Worldcrunch
Since 2021, Poland has been facing a humanitarian and migration crisis along its border with Belarus. In the meantime, several collectives of volunteers have sprung up, providing aid to migrants stuck between the two borders, such as food, water, and emergency blankets. Now, facing a harsher Pan-European border policy, and security pressure at home, some of these volunteers may be prosecuted for their efforts.
Now 96, Wanda Traczyk-Stawska survived the Warsaw Uprising 79 years ago and has continued to fight for Poland. This time, however, her battles are for her fellow women.
The Puszcza Białowieska, one of Europe’s oldest forests, has become a battleground, with environmentalists increasingly concerned about widespread logging in the forest, which is also ground zero for heightened tensions with neighbor Belarus and the ongoing migration crisis. And, all across Poland, increased logging with political motivations has been stirring activist tensions.
The presence of Russian Wagner paramilitary troops near the Polish border has sent the country’s prime minister into a panic, while on the campaign trail. But are worries about the presence of a mere 100 mercenaries justified or is it somehow part of Mateusz Morawiecki’s scare tactics, as in 2015?
Described as everything from a “migrant invasion” to a “hybrid attack”, the crisis along Poland’s border with Belarus has been heating up for the past two months. But the conflict has now been made worse by the arrival of the Wagner mercenary grouop in Belarus. This leaves migrants, many fleeing conflict elsewhere, stuck between the two borders.
Italy has long been the European Union’s border-of-choice for would-be migrants, arriving from North Africa to the shores of Sicily. But while the Italian government was hoping for much needed help from the European Union to face the immigration flow, the border dispute between Belarus and Poland has exploded, and diverted attention east and north.
? Bonghjornu!* Welcome to Monday, where leaders of the world’s two superpowers meet (virtually), the EU is set to tighten sanctions against Belarus, and an Italian racing legend retires on top. We also have a Ukrainian news report on the methods used by Russian authorities to target the Muslim minority Crimean Tatars. [*Corsican] SIGN UP […]
? Habari!* Welcome to Tuesday, where tensions escalate as hundreds of migrants at the Poland-Belarus border, Austria reintroduces restrictions to curb a new COVID wave and an 83-year-old sets a new record on the Appalachian Trail. Meanwhile, Worldcrunch’s Hannah Steinkopf-Frank (a human) takes a look at rad robots around the world. [*Swahili] 7 THINGS […]
The United Nations, UNICEF, Red Cross and other international humanitarian organizations seem to be trying to reach the Polish-Belarusian border, where Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko is creating a refugee crisis on purpose.