3 d. ago The Guardian view on special Trump treatment for Hungary: roll on the next election | Editorial

As polls suggest that Viktor Orbán’s authoritarian rule is under threat, Brussels can only wait and hopeDuring the US presidential election campaign of 2016, Viktor Orbán was the only European Union leader to back Donald Trump. Which was hardly surprising. Whether in relation to the the normalisation of great replacement theory, or the bullying and harassment of the media, Mr Orbán more or less wrote the playbook for the Maga movement. The former White House strategist Steve Bannon has eulogised Hungary’s prime minister as the “Trump before Trump”.Last week, ahead of crucial Hungarian elections in less than six months’ time, the US president returned some political favours. As Mr Orbán seeks a fifth consecutive term presiding over a nation which he boasts of having turned into an illiberal democracy, his Fidesz party trails in the polls. As well as a few signed Maga baseball caps, an Orbán visit to Washington yielded considerably more valuable pre-election gifts. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Security becomes top issue for Chileans ahead of presidential elections

Chileans are heading to the polls Sunday to elect their next president in a highly polarized election where security is a major issue

Politics

4 d. ago UN rights chief calls for a probe into killings in Tanzania and allegations of concealing evidence

The United Nations has called for an investigation into what is believed to have been the deaths of hundreds or more people while protesting the disputed election in Tanzania in which presidential candidates from the two main opposition parties were barred

Events

4 d. ago Controversial Poland independence march sets off in Warsaw – Europe live

Tens of thousands of people attend event organised primarily by nationalist and far-right groups to mark 107th anniversary of independenceYou can watch the live stream of the Irish presidential inauguration here:Irish president-elect Catherine Connolly has just arrived at the Dublin Castle for her presidential inauguration. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Catherine Connolly sworn in as 10th president of Ireland and promises to be a ‘catalyst for change’ – Europe live

Independent leftwing politician inaugurated as president after landslide election winYou can watch the live stream of the Irish presidential inauguration here:Irish president-elect Catherine Connolly has just arrived at the Dublin Castle for her presidential inauguration. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Catherine Connolly arrives for inauguration as Ireland’s president – Europe live

Independent leftwing politician set to take office as Ireland’s 10th president after landslide election winYou can watch the live stream of the Irish presidential inauguration here:Irish president-elect Catherine Connolly has just arrived at the Dublin Castle for her presidential inauguration. Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Trump pardons Rudy Giuliani and other GOP operatives for trying to overturn 2020 election

President Donald Trump has pardoned one-time ally Rudy Giuliani and other Republicans for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Politics

6 d. ago Trump pardons Giuliani and others involved in 2020 election overturn attempts

President Donald Trump on Sunday pardoned Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and several other officials who in 2020 attempted to help him overturn the results of the presidential election that they falsely claimed had been rigged, according to pardon attorney Ed Martin.

Politics

6 d. ago Dollar volatility tumbles as currency markets move past ‘Trump shock’

Investor expectations of US currency swings have fallen to lowest since before last year’s presidential election

Politics

7 d. ago Guyana in turmoil after opposition leader arrested and faces US extradition

Azruddin Mohamed had emerged as a surprise contender in the presidential election and claims political persecutionGuyana has been thrown into political turmoil following the arrest and possible extradition to the United States of the country’s main opposition leader just two months after he emerged as the surprise contender in the presidential election that kept incumbent Irfaan Ali in power.Azruddin Mohamed, 38, and his father, Nazar Mohamed, 73, two of Guyana’s wealthiest figures thanks to their gold mining empire, were arrested on 31 October in the capital, Georgetown, in response to a formal extradition request from the US government. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago I was trying to run for the presidency in Uganda – yet men still found the audacity to call me ‘baby, sweetheart, darling’ | Yvonne Mpambara

I was bruised by my experience of being kept out of an exclusively male political club – now my focus is on getting women into power in AfricaIt’s six weeks since the electoral commission of Uganda announced the eight candidates for the country’s 2026 presidential election. The fact that they are all men is an outrage – and entirely unsurprising.Of the 221 people who expressed an interest in running for president, 15 were women; and of those, only three of us gained enough voter support to be considered for nomination. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago George Clooney says replacing Joe Biden with Kamala Harris ‘was a mistake’

Actor says Harris ‘was given a very tough task’ because ‘she had to run against her own record’, and extends an olive branch to Hunter BidenGeorge Clooney has said he feels it was a “mistake” for Kamala Harris to replace Joe Biden in the 2024 US presidential election, adding that he had no regrets about the New York Times opinion piece in which he called on the Democrats to find a new presidential nominee.Speaking on CBS’ Sunday Morning, the actor and activist, who is a prominent financial donor to the Democratic party, said he would write his op-ed again if given the chance, and that he wished the Democrats had held a new primary to elect a presidential candidate. Instead, Harris was nominated by a virtual vote of party delegates. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago President JD Vance or Marco Rubio? We’re seeing the first signs of the battle over Trump's succession | Simon Tisdall

