During his first visit to neighbouring Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday that the war was Europe’s “most important issue,” and recommended an immediate cease-fire.

Orban is widely seen as having the warmest relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin among European Union leaders, and his visit was a rare gesture in a tumultuous relationship with Ukraine as Budapest has repeatedly leaned toward Moscow.

The Hungarian prime minister has routinely blocked, delayed or watered down EU efforts to extend assistance to Ukraine and to sanction Moscow over its war, frustrating both Zelenskyy and other EU leaders.

But following talks in Kyiv on Tuesday, Orbán appeared to open the door to a new phase of bilateral relations, saying “the time had come” for such an official visit.

“We are trying to leave the disputes of the past behind us and focus on the period ahead,” Orbán said in brief comments to journalists following the talks. “We would like relations between our two countries to be much better.”

Ukraine and Hungary have had a tense relationship since the war began, with Orbán portraying himself as a champion for peace and calling for an immediate cease-fire and peace talks without expanding on what that would mean for Ukraine’s territorial integrity. He reiterated that call Tuesday, saying it would “provide an opportunity to speed up peace negotiations.”

But Zelenskyy on Tuesday said he was “grateful” for the humanitarian support Hungary had provided to Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. He also said Hungary could play a role in organising a second iteration of a peace summit that was held in Switzerland last month, which brought together dozens of world leaders.

“Today, we discussed in detail how Hungary can show further leadership in preparing the second summit,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he would like for the event to take place this year.

Orbán’s visit comes the day after Hungary took over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, a position that has little real power but can be used to set the tone of the bloc’s agenda. Hungarian officials have indicated that they will act as “honest brokers” in the role despite worries from some EU lawmakers that Hungary’s democratic track record makes it unfit to lead the bloc.

During the visit, the Hungarian prime minister acknowledged Russia’s invasion, and said his aim in travelling to Kyiv was “to understand how we could be helpful to Ukraine in the forthcoming six months.”

“The issue of peace is not only important for Ukraine, it is important for the whole of Europe,” Orbán said. “This war, which you are now suffering, has a profound effect on European security.”

The war is “the most important issue for Europe,” he said.

The Hungarian premier, a self-described adherent of “illiberal democracy,” has long been accused by his European partners of dismantling democratic institutions at home and acting as an obstinate spoiler of key EU policy priorities. The bloc has frozen more than €18.6 billion ($20 billion) in funding to Budapest over alleged rule-of-law and corruption violations, and Orbán has conducted numerous anti-EU campaigns depicting it as an overcentralized, repressive organization.

Orbán has also long accused Kyiv of mistreating an ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine’s western region of Zakarpattia, a community he has used to justify his refusal to provide weapons to Ukraine or allow their transfer across the two countries’ shared border.

But on Tuesday, Orbán said he sees a “good chance” of achieving progress in the minority community’s affairs and agreed to a proposal by Zelenskyy to set up a Ukrainian school in Hungary for refugees.

“These families need to be taken care of. They need jobs, they need a livelihood, they need security, they need a good school for their children, they need good teachers,” Orbán said.

His visit comes as he seeks to recruit members into a new nationalist alliance that he hopes will soon become the largest right-wing group in the European Parliament. On Sunday, Orbán met in Vienna with the leaders of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party and the main Czech opposition party, announcing the formation of the new group, “Patriots for Europe.”

The trio would need to attract lawmakers from at least four more EU countries to successfully form a group in Europe’s new parliament, which held elections in June. Right-wing nationalist parties across Europe strengthened their position in the elections, but ideological differences over the war in Ukraine and cooperation with Russia have often prevented deeper alliances among some of the parties.

James Gunn‘s “Superman” is celebrating both the legacy of the Man of Steel and the actor who originated him on the big screen with a special cameo.

The late Christopher Reeve experienced his greatest commercial success playing Superman and his alter ego Clark Kent in the first four Superman movies. Now, his youngest son, journalist and ABC News correspondent Will Reeve, will make a cameo playing a TV reporter in the upcoming DC Studios movie.

The project is currently filming in Cleveland, Ohio, where local reporters (via Cleveland.com) captured all the behind-the-scenes action, including Reeve’s appearance on set during a major scene. David Corenswet stars as Superman in the character’s latest revival, written and directed by Gunn, the co-head of Warner Bros.-owned DC Studios. The film arrives in theaters on July 11, 2025.

Will Reeve and his older siblings Matthew and Alexandra have had the superhero front of mind lately thanks to Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s documentary “Super/Man,” which chronicles their late father’s life and career. The Reeve children appear in the documentary as it explores the actor’s rise to Hollywood icon status and the near-fatal horse-riding accident in 1995 that left him paralyzed from the neck down. (Reeve died in 2004.) Following its buzzy Sundance Film Festival premiere, “Super/Man” finalized a deal to sell to Warner Bros. Discovery for roughly $15 million.

“The majority of my memories of my dad involve him after the accident because I was not yet three years old when he was injured,” Will Reeve told Variety at the festival. “So to see his entire life leading up until that time laid out so poetically and cinematically and authentically by our wonderful directors has been a real gift for me.”

In that interview, the Reeve children were also asked about their thoughts on Christopher Reeve’s appearance in last year’s Warner Bros. comic book tentpole “The Flash,” in which his iteration of Superman (recreated by CGI) is spotted by Ezra Miller’s Flash out in the multiverse. None of them had watched “The Flash” and they did not have involvement in that cameo. But, Will Reeve’s appearance in the upcoming “Superman” marks a step forward in the synergistic relationship between the family and the studio as all things Superman trend up, up and away.

The documentary will hit the big screen this fall, playing in select theaters on Sept. 21 followed by an encore presentation on Christopher Reeve’s birthday, Sept. 25. DC Studios is collaborating with Fathom Events on the theatrical release.

DC Studios did not return request for comment on Reeve’s cameo.

Thousands of people at a religious gathering in India rushed to leave a makeshift tent, setting off a stampede Tuesday that killed more than 100 and left scores injured, officials said.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the panic following an event with a Hindu guru known locally as Bhole Baba. Local news reports cited authorities who said heat and suffocation in the tent could have been a factor. Video of the aftermath showed the structure appeared to have collapsed.

At least 116 people died, most of them women and children, said Prashant Kumar, the director-general of police in northern India’s state of Uttar Pradesh, where the stampede occurred.

AT LEAST 60 DEAD AFTER STAMPEDE AT RELIGIOUS GATHERING IN NORTHERN INDIA

More than 80 others were injured and admitted to hospitals, senior police officer Shalabh Mathur said.

“People started falling one upon another, one upon another. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out,” witness Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency.

Relatives wailed in distress as bodies of the dead, placed on stretchers and covered in white sheets, lined the grounds of a local hospital. A bus that arrived there carried more victims, whose bodies were lying on the seats inside.

Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures.

Police officer Rajesh Singh said there was likely overcrowding at the event in a village in Hathras district about 220 miles southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.

Initial reports said organizers had permission to host about 5,000 people, but more than 15,000 came for the event by the Hindu preacher, who used to be a police officer in the state before he left his job to give religious sermons. He has led other such gatherings over the last two decades.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the families of the dead and said the federal government was working with state authorities to ensure the injured received help.

Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the stampede “heart-wrenching” in a post on X. He said authorities were investigating.

“Look what happened and how many people have lost their lives. Will anyone be accountable?” Rajesh Kumar Jha, a member of parliament, told reporters. He said the stampede was a failure by the state and federal governments to manage large crowds, adding that “people will keep on dying” if authorities do not take safety protocols seriously enough.

In 2013, pilgrims visiting a temple for a popular Hindu festival in central Madhya Pradesh state trampled each other amid fears that a bridge would collapse. At least 115 were crushed to death or died in the river.

In 2011, more than 100 Hindu devotees died in a crush at a religious festival in the southern state of Kerala.