INTERNACIONAL
Hungarians vote in record numbers as Trump-ally Viktor Orbán faces biggest electoral threat since 2010
JD Vance goes to Budapest
JD Vance rallies for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest ahead of a pivotal election, drawing attention from US conservatives. Panelists discuss Orban’s tight re-election bid, facing a flagging economy and corruption allegations that could end his 16-year hold on power. Critics highlight his controversial economic strategy and ties to Vladimir Putin, including blocking European Union aid to Ukraine, making the race unpredictable.
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The U.S. and Europe are watching closely as Hungarians turned out in record numbers to vote Sunday in a high-stakes election that sets up Trump ally, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, against his former political ally, Péter Magyar.
Trailing in the opinion polls, Orbán’s received a major boost earlier this week when Vice President JD Vance visited the country, making clear what the administration’s position was on the importance of having a pro-U.S. candidate in the heart of Europe, as so many of its continental allies have proven lackluster, most notably for a lack of help in the war against Iran.
In his remarks, Vance made clear why he was there. «The reason why we’re doing it is because we thought there was so much garbage happening against Viktor in this election that we had to show that there are actually a lot of people and a lot of friends across the world who recognize that Viktor and his government are doing a good job, and they’re important partners for peace,» he said at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, a private university in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. «That’s why we’re here, but ultimately the Hungarian people are going to be sovereigns because that’s how it should be.»
TRUMP CALLS INTO VANCE-ORBAN HUNGARY EVENT: ‘MY KIND OF PEOPLE’
Vice President JD Vance laughs at the sound of President Donald Trump calling in as he was delivering remarks at a Day of Friendship event with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at MTK Sportpark in Budapest, Hungary, on April 7, 2026. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Following Vance’s return to the U.S., President Donald Trump weighed in on Truth Social Friday: «My Administration stands ready to use the full economic might of the United States to strengthen Hungary’s Economy, as we have done for our great allies in the past, if Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian People ever need it. We are excited to invest in the future prosperity that will be generated by Orbán’s continued leadership!»
Beloved by many older and more rural Hungarians and reviled by detractors, Orbán has emerged as the country’s most consequential leader since its transition to democracy at the end of the Cold War. Still, the election campaign has become intense.
Orbán’s strained relationship with the European Union comes from his positioning on Russia’s war against Ukraine, his country’s firm support of Israel and his hard stance on not accepting migrants, which led to EU financial sanctions for his refusal to open the country’s border to foreigners.
During the 16-year Orbán government, the Hungarian economy has grown relatively quickly for an EU country. The country’s GDP per capita (what the average person earns annually) rose to nearly $17,000 last year, up from approximately $12,000 in 2014, according to Trading Economics data. However, it’s not all good. Inflation has recently been relatively high at an annual rate of 4.9%, and business sentiment has been consistently negative since Aug. 2022.
TRUMP SAYS HUNGARY’S BORDER STANCE KEEPS CRIME DOWN, SAYS EUROPE ‘FLOODING’ WITH MIGRANTS
Péter Magyar, a former insider within Orban’s ruling Fidesz party speaks during a protest outside the Hungarian Interior Ministry building to demand stronger protections for children and Interior minister Sandor Pinter to step down, in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, April 26, 2024. Magyar is leading the polls in April’s 2026 election. (Denes Erdos/AP)
The poll of polls shows Magyar’s Tisza party with 50% of the vote and Orbán’s Fidesz party behind at 39% as of April 9, according to Politico. Magyar now poses the largest electoral threat to Orbán since 2010.
«The polls are going well for the opposition,» Daniel Wood, portfolio manager at William Blair Investment Management, told Fox News Digital. «If the opposition wins, there’s a chance that the EU unlocks the frozen funds, which are around 7% of the GDP.»
U.S. President Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, May 13, 2019. Trump is meeting with the nationalist leader of Hungary despite bipartisan objections from Congress, as the U.S. seeks to steer the Central European nation and NATO member away from Russia and China. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
Speaking to reporters outside a polling station Sunday, Orbán, 62, said the campaign had been «a great national moment on our side» and thanked activists and supporters for their work. «I’m here to win,» the Associated Press reported.
In an interview earlier in the week, Péter Magyar complained the EU’s longest-serving leader has led the country on a «180-degree turn» in recent years, endangering its Western orientation while cozying up to Moscow. Yet despite that drift, «Hungarians still see that Hungary’s peace and development are guaranteed by membership of the European Union and NATO,» Magyar said. «I think this really will be a referendum on our country’s place in the world,» he told the Associated Press.
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Results are expected later this afternoon.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
europe, elections, the european union, donald trump, alliances, jd vance
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President Donald Trump lost his Supreme Court bid to restrict birthright citizenship through executive order, but one of his own appointees may have handed Republicans a blueprint for pursuing much of the same goal through Congress.
