Hungary

Having etched his name into Republic of Ireland folklore, Troy Parrott let the tears flow.

At the end of a whirlwind 72 hours, the striker’s raw emotion was understandable. On Thursday, Parrott upstaged Cristiano Ronaldo with two goals to sink Portugal and take the Republic of Ireland’s play-off push into the final game.

Carrying a nation’s hopes on his back in Budapest, the 23-year-old Dubliner rose to the occasion in spectacular fashion.

Against Hungary, his penalty brought the Irish level after they fell behind to an early Daniel Lukacs header. Then, after Barnabas Varga’s stunning strike, he equalised again with a deft finish 10 minutes from time.

The Republic of Ireland needed a win to make the play-offs, and after substitute Johnny Kenny was denied, Parrott seized the match-winning moment when he latched on to Liam Scales’ header, poked the ball into the Hungary net and wheeled away in ecstasy in a heart-stopping finale at Puskas Arena.

“I’m really, really emotional. They’re tears of joy. Ah, what a night, what a night,” the AZ Alkmaar striker, who led the line in Evan Ferguson’s absence, told RTE.

“This is why we love football, because things like this can happen. Look, I love where I’m from, so this means the world to me. My family is here.

“It’s the first time I’ve cried in years as well, I really, really can’t believe it. Everyone is crying.

“I said against Portugal that this is what dreams are made of, but this tonight, I don’t think I’ll ever have a better night in my whole life.

“That is really a fairy tale. You can’t even dream about something like that. Honestly, I have no words to describe my emotions right now.”

Hungarian-British writer David Szalay has won the prestigious Booker prize for his novel Flesh, which tells the story of a tortured Hungarian emigre who makes and loses a fortune.

Szalay, 51, beat five other shortlisted authors, including Indian novelist Kiran Desai and the United Kingdom’s Andrew Miller, to claim the 50,000 British pound ($65,500) award at a ceremony in London on Monday.

Written in spare prose, Slazay’s book recounts the life of taciturn Istvan, from a teenage relationship with an older woman through time as a struggling immigrant in the UK to a denizen of London high society.

“A meditation on class, power, intimacy, migration and masculinity, Flesh is a compelling portrait of one man, and the formative experiences that can reverberate across a lifetime,” organisers of the award ceremony in London said in a statement.

Accepting his trophy at London’s Old Billingsgate, Szalay thanked the judges for rewarding his “risky” novel.

He recalled asking his editor “whether she could imagine a novel called ‘Flesh’ winning the Booker Prize”.

“You have your answer,” he said.

In addition to the 50,000-pound ($67,000) prize for the winner, as well as 2,500-pound awards to each of the shortlisted authors and translators, the writers also gain a boost in popularity and benefit from increased book sales.

Szalay’s book was chosen from 153 submitted novels by a judging panel that included Irish writer Roddy Doyle and Sex and the City actor Sarah Jessica Parker.

Doyle said that Flesh, a book “about living, and the strangeness of living”, emerged as the judges’ unanimous choice after a five-hour meeting.

“We had never read anything quite like it. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read,” said Doyle in a statement.

“I don’t think I’ve read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well. It’s as if the author … is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe – almost to create – the character with him.”

Szalay, who was born in Canada, raised in the UK and lives in Vienna, was previously a Booker finalist in 2016 for All That Man Is, a series of stories about nine wildly different men.

Flesh was Szalay’s sixth work of fiction.

“Even though my father is Hungarian, I never felt entirely at home in Hungary. I suppose, I’m always a bit of an outsider there, and living away from the UK and London for so many years, I also had a similar feeling about London,” Szalay told BBC Radio.

“I really wanted to write a book that stretched between Hungary and London and involved a character who was not quite at home in either place.”

The frontrunners for this year’s prize, according to betting markets, were Miller for his early-1960s domestic drama The Land in Winter, and Desai for the globe-spanning saga The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, her first novel since The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Booker Prize in 2006.

The other finalists were Susan Choi’s twisty family saga, Flashlight; Katie Kitamura’s tale of acting and identity, Audition; and Ben Markovits’s midlife-crisis road trip, The Rest of Our Lives.

The Booker Prize was founded in 1969 and has established a reputation for transforming writers’ careers.

Its winners have included Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan, Arundhati Roy, Margaret Atwood and Samantha Harvey, who took the 2024 prize for space station story, Orbital.

The separate category of the International Booker Prize was awarded in May to Indian writer and activist Banu Mushtaq for her novel, Heart Lamp, which tells 12 stories of the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India.

Trump promises to defend Hungary’s finances amid Orban-EU tensions and to sign $600m gas deal, says Hungarian leader.

Hungary has struck a deal for what Prime Minister Viktor Orban called a “financial shield” to safeguard its economy from potential attacks following talks with US President Donald Trump.

