A bomb threat was received by the Hungarian Embassy in Paris via email, Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó reported on his social media page on Saturday. While few details about the incident have been disclosed, initial indications suggest it may have been motivated by attempts to obstruct Hungary’s peace efforts in Ukraine.
‘A simple example of restraining evil, which works quite well, are the referees who manage athletic contests. They simply enforce the rules so that order is maintained. They do not help either team win, they do not help the injured, they are not partial, and they do not furnish refreshments. Even so, they are critical to the players, the fans, the coaches, the media, and everyone involved.’
Vladimir Putin has reportedly endorsed the Christmas ceasefire proposal by Viktor Orbán. Reflecting on the peace mission and Hungary’s EU Presidency, the Hungarian prime minister stated: ‘We have opened the door, and meaningful negotiations can now begin.’
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán proposed a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia as a conclusion to Hungary’s EU Presidency. However, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the proposal outright, stating: ‘There can be no discussions about the war that Russia wages against Ukraine without Ukraine.’
Bryan Leib, who is in the running to become the next US Ambassador to Hungary, has called on his potential predecessor David Pressman to remove the speech he made right before the US election results came in, titled ‘Hungary’s gambling problem’; stating that ‘this type of political theater and activism is unacceptable.’
In a survey by Daily Mail and J.L. Partners, one of the most accurate predictors of the result of the 2024 US presidential election, incumbent President Joe Biden was ranked as the worst among nine recent Presidents by 1,006 registered voters. Biden’s term was plagued by low approval ratings, constant questioning of his mental acuity, and, not least, a historically controversial pardon for his son.
The video report published on public media news website Hirado.hu takes viewers to Ungvár (Uzhhorod) and Szolyva (Svalyava) in Transcarpathia, a region in the Western part of Ukraine heavily populated by ethnic Hungarians, to showcase the everyday lives of locals living through the troubled, war-torn times in Ukraine.
Syrian insurgents led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) captured Damascus, ending Bashar al-Assad’s rule. As the Syrian president fled the country, Hungarian opposition media outlet Magyar Hang claimed his plane landed in Budapest. The outlandish allegation was swiftly denied by Budapest Airport and the government, with even the news website later admitting that the claim was baseless.
In his regular Friday morning radio interview, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán discussed Hungary’s foreign policy and economic priorities. Orbán underscored that without the involvement of the Biden administration, there would be no war in the EU’s neighborhood. He also praised the peace-promoting efforts of Pope Francis, whom he met this week during a visit to Vatican City.
Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has stated in an interview with Reuters that Ukraine should lower its conscription age to 18 from the current 25. In previous remarks he also said President Biden is ‘committed that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door [to Ukraine] between now and 20 January’.