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After landmark climate win, lawyer hopes for a ‘new legal order’ to protect Indigenous rights

Six years ago, human rights lawyer Julian Aguon received a call from Vanuatu’s foreign affairs minister. The minister had an unusual request – he wanted Aguon to help develop a legal case on behalf of dozens of law students who were seeking climate justice from the world’s highest court. Aguon, a Chamorro lawyer based in Guam, was excited by the opportunity and believed they could clear up legal ambiguities he says had “long hobbled the ability of the international community to respond effectively to the climate crisis.” Over years, Aguon and his team gathered testimonies from all across the Pacific about losses inflicted by climate change. They heard from people in Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and other places who broke with cultural protocol to share sacred knowledge of their environment and culture – hoping that telling their stories might lead to a better future. In 2025, Aguon argued the case before the international court of justice (ICJ) in The Hague and months later, the court issued a landmark ruling which determined nations have a legal obligation to prevent climate harm. Aguon says the ICJ ruling requires countries to “finally and decisively address the climate crisis” and marks a new era of climate accountability. On 2 December, Aguon and the Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change (PISFCC) will be honoured with a Right Livelihood award – an international prize sometimes dubbed the alternative Nobel – for their work. A Myanmar activist group, a grassroots aid response group in Sudan and Taiwanese civic hacker and technologist Audrey Tang will also be honoured. The Right Livelihood awards began in 1980 after the Nobel foundation rejected a proposal for two new prizes for work on the environment and within developing countries. Previous winners include Edward Snowden, Wangari Maathai and Greta Thunberg. Vishal Prasad, director of PISFCC, says the award is a testament to the determination of unified Pacific Islanders working together to save their home. He says the recognition belongs to “everyone in the region”. Aguon believes it will help support a wave of rights-based climate litigation, and lead to reparations claims and compensation for ecosystem restoration. The 43-year-old founded the firm Blue Ocean Law in 2014, with a central belief that Indigenous people can provide solutions to the world’s problems. The firm pursues cases that prioritise Indigenous rights and culture to advance what Aguon called a “new legal order rooted in respect, reciprocity, and responsibility to future generations.” Ralph Regenvanu was the minister in Vanuatu who approached Aguon about the ICJ case years earlier. He said they chose Blue Ocean Law because they felt the firm could “represent what this means legally but also culturally.” Lookin ahead, the Guam-based firm is developing legal challenges to deep sea mining in the Pacific based on Indigenous guardianship, which Aguon says seeks to defend the ocean as “kin rather than commodity” to protect marine ecosystems and ensure cultural survival. It is also looking at ways to fight contamination of land and water to protect rights to access and gather medicinal plants needed for cultural reasons. Aguon said his work seeks to protect “Indigenous rights in exceedingly practical, concrete ways.” “It behooves us to try to find every possible way to protect them and their ability to thrive in their ancestral spaces,” he adds.

