Reporter
Jacob Resneck is a journalist based in Istanbul.
Jacob Resneck started his journalism career near his home in Northern California where he helped write and edit a weekly newspaper that he delivered out of his red 1976 Toyota pickup.He later moved to harsher climes to work as an inkslinger in New York’s Adirondack Mountains where a dispute over pay at a small daily newspaper led him to discover the magic of radio.Fast forward to 2012. He moved to Istanbul to become a full-time freelancer covering hard, soft and downright bizarre stories for such news sources as GlobalPost, Christian Science Monitor, Deutsche Welle and Radio France Internationale.When he’s not haranguing long-suffering editors with a new story idea he likes to ride his mountain bike through Istanbul traffic and scour tide pools for tasty mussels and limpets near his seaside home.Such is the spartan existence of the modern freelancer. He still misses that truck.
After reports of women being harassed and groped on the streets of Cologne, Germany, on New Year’s Eve, mostly by men of Arab descent, German officials are promising changes. They’ve beefed up the police presence in public areas and vowed to deport migrants convicted of serious crimes. And Arab and Muslim migrants in Germany say the welcoming atmosphere is starting to change.
The first-ever European Games is wrapping up its first week. By all accounts it’s been a roaring success. In Baku, Azerbaijan, where the games are being held. Elsewhere in Europe, folks don’t really seem to know that the “Olympics for Europe” is taking place.
Members of the Carsi soccer fan club in Turkey are under fire now, with prosecutors seeking life in prison for up to 35 people accused of plotting a coup. But human rights advocates — and the fans themselves — say the charges are bunk.