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Europe
Magyarország - Hungary
2025. VI. 29. Pride /Video/ (Source: YouTube / Mandiner)
14 923 megtekintés / views
29/06/2025 Hundreds of thousands of people from across Europe (including Luxembourg) marched through Budapest yesterday, joining the city’s Pride parade. The capital's municipality organised this march ’in a move to circumvent a law’ that allows police to ban LGBTQ marches. Hungarians and visitors from across Europe ’flouted’ a government ban on the event that drew many first-time participants. Among the participants were at least 70 MPs from 33 countries. Angel (LSAP) with EU and rainbow flags and Metz (Déi Gréng), both members of the LGBTIQ+ intergroup of the EU Parliament, travelled to the hungarian capital from Luxembourg. “I have never been to Pride but I came precisely because the government wanted to ban this event,’ said István, a 72-year-old pensioner. Nationalist groups went on to blockade Liberty Bridge, forcing Pride participants to alter their route and cross the Danube river via a different bridge. Paraders crossed Elizabeth Bridge - one of the capital’s widest - for more than an hour. Budapest’s opposition mayor, Karácsony, co-organized the Hungarian capital’s 30th iteration of the parade. under the banner of celebrating freedom. Police blocked the event under a law passed in April by lawmakers aligned with Orbán that cast LGBTQ-themed public gatherings as potential threats to children. Orbán’s lawmakers changed the constitution earlier this year to be able to ban the event. Critics say it ’was an attempt to ramp up his culture war and reverse his fading political fortunes before elections next year’. A constitutional amendment has since empowered authorities to restrict such events, even at the expense of curtailing freedom of assembly. One notable absentee from the parade is Magyar, a 'former Orbán ally. He has described the banning of Pride as a “political trap” designed to distract voters and rally conservatives ’against his surging movement, newly formed Tisza party’. European Commission President der Leyen in a statement late Wednesday was ’calling on Hungarian authorities’ to allow people to take part. Organizers and participants will face legal consequences, most likely fines, Orbán said Friday, adding that police wouldn’t use force to break up the march. The embassies of France, Germany and the UK were among 33 to sign a joint statement supporting ’the right’ to stage the parade. Diplomats, lawmakers and government officials from around Europe ’were expected’ to take part. Hungary’s supreme court has taken a critical stance against excessive police restrictions on public assemblies. On Friday, the court annulled - for a second time - a police ban on an LGBTQ equality march, a separate event scheduled to coincide with yesterday’s Pride celebrations. “Order must always be established and then it must be kept,” Orbán told graduating police cadets yesterday, without making a specific reference to Pride. (Source: Luxembourg Times)
Ukraine
June 29, 2025 11:00 pm ET Russian forces are just 12 miles from the northern Ukrainian regional capital of Sumy, a new target for Moscow, as the Kremlin presses its manpower advantage at a growing number of places along the front. With 50,000 troops in the area, they outnumber the Ukrainians roughly 3-to-1, according to soldiers fighting there. Over the past year, the front line has grown by more than 100 miles and now stretches more than 750 miles in an arc from the northeast to the south, Gen. Syrskiy, Ukraine’s top military commander said. Earlier this month, Ukraine sent elite commando units from its military intelligence directorate, known as HUR, to help stabilize the situation. Since then, the Russian advances in Sumy have been largely stopped. Ukrainian forces are outnumbered nearly everywhere across the front. Soldiers in the area say that holding Sumy is coming at a greater human cost than necessary. After a chaotic and costly retreat from Kursk, they found outdated trenches, with no overhead cover from drones. The soldiers are now digging their own positions under drone fire in some cases. They also complained that areas that the Russians are now advancing across weren’t mined. (Source: WSJ - U.S.)
June 29, 2025 'Zelenskyy is begging Trump for more Patriot missile batteries'. Can he deliver? After a 24-hour delay caused by the Middle East crisis, President Trump and his foreign policy team traveled to the NATO conference in The Hague, Netherlands, where Zelenskyy also made an appearance - in a suit, no less! Ukraine is not a member of NATO, however, Zelenskyy has regularly appeared at the bloc’s annual conference in order to meet with American and European leaders, rally support for Ukraine’s defense, and ask for further military aid. This time around, the embattled leader needs American Patriot missile batteries. Before the conference, the Americans needed Patriot missiles in the Middle East. Whether the Americans would, in fact, be handing the America’s finite arsenal of Patriot missile batteries over to the Ukrainians? The Russians have proven capable of targeting warehouses in Ukraine where sensitive US military equipment is stored, and can destroy those vital US systems before Ukraine can even deploy them. Patriot missiles are highly effective, featuring an AN/MPQ-53 or -65 phased-array radar that tracks up to 100 targets at ranges over 93 miles, distinguishing between friendly and hostile launches. Patriot missile batteries are truck-mounted, each holding four interceptors (PAC-2 or PAC-3 missiles). They possess command-and-control stations that coordinate the targeting of incoming enemies along with the missile launches. The missiles used to intercept incoming drones and missiles are known as PAC-2 and PAC-3. The former uses proximity detonation to destroy targets, effective against aircraft and older missiles. The PAC-3, however, is a hit-to-kill interceptor optimized for ballistic missiles, with higher precision but fewer missiles per launcher. A single Patriot battery costs around $1 billion, with each launcher costing around $10 million. PAC-3 interceptors cost around $4 million each. This high cost limits the Patriot system’s use to high-value targets, as using a $4 million missile against a $50,000 Iranian-made drone is extremely uneconomical. As of May 2025, Ukraine has eight Patriot systems, with six operational and two under refurbishment. The United States, Germany, and the Netherlands have supplied batteries, with deliveries starting in April 2023. In January 2025, around 90 Patriot interceptor rockets from Israel (decommissioned by the IDF) were transferred to Ukraine via the United States, boosting Kyiv’s missile stocks. The Zelenskyy government in Kyiv has called for at least seven additional Patriot systems to protect major cities like Kyiv and Kharkiv, which are subjected to intense Russian attacks. Such a request, however, is highly unlikely to be met. After all, in total, the United States only has around 14 Patriot batteries globally. Allies like Germany, Poland, and Greece have more, but are understandably reluctant to put their own national security at risk by donating theirs. Raytheon is expanding production of the launchers, but demand will continue to outstrip supply for the foreseeable future. Frankly, there are so few Patriots available that, even if the Americans acceded to Kyiv’s request, it would make little difference - there is no leverage to be gained. No amount of military aid will negate the massive advantages Russia has amassed over the last three years of fighting. Only peaceful negotiations can save Ukraine from Russia’s wrath. But the country’s leaders have yet to realize this - and the hour is late. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
By Weichert. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine.
