Europe

Russia claims members of the international rights group have backed ‘extremist’ organisations and ‘foreign agents’.

Russian authorities have designated Amnesty International as an “undesirable” organisation, alleging that the rights group propagates pro-war content backed by the Western allies of Ukraine, in the latest crackdown on Kremlin critics.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said in a statement on Monday that Amnesty’s London office has acted as a “centre for the preparation of global Russophobic projects paid for by accomplices of the Kyiv regime”, according to state-run media.

It claimed that since the start of the war in February 2022, Amnesty has been “doing everything possible to intensify the military confrontation in the region”, including by “insisting on the political and economic isolation of our country”.

The office also emphasised that members of the international rights group “support extremist organisations and finance the activities of foreign agents”.

Amnesty did not immediately respond to the allegations.

The designation means the international human rights group must stop any work in Russia, and those accused of cooperating with or supporting it will be exposed to criminal prosecution.

This could even include anyone who shares Amnesty International’s reports on social media.

Russia currently recognises 223 entities as “undesirable” organisations, including some prominent independent, as well as Western-backed news outlets and rights groups. Some of those include Transparency International, Latvia-based outlet Meduza, and US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).

Amnesty International was established in 1961 to document and report human rights violations around the globe and campaign for the release of those deemed unjustly imprisoned.

The organisation won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1977, having been recognised “for worldwide respect for human rights” and efforts to combat torture, advocate for prisoners of conscience, and promote global adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In addition to covering human rights violations during the Ukraine war, the group has documented massacres in the Gaza Strip and Israeli apartheid, as well as atrocities in Sudan and many other countries.

Moscow has intensified its crackdown on human rights groups and civil society organisations as relations with the West plummeted over the Ukraine war and the expansion of NATO.

This has included expanding the “undesirable” and “foreign agent” designations to shut down opposing voices, as well as the suppression of some minority groups’ rights.

The move on Monday came as US President Donald Trump was due to hold a phone call with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid efforts to end the fighting.

The diplomatic efforts follow inconclusive direct talks, the first in three years, between delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Friday.

The brief talks yielded only an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Kyiv pull its troops out of all its regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

Tens of thousands of red-clad protesters have marched through The Hague to call on the Netherlands government to do more to halt Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

Organisers said it was the country’s biggest demonstration in two decades as rally participants pressed the Dutch government on Sunday to take action against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The crowd that gathered outside the government seat was estimated to number more than 100,000 people, according to the organisers. Police did not give an estimate.

“Sometimes I’m ashamed of the government because it doesn’t want to set any limits,” said 59-year-old teacher Jolanda Nio.

“We are calling on the Dutch government: stop political, economic and military support to Israel as long as it blocks access to aid supplies and while it is guilty of genocide, war crimes and structural human rights violations in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories,” said Marjon Rozema of Amnesty International.

Israel’s army announced “extensive ground operations” on Sunday as part of its newly expanded campaign in the Gaza Strip. Rescuers reported dozens killed in a wave of Israeli attacks.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 53,339 people and wounded 121,034, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

The enclave’s Government Media Office updated the death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and about 250 were taken captive.

The International Court of Justice in The Hague is hearing a case brought by South Africa, arguing that the Gaza war breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, an accusation Israel has strongly denied.

‘Suspicious and unwarranted’ arrests of Iranians come amid lingering tensions over Iran’s nuclear programme and the fallout of Russia-Ukraine war.

Tehran, Iran – Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned the United Kingdom’s charge d’affaires over what it called “suspicious and unwarranted” arrests of several Iranian nationals.

The UK earlier this month accused several Iranian nationals of offences without offering evidence, wilfully refrained from informing Iran’s embassy in time, and prevented consular access contrary to international norms, the ministry said in a statement issued late on Sunday, according to state media.

It also accused the British government of harbouring “political motivations to exert pressure on Iran” with the arrests.

The diplomatic spat comes two days after British police charged three Iranians with suspected espionage for Iran’s intelligence services under the country’s National Security Act of 2023.

Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, were accused of conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service between August 14, 2024 and February 16, 2025.

They appeared before a Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, where they were also charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance with the intention of committing or supporting serious violence against a person in the UK.

Their cases were referred to a central criminal court, and the next hearing is scheduled for early June.

The three are among eight individuals arrested in May, including seven Iranians, as part of two separate operations which Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said were some of the biggest investigations of their kind in recent years.

The four other Iranians were arrested as part of a “counterterrorism” operation, with investigations ongoing. The eighth man was released without charge last week.

In a stated effort towards improving national security against covert foreign influences, the UK has placed Iran on its highest tier under the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS).

Strained ties

The arrests come amid strained ties between Iran and three European powers over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

The UK, France and Germany have repeatedly criticised Iran for a purported lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme remains peaceful.

The trio, branded the E3 in the context of the negotiations, were party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, which the United States unilaterally abandoned in 2018.

However, the US has reopened talks with Tehran in a bid to secure a new deal, and amid four rounds of talks mediated by Oman, Iran has emphasised it is open to holding more talks with the E3 as well.

Senior diplomats from the two sides gathered on Friday in Turkiye’s Istanbul for their first meeting since the nuclear talks with Washington commenced last month. Both sides stressed a commitment to continued diplomacy, but there was no breakthrough.

Rather, Iran has repeatedly warned that there will be “serious ramifications” if the E3 push to invoke the “snapback” mechanism of the comatose 2015 nuclear deal, which would reinstate the United Nations Security Council sanctions that were lifted as part of the landmark accord.

Tehran and Washington have also failed to see eye to eye so far when it comes to enrichment of uranium, with Iran reiterating on Monday that it will not back down from its right to have a civilian nuclear programme.

After US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said President Donald Trump’s administration would not allow Iran to enrich uranium even to 1 percent, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said “unrealistic” demands would only lead to a dead end.

