Over the six days of the festival, approximately 600 performances will be showcased. Many acts will come from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, as well as from Senegal, India, Tanzania, New Zealand, and Benin. The festival can accommodate 95,000 people daily, with 10,000–15,000 of these being staff and partners, leaving space for up to 80,000 ticket holders.

Despite the challenges of wartime conditions, the government has maintained its utility cost reduction programme, successfully protecting Hungarian families against Brussels’ war-supporting and misguided sanctions policy. This has resulted in Hungarian households paying the lowest prices of electricity and gas in Europe, government commissioner Szilárd Németh shared at a press conference on Monday.

The international community has been watching events in the Middle East with bated breath for days, as Iran could attack Israel at any moment. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó reportedly informed his Israeli counterpart of Tehran’s intention to attack on Monday evening.

On Monday, Axiom Space officially confirmed that in partnership with Hungary, Poland (with support from the European Space Agency), and India, each of these nations will send an astronaut to the International Space Station (ISS) as part of the Axiom Mission 4 (Ax-4).

For all the legitimate concerns about a second Trump presidency, Mr. Biden’s feeble governance—or whoever was running the show behind the scenes—and the falsehoods fed to the American public by the Democrats as to his mental and physical incapacities have achieved exactly what President Biden accused Mr. Trump of: weakening democracy.

In the process of international expansion, many fundamentally successful businesses and start-ups falter. What is the reason and how can companies successfully break into foreign markets? These were the questions addressed in a vibrant panel discussion on the second day of this year’s MCC Feszt.

This year’s presidential election in the United States was a prominent topic at MCC Feszt 2024. A whole panel of speakers, namely Miklós Szánthó, James Carafano, Mark Milosch, and István Stumpf, discussed how they see the contest between Republican Donald J. Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris is shaping up.

The festival, scheduled for 23–25 August, will commence with a promenade concert titled ‘Steps’. The canopy walkway will be transformed into the Eötvös Path, featuring nine short compositions by the late Hungarian composer Péter Eötvös, who passed away on 24 March.

Hungarian military force development is currently taking place in several dimensions: rearmament, real estate and infrastructure development, and transformation of the HDF’s organizational culture. On the second day of this year’s MCC Feszt, Hungarian Minister of Defence Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky gave a comprehensive overview of the current state of the Hungarian armed forces, future plans, and why he considers Hungary a military nation.

Vasif Huseynov, Titus Techera, Amitav Acharya, and Şuay Nilhan Açıkalın gathered for a panel discussion on the last day of MCC Feszt 2024 in Esztergom, Hungary to discuss how major world powers approach international relations in these turbulent times.

‘At the moment, there seem to be many priorities, ranging from transgender issues to the fight against climate change. However, the focus on making the European Union a competitive, attractive place to do business and fostering the best or most innovation in the world is lacking,’ former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz pointed out in an interview with Hungarian Conservative.

One of the most anticipated events of the Paris Olympics concluded in the expected victory of the masculine looking boxer Imane Khelif. Her opponent, Hungarian Luca Hámori stood her ground and fought until the last moment of the bout.

Hungary’s impressive medal haul, including three medals in swimming, three in fencing, one in shooting, and one in athletics, currently places the nation 12th in the Olympic medal table.

The first Tusványos speech that became famous across the Western world was delivered a decade ago in 2014. In the international, and especially Western media, the speech became (in)famous for using the phrase ‘illiberal democracy’ for the first time. Talking about competitiveness in a globalizing world Orbán said: ‘We are trying to find the form of community organisation, the new Hungarian state, which is capable of making our community competitive in the great global race for decades to come.’

‘The liberal progressive vision that emerged in the late twentieth century bought into the notion of technological neutrality. In this context, it served a broader liberal purpose to neutralize politics as well. This reached its apogee in the EU and the preference for a law-governed, depoliticized, technocratic mode of governance.’

‘The problem we’re having today is I think we’re becoming a culture that’s increasingly obsessive about the factual, technical detail, and we’re losing that sense of the whole into which it fits. And the whole isn’t about facts. It’s about interpretation of facts. That isn’t a fault, but a feature, of being human,’ says Calum T M Nicholson, Director of MCC’s Climate Institute.

