Zelensky to visit Spain for talks with PM Sánchez, Spanish king acknowledges ‘much abuse’ during Conquest, Storm Therese to batter southern Spain, and more news this Tuesday March 17th.
Zelensky to visit Spain for talks with PM Sánchez
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Madrid on Wednesday for talks with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, sources in the PM’s office said.
Zelensky will sign agreements and hold a joint news conference with Sánchez during the visit, his fourth to Spain since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the sources said on Monday.
His visits to Spain are part of his of efforts to rally diplomatic and military support from Western allies since the full-scale war broke out in 2022.
In November, he secured a fresh military aid package worth €615 million from Spain after meeting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in Madrid.
The United States is pushing Kyiv and Moscow to agree to an elusive peace deal, but a third round of three-party talks has been derailed by the war in the Middle East.
Spain replace cancelled Finalissima with Serbia friendly
Euro 2024 winners Spain will face Serbia in a friendly on March 27th to replace the Finalissima match against Argentina in Qatar, cancelled partly due to the war in the Middle East.
“The national team will travel to the city of Castellón to face the Balkan team in a demanding match,” said the Spanish football federation in a statement on Monday.
The match will be played at Villarreal’s Estadio de la Ceramica.
Spain had been set to face Lionel Messi’s Argentina in Doha but because of the war, triggered by US-Israeli strikes on February 28th against Iran, organisers looked for a new location or date.
UEFA said Sunday Argentina had not accepted any of the various alternative proposals offered, leading to the cancellation of the match.
Spain are one of the strong favourites to lift the World Cup this summer in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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Spanish king acknowledges ‘much abuse’ during Conquest
King Felipe VI on Monday acknowledged “much abuse” during Spain’s conquest of the Americas, the latest attempt by a top Spanish official to address Mexico’s longstanding historical grievances.
Laws imposed by the Spanish crown in the 16th century to govern its colonies had a “desire to protect” Indigenous peoples, the king said during a visit to an exhibition of Indigenous Mexican art in Madrid.
But “reality later made it impossible to fully enforce, and there was much abuse,” he added, according to a video posted by the royal palace on X.
“There are things that later, when we study them and learn about them, you say: ‘Well, by today’s standards and values, they obviously cannot make us feel proud,’” the king said.
“But we have to understand them in their proper context, not with excessive moral presentism, but with objective and rigorous analysis” in order “to draw lessons,” he added.
Relations between Mexico and Spain have been strained since 2019 when Mexico’s then president Andrés Manuel López Obrador demanded an apology from Spain’s monarchy for abuses committed during Spain’s 1519-1521 Conquest of Mexico and the ensuing three centuries of colonial rule.
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Storm Therese to batter southern Spain with wind and rain
It’s only been a few days since intense rain hit some places in Spain, but there’s already a new storm on its way. State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) has warned of unsettled weather from today onwards.
The Canary Islands will be the first region to feel the full force of Storm Therese, according to Aemet with heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and strong gusts of wind. It will then move towards western Andalusia with the Strait of Gibraltar and Cádiz already experiencing wind speeds exceeding 70 km/h.
This will be the 19th named storm of the 2025-2026 winter season. This breaks all records since the naming system began in 2017. Until now, the maximum was 17 named storms in a single season.
With additional reporting from AFP
