Iranian clerics and volunteers from the Basij paramilitary group pray next to the rubble of a destroyed police station in Tehran on March 4

The latest developments in the Middle East war:

- Iran ready -

Iran is prepared for all possibilities in its war with the United States and Israel, First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref said, following threats from US President Donald Trump. 

"No threat is beyond our preparedness and intelligence," Aref said in a post on X.

- 'Unacceptable' -

Pope Leo XIV said threats to inflict widespread damage on civilian targets in Iran were "unacceptable" -- without specifically mentioning Trump. 

"Today... there was this threat against all the people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable. There are certainly questions of international law, but much more than that, it is a moral question," the pope told journalists.

- Kuwait stay-at-home warning -

Kuwait asked residents to avoid going outside from midnight until Wednesday morning, hours ahead of a US deadline for Iran to agree to a deal or suffer major strikes on civilian infrastructure.

- US warns against Hajj -

The United States has urged its citizens to reconsider travelling to Saudi Arabia to take part in the Hajj pilgrimage next month due to security concerns, according to a statement posted by the US embassy in Riyadh.

- UN probe blames Israel, Hezbollah -

Three UN peacekeepers who died in two separate incidents in Lebanon in March were likely killed by Israeli tank fire in one case and by a Hezbollah improvised explosive device (IED) in the other, according to a United Nations probe.

- Trump threats 'deeply irresponsible'

Iran's ambassador to the United Nations criticized Donald Trump's "deeply irresponsible" threats against his country, after the president warned that "a whole civilization will die" if Tehran does not accept US war demands. 

- 'Collateral damage' -

The Israeli military expressed regret over "collateral damage" to a synagogue in Tehran caused by an overnight strike it said was targeting a senior Iranian commander. 

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian media reported that the Rafi-Nia Synagogue in central Tehran had been "completely destroyed". 

- 'Very troubled' -

UN chief Antonio Guterres was "very troubled" by Trump's dire warning that "a whole civilization will die" in Iran if the country does not meet an ultimatum to accept US war demands.

- Israel warns Lebanon ships -

The Israeli military urged all vessels in the maritime zone off the coast of southern Lebanon to immediately head north of the city of Tyre, warning that it would operate in the area.

- US journalist's Iraq release -

Iraq's powerful Kataeb Hezbollah armed group announced that it would release US journalist Shelly Kittleson, a week after she was kidnapped in Baghdad.

- Russia, China veto Hormuz resolution -

Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a text already diluted from the green light Gulf states had sought to use force to protect the key shipping lane.

- 'War crime' -

The UN rights chief decried the "incendiary rhetoric" in the Middle East war, warning that deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure was "a war crime".

- Only Trump knows -

"The Iranian regime has until 8PM Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to AFP, when asked if Trump was prepared to use a nuclear weapon, and about a report that Iran had cut off negotiations.

"Only the President knows where things stand and what he will do."

- 'Intensify damage inflicted' -

Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said that the joint US-Israeli offensive against Iran was "approaching a strategic crossroads" and vowed to "intensify the damage inflicted on the regime."

- White House denies mulling nuclear strike -

The White House denied that remarks by Vice President JD Vance about military operations in Iran had contained any suggestion of a US nuclear strike against the Islamic republic.

After Vance said US forces have tools they "so far haven't decided to use" to enforce a dramatic ultimatum from Trump, the White House said on X: "Literally nothing @VP said here 'implies' this, you absolute buffoons."

- Lebanon toll hits 1,530 -

Lebanon's health ministry said that the death toll in more than a month of war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah had reached 1,530.

The toll includes 102 women and 130 children, as well as 57 heath workers, a ministry statement said, adding that 4,812 people have been wounded.

- Netanyahu claims Iran bridge strikes -

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel struck railways and bridges in Iran "used by the Revolutionary Guards", after Iranian officials reported damage to at least two bridges and railway infrastructure.

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Gary Woodland will have special security this week at the Masters as he battles anxiety and stress following 2023 brain surgery.

Woodland had not won since the 2019 US Open until two weeks ago at the Houston Open, taking the title just two weeks after going public with his mental health struggles.

The 41-year-old American underwent surgery to remove part of a brain tumor and has since battled post-traumatic stress disorder that made him want to run off golf courses at times.

