2019 used in the rhetoric by Prime Minister Viktor Orban) the Treaty of Trianon on 4 June 2020 (which among others provided for an autonomous Kurdistan) the Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 2020 new complex patterns and alliances were formed (many of them in the Middle East) who found themselves at each other’s throats as they struggled with competing claims and expectations. Not to mention that President Erdoğan seeks revisions in the Treaty of Lausanne by 2023 due to what he claims to be secret articles signed by Turkish and British diplomats at a Swiss lakefront resort almost a century ago. Major Case Study:  Beyond the Treaty of Versailles.

French map from the early 1900s shows the population by ethnicity inside the Austrian Hungarian Empire:

21 Febr. 2020: Vienna opera ball Febr. 2020 seen from above:

22 Febr. 2020: São Paulo, Brazil, float during a carnival parade:

23 Febr. 2020:  On 8 to 10 January the Theater for the New City presented a major play depicting four students at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa embarking on a research project that takes them into the repository of 19th-century Hawaiian archival materials. Delving into the archives, they are shown to interrogate repressed histories of the Hawaiian archipelago. Honolulu (including Waikiki) is loved by people all over as one of the most multicultural in the world. Following having seen the play, and doing in retrospect our own research evidence shows that the Kingdom of Hawaii was the first non-Western state to achieve full recognition as a co-equal of Western powers. Technologically at the cutting edge of modernity but at the same time grounded in tradition and identity, the Hawaiian kingdom’s nineteenth-century vision of a Polynesian confederation furthermore was a political project to create a Hawaiian-led entity encompassing Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, and Tonga, that could both defend the kingdoms of Polynesia from imperial control and be recognized as a Polynesian power, much like the Hawaiian kingdom had already achieved for itself. Rediscovering Hawaii's place in the pacific.

26 Febr. 2020: Confirming my 30 Jan. assessment that the coronavirus (Covid-19) would become a pandemic, the question now is: How governments can best deal with the pandemic.

27 Febr. 2020:

29 Febr. 2020: Coal Mining in Lijiang China:

1 March 2020: Russian Maslenitsa Folk Festival greets the spring by symbolically burning a bridge:

2 March 2020: Last week in New Delhi people walked past charred vehicles in a riot-affected area following clashes between people demonstrating for and against a new citizenship law. The question now is if the communal violence that killed at least 45 people, mostly Muslims, in India’s capital last week could spread to the rest of the country. What is really happening in India?

4 March 2020: The Rwandan genocide is widely acknowledged to have been one of the biggest modern genocides, as many sources pointed to the sheer scale of the death toll as evidence for a systematic, organized plan to eliminate the victims. Yet are also those who spread disinformation and denial. An early example of this was the 2004 popular movie "Hotel Rwanda" which was based on myth and outright lies.Yet this kind of problem is alive and well in 2020.Not to mention the actuality that the French Court is soon to rule on Habyarimana assassination by the upcoming 4 July 2020. Major Case Study: Rwanda revisited today.

Update 4 March 2020: Mona Lisa’s smile restored: Around midday today the Louvre reopens after virus fears.

5 March 2020: India: A Muslim girl practices 'Vovinam' for the upcoming Women's Day in Hyderabad

6 March 2020: As we detailed in our own initial 2003-4 case study about the Rwanda Genocide is that France faced charges that it supported the Hutu leadership before and even during the massacres. Today's consequence of excessive government secrecy is the opportunity it afforded the génocidaires. An information vacuum gave them free rein to spread lies and disinformation with a view to denying their crime. They deceived the Western press, promoting lies faster than the facts could debunk them. Major Case Study: Rwanda revisited part two.