Voting with the 6-3 majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh agreed that Executive Order 14160, which restricts automatic citizenship to people born to U.S. citizens or permanent residents, couldn’t take effect. But in a concurring opinion, he also pointed to a different path forward. Kavanaugh argued the court should have resolved the case under federal law rather than the Constitution, laying out a potential legislative path for Congress to pursue changes to birthright citizenship.
Congress first wrote the 14th Amendment’s birthright citizenship language into federal law in 1940, then carried it over into the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
Because Congress adopted that language after the Supreme Court’s landmark 1898 decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which established that most people born in the United States automatically become U.S. citizens, Kavanaugh said lawmakers effectively incorporated the court’s interpretation into federal statute.
TRUMP SUFFERS MAJOR SUPREME COURT DEFEAT AS JUSTICES UPHOLD BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
Judge Brett Kavanaugh testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to the Supreme Court, on Capitol Hill, Sept. 27, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Michael Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)
Kavanaugh said Trump couldn’t use an executive order to change a law Congress had already passed, but instead suggested Congress could rewrite the law to limit birthright citizenship for children born to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.
«Congress could — consistent with the Fourteenth Amendment—amend §1401(a) or otherwise enact new legislation establishing exceptions to birthright citizenship for children born to foreign citizens unlawfully or temporarily in the country,» he wrote.
ALITO WARNS SUPREME COURT MADE ‘SERIOUS MISTAKE’ THAT COULD HAVE NATIONAL SECURITY CONSEQUENCES
Demonstrators rally in front of the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Kavanaugh argued that large-scale illegal immigration and modern international travel have created circumstances the Reconstruction Congress never envisioned. In his view, that gives Congress room to establish new exceptions to birthright citizenship that are comparable to the historical exceptions recognized under the citizenship clause, including children born to foreign diplomats and enemy forces occupying U.S. territory.
«Those two categories of foreign citizens—namely, those unlawfully or temporarily in the country—are relevantly similar to the four categories of persons recognized as exceptions in Wong Kim Ark,» Kavanaugh wrote.
While the majority rejected Kavanaugh’s constitutional reasoning, Republicans quickly seized on the idea that any future effort to limit birthright citizenship would have to come through Congress rather than the White House.
REPUBLICAN ACCUSES SCOTUS OF BETRAYING US, PUSHES BILL RESTRICTING BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP, PREGNANT VISITORS
Hours after the Supreme Court’s ruling came out, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said birthright citizenship has «been abused» and suggested that Congress will have to amend the Constitution.
«It’s one of those things that was intended to serve a noble and important purpose and has been thwarted and overused and abused,» Johnson told reporters. «I’m sure that the conclusion from this decision is you have to amend the Constitution to fix that.»
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., renewed his push for a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship, arguing that legislation alone would not be enough.
Demonstrators rally in support of birthright citizenship outside the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 1, 2026. (Mandel Ngan/Getty Images)
«I introduced a constitutional amendment months ago, actually, to fix birthright citizenship,» Paul wrote on X. «After the Supreme Court decision, that amendment matters more than ever. I’m asking my colleagues to take it seriously and help me get this passed.»
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, echoed Paul’s calls to pass a constitutional amendment.
«The long fight for a constitutional amendment begins now,» Lee wrote on X. «We must explicitly exclude foreign nationals who break our laws, violate our borders, or exploit loopholes to make their families American.»
Trump argued that Congress could change birthright citizenship through legislation instead of a constitutional amendment.
«No long and unwieldy Constitutional Amendment is necessary!» Trump wrote on Truth Social. «Congress should start TODAY to work on ending expensive and unfair to our Country, Birthright Citizenship. They will have my Complete and Total Support!»
Several Republicans quickly pointed to existing legislation, including Sen. Tom Cotton’s, R-Ark., Constitutional Citizenship Clarification Act, as well as proposals from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Rick Scott, R-Fla., aimed at cracking down on birth tourism.
Meanwhile, the Justice Department indicated it would shift tactics, announcing a crackdown on birth tourism by targeting alleged visa fraud and related criminal conduct rather than attempting to enforce Executive Order 14160.
But, Kavanaugh’s roadmap is far from a guarantee. On the constitutional question, a 5-4 majority concluded that the citizenship clause itself protects birthright citizenship, meaning any congressional effort to restrict it through ordinary legislation would likely face immediate constitutional challenges.
«Justice Thomas says in the final paragraph of his dissent that he’s not confident that the decision is going to stand the test of time, so it could well be that the court would revisit it if Congress were to take the steps that Justice Kavanaugh describes,» Notre Dame Law School professor Haley Proctor told Fox News Digital. «This is an important decision. I don’t think the court’s going to revisit it lightly, and the only sure way to get a new answer here would be to amend the Constitution.»
