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Madrid — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Monday ended days of speculation about his future by saying he will continue in office “with even more strength."   Sánchez shocked his country last Wednesday by taking five days off to think about his future, following the decision by a court to open preliminary proceedings against his wife on corruption allegations.  “I have decided to continue on with even more strength at the helm of the government of Spain,” he said in a televised speech after informing King Felipe VI of the decision earlier Monday.  His resignation would have deprived Europe of its longest-serving Socialist prime minister currently in charge of a major European Union country right before European elections in June.  “It is a decision that does not mean a return to the status quo, this will mark a before and after, I promise you that," Sánchez said, without detailing what steps he could take to curtail “the smear campaign” he says he and his family is facing.  The eurozone's fourth-largest economy had been in suspense since Sánchez, prime minister since 2018, posted an emotional letter on X on Wednesday before he holed up in his Moncloa Palace, the prime minister's residence in Madrid. In it he said the moves against wife were too personal an attack on his family and he needed time to decide on his priorities.  In that letter, where he declared himself “deeply in love” with wife Begoña Gómez, he said that he could no longer just stand aside and watch her being targeted by a legal probe brought by allegations by a right-wing platform that accused her of using her position to influence business deals.  The group, Manos Limpias, or “Clean Hands,” acknowledged that the complaint was based on newspaper articles. Spanish prosecutors say it should be thrown out.  The expectation Monday was such that Spain’s state broadcaster had put up a 10-minute countdown clock before his announcement on the screen during their morning news talk show.  Speaking from the steps of Moncloa Palace, Sánchez said that he and his wife “know that this campaign to discredit them won’t stop” but that he has decided that he couldn’t give his adversaries the satisfaction of giving up.  Rallies by his supporters over the past few days played a part in his decision, he said.   Essentially Sánchez had four options: resign, seek a parliamentary vote of confidence, call a new election or remain in office.  Any one of them could upset key legislative plans as well as a crucial election in the Catalonia region in May and the European Parliament election in June.  Sánchez said that the letter, the unprecedented hiatus that has been criticized, and his final decision to stay on “was not done out of a political calculus.”  “I am aware that I have shown a degree of personal intimacy that is not normally permitted in politics," he added.  Whether it was genuinely motivated by concerns for his family or not, it will have a political impact.  “He gifted himself a free campaign rally for five full days. Those who were with him will now be with him to the death,” Montserrat Nebrera, political analyst and professor of constitutional law at the International University of Catalonia, told The Associated Press.  “It looks like a campaign move to boost the polarization of the electorate between those who are with him and those who are against him," she said. "It is designed to have an impact in the Catalan elections and even more so in the European elections, which were not looking great for the Socialists.”  Sánchez, 52, was able to form a new minority leftist coalition government in November to start another four-year term thanks to the exceedingly fragile support of a handful of small regional parties. While popular internationally, he is loved or despised in Spain.  Sánchez blamed the investigation against his wife on online news sites politically aligned with the leading opposition conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox party that spread what he called “spurious” allegations.  His supporters say this should be a wake-up call to react against baseless attacks that Sánchez says are poisoning Spanish politics.  The Popular Party, however, said Sánchez’s behavior was frivolous, adolescent and unbecoming of a leader. The Popular Party and the far-right Vox party have been attacking Sánchez relentlessly for years, regularly comparing him to a dictator and a traitor to Spain for doing deals with separatist parties that support him in Parliament.   “We live in a society that teaches us and demands us to to keep going at full throttle no matter what," Sánchez said during his short speech. "But sometimes in life the only way to move forward is to stop and reflect and decide with clarity what path we want to take.”     

