Free Republic

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat Sunday in the country’s parliamentary election, calling the result "clear" and "painful" as partial vote counts showed a decisive win for opposition leader Péter Magyar.

Hungarians go to the polls on Sunday in a vote that could bring down long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and have significant repercussions for the rest of Europe, the US and Russia. Most polls favour Péter Magyar, who formed a grassroots party after splitting from the ruling Fidesz party, but the night before the vote Orbán was in defiant mood. "We are going to achieve such a victory that will surprise everyone, perhaps even ourselves," he told several thousand supporters in a small square on Budapest's Castle Hill. Voting takes place from 06:00-19:00 (04:00-17:00 GMT) and results will start to...

The U.S. military has launched operations to begin de-mining the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said on Saturday. Centcom said in a social media post highlighted by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that two Navy guided-missile destroyers began “setting conditions” for this mission on Saturday morning. The USS Frank E. Peterson and USS Michael Murphy have previously operated in the Arabian Gulf to help clear the strait of sea mines set by Tehran, according to Centcom. “Today, we began the process of establishing a new passage and we will share this safe pathway with the maritime industry soon to...

Bungary's opposition party Tisza is on track to win a two-thirds parliamentary majority in Sunday's election, allowing it ‌to amend the constitution and key laws needed to unlock ‌EU funds, a projection from polling agency Median showed on Wednesday. Veteran nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban ​and his Fidesz party are facing the biggest challenge to their rule in 16 years as the centre-right Tisza party, led by Peter Magyar, is leading in independent polls. Tisza is seen winning between 138 and 142 seats in the ‌199-member parliament, according to ⁠an estimate based on an analysis of Median's five most recent...

A newly reported operation suggests Kyiv may have found another low-cost way to disrupt Russian forces away from the front line: heated insoles allegedly rigged with small explosive charges and sent through volunteer aid channels. According to Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi, operatives from Ukraine’s special services allegedly inserted explosive-filled heated insoles into shipments destined for Russian military units. The items were reportedly moved with the help of Russian volunteers and charitable foundations, allowing them to pass as ordinary humanitarian aid. That is what makes this sort of sabotage effective, Treston Wheat, chief geopolitical officer at Insight Forward, told me: it exploits...

Qatar and Ukraine have signed a defence agreement seeking joint expertise on countering threats from missiles and drones, according to Qatar’s Ministry of Defence, as Iran continues attacking its Gulf neighbours. The agreement was made on Saturday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Doha, following his stop in the UAE earlier in the day. Earlier on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates had also agreed to cooperate on defence, a day after signing a deal with Saudi Arabia during his visit to the kingdom on Thursday.

The sons of US President Donald Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., have invested in the startup Powerus, which plans to acquire Ukrainian drone manufacturers. The company intends to license Ukrainian technologies to produce drones in the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Without Iraq-style lies about Russia, the collusion hoax, the impeachment farce, and the 51 intel officials laundering deception for political gain, there likely would have been no Russia-Ukraine war. The proposed Ukraine peace deal has shaken the political class that insisted escalation with Moscow was the only acceptable course. How, they ask, can Russia possibly walk away with concessions? Part of this is simply material: Russia has ground out battlefield gains and retains the manpower and resources to sustain the war indefinitely. But that is only one dimension of it. The fuller answer reaches back long before the first tanks...

President Donald Trump has bestowed upon the nation of Qatar a remarkable security guarantee that could include coming to its defense militarily. In an executive order dated earlier this week, Trump declared that the United States will regard any attack on Qatar’s territory, sovereignty or critical infrastructure “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States” itself. And perhaps most crucially, the order suggests the US might come to Qatar’s defense militarily.