While President George W Bush enjoyed a record-high 90 per cent approval rating in the wake of the tragic 9/11 attack in 2001, his support dropped to just 25 per cent by October 2008. This was due to the eventual unpopularity of the Iraq war, but mostly, due to the 2008 financial crisis. Illinois Senator Barack Obama narrowly defeated former First Lady Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, then handily won the 2008 election to become the first black President in US history.

For the first time since early August, President Donald Trump is leading the national polling aggregate by RealClearPolitics over Vice President Kamala Harris. His current lead is just 0.2 points. However, he was underestimated by pollsters in the popular vote in both cycles he ran, in 2016 and 2020 as well.

The Asia-Oceania Working Group (COASI) had an informal meeting in Budapest, Hungary earlier this month, hosted by the Hungarian EU Presidency. At the event, experts discussed such pressing issues as the current political and economic trade collaboration between the European Union and the countries in the Asia-Pacific area, the Indian general election in June of this year, and more.

Dr Jordan B Peterson has recently had a public discussion with evolutionary biologist Dr Richard Dawkins, one of the most prominent figures of the popular atheist movement of the early 2000s. The two philosophers touched on subjects such as Jesus Christ’s birth of a virgin mother and his resurrection, the philosophical foundation for the modern scientific enterprise, and many more intriguing questions.

Tamás Deutsch, the leader of Fidesz’s European Parliament delegation, has accused the MEPs of the largest Hungarian opposition party TISZA of backing the EU’s migrant quotas and opposing the payment of the €1 billion Hungary had requested from Brussels as reimbursements for protecting the Union’s external borders.

Newly elected Budapest District XII Mayor Gergely Kovács has vowed to remove the local Turul monument, which is dedicated to the fallen soldiers of World War II, due to its connection to fascism. However, Minister of Construction and Transportation János Lázár prevented him from doing so by placing the statue under historic monument protection.

The world premiere of the ten-part Rise of the Raven (Hunyadi) TV series was held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France at MIPCOM, one of the most important annual events for the film, television and streaming industry. The sold-out screening was attended by the series’ creators as well as Hungarian and international stars and producers.

Coincidentally, on the Hungarian national holiday of 23 October, the English club Liverpool featuring Dominik Szobszlai faced off against the German side RB Leipzig with Péter Gulácsi and Willi Orbán in their starting line-up in the UEFA Champions League. Liverpool won the game 1–0. This was the first time both sides in a UCL game featured Hungarian internationals since December 2006.

While many news outlets had already called the crucial swing state of Florida for Vice President Al Gore on election night 2000, it was eventually Texas Governor George W Bush who got those 25 electoral votes. After two recounts, the second stopped partway through by the Supreme Court, the final tally had Bush up over Gore by just 537 (!) votes in the state, getting him the presidency.

Researcher at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs Julianna Ármás has told Magyar Nemzet that the European Union’s expansion into the Western Balkans is a ‘top priority’ of the Hungarian EU presidency, adding that while ‘the EU has an interest in the accession of the six Western Balkan countries,’ the issue has taken a backseat since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After partnering with the company VANNET Telekommunikációs Ltd based in Pécs, Hungary, our country became the 40th nation in the world to have Starlink’s satellite internet service available to its citizens. Starlink is owned by SpaceX, which, in turn, is owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk, the richest person on Earth.

The Brazil-based polling firm AtlasIntel, which got the popular vote margins right by 0.3 points in the last two election cycles in the United States, has released its latest national vote prediction for the 2024 US presidential election. It shows President Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris by 2.7 points, a slight shift towards Harris since their last release in mid-September.

Minister of Justice Bence Tuzson of Hungary was at a commemoration ceremony to mark the 221st anniversary of the birth of 19th-century Hungarian statesman Ferenc Deák in Kehidakustány, Hungary on Friday. Deák, one of the chief architects behind the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, ‘set an example for those who are active in public life,’ Minister Tuzson stated at the event.

The Budapest Business Journal sat down with the two vice presidents of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKIFH), Zsuzsa Szabados and László Lengyel. They outlined what their organization is doing to help Hungarian companies with innovation and compete better on the international market, thus raising Hungary’s national competitiveness.

