Deadline Time

It’s just a few hours before President Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or potentially face devastating strikes on its civilian infrastructure. We’re watching closely. We will have more in-depth coverage of whatever happens in tomorrow’s newsletter but, for now, you can read the latest below.

I also want to tell you about why, even with the war at a pivotal moment, the U.S. vice president is taking the time to visit Hungary.

‘A whole civilization will die tonight’

Israel struck road and rail bridges across Iran on Tuesday; the U.S. struck Kharg Island, the country’s main oil export hub; and with hours left to go before Trump’s 8 p.m. Eastern time deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face wide-scale destruction, he issued dark threats on social media.

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump wrote, adding that he hoped “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen” to avoid the attacks.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to hit power and desalination plants, oil installations and bridges if the strait isn’t opened. Striking civilian infrastructure could be a war crime under international law. But the U.S. has sought significant leeway in defining a civilian target.

Trump has moved his deadlines before. Pakistan, an intermediary, proposed a two-week cease-fire to allow for negotiations and the White House press secretary said that “a response will come” to the request. We have live updates.

Ahead of the deadline, my colleagues Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan shared some of their exclusive reporting on Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, which will be featured in a forthcoming book.

Their reporting shows how Trump aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to go to war despite opposition from Vice President JD Vance and skepticism from U.S. intelligence about whether the war’s goals could be achieved. We have takeaways from the article.

Can Vance save Viktor Orban?

Hungary has a smaller population than Greece. It accounts for 1 percent of the European Union’s economy.

Yet conservatives from across the world have mobilized to support its prime minister, Viktor Orban, ahead of upcoming elections this Sunday.

Giorgia Meloni, Javier Milei, Benjamin Netanyahu and Alice Weidel all endorsed him in a video, along with other far-right leaders from around the world. Trump offered his “complete and total endorsement” and sent Vance to Budapest to campaign alongside Orban yesterday. Standing next to him, Vance proclaimed that they were allies in “the defense of Western civilization.”

Why all this for the leader of a small country on the outskirts of Europe? Because people on both sides of the global culture war view Hungary’s election as about more than just the future of Hungary.

Orban is the European Union’s longest-serving head of government. But after 16 years in power, he’s trailing in the polls.

And a loss for Orban, a pro-Russian nationalist who has spent the last decade and a half as a thorn in Europe’s side, would be a loss for the global nationalist right.

A pioneer of illiberal democracy

As someone who fought Communism and then became a leading opponent of liberal democracy, Orban enjoys a near-mythical status on the right.

His actions have come to represent a playbook for transforming liberal democracy into something he likes to call illiberal democracy (others have called it competitive authoritarianism — authoritarianism with elections). He controls the media landscape. He has stacked the courts in his favor. His contempt for the E.U. and the kind of liberal “woke politics” conservatives abhor, have made him a hero in Moscow and MAGA circles alike.

But above all, he’s always won elections. He’s won four in a row with ease, governing unchallenged in Hungary since 2010.

I spoke to my colleague Andrew Higgins, our central and Eastern Europe bureau chief, who is in Budapest covering the election. Andy told me that winning has been Orban’s superpower.

“He is the model of how to break out from the fringes and win over voters year after year after year,” Andy said. “So if he loses this time, this whole mystique evaporates.”

The Kremlin has been open in trying to help Orban, not least by sending a steady stream of Russian energy supplies. And the urgency was also on display in a joint press conference on Tuesday. Vance praised Orban as a “statesman” who is “wise and smart” and accused E.U. “bureaucrats” of trying to sway Sunday’s election result “because they hate this guy.”

President Trump “loves you and so do I,” Vance said.

The end of a winning formula

Will that make a difference?

Trump is popular in Orban’s base, Andy said. Vance’s visit could well help consolidate that support. But beyond that group, the MAGA love is unlikely to have an impact, he said.

