Moscow, Russia’s sprawling capital of 12.36 million, has a waste problem. The city has no recycling system: all the city’s waste goes to landfills. Rubbish sent to landfills has increased by 30% over the past ten years. These landfills were originally located outside of Moscow, but due to encroachment are now within the city’s borders.
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At the beginning of the twentieth century an artistic rebellion swept through Europe. Artists, architects, and graphic designers attempted to liberate the visual arts from the rigid constrains of the past and developed Art Nouveau, a new style inspired by the natural world. Art Nouveau left its mark on cities in Europe and North America like Barcelona, Brussels, Prague, Vienna and New York. No other city is, however, defined as much by the ornamental style as Riga, the capital of Latvia and largest city in the Baltic: almost one third of the buildings in the city’s center are in the Art Nouveau style.
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Pour relancer des pourparlers bloqués depuis 2012, l’envoyé onusien pour le Sahara occidental a convié les différentes parties impliquées – le Polisario, le Maroc, l’Algérie et la Mauritanie – à une réunion à Genève les 5 et 6 décembre. Une militante sahraouie revient sur le chemin parcouru et explique les aspirations de son peuple.
Dans Courrier international.
As it slowly becomes clear that Saudi Arabia is behind the disappearance and killing of journalist and Saudi regime critic Jamal Khashoggi, the U.S. government and its allies must consider how to respond to this horrific act that defies the core values of democracy and, indeed, of humanity itself. Under growing pressure to act against the Kingdom, President Donald Trump has already declared the United States would be “punishing itself” by scrapping the $110bn U.S.-Saudi arms deal. “If they don’t buy it from us, they’re going to buy it from Russia or they’re going to buy it from China,” Mr. Trump said, according to Sky News.
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In socially conservative Poland, a new museum opened this summer: the Polish LGBTQIA Museum. The museum aims to preserve the history of non-heteronormative people in Poland by documenting their stories. Its collection includes a variety of archival materials — from posters, photographs, flyers, leaflets, and magazines to DIY zines and film clips. The museum is virtual and therefore accessible from anywhere in the world.
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Fatma el-Mehdi is a Western Saharan activist who has been a refugee in Algeria for more than forty years. She is the secretary general of the National Union of Sahrawi Women. She was recognized as a Woman PeaceMaker in 2016 by the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice in San Diego, California. Lisa Söderlindh and I spoke with Fatma el-Mehdi in the Smara refugee camp near Tindouf in March.
Read interview in Muftah Magazine.
Last week, political leaders descended on Bucharest, Romania for the third Three Seas Initiative Summit. Launched in 2015, the Three Seas Initiative is an economic alliance of twelve EU member states between the Adriatic, Baltic, and Black seas. These countries – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia – are strategically located, especially when it comes to energy and security.
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One of the most ambitious building experiments in history is nearing its end in many former Soviet states. Faced with severe housing shortages in the 1950s due to rapid population growth and urbanization, Soviet planners rolled out their first pre-fabricated, concrete panelled apartment buildings. By industrializing the building process, instead of using time-intensive masonry, housing stock throughout the Soviet block was rapidly expanded in the 1960s with these so-called Krushchyovkas, named after Soviet leader (1953-1964) Nikita Khrushchev.
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In an effort to prop up its official script, Serbia’s parliament is expected this month to bolster a law that makes Cyrillic mandatory in all official government communication and imposes fines on those who do not respect the “mother script.”
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Football in Lebanon continues to be plagued by sectarian violence. The final game of last year’s Alfa One League season between Al Ahed F.C. and Nejmeh Sporting club was played on April 15, 2018 in an empty Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium (capacity: 49,000) in Beirut surrounded by the army and its tanks. The first encounter that season between the two rivals was also considered a “high-risk” match, and was rescheduled at the last moment, at the request of the Lebanese Football Association and Internal Security Forces (ISF).
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