The Frankish–Moravian struggles that shattered the tranquillity of Pannonia, even before the arrival of the Hungarians, caused irreparable damage to the settlement structure and ecclesiastical institutions of the region, which were thus left in a state of collapse when the Hungarian conquest came. As a result, it took a good century for the new missions, with the birth of the Christian Kingdom of Hungary, to bring the region back into the Church once and for all.

‘After all these years, I’m in a phase where I really enjoy my work…I also feel that I’m well known in the local community and that many people come to see me, so my work is a success every day. If only two out of twenty patients thank me for changing their lives because, for example, they can work or because their migraines have stopped, that’s a very good feeling for me. I am also on good terms with my colleagues. My secretaries have learned how to make Hungarian espresso, for example, and when I go to the office, they wait for me with it.’

‘The Nixon coalition that really springboarded him as such a popular President—people really forget how popular of a President he was—that was the same sort of coalition that carried Reagan, it’s the same sort of coalition that is now going to carry Trump. It’s a working-class, America First coalition, it crosses socio-economic divides, it crosses racial lines, it crosses ethnic lines, it’s a very strong and growing emerging populous majority. And I think we are going to see the fruits of that this cycle,’ Gavin Wax told Hungarian Conservative.

Ursula von der Leyen’s Europe’s Choice programme will be the working document on the basis of which the Commissioners designate will receive their portfolios and, when they take office, the mandate in which the Commission President will set out their work and expectations for the next five years. And the implementation of these visions will be the task for this period to come.

In comparison, Barcelona announced in June that short-term rentals would be banned from 2028, while New York has been restricting Airbnbs since September 2023, with the effects of the regulations already observable in the city.

As of 1 August 2024 HungaroControl Ltd came under the indirect supervision of the Ministry for National Economy. According to the statement by the ministry, HungaroControl’s priorities include significantly improving the quality of Hungarian air transport, closely cooperating with the European air navigation organization Eurocontrol, and more effectively representing Hungarian interests.

The Khelif controversy has raised broader questions about fairness in sports and the potential impact of gender identity policies on competition. As Hungarian Hámori prepares to face Khelif, the debate over the inclusion of transgender and intersex athletes in sports continues to be a contentious and evolving issue.

To increase employment and mobilize the nearly 300,000 strong domestic labour market reserve, the government is continually working to ensure that everyone who can and wants to work has the opportunity to do so.

This summer the major music and dance events attracted thousands of visitors in Hungary, significantly boosting the local economies. The biggest beneficiaries of these multi-day events were the accommodation providers in the area of Lake Velence, in Debrecen, in the Balaton Uplands at Kapolcs, and at the Lake Balaton town of Zamárdi.

Sebastian Kurz, the former chancellor of Austria; Balázs Orbán, the political director of the Prime Minister of Hungary; and Ján Figeľ, former European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth from Slovakia talked about what the results of the 2024 European Parliamentary election mean for the future of Europe at the opening panel discussion of MCC Feszt 2024 in Esztergom, Hungary.

Kós became the second Hungarian male swimmer to win this event at the Olympics, following Sándor Wladár, the current president of the Hungarian Swimming Federation. This victory marked Hungary’s 30th Olympic gold in swimming, and the first Hungarian gold medal in Paris.

Luca Hámori is scheduled to box against Imane Khelif of Algeria next. Khelif had been previously disqualified by the International Boxing Association from competing in women’s events for failure to meet undisclosed eligibility criteria. Khelif was nevertheless allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics, drawing international outrage.

The purpose of World Breastfeeding Week is to increase awareness of the positive health outcomes associated with breastfeeding and the need to support mothers in breastfeeding for as long as they choose.

Deif, who orchestrated the 7 October terrorist attack against Israel and served as a military commander during the ongoing Gaza war, was killed in Khan Yunis. His killing preceded that of Ismail Haniyeh, who the day before his death attended the inauguration of the Iranian President in the company of none other than Enrique Mora, the Spanish EU official coordinating nuclear negotiations with Tehran.