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Islamabad — Authorities in Pakistan said Monday that militants had “unconditionally” released a senior judge who had been held hostage for two days in a volatile northwestern region. Judge Shakirullah Marwat was kidnapped, along with his driver, on Saturday from a road near the militancy-hit district of Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. Mohammad Ali Saif, a provincial information advisor, confirmed to VOA the judge’s safe recovery, but he would not share further details. Marwat was traveling to Dera Ismail Khan when dozens of armed men ambushed his vehicle. The driver, who was briefly held captive, conveyed the kidnappers' demands to Pakistani authorities for the release of their imprisoned relatives and militant partners in exchange for the judge's freedom. On Sunday, militants sent a video to journalists in which Marwat had stated that he was taken hostage by the Pakistani Taliban. He had also pleaded with the provincial and federal governments and the country’s chief justice to urgently meet militants’ demands to secure his recovery. While police claimed the judge was “rescued” in a security operation, highly placed official sources told VOA that local tribal elders had helped secure the release of the hostage through negotiations with his captors. It was unclear immediately whether any prisoner exchange or ransom was involved. Separately on Monday, a Pakistan military statement said that it carried out a pre-dawn “intelligence-based” operation against a suspected militant hideout in a district adjoining Dera Ismail Khan and killed “four terrorists.” Pakistan’s border areas have lately experienced a dramatic surge in deadly attacks against security forces by militants linked to the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban. Last week, eight Pakistani customs officials tasked to counter weapons smuggling were also killed by suspected TTP militants in separate attacks in Dera Ismail Khan. Pakistan says TTP is orchestrating the violence from sanctuaries in Afghanistan, killing hundreds of civilians and security forces in recent months. The neighboring country’s fundamentalist Taliban authorities reject the charges, saying no foreign militant groups are based on Afghan soil.

Top US diplomat is in Middle East for talks on Gaza, regional security

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SYDNEY — Solomon Islands incumbent Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said he would not be a candidate when lawmakers vote next week for a new prime minister, and his political party would instead back former Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele. The two major opposition parties in the Solomon Islands struck a coalition deal on Saturday as they vie with Sogavare's party to form a government after an election delivered no clear winner. Last week's election was the first since Sogavare struck a security pact with China in 2022, inviting Chinese police into the Pacific Islands archipelago and drawing the nation closer to Beijing. The election is being watched by China, the U.S. and neighboring Australia because of the potential impact on regional security. Sogavare announced he would not be a candidate for prime minister at a televised press conference on Monday evening. Sogavare said his government had been "under pressure from the United States and western allies" and he had been "accused of many things." "Geopolitics is at play, after we made a very important decision in 2019," he said, referring to his government's decision to switch diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing. Manele said that if he was elected as prime minister he would have the "same foreign policy basis - friends to all and enemies to none." Election results on Wednesday showed Sogavare's OUR party won 15 of the 50 seats in parliament, while the opposition CARE coalition has 20. Independents and micro parties won 15 seats, and courting the independents will be the key to reaching the 26 seats needed to form a government. Sogavare said on Monday his party had support for 28 seats. Lawmakers are expected to vote on May 8.

Lome, Togo — Togolese began voting in legislative elections on Monday after a divisive constitutional reform that opponents say allows President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his family's decades-long grip on power. The ballot comes after lawmakers this month approved the reform creating a new prime minister-style post opponents believe is tailored for Gnassingbe to avoid presidential term limits and stay in office. In power for nearly 20 years, Gnassingbe succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades himself following a coup in the small coastal West African state wedged between Benin and Ghana. "This is the first time I am voting, because I lived in a neighboring country before. I came out early to avoid crowds," said Koffi Ohini, a farm technician, 24, who cast his ballot in the capital Lome. "I want to vote because these elections are important." Early turnout at polling stations in the capital was scattered but the streets were calm. Monday's vote will elect 113 lawmakers and 179 regional deputies from the country's five districts who, along with municipal councilors, will elect a newly created senate. For Gnassingbe's ruling UNIR party this makes Togo more representative, but opposition parties have mobilized supporters to vote against what they say is an "institutional coup." Gnassingbe, 57, has already won four elections, all contested by the opposition as flawed. He would have only been able to run one more time as president in 2025 under the previous constitution. With a population of nearly 9 million, Togo's economy is mainly agrarian, though Lome has one of the busiest deep seaports in West Africa, helping the country weather the fallout of the Ukraine war and the pandemic. The government has focused on developing infrastructure and expanding access to electricity, but poverty levels are still around 40 percent, according to the World Bank. Like its Gulf of Guinea neighbors, Togo also faces a growing risk of spillover from jihadist conflicts to its north in the Sahel. Officials reported 30 deaths from "terrorist" incidents in the country's north last year. New post, new power According to the new constitution adopted by lawmakers on April 19, Togo's president becomes a mostly ceremonial role elected by parliament, and not the people, for a four-year term. Togo's shift from a presidential to a parliamentary system means power now resides with the new president of the council of ministers, a sort of super-prime minister, who automatically will be the leader of the majority party in the new assembly. Gnassingbe's Union for the Republic, or UNIR party, already dominates parliament. If the ruling party wins on Monday, Gnassingbe can assume that new post. Results from the ballot are expected to be released within six days.  Regional West African body ECOWAS said it would send a team of observers to Togo for the vote. The run up to the election has seen a tightening of controls. Opposition attempts to organize protests of the reforms were blocked by authorities. Togo's Electoral Commission refused to allow the Togolese Bishops' Conference to deploy election observers across the country, according to a document seen by AFP. Togo's High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) also temporarily suspended all accreditation for the foreign press to cover the elections. 

