At Transitions Online, Martin Ehl writes about how central European disinterest in the Dalai Lama maps onto an increasingly pragmatic pursuit of Chinese investment.

In this way, the October visit of the Dalai Lama - who was the main star of the 20th edition of the Forum 2000 conference, founded by late President Vaclav Havel - was also a test of ( Read more... )

In The Globe and Mail, John Lorinc reports on the return of the Annex's Country Style Hungarian restaurant to operation.

When Country Style Hungarian Restaurant, a venerable schnitzel house on Bloor Street West, shut its doors earlier this summer, rumours quickly began circulating in Toronto’s food-o-sphere about its demise ( Read more... )

The Toronto Star's Nicholas Keung tells the sad story of a man who hid from the Canadian government for five decades in the belief he lacked legal immigrant status, only to find out otherwise. I'm not sure if this story can be used to indicate anything, policy-wise; it sounds almost too extreme.

For more than half a century, Steven Dugalin ( Read more... )

• Bloomberg notes Amazon's development of a portal in Japan for Chinese tourists visiting that country, reports on an unexpected decline in Russian manufacturing, and looks at Poland's conflicts with the European Commission on legal and democratic issues.
• Bloomberg View notes Trump's social security plan depends on immigrants, and looks at the ( Read more... )

The Toronto Star's Nicholas Keung describes how at least part of the wrong done by Canada's deportation of Roma refugee claimants under Harper is being undone.

When they were last on Canadian soil, the Pusuma family took sanctuary in a Toronto church as they fought to avoid being sent back to their native Hungary ( Read more... )

• The Sacramento Bee reports that UC Davis spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on trying to salvage its reputation online, after famously being linked with security guards pepper-spraying student protesters.
• Bloomberg notes China's island-building spree in the South China Sea is causing environmental damage, notes Hungary may lose out on future ( Read more... )

Márton Békés and Balázs Böcskei's Open Democracy essay, focusing particularly on the transformations of Budapest, has much to say about the late modern city worldwide.

This migration is not irregular, it is the seasonal speeding up of the global tourism of the middle class. European capitals are filled with people talking all kinds of languages, ( Read more... )

CBC's Lauren O'Neill reports on Petra Laszlo, the Hungarian journalist who was caught on film tripping desperate refugees, and what she plans to do next. Apparently lawsuits against people who shamed her, and migration to Russia now that she is unemployable, are planned.

Hungarian TV journalist who was caught tripping and kicking refugees on ( Read more... )

Spacing Toronto's John Lorinc describes yet another failure of the Conservative government, just short of a month away from the elections.

Like many Canadians, I was riveted to the point of distraction by the extremely disturbing events of last week, and the way the developments in Europe’s refugee crisis reverberated in this city, and in other ( Read more... )

Al Jazeera reports on the official stance of the Hungarian prime minister. I would note that Orban is apparently rejecting the basic thesis of pan-Turanism, a movement popular in Hungary that talked of that country's historic ties with--among others--the mainly Muslim Turkic nations of Eurasia.

[Viktor] Orban spoke in Brussels at meetings between ( Read more... )