GAZA
Fresh from his trip to the People’s Republic of China, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to the Middle East to meet with key regional counterparts. On the table is the question of the long-awaited ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and its future administrative structure. Foggy Bottom’s top official intends to involve Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar in the governance/assistance of the tormented exclave Palestinian. Not only that, the head of the Stars and Stripes diplomacy would also like to involve the main European chancelleries in the management of the post-war period. Blinken also intends to facilitate the restoration of the process of normalization of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel which, six months after the start of the “Iron Swords” military operation, still remains on the table.
To know more: Spectacular acts of war as an instrument of power
Palestine impossible. Lucio Caracciolo’s in-depth analysis
UKRAINE WAR
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are pushing with particular intensity in the segment of the contact line immediately west of Avdijivka (oblast of Donetsk). Outnumbered in both men and equipment, the Ukrainian army was forced to fall back – perhaps belatedly – to safer positions. At least three villages would fall into Russian hands: Berdychi, Semenivka and Novomykhailivka. The commander of the Kiev Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrs’kyj was frank: “The situation at the front has worsened”.
Hoping to quickly reconstitute a solid defensive line, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his Western partners to quickly deliver promised weapons. In particular the crucial air defense systems, Mim-104 Patriot primarily. The stalemate in the US Congress on American aid – released only last week – has in fact resulted in the rationing of interceptor missiles, thus exposing its troops to Russian attacks with drones and gliding missiles. After the twenty-first meeting of the member countries of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine (so-called Ramstein Group), US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin explored with some allies faster ways to send defense systems to Kiev.
The former Kryvyi Rih actor then called on the Euro-Atlantic chancelleries to start the process of Ukraine’s accession to NATO and the European Union as soon as possible.
To know more: Ukraine’s needs
Read also
Ukrainian War: Battle of Avdijivka
by Mirko Mussetti
April 29, 2024
GEORGIA
Waving the blue-starred flags of the European Union, thousands of demonstrators gathered in the center of Georgia’s capital (Tbilisi) to protest against the bill on “transparency of foreign influence” developed by the ruling Georgian Dream party and already voted on first reading by the unicameral parliament. According to the legislation under discussion, organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad are required to register in a special register of “foreign agents”. The opposition has dubbed the measure a “Russian law”, claiming that it could reduce political rights and compromise the Caucasian country’s membership of the European Union. The divisive bill had already been withdrawn in March 2023 due to violent street protests. Even if approved at second reading, it is not a given that the law will come into force: President Salomé Zourabichvili could in fact refuse to sign it. The French diplomat, a naturalized Georgian and student of Zbigniew Brzezinski at Columbia University, had already expressed her opposition to a similar “freedom-killing” measure last year.
To know more: Georgia’s perennial turbulence
It is not
SPAIN
After a meeting at the Moncloa Palace with King Felipe VI, the Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez announced live on television his intention to continue his role at the helm of the government. The secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party seemed inclined to resign following the judicial scandals involving his wife (influence peddling and corporate corruption). Fearing the parliamentary inability to form a new coalition executive, the Madrid monarch may have dissuaded Sánchez from carrying out his announced purpose in order to avoid the dissolution of the General Courts and an early return to the polls. He would have been the fourth in five years.
To know more: Requiem mass for the parties of Spain
It is not