The E3 is also concerned about numerous reports that Iran has been arming Russia for its war in Ukraine, accusations that Tehran denies.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tehran has yet to receive a written proposal from the US to advance to a fifth round of negotiations, which is expected soon.

He also said Iran has not proposed a joint enrichment venture with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, but backs such an effort.

“The West Asia region, and specifically countries of the Persian Gulf, may increasingly require nuclear energy and to build power plants requiring nuclear fuel, so it won’t be bad if nuclear fuel facilities or consortiums are created in our region so everyone can invest in them.”

BRITS heading to Europe could soon find it much easier thanks to new plans allowing holidaymakers to use airport e-gates.

Since the UK left the EU, British tourists have faced huge queues at the airport across Europe after being forced to use the standard passport gates.

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However, the UK government has revealed plans of a deal that would allow UK holidaymakers to use the much faster e-gates when visiting Europe.

The talks, part of the UK-EU summit taking place today, suggest Brits would join other EU tourists in the shorter queues, The Guardian reports.

EU relations minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said he backed the potential rule change.

He told Sky News: “I would love to see you being able to go through the border more quickly in that way.

“That’s certainly something we’ve been pushing with the EU and I think that will be something that will be very helpful to British people.

“I think we can all agree that not being stuck in queues and having more time to spend, whether it’s on holiday or work trips, having more time to do what you want, would be a very sensible objective.”

Plans to allow Brits to use e-gates in European countries were put forward back in 2023 by then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak although never came into fruition.

Last summer, some Brits even missed their flights when travelling through Spain due to long passport queues while waiting to get them stamped.

Another Brit wrote on Tripadvisor: “My lunchtime arrival at Oslo left me with an hour and a half wait to get through manual passport control.”

Another agreed: “The queue was horrendous, people couldn’t even get into the passport hall. Took just over 90 minutes to get through.”

However, the new rules could cause problems with passport stamping, which is still required from Brits entering and exiting Europe.

This is because of the new rules which only allow Brits to visit for 90 days in an 180 day period.

Anyone without an outgoing stamp could be mistakenly seen to have overstayed in Europe and even be banned from entering – which happened to a British tourist in Majorca back in 2022.

But it comes ahead of the constantly-delayed Entry/Exit System (EES) which will scrap the need for passport stamping entirely.

First announced in 2016, it finally hopes to be rolled out from October this year.

Instead of manual passport stamping, new biometric checks will take place instead.

And next year will see the roll out of the ETIAS – a visa waiver that Brits will need to visit Europe.

Costing around €7 and lasting three years, it will be similar to the current ESTA Brits need when visiting the US.

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These are the key events on day 1,180 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Monday, May 19:

Fighting

• Russia launched its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, destroying homes and killing at least one woman, a day before United States President Donald Trump is due to discuss a proposed ceasefire with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
• Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 273 drones at Ukrainian cities, more than the previous record Moscow had set in February, on the war’s third anniversary.

• Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said Russia planned to conduct a “training and combat” launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile to intimidate Ukraine and the West, as ceasefire talks continue.

• Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Bahatyr in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said. It also said that Russian forces had downed 75 Ukrainian drones on Sunday, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.

Ceasefire talks

• The leaders of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom again pressed the need for sanctions against Russia in a call with Trump before his telephone summit with Putin on Monday, the office of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
• Putin told Russian state television that he wanted to “eliminate the causes that triggered” its war on Ukraine, “create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, two days after the first direct talks with Kyiv since 2022 failed to produce a ceasefire deal.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Rome, on the sidelines of Pope Leo XIV’s inauguration, to discuss the latest developments on ceasefire talks with Russia. It was their first meeting since their heated White House encounter in February.
• The pope held his first private audience as Catholic leader with Zelenskyy, after highlighting hopes for peace for a “martyred Ukraine”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has discussed the war in Ukraine with leaders of the United States, Italy, France and Germany, a 10 Downing Street spokesperson has said, in advance of US President Donald Trump’s planned call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday.

The flurry of diplomacy comes shortly after inconclusive direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, Turkiye on Friday.

The leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for Putin to take peace talks seriously, the spokesperson said late on Sunday, adding that they also raised the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and concerted peace talks.

In remarks to reporters earlier on Sunday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio while the two men were attending the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. Merz said he also spoke at length at the Vatican with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“I spoke with Marco Rubio, including about the call tomorrow. We agreed that we will speak again with the four state leaders and the US president in preparation of this conversation [with Putin],” Merz said.

Trump said he planned to speak to Putin and Zelenskyy to discuss ways to stop the war’s “bloodbath”.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed to Russian news agencies that preparations were under way for a conversation between Putin and Trump.

The talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

The brief talks yielded only an agreement to swap 1,000 prisoners of war, according to the heads of both delegations, in what would be their biggest such exchange since the war began.

A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. That is a red line for Ukraine, and as it stands, Russia does not have full control in those regions.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy met US Vice President JD Vance and Rubio on the sidelines of the papal inauguration, according to a source in the Ukrainian delegation. It was the first meeting between Zelenskyy and Vance since they publicly clashed during talks at the White House in February over the future of the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine fears ballistic missile attack

In the meantime, Ukraine has claimed Russia is planning to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile late on Sunday to intimidate it and its Western allies.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, GUR, said Russia was planning to conduct a “training and combat” launch of the missile.

GUR said in a statement on the Telegram app that the launch was ordered to be implemented from Russia’s Sverdlovsk region, adding that the flight range for the missile was more than 10,000km (6,200 miles).

Ukraine on Sunday also said Russia had launched a record number of drones overnight, targeting various regions, including that of the capital, where a woman was killed.

Its air force said Russia launched “273 Shahed attack drones and various types of imitator drones”, of which 88 were destroyed and 128 went astray, “without negative consequences”.

Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said it was a “record” number of drones. “Russia has a clear goal – to continue killing civilians,” she said.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Kyiv, said overnight, “air raid sirens began, and they went on for nearly nine hours”.

