With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, East German culture disappeared practically overnight, cast aside for the newly accessible West. But today, amid dissatisfaction with the progress of German reunification, some former East Germans are taking a new look back at the past.
Classes have resumed at Columbia University amid new restrictions following last year’s protests and encampments against the war in Gaza. Yasmeen Altaji, a May graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism and now a freelance journalist, dedicated her final semester to documenting those protests. Altaji brings the story of one student who is resolved to continue her fight against the war despite new rules limiting protest.
Israel has conducted thousands of strikes in Gaza and Lebanon since the start of the current war last October. Footage shot by witnesses, as well as survivors’ testimonies, raise serious ethical and legal questions about some of those attacks.
Armenian Christians in the Old City of Jerusalem say their centuries-old community is facing an existential threat. It stems from an ongoing legal dispute over a real estate deal signed three years ago. Members of the small minority community of Armenians in Jerusalem say they are fearful about their future in the holy city.
Sanctions on Russian diamonds, imposed in response to the war in Ukraine, have damaged business in Surat, India’s diamond polishing hub. Many of the city’s diamond artisans from lower-income communities have become collateral damage in a tussle between the West and Russia.