“Every day there is a new demolition operation. Every day settlers take more and more land. Every day there is violence. ”
Gaza is not the only focus of Israel’s terror regime. In the West Bank, settlers and the Israeli occupation is destroying the lives of Palestinians.
On May 30, multiple media platforms published the news that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had bought a luxurious villa overlooking Marseille for 3.1 million euros ($3.6 million).
The articles claimed that, in order to purchase the property, Pashinyan had misappropriated funds from the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Coordination Council of Armenian Organisations in France (CCAF), which had been earmarked for development and humanitarian initiatives in Armenia.
In Gaza, over 100,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped on the small 41-kilometre-long coastal enclave that was already under a brutal 18-year blockade, and more than 650 days of a relentless onslaught have pulverised homes, lives, and the threads of memory.
Security in northwestern Nigeria is deteriorating, with an estimated 30,000 bandits operating in loosely organized groups that have evolved from resource disputes into actors capable of mass abductions and high-casualty attacks.
Zamfara State is the epicenter of violence, where armed groups exploit gold, copper, and lithium deposits to fund operations and sustain arsenals through trafficking routes and raids on state armories.
Bottom Line Up Front
Veton Nurkollari, or xhaxhi (uncle), as he is affectionately called by many, is resolute about the activist spirit of Dokufest. An international documentary and short film festival he co-founded 24 years ago in Prizren, at a time when the city had no functioning cinema in the aftermath of the Kosovo war, Dokufest has emerged as one of the most important film festivals in southeastern Europe, having become a qualifying-festival for the BAFTAs and the European Film Academy.
Although he soon thereafter half-heartedly walked back his threat to close Polish schools, his words reminded Lithuania’s largest minority that existing discriminatory practices against them could always intensify, which in turn draws attention to the scenario of identity-driven conflict in the future.
There was a brief scandal in Polish-Lithuanian relations last month that barely generated any media attention outside of those two. Chairman of the Lithuanian State Language Inspectorate Audrius Valotka declared that “there should be no Polish and Russian schools at all. Why do we have to create and maintain all sorts of language ghettos in Šalčininkai?” This prompted a condemnation from the Polish charge d’affaires in Vilnius and Valotka half-heartedly walking back his comments in a Facebook post.
Two years ago tomorrow, on August 23, 2023, a private plane crashed outside Moscow, killing three crew members and seven passengers, including Wagner Group private military company founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. Two months prior, Prigozhin had led a brief mutiny against Russia’s military that captivated the world and culminated in an aborted march on Moscow itself. Ahead of the anniversary of Prigozhin’s death — which U.S. intelligence reportedly assessed as a deliberate assassination — the St. Petersburg news outlet Fontanka interviewed the late mercenary leader’s mother, Violetta Prigozhina. She recently organized a gallery exhibition in honor of her son.
Growing up in Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, Lana Estemirova knew that her mother, renowned human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, had a very important job. She often went to work with Natalia at the Memorial human rights group’s Grozny office, and overheard her conversations about the abuses sweeping the republic amid the Chechen Wars. Then, when Lana was 15 years old, her mother was kidnapped outside their apartment block and brutally murdered. In her new memoir, “Please Live: The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me,” Lana tells the story of her childhood, and how her mother’s unwavering dedication to her work not only shaped their relationship but ultimately led to her death. Meduza spoke to Lana Estemirova about commemorating her mother’s life and work, how Ramzan Kadyrov’s iron grip on power in Chechnya continues to destroy lives, and how she’s come to terms with the risks that come with fighting for the truth.
Petro Dyminskyy, who was named a suspect at the time of a fatal car collision, is still wanted by Ukrainian authorities. The investigation has been suspended while his current whereabouts remain unknown.
Eight years ago, a Mercedes Benz crashed into another car on a highway in western Ukraine, killing a 31-year-old woman. Photos captured the Ukrainian tycoon Petro Dyminskyy at the scene of the accident, though it was not confirmed if he had been the driver. Four days later, he reportedly left the country on a private jet.