It documents a time when tight borders ran through Germany and separated eastern from western Europe and how millions of people in former East Germany (GDR), Poland, Hungary and other Eastern European countries fought for freedom and democracy in 1989. The exhibition targets a young audience, which is why it was first presented in Berlin's Heinrich-Hertz secondary school. Students had done additional research on the exhibits documenting the history of the Cold War, which their parents or grandparents experienced firsthand.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez suggested that the fact the four leaders represented all sides of the political spectrum - with Spain and Malta governed by centre-left parties, Slovenia by a Liberal party, and Ireland by a centre-right party - showed there was broad political consensus that the recognition of Palestine is necessary for any future peace process.

Although the European Union supports the so-called two-state solution - which would deliver statehood for Palestinians - and is the single biggest donor of aid to Palestinians, it has not yet unanimously backed the recognition of a Palestinian state.

Until a few weeks ago, Péter Magyar was virtually unknown. Now, he is dominating conversations and headlines – and making the government of Hungary’s longtime prime minister, Viktor Orbán, deeply uncomfortable.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10376907

China is increasingly targeting people outside its borders in a tactic known as transnational repression, which aims to stifle debate or criticism.

Steve Tsang, the director of the Soas China Institute, says Chinese student protesters in the UK have long been photographed and monitored, but the practice “may well” have increased with newer surveillance technology.

Students say their families in China have also been threatened by local authorities, warning them to stop engaging in political activities overseas.

Some politicians in Germany consider the app "a danger to our democracy," says Roderich Kiesewetter, vice chairman of the Bundestag’s intelligence control committee and member of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), because it is an "important instrument" in China and Russia’s hybrid warfare.

Jens Zimmerman, a member of Germany’s Social Democratic Party, said that the government should consider at least banning the app on federal devices. This is the case for the EU institutions, for instance.

Less than 10 years ago, Germany, and especially Berlin, was held up as a beacon of openness and inclusivity in a western world rocked by Brexit and Donald Trump. Angela Merkel’s decision to take in thousands of refugees displaced by the war in Syria boosted her country’s reputation in progressive circles, with many international artists and academics choosing to make the German capital their new home.

Yet the conflict in the Middle East is showing Germany in a new light, highlighting fissures in society and the arts world that until now had been easier to ignore.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10335750

Russia violated Poland's airspace early on Sunday with a cruise missile launched at targets in western Ukraine, Poland's armed forces said.

Russia launched 57 missiles and drones on Ukraine in the early hours, including attacking Kyiv and the western region of Lviv that is near the Polish border.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10335519

The first textbook for the new subject, called The Russian Army in Defence of the Fatherland, has been produced by leading Russian education publisher Enlightenment. Among its authors are two senior figures who work for the defence ministry and Kremlin newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Its 368 pages are filled with stories describing the "heroic achievements of Russian soldiers" from the 13th Century to the present day.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10303224

Amnesty International (AI) reported that since annexation, Russia has oppressed Crimea’s non-Russian residents, namely Ukrainians and Crimean Tartars, in two ways: by changing the region’s ethnic demographics and, more systematically, through “restrictions on education, religion, media, representative institutions, judicial system, and cultural celebrations.”

AI explained that Russian post-annexation figures of Crimea showed a decrease of Ukrainian residents by almost 10 percent and Crimean Tartars by 2 percent, which are figures AI says are inconsistent with even the highest numbers of these residents who fled the peninsula in 2014. AI thus attributed the drop in residents to “ethnic Ukrainians now choosing or feeling compelled to identify as Russian, or a combination of both.”

After annexation, all non-Russian residents were given citizenship to Russia unless they “formally opted out.” Opting out puts the “foreigner” in a disadvantaged position regarding their “economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights.”

Moldova summoned Russia’s ambassador, Oleg Vasnetsov, to protest against the Kremlin’s decision to open six polling stations in Transnistria “contrary to the position of the Moldovan authorities,” the foreign ministry said.

It said it informed Vasnetsov that an unnamed embassy worker was a “collaborator” who was declared persona non grata and must leave the country.

The US has urged Ukraine to halt attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, warning that the drone strikes risk driving up global oil prices and provoking retaliation, according to three people familiar with the discussions. [...]

One person said that the White House had grown increasingly frustrated by brazen Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck oil refineries, terminals, depots and storage facilities across western Russia, hurting its oil production capacity.

Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election.

Un-paywalled link: https://archive.ph/wv1Y3

Cross-posting from: https://feddit.de/post/10269693

Alla Antonova says she suffered beatings, had a plastic bag thrust over her head and endured many other threats from Russian soldiers in occupied Ukraine who wanted to know where her son-in-law was serving in the Ukrainian army.

"They took me into the bedroom and mama into the kitchen," Antonova said.

"Three of them. Interrogating me is the way I would put it. And they beat me. I had bruises on my legs, on my back."

Another soldier, she said, pulled the plastic bag over her head and pressed down to stop her breathing.

"I started to lose consciousness. They removed the bag and I felt ill," Antonova said. "I told them: 'Just kill me. It's the truth, I know nothing'."

A report on conditions in occupied areas released this week by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine described a "climate of fear" in occupied areas more than two years after the Russian invasion. It reports the widespread use of such tactics that Antonova and her family describe.

g4media.ro/report-democracy-in…

Washington's intervention is likely to derail one of the biggest Western deals in Russia since the start of the Ukraine war and piles more pressure on the Austrian group that handles billions of euros of international payments for Russians, two of the people said. The news rattled investors.

Raiffeisen is buying the stake in Vienna-based Strabag from a company the construction group identified as controlled by Oleg Deripaska. The bank billed the deal, which is routed via Russia, as a means of unlocking some of the billions of euros stranded in Russia and potentially loosening its ties. The news in December prompted a rally in the bank's stock, which has been hit hard due to its Russia links.

Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10249490

An irrigation system, once created at Stalin’s order as a project of grand Soviet social engineering, is now running dry.

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