The Life of Ján Kuciak and a Brief History of Slovakia
The unprecedented trial is nearing the end. On September 3, the Slovak court is expected to announce the postponed verdicts of the three people involved in the murder of Slovak journalist Ján Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kušnírová. Does the story of the brutal killing mirror the recent history of Slovakia?
How populists remake Poland
Liberals think that facts are persuasion. They are not – says Professor Anna Grzymala-Busse from Stanford University
The Belarusian August
THE WASTELAND ON FIRE
Changes in Polish law, introduced after critical wave of burning landfills in 2018, made illegal storage of waste more difficult, but old fraudulent schemes are still in place. Despite increased controls, arrests and high penalties, the cat-and-mouse game between notorious toxic waste handlers and authorities continues. As local governments struggle to find funding for clean-ups, […]
Red Sludge on the Blue Danube
In Almásfüzitő, a small factory settlement on the banks of the Danube, hazardous waste is being used to create a topsoil to cover solidified red sludge – residue from a long-closed alumina factory. Stored in large waste reservoirs, the largest of which is just a few hundred metres from locals’ homes, this residue from bauxite processing is separated from the Danube only by a permeable mud wall.
NGO? We don’t want you here
Independent, non-governmental watchdogs are always treated as an enemy by illiberal states and wannabe dictators. Viktor Orban’s Hungary is a classic example, but know a similar danger is growing in Poland.
The honorable death of Hungary’s top news site
The most popular news site in Orbán’s Hungary was killed but the journalists keep on fighting
Flesh of a tiger
What happens to dead tigers that die young in suspicious circumstances in legal breeding farms? The disappear into thin air.