Hungary's Orban urges EU to drop Russian energy ban amid US-Iran conflict
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Sunday urged the European Union to take a proposed ban on Russian energy off the agenda due to an expected rise in energy prices following the US bombing of Iran.
The European Commission on Tuesday proposed a legally binding ban on EU imports of Russian gas and liquefied natural gas by the end of 2027, using legal measures to ensure the plan cannot be blocked by EU members Hungary and Slovakia.
The proposals set out how the bloc plans to fix into law its vow to end decades-old energy relations with Europe's former top gas supplier after Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
"We must contend with a further increase in the price of energy," Orban said in a Facebook video after a meeting of his Defence Council that discussed the possible security and economic implications of the Iran-Israel conflict.
"This is a serious threat. Therefore, we must remove in Brussels the regulations and bans on Russian energy," he said. "We have enough problems given the negative impact of the Iran-Israel war on energy prices."
Earlier on Sunday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto held phone calls with the foreign ministers of Israel, Russia, Bahrain and Jordan to discuss the Middle East crisis.
Slovakia and Hungary continue to receive Russian gas and oil and have argued with Ukraine over its decision to halt gas flows from the east through its territory at the end of 2024.
The EU has imposed sanctions on most Russian oil imports but not on gas due to opposition from Slovakia and Hungary, which maintain closer ties with Moscow.
Analysts have said higher oil prices, which have surged since Israel began attacking Iran a week ago, could add to inflationary pressures in the import-reliant central European region.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump's mental decline is on vivid display as he rages about Epstein, windmills
It was nice of Donald Trump to travel to Scotland and show our European allies firsthand that the United States is led by a self-absorbed and deeply weird man in obvious mental decline. Over the span of a weekend, the U.S. president's addled brain raced about like a dull-witted Labrador attempting to outsmart squirrels. He went on lengthy diatribes about windmills. He ranted about the ungratefulness of starving children. He forayed into nonsensical conspiracy theories regarding the Jeffrey Epstein scandal consuming his administration, while laughably saying upon arriving in Scotland on July 25: 'I'm not focused on conspiracy theories.' Trump's head, based on his overseas babbling, is 90% conspiracy theories and 10% brain cells. Coverage of Trump's Scotland trip doesn't show the extent of his rambling The trip was largely a taxpayer-funded chance for the grifter in chief to promote his Scottish golf properties, which in the realm of 'things Trump can do that no other president would ever get away with' barely registers as a blip. It was also a chance for him to talk 'deals' with the European Union and the United Kingdom, with a 'deal' being something resulting in trade tariffs that will negatively impact American consumers. Or as Trump likes to call it, 'Winning.' Opinion: MAGA is realizing Trump lies. How can they trust anything he says on Epstein? News coverage tends to trim Trump's voluminous prattling into digestible sound bites that sound vaguely sane. But if we care about a president's lack of mental acuity – and I've been told by many that we do – it's worth sticking your head in the high-pressure stream of nonsense that shoots out every time Trump opens his face hole. Trump shows he's laser-focused on the scourge of windmills On July 25, Trump deplaned in Scotland and immediately showed reporters he was armed with weapons-grade non sequiturs. 'This immigration is killing Europe,' he said, racistly. 'And the other thing, stop the windmills killing the beauty of your countries.' Two days later, he sat with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who looked like she would love to be elsewhere, and uncorked this: 'And the other thing I say to Europe, we will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States, they're killing us. They're killing the beauty of our scenery, our valleys, our beautiful plains. And I'm not talking about airplanes, I'm talking about beautiful plains, beautiful areas of the United States, and you look up and you see windmills all over the place, it's a horrible thing. It's the most expensive form of energy; it's no good. They're made in China, almost all of them. 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But if you look in another direction, you see windmills.' Are the windmills in the room with us right now, Mr. President? Propose prosecuting Beyoncé? Check! Babble incoherently? Check! Trump did take a break from talking crazy over the weekend to post something crazy on social media, writing July 26 that pop star Beyoncé should be prosecuted for a nonexistent $11 million payment from Kamala Harris' presidential campaign. So that happened. And it's not ideal. On July 27, alongside von der Leyen, Trump was asked how he feels about the images of starving children in Gaza, to which he said: 'That whole place is a mess. The Gaza Strip, you know, was given many years ago, said that they could have peace. That didn't work out too well. When Israel gave that up, whoever was the prime minister at the time, who I know, who it was, but it was not exactly a very clever thing to do. Because that was given so that they finally have peace, but it's actually made the situation worse. 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Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Scotland trip shows Trump's mental decline in real time | Opinion
Fox News
3 hours ago
- Fox News
EU hits back at Trump, Zelenskyy comments, no concessions in Ukraine before Putin ceasefire agreement
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
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China volumes, tariff anxiety helps surging US container imports challenge '22 record
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