Thanks to everyone who wrote after last week’s newsletter. Yes, I was in Madrid, staying in my favorite neighborhood, Lavapiés. I spent some quality time with family and wandered around the Prado museum, looking at paintings I hadn’t seen since childhood.
It was interesting to observe how different the Spanish government’s position on the war in Gaza is from what I’m used to hearing in Washington.
Spain’s Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares traveled to D.C. this Friday to communicate Madrid’s intention to recognize Palestinian statehood. It seems a decision on that is imminent, and his trip was all over the local news. I also heard the country’s Minister of Universities give her full-throated support to Spain’s student protesters, who also occupied the streets to protest the war. I kept waiting for a but or another qualifying statement, but none came.
I’m in Berlin now, where I’m seeing friends and EU election campaign posters and visiting as many Balkan bakeries as possible.
I haven’t been reporting while on holiday, but I’ve still been reading the news, obviously. Keep your eyes on elections in Lithuania and Catalonia today. Until next week, Cristina
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What I’m reading:
• Ukraine arrested two colonels in an assassination plot to kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Washington Post reports.
• Russia began preparations for missile drills near Ukraine simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons in response to “threats” by Western officials, the BBC reports.
• EU countries agreed to use an estimated €3bn in profits arising from Russia’s frozen state assets to buy weapons for Ukraine jointly, the Financial Times reports.
• With an EU referendum and a presidential election in October, Moldova is battling a barrage of disinformation, cyberattacks, and Kremlin-backed political corruption, Politico Europe reports.
• Novaya Gazeta published the fourth and fifth pieces in its series on potential successors to the ailing head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov.
• Tens of thousands of activists flooded the Armenian capital Yerevan as opposition leaders called for the prime minister to be removed from office over plans he says will bring peace with long-time rival Azerbaijan, Politico Europe reports.
• Polish security agents discovered bugging devices in a room where ministers were due to meet, Reuters reports.
• Lithuania is holding a presidential election on Sunday. The incumbent, Gitanas Nausėda, is favored to win another five-year term, but there could still be a runoff on May 26, the Associated Press reports.
• The Slovak interior ministry told Politico Playbook it is “investigating” reports it granted temporary protection to Czech-sanctioned Artem Marchevskyi over his involvement with the Voice of Europe, an alleged pro-Russian propaganda network.
• Elections in North Macedonia risk reviving tensions with Bulgaria and Greece — further complicating the country’s already winding path to EU membership, Politico Europe reports.
• North Macedonia elected its first woman president as the governing Social Democrats suffered historic losses in twin presidential and parliamentary elections, the Associated Press reports.
• Croatia’s ruling HDZ party agreed to form a coalition with a far-right party following April’s parliamentary election, Reuters reports.
• Catalonia holds a regional election on Sunday, and Carles Puigdemont has another shot at returning to power, ABC News reports.
• U.S. congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife were charged with accepting around $600,000 in bribes, the BBC reports. The couple allegedly received money from an Azerbaijani government-owned oil company and a Mexican bank.
• Azerbaijan scored a major diplomatic victory when it won the right to host this year’s COP29 United Nations climate talks. But the newfound prestige has come along with heightened scrutiny of the regime’s murky foreign influence peddling, jailing of critics, political crackdowns, and unrepentant fossil fuel dealmaking, Politico Europe reports.
• Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in the Swedish city of Malmo against Israel’s participation in the pop competition Eurovision, the Associated Press reports.
• Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, and Malta are in talks to jointly recognize Palestinian statehood on May 21, Ireland’s public broadcaster RTE reported.
• U.S. President Joe Biden said he would halt shipments of U.S. weapons to Israel, which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza, if Netanyahu moves ahead with a ground offensive in Rafah. CNN has the story.
• The United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said it had temporarily closed its headquarters in East Jerusalem after an arson attack.
• Egyptian authorities launched a criminal investigation into the fatal shooting of an Israeli-Canadian businessman in Alexandria, the BBC reports. A group that calls itself the Vanguards of Liberation for the Martyr Mohammad Salah, an apparent reference to an Egyptian police officer who was killed after shooting dead three Israeli soldiers last year, has claimed responsibility for the killing.
• An expansive range of highly invasive spyware and surveillance products are being imported and deployed in Indonesia, Amnesty International’s Security Lab said.
• Togo’s president signed a new constitution eliminating presidential elections, a measure that opponents say will allow him to extend his family’s six-decade rule. The Associated Press has the story.
You can write to me for any reason: c.maza@protonmail.com.
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