How Hungary's Orbán uses control of the media to escape scrutiny and keep the public in the dark (July 2024)
www.ap.org

... In the months leading up to elections for the European Parliament, Hungarians were warned that casting a ballot against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would be a vote for all-out war.

The right-wing Fidesz party cast the June 9 election as an existential struggle, one that could preserve peace in Europe if Orbán won -- or fuel widespread instability if he didn't.

To sell that bold claim, Orbán used a sprawling pro-government media empire that's dominated the country's political discourse for more than a decade.

The tactic worked ...

'Don's best friend': How Epstein and Trump bonded over the pursuit of women
www.sfexaminer.com

... Jeffrey Epstein was a "terrific guy" and "a lot of fun to be with." He and Donald Trump also had "no formal relationship." They went to a lot of the same parties. But they "did not socialize together." They were never really friends, just business acquaintances. Or "there was no relationship" at all. "I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you."

For nearly a quarter-century, Trump and his representatives have offered shifting, often contradictory accounts of his relationship with Epstein, one sporadically captured by society photographers and in news clips before they fell out sometime in the mid-2000s. Closely scrutinized since Epstein died in a Manhattan jail cell during Trump's first term, their friendship -- and questions about what the president knew of Epstein's abuses -- now threatens to consume his second one. ...

But the two men's relationship was both far closer and far more complex than the president now admits.

Beginning in the late 1980s, the two men forged a bond intense enough to leave others who knew them with the impression that they were each other's closest friend ...

Over nearly two decades, as Trump cut a swath through the party circuits of New York and Florida, Epstein was perhaps his most reliable wingman. During the 1990s and early 2000s, they prowled Epstein's Manhattan mansion and Trump's Plaza Hotel, at least one of Trump's Atlantic City casinos and both their Palm Beach homes. They visited each other's offices and spoke often by phone, according to other former Epstein employees and women who spent time in his homes.

With other men, Epstein might discuss tax shelters, international affairs or neuroscience. With Trump, he talked about sex. ...

How Trump's loathing for wind turbines started with a Scottish court battle (July 2025)
www.bbc.com

... "I am the evidence," was the eyebrow-raising comment made by Donald Trump when he appeared before the Scottish Parliament in 2012.

He was speaking as an "expert" witness on green energy targets, describing how he believed wind turbines were damaging tourism in Scotland.

Five years before he first became US president, it was one of his earliest interventions on renewable energy -- but since then his opposition to them has grown to become government policy in the world's biggest economy.

He was objecting to 11 turbines which were planned -- and ultimately constructed -- alongside his Aberdeenshire golf course.

On his latest visit to Scotland, he described those turbines as "some of the ugliest you've ever seen".

When Trump bought the Menie estate, about eight miles north of Aberdeen, in 2006, he promised to create the "world's greatest" golf course.

But he soon became infuriated at plans to construct an offshore wind farm nearby, arguing that the "windmills" - as he prefers to call the structures - would ruin the view. ...

How Americans describe Donald Trump
today.yougov.com

...

Americans' views of Trump, as of the December 12 - 15, 2025 Economist / YouGov Poll:
...

Which of these words would you [use / not use] to describe Donald Trump? Select all that apply. (% of U.S. adult citizens)

Word: Describes Donald Trump - Does not describe Donald Trump

Dangerous: 45 - 23
Corrupt: 45 - 22
Cruel: 42 - 24
Racist: 42 - 26
Honest: 26 - 40

...