“We see these massive drone strikes and we see crowds of people seeking shelter, seeking safety, in those deep underground subway stations in the capital and in other areas of the country, once again,” Basravi said.

‘Deliberate killing of civilians’

The Russian military said it intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight and on Sunday morning. It also claimed it had captured Bahatyr, another village in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, as it intensifies the war effort despite the talks.

Russia’s overnight drone attacks were roundly condemned by Ukrainian officials.

Zelenskyy reiterated his call for stronger sanctions on Moscow after a Russian drone killed nine bus passengers in the Sumy region of northeastern Ukraine on Saturday. “This was a deliberate killing of civilians,” he said.

“Pressure must be exerted on Russia to stop the killings. Without tougher sanctions, without stronger pressure, Russia will not seek real diplomacy.”

Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it struck a military target in Sumy. Its Ministry of Defence claimed another settlement was captured in eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, also decried the attacks.

“For Russia, the negotiations in Istanbul are just a pretence. Putin wants war,” Yermak said.

Russia aims to ‘create conditions for lasting peace’

In an interview with Russian state TV, Putin said Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security”, without elaborating further.

Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.

They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.

Ukraine and the West have rejected all of these reasons, saying Russia’s offensive is nothing more than an imperial-style land grab.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia started the war, with millions forced to flee their homes.

Putin said the Russian army, which occupies about 20 percent of Ukraine, had the “troops and means required” to achieve its goals.

The US Department of State said in a statement that Rubio and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, spoke with each other on Saturday. During the call, Rubio welcomed the prisoner exchange agreement reached in Istanbul, the department’s spokesperson said.

Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, said the “next step” would be a meeting between the two warring presidents.

Russia said it had taken note of the request, but added that the swap of prisoners of war had to be completed first, and both sides then needed to present their visions for a ceasefire before the next round of negotiations could be arranged.

Portugal’s ruling centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) is poised to win the most votes in an early parliamentary election, but is short of a full majority, exit polls have shown, paving the way for more political instability in the country.

Sunday’s election, the third in as many years, was called just one year into the minority government’s term after Prime Minister Luis Montenegro failed to win a parliamentary vote of confidence in March when the opposition questioned his integrity over the dealings of his family’s consultancy firm.

Montenegro has denied any wrongdoing, and most opinion polls showed that voters have dismissed the opposition’s criticism.

The election, also dominated by issues such as housing and immigration, follows a decade of fragile governments. And the only one of those governments to have a parliamentary majority collapsed halfway through its term last year.

Exit polls published by the three main television channels – SIC, RTP and TVI – put Montenegro’s AD as receiving between 29 percent and 35.1 percent of the vote, garnering the biggest share but again no parliamentary majority, similar to what happened in the previous election in March 2024.

Outside the polling station where Montenegro voted in the northern city of Espinho, Irene Medeiros, 77, told Reuters the “best candidate must win”, but that she feared more uncertainty ahead.

According to the exit polls, Montenegro’s main rival, the centre-left Socialist Party (PS), garnered between 19.4 percent and 26 percent of the vote, nearly tied with the far-right Chega party’s 19.5 percent to 25.5 percent share, which is higher than the 18 percent it won in 2024. Montenegro has refused to make any deals with Chega.

With that tally, the DA could get between 85 and 96 seats, short of the 116 needed for a majority in Portugal’s 230-seat parliament. It could form a minority government or forge partnerships with smaller parties to obtain a majority.

Most official results are expected by midnight (23:00 GMT).

For the last half century, two parties have dominated politics in Portugal, with the Social Democrats, who head the DA, and the PS alternating in power.

Public frustration with their record in government has fuelled the search and for growth of new alternatives in recent years.

“This campaign was very, very weak, had ridiculous moments, like clownish. Very little was spoken about Portugal within the European Union – it’s like we are not part of it,” teacher Isabel Monteiro, 63, told the Associated Press news agency in Lisbon, adding that she felt “disenchantment” with all parties.

Political scientist Antonio Costa Pinto said the new parliament would likely be similar to the last, and it was impossible to predict how long the government would last, as it depended on factors ranging from the international situation to the AD’s ability to reach deals with other parties.

“The only doubt is whether the AD will form a new minority government … or whether it will form a post-electoral coalition with IL, even if this coalition does not guarantee an absolute majority,”, referring to the pro-business Liberal Initiative (IL) party, according to Reuters.

Shortly after casting his own ballot, Montenegro told reporters he was confident stability could be achieved.

“There is a search for a stable solution, but that will now depend on [people’s] choices,” he said.

A second consecutive minority government in Portugal would dash hopes for an end to the worst spell of political instability in decades for the European Union country of 10.6 million people.

For the past 50 years, two parties have dominated politics, with the Social Democrats, who head the DA, and the Socialist Party alternating in power.

The ruling party’s pro-European Union candidate and a right-wing nationalist are set for a decisive second-round showdown on June 1.

Rafal Trzaskowski from Poland’s ruling centrist Civic Coalition (KO) is narrowly ahead of Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, in the first round of the country’s presidential election.

It sets up a close battle to determine if the nation stays on a pro-European path or leans closer to admirers of United States President Donald Trump.

On Sunday, Trzaskowski, the liberal Warsaw Mayor, placed first with 30.8 percent of the vote, ahead of Nawrocki, a conservative historian, who had 29.1 percent, the Ipsos exit poll showed. If confirmed, the result would mean the two will go head-to-head in a run-off vote on June 1.

“We are going for victory. I said that it would be close, and it is close,” Trzaskowski told supporters. “There is a lot, a lot, of work ahead of us and we need determination.”

Nawrocki also told supporters he was confident of victory in the second round.

The campaign has largely revolved around foreign policy at a time of heightened security concerns in Poland, a key member of NATO and the European Union bordering war-torn Ukraine, and fears that the US’s commitment to European security could be wavering in the Trump era.

Commenting on X, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has forged a pro-European track, said the next two weeks will decide the future of Poland.

