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Trump claims ‘productive’ talks with Iran but Tehran denies contact

Donald Trump has claimed there have been talks between the United States and Iran over the past day in which the two sides had “major points of agreement”, appearing to avert a potentially severe escalation of the conflict. Tehran has denied the claim, in which Trump also speculated that a deal could soon be done to end the war. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said no talks had been held with the US since the bombing campaign began 24 days ago. Trump’s threat at the weekend to “hit and obliterate” Iran’s power stations and energy infrastructure if Tehran did not allow shipping to move freely through the strait of Hormuz, and Iran’s threat to destroy infrastructure across the Middle East in retaliation, had raised fears of a deepening conflict and global economic crisis. In a flurry of presidential announcements on Monday, Trump first posted on social media that he had extended his deadline by five days, saying the US and Iran had held “very good and productive conversations” in recent days, then told reporters in Palm Beach, Florida, that his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and close aide and son-in-law Jared Kushner had held “very, very strong talks” with the Iranians a day earlier. “We’ll see where they lead. We have points, major points of agreement, I would say, almost all points of agreement … we’ve had very strong talks, Mr Witkoff and Mr Kushner had them,” Trump said. Later on Monday, Trump played up the chances of a deal, saying: “We’re giving it five days and then we’re going to see where that takes us. And I would say at the end of this period, I think it could very well end up being a very good deal for everybody.” Oman, Turkey, Egypt and Pakistan have all been reported to have been involved in efforts to broker an end to hostilities in recent days, but it is unclear how substantial or productive such contacts have been. Oman’s foreign minister, Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, said on Monday that Oman was working hard to secure safe passage through the strait of Hormuz. Keir Starmer told a parliamentary committee on Monday that the UK was aware discussions were happening. Starmer and Trump talked late on Sunday by telephone, according to Downing Street. Trump’s claims came amid continuing violence across a swathe of the Middle East. The United Arab Emirates reported new incoming Iranian fire, US warplanes launched airstrikes against targets across southern Iran and the Israeli Defense Forces said they had “just begun another wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran”. In all his comments, Trump declined to say with whom the US was speaking in Iran. “We’re dealing with the man who, I believe, is the most respected and the ‘leader’. It’s a little tough – we’ve wiped out everybody,” Trump said, stating only that the US had not talked to current supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. A senior Iranian official told Reuters the US had requested a meeting with Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, but that the supreme national security council had yet to decide on any proposed talks and Iran had yet to respond. Qalibaf himself described “fake news … used to manipulate the financial and oil markets”. The Fars news agency, which is linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had earlier also denied any talks, saying there were neither direct nor indirect communications with the US. The Iranian state news agency Irna quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson as saying “friendly countries” had sent messages indicating that the US wanted talks to end the war but none had taken place. Iran has been defiant in the face of Trump’s threats and more than three weeks of the joint US-Israeli offensive. In response to Sunday’s ultimatum, Tehran threatened to target power plants supplying US bases across the Middle East, vital desalination facilities in Gulf countries, and to intensify strikes on Israel. On Monday, after Trump’s extension of his deadline, Iranian state television put up a graphic that read: “US president backs down following Iran’s firm warning.” There was surprise among many observers at the claim of an imminent negotiated end to a war launched by Israel and the US last month with an airstrike that killed the supreme leader Ali Khamenei and many senior regime officials. The US president had on Friday complained that the US had “nobody to talk to” in Iran, adding in apparent contradiction: “We like it that way.” Iranian attacks have in effect closed the strait of Hourmuz, which carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, threatening a deep and durable global economic crisis, with stock markets plummeting early on Monday before Trump’s announcements. Since then, oil prices have eased back and many financial markets regained some of their recent losses. Trump wrote in his post early on Monday morning that the US and Iran “have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations”, adding that he had “instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions”. It was not clear from Trump’s statement how Iran and the US might agree to “a complete and total resolution” to end the conflict, including the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and addressing concerns over Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, whose whereabouts is unclear. In public, Tehran has also made demands for a ceasefire that would be impossible for Washington to meet, such as an end to a US military presence in the Gulf and massive compensation for damage caused during the war. Trump’s ultimatum came hours after two Iranian missiles struck southern Israel, injuring more than 100 people, in the most destructive attack since the war began. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed to retaliate “on all fronts”. Tehran had said it would “irreversibly destroy” essential infrastructure across the Middle East, including vital water systems, if the US followed through on Trump’s threat, and also said it would hit power plants in all areas that supplied electricity to American bases, “as well as the economic, industrial and energy infrastructures in which Americans have shares”. Nitya Labh, an expert in maritime security at London’s Chatham House, said that even an agreement with Iran that supposedly reopened the strait of Hormuz would not restore previous conditions for shipping. “A lot of energy infrastructure has been hit in the Gulf, so even if the strait of Hormuz opens we won’t see a return to the same level as before the war, even without the added risk and fears,” Labh said. “Even if Iran is willing to let shipping through, the industry will prioritise resilience over efficiency.” More than 2,000 people have been killed in the war that the US and Israel launched on 28 February, the majority of them in Iran. In Lebanon, authorities said 1,039 had been killed in Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah, with 2,876 others wounded. In Tehran, the US president’s comments were met with scepticism. “Trump is just buying time, calculating his next move. He’s not done with Iran,” said Ali, who did not want to give his full name. “He started this war in the middle of negotiations. And who’s he talking to? No one knows.” Additional reporting by Saeed Shah in Islamabad

