Catalonia heads into a watershed moment in its modern history today and no one really knows how it is going to play out.
Spanish government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo on Friday said that there is no way the regional administration will pull off its plans to hold an illegal referendum on independence.
Catalan government spokesman Jordi Turull said in Barcelona that almost 7,000 volunteers are ready to open 2,315 polling stations across the region of 7.5 million people.
“Today we’ve defeated an authoritarian state,” Catalan President Carles Puidemont said at the closing rally of the secession campaign on Friday. “Each difficulty has made us stronger.”
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is deploying thousands of police to Catalonia to uphold public order ahead of a vote declared illegal by the Spanish constitutional court.
The region’s bid to break away is the biggest challenge to the political settlement instituted following the death of General Francisco Franco that sought to tie restive regions into Spain’s new democracy.
Earlier on Friday, scores of farmers backing secession drove tractors from the provinces into Barcelona to blockade Spanish government offices.
“All polling stations will be in place — even if someone tries to stop it, citizens will still be able to vote,” Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras said.
After Rajoy met with his Cabinet in Madrid, his government repeated its pledge that the referendum would not happen.
“The government, exercising its constitutional functions, will enforce the law,” Mendez said at a news conference. “No one is above the law and anyone who breaks it should face the consequences.”
Spain’s data protection agency said that polling station workers face fines of as much as 300,000 euros (US$355,000) for accessing and managing data for the electoral registry.
The Spanish aviation authority said it would restrict airspace over Barcelona during the referendum weekend.
A magistrate at Catalonia’s High Court ordered Google to remove the “On Votar 1-Oct” mobile app from Google Play, according to an e-mailed statement from the Catalan supreme court.
In a separate ruling, the magistrate ordered the Catalan technology agency to shut a chain of applications that potentially could be used for the vote.
Spanish Secretary of State for the EU Jorge Toledo said in Tallinn, Estonia, that talks with Catalonia could start once the region is complying with the law.
More than 5.3 million Catalan residents are eligible to take part in the vote, with voting stations open from 9am to 8pm today.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
RSS