In Poland, the president has the power to veto laws. A Trzaskowski victory in the second round would enable Tusk’s government to implement an agenda that includes rolling back judicial reforms introduced by PiS that critics say undermined the independence of the courts.

However, if Nawrocki wins, the impasse that has existed since Tusk became prime minister in 2023 would be set to continue. Until now, PiS-ally President Andrzej Duda has stymied Tusk’s efforts.

If the exit poll is confirmed, other candidates in the first round – including Slawomir Mentzen from the far-right Confederation Party, Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia of the centre-right Poland 2050, and Magdalena Biejat from the Left – will be eliminated.

Two updated polls that take into account partial official results will be published later Sunday evening and early on Monday morning

Trzaskowski has pledged to cement Poland’s role as a major player at the heart of Europe in contrast with PiS, which was frequently at odds with Brussels over rule-of-law concerns.

Social issues have also been a major theme on the campaign trail, with Nawrocki framing himself as a guardian of conservative values and Trzaskowski drawing support from liberal voters for his pledges to back abortion and LGBTQ rights.

No forgiving a Brexit betrayal

WILL today go down in history as the day Sir Keir Starmer betrayed Brexit and the British people?

From the moment he entered No10, or Remainiac Prime Minister — who spent years in Opposition trying to reverse the historic 2016 vote — has been hellbent on securing a so-called “reset” with the EU.

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His approach to the negotiations with Brussels has been naive at best, and craven at worst.

Indeed, the message his public desperation sent to the hard-nosed Eurocrats was “I want a deal at any price, so shaft me”.

The vengeful EU — which will never get over Brexit, and cannot stand the idea of us being a sovereign nation again — duly obliged.

Its list of demands, in return for a defence partnership, a sop on passport queues and the simple lifting of some spiteful checks on British food exports, would put a mafia extortionist to shame.

Through a series of snide anonymous briefings (the EU’s tactic of choice for decades), we know it expects to agree the following at today’s Lancaster House talks:

Britain to slavishly adhere to every pettifogging Brussels edict on standards, a straitjacket known as “dynamic alignment” which would make trade deals with the rest of world far harder.

Subservience to the over-mighty, expansionist European Court of Justice.

Generous access to our fishing waters for mostly French vessels for ever more, undermining a core reason why millions voted Leave.

Bundles of cash to once again be paid into the EU’s coffers for participation in its various programmes and schemes.

Most unbelievably, a “youth mobility scheme” for anyone under 35 – yes, 35! – which would restore free movement by the back door, and give 80 MILLION EU citizens the chance to live and work here.

So much for getting a grip on runaway immigration.

And what has Sir Keir’s response been to all of this?

He and his Chancellor have effectively said bring it on, and that this is just the start of a much deeper future partnership with the EU.

We remind them both of two things, before they sit down to formally ink this seemingly wretched surrender deal.

First, the best economic days of the EU are long behind it — look at the state of the German and French economies.

Britain should be looking to do ambitious trade deals beyond Europe — indeed the new partnership with India, and the recent easing of US tariffs were only possible because of Brexit.

Not tying our hands and alienating allies like Donald Trump.

And, second, the British people voted nine years ago to take back control of our money, borders and laws.

If the PM hands all of this back over to Brussels today, he will not be forgiven.

Immigration and cost of living crisis on voters’ minds as they head to polling booths to elect the next government.

Voting is under way in a general election in Portugal – its third vote in as many years – with immigration and the cost of living crisis the biggest talking points during the campaign.

Sunday’s snap elections were called after Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, who leads the centre-right Democratic Alliance, lost a parliamentary vote of confidence in March, just a year into his minority government’s term.

Montenegro called the vote in response to accusations of conflicts of interest over the activities of his family’s consulting firm. He denied any wrongdoing.

Despite the controversy, opinion polls suggested the Democratic Alliance is set to win the most votes ahead of its main rival, the centre-left Socialist Party, and potentially pick up extra seats.

But Montenegro’s party is predicted to fall short again of the 116 seats needed for a majority in parliament.

Polls indicated the far-right Chega party – which opposes immigration, abortion and LGBTQ rights – is to finish in third place, giving it a possible kingmaker role. But Montenegro has ruled out working with Chega, which won 50 seats in last year’s elections.

The economy, immigration and Portugal’s housing crisis were major issues on the campaign trail while Montenegro appealed directly to voters to give him a strong mandate to end the political instability.

“We have to do our part at home, and we have to be part of the solutions abroad, in Europe and in the world. And for that, we need a strong government,” he told a rally in Lisbon on Friday.

Shortly after voting on Sunday, he told reporters that he was confident the country could achieve stable governance.

“There is a search for a stable solution, but that will now depend on [people’s] choices,” he said.

Estonia redirects maritime traffic to prevent future incidents after Russia’s detention of the Green Admire oil tanker.

Russia has detained a Greek oil tanker sailing under the Liberian flag as it left the Estonian port of Sillamae on a previously agreed route through Russian waters, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.

In a statement published on Sunday, the ministry added that the vessel, the Green Admire, was undertaking a navigational route established in a deal between Russia, Estonia and Finland.

The Baltic nation will redirect traffic to and from Sillamea exclusively through Estonian waters to prevent similar incidents in the future, it added.

“Today’s incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,” Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. “I have also informed our allies of the event,” he said, referring to other NATO members.

Estonian Public Broadcasting (EPB), citing the Transport Administration, reported that the Greek tanker was carrying a cargo of shale oil destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It added that such incidents had never occurred before.

Vessels leaving Sillamae usually move through Russian waters to avoid Estonia’s shallows, which can be dangerous for larger tankers, the EPB said.

The incident took place after the Estonian navy on Thursday tried to stop an unflagged tanker that was said to be part of a Russian “shadow fleet” of vessels sailing through Estonian waters. Russia responded by sending a fighter jet to escort the tanker, violating Estonia’s airspace.

The “shadow fleet” is meant to help Moscow maintain its crude oil exports to avoid Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.

