Bon week-end (quand même)

In the space of just a few weeks, security expert José María Gil Garre has performed a spectacular about-face. After pointing, with digital evidence to back his case, to Algeria’s hidden hand behind the migrant assault on Ceuta, the same specialist has now produced a report directly attributing the management of the crisis to a faction within the “Makhzen.” It is a bewildering U-turn, to say the least, and one that highlights just how volatile some reports—and their authors—can be.

Meeting in New York under US auspices, the foreign ministers of Morocco and Israel, alongside the United States, sealed a series of major commitments aimed at deepening bilateral cooperation, including an agreement to upgrade their diplomatic missions to full embassies.

By trying to make the treaties of 1767 and 1799 say what they do not, Spanish philosopher Emmanuel Martínez Alcocer has sought to write a history—particularly that of Ceuta and Melilla—with Morocco written out of it, claiming that the Moroccan state did not exist before 1956. It is an ideological contrivance whose glaring flaws Lahcen Haddad, a parliamentarian, academic and former minister, exposes through a relentless demonstration combining international law and historical exegesis.

From insults to invective, the Algerian regime has now moved from words to action by turning its back on Abu Dhabi. The Algerian authorities are thus following through on their obsessive threats and retreating further into isolation. It is a pathetic headlong flight, typical of a regime accustomed to empty bravado and to manufacturing scapegoats to conceal its failures.

By turning a man facing fraud charges into a “super-spy,” journalist Ketty Garat and Spanish daily ABC thought they had landed the scoop of the year on Moroccan intelligence. But the narrative quickly collapsed: methodically dismantled, the fiction has now been formally and categorically denied by the lawyers of the very man at the center of the story, turning the “investigation” into a textbook journalistic fiasco.

By turning a fugitive wanted for fraud into a “super-spy” and a professional ID card that expired in 2014 into evidence of state involvement, Spanish daily ABC has produced a textbook case of media malpractice. From chronological inconsistencies and institutional confusion to speculation presented as certainty, here is a look at a methodological shipwreck systematically dismantled by lawmaker and academic Lahcen Haddad.

Faced with accusations relayed by the Spanish press, the leadership of Spain’s National Police has firmly set the record straight on the Ceuta assault, dismissing fake news targeting the Moroccan gendarmerie and security services and reaffirming the absence of any evidence against the Kingdom.

Anonymous burials under mere numbers, muzzled media and state failure at every level: the handling of Algeria’s latest wildfires is turning into a scandal. While the provisional but real death toll has surpassed 300, the regime refuses to acknowledge the scale of the tragedy to avoid having to answer for its failures and incompetence. The result is a national mourning denied by a regime incapable even of counting its victims.

Appearing on Cadena SER this Monday, August 31, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez spoke at length about the situation in Ceuta following the events of July 30 and 31. Citing reports from Spanish and international intelligence services, the Spanish PM firmly rejected any involvement by the Moroccan authorities, instead praising their “instantaneous” and “positive” coordination.