Orban, a longtime ally of Trump and one of Europe’s most outspoken nationalist leaders, met the US president at the White House on Friday to seek relief from sanctions on Russian oil and gas. Following the meeting, he announced that Hungary had secured a one-year exemption from those measures.

“I have also made an agreement with the US president on a financial shield,” Orban said in a video posted by the Hungarian outlet index.hu on Sunday. “Should there be any external attacks against Hungary or its financial system, the Americans gave their word that in such a case, they would defend Hungary’s financial stability.”

A White House official said the deal also included contracts worth roughly $600m for Hungary to buy US liquefied natural gas. Orban gave no details of how the “shield” would work, but claimed it would ensure Hungary would face “no financing problems”.

“That Hungary or its currency could be attacked, or that the Hungarian budget could be put in a difficult situation, or that the Hungarian economy could be suffocated from the financing side, this should be forgotten,” he said.

The move comes as Orban faces economic stagnation and strained relations with the European Union, which has frozen billions of euros in funding over what Brussels calls Hungary’s democratic backsliding. Critics accuse Orban of using his ties with Washington to sidestep EU pressure and secure new financial lifelines.

Orban said on Friday that Hungary also received an exemption from US sanctions on Russian energy after a meeting with Trump.

Hungary’s economy has struggled since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but its currency, the forint, has shown some recovery this year, supported by high interest rates.

Trump, meanwhile, has extended his support to another far-right leader, Argentina’s Javier Milei, pledging to strengthen the country’s collapsing economy through a $20bn currency swap deal with Argentina’s central bank. Trump said he would also buy Argentinian pesos to “help a great philosophy take over a great country”.

Milei, who has made more than a dozen trips to the US since taking office in December 2023, including to attend Trump’s second inauguration, is battling inflation, debt, and dwindling reserves. Argentinian bond prices plunged in late September as the central bank scrambled to stabilise the peso.

Foreign minister says Budapest ‘obtained an indefinite exemption from the sanctions’ on Russian oil and gas shipments.

Hungary’s foreign minister says Budapest has secured an indefinite waiver from US sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports, as a White House official reiterated that the exemption was for only a period of one year.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday to press for a reprieve after the US last month imposed sanctions on Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft.

After the meeting, Orban told Hungarian media that Budapest had “been granted a complete exemption from sanctions” affecting Russian gas delivered to Hungary from the TurkStream pipeline, and oil from the Druzhba pipeline.

But a White House official later told the Reuters news agency that Hungary had been granted a one-year exemption from sanctions connected to using Russian energy.

On Saturday, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said there would be no sanctions for “an indefinite period”.

“The prime minister was clear. He has agreed with the US President [Donald Trump] that we have obtained an indefinite exemption from the sanctions,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook.

“There are no sanctions on oil and gas shipments to Hungary for an indefinite period.”

However, a White House official repeated in an email to the Reuters news agency on Saturday that the exemption is for one year.

Hungary expected to buy US LNG

The White House official who spoke to Reuters added that Hungary would also diversify its energy purchases and had committed to buying US liquefied natural gas with contracts valued at some $600m.

Orban has maintained close ties with both Moscow and Washington, while often bucking the rest of the EU on pressuring Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

The Hungarian leader offered to host a summit in Budapest between Trump and Putin, although the US leader called it off in October and hit Moscow with sanctions for the first time in his presidency.

Budapest relies heavily on Russian energy, and Orban, 15 years in power, faces a close election next year.

International Monetary Fund figures show Hungary bought 74 percent of its gas and 86 percent of its oil from Russia in 2024, warning that an EU-wide cutoff of Russian natural gas alone could cost Hungary more than 4 percent of its GDP.

Orban said that, without the agreement, energy costs would have surged, hitting the wider economy, pushing up unemployment and generating “unbearable” price rises for households and firms.

Nov. 8 (UPI) — U.S. President Donald Trump has exempted Hungary from sanctions over the nation’s purchase of Russian gas and oil for one year after meeting with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Trump is a close ally of the far-right populist and authoritarian, who came into power in 1998 but was out of office from 2002 to 2010.

On Friday at the White House, Trump said he was considering the exemption because “it’s very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas.”

After the meeting, Orban posted on X with a video: “Decision reached: President Donald Trump has guaranteed full sanction exemptions for the TurkStream and Friendship pipelines, allowing Hungary to continue providing families with the lowest energy prices in Europe. Thank you, Mr. President!”

The BBC confirmed the exemption was for one year.

Hungary’s dependence on Russian crude oil was 61% before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, then rose to 86% in 2024 and 92% this year.

On Oct. 22, the U.S. added sanctions against Russia, including blacklisting two of Russia’s largest oil companies: Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company and Lukoil OAO.

Russia has been the world’s third-largest oil exporter, generating $120 billion in 2024 behind No. 1 Saudi Arabia at $225 billion and No. 2 Canada. $121billion. The United States is No. 4 at $117 billion.

