Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts
the stars to flight

And, lo, the hunter of the east has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light.

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable – Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’.

Cosas de España/Galiza

Spain will formally pardon 53 women incarcerated by the Franco regime. Thousands of girls were locked up by Board for the Protection of Women for ‘rehabilitation’.

Why Spain’s Sanchez Is Standing Up to Trump on the Iran War.

This has had repercussions for the Spain-Germany relationship. Relations between respective leaders are said to have plummeted, as the 2 countries clash over the German leader’s apparent reluctance to stand up to Trump. One of Spain’ several deputy PM’s hasn’t exactly calmed things down, accusing the German government of being ‘vassals who pay homage to Trump’ and not demonstrating the required ‘leadership’ for the modern era. .

It’s an ill wind that blows no good. . . No hay mal que por bien no venga.

Europe

‘Stunned, sidelined and disunited’: how war in the Middle East paralysed the EU. Amid fears the conflict will strengthen Russia, Ursula von der Leyen’s embrace of US-backed regime change already looks like a doomed strategy, says The Guardian here.

Iran

As someone has said and as I know to be true: Iranians are highly educated. I mean on an everyday level. Iranian TV and radio are full of intellectual religious/philosophical debates and discussions, history, classical music, poetry readings, and so on. Iranians value literature and the arts, and they inherit thousands of years of civilisation, not just found in beautiful historic palaces and mosques, but also in their own homes, from hand-knotted rugs to intricate marquetry and ceramics. The tragedy for the Iranians is their leadership. Exactly as it is for the USA’s citizens..

The USA

See my earlier post on the delusional, bellicose president, would-be Emperor of the Western World. A laughing stock in the world he dreams of dominating. On borrowed time.

The war with Iran – a sceptical take. Even though Trump has projected enough confidence to apply balm to rattled markets, the content of his statements and his actions confirm he’s seeking an exit while Iran is not going to open one for him . . . US bases in the Middle East have been ground to dust. . . . No sign of Iran conceding victory to Trump or even seeking peace talks. . . Discussions in Washington are increasingly focused on declaring success and shifting toward a controlled withdrawal before the economic and political costs rise further. . . . Trump and his national security advisors are laboring under the false belief that Iran is running out of missiles. . . Trump is visibly deteriorating physically and mentally.

Ukraine v. Russia

EU leaders are deeply concerned about what the Middle East conflict means for Ukraine, more than 4 years after the full-scale invasion. Russia stands to gain from higher energy prices, diversion of air-defence systems and ammunition to the Middle East and reduced attention to the war it launched on Ukraine. “So far, there is only one winner in this [US-Iran]war – Russia,” said the president of the European Council..

The Way of the World

In war, behavioral and ethical norms rarely collapse all at once. They erode step by step. The current Middle East conflict has demonstrated this progression with unsettling clarity through a sequence of assassinations. Targeted killings of Hamas officials were followed by a deadly strike on Hezbollah leadership. These operations gradually normalized cross-border decapitation strikes as instruments of policy. The progression culminated in the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei, the head of state of Iran, and a leading Shia religious authority, whose position historically placed him beyond the reach of wartime targeting. . . . What once would have been regarded as an extraordinary breach of norms could now be presented as a logical extension of earlier actions.

Spanish

• Encerrona: Trap, set-up. ambush.
• Gresca: Brawl, fracas
• Tétrico: Creepy, gloomy, dark
• Tocar a rebato: To raise the alarm.

Did you know?

The (in)famous Philistines were one of the Sea Peoples mentioned yesterday, known to the Egyptians as the (troublesome) Peleset. They originated as a non-Semitic people from the Aegean. They arrived in the southern Levant around 1175 BC during the Late Bronze Age collapse. They settled the coastal plain, forming a distinct culture marked by Aegean-style pottery, pork consumption, and early ironworking. They established several coastal cities and intermarried with pre-existing Canaan peoples, who included the Semitic Israelites. [The Philistine cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod are now in SW Israel. Gaza was also founded by the Philistines but is now in the Palestine-Authority-controlled/Hamas-governed Gaza strip along the coast]. They all go back a very long way. . .

BTW: The term Semitic was coined in the 18th century to classify a language family sharing a common origin. It derives from biblical Shem (Noah’s son), whose descendants were linked to these speakers in Genesis. While initially linguistic, it later described peoples speaking these languages – such as Akkadians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, and Hebrews – but not a unified race or ethnicity. Note: Arabs and Jews are Semites. Persians aren’t because their language belongs to the Indo-European family, distinct from the Semitic languages within the Afroasiatic family.

You Have to Laugh

Yes, somewhere in the world, it’s Fashion Week again . . . .

Finally . . .

The Conquistadors is a well-thought-of BBC documentary of a couple of decades ago – A story of almost incredible endurance, heroism, greed and brutality and all the more poignant today as we see its long-term effects unfolding across the globe.

Finally . . . Finally . . .

I thought this was a weed in my garden but a plant app tells me they’re shoots of the swamp oak:-

This is what the internet says such shoots look and they certainly seem similar.

But . . Swamp oak (Quercus palustris) is not native to Spain. It originates from the eastern and central USA thriving in wet, swampy soils there. However, it has been introduced and adapts well to various regions outside its native range, including parts of Europe. While no sources confirm widespread growth in Spain, its tolerance for moist, acidic soils and climates similar to Galicia suggests it could be cultivated there successfully. So, whence the seeds?

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For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.

If you´re thinking of moving to Spain, this link should be useful to you.