benjamin novak
@bnovak.bsky.social
📤 718
📥 141
📝 45
used to ✍️ about Hungary for nyt, SAIS alum —
[email protected]
Trump and Orban will meet at the White House today. David Pressman, former US Ambassador to the UN Security Council and Hungary, explains what Orban is doing in Washington, and offers a very strong take on what Trump and Orban really have in common.
time.com/7332003/vikt...
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Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump’s Attacks on Independence
Independence is "fundamental to the health of any democracy—and it has been systematically dismantled in Hungary."
https://time.com/7332003/viktor-orban-donald-trumps-independence/
2 days ago
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add a skeleton here at some point
16 days ago
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reposted by
benjamin novak
Kim Zetter
4 months ago
Former US ambassador to Hungary: "After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially those with power, justify their acquiescence." (h/t
@bnovak.bsky.social
)
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Opinion | I Watched It Happen in Hungary. Now It’s Happening Here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opinion/hungary-viktor-orban.html
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Szabolcs Vörös is one of a handful of HU journos whose UA reporting provides a critical public service to Hungarians living in Orbán’s disinfo echo chamber Here’s his interview w Zelenskyy — the first w a HU journo since RU’s invasion began over 1,200 days ago
www.valaszonline.hu/2025/06/10/v...
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“Viktor is making a historic mistake.” An exclusive interview with President Zelenskyy | Válasz Online
https://www.valaszonline.hu/2025/06/10/volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine-russia-war-vladimir-putin-viktor-orban-kyiv-interview/
5 months ago
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Absolutely great news!!!
add a skeleton here at some point
6 months ago
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A prize well deserved! George is a great guy. A true honor to know him. If you’re interested in Hungarian literature, I highly recommend picking up one of George’s many translations.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 months ago
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Christmas jazz. Fire in the fireplace. Kiddos playing with legos. Adults playing Rummy. Leberkäse.
11 months ago
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reposted by
benjamin novak
Chris Bing
12 months ago
Some personal news: I am very excited to be joining ProPublica as an investigative reporter covering national security and technology starting in January.
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ProPublica Hires Three Veteran Journalists to Join DC bureau
ProPublica is an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
https://buff.ly/3Z4BHEB
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In the rust belt of north-eastern Hungary, a new economy is thriving – one built on human blood.
www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...
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Hungary’s most deprived people donate blood plasma to survive – photo essay
The documentary photographer Béla Váradi spent months photographing the lives of people who see plasma donation as a way to get by
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/25/hungary-most-deprived-roma-donate-blood-plasma-survive-photo-essay?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwY2xjawGxtL9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHd9zZMwJxrCxQANaQezQrMsRGXOsq9yBBMJmkIiAIpV1DJ8t8q_nt0dOMw_aem_mlfxEaveefROMAJzDqsYVQ
12 months ago
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Fascinating investigation.
www.volexity.com/blog/2024/11...
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The Nearest Neighbor Attack: How A Russian APT Weaponized Nearby Wi-Fi Networks for Covert Access
In early February 2022, notably just ahead of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Volexity made a discovery that led to one of the most fascinating and complex incident investigations Volexity had ever w...
https://www.volexity.com/blog/2024/11/22/the-nearest-neighbor-attack-how-a-russian-apt-weaponized-nearby-wi-fi-networks-for-covert-access/
12 months ago
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First fire of the season
12 months ago
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Let it be known that I invited
@kalmantibs.bsky.social
here well over a year ago. He politely declined and said he wouldn’t give up fighting the good fight at the other place just yet. Glad to see him here today. His presence on social media doesn’t do him justice. Great guy if there ever was one.
12 months ago
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It’s the little things in life… Had the boys (6 and 2) join me in the living room for a pre-bedtime screening of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf narrated by David Bowie. They loved it. What a pleasant experience.
youtu.be/Va8Uz6MoKLg?...
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David Bowie Narrates Disney's Peter And The Wolf (Full)
YouTube video by Lucy Whiskers
https://youtu.be/Va8Uz6MoKLg?feature=shared
12 months ago
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Prediction: The next Surgeon General of the United States
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12 months ago
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“The Black Death was therefore a rare event, ‘with only one generally accepted precursor and no equivalent successor’. Belich has revisions to make to the traditional account. . . .Belich’s answer inculpates the humble gerbil.“
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
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Tom Shippey · Blame the gerbils: After the Plague
In The World the Plague Made James Belich has a hard case to make, and a somewhat heartless one: that the Black Death...
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n21/tom-shippey/blame-the-gerbils
12 months ago
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What does the 2017 “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville have in common with Hungarian embassy in Washington?
www.szabadeuropa.hu/a/amerikai-m...
