World

In an off-the-cuff monologue delivered during a press conference in Sarajevo, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó summed up his government’s growing fury over international efforts to influence Hungarian domestic affairs. Asked about the US State Department’s latest Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which includes extensive criticisms of Hungary, Szijjártó pulled no punches.   “I am appalled, and I am appalled again and again every year, that the US State Department has the courage to make such excoriating statements about the internal issues and situations of other countries,” Szijjártó said.

Sacre bleu: the French are at it again. This time they’re taking to the streets over pensions after President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to raise France's retirement age from sixty-two to sixty-four. If there’s one thing Cockburn respects the French for, it’s starting a damn good riot.  And these protests are wonderfully, aesthetically French. Let Cockburn set the scene. Thousands have gathered at places such as Place d'Italie, while setting trash cans on fire and burning an effigy of Macron while chanting things like "Macron, resign!” and “The streets are ours!” All this is happening amid the putrid stench of decomposing food after sanitation workers went on strike at the start of the year.  https://twitter.

Prague is still draped in blue and yellow flags, but with no end to the Ukraine war in sight, there’s growing uncertainty in Eastern European countries like the Czech Republic. As governments gear up to support Ukraine for the long haul, attitudes are also shifting among the millions of refugees who have found shelter in the EU since the war began.  Last year, the Ukrainian refugee crisis became part of everyday life in the Czech Republic, the EU country hosting the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per capita. At first, it seemed refugees were fleeing a country that would soon fall under the sway of the Kremlin. Later, the mood changed as Ukrainian gains on the battlefield raised hopes that the war could be won sooner than anyone had expected.

If you happen to be having a bad day, spare a thought for someone called Matt Hancock, possibly the most hapless person on the planet.  A former British health minister, Mr. Hancock has become a national laughing stock across the Atlantic. First, he got fired from his job presiding over the UK’s National Health Service for breaking his own Covid lockdown rules. Unlike Gavin Newsom or House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who did something similar, Hancock managed to get caught out in spectacular fashion. After helping issue edicts making it illegal for anyone in Britain to socialize with someone outside their family, Hancock was filmed canoodling his mistress like a high-school senior at prom night.  A real-life version of Britain’s Mr.

In a shocking twist after the last three years of Prince Harry’s perpetual victimhood tour, last night in a live therapy session the prince finally admitted what we’ve known all along: that he isn’t one. Back on the stage for a live streamed Q&A with toxic trauma expert Dr. Gabor Maté, Harry claimed, “I definitely don't see myself as a victim.” You had to pay thirty bucks a head for the pleasure, but boy it was worth it to hear that. Victim, no. Narcissist, maybe. Later in the interview Harry said that sharing his experiences of his terrible life in his bombshell memoir Spare “feels like an act of service.” I’m sure his late grandmother would have different views on what a lifetime of service actually entails.

A British aristocrat and a Florida rapist are hardly a likely pairing; which is why the missing person case of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon enthralled the public this week. In early January, Marten and Gordon went missing with their newborn baby, who was born in the back of their car just two days prior. They set the car on fire with all their belongings inside on the hard shoulder of the M61 motorway in northwest England and ran. First they traveled to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, to Colchester and on to East Ham station in east London. The police were constantly about two days behind them, before the trail went cold completely. Today, police confirmed the couple has been found and arrested — but the search for the baby continues.