9 March 2020: Holi is observed in India at the end of the winter season on the last full moon of the lunar month.

10 March 2020: A visitor on open-deck observatory giving 360-degree views of New York’s skyline:

11 March 2020: The flame for the Tokyo Olympics has been lit at the birthplace of the ancient games in a pared-down ceremony because of the coronavirus:

12 March 2020: US President cancels all flights from the EU except the UK even the president of Canada has to go into quarantine because his wife came back from the UK flight likely affected with the virus, in fact, Covid-19 is spreading rapidly in America while the country does not look ready at all. Thus Wall Street suffers worst rout since Black Monday as virus response eludes Washington, Belgium not only closes schools but also bars, and restaurants. Why Covid-19 is killing globalization as we know it.

14 March 2020: A man walks across the deserted Hradčanské Square in front of the closed Prague Castle.

16 March 2020: When Steve Green paid millions of dollars from his family fortune for 16 fragments of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls, it seemed the perfect addition to their new Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. Then this weekend, at a conference in Washington, scrambled by the coronavirus pandemic, experts released a 200-page report revealing how the forgeries fooled scholars and buyers on the antiquities market. Hence it also is good to retrace who and what Jesus Christ really was. Major Case Study: Jesus Christ and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

17 March 2020: Graph on the left indicates that young people spread Coronavirus (COVID-19) most, whereas the graph on the right indicates that given the US lags 11 days behind Italy, therefore Italy could possibly be used as a window into what could next happen in the USA:

18 March 2020: A traffic jam on the Causeway as Malaysians rush to enter Singapore hours before a travel ban enforcement began: Why Planet earth is shutting down.

19 March 2020: India's PM Narendra Modi's govt again advises Ayurveda homeopathy for COVID-19 Trick or treatment: The political and religious trajectory of Ayurveda.

20 March 2020: Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand were all invited, allowing the United States to influence developments by proxy. Second, the United States is not the only entity that seeks to harness ASEAN's efforts for its own designs. The country that has been most successful at this is China , which has now engaged ASEAN on everything from security talks to free trade negotiations. Major Case Study: From hot to Cold War: Asia's WWII.

21 March 2020: Contemporary Japan faces a thorny series of difficulties, most of which are disturbingly similar to (the by us earlier described) Japan’s late-nineteenth-century concerns. What Japan cares about are in two regions the Western Hemisphere and Southeast Asia, with only one itty-bitty problem, Japans dealing with China. Major Case Study: Asia after China.

22 March 2020: Aging population. The chart shows 65+ year-olds as a share of the working-age population now and in 2050. South Korea is aging at an insane pace. In Japan, every worker will have to finance 3/4 of a retiree. Tech is crucial to finance the demographic shift.

23 March 2020: Flights out of Zurich Switzerland...

24 March 2020:

26 March 2020: The mammal dwelling at the highest altitude in the world, this yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse was caught by a researcher on the summit of a 22,110-foot volcano, straddling Chile and Argentina where and temperatures can reach minus 75 degrees Fahrenheit:

8 April 2020: Tens of thousands of Europeans who were stranded abroad have been brought home. Here a graphic of countries that have been cooperating:

9 April 2020: While the pandemic has been raging through the world one cannot avoid noticing also the economic impact. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the world into a recession. For 2020 it will be worse than the global financial crisis. The economic damage is mounting across all countries, tracking the sharp rise in new infections and containment measures put in place by governments. The impact of Coronavirus.

12 April 2020: Opera singer Andrea Bocelli getting ready to sing today:

14 April 2020: The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller, the Knights of Malta, or the Order of Saint John, was a medieval and early modern Catholic military order. But due to involvements, a former student of mine reported to me, decided to research there are also a large amount of fake (self-invented) Orders of Saint John. Whereby in addition, now some documents have been sent to us referring to a more criminal type Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John. The Bruno Burzi Order.

15 April 2020: While the Coronavirus has been ravaging the UK it is refreshing to see the bluebells blooming today:

16 April 2020: A condition of the post–World War I settlement forced Marmara and the Turkish Straits open to international traffic. Not only had land-based global trade between Asia and Europe evaporated because of the better logistics of deep water transport but now the Turks couldn’t even charge duties on the regional trade passing through the Bosporus and Dardanelles, even though all that trade sailed through downtown Istanbul. Turkey in context today.