Zelenskyy’s top aide quits after anti-corruption searches of his home

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff and closest ally, Andriy Yermak, has resigned after Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies conducted searches at his apartment earlier today. The abrupt departure of the aide, who had been leading the latest round of the delicate peace negotiations with the US, was announced by the Ukrainian president in a late-afternoon social media video on Friday. Zelenskyy praised Yermak, but made clear that “there should be no reason to be distracted by anything other than the defence of Ukraine” at a time when Kyiv was dependent on retaining US support in the face of Russian territorial demands. Yermak had submitted his resignation, the president said. The search for a successor would begin on Saturday and the powerful office of the president of Ukraine, which Yermak led, would be “reorganised” as part of the process. “I am grateful to Andriy for always representing Ukraine’s position in the negotiation track exactly as it should be. It has always been a patriotic position. But I want there to be no rumours or speculation,” Zelenskyy said. Journalists had filmed about 10 investigators entering Kyiv’s government quarter early in the morning, in a widening of the investigation into a nuclear energy kickback scandal allegedly run by an associate of the Ukrainian president who has fled the country. Nabu, the national anti-corruption bureau, said it and the specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, Sapo, were “conducting investigative actions at the head of the office of the president of Ukraine”. A seemingly indispensable aide until today, Yermak was a former intellectual property lawyer and film producer who knew Zelenskyy in his days as an actor and comedian before helping him be elected as president. Yermak became a foreign policy adviser, then the president’s chief of staff in February 2020. Rapidly he assumed a central position as Zelenskyy’s gatekeeper in the charge of the president’s office. He was routinely consulted on foreign policy, domestic affairs and appointments. Never far from Zelenskyy’s side, the two were particularly close during the early days of the invasion, when Kyiv was under threat. Earlier, in a short statement, Yermak confirmed that searches were continuing at his home. “The investigators have no obstacles,” he added in a social media statement. “They were given full access to the apartment, my lawyers are on site, interacting with law enforcement officers. From my side, I have full cooperation.” The energy corruption scandal first emerged earlier in November, but after days of damaging revelations it dropped down the news agenda when Donald Trump unexpectedly released a pro-Russian 28-point peace plan, in which the Kremlin demanded control of all the Donbas region before any ceasefire. But Friday’s developments thrust the scandal back into the spotlight just as Ukraine had been carefully wooing the White House on a 19-point counterproposal, with Yermak fronting talks in Geneva with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio. Earlier in November, investigators from Nabu said they had uncovered a high-level criminal scheme at the heart of government. Insiders allegedly received kickbacks of 10%-15% from commercial partners of Energoatom, the state-owned nuclear power generator and Ukraine’s most important energy supplier. Timur Mindich, an old friend and business partner of the Ukrainian president in the Kvartal 95 TV production company, set up by Zelenskyy before he went into politics, was accused of being the organiser. Mindich fled abroad, leaving his apartment in Kyiv’s government district hours before investigators came to arrest him. Zelenskyy himself has denounced the scheme. However, questions swirled in the days that followed about how much the most senior figures in government knew about what was happening, given how many others in or close to the administration have been accused of involvement. Zelenskyy fired two ministers this month and the allegations have prompted widespread public outrage at a time when most Ukrainians are having to endure hours of daily electricity blackouts because of Russian bombing of energy infrastructure. Another high-profile suspect is Oleksiy Chernyshov, a former deputy prime minister who was charged by Nabu for allegedly receiving $1.2bn (£900m) from participants in the anti-corruption scheme. Chernyshov allegedly spent some of the illicit cash building four luxury mansions in a new-build riverside plot south of Kyiv. The anti-corruption investigation has been based on more than 1,000 hours of conversations recorded secretly by Nabu, details of which have been released to the media. In one, a suspect said it was a “pity” to build structures to defend power stations from Russian attacks since the money could be stolen instead. The European Commission said the investigations showed that Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies were functioning. “We understand that investigations are ongoing, and we very much respect these investigations, which show that anti-corruption authorities in Ukraine are doing their job,” a spokesperson said.

Zelenskyy chief of staff resigns after property raid by Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies – Europe live

