Michael Hollister

Michael Hollister

  • Joined: 20. October 2025
  • Articles: 595

Who Checks the Facts – and Who Pays the Fact-Checkers

Who decides what constitutes disinformation - and who pays for the tools used to make that judgment? While the German government is investing millions in research projects designed to detect and counter disinformation, some of the resulting systems are being integrated directly into the platforms of private fact-checking organizations. At the same time, Europe’s ban on distributing RT content has been extended as far as donation-funded private blogs. The central issue is not any single measure, but the intersection of public funding, private authority over information, and state enforcement.

The Nuclear Step: How Germany Is Becoming Part of a European Nuclear Order Without a Bomb of Its Own – Part 12

Germany is neither financing French nuclear warheads nor demonstrably contributing to Britain’s Trident system. Yet the Bundeswehr is being integrated step by step into a European nuclear order through joint exercises, operational cooperation, and a new steering group. Berlin is thus assuming responsibilities and risks - while the authority to use nuclear weapons remains in Paris, London, and Washington.

Flash: What Erdoğan Was Really Answering

Erdoğan’s warning to Greece may look like another round in the decades-old Aegean dispute. But this time, there is more behind it: just three days earlier, Athens and Israel had signed a multibillion-euro agreement for the “Achilles Shield” air-defense system. Its planned deployment on the eastern Aegean islands now intersects with an old treaty dispute - and with a new security axis linking Israel, Greece and Cyprus. The key question is therefore no longer whether the dispute is returning, but whether it has become part of a broader regional realignment.

Berlin Flying Blind: Why the Hack Is Not the Problem-but the Seven Days That Followed Are

For seven days, data was extracted from Berlin’s government network without the intrusion being detected. Weeks later, authorities still cannot say exactly what was stolen, while an initial reassurance has already had to be withdrawn. The case raises a fundamental question: How resilient is the digital infrastructure of a capital whose officials themselves appear surprised by the scale of their own IT system?

EU Commission – A Breach of Law with Advance Warning

The Commission’s own lawyers raised warnings, and member states halted the process—yet the European Commission continued negotiating. A leaked draft agreement reveals how highly sensitive data belonging to European citizens could reach Israeli security agencies, including Shin Bet, and why its use in the occupied territories was explicitly envisaged. Four documented breaches reveal what remains of European rules when Brussels itself is expected to comply with them.

UPDATE: US AND ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN – September 06, 2026

Iran fires ballistic missiles at US warships, Washington targets Iranian oil tankers for the first time, and Tehran declares additional commercial vessels to be military targets. At the same time, Donald Trump threatens the underground Pickaxe Mountain nuclear complex, while Russia is reportedly helping Iran develop a new supersonic cruise missile. This Iran Update examines how blockade, economic warfare and regional battlefronts are merging into a conflict that neither side has been able to end on its own terms.

The Agreement That Brussels’s Own Lawyers Tried to Stop

The Commission’s own lawyers raised warnings, and member states halted the process - yet the European Commission continued negotiating. A leaked draft agreement reveals how highly sensitive data belonging to European citizens could reach Israeli security agencies, including Shin Bet, and why its use in the occupied territories was explicitly envisaged. Four documented breaches reveal what remains of European rules when Brussels itself is expected to comply with them.

UPDATE: Russia-Ukraine Conflict – September 04, 2026

A week in which the war cut deeper into the infrastructure of both sides: Russia sustained a multi-day drone and missile campaign against Ukraine, while Ukrainian deep strikes kept pressuring refineries, export routes, and Russian logistics. The result is not a strategic breakthrough at the front, but a war of attrition increasingly defined by pressure on energy, transport, finances, and state structures.

IRAN SPECIAL: The Question No One Is Asking in the Iran Debate

The prevailing narrative says Washington has trapped itself in the Iran war and cannot find a way out. But what if that assumption is wrong? The blockade is hitting China’s energy supply, strengthening US export interests and giving Washington leverage over one of the most critical pressure points in the global economy. Several paths toward ending the conflict have opened - and were not taken. This analysis therefore asks the question almost absent from the Iran debate: Does Washington actually want this war to end?

UPDATE: US AND ISRAEL ATTACK IRAN – September 02, 2026

The military lull is over: US strikes on Iranian positions have triggered missile and drone attacks against US-linked facilities in four countries, while the blockade is placing mounting pressure on Iran’s oil exports, currency and economic room for manoeuvre. At the same time, the nuclear blind spot is widening, and two competing security architectures are emerging around Tehran. This Iran update separates confirmed findings, claims by the conflict parties and questions that remain unresolved.