Bullet and the ballot box: violent US rhetoric comes ‘home to roost’

ByAFP
PublishedJuly 14, 2024

Donald Trump himself has been a major architect of the coarsening in US political language in recent years - Copyright AFP/File Rebecca DROKE
Frankie TAGGART

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump by a gunman at his Pennsylvania rally has confirmed the worst fears of public figures warning that an escalation in incendiary political rhetoric on all sides could lead to bloodshed.

US lawmakers and analysts have been voicing concern since the 2021 US Capitol riot that increasingly bellicose campaign language was becoming a worrying contusion on the US body politic ahead of November’s presidential election.

The danger was vividly illustrated in 2022, when then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband was attacked with a hammer by a far-right conspiracy theorist who wanted to hold the Democratic leader hostage and “break her kneecaps.”

The political affiliations of Saturday’s shooter, identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, were not immediately clear — but analysts and politicians immediately pointed the finger at extreme political discourse.

“For weeks Democrat leaders have been fueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America,” House Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who was seriously wounded in a mass shooting at a congressional sports event in 2017, said on X.

“Clearly we’ve seen far left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop.”

Senior Trump campaign aide Chris LaCivita assailed the language of “leftist activists, Democrat donors and even Joe Biden.”

While Ajamu Baraka, Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s running mate in 2016, suggested Democratic rhetoric might have led the gunman to see it as his “patriotic duty to eliminate an existential threat to the nation.”

“The chickens have really come home to roost,” he posted on X.

– Private security –

What none of the three acknowledged was that Trump himself has been a major architect of the coarsening in US political discourse in recent years.

Many of Trump’s targets in Congress and the government — from Republican Senator Mitt Romney to retired top government scientist Anthony Fauci — have disclosed having to take on private security after threats from Trump’s supporters.

The former US president sparked fury last year when he implied that the country’s top military officer should be executed, and joked about the Pelosi hammer attack.

Trump’s exhortations to violence are nothing new — he suggested that protesters should be “roughed up” at a rally in 2016, and that looters should be shot during the 2020 racial protests over the police murder of George Floyd.

He has also repeatedly described the attorneys leading the multiple civil and criminal cases he faces as “monster,” “deranged” and “psycho.”

And, of course, many argue he incited the deadly Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, when he exhorted his followers to “fight like hell” shortly before they stormed the seat of US government, leaving five people dead.

Republicans have in the past accused Democrats of overreacting to figurative language and ignoring leftist aggression, such as harassment of conservative Supreme Court justices and the 2017 shooting that wounded Scalise.

Still, law enforcement agencies say that while threats have proliferated from every corner, right-wing violence is the bigger worry.

– ‘Attack on our democracy’ –

Discourse that was once taboo is now commonplace on the far right, with Republican flamethrowers in Congress incorporating violent language and imagery into their stump speeches.

Threats against members of Congress of all stripes reached a record high of 9,625 in 2021, according to data provided by the Capitol Police, compared with just 3,939 in 2017.

Robert Pape of the University of Chicago has conducted several polls on political violence since the Capitol assault. In his latest last month, 10 percent of respondents said the use of force was “justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.”

“The shooting of former President Trump is a consequence of such significant support for political violence in our country,” he told AFP.

“We also need to worry about threat in retribution to President Biden. Our survey shows seven percent of American adults — 18 million — support force to restore Trump to the presidency, half of whom own guns.”

Political analyst Charlie Kolean called for Americans to stand together “in condemning such violence and work towards ensuring the safety and security of all public officials.”

“Today’s events are a stark reminder of the threats our leaders face,” Kolean, the chief strategy officer at conservative-leaning political consultancy RED PAC, told AFP.

“An attack on the presidential candidate is an attack on our democracy.”

America was founded on political violence

The Conversation
July 14, 2024 

By John Ward Dunsmore (d. 1945) - unknown; original is in Fraunces Tavern, NYC.

The shots fired at Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday are being investigated as an assassination attempt of the former president and current Republican presidential nominee.

Assassination attempts on presidents and presidential nominees are littered throughout American history. What happened in Pennsylvania is horrifying, but sadly not surprising. I’ve been really struck by how many senior political figures in the United States came out after the shooting and said political violence has no place in America. US President Joe Biden said violence of this kind is “ unheard of” in the US.

That is pretty astounding. The United States was founded on political violence, and incidents of political violence mark its entire history.

In fact, Biden began his political career framing himself as the political heir to the murdered Kennedy brothers – President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963, and Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1968.

However, for this incident to occur in this moment, given the volatile nature of the presidential campaign so far and the deep divisions in the United States, is deeply concerning.

The way the shooting has been weaponised on social media so quickly – with conspiracy theories unfolding in real time – means the potential for this kind of violence to escalate is very high.

You only have to look at the insurrection of the US Capitol on January 6 2021 to see how quickly political violence can explode in the US.

This is due, at least in part, to the way violent rhetoric has been cultivated quite deliberately by elements of the far right in recent years. In particular, undercurrents of political violence have simmered at Trump rallies since the beginning of his first run for the presidency in 2016.

The threat of violence has become central to Trump’s political image, to his appeal and to his supporter base. You only have to watch a few moments of every Trump rally and every Trump speech to hear him speak about violence, often in graphic detail and with great relish.

For instance, he has repeatedly referenced conspiracy theories when describing the attack against former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, in their home in 2022, as well as mocking him and joking about the attack.

This is a feature, not a bug, of the Trump campaign and the movement behind him.

