Since election day on 9 August 2020, protests against authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko have continued in Belarus. The EU Parliament has also sent a signal: The 2020 Sakharov Prize for Democracy and Human Rights goes to the opposition in Belarus. In Berlin, the association “Razam” wants to give the Belarusian diaspora a voice.
Category: Politics
In the Philippines, under President Duterte, drug addicts and criminals are being extrajudicially murdered by paramilitaries. Government critics also fall victim to this practice. Among them are said to be four Catholic priests. Now a nun fears for her life.
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary, two artists of Bosnian origin talk about their personal experiences. And how they deal artistically with the current developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
12. March 2020
USA: Fight over dams
Removal for the sake of nature conservation – or expansion in the name of economy?
The Trump administration wants to raise the Sashta Dam, the largest dam in California, by about 18 metres. About 200 kilometres further north on the Klamath River, the opposite is the case: here, four dams are to be dismantled at once.
10. March 2020
USA: Elwha River Restoration
Hydropower is considered an alternative source of energy. However, experts criticise the dams built for its use as neither sustainable nor climate-neutral. The dismantling and renaturation of rivers is gradually getting underway. An example from the US State of Washington.
22. January 2020
Women activists: Berlin must support Iranian opposition
“Stop the appeasement towards the regime in Tehran!” This is what German and Iranian-born women activists are demanding from the German government. It should support the liberal forces in Iran and “an end to gender apartheid”.
Co-signatories of the appeal (f.l.): Ulrike Becker, Mina Ahadi, Eva Quistorp, Rebecca Schönenbach ©Frauen für Freiheit (Association Women for Freedom)
21. January 2020
Verbal blowout over “Islamphobia Report”
Scientists, secular Muslims and critics of Islam feel denounced – in an “Islamophobia Report” sponsored by the European Union. In an open letter they addressed the EU Commission – and are waiting for an answer.
Victor Fischer ©Robert Kaufman
About one in five Alaskans is indigenous. But only one indigenous person was in the Constitutional Convention that prepared Alaska’s incorporation into the USA in the mid-1950s. A German-born man was also there: Victor Fischer, who is 95 years old today.
8. November 2019
The Wild Fire that burnt down Paradise
On November 8, 2018, a wildfire almost completely destroyed the town of Paradise in California. 86 people lost their lives
Olav Bryant Smith in front of the ruins of his house ©Rebecca Hillauer
An outdated power line is said to have been left unrepaired – and a spark eventually triggered the disaster, fanned by extraordinary wind. With Paradise, a refuge from the overpriced property market in the rest of California burnt to the ground.
21. October 2019
Rivers in the Balkans threatened
Vjosa River in Albania© Gabriel Singer
Around 2,700 large and small dams are planned or already under construction in the Balkans to promote hydropower generation. According to many conservationists and scientists, this is not always out of ecological necessity.