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, has resigned after Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies conducted searches at his apartment. Zelenskyy announced the departure of Yermak, who had been leading the country’s peace negotiations with the US, in a late-afternoon social media video on Friday. The president praised Yermak but made clear that “there should be no reason to be distracted by anything other than the defence of Ukraine”. Yermak had submitted his resignation, the president said. The search for a successor would begin on Saturday and the office of the president of Ukraine, which Yermak led, would be “reorganised” as part of the process. A daughter of the former South African president Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP, after being accused of tricking 17 South African men into fighting for Russia in Ukraine by telling them they were travelling to Russia to train as bodyguards for the Zumas’ uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, 43, the most visible and active in politics of her siblings, volunteered to resign and step back from public roles while cooperating with a police investigation and working to bring the men home, the MK chair, Nkosinathi Nhleko, said at a press conference in Durban. Belgium has hit back against an EU plan to use Russia’s frozen assets to aid Ukraine, describing the scheme as “fundamentally wrong” and throwing into doubt how Europe will fund Kyiv. In a sharply worded letter, Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, said the proposal violated international law and would instigate uncertainty and fear in financial markets, damaging the euro. A spokesman for the European Commission, Guillaume Mercier, told Ukrainian local news station Radio Svoboda on Friday that they were following the corruption investigation closely and the searches showed that Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies were working. He added that fighting corruption was central to the country’s European Union accession. Polish authorities have charged five people alleging they acted for foreign intelligence services of an unspecified country and threatened Poland’s security by taking photographs of critical infrastructure and putting up posters and graffiti, the public prosecutor’s office said. The group consists of two Ukrainians (including an teenage girl) and three Belarusians. Four of them have been detained pending trial, with the fifth one only placed under travel restrictions due to his ill health. German authorities have placed a Ukrainian man in custody who is suspected of damaging the Nord Stream pipelines over three years ago, AP reported. A judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe issued an arrest warrant on Friday for 49-year-old Ukrainian Serhii K. and ordered he be held in custody, federal prosecutors said. Hungary’s Orbán has met with Russia’s Putin in Moscow in another show of close relations between the two leaders and countries and much to the frustration of the EU. Welcoming him to the Kremlin, Putin praised Orbán’s “balanced” position on Ukraine, after Hungary repeatedly tried to block further sanctions on Russia. Keir Starmer’s attempt to reset relations with the EU have suffered a major blow, after negotiations for the UK to join the EU’s flagship €150bn (£131bn) defence fund collapsed. The UK had been pushing to join the EU’s Security Action for Europe (Safe) fund, a low-interest loan scheme that is part of the EU’s drive to boost defence spending by €800bn and rearm the continent, in response to the growing threat from Russia and cooling relations between Donald Trump’s US and the EU. Strikes and protests in Italy on Friday against Giorgia Meloni’s government caused the cancellation of dozens of flights and disrupted train services around the country. The hardline USB union and smaller worker organisations called the one-day action against the government’s plans to raise military spending and its support for Israel.

Quebec to ban public prayer in sweeping new secularism law

Quebec says it will intensify its crackdown on public displays of religion in a sweeping new law that critics say pushes Canadian provinces into private spaces and disproportionately affects Muslims. Bill 9, introduced by the governing Coalition Avenir Québec on Thursday, bans prayer in public institutions, including in colleges and universities. It also bans communal prayer on public roads and in parks, with the threat of fines of C$1,125 for groups in contravention of the prohibition. Short public events with prior approval are exempt. CAQ has made secularism a key legislative priority, passing the controversial Bill 21 – which bans some public sector employees from wearing religious symbol – in 2019. It plans to extend that prohibition to anyone working in daycares, colleges, universities and private schools. Full face coverings would be banned for anyone in those institutions, including students. Quebec’s secularism minister, Jean-François Roberge, said the controversial new provisions were the latest steps in a province working towards full secularization. He criticized previous accommodations by post-secondary institutions, including prayer rooms, telling reporters the schools “are not temples or churches or those kinds of places”. The ban on public prayer comes after the group Montreal4Palestine organized Sunday protests outside the city’s Notre-Dame Basilica that included prayers. “It’s shocking to see people blocking traffic, taking possession of the public space without a permit, without warning, and then turning our streets, our parks, our public squares into places of worship,” said Roberge. The province will also limit the offering of kosher and halal meals in public institutions. “We think that when the state is neutral, Quebecers are free,” said Roberge, rejecting allegations the law disproportionately affects minorities. “We have the same rules applying to everyone,” he said. But for Muslim students, the new rules “fee[l] like a personal attack against our community,” Ines Rarrbo, a first-year mechanical engineering student, told the Canadian Press. “It’s as if we’re not welcome here.” Stephen Brown, president of the National Council of Canadian Muslims, said the move amounts to “political opportunism” and reflects a “doubling down on identity politics and division in a desperate attempt to regain the public’s trust”. In a statement, the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops said the proposed bill would be a “radical infringement on the rights and freedoms of the Quebec population” and that “the government has not demonstrated the need for such legislation”. Bill 21 bars judges, police officers, prison guards and teachers from wearing religious symbols while at work. Other public workers such as bus drivers, doctors and social workers must only keep their faces uncovered. The legislation runs afoul of both Quebec’s charter of human rights and freedoms and Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms but in 2021, Quebec’s superior court upheld the statute despite a finding that the law violates the freedom of expression and religion of religious minorities. Governments in Canada can pass laws that breaches certain fundamental rights if they use a legal mechanism known as a the “notwithstanding clause”. Like Bill 21, the new legislation also invokes the clause pre-emptively, shielding it from challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada’s supreme court is expected to hear a legal challenge to the use of the notwithstanding clause in the coming months.

