Dressed in the yellow jersey of the Colombian national team, and addressing his followers, whom he calls "the tigers," lawyer and businessman Abelardo de la Espriella has celebrated the surprising victory in the first round of the presidential elections. With 43% of the votes, the far-right representative came ahead of Ivan Cepeda (40.9%), the candidate of the left and of continuity with President Gustavo Petro. The triumph of the leader of the new movement Defensores de la Patria has shaken politics in the Latin American country.

Ilan Pappé (Haifa, 1954) is one of the critical voices of Zionism worldwide. A member of the so-called new generation of Israeli historians, who debunked the foundational narrative of the State of Israel, he has visited Barcelona to participate in the Fira Literal.

Álvaro García Linera (Cochabamba, 1962) was vice president of Bolivia between 2006 and 2019, during Evo Morales' governments, and is one of the most influential intellectual figures of the Latin American left. A sociologist, former guerrilla fighter, and Marxist theorist, he combines political practice with theory on capitalism and social change. Author of Cuidar el alma popular (Bellaterra Edicions) has visited Barcelona at the invitation of Fira Literal.

The 18 Catalan activists who were part of the Global Sumud Flotilla landed this midday at El Prat airport from Istanbul, after having spent five days detained by Israeli authorities. With banners of "Welcome home" and shouts of "Long live, long live Palestine," nearly two hundred people awaited them in the Terminal 2 hall, and the reception left emotional images of reunion with their families. Dressed in gray Israeli prison tracksuits, flip-flops, and a Palestinian scarf, the activists denounced the mistreatment they suffered and demanded action from Western governments: "We are risking our lives because governments are silent and complicit," assured Ariadna Masmitjà, a teacher linked to the IAC union, who also asked the European Union to break relations with Israel.

The 438 activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla detained by Israel, including 44 Spaniards, arrived in Turkey on Thursday afternoon. The activists landed in Istanbul on three Turkish Airlines planes, and those who were injured were transferred by ambulances that were waiting for them at the airport, where relatives were also present. After the reception ceremony, they are expected to be transferred to the Istanbul forensic medicine institute to undergo examinations as part of an investigation initiated by the prosecutor's office of that city, according to the Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

The Israeli Minister of National Security, the far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir, has published a video on X in which he is seen mocking the participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla, who disembarked at the port of Ashdod this Wednesday. A total of 428 activists from 44 countries, sailing in 50 ships, were illegally captured in international waters near Cyprus and transferred to a prison ship, following an interception in which – as can be seen in the videos recorded by the activists – Israeli soldiers opened fire on some ships and rammed at least one of the vessels.

The Israeli army has intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla for the second time, the international civilian initiative that denounces the blockade of the Gaza Strip. Shortly after ten in the morning this Monday, soldiers on board speedboats stormed about thirty humanitarian ships when they were about 250 miles from the coast of Gaza, in international waters. This is an area within the zone where Cyprus is responsible for rescuing any vessel in distress and Israel has no jurisdiction there. The solidarity initiative involves 54 boats with 460 activists, from 44 different nationalities, including about twenty Catalans, and specialized teams in medicine and reconstruction.

Zaki Laïdi (Constantine, Algeria, 1957) political scientist and professor of political science, was special advisor to Josep Borrell, when he was the high representative of European diplomacy, for five years in Brussels. He has visited Barcelona at the invitation of Cidob to present the book The hedgers (Cambridge University Press).

The night of April 29 to 30, the Israeli navy stormed the Global Sumud Flotillathe Israeli navy boarded the Global Sumud FlotillaApril 29, 5 p.m.

The auditorium of the University of Barcelona was too small this Friday to host the event “Law and Genocide,” with the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani, and jurist Elisenda Calvet. Organized by the European Office for Judicial Resistance (BERJ) and the Coalition Stop Complicity with Israel, the event was a vindication of international law at a time when it seems like a dead letter. Both have called for an end to the "colonial mentality" towards Palestine.

The Italian Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has called this Friday from Barcelona for an investigation into the role of the Greek authorities in the Israeli assault on the Global Sumud Flotilla last week. "How is it possible that the Greek authorities, instead of intervening to prevent Israel from committing a crime, participated in the operation? They picked up all participants except two," she said, referring to Palestinian-Catalan Saif Abukeshek and Brazilian Thiago Ávila, who are detained and prosecuted in Israel and who have reported torture through their lawyers.

Palestinian journalist and researcher Mariam Barghouti, an international reference in journalism in occupied West Bank, will spend the coming months in Barcelona as part of the resident program at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània (CCCB).

An Israeli court has extended until Sunday the detention of the two leaders of the Global Flotilla Sumud, the Catalan-Palestinian Saif Abukeshek and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila, who have been in a prison facility since they were captured in international waters in Wednesday's assault on the civilian humanitarian mission against the Gaza blockade. The court in the coastal city of Ashkelon, where they are being held, ruled on Sunday that the prosecution had two more days to present the formal indictment. The Israeli government accuses them of terrorism, and they are detained in Shikma prison, on a hunger strike for the seventh day.

