SATURDAY
General against general plunges Sudan into chaos
The conflict between the commander of the Sudanese army, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan (the country’s de facto leader since the October 2021 coup that followed the coup that toppled President Omar al-Bashir two years earlier, 30 years ago) in power), and his former number two, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, head of the Forces of Support Rapid (FAR) paramilitary group had long been latent, but the last straw that turned tension into violence this Saturday was the lack to agreement on how to integrate FAR paramilitaries into the regular army. Fierce fighting, explosions and attacks against the EU ambassador and US diplomatic vehicles followed. The death toll now stands at more than 400. A sad scenario for what was once Africa’s largest country before the referendum that gave South Sudan independence in 2011. With the ceasefire not lasting and calls for calm from the international community falling on deaf ears, it is the civilians who suffer the most – the population already suffers from a lack of water and food.
SUNDAY
Lula spoke in China, but storm arrived in Portugal
“US must stop encouraging war and start talking about peace”, “EU must start talking about peace” and “Europe and US continue to contribute to the continuation of the war”. It was these phrases of Lula da Silva, uttered during the visit of the Brazilian president to China and later to the United Arab Emirates, that caused a political storm in Portugal, where Lula begins a state visit on the 22nd, with the right to a 25. The PSD demanded that the government delimit itself, the Liberal Initiative defended that the Portuguese Parliament should no longer receive it, while the PS noted that it disagreed but understood the position of the President of Brazil . The next day, the PSD already softened the speech and President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalled that “if we cut relations with countries that are not in line with our foreign policy, we would not have relations with 3/4 of the world”. It remains to be seen whether Lula manages to erase the bad image on his visit to Portugal.
SECOND
The poet of Amélia dos Olhos Doces died
Poet, visual artist, publicist, scholar of prehistoric art, Joaquim Pessoa was many things, but he will forever be the man who wrote Amélia dos Olhos Doces. A poem with a difficult birth, which Carlos Mendes, who set it to music and interpreted it, told DN in 2018: “When I lived on Avenida do Brasil and he came from my house to Lavradio in Barreiro, [Pessoa] he passed Liceu Camões and there was a prostitute sitting on a bench in the garden. And when they passed, she looked at the car, and the eyes were sweet of a woman in pain. […] Joaquim Pessoa came with another poet who lived here, Manuel Branco, and said, “Take a piece of paper and write this down: Amélia dos Olhos Doces”. And he went with the other to Barreiro to write and he to recite the poem.’ The next day he showed the lyrics to Mendes, who took the guitar and made the music. musician he thought he was “good for nothing”. They almost got into a fight. Now, with the death of Joaquim Pessoa, aged 75, the poem is part of the legacy he leaves behind.
THIRD
Zelensky and Putin in the front line with their troops
Hours after Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson and Lugansk regions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded with a trip to the frontline in Avdiivka. There he decorated soldiers whom he thanked for their “service in the defense of our country”. Putin will also have listened to the troops. But the smile of Zelensky, who took selfies with the army, contrasted with the icy expression of the Russian president, whose visit to the occupied territories, the second after a visit to Crimea and Mariupol in March, was described by the head of the Ukrainian diplomacy, Mikhailo Podolyak, as a “special journey” of the “author of mass murders” to “enjoy the crimes of his lackeys.” Visits that come at a time when many analysts believe a Ukrainian counter-offensive to recapture Russian-held territories is imminent. And when the conflict continues with no end in sight.
FOURTH
PS always celebrates 50 years with “a war ahead”
“Portugal is for the people, not for Moscow,” António Costa launched at the Socialist Party’s 50th anniversary dinner, recalling a PS slogan back in 1975, during the PREC. Surrounded at the table by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (or was the PS not born in Germany) and by former Spanish head of government Felipe González, the socialist leader took the stage to guarantee: “We are here to commemorate the 50 years that are passed, but above all to broaden our horizons, with our eyes fixed on the future, so that we don’t have to look at the ground,” he quotes González. Without referring to the political turmoil that has befallen the government since winning an absolute majority, Costa preferred to look to the future, guaranteeing that the PS’s 50th anniversary celebrations should “open up new prospects on the horizon, in ambition in hope, in conviction”. And “there is one certainty we can have: today the war may be different, today we need a new trench, but we will always have a war ahead of us to fight.”
FIFTH
Starship explodes, but Musk’s dream continues
“Good morning, Brazil! I just landed in Lisbon. We have a government agenda between our countries this weekend, predicting that we will sign at least 13 agreements.” With this message on Twitter, Lula da Silva announced his arrival in Portugal for a four-day state visit. Received in Figo Maduro by the Minister of Foreign Affairs João Gomes Cravinho, Lula went to the hotel, with the official program not starting until Saturday. Meetings with Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and António Costa, the first Portuguese-Brazilian summit in seven years, a visit to Embraer-OGMA, the presentation of the Camões Prize to Chico Buarque, and a speech in Parliament on the 25th, which caused so much controversy caused . Lula arrives with a busy schedule and leaves for Spain before the solemn session of the 49th anniversary of the revolution. In between, he has the task of making people forget his statements about the war in Ukraine – during a trip to China he accused the US and the EU of being responsible for the continuation of the conflict – and to draw attention back to the friendly relationship between Portugal and Brazil.
FRIDAY
Lula has arrived, bringing trade deals and controversies in his luggage
A fully reusable spacecraft, capable of launching heavy payloads into space at a low cost, enabling “affordable” trips to the Moon or even Mars. This is the purpose of Starship, the ship of SpaceX, Elon Musk’s company. But the first test flight didn’t end the way the millionaire wanted, with the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket exploding in midair about four minutes after launch from SpaceX’s space base in Boca Chica, Texas. The cheers and applause of the SpaceX crew watching the launch quickly gave way to silence and dismay as the vehicle wobbled, lost orientation and exploded. Nothing can demotivate Musk, who on Twitter promised a new release for “in a few months”. The millionaire congratulated the team on a “great first test flight”. The dream lives on.
Source: DN
