Today’s Russia is not yesterday’s Soviet Union. What Putin does to his country is unacceptable, but unlike the leaders of the communist state of the last century, he does not have an ideology that compels him to eliminate the economic and political system of the West.

Many other countries decided to boycott the Beijing Olympics, Polish President Andrzej Duda met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and attended opening ceremonies.

After a Dutch journalist was forced off-camera by security guard, the incident quickly gained international traction and pointed a floodlight on China’s draconian approach to journalists.

The state-affiliated newspaper Ta Kung Pao accused Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen of inciting student riots in 2019. A crackdown on religious liberties by the CCP might be on the horizon.

Germany’s new hard-left interior minister, Nancy Faeser (SPD), is on the defensive after it was revealed that she wrote for a far-left Antifa magazine managed by an organization with links to extremism.

As other European countries reduce their COVID regulations, Austria has gone the other way. As of February 5th, Austria became Europe’s first country with mandatory COVID vaccination rules for all adults. But the implementation of the rule remains a challenge.

The authors argue that the high courts of the Council of Europe and the EU are actually more ‘conservative’ than the Supreme Court of the United States on almost every polarising topic today.

When pressed by reporters, Scholz avoided making a clear pronouncement on the future of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline through which Russia would export its gas to Germany.