Just as with his PGA Tour events, Woodland will have extra security measures this week at Augusta National, qualifying after his Texas triumph.

"I've met with Augusta. I've met with their security team," Woodland said Tuesday. "Just like on tour, I'll have security with me. The main deal is they were showing me where security is.

"The whole deal for me is it's visual, right? If I can see somebody, then I can remind myself that I'm safe constantly.

"So I have a good idea now where security is on every hole. The big deal for me, my caddie knows too, so he can constantly remind me."

Woodland never knows what might cause an episode, so even with 12 prior Masters starts, it's a new challenge.

"I don't have control when this thing hits me, and it's tough," Woodland said. "It can be a fan. It can be a walking scorer. It can be a camera guy running by me, just any startlement from behind me can trigger this pretty quickly.

"Knowing where the security is is a constant reminder that I'm safe."

Woodland said speaking publicly about his issues has brought him greater strength to deal with them.

"Speaking about it and how I feel afterwards made me a lot stronger," he said. "I didn't know that releasing this battle was going to make me stronger, and it has done that. I feel a lot stronger now than I did three weeks ago, I can tell you that.

"No matter how hard it is out here, I know I have someone I can talk to, that I can have security."

Even his victory at Houston did not come without having to fight down his feelings.

"I had a big battle Friday of Houston. I got hypervigilant on the ninth hole and I battled the last 10 holes thinking people were trying to kill me," Woodland said.

"I talked to tour security that night and I told them what I was going through, and every time I looked up on the weekend, my security team was behind me.

"Last year I didn't talk to tour security. I fought this on my own. It was awful. Turning around and knowing that I'm safe, having somebody there with me, it's the only reason why I won two weeks ago."

Woodland has received messages from several people who has had their own struggles to overcome and been inspired by his story.

"It just shows that everybody is going through something," he said.

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(The Center Square) – Like the leader of the Cabinet he’s joined, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s first official trip was to the mountains of North Carolina to survey damage from Hurricane Helene.

This is the 80th week of recovery from arguably the state’s worst natural disaster.

“Thank you, Secretary Mullin, for visiting my district to get a full understanding of where we will need help after Hurricane Helene, but also how far we’ve come,” wrote U.S. Rep. Tim Moore, R-N.C., on social media. “I’m encouraged by the dedication of President Trump and this administration to rebuild western North Carolina.”

Ending the week of his inauguration, second-term Republican President Donald Trump and his wife Melania visited the mountains in January. He flew on to the fire-damaged areas of California near Los Angeles.

The visit comes a day after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said $26 million would be awarded to the state for the purpose of eliminating flood risks or severely damaged properties. Seventy-five damaged residential properties in Henderson, Polk and Yancey counties will be bought through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

“Under Secretary Mullin’s empowering leadership, FEMA is taking swift, decisive action to help survivors,” said Karen Evans, a senior official performing the duties of the FEMA administrator. “The funding announced today will make a real difference for recovering communities, but our work is not finished. Secretary Mullin has further encouraged us to redouble our efforts to help the survivors who are still waiting for assistance. FEMA will continue working with our partners in North Carolina until every pending project is resolved.”

Mullin has been praised for changing a policy of predecessor Kristi Noem. He believed personal approval of FEMA expenditures of more than $100,000 were “micromanaging,” saying “we put people in, we empower them to make decisions.”

While Trump has teased elimination of FEMA and said states know their needs and ways to address them best, Mullin dovetails the idea with belief in local leadership and FEMA as a supporter rather than primary response.

Asheville, Lake Lure and Chimney Rock were areas he viewed, hopping across rocks at one point in a scene making rounds on social media.

Progress is both incredible and crawling at a snail’s pace. Residents, their homes and the communities have overcome challenges. At the same time, more work is to be done. In the 2026 midterms, the storm has become a political football among candidates.

First-term Democratic Gov. Josh Stein, on his sixth day in office last year, created the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina, or GROW NC. The Legislature, majority Republican in both chambers, has appropriated $1.104 billion for recovery.

Congress, in December 2024, agreed to send the state – over time – an estimated $9 billion of a $110 billion disaster package.

That's only a portion of the $60 billion to $80 billion in damage.

The storm killed 108 in North Carolina after making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Dekle Beach, Fla., on Sept. 26, 2024.