29 Jun 2025 at 13:48 Russia used hundreds of drones, cruise and ballistic missiles to attack western, southern and central Ukraine overnight. Sounds of explosions were heard in Lviv, Poltava, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Cherkasy regions. The Ukrainian military said Russia had launched 477 drones and 60 missiles of various types to Ukraine overnight while Ukrainian forces destroyed 211 drones and 38 missiles. It said 225 drones were lost - in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them - or they were drone simulators that did not carry warheads. Industrial facilities were hit in the southern Ukrainian Mykolaiv and central Dnipropetrovsk regions The governor of the Lviv region said the attack targeted critical infrastructure. A Ukrainian pilot was killed and his F-16 fighter jet lost while repelling a large-scale Russian nighttime missile and drone attack. It was the third such loss of an F-16 of the war. (Source: Bangkok Post - Thailand)
Asia
Gaza
29.06.2025 Israeli army orders mass evacuation, warns of expanded attacks in at least 17 areas across northern Gaza as death toll surpasses 60 yesterday alone. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Iran
29/06/2025 - 08:49 At least 71 people were killed in an Israeli air offensive on Monday, June 13 that struck the Evin prison, a large, heavily fortified complex in the north of Tehran, where numerous political prisoners and foreign nationals were held, Iran's judiciary said today. According to judiciary spokesman Jahangir, Evin's medical centre and visiting rooms had been targeted. The victims at Evin included administrative staff, guards, prisoners and visiting relatives as well as people living nearby. The inmates at Evin have included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohammadi as well as several French nationals and other foreigners. (Source: France 24 "with AFP" = France)
North America
United States
29 June 2025 In a rare Saturday vote, the US Senate narrowly passed Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ as the July 4 deadline approaches. The bill was passed by a 51-49 vote, after Vice-President Vance broke the tie by casting his vote at the Capitol. It is a tax break package which includes spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds. An estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showed that the House-passed version of Trump's tax bill would cost around 10.9 million more people their healthcare, and at least 3 million their food aid. Top income-earners would see about a $12,000 tax cut under the House bill, while the package would cost the poorest Americans $1,600, the CBO said. In the latest 940-page version of the bill, if all the existing tax breaks are kept and the new ones are added. Some of the other changes in the bill include an increased proportion of tax deductions for older Americans under Social Security taxes, increasing the deduction limit for state and local taxes (SALT). Money from the cuts would go for hiring 10,000 new ICE, aka Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year. The bill is expected to cost $3.8 trillion over the decade, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said in one of its analyses. The CBO further estimates that the House-passed package would add $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficits over the next decade. North Carolina Senator Tillis said he is concerned about the fundamentals of the package and will not support the procedural motion to begin debate. Kentucky Senator Paul opposes the measure to raise the nation's debt limit by $5 trillion. Wisconsin Senator Johnson is pushing for deeper cuts and said he needed to see the final legislative text. Montana Senator Sheehy said he would agree to proceeding to the bill only after being assured a provision for public lands sales he opposes would be taken out with an amendment. All of these senators belong to the Republican Party. Musk stands as the forerunner of voicing his dissent for the Big Beautiful Bill, once again renewing his stance on X, stating: "The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country.' (Source: Outlook - India)
International Atomic Energy Agency
(Sunday, 29 June 2025) Iran has the capacity to start enriching uranium again - for a possible bomb - in ’a matter of months', Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said. He told CBS News the US strikes on three Iranian sites last weekend had caused severe but not total damage, contradicting Trump's claim that Iran's nuclear facilities were ’totally obliterated’. Earlier this week, a Pentagon intelligence assessment found the US strikes only set the programme back by months. In a speech on Thursday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said the strikes had achieved nothing significant. Its foreign minister Araghchi, however, said excessive and serious damage was done. On Wednesday, Iran’s parliament moved to suspend cooperation with the atomic watchdog, accusing the IAEA of siding with Israel and the US. The two countries attacked Iran after the UN body last month found Tehran to be in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years. Under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, Iran was not permitted to enrich uranium above 3.67% purity - the level required for fuel for commercial nuclear power plants - and was not allowed to carry out any enrichment at its Fordo plant for 15 years. Iran resumed enrichment at Fordo in 2021 and had amassed enough 60%-enriched uranium to potentially make nine nuclear bombs, according to the IAEA. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
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