More taxes on tobacco? The EC needs to leave our personal pleasures alone
The European Commission, under Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra, is preparing to overhaul the 2011 Tobacco Excise Tax Directive.
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21 October 2026
AI Is Getting Out of Control: Is Europe Ready?
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13 October 2026
WORLD WAR 3? The World Is on a Knife’s Edge | Michael Every
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9 October 2026
Former MCC Brussels director explains why Europe’s Right needs a new Think Tank
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7 October 2026
How universities became ideological machines | Norman Fenton
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1 October 2026
Europe’s Next energy crisis: Why the diesel apocalypse could be just beginning
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23 September 2026
From Al-Qaeda kidnapping to power in Syria: Lindsey Snell’s inside story
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Economy
23 October 2026
Volkswagen workers threaten strikes as carmaker scraps labour deals
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From the capitals
23 October 2026
France deploys 70,000 officers to head off new riots
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EU bubble
23 October 2026
Reynders messages with Belgian spy official land in money-laundering file
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From the capitals
23 October 2026
Germany weighs forcing social media to fill a fifth of recommendations with approved content
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Society
23 October 2026
Scottish museum pulls ancient Egyptian mummies from display because it did not give consent
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From the capitals
23 October 2026
Sikorski warns Ukraine: UPA ideology is incompatible with EU membership
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BUREAUCRACY
The European Commission, under Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra, is preparing to overhaul the 2011 Tobacco Excise Tax Directive.
CORRUPTION TRADE
The EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) is a golden ticket. It offers developing nations duty-free access to European markets. The catch?
DEFENCE EU BUBBLE
The European Union’s dream of strategic autonomy lies in tatters, undermined by the United Kingdom, a non-EU power, steering talks to sell 40 Eurofighter Typhoon jets to…
FROM THE CAPITALS
Picture Chinese President Xi Jinping at Moscow’s Victory Day parade: the guest of honour, smirking beside Putin. That happened last Friday.
DEFENCE EU BUBBLE
Kashmir burns, and war looms. After the April 22 terrorist massacre in Pahalgam, India strikes back, hammering nine Pakistani sites with “Operation Sindoor.
DEFENCE EU BUBBLE
Eighty ago, the Nazi beast was slain - May 8th for the West, May 9th for Russia. Berlin lay in ruins, Europe a graveyard of dreams, and the world exhaled.
CULTURE WAR
As the Catholic Church stands at a crossroads, its throne vacant and its flock besieged, the next pope will not merely shepherd 1.4 billion souls.
CORRUPTION
The EU’s southern frontier - Greece, Italy, and Spain - teeters on the edge of collapse, battered by a migration crisis that Brussels aggravates.
CULTURE WAR
Europe, that ancient cradle of civilisation, has long been a Christian continent.
DEFENCE EU BUBBLE
Here we go again. The liberal West, that self-anointed guardian of liberty, is dusting off its cape for a grand Ukrainian encore. In essence, it has all but lost the war.
ENERGY AND CLIMATE EU BUBBLE
In the greater picture of his trade wars, Donald Trump pushed a bold idea: Europe should buy all its oil, gas and coal from the USA. It is a loud, daring proposal.
FROM THE CAPITALS TRADE
Donald Trump has unleashed a trade tempest that has got the EU scrambling.
ENERGY AND CLIMATE EU BUBBLE
The Eastern Mediterranean is at a crossroads, and the EastMed Pipeline - linking Greece, Cyprus, and Israel in a defiant energy pact - stands as a promise and a test.
DEMOCRACY ELECTIONS
Turkey’s democratic façade collapsed on March 19, when Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu - the West’s secular poster boy - was snatched from his bed in the middle of the…
EU BUBBLE
Europe’s security mechanism is not at its best.
CORRUPTION DEFENCE
As the West postures as the global guardian of human rights and democracy, it turns a blind eye - or worse, lends direct support - to the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Christians,…
CORRUPTION FINANCE
As Pakistan backs away from its anti-corruption transparency pledge, the consequences could ripple beyond its $7 billion IMF loan programme, threatening regional stability…
CORRUPTION ELECTIONS
Major protests have erupted across Greece on the second anniversary of the Tempi rail disaster that left 57 people dead and the government scrambling for cover.
DEMOCRACY ELECTIONS
If you ever needed proof that democracy in the European Union is now little more than a stage play, Romania has just provided it. The protagonist? Călin Georgescu. His crime?
FROM THE CAPITALS
Donald Trump is back, and with him comes a foreign policy shift that is ruffling feathers from Brussels to Beijing.
EU BUBBLE FREE SPEECH
If there is one thing Europe’s progressive elites hate more than a populist uprising, it’s an American reminding them how low they have fallen.
DEFENCE EU BUBBLE
After the latest Trump-Putin “pas de deux”, in the ever-evolving theatre of international politics, the diplomatic ballet by European leaders that comes next is anticipated…
DEMOCRACY EU BUBBLE
For years, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has quietly funnelled millions into European Union countries under the pretext of promoting democracy, civil…
EU BUBBLE TRADE
There are few things as predictable in global politics as Brussels being caught off guard.
ENERGY AND CLIMATE FROM THE CAPITALS
Elon Musk’s recent address to the AfD party in Germany has reignited a centuries-old debate: What kind of Germany does Europe truly need?
CORRUPTION DEMOCRACY
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered on January 26 outside the Greek Parliament in Athens, demanding justice for the 57 victims of the 2023 Tempi train disaster.
CULTURE WAR
The aftermath of the alleged “Nazi salute” of Elon Musk highlights an alarming phenomenon: The casual application of labels like “Nazi” or “fascist” -- no matter…
EU BUBBLE FROM THE CAPITALS
In the theatre of modern politics, where money, power, and influence play out like a high-stakes game of chess, two names consistently rise to the surface of every controversy:…
FROM THE CAPITALS TRADE
The United States has just delivered an almighty wake-up call to Europe, blacklisting China’s state-owned maritime leviathan, COSCO, in a bold stroke that could turn the…
BUREAUCRACY
The recent wildfires that have ravaged California are nothing short of apocalyptic -- countless homes and acres of forest turned to ash, tens of lives lost and thousands disrupted.