Otto von Bismark never said that Spain was the strongest country in the world, because the Spanish have been trying to destroy it for centuries and have never succeeded.. But I am quite convinced that he could have thought of it and that, if he had lived a little longer, he would have left a similar quote about Belgium.

Last Friday the National Holiday was celebrated, which commemorates the oath by which the first Belgian king, the foreigner Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, undertook to remain faithful to the Constitution. It was in 1831, less than a year after that singular revolution that allowed the definitive separation of the Netherlands.. It was the time of great dreams after the fall of the Old Regime, and a group of patriots were moved during a performance at the La Monnaie theater of La muta de Portici, a play inspired by the 1647 revolt in Naples against the Spanish viceroyalty.. The fact is that it got out of hand and suddenly they had a country and a brown.

They say in Brussels slang that this happened in stoemeling (s), which amounts to something like furtively. Today, the expression is used throughout the nation (sic) to indicate something done in an underhanded, cunning way.. The other day comrade Albisu recounted that after leading the independence movement with the French flag, the incipient founding fathers soon discovered that, in order to found a State, they needed, among other things, iconography. They opted for the colors of the Brabanzona revolution of 1787-1790, origin of the ephemeral United States of Belgium, and the Constitution included that the ensign would have horizontal stripes of “red, yellow and black”, in that order.. The fact is that it was reminiscent of the Dutch one, so a decree was improvised to change to a vertical arrangement, and then another, from lost to the river, for order. But no one considered it necessary to amend the Magna Carta and that is why they are, mother of all belgitudes, the only country that breaks the law in its most representative symbol. geniuses.

The fact is that now that the 200th anniversary is approaching, the bets say that everything can burst. The polls indicate that the leading political force is the far-right of the Vlaams Belang, a party of fascist origins (its embryo was outlawed) and on which a sanitary cordon weighed, but which has managed to transform the immigration issue into electoral fuel. Flemish nationalists have always wanted independence and 15 years ago it was a daily debate, hence the expression of Jacobo de Regoyos: Belgistan, a disintegration in slow motion. However, the traditional conservative right, the N-VA, chose to be pragmatic, achieving autonomy, powers and even forming part of federal governments with French-speaking parties.. Resigning himself to not leading it despite being the biggest. That put the question to sleep, but the ultras want to wake it up.

“Belgium is a forced marriage,” frontman Tom Van Grieken told Politico the other day. “If a part of them wants a divorce, we will discuss it as adults to arrive at an orderly separation. If they do not want to sit at the table, we will do it unilaterally,” he warned. No one quite understood how the country came to be, and its recipe for success is that not too many have taken it very seriously since then. What better finishing touch than a disintegration in stoemeling and without anyone noticing. Or gave it too much importance.

In its strategy of setting fire to food, Moscow is bringing its destruction to the gates of NATO and the European Union. Russia attacked for the first time two export terminals on the Danube, located next to Romania, a country belonging to the Atlantic Alliance and the EU. Reni and Izmail are key in the alternative route to Ukrainian ports, blocked or attacked by Russia since the start of the large-scale invasion last year. The drone strike injured seven people.

The governor of the Odessa region of Ukraine denounced that Russia is trying to completely block Ukrainian grain exports to world markets.. “Russia is trying to starve the world,” Oleh Kiper told Ukrainian television..

The attacks last week were mainly focused on the seaports of Odessa. This time it is the turn of the infrastructure along the Danube, an alternative export route that has been vital for Kiev since the suspension of the agreement that allowed safe exports of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea in the middle of the war.

The port of Reni, a major transportation hub, looks out across the Danube towards Romania, a member of NATO and the European Union. The 'Reni-Odessa' news website reported that three grain warehouses had been destroyed in this port city.. The attack involved about 15 drones.

Since the large-scale invasion of Russia in February last year, Ukraine has expanded overland grain exports through the European Union to around 1 million tonnes a month, with large volumes exported from Romanian ports and along the Danube, according to Reuters data.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimytro Kuleba denounced on Twitter that Russia “attempts to extract concessions by taking 400 million people hostage. I urge all nations, particularly those in Africa and Asia, which bear the brunt of rising food prices, to create a united global response to food terrorism.”

