German AfD leader Weidel attacks ‘firewall’: ‘it doesn’t work’
“There can be no better place in the world than Budapest to talk about how peace can be created in Europe,” according to Alice Weidel, co-chair of Germany’s most popular…
Dollars and the old clerical flaws: does Leo XIV have questions to answer?
Now the questions start. Millions enjoyed the choice of Cardinal Robert Prevost to be the new Pope – how could they not, given the ghastliness of the dead Pope Francis?
Mainstream media ‘closes ranks around Cardinal Parolin’, despite concerns
Conservative Catholics have warned that the mainstream media was presenting Cardinal Parolin, former Vatican Secretary of State, as the favourite to take over the papacy,…
Men at war, praise them all: strong backs, high skills, comradeship, courage
Have you seen the trailer for the new Hollywood film, Warfare? I’ve been watching it for three days now, on repeat.
Hungary’s Orbán calls Germany’s Weidel a ‘brave freedom fighter’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, standing next to Alice Weidel, co-chair of Germany’s hard-right AfD, at a joint press conference in Budapest has said he had invited…
Ready for an ‘abomination?’ In American history, tariffs have consequences
American tariffs? Let me tell you about those. Move President Trump’s tariffs to one side for now, we will get back to those in a moment.
Greenland, Canada, Panama: Trump wants them, but can he take them?
This is the kind of news that makes a journalist shiver in excitement. What a story.
US Ambassador to Hungary commits “a low-level slander” as he leaves
I need to write about David Pressman, the outgoing US ambassador to Hungary. This is an unpleasant job.
Brexiteers voted ‘Out!’ but are left still tied to foreign regulators they did not elect
Sir Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, is starting to slide the United Kingdom back into the EU.
The Greens are fading now, but I was in Germany with them at the start
The Greens are failing in elections all over Europe. They were wiped out in Iceland’s elections and have only just avoided the same fate in Ireland.
The party was great, but expect vengeance from the people Trump defeated
One of them turns up at every party, but really I felt that the American philosopher Peter Boghossian was laying it on too thickly. The man killed a mood. Let me explain.
Big apes, but not small humans, come under protection of Spanish law
The Spanish government is planning a law to give the “hominid family of primates” – that is, to you and me, big apes – protection from experimentation and research…
Germany will take 40 years to regain its 2004 capabilities in tanks, 100 years in howitzers
Here is something from one of my Bush-Republican friends, one of those American Republicans who hates Trump but will not desert the party.
To get his eco-friendly combat vehicles ready for a fight, Scholz will have to pay billions
Worry about this now, if you worry at all about Europe’s defence abilities: fixing the problems with Germany’s Infantry Fighting Vehicles (IFV) will cost billions, the…
Zelensky drags America into war, or Zelensky loses
Am I the only one who has noticed this, or have others seen it too? Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, is getting uppity.
If Russia takes Ukraine, there will be 30 years of insurgency
Look for some good news now on Ukraine – and I mean good in whatever terms it can be used on that wrecked country -- and you may end up in a room with Dr.
Why private equity danger is strangely reminiscent of 2008
If you remember the horrors of collateralised debt obligations (CDO) during the 2007-8 financial crisis, you are either a banker or one of the journalists who pounded out…
Spies? I’ve known a few
Spies? I’ve known a few.
Remember Andropov: How the attempt to kill NatCon paves the way for more censorship
Let me introduce younger readers to Yuri Andropov, leader of the Soviet Union from 1982 to 1984, and Soviet ambassador to Hungary from 1954 to 1957, during which time he was…
Despite its fading grandeur, Britain’s Foreign Office has forgotten its former self-confidence. Foreign Secretary David Cameron needs to rediscover it fast to avoid humiliation
Three British diplomatic heavy-weights, recently retired, have just released a report calling on the Foreign Office to be “re-branded”.
Trump’s Bibles: The ridicule that the Republican candidate has received for hawking the Holy Book illustrates how his liberal opponents don’t understand America
Donald Trump is selling Bibles (“It’s my favourite book”), $59.
Ireland’s new Taoiseach with no consequence: The arrival of Simon Harris will make no difference to the tsunami about to hit the Republic’s old parties
Whenever I write about Ireland, I recall a poll run in Japan some years ago which showed most Japanese did not know there was a difference between Ireland and Iceland.
No more stupid wars: The West must not allow itself to be dragged further into the Russia-Ukraine war
It would stupid for the West to get further dragged into the Russian-Ukraine war.
Don’t send Julian Assange to the United States. That would be a crime – destroying a few Picassos and Warhols is not
A Russian artist, who in the historic way of Russian artists manages to live in Paris, is threatening to destroy pictures by Picasso and Warhol if Julian Assange dies in prison.
America First are not dirty words. This is something Donald Trump understands and Boris Johnson does not
Donald Trump says it and the European establishment goes convulsive, as ever.
Ireland’s establishment parties are panicking about the public backlash against mass immigration – but their Europhilia means they are left defenceless
A poll published at the weekend in Dublin shows that a third of people in Ireland would now consider voting for a party or candidate with strong anti-immigration views.
Western history is being constantly denigrated. We are asked to make daily apologies for our past. No wonder the armed forces can’t recruit
Faced with the threat of war with Russia, tens of thousands of Britain’s citizens must be trained as a “citizen army,” according to General Sir Patrick Sanders, chief…
Putin is trying to resurrect Imperial Russia – Will he claim back Alaska? Surely even the Kremlin dictator will draw a line at the Empire’s California outpost
Vladimir Putin wants to re-establish the old borders of the USSR. We know that. In 2014 he annexed Crimea. Next, he invaded Ukraine.
Edward Gibbon, Max Weber and Ralph Schoellhammer are wrong: Protestants did not invent capitalism. We Catholics got there first
Dr Ralph Schoellhammer is the Vienna academic whose work you will have read in Brussels Signal. I treat him and his articles with respect. I have to.
Artificial wombs are about to be with us: This could transform the abortion debate
Let me first introduce you to a photograph that will puzzle you.