Lionel Jospin obituary

In the run-up to the first round of the French presidential election of April 2002, the Socialist party leader and prime minister Lionel Jospin, who has died aged 88, was a firm favourite to become the next leader of France. According to every opinion poll, Jospin would face Jacques Chirac, seeking re-election, in the second round vote and the two candidates were neck and neck. It would be hard to overestimate the stupefaction and political earthquake when, at precisely 8pm on Sunday 21 April, the results of the first round were announced: Jospin had been knocked into third place by the far-right National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and thus was out of the race. Outside the Socialist party’s headquarters in central Paris shocked supporters gathered in tears to hear Jospin declare it was “a bolt from the blue” and announce he would leave politics. “I take full responsibility for this defeat and I am drawing the necessary conclusions by stepping down from political life,” he told the crowd. The man who, as prime minister between 1997 and 2002, had introduced the 35-hour working week, universal health cover and the civil partnership for couples, disappeared into political exile. Jospin was born to a Protestant family in the town of Meudon, south-west of Paris. He was one of the four children of Robert Jospin, a teacher and member of the French section of the Workers’ International (SFIO), and his second wife, Mireille (nee Dandieu), a midwife, who is said to have used books by Voltaire to raise up her bed for his birth. Robert was expelled from the SFIO in 1945 after accepting a post as municipal councillor under France’s collaborationist Vichy regime. As a youngster, Lionel had a stormy relationship with his father, whom he recalled as a “rigorous figure” who liked a political argument over Sunday lunch. Relations between father and son remained tense right up until Robert’s death in 1990, though Jospin admitted the previous year: “Being the son of such a debater gave me confidence.” After passing his baccalauréat at the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly in Paris in 1955, Jospin studied at the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po) before taking the entrance exam for the École Nationale d’Administration, then a hothouse for France’s political class. He failed, but in 1961, after completing military service, first as an officer cadet at the Cavalry School in Saumur, then as a tank officer in Trier, Germany, he applied again and was admitted. His first job on graduation was as a secretary at the foreign affairs ministry. Unbeknown to his superiors, he had also joined the International Communist Organisation, a Trotskyist movement. His membership, under the pseudonym Michel, was a closely guarded secret for 30 years. Leaving the foreign ministry after the student uprising of May 1968, Jospin joined the Socialist party, and spent the next decade teaching economics at Paris-Sceaux Technical University. He became an MP in June 1981, representing first Paris and later the Haute-Garonne. Throughout the 1970s, Jospin rose through the Socialist party and he played a part in the campaign that saw François Mitterrand elected president in 1981. For reasons that still mystify many in French political circles, Mitterrand had taken a shine to the young politician, who succeeded him as the party’s first secretary (its leader) that January. Jospin also served as a member of the European parliament and, after Mitterrand’s re-election in 1988, was appointed education minister. But amid bitter division and internal rivalries within the Socialist party, and after losing his parliamentary seat in 1993, Jospin stepped down as party leader and at one point considered retiring from political life when his request for an ambassador’s post was refused. His disillusion with politics did not last long. In 1995 Jospin made his first bid to become president, and was beaten by Chirac in a surprisingly close race. Two years later he led a leftwing coalition that included communists and ecologists to victory in the general election and was named prime minister. He formed a government in opposition to the president – a situation known in France as a “cohabitation” – that in 2000 introduced the 35-hour working week. In 2002, he oversaw France dropping the franc and the introduction of the European currency, the euro. Le Monde recalls that Jospin boasted of leading the “most leftwing government in Europe” and told Tony Blair in London that the UK’s third way policies were not exportable. “The economy must serve people, not the other way around … yes to the market economy, no to the market society” was a mantra. In February 2002, Jospin sent a fax to the news agency Agence France Presse announcing he would stand in the presidential election that year. His first mistake was failing to unite factions on the left who then proposed their own candidates, which journalists blamed on Jospin’s unreasonable “pride”. As a result, voters faced a bewildering choice of 18 candidates. Jospin also made personal attacks on Chirac, calling him “old, worn-out and tired”, and this did not go down well with left- or rightwing voters. Election day was during the school holidays, leading to high abstention. It took four days after he was knocked out of the running for Jospin to advise leftwing voters to “refuse the far right” in the subsequent presidential race, but without mentioning Chirac, and his political exile began. Friends and family knew not to mention the 2002 election. His defeat remains a political trauma for France and marked the first step towards political recognition for the far-right National Front, now National Rally, which had previously been thought unelectable. In 2014, Jospin was made a member of France’s constitutional council, a post he held until 2019, but he remained out of the day-to-day scrum of French politics. He is survived by his second wife, Sylviane Agacinski, a philosopher, whom he married in 1994, and her son, Daniel; and by a son, Hugo, and daughter, Eva, from his first marriage, to Élisabeth Dannenmüller, which ended in divorce. • Lionel Robert Jospin, politician, born 12 July 1937; died 22 March 2026

