Victor Orbán: "World War 3 is knocking the door"

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Famous US TV-commentator Tucker Carlson during recent visit to Budapest filmed an interview with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Tucker asked him – what exactly is going on in Ukraine right now given the propagandic opacity of news in America.

“It is not just a misunderstanding, it is a lie,” Orban begins, when asked about the fact that American media continue to claim that ‘Ukraine is winning’ the war. “To understand the Russians it’s a difficult thing, especially if you have an ocean between you and Russia.”

Orbán points out that Western political conversations often center on freedom, while Russian conversations focus on keeping the country together, and warns against the dangerous implications of the U.S. strategy, particularly for countries like Hungary that are geographically closer to the conflict.

Carlson asked Orbán, “are you worried about being crushed by the US?”

“It’s dangerous,” replies the Hungarian PM, recognizing that “I am not the favorite politician of the liberals, but nobody’s perfect.”

But, he adds that he doesn’t care because there are more important values required to uphold a civil society:

“There are certain things that are more important than me, than my ego: family, nation, god.”

The Hungarian approach is simple, he explains, “Washington is far away, Russia and Ukraine are close,” noting that decisions made in the US can have immediate impacts for his nation.

“It’s dangerous is my answer. So we should not neglect the importance of that fact and when the United States and this administration does not like you, or considers you as an enemy or a having a backtrack, it’s dangerous in international politics,”

Reflecting on NATO’s stance in the Ukraine war, Orbán exclaims: “This is a bad strategy, we have to stop it” adding that “we cannot beat [the Russians], we will not kill their leader, they will never give it up, they will invest more.”

“What finally will count is boots on the ground, and the Russians are far stronger.”

Orbán then praises former US president Trump: “Call back Trump. That’s the only way out. Call back Trump,” Orbán said.

“Because you know, you can criticize him for many reasons. I understand all the discussion. But the best foreign policy of the recent several decades belonged to him. He did not initiate any new war. He treated nicely the North Koreans and Russia, even the Chinese. You know, he delivered a policy which was the best one for the Middle East, Abraham Accords. So he had very good foreign policy.”

“He’s [Trump] criticized because he’s not educated enough to understand foreign policy. This is not the case,” Orbán told Carlson.

His most ominous warning comes last: “This is a very dangerous moment now,” he concludes, adding that it should be obvious to everyone that “the third world war is knocking on our door.”

Speaking at MCC Feszt in Budapest, Hungary, Tucker Carlson said that the “people who run” the United States right now are “dangerous and insane,” and it can be seen in the way they treat Hungary even though it is “not exporting their views to anybody else.”

“This is a country concerned with its own safety and prosperity. That’s, in the words used to hear a lot in the United States, a country that is minding its own business,” he said.

He said that, because of that, if he were running the State Department, he’d say “let’s take a pass on Hungary. We’ve got bigger problems.”

“But they can’t,” he said of current American leadership. “They hate Hungary. And they hate it not because of what it’s done, but because of what it is. It’s a Christian country and they hate that. And that’s the truth. And nobody wants to say it, but it’s true.”

He claimed that the reason some call Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a “Putin suck-up” is because “one thing that Russia and Hungary have in common is, a big part of the population identify as Christians.” That Christian identity, he said, is “not fine with Washington at all.”

“It’s deeply offensive to see that alive in Europe,” he said. “And that is the core. It’s not rational. It’s, this is happening on a gut level, but it is expressed through policy.”

Here’s a partial transcript of Carlson’s remarks:

– I love the United States. It’s my country. To restate, I was born there and I’m never leaving. And I love my country. But the people who run it right now are dangerous and insane. And you can see that in the way they’re treating your country.

– Which, even if you don’t like the values of the majority of Hungarians, even if you reject the Hungarian Constitution, is Christo-centric and think that Viktor Orbán is a bad guy and you hate goulash. Even if everything about Hungary is repugnant to you, if you’re in the United States, you’re still not going to spend a lot of time hassling Hungary because Hungary isn’t hassling anybody else.