It was expected to come north to the Appalachian Mountains; however, the total rainfall from its dissipation there exceeded all forecasts. Some places got more than 30 inches, most were at 24 inches or more. Due to terrain, water often rushed before it pooled and flooded – very unlike the flooding from hurricanes that happens in the coastal plains.

Putting on a green jacket has lifted an incredible weight off the shoulders of Rory McIlroy as the relaxed reigning Masters champion strolls around Augusta National.

The 36-year-old from Northern Ireland completed a career Grand Slam by capturing the green jacket last year to end a 10-year major win drought and years of chasing a Masters crown.

"It's so nice to walk around property or be out on the golf course and just not have that hanging over me," McIlroy said Tuesday. "It feels that it's a big weight off my shoulders."

World number two McIlroy tries to join Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Nick Faldo as the only back-to-back winners of the Masters with a victory this week.

Turns out the end of his slam quest with a fifth career major title was only the beginning of a new story for McIlroy.

"I think the story as it relates to me is what do I do from now onwards? What motivates me? What gets me going? What do I still want to achieve in the game?" McIlroy said.

"There's still a lot that I want to do. You think every time you achieve something or have success that you'll be happy, but then the goalposts move, and they just keep nudging a little bit further and further out of reach.

"I think what I've realized is, if you can just really find enjoyment in the journey, that's the big thing because honestly I felt like the career Grand Slam was my destination, and I got there, and then I realized it wasn't the destination."

Of all the majors, McIlroy says his best chances to win more titles will come at Augusta National.

"I feel like I'm still young, but I'm very experienced. I've been doing this for a long time. This is my 18th start," McIlroy said.

"I do feel like I've got another hopefully 10 good shots at this. Not that I don't at the other majors, but I just think that everything here is a little more predictable.

"I just think the more experience you have around this golf course, the better it is."

This year, however, McIlroy has a new outlook. It's what helped him arrive on Saturday instead of Monday and relish in the perks of being a Masters winner.

"For the past 17 years I just could not wait for the tournament to start," McIlroy said. "And this year I wouldn't care if the tournament never started. That's sort of the difference."

- No less motivated -

Knowing he will have the chance to return as often as he likes has not dimmed motivation, McIlroy said, even with the pressure of winning the slam released.

"It's completely different. I feel so much more relaxed. I know I'm going to be coming back here for a lot of years, going to enjoy the perks that the champions get here," he said.

"It doesn't make me any less motivated to go out there and play well and try to win the tournament, just more relaxed about it all."

McIlroy is already pondering the places at Augusta National where he can attack the course better.

"You're always going to have to pick and choose your spots around here, where to be aggressive and where not to, but I definitely think there's places where I could be more aggressive off the tee," McIlroy said.

"There's a few tee shots out here where I'll just try to be a bit more aggressive, and then if you do hit a good tee shot, you turn a potentially tough hole into a birdie hole."

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Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution Tuesday on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a text already diluted to remove Gulf states' desired green light to use force to protect the key shipping lane.

The draft resolution prepared by Bahrain and supported by the United States received 11 votes in favor, two against and two abstentions. Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said Gulf states "regret" the outcome.

Iran has imposed an effective blockade on the critical waterway since the United States and Israel launched the war on February 28, sending ripple effects throughout the global economy.

The vote came hours before US President Donald Trump's dire ultimatum expires for Tehran to open the strait, which normally carries a fifth of the world's oil, or "a whole civilization will die" in Iran.

"Today's result does not restrict the United States to continue to act in its own self defense and in the collective defense of our allies and partners," US ambassador Mike Waltz said after the Security Council vote.

Al Zayani, speaking on behalf of the oil-exporting Gulf countries, said the failure to pass the resolution "sends the wrong signal to the world."

"This signal that the threat to international waterways can pass without any decisive action by the international organization responsible for the maintenance of international peace and security," he said.

Iran's UN ambassador said the text was designed "to punish the victim for defending its sovereignty and vital national interest in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz."

"Had this draft been adopted, it could have opened the door to dangerously broad and abusive interpretation that could be used to justify further use of force and unlawful actions in clear violation of the UN Charter," said Amir Saeid Iravani.

- 'Cease all attacks' -

Bahrain launched negotiations two weeks ago on a draft that would have given a clear UN mandate to any state wishing to use force to unblock the strait.

