As the EU confronts external challenges – including the war in Ukraine, rising geopolitical tensions, and potential shifts in US policy – will its internal politics align to meet these crises, or will the growing influence of the far right impede progress on the continent’s most pressing issues?
Remaining in a new country or returning home? The Knowledgeable Youth podcast delves into the complex decision-making refugees face when migrating, together with researcher Olena Yermakova.
In France, the censorship of pro-Palestinian positions is particularly severe, with antisemitism accusations increasingly being used by the far right. But behind the current wave of repression lies a set of attitudes that are neither new, nor exclusively rightwing.
Turkey is no longer a dissident safe haven. High-profile cases of outspoken exiles kidnapped or even killed by spies when in the country attest to the risks. Interviews with Iranian and Russian exiles reveal deteriorating circumstances, from visa refusal to societal racism, police persecution and serious abduction threats, exposing uncertain, shifting political ground.
Economic pressures combined with growing climate impacts mean that the next five years will be crucial for the European Green Deal. But with gains for the right in the European Parliament and growing pushback against environmental policies, how can Europe maintain its climate goals?
In 2022, Shahd Abusalama, a Palestinian academic working in the UK, was suspended from her teaching position on antisemitism charges. Here she recalls the defamation campaign against her and discusses how her case reveals the structural vulnerability of Palestinians in the West.
The difference between knowing from distance that war is being waged and living that reality couldn’t be more extreme. But can awareness of multiple repercussions turn protective disassociation from violence into active solidarity? ‘The Most Documented War’ symposium in Lviv, Ukraine, provides valuable pointers regarding engagement and responsibility.
When war entered the lives of Ukrainian schoolchildren, their teenage years were put on hold. In the first episode of the Knowledgeable Youth podcast, Ukrainian teens talk about finding their way in a new school system.
Touted as Europe’s largest infrastructure project, the Grand Paris Express promises better connectivity and improved public transport for the French capital. However, for Roma squatters and slum residents, the colossal project has meant forced evictions and further exclusion from society.
Tracing responsibility for honeybee losses in rural Ukraine points to farmers and pesticide-treated rapeseed fields. But whose practices really lie behind the short-term bid to increase crop productivity? And what do the historic uses of agrochemicals tell us about their current weaponization?
Human history is a history of migration, and people continue to be on the move due to a myriad of circumstances. Most of them aren’t merely looking for adventure or doing a fun gap year, but are trying to escape political persecution, climate catastrophes, and, well, war and genocide.
France’s snap elections are the most spectacular sign that EU elections now matter. But whether the far right’s shift from fundamental opposition towards reform from within politicizes the EU in a positive way depends on the centre’s readiness to hold its ground.
A conversation with Palestinian–German scholar Anna-Esther Younes about the mechanisms of anti-Palestinian repression in Germany, Europe and beyond; about intergenerational knowledge transfer amidst an increasingly isolating political climate; and about fostering solidarity between struggles.
Since 7 October, the Palestinian cause has reinvigorated Tunisian civil society, creating a wave of public activism reminiscent of the revolution of 2011. But today there is a major difference: perceived western hypocrisy over Israel has severely damaged the credibility of the democratic agenda.
The visions of an apocalypse peddled by nihilistic humanists and misanthropic transhumanists confuse the destruction of humankind with salvation.
‘Occupation is like a flood. The water doesn’t reach every house at the same time. First it covers the roads until it meets an obstacle – a wall or a fence. Then it starts to rise, finding cracks, seeping further, conquering one house after another, together with everything inside them.’