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Bangkok — A court in Thailand on Monday sentenced one of the kingdom's leading democracy activists to a further two years imprisonment on royal insult charges. It is the latest charge levelled against prominent human rights lawyer Arnon Nampa, who now faces more than 10 years in prison. He is currently in jail after he was handed down a four-year sentence in January over three messages posted on Facebook in 2021, adding to the four years he was already serving for a prior lese-majeste conviction. Critics say the government has used the strict legislation to silence dissent, prosecuting scores under a tough law that protects King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his family. The Criminal Court in Bangkok sentenced Arnon for two years and 20 days over his calls at a Harry Potter-themed rally in 2021 to amend Thailand's royal defamation laws. He was found guilty of four charges including violation of lese-majeste, defying the emergency decree, and using a loudspeaker without permission, Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said. Thailand's youth-led pro-democracy protests in 2020 saw tens of thousands of people take to the streets to make unprecedented calls to reform the monarchy. Sentencing him, the criminal court also fined him 150 baht ($4) for use of the loudspeaker. Arnon is among more than 150 activists who have been charged in recent years under lese majeste laws, often referred to as "112" after the relevant section of the criminal code.

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BERLIN — Two Ukrainian men were stabbed to death in southern Germany, police said Sunday, and a Russian man was arrested by authorities as a possible suspect in the killings. The two Ukrainians, who were 23 and 36 years old and lived in the southern German county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, were killed on the premises of a shopping center in the village of Murnau in Upper Bavaria. Shortly after the slayings on Saturday evening, the police arrested a 57-year-old Russian on suspicion of murder, German news agency dpa reported. The Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement that the two men were members of the Ukrainian military; “According to preliminary information, the deceased citizens were military personnel undergoing medical rehabilitation in Germany.”  The names of the victims and the suspect weren't released in line with German privacy rules. The possible motive for the killings wasn't yet known, authorities said. It also wasn't clear if the three men knew each other. More than 1 million Ukrainian refugees came to Germany since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Germany is also home to a significant Russian immigrant community and 2.5 million Russians of German ancestry who mostly moved to the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