But objections from several veto-holding permanent members -- including France, Russia and China -- forced the text to be watered down and the vote delayed multiple times.

French opposition appeared to be lifted by the addition of wording that meant any action would need to be "defensive."

After further amendments, the latest version of the text seen by AFP no longer mentioned authorization to use force, even defensively.

The latest draft "strongly encourages states...to coordinate efforts, defensive in nature, commensurate to the circumstances, to contribute to ensuring the safety and security of navigation, including through the escort of merchant and commercial vessels," rather than explicitly authorizing force.

It also "demands" Iran "immediately cease all attacks against merchant and commercial vessels and any attempt to impede transit passage or freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz."

Additionally, it calls for the end to attacks on civilian water, oil, and gas infrastructure.

Justifying his veto, Russian ambassador Vassili Nebenzia said "nearly each paragraph of the draft that they proposed abounded with unbalanced, inaccurate and confrontational elements."

He said he understood concerns about transit in the Strait of Hormuz, and that Russia and China would propose an alternative draft resolution, without giving a date. 

UN Security Council mandates authorizing member states to use force are rare.

During the 1990 Gulf War, a vote allowed a US-led coalition to intervene in Iraq after it invaded Kuwait.

In 2011, NATO obtained the green light to intervene in Libya when Russia abstained from a vote. Moscow later fumed that this had led to the fall of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

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Indigenous protesters from across Brazil marched to the capital Brasilia Tuesday to demand the government expedite recognition of their ancestral lands.

The protest, featuring tribal members in colorful traditional feathers and body decorations, came six months before leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, popularly known as Lula, faces a reelection battle.

Indigenous Brazilian peoples broadly supported Lula in 2022 when he defeated his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, whose government ceased to recognize native lands and fueled deforestation in the Amazon.

Lula made an important symbolic gesture by naming a respected figure from the Guajajara-Tenetehara ethnicity, Sonia Guajajara, as the head of the new Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.  

Lula's government has overseen a drop in Amazon deforestation -- promising to eradicate the felling of trees by 2030 -- and the recognition of 20 territories for the exclusive use of Indigenous communities.   

But for some, the new measures are not enough.   

"Our principal demand continues to be the formal recognition of Indigenous territories," Toya Manchineri, from the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon, told AFP.

Experts see the Indigenous reserves as a way to help fight climate change and preserve biodiversity.  

As Latin America's largest country, Brazil has 1.7 million Indigenous people out of a population of 212 million.    

- 'Enemy' Congress -

The Indigenous groups will camp out in Brasilia until Friday, and plan to dance, play music, host artisan markets and debate. 

Thousands marched to Congress on Tuesday, where the Association of Brazilian Indigenous People (APIB) accused lawmakers of being the "enemies of the people" for their alliance with the powerful agribusiness sector -- one of the main drivers of deforestation.

The majority-conservative Congress approved a law in 2023 that limits Indigenous people's land rights. This was later struck down by the Supreme Court, but right-wing parties are working for new restrictions.

The legal limbo leaves Indigenous areas exposed to the penetration of agribusiness and mining interests, Manchineri said. "The impact is huge."

According to the APIB, a hundred Indigenous territories are awaiting the formal signoff of government recognition.

Despite slow progress, native groups will still "cast their votes for the reelection" of Lula, Manchineri predicts.

Although she demanded "justice and resources" for her community, Marilene Gervasio, from the Bare people, said she hoped the leftist will be reelected.

Lula will face Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of the far-right ex-president, in the October election. The most recent polls show a close second round between them.

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(The Center Square) - Iranian officials remained defiant on Tuesday as a U.S. deadline for further military strikes on bridges and power plants looms. 

The United Nations Security Council held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran. The council met to vote on a resolution to protect commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Russia and China vetoed the resolution, causing it to fail. 

President Donald Trump said "a whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran did not agree to open access in the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday evening. 

Amir-Saeid Irvani, the UN representative for Iran, criticized threats from Trump calling for "complete demolition" of the country.

"Iran will not stand idle in the face of such egregious war crimes," Irvani said. "It will exercise without hesitation its inherent right of self defense and will take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures," Irvani said. 

Irvani criticized the UN security council for failing to uphold peace and security. He placed blame on the United States and Israel for the consequences of retalitation. 

