The Long Brief

UN secretary-general, António Guterres, used his final address to the general assembly to recast the world’s crises as a single problem. War, inequality, the climate emergency and artificial intelligence, he argued, are not separate crises but chapters of the same story. That story, as he told it, is the story of power: who has it, who is denied it, how it is used and how it is changing. Guterres identified three shifts.

KEY TAKEAWAYS The Catholic Church of France will welcome Pope Leo XIV from September 25 to 28 2026. The Pope will address young people at the Stade de France, thus following in the footsteps of his predecessor John Paul II in 1980. This trip will provide the Pope with an opportunity to speak on artificial intelligence, and pay tribute to social Catholicism and the legacy of Robert Schuman, a leading figure in European and Christian democracy.

The debate about AI consciousness is growing, in academic articles, newspaper opinion pieces, and even among AI bots themselves. I doubt this is a passing wave of interest. As AI systems become more capable and human-like, and more involved in our lives, the question will become harder to avoid. Many people may come to regard AI bots as conscious beings whose feelings matter. Others will strongly disagree. I think this debate could split societies.

After pro-independence leaders of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Cardiff on 14 September calling for constitutional changes, discussions online quickly shifted to the end of the UK and the independence of each nation. However, as Brexit showed, disentangling economic and political ties takes time – and the British nations are far more connected than the UK ever had been to the EU and there a number of hurdles that will delay disunification.

The State of the Union address (SOTEU), delivered annually by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is a pivotal moment for outlining the European Union’s strategic priorities, legislative goals, and vision for the future. This year’s address focused on European sovereignty and security, climate and artificial intelligence, social policy, affordable housing, Ukraine, migration, democracy, and enhanced transatlantic cooperation with Canada.

The September 11 2001 terrorist attacks were unlike anything the world had seen before. For America, and the watching world, September 11 (or 9/11) seemed most like a Pearl Harbour moment – a devastating surprise attack by a distant enemy that demanded a response. But here the distant enemy was not a nation state in the middle of war, it was a ragtag collection of rebels living in mountain hideouts, long underestimated and widely misunderstood.

Since former Prime Minister Viktor Orban was ousted as Hungary’s Prime Minister after 16 years, Hungary has been in somewhat of a ‘honeymoon’ phase: new Prime Minister Peter Magyar has been able to restart relations with the European Union (EU) and reinstate EU recovery funds desperately needed for the country to rebuild. But the dissonance between the wider European and Hungarian approaches to migration may end this phase.

The inside is more or less known while the outside is unknown, different, exciting. This is a very basic observance but this keeps many things in motion for the modern person: this is why we read (now that I am here, report) international news, watch foreign movies or travel to other countries or states on holidays or vacation. Getting to know what is „outside” is interesting, exciting, edfying, enlightening.

The V-Dem Institute downgraded the U.S. from “liberal democracy” to “electoral democracy”, which happened due to the unlikely erosion of democratic institutions among the well-established democracies. According to the Swedish-based institution’s democracy report, “the democracy in the USA is deteriorating at an unprecedented scale and speed.” The United States’ score on the liberal democracy index declined by 24 percent in a single year, dropping from 20th to 51st out of 179 countries.

As the Ukraine war approaches its four-and-a-half year milestone, the sustainability of the coalition of support for Kyiv has once again become a key question on the minds of Europeans. YouGov data from February 2026 shows considerable variation among Europeans in support for maintaining the war effort. Support for a negotiated peace has overtaken that for holding out for Russian withdrawal in France, Germany and Spain.