The emergency riverbed sill being built to protect Paks Nuclear Power Plant has reportedly caused severe scour in the Danube, deepening the riverbed by 8–13 metres and undermining the structure itself. The problems raise questions over Péter Magyar’s crisis management and a restricted procurement process that awarded the contract to a single bidder at 30 per cent above the estimated price.

Hunter Biden said he was ‘48.6 per cent gay’ in an interview with progressive podcaster Luke Beasley, a gag that quickly spread through LGBTQ outlets. Joe Biden’s son had already stirred controversy in July by alleging a largely Republican ‘closeted gay mafia’ in Washington, naming Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Mike Johnson.

Péter Magyar rose to power by promising accountability for the Orbán era, but that pledge is becoming a governing trap. Tisza must deliver results fast enough to satisfy voters without bending the rule of law, while the chaotic NVVH selection process is already showing that the process meant to deliver accountability could also create Tisza’s own opposition from among its supporters.

Erin Piacenti, a 32-year-old Bank of America vice president, was killed in a random and unprovoked stabbing in Times Square on Monday, according to the NYPD. Police said attacker Pamela Cisneros stabbed a 68-year-old man seconds earlier, then later advanced on officers with two knives before being shot dead.

Listening to Péter Magyar at Bled, much of his diagnosis of the European Union could easily have come from Viktor Orbán. On EU bureaucracy, lack of leadership, competitiveness, migration, cohesion funds, Central European cooperation and strongman posturing towards EU institutions, the two align significantly. The sharp break is in strategy: Magyar seeks cooperation within a system Orbán increasingly sought to overturn.

Fifteen-year-old Hungarian student Laura Ivánka has become the first Hungarian ever awarded at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize final, earning the 2026 Diploma of Excellence for her DIVE&CLEAN seabed waste system. The honour crowns an extraordinary scientific record spanning marine research, engineering, robotics and international competitions before she has even finished secondary school.

Spanish prosecutors have raised the number of reported sexual assaults in Ceuta since July’s mass invasion from Morocco to 23, including five ‘rapes involving penetration’. Nine victims are minors and eight suspects have been identified, as the enclave’s security crisis deepens amid overcrowded facilities, growing pressure on police and emergency services and hardening local resistance.

Serbia opened a Chinese-backed humanoid robot factory in Šabac on 29 August, with President Vučić targeting more than 5,000 units a year and future exports to the EU. The project forms part of increasingly deep defence ties between Belgrade and Beijing, which could further complicate the country’s already stalled EU accession bid.

Marine Le Pen would beat every presidential rival according to a recent Elabe poll, defeating even Édouard Philippe in a hypothetical runoff. Despite a significant shift in mainstream voter sentiment in favour of Le Pen, French banks remain reluctant to lend to her campaign, continuing the long-standing institutional exclusion imposed on National Rally ahead of the 2027 vote.

Germany’s Social Democrats have been hit by an awkward scandal after a former local official was filmed naked, shouting ‘Heil Hitler’ and performing the Nazi salute. The footage surfaced while the SPD was simultaneously campaigning against the AfD, depicting the party as an extremist threat and invoking precisely the history of Nazi Germany.