Ruairi Casey

1 month ago | jacobin.com | Ruairi Casey

“I have to admit that about 75 hours in this country have made me pretty nervous,” Francesca Albanese told a small audience in a Berlin newspaper office last week — including several riot police, observing attentively. “The situation is bad for freedom of expression pretty much everywhere.

1 month ago | lrb.co.uk | Ruairi Casey

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and soon to be chancellor of Germany, announced he was going ‘all in’ last month when he presented the Bundestag with his plan to turn asylum seekers away at the border. This meant openly courting support from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose votes proved decisive.

Jan 7, 2025 | qantara.de | Mahmoud Hassan |Stefan Dege |Ruairi Casey |Aladdin Sarhan

Fairuz · 07.01.2025 Lebanese singer Fairuz, now a 90-year-old icon, began her career 70 years ago with mould-breaking musical theatre. Setting artistic milestones alongside the Rahbani brothers, she soundtracked the history of Lebanon through an era marked by suffering and war.

Dec 9, 2024 | aljazeera.com | Ruairi Casey

Berlin, Germany - Less than 48 hours after the toppling of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, Germany, home to the largest Syrian population outside the Middle East, says it will pause asylum applications from Syrian citizens. An official from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees told Der Spiegel news magazine on Monday that the move was taken in light of the unclear and unpredictable political situation in Syria, which would place asylum decisions "on shaky ground".

Nov 20, 2024 | aljazeera.com | Ruairi Casey

Berlin, Germany - In some countries, a snap election is held in a matter of weeks. Germany, by contrast, will enjoy a leisurely three months before it goes to the polls in an election that is likely to be overshadowed by the return of Donald Trump to the White House, an increasingly perilous situation in Ukraine, and a flagging domestic economy.