If the midterm elections were an opportunity to curb Donald Trump's "bad ideas" – in the words of American diplomat Daniel Fried – the Democratic victory could be read as a counterbalance to the U.S. president's fluctuations in his positioning regarding Ukraine. And it will be, in part, but possibly not as much as the Ukrainians would like because the New York tycoon will continue to have the final word on foreign affairs. However, paradoxically, an internally weakened Trump could also use foreign policy to project power and seek victories that could also reinforce him internally.

The trickle of bomb threats against planes in Europe continues, and the wave has now spread to the media, with warnings issued to several Irish media outlets and a "security threat" at the British broadcaster Sky News. This Thursday, the bomb warnings affected about 30 flights, and a dozen more threats have continued to keep European flights and airports on alert this Friday, with alerts on planes in France, Denmark, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic.

The wind is blowing in favor of the Democrats, but the United States midterm elections will be very contested and will depend on the results in less than a dozen states. This is what polls suggest about an election in which President Donald Trump risks being able to continue deploying his political and economic agenda without the brake of Congress for the last two years of his term. The Democrats, however, aspire to turn the majorities around and snatch the control that the Republicans now have in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Ukraine has attacked Russian oil again despite pressure from US President Donald Trump to stop attacks he considers to be driving up the price of diesel. Kyiv launched a drone attack early this Friday against the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in southwestern Russia, which produces fuel for the Russian army. Before the attack, local authorities issued a drone alarm and closed the airport.

The Cold War is a distant memory and a ghost is once again haunting Europe. At least, Western Europe. That of a hot war or, at the very least, a hybrid one, which manifests itself in many ways: sabotage, drones, cyberattacks, the use of immigration as a tool of destabilization... "We have entered a new era of deterrence," predicts security and defense expert Juraj Majcin. Eighty-one years after the defeat of Nazism, the outbreak of a widespread conflict, extending beyond what is now being fought in Ukraine following the invasion by Vladimir Putin's Russia, no longer seems an improbable scenario, and this will be, precisely, one of the topics of the new edition of Enfoquem, next Monday.

Ten days after a new crisis erupted between the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Kyiv believes that the New York tycoon is seeking Ukraine's surrender to Russia. This was stated by Zelenskyy in an interview with Bloomberg in which he considers that Washington's delays in sending the anti-ballistic missiles necessary to protect the population and infrastructure from Russian attacks and the lack of cooperation in intelligence, among others, are measures that seek to “convince Ukraine to capitulate”.

With empty water bottles in hand, citizens of the Indonesian island of Batam stormed a data center macro-complex this week shouting "Water, water." They were all protesting because for months now, no water has flowed from the taps in their homes. Meanwhile, the data centers at the Nongsa Digital Park, located on the island, continue to have enough water for computers and systems to operate normally. Now the island's inhabitants, which is trying to become a technological hub, depend on water tankers, as reported by the BBC.

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has announced an "energy ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia in a statement on his social network, Truth Social. According to Trump, it has been an agreement "of an immediate nature" between the two parties and he has asked that they "do not break it." For the moment, only the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has spoken about the announcement, saying that he was unaware of it at the time it was made public. "If President Trump has negotiated with Putin, please, let him tell us when the ceasefire begins. We are ready and we will accept it," stated Zelenskyy. For the Ukrainian president, the truce is "good news" and "it is important that it becomes a reality."

Navanethem Pillay (Durban, 1941), a renowned South African jurist, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize this Friday for her efforts to promote peace and international law. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded her the prize for her "courage and integrity" in the defense of international justice, a commitment it considered "gives hope and is an inspiration to those who want a world at peace." Specialized in human rights, Pillay is one of the most prominent figures in the defense of international justice: she was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights between 2008 and 2014 and a judge at the International Criminal Court.

At least 33 people have died in a Russian bombing in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, in the east of the country, against two city buses that were in circulation at the time and were full of passengers. According to Ukrainian authorities, 18 more people have been injured due to the bombing, which Kyiv has described as selective against civilians in a key bastion for Moscow.

