Budapest, Hungary
AP
 — 

Hungary’s parliament on Monday passed an amendment to the constitution that allows the government to ban public events by LGBTQ+ communities, a decision that legal scholars and critics call another step toward authoritarianism by the populist government.

The amendment, which required a two-thirds vote, passed along party lines with 140 votes for and 21 against. It was proposed by the ruling Fidesz-KDNP coalition led by populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

Ahead of the vote — the final step for the amendment — opposition politicians and other protesters attempted to blockade the entrance to a parliament parking garage. Police physically removed demonstrators, who had used zip ties to bind themselves together.

The amendment declares that children’s rights to moral, physical and spiritual development supersede any right other than the right to life, including that to peacefully assemble. Hungary’s contentious “child protection” legislation prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors aged under 18.

The amendment codifies a law fast-tracked through parliament in March that bans public events held by LGBTQ+ communities, including the popular Pride event in Budapest that draws thousands annually.

That law also allows authorities to use facial recognition tools to identify people who attend prohibited events — such as Budapest Pride — and can come with fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546).

Dávid Bedő, a lawmaker with the opposition Momentum party who participated in the attempted blockade, said before the vote that Orbán and Fidesz for the past 15 years “have been dismantling democracy and the rule of law, and in the past two or three months, we see that this process has been sped up.”

He said as elections approach in 2026 and Orbán’s party lags in the polls behind a popular new challenger from the opposition, “they will do everything in their power to stay in power.”

Opposition lawmakers used air horns to disrupt the vote, which continued after a few moments.

Hungary’s government has campaigned against LGBTQ+ communities in recent years, and argues its “child protection” policies, which forbid the availability to minors of any material that mentions homosexuality, are needed to protect children from what it calls “woke ideology” and “gender madness.”

Critics say the measures do little to protect children and are being used to distract from more serious problems facing the country and mobilize Orbán’s right-wing base ahead of elections.

“This whole endeavor which we see launched by the government, it has nothing to do with children’s rights,” said Dánel Döbrentey, a lawyer with the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, calling it “pure propaganda.”

The new amendment also states that the constitution recognizes two sexes, male and female, an expansion of an earlier amendment that prohibits same-sex adoption by stating that a mother is a woman and a father is a man.

The declaration provides a constitutional basis for denying the gender identities of transgender people, as well as ignoring the existence of intersex individuals who are born with sexual characteristics that do not align with binary conceptions of male and female.

In a statement on Monday, government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács wrote that the change is “not an attack on individual self-expression, but a clarification that legal norms are based on biological reality.”

Döbrentey, the lawyer, said it was “a clear message” for transgender and intersex people: “It is definitely and purely and strictly about humiliating people and excluding them, not just from the national community, but even from the community of human beings.”

The amendment is the 15th to Hungary’s constitution since Orbán’s party unilaterally authored and approved it in 2011.

Ádám Remport, a lawyer with the HCLU, said that while Hungary has used facial recognition tools since 2015 to assist police in criminal investigations and finding missing persons, the recent law banning Pride allows the technology to be used in a much broader and problematic manner. That includes for monitoring and deterring political protests.

“One of the most fundamental problems is its invasiveness, just the sheer scale of the intrusion that happens when you apply mass surveillance to a crowd,” Remport said.

“More salient in this case is the effect on the freedom of assembly, specifically the chilling effect that arises when people are scared to go out and show their political or ideological beliefs for fear of being persecuted,” he added.

The amendment passed Monday also allows for Hungarians who hold dual citizenship in a non-European Economic Area country to have their citizenship suspended for up to 10 years if they are deemed to pose a threat to public order, public security or national security.

Hungary has taken steps in recent months to protect its national sovereignty from what it claims are foreign efforts to influence its politics or even topple Orbán’s government.

The self-described “illiberal” leader has accelerated his longstanding efforts to crack down on critics such as media outlets and groups devoted to civil rights and anti-corruption, which he says have undermined Hungary’s sovereignty by receiving financial assistance from international donors.

In a speech laden with conspiracy theories in March, Orbán compared people who work for such groups to insects, and pledged to “eliminate the entire shadow army” of foreign-funded “politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists.”

CNN
 — 

President Donald Trump has a “hope” for his Federal Communications Commission: that the agency will punish CBS for airing “60 Minutes” reports he doesn’t like.

Apparently angered by Sunday night’s “60 Minutes” telecast, Trump wrote on Truth Social about his ongoing legal battle with CBS and its parent company, Paramount Global, which is awaiting FCC approval to merge with Skydance Media.

