Two years have passed since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began. Those defending against continued aggression, displaced from their homes and previous lives, deal with daily, compounded loss. Artists, reflecting on the trauma, tackle the questions that aim to make sense of life when everything is affected by death.
The EU and individual European countries are not bystanders to the ‘Israel-Palestine conflict’ but enmeshed in it both historically and today. Using charges of antisemitism to preempt criticism of Israel doesn’t just erode the concept morally and politically, but also excuses Europe of its responsibility for the Palestinians’ oppression.
Alexei Navalny dared to challenge Vladimir Putin’s dictatorial regime. His decision to return to Moscow, where he faced certain arrest, was an expression of the moral perfectionism pursued by Russia’s literary intelligentsia.
As the face of European idea in Russia, Navalny incorporated everything that the forces of revanchism in the country oppose. But anti-Europeanism is no more organic to Russian politics than its opposite. Sooner or later, the pendulum will swing back the other way.
Recurring flooding and fires are putting Greece’s entire ecosystem at risk. In 2023 regions crucial to the country’s food supply were particularly affected. After a decade of severe recession, another national crisis appears to be only a matter of time.
Refugees coming to Europe face a de-humanizing process wrought with violence, both physical and structural. Protectionist rhetoric is being used to justify aggressive border regimes. And, in Gaza, already displaced civilians are being targeted while unable to leave Rafah –Israel’s escalation of bombardment, a breach of international human rights law.
From sparkly consensual group hugs to dating apps to incels: the Valentine’s Day episode of Standard Time addresses how love changes people, and how people change love.
Despite Lithuania’s Europeanism, its policies on LGBTQ rights are sometimes closer to Russia’s. At the end of 2023, the Lithuanian parliament voted against amending the country’s notorious ‘gay propaganda’ law, in defiance of the European Court of Human Rights.
From migration to foreign policy, Europe has undergone an identitarian shift. Both far-right politicians and pro-European voices are framing external influences as civilizational threats, reviving the link between Europe and whiteness.
Disability has always been part of the human condition; inclusion and accessibility are not favours to extend, but measures that would benefit everybody. Europe’s regulations are quite good, but practice often lags behind. On this episode of Standard Time, we discuss access, accommodation and attitudes.
In memory of Nada Ler Sofronić, the feminist voice pivotal in supporting a unified vision of Bosnia-Herzegovina, drawing on valuable experiences as an intellectual, whose engagement was with the whole of Yugoslavia and beyond.
Socialist reform and modernization in post-WWII Poland opened the higher-education gate to underprivileged students. But early streaming to vocational school and societal expectations remained as barriers. What became of the working-class freshers who made it to the lofty heights of academia?
The ongoing repression of Belarusian society now extends to the banning of literary works by Belarusian writers seen as seditious. The reason can only be that they offer the regime its true reflection, writes one of the country’s leading poets.
When content is freely available in droves, paying for journalism almost seems like a scam. Can journalists media outlets keep up with the changing landscape of information? Find out on this episode of Standard Time.
Economic and political transformation post-1989 exposed state-planned technological production in the former GDR to global markets. Uncompetitive operations soon led to closures and mass unemployment. But some workers, taking the crisis into their own hands, regrouped to found innovative tech companies.
Russia’s passivity towards Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of Nagorno Karabakh marks a shift of power in the region with potentially wider consequences. It would not be the first time that the Kremlin’s fortunes have been decided in the South Caucasus.