00:02These are the final hours of the election campaign in Hungary.
00:06Voters will go to the polls on Sunday to elect their new parliament.
00:11The election pits the outgoing Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán,
00:15against Peter Magyar, the opposition's leading figure.
00:19Viktor Orbán has been leading the country for 16 years.
00:22The wear and tear of power, the deteriorating economic situation,
00:27and a series of government scandals coming to light
00:31make this election the Prime Minister's greatest electoral challenge.
00:36Tisa Parti, founded two years ago by Peter Magyar,
00:40currently leads in opinion polls ahead of Orbán's Fidesz party.
00:49Viktor Orbán has been ruling Hungary with absolute power,
00:53including the authority to amend the constitution for 16 years.
00:57The politician began as a student activist
01:00against Hungary's soft communist dictatorship in 1989.
01:04He drew attention by demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops
01:07at a high-profile mass rally.
01:09In the 1990s, he transformed Fidesz,
01:12the party that had emerged from the student movement,
01:15from a liberal to a conservative party,
01:18and ousted his rivals within the party.
01:21In 1998, at the age of 35,
01:23he became Prime Minister for the first time.
01:25His four-year tenure advanced the goals
01:28set at a time of the regime change,
01:30economic convergence and NATO and EU membership,
01:33but he lost in the 2002 election
01:36to the social-liberal coalition as he did in 2006.
01:40During the socialist second term,
01:42which was plagued by one scandal after another,
01:45the economic crisis struck,
01:47sweeping away Fidesz's former rivals.
01:49And Orbán came to power in 2010
01:52with a massive mandate and a constitutional majority.
01:56He completely reshaped Hungary's political system
01:59to suit his own goals.
02:01Orbán's dominance in domestic politics
02:04was unquestioned for a long time.
02:06His focus shifted to foreign policy
02:09and he gradually became the ideological leader
02:12of the populist opposition within the European Union
02:16and then of populists worldwide,
02:18championing issues of lesser importance to Hungary,
02:22such as immigration and gender issues.
02:24Ultimately, he also clashed with the EU mainstream
02:27over support for Ukraine,
02:29while building close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin
02:32and US President Donald Trump.
02:34The deteriorating economic situation,
02:36the abuses of power during 16 years of absolute rule,
02:39corruption and the deviation from the 1989 foreign policy course
02:43aimed at Western integration,
02:45have, by 2026, produced a challenger
02:48with a real chance of victory, the TISA party,
02:51thus making Orbán's hold on power precarious.
02:57Peter Magyar has risen from near total obscurity
03:00to become one of Hungary's leading political figures
03:03in just two years, building the TISA party from the ground up.
03:07But his story is not that of a fairytale underdog.
03:11Born into a conservative legal dynasty,
03:13his godfather was former President Ferenc Maadol.
03:16From the outset, he maintained strong ideological
03:20and personal ties to the political right.
03:22Through his then-wife, former Justice Minister Judith Varga,
03:27he gained access to the higher circles of Fides
03:29and held positions in the leadership of several state-owned companies.
03:33Although they had already divorced, in early 2024,
03:37Magyar publicly turned against the Orbán government,
03:40outraged that his ex-wife had also been forced
03:43to resign over a pedophile presidential pardon scandal.
03:47In a Facebook post that drew millions of views,
03:50he voiced his anger, making a turning point.
03:53The post led to an invitation to the online show Partisan,
03:56where he spoke openly about alleged abuses within Fides.
04:01Days later, he released an audio recording
04:04in which his former wife discussed alleged links
04:07between the government and the head of the bailiff's chamber,
04:10who had been accused of large-scale corruption.
04:14Magyar's popularity surged almost overnight,
04:17and ahead of the European Parliament and local elections,
04:20he revived a dormant minor party, TISA.
04:23The party's strong performance in the European elections
04:27signalled growing public disillusionment
04:29with what he has described as the old opposition.
04:33Hungary's ruling Fidesz has launched several smear campaigns against him,
04:37but allegations ranging from domestic abuse to espionage
04:40and drug use have failed to gain traction.
04:45His message is straightforward, a functioning state,
04:49a Western orientation and a Christian conservative agenda
04:52without what he describes as the corruption of Fidesz.
05:00Ukraine says repairs to the Dujboil pipeline will be completed this spring,
05:06but the politics surrounding it are far from fixed.
