Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed that Hungary is Europe’s last hope in staving off a takeover from the “Islamic world”.
Speaking from Budapest’s Royal Castle in his annual state of the nation speech on Sunday night, Mr Orban took aim at migrants and the growth of Islam. “We are those who think that Europe’s last hope is Christianity … If hundreds of millions of young people are allowed to move north, there will be enormous pressure on Europe. If all this continues, in the big cities of Europe there will be a Muslim majority”, he said.
He said his government stood in solidarity with “those western European people and leaders who want to save their country and their Christian culture”.
The Prime Minister also accused politicians in “Brussels, Berlin and Paris” of causing the “decline of Christian culture and the advance of Islam”. He also claimed that his government had “prevented the Islamic world from flooding us from the south”.
In the speech, he compared the effects of immigration on a country’s development, to those of influence on the human body.
Mr Orban also issued a stark warning to pro-refuge NGOs operating in Hungary "If they do not stop their dangerous activities, we will simply expel them from the land, no matter how powerful or rich they may be".
Legislation proposed by Mr Orban’s party would levy a 25% tax on international funding for NGO’s working with migrants in Hungary. It would also bar the organisation’s employees from working in camps close to the borders. The hard-line bill, which was sent to parliament on Wednesday was named after Hungarian-American financier George Soros, who has funded open-border values across Europe.
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The Hungarian PM also called for a global coalition against migration in a speech which many see will set the tone for his right-wing populist Fidesz party’s campaign in the approaching elections scheduled for April.
The 54-year old cemented his anti-migrant credentials in 2015, when, at the height of the migration crisis, he built a double barbed wire fence along Hungary’s border with Serbia and Croatia.
He referred to western Europe as an "immigrant zone, a mixed population world that heads in a direction different from ours’ and claimed that migration, especially from Africa would see "our worst nightmares come true. The West falls as it fails to see Europe being overrun."
With a divided opposition, Fidesz is largely expected to secure a third term at the elections. He has been ahead in nearly all polls.
However, his populism has come at a cost for Hungary. Human rights advocates have voiced concerns over the decline of human rights in the country, and in recent years the press has been stifled. Some have gone as far as to label his methods authoritarian.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champioons League semi-final:
First leg: Liverpool 5 Roma 2
Second leg: Wednesday, May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
TV: BeIN Sports, 10.45pm (UAE)
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Abu Dhabi World Pro 2019 remaining schedule:
Wednesday April 24: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-6pm
Thursday April 25: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-5pm
Friday April 26: Finals, 3-6pm
Saturday April 27: Awards ceremony, 4pm and 8pm
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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RACECARD
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What is graphene?
Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.
It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.
It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.
It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.
Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.
The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.