Reuters
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Violent clashes erupted between far-right groups, local residents and North African migrants in a town in southeastern Spain late on Saturday following an attack on an elderly man by unknown assailants earlier in the week.

Five people were hurt and one was arrested during the unrest in Torre-Pacheco, local officials told Reuters, in one of the worst such episodes in the country in recent decades. The town was quieter on Sunday, but government sources said more arrests were expected.

Videos posted on social media showed men dressed in clothes bearing far-right symbols and migrants carrying Moroccan flags hurling objects at each other in Saturday night’s violence, which followed several days of lower intensity unrest.

Tensions flared up between local residents and migrants after the elderly man was attacked in the street on Wednesday, causing injuries from which he is recovering at home. The reasons behind the assault are unclear and no one has been arrested.

The central government’s representative in the area, Mariola Guevara, told Spanish public TV the attack was being investigated.

She also denounced “hate speech” and “incitement to violence,” as far-right groups moved into the town, and said additional Guardia Civil officers would be deployed to deal with the violence.

Nearly a third of Torre-Pacheco’s population is of foreign origin, according to local government data.

The area surrounding the town, which is located in the Murcia region, also hosts large numbers of migrants who work as day laborers in agriculture, one of the pillars of the regional economy.

Less than two weeks ago, Murcia’s government had to backtrack on a proposal to buy housing to accommodate unaccompanied migrant minors as the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) was threatened by far-right Vox, whose support the PP needs to pass laws.

In 2000, violent anti-immigration protests broke out in the Almeria town of El Ejido in southern Spain after three Spanish citizens were killed by Moroccan migrants.

CNN
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The European Union will delay the implementation of its trade countermeasures against the United States from Monday until early August to allow more time to negotiate a deal.

At a news conference on Sunday, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, referenced the letter the United States sent to the bloc Saturday, which threatened to impose a 30% tariff on European goods exports on August 1 absent a trade agreement.

“We will therefore also extend the suspension of our countermeasures till early August,” she said at the briefing in Brussels. “At the same time, we will continue to prepare further countermeasures so we are fully prepared.”

“We have always been very clear that we prefer a negotiated solution. This remains the case, and we will use the time that we have now till the 1st of August (to negotiate),” von der Leyen added.

In mid-April, the EU said it was suspending until July 14 its planned countermeasures on €21 billion ($25 billion) worth of US exports, unveiled earlier in retaliation for the 25% tariff Washington slapped on all steel and aluminum imports.

The bloc has also been preparing additional countermeasures in response to further tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. On Sunday, von der Leyen said the 27-nation bloc had “developed a second potential list of countermeasures” and has sought to diversify its trade relationships, citing a “big and important” free trade deal with Indonesia.

According to the US Trade Representative’s office, EU member countries are together America’s largest trading partner at nearly $976 billion in two-way goods traded in 2024.

Von der Leyen noted that the EU prefers to negotiate a trade solution with the United States.

“Few economies in the world match the European Union’s level of openness and adherence to fair trading practices,” she said on Saturday.

CNN
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Ukraine’s Security Service said Sunday they had killed Russian special service agents suspected of gunning down a fellow officer in Kyiv earlier this week, saying it believed Russia’s Federal Security Service was responsible.

SBU officer Ivan Voronych was shot dead in Kyiv on Thursday morning in what authorities told CNN was an apparent assassination.

The suspects – a man and a woman – tried to “lay low” after the shooting, the SBU said in a statement Sunday.

However, SBU and National Police officers established their whereabouts in the Kyiv region, the statement added.

The head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, said; “As a result of covert investigative and active counterintelligence measures, the enemy’s lair was discovered.”

He continued, “During their arrest, they began to resist, there was an exchange of fire, and the scoundrels were eliminated.”

“I want to remind you that the only prospect for the enemy on the territory of Ukraine is death!” he said in a video, which was apparently filmed in front of the suspect’s bodies.

According to the SBU, the two had been ordered to trail their target to establish his daily routine. They were then directed to a safe house where a pistol with a silencer was waiting for them.

The SBU is Ukraine’s main security service, responsible for both internal security and sabotage operations against Russia. Among others, it was responsible for Ukraine’s audacious drone attack against Russian airfields last month.

Voronych’s killing comes at a time when Russia has been escalating its attacks on Ukraine – this week saw both the largest and second largest drone attack of the conflict, now into its fourth year.