It’s currently a two-horse race – and the next US leader is guaranteed to be a careerist who knows nothing of statesmanshipMillions of Americans yearn for 7 November 2028, the scheduled date of the next presidential election. That’s the day the Trump era effectively ends. Probably. That’s the day the Democrats will atone for Kamala Harris’s calamitous 2024 failure. Possibly. That’s the day US democracy is reborn. Hopefully. Succession talk is tantalising Washington. Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, has given the clearest sign yet that he’ll run and glossing over past blunders, Harris reckons she deserves a second chance.Yet most attention is focused on the Republicans, after Trump, 79, again threatened to defy the constitution and seek a third term. “I would love to do it,” he said this week. He rowed back later, albeit unconvincingly. “We’ll see what happens,” he teased. This undignified narcissist’s electoral fan dance will drag on interminably. Of greater practical interest a...

Politics

2 w. ago California is voting on redistricting. An election skeptic runs the process in one county

Clint Curtis is overseeing a 4 November ballot that could add five Democratic seats and reshape US politicsWhen Clint Curtis was appointed to oversee voting in California’s Shasta county earlier this year, the Florida-based lawyer and election skeptic pledged to “fix” the voting process.Curtis had never before administered an election and didn’t live in this rural northern California region. But he was well-known to followers of the US election denialism movement, who believe the voting system is not secure and that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Curtis, a former congressional candidate, described himself as an expert in elections law and had long argued that voting machines could be hacked and that the government could manipulate the results of elections. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump is toying with a third term. Don’t expect the constitution to stop him | Moira Donegan

What is and is not constitutional is determined, in effect, by loyalists on the supreme court and their bad-faith enablersThe news cycle has continued in a predictable arc. Last week, Steve Bannon, the far-right provocateur and one-time Donald Trump adviser, said in an interview with the Economist that the president would seek an unconstitutional third term. “Trump is going to be president in 28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” Bannon said. (He seemed to be referring to Trump winning the presidential election in 2028 – Trump’s current term will last through 20 January 2029.) “At the appropriate time, we’ll lay out what the plan is.”Like clockwork, Trump commented on the idea soon after, telling reporters following him on Air Force One as he flew from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo: “I would love to do it.”Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Selling the left’s message in the digital age is an art – Ireland’s new president mastered it | Una Mullally

From Mamdani-style visual branding to basketball clips, Catherine Connolly found her audience and spoke in a language they understoodLast weekend, Ireland elected as its next president a leftwing pacifist in the latest example of how Ireland has bucked the global trends of rightwing populism.This was not a parliamentary election – although Catherine Connolly, an independent candidate, managed to unite leftwing parties, some previously at loggerheads – behind her. And presidential elections in Ireland are different. The office itself is largely ceremonial, but the figurehead is seen as the conscience of Irish society. The Irish electorate – at least since 1990, when Mary Robinson became Ireland’s first female president (she was followed by Mary McAleese and Michael D Higgins) – has a tendency to choose progressive presidents with intellectual heft. My own theory of who emerges victorious in Irish presidential elections is that they are thematic to the vanguard of prevailing social va...

Politics

2 w. ago Tanzanian president poised to retain power as rivals barred from election

Government critics abducted, killed or arrested in run-up to vote as Samia Suluhu Hassan faces first electoral testTanzania’s president looks on course to strengthen her grip on the country as it holds a general election on Wednesday against the backdrop of rapidly intensifying repression and the exclusion of opposition candidates.Samia Suluhu Hassan, a former vice-president who took office after the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, in 2021, has left nothing to chance for her first presidential and parliamentary electoral test. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Opposition leaders in Cameroon contest official election results as protests continue

Opposition leaders in Cameroon Tuesday contested the results of the Oct. 12 presidential election after the country’s top court declared the world’s oldest leader Paul Biya winner

Politics

2 w. ago Alassane Ouattara wins landslide fourth term as Ivory Coast’s president

Low turnout said to have made for most peaceful election in years, as 83-year-old accused of clampdown on dissent wins 89.77% of voteAlassane Ouattara has been declared the winner of the presidential election in Ivory Coast by a landslide.According to provisional results announced by the Independent Electoral Commission (CIE) on Monday evening, the 83-year-old won a fourth term as head of the west African country with 89.77% or 3.75m votes. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Lithuania closes border with Belarus after balloons shut down Vilnius airport – Europe live

66 objects spotted on radars overnight as prime minister says ‘no hybrid attack will be tolerated’ and pledges to shoot down any more balloonsMeanwhile over in the Czech Republic, the country’s president Petr Pavel has tasked the populist billionaire Andrej Babiš with leading talks on forming the new government after recent parliamentary election.Babiš told the president – who defeated him in the 2023 presidential elections – that the coalition talks were already under way, and “promised to hand over the text of the coalition agreement and programme priorities” later this week, according to a readout issued by the presidential office. Continue reading...

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