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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban may have alienated his EU neighbours, who accuse him of undermining democracy, but he will get a warm reception thousands of miles away at a conservative conference in Texas on Thursday. How did this unlikely love affair blossom? "He has a real hunger for knowledge," says Zsuzsa Hegedus about her friend Viktor Orban. "So apart from the fact that we laughed a lot… he wasn't just interested in what I had to say, he really wanted to understand." That was in 2002, when they first met in her leafy garden in the upmarket Budapest residential suburb of Pasaret - the Pasha's Meadow, named after the last Turkish ruler of the city. That passion for learning accompanies Orban to this day - he reads widely, peppers h...

Mr Simpson and his co-founder opened Clayton & Crume, an upmarket leather goods outlet, in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, in 2019, six months before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. After surviving the various lockdowns, he says that customer numbers are still below where they were three years ago. "I can't say walk-ins and foot traffic are really happening like it was," says Mr Simpson. "So of course the pandemic had an effect." His shop is based in downtown Louisville, and more specifically in the fashionable East Market or "NuLu" district. This is home to upscale restaurants, bars, art galleries, and other boutique stores. Clayton & Crume first started serving cocktails in June, and Mr Simpson says the aim is to "make it a...

The 12-metre vessel, which had set sail from Portugal's capital Lisbon, sent out a distress signal late on Monday evening from the Atlantic Ocean. Spanish coastguards found the upturned boat, but the sea was too rough to rescue him - so the sailor had to wait until morning. The man's survival was "verging on the impossible", said coastguard divers. His boat sent a distress signal at 20:23 local time on Monday, 14 miles (22.5 km) from the Sisargas Islands, near Spain's north-west Galicia region. A rescue ship carrying five divers as well as three helicopters set off to find and rescue the man, who has not yet been named. A diver was winched onto the ship's hull to seek signs of life and the man responded by banging from inside. ...

Russian energy giant Gazprom says it is impossible to take back a turbine that is vital for gas supplies to Europe due to Western sanctions. The 12m (40ft) turbine is stranded in Germany after returning from Canada where it was repaired. Berlin insists the equipment is not affected by sanctions and accuses Russia of not honouring its contracts for political reasons. Recently, Gazprom has drastically reduced gas deliveries to Europe. The key Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia to Germany is running at 20% capacity. Moscow supplied the EU with 40% of its natural gas last year, and the cuts have caused wholesale prices to increase dramatically. Some countries are struggling to buy enough gas to put into storage for the win...

His comments come as surging energy prices sparked by the war in Ukraine push industry profits to new highs. Mr Guterres said it was "immoral" for firms to be profiting from the crisis. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February has worsened a global shortage of oil and gas, disrupting access to oil and gas from Russia - a major supplier - and driving prices higher. While households are grappling with higher energy bills, companies are reaping the benefits. BP recently reported its largest profit in 14 years, while Shell's profits in the April-to-June period hit a record. Together, four of the biggest energy firms - Exxon, Chevron, Shell and TotalEnergies -  Oofos Canada earned nearly $51bn in the most recent quarter - almost doubl...

According to human rights advocates, nearly 50 migrants have had religious headgear taken away. Sikhism requires that men wear turbans and do not cut their hair. Record numbers of migrants from India have been detained at the US-Mexico border in recent months. Many hail from India's Punjab, where more than half of residents are Sikh. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said the turban confiscations "blatantly violate federal law" and are inconsistent with the CBP's own non-discrimination policies. In a letter sent to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Chris Magnus on 1 August, it called the seizures "ongoing, serious religious-freedom violations". Lawyer Vanessa Pineda, of the ACLU of Arizona...