Tom Burridge was the BBC Spain correspondent before recently moving back to London. He has been in Barcelona covering the referendum since the events began. Tom has worked as a correspondent for the BBC across Europe and Africa. Before this he was based in the Ukraine, and covered the war in Donbass in 2014.
Professor Paul Preston is the Director of Cañada Blanch Centre at the Department of International History LSE. His main fields of interests are Anglo-Spanish relations; contemporary Spanish politics; defence policy; European fascism; European left; Gibraltar; Spain; Spanish army; Spanish history, the Spanish Civil War, the Franco Regime, the transition to democracy in Spain. Paul Preston studied for his undergraduate degree at the Oriel College, Oxford before moving to the University of Reading where he gained his MA in European Studies. He moved back to Oriel College to work on his PhD.
John Carlin is a journalist and writer who deals with both sports and politics among other things. Carlin began his career writing in Mexico and Central America for publications such as The Times, The Sunday Times and The Toronto Star. From 1995–1998 he was the United States bureau chief for The Independent on Sunday. In August 2008, Carlin published the book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game that Made a Nation. Carlin won the 2000 El País Ortega y Gasset Award for journalism. He has won numerous other awards for his writing in Spain and Italy.
Raphael Minder (Skype) has been based in Madrid as the Spain and Portugal correspondent for The New York Times since April 2010. He has written extensively on the financial crisis’ impact on Spain and Portugal and the resulting political tensions, including the secessionist drive in Catalonia. He has just published a book The Struggle for Catalonia. Rebel Politics in Spain. Before this, Raphael spent ten years as a staff correspondent for the Financial Times in Paris, Brussels, Sydney and finally Hong Kong, as regional correspondent for Asia.
Professor Mireia Jofre-Bonet is Director of the MSc in Health Economics and the MSc in Economic Evaluation in Healthcare at City, University of London. She is a Senior Associated Researcher at LSE Health (London School of Economics and Political Sciences) and belongs to the London International Development Centre. Prior to joining City, Professor Jofre-Bonet was a Lecturer at LSHTM, a Research Faculty member at the School of Public Health at Yale University, and taught at the Departments of Economics at the London School of Economics and at Yale University.
]]>By Nicole Hunt
Following the horrific shooting at the Dark Knight Premiere in Aurora, Colorado on Friday that killed at least 12 people and injured 58, suspect James Holmes appears in court on Monday morning. Police spent much of the weekend disabling explosives in Holmes’ apartment, and are still trying to piece together a motive for the attack.
EU Foreign Ministers meet in Brussels to discuss a host of issues, from energy policy to South Sudan. But the real focus will be on Syria – French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed last week that ministers would seek to impose new, stronger sanctions on the Assad regime, a move which gained renewed importance after China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on 19 July that would have authorised stronger global sanctions.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is in Moscow to hold his first meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Syria is on the top of their agenda, too. Given Russia’s recent stance, though, it’s unlikely that Monti will be able to persuade Putin to change his mind, so their time might be better spent discussing bilateral issues.
Officials from the IMF, EU and ECB make their quarterly-ish visit to Greece on Tuesday to check on how economic plans are progressing. The mission is the first since Greece’s new government under Prime Minister Antonis Samaras took over after elections last month, and was delayed from June due to Samaras’ health problems. Discussion will reportedly focus on securing a ‘bridging loan’ for Greece while the new government tries to find nearly €12bn in further spending cuts.
Tuesday also sees the latest hearing in Baghdad in the trial of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al Hashemi, who is accused of operating a death squad. The trial was postponed earlier in the month to allow an appeals court to review the case and rule on the conduct of the trial, including a request by Hashemi’s lawyers to call senior government figures as witnesses, which was denied by the trial court.
The Pakistani Supreme Court has given new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf until Wednesday to issue a letter to Swiss authorities asking them to re-open graft investigations against President Asif Ali Zardari. Ashraf’s predecessor Yousuf Raza Gilani declined to submit the same request to Switzerland; he was subsequently found to be in contempt of court and disqualified from standing as Prime Minister, so it’s a deadline Ashraf will be looking at with some consideration.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is in London on Thursday. In addition to attending the Olympic opening ceremony and reportedly meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Chancellor George Osborne, Labour Leader Ed Miliband, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Romney is also playing host to two fundraisers for wealthy American ex-pats. Those whose wallets can only spare $2,500 will attend an evening reception with Romney, while donors who can dig up $75,000 will find themselves sitting down to dinner with the man himself.
Friday…Friday…Well there must be something going on Friday. Oh yes, the small matter of the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. The Queen officially opens the Games, and in return she and other attendees can enjoy Danny Boyle’s ‘Isles of Wonder’ spectacle, a concert with Paolo Nutini, Stereophonics, Snow Patrol, Duran Duran and Paul McCartney, and a Red Arrows flypast.
Meanwhile, the mood may be a bit less celebratory in Spain, where the latest quarterly unemployment figures are released. Despite relatively positive figures recently, including a drop in unemployment of 100,000 last month, figures still hover near the 25 per cent mark, and hundreds of people took part in demonstrations in Madrid last week to protest against unemployment and austerity.
Former US President Bill Clinton delivers the closing address at the AIDS 2012 Conference in Washington on Friday. He caps off a week of speakers that have included his wife (otherwise known as Secretary of State) Hillary, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, former First Lady Laura Bush, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Elton John, Whoopi Goldberg, and Sharon Stone.
Romney continues his international jaunt on Saturday with a three-day trip to Israel, where he’s planning to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and US Ambassador Dan Shapiro. In addition to bolstering his international credentials – and probably making much of the fact that his Democratic rival hasn’t made the trip to the holy land during his presidency – Romney is also hosting another of his ex-pat fundraisers on Sunday.
Romanians go to the polls on Sunday to decide whether or not President Traian Basescu should be impeached. Basescu was suspended from his post in a 6 July parliamentary vote, after Prime Minister Victor Ponta accused him of exceeding his authority and acting in a partisan manner. Basescu and his supporters have in turn accused Ponta of trying to oust the president in order to consolidate his own power.
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