Hungary pipeline false-flag claims swirl as JD Vance makes election intervention

Claims explosives found near pipeline come before election in which PM Viktor Orban is trailing in most polls

Hungary has placed the gas pipeline that straddles the Serbian border under military protection, the prime minister, Viktor Orban, has said, as accusations of a false-flag operation continued to swirl before a crunch election at the weekend and an official visit on Tuesday from the US vice-president, JD Vance.

Orban travelled to Hungary's southern border with Serbia on Monday, one day after Serbia said it had found explosives of devastating power" near a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas to Hungary and beyond.