After a break for Easter Monday, our Current Affairs Group met on Monday 13 April 2026 to discuss a number of different global events and their impact on the world at large as well as our local community.

As usual we started with recent obituaries, covering a wide range of human activities, from Pop music to UFOs to Natural History and much more.

We then discussed the results of the recent election in Hungary, and what it means for Hungary, for Europe and for world political affairs. At the time of the meeting, it was not clear whether or not the winners would have sufficient seats in the assembly to work on changing the constitution, but time will deliver the answer to that question.

From Hungary our attention turned to the Chagos Archipelago and its possible transfer to Mauritius. The interest that various countries around the world hold in other countries then came under the group’s examination. When does colonisation end and altruistic support begin. Examples were discussed from many different viewpoints, including H G Wells “War of the Worlds” and W C Sellars “1066 and All That”.

After a break for teas and coffees, the group’s attention turned to the Artemis Moonshot programme, and whether or not the money it had cost had been well-spent. That led to a discussion of the recent phenomenon of Surge Pricing where the retailer can adjust prices “on-the-fly” in response to changing demand. Retailing is not easy at the moment, and the subject of ‘industrial’ levels of shoplifting was also discussed.

The session closed with speculation of what the role and position of NATO would be if the United States were to change their role in the organisation. After two hours of friendly discussion, everyone was happy to be able to set a diary date for the next meeting on 20 April 2026 at 10:00am.