POLITICO • 14th January 2025

Germany’s AfD sparks firestorm by distributing fake deportation tickets to migrants

“If it’s to be called remigration, then it’s just called remigration,” Weidel declared to applause​, employing a euphemism for mass deportations once used only by the party’s most radical fringe. “Only remigration can still save Germany,” read the fake plane tickets, according to an image the AfD chapter shared online. Police are investigating the incident as a possible case of incitement to hatred, according to public broadcaster SWR. The outlet also reported that fake tickets were distri...

POLITICO • 6th January 2025

Erdoğan says Turkey ready to intervene if Syria splits

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Monday that Turkey is ready to step in if Syria breaks up following a rebel overthrow of the regime of President Bashar Assad last month. “We will not consent to the disintegration of Syria or the disruption of its unitary structure under any guise. If we see a risk in this regard, we will take the necessary steps swiftly,” Erdoğan said at a press conference. Turkey supports the rebel group that currently leads Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, putti...

POLITICO • 10th December 2024

Germany and France agree to work with Syrian rebels on ‘basis of fundamental human rights’

Western capitals are debating how to engage with the Syrian rebels, who are led by a group that is a designated terrorist organization. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to work with the Syrian opposition groups that took power in Damascus “on the basis of fundamental human rights and the protection of ethnic and religious minorities,” Berlin said in a statement Monday. The decision came during a phone call the French and German leaders held Mond...

POLITICO • 5th November 2024

UK reports 2 additional cases of deadly new mpox variant

The new infections were detected among the household contacts of the country’s first confirmed case. Two additional cases of the new variant of mpox, an infectious viral disease that can cause high fever, a painful rash and death, were reported Monday by the U.K. Health Security Agency, bringing the number of confirmed cases in the country to three. The new infections were detected among the household contacts of the country’s first confirmed case, which was reported in London on Oct. 30. T...

POLITICO • 18th October 2024

Yahya Sinwar death: European leaders react

Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people in cross-border raids on Oct. 7, 2023, and took around 250 hostages back to Gaza. The unprecedented attack prompted Israel to launch an offensive that has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry. Both von der Leyen and Michel also called on Thursday for a cease-fire in Gaza, where the U.N. estimates nearly 2 million people are experiencing “extremely critical” levels of hunger as a result of Israel’s...

POLITICO • 16th October 2024

‘No engagement at all’ on Gaza cease-fire talks for weeks, Qatar’s PM says

Doha has long held a close relationship with Hamas and is widely seen as a key figure in the mediations. Israel and Hamas have not engaged in talks over a cease-fire in Gaza for around a month, Qatar's prime minister indicated Wednesday after the EU-Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Brussels. "In the last three to four weeks, there is no conversation or engagement at all, and we are just moving in the same circle with the silence from all parties," Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani...

UNC Media Hub • 27th April 2022

Trekking through time: Documenting ancient Cherokee trails in Western North Carolina

Brows furrowed and field notebooks in hand, the two men can be found deep in the mountains several days a week. They walk carefully, pausing every so often to deliberate, take notes or point out landmarks. They are searching for trails that intertwine the eighteenth-century history of the Cherokee people and a prominent American naturalist. The mission: to preserve this history by documenting the ancient Cherokee paths that were used by explorer William Bartram on his journey throughout the Ame

UNC Media Hub • 18th April 2022

Fighting the Defense Industry: Asheville Group Organizes Local and National Effort

The winding French Broad River is home to a number of rare and endangered species. Along the banks of the river outside Asheville, the oaks, river birches, sycamores, and willows provide crucial shelter for animals and the river alike. But 100 acres of the area beside the river have been cut down to make way for a plant that will be producing aircraft parts for Pratt and Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the world.

UNC Media Hub • 29th March 2022

Waging Peace: Students from North Carolina and Iraq Create a Virtual Exchange

A couple of years ago, University of Mosul student Nora Al Jadoue wanted to leave Iraq. At the same time, UNC sophomore Eden Yousif wasn’t sure she would ever get to see Iraq. But thanks to an innovative virtual exchange program between the University of Mosul, UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro, students are developing new understandings of Iraq and the U.S. Despite being over 6,000 miles apart, students in Iraq and North Carolina have found they have much to share with one another and plenty

17th March 2021

‘An honor to be there’: A day in the life of a UNC doula

A pregnant woman arrived by helicopter alone at UNC Hospitals in February 2020. She was in labor, 15 weeks earlier than expected. Medics rushed the woman inside, where Hannaneh Mirmozaffari was in the middle of her doula shift. Not realizing the woman was only 24 weeks pregnant, Mirmozaffari reassured her everything was going to be okay. At just 21 years old, Mirmozaffari is used to being at the bedsides of strangers on the most intense days of their lives; as a volunteer doula, she provides p

