I love to travel, and I even slept 6 out of the 9.5 hours of my transatlantic flight from Vienna to Washington, D.C., this week. But man, after being on the road almost non-stop since April 30, I am really, really ready to stay in one place for a while. Not only is it physically taxing to travel so much, but I also get a little emotional every time I cross the Atlantic.
Arriving back in the U.S. dredges deeper questions of belonging and why the world must be as it is. I find it takes at least a few days to adjust, to begin to accept all the tiny injustices that are so immediately apparent and that there’s so much that isn’t available to me here. I have a complicated relationship with the country I live in, and I still haven’t entirely worked through it, despite the years and the determination to settle down. I’d love to hear from others who feel the same way about the U.S. or any country they live in.
I’ll spend the next few weeks getting my footing again. Keep an eye out for stories from Vienna soon. There was a ton of news from all over the world this week, so let’s jump in.
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What I’m reading:
• Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared his intention to leave the Russia-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization as relations with Moscow deteriorate, the Associated Press reports. The grouping includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
• Protests erupted in Armenia after Pashinyan said that a peace treaty with Azerbaijan was close to completion, but his country would not accept Baku’s demands to change its constitution. Reuters has the story.
• World leaders will meet this weekend at the Ukraine summit in Switzerland. Responsible Statecraft has a piece on what could be achieved.
• The United States extended security guarantees to Ukraine for the next 10 years, an apparent effort to signal long-term support for Kyiv's defense against Russia ahead of a U.S. election that could throw future American aid to Ukraine into doubt, Politico reports.
• The head of Ukraine’s restoration and infrastructure development agency resigned, claiming the government is undermining his agency’s work, Politico Europe reports. Related: here’s a grim Twitter thread about this week's Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.
• The Biden administration lifted a weapons ban on a controversial Ukrainian military unit, the Washington Post reports. The ban was imposed years ago on the Azov Brigade, a one-time militia now part of Ukraine’s National Guard. The brigade will now access the same U.S. military assistance as any other unit.
• G7 leaders agreed to give Ukraine a $50 billion loan to help it buy weapons and begin rebuilding its damaged infrastructure, the BBC reports. The loan is expected to be repaid using interest earned on $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, which are mostly in European banks.
• Russia said its troops started the second stage of drills to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in partnership with Belarusian soldiers, Reuters reports.
• A new raft of U.S. sanctions has shaken Russia’s financial system, the Washington Post reports. The sharp escalation by the Treasury Department forced Moscow’s leading financial trading platform to halt dollar and euro transactions.
• Wrongfully detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was indicted on espionage charges and referred to a trial court in Russia, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that a recent failed arson attack in Prague was “very likely” organized and financed by Russia, the BBC reports.
• EU Election Results: The center-right European People’s Party won the elections in Germany, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Cyprus, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Croatia, and Greece. It also gained six seats in the Netherlands. Far-right parties came first in France and Austria and second in Germany and Romania. The center-left Socialists maintained their representation in the EU parliament but didn’t do especially well anywhere.
• Germany’s ruling coalition suffered a blow in the European Parliament election, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats recording their worst result in a national vote in over a century, Politico Europe reports.
• Spain's center-right People's Party (PP) came out on top in the European election, garnering 22 seats out of the 61 allocated to the country and dealing a blow to the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Reuters has the story.
• French president Emmanuel Macron called a snap parliamentary election after far-right parties advanced in the European election, Politico Europe reports. In France, the National Rally won more than double the votes of Macron’s centrist alliance.
• The French conservative party Les Républicains voted to expel their own president, Éric Ciotti, the New York Times reports. Ciotti attempted to seal an agreement with the far-right National Rally for the upcoming legislative snap election.
• Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party is on track to receive its worst-ever result in a European Parliament election after a new challenger took nearly 30 percent of the vote, Politico Europe reports.
• The European Court of Justice ordered Hungary to pay the equivalent of $216 million for failing to comply with the bloc’s asylum rules despite a previous court ruling.
• France will postpone its controversial electoral reform in New Caledonia, which sparked deadly riots on the island territory last month, the Guardian reports.
• The United Nations Security Council adopted a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal for Gaza. Israel vowed to persist with its military operation, saying it won’t engage in “meaningless” negotiations with Hamas. Reuters reports that a senior Hamas official said the group accepts the U.N. ceasefire resolution and is ready to negotiate over the details.
• Israeli centrist politician Benny Gantz, a key member of the country’s war cabinet, quit the government over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the Gaza war, Axios reports.
• Biden administration officials discussed the option of negotiating a unilateral deal with Hamas to release five U.S. hostages if current ceasefire talks involving Israel fail, NBC News reports. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken later said that some of the changes requested by Hamas to the U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal were “unworkable.”
• Israel Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he signed an order to transfer around $35 million of the Palestinian Authority’s tax revenue to Israeli victims of terror, the Times of Israel reports.
• Yemen’s Houthis said they had broken up an “American-Israeli spy network” several days after the group arrested about a dozen United Nations personnel, the Associated Press reports.
• Six candidates, including the speaker of Parliament, were approved to run in Iran’s election to succeed the country’s late president Ebrahim Raisi, the New York Times reports.
• Thailand’s democracy movement faces a pivotal week as the Constitutional Court considers whether to dissolve the election-winning Move Forward Party (MFP), a ruling which would effectively nullify the votes of 14 million people and trigger a new period of political instability. Voice of America has the story.
• North Korea sent a fresh wave of trash balloons toward South Korea after Kim Jong Un’s sister warned of further responses if the South continues waging “psychological warfare.” CNN has the story.
• South Korea’s main opposition leader was indicted on bribery charges in a reported scheme to transfer funds to North Korea and facilitate a visit to Pyongyang while he served as a provincial governor, Reuters reports.
• A new government was formed in Haiti, the BBC reports. The new cabinet replaces all ministers from the previous government of Ariel Henry, who was forced to step down by gangs earlier this year.
• A Florida jury found Chiquita Brands International liable for financing the far-right Colombian paramilitary group Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC), CNN reports.
• Malawi’s vice president was declared dead after his plane went missing on Monday, the Washington Post reports.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com.