Kavanaugh offered a similar roadmap in a recent Trump case over tariffs. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that a federal emergency law known as IEEPA did not give Trump the authority to impose sweeping tariffs. But Kavanaugh argued the administration had simply relied on the wrong legal authority instead of rejecting the policy outright.
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«The Court today concludes that the President checked the wrong statutory box by relying on IEEPA rather than another statute to impose these tariffs,» Kavanaugh wrote.
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Instead, Kavanaugh said Trump could rely on several existing trade laws to impose many of the same tariffs, though those laws would require additional legal steps.
Trump later called Kavanaugh his «new hero» in a Truth Social post praising the justice’s dissent in the February tariff decision.
supreme court, constitution, republicans elections, politics, congress
INTERNACIONAL
Detuvieron en Ecuador a “Churrón”, el líder criminal de Los Choneros por el que EEUU ofrecía USD 5 millones
El narcotraficante y líder criminal ecuatoriano Francisco Manuel Bermúdez Cagua, conocido como ‘Churrón’, fue detenido el jueves por la noche en un operativo militar en el norte de Guayaquil, la ciudad más poblada de Ecuador. Por su captura, Estados Unidos ofrecía una recompensa de hasta USD 5 millones.
El ministro de Defensa Nacional, Gian Carlo Loffredo, anunció la aprehensión vía redes sociales y afirmó que Bermúdez estaba al frente de Los Choneros, la banda criminal más antigua del país. El máximo líder de esta organización, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias Fito, fue recapturado en 2025 y extraditado al país norteamericano.
Bermúdez es requerido por la justicia estadounidense por delitos de tráfico de cocaína y tenencia de armas con fines de narcotráfico. Según Loffredo, el detenido será trasladado a la Cárcel del Encuentro, una prisión diseñada bajo estrictas condiciones para líderes y cabecillas criminales, inspirada en el modelo carcelario de El Salvador.
Los Choneros controlaron la actividad criminal en Ecuador hasta finales de 2020, cuando estalló una guerra de bandas por el control del crimen en el país.
La Oficina de Asuntos Internacionales de Narcóticos y Aplicación de la Ley del Departamento de Estado de Estados Unidos había anunciado la recompensa de USD 5 millones por información que permita la detención o condena de Francisco Bermúdez, uno de los líderes de la organización considerada terrorista por los gobiernos de Ecuador y Estados Unidos.
“Bermúdez Cagua, quien es el primer miembro de Los Choneros en aparecer en la lista de objetivos del programa de recompensas contra el narcotráfico, participa en la toma de decisiones sobre el tráfico de drogas y armas para Los Choneros”, detalló Tommy Pigott, portavoz principal adjunto del Departamento de Estado.
La declaración recordó que el 27 de junio de 2025, el reciente detenido, junto a otros líderes de la organización, Darío Javier Peñafiel Nieto (“Topo”) y José Adolfo Macías Villamar (“Fito”), fueron acusados por el Distrito Este de Nueva York de conspiración para importar y distribuir cocaína, así como de posesión de armas de fuego para facilitar el tráfico de drogas.
En la acusación, Churrón y Topo figuran como lugartenientes de alto rango de Fito, quien fue capturado a fines en una residencia de Manta tras un año y medio de fuga. “Fueron lugartenientes de alto rango dentro de la estructura de liderazgo de la organización”, señalaba el documento. La cartera al mando del secretario de Estado de EEUU, Marco Rubio, subrayó que Los Choneros mantienen vínculos con el cártel mexicano de Sinaloa y controlan rutas clave del tráfico de drogas a través de Ecuador.
Durante una visita a Ecuador el 5 de septiembre el año pasado, Rubio declaró a Los Choneros y Los Lobos como organizaciones terroristas extranjeras. Esta medida autoriza la sanción de bienes, propiedades y fondos de ambos grupos en el sistema bancario estadounidense y prohíbe cualquier transacción de ciudadanos norteamericanos que involucre activos vinculados a esas organizaciones.
En esa ocasión, el jefe de la diplomacia estadounidense también anunció una ayuda económica de USD 19 millones a Quito, de los cuales 13,5 millones se destinarían a la lucha contra el narcotráfico y 6 millones a la adquisición de drones para la fuerza naval.
Con el regreso de Donald Trump a la Casa Blanca, Estados Unidos incluyó a 12 grupos latinoamericanos en la lista de organizaciones terroristas extranjeras.
Entre los grupos designados figuran, en México: Cártel de Sinaloa, Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Cártel del Noroeste, Cártel de la Nueva Familia Michoacana, Cárteles Unidos y Cártel del Golfo; en Ecuador: Los Choneros y Los Lobos; en El Salvador: Mara Salvatrucha y Barrio 18; y en Venezuela: Tren de Aragua y Cártel de los Soles.
(Con información de EFE)
Crime
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