These river ports are shallower than those on the Black Sea, so their capacity is limited and they imply additional costs for exporters.. But even so, the port authorities of the Odessa region had claimed that these ports could manage up to 50% of the capacity of the region's seaport, attacked last week..

Russia is willing to cancel this possibility to stifle exports. Putin's regime tries to destroy food production in Ukraine. In the early morning of July 19 alone, 60,000 tons of grain were set on fire by Russian missile strikes in the port of Chornomorsk.. In addition, Russia has burned farmland, stolen grain and destroyed dams in the fighting zone.

Although their attacks carry a risk of famine, Russian exports have benefited from the woes of Ukraine, a competitor in many trade chapters.. Russian port operations in the Black Sea increased by 21% in 2023, according to data released by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

“The dictatorship has 90% of the media in Nicaragua and 10% credibility. Contrary to that, we are 10% of the media abroad but we have 90% of the credibility and appreciation of our audience”. This is how the journalist Sergio Marín Cornavaca (61 years old), director of the La Mesa Redonda portal, describes the situation of the Nicaraguan press, referring to data from the Foundation for Freedom of Expression and Democracy.

Marín is one more of the Nicaraguan informants who today carry out their work from a forced exile. In his case, from neighboring Costa Rica, where he decided to flee two years ago in the face of growing accusations from the government of Daniel Ortega.. “My conviction was: I'm not going to be in jail, I'm more useful out of jail, reporting,” explains the journalist when he looks back and remembers how he managed the march in his native country.

Marín consulted his immigration sources to find out if he had any unknown legal impediment to leaving, made the pertinent steps to go to Costa Rica and waited for the right moment to cross.. It was June 20, 2021. It was Sunday and they held him longer than usual. “I had to play it,” he says in a telephone conversation. “It was not an easy decision, I was leaving my family, with my son exiled due to direct threats in Panama and I was forced to cross the border,” says Marín, who took everything he needed to continue reporting from his platform.. “There are colleagues who work with me, practically clandestinely in Nicaragua, they use pseudonyms because they cannot openly practice journalism, however they pass the information on to us, which we process and publish.. The same as the Cubans do, the same as the Venezuelans did at some point.”

Since the marches against the Ortega government in April 2018, the flight of journalists from Nicaragua has increased. Marín belongs to what he defines as “the second wave” of informers who left for fear of threats -in which Carlos Fernández Chamorro also escaped- and who still continue to arrive today, mainly in Costa Rica.. “There are communities, entire towns that no longer have journalists. I can cite the case of the South Caribbean Coast, where there is no independent journalism, practically everyone has gone into exile, what remained are the official media,” he stresses.

April 2018 was a great challenge for the Nicaraguan population towards Sandinismo, which quickly launched the repressive machinery. From that moment on, journalists were singled out, highlights the director of La Mesa Redonda. “All of us without exception were marked and suffered attacks in the marches,” he continues.. Marín himself was attacked while performing live through his networks. “I was next to my vehicle and it was practically a mob of several armed motorists, they arrived, they beat me, they broke the main window of my truck, they took my cell phone (mobile phone), but the people intervened.”

Although the chapter that “marked my life” was the coverage on July 13, 2018 of the events that took place inside the Church of the Divine Mercy in Managua, where he spent hours of “terror” while a group of approximately 200 young people sought refuge from armed attacks.

The citizen outburst experienced five years ago was a turning point in the Central American country. In Marín's opinion, it marked a before and after because “the mask of the revolutionary leader, conciliator, seeker of peace for the people of Nicaragua fell apart because the true dictator that Ortega was and has always been was discovered.”

In fact, Marín was already very critical of Ortega before 2018.. He did it from his radio program and the managers of the station decided to do without him in 2017.

