> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://theroundabout.eu/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Matter of Fact — Issue 4 - URL: https://theroundabout.eu/matter-of-fact-issue-4/ - Published: 2026-10-14T12:52:02.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-14T12:52:02.000Z - Author: Aristidis Myrmidon - Tags: Issue 4, Matter of Fact The United States withdrew from GRECO — the Group of States against Corruption — in late September, having been a member since 2000\. Only Russia and Belarus have previously left, in 2023 and 2024 respectively. The State Department explained that membership offers no tangible benefit to US national security. GRECO’s most recent evaluation of the United States, published in 2020, found significant deficiencies in the transparency of presidential campaign financing. One notes that the report has not been updated, and that the United States has now left. One trusts these two facts are unconnected. --- The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 was awarded to former ICC judge Navi Pillay on 10 October, for her efforts to promote peace and international law. The United States imposed sanctions on thirteen ICC officials later the same day. One notes the congratulatory spirit of the timing. --- Erion Veliaj, Mayor of Tirana, released a video this week pledging free school lunches for all children in the Albanian capital. Mayor Veliaj is currently in prison awaiting trial on corruption charges. The video appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence. Albania’s Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence is herself an artificial intelligence system, appointed in 2025 to help eliminate corruption. The EU’s AI Act requires AI-generated content to be clearly labelled. The video was not labelled. Diella, the AI minister, has not commented. One understands she has been busy. --- Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo signed a letter in September calling for across-the-board EU budget cuts, including to agriculture, a sector whose EU funding he had campaigned to increase. He subsequently distanced himself from the letter. The newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported it was unclear whether he had read it before signing. One imagines this will not arise again.