Israel released most of the participants of the Flotilla this Friday that the army detained in Wednesday's assault,but is holding two spokespeople for the movement: the Palestinian-Catalan Saif Abukeshek and the Brazilian Thiago Ávila. Around 170 sailors, including about twenty Catalans, have been handed over to Greek authorities and have disembarked on the island of Crete, but the two spokespeople remain detained on the Israeli frigate where they were transferred after the assault. Benjamin Netanyahu's government has said they will be transferred to Israel for processing.

Jean-Pierre Filiu is one of the foremost experts on the Arab world in Europe. A former French diplomat, Arabist and historian, and professor at Sciences Po, he visited Barcelona at the invitation of the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed). He was one of the few European analysts to enter Gaza since October 7, 2023, and recounts his experience in A Historian in Gaza, which the publishing house La Cebra has just released in Spanish.

The United States and Iran are squeezing the last days of the ceasefire, which expires on Tuesday night to Wednesday, in a race against time negotiation. Neither wants to return to an open war that would have unpredictable consequences, but no significant approximation of positions is seen either. The truce is affected by the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed. Iran announced on Friday that it would allow commercial vessels to pass through a route under its control, but, after Washington said it maintained its blockade on the passage of Iranian vessels, the Revolutionary Guard said the strait "returned to the previous situation," and attacked several vessels. Trump considered it a violation of the ceasefire, and this Sunday he announced that his representatives will arrive in Islamabad on Monday night. He also stated that the US military had captured an Iranian ship attempting to cross the naval blockade. Vice President J.D. Vance will once again lead the US delegation, along with envoy Steve Witkoff and President's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Iranian authorities, on the other hand, have not confirmed the second round of talks and have accused Washington of "excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant changes of stance, repeated contradictions" and consider the US naval blockade a violation of the ceasefire.

About twenty governments and more than 6,000 representatives of parties and progressive organizations from around the world met yesterday at Fira Barcelona with one goal: to restore the credibility of social democracy on a planet battered by war and climate crisis, where the far-right is gaining ground. They denounce that the reactionary wave feeds on a malaise rooted in inequality and that it uses manipulation and lies to stir up hatred against immigrants, women and dissidences. Aware that action is needed, they wave the flags of “No to war”, the defense of human rights and the fight for equality. And they say that now is the time. An anti-Trump front that admits that defending oneself is not enough, but that does not go as far as formulating a tangible positive proposal.

Donald Trump is a millionaire, a real estate magnate, has direct interests in technology companies and... is Donald Trump. The President of the United States embodies in himself all the characteristics of the "enemy" that this weekend has been pointed out by the left gathered in Barcelona, with Pedro Sánchez as host, who has established himself as the reference of the international progressive movement. "When we socialists govern, states do not bow to elites, we put them in their place," he exclaimed to close the weekend summits before the 6,500 people who filled pavilion 8 of Fira de Barcelona. The commitment of the Spanish leader, but also of the heads of state and government who have met, is to "resist" the push of the far-right, but also to "build" together a new multilateral world. "We will twist the arm of those who believe themselves untouchable. Of the millionaires who exploit people and play with greed; of the speculators who play with people's savings and homes, and of the technologists who line their pockets at the expense of the health of democracies and the mental health of our youth," Sánchez ratified, intoning from the stage the "No to war" that the entire auditorium followed.

The use of robots in war is no longer science fiction: machines that replace soldiers are already operating on today's fronts. And Ukraine – like Gaza – is one of the major testing grounds for military technological development. President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced that the Ukrainian army has driven back Russian troops from a position using only drones and robots, without exposing any humans: "For the first time in the history of this war, we have recaptured an enemy position using only unmanned equipment: ground systems and drones. The occupants surrendered and the operation was carried out without infantry and without losses on our part," he assures.

The Brazilian Thiago Ávila (1986) is one of the coordinators of the Global Sumud Flotilla, the new international flotilla that seeks to break the blockade of Gaza and the largest yet. Ávila, an activist and political analyst, was part of a previous flotilla, which was intercepted last year. The mission plans to mobilize more than eighty vessels and more than 1,000 participants from about a hundred countries. It sets sail from Barcelona in an even more dangerous context of regional war and will be accompanied, up to the exclusion zone imposed by Israel, by the ships of Open Arms and Greenpeace. Its objective: to reactivate international mobilization in support of the Palestinian people. After the farewell events this weekend at Moll de la Fusta, 41 vessels will set sail from Barcelona in the coming days bound for Gaza, when weather conditions permit. In Sicily, more boats from France and Italy will join, and more vessels will be added along the rest of the route through the Mediterranean.