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• Viktor Orbán lost his position as Prime Minister in the April 2026 Hungarian parliamentary elections, ending a 16-year tenure in power. • The election saw significant international involvement, with US President Donald Trump endorsing Orbán and Vice President JD Vance visiting Hungary to criticize EU interference. • Opposing parties, including Magyar and Tisza, campaigned on platforms to combat corruption and "state-capture" orchestrated by Orbán and the Fidesz party.

• The Representation of the People Bill 2024-26 proposes lowering the voting age to 16 for all elections and introducing automated electoral registration. • To increase voter turnout, the bill aims to move the postal vote application deadline in Great Britain three days earlier, providing more time for ballots to be returned. • Part 4 of the legislation tightens rules regarding donations from companies, limited liability partnerships, and unincorporated associations to prevent foreign influence in UK politics.

• The House of Commons Library has released updated GDP international comparisons to measure the size and growth of the UK economy. • The report provides the latest GDP growth data for the UK and offers direct performance benchmarks against other G7 economies. • These indicators are critical for policymakers to assess the UK's relative economic competitiveness and overall financial health on a global scale.

• AI infrastructure and semiconductor stocks have driven over two-thirds of the STOXX Europe 600's gains since April, according to TS Lombard strategist Davide Oneglia. • Reported by Seeking Alpha on May 20, 2026, the data highlights a heavy market concentration in chipmakers and AI compute suppliers. • This trend is significant as these specific tech sectors are offsetting a broader macroeconomic slowdown across Europe.

• Porsche has announced plans to reduce its workforce by 1,900 positions in Germany by 2029. • The layoffs will primarily impact the Weissach research and development center and the Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen factory. • This downsizing is a strategic effort to increase efficiency and profitability, occurring amidst a potential takeover bid from Italy’s UniCredit.

• A French consortium led by Scaleway has submitted a bid of approximately $10 billion to construct one of the European Union's planned AI gigafactories. • The project is part of the InvestAI Facility, a €20 billion initiative designed to underwrite up to five large-scale AI infrastructure sites across the bloc. • The program has seen significant interest, with 76 expressions of interest received from member states including Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland, Portugal, and the Netherlands.

Ian Cheshire says media regulator must address perception it has been complacent and slow on online safetyOfcom’s incoming chair has vowed to take on the “tech bros”, as he conceded there was now a perception the regulator had been complacent and slow over concerns about online safety.Ian Cheshire, the former Channel 4 chair who has secured the job overseeing the technology and media regulator, also told MPs he had personal concerns about the impact of social media on under-16s. Continue reading...

White Australia group says it does not want to ‘doxx’ members as it challenges designation as banned hate groupGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA neo-Nazi group has been told it cannot become a political party if it continues to redact the names of its potential members, as it launches a legal challenge to being designated as a banned hate group.The White Australia party, also known as the National Socialist Network, and its national president Thomas Sewell launched a constitutional challenge in the high court of Australia on Friday against the ban by the federal government. Continue reading...

Flash flood warnings and school closures in Texas as the US north-east breaks heat records before a dramatic cooldownHundreds of flight cancellations have been reported in Texas as storms roll over the state, leading to flash flood warnings and school closures, while punishingly high temperatures in the north-east break records before a dramatic cool-down.Nearly 150 flights were canceled or delayed at Dallas Fort Worth international airport on Wednesday and nearly 700 delayed on Tuesday, according to Flightaware. The FAA issued a ground stop in Dallas and Love Field. Continue reading...

Choreography of back-to-back visits appeared deliberately mirrored but China made sure the differences were noticedDays after Donald Trump was greeted in Beijing with a military band, an honour guard and dozens of youths waving American and Chinese flags, Vladimir Putin arrived in China to an almost identical spectacle.The choreography of the two welcomes appeared deliberately mirrored, designed to showcase Beijing’s ability to host leaders from Washington and Moscow with equal grandeur. Continue reading...

Ukrainians lament appalling toll of fighting on their country’s bird populationRussia sent kamikaze drones to attack the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia in February. They hit buildings and killed several people. One unreported victim of the bombardment was a male long-eared owl, blinded in one eye and found with a badly broken wing. A passerby scooped up the stunned bird, put him in a box and took him to the city of Dnipro.The owl – nicknamed Sunny – is now recovering in a cosy room belonging to Veronica Konkova. No longer able to fly or hunt, Sunny instead hops around. Continue reading...