And it has a real-world impact. A nationwide review conducted by ABC News (the US media organisation) in 2020 identified 54 criminal cases in which Trump himself had been invoked in “direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault”.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation (the architect of the Project 2025 plan to overhaul the US government under a second Trump presidency), talked about a “second American Revolution” that would “remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Given how ever-present this threat of violence has become, it’s perhaps more surprising that an incident of this magnitude doesn’t happen more often, or hasn’t happened already.
A campaign-defining image

It’s also striking what a master of the political image Trump is. You can see this in the footage of the shooting in Pennsylvania: after Trump stands up, he raises his fist defiantly to have that image captured.

That image is of course going to define this moment, if not Trump’s entire presidential campaign.

There have been a series of tipping points in this campaign so far, and this may well be the decisive one. It could turn Trump from a martyr to a saint in the eyes of his supporters.

Watching how Trump, his campaign and the people around him use this narrative will be so important, especially in advance of the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled to start in Wisconsin in the coming days.

You can already see elements on the right – particularly among Trump’s supporters – attempting to use the assassination attempt to foster conspiracy theories as a rallying point for the former president.

Given the fall-out from Biden’s debate performance in recent weeks, a contrasting image of the two candidates is also emerging and could solidify further – even if it doesn’t reflect them accurately.

That image of Trump, bloodied with a raised fist, could certainly come to frame his entire campaign and rally support behind him.

It is entirely possible, then, that this becomes the moment when Trump won the election.

Emma Shortis, Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

GOP  MAGA  CONVENTION

‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’: RNC’s ‘Chilling’ MAGA Chant Echoes Trump – and ‘1930’s Germany’

David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
July 15, 2024 

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Echoing Donald Trump’s fist-pumping and shout immediately after his ear was nicked by a would-be assassin who killed an innocent bystander Saturday, attendees on the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday broke out into chants, yelling, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

“Having finished the prayer and pledge, and rendition of ‘God Bless America,'” LaPolitics Weekly editor and publisher Jeremy Alford reported, “RNC delegates almost immediately begin chanting the same war cry @realDonaldTrump emitted upon being shot: ‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ ”

Baptist minister Brian Kaylor, who has a PhD in political communication, is the author or co-author of five books, including “Sacramental Politics: Religious Worship as Political Action,” and “Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism.”

He writes: “Delegates yelling ‘fight!’ during RNC shows the danger of what Trump’s instinct was on Saturday.”

Read also: Boos drown out Mitch McConnell at Republican National Convention

Attorney and SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah posted a short clip of the moment, remarking: “Bone chilling to see at #RNCConvention people chanting ‘Fight’ in unison with one arm punching in the air. Instantly conjures up rallies from 1930’s Germany. There is no other way to put it.”

The fist-pumping is very visible in the bottom portion of the frame:


Author Stephen Beschloss responded: “Here’s the Trump Republican Party’s ‘unity’ message: Fight.”

Professor of history and fascism and authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat also responded, writing: “You know what to do, Americans. We can avoid this nightmare. Never become resigned or fatalistic. That’s what they want.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein, also an NBC News/MSNBC contributor, also posted a clip, and remarked: “Expect to hear this a lot this week.”


Watch the videos above or at this link.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper blasts RNC for platforming 'blatantly anti-Semitic' speakers

Daniel Hampton
July 15, 2024 

CNN anchor Jake Tapper laid into the founder of the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA during the Republican National Convention on Monday after a report highlighted anti-semitic remarks he's made. (Screengrab via CNN)

CNN anchor Jake Tapper laid into the founder of the pro-Trump organization Turning Point USA — as well as two Republican lawmakers — during the Republican National Convention on Monday over what he called "blatantly anti-Semitic" remarks they've made in the past.

Charlie Kirk spoke Monday night at the convention, the same day The New York Times highlighted why he's been accused of anti-semitism. Among them: Kirk's defense of Elon Musk's comment appearing to support an antisemitic comment that Jewish people were “'coming to the disturbing realization' that immigrants to the United States 'don’t exactly like them too much.'"

“Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them,” Kirk said, among other things, according to the report.

When Kirk took the stage Monday night, Tapper let the audience know his feelings on the subject.

"I just want to point it out — because this is something that the Republican Party has an issue with and they do not reckon with; the Democratic Party has it's own issue — and that is, Charlie Kirk and Turning Points USA has been credibly accused by other conservatives of having an antisemitism problem within its ranks," said Tapper.

Read also: Charlie Kirk buried for 'idiotic' comments about Normandy soldiers on D-Day anniversary

Tapper noted that conservative commentator Erick Erickson wrote Turning Point USA was “looking like not just a grifting operation, but an anti-Semitic grifting operation.”

Tapper also noted that Ben Domenech, co-founder of The Federalist, wrote, “If Charlie Kirk remains the head of TPUSA, the right has an anti-Semite problem that will follow them into the coming elections.”

While the left has also seen antisemitism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Tapper emphasized Kirk was the third speaker after North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who has made "blatantly antisemitic" comments.

"This is a problem in party politics," Tapper said. "And we're going to see this again if the Democrats people put up people like this in August. And I think it's beholden upon us to call it out and point it out."

Watch the clip below or at this link.

'Nothing has changed': Trump's angry new rant wrecks claims about him wanting 'unity'

Sarah K. Burris
July 15, 2024

Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)

Donald Trump's campaign has pressed the message that he is a "changed man" after the failed assassination attempt on Saturday. But after his Monday update on Truth Social, things seemed like they were back to the same again.

In particular, Trump went on an angry rant claiming that his espionage case in Florida a "witch hunt," alleging the Jan. 6 attack on Congress was a "hoax" and the New York fraud case is a "scam."

The internet quickly noted that the "changed man" hadn't actually changed all that much after all, returning to his standard rants and attacks about the cases against him.

Read Also: How Donald Trump’s narcissism is now a major threat

"So much for unity… calling J6 a hoax," posted Fank Marin on the social media site X.

Geoff Ninecow agreed, "Nothing has changed."

"Pretending he is not bad will not make him good," wrote lawyer George Conway on Monday after the update. "Pretending he is not depraved will not make him decent. Pretending he is not dangerous will not make him safe. Pretending he is not disordered will not make him sound."

National security expert Marcy Wheeler referenced an Axios report by Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, who quoted Tucker Carlson as saying that such an attack "changes a man." She called them "rubes."

"An utterly unchanged Trump embarrasses his perpetually hapless boosters Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen again," wrote lawyer and commentator Luppe B. Luppen on X.

"Again, for Trump, 'unifying America; is about him, not US! Nothing has changed," said Michael Steele, the former Republican Party chairman.

The official account for the hacker group Anonymous asked, "What really has changed?? Trump is STILL an insurrectionist, STILL had relations with Epstein, the rapey pedophile, STILL was convicted of sexual misconduct, STILL was convicted of 34 felonies - STILL has six bankruptcies to his name. Only idiots would vote for him."

"Trump 'calls for unity' by once again attacking Democrats and calling the woman he was found liable for sexually assaulting a liar. Again. But yeah, sure, he’s a changed man," said Danielle Campoamor, writer and formerly of the TODAY Show.

"Meanwhile, the media is reporting that he’s had a 'spiritual' response to being shot at and is rewriting his RNC speech to be all about unity, and he saved a bus full of puppies from a fire on the way home! He f--king went golfing yesterday," complained Tara Deenihan.

Cartoonist Steve Stegelin saw the status update and noted Trump is "starting off his new Unity Tour on the right foot."

"Biden campaign, time to put the ads back on and take off the gloves. The MAGA GOP is not doing the unity thing, never has & never will," Kurt Elftmann agreed.


President Joe Biden paused all of his campaign ads in the wake of the attack, and both Biden and his Vice President, Kamala Harris, have canceled Monday's events.

Meanwhile, international relations professor Nicholas Grossman accused the media of being "in an abusive relationship with Tru

How Serbia is eroding the rights of ethnic Albanians

Anila Shuka

DW

July 12, 2024

Serbian authorities are removing ethnic Albanians from the population register, eroding their rights and leaving thousands stateless. The removals are reducing the official size of the country's Albanian minority.

Businessman Safet Demiri got a rude awakening when he went to renew the registration of his company cars in August 2019. An official in Demiri's hometown of Medvedja, in southern Serbia, told him that he was no longer listed in the population register.

"You could have knocked me down with a feather," he told DW.

Demiri commutes between Medvedja, where he runs a tourist resort and a telecommunications company, and Vienna, where he works as a building contractor.

But, since the summer of 2019, his name no longer appears in the population register of his hometown, where his family has lived for over 200 years.

Demiri said officials merely shrugged their shoulders when he asked how he was supposed to run his businesses in Medvedja without a registered address or cars. He had no choice but to register his cars in his father's name.
Court ruled that the removal was legal

To this day, his situation remains unchanged, and his rights are curtailed. He took legal action, but the Administrative Court in Nis ruled that his deletion from the register was legal because he lived abroad.

"Off the record, they told me that the instructions had come from above," said the 46-year-old.

Demiri is not alone in this respect. Thousands of others in the predominantly ethnic Albanian Presevo Valley in southern Serbia share his fate. A growing number of people there have been removed from the population register without warning.
The 'passivation' of addresses

The reason is their ethnicity, said Flora Ferati-Sachsenmaier, a lecturer at the University of Göttingen in Germany. She herself comes from the region and wrote a study on the subject in 2023 that was published by the Max-Planck-Institut in Göttingen.

Academic Flora Ferati-Sachsenmaier has written a study on Serbia's policy of passivation towards its Albanian minority

Image: Privat

Ferati-Sachsenmaier stumbled on the phenomenon by chance in 2016 while working on an entirely different project in the region. The more she researched, the more she realized that there was a method behind the deletions.

"Every second Albanian I spoke to told me that the authorities were deleting them from the population register," she told DW.

Serious repercussions

The Serbian authorities call it "passivation" (or "passivization"). If they discover that someone no longer lives at their registered address, he or she is deleted from the population register, said Ferati-Sachsenmaier.

But it is not just people who no longer live in the country who have been removed from the register; so have people who went on vacations or trips abroad. As a rule, once they have been removed from the register, they don't succeed in getting back on it again.

The village of Veliki Trnovac in southern Serbia is also predominantly ethnic Albanian

Jelena Djukic Pejic/DW

Passivation has serious repercussions for those affected, like making it impossible for them to get passports and access health insurance.

An attempt to reduce the size of the Albanian minority?

The objective is apparently to reduce the size of the ethnic Albanian population in southern Serbia.

"While about 10% of the population in the Presevo Valley has been affected, passivation cases in other regions of Serbia affect less than 1% of the relevant municipal population — if they occur at all," explained Ferati-Sachsenmaier.

The situation is particularly problematic for ethnic Albanians who have been living and working in Kosovo since the war in 1999, said Enver Haziri, who runs an agency in Kosovo that deals with matters relating to ethnic Albanians from the Presevo Valley.

Most of this group were displaced from their native region when the war ended in June 1999, and the Albanian minority in southern Serbia bore the brunt of the anger of the retreating Serbian army.

While these displaced ethnic Albanians were taken in by Kosovo, they were never officially registered there. Passivation renders them practically stateless, which marginalizes them even more.

"While they are morally welcome, they are neither recognized as refugees nor are they granted Kosovar citizenship," said Haziri.

Under Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the government of Kosovo has tried to change the situation and give them residence permits.

Ethnic Albanians in southern Serbia — a marginalized minority

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia has referred in a report to the passivation of addresses as "a form of ethnic cleansing through administrative means."

About 60,000 ethnic Albanians live in the Presevo Valley, to which the municipalities of Medvedja, Bujanovac and Presevo belong. Although they make up the majority of the population there, and Serbia has signed the Council of Europe's Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, ethnic Albanians are systematically marginalized, said Shaip Kamberi, the only ethnic Albanian politician to be elected to the Serbian parliament.

As an EU accession candidate, Serbia has committed itself to improving the representation of its Albanian minority in public institutions.

"Passivation is just one of the discrimination measures," says Kamberi. "We are not integrated into public life, and potential foreign investors are often prevented from investing in our businesses. Moreover, the advancing militarization of the territory also makes life in the region difficult."

Ethnic Albanian lawmaker Shaip Kamberi represents the interests of Serbia's Albanian minority in the parliament in Belgrade

Image: Anila Shuka/DW

To back up this statement, Kamberi points to a map of 48 Serbian military bases on the border with Kosovo. Most of these bases are in the Presevo Valley.
Concern in Berlin

Kamberi recently visited Berlin to raise awareness of the issue within the government and parliament. The lawmakers he met with are concerned about the situation.

Knut Abraham of the center-right CDU/CSU told DW: "I call on the embassies of EU Member States in Belgrade to pay particular attention to the situation and to seek dialogue on this matter with representatives of the minority."

"The situation of the Albanian minority in Serbia deserves greater international attention," said Thomas Hacker of the liberatarian FDP. "At present, the focus on the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina is too big, while other, equally important issues are regrettably being pushed into the background."

Hacker went on to say that the process of passivation is like a creeping deprivation of rights.

The German Foreign Office in Berlin has appealed to all sides to "ensure transparent and just dealings in line with obligations."

Serbian government denies discrimination

While the Serbian government and authorities do not deny that passivation exists, they do reject claims that it is motivated by discrimination against ethnic Albanians in Serbia.

In December 2023, Aleksandar Martinovic, minister for state administration and local self-government, told Serbian media that the "deactivation of domiciles" in Bujanovac, Presevo and Medvedja was in line with the law and was not discriminatory.

DW approached the Serbian government for comment but had not received any response before publication.

Businessman Safet Demiri and several other ethnic Albanians have lodged a complaint with the Constitutional Court in Belgrade. They are certain their case will be rejected and intend to take the matter to the European Court of Human Rights.

The likelihood of success is high. Nevertheless, it is questionable whether such a victory would impact Serbia's policy towards its Albanian minority.

This article was originally published in German.

Anila Shuka Berlin correspondent for DW's Albanian Service@b_reflections

The women who defied Nazi Germany

Tanya Ott 

DW

July 12, 2024

Opposing the Nazis was dangerous, but that did not stop some brave and committed women, whose actions offer timeless lessons on defiance against tyranny.

The women who actively resisted the Nazi regime came from a variety of religious, political and class backgrounds

Image: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

During the Third Reich, numerous attempts were made to assassinate the Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler. The most well-known was the one which took place on July 20, 1944 and was part of a plot called Operation Valkyrie.

More than 200 people were involved, chiefly the German army officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. But along with him and his fellow military officers, civilian women were also involved, such as Erika von Tresckow, the wife of Henning von Tresckow, who had a major role in the plot. She supported the plans by delivering messages to coordinate military and civilian resistance groups as well as by helping to type up clean copies of the draft commands for Operation Valkyrie.

When the assassination plot failed, Henning von Tresckow died by suicide. Erika was later arrested by the Gestapo, but successfully feigned having no knowledge of the plans and was later released.

A memorial to Henning and Erika von Tresckow, who were involved in a plot to assassinate Hitler

Image: imago images/Martin Müller

Resistance for many reasons

Erika von Tresckow is one of 260 women whose stories are currently being told at Berlin's German Resistance Memorial Center in the special exhibition "Women in Resistance Against National Socialism." It's the result of years of special research, funded by the German Bundestag, into the role of women in anti-Nazi activities during the Third Reich.

Helene Jacobs and Gertrud Luckner were committed Christians who helped Jews by hiding them or helping them leave Germany

 Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

The stories illustrate various forms of resistance, said Johannes Tuchel, director of the Memorial Center. "That ranges from women who went into exile, to Christians, social democrats, socialists, but also members of the Swing Youth," he explains, referring with the last term to young people who were fans of the jazz music style called swing, discouraged by the Nazis in part because of its Black and Jewish American roots.
Refusing to march in lockstep

Tuchel said the Swing Youth represented "an alternative lifestyle, and from there it is only a small step to 'deviant' behavior and something that's in opposition to the National Socialist undertaking." He paraphrases the late German jazz musician and Holocaust survivor Coco Schumann: "Someone who has listened to swing can't march in lockstep."

The women who refused to march in lockstep also included communists, anarchists, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses and lesbians. All of them felt compelled to fight fascism, in many cases because their sheer existence was in opposition to Nazi ideology.

Sophie Scholl was a co-founder of the resistance group The White Rose

Image: dpa/picture-alliance

Leaflets, postcards and propaganda

Some of the names and stories collected may be familiar. "An exhibition about women in the resistance cannot omit the name of Sophie Scholl," says Johannes Tuchel, referring to the one female member of the inner circle of the student resistance movement The White Rose, who was executed at the age of 21 for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets.

Another famous name is Marlene Dietrich, the film star who had left Germany for Hollywood before the Nazis came to power. Once the US joined the war against Nazi Germany, she used the symbolic power of her celebrity by performing for US troops and German prisoners of war in North Africa, Italy, France, Belgium and Germany — and participating in propaganda efforts aimed at lowering morale among the German civilian and military populations.

German Hollywood film star Marlene Dietrich entertained US troops during World War II

Image: Everett Collection/picture alliance

Some names are less known, but their stories have inspired writers and filmmakers. Erich Maria Remarque, author of the Nazi-banned anti-war novel "All Quiet on the Western Front," dedicated his 1952 novel "Spark of Life" to his youngest sister, Elfriede Scholz, who was arrested and executed for openly criticizing the war. She had described German soldiers as "beasts for the slaughter" and wished Hitler were dead.

Elise Hampel and her husband, Otto, tried to stir up anti-Nazi sentiments with nearly 300 handwritten postcards they dropped in mailboxes or stairwells in Berlin after Elise's brother was killed in action. They were also executed. Their story inspired Hans Fallada's 1947 novel "Alone in Berlin," which has gained popularity in recent decades and been adapted for the screen five times.

Brendan Gleeson and Emma Thompson starred in a 2016 adaptation of "Alone in Berlin"

Image: X-Verleih/dpa/picture alliance

Increased criticism — and persecution

The Hampels, Scholz and Scholl were all executed in 1943. Tuchel says that was the year persecution of women who resisted the regime intensified, and convictions that previously might have resulted in a six-month prison sentence were then made punishable by death. And, he adds, it was around that time that resistance activities by women increased.

"You have a society almost entirely absent of men in Germany during the war years," he said, with about 8 million men serving in the military by 1944. "Which means that women also took up positions that until then only men had occupied in everyday life: the double burden of factory work, caring for the children and the family, still old role models at that time, but at the same time, [there was] a growing willingness to critically examine things."

Judith Auer was among the women executed by the Nazis for their resistance activities

Image: Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand

The regime feared dissent on the home front, so "the reaction to women making critical statements was very harsh. ... It was no longer considered telling a joke and therefore considered malice, but rather, from 1943 onwards, this was known as 'demoralizing the troops,' and one of the possibilities was the death penalty."

Tuchel said the resistance efforts had lessons for people today: "It is possible to do something against dictatorships. Yes, it is risky, but it does not mean we have to resign ourselves to political tides of whatever kind, whatever totalitarian challenge; rather, we can do something."

Afghan women taking the initiative against the Taliban

Shabnam von Hein

DW

July 13, 2024

Women are the ones who are suffering most under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.

 Disappointed by the lack of support from the West, they are establishing networks to come together and fight for their rights.

Maryam Maroof Arvin is the 30-year-old co-founder of the Purple Saturdays Movement. Every week, the women's rights advocacy group organizes peaceful protests against the massive curtailment of women's freedoms in Afghanistan.

They are trying to raise awareness about civil rights and democracy in Afghan society. The organization was founded in the capital, Kabul, after the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

"We can only rely on ourselves," Arvin told DW.

She is one of several women's rights activists still in Afghanistan who refuse to give up. Arvin and the other women in her network don't only organize protests. Girls are no longer allowed to attend school after sixth grade, so the women teach them secretly at home. They also collect aid for single mothers and needy families and care for orphans.
Women on their own in Afghanistan

Since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan in August 2021, the most vulnerable people in society have been left to fend for themselves. Almost all international aid organizations have left the country because the Taliban systematically violate human rights, women's rights in particular.

Since seizing power in mid-2021, the Taliban have increasingly restricted the rights of Afghan women and girls. Now, the hardline Islamists are denying women access to higher education, sparking international outrage.

The Taliban has introduced a series of laws and political measures that deny women and girls across the country their basic rights purely based on gender. Female employees have been sent home, girls' secondary schools have been closed, and women have been banned from attending university.

Arvin was studying for her master's degree when the Taliban barred women from universities in December 2022. Like almost all Afghan women, at home and abroad, she is outraged by the United Nations' initiative to negotiate with the Taliban without any representation by women.

"We know that, as in the Doha meeting, they are seeking talks with the Taliban to pave the way for the recognition of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. In doing so, they are ignoring the Afghan people and, above all, Afghan women," Arvin said.
UN talks with the Taliban

Last week, in response to a UN initiative, Taliban representatives met in Doha, Qatar, with diplomats from 25 countries and international organizations to discuss the future of Afghanistan. Before the meeting even began, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid made clear that the issue of women's rights was an "internal matter" for Afghanistan and would not be on the agenda in Doha. Other countries, he insisted, needed to acknowledge Afghanistan's religious and cultural values.

"Women's rights are not an internal Afghan matter," US diplomat Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told DW. "We wanted to engage in conversation with the Taliban, and we had to start somewhere."

DiCarlo said the Doha meeting was a first step in initiating a step-by-step process. She stressed that the goal was for the Taliban "to live in peace with their neighbors and adhere to international law, the UN Charter, and human rights."

"The Taliban know how to use the international stage to their advantage," commented Afghan writer and education expert Hazrat Vahriz in an interview with DW before the Doha meeting. "The Taliban have always participated in reconciliation talks, even meeting with Ahmad Shah Massoud or other opposition groups in Turkmenistan before they seized power in 2021. They should not be underestimated. They have successful diplomats whose sole focus is imposing their terms. The Taliban expect the people of Afghanistan to be their subjects and accept them as rulers."

Sanctions, economic crisis, poverty

The Taliban are seeking international recognition of their government and are also campaigning for the sanctions on them to be lifted. Their goal is to gain access to Afghan assets frozen by the United States. Afghanistan has been plunged into a severe economic crisis resulting from frozen bank accounts, extensive international sanctions,and the emigration of skilled professionals. According to the United Nations, 97% of the Afghan population now lives in poverty.

"Afghanistan is not the only country where human rights are violated," comments Hazrat Vahriz. "Some in Afghanistan believe it is the responsibility of the international community to solve problems caused by the mismanagement and misrule by our elites. This will only happen if the Taliban do not pose a threat to the interests of powerful countries — the United States and Western countries in particular. But it won't come about because the Taliban will keep their promises to America. The Afghan population must campaign for themselves."

And women are at the forefront of this effort. "We have to combine our forces," says Arvin. The co-founder of the Purple Saturday Movement is calling on all human rights activists, intellectuals, and dissidents to form a coalition and organize more effective domestic resistance to the Taliban.

"We are advocating for a legitimate, democratic, and inclusive government. And we have to accept that, in doing so, we cannot rely on those who simply use human rights to promote themselves," says Maroof, in a bitter dig at the international community.

This article was originally published in German

Will China ever overtake the US economy?

Nik Martin

DW

China's ambition to be the world's largest economy has been dented by COVID-19, the real estate crisis and an aging population. Boosting growth will be the prime focus at an important Communist Party meeting.

The idea of China's outstripping the United States to become the world's largest economy has been a fixation for policymakers and economists for decades. What will happen, they argue, when the US — one of the most dynamic, productive economies — is usurped by an authoritarian regime with a workforce of 750 million?

Predictions of when exactly China would steal the US's crown have come thick and fast ever since the 2008/9 financial crisis, which hampered growth in the United States and Europe for many years. Before what became known as the Great Recession, China saw double-digit annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth for at least five years. In the decade following the crisis, China's economy continued to expand by 6%-9% annually. That is, until COVID-19 struck.

As if the pandemic — which led to strict lockdown measures that brought the economy to its knees — weren't enough, the Asian powerhouse was also plunged into a real estate crash. At its peak, the property market was responsible for a third of China's economy. However, rules introduced by Beijing in 2020 put limits on how much debt property developers could take on. Many firms went bankrupt, leaving an estimated 20 million unfinished or delayed homes unsold.

Around the same time, declining trade relations with the West also weakened growth in the world's second-largest economy. Having encouraged China's ascendancy for decades, by the late 2010s, the US shifted to containing Beijing's economic and military ambitions, if only to delay the inevitable advance.

Has China's economy peaked?

The apparent change of fortunes for the Chinese economy was so stark that a new term emerged about a year ago: "Peak China." The theory was that the Chinese economy was now burdened by many structural issues, such as a heavy debt load, slowing productivity, low consumption and an aging population. Those weaknesses, along with geopolitical tensions over Taiwan and a decoupling of trade by the West, sparked speculation that China's impending economic supremacy may be delayed, or never happen.

But Wang Wen from Renmin University of China's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies told DW that the notion of Peak China was a "myth," adding that China's total economic output reached almost 80% of the US output in 2021.

Wang said that as long as Beijing maintained "internal stability and external peace," the Chinese economy would soon overtake the US. He cited the desire of millions of rural Chinese to move to urban areas, where earnings and quality of life were reportedly much higher.

"China's urbanization rate is only 65%. If calculated at 80% in the future, it means that another 200 to 300 million people will enter urban areas, which will generate a huge increase in the real economy," he said.

Productivity growth has 'disappeared'

Other economists, however, believe that the issues that sparked the Peak China narrative were likely building for several years.

"The Chinese economy grew so fast in the early 2000s because of high productivity," Loren Brandt, economy professor at the University of Toronto, told DW, adding that productivity was responsible for about 70% of GDP growth during China's first three decades of reform, initiated in 1978.

"After the financial crisis, productivity growth just disappeared. It's now maybe one-quarter of what it was before 2008," the expert in the Chinese economy added.

China watchers had hoped that a key meeting of China's Communist Party this week would propose major stimulus measures to tackle the numerous short-term economic headwinds. But they now think Beijing will instead target growth in certain sectors, like advanced and green technology, while also boosting pensions and the private sector.

F

aced with US export curbs, China is ramping up its own chip manufacturing

Image: picture alliance / Chu Baorui / Costfoto

China's total debts have widened to more than 300% of GDP. A large chunk is owned by local governments. Foreign direct investment has fallen for 12 months in a row, dropping 28.2% in the first five months of 2024 alone. Despite huge investments to ramp up production of new technologies, some of Beijing's trade partners are restricting Chinese imports.

"Here is an economy that has invested enormously in [research and development], people, and first-class infrastructure. But it is not being leveraged in a way that's helping to sustain growth in the economy," Brandt told DW.

Unintended consequences of Xi Jinping's power grab

Beijing, under President Xi Jinping's rule, has also moved toward more centralization of the economy through state ownership of industries. China's leaders decided the next wave of growth would be built on the back of domestic consumption, allowing the country to be less reliant on foreign exports.

However, many social programs haven't kept pace with China's economic miracle. Consumers who can no longer rely on low-cost health care, education and more than a basic state pension, are wary of spending more of their savings. Their household wealth has dropped by up to 30% as a result of the property crash, Brandt said.

"[Decentralization] during the first two or three decades gave room for local governments to make decisions," he added. "China benefited enormously from the autonomy, freedom and incentives that they had, and the enormous dynamism from the private sector. These issues are going to be much harder to reverse, especially under the current leadership."

In the late 2000s, the private sector made up close to two-thirds of the Chinese economy, but by the first half of last year, that share had dropped to 40%. The state-run and mixed-owned sector has grown much larger. While China now has the most firms listed in the Fortune magazine's ranking of leading global corporations, those companies are much less profitable than their US counterparts, averaging profit margins of 4.4% compared to 11.3% for US multinationals.

Is China the new Japan?

The big fear is that all these factors could see China's economy go the way of Japan. After World War II, Japan experienced an economic miracle, marked by decades of high growth that caused a massive stock market and real estate bubble.

At its peak, Japan was predicted by some economists to overtake the US as the world's largest economy. Then in 1992, the bubble burst, fortunes were lost, and the economy went into a tailspin. Japan has since failed to make up for several decades of lost growth.

Chinese economists, meanwhile, point to the country's industrial production being larger than the US's. Last year's GDP growth at 5.2% was more than double the US growth rate. The Asian country's economy already surpassed the US in 2016 when measured in purchasing power parity (PPP).

"In the past 45 years, China's development has faced many economic problems," Wang told DW. "But compared with the depression 30 years ago, the high debt 20 years ago, and the housing crash 10 years ago, the current problem is not the most serious."

Edited by: Ashutosh Pandey

Editor's note: This article was updated to change the term industrial GDP to industrial production.

The article, originally published on July 10, 2024, was updated on July 15 to reflect the start of a key Communist Party meeting in China.

Concern over Belarus-China military drills, near NATO border

Elena Doronin

DW

July 13, 2024

Belarus recently joined the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and is hosting joint military drills with China. What do the renewed ties mean?

Belarus and China began joint anti-terrorism military drills on Monday. Dubbed Eagle Assault 2024, the 11-day exercise will see troops practice night landings, overcome water obstacles and engage in urban combat drills.

The joint exercises follow Belarus joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Eurasian political, economic and defense organization led by Russia and China.

DW asked experts in the region why Belarus needs the SCO and what the joint drills with China could mean for the region.
Fighting terrorism?

Belarus has become the 10th member of the SCO, which originally consisted of the founders China and Russia, as well as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Since the organization's founding, India, Pakistan and Iran have also joined.

At first, the SCO was intended to address border disputes between the first five members. Later, joint security issues began to take center stage. Member states regularly take part in joint anti-terrorism exercises.

Belarus and China first cooperated on military exercises in 2018

Image: Vayar military information agency/Belarusian Defence Ministry/Handout/REUTERS

Most experts agree that the SCO does not provide members with any financial or economic support. Instead, it serves as a platform for negotiations and talks.

"Various heads of state and government come together in the SCO," said Pavel Matsukevich, a researcher at the Center for New Ideas think tank, which specializes in Belarusian politics. "They can pursue bilateral talks at the sidelines of SCO summit meetings."

Russian dependency

Belarus had ties with China and India even before joining the SCO. For years, the country's second-largest trading partner after Russia was the European Union (EU).

However, Anastasia Luzgina, a researcher at the Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC), said she believes Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has since made his country an international pariah. And "the economy has had to adapt to this new reality," she said.

Sanctions against Belarus — in part a response to fraudulent elections in 2020 and the state's human rights abuses against those protesting their outcome — have caused the nation's economy to shrink, the expert explained.

"At first, state officials turned toward Russia, but now they are looking for other markets," Luzgina said. As Belarus found it too risky to rely entirely on Russia, Minsk has been searching for alternatives should Russia fall into a recession, she added.

Luzgina also pointed out that Belarus was seeking to replace its European market with Asian partners, especially in China. She said Belarus' SCO membership is in line with this strategy.

A 'marriage of convenience'

SCO membership could also increase Belarus' chances of joining BRICS, Matsukevich said. Currently comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, the BRICS group wants to be seen as a challenger to the G7 bloc of highly industrialized countries.

"To Belarus, this is a marriage of convenience," said Matsukevich, a former diplomat. "The EU market is closed to them and access to ports is also closed to them. The country must resort to using Russian and Chinese infrastructure and pursuing trade with the third world."

He added that, in joining the SCO and cozying up to BRICS, Minsk also wants to decrease its dependence on Russia. Lukashenko apparently believes he will get something in return if he supports Russia, China or India, Matsukevich said.

Experts say China is Belarus' second-most important trading partner after Russia. "About 70% of Belarusian trade is with Russia, and about 10% goes to China," Luzgina said.

Belarusian Preisdent Alexander Lukashenko is pursuing closer ties with China, presumably also to move away from his nation's reliance on Russia

Image: Pang Xinglei/Xinhua/IMAGO Images

She added that China dominates that relationship. Shrinking trade ties with the EU mean Belarus has relied on Chinese machinery, cars and consumer goods while exporting potassium fertilizer — formerly sent mostly to Western countries — and food products to China.

Exercises on the Polish border

It may appear that this week's Chinese-Belarusian joint military exercises are a result of Belarus joining the SCO. But they are not the first military drills the two nations have undertaken together. These took place in 2018 in China's northeastern city of Jinan.

The countries are currently working together in Belarus' southwestern Brest, just 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) from the Polish border and 28 kilometers from Ukraine.

Matsukevich said Belarus' new SCO membership likely has little to do with the military exercises.

"Preparing for that takes time. It doesn't happen overnight," he said, adding that such drills always lead to tensions with neighboring countries.

From 2016 to 2020, before popular protests began in Belarus, Minsk had maintained a dialogue with NATO and even invited observers to its maneuvers. The current exercises in Belarus are more likely to cause a stir in Russia, the expert said, because the Chinese military is involved in drills within what Russia regards as its sphere of influence.

"I would assess this as a kind of challenge to Russian influence in this area, even though that's not how China is playing it," Matsukevich said. "These exercises are more evidence of how intensively Belarusian-Chinese relations have developed in all areas."

This article was originally published in Russian.

Where does Germany stand on gun control?

Ben Knight

updated July 14, 2024

In Germany, buying, possessing and using guns is strictly regulated. DW looks at the details of gun ownership laws.

According to the Weapons Act, you need a weapons possession card (Waffenbesitzkarte) to own or buy a firearm and a weapons license (Waffenschein) to use or carry a loaded firearm. This means collectors, for instance, only need the first. Hunters don't need a weapons license as long as they have a hunting license (Jagdschein) and only use their guns for hunting game.

A weapons possession card allows gun owners only to "transport" a firearm, rather than carry it. That means it must be unloaded and inside a locked case when taken out in public.

A license to carry a gun, or Waffenschein, is only granted in rare cases: Essentially when the applicant can prove that he or she is in greater danger than the general public and that carrying a gun will keep them safer. German law has no provision stipulating whether a gun must be concealed or loaded in public or not.

Raids of far-right extremists' homes regularly turn up a wide range of weapons

Image: Roland Weihrauch/dpa/picture alliance

There is also a minor firearms certificate, (Kleiner Waffenschein) which is easier to obtain, and is needed to carry lower-powered weapons, such as starting pistols, flare guns or anything that can only shoot blanks or irritants. Low powered air guns (below 7.5 joules) also come under this definition.

Altogether, the costs for an application, including the required insurance, can run to around €500 ($540).
What kinds of guns are legal in Germany?

German law makes a distinction between weapons and war weapons, with the latter listed in the War Weapons Control Act.

In Germany, it is illegal to possess or use any war weapons. These include all fully automatic rifles, machine guns (unless antiques from World War II or earlier), or barrels or breeches for such weapons. Pump-action shotguns are also banned under the Weapons Act. Some, though not all, semi-automatic weapons are defined as war weapons.
Who is allowed to carry guns in Germany?

Applicants for a German gun license must

1) be at least 18 years old,

2) have the necessary "reliability" and "personal aptitude,"

3) demonstrate the necessary "specialized knowledge,"

4) demonstrate a "need," and

5) have liability insurance for personal injury and property damage of at least €1 million.

German gun laws also stipulate how guns can be stored

Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Gentsch

How do applicants demonstrate 'reliability' and 'personal aptitude'?

Local authorities are responsible for processing gun license applications and therefore verifying reliability, personal aptitude and need. Depending on where the applicant lives, the competent authority could be either the public order office (Ordnungsamt) or the police.

Amongst other criteria, the law says that applicants are deemed unreliable or lacking personal aptitude, if:They have been convicted of a crime in the past 10 years
Their circumstances give reason to assume they will use weapons recklessly
They have been members of an organization that has been banned or deemed unconstitutional
They have in the past five years pursued or supported activities deemed a threat to Germany's foreign interests
They have been taken into preventive police custody more than once in the past five years
They are dependent on alcohol, drugs, or are mentally ill.

In addition, anyone under 25 applying for their first gun license must provide a certificate of "mental aptitude" from a public health officer or psychologist.

How do applicants demonstrate 'specialized knowledge'?

Applicants for a gun license must pass an examination or have undergone training to acquire a gun. State examinations cover the legal and technical aspects of firearms, safe handling, and shooting skills.

Specialized knowledge can also be verified with other examinations, as long as they cover the same areas: These include hunting license examinations, gunsmith's trade examinations, or full-time employment in the gun or arms trade for three years.

The completion of certain training courses involving firearms, which conclude with an examination, is also recognized as specialized knowledge.

In addition, officially recognized shooting associations can also carry out their own examinations.

In Germany it is also possible to try out shooting with professional guidance, even if you don't own a gun license, gun ownership card or club membership.

Image: Silas Stein/dpa/picture alliance

How do applicants demonstrate 'need'?

The law states that gun license applicants must prove some need to obtain one, and defines this as "personal or economic interests meriting special recognition, above all as a hunter, marksman, traditional marksman, collector of weapons or ammunition, weapons or ammunition expert, endangered person, a weapons manufacturer, weapons dealer or a security firm."

People who show they are unusually likely to be the victim of a crime can also be deemed as having a need to carry a firearm.

Members of shooting associations and clubs can also demonstrate the "need" for a gun license if they submit a certificate from an association of sports shooters confirming that they need these weapons in order to maintain their tradition.

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

Rwanda: President Kagame reelected with 99% — early results

Projected results from the election commission after polls closed in Rwanda put incumbent Paul Kagame on 99.15%. Turnout was said to be 98%. Only two opposition candidates with no real profile were allowed to run.

More than 9 million Rwandans were called to vote for a new president on Monday, and according to official results, more than 99% of them supported the incumbent Paul Kagame for a fourth term.

Soon after polls closed on Monday evening, the election commission said that Kagame had won 99.15% of the votes.

It also put turnout at a staggeringly high 98%. By comparison, even in those few countries where citizens are legally obliged to vote or face a fine, such as Australia, turnout only ever tends to be between 90 and 95%.

Same opposition candidates, similarly poor performance

The apparent interest in the vote was all the more surprising, given that it was effectively a re-run of a non-contest in 2017, when Kagame won 98.79% of the vote.

Only two opposition candidates, the same ones as in 2017, had been allowed to compete. Eight people had applied.

Frank Habineza, the leader of the Democratic Green Party, looked set to claim 0.53% of votes, compared to 0.48% in 2017.
Philippe Mpayimana, an independent, was on track for 0.32%, according to early projections.

Autocracy and infrastructure

Kagame, 66, is seen in turn as an autocrat who swiftly silences any criticism but also as a strong leader who brought the country back to stability after the devastating genocide of 1994. Some 800,000 people, mostly ethnic Tutsis, died in a period of 100 days. Kagame has been the de facto leader since then and president since 2000.

Abroad, Kagame has been heavily criticized for arbitrarily jailing his political opponents, as well as extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

He has also been accused of stoking unrest in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo, where a recent UN report says Rwandan troops are fighting alongside M23 rebels in the troubled east.

With some 65% of Rwanda's population under 30, Kagame is the only leader much of the country has ever known. He has overseen controversial new laws that allow him to rule until at least 2034.

For weeks, the powerful propaganda arm of his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has been working full-tilt while courts rejected appeals from prominent opposition figures Bernard Ntaganda and Victoire Ingabire to remove previous convictions that effectively disqualified them from running.

Despite reports from the World Bank saying almost half the population lives on less than $2.15 (approximately €1.97) per day, Kagame maintains broad popularity in Rwanda.

He is credited with economic growth rates of an average of 7.2% between 2012 and 2022 and the development of infrastructure, including hospitals and roads.

msh, es/lo (AFP, dpa)