Trump name-checked the man he promoted to chair the FCC, Brendan Carr, whom he called “Highly Respected.” He said hopefully Carr “will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior.”

There is no evidence of illegal behavior by CBS.

And there is relatively little that Carr can do to impose “punishment,” though the FCC’s delay in approving Paramount’s merger has already created uncertainty at the company.

Sunday night’s post is the latest example of Trump encouraging his appointees to apply government pressure against his critics. In recent months, Carr has flaunted his MAGA credentials and launched FCC investigations of several media outlets Trump has derided, including ABC and NBC. Carr was photographed last week wearing a gold pin with a silhouette of Trump’s head.

Carr did not respond to CNN’s request for comment about Trump’s Truth Social post.

On Sunday night, he depicted “60 Minutes,” the most-watched newsmagazine in the country, in similar terms, writing, “They are not a ‘News Show,’ but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as ‘News,’ and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing.”

He also wrote that CBS “should lose their license” after the network aired two stories on Sunday – one about Ukraine and another about Greenland. The CBS network is not licensed by the FCC, but local stations owned by CBS are. During the 2024 campaign, Trump said many times that networks he disliked should be stripped of their licenses.

He has repeated the call twice since taking office, and CBS has been the target both times.

Trump has been both a viewer and a critic of “60 Minutes” for years. He declined the program’s traditional pre-election interview request last fall, and when his opponent Kamala Harris went ahead and appeared on “60,” he saw an opportunity.

Trump and his media allies castigated “60 Minutes” for airing one part of Harris’s answer to a question on one day and the other part of her answer on another day.

CBS said it had merely edited her answer for time, in accordance with TV news standards, but Trump recast the controversy as a conspiracy, alleging that the network was colluding to help Harris win the election.

Trump filed a lawsuit in Texas accusing CBS of violating the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, a consumer protection law. It looked more like a political PR stunt than a legitimate case, and numerous First Amendment attorneys said the suit was frivolous.

But after Trump won the election, some Paramount officials began trying to settle the case, over the strenuous objections of “60 Minutes” journalists.

Even after CBS handed over the raw transcript and tapes of the interview, which proved that it engaged in normal editing, Carr kept the inquiry open and invited the public to comment.

A settlement could look like a payoff to Trump in exchange for merger approval, but The New York Times recently reported that some at Paramount think its “broader corporate interests are not served by fighting a protracted legal battle” with a vengeful president.

To date, no settlement has materialized and CBS continues to battle Trump in court.

“60 Minutes,” meanwhile, has stayed true to its mission, producing interviews and investigations on Sunday nights. The program has featured stories about the impacts of Trump’s policies “almost every week,” as Trump accurately though angrily noted on Truth Social. He claimed the segments have been “derogatory and defamatory.”

Political scientist Brendan Nyhan, co-founder of Bright Line Watch, which monitors threats to American democracy, translated Trump’s Truth Social post this way: “The president openly calls for his loyalist apparatchik at the FCC to use state power to punish media for critical coverage.”

Journalists at CBS have certainly felt the steadily building pressure. While accepting a First Amendment Award at an industry ceremony last month, “60 Minutes” correspondent Lesley Stahl said she was especially honored to receive the award at a time when “our precious First Amendment feels vulnerable and when my precious 60 Minutes is fighting, quite frankly, for our life.”

“I am so proud,” Stahl said, that “60 Minutes” is “standing up and fighting for what is right.”

CNN
 — 

A British man has died after falling from a viewing platform at a famed Roman aqueduct in the Spanish city of Segovia.

Emergency services were called after the 63-year-old man suffered a fall at around 1 p.m. local time (7 a.m. ET) on Saturday, according to a statement from the Castile and León regional government.

Attempts to resuscitate the man were unsuccessful and he was declared dead at the scene, according to the statement.

The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office confirmed the man’s death to CNN in a statement Monday.

“We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities,” said a spokesperson.

CNN has contacted the Segovia city council for comment.

Segovia is located around 40 miles northwest of the Spanish capital Madrid, in the center of the country.

It is a popular tourist destination that draws visitors keen to see the Roman aqueduct, which was built under Emperor Trajan, who ruled from 98–117.

Still in use to this day, the aqueduct carries water from the Frío River to the city of Segovia.

The central section has two layers of arches that stand 28.5 metres (93.5 feet) above the ground.