Pontiff calls for peace and unity at the service, which attracts dignitaries from around the world.

Pope Leo XIV has met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his inaugural Mass in the Vatican, where he delivered a message of love and unity to a crowd of 200,000 pilgrims.

“We thank the Vatican for its willingness to serve as a platform for direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. We are ready for dialogue in any format for the sake of tangible results. We appreciate the support for Ukraine and the clear voice in defense of a just and lasting peace,” Zelenskyy posted on X.

No statement has been issued by the Vatican yet regarding Sunday’s meeting.

Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, was officially installed as the head of the Catholic Church at an outdoor Mass in St Peter’s Square with world leaders and European royalty in attendance.

In his sermon, Leo, the first American pope, called for unity within the church, saying he wanted it to act as a force for peace in the world.

“I would like that our first great desire be for a united church, a sign of unity and communion, which becomes a leaven for a reconciled world,” he said.

“In this our time, we still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth’s resources and marginalises the poorest.”

Leo said he was assuming the role as leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics “with fear and trembling” and insisted he would not lead like “an autocrat”.

“It is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power. Instead, it is always and only a question of loving, as Jesus did,” he said, in an apparent nod to the split between conservative and liberal factions within the church.

‘The rich heritage of the Christian faith’

The 69-year-old pope, who was born in Chicago and spent years as a missionary in Peru, succeeds the late Pope Francis, whose 12-year tenure was marked by tensions with traditionalists within the church. In an apparent nod to conservatives, Leo said he was committed to protecting “the rich heritage of the Christian faith” and repeatedly used the words “unity” and “harmony”.

Before the ceremony, Leo took his first popemobile ride through St Peter’s Square, waving to crowds cheering, “Viva il Papa.”

Dignitaries in attendance included the presidents of Israel, Peru and Nigeria; the prime ministers of Italy, Canada and Australia; German Chancellor Friedrich Merz; and Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia.

The United States delegation was led by Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic who had clashed with Francis over the White House’s approach to immigration. Vance shook hands with Zelenskyy at the start of the ceremony, in contrast to the previous meeting between the two men and President Donald Trump in a fiery encounter in front of the world’s media at the White House in February.

Leo prayed for the victims of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza in his sermon, saying Ukraine was being “martyred” and lamenting that Palestinians were being “reduced to starvation”.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen wins for the fourth straight time at Imola, defeating McLaren’s Lando Norris and F1 drivers’ standings leader Oscar Piastri.

Max Verstappen has given his Formula 1 title defence a big boost with victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after a daring overtake on standings leader Oscar Piastri at the start.

The Dutch driver built a commanding lead on Sunday that was wiped out when the safety car bundled the field back up. He still held on to win ahead of Lando Norris, who overtook his McLaren teammate Piastri for second with five laps remaining.

Verstappen took his second win of the season and first since last month’s Japanese Grand Prix and denied Piastri – who finished third – what would have been his fourth victory in a row.

Verstappen praised his Red Bull team’s “fantastic execution all round” as the team marked its 400th F1 race with a win.

“The start itself wasn’t particularly great, but I was still on the outside line, or basically the normal [racing] line, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m just going to try and send it round the outside,’ and it worked really well,” Verstappen said of his crucial overtake. “That, of course, unleashed our pace because once we were in the lead, the car was good.”

Norris’s late-race move on Piastri was almost a copy of Verstappen’s although Norris had the advantage of being on fresher tyres than his teammate.

“We had a good little battle at the end between Oscar and myself, which is always tense but always good fun,” Norris said, admitting that Verstappen and Red Bull were “too good for us today”.

Piastri’s lead over Norris in the standings was cut to 13 points. Verstappen rounds out the top three at nine points behind Norris.

Hamilton bounces back

Lewis Hamilton recovered from 12th on the grid to finish fourth in his first race for Ferrari in Italy.

Hamilton profited from a late-race fight between his teammate Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon of Williams.

Albon complained Leclerc had pushed him off the track as they battled for fourth, and Hamilton passed both drivers before Ferrari eventually asked Leclerc to yield fifth to Albon.

George Russell was seventh for Mercedes, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in the second Williams.

Isack Hadjar was ninth for Racing Bulls, and Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda was 10th after starting last following a crash in qualifying.

An action-packed ‘farewell’ to Imola

Overtaking was expected to be rare in what could be F1’s last race for the foreseeable future at Imola. Instead, the Italian fans were treated to Verstappen’s spectacular move at the start and plenty of other overtakes.

The narrow, bumpy Imola track has been a favourite among drivers, who have relished its old-school challenge since it returned to the F1 schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, its status as Italy’s second race – only the United States also hosts more than one – makes its position vulnerable.

“If we don’t come back here, it is going to be a shame,” Piastri said on Saturday.

Sunday’s race was the last under Imola’s current contract, and while it isn’t officially goodbye yet, there has been no word about next year.

Protesters were assaulted and dragged away for shouting ‘Free Palestine’ and raising the Palestinian flag during Israel’s performance at the Eurovision final. Outside, police attacked demonstrators who said Israel’s violation of international law in Gaza should have ruled them out.

Pope Leo XIV condemned hatred, prejudice and exploitation of the earth and poor, during his inauguration mass at the Vatican. World leaders were among the hundreds of thousands who attended, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who was seen shaking hands with US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The first US pontiff arrived at St Peters Square riding his popemobile for the first time.

In 2015, at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe, as a record 1.3 million people, mostly Syrians fleeing civil war, sought asylum, Pau Aleikum Garcia was in Athens, helping those arriving in the Greek capital after a perilous sea journey.

The then 25-year-old Spanish volunteer arranged housing for refugees in abandoned facilities like schools and libraries, and set up community kitchens, language classes and art activities.

“It was kind of a massive cascade of people,” Garcia recalls.

“My own memory of that time is oddly patchy,” he admits. Though there was one encounter that stood out.