BEIJING — Tesla has cleared some key regulatory hurdles that have long hindered it from rolling out its self-driving software in China, paving the way for a favorable result from Elon Musk's surprise visit to the U.S. automaker's second-largest market. Tesla CEO Musk arrived in the Chinese capital Sunday, where he was expected to discuss the rollout of Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and permission to transfer driving data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The billionaire's whirlwind visit, during which he met with Chinese Premier Li Qiang, came just over a week after he scrapped a planned trip to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing "very heavy Tesla obligations." On Monday, two separate sources told Reuters Tesla had reached an agreement with Baidu to use the Chinese tech giant's mapping license for data collection on China's public roads, which they described as a key step for FSD to be introduced in the country. And a top Chinese auto association said on Sunday Tesla's Model 3 and Y cars were among models that it had tested and found to be compliant with China's data security requirements. Data security and compliance have been key reasons why the U.S. electric vehicle maker, which rolled out the most autonomous version of its Autopilot software four years ago, has yet to make FSD available in China, its second-largest market globally, despite customer demand. Chinese regulators had since 2021 required Tesla to store all data collected by its Chinese fleet in Shanghai, leaving the company unable to transfer any back to the United States. Musk is looking to obtain approval to transfer data collected in the country abroad to train algorithms for its autonomous driving technologies, the person said. Musk's visit to China, first reported by Reuters, was not flagged publicly and the person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media. The plane that Musk arrived on departed from Beijing Capital Airport at 0517 GMT, according to Chinese flight tracking app Flight Manager and was headed to Anchorage, Alaska. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Musk's departure. Equity analysts at Wedbush called the surprise visit "a major moment for Tesla." Rival Chinese automakers and suppliers such as XPeng and Huawei Technologies have been seeking to gain an advantage over Tesla by rolling out similar software. Retired newspaper commentator Hu Xijin said on his Weibo account that Tesla was the only foreign-funded automaker to meet China's data compliance requirements and said that this would pave the way for Tesla cars to enter premises owned by government agencies and state-owned firms across China. "This is not only a breakthrough in China, but also a significant demonstration for the entire world in solving data security issues," he said. Premier Li on Sunday praised Tesla's development in China as a successful example of U.S.-China economic and trade cooperation.   China data Tesla cars have for years been banned from entering Chinese military complexes over security concerns relating to cameras installed on its vehicles. Its cars have also been turned away from sites holding important political events, such as an annual summer leadership conclave the ruling Communist Party held in 2022. He Xiaopeng, the CEO of XPeng whose XNGP Advanced Driver Assistance System is similar to FSD, said on his Weibo account he welcomed the entry of the Tesla technology into China. "Only with the entry of more good products and technologies can the experience of the entire market and customers be improved, and it will allow the market's development to accelerate in a healthy manner," he said. "Let a hundred flowers bloom," he said, echoing a famous line from Chairman Mao Zedong, the founder of modern China. The improved prospect of FSD entering China comes as Tesla shares have lost almost a third of their value since the start of the year, as concerns have grown about the EV maker's growth trajectory. Last week, Tesla reported its first decline in quarterly revenue since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic slowed production and deliveries. Musk said last week that Tesla would introduce new, cheaper models using its current EV platforms and production lines and would offer a new "robotaxi" with self-driving technology. He said on X this month that he would unveil the robotaxi on Aug. 8. China's complicated traffic conditions with more pedestrians and cyclists than in many other markets provide more scenarios that are key for training autonomous driving algorithms at a faster pace, according to industry experts. "If Musk is able to obtain approval from Beijing to transfer data collected in China abroad this would be a 'game changer' around the acceleration of training its algorithms for its autonomous technology globally," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note. Musk said this month that Tesla may make FSD available to customers in China "very soon," in response to a query on X. Besides meeting Li on the short trip to Beijing, Musk met the organizer of the ongoing Beijing auto show. The chairman of Chinese battery giant CATL Robin Zeng, a key Tesla battery supplier, also visited Musk's hotel on Monday, according to a Reuters witness. Reuters could not immediately confirm with CATL if Zeng met with Musk. Musk had been set on his cancelled India trip to announce $2 billion to $3 billion in new investments, including in a car plant, after India offered lower import taxes on EVs in return under a new policy.

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WASHINGTON — U.S. House and Senate negotiators said early Monday they had reached a deal to boost air traffic controller staffing and boost funding to avert runway close-call incidents, but will not increase the airline pilot retirement age to 67 from 65. The U.S. House of Representatives in July voted 351-69 on a sweeping bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that would also raise the mandatory pilot retirement age to 67 but the Senate Commerce Committee had voted in February to reject the retirement age increase. International rules would have prevented airline pilots older than 65 from flying in most countries outside the United States. Congress has temporarily extended authorization for the FAA through May 10 as it works on a new $105 billion, five-year deal. The Senate is set to vote this week on the more than 1,000-page bipartisan proposal. The bill prohibits airlines from charging fees for families to sit together and requires airlines to accept vouchers and credits for at least five years, but did not adopt many stricter consumer rules sought by the Biden administration. The bill also requires airplanes to be equipped with 25-hour cockpit recording devices and directs the FAA to deploy advanced airport surface technology to help prevent collisions. Efforts to boost aviation safety in the United States have taken on new urgency after a series of near-miss incidents and the Jan. 5 Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 door plug mid-air emergency. Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell, the panel's top Republican, Ted Cruz, House Transportation Committee chair Sam Graves and the committee's top Democrat, Rick Larsen, in a joint statement announced the agreement and said, "now more than ever, the FAA needs strong and decisive direction from Congress to ensure America’s aviation system maintains its gold standard." The proposal raises maximum civil penalties for airline consumer violations from $25,000 per violation to $75,000 and aims to address a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers by directing the FAA to implement improved staffing standards and to hire more inspectors, engineers and technical specialists. Congress will not establish minimum seat size requirements, leaving that instead to the FAA. The bill requires the Transportation Department to create a dashboard that shows consumers the minimum seat size for each U.S. airline. The bill boosts by five the number of daily direct flights from Washington Reagan National Airport. Cantwell said the agreement - including a five-year reauthorization for the National Transportation Safety Board - demonstrates aviation safety and stronger consumer standards are a big priority.