– Hungarians have views, your government has views, and even if you disagree with them, you must acknowledge that Hungary is not exporting their views to anybody else. You’re not rolling across the border to reclaim territory you lost after the first World War. Though, that could happen. But it’s not happening now anyway. Transylvania is safe in Romanian hands at the moment.

– But it’s true. This is not an expansionist power. This is not a power that’s crushing weaker nations with sanctions. This is not a power that’s exporting something ugly to the rest of the world. This is a country concerned with its own safety and prosperity. That’s, in the words used to hear a lot in the United States, a country that is minding its own business.

– And so even if you disagree, which for the record, I do not, but even if I did and I ran the State Department, I would say, you know, let’s take a pass on Hungary. We’ve got bigger problems.

– But they can’t. They hate Hungary. And they hate it not because of what it’s done, but because of what it is. It’s a Christian country and they hate that. And that’s the truth. And nobody wants to say it, but it’s true.

– And it’s not a particularly provocative Christian country. I don’t think most Hungarians go to church. It’s not a theocracy. You’re not required to believe in the catechism to live here. It’s nothing like that. It’s a soft Christian country, the softest ever. 300 years ago, people would look at modern Hungary and say, that’s not a Christian country. But by modern standards, it’s one of the last countries that identifies as a nation built on Christian precepts.

– Again, not imposing them on anyone else. But that is enough to incite our policymakers in the United States. And that is exactly why they hate Russia, by the way.

– I’m not a fan of Russia, and if I was, I wouldn’t admit it to a Hungarian audience. When I hear Orbán described as a Putin suck-up, I think, really? That image of Orbán being pushed against a police car with a baton to his neck by Soviet-backed policemen comes to mind. Yeah, he’s probably not pro-Russian, just guessing.

– But why did they make that charge? Because one thing that Russia and Hungary have in common is a big part of the population identify as Christians. Now, why would that be provocative? A huge part of Malaysians identify as Muslim. Fine with me. But it’s not fine with Washington at all. It’s deeply offensive to see that alive in Europe.

– And that is the core. It’s not rational. This is happening on a gut level, but it is expressed through policy. Policies that I’m ashamed of that most Americans don’t even know exist.

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The war in Ukraine is now one of attrition, fought on terms that increasingly favour Moscow. Kyiv has dealt admirably with shortages of Western equipment so far, but a shortage of manpower – which it is already having to confront – may prove fatal, writes London’ ‘The Telegraph’.

Ukraine’s forces are not just fighting massed defences and artillery fire. They are also fighting against time. Having first penetrated the formidable Russian minefields four weeks ago, Kyiv is desperate to exploit its early successes before mounting casualties and autumn rains destroy its fighting capability.

The summer has been wet, and the autumn months traditionally bring heavy rains which turn the soft ground of eastern Europe into a thick mud as tanks, armour and artillery churn the battlefield. This can all but halt meaningful advances, locking armies into place and buying the Russians time to add to the deeply dug trench networks and multi-layered minefields that have made retaking lost territory such hard going.

Perhaps more important, however, is the heavy toll the fighting is taking on the people of Ukraine. The Russian armed forces began the war with an official strength of one million, and a true strength estimated by some analysts at between 700,000 and 800,000.

A further two million men – former conscripts and contract servicemen – were available in the reserves, and some seven million men of conscription age (18-26) left to draw on, even before the Kremlin raised the age limit to 31.

Ukraine, meanwhile, had a pre-war population of 44 million. By the end of the first year of the war, some six million had fled abroad. The armed forces number around 200,000 active personnel, roughly the same again in reserve, and can draw on another 1.5 million fighting-age males.

It’s a brutal but simple calculation: Kyiv is running out of men. US sources have calculated that its armed forces have lost as many as 70,000 killed in action, with another 100,000 injured.

