“Hungary’s ruling and opposition parties each held major rallies on Sunday as they race to shore up support ahead of hotly contested elections on April 12. The rallies, held to mark the country’s national day, pitted right-wing, pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Orban, 62, against opposition leader Peter Magyar, 44, who is seeking to end Orban’s 16-year rule and offer support to Ukraine. Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party has been trailing in polls against Magyar’s center-right Tisza party since last year and has turned to criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy more harshly. Tens of thousands of government supporters held a so-called ‘peace march’ that crossed the Danube River and headed towards Hungary’s parliament in Budapest. … Across town, Magyar accused Orban of ‘inviting Russian agents’ to ‘interfere in the elections.’ He addressed a crowd of at least 100,000 supporters at Budapest’s Heroes Square.” (03/16/26)
“White House chief of staff Susie Wiles has breast cancer, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social on Monday afternoon. Wiles, a longstanding fixture of Trump’s campaign orbit, has been his chief of staff since he took office for his second term in 2025. Trump said Wiles had ‘early stage breast cancer’ and an ‘excellent’ prognosis. She will be staying on as Trump’s chief of staff while she undergoes treatment, the president said. … Wiles joined Trump at an event at the White House shortly after the president announced her diagnosis, sitting next to him at a meeting of Kennedy Center board members.” (03/16/26)
“Trade Secretary Peter Kyle is expected to announce the U.K.’s steel strategy at Tata Steel UK’s mill in Port Talbot on Thursday. The strategy will set out new protections for Britain’s steel sector, slashing quotas on imports of many products from overseas while raising duties outside those caps to 50 percent, two people familiar with the announcement told POLITICO. … British officials have told both U.K. steel producers and downstream importers, who use steel in everything from construction to automotive manufacturing, to expect a 50 percent duty outside of new quotas in a move ‘likely to be similar to the EU,’ said a second industry figure.” (03/16/26)
“Madagascar’s President Michael Randrianirina, who seized power in October, has appointed the country’s anticorruption chief as prime minister, barely a week after dissolving the cabinet. The presidency said on Sunday that Mamitiana Rajaonarison, a former senior gendarmerie officer and career civil administrator, would head the new government. … Randrianirina dismissed Prime Minister Herintsalama Rajaonarivelo and all other cabinet ministers last Monday, offering no explanation for the move.” (03/16/26)
“Senate Democrats say they want to end the government shutdown but have repeatedly blocked GOP attempts to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they push for immigration enforcement reforms. On Friday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a news conference following an antisemitic attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in her state that ‘certainly’ Congress must fund DHS. However, Slotkin and most Senate Democrats have voted four times to block DHS funding, including several attempts to temporarily reopen the agency while negotiations continue. Slotkin is just one of several Senate Democrats calling for an end to the shutdown. Republicans argue the votes are part of a broader Democratic strategy to blame them for blocking efforts to reopen DHS.” [editor’s note: Instead of quibbling over what conditions to reopen it under, they should simply abolish it – TLK] (03/16/26)
“Kazakhstan voted 87.15% in favour of adopting a new constitution, the Central Election Commission said on Monday. Voter turnout for the referendum stood at 73.12%, the commission said. The new constitution streamlines the country’s Parliament and recreates the office of vice president, which was abolished in 1996. It gives the president the right to appoint the vice president, as well as a host of other key officials. The constitution’s swift drafting prompted some analysts in Kazakhstan to suggest that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev might be looking to anoint a successor as vice president and leave office early, or to stay in his post with a new constitution resetting his term limits.” (03/16/26)
“Washington earlier this year had to return 30,000 expiring doses from its abortion pill stockpile to the manufacturer. A state law signed Saturday seeks to ensure remaining pills the state has on hand are easier to access and use. Before Senate Bill 5917, the state needed to sell its mifepristone pills for at least the purchase price, plus an extra $5 fee per dose. The new law eliminates the requirement for the state to get paid for the medication. It also requires the Department of Corrections to coordinate with the Department of Health to identify recipients for the pills.” (03/16/26)
“Afghanistan’s Taliban government on Monday accused Pakistan’s military of targeting a Kabul hospital that treats drug addicts in airstrikes that killed four people and wounded several others. The attack came hours after Afghan officials said the two sides exchanged fire along their common border, killing four people in Afghanistan, as the deadliest fighting between the neighbors in years entered a third week. Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strike on X, saying it violated Afghanistan’s territory. He said most of those killed and wounded were addicts undergoing treatment at the facility. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s spokesman, Mosharraf Zaidi, dismissed the allegations as baseless, saying no hospital was targeted in Kabul. He gave no further details, but Pakistan’s government and military have repeatedly said that their forces only target the Afghan military and facilities being used for attacks in Pakistan.” (03/16/26)
“Myanmar opened its first parliamentary session in more than five years on Monday following an election that did not include major opposition parties, ensuring that the ruling military is set to retain a firm grasp on power. The military blocked Myanmar’s last parliament from convening when it seized power from the last legitimately elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021, and has governed without a legislature since then. It’s touted elections held in late December and January as a step toward the return of democracy. But the military and its allies hold nearly 90% of the seats in two-chamber parliament, while Myanmar’s former ruling National League for Democracy and other major opposition parties were either blocked from running or refused to compete under conditions they deemed unfair.” (03/16/26)
“Ecuador on Sunday began two weeks of operations against drug traffickers with support from the United States, the latest joint show of force against drug cartels in the South American country. The two countries are part of a 17-country cartel-fighting alliance launched by President Donald Trump at a summit earlier this month. Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa, one of Trump’s staunchest allies on the continent, has spent the past two years targeting cocaine traffickers, but the rates of associated crimes including murders, disappearances and extortion have not fallen.” (03/16/26)
