Hungary’s first Hilton hotel outside Budapest has opened in Debrecen. According to the city’s mayor, László Papp, the new hotel was created in appreciation of the touristic appeal of the city. In fact, tourism figures for the first half of 2024 have already surpassed those of last year’s record-breaking year, giving cause for optimism. Interestingly, Hilton Budapest, which opened in 1977, was the first Hilton on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain.
In a clip shared on X Interior Ministry State Secretary Bence Rétvári stated that Hungary is being punished for defending the EU’s external borders, and called the judgement by the European Court of Justice ‘obvious political pressure’ to coerce the country into letting in masses of illegal migrants and support Brussels’s war policies. However, he warned that an influx of mass migration can lead to riots like we see in the United Kingdom today.
Donald Trump’s campaign team has accused EU Commissioner Thierry Breton of election meddling after he sent a letter to Elon Musk, stating that Musk had a duty to censor potentially ‘harmful content’ on X ahead of Musk’s interview with the former US president. To make matters more embarrassing, it has emerged that Breton did not even inform Ursula von der Leyen of his actions.
Former co-president of the Hungarian left-wing party LMP András Schiffer has published an opinion piece about the German drugstore chain’s boycott of Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla for the eccentric CEO’s support for President Trump.
The retraining of twelve personnel is currently underway at the Hungarian Defence Forces (MH) Kiss József 86th Helicopter Brigade, where the pilots are learning the air and ground operation of the new H225 helicopters.
As expected, the ‘chat’ between former US President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Elon Musk has gone viral. The interview, broadcast live on X on Monday evening, US time, has garnered over 168 million views by the time of writing. The discussion spanned a wide range of topics, including inflation, the border crisis, and the Democrats’ foreign policy. Trump, of course, did not hold back in his criticism of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
As per the agreement, customers of the 4iG Group—which includes Vodafone Hungary and DIGI—will be able to access the full range of RTL+ content from a single television platform, possibly as part of their subscription.
In his Facebook post, Minister for European Union Affairs János Bóka criticized the EU Commission for its mandate concerning Hungary to maintain the capacity to process nearly 8,000 foreign nationals at the border, as per the controversial EU Migration Pact passed by the EU Parliament this April.
MOL supplies nine countries with fuel that includes biodiesel or bioethanol, and in some cases, other renewable materials. The Hungarian oil giant has been involved in biodiesel production since 2008 through Rossi Biofuel Ltd, significantly increasing the volume of biofuels produced in Hungary, now exceeding 200,000 tonnes annually.
Fürjes told Hungarian public media that the 2024 Summer Olympics was overall a success for the French organizers, with over 9 million tickets sold to the events combined and over 3 billion TV viewers tuning in to the coverage. He also expressed his belief that Hungary could host the Olympics at the same level France just did. However, organizing the Olympics would take ‘joint action’ between the government and the Budapest leadership, which makes him somewhat sceptical about the likelihood of it happening.
Following a spectacular performance during the last day of the Paris Olympics, 23-year-old Michelle Gulyás won the gold medal in pentathlon. However, many would be surprised if she told them that when she is not competing in the Olympic games, she is chasing criminals.
Hungary has increased its contribution to the European Space Agency’s (ESA) programmes fivefold over the past six years and will contribute €32 million to European space research next year. Orsolya Ferencz, Ministerial Commissioner Responsible for Space Research, emphasized the important role of youth in Hungarian space activities on the closing day of a rocket-building student camp on Sunday.
Disney’s Snow White, starring Latina actress Rachel Zegler in the titular role, will be coming to film theatres on 21 March 2025. Disney has released the official teaser trailer for its controversial new film.
Hungary was represented by 178 athletes across 20 sports, where they won a total of 19 medals—6 gold, 7 silver, and 6 bronze—securing the 14th position in the medal table. This placed Hungary ahead of larger nations such as Brazil, with a population of 205 million, and Spain, with 48.7 million. Hungary’s dominance in the region was also evident, with the other best-performing nation in East-Central Europe, Romania, finished 23rd.
The cancellation of American singer Taylor Swift’s three concerts in Vienna due to a terror threat has once again highlighted the serious consequences of Brussels’ flawed migration policy. Balázs Orbán, the political director of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, emphasized the need for a fundamental change in the Western attitude towards the future of our society and culture to protect our children.