Irvani rejected the possibility of a ceasefire to hostilities in Iran, noting that it would serve as the potential for future war crimes. 

"The United States and Israeli division must bear full responsibility for harm and suffering inflicted upon Iranian civilians, objects and critical infrastructure," Irvani said. 

Michael Waltz, the United States' ambassador to the UN, placed responsibility for the threats of further military action with Iran. He said Iran's refusal to negotiate and unwillingness to pursue peace in the Middle East led to the current conflict. 

"[The Iranian regime] is a dictatorship punching at the kneecaps of its neighbors," Waltz said. "Our allies across the gulf and American servicemen are under a barrage of Iranian missiles and drones."

Jamal Fares Alrowaiei, the representative for Bahrain to the UN, criticized Iran's strikes on Middle East countries. He asserted the Iranians were committing war crimes in the conflict. 

"We are discussing your illegal, terrorist actions by closing the Strait of Hormuz, which harmed international trade, jeopardizing the lives of millions of people," Alrowaiei said. 

Waltz slammed Iran for its closure of the Strait of Hormuz and warned that similar actions to disrupt global energy supply chains could be devastating in a future conflict. 

"One can only imagine conflicts where a party decides to hold the rest of the world hostage because of a dispute," Waltz said. "This is a situation the world cannot and should not live with."

The Pentagon floated requesting $200 billion from Congress for operations in Iran but has not confirmed an official figure. Some estimates said the conflict has cost the United States $1 billion per day. 

Matt Fitzpatrick said his hot form means he has never been more confident entering the Masters, but the world number six but will be keeping his expectations low when he tees off.

The 31-year-old Englishman, who won last year's season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, captured last month's PGA Tour Valspar Championship a week after finishing second at the Players Championship.

"It's definitely the most confident I've been," Fitzpatrick said. "I wouldn't say that means I'm going to go out there and play well. The key is obviously to have as low expectations as possible and as high a confidence as possible.

"This is definitely the best form I've been coming into this tournament. Just kind of trying to roll with it and enjoy that."

"Definitely a lot of momentum,"  said the 2022 US Open champion. "The weird thing is winning and then having two weeks off and then you come in again. I think winning the week before is a bit more on a roll. You've got the same swing feels and whatnot.

"In that two weeks off, there's a few things that just felt like were maybe a little bit different," he said. 

"It's just managing that and making sure I'm on the right track."

Fitzpatrick, who is making his 12th Masters start having made 10 consecutive cuts with a best finish of seventh in 2016.

"The experience is the biggest thing here. The more you can learn about the golf course, the better," Fitzpatrick said.

"There's so much to learn on every different hole, particularly where to put the pins and where to miss around the greens, as well as just looking at the history of the event and what holes you can be a little bit more aggressive on and which holes you need to play smart."

Fitzpatrick spoke to his psychologist ahead of the Masters, working on the balance between confidence and overconfidence.

"It just goes back to the expectation standpoint," he said.

"It's taking the confidence from that, that things have improved so much from where they were last year, but as well as having those expectations you can't have the high expectations.

"I'm playing really well, but golf is golf. It can change quickly or it can continue for how it is."

"Every year I feel like I'm a completely different player to the one before," said Fitzpatrick.

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Donald Trump is no stranger to provocative language. But his threat to wipe out Iranian civilization and other recent menacing comments have prompted critics to question the US president's mental health.

The oldest elected president in American history has ramped up his apocalyptic rhetoric as his frustration grows with Tehran's refusal to make a deal to end the Middle East war.

Even some former allies have called for the 79-year-old Republican's removal from office after a series of outlandish and sometimes expletive-riddled social media posts. 

The world is now guessing whether Trump will follow through when his Tuesday evening deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz expires -- or back down as the former businessman has often done before. 

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will," Trump posted on his Truth Social network 12 hours before the deadline falls.

As global alarm grew, the White House was forced to dismiss speculation that his statement -- and comments by Vice President JD Vance about "tools in our toolkit that we so far haven't decided to use" -- meant Trump was ready to use nuclear weapons.

In the past, the former New York property magnate has often trumpeted a negotiating style that relies on maximalist positions in order to extract more from a deal.

"He does seem a bit more unhinged than in the past," Peter Loge, director of George Washington University's School of Media, told AFP.

But he added that "this feels to me like a broader pattern of Trump bluster.

