Garvan Walshe: Germany’s new government may get tougher on Russia and China. Which would suit ours. But there’s a snag.

Ministers must grasp that this new one will be even more disposed to conduct its foreign policy through the EU.

Orban v Brussels – and the rights of the nation state v the fundamentals of liberal democracy

The country’s Prime Minister is a classic cakeist – berating the EU on the one hand, but not seeking to leave on the other.

Jack Richardson: Another Biden policy calamity, and one closer to home. The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

His green light for the German-Russian link to go ahead was an unpardonable security and environmental folly.

Is racism in Britain increasing?

The third part of a series on ConHome this week about the politics of race and ethnicity in Britain today.

Garvan Walshe: Orbán, Le Pen, Morawiecki. Europe’s new national populist alliance is a sign of weakness, not strength.

Weakening at home and friendless abroad, it finds itself on the back foot – and exposed to its nations’ reliance on EU funds.

Ryan Bourne: The tax hikes that could fall in the south. And tear the Tory coalition apart

The problem is that spiralling spending demands quickly use up the options which voters don’t notice. Eventually you need other big sources of revenue,

Julian Brazier: The Integrated Review is groundbreaking, but doesn’t go far enough in addressing the Army’s weaknesses

It can become the best again, but only if the land forces element is revisited in the Government’s proposal.

Garvan Walshe: Russia’s building up troops on Ukraine’s border. Here’s what we can do to stymie Putin.

Britain can convene a coalition of countries, including Poland, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and the Baltic states, possibly with Ukraine in association.

Stephen Booth: Merkel’s departure is Macron’s opportunity – an opening for his dreams of an even closer Union

And if Germany’s Greens are in government after the federal election, they will be inclined to help him.

Chris Whitehouse: One elderly recipient burst into tears with joy at the delivery. My own story of anti-communist smuggling.

In my case, the contraband was books – taken into then communist Czechoslovakia through a network linked to the charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Rehman Chishti and Knox Thames: Freedom of religion is under threat. Trans-Atlantic efforts can combat that.

The US and UK, along with other countries in Europe, are fighting to ensure that no one is persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Daniel Hamilton: Why I see hopeful signs for democratic transition in Belarus

The opposition has already demonstrated their courage and fortitude. By all indications, for Europe’s last dictatorship, change is finally coming.

The people in whose name liberals act are absent from Applebaum’s defence of liberalism

Much of this book is true, and the author does not pretend fully to understand what is happening. And yet I think her pessimism is overdone.

Emily Barley: The Government’s Brexit plan puts us at risk of substandard and corrupt justice systems in EU member states

Britons were told the country would be leaving the dangerous European Arrest Warrant system, but its replacement looks suspiciously similar.

Garvan Walshe: To win re-election, Poland’s President Duda is counting on the homophobic, sexist Konfederacja party

But they have hugely different views on economic policy to PiS, and consider its pro-Catholicism naive at best.