I can't stop writing this.
I promised myself that I wouldn’t send a newsletter this week. I’ll be away by the time you read this. My goal is to take an entire week off from the news. No reading. No writing. No mini reportage from wherever I happen to be.
I brought my laptop with me anyway. I couldn’t help myself.
I’m sending the usual list of reading this week. I’ve been scaling back my use of Twitter because the company’s ownership is too odious. I don’t want to give that man any more of my data than I absolutely must. The list below serves as a replacement of sorts, a summary of all the articles I would have flagged for my followers.
It’s my sincere desire to take a week off from work, but I don’t know if I’ll manage, especially since Ukraine is peddling a victory plan and Israel is preparing to strike Iran.
That said, if you get a newsletter from me next Sunday, the 27th, please feel free to email me and tell me to get a life. If I exercise self-control, you’ll hear from me on November 3rd, when I will be back and mentally preparing for the U.S. elections and their myriad effects on the world.
I hope you’re having a peaceful Sunday, Cristina
If you’re curious about what we’ve been up to at Lazo Magazine over the last months, we have an article on over-tourism in Medellin, a piece on how people are using the Internet to preserve dying languages, and an essay on identity and becoming a third-culture kid in Argentina. We also have an article on the Iranian artists fighting the regime and another about Ukrainian artists preserving their culture while exiled in Berlin.
As always, Lazo Magazine is 100% supported by readers like you. If you like what we do and want to see more of it, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription. Or you can always leave us a one-off tip if that feels more manageable. Everything goes to paying writers.
Also, my friend Molly just launched a new online bookstore with recommendations from embassies around Washington, D.C. Check it out. It’s very cool.
What I’m writing:
• I wrote about how a Trump win in November would encourage Europe’s far right and be an explicit endorsement of Orbánism in Europe at a time when the European political landscape is already moving further right. This story is unlocked and free to read.
My weekly news blurbs:
What I’m reading:
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Brussels to present his five-point "victory plan" to European Union leaders at a summit in the Belgian capital and later to NATO defense ministers who are convening in another part of town. Radio Free Europe has the story.
• InkStick Media has a report on why the Ukraine war is driving a wave of suicides in India’s city of Surat.
• Several thousand North Korean infantry soldiers are undergoing training in Russia and could be deployed to Ukraine by the end of the year, the Washington Post reports.
• Armenia aims to sign a peace agreement with Azerbaijan before Baku hosts the COP29 climate summit next month, Armenian President Vahagn Khachaturyan told the Financial Times.
• Foreign Policy Magazine asks whether Moldova’s election on October 20 will finally loosen Russia’s grip on the country.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that Warsaw will temporarily suspend the right to claim asylum for migrants crossing the border from Belarus, Voice of America reports.
• The opposition Social Democratic Party of Lithuania won the first round of the Lithuanian elections with around 20 percent of the vote. Runoffs are scheduled for October 27. EuroNews has the story.
• Italy’s contentious migrant detention centers in Albania are now ready and operational, Politico Europe reports.
• France’s far-right leader, Marine Le Pen, denied wrongdoing in a court hearing over the suspected embezzlement of European Parliament funds, the Associated Press reports.
• Some European Union countries, led by Italy, are pushing to normalize ties with Syria to facilitate deportations of migrants, Politico Europe reports.
• Iceland is headed for a snap parliamentary election after its governing coalition collapsed, the Associated Press reports.
• InkStick Media has a deep dive into Israel’s forever war on Palestinian refugees. “Since 1948, Israel has made a habit of targeting Palestinian refugee camps, striking the people it's already displaced,” they write.
• Palestinians are facing a spike in Israeli demolition orders in East Jerusalem, a BBC investigation found.
• The U.S. military will deploy a sophisticated missile defense system and about 100 troops to operate it in Israel ahead of another potential ballistic missile attack from Iran, Axios reports. The new deployment means U.S. soldiers could actively engage in fighting between Israel and Iran.
• A New York Times investigation found that Israeli troops in Gaza have regularly forced captured Palestinians to act as human shields and carry out life-threatening tasks inside Hamas tunnels.
• The Biden administration sent a letter to Israeli leaders demanding that Israel take steps within 30 days to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk U.S. military aid being affected, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Axios.
• Israel’s Supreme Court ordered the Israeli government to explain why there appears to be no comprehensive system in place to facilitate medical evacuations from Gaza, the New York Times reports.
• Hamas tried to persuade Iran to join the October 7 attacks, secret documents reviewed by the Israeli military show. The documents detail a Hamas plan far more extensive than Oct. 7, including a Sept. 11-style toppling of a Tel Aviv skyscraper. The Washington Post has the story.
• A Bangladeshi court ordered an arrest warrant for former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in August after being ousted by mass protests, the BBC reports.
• North Korea accused South Korea of sending unmanned drones to scatter propaganda leaflets over its capital city, Pyongyang, and threatened military action if the flights continued, the New York Times reports.
• The supporters of Bolivia’s ex-president Evo Morales clashed with police after a prosecutor said she would order his arrest, the BBC reports.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com