Scores feared dead as Colombian military plane crashes

Scores of Colombian soldiers are feared dead after a military transport plane crashed on takeoff in the south of the country. The defence minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the accident happened as the Lockheed Martin Hercules C-130 plane was taking off from Puerto Leguízamo, deep in Colombia’s southern Amazon region, on the border with Peru, as it transported troops from the armed forces. Maj Gen Carlos Fernando Silva, the chief of the Colombian air force, said that the aircraft was carrying 11 air force members and 114 soldiers. He said that 48 injured people had been rescued but gave no figure for survivors or fatalities. Gustavo Petro, the Colombian president, described the crash as a “horrific accident that should never have happened”. In a lengthy post, apparently attempting to pre-empt potential criticism, Petro said he had been trying to renew the military fleet for years but has been hindered by “bureaucratic difficulties”. “If the civil or military administrative officials are not up to this challenge, they must be removed,” said Petro. The leading candidates for the Colombian presidency – the first round of which will take place in late May, when Petro will not run as there is no re-election – also posted messages mourning the tragedy and calling for investigations into its causes. Images shared online by local media outlets show a black cloud of smoke rising from a field where the plane crashed, a truck with soldiers rushing to the site and civilians trying to extinguish the fire. Sánchez did not specify the number of troops who were onboard the Hercules C-130. He said rescue teams had been sent to the site of the crash and that the cause of the accident still had not been determined. “This event is profoundly painful for the country,” Sánchez wrote. “We hope that our prayers can help to relieve some of the pain.” The US defense company Lockheed Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment. At the end of February, another Hercules C-130 belonging to the Bolivian air force crashed in the populous city of El Alto, barely missing a residential block, killing more than 20 people and injuring another 30. More details soon …