Stuart Machin argues government should reduce tax and regulatory burden on supermarkets insteadThe boss of Marks & Spencer has called a government proposal for voluntary price caps on essential food items “completely preposterous”, saying it should reduce tax and regulatory burdens instead.Stuart Machin, the chief executive of the clothing, homewares, food and beauty retailer, said M&S already lost money on some basic items such as milk, bread and baked beans and made very slim profits on other products such as eggs and sugar. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Australia faces a ‘pronounced political fault line’, Giridharan Sivaraman tells Brisbane seminar on human rights Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastOne Nation and the federal opposition are “dehumanising” and “scapegoating” immigrants while drawing on a “deep vein of racism”, Australia’s federal race discrimination commissioner says.Giridharan Sivaraman made the comments as part of a panel discussion at a Brisbane seminar on human rights, hosted by the state’s human rights commission. Continue reading...

The former health secretary will give resignation speech after prime minister’s questions Good morning. PMQs is back, and there are at least two obvious issues for Kemi Badenoch to raise when she faces Keir Starmer.What Tories calls Starmer’s “Soviet-style” plan to curb supermarket pricesThis is more nuts than a squirrel convention!I warned Rachel Reeves prices would go up if she raised taxes and drowned employers in red tape. She didn’t listen and now she’s proposing Soviet style measures!After 18 months of “standing up to Putin” the Labour govt quietly issued a licence allowing imports of Russian oil refined in third countries.Yesterday Labour MPs voted AGAINST UK oil and gas licences.We are talking about our allies in Ukraine who have been fighting a war bravely against Russia for years and years with our support.They have looked to Britain as one of their most important allies, and they don’t understand, given that we promised that we would stop this loophole in October, and we still haven’t done it. In fact, it seems to have got worse. People feel very let down.There was a G7 announcement on the 19 May which said that they, the G7, had an unwavering commitment to put pressure on Russia including sanctions on the energy sector and actions against entities in third countries that materially support Russia’s war effort but we’re still saying that we’re going to take sanctioned oil but so long as it goes to Turkey first and then it’s refined, we will use it. Continue reading...

The 18-year-old high school student reached the top of the world’s tallest mountain on her second attemptAn 18-year-old high school student from Melbourne became the youngest Australian to climb to the top of Mount Everest on Wednesday.According to her Garmin data and a post on Instagram, Bianca Adler reached the 8,849 metre summit at nearly 6.30am Melbourne time, and nearly 2.30am Nepal time, with her guides, Pemba and Ngdu. Continue reading...

• Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) reported a net loss of ₹104 crore for the fourth quarter, as announced on May 19. • The company attributed the financial downturn to a decrease in advertising spend from clients, which was negatively impacted by the ongoing war in West Asia. • This loss highlights the vulnerability of media companies to geopolitical instability and the resulting volatility in global advertising markets.

Acting US attorney general made comments about the Epstein associate at a Senate hearing over budget requestsUS politics live – latest updatesTodd Blanche, the acting US attorney general, told lawmakers on Tuesday that he would not recommend a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex-trafficking crimes.Blanche’s comments came during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, where he was testifying before the appropriations subcommittee over budget requests for the justice department. Continue reading...

Scotland Yard to send files to CPS with ‘strong evidence’ of potential wrongdoing – but any trials could be years awayScotland Yard has said it hopes to bring criminal charges against 77 companies and individuals for the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, in which 72 people died.The lead investigator, Garry Moncrieff, said his team of 220 detectives had gathered “strong evidence” of potential wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Just 4% of self-employed workers are putting cash into pensions, with ‘large groups across the UK facing a severe cliff-edge’Millions of people across Britain are facing a “cliff edge” when they retire due to a chronic shortfall in saving that will require a radical shake-up of the pensions system to fix, a government-backed report has warned.The Pensions Commission said 15 million people were currently not saving adequately for their retirement, and warned this could rise to as many as 19 million without action. Continue reading...

SBS also declines to adopt International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition, which some claim conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitismFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesSign up for Guardian Australia’s free weekly media newsletter hereThe ABC has chosen not to adopt the definition of antisemitism used by the Bondi royal commission and will use its internal editorial guidance on hate speech instead, in order to maintain its independence.The royal commission on antisemitism and social cohesion announced in February that the inquiry would apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. Continue reading...

Prosecution is seen as landmark step towards justice over abuses of refugees trying to reach Europe from AfricaA former militia commander accused of overseeing murder, rape, enslavement and torture in Libyan detention centres will appear at the international criminal court on Tuesday for a hearing that campaigners say is a landmark step towards “justice, truth, reparation and deterrence” of abuses of refugees trying to reach Europe from Africa.The prosecution of Khaled Mohamed Ali El Hishri on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity is the first to reach a courtroom resulting from the ICC’s investigation into crimes in Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. Continue reading...