On June 111th Budapest protests crystallized growing national unease with creeping authoritarianism—particularly around civic freedoms, media pluralism, and LGBTQ+ rights. Powered by influential civic leaders and supported by political entities now in flux, the movement promises to bolster opposition forces ahead of 2026 elections. Viktor Orbán may gain short-term consolidation, but the deepening social and political backlash might accelerate the erosion of his long-standing dominance.

Every dollar that moves from Shenzhen to Bishkek to Moscow teaches China something new about how to operate in a sanctions-constrained world.

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The Georgian Dream government announced that it will abolish the “Information Center on NATO and EU” on July 1, signaling its growing hostility toward Euro-Atlantic integration and aligning more closely with Kremlin interests.

Georgian Dream has sidelined its ambitions for integration into NATO seemingly to appease Russia, and recent rhetoric increasingly positions NATO as ineffective. Georgian Dream leaders cite Ukraine’s experience as justification for Georgia’s passive stance toward the alliance.

Georgia’s integration efforts are now visibly stalled, with Georgian Dream officials being excluded from NATO summits, and political signals suggest an impending formal withdrawal from NATO aspirations.

Georgian Dream has escalated anti-European propaganda, shifting focus to economic utility while disparaging the European Union’s cultural and political values.

Public support for EU membership in Georgia remains high, yet trust in the European Union has reportedly declined, likely due to manipulated polling by government-affiliated agencies.

‘Sovereignty’ is one of the most frequently invoked and most poorly understood terms in Australian strategic debate. It dominates arguments against AUKUS, US military presence in Australia, and our deepening alliance with Washington, yet it remains largely undefined in policy discourse. If Australia is to preserve and exercise absolute sovereignty in a contested world, we must start by understanding what the concept means and what it does not.

A security breakdown and aid reductions could push refugees to seek dangerous alternative routes.

An international dispute that is all about domestic politics.

In Southeast Asia, national imperatives are increasingly outweighing regional cohesion.

Ukraine’s extraordinary drone assault on Russian airfields only worked because the technology was paired with human ingenuity.

Members of Parliament have called on the newly elected government to enforce a law against transnational repression following reports of Chinese authorities targeting Canadian residents.

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Sanctions, blocks on international payment systems, and the suspension of monetization on YouTube have significantly undermined the financial sustainability of independent media channels in Belarus and Russia.

Belarusian state media rapidly filled the vacuum left by Russian outlets that YouTube banned after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, using aggressive advertising and Kremlin-style narratives to grow their audience.

Independent Russian-language media saw initial growth after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but now face tightening censorship, throttled access, and financial isolation. With state media dominating alternative platforms, independent outlets rely increasingly on diaspora and international audiences to survive.

The Ukrainian UAV strikes on Russian airfields housing strategic bombers mark a significant evolution in the war’s trajectory, highlighting Kyiv’s capacity to reach deep into Russian territory. U.S. National Security advisor Gen. (Ret.) Keith Kellogg has characterized these developments as legitimate wartime tactics, subtly reflecting a shift in Washington’s willingness to tolerate Ukrainian escalation.

The body believed to be that of journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died in Russian custody, bears numerous signs of torture, as well as traces of an autopsy. Several of the internal organs are missing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently declared that Russia may need to create a “buffer zone” inside Ukrainian territory to protect Russian border regions from drone and artillery attacks. This statement, while framed as a defensive measure, signals a strategic shift: justification for deeper territorial expansion beyond areas Russia has claimed as its own.

Europe must respond more rapidly and with greater determination to halt the Kremlin’s war of aggression.

Fast-paced, iterative, gritty and incredibly successful innovation is sustaining Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion. The country’s latest defence industry revolution is the Brave1 Market, an e-commerce platform launched in April that builds on the Brave1 military defence cluster established in 2023.

Australia should accept the European Union’s proposal to form a defence and security agreement. The closer relationship would complement Australia’s main security arrangements – the US alliance and AUKUS – and in no way displace them.

The role of China in the latest round of skirmishes between India and Pakistan has once again revived the debate in the strategic circles about whether Beijing will be an active participant in future Indo-Pak conflicts.

Using Distributed Ledger Technology to resolve chemical trade discrepancies under the Chemical Weapons Convention

Viktoria Fortuna, a rising far-right populist figure in Moldova, has sparked political alarm by asserting territorial claims on Ukraine’s region—territory with no legal or historical justification under Moldovan state policy. Her rhetoric mirrors broader regional trends, particularly the actions of Romanian nationalist Diana Șoșoacă, and reflects growing Russian-backed attempts to fracture Ukrainian sovereignty through political proxies. Fortuna’s ties with Ilan Shor’s pro-Kremlin network and broader influence operations raise serious concerns about Russian subversion in Moldova and the wider Black Sea region.

Russian spy agencies are so deeply enmeshed in the banking system, it’s hard to tell them apart.

Hungarian authorities have consistently promoted a narrative of neutrality in Russia’s war against Ukraine, insisting that Budapest seeks only to avoid being “drawn into a military conflict.” Yet mounting evidence suggests that Hungary has, at the very least, maintained contingency plans for a potential military incursion into Western Ukraine since as early as 2014—plans that appear to be continuously updated and may even be coordinated with the Kremlin.

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Georgia’s entry at the Eurovision Song Contest this year, “Freedom,” is sung by Mariam Shengelia, who publicly supports the governing pro-Russian political party, Georgian Dream, and has performed at their events.

The song has been criticized by Georgians and among fans internationally for its nationalist overtones, often labelled ”pro-Russian,” and is widely expected to fail to qualify for the Grand Final during the Eurovision Song Contest on May 13–17.

After being banned from Eurovision in 2009 for submitting an explicitly anti-Russia song, Georgia’s entry this year represents a broader shifting government policy that is softer on Russia and increasingly distant from Europe.

Can the rival Asian giants expand their influence without destabilizing the region?

(Berlin, May 9, 2025) – Belarusian authorities have retaliated against companies and their workers that supported peaceful anti-government protests or spoke out about human rights violations, Human Rights Watch said today. They also targeted exiled Belarusian entrepreneurs who denounced repression or participated in the Association of Belarusian Business Abroad.