In one of those schools in Athens’ Exarcheia neighbourhood, where refugees painted the external wall to illustrate their memories of their journeys, Garcia met a Syrian woman in her late 70s.

“I’m not afraid of being a refugee. I have lived all my life. I’m happy with what I have lived,” he recalls her telling him. “I’m afraid that my grandkids will be refugees for all their life.”

When he tried to reassure her that they would find a place to start anew, she protested: “No, no, I’m worried, because when my grandkids grow [up] and they ask themselves, ‘Where do I come from?’ they won’t be able to answer that question.”

The woman told him how, during the family’s journey to Greece, all but one of their photo albums were lost.

Now, she said, all the memories of their lives in Syria existed only in her and her husband’s minds, unrecorded and unrecoverable for the next generation.

Connecting generations

The woman’s story stayed with Garcia after he returned to Barcelona and his work as cofounder of the design studio, Domestic Data Streamers (DDS).

Over the years, the studio has grown into a 30-person team of experts in varied disciplines such as psychology, architecture, cognitive science, journalism and design. The studio has collaborated with diverse institutions such as museums, prisons and churches, as well as the likes of the United Nations, and uses technology to bring “emotions and humanity” to data visualisation.

Then, in around 2019, with the rise of generative artificial intelligence – a model of machine learning that uses algorithms to create new content from data scraped from the internet – the team began to explore image-generating technology, following the release of ChatGPT.

As they did, Garcia thought of the grandmother from Syria and how this technology might help someone like her by constructing images based on memories.

He believes that memories – captured through records like photographs – play an integral role in connecting generations.

“Memories are the architects of who we are. … It’s a big part of how social identities are built,” he says.

He also likes to cite Montserrat Roig, a Catalan author, who wrote that the biggest act of love is to remember something.

But in the past, people had fewer opportunities to document their lives than their mobile phone-wielding contemporaries, he says. Many experiences have been omitted or erased from collective memory due to lack of access, persecution, censorship or marginalisation.

So with this in mind, in 2022, Garcia and his team launched the Synthetic Memories project to use AI to generate photographic representations of memories that were lost, due to missing photos, for instance, or never recorded in the first place.

“I don’t think there was an eureka moment,” Garcia says of the evolution of the idea. “I’ve always been intrigued by how documentaries reconstruct the past … our goal and approach were more focused on the subjective and personal side, trying to capture the emotional layers of memory.”

For Garcia, the chance to recover such memories is an important act in reclaiming one’s past. “The fact that you have an image that tells this happened to me, this is my memory, and this is shown and other people can see it, is also a way to say to you, ‘Yes, this happened’. It’s a way of saying, of having more dignity about the part of your history that has not been depicted.”

Building memories

To create a synthetic memory, DDS uses open-source image-generating AI systems such as DALL-E 2 and Flux, while the team is developing its own tool.

The process starts with an interviewer asking a subject to recall their earliest memory. They explore various narratives as people recount their life stories before picking the one they think can be best encapsulated in an image.

The interviewer works with a prompter – someone trained in the syntax that the AI uses to create visuals – who inputs specific words to build the image from the details described by the interviewee.

Nearly everything, such as hairstyles, clothing, and furniture, is recreated as accurately as possible. However, figures themselves are usually depicted from behind or, if faces are shown, with a degree of blurriness.

This is intentional. “We want to be very clear that this is a synthetic memory and this is not real photography,” says Garcia. This is partly because they want to ensure their generated images don’t add to the proliferation of fake photos on the internet.

The resulting images – usually two or three from each session, which can last up to an hour – can appear dreamlike and undefined.

“As we know, memory is very, very, very fragile and full of imperfections,” Garcia explains. “That was the other reason why we wanted a model that could be full of imperfections and also a bit fragile, so it’s a good demonstration of how our memory works.”

Garcia’s team found that people who took part in the project said they felt a stronger connection to less detailed images, their suggestive nature allowing for their imagination to fill in the blanks. The higher the resolution, the more someone focuses on the details, losing that emotional connection to the image, Airi Dordas, the project’s lead, explains.

The team first trialled this technology with their grandparents. The experience was moving, Garcia says, and one that grew into medical trials to determine whether synthetic memories can be used as an augmentation tool in reminiscence therapy for dementia sufferers.

From there, the team went on to work with Bolivian and Korean communities in Brazil to tell their stories of migration, before partnering with Barcelona’s city council to document local memories. The sessions were open to the public and held last summer at the Design Museum in Barcelona, generating more than 300 memories.

Some wanted to work through traumatic experiences, like one woman who was abused by a relative who avoided jail and wanted to recreate a memory of him in court to share with her family. Others recalled moments from their childhood, like 105-year-old Pepita, who recreated the day she saw a train for the first time. Couples came to relive shared experiences.

There was always a moment, Ainoa Pubill Unzeta, who carried out interviews in Barcelona, says, “when people actually saw a picture that they would relate to, you could feel it … you can see it”. For some, it was just a smile; others cried. For her, this was confirmation that the image was done well.

One of the first memories Garcia recorded during their pilot sessions was that of Carmen, now in her 90s. She remembers going up to a stranger’s balcony as a child, her mother having paid the owners to let them in, because it looked into the courtyard of the jail where her father, a doctor for the Republican front during the Spanish Civil War, was being held. This was the only way the family could see him from his cell window.

By incredible coincidence, Carmen’s son was employed in the same prison as a social worker decades later, but neither son nor mother knew that. When the whole family came to see an installation at the Public Office of Synthetic Memories last year, her son recognised the prison immediately from his mother’s reconstruction. “It was a kind of closing the loop … it was beautiful,” Garcia says.

Clandestine assemblies

The team was particularly interested in telling stories of civic activists who have played a key role in different social movements in the city over the last 50 years, including those concerning LGBTQ and workers’ rights. While initially the focus was not on the dictatorship era, it “naturally brought us to engage with people who, by the historical circumstances, were activists against the regime,” Dordas explains.

One of them was 74-year-old Jose Carles Vallejo Calderon.

