Hungarian foreign minister was accused of passing information from closed-door talks to Moscow.

The EU is limiting the flow of confidential material to Hungary and leaders are meeting in smaller groups — as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned of long-standing suspicions Viktor Orbán’s government is sharing information with Russia.

But there will not be any formal EU response to a fresh set of allegations because of the possible impact on the Hungarian election on April 12, according to five European diplomats and officials who told POLITICO they were concerned about the risk of Budapest leaking sensitive information to the Kremlin.

“The news that Orbán’s people inform Moscow about EU Council meetings in every detail shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has backed Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar in the election, wrote on X on Sunday. “We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time. That’s one reason why I take the floor only when strictly necessary and say just as much as necessary.”

Marine Le Pen's National Rally failed to win big target cities such as Marseille, Toulon and Nîmes, but the party still thinks it has the upper hand nationwide.

The far-right National Rally may not have won the string of big target cities it was hoping for in France’s local election on Sunday, but its leaders said they had still built up a grassroots momentum that would propel them to victory in next year’s presidential contest.

The 2027 presidential election is seen as a decisive moment for the EU as the Euroskeptic and NATO-skeptic National Rally is the current favorite to win the race for the Elysée. This week’s municipal elections are being closely scrutinized to gauge whether Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration party is still France’s predominant political force.

All in all, it was a mixed night for the far right. Its biggest victory came on the Riviera, where one of its allies won Nice, France’s fifth-biggest city. The National Rally had also campaigned hard in other significant southern cities such as Marseille, Toulon and Nîmes. It performed well in all of them but was beaten into second place.

Nine people hospitalised and airport closed after landing plane hits fire truck responding to separate incident

The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express regional jet have been killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport, in an incident that closed the airport.

The collision also caused serious injuries with nine people in hospital. It happened as a firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport.

The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane, operated by its partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal, based on a preliminary passenger list that remained subject to confirmation. Jazz is owned by Chorus Aviation.

A statue of Christopher Columbus has been placed on the grounds of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House, the latest effort by Donald Trump’s administration to recognize the controversial explorer.

The statue is a replica of one that was tossed into Baltimore’s harbor in 2020 during Trump’s first term at a time of nationwide protests against institutional racism.

Trump endorses a traditional view of Columbus as a leader of the 1492 mission seen as the unofficial beginning of European colonization in the Americas and the development of the modern economic and political order. But in recent years, Columbus also has been recognized as a primary example of Western Europe’s conquest of the New World, its resources and its native people.

and productive conversations with Iran and he will order the military ​to postpone any military ​strikes against Iranian power plants ⁠and energy infrastructure for five ​days.

Trump's move followed a threat by ​Iran to attack Israel's power plants and those supplying U.S. bases ​across the Gulf region if ​the U.S. targets Iran's power network.

A bright fireball that was spotted Saturday afternoon in the skies over southeastern Texas was confirmed to be a meteor that likely broke apart over the Houston area, according to NASA.

Eyewitness accounts in the greater Houston area — including footage from a doorbell camera, a car’s dashboard camera and video captured during a Little League baseball game — showed a fiery ball of light streaking across clear, blue skies. NASA said the meteor event occurred at 4:40 p.m. local time, first visible in Stagecoach, northwest of Houston.

“It moved southeast at 35,000 mph, breaking apart 29 miles above Bammel, just west of Cypress Station,” the agency wrote in a post on X.

AI use in political ads is largely regulated at the state level, but there are still concerns about how they can mislead voters.

At least 15 campaign ads featuring AI-generated content have run since November, stoking concerns that the now-ubiquitous technology could cause confusion or even mislead voters ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

In state, local and federal elections across the country, AI has been everywhere from school board campaigns to governor’s races, used to enhance speech, turn politicians into cartoons or, in one notable case in Massachusetts, mimic a rival politician’s voice.

In the state’s gubernatorial race, the campaign of Republican primary candidate Brian Shortsleeve created an AI-generated radio ad that sounds like Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, using Healey’s “voice” to say things she never actually said, including about the state’s economy. The clip does not contain an explicit AI disclaimer, and instead the caption says it’s what her radio ads would sound like “if she was honest.” Shortsleeve’s campaign has also released AI-generated videos depicting Healey as the Grinch and another of her hissing with red eyes, neither of which contained explicit AI disclaimers.

US president’s backing comes as Hungary’s PM faces toughest election campaign of 16 years in office

Donald Trump has endorsed Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who faces his toughest electoral challenge next month since taking power 16 years ago, as Europe’s far-right leaders gather for a “grand assembly” in Budapest.

In a video message, the US president told the national-conservative Cpac Hungary conference in the capital on Saturday that Orbàn, who has been trailing in the polls behind a centre-right rival for more than a year, was a "fantastic guy."

Trump, who also backed Orbán on social media last month, said he had been a strong leader who had "shown the entire world what’s possible when you defend your borders, your culture, your heritage, your sovereignty and your values."

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Sunday offered a full-throated endorsement of Donald Trump’s military efforts against Iran and also said he expects the nations of NATO to come together to support Trump.

Rutte has consistently been supportive of Trump even as some of the leading European powers — noting that NATO is intended to be a defensive alliance — have expressed reluctance to help Trump with the Iran war, including with U.S. efforts to make the Strait of Hormuz safe for the passage of oil tankers.

Trump, for his part, has lashed out at NATO. “Without the U.S.A., NATO IS A PAPER TIGER! They didn’t want to join the fight to stop a Nuclear Powered Iran,” he wrote on Truth Social on Friday. “Now that fight is Militarily WON, with very little danger for them, they complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz, a simple military maneuver that is the single reason for the high oil prices. So easy for them to do, with so little risk. COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!”

TSA employees have been working without pay during a partial shutdown of DHS over demands to reform immigration enforcement.

More than 400 Transportation Security Administration workers have quit since a partial government shutdown that began on Feb. 14 left them working without pay, the Department of Homeland Security said.

Funding was shut off to DHS over demands by Democrats for reforms at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection following alleged abuses and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens by federal agents in Minneapolis earlier this year.

There has also been a national callout rate of 10% at TSA on more than half the days of the last week, Lauren Bis, acting assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS, said Saturday in response to questions.

Bianco is one of two Republicans running for governor in a primary that includes more than half a dozen Democrats

A California sheriff, who is also a gubernatorial candidate, has seized more than half a million ballots from a November special election, citing an investigation into an alleged ballot count discrepancy.

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, took possession of the ballots from county election officials, who have publicly disputed his claims.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, condemned Bianco's actions as unprecedented, suggesting they are intended to undermine public trust in the electoral process.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday defended strikes on Iran’s infrastructure since the U.S. and Israel began their joint war against the country in February, saying “sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate.”

His comments came just hours after President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was giving Iranian leadership 48 hours to open the Strait of Hormuz or risk U.S. military strikes that “will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

Bessent defended Trump’s rhetoric, saying it’s “the only language the Iranians understand.”