“Since Ortega returned to power in 2007, there have been several milestones that reflect the authoritarian will of the regime and the desire to make enemies with the independent press,” explains Marín.. “A whole desire to silence journalism,” he adds. And so, in his opinion, two types of journalism began to emerge in Nicaragua: the “official collaborationist” and the “independent.”

However, journalists are not the only ones persecuted in Nicaragua. Marín mentions the religious, among whom Monsignor Rolando Álvarez stands out, who recently again refused the expatriation that President Ortega already offered him when he exiled 222 political prisoners to the United States. Also to the doctors, who had to go into exile for caring for young people who came to hospitals with gunshot wounds during the protests. Or the students who were “criminalized” and saw their academic records erased. For this reason, this informant defines himself as “a number more than almost 8% of the Nicaraguan population that has been forced into exile due to political conditions.”

“There is an open hate speech against figures who in one way or another have a relevant speech against the dictatorship and that does not discriminate,” adds Marín, since there are those who “have been imprisoned for expressing their opinion.”. An evil that affects the entire Latin American region, according to the director of La Mesa Redonda: “The legal frameworks of authoritarian governments are adjusting to go against journalism.”

Despite the little or no hopeful panorama that hangs over Nicaragua, the aforementioned exile of the 222 political prisoners left Ortega “isolated”, in the words of Marín. A qualifier that he uses based on the zero support he received from the leftist leaders who govern Latin America today.

That June 20, 2021, Marín managed to cross the border successfully. Even though he is safe in Costa Rica, he reflects that exile is not easy and that he feels in a “legal limbo” since he cannot make his status official.. Nor is it easy to continue doing journalism without income – “here the main risk we have is that for economic reasons we do not continue practicing” -, although he does not give up and seeks new horizons. With all this, he concludes: “We are going to return to Nicaragua to practice journalism in democracy.”

The immigrant barge was greeted with shouts of “no to the floating prison!”. The intimidating structure named Bibby Stockholm remains anchored on the island of Portland, southwest England, awaiting the arrival of the first 50 guests in the coming days, while controversy grows over the conditions in which the immigrants will live and the impact on the local population of 14,000.

Over the residents of Portland, which was a Royal Navy base for decades, the ghost of the HMP Weare prison ship still hangs, set up as a “temporary measure” at the end of the 90s to house 400 prisoners. In the end, the stay of what would be the last vestige of the floating prisons lasted eight years.

“It is very cruel and unusual to hold asylum seekers on a barge,” Portland Labor Mayor Carralyn Parkes said.. “And it's a horrible idea to create an artificial community in a city hit by the crisis and that doesn't have enough infrastructure.”

Conservative MP Chris Loder has joined the protests against his own government and has raised concerns about the safety of the barge. The 93-meter-long floating structure was built in Barbados in 1976 with an initial capacity for 200 people, increased to 506 in the latest remodeling and after having served as a shelter for immigrants and the homeless, and as a residence for temporary workers.

To deal with resistance, the Department of the Interior decided to send Leanne Palk, deputy director of accommodation for asylum seekers, to Portland, ready to break the myth of the floating prison with images of the indoor gym, pool table, brand new kitchen, room with 25 computers, social club and doctor's office inside the barge.

Installations inside the barge.

“I wouldn't say they are luxury facilities, but they do meet the right conditions,” Palk explained.. “It is an open space, with light and air, and the movements (of immigrants) will not be restricted. they can go wherever they want. They will also be offered a plethora of activities, such as cycling [and cricket], organized by local authorities and by neighbour.”

Of course, to enter and exit the barge they will have to pass a double security control. They can only go to the city on special buses between seven in the morning and 11 at night.

They will have three free meals a day, and soup, bread, tea and coffee service for 24 hours. A team of 28 cooks and kitchen assistants will prepare daily dishes adapted to their “cultural specificities” and with vegan options.. They will receive a weekly pay equivalent to 10 euros. They will sleep in rooms with two, four and up to six occupants, most of them in bunk beds.. They will have a 24 hour nurse on call.

