RUSSIA

• The law would have required civil society groups and the media to register as being “under foreign influence” if they receive funding from abroad.
• This type of funding is a lifeline for most non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on human rights as they often receive scant domestic support.
• The Georgian government, which is led by the Russian-leaning Georgian Dream Party, was forced to withdraw its bill after mass protests broke out.

Foreign agents law

• From November 2012, any NGO that received foreign funding and engaged in political activities would have to self-report as a “foreign agent”.
• These laws became even tougher in 2014 when the justice ministry was given the power to register groups as foreign agents without their consent.
• Under the leadership of Viktor Orban, Hungary passed its first foreign agent law in 2017 – a huge blow for its own democracy.
• Hungary has more recently passed a new sovereignty protection law, creating an investigative body with sweeping powers to gather information on groups or individuals that receive foreign funding and may try to influence public debate.

Abandoning democracy

• Georgia’s former president and current de facto leader, Bidzina Ivanishvili, has tried to play on people’s fears that western-style democracy brings challenges to the traditional family, arguing that the country must rid itself of values alien to Georgia.
• This is in line with the Kremlin’s crackdown on LGBTQ people, particularly since the start of the war in Ukraine.
• Georgians are also becoming increasingly dismayed that the ruling party is abandoning even a minimal commitment to democracy.
• Though these laws are passed in defence of sovereignty, they represent a clear assault on democracy.

Natasha Lindstaedt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Do Australian courts have the right to decide what foreign citizens, located overseas, view online on a foreign-owned platform?
• Read more:
  Elon Musk is mad he's been ordered to remove Sydney church stabbing videos from X.

Do global take-down orders work?

• There can be no doubt that a global take-down order can be justified in some instances.
• For example, child abuse materials and so-called revenge porn are clear examples of content that should be removed with global effect.
• After all, international law imposes limitations on what demands Australian law can place on foreigners acting outside Australia.

An unusually poor ‘test case’ for free speech

• But for the broader Australian public, this must appear like an odd occasion to fight for free speech.
• There can sometimes be real tension between free speech and the suppression of violent imagery.
• After all, not even the staunchest free speech advocates would be able to credibly object to all censorship.

The path forward

• Global take-down orders are justifiable in some situations, but cannot be the default position for all content that violates some law somewhere in the world.
• If we had to comply with all content laws worldwide, the internet would no longer be as valuable as it is today.
• Read more:
  Regulating content won't make the internet safer - we have to change the business models

Dan Jerker B. Svantesson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• This has also meant that Chinese foreign policy has become more personalised and that Xi’s own diplomatic engagements offer potentially important clues about its direction.
• The international order is clearly in flux and a key driver of this change, by its own admission, has been China.
• Read more:
  Xi and Biden spoke on the phone for 105 minutes: what does this say about their relationship?

The European dynamic

• Engagements with Germany, however, also have a broader European, and especially EU dimension.
• Germany now has its own moderately hawkish China strategy, aiming to reduce economic reliance on Beijing.
• But Berlin is still considered softer than many other EU member states and therefore an important ally for Beijing within the EU and in EU-US deliberations on China policy.
• From a German and European perspective, the Russian conduct in the war against Ukraine remains a key concern.

Scholz and Xi on diplomacy

• These included sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the importance to explore diplomatic ways to end the war.
• What is significant is Scholz’s statement that rather than western military support for Ukraine, diplomacy now takes centre-stage.
• China’s approach to managing, and shaping, the fluidity of the international system relies predominantly on diplomacy, albeit with a significant coercive streak.

Stefan Wolff is a past recipient of grant funding from the Natural Environment Research Council of the UK, the United States Institute of Peace, the Economic and Social Research Council of the UK, the British Academy, the NATO Science for Peace Programme, the EU Framework Programmes 6 and 7 and Horizon 2020, as well as the EU's Jean Monnet Programme. He is a Trustee and Honorary Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the UK and a Senior Research Fellow at the Foreign Policy Centre in London.

• MEPs approve reforms for a more sustainable and resilient EU gas market
  - New directive will help decarbonise the gas sector to tackle climate change
  - MEPs secured measures to protect vulnerable consumers and to ensure transparency
  - EU countries will be able to restrict imports from Russia
  - To shift away from fossil gas, the legislation will promote biomethane and hydrogen
  On Thursday, MEPs adopted plans to facilitate the uptake of renewable and low-carbon gases, including hydrogen, into the EU gas market.
• In negotiations with Council on the directive, MEPs focused on securing provisions around transparency, consumer rights, and support for people at risk of energy poverty.
• Unbundling rules for hydrogen network operators will correspond to existing best practices in the gas and electricity market."
• It includes provisions to facilitate blending hydrogen with natural gas and renewable gases, and greater EU cooperation on gas quality and storage.