Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have launched a sweeping investigation into a $100 million kickback scheme tied to the state energy sector and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s inner circle. The scandal, centred on businessman Timur Mindich, comes as the EU considers whether to open membership talks with Kyiv.
‘The renovation of the Hijaz railway is not an independent project but part of broader Turkish foreign policy, which aims to elevate Türkiye’s position in the Middle East hierarchy. Through neo-Ottomanism, Ankara is not only striving to be a strong actor in the region but also to be indispensable to the local states.’
‘The Trump administration has made it clear that there will be no case closed in Gaza without the complete disarmament of Hamas. Shortly after the agreement came into effect, the President made a plain threat to the Gaza-based terror group: “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them and it will happen quickly and perhaps violently.”’
‘In shedding light on his work and the history of the Hungarian Betar movement, we not only recover a lost voice of right-wing Zionism but also gain a fuller, more nuanced understanding of Jewish history in Hungary before, during, and after the Holocaust.’
What will be the main topics of Viktor Orbán’s 7 November White House meeting with Donald Trump? Can he secure an opt-out on energy, and how will Hungary’s connectivity strategy hold up if global powers clash? We spoke with the Deputy State Secretary at the Prime Minister’s Office about the potential new deals between Trump and Orbán.
BBC is facing accusations of manipulating footage of Donald Trump’s 6 January speech in a Panorama documentary aired just a week before the 2024 presidential election. A leaked 19-page dossier by former BBC standards committee member Michael Prescott claims the broadcaster spliced quotes to make it appear Trump incited the Capitol riot.
‘Trump’s EO perhaps instinctively draws from the historical lesson: that love of one’s country is not a limitation of freedom—it is a precondition of a nation’s survival.’
‘Germany faces a stark choice between continued strategic drift and fundamental transformation. The half-measures of constrained realism will prove no more effective than the delusions of values-based idealism when confronted with determined opposition…Only genuine sovereign realism…offers the possibility of effective foreign policy in the age of great power competition.’
‘Our world has changed, the international order has transformed, and every actor is trying to adapt. With the end of unipolarity, the hegemony of liberal foreign policy also ended…Free trade has given way to protectionism; moralizing, value-centric diplomacy has given way to transactional realism. However, this recognition apparently eludes the European Union.’
‘The fact of the matter is that the apocalyptic scenario Democrats warned of in case Donald Trump was re-elected never materialized. After some market turmoil caused by President Trump’s tariff frenzy in the spring, things smoothed out real quick. The Democrats found themselves in desperate need to manufacture a crisis just to get the voters’ attention.’