one immediate dramatic consequence of the Hungarian result:

Magyar has promised to repair relations with the EU and unblock a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine

It's not just that Orbán losing inspires hope in other competitive-autocratic countries ruled by right-wing nationalist authoritarians. It's that his loss materially changes things in those other countries, because he's been operating as a headquarters and funding source...

An Ursula Von Der Leyden sicko

Elections • International elections Hungary parliamentary election: TISZA number of seats? • LIVE TISZA number of seats? Kalshi Starting soon Apr 12, 8:00am EDT 141.3 forecast 18.1 $139,221 vol 6H 1D 1W 1M ALL

Was it only four days ago The Telegraph comment pages were gazing into their tea leaves ?

Hungary election live: Viktor Orbán concedes defeat in Hungarian election after 16 years in power Long-serving prime minister beaten by opposition after early results showed clear lead

Orban concedes defeat. The support of Trump, Vance, Putin, Lavrov, Weidel, Milei, Le Pen, Fico, Babis and many others could not overcome Hungarian anger at a stagnant, corrupt regime

www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

With over 60% the votes counted, the outcome is already unmistakable: Viktor Orbán has lost these elections. Péter Magyar is on track to win—and could even secure the two-thirds majority needed to restore Hungary’s constitutional order.

Orbán turns out to be more of a democrat than the U.S. president and a nontrivial number of GOP candidates.

One of these people is a Catholic. Is the Pope a Catholic?

BREAKING: Pope Leo XIV declares the Iran War is “unjust” and “is not resolving anything.”

After suggesting Trump is committing war crimes by targeting civilian infrastructure, he called on Americans to contact Congress to help end the war.

Now Ron Wyden:

Mad King George?

Britain is sliding into a really, really dark place

We seem to look at the US with a ‘could never happen here’ attitude, meantime long accepted tenets of life in a liberal democracy are thrown out in real time

Needs concerted pushback now

Samsung to Stop Selling $2,899 TriFold Phone After Three Months Samsung Electronics Co. is winding down sales of its Galaxy Z TriFold smartphone after roughly three months on the market, suggesting the $2,899 device was always intended as more of a technological s...

Samsung's answer to the Apple Vision Pro www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bidenflation strikes again.

Powell: "The thing a good number of people on the committee are concerned about is very very low level of job creation. If you adjust the trend job creation over the past 6 months for what we think is overstatement due to overcounting, effectively there is 0 net job creation in the private sector"

Leavitt: "Rest assured, there is a plan"

‘Put him on trial’: pro-Kremlin loyalist turns on Putin in rare outburst Ilya Remeslo sends Telegram post titled ‘Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin’ to his 90,000 followers For years, Ilya Remeslo was a reliable pro-Kremlin operator, going after critics of the regime and smearing independent journalists, bloggers and opposition politicians. Then the 42-year-old lawyer abruptly turned on the country’s most powerful man. Late on Tuesday, Remeslo posted a manifesto to his 90,000 Telegram followers titled: “Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.” Continue reading...

‘Put him on trial’: pro-Kremlin loyalist turns on Putin in rare outburst

Populism.

"Trump Says 'I Guess' Americans Should Worry About Iran Retaliating on U.S. Soil: 'Like I Said, Some People Will Die'

Quite the headline from People.com

people.com/trump-says-i...

This is amazing; am watching on C-SPAN3. If she had a staff member who liked her, that person would've walked up to her 15 minutes ago to whisper in her ear to get out of there.

But no one is protecting her. Any one of these attendees can break the news to her on live tv.

One day after three US jets were downed by Kuwaiti friendly fire.

Michael S. Schmidt • @nytmike x.com NEW and BREAKING: In a major reversal, the Trump admin is NOW trying to walk back its decision to walk away from defending the law firm executive orders in court. DOJ just notified the four fighting law firms that it now intends to continue defending the legality of the orders in court. A day ago, DOJ had a very different position.

You gotta be kidding me

Okay this may be the funniest effort yet

*TRUMP: I THINK IRAN MAY HAVE ATTACKED FIRST

Contradicting most everyone else in his Cabinet, Trump just said: "No, I might have forced their hand," when asked if Israel pulled the U.S. into war with Iran.

Plans should be in place before things happen very quickly (e.g. when you're about to launch an offensive against Iran and know that Iran attacking embassies is a likely outcome)

All signs, roads etc pointing in that direction. Visible from space for quite some time but events have increased the urgency and likely pace of change.

Amazing to see the numbers of CCP commentators below this article. Organized effort. Who is going to be swayed?

China prepares landmark law curtailing minority language rights Bill to ‘promote ethnic unity’ by mandating Mandarin use would hasten decline of other cultures, critics say

China prepares landmark law curtailing minority language rights - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... via @FT

< Very depressing. Insecure authoritarianism actively destroying culture

The US State Department urged Americans to leave countries across the Middle East, citing “serious safety risks” from the war with Iran. bloom.bg/40B6YQK

📷: Ibrahim Amro/AFP/Getty Images

Get used to it!