Born in Barcelona in 1950 to Republican parents who faced oppression under General Francisco Franco, Vallejo came of age during one of Europe’s longest dictatorships, which lasted from 1939 to 1975. During the civil war of 1936-39, and following the defeat of the Republican forces by Franco’s Nationalists, enforced disappearances, forced labour, torture and extrajudicial killings claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.

Vallejo became involved in opposition to the fascist regime first at university, where he attempted to organise a democratic student union, and then as a young worker at Barcelona’s SEAT automobile factory.

He recalls an atmosphere of fear, with most people terrified of speaking out against the authoritarian government. “That fear sprang from the terrible defeat in the Spanish Civil War and from the many deaths that occurred during the war, but also from the harsh repression from the post-war period up to the end of the dictatorship,” he explains.

Informants were everywhere, and the circle of trusted individuals was small. “As you can imagine, this is no way to live – this was living in darkness, silence, fear, and repression,” Vallejo says.

“There were few of us – very few – who dared to move from silence to activism, which involved many risks.”

Vallejo was imprisoned in 1970 for attempting to set up a labour union among SEAT employees, spending half a year in jail, including 20 days being tortured by Barcelona’s secret police. After another arrest in late 1971 and the prosecution demanding 20 years for what were then considered crimes of association, organisation and propaganda, Vallejo crossed the border with France in January 1972. He ultimately gained political asylum in Italy, where he lived in exile before returning to Spain following the first limited amnesty of 1976, which granted pardons to political prisoners after Franco’s death in 1975.

Today, Vallejo dedicates his time to human rights activism. He presides over the Catalan Association of Former Political Prisoners of Francoism, created in the final years of the dictatorship.

He learned about synthetic memories through Iridia, a human rights organisation that collaborated with DDS to help visualise memories of police abuse victims during the regime in a central Barcelona police station.

Vallejo was drawn to the project, curious about how the technology might be applied to capturing resistance activities too dangerous to record during Franco’s rule.

In 1970, SEAT workers organised clandestine breakfasts in the woods of Vallvidrera. On Sunday mornings, disguised as hikers, they would make their way through the dense forests surrounding the Catalan capital to discuss the struggle against the dictatorship.

“I think I must have been to more than 10 or 15 of these forest gatherings,” Vallejo recalls. Other times, they met in churches. No records of these exist.

Vallejo’s synthetic memory of these meetings is in black and white. The image is vague, almost like someone has taken an eraser to it to blur the details. But it is still possible to make out the scene: a crowd of people gathered in a forest. Some sit, others stand beneath a canopy of trees.

Looking at the image, Vallejo says he felt transported to the clandestine assemblies in the Barcelona woods, where as many as 50 or 60 people would gather in a tense atmosphere.

“I found myself truly immersed in the image,” he says.

“It was like entering a kind of time tunnel,” he adds.

Vallejo suffered memory loss around the ordeal of his arrests, imprisonment and torture.

The process of creating the image provided “a feeling – not exactly of relief – but rather of reconciling memory with the past and perhaps also of filling that void created by selective amnesia, which results from complicated, traumatic, and above all, distant experiences”. He found the reconstruction a “valuable experience” that helped him process some of these events.

‘We are not reconstructing the past’

Emphasising that memory is subjective, Garcia says, “One of the things that we are kind of drawing a very big red line about is historical reconstruction.”

This is partly due to the drawbacks of AI, which reinforces cultural and other biases in the data it draws from.

David Leslie, director of ethics and responsible innovation research at the Alan Turing Institute, the United Kingdom centre for data science and AI, cautions that using data that was initially biased against marginalised groups could create revisionist histories or false memories for those communities. Nor can “simply generating something from AI” help to remedy or reclaim historical narratives, he insists.

For DDS, “It is never about the bigger story. We are not reconstructing the past,” Garcia explains.

“When we talk about history, we talk about one truth that somehow we are committed to,” he elaborates. But while synthetic memories can depict a part of the human experience that history books cannot, these memories come from the individual, not necessarily what transpired, he underlines.

The team believes synthetic memories could not only help communities whose memories are at risk but also create dialogue between cultures and generations.

They plan to set up “emergency” memory clinics in places where cultural heritage is in danger of being eroded by natural disasters, such as in southern Brazil, which was last year hit by floods. There are also hopes to make their finished tool freely available to nursing homes.

But Garcia wonders what place the project could have in a future where there is an “over-registration” of everything that happens. “I have 10 images of my father when he was a kid,” he says. “I have over 200 when I was a kid. But my friend, of her daughter, [has] 25,000, and she’s five years old!”

“I think the problem of memory image will be another one, which will be that we are … [overwhelmed] and we cannot find the right image to tell us the story,” he muses.

Yet in the present moment, Vallejo believes the project has a role to play in helping younger generations understand past injustices. Forgetting serves no purpose for activists like himself, he believes, while memory is like “a weapon for the future”.

Instead of trying to numb the past, “I think it is more therapeutic – both collectively and individually – to remember rather than to forget.”

Foreign policy under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, LGBTQ rights and abortion have been major issues on the campaign trail.

Voters in Poland are casting their ballots to elect the next president in what is expected to be a close contest between the liberal mayor of Warsaw and a conservative historian.

Polls opened at 7am (05:00 GMT) in Sunday’s election, and the results of exit polls are expected to be released after the polls close at 9pm (19:00 GMT). The final official results of the contest, in which 13 candidates are running, are expected on Monday.

The frontrunners are Rafal Trzaskowski, the pro-European mayor of the Polish capital, and Karol Nawrocki, a historian backed by the nationalist Law and Justice party, which lost power 18 months ago.

Neither is expected to reach the required 50 percent threshold for victory, making a run-off on June 1 likely.

The election is being closely watched for whether voters endorse the pro-European path set by Prime Minister Donald Tusk or favour a return to the nationalist vision of Law and Justice, which ran the country from 2015 to 2023.

