Russia’s claim that Ukraine attempted a drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence has cast a shadow over fragile peace talks just as negotiations appeared to be nearing a breakthrough. While Kyiv denies the allegation and Washington urges caution, the incident risks hardening positions in Moscow and derailing momentum towards a settlement.
Viktor Orbán says Hungary helped derail Brussels’s plan to use frozen Russian assets to finance Ukraine, crediting behind-the-scenes diplomacy and Belgium’s leadership in forming a blocking minority. He warned that asset seizure would provoke Russian retaliation and argued the decision spared Hungary heavy costs at a critical political moment.
What are Russia’s minimum objectives for demonstrating victory? What will happen to Gaza? How can the West persuade Central Asia to cooperate with the US and Europe? We asked a former senior director at the National Security Council in George W Bush’s White House for a year-end analysis of the world’s three major geopolitical conflicts.
The EU has spent the past decade dismissing Hungary’s warnings about migration and sovereignty. Now Washington under Trump is sounding the same alarm, urging Europe to stop its downward spiral—but Brussels responds with indignation instead of introspection, accelerating its decline.
The European Commission’s decision to fine X €120 million under the DSA has ignited the sharpest transatlantic clash since Trump returned to power. Musk called the penalty ‘bullsh*t’, while senior US officials warned the EU is undermining free speech and straining the foundations of the alliance.
‘Unless NATO can produce a credible plan to remain relevant in a world that is changing dramatically—geopolitically and technologically—it risks falling apart under the weight of its own irrelevance.’
A new online database detailing the 1944–45 military occupation of Hungary has been launched, offering the most comprehensive, settlement-level overview to date of wartime operations, casualties, and damages across all 3,155 municipalities.
‘We are not lovers of liberty in any pure sense whatsoever. The Covid pandemic revealed that we are a nation of tutters, conformists, and curtain twitchers…’
‘The Commission’s initiative…is more than just stigmatizing content deemed “false” by Brussels’s fact-checkers. It is also about setting up a closely aligned network in Europe that can coordinate to spread “correct” and “truthful” information—while being paid by Brussels.’
What is the nature of the relationship between Hungary, Japan, and the US? Is ‘woke’ a significant issue in Japan? What does Japan do to counterbalance the influence of China in the Pacific? We spoke to a former Special Advisor to PM Shinzo Abe about the geopolitical turbulence surrounding Japan.