"My guess is as we approach one more deadline in a long series of deadlines, the president will declare victory, say I drove Iran to the bargaining table, I'll give them two more weeks.

"Then we'll see this movie again in a couple of weeks."

- 'Evil and madness' -

Even by Trump's own outspoken standards, the 45th and 47th US commander-in-chief has in recent days used distinctly unpresidential language.

"Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell," Trump said on Truth Social, on the morning of Easter Sunday.

Trump was barely more measured in a series of interactions with the media in the incongruous setting of an Easter Egg Roll at the White House on Monday.

Surrounded by hundreds of kids and alongside a giant Easter Bunny and First Lady Melania Trump, the president denied that targeting Iranian power plants and civil infrastructure would be a war crime.

His extreme language has prompted a slew of critics -- including some one-time allies -- to question Trump's sanity.

"We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness," hard-right ex-congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who split with Trump last year, said on X.

Former loyalists including Greene have also joined Democrats calling for Trump's cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment, which provides for a transfer of power if a president is unable to govern, particularly in the event of illness.

Right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson called Trump's Easter Sunday comments the "first step toward nuclear war," ex-White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci called him a "crazy person" and sought Trump's removal from office, and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked on his INFO WARS show: "How do we 25th Amendment his ass?"

Former Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz meanwhile said "the President has lost his mind."

But Trump himself brushed off questions about his mental health, when asked by an AFP journalist at a briefing at the White House on Monday.

"I haven't heard that," Trump said in response to a question about critics saying his mental state should be examined following his "crazy bastards" comment.

"But if that's the case, you're going to have to have more people like me."

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US Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday threw his support behind Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban, ahead of this weekend's fiercely fought parliamentary vote, accusing Brussels of "foreign election interference".

Orban -- the EU leader with the closest ties to both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- is facing an unprecedented challenge to his 16-year rule in Sunday's vote.

Vance is one of the US administration's fiercest critics of centrist and progressive European governments and one of the most fervent supporters of far-right parties in Europe.

The 41-year-old conservative in his visit to the Hungarian capital Budapest hailed Orban as a "model" for Europe.

"I did want to send a signal to everybody, particularly the bureaucrats in Brussels," he told reporters in a press conference alongside Orban, accusing Brussels of interfering "to hold down the people of Hungary".

Later, at a rally with Orban in an indoor sports arena, Vance told thousands of cheering listeners that he and Trump stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the Hungarian leader.

Before his speech, he had Trump on the phone on loudspeaker, who said "I love that Viktor".

- 'Inspiring' -

Eszter Molnar, a 39-year-old lawyer who attended the event with her one-year-old daughter, said Vance's visit was "inspiring" as "his values align with those of the Hungarian government".

"I'm glad that Hungarian–American relations have risen to such a good level," she told AFP.

Adorjan Somogyi, an 18-year-old student, said the visit was important "from a foreign policy perspective" but wouldn't sway many voters.

Vance's visit follows that of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in mid-February, who wished his Hungarian ally "success" in the April 12 election.

Orban said in the press conference earlier that he had discussed the "major issues facing Western civilisation" with Vance, such as "migration, gender ideology, family policy, and global security". 

He also slammed the "unusually crude and overt interference by foreign intelligence services in Hungary's electoral processes".

- Election challenge -

Orban, 62, has been in power for 16 years and is close to Moscow. 

According to analysts, Orban has benefited from covert Russian assistance to boost his chances of reelection.

However, polls by independent institutes predict a sweeping victory for the Tisza party led by pro-European conservative Peter Magyar. 

In two years, Magyar has built an opposition movement capable of challenging Orban.

Pro-government institutions are predicting victory for Orban's Fidesz-KDNP coalition.

Since returning to power, Trump and his government have broken with the traditional restraint past US administrations have shown regarding foreign elections.

Instead, they now strongly show support for leaders they sees as compatible with US diplomatic priorities.

European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said in a statement on Tuesday that elections were the "sole choice of the citizens," adding that "together, the commission and member states are building a stronger, more independent Europe."

Orban is particularly aligned with the Trump administration on anti-migrant policies, which came to the fore in Hungary during the refugee crisis 10 years ago. He has visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida several times.

Hungary continues to be heavily reliant on Russian energy, claiming it is vital to keep energy costs low.

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