05:10President Zelensky confirmed this week that work is underway on the pipeline,
05:15which Kiev says was struck by a Russian drone in late January.
05:19The pipeline carries Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia through Ukrainian territory,
05:24and this disruption has caused a major rift between Kiev and Budapest.
05:30Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Kiev of deliberately keeping the pipeline shopped
05:36for political reasons, blocking a €90 billion EU loan to Kiev in retaliation.
05:42But Zelensky has pushed back, saying he is effectively being forced to restore the flow of Russian oil
05:49and comparing it to lifting European sanctions on Moscow.
05:53The European Commission says Brussels and Kiev are broadly aligned on timing,
05:57but has stopped short of saying any more.
06:03Ukrainian military personnel shot down Iranian-designed Shahid drones
06:08in multiple Middle Eastern countries during the Iran war,
06:12President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
06:14Zelensky made his first public acknowledgment of the operations on Wednesday
06:18in remarks to reporters that were embargoed until Friday.
06:23The Ukrainian leader described the operations as part of a broader effort
06:27to help partners counter the same weapons used by Russia in Ukraine,
06:32but did not identify the countries.
06:34Zelensky had previously said that 228 Ukrainian experts were deployed in the Middle East.
06:40The disclosure comes amid concerns that the conflict in the Middle East
06:44could divert Western military support from Ukraine, particularly air defense supplies.
06:50But Zelensky said that partners were continuing to supply missiles for Patriot systems,
06:56adding that a new batch had arrived in recent days.
07:05J.D. Vance has flown to Pakistan to lead high-stakes talks with Iran,
07:11warning Tehran that if it tries to, quote, play the U.S., negotiators won't be receptive.
07:19Before boarding Air Force One, the U.S. Vice President told reporters he was looking forward to the talks.
07:27I think it's going to be positive. We'll of course see.
07:30As the President of the United States said, if the Iranians are willing to negotiate in good faith,
07:35we're certainly willing to extend the open hand.
07:38Meanwhile, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer held talks with top Qatari officials
07:44on a visit to the Gulf nation on Friday, discussing what he termed the, quote,
07:50fragile ceasefire in the Iran war.
07:52Obviously, the discussion moved very quickly to the ceasefire, a sense that it's fragile,
07:57that more work is needed, that the Strait of Hormuz has to be part of the solution,
08:03a very strong sense that there can't be tolling or restrictions on that navigation.
08:08Also on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expelled Spain from participating in a U.S.-led international body,
08:18monitoring Gaza after it had, quote, chosen repeatedly to stand against Israel.
08:25Around 200 American troops are currently working alongside the Israeli military
08:30and delegations from other countries to monitor the implementation of the U.S.-sponsored peace deal in Gaza.
08:47French President Emmanuel Macron met for the first time with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Friday for a
08:53private audience.
08:56French President Emmanuel Macron and the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics were due above all to discuss
09:02the resolution of the crisis in the Middle East,
09:04with a particular focus on Lebanon, where deadly Israeli strikes threatened a two-weeks-long ceasefire between the U.S.
09:12and Iran.
09:14Pope Leo XIV has visited Lebanon last year as part of his first trip abroad and has repeatedly prayed for
09:21the victims of the conflict.
09:25Both Macron and the Chicago-born Pontiff have spoken out against U.S. President Donald Trump over the Iran War
09:32and urged for a diplomatic solution to the conflict.
10:02United Arab Emirates
10:18This is a paper that is painted on a small boat.
10:21He builds a boat atelier.
10:23He puts it on the boat atelier.
10:25He paints it on his boat.
10:27That's why we have a very immersive aspect.
10:30We are really at the level of the water.
10:32This is a paper that is painted with a large touch, very spontaneous,
10:36which is very characteristic of the beginning of the impressionism.
10:54It is very characteristic of the art of Monet,
10:56which is a lot of the system of series.
10:59We saw it with the Nymphéas, the Cathédrales of Rouen, the Meules.
11:03It is exactly the same place.
11:05He paints the same subject,
11:07but with a different atmosphere,
11:10with a different horaire.
11:11Here we have a view painted on the morning.
11:13So we have a very specific light
11:15with beautiful tonalities in the water,
11:18made of rose and rose.
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