Long weekend reads
Glod, Chechnya, and Bolvia & Turkey.
It’s a long weekend, so this is coming to you on Monday instead of in the usual Sunday edition. I was somewhat tempted to skip this week’s edition and spend the entire weekend swimming in Schlachtensee, which is still part of Berlin but gave real Maine summer vibes this weekend, with preppy youths in collared shirts eating enormous, dripping ice cream cones and paddleboarding. But, as usual, there was too much news to skip.
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What I’m reading:
• The Dispatch has an interesting piece from Glod, the Roma village in Romania, portrayed in Sacha Baron Cohen’s movie Borat as a backward Kazakh village.
• The Atlantic Council has a deep dive into who will rule Chechnya after Ramzan Kadyrov, who is suspected of being terminally ill.
• Ukraine launched its biggest overnight drone attack on Moscow in more than a year, killing at least four people in Russia, including three in the Moscow region and one in Belgorod, Reuters reports.
• Germany’s leader Friedrich Merz has launched a fresh proposal to fast-track Ukraine’s entry into the EU by giving it one foot in the door straight away, according to a letter seen by Euractiv’s Rapporteur.
• As German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s popularity plummets at home, the Kremlin appears to have escalated efforts to speed his decline and reinforce rising pro-Russia forces on Germany’s far right, Politico Europe reports.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin made adult residents of Moldova’s Moscow-backed separatist Transnistria region eligible for simplified Russian citizenship under a new decree, the Associated Press reports.
• Five EU countries are pressing the Commission to rethink how prospective Western Balkan members are integrated into the bloc’s single market, arguing that gradual economic integration could help the region move out of Russia’s sphere of influence, Euractiv reports.
• Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev used his first foreign trip since taking office to deepen defence ties with Germany, press for a bigger Bulgarian role in European arms production and call for diplomacy on Ukraine, Euractiv reports.
• AFP has a feature on how hooligans linked to the ruling party are attacking protesters in Serbia.
• The New Union Post examines what happened with the EU-mediated Serbia-Kosovo dialogue.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar could meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in June if a deal on Hungarian minority rights is reached, Reuters reports. The issue is crucial to Kyiv's hopes of EU accession.
• Spain’s conservative People’s Party won an election in Andalusia but lost its majority in the local parliament — and may now need the backing of the far-right Vox to form a new government. Politico Europe has the story.
• Tens of thousands marched through central London in rival anti-immigration and pro-Palestinian protests, prompting a £4.5 million police operation involving more than 4,000 officers and a “sterile zone” to keep the groups apart, the BBC reports.
• Yvette Cooper, who as UK home secretary was responsible for proscribing Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation, published an Observer column defending the decision despite warnings that it could prejudice criminal proceedings against six activists charged over a 2024 break-in at an Elbit Systems UK site, the Guardian reports.
• Ireland’s President Catherine Connolly said she is proud of her sister, who was among hundreds of activists snatched from boats in international waters by Israeli forces while taking part in an aid flotilla to Gaza, the National reports.
• For the past four months, negotiators from the United States, Greenland, and Denmark have been holding confidential talks in Washington, according to a New York Times investigation. Based on interviews with officials, the publication found that the U.S. is trying to modify a military arrangement to ensure U.S. troops can stay in Greenland indefinitely.
• All 46 Council of Europe member states adopted the non-binding Chişinău Declaration, saying states have the “undeniable sovereign right” to control entry and residence. It also recognises third-country processing, “return hubs,” and transit-country cooperation as possible approaches.
• Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban’s foreign affairs spokesman, is expected to lead a delegation to Brussels in June for talks on migration, Euractiv reports.
• Turkish riot police fired tear gas and forced their way into the main opposition party's headquarters to evict its ousted leadership, fuelling a crisis at the heart of Turkey's democracy, Reuters reports.
• Israel operated at least two covert military outposts in Iraq’s western desert to support operations against Iran, including a site near al-Nukhaib that was being prepared as early as late 2024 and used during the June 2025 war against Iran, the New York Times reports.
• Iran executed at least 2,159 people in 2025, more than double its 2024 total and the highest figure Amnesty International has recorded for the country since 1981, Amnesty said in its annual death penalty report. The group said drug-related offences accounted for 998 of Iran’s recorded executions, while Kurdish, Baluchi, and Afghan communities were disproportionately affected.
• Cuba has allegedly acquired more than 300 military drones and recently discussed using them to attack the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, U.S. military vessels, and possibly Key West, according to classified intelligence described to Axios.
• Protests blocking roads across Bolivia and turning the centre of the capital, La Paz, into a battleground between demonstrators and police have entered a second week, the Guardian reports.
• Bolivia’s right-wing President Rodrigo Paz has said he will reorganise his cabinet as he faces calls to resign amid weeks of widespread protests, Al Jazeera reports.
• Indonesian authorities have used online disinformation campaigns to brand activists and journalists as “foreign agents” and silence dissent, Amnesty International said in a report. The rights group found that the disinformation campaigns were driven by social media accounts that appeared to be affiliated with military units and Prabowo's Gerindra party.
• U.S. and Nigerian forces killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom officials described as ISIS’s global second-in-command, and several other ISIS figures in a joint operation in Nigeria’s Borno State, the Washington Post reports.
• Alberta will proceed with a non-binding referendum in October on whether its residents want to remain part of Canada, Reuters reports. The ballot question will not trigger separation; instead, it will ask residents whether the Alberta government should initiate the legal process to hold a binding referendum at a later date.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com