Viktor Orbán celebrated by Europe’s far right before Hungary election

Marine Le Pen has called Viktor Orbán “an exceptional leader” and Geert Wilders hailed “a lion on a continent led by sheep” as Europe’s far-right figureheads rallied round Hungary’s prime minister before an election that polls suggest he may lose. “Hungary has become a symbol in Europe of a proud and sovereign people’s resistance against oppression,” Le Pen, the parliamentary leader of France’s National Rally (RN), told a gathering of EU-sceptical leaders in Budapest on Monday. “Hungary has achieved this status under the leadership of none other than prime minister Viktor Orbán,” said Le Pen, a frontrunner in France’s 2027 presidential vote if she wins an appeal against a conviction in a graft case. She praised Orbán’s “intelligence, courage and vision”. Wilders, the head of the far-right Dutch Freedom party (PVV), told the so-called Patriots’ Grand Assembly – named after the nationalists’ political group in the European parliament – that Orbàn had “shown what it means to stand tall”. The Hungarian prime minister “knows that a leader’s first duty is to his own people, not to distant elite and certainly not to unelected Brussels bureaucrats”, said Wilders, whose party lost to the liberal-progressive D66 in last year’s Dutch elections. He said Hungary had become “something extraordinary” during Orbàn’s 16 years in power. “And that is why the Brussels bureaucrats want … another prime minister. One who bows. One who obeys. And one who does not put Hungary first.” Orbán has long been at loggerheads with the EU over a range of issues including attacks on the rule of law. In defiance of Brussels, he has remained friendly with Moscow, refuses to send weapons to Ukraine and insists Kyiv cannot join the bloc. He is running a classic populist campaign, arguing that a vote for him will preserve Hungary as “an island of security and tranquillity” whereas victory for his rival, Péter Magyar, whom he paints as an agent of Brussels and Kyiv, would mean chaos and war. Polls suggest the centre-right Magyar and his Tisza party could outscore Orbàn’s Fidesz by between nine and 11 percentage points in the parliamentary election on 12 April, which is likely to be the most consequential vote for Europe this year. Leading rightwing figures including Santiago Abascal of Spain’s Vox, André Ventura of Portugal’s Chega and Mateusz Morawiecki of Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) attended a weekend national-conservative Cpac Hungary conference in Budapest. They were joined on Monday by Le Pen, Wilders, Matteo Salvini of Italy’s League and others. Salvini said he believed voters would “make their decision with pride and with Hungary’s interests in mind” in next month’s election. “Their choice will be about preserving self-determination, maintaining a thousand-year Christian identity, Hungarian families, secure borders, and a future where their children will be able to decide for themselves,” the Italian deputy prime minister said. Budapest must not become a capital “that is obedient to Brussels” and Hungary must “remain proud and in control of its own destiny”, Salvini said, leading the crowd in a chant of “Viktor, Viktor, Viktor!” On Saturday Donald Trump endorsed Orbán, saying in a video message to the Cpac conference that the illiberal prime minister, who has been trailing Magyar in the polls 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”. “I hope he wins, and I hope he wins big,” he said. Media reports had previously suggested that the US vice-president, JD Vance, would attend the Budapest gathering, but Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said last week that Vance’s visit would take place in early April instead.

