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By Alice Lee
What’s happening: Even the most outlandish disinformation is no longer confined to the fringes of the internet. The latest example: a Russian campaign aimed at discrediting the opposition leader in Hungary who earlier this week successfully challenged long-time pro-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
In the days leading up to Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election, a Russian disinformation campaign pushed the claim that Orbán’s opponent, Péter Magyar, was accused by his ex-wife of having killed the family puppy by putting it in a microwave oven. Two days later, the claim was confidently repeated by Polish opposition leader and former Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński during a press conference in Warsaw.
Context: Magyar’s victory has implications far beyond Hungary, as it ended more than 16 year rule by a key ally of Russia within the European Union who frequently blocked EU financial and military aid to Ukraine.
Jarosław Kaczyński is the founder and longtime leader of Poland’s right-wing populist Law and Justice party and served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007. The party was in power from 2015 to 2023, and...
Law firms and advisers are charging fees to help migrants to fabricate sexual orientation-based asylum claims in order to remain in the United Kingdom (UK), a BBC investigation has revealed. In a...