I'm on the road again. 🪩
Back in Europe (for Europe Day).
By the time you read this, I’ll be OOO, taking a ritual vacation with a group of my favorite people. I wrote a little essay for Lazo Magazine about the long weekend that this group and I spent together in November 2023. That weekend ultimately led to significant life changes for several of us. Its impact is still reverberating 18 months later, and almost nothing matters more to me than the time I get to spend with this group of friends.
This week, Condé Nast Traveler published an essay by Maria Yagoda entitled Why I Travel With My Best Friend Like She’s My Wife. It made me laugh out loud. I can’t tell you how many times people have asked if one of the men who appears frequently in my travel photographs is my partner. He’s not. But he is one of my best friends, and a member of the cohort I’ll spend time with during this holiday.
Maria describes spending luxurious vacations on Lake Cuomo with her best friend, sharing a king-sized bed and posing for romantic photos like she’s with her “Instagram husband.” I am not on Instagram anymore and don’t particularly prioritize luxury. I’m happy to crash on a friend’s flea-infested sofa (this has happened!) if it means spending time with people I love.
Still, I believe we should normalize traveling with our friends and spending quality time with people who aren’t our blood relatives or romantic partners. It seems almost absurd that I have to say this, or that Maria needs to explain her traditions with an essay in Condé Nast. But I guess that’s just the heteronormative world we live in.
I’ll be traveling this week without my laptop and barely checking emails. The next newsletter will arrive in your inbox on May 24th. I’m leaving this survey up so you can continue to send me feedback and tips.
I also wrote a personal essay for Lazo Magazine about why I travel so often and how I afford it. It’s an honest description of how I plan trips to save money, but it won’t be for everyone. ✈️
What I’m writing:
• I wrote about the case of a U.S. citizen who is stuck in Iran while the Trump administration vets her three-year-old son for national security concerns. This story is unlocked and free to read.
• I wrote about Trump’s plans to build a “Golden Dome” missile defense system over the United States and how it could upend decades of U.S. nuclear deterrence. This story is unlocked and free to read.
My weekly news blurbs:
What I’m reading:
• Al Jazeera looks at whether India and Pakistan have started a drone war.
• Russia asked for territory it has not conquered during peace talks over its invasion of Ukraine, Vice President JD Vance said in an interview. Politico has the story.
• Ukraine’s security service said it had uncovered a spy network run by Hungary to obtain intelligence about Ukraine’s defences, Reuters reports.
• In a historic first, conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed to secure the votes necessary to become Germany’s next chancellor in the first round of parliamentary voting, Reuters reports.
• The Bundestag elected Friedrich Merz to be Germany’s new chancellor in a second round of voting after a surprise defeat in the first, the Associated Press reports.
• In Germany's capital, the number of attacks against migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, and the properties where they live has shown a "marked increase" in 2024, InfoMigrants reports.
• The United States will refurbish a Patriot air-defense system based in Israel and send it to Ukraine, the New York Times reports.
• U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s January order to halt weapons supplies for Ukraine confused national security officials, was not expressly coordinated with Trump, and cost the United States $1.6 million, Reuters reports.
• The Trump administration earlier this year urged Ukraine to accept an unspecified number of deportees from the United States who were not Ukrainian citizens, documents reviewed by the Washington Post show.
• The BBC reports that the European Commission published a “roadmap” plan to ban imports of all Russian gas and liquefied natural gas to EU member states by the end of 2027.
• Hard-right eurosceptic George Simion won the first round of Romania’s presidential election re-run, securing 41 percent of the votes, Reuters reports. The runner-up candidate, Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, trails Simion by 20 percent ahead of a May 18 runoff.
• Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced he and his Social Democratic party would resign from the Romanian government after George Simion, a right-wing nationalist candidate, won the first round of the presidential election runoffs, the BBC reports.
• Notes from Poland reports on the Polish presidential race (May 18) in which the leading opposition candidate, Karol Nawrocki, has dramatically reduced the gap in polls to the main ruling party’s pick, Rafał Trzaskowski.
• The United States is increasing its intelligence efforts in Greenland to identify people who support U.S. objectives for the island, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Turkish authorities blocked access to the social media account of Istanbul’s jailed opposition mayor and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s main rival, Ekrem Imamoglu, the BBC reports.
• Israeli Cabinet ministers approved a new plan to capture the entire Gaza Strip and remain in the territory for an unspecified amount of time, the Associated Press reports.
• The United States, Israel, and representatives of a new international foundation are close to reaching an agreement on how to resume the supply of aid to Gaza while ensuring that the assistance does not fall into the hands of Hamas, Axios reports.
• The United States is pressing the United Nations, aid organizations, and U.S. allies to participate in Israel’s new plan for overhauling and controlling the distribution of aid supplies in Gaza, the Washington Post reports.
• Fifty-five international organizations operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory signed a letter protesting Israel’s new registration system for international NGOs. They said the rules appear designed to assert control over independent humanitarian, development, and peace-building operations, and to silence advocacy.
• The United States is no longer demanding Saudi Arabia normalises its ties with Israel as a condition for progress on U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation talks, Reuters reports.
• The United States reached a truce with the Houthi rebels and suspended its airstrikes against Houthi targets “effective immediately,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
• Five leading Venezuelan opposition officials who had been sheltering at the Argentine diplomatic residence in Caracas for 412 days have left Venezuela and are now in the United States, the New York Times reports. The main opposition leader, María Corina Machado, remains in hiding.
• Rwanda’s foreign minister confirmed that discussions with the United States regarding a potential agreement for Rwanda to host deported migrants were “underway,” the Associated Press reports.
• The U.S. military plans to carry out a flight deporting migrants to Libya for the first time, Reuters reports.
• Libya’s two rival governments both said they had not agreed to accept flights deporting migrants from the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports.
• The Trump administration cannot deport immigrants to Libya, Saudi Arabia, or any other country where they are not citizens without notice and the right to avail themselves of statutory protections against torture, a federal judge warned. The Washington Post has the story.
• The Trump administration is working to relocate the first group of White Afrikaners it has classified as refugees to the United States next week, the New York Times reports.
• Congo and Rwanda have submitted a draft peace proposal in the U.S.-led peace process, the Associated Press reports.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com.