Tusk was elected prime minister in December 2023 after defeating Law and Justice, which had engaged in repeated disputes with the European Union.

The Polish president has limited executive powers but is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, steers foreign policy and can veto legislation.

Security fears loom large

The campaign has largely revolved around foreign policy at a time of heightened security concerns in Poland, a key NATO and EU member bordering war-torn Ukraine, and fears that the United States’s commitment to European security could be wavering in the President Donald Trump era.

Trzaskowski, deputy leader of Tusk’s centre-right Civic Platform, has pledged to cement Poland’s role as a major player at the heart of Europe in contrast with Law and Justice, which was frequently at odds with Brussels over rule-of-law concerns.

“I would definitely strengthen relations with our partners … within NATO and the EU,” Trzaskowski told state broadcaster TVP Info on Friday.

Social issues have also been a major theme on the campaign trail with Nawrocki framing himself as a guardian of conservative values and Trzaskowski drawing support from liberal voters for his pledges to back abortion and LGBTQ rights.

Malgorzata Mikoszewska, a 41-year-old tourism agency employee, told the AFP news agency that she was a fan of Trzaskowski’s liberal stance on social issues.

“Above all, I hope for the liberalisation of the law on abortion and sexual minorities,” she said.

Apartment scandal

Nawrocki’s campaign received a boost when he met with Trump in the Oval Office of the White House this month.

But it then took a hit over allegations that he bought an apartment in Gdansk from an elderly man in return for a promise to provide lifelong care for the man, which was not delivered. Nawrocki denied the allegations.

Polish authorities have reported attempts at foreign interference during the campaign, including denial-of-service attacks targeting the websites of parties in Tusk’s ruling coalition and allegations by a state research institute that political advertisements on Facebook were funded from overseas.

“With Nawrocki as president, the government would be paralysed, and that could eventually lead to the fall of the ruling coalition,” political scientist Anna Materska-Sosnowska told AFP.

His victory could see “the return of the populists with renewed force” at the next general election, she said.

The new president will replace Andrzej Duda, who has served two terms and is ineligible to stand again.

The election result could reshape the direction of the pro-EU and NATO member nation bordering war-torn Ukraine.

Romanians have begun casting ballots in a tense presidential election run-off that pits a pro-Trump nationalist who opposes military aid to Ukraine against a pro-European Union centrist.

Polls opened on Sunday at 7am local time (04:00 GMT) and will close at 9pm (18:00 GMT) in the high-stakes second round of the elections that will impact Romania’s geopolitical direction.

Hard-right nationalist George Simion, 38, who opposes military aid to neighbouring Ukraine and is critical of EU leadership, decisively swept the first round of the presidential election, triggering the collapse of a pro-Western coalition government. That led to significant capital outflows.

Romania’s top court annulled the first round results in December over accusations of Russian interference. The court also disqualified leading nationalist candidate Calin Georgescu, making way for Simion, who is a self-proclaimed fan of United States President Donald Trump.

Centrist Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, 55, who has pledged to clamp down on corruption and is staunchly pro-EU and NATO, is competing against Simion. He has said Romania’s support for Ukraine is vital for its own security against a growing Russian threat.

An opinion poll on Friday suggested Dan is slightly ahead of Simion for the first time since the first round in a tight race that will depend on turnout and the sizeable Romanian diaspora.

‘Battle between nationalist populism and a centralist’

Reporting from the capital, Bucharest, Al Jazeera’s Sonia Gallego said this election is being pitched as a battle between nationalist populism and a centralist.

“The reality is that Romania, an EU and NATO member, shares a border with war-torn Ukraine, the longest among EU members. And that also makes it one of the most vulnerable within the bloc,” she said.

Some analysts have also warned that online disinformation has been rife again ahead of Sunday’s vote.

Elena Calistru, a political analyst, told Al Jazeera: “We have to look at what is happening online. And there we have seen a lot of misinformation.”

“We have seen a lot of … coordinated inauthentic behaviour. We have seen a lot of foreign interference in our elections,” she said.

‘Pro-European president’?

The president of the country has considerable powers, not least being in charge of the defence council that decides on military aid. He will also have oversight of foreign policy, with the power to veto EU votes that require unanimity.

Daniela Plesa, 62, a public employee, told the AFP news agency in Bucharest on Friday she wanted a president “to promote the interests of the country”, complaining that “the European Union demands and demands”.

Andreea Nicolescu, 30, working in advertising, said she wished for “things to calm down a bit” and “a pro-European president”.

Rallies of tens of thousands ahead of the elections have demanded that the country maintain its pro-EU stance.

Other protests, also drawing tens of thousands, have condemned the decision to annul last year’s vote and the subsequent barring of far-right candidate Georgescu.

The cancellation was criticised by the Trump administration, and Simion has said his prime minister pick would be Georgescu, who favours nationalisation and an openness towards Russia.

The vote in Romania comes on a day when Poland also votes in the first round of the presidential election, expected to be led by pro-EU Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.

Victory for Simion and/or Trzaskowski would expand a cohort of eurosceptic leaders that already includes prime ministers in Hungary and Slovakia amid a political shift in Central Europe that could widen rifts in the EU.

It took three years to get officials from Ukraine and Russia in the same room.

But President Vladimir Putin, who proposed the meeting, did not go to Istanbul and the talks ended in less than 90 minutes.

The result: an agreement for a large-scale prisoner exchange, talks about their presidents meeting, and both sides pushing their vision of a future ceasefire.

Yet, diplomacy is not narrowing the great gap between Russia and Ukraine.

So, is President Putin agreeing to further talks to avoid more sanctions?

And with Russia steadily advancing on the battlefield, can President Zelenskyy afford to push for peace without further compromise?

Presenter: Dareen Abughaida

Guests:

Peter Zalmayev – Executive director at Eurasia Democracy Initiative

Pavel Felgenhauer – Independent defence and Russian foreign policy analyst

Anatol Lieven – Director of the Eurasia Program at Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft