International Relations

HU:

War in Ukraine spills into Hungarian election campaign

War-torn Ukraine "will stop at nothing" to prevent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party winning the upcoming Hungarian elections, the Hungarian government claims. Physical violence against the prime minister and his family, and attacks or sabotage of key energy installations, are being prepared, ministers allege.

The Ukrainian government, in turn, accuses its Hungarian counterpart of whipping up a hate campaign against it to frighten Hungarians into voting Fidesz back into office.

A third party is in the middle: Russia.

The Financial Times reported on Wednesday morning that the Social Design Agency, a Kremlin-linked media consultancy firm, was preparing a mass disinformation campaign in Hungary, to bolster Orbán and discredit the opposition Tisza Party and its leader, Peter Magyar.

With just 30 days to go until the parliamentary election in Hungary, some analysts believe the anti-Ukraine hysteria proves that Orbán is panicking in the face of probable defeat.

His Fidesz party trails to Tisza by 39% to 50% in the latest poll.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/ … -us-vaults
Germany is facing calls to withdraw its billions of euros’ worth of gold from US vaults, spurred on by the shift in transatlantic relations and the unpredictability of Donald Trump.Germany holds the world’s second biggest national gold reserves after the US, of which approximately €164bn (£142bn) worth – 1,236 tonnes – is stored in New York.

Some EU countries are openly treating the US as a danger rather than an ally.
This is nt looking good for the US as their economy, already a mess full of debt, is shaken further. - @Fred

Nothing new, no one has ever liked Americans.

Of course as soon as they are in real danger, who do they call to save them?

I dislike the assumptions people seem to always make about Americans as a group of people.

Gov. is one thing, people are another.

It is weird here in Hungary from my experiences.

As a married older women people in general leave me alone but as soon as I speak to my Hungarian husband is English they see it as a free ticket to but in and chat me up. I find it very uncomfortable at times.

As if we do not have feelings just because we are American.

Some people would see it as a compliment but I do not.

Just this weekend at a market, I stood close by waiting for my husband to decide to  buy something or not, some junk really.

It was getting warm so I took off my coat, had on an old sweater and said something in English to my husband. A young man , a vendor sitting close by listened in and yelled out to me, nice jumper.

Sort of forward, I mean I am 71 years old and not fishing for compliments at a farmers market of all places.

I get creeped out every time I am out by forward people who act like Americans can be treated different then locals.

War-torn Ukraine "will stop at nothing" to prevent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party winning the upcoming Hungarian elections, the Hungarian government claims. Physical violence against the prime minister and his family, and attacks or sabotage of key energy installations, are being prepared, ministers allege.
- @fluffy2560

Given the unelected Ukrainian leader threatened violence against Hungary's freely elected leadership, the allegations regarding violence are absolutely true,  and the rest might very well be true.

Iran/US/Israel:

More US Marines and warships to be moved to Middle East, reports say

"More US Marines and warships are expected to be deployed to the Middle East, two officials confirmed to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

The officials said the reinforcements were to come from an amphibious ready group and its Marine expeditionary unit, with one official adding that the group would be led by the Japan-based USS Tripoli, an amphibious assault ship.

The unit headed by the USS Tripoli typically consists of around 5,000 sailors and Marines distributed across several warships."

It's looking like boots on the ground for Donny and Co.   I reckon they are considering invading Bandar Abbas as this is directly across from The Straits of Hormuz.    This is altogether a different game and 5000 troops is in no way enough.  Bandar Abbas is a large city of 500K people.  Might be for a hit and run job.  Hard to say what the final game plan is.  There's an island off the coast called Qeshm with a population of 150K.  Maybe this is the one they will take.  Or the tanker/oil terminal island Kharg.

I've seen online discussions on 4-6 months for the war to be over.   In the meantime, we're all screwed with higher prices everywhere.  And our own election around the corner on the 12 April.  Not sure I like living in interesting times.

Kharg Island is the terminal that allows very large tankers to load with ease. Most of its oil is bought by China.

As for Bandar Abbas, that would be a very silly target for an invasion force.

However, as Trump is stunning stupid,  you never know.

Kharg would be easier to attack, but the invasion forces can expect casualties, both when attacking and for long after.

Still, they will gets lots of oil so what's a few yanks and a bunch of Iranians?

Think of the cash.

Saying that, the US has been forced to drop a lot of sanctions against Russian oil, so the defending Iranians might well blow the lot rather than lose it to the attackers.

Watch the oil price go up on that one.

Imagine if Trump had an interest in oil prices going up. He would get a lot of bribe money.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 … bal-shares