Above the old city of Constantinople

17 April 2020:

18 April 2020: The past few days saw new fighting in Arakan, whereby today I like to revisit my earlier comment that Myanmar’s inability to become a functioning national entity is the fact that the country, with its present borders, is a colonial creation bringing together peoples and ethnic groups with little in common, and even centuries of conflicts with the Burman kings that predate British rule. And declassified records from British archives reveal that the origins also of the current plight of the Rohingya can be traced to their participation in World War II, notably the communal violence that broke out between the Muslim Rohingya and the Buddhist Rakhine communities during and after the war. Major Case Study: The consequences of the Arakan Campaign.

20 April 2020: While it is more than a decade ago when we last added to our section about Asia Religions the section that to date continues to attract particular attention is our covering of Daoist/Taoist internal alchemy. And while in Chinese Daoism, perhaps the best-known alchemist, who tried to combine Confucian ethics with the occult doctrines of Daoism is Ge Hong (born 283, Tanyang, China, died 343, we next will highlight his famous Inner Chapters, which changed the landscape of Daoism with the creation of a corpus of writings said to descend from one of the highest Heavens, and not created by human sages or immortals, as Ge Hong might have wished. Major Case Study: From Waidan (External Alchemy) to Neidan (Internal Alchemy).

21 April 2020: Oil has been a panacea for all sorts of inefficient, compromised, and in some cases evil regimes for decades. Huge demand in the West and Northeast Asia allowed a raft of previously insignificant or morally reprehensible leaders and societal situations to effectively print dollars out of the ground and count the industrialized world like a hungry customer. Not anymore. But before anyone cheers, it’s worth remembering that things will get a lot uglier before they have any hope of improving. The collapse of Oil today.

22 April 2020:

23 April 2020: Even as some leaders exploit the pandemic, their inability to deal with prevalent suffering will act against the myth that they and their regimes are impregnable. In countries where families are hungry, where baton-happy police enforce lockdowns and where cronies’ pickings from the abuse of office dwindle along with the economy, that may eventually cause some regimes to lose control. For the time being, though, the traffic is in the other direction. How strongman leaders exploit the coronavirus crisis.

24 April 2020: Mecca during Ramadan but empty today:

25 April 2020: With the many publications during 2014, a new discussion has ensued about who and what started the First World War of which the consequences are very much present today. Having embarked on a detailed investigation, we now present a ten-part investigation with new answers that help us understand why so many historians got it wrong. Major Case Study:   Revisiting the Origins of the First World War.

27 April 2020: The German defense minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (center), today answers media questions in front of an Antonov An-225 Mriya cargo plane during a press event. The plane brought 8m face masks from China to Germany:

29 April 2020: We look at how the Chinese navy could potentially gain access to the strategic Korea Strait. That, in turn, would leave Japan isolated in Northeast Asia, facing a Chinese-dominated Korean Peninsula and with little choice but to dramatically increase its military budget, perhaps including the nuclear option. Tokyo would also put enormous pressure on Washington to maintain a credible military capability in the region. The news from N.Korea.

1 May 2020: We have covered Turkey in context and how it will be the economic and military heavyweight of its region. And that what Japan cares about is in two regions the Western Hemisphere and Southeast Asia, with only one itty-bitty problem, Japans dealing with China. We now, will ad an overview that also places the USA in its context. How the end of an age is not the same as the end of history.

2 May 2020: Future earth plate motions towards Pangea Proxima:

3 May 2020: Having extensively covered the making of the Middle East we add to this what happened during the little researched San Remo conference the hidden background of Laurence of Arabia's involvement in the post-WWI order, the brief existence of an independent Syria led by the Hashemite Faisal who next became King of Iraq while his brother became King of Jordan, with the Kurds resisting the British while concerns that the Turks might try to retake Mosul. Making of the Middle East's hidden history Part One.

5 May 2020:  Following the rebellion sparked by the Hussein-McMahon correspondence; the Sykes-Picot agreement; and memoranda such as the Balfour Declaration the British (closely followed by the French) in 1918 became the first to be influential in the Middle East. Making of the Middle East's hidden history Part Two.