Hungary is currently sitting in 13th place on the Olympic medal table with four golds, three silvers, and four bronzes. That is the best in our region, ahead of Romania (15th place), Ukraine (16th), and Croatia (22nd). Also, with the exception of New Zealand, all the countries ahead of us have significantly higher populations.
The recently adopted amendment to the Bulgarian education law is very similar to the Child Protection Act introduced by the Hungarian government in 2021, which prohibits the dissemination of harmful LGBTQ and gender propaganda in educational institutions. The Hungarian child protection law is one of the reasons why Brussels is withholding EU funds from Hungary, and the European Commission is expected to take similar action against Bulgaria.
Rasovszky’s win brought Hungary its fourth gold medal at the Paris Olympics, while Betlehem’s achievement added a fourth bronze, bringing the country’s current medal tally to 4 golds, 3 silvers, and 4 bronzes.
This bronze medal is the ninth medal—and third bronze—for the Hungarian delegation at the Paris Olympics.
Levente Magyar, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, discussed Ukraine, China, and relations between Budapest and Washington at the White House on Thursday. Relations between the two allies have deteriorated significantly under Joe Biden’s presidency, both parties agreed to halt and improve this decline.
The heroes of the dramatic encounter were Soma Vogel, who saved two penalties in regular time and three in the shootout, and Krisztián Manhercz, who scored five goals and secured the decisive final penalty.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary reportedly pledged to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine that he would provide state funding for a Ukrainian-Hungarian bilingual school during their July 2024 meeting, and he has followed through with his pledge.
Real estate prices in Hungary have shown outstanding growth among the European markets this year so far, the Azerbaijani news site AzerNews reports. Similarly, according to leading Hungarian real estate listing website Ingatlan.com, the average time it takes to sell a listed property on their site has significantly decreased.
The director of the Algerian Olympic and Sports Committee claims that the ‘Zionist lobby’ is trying to break controversial boxer Imane Khelif’s spirit in what he calls an ‘attempt to stop an Arab or Muslim girl from rising in the ranks of female boxing’. Khelif made headlines after allegations emerged that she has XY chromosomes, a characteristic of biological males, while competing in the 66 kg women’s category at the Paris Olympics.
György Bakondi reported that nearly three thousand border violators have been apprehended and forty-five human traffickers brought to court in Hungary this year. While these numbers are lower than in the same period last year, they remain significantly high compared to the pre-2015 peace period, he added.
Zsolt Kutnyánszky, the State Secretary responsible for defence policy, military development, and the defence industry, announced the deployment of the new aircraft at the Butmir Camp near Sarajevo. He stated that the new Airbus H225M helicopter will replace the previously offered Mi-17 helicopter for air transport tasks within EUFOR.
After the expansion of the so-called National Card scheme for which Russian and Belarusian nationals have now also become eligible, Budapest came under fire from Brussels politicians who claimed the measure poses a security risk to Europe. However, the conditions under which Russian nationals can enter and work in Hungary have not significantly changed with the introduction of the National Card and are comparable to the visa regimes of other European countries, which in fact allow Russians to apply for long-term visas in a much more generous way than Hungary and yet have never been pilloried for it.
The European Commission will not convene a consultative forum on the dispute between Ukraine and EU members states Hungary and Slovakia over the transit of Russian oil through Ukraine. Brussels’ reasoning is that there is no immediate threat to the energy security of these two countries due to Kyiv’s decision to halt the supplies. These developments indicate that the European Commission has blatantly sided with a non-EU member against two member states, jeopardizing their energy security.
Despite the challenges of wartime conditions, the government has maintained its utility cost reduction programme, successfully protecting Hungarian families against Brussels’ war-supporting and misguided sanctions policy. This has resulted in Hungarian households paying the lowest prices of electricity and gas in Europe, government commissioner Szilárd Németh shared at a press conference on Monday.
The international community has been watching events in the Middle East with bated breath for days, as Iran could attack Israel at any moment. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó reportedly informed his Israeli counterpart of Tehran’s intention to attack on Monday evening.