Articles

Contrary to popular belief, not all bees make honey. In fact, less than 4% of the total population of 20,000 species around the world do. As we rush to #SaveTheBees, many don’t know how, or which ones face the real threat of extinction.

For Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, freedom of movement is non-existent. But to flee and thus to lose one’s right of return places Palestinians in a situation that is even worse. How international law underpins Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing.

From COVID-19 to economic tensions and full-scale war in Ukraine, the relationship between the EU, the US and China has undergone seismic shifts since the last European Parliamentary elections in 2019. This year’s elections on both sides of the Atlantic are likely to alter these dynamics, changing the geopolitical landscape again.

Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine has put eastern Europe firmly at the centre of the EU’s foreign policy agenda and given fresh impetus to reforms by candidates for EU membership. But with rightwing movements gaining ground, support for Ukraine and EU enlargement is under threat.

Young voters are getting more engaged in European politics, but this growth starts from a very low point. Radicalization is increasing, and most people connect with politics emotionally and through communities. The EU holds vast power and potential, but how can it engage young people ? Standard Time’s Europe Day episode premiering today at 5 PM CET.

The European Parliament elections on 9 June are a referendum on EU policy since 2019. Will voters give Europe the green light for further progress, or pull the brakes? A new Eurozine series measures the political atmosphere in the EU and its neighbourhoods at this crucial moment.

Strong far-right gains in three western member states – Austria, the Netherlands and now Ireland – indicate that the EU is on course for a political shift after the European Parliament elections. Euroscepticism also predominates across the conservative spectrum in Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

Do the violence and oppression against Palestinians in Gaza and the discrimination and surveillance against migrants trying to cross European borders have more in common than meets the eye? A Belgian activist of the international Freedom Flotilla Coalition speaks out about the Israeli arms industry, institutionalized violence and human rights abuses.

Georgia’s ‘March for Europe’ protests express deep polarization in the country over the current government’s pro-Russian course. The return of Moscow-friendly oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili to official politics signalled the beginning of an election campaign whose outcome will decide Georgia’s democratic future.

The gig economy is undermining labour rights rapidly, but the conventional protections around employment have been eroding for decades. We talk labour migration, the gendered division of unpaid tasks, and the history of the workers’ movement on our latest episode.

European museums are full of stolen goods. Impressive exhibitions of prized artefacts behind glass testify to the extent of colonial robbery. They also evidence the spoils of earlier imperialism, often depicting acts of conquest. How can previous empires genuinely atone for their abuses of power and truly recognize compromised biographies?

Student anger at Israel’s assault on Gaza has been directed at their own universities, whose refusal to condemn the Israeli aggression they see as a moral failure. By closing down protests to ‘protect’ the neutrality of the academic environment, universities only appear confirm this.

How can the consumer enjoy an ethically sourced piece of fashion, when most garments are produced in sweatshops and soon end up in landfills anyway? A designer from India, a Romanian investigative journalist, and an Austrian ecotoxicologist discuss this on the new episode of Standard Time.

The description of contemporary far-right media outlets in France as ‘pluralist’ is a euphemism that denies the continuity of a nationalist and xenophobic journalistic tradition that began in the Belle Epoque and flourished until the end of the Second World War.

In a bid to implement its Rwanda legislation, the UK government is rushing to inhumanely detain refugees, instilling panic, impacting its politically sensitive border with Ireland. The EU, meanwhile, is planning off-shore processing facilities. And surveillance technology is proving just as invasive as past obsessions with the ‘born criminal’.

Pronatalism has become a populist vote winner for right-wing parties in Central and East European countries. Demographic imbalances, involving youth migration, ageing populations and immigration resistance, have sparked a series of baby-making policies. But are financial incentives in Hungary, Poland and Serbia enough to reverse the trend of decreasing birth rates?