October 17, 2025
If American politicians do not pass stricter gun control, more and more people will die at the hands of gun violence. The country finally needs to stand up to the gun lobby – otherwise, nothing will ever change.
Russian access to the Mediterranean has been one of the Kremlin’s foreign policy goals all along. Not coincidentally, a big conquest in this regard has been the establishment of a naval facility in the city port of Tartus in Syria, which explains also Russia’s strong pro-Assad stance. Now it seems that after the war against Ukraine began two months ago, Russian sea activities are not directed only toward the Black Sea, as expected, but even more toward the Mediterranean.
In 2017, Putin stated that the one who became the leader in AI would be the ruler of the world, adding that it would be undesirable if someone obtained a monopolist position and that Russia would share its discoveries with the rest of the world. It was likely his way of affirming dominance while letting the world know that Russia is ready to expand its intellectual boundaries. Putin even tried monopolizing the crypto market: when the central bank called for a ban on cryptocurrencies, Putin was against this decision. During a call on January 26, a month before invading Ukraine, Putin stated the potential and advantages Russia has in this field. This could have been a first red flag: If Kremlin was already planning an all-out war, they were likely expecting sanctions, hence, giving alternate ways of securing wealth a thought.
On Wednesday, April 27, the European Commission took a historic step by finally triggering the Rule of Law Mechanism against Hungary which could result in the country losing its access to EU funds.
Whenever national security is brought up in public discourse, it is commonly thought of and discussed in stricter terms. Images of military personnel performing combat operations, government-sponsored hackers performing network intrusions, or hypersonic missile launches are among the first images. However, these are only part of the entire national security threats posing nation-states around the globe. Non-traditional security threats pose a real and serious challenge to the Intelligence Community and the U.S. national security strategy as a whole.
Fairtrade International has had an enormous contribution in putting ethical consumption on the agenda, becoming an instantly recognisable label of fairness. However, with an increasingly complicated supply chain and intensified globalisation, trade that is fair is becoming harder to ensure, despite a consumer force that is more conscious than ever. So how fair does Fairtrade continue to be?
It is difficult to be a neighbor of Russia because one fine morning the missiles may fall and the Kremlin’s policy will try to convince you that this is a “special operation” and everything is happening for your own good. Occupation of Abkhazia in 1992, the Russian-Georgian war in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022: This is just a small list of Russia’s crimes in the recent past, disguised as a “special operation”. However, unlike in 2008, today the world clearly sees the bloody crimes committed by Russia.
While it took less than a second for the atomic bombs on the 6th and 9th of August 1945 to detonate and usher in an age of nuclear fear and paranoia, the decision to drop the bombs took much longer. The ability to destroy an entire city within seconds, wiping out millions of people with the single press of a button, immediately became realized and decades of weapons stockpiling and threats would follow, multiple times stopping just short of bringing the world to destruction. Simply stated, a more diplomatic approach should have been performed to secure America’s moral and ethical standing in the aftermath of the Second World War and in contemporary times.
To most, it did not come as a surprise when it was announced in the late evening hours of April 3rd that Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán once again prevailed in the parliamentary elections, winning his fourth consecutive term. His electoral victory will likely embolden Orban to stand his ground vis-a-vis the EU and further transform the country into a quasi-autocracy under his reign.
Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Hungarian prime minister Orbán is having a hard time balancing his close relationship with Moscow while at the same time supporting EU measures against Russia and the condemnation of Russian aggression. Even though Hungary did not veto the EU’s sanction package on Russia, the country refuses to supply weapons and allow weapons transport through the country. Moreover, the government continues to reiterate that it is important to “keep the peace”, without mentioning the aggressor who started this war: Putin.