The Daily Tar Heel • 17th March 2021

VITAE hiring program on pause due to University budgetary constraints

The Valuing Inclusion To Attain Excellence hiring program, which seeks to attract new faculty members from underrepresented groups to UNC, has been paused until further notice, Provost Bob Blouin announced on Jan. 25. Blouin said the program, formerly known as the Target of Opportunity program, is on hold due to fiscal challenges that UNC is facing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will eventually be reinstated, he said.

The Daily Tar Heel • 16th September 2020

Faculty of color consider leaving, cite lack of opportunities and toxic environment

Other UNC faculty said they have considered leaving the University for peer institutions due to a lack of leadership opportunities and a toxic environment for faculty who are people of color. “The work that we do is not valued as much as work that other faculty do,” Ho said. There is a long list of faculty who are people of color who have left the University in the last few years, Miguel La Serna, associate professor in the Department of History, said. “Many of them — not all — but many who I

The Daily Tar Heel • 24th August 2020

Newly-elected UNC System president attempted to defund LGBTQ+ group as a UNC undergrad

Hans and two other men interviewed "said they were personally opposed to homosexuality, but that that was not why they were trying to stop CGLA funding," the DTH reported. In the same DTH article, Hans said his personal beliefs were irrelevant to his stance on defunding the group. “This is an example of how they dominate campus politics,” Hans said in 1988. The DTH previously reported on rumors that N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore was in the running for the position of UNC System president. Moor

EducationNC • 13th August 2020

Two refugees’ perspectives on school in North Carolina

Haleema Begum is originally from the Pakistani border city of Quetta, but she’s lived in four different countries since she was born. “I’m Shi’a and I’m Hazara,” Begum said. “That was the reason that we left our country — because we were not safe.” Shi’a Hazaras are a group that face “deadly extremist violence” and “societal discrimination, hate crimes, and periodic bombings” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to the Peoples under Threat 2020 report from the Minority Rights Group International and Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights.

EducationNC • 12th August 2020

‘Resilient schools create our resilient communities’ — How one ESL teacher is responding to trauma among refugee students

Our world, in its long history of conflict and persecution, has never had more refugees than it has now. By the end of 2018, nearly 30 million refugees had been forced from their homes according to the United Nations. And that’s just the number who have actually been certified as refugees. “The way that people achieve refugee status is by being able to demonstrate profound adversity and trauma,” said Catriona Moore, an ESL teacher at Forest View Elementary School in Durham. “Refugee is a legal

EducationNC • 11th August 2020

'COVID-19 is a really great example of these gaps in the system' — How coronavirus impacts refugee education

The coronavirus pandemic is presenting challenges for every student in North Carolina. For refugee students, these challenges can be especially intense. “Once the COVID crisis occurred and the students were out of school, these students kind of disappeared from the school radar,” said Stacy Parker-Fisher, a tutor at the Refugee Support Center in Carrboro. The Refugee Support Center provides assistance to refugees in Orange County and surrounding areas by offering resources and teaching skills that promote self-sufficiency.

EducationNC • 10th August 2020

These organizations are helping refugees overcome language barriers inside and outside the classroom

Burmese. Kinyarwanda. Arabic. Swahili. Pashto. These are a handful of the languages spoken by refugee students in North Carolina. Schools often don’t adequately meet the needs of refugee students because communication isn’t provided in languages refugees speak, said Meagan Clawar, program manager for the Refugee Community Partnership in Carrboro.

EducationNC • 16th July 2020

Students share visions for school in Friday Institute's video competition, reImagining Schools

The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University is hosting their first-ever “reImagining Schools” video competition, which allows students to share their visions for what the future of education will look like in North Carolina.

EducationNC • 8th June 2020

Lessons on learner-centered education – 'Every learner comes from a place. They come from a context.'

Learner-centered education means shifting away from standardized, one-size-fits-all learning — and recognizing the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and other black Americans as part of the context that learners bring along to the classroom.

The Daily Tar Heel • 8th June 2020

'This is something that's killing people’: Instructors petition for fall teaching options

“My dad came close to death. And he can't walk anymore and he has to relearn how to do that,” Fortun said. “I want everyone to know that this is very real. This is something that's killing people.” He said while he wants to be teaching, no one should risk contracting the virus to be on campus in the fall.