Volunteers are no longer coming forward in numbers sufficient to keep the army at fighting strength: those most willing to fight signed up years ago. The latest recruitment slogan is “it’s OK to be afraid”, but there are still many attempting to dodge being drafted to fight on the front lines.

For all the difficulties the Kremlin has faced in its forced conscriptions, it still has hundreds of thousands of men to draw upon. This is a resource Ukraine simply cannot match, and one that the West cannot supply.

For Vladimir Putin, victory may at last be in sight as Western support begins to waver. If Kyiv cannot break through the Russian lines now, it may never be able to. If it runs out of willing men to recruit, the West cannot help, ‘The Telegraph’ concludes.

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The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a statement announcing that they filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s SpaceX alleging that it has discriminatory hiring practices when it comes to people in the US seeking asylum.

“The lawsuit alleges that, from at least September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act,” the DOJ statement read.

According to Reuters, in their job posting and other statements over the past few years, SpaceX has said that federal regulations required them to hire only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents. But the Justice Department says that assertion is wrong.

The department also pointed to social media posts of Elon Musk as of the alleged discrimination, primarily a post on X (formerly known as Twitter, banned in Russia) from June 2020. Musk posted, “U.S. law requires a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are advanced weapons technology.”

In speaking out about the lawsuit, the SpaceX CEO and owner of X, wrote that they were “told repeatedly that hiring anyone who was not a permanent resident of the United States would violate international arms trafficking law, which would be a criminal offense.”

Musk also believes that the lawsuit is is just another example of the “weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes.”

But the DOJ says that the practices are a violation of asylum seeker and refugee’s civil rights. Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General with the Civil Rights Division, pointed to an investigation into SpaceX by the DOJ.

It is also important to note that non-citizens are ineligible to work at NASA. While that restriction is allowed because NASA is a independent government agency, they do sub-contract work out to to SpaceX.

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Algeria’s foreign minister on August 29 proposed a six-month transitional plan for neighbouring Niger, whose coup leader seeks a far longer timeline back to democracy, according to latest report from Agence France Press.

Ahmed Attaf gave his suggested framework after a tour last week to three of Niger’s neighbouring countries in the West African bloc ECOWAS, which has threatened to send a military force if Niger’s new military regime fails to restore democracy.

Attaf reiterated Algeria’s rejection of military intervention in Niger and said Algiers would not allow its airspace to be used to that end.

He proposed a half-year transitional phase to allow the neighbouring country to restore “the constitutional and democratic order”.

In contrast, Niger’s coup leader General Abdourahamane Tiani “has called for a transitional period that lasts for three years at most”, Attaf said in a televised press conference.

“But in our view the (transition) process can be completed in six months” so the coup does not become a “fait accompli”, he continued.

The transitional plan would aim to “formulate political arrangements with the acceptance of all parties in Niger without excluding any party” within the half-year period, the foreign minister of Africa’s largest country said.

The process would be overseen by a “civilian power led by a consensus figure”, he continued, without specifying who that might be.

Attaf’s tour last week took him to Nigeria, Benin and Ghana, where he held talks against the backdrop of Algeria’s repeated calls to prevent a military intervention in Niger.

The West African bloc has threatened to use force as a last resort to reinstate Niger’s elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, who was detained by his guards on July 26.

Attaf’s tour coincided with a visit by foreign ministry secretary general Lounes Magramane to Niger, where he met members of the military-appointed government including the prime minister, Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine.

Attaf reiterated that a military solution would have “catastrophic consequences” for Niger.

He said neither Magramane nor Algiers’ envoy in Niamey had met with Bazoum, though he did not indicate whether the ousted leader formed part of his country’s vision for Niger’s transition.

Asked whether Algeria would allow its airspace to be used for military intervention, he said: “We reject the military solution so how can we allow for our airspace to be used for a military operation?”

Algeria shares a 1,000-kilometre (620-mile) southern land border with Niger.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune previously said a military solution would be “a direct threat” to his country. He stressed “there will be no solution without us (Algeria). We are the first people affected”.

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