Extensive sanctions were imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February 2022. Initially, they were imposed in March 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea.

The Trump administration is attempting to use tariffs to halt third-country access, including by India.

But Trump said he understands Hungary’s situation of being a landlocked nation with limited access to gas and oil.

The U.S. State Department said Hungary has agreed to purchase U.S. liquefied gas worth about $600 million, NBC News reported.

Also, Hungary agreed to purchase American nuclear fuel, which it currently buys from Russia.

Despite similar policies as Trump, Orban said the pipelines are not “ideological” or “political” and instead a “physical reality.”

Orban had blamed U.S. President Joe Biden for “politically motivated sanctions,” including his top aid Antal Rogaan with allegations of corruption.

“Now we are quite a good position to open up a new chapter – let’s say a golden age – between the United States and Hungary,” Orban said.

Trump has used the term “golden age of America,” declaring it began with his second inauguration on Jan. 20.

The exemption was criticized by an analyst.

“The U.S. decision is a terrible and unnecessary mistake that will allow over 1 billion euros [$1.2 billion] to flow into the Kremlin’s war chest,” Isaac Levi, with the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, told CNN. “By carving out special treatment for Hungary, Washington is telling other buyers that they can keep handling Russian oil and still expect to be let off the hook.”

Levi noted the Czech Republic is another country with a port that manages without Russian crude oil and has lower fuel prices at the pump than Hungary.

“This clearly shows that the oil flows that continue to finance Putin’s war in Ukraine are entirely unnecessary,” he said.

Trump said he is “very disturbed” by other European countries that still buy Russian commodities despite not being landlocked.

Hungary and neighboring Slovakia are the only EU countries still getting Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline.

EU countries’ gas comes via Turkey through the TurkStream pipeline. Russia’s share of EU gas imports fell from 40% pre-invasion to 11% in 2024.

But Slovakia is “almost 100% dependent” on Russian crude oil, according to a report from the Center for Research and Energy and Clean Air and the Center for the Study of Democracy.

The European Commission granted an exemption to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic – three countries heavily reliant on Russian imports – for time to reduce reliance.

Other nations don’t have close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

For other products, Trump has imposed a baseline 15% tariff as part of a trade agreement with the European Union.

That includes Hungary’s car industry.

On Oct. 21, Trump canceled his planned summit with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, after Putin’s demands on ending the war in Ukraine remained.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said on Friday he’s considering granting Hungary an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian energy as he sat down with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the White House. “We’re looking at it because its very difficult for him to get the oil and gas from other areas,” Trump said.

Orbán said it’s a “vital” issue for his landlocked country, and said he planned to discuss with Trump the “consequences for the Hungarian people” if the sanctions took effect.

In comments on Friday, Orbán said he would present Trump with several “suggestions” for implementing an exemption.

“I’m not asking for some kind of gift from the Americans or some kind of unusual thing. I am simply asking for the realization that the sanctions recently imposed on Russian energy puts certain countries like Hungary, which do not have access to the sea, in an impossible situation,” Orbán said on state radio. “I’m going to ask the president to acknowledge that.”

A large delegation of cabinet members, business leaders and numerous right-wing political influencers with close connections to Hungary’s government accompanied Orbán to Washington. The delegation rented a 220-passenger commercial jet from Hungarian carrier Wizz Air for the journey.

Prior to Orbán’s arrival on Thursday, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced a resolution calling on Hungary to end its dependence on Russian energy.

The resolution was co-signed by 10 senators including Republicans Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, as well as Democrats Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Chris Coons of Delaware. It “expresses concern that Hungary has shown no sign of reducing its dependence on Russian fossil fuels,” and urges Budapest to adhere to a European Union plan to cease all Russian energy imports into the bloc by the end of 2027.

“Europe has made extraordinary progress cutting its energy ties with Moscow, but Hungary’s actions continue to undermine collective security and embolden the Kremlin,” Shaheen wrote in a statement. The resolution, she continued, “sends a clear message that when it comes to buying Russian energy, all allies should be held to the same standard, and that includes Hungary.”

On Friday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Washington that he will sign a bilateral nuclear energy cooperation agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to Hungarian state news agency MTI.

The deal will involve Hungary’s first-ever purchases of American nuclear fuel, which it currently buys from Russia, and introduce U.S. technology for the on-site storage of spent fuel at Hungary’s Paks nuclear plant. The agreement will also include cooperation on small modular reactors.

After arriving in Washington, Orbán and some of his top officials met with Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who in September was sentenced to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after an election loss. Orbán posted on social media: “We stand firmly with the Bolsonaros in these challenging times — friends and allies who never give up. Keep fighting: political witch-hunts have no place in democracy, truth and justice must prevail!”

Megerian and Spike write for the Associated Press. Spike reported from Budapest