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Hungary’s Magyar announces ministers after landslide election win

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian election winner Péter Magyar on Monday announced the first round of his incoming government’s Cabinet members, including nominees for ministers of foreign affairs, finance and economy, following the first meeting of his party’s parliamentary group.

Magyar and his center-right Tisza party defeated Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in a landslide election on April 12, securing a two-thirds majority in Hungary’s next parliament which will make it possible to undo many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power.

The opposition leader has vowed to restore democratic institutions and the rule of law which eroded under Orbán’s rule, and to hold accountable those who he says were responsible for overseeing and benefiting from widespread official corruption.

Magyar’s party gained 141 seats out of 199 in parliament — the largest majority in Hungary’s post-Communist history. Orbán’s far-right, euroskeptic Fidesz party will control 52 seats, down from 135 before the election.

At a news conference in Budapest on Monday, Magyar, who is expected to take over as prime minister from Orbán, said the number of ministries will be increased to 16 from the current 12.

He revealed several of his party’s nominees including Anita Orbán, who is not related to the prime minister, for minister of foreign affairs, István Kapitány for minister of economy and energy and András Kármán for minister of finance.

His party, Magyar said, would create a government “that will be worthy of the Hungarian people’s trust.”

Magyar has vowed to conduct a major overhaul of much of Hungary’s governmental structure, and to create separate ministries for health, environmental protection and education that did not exist under Orbán.

The new parliament’s inaugural session will take place on May 9 or 10, Magyar said, after which it will immediately elect a prime minister. The confirmation of cabinet appointments will occur in the following days, he added.

Iran attacks Bahrain and Kuwait following US strikes, threatens to end talks to end the war

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard launched drone and missile attacks Sunday targeting Bahrain and Kuwait in response to U.S. airstrikes that hit the Islamic Republic, and threatened a “complete halt” could come to negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks. Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf that once carried a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas, without Iran's direct oversight sparked the crossfire now gripping the region. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday that it would expand a route near Oman in the Strait of Hormuz to allow for both inbound and outbound traffic — setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran. Iran insists it alone must govern the strait after the war, upending decades of the world considering that the strait was international waters free for all, despite its sitting in Iran and Oman's territorial waters. Tehran has twice attacked vessels going through the Oman route, backed by a United Nations agency, in recent days. Early Sunday, the U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Iranian military “surveillance infrastructure, communication systems, air defense sites, drone storage facilities and minelayer capabilities” following an attack on a ship at sea early Saturday morning. That ship, the Panamanian-flagged tanker Kiku, carried crude oil for the state-run energy company of Qatar, a key negotiator between Iran and the United States.
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