Israel launches new strikes on Tehran as Trump pauses Iran energy attacks

The Israeli military said it had launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran, after Donald Trump signalled a pause in US attacks against energy infrastructure after what he said were talks with Iran. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it would continue operations in line with Israeli government directives until told otherwise. About 40 minutes after Trump said he had extended by five days his deadline to strike Iran’s power plants, describing talks with Tehran as “productive”, the IDF said on X it ‘‘has just begun another wave of strikes targeting infrastructure of the Iranian terror regime across Tehran”. The IDF told the Guardian energy infrastructure would be spared, suggesting Israel may follow Washington in suspending any targeting of Iranian power plants and related sites. An IDF official told the Times of Israel that the military could not comment on the US president’s announcement of negotiations with Iran, saying it was a “political echelon matter”, and stating it was ‘‘operating in accordance with the directives of Israel’s political leadership and will continue to strike in Iran according to its plans until instructed otherwise”. Al Jazeera Arabic’s correspondent in Tehran reported that the size and volume of the explosions in the Iranian capital were “unprecedented”. Israel has not recently threatened to strike such facilities, but the defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Sunday that attacks on Iran and on “the infrastructure it relies on” would significantly escalate. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on Monday said they launched a new attack on targets in Israel. Before Israel launched its latest strikes on Iran, Trump wrote on social media, that Washington and Tehran “have had, over the last two days, very good and productive conversations”, adding that he had “instructed the Department of War to postpone any and all military strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for a five-day period, subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions”. A source familiar with Israel’s military planning said Washington had kept Israeli officials updated on its discussions with Tehran, adding that Israel was expected to align with the US in pausing any strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure. The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the US-Iran talks or Washington’s decision to refrain from targeting certain Iranian sites. On Monday, in a statement on Telegram, the Israeli military said it had struck a series of military bases and weapons sites in a fresh round of attacks on Iran, including an Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps air defence and ground forces headquarters, a Quds Force base and intelligence site, and a defence ministry missile production facility, as well as other research and manufacturing centres. The Guardian could not independently verify the claims. The US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said in the last 24 hours it had recorded at least 206 attacks across 15 provinces in Iran, resulting in at least four casualties (killed and injured, both civilian and military). With the killing of a child on Monday, it is estimated at least 15% of the total human casualties in Iran so far have been under the age of 18. At least six people were killed in strikes on homes in Tabriz city, according to Fars. Since US-Israeli bombs started falling on Iran, estimates of total fatalities (military and civilian) in the country have surpassed 1,500, with some rights groups reporting figures as high as 3,230 as of 21 March. Earlier, the IDF said it had destroyed or rendered inoperable about 330 of Iran’s estimated 470 ballistic missile launchers since the beginning of the war, with more than half hit in airstrikes and others disabled after entrances to underground storage sites were targeted. The military said the air force was continuing to pursue the remaining launchers, as missile fire on Israel has fallen to about 10 a day in recent days, down from roughly 90 at the start of the conflict. Meanwhile, Israel has continued its military campaign in Lebanon. The Israeli military said it had carried out a recent strike in Beirut targeting a militant linked to Iran’s Quds Force, while Lebanon’s health ministry reported that one person was killed. The state news agency also said Israeli forces had positioned themselves inside the southern village of Aita al-Chaab, deploying a large crane equipped with surveillance cameras facing nearby Ramiyah. On Monday, Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, called for the annexation of areas in southern Lebanon, saying Israel should “apply sovereignty” over areas under its control, signalling an expansionist vision that has alarmed critics at home and abroad. On an Israeli radio programme, Smotrich said the military campaign in Lebanon “needs to end with a different reality entirely, both with the Hezbollah decision but also with the change of Israel’s borders”. “I say here definitively … in every room and in every discussion, too: the new Israeli border must be the Litani,” he added.

Giorgia Meloni concedes defeat in Italy’s judiciary reform referendum – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni has conceded defeat in a two-day referendum on judiciary reforms, saying she will respect the voters’ decision – but branding it “a lost chance to modernise Italy” (16:50, 17:00). With 95% votes now counted, nearly 54% of the voters backed the No campaign, rejecting the contentious proposals (18:05). The unexpected defeat weakens Meloni politically, as she was hoping to press ahead with an electoral law that could give her coalition a comfortable win in next year’s general election (15:23). In other news, Hungary’s embattled prime minister Viktor Orbán hosted the “Patriots’ Grand Assembly” in Budapest, bringing together a number of far-right leaders from across Europe (18:11). Earlier today, the European Commission said it would seek “a clarification” from the Hungarian government after media reports alleging that the country’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó had been leaking confidential EU discussions to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov (12:23). Orbán attempted to get on the front foot as he ordered a probe into what he called a wiretapping of Szijjártó’s phone (13:02). Hungary’s Orbán and his government face a tricky parliamentary election next month, with a number of nationalist leaders lining up to endorse him ahead of the vote (11:41, 12:03). Elsewhere, France’s local elections, closely watched for clues to next year’s presidential vote, have given parties of the centre a welcome and unexpected lift as the far right and radical left fell some way short of their ambitions. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Hungarian election candidate accuses ruling party of treason over alleged EU leak to Russia

