Articles

A virus riding on another virus. That is how the ‘infodemic’ is raging in online spaces around the outbreak of the novel coronavirus called COVID-19, which has been on just about everyone’s radar since late January 2020. As grave as the quest to manage the respiratory disease and cure those ill with it is not only the challenge of using facts versus fear - but how to create and keep avenues of information that withstand the unrelenting drip of skewed, confused, partially true to totally false information, to racist and prejudiced views, or a cocktail of these.

The recent escalation of violence in Idlib is also a result of the increasing tensions between Turkey and Russia. The victims are those in Idlib, caught up in a hopeless situation amid a huge spectrum of differing interests.

Slovak political landscape is exceptionally fragmented ahead of February 29 general elections. One of the last opinion polls published before the election polls moratorium foresees eight parties to be represented in the parliament. However, conceivable scenarios include 6 to 12 parties possibly entering the parliament.  This pre-election analysis was published by EuroPolicy in cooperation with the Prague office of the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.  

After countless hours of negotiations, frustration and the United Kingdom officially withdrew from the European Union after 47 years of membership bearing the words “Peace, prosperity and friendship with all nations. 31 January 2020”. 

Computers are often thought of as neutral technology. However, it becomes alarmingly clear that machines learn from training data made up of outdated social norms, values and attitudes towards race and gender. This can have insidious consequences.

In a targeted missile strike on 3 January of this year, the US killed the Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, Commander of the Quds Force and hence the most important strategist behind Iran’s military engagement in the region. Our Heads of Office in Washington, Beirut and Tel Aviv take us through the significance of the recent events for Iran-US relations and the wider Middle East.

Close coordination and smooth cooperation between Berlin and Paris is crucial for Europe and its foreign politics, particularly considering rising intricate geopolitical rivalries. Differences in style and approach must not impede cooperation on substance and common interests.

As 2020 opens with dramatic global events demanding attention and care, the countries of the European Union remain divided on crucial issues from climate change to foreign policy. The relationship between Germany and the countries of Central Europe is pivotal to many of these impasses.

After the assassination of Iran’s high General Qassem Soleimani by the US on Friday 3rd January 2020 in Iraq, the already very strained situation between the US and Iran, became even more critical. Head of Global Transformation Programme at Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Brussels European Union, Anna Schwarz, spoke to MEP Hannah Neumann (Greens/EFA) about how the EU is to react to the further escalating conflict between the US and Iran.

Across Europe and beyond, actors on the nationalist right are instrumentalising the concept of gender for their own political gains. In Poland the incumbent right-wing Law and Justice party, backed by the Catholic Church, demonised LGBT organisations in its recent successful electoral campaign.