Greece social media ban.
Hungary end of Orban?

🧠 Vocabulary challenge​
​
Which of these is the meaning of the word 'endorse'?:

(A) to release an early version for testing
(B) to carefully examine something for mistakes
(C) to publicly support or approve of something
(D) to suffer or live through a difficult experience

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(answer at bottom of email)

3 big stories…

1. The end of Orban?

Hungary has parliamentary elections on Sunday, with opinion polls suggesting that the right-wing nationalist Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban could lose - ending his 16 years in power. The centre-right party Tisza, led by Peter Magyar, is leading the polls (although polling in Hungary is more partisan than in other countries). There's a deeper dive in today's episode.

2. Ceasefire... kind of.

Iran and the United States agreed to a ceasefire, although they disagreed on what they had agreed to. Iran said that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire, with the US saying that it wasn't, and the Strait of Hormuz still appears to be closed by Iran. Lebanon said that Israeli air strikes killed over 300 people on Wednesday, the deadliest day in this war.

3. Greece social media ban

Greece has announced that it will ban social media for under-15s from 1st January 2026. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave various reasons, including that children have been developing anxiety and sleep problems, and that social media is addictive.

… and one you might have missed.

Seven members of the Eritrean national football team have disappeared after playing a match in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). They've probably defected - attempting to claim refuge in South Africa as they don't want to go back to Eritrea. This happens relatively often with Eritrean athletes.

🔍 Find the Synonym:​
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Somewhere in the "3 big stories", find a synonym for the word "motives".

Graph of the week

One year after US President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day", when he announced the introduction of tariffs around the world, the economic impact has been mixed. The tariffs have brought in billions of dollars to the US government, however inflation has also risen. One of the main reasons that Trump gave for the introduction of tariffs was to lower the trade deficit with other countries, especially China. This Reuters graph shows how the deficit with China has gone down, but, for many other countries, it has actually increased. In red is the 2024 deficit and the black outline is 2025. For Taiwan, the deficit doubled, partially because of a rise in imports of AI chips.

🌍 World news question:​
​
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban ordered a meeting of his defence council after explosives were found near a gas pipeline close to Hungary. Opposition leader Peter Magyar said that this was a 'false-flag', to attempt to influence the election on Sunday. However, the explosives were not found in Hungary. What country were they found in?

Quote of the week:

- Czech President Petr Pavel, talking about President Trump's criticisms of NATO

SEND7 Supporter's corner:

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• Play today's world news quiz ​
• Use Wednesday's worksheet​

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Stephen’s view:

There have been no major incidents in the war in Ukraine for some time. If you look at a map of the frontlines, they look very similar today to how they did a year ago. This is despite the fact that fighting is extremely intense, with Ukraine reporting that it kills, seriously injures or captures about a thousand Russian soldiers every day.

However, one area in which the war has shifted over the last year is in long-distance attacks. We hear about the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities - particularly energy infrastructure - very often. But I think that one area that is largely overlooked is Ukrainian attacks on Russia's oil infrastructure.

Ukraine has a greatly different motive from Russia in attacking energy infrastructure - Russia's aim is largely to deprive Ukraine's people of energy, especially during winter. Ukraine's attacks on Russia's oil refineries and ports are aimed at cutting off a major source of income that sustains Russia's war machine.

How effective this has been so far is difficult to measure, however there is some evidence that it has had a real impact. Two weeks ago, Reuters noted that 40% of Russia's oil export capacity was disrupted (although that was probably temporary). The number of oil tankers loading in Russia's Baltic Sea ports has fallen, according to Bloomberg. Ukrainian attacks are increasing in frequency, and in range, as oil refineries all over Russia are now being targeted.
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I suspect that this is just the beginning. Ukraine's ability to strike deep within Russia is only going to improve over time, and Russia's reliance on oil is a vulnerability that they don't have a solution for. About a quarter of Russia's federal budget is paid for using income from oil and gas.

I cannot see how battles on the ground in Ukraine are going to make this war come to an end, but I can see how the long-range battle could bring that end closer.

Have a great weekend.
Stephen

p.s. This is the seventh edition of the newsletter. Do you like it? Is there anything to improve? Just click reply and let me know!

ANSWERS

(don't look until you've answered all three questions!)

🧠 VOCABULARY CHALLENGE : (C) "endorse" means 'to publicly support or approve of something'.

🔍 Find the synonym : A synonym for "motives" is "reasons" (in the Greece paragraph)

🌍 World News question : Serbia. The explosives were reported to have been found in Serbia close to a gas pipeline which runs into Hungary.