6 May 2020: As of Monday Vienna has become the first airport in the world that started offering to passengers the possibility to undergo molecular-biological COVID-19 testing directly on-site at the airport.

7 May 2020: The Thai Ministry of Public Health today told the media that medical authorities had made progress in developing a vaccine for the COVID-19 after laboratory trials of a prototype proved successful.

9 May 2020: Russian President Vladimir Putin held a watered-down celebration of the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany today. In a televised address, the Russian leader made no mention of the coronavirus that shelved a planned 75th-anniversary parade:

10 May 2020: While China and U.S. signal harmony on trade during its Friday meeting, the chaotic nature of national and global responses to the pandemic stands as a warning of what could come on an even broader scale. This includes an internal Chinese report warns Beijing faces Tiananmen-like global backlash over the virus with also the US that is likely to emerge from this crisis significantly diminished. The fall out from the current crises.

12 May 2020: The following is as per 11 May on hand of data from the John Hopkins University:

13 May 2020: In March a British newspaper came out with an article titled " REVEALED: The scientific PROOF that shows reincarnation is REAL. Whereby on 20 April the BBC came out with a program showing it to be a religious belief with as an example the differing views in Buddhist, Hindu, and Sikh traditions. Yet little talked about there is also a very influential pseudo-scientific Western tradition. In fact, several polls carried out in North America and Europe show that the professed belief in reincarnation is widespread. Finding Reincarnation.

15 May 2020: Researched by us, Chinese records on Daqin 大秦 i. e. Great Qin (synonym of Roman Empire in Chinese records) including Western sources provided details about Roman contact with China. Were Han China and Imperial Rome at the time were the largest and most prosperous empires, there were major differences in the state-systems that China and Rome developed to manage their empires. China’s wars against the Xiongnu, known as the Huns, who were a constant threat to the country’s northern frontier throughout this period, led to the Chinese exploration and conquest of much of Central Asia. It also led to the end of the Roman Empire.

16 May 2020: Preparing for the opening of the Uffizi galleries on 18 May:

17 May 2020: Félicien Kabuga, one of the most wanted suspects of the Rwandan genocide, has been arrested near Paris. Whereby also others like Kabuga who had fled abroad and were implicated in the genocide were trying to protect themselves and were paying bank staff to get rid of certain records. Rwanda Redux.

18 May 2020: The open system of trade that had dominated the world economy for decades had been damaged by the financial crash and the Sino-American trade war. Now it is reeling from its third body-blow in a dozen years as lockdowns have sealed borders and disrupted commerce. Is this the end of Globalization?

19 May 2020: Germany and France Propose Bailout for Europe: The German decision broke with decades of opposition to collective European debt. But whatever happens with the Franco-German proposal, COVID-19 will force Europe to face its debt demons.

20 May 2020: Kashmiri militants including a rebel leader were killed in a 12-hour gun battle, sparking clashes between locals and police.

21 May 2020: In a posting on 14 April 2020, I referred to the interconnections between some of the self-invented Orders of Saint John which apart from including a mix that can include Episcopi vagantes or/and also pseudo-Masonic lodges, as shown, in some circumstances can also include criminal elements. And while these various orders have in common the remarkable belief in a non-existent "Russian Tradition" we next present a number of examples that take us all the way to the USA Malta Denmark and Great Britain.

23 May 2020: While in a majority of places in the Muslim world people were seen to practice social distancing, wear masks and in some cases also plastic gloves in some places this was not the case like in Albania or here (although it makes for a beautiful picture) Banda Ace Indonesia:

24 May 2020: While India and  China step up vigil, tensions continue to simmer in Ladakh and Sikkim sectors of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The Chinese military is rapidly increasing its troops in areas around Pangong Tso lake and Galwan Valley along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, sending a strong and clear signal to India that it is not ready to end its confrontation with the Indian Army anytime soon. Could India and China Go to War?

