Nearly eight months after the outbreak of war with Iran, one thing has become clear: despite disruptions to global energy markets and supply chains, the energy system has proved remarkably resilient. Yet resilience does not necessarily mean a return to what was once considered normal. Although Gulf producers have every reason to seek at least a de-escalation of the conflict, there is little sign of a lasting settlement.
Hungary's new government faces a difficult political dilemma: how can it dismantle the power structures of the previous government while ensuring that the state continues to function?
Not necessarily. And here is why: it can go against the physics of power.
Democracy depends not only on strong institutions, but also on the knowledge, honesty, and self-restraint of the people who sustain it.
The meeting between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday was undoubtedly important. Its significance may lie less in what the two leaders agreed than in what the meeting itself reveals about the balance of power.
Democracy can restrain the struggle for power. It cannot make that struggle disappear.
The Tisza government has rejected a return to Hungary’s previous fuel price cap, but high diesel prices have nevertheless forced it to intervene. According to the prime minister’s announcement, owners of diesel cars with a maximum output of 150 horsepower will receive HUF 5,000 per month until December, while the agricultural sector will be able to reclaim the full excise duty on diesel.
Hungary’s change of government was more than an electoral turnover. It brought millions of citizens into politics as active participants, but it may also be creating another dangerously unbalanced political system.
Autumn has arrived, and with it begins one of the busiest periods of the political year. Governments return from the summer break, parliaments resume their work, diplomatic meetings multiply, and unresolved crises once again demand immediate attention.
Hungary’s ability to modernise its energy system will depend as much on the government’s economic choices as on its technical ambitions, making the 2027 budget the first real test of whether the country can finance a more secure and competitive energy future.
Hungary will find a way to manage the drought, but the real question is what solving one crisis will cost elsewhere in the country’s limited web of resources.
Iran is betting that time will weaken Washington before the midterms, while the Trump administration is betting that economic pressure will break Tehran first.
The Danube has fallen to a record low in Hungary, forcing the Paks Nuclear Power Plant—which normally generates nearly half of the country’s electricity—to reduce production dramatically. A complete shutdown may follow if water levels continue to fall.
The oil market initially treated the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as a crisis that economic self-interest would contain. But the Houthi threat to shipping in the Red Sea changed that calculation: with two strategic chokepoints now at risk, markets could no longer assume that disruption would remain limited.
President Tamás Sulyok has signed the Seventeenth Amendment, but whether it strengthens Hungarian democracy will depend on what happens next.
In a video commentary published by The Daily Signal, Victor Davis Hanson argues that the approaching US midterm elections are pushing Donald Trump towards a final military offensive against Iran—and a plan to transfer responsibility for keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to America’s allies.
Europe has no shortage of talent, wealth, or history. Yet despite its immense advantages, the continent is losing economic and geopolitical momentum. Why?
Only weeks after the United States and Iran announced an interim agreement and the Strait of Hormuz reopened, the conflict has returned. However, the Strait has not been formally closed again, yet there is more in the background.
As the new government of Hungary seeks to place the country’s economy to a new path, three structural challenges are likely to shape the year ahead.
The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), consecrated four new bishops on 1 July at its headquarters in Écône, Switzerland, despite appeals from Pope Leo XIV not to proceed.
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