3 journalists killed in Israeli airstrike on press compound in southern Lebanon

WAR CRIME: DELIBERATELY TARGETED


Lebanese Armed Forces soldiers inspect a destroyed vehicle marked "Press" in the aftermath of an Israeli strike in Hasbaya in the south of the country in the early hours of Friday that killed two Lebanese cameramen and a broadcast engineer and injured three others. The men were staying in a compound housing journalists from seven news organizations. Photo by STR/EPA-EFE

Oct. 25, 2024 


Oct. 25 (UPI) -- An Israeli airstrike on a compound in southeastern Lebanon killed three journalists Friday and injured three other people, according to their news organizations and health officials.

The Hezbollah-run Al-Manar network said one of its cameramen died in the attack in Hasbaya near the border with Israel and the pro-Iranian Al Mayadeen said it had lost a cameraman and a broadcast engineer, The New York Times reported.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary, who said the site housed seven news organizations with 18 journalists present in total, alleged the site was targeted on purpose saying the attack was a "war crime."

The BBC said the three deceased were all Lebanese nationals, naming them as Al Manar's Wissam Qassem and cameraman Ghassan Najjar and engineer Mohamed Reda from Al Mayadeen.

Footage circulating online, purportedly of the aftermath, shows vehicles, flak jackets and other items clearly marked "Press" although these may not have been visible as the airstrike took in darkness at around 3 a.m. local time.

Israel Defense Forces did not immediately comment but the incident, which brings to eight the number of journalists in Lebanon killed in Israeli strikes, brought protests from groups advocating for journalists' safety and press freedom.

The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York said it "strongly condemned" Israel's killing of three journalists in southern Lebanon.

"The international community must act to stop Israel's long-standing pattern of impunity in journalist killings," the non-profit said in a post on X.

Israel has consistently denied that it targets journalists but according to CPJ's preliminary findings ahead of Friday's deaths, at least 128 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, making it the deadliest period for journalists in the organization's 32-year history.

At least three of those killed, two staffers and a freelancer, worked for the Qatar-run international TV news network, Al Jazeera, which Israel expelled from the country in May over its coverage of the Gaza war which the Israeli government and military alleged was unbalanced and unfair.

On Wednesday Israel named six Al Jazeera journalists as alleged Hamas operatives, saying they were using Al Jazeera's global reach to shill for Hamas, a group designated as a terror organization by the United States and many other Western countries.

It also accused five of the six of holding military roles in Hamas ranging from sniper to battalion team commander, in addition to their propaganda duties.

Israel said it had "unequivocal" documentary evidence against the journalists but Al Jazeera completely rejected the claims, accusing the IDF of pursuing a policy of targeting its staff working in Gaza.

The CPJ also expressed skepticism over the IDF claims saying it was part of a pattern of groundless accusations.

"Israel has repeatedly made similar unproven claims without producing credible evidence," the group said pointing to similar "documentary proof" showing Al Jazeera reporter Ismail Al-Ghoul, who was 26 when he was killed in an IDF drone strike in Gaza in July, received a Hamas military ranking in 2007 -- when he would have been 10 years old.

Polish radio station's move to replace journalists with AI bots sparks backlash


Three AI-generated avatars began delivering the news on a Polish radio station this week, sparking a backlash by journalists who say they were laid off to accommodate the move. Photo by Maylin Sojo/Pixabay

Oct. 25, 2024 

Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A Polish radio station that replaced its human journalists with a trio of artificial intelligence-generated avatars to compile the news has sparked a backlash from reporters and skepticism from the government.

Calling it an "experiment" on "the opportunities and threats that the development of artificial intelligence bring," the online station OFF Radio Krakow on Monday rolled out a new format in which three virtual hosts, created using AI technology, deliver news content prepared by "real journalists who use artificial intelligence tools" to generate the text.

The AI avatars each host a two-hour show on weekdays, according to Marcin Pulit, the station's editor-in-chief.

"The project is time-limited," he said. "We assume that it will last no longer than 3 months and will be evaluated."

Despite assurances the use of AI-generated journalists is merely a temporary experiment, alarms were set off across the country.

Mateusz Demski, a former live host at OFF Radio Krakow who insists real journalists were laid off by the station in order to automate the news, led an effort to bring the incident to the attention of the public and the government.

Demski said Thursday a petition he composed, addressed to fellow journalists and Polish government officials demanding an explanation of the move, had been delivered to the Ministry of Culture with 19,000 signatures.

Nowhere in Pulit's announcement does he mention "that several people had lost their jobs shortly before," the petition states.

A letter similarly demanding information on the AI hosts signed by former journalists at OFF Radio Krakow was sent to Polish Culture Minister Hanna Wróblewska, Demski said in a Facebook post.

The controversy was also joined by Deputy Polish Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who serves as the country's minister of digital affairs. He voiced skepticism about the station's move in a social media post on Wednesday.

"I read Mateusz Demski's story about the replacement of journalists by artificial intelligence at OFF Radio Krakow and although I am a fan of AI development, I believe that certain boundaries are being crossed more and more," he wrote, adding, "The widespread use of AI must be done for people, not against them!"

Pulit denied that live journalists were laid off to make way for the AI bots.

He told the Polish business news website Money.pl that "no OFF Radio Krakow employee was dismissed" -- rather, freelancers who were supplying a limited amount of original content to a station that mainly played automated music had contracts that were allowed to lapse.

"The listenership range of OFF Radio Krakow was close to zero," Pulit said, adding that its programming overlapped with its parent station, Radio Krakow, and another digital channel.

"This was the basis for the decision to make the change," he said.

21ST CENTURY IMPERIALISM

Wary of Japan's "Asian NATO" Proposal, Neighboring Countries Stick With Web of Alternatives

Oct. 25, 2024

Italian Navy, Italian-French European Multi Mission Frigate (FREMM ), Alpino (F594) arrives at Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Yokosuka Naval Base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa-Prefecture, Japan on Thursday, August 22, 2024. Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 25 (UPI) --Japan In the lead-up to his election, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba floated the idea of an "Asian NATO" to deter the increasing aggressiveness of China in the Asia-Pacific region. The prospect of setting up an alliance in the Asia-Pacific region resembling the collective defense promised by Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty is hindered by the reality that few, if any, countries are willing to commit to the collective defense of an area where a nuclear nation is already actively testing the limits of its power.

The proposal faced skepticism from regional players, particularly ASEAN countries, which fear that such an alliance could increase economic tensions with China and disrupt their stance of non-alignment. Prime Minister Ishiba has since backed away from this proposal and did not mention it during his first overseas visit with ASEAN leaders earlier this month.

"There are two ways to read it," said Robert Ward, Japan Chair and Director of Geo-economics and Strategy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in an interview with UPI.

"One is to take it literally. It is a complicated thing to bring about, not least of which because you would need constitutional change [in Japan]....The other thing is to look at it as Ishiba floating ideas...this idea not in itself, but what he's trying to convey with this in terms of where Japan's future security debate should go. What he's really saying is that 'the threat from China is so significant that we really need to link up with like-minded countries.'"

Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said in a statement earlier this month in response to Ishiba's proposal that Japan "often hypes up the non-existent 'China threat' to divert the international community's attention from its own military expansion."

China's military exercises earlier this month encircled Taiwan, setting a record with the highest number of Chinese military aircraft crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, while Chinese coast guard vessels intentionally collided with Philippine ships during maritime standoffs earlier this year. Japan and its regional allies are concerned that China's threats to the region are far from "hyped-up" and are part of a greater normalization of incremental encroachments in the region.

"We are facing a post-peak globalization planet that now is operating essentially under new rules of the game," said Mike Studeman, National Security Fellow at MITRE and former Rear Admiral and Commander of the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, at a Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) press conference on October 25th.

"When one country that size becomes very zero-sum and mercantilist, then it has very strong repercussions for many other countries that are interdependent."

One effect of this, however, has been the recent doubling down on Japanese defense spending proposals that would have, in the recent past, seemed unthinkable. Although there is skepticism about the proposed timeline, Japan's latest National Security Strategy, published in 2022, announced an increase in military spending to 2% of its GDP. While on par with the proposed military spending for NATO members, this potentially puts Japan on track to become the third-largest military in the world. However, constitutional limitations prevent this from being called a "military" and would still restrict its offensive capabilities. The weakening of the yen is another obstacle that could prevent many of Japan's defense ambitions from coming to fruition.

While an "Asian NATO" might be a bridge too far, a plethora of smaller formal and informal defense alliances already exist in Asia and are expanding in addition to the many cooperative trade agreements in the region set up with half an eye on balancing China's influence. The Japan-Philippines Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), created in July, is an example, which allows Japanese forces to deploy in the Philippines for joint military exercises. Japan has also signed RAA agreements with Australia and the United Kingdom.

The Quad (an informal alliance between the U.S., Japan, Australia, and India) meets frequently to discuss defense and security in the Asia-Pacific region. There has been support for the idea that this alliance should be expanded into a "Quint" or a "Quad Plus" to include South Korea. South Korean President Yoon has signaled in the past that South Korea would accept an invitation if one were made.

"What you've got now is these groupings, many laterals, some of them more formal than others," says Ward.

"The beauty of these is that you can link like-minded countries together on specific issues and deal with specific strategic issues in a kind of spot way, whereas if you try to link everybody up, you'd never get agreement."

An "Asian NATO" may not be possible to create given the geopolitical diversity of the Asia-Pacific. However, the diversity of ideas within Asia on how to manage Chinese aggression have in effect acted as a multiplier, creating a broad spectrum of alliances and approaches that make managing the balancing forces that China is up against much more complex.

"China would love to be able to only deal with these things bilaterally where they maintain all of the advantages," says Studeman. "This is a time when many states need to work together as a coalition."

King Charles III acknowledges 'painful past,' does not endorse reparations for royal slavery profiteering

Britain's King Charles III Thursday acknowledged a painful past of Britain and the royal family's profiting from human slavery, but did not support financial reparations payments at a Samoan summit of Commonwealth leaders. Twelve British monarchs profited from the slave trade over a span of 270 years, according to historians. Photo by Lukas Coch/ EPA-EFE

Oct. 25 (UPI) -- King Charles III acknowledged a "painful" past of Britain and the royal family's profiting from human slavery, but did not support financial reparations payments at a Samoan summit of Commonwealth leaders.

Speaking to the gathering in Chogm, Charles said, "the most painful aspects" of the British commonwealth's past "continue to resonate."

He said there is a need to "acknowledge where we have come from."

According to historians, for 270 years 12 British monarchs sponsored, supported or profited from Britain's human slave trafficking.

From Elizabeth I in the 1500s, who shared profits from the slave trade and gave a large royal ship to slave trader John Hawkins, all the way to William IV in the 1800s, Britain's royal family directly benefited from slavery.

Some African and Caribbean nations have called for Britain and other European powers to pay financial reparations as compensation for slavery.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has ruled out reparations or even apologizing for Britain's complicity in the slave trade, but has indicated a willingness to support debt relief and financial institution restructuring to partially address reparatory justice.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said a reparative justice plan is needed that deals with the enduring psychological and socioeconomic impacts of slavery.

He noted that millions of dollars in compensation went to enslavers when slavery was abolished, while zero was paid to those people who were enslaved.

"There was nothing for them to start with and build on -- no land, no money, no training, no education," Gonsalves told The Guardian.

Calls for reparations in the British Commonwealth aren't just attempts to get money paid to slavery's victims of the past, it's an effort to officially recognize that centuries of enslavement have had centuries of adverse impacts on descendants of slaves.

Just one company formed by British royals to conduct the slave trade took 41,923 African slaves captive on its ships from 1714-1740, according to the Slave Voyages database.

Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702-1714, dramatically expanded Britain's slave trading by using the South Sea Company to secure a monopoly on supplying African slaves to Spain's South American colonies.

In 2023, Charles III indicated support for researching royal family links to slavery after a 1689 document revealed King William III had a financial investment in a slave trading company.

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PRIVATIZED WATER

Thames Water secures $3.9B loan to keep it afloat through October 2025


Thames Water, Britain's largest water utility, announced Friday it had secured a $3.9 billion lifeline, access to cash reserves and extensions on its liabilities to keep it afloat for the next 12 months as it battles to restructure a $20.8 billion mountain of debt. File photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Britain's embattled Thames Water, the country's largest water utility, announced Friday it had secured a $3.9 billion line of credit, access to cash reserves and extensions on its debt to keep it afloat through October 2025 after regulators capped bill rises.

The company, which serves 16 million homes and businesses in London and the southeast, said in a news release that it had launched a "consent process" on a transaction support agreement with its creditors and shareholders that if approved would provide a significant boost to Thames Water's "liquidity runway."

It said completion of the Liquidity Extension Transaction and the related Security Trust and Intercreditor Deed proposals would improve the solvency position of the business sufficiently "to enable us to continue with the planned investment and maintenance of our infrastructure in order to continue to meet customers' needs, and our environmental responsibilities."

The deal buys Thames more time to restructure a $20.8 billion debt mountain that it admitted would climb to $23.3 billion by the end of the financial year in March.

Related

British water companies ordered to repay $139M to customers for poor performance
Britain's Thames Water secures $960M cash injection amid nationalization threat
Britain weighs taking Thames Water utility into public ownership
British water utilities seek approval for $117B modernization plan paid for by higher bills
British water companies ordered to repay $139M to customers for poor performance

But Thames said it would also allow it to progress its equity raise process, a recapitalization transaction and complete a final determination process to figure out if a five-year Ofwat package of price controls, service requirements and incentives is workable -- and if not, to appeal to the antitrust regulator.

Launching an appeal with the Competition and Markets Authority would further extend the transaction, keeping Thames liquid for another seven months through May 2026.

The BBC reported that the deal centered on existing creditors agreeing to take a haircut.

Last month, Thames warned it could run out of money by December after Ofwat, the water industry regulator, placed it in special measures and denied it permission in July to hike customers' bills -- initially by 43% by 2030 and then 53% -- that the company said it needed to avoid going bust

Thames and 15 other water utilities in England and Wales wanted to cover the $135.7 billion cost of modernization plans to maintain quality drinking water, build 10 new reservoirs and cut water pollution by raising annual bills by $187 over the next five years.

But Ofwat capped the rise at $122 amid public anger over poor performance including the loss of billions of gallons of water through leaks, raw sewage spills into rivers and lakes and polluted swimming beaches.

Thames was allowed a 23% raise meaning the average bill will rise to $695 a year.

The cap is linked to a September 2023 ruling in which Ofwat said 11 of the water companies must pay their customers back a combined $139 million in 2024 through lower bills as a penalty for "underperformance" on pollution, leaks and customer service.

As the largest water utility by far, Thames had to pick up 90% of the tab or $122.7 million after their performance was assessed against annual targets for 2022 to 2023 and found "seriously wanting." It was among seven water companies judged as "lagging, with the other four deemed only "average" and none were categorized as 'leading.'"

However, CEO Chris Weston hailed Friday's announcement as proof of the progress Thames, which has a $20.8 billion debt mountain, was making toward getting back onto a more stable financial footing, stressing that the company had also upped Ofwat-verified service performance levels

"We are working closely with and have the support of our creditors, enabling Thames to continue to implement our turnaround plan so that we can deliver better results for our customers and the environment whilst seeking to attract new capital into the business," said CEO Chris Weston.

"In the meantime, our teams on the ground continue to supply our services to our 16 million customers every day."

Thames Water Chairman Sir Adrian Montague said the finance injection was an important step in the process of bolstering the company's long-term financial resilience.

"There will be further stages and we will continue to work collaboratively with our many stakeholders as we look to attract new equity into the business and seek a final determination that enables the delivery of our ambitious business plan for the next five years," said Sir Adrian.

Proof that immigrants fuel U.S. economy can be seen in the billions they send back home

By Ernesto Castañeda, American University
Oct. 25, 2024 

THE CONVERSATION

Social scientists and analysts tend to concur that immigration -- both documented and undocumented -- spurs economic growth. Photo by Pixabay/Pexels

Donald Trump has vowed to deport millions of immigrants if he is elected to a second term, claiming that, among other things, foreign-born workers take jobs from others. His running mate JD Vance has echoed those anti-immigrant views.

Researchers, however, generally agree that massive deportations would hurt the U.S. economy, perhaps even triggering a recession.

Social scientists and analysts tend to concur that immigration -- both documented and undocumented -- spurs economic growth. But it is almost impossible to calculate directly how much immigrants contribute to the economy. That's because we don't know the earnings of every immigrant worker in the United States.

We do, however, have a good idea of how much they send back to their home countries -- more than $81 billion in 2022, according to the World Bank. And we can use this figure to indirectly calculate the total economic value of immigrant labor in the United States.

Economic contributions are likely underestimated

I conducted a study with researchers at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the Immigration Lab at American University to quantify how much immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy based on their remittances, or money sent back home.

Several studies indicate that remittances constitute 17.5% of immigrants' income.

Given that, we estimate that the immigrants who remitted in 2022 had take-home wages of over $466 billion. Assuming their take-home wages are around 21% of the economic value of what they produce for the businesses they work for -- like workers in similar entry-level jobs in restaurants and construction -- then immigrants added a total of $2.2 trillion to the U.S. economy yearly.

That is about 8% of the gross domestic product of the United States and close to the entire GDP of Canada in 2022 -- the world's ninth-largest economy.

Immigration strengthens the United States

Beyond its sheer value, this figure tells us something important about immigrant labor: The main beneficiaries of immigrant labor are the U.S. economy and society.

The $81 billion that immigrants sent home in 2022 is a tiny fraction of their total economic value of $2.2 trillion. The vast majority of immigrant wages and productivity -- 96% -- stayed in the United States.

Remittances from the United States represent a substantial income source for the people who receive them. But they do not represent a siphoning of U.S. dollars, as Trump has implied when he called remittances "welfare" for people in other countries and suggested taxing them to pay for the construction of a border wall.

The economic contributions of U.S. immigrants are likely to be even more substantial than what we calculate.

For one thing, the World Bank's estimate of immigrant remittances is probably an undercount, since many immigrants send money abroad with people traveling to their home countries.

In prior research, my colleagues and I have also found that some groups of immigrants are less likely to remit than others.

One is white-collar professionals -- immigrants with careers in banking, science, technology and education, for example. Unlike many undocumented immigrants, white-collar professionals typically have visas that allow them to bring their families with them, so they do not need to send money abroad to cover their household expenses back home.

Immigrants who have been working in the country for decades and have more family in the country also tend to send remittances less often.

Both of these groups have higher earnings, and their specialized contributions are not included in our $2.2 trillion estimate.

Additionally, our estimates do not account for the economic growth stimulated by immigrants when they spend money in the United States, creating demand, generating jobs and starting businesses that hire immigrants and locals.

For example, we calculate the contributions of Salvadoran immigrants and their children alone added roughly $223 billion to the U.S. economy in 2023. That's about 1% of the country's entire GDP.

Considering that the U.S. economy grew by about 2% in 2022 and 2023, that's a substantial sum.

These figures are a reminder that the financial success of the United States relies on immigrants and their labor.

Ernesto Castañeda is a professor at American University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

RIP

Grateful Dead bassist, co-founder Phil Lesh dies at 84


Grateful Dead co-founder Phil Lesh, shown performing at the Mizner Park Amphitheater in Boca Raton, Fla., on June 22, 2006, died Friday at age 84. File Photo by Michael Bush/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 25 (UPI) -- Phil Lesh, the innovative and unconventional bassist and founding member of the seminal American rock band The Grateful Dead, died Friday. He was 84.

The announcement of his death was posted on his official Instagram page.



Lesh "passed peacefully this morning. He was surrounded by his family and full of love. Phil brought immense joy to everyone around him and leaves behind a legacy of music and love," the post read.

Lesh, born in Berkeley, Calif., on March 15, 1940, attended the University of California-Berkeley after growing up in a middle-class family headed by his parents, who owned an office machine repair shop.

After making several musical forays and receiving classical training, Lesh first met Grateful Dead co-founder Jerry Garcia in 1959 and again in 1964 when Garcia was fronting The Warlocks, an early incarnation of the famous band.

Garcia invited Lesh to join the Warlocks as a bass player -- an instrument he had never played -- and the partnership lasted for decades until Garcia's death in 1995.

He taught himself to play bass, incorporating a distinctive style that leaned on classical music concepts such as Johann Sebastian Bach's "counterpoint" style in which two independent musical themes combine to play off of each other.

But as in most things musically associated with the band, it was his improvisations that most enthralled audiences. One of his signature sounds was the "bass bomb," in which he would pound out three-note chords rather than play single notes.

Lesh also contributed vocally on the Dead's early 1970s masterpiece albums, Workingman's Dead and American Beauty, but afterwards stepped back from singing duties.

Following Garcia's death, Lesh enthusiastically continued the Grateful Dead's tradition by occasionally appearing and touring with other survivors under differing formations.

In recent years, he and his wife, Jill, opened the Terrapin Crossroads restaurant and music venue in San Rafael, Calif., with their sons, Grahame and Brian, serving as house band, according to Rolling Stone.

What can stop the rise of populism  (FASCISM) in Germany and elsewhere?

Hans Pfeifer

DW

OCTOBER 26,3034

Populist parties are on the rise in Germany as they are all over the world. What can open societies do to protect democracy?

Björn Höcke, the chair of the Alternative for Germany party in the German state of Thuringia, can legally be described as a, according to a court ruling

Image: Bodo Schackow/dpa/picture alliance


Populism has many faces, but its pattern is always the same. Whether it's coming from Donald Trump in the US, Narendra Modi in India or from Björn Höcke and Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) it is always about supposed elites who have conspired against the people.

These elites are then cast the "enemies of the people" in a "them versus us" mentality.

And whether it's the climate crisis, conflict, or rapid social change, populist movements always promise salvation to an uncertain public. Populists present themselves as strong, charismatic leaders who will fix everything. And when law enforcement or the courts come for them, those institutions become "the enemies of the people" too.

Höcke, the state chairman of the AfD branch in Germany's eastern state of Thuringia, has also flirted with presenting himself as the supposed savior of the country.

"I am convinced that the Germans' longing for a historical figure who will once again heal the wounds of the nation, overcome division and put things in order is deeply rooted in our souls," he wrote in his book Never Twice in the Same River.

Höcke is alluding to a far-right propaganda video that depicts him as the 12th-century Holy Roman Emperor Barbarossa. According to an old legend, Barbarossa, who is known for making peace across the Germanic kingdoms and beyond, is not dead but only sleeping and will wake up again to unite his loyal followers.

Could Germany repeat its Nazi past?  28:34

Against equality and freedom from discrimination

The rise of populist parties has become a serious challenge for democratic states.

"What we are seeing is that central values are being called into question by right-wing populists, such as equality, human dignity and the right to freedom from discrimination," said political scientist Hans Vorländer, a professor at Germany's Technical University of Dresden who has spent a career researching right-wing populism.

"It is necessary for us to understand that right-wing populist parties are not going to simply disappear. We have to learn how to deal with them," he said. "This is more difficult in Germany than in other countries because we have seen how forces can destroy democracy."

Academics and lawmakers around the world have sounded the alarm about the threat posed by populism to democratic societies. The storming of the US Capitol in Washington by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021, has shown how justified these warnings are.

In Germany, too, there is growing evidence of how dangerous the AfD may be for the rule of law. At the beginning of September, the AfD in Thuringia became the first far-right party since World War II to win the most votes in a German state election. Höcke was widely celebrated by his supporters in the wake of the victory, and the AfD opened parliament with such disdain for the rest of the lawmakers that eventually a court had to intervene.

Yet despite all the fresh research and the media hand-wringing, populism has largely been allowed to march on unchecked in recent years. So what is to be done about it?

Rise of Germany's far-right AfD sparks fear among refugees  02:45

Investments to combat right-wing populism

The German-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy came up with an interesting solution for Europe: investment. The institute investigated the influence of public investment in structurally weak regions of Europe on right-wing populist parties. The results, published in April 2024, showed that in regions receiving support, the share of votes for right-wing populist parties fell by 15-20%.

The study concluded that "EU regional funding of one hundred euros per capita reduces the share of votes for right-wing populist parties in an average region by 0.5 percentage points."

Scientists like Vorländer also say that politicians need to invest much more in political education if they want to protect, in particular, young people against populist content on social media.

It is becoming more difficult for democratic parties to reach first-time voters because they are losing their power to reach them, Vorländer says.

"We have to realize that party democracy is losing structure and strength. Party democracy is changing into a movement democracy, which is much more volatile," he told DW.

Loyalty to political parties is no longer as permanent as it was once. Experts are therefore calling for ordinary people to be more involved in political decision-making outside of elections.

Sociologist Steffen Mau of Berlin's Humboldt University, for example, has advocated so-called citizens' councils where people with very different world views should come together to discuss political issues and find solutions. This, he believes, would help people question extreme ideologies.

Never again! What is Germany's culture of remembrance? 12:34

  Bans as a last resort

The ultimate measure against the threat to democracy is now being debated in Germany: legal proceedings to ban the AfD. For years, courts, security authorities and civil organizations have been collecting evidence that the party is dangerous.

An outright ban on the party, however, faces high legal hurdles. Either the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz or one of the two houses of parliament would have to officially apply for such a ban. That application would then be reviewed by Germany's Constitutional Court.

A party has only been banned twice in Germany's post-war history, and the last time that happened was in 1956.

But Vorländer says that in this case, a ban is more than justifiable.

"The democratic parties must make it clear that they are prepared to set boundaries. They should not shy away from having these boundaries implemented by the Constitutional Court" he said.

This article was originally written in German.

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.


Hans Pfeifer DW reporter specializing in right-wing extremism

Gay Russo-Belarusian couple seeks asylum in Bulgaria

Margarita Nikolova

DW

OCTOBER 26, 2024

Though Bulgaria recently passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, the country still offers the best chance for Andrei and Alex to live together free from persecution. They say their lives would be worse in their home countries.

Alex (left) and Andrei hope to live freely, as a married couple, in Bulgaria

Image: privat


Andrei is a 30-year-old political refugee and artist from the Belarusian capital, Minsk. He did not want to reveal his surname because he feared the repercussions for his relatives in Belarus. He hopes the Bulgarian state will give him asylum so that he can stay in the country with his Russian husband Alex, a journalist and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The two met when Andrei moved to Moscow in 2011, where he opened a small pottery workshop. They both say it was love at first sight, and have been inseparable ever since they met.

They were married in Denmark 10 years ago, as same-sex marriages are not recognized in either Russia or Belarus, where increasingly repressive laws have made it very difficult for LGBTQ+ people.

It's also become increasingly difficult to be a journalist in Putin's Russia. "Because of my job, I regularly received threats on my cellphone," Alex told DW. "To be honest, I was used to it because it had been happening for years." But the threats got worse after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Later that year, the men decided to leave Russia and applied for asylum in Bulgaria. The answer came almost a year later: Alex was allowed to stay, but not Andrei.

LGBTQ+ movement supporters escaping to Spain 05:10

LGBTQ+ people in detention can 'be tortured, raped'

In Moscow, Alex worked for kasparov.ru, a Putin-critical website that has been banned since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Its owner — chess grand master and political activist Garry Kasparov — is on Russia's list of "terrorists and extremists." Alex said it was "very clear that very real problems could arise because of the political nature of my website."

Andrei was also at great risk of being persecuted for his political beliefs. Since 2006, he has taken part in protests against Belarus' authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko. He has also spoken out openly against Russia's aggression against Ukraine. He said Belarusian authorities continued to look for protesters and were still arresting them, even though it's already been four years since the last mass demonstrations took place in Belarus.

Andrei explained that opponents of the Belarusian regime were often arrested when trying to leave Belarus via a border other than the one shared with Russia. And detention is even worse for LGBTQ+ people: "You can be tortured, you can be raped. All of that can happen."

Bulgaria's refugee agency rejects risk of persecution

However, for the Bulgarian state, this is not reason enough to grant asylum to Andrei. According to the State Agency for Refugees, Andrei's story is contradictory and illogical, and he is not at risk of political persecution or serious harm. The agency has claimed Andrei was able to enter Russia from Belarus several times, without being bothered.

Andrei (left) recently met with Belarusian opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya in Bulgaria

Image: privat

Denitsa Lyubenova, the couple's lawyer, refutes this argument. "The application refers to entries and exits into and from Russia because the agency does not know that there is no de facto border between Russia and Belarus," she said. "So, these cannot be considered normal border crossings with identity documents being checked, at which he could have been arrested or given a kind of document."

Furthermore, she told DW that the agency had not taken into account the fact that even if Andrei himself did not have a history of persecution, he was exposed to the same risks as the husband of a person who is politically persecuted.

"He is not an independent asylum-seeker. He is seeking asylum as Alex's relative," she said.
Bulgaria does not recognize same-sex marriages

Though the two men could prove that they got married in Denmark, they were both registered as being single in their applications as Bulgaria does not recognize same-sex marriages. "The agency does not think that Alex and I share anything, that we're just friends," Andrei told DW. "They do not think I share the same risks as my partner."

They plan to resubmit their application with the support of their lawyer. They will argue that as a married couple, they are at equal risk of persecution and need protection together. They also intend to go to the European Court of Human Rights.

Russia outlaws LGBTQ+ content as 'extremist'



02:37


Andrei and Alex have never hidden the fact that they are a couple, and this led to psychological and physical harassment at home. "The police in Belarus and Russia would probably make fun of anyone who says they are attacked because of their sexual orientation because we have no laws against discrimination," said Alex. "There are no cases of assaults based on sexual orientation being recognized as discrimination. LGBTQ+ people are not considered a social group."

In April, Belarus passed another repressive law that defines the portrayal of same-sex relationships and trans people as pornography, which is punishable by up to four years in prison.
Bulgaria has also passed anti-LGBTQ+ legislation

Alex and Andrei said they felt safe in Bulgaria. "There are not so many repressive laws here, no political prisoners, no war and no dictators like Lukashenko and Putin," said Andrei.

However, in August, Bulgaria also passed a law based on Russian legislation that drastically restricted the rights of LGBTQ+ people and banned "propaganda for non-traditional sexual orientations" in Bulgarian schools. The bill was introduced by the pro-Russia, nationalist Rebirth party and passed with a large majority in the Bulgarian parliament. Many legal experts have said the new law is unconstitutional.

According to the Deystvie, a Bulgarian organization that campaigns for the social and legal equality of LGBTQ+ people, queer people are at a legal disadvantage. Same-sex couples are not allowed to marry, they cannot adopt children together or inherit their partner's property. Trans people are not able to legally change their gender.

Andrei and Alex were shocked by the controversial new law. "Now I feel less safe because I see the strong influence of Moscow here in Bulgaria," said Alex. But he added that he refused to give up hope of a life with Andrei in Bulgaria, which he said was still "a democratic country."

This article was originally written in German.

Turkey, the Kurds and the PKK

Burak Ünveren1

DW

The PKK has claimed responsibility for an attack on a defense company in Ankara in which five people were killed. Who is the PKK and what do they strive for?

Image: Alain Pitton/Imago Images

The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Turkish defense company TUSAS in Ankara, according to the Kurdish news agency ANF.

The report states that the "Immortal Battalion," an autonomous unit of the PKK's military arm, was responsible for the attack, which was carried out in response to Turkish "massacres" and other actions in Kurdish regions.

The attack took place shortly after an advance on the possible release of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan under the condition that his organization disarms. The PKK denies any links between this and to the attack.

Who is the PKK and what are their aims?

The latest attack might have thwarted attempts to release PKK-founder Abdullah Ocalan after years of prison in return for disarming the PKKImage: Christoph Hardt/Panama Pictures/picture alliance

The origins of the PKK

In Turkey, social tensions between Turks and Kurds have been an issue for decades.

Kurds have been demanding more cultural and political rights from the centrally organized Turkish state, while Ankara often frames such demands as a threat to national stability.

Kurds make up around 20% of Turkey's population. While they live all over the country, the largest communities are concentrated in the southeast. Kurdish groups also live in the neighboring states of Syria, Iraq and Iran.

In Iraq, the Kurds hold a semi-autonomous status in the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan, while in northeastern Syria some areas are under the control of the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Within Turkey, two main actors seek to represent the interests of the Kurds: The Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party, or DEM — the third largest party in parliament — and the PKK. The DEM Party is committed to a peaceful, political solution whereas the originally Marxist-Leninist PKK is armed, and its members have engaged in guerrilla tactics.

Abdullah Ocalan is said to control the PKK from behind barsImage: Mustafa Abadan/AA/picture alliance

What are the PKK's aims?

Founded in 1978, the PKK's original aim was to establish an independent Kurdish state. However, since 1984, the PKK has been engaged in an armed conflict with the Turkish state.

According to several political scientists, this conflict is considered a low-intensity war. It has claimed up to 40,000 civilian and military victims on both sides. The PKK is classified as a terrorist organization in the USA and the EU.

Since 1995, the organization has been striving for autonomy and cultural rights for Kurds within Turkey and has given up its demand for independence in favour of a system of self-government.

The PKK is believed to have 60,000 members, including active fighters, supporters and sympathizers.

The Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq are its main base of operations, where it organizes militant campaigns and logistics. Turkey regularly bombs positions of Kurdish groups in Iraq and Syria.

Criminalization of Kurdish politics

Over the last ten years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), has increasingly criminalized Kurdish politics in Turkey.

The DEM Party and other factions have been associated with the PKK, although the DEM Party officially advocates a peaceful solution and distances itself from the PKK.

Many Kurdish politicians, including the former chairman of the People's Democratic Party, or HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, have been jailed on terrorism charges.

While some HDP members have family ties to the PKK, such as Omer Ocalan, the nephew of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan, the HDP has asserted that such connections are individual and do not reflect its policies.

PKK founder Ocalan has been held in prison since 1999.

The same year, he was sentenced to death for high treason. However, before the sentence was carried out, Turkey abolished the death penalty and Ocalan's sentence was converted to life imprisonment in 2002.

He continues to exert influence on the organization from behind bars.

While the victims of the latest PKK attack were buried, Turkey's army targeted Kurdish facilities in Iraq and Syria

Image: Adem Altan/AFP

Is peace on the horizon?

In the past, multiple efforts have been made to create peace.

In the first years of the AKP government in particular, Kurds were given new rights, including educational opportunities in their mother tongue and Kurdish-language state media.

However, lasting peace remains the horizon.

Earlier this month, the far-right Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli surprised everyone by shaking hands with representatives of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party in parliament. He later described this as "perfectly normal for a party of unity in Turkey."

Bahceli, who is considered an important ally of Erdogan in the governing alliance with the AKP, appealed to Ocalan on October 15 to persuade the PKK to give up their weapons. On October 22, he called on Ocalan to announce the dissolution of the PKK in parliament.

On October 24, Ocalan replied from prison: "I have the theoretical and practical power to (transform) this process from one grounded in conflict and violence to one that is grounded on law and politics."

The PKK is said to have around 60,000 members, among them supporters, activists and combat soldiers

Image: Yann Renoult/Wostok Press/MAXPPP/picture alliance

What is behind this?

According to experts, regional developments have influenced Turkey's change of course on the Kurdish issue. But, political scientist Sezin Oney sees "no real peace initiative" in these steps. "The main aim is to minimize the threat posed by armed groups such as the PKK," she told DW.

Oney also stresses Turkey's current economic restrictions: "Turkey has neither the political nor the economic basis to finance a new war," she said.

Political scientist Eren Aksoyoglu, a former parliamentary advisor, agrees. "Turkey sees the Israel-Hamas war as a threat and against this backdrop, the government wants to integrate the Kurdish movement into 'Greater Turkey' and bring all internal actors under control," he told DW.

An AKP politician, who wishes to remain anonymous, confirmed that the geopolitical situation is forcing Turkey to strive for a unified domestic policy and resolve conflicts within the country.

This applies not only to the Kurdish question, but also to other domestic political tensions.

However, just one day after Bahceli's appeal, Ankara was shaken by the attack on the TUSAS defense factory, which has led to further strikes on Kurdish areas abroad. Many in the Turkish public see the attack as an attempt to undermine the peace efforts.

Berrak Güngör and Kayhan Ayhan contributed to this article, which originally appeared in German.


Burak Ünveren Multimedia editor with a focus on Turkish foreign policy and German-Turkish relations.

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