True to form, Orban’s election campaign has relied on stoking hostility toward Ukraine and the E.U. But opinion polls in the run-up to the election suggest that his winning formula, which had relied heavily on overwhelming control of the media, has lost its magic. His Fidesz party is 10 percentage points or more behind Tisza, an upstart political movement headed by Peter Magyar, a defector from Orban’s camp.

If Orban loses as predicted, it will be because on his watch Hungary’s economy has slowed to a trickle, Andy explained. Unemployment is rising. Growth was just 0.4 percent last year, the lowest in the region. And corruption is rampant, a direct consequence of his politics.

“There’s a connection between the sweet deals for his family and political allies and poor economic growth,” Andy said. “Corruption is not a good recipe for economic success.”

That is certainly the argument put forward by Magyar. What is less clear is how different he would actually be. Orban’s opponent is also not an advocate for L.G.B.T. rights, nor an unequivocal supporter of Ukraine. He is “probably more conservative than most European conservatives,” Andy said.

“Liberals will be cheering that Orban’s gone,” he told me. “But Magyar is not in sync with their causes at all.”

MORE TOP NEWS

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Shelly Kittleson, an American journalist who was abducted in Iraq by a militia allied with Iran, was freed after a week in captivity.
The U.K. barred Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, from entering the country to play a series of concerts because of his history of antisemitism.
Kim Jong-un’s daughter, thought to be around 13, was shown driving a tank, fueling speculation that she is being groomed to succeed him as North Korea’s leader.
Anthropic said it was holding back on releasing its new A.I. model and was working with 40 companies to explore how it could prevent cyberattacks.
Australia charged a former elite soldier with war crimes during the Afghan war.

Top of The World

The most clicked link in your newsletter yesterday was about Danish TV shows.

SPORTS

Football: Bayern Munich beat Real Madrid in a stunning Champions League quarterfinal. Here are the highlights.

Basketball: Michigan took down UConn to win the N.C.A.A. men’s March Madness finals for the first time since 1989.

IMAGE OF THE DAY

This picture, known as Earthset, was taken by the astronauts on the Artemis II mission and released yesterday by NASA and the White House. It was captured during the mission’s historic lunar flyby, minutes before the astronauts headed into a radio blackout while they swooped around the moon’s far side. See the photos.

MORNING READ

Air travel is something entirely different when you have a huge budget. On Air France’s premium first-class service, you can take a limousine to a special entrance, eat a three-course meal in a lounge with more staff members than passengers and ride a Porsche to the plane. Onboard, chocolate, Champagne and a cozy bed await you in a private compartment.

The round-trip ticket price between New York and Paris: $16,000. My colleague Sarah Lyall tried it out and found the flight to be a “nonstop parade of luxury.” Read about her ultraposh trip.

AROUND THE WORLD

Making space for chefs on the spectrum

People on the autism spectrum have a range of talents that can be useful in professional kitchens. Some are meticulously organized at their stations or especially diligent about safety protocols. Others have an exceptional recall of recipes or can perform tasks with astonishing consistency, such as butchering meat exactly the same way each time.

A new program called Chefs on the Spectrum aims to make the most of these qualities in fine-dining jobs across the U.S. The effort aims to address two problems at once: the shortage of skilled labor in restaurants and a high unemployment rate among autistic adults.

More than a dozen top chefs, including Daniel Boulud and Andrew Zimmern, have signed on to hire program graduates in their restaurants. Read more.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Watch: Check out these five international movies to stream.

Read: The chasm between social media and reality runs deep and dark in “Yesteryear.”

Gaze: Patrick Taylor’s new fashion line is inspired by the slopes and seas.

Elevate: If your fitness routine is feeling dull, try adding a little height to your go-to exercises.

RECIPE

Whole spices are the key to achieving an intense, complex flavor in this vegetable pulao, but the rice dish can be easily adjusted according to your preferences and what you have around. Swap carrots for cauliflower, or potatoes for sweet potatoes — this flexibility is one reason pulao is a staple of many Desi households.