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Szélsőjobboldali fiatalt alkalmaz a washingtoni magyar nagykövetség, feladata az egyeztetés a trumpistákkal
A 29 éves amerikai tüntetett a fehér felsőbbrendűségért, és kapcsolatban volt Magyarországon is ismert fajvédővel. Ma már a CPAC-re jár, és Magyarországnak dolgozik a washingtoni nagykövetségen, felad...
https://www.szabadeuropa.hu/a/amerikai-magyar-nagykovetseg-taylor-ragg-szelsojobb-charlottesville/33167670.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3TNx58hQcVPqzpC2pjt7oO_Z91Kc7t7wA8-sl9GSMDVk7Tcfy2X0KD5q0_aem_ng99CM2P-Wa6SiQ5vJ5ZRg
about 1 year ago
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Shoutout to the heroes who donate obscure old books to libraries.
almost 2 years ago
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Yes, Orban does plan to create a yet another agency to secretly investigate and dox the regime's critics. But while ppl whine about "rule of law" and "rights," they lose focus of progress elsewhere, e.g. Scythians are close to being recognized as a national minority and getting a seat in parliament.
almost 2 years ago
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Anna Vinnitskaya’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra this evening was mesmerizing
almost 2 years ago
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Orbán’s keeping busy. (Kudos to
@hungarianhelsinki.bsky.social
for the translation)
helsinki.hu/en/wp-conten...
almost 2 years ago
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reposted by
benjamin novak
Eugene Finkel
almost 2 years ago
www.nybooks.com/online/2023/...
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An Open Letter on the Misuse of Holocaust Memory | Omer Bartov
We the undersigned are scholars of the Holocaust and antisemitism from different institutions. We write to express our dismay and disappointment at
https://www.nybooks.com/online/2023/11/20/an-open-letter-on-the-misuse-of-holocaust-memory/
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The “Cyprus model,” a giant conveyor belt for Russian wealth to the West located in an EU member state Great story from Dean Starkman
www.icij.org/investigatio...
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How Cyprus rose to become the beating heart of the Putin regime’s shadow financial system - ICIJ
Russia dominated the island’s banking system under the watch of the European Union.
https://www.icij.org/investigations/cyprus-confidential/cyprus-model-politics-tax-haven-russian-wealth/
almost 2 years ago
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This post claims Hungarians have been putting lights in carved pumpkins since 1081. Hard to see how this is true. Pumpkins and squash are native to the Americas. Hungarians would have had to find a way to procure them from the New World hundreds of years before Columbus got there.
about 2 years ago
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reposted by
benjamin novak
Chris Carothers
about 2 years ago
New article out! I discuss how autocrats often exploit natural language barriers to say racist and xenophobic things at home while playing to an international audience...
www.americanpurpose.com/articles/the...
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Still trying to wrap my head around Orbán’s body language during his meeting with Putin in Beijing yesterday
youtu.be/AE4ReW3euME?...
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Russian President Putin meets with Hungarian Prime Minister Orban
Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Beijing, the capital of China, where he came to attend the international f...
https://youtu.be/AE4ReW3euME?si=fzs5qrqgxFVRkOqi
about 2 years ago
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It was a pleasure to moderate a panel on the challenges of redemocratization at the Budapest Forum last week. Spoiler: it takes effort Zagreb mayor Tomislav Tomašević's unexpected zinger had me chuckling on stage. He has no problem with people calling him a hippie, just don't call him a hipster.
about 2 years ago
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In 2019, I asked my grandfather to put the story of his life on paper. He did it all — from handwritten notes to 29 carefully-edited Word docs. He even made mp3s of his voice as he read them aloud. He died a few days ago, one month shy of his 90th birthday. What a tremendous gift he left us.
about 2 years ago
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Hungarian lawyer Daniel Karsai is 46 years old. He specializes in constitutional law and human rights. Daniel is also terminally ill. He was diagnosed with ALS last year and can no longer care for himself. He wants to shorten his life before it comes too unbearable, but that's illegal in Hungary.
about 2 years ago
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Visited Castello di Miramare today. I spotted Andrey Melnichenko’s $600 million “Sailing Yacht A,” which Italians authorities seized last March when the EU sanctioned a bunch of Russian oligarchs. Maintaining the seized vessel reportedly requires a crew of 24, and costs about $900k per month.
over 2 years ago
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Beautiful morning in Budapest
over 2 years ago
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Sitting across the room from someone who just wrote some code, tested it, jumped up and excitedly gave me a lecture about the beauty of crisp code and program optimization, then concluded with how this honors his German heritage.
over 2 years ago
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In-laws: “Don’t buy her a new bike. We still have the one she rode as a teenager. It’s in the garage.” Wife: “I loved that bike.” Me: 🕵️♂️ The tire on the bike: “MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA”
over 2 years ago
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"The one intriguing exception to this in the data is Hungary"
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596d1024ade4e24119dbd316&s=649bb4f79c54b114bea07128&linknum=5&linktot=66&linknum=5&linktot=66
over 2 years ago
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Ist er für Sie ein Kriegsverbrecher? Orban: „Nein. Für mich nicht.“
https://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/politik-ausland/ungarns-ministerpraesident-orban-putin-ist-stabil-84474096.bild.html
over 2 years ago
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1995 edition of THE English-language phone book in Budapest AMADEUS RESTAURANT Excellent food, lousy service
over 2 years ago
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When you're a mercenary for the Confederation of Bar and Russians keep capturing you, so you commandeer a supply-ship sailing from Okhotsk when the crew and captain get drunk, then make a break for the "coast of Korea" but don't have a compass so you try iron and garlic and still end up in Kamchatka
over 2 years ago
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A bittersweet evening in Budapest. We celebrated the Swedish Midsummer, reflected on the achievements of Sweden's soon-to-end EU Presidency, and bid farewell to Dag Hartelius, Sweden's ambassador to Budapest. RU's war in UA and SE's pending NATO accession cast a long shadow.
over 2 years ago
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