According to on-site reporting by Euronews.com, the abandoned farm house that used to be occupied by migrants near Horgos (Horgoš), Serbia, just 1.5 miles from the Hungarian border, has been completely cleared by local law enforcement. A local resident recalled that there had been an increase in crime in the area while the migrants were present.

128 Orthodox Jewish men were not allowed to board their connecting flight to Budapest, Hungary in Frankfurt, Germany by the German commercial airline Lufthansa in May 2022. Only some of these passengers disregarded COVID-19 rules at the time, but they were all penalized as a group. For this incident, Lufthansa has agreed to pay $4 million in penalties.

A recent The Wall Street Journal’s editorial argues that UNIFIL, the United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in operation since 1978, has been allowing Hezbollah to stockpile weapons and build up infrastructure in southern Lebanon, the very place UNIFIL is supposed to keep safe from terror groups.

Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris got herself into an embarrassing scandal, after conservative activist and writer Chris Rufo revealed that she had included virtually unedited passages from uncredited sources, including the open online encyclopaedia Wikipedia. Rufo’s accusations of plagiarism led to the resignation of Harvard president Claudine Gay earlier this year.

Republican Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor and Governor of California, took 49 out of the 50 states in the 1984 election, netting him an all-time record of 525 electoral votes. During his first term in office he managed to solve the two crises plaguing his predecessor Jimmy Carter’s administration: high inflation and the Iranian hostage crisis.

At an informal meeting of the ministers of EU Member States responsible for employment and social policy in Budapest, Hungary, Minister of State Sándor Czomba said that increasing the competitiveness of the European Union is ‘the most important challenge’ of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union.

With a goal in each half from captain Dominik Szoboszlai, Hungary beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2–0 on the road in the League A group game of the UEFA Nations League. With this victory, the national team will most likely avoid direct relegation this season, and will have the chance to play a play-off at the end of the season to stay in the top division.

The recently established Sovereignty Protection Office of Hungary has concluded its findings on the Berlin-based international NGO Transparency International. It has found that the organization ‘is part of a global lobbying network, which exerts political pressure’; and that it has in part been funded by George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.

Hungary have tied the Netherlands, one of the semi-finalist teams at Euro 2024 this summer, 1–1 in their UEFA Nations League group game. They are playing Bosnia and Herzegovina tonight, and that game will most likely determine which of the two teams will have the chance to stay in the top division of the Nations League for another season.

At an informal meeting of the ministers of EU Member States responsible for employment and social policy in Budapest, Minister for National Economy Márton Nagy of Hungary stated that even an 85-per-cent work force participation rate is achievable in Hungary ‘if the internal labour market reserve can be mobilized’.

A pro-Trump business owner named Anthony Constantino decided to put up a 100-foot wide ‘Vote for Trump’ sign on his roof in Amsterdam, New York. The Democrat mayor of the city issued a complaint, so Constantino was ordered to cover it up by a judge. However, the same judge reversed her decision shortly after, so the sign could stay and even be lit up at night.

‘Hungary is Kazakhstan’s reliable friend, a fraternal state and a strategic partner,’ Chairman Yerlan Koshanov said during his recent Budapest visit, during which the Kazakh lower house of legislature Mazhilis and the Hungarian National Assembly signed a cooperation agreement.

‘It is time for the United States to return to diplomacy grounded in respect, dialogue and truth, particularly in our relationship with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government,’ Mr Leib proclaims in his recently published opinion piece about the current state of US–Hungary relations for The Washington Times.

Minister of Finance Mihály Varga of Hungary shared with a reporter what was on the agenda of the ECOFIN meeting in Luxembourg. The recovery of Europe’s economy, aid to Ukraine financed by loans, climate finance, and the upcoming World Bank and IMF meeting were the topics discussed by Europe’s top financial leaders.

In a video posted to his Facebook page, Fidesz MP and communications director Tamás Menczer said that Prime Minister Orbán had warned in his report after his peace mission in July that the Russo–Ukrainian war would soon escalate, and that turned out to be the case. He also stated that only Donald Trump’s victory could bring peace swiftly to Eastern Europe again.

Despite winning in a landslide in 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek reelection in 1968. He was facing pressure within his own party from the left and the right, with some opposing him on the Vietnam War, while others on the Civil Rights Act. This gave Richard Nixon the chance to beat Vice President Hubert Humphrey, although in a much tighter race than expected.