The far-right is now presiding over a Parliament in Germany, something that had not happened since the end of Nazism. A month after Alternative for Germany (AfD) swept the elections in Saxony-Anhalt, its candidate, Tobias Rausch, has become the new president of the regional chamber with the support of the anti-immigration and pro-Russian BSW party, which split from Die Linke. "The nonsense of the sanitary cordon is over," noted Sarah Wagenknecht, founder of BSW. "Of course, the largest group in the chamber must hold the presidency."

France is experiencing this Tuesday the day with the most student protests since the mobilizations began three weeks ago, with 1,800 high schools without activity and demonstrations in the country's main cities. The protests focus on criticizing the precariousness of the education system, but in recent days, and especially in this Tuesday's call, they have taken on a more global dimension and some also gather the unrest of the population following the worsening of living conditions. For this reason, in this afternoon's mobilizations in Paris, in addition to students and educational staff, firefighters and farmers can also be seen.

The German far-right is disguising itself as a lamb to win elections. Alternative for Germany (AfD) has changed the recipe with an image of hope to break its electoral ceiling, a turn that has allowed it to win elections in the eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in just two weeks. The party has moved from the campaign slogan "Enough" from five years ago to "Everything is possible" and "Everything will be fine" in Saxony-Anhalt, a change in strategy with which the ultra-rightists move from a narrative denouncing the decline – which, in their view, Germany is experiencing – to selling optimism and enthusiasm. Fear and hope are combined in a perfect cocktail to reap electoral profit from the disenchantment that part of the population feels regarding the federal government of the traditional right-wing CDU and the social democrats of the SPD.

The nightmare continues for German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. If the defeat of his party, the CDU, and the triumph of the far-right in the state of Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago were a shock, the results in the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin have confirmed the deep crisis in which the traditional right-wing party finds itself. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for the first time, it has been left out of a state Parliament and in Berlin Die Linke (The Left) has beaten them.

Still in shock from the far-right victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago, Germany is taking the temperature of the ultra-wave this Sunday in the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and also in Berlin. The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is looking to leverage the momentum of the victory in Saxony-Anhalt to try and repeat it in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the second eastern state to head to the polls. And it could succeed, although far from an absolute majority and with few options to govern. Polls give the AfD 37% of the votes, followed very closely by the Social Democrats, currently in government, with 35%.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, supported this Thursday the commitment of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to strengthen relations with countries like Canada, which the head of the European executive proposed to be the first associated member of the European Union, a formula that does not yet exist in European treaties. During the presentation of the CIDOB International Yearbook, Albares asserted that "it is not about excluding anyone, but about preserving an international order capable of offering security, stability, and opportunities for everyone".

Democracy is in decline globally and especially in the United States, where Donald Trump's return to the White House has caused an "unprecedented" democratic backsliding. This is indicated by the report from the Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), which confirms a global deterioration of democracy, with special emphasis on the North American country, where various indicators, such as freedom of the press or judicial independence, have sunk to their lowest levels in 50 years.

The leaders of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have staged a common front in Cardiff, the Welsh capital, to intensify pressure on London for independence. "Westminster's time is running out," says a joint statement signed by the First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, of the Scottish National Party (SNP); the First Minister of Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth, of Plaid Cymru, and the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill, of Sinn Féin.

It is no coincidence that one of the protagonists of the election campaign in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt has been an old acquaintance for the citizens: the old Simson motorcycle, associated with the daily life of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). The motorcycle, painted blue, the color of Alternative for Germany (AfD), is the vehicle with which the leader of the far-right party Ulrich Siegmund has ridden through election events in which, even, members of the AfD have sung the anthem of the GDR.

Investment in the space sector is key to security and independence. With this argument, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, requested this Thursday that the European Union invest "on a large scale" in this sector. In her speech at the International Space Summit being held in Paris, which aims to boost European space autonomy, the head of the European executive warned that space is strategic and that current investments "will determine the competitiveness" of the community bloc in the future. The global space economy is expected to almost triple by 2035, to 1.8 trillion dollars.