NEWSLETTER | Too many open fronts

It’s already spring in ‘Al día’. Let’s go to the mess.

where does the day go

Too many open fronts

Gasoline, electricity, cereals. Public debt, post-pandemic, restrictions. The Government of Spain is the visible face for many fronts that were already open before the war but that are getting worse with the Russian invasion.

The most politically explosive fronts have already manifested themselves this weekend. Transport stoppages have intensified; the pickets and sabotage have surprised so much to food distribution companies as well as the Ministry of the Interior, which has deployed 24,000 agents to contain a supply crisis that is not dramatic but real, and that they have not seen coming. There are more than 30 detainees and empty shelves of some perishable products in many supermarkets. I told you the keys friday on the podcast.

In parallel, we have seen a massive demonstration in Madrid summoned in defense of the rural world, of agriculture also affected by the crisis and on the way to traditions such as hunting or bullfighting. She has had the support of the PP and Vox, which has also stirred up transport pickets.

Economic consequences. Today at elDiario.es, we consulted several experts from different economic schools about the impact that the war could have on our economy: the slowdown in the recovery is inevitable and if things drag on we will look into another deep recession. And get familiar with a concept: stagflation. all the details here.

and the war

four of six. The Turkish Foreign Minister, who has been in Russia and Ukraine a few days ago, says that both countries agree on four of the six points that focus the peace negotiations. For its part, China says it is not sending weapons to Russia.

On the terrain, Mariupol continues to suffer from Russian shelling of buildings where, according to Ukraine, there are only civilian refugees. Russia demands Ukraine deliver the city and the Government refuses. ten million people they have been forced to flee because of the war, either within the country or abroad.

For its part, the Zelensky government has suspended several political parties accusing them of “ties” with Russia. The Ukrainian president redoubles his diplomatic efforts. He has given videoconferences in the US, in the UK, in Germany, in Canada, before the European Parliament… Without leaving kyiv and without putting on a suit.

But there is a video of Zelensky that is not real. In it he appears offering his surrender to Russia. today on the podcast We talked about that video and other examples of Deepfake, which until now were creative resources, practical jokes or personal dramas, but for the first time they show us the abyss of war games. Can we trust what we see?

abandoned in the desert

Spain has just abandoned the Saharawis, a people for which it has a historical responsibility and who are protected by international resolutions. It is a symbolic stick and a hard turn to swallow for the Spanish left, always on the side of the cause of Western Sahara, a geopolitical decision with the intention of making Morocco happy and improving relations with the Mohamed VI regime.

It all starts on Friday with a surprise (surprise for journalists but also for United We Can and for the PPwho knew nothing): a letter from Pedro Sánchez to the Moroccan king saying that he supports his territorial model for Western Sahara, that is, an “autonomy” within Morocco. Even though Shoemaker in 2008 opened up to this solution, the official Spanish position has always been, as requested by the UN resolutions, that of holding a self-determination referendum in Western Sahara, illegally invaded by Morocco in 1975. It is even harsher than all this happens while we support Ukraine against another ongoing invasion. The story is explained well by Andrés Gil here: the Green March has reached Moncloa.

Surely all of us who have ever been in the refugee camps in the Sahara are stunned, although I also tell you that that resistance in the middle of the desert (to which we recently dedicated a podcast), with generations of leaders, politicians and journalists who have been saying the same thing cyclically for decades, looks like a dead end for a long time.

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things i didn’t know

• He did not know Nothing in the world of songbirds that are sold so much (illegally) in Spain. Goldfinches, greenfinches, linnets. The most coveted are the “seed birds”, a word to define the wild specimens that have been ‘domesticated’ so that they eat birdseed, something they do not do in their lives in freedom. Much more here.