Google Ireland will discover on Tuesday if it has successfully challenged a fine of over €3m imposed by the Hungarian government.

We are confronted by a US presidential second-term election cycle. We all must contend too with various interests. Do we have in play a version of ‘operation boot’? The 1952 US/UK regime-change operation in Iran. And do people regionally also view the late, recently murdered Major General Qasem Soleimani as an Iranian Che Quevara? Would Iran’s supreme Ayatollah be viewed as an Iranian Fidel Castro? How annoying for a rightist US administration: a Cuba in the Middle East. How much more death and devastation will flow out of our fossil-fuel dependency and the military powers of the main players, the chief one being the US?

The former Soviet state recently held free-and-fair elections, but unless it can eradicate corruption it will not gain EU entry and may slip into Russia’s clutches, says John Bruton.

It is not necessary to be paranoid to see the professional assassination of Britain’s ambassador to America, Kim Darroch, as a step in the ascent of right-wing forces.

A defining requirement in a mature, reliable, and honest

Hungary has won a court fight with EU regulators over a tax on advertising, in another setback for Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager’s crusade against countries she says are taking advantage of state aid-rules to give select companies an unfair advantage over rivals.

Anyone steadfast enough to cling to the belief that liberal, live-and-let-live democracy committed to social justice remains the very best way to order our affairs need not look very far to see reasons to despair.

Recent elections produced good results for pro-EU parties, but one of the areas in need of attention is the selection process for president of the Commission, writes billionaire lobbyist George Soros

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán visits the White House today, but Donald Trump will try to cut an arms deal with him, not promote democracy, say Anne-Marie Slaughter and Melissa Hooper.

Fianna Fáil's two candidates in Ireland South deny that the party's decision to divide the constituency has caused tension between them.

Fundamentalists hostile to Europe’s values are covertly backing right-wing elements across the bloc, says Mary Fitzgerald

If a decision to stand as a candidate in an election is an expression of optimism or frustration, of ambition or dissatisfaction, or as it seems at its simplest, a declaration of enduring faith in the political process, then the 59 Irish candidates who declared for the European elections before yesterday’s noon deadline suggest that a healthy belief in politics capacity to change or protect our world endures.

On the eve of elections that seem to carry particular weight for Israel and that troubled region, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories if he is re-elected tomorrow.

Fine Gael’s seven MEP candidates have said they were to the fore in seeking the suspension of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban from their European party grouping.

One wonders will the world’s political leaders assemble in Christchurch, New Zealand, in solidarity with the victims of the horrific mosque killings last Friday as they did in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo killings in Paris in January 2015?

The biggest danger we face is not a straightforward revival of fascism, but rather a creeping shift in traditional conservatism towards the extreme populist right, says Michael Burleigh.

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán first served as his country’s prime minister 20 years ago, so it must be assumed, though it cannot be guaranteed, that he has an appreciation of what if possible and what is not.

Amid a lack of a unified EU response, states have taken approaches, based on geography, ideology and finances, as outlined by Caroline O’Doherty.

The country’s eurosceptics on the left and right — anti-austerity and anti-immigration, respectively — have united in government and may yet succeed in upending the European project, says Mark Leonard.

Hungary’s Viktor Orbán’s was re-elected last weekend to serve a fourth term as prime minister.

Fifty years ago today Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

The rise of pro-Putin parties in the recent Italian elections has again underlined how American leverage has waned in comparison, writes John Lloyd.

At a moment when faith in politics, especially international politics, to champion liberal, uplifting, human-rights values is at a low ebb, it is reassuring that Angela Merkel seems close to securing a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor.

The European Court of Justice has rejected efforts by Hungary and Slovakia to stay out of a European Union scheme meant to relocate refugees.

Hungary's prime minister has asked the European Union to pay for half of the cost of anti-migrant fences it built on its southern borders, some €440m.

Manipulation or even outright control of the media cannot explain the enduring popularity, borne out by opinion polls, of illiberal leaders, writes Daniel Gros.

The US president is in Poland this week, where his brand of populism is welcome, as it is in Hungary, but we must not allow him to play eastern and western Europe against each other, says Guy Verhofstadt.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has pursued control by varied and ruthless means — breaching EU law and his citizens’ rights. EU states have to do more than finger wag, writes Guy Verhofstadt

Slawomir Sierakowski looks at Antoni Macierewicz’s changes to Poland’s military and suggests he wants an army he can use against the people.

Poland is likely to lash out at the EU over a perceived recent humiliation. This could offer the EU a chance at emancipation, writes Slawomir Sierakowski.