6 Nov. 2019:  An updated history of the human past: The 'out of Eden' peopling of the earth.

8 Nov. 2019:  A study, published in the journal Nature Communications, corrects satellite elevation data, and reveals a developed global coastline three times more exposed to extreme coastal water levels than previously thought. Cities around the world at risk from climate change:

10 Nov. 2019:  China between trade war and its imperial ambitions is facing a consequential coming slump whereby it is worthwhile to take a look at: How China will handle its future development.

12 Nov. 2019:  Including this month there is an ongoing stream of articles that ask if the CERN Hadron Collider work could destroy the earth. A history of the end of the world.

17 Nov. 2019: While opinions in Europe and North America tend to view Buddhism as some sort of unified religion the origins and spreading of Buddhism tell a different story. A new understanding of Buddhist's past and at least one possible future:

19 Nov. 2019:  While this month marked a centennial of the Balfour declaration the Gaza border, this month, in particular, again was marred by violent clashes. The story of British Policymaking at the End of Empire and the Creation of Israel P.1.

22 Nov. 2019:  Overview of the trials and tribulations that led to the creation of Israel. The story of British Policymaking at the End of Empire and the Creation of Israel P.2.

23 Nov. 2019:  While today US President Trump famously claimed that: I stopped Hong Kong being "obliterated in 14 minutes" by China, this is a good time to take a look at the meaning of Hong Kong's protests in perspective. What the real future of Hong Kong might look like.

24 Nov. 2019: Waiting around two hours in line there are more votes by lunchtime than in all of 2015, I will follow this up with an assessment of the results on 26 Nov.

26 Nov. 2019: Rejection of pro-establishment candidates pours cold water on the idea that the silent majority supports the pro-Beijing camp. All eyes are now on how Hong Kong's pro-Beijing authorities will act. Mapping the new reality of Hong Kong.

28 Nov. 2019: Many of the stories Venice tells about itself aren't true, but they have helped the city to survive over the ages and will do so again after its latest disastrous floods. The history of Venice beyond 2021.

1 Dec. 2019: What is to follow after Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi's resignation.

3 Dec. 2019:  We have read it many times, income inequality has risen sharply, the current adult population hasn’t pursued education beyond high school at a time when the majority of jobs demand certificates or degrees, and so on. But just like with the myths surrounding the top 1% of earners there might be more to it. From new economics to new politics.

5 Dec. 2019:  Calling it "Trumpology"a politico article was the first to reveal what those that the closest thing President Trump ever had to a religious faith was the "new thought" of Norman Vincent Peale (seen pictured below with Trump). Yet since few are familiar with the history we went about to trace it to its beginnings, plus as we shall see early on already there was a criticism of Vincent Peale's method and now that of Trump. Whereby Peale himself confessed that large portions of his ideas were borrowed from New Thought philosophy.   Major Case Study:  The origins of Trumpology.

6 Dec. 2019: It is no secret that four in ten indigenous languages are at risk of disappearing. One of the reasons is that few big languages, backed by states, gained kudos. Small, stateless ones were still belittled. How languages have been lost through Nationalist projects.

8 Dec. 2019:  7 December 1941 was when the deadly strike on Pearl Harbor which started the Pacific war took place. In a new book, Michael Lemish uncovered a secret plan being hatched between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Chinese government to send bombers to Tokyo, long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, in the hope of averting a war which seemed inevitable. And while it is true that President Roosevelt had no clue that Pearl Harbor was about to be attacked, it was, however a Roosevelt miscalculation. Because, as we will reveal what Roosevelt overlooked is that Japan due to American machinations was cast into international bankruptcy, a condition of absolute illiquidity and that a US chokehold rendered Japanese dollars and gold worthless for national survival. Major Case Study: The secret background of the attack on Pearl Harbor part one.