The candidate leading the polls in Hungary’s upcoming elections has said the alleged sharing of confidential EU information between Budapest and Moscow should be investigated as possible treason, while the European Commission has called for “clarifications” over the alleged leaks. Péter Magyar, a conservative anti-corruption campaigner who is mounting the most serious challenge to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year-long grip on the Hungarian premiership, said the government appeared to be colluding with Russia, “thereby betraying Hungarian and European interests”. A report in the Washington Post last week said Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, routinely updated his Russian counterpart with the details of confidential EU meetings. Magyar wrote on X on Monday: “If confirmed, this would amount to treason, which carries a potential life sentence. A future Tisza government will immediately investigate the matter.” Magyar, a former insider of the ruling Fidesz party, leads the rival Tisza party, which is ahead in the polls three weeks before the country goes to vote on 12 April. The European Commission has called on Hungary’s government to provide clarity over the reported leaks. The commission’s spokesperson Anitta Hipper said reports that Szijjártó had disclosed information from closed-door EU meetings to his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, were “greatly concerning”. She told reporters: “A relationship of trust between member states and between them and the institution is fundamental for the work of the EU and we expect the Hungarian government to provide the clarifications.” Relations between Hungary and its EU neighbours, never the smoothest, have plummeted to new icy lows as Orbán enters election campaign mode. He blocked a €90bn EU loan for Ukraine last week. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, tweeted over the weekend: “The news that Orbán’s people inform Moscow about EU council meetings in every detail shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. We’ve had our suspicions about that for a long time.” Citing a European security official, the Washington Post reported that Szijjártó called Lavrov during EU meetings with “live reports on what’s being discussed”. Two diplomatic sources confirmed to the Guardian that the Hungarian foreign minister had shared information with Lavrov. Szijjártó, who was given an award by Vladimir Putin in 2021, is a regular at the EU foreign affairs council, which has discussed the war on Ukraine every month since the full-scale invasion just over four years ago. He dismissed the allegations as “fake news”. EU diplomats said they were not surprised by the reports and that tightening the circulation of information and documents could be required. Currently, there are no restrictions on Hungary’s access to information, although a diplomat from one EU member state said they were more guarded when a Hungarian representative was present. A German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday that discussions within the EU were confidential and “we will not tolerate any violation of them”. In the wake of the Washington Post report, Orbán ordered an investigation into what he called the “wire-tapping” of Szijjártó. He announced the inquiry after a pro-government publication, Mandiner, published an article claiming that foreign intelligence agencies had eavesdropped on Szijjártó with the help of a Hungarian journalist, Szabolcs Panyi. The piece included a voice recording of Panyi sitting down with a source. Panyi told the Guardian: “This is a smear campaign aimed at discrediting me. After they found out I was working on Szijjártó’s leak, they bugged [the room] and recorded my conversation.” He was meeting a source with the aim of finding out more about communication between Lavrov and Szijjártó after the Washington Post’s report, he said. Panyi, one of Hungary’s leading investigative journalists, has reported extensively on Russian influence operations in his country. In 2024, Panyi revealed that the former Slovakian prime minister, Peter Pellegrini, had sought Orbán’s help in obtaining an invitation to Moscow four years earlier in what proved to be an ultimately unsuccessful bid by his left nationalist government to retain power. Panyi’s report for VSquare in 2024 alleged that Orbán had tasked Szijjártó with conveying Pellegrini’s message to Lavrov. Pellegrini made an official visit to Moscow in an attempt to appeal to pro-Russian sentiment in Slovakia, but his government lost the 2020 election. Panyi has previously found his phone infected with Pegasus spyware, in what he believed to be targeted hacking by the government to get ahead of his stories and identify his sources. EU diplomats do not expect Orbán to change his mind on the €90bn loan for Ukraine before the 12 April elections. Nor is the EU likely to retaliate against Orbán for blocking the loan or the alleged leaks to Russia, for fear of handing him a campaign card. Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, wrote on Sunday that criticism of Orbán at the EU summit had been “fierce” but added: “The rest of us won’t play along and become props in Orbán’s own Hungarian election campaign.” The Washington Post also reported that Russian intelligence operatives proposed a staged assassination attempt on Orbán to motivate his supporters, once it became clear Magyar was leading the polls. The Guardian has found that other disinformation networks with links to Russia, known as Operation Overload and Storm-1516, are also publishing content on platforms such as YouTube and X aimed at undermining the credibility of Magyar’s Tisza party and accusing Ukraine of meddling in the elections.