Syria, Gaza, Romania and Mexico: the night's news

The European Union (EU) lifts sanctions against Syria. The European Union (EU) has lifted all economic sanctions against Syria “to contribute to the recovery of this war-torn country,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday. The EU is “giving the country a new lifeline after the ouster of Bashar al-Assad,” Al-Jazeera reported. “We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive, and peaceful Syria,” Kallas said in a message posted on X following meetings with ministers in Brussels. “The EU has consistently supported the Syrians over the past fourteen years, and will continue to do so.” This change of direction by the 27 follows that of the United States, which announced on May 13 the lifting of sanctions against Damascus. "The lifting of sanctions expresses the regional and international will to support Syria," Syrian Foreign Minister Assaad Al-Shaibani told the press in Damascus.

Gaza ceasefire talks 'still inconclusive,' says Qatar. Recent ceasefire talks in Gaza in Qatar "still inconclusive," Qatari mediators said Tuesday, citing a "fundamental disagreement" between the two sides, Israel and Hamas, ABC News reported. Hamas said Tuesday that Israel "was not taking the negotiations seriously," claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was "extending his delegation's stay in Doha day by day without engaging in serious negotiations, and that no real discussions [had] taken place since last Saturday." Netanyahu's office, for its part, said Hamas had rejected "the American offer to release the hostages." Israel recalled its senior officials in charge of the negotiations in Doha "for consultations" on Tuesday, leaving only its "working teams" in the Qatari capital.

Romanian presidential election: Far-right loser calls for annulment of the vote. Romanian far-right leader George Simion announced Tuesday that he would “contest his defeat in the presidential election” on May 18 before the Constitutional Court, “alleging foreign interference” from France and Moldova, writes Politico . Mr. Simion, who had conceded defeat on the evening of the second round, was soundly defeated by pro-European candidate Nicusor Dan, who received 53.6% of the vote. “We now have irrefutable evidence of interference by France, Moldova, and other actors” and of an “orchestrated effort” to “impose a result that does not reflect the sovereign will of the Romanian people,” he said. Politico recalls that the presidential election had to be called again “after the cancellation of a first election last November, due to suspicions of Russian interference” .

Two close associates of Mexico City mayor murdered in the street. The personal secretary and a close advisor to Mexico City mayor Clara Brugada were shot dead Tuesday in a central neighborhood of the megacity, victims of a “direct assault,” reports El Universal . The alleged attackers of Ximena Guzmán and José Muñoz, both members of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s left-wing Morena party, fled on a moped. Ms. Sheinbaum, a former mayor of Mexico City, promised that the investigation would get “to the bottom of things” and that “justice” would be done. “The assassination of Guzmán and Muñoz is the most serious attack on public officials in the capital since the one five years ago” against Omar García Harfuch, then chief of the capital’s police, and since appointed federal minister of security by the Mexican president, observes the American edition of El País .