10 Dec. 2019:  Jeered on by a waving crowd (pictured below) Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday gave a feisty speech in which she denied any responsibility for the expulsion of 740,000 Rohingya including that there were any cases of rape or other forms of "harsh" treatments. She next boarded a plane and early this morning set foot in The Hague where she is to hold a similar (but possibly more toned down) speech tomorrow in front of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) where she is planning to deny any wrongdoing by the armed forces and defend Myanmar against charges of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Explaining possible Suu Kyi's feistiness the ICJ is the top court of the UN but has no way of forcing countries to abide by its rulings.

11 Dec. 2019:  As we pointed out before in his new book Michael Lemish uncovered a secret plan being hatched between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Chinese government to send bombers to Tokyo, long before the attack on Pearl Harbor, in the hope of averting a war which seemed inevitable. Whereby we proceed with plan Orange, the Pacific Strategic War Plan, U.S. strategists theorized that there would be a war with Japan over resources and territory in the Pacific. the aim was a crushing defeat of the enemy, and aim demanded by an aroused public. The US planners understood that Japan, an island nation poor in natural resources, depended on overseas trade for the sinews of war and its very economic life. Nevertheless, the attack, which took place on 7 December 1941, remained veiled in secrecy due to US hubris and inch-perfect Japanese planning. Major Case Study: The secret background of the attack on Pearl Harbor part two.

16 Dec. 2019: Lose 30 Pounds in Just 30 Days. Lose Weight While You Sleep. Scientific Breakthrough ... Medical Miracle. Lose All the Weight You Can for Just $..., most of you will have read or heard of similar claims being made. But not only do we know that diets don’t work, or if, tests show one doesn’t work any better than the other. Some products have been shown to be more dangerous at times.

17 Dec. 2019: This while the only thing we can really do is imagine the future because nothing can give us a definitive answer even if we did the research for years, the future will always be reshaping and changing as our world does, culturally and technologically. Cultural interaction, ethnic conflict, the workings of race and gender, social stratification.

19 Dec. 2019:  One of America’s preeminent national security journalists, Peter Bergen, who produced the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997 came out with a fascinating new book. Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos where he among others details that Trump proposed evacuating 25 million people from Seoul as tensions with North Korea escalated. The Cost of Chaos review.

21 Dec. 2019:  While Dragon Blade with Jacky Chan was an invented story popularizing the subject, also serious intended reports about alleged Chinese villagers that descended from Roman soldiers have been debunked. However today we know that Chinese records on Daqin 大秦 i. e. Great Qin (synonym of Roman Empire in Chinese records) including Western sources do, in fact, provide a considerable amount of information. Following thus is a detailed account of the actual Roman contact with China. Major Case Study: When the Romans went to China part one.

23 Dec. 2019:  The indirect exchange of goods on land along the Silk Road and sea routes included Chinese silk, Roman glassware and high-quality cloth. Roman coins minted from the 1st century AD onwards have been found in China, as well as a coin of Maximian and medallions from the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius in Jiaozhi in modern Vietnam, the same region at which Chinese sources claim the Romans first landed. Roman glassware and silverware have been discovered at Chinese archaeological sites dated to the Han period. Major Case Study: When the Romans went to China part two.

25 Dec. 2019: The Xiongnu nomadic pastoral people who at the end of the 3rd century BCE formed a great tribal league that was able to dominate much of Central Asia for more than 500 years. China’s wars against the Xiongnu, who were a constant threat to the country’s northern frontier throughout this period, led to the Chinese exploration and conquest of much of Central Asia. It is these Xiongnu that is known to the Romans as the Huns who defeated the Alani and conquered the populous Gothic realms in Eastern Europe. In the process, they caused a significant refugee movement into Europe, which destabilized the Roman Empire. Major Case Study: When after the Romans went to China the Huns came to Rome.

26 Dec. 2019:  In its visualizing 2020, Council of Foreign Relations experts spotlighted some of the trends they will be tracking in the year ahead, to which we will add an additional three-part 2020 outlook. Part one will among others include an overview of what the year 2020 will bring including the world in general, USA, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, Brexit's future disruptive potential, Hong Kong, India, Kashmir, Pakistan, Unrest in Latin America, the economy and technology. What 2020 will bring P.1.