This is how life will go in principle on the Portland barge, for at least 18 months and while the controversial Rwandan plan to deport immigrants and house them in the “high-quality” bungalows in Kigali visited by the Secretary of the Interior, Suella Braverman, continues in the courts.. At the moment, the more than 45,000 immigrants who crossed the English Channel by boat last year (and more than 9,000 this year) are staying in more than 400 hotels throughout the British geography.

The switch to barges follows the passage of the draconian Illegal Immigration Act and is expected to act as a deterrent to future voyages. The cost per immigrant (about 125 euros per night) will serve to reduce the daily bill of seven million euros, although humanitarian NGOs insist that the savings are minimal and that immigrants will be exposed to degrading treatment.

The feeling of the detractors of the judicial reform plan in Israel after the approval of its first law that annuls an important appeal of the Supreme Court (TS) to review government decisions was reflected in the first two black pages of the newspapers in Israel with the following words: “Black day for Israeli democracy. Israel's locomotive will never give way.”. This is not an editorial coincidence of the press, but advertising paid for by a large group of High Tech that is very active in the protests to stop what it calls “attack against judicial independence and democracy.”

“A great day for democracy”, they exclaimed, for their part, in the coalition the day after the first step “to correct the legal system and restore the powers that were taken away from the Government and the Knesset”.

Neither one nor the other believes that the annulment of the reasonableness clause is the end of democracy. The TS can not only knock down the amendment, challenged by seven appeals presented, but also has more criteria such as proportionality, lack of authority, conflict of interest or equality to intervene in decisions and appointments of the Government. But the fear of many is the context. In other words, let it be the beginning of the process to weaken the judiciary. The preamble to the great objective of the Minister of Justice, Yair Levin and part of the coalition: to obtain a majority in the judge selection commission.

The approval of the law already has consequences even before it enters into force after the signature of President Isaac Herzog.

From an economic point of view, the effects are immediate and negative.. The day after the approval of the law, the stock market registered a decrease of 6%, the value of the shekel lost 2.7% against the dollar while Morgan Stanley, Citibank and the Moodys agency disseminated negative reports on the consequences of political and social events on the economy.. The reduction of investments in the Israeli technological ecosystem in the first six months of the year compared to last year is 68%.

On the other hand, the military leadership expresses great concern after the announcement of thousands of reservists not to report to their voluntary service in protest because the norm is not agreed upon. The damage is already a fact in the internal cohesion and deterrence capacity in the region while it is expected that it will not affect military capacity in the short term.

Distancing from the White House

On a diplomatic level, it is the last thing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed to reconcile with the Biden Administration, which already viewed his ultra-conservative coalition with great suspicion.. The US usually broadcasts reactions about its great ally in the Middle East on security and regional issues such as Iran or the conflict with the Palestinians and not on internal affairs.. In recent months, however, President Joe Biden has publicized his concern by actively (phone conversation with Netanyahu) and passively (through journalist Thomas Friedman) asking for the reform to be agreed upon.. In a reflection of American anger, Netanyahu has yet to receive an invitation to the White House despite having been in power for seven months now.. What happened this week in the Knesset does not exactly bring him closer to Washington.

In the political arena and while his trial for corruption continues, Netanyahu achieved several months of calm in his coalition after giving in to Levin, who had refused any concession to agree on the law.. The premier set the end of November as the deadline to be able to agree on the rest of the reform, as promised to Biden. Netanyahu would be interested in freezing everything and refocusing on his favorite agenda (against nuclear Iran and in favor of normalizing relations with Saudi Arabia) but Levin (“the real prime minister”, according to the opposition and several analysts) and some coalition partners will demand that he continue with or without the opposition's signature, despite the fact that this will increase the schism and cause more protests and that polls indicate that the majority of Israelis oppose the reform without consensus.

The political tragedy of Netanyahu -and therefore of the country- is that for the first time in his long career he does not have an alternative in the center left to agree on a government or threaten to agree. For this reason, marginal parties with radical positions occupy important positions in power, which on the other hand contributes significantly to the discontent, intensity and perseverance of the massive protests that began 30 weeks ago.