Rebel nuns who busted out of Austrian care home win reprieve – if they stay off social media

Three octogenarian nuns who gained a global following after breaking out of their care home and moving back to their abandoned convent near Salzburg have been given leave to stay in the nunnery “until further notice” – on condition they stay off social media, church officials have said. The rebel sisters – Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, 82, all former teachers at the school adjacent to their convent – broke back into their old home of Goldenstein Castle in Elsbethen in September in defiance of their spiritual superiors. The story prompted headlines around the world. It also fostered a huge affection for the trio, who have built up a loyal following on social media, where they post regular reports about their tumultuous experience and joy at their return. They have been helped by local supporters and former pupils, who have provided them with food, clothing, medical care and security and installed a chairlift to enable the three to reach their third-floor cells. The nuns’ religious superior, Provost Markus Grasl from Reichersberg Abbey, had argued that the sisters had to be placed in a Catholic care home as they were unable to safely live in the old stone convent. He repeatedly accused them of breaking their vows of obedience, a claim the nuns denied. On Friday, however, church officials said the women could stay at Goldenstein “until further notice” after a proposal put forward by Grasl aimed at resolving the dispute. The nuns are yet to agree to the deal. Church officials have reportedly said the nuns will be provided with adequate medical care and nursing help, and a priest would be at their disposal to serve regular mass. Over the past months, priests have had to be more or less smuggled into the convent’s chapel to say mass, against the will of church authorities. Among the conditions for them to remain include the cessation of all social media activity, a ban on outside visitors to the convent and the settling of a legal dispute. Should the health conditions of the women deteriorate, they would be registered at the Elsbethen nursing home and placed on the waiting list there. “Now it’s up to the sisters,” Harald Schiffl, a spokesperson for Grasl, told the Austrian news agency APA. In a statement late on Friday, the three nuns, referring to themselves in the third person, denied that either they or their allies had been consulted over the proposal, dismissing it as vague, one-sided and “failing to contain any legally binding commitments”. “In particular the promise as reported in the media, that the sisters would be allowed to remain in the convent, lacks any legal force... due to the inclusion of the clause: ‘until further notice’ and is therefore legally worthless,” the statement, issued by their supporters, said. They added that they resented the fact that the conditions according to which they could stay had “the character of a restrictive contract” equivalent to a restraining order, which would ban them from seeking outside legal help, or using social media. There was “no legal basis whatsoever” for the conditions, which would have the effect of “depriving them of their only remaining protection from the interested public,” they stated. For an agreement to be reached with the Archdiocese of Salzburg, they added, the church officials would have to “finally engage in dialogue with those affected, take their legitimate claims and needs seriously and declare their willingness to agree to a solution that is both just and legally compliant.”

Talks for UK to join EU defence fund collapse in blow to Starmer’s bid to reset relations

Keir Starmer’s attempt to reset relations with the EU have suffered a major blow, after negotiations for the UK to join the EU’s flagship €150bn (£131bn) defence fund collapsed. The UK had been pushing to join the EU’s Security Action for Europe (Safe) fund, a low-interest loan scheme that is part of the EU’s drive to boost defence spending by €800bn and rearm the continent, in response to the growing threat from Russia and cooling relations between Donald Trump’s US and the EU. Entrance to the scheme would have enabled the British government to secure a bigger role for its defence firms. In September, France proposed a ceiling on the value of UK-produced military components in the fund. The UK and EU had been expected to sign a technical agreement on Safe after establishing an administrative fee from London. But after months of wrangling, and only days before the 30 November deadline for an agreement, sources said the two sides remained “far apart” on the financial contribution Britain would make, Bloomberg reported. EU officials have suggested an entry fee of up to €6bn, far higher than the administrative fee the government had envisaged paying. Peter Ricketts, the veteran former diplomat who chairs the European affairs committee in the House of Lords, described a rumoured €6.5bn fee as “so off the scale that it suggests some EU members don’t want the UK in the scheme”. The minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, said it was “disappointing” that talks had fallen through but insisted that the UK defence industry would still be able to participate in projects through Safe on third-country terms. “While it is disappointing that we have not been able to conclude discussions on UK participation in the first round of Safe, the UK defence industry will still be able to participate in projects through Safe on third-country terms. “Negotiations were carried out in good faith, but our position was always clear: we will only sign agreements that are in the national interest and provide value for money.” The door to greater UK participation appeared to have been pushed open in May when Starmer and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, signed an EU-UK security and defence partnership. Without this pact, the UK could never supply more than 35% of the value of components of any Safe-funded project. As recently as last week, the prime minister had expressed a belief that quiet diplomacy would result in agreement, telling reporters travelling with him to the G20 summit in South Africa: “Negotiations are going on in the usual way and they will continue.” He added: “I hope we can find an acceptable solution, but my strong view is that these things are better done quietly through diplomacy than exchanging views through the media.” But soon after, the talks appeared to be on rocky ground after the defence secretary, John Healey, said the UK was willing to quit, telling the i newspaper the UK was not willing to sign up for “any price”. Thomas-Symonds sought to downplay the significance of the collapse of negotiations on Friday, stating: “From leading the Coalition of the Willing for Ukraine to strengthening our relationships with allies, the UK is stepping up on European security in the face of rising threats and remains committed to collaborating with our allies and partners. In the last year alone, we have struck defence agreements across Europe and we will continue this close cooperation.” He added that the UK and EU were continuing to “make strong progress on the historic UK-EU May agreement that supports jobs, bills and borders”.

Jacob Zuma’s daughter resigns amid claims South Africans tricked to fight for Russia

A daughter of the former South African president Jacob Zuma has resigned as an MP, after being accused of tricking 17 South African men into fighting for Russia in Ukraine by telling them they were travelling to Russia to train as bodyguards for the Zumas’ uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party. Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, 43, the most visible and active in politics of her siblings, volunteered to resign and step back from public roles while cooperating with a police investigation and working to bring the men home, the MK chair, Nkosinathi Nhleko, said at a press conference in Durban. Magasela Mzobe, another MK official, told reporters: “As far as we know, the resignation has got nothing to do with admission of guilt or the organisation finding her guilty,” adding that MK party had not been involved with the group of men who ended up trapped on the frontline of the war in Ukraine. On 22 November another of Zuma’s daughters, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube, filed a police report alleging that her sister Zuma-Sambudla and two others, Siphokazi Xuma and Blessing Khoza, had recruited the men, including eight of their family members. Zuma-Mncube did not suggest a motive for her sister’s alleged recruiting in the statement she made to police. Zuma-Sambudla then filed an affidavit of her own, claiming she was “a victim of deception, misrepresentation and manipulation” by Khoza after the men were recruited for what she had believed was a legitimate paramilitary training course. Zuma-Sambudla said she went to Russia herself for a month of the training, in excerpts from her statement to police published by local media: “I experienced only non-combat, controlled activities. I was never exposed to combat, never deployed.” She claimed that she had “shared information innocently” with others, who then volunteered to go to Russia themselves. She added: “I would not, under any circumstances, knowingly expose my own family or any other person to harm.” The South African outlet News24 said it had received videos from three of the men trapped in Ukraine, in which they alleged Zuma-Sambudla persuaded them to sign contracts in Russian that they did not understand and said she would spend a year in Russia training alongside them. Zuma, MK party’s president, was at the press conference but did not speak. The 83-year-old has been married six times and currently has four wives and more than 20 children. Polygamy is recognised in South Africa via a law governing “customary” marriages. Zuma was ousted as South Africa’s president in 2018, after being accused of directing a period of huge corruption known as “state capture”, allegations he has always denied. He founded MK party in December 2023, winning 14.6% of the vote in the 2024 national elections. On Tuesday, police confirmed they were investigating, after receiving both affidavits. Zuma-Sambudla did not return calls and messages seeking comment. Khoza and Xuma could not be reached for comment. On 6 November the office of South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said it was investigating how the men became trapped in eastern Ukraine and was working to bring them home, after receiving “distress calls for assistance”. The men “were lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts”, it said, noting that South Africans were not permitted to assist or fight for foreign militaries without government authorisation. Zuma-Sambudla has consistently posted her support for Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, online. “We Love You Both LOUDLY And UNAPOLOGETICALLY So … I’ll Drink To That” she posted on X, then Twitter, with a photo of her father and Putin making a toast, on 22 February 2022, the day Russia invaded Ukraine. In May, she posted on X: “I Stand With Russia,” alongside photos of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, although it was not clear if she had taken the photos herself or when they were taken. South Africa’s African National Congress party, which forced Zuma to stand down as president in 2018, has long been close to Russia after the Soviet Union supported its struggle against apartheid. South Africa’s government, whose foreign policy is still controlled by the ANC although it is now in a coalition, has refrained from criticising Russia for invading Ukraine. It has tried to present itself as a neutral arbiter in the search for a peace deal. Zuma-Sambudla is on trial on charges of inciting violence in posts on X, during deadly riots that erupted in 2021 when her father was sent to jail for contempt of court. She has denied the allegations.

German president honours victims of Nazi bombing atrocity on Guernica visit

Eighty-eight years after Luftwaffe pilots took part in the most infamous atrocity of the Spanish civil war, Germany’s president has visited the Basque town of Guernica to honour the victims of the Nazi bombing and to urge that the “terrible crimes” committed there are never forgotten. Hundreds of civilians were killed and hundreds more injured on 26 April 1937 when planes from the German Condor Legion, operating alongside aircraft from fascist Italy, spent hours bombing Guernica on market day. Adolf Hitler had loaned the Luftwaffe unit to Gen Francisco Franco’s nationalist forces to help them in their coup against the republican government, and to allow Nazi Germany’s pilots to practise the blitzkrieg tactics they would later use in the second world war. The destruction of Guernica, which would become a template for the aerial bombardment of civilians, was immortalised by Pablo Picasso in the huge monochrome canvas that bears the town’s name. On Friday, Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first German head of state to travel to Guernica, where he joined King Felipe VI of Spain in a remembrance ceremony held in a cemetery in the town and laid a wreath for the victims. The pair then visited Guernica’s Museum of Peace, where they met two survivors of the attack, Crucita Etxabe and María del Carmen Aguirre. Steinmeier, who is on a state visit to Spain, used a speech earlier this week to address the bombing and its legacy. “Germans committed terrible crimes in Guernica,” the president told guests at a banquet in Madrid on Wednesday. “On 26 April 1937, the feared Condor Legion bombed the city, razing it to the ground. Hundreds of defenceless children, women and men lost their lives in appalling, agonising ways. The terror, pain and grief is felt to this day by many Basque families.” Steinmeier, who visited the Reina Sofía museum in Madrid to see Picasso’s Guernica for himself, said the artist’s warning against remaining indifferent in the face of conflict and suffering “has lost none of its urgency”. He added: “It is very important to me, and I am consciously addressing this sentence to my compatriots in Germany, that we do not forget what happened back then. This crime was committed by Germans. Guernica serves as a warning – a call to stand up for peace, freedom and the preservation of human rights. We want to live up to that, now and in the future.” His words came three decades after Germany’s then president, Roman Herzog, said he wished “to confront the past and … explicitly admit to the culpable involvement of German pilots”. Guernica’s mayor, José María Gorroño, who had hailed the visit as “a day that will go down in the town’s history”, used the occasion to repeat calls for Picasso’s masterpiece to be moved from the Reina Sofía to the place that inspired it. In an interview with Cadena Ser radio on Thursday, Gorroño said the Spanish state owed a “moral debt to the victims of the bombing”, adding: “Picasso’s Guernica should come to Guernica. It’s a worldwide peace icon. The victims need this tribute.” Meanwhile, the Basque regional president, Imanol Pradales, has called for the Spanish state to follow Germany’s lead in confronting its role in the bombing of Guernica. “No one has any doubts that the current Spanish state is very different from that one,” he told the Basque parliament last week. “It’s just about affirming truth and justice, and its actions should spring from a commitment to freedom and democracy. We’re asking nothing more, and nothing less, from the Spanish state than what the German president is doing.”