28 Dec. 2019:  In our first part of what 2020 will bring we presented a general overview of the overall trends in the year ahead. In the second part now we will focus on the eleven major friction points in 2020 starting with the most volatile today, Iran.  What 2020 will bring P.2.

29 Dec. 2019:  Just as we mentioned yesterday in our what 2020 will bring p.2.yesterday that "The odds of a U.S. military response either directly against Iran or against the militias in Iraq backed by Tehran have risen" today such a five fold strike took indeed place as the U.S. launched attacks on Iranian-Backed Forces in Iraq and Syria:

30 Dec. 2019:  Tomorrow midnight we will enter a new decade. And as for 2019, the bad things that some fret about are probably true. But it’s also true that since modern humans emerged about 200,000 years ago, 2019 was probably the year in which children were least likely to die, adults were least likely to be illiterate and people were least likely to suffer excruciating and disfiguring diseases.

31 Dec. 2019:  Following the predicted counteroffensive by the US, today the US Embassy in Bagdad came under attack. From Iran’s point of view, violence may seem like the best or only way to send a message. Iran hereby wants to increase the costs to the U.S. of its maximum pressure strategy. So the question is: What next?

3 Jan. 2020:  Having recently introduced "Partitioning Palestine: British Policymaking at the End of Empire"(published 22 November 2019) I should not fail to mention another very important work that soon will be available titled Unexpected State: British Politics and the Creation of Israel by Carly Beckerman which greatly expand our knowledge about how and why the British wanted the creation of a newly created British Palestine. Often forgotten such books is how the situations on the ground where shortly before the Balfour Declaration was issued. or why Mark Sykes (a prime expert at the time) who visited what became a re-invented British Palestine in 1886 thought the area was quite empty. To this, we should also ad the research of the German Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in reference to the Philistines. Major Case Study: A critical history of Palestine P.1.

5 Aug. 2019: Yesterday CNN aired a program with the provocative title "Boris Johnson could be the last prime minister of the United Kingdom" Boris Johnson just broke a prime ministerial record - and not in a good way. Plus there are four scenarios in which crashing out of the EU can be prevented. But it will be a herculean task. Boris Johnson’s Majority Falls to One Seat, Heightening Chances of an Election.

6 Aug. 2019: Across the globe this year, white supremacists have left manifestos referencing to the grand replacement conspiracy theory to justify slaughtering religious and ethnic minorities. As white replacement theory propagates online (galvanized by anti-immigrant rhetoric from far-right populists the world over, from Trump to Hungary’s Viktor Orbán), so does the belief in an all-encompassing “white, European identity” in need of saving. The racist lie that is fueling the US terrorist attacks.

7 Aug. 2019: Indian-administered Kashmir remains in a state of lockdown. And Pakistan has warned war could break out with India. What happened with Kashmir and why it matters.

9 Aug. 2019: For nine weeks now Hong Kong protesters have been dominating the battle for public space. Then yesterday 3,000 lawyers demonstrated in Hong Kong with three days of demonstrations to take place at the city's airport. Will China now crush the protests in Hong Kong?

29 Aug. 2019:  Pictured below left is a Hong Kong policeman pulling a gun on a protester on Sunday. Meanwhile this morning China rotated troops (picture right) in its People’s Liberation Army garrison in Hong Kong. From Vancouver to Auckland and Hong Kong understanding the new Chinese nationalism.

1 Sept. 2019:  While the recent wildfires in the amazon remind us of the urgency, things are not as bleak as some want us to believe and as we will see on a few examples there are still ways to effectively stay ahead of climate change. From climate change denialism to the Brazilian rainforest fires and solutions going forward.

11 Sept. 2019:  Following articles in the Economist, Foreign Policy and the Washington Post, the growing friction between the U.S. and China, combined with the rapid rise of China's economy and its military, has stirred a debate about whether the U.S. and China are headed toward a Cold War. Are the U.S. and China headed for a Cold War?

14 Sept. 2019: