Are Chinese Factories Poisoning Southern Europeans? | Focus on Europe

Dec 16, 2023 | For China, the Balkans are the entry point to Europe, meaning that China is active in many industrial projects in this region. Chinese-owned companies run local factories, and are involved in coal power stations. But some of these endeavors seem to leave the environment and people’s health worse off. Our reporters want to find out more about China’s footprint in the Balkans.

Balkan Royals | Aristocracy after Communism

Nov 29, 2023 | Balkan Royals - The royal families are back in the Balkans. Once ousted by the communists, they now enjoy a high reputation again. Externally, they act as representatives of their states; internally, as moral and neutral institutions.

Balkan Royals (2018)
Director: Alix François Meier
Genre: Documentary
Country: Germany Language: English

Synopsis:

After the fall of the iron curtain, the aristocrats experience an impressive comeback in some of the post-communist states. The documentation portrays three examples of old royal dynasties that became important and powerful in the post-communism and brings its history back to life.

. The film introduces Bulgaria’s Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Montenegro’s heir apparent, Nicholas, Crown Prince of Montenegro as well as the already deceased Michael I of Romania and his daughter Crown Princess Margareta as representatives for the present and past of three east-European dynasties.

The aristocracy was ostracized in the communist countries of eastern Europe and central Europe. In times of focusing on the own national identity, the Royals became in different ways more and more important. On the one hand, the royal houses are an essential part of the country’s history and were responsible for a lot of historiography in the regions they ruled and help today’s countries to have something to identify with. On the other hand, their representatives stand stability the countries had long waited for.

Other titles for this film are as follows:

In Germany: Die Royals vom Balkan
In France : Balkans : le retour des familles royales



Hier auf Deutsch: Die Royals vom Balkan - ARTE [2018] »

Et ici en français : Balkans : le retour des familles royales »

The Balkan State That Wants to Deport Muslims

Isis: Threat on Balkans to 'Avenge Muslims'

ANSAMED: 'In Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania we will arrive with explosives'

TIRANA - The Balkans are being threatened by Isis, which has announced it wants ''revenge for the humiliation suffered by Muslims in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia''. ''We will arrive with explosives'', said the Albanian national Abu Muqatil (Al Kosovi), a Kosovan Islamic militant[s] who claims to represent the jihadist group in the region.

In a long video released by Al Hayat media center, the main 'production house' of the terror organization born in Syria and Iraq, the announcement of future attacks in the Balkan region is entrusted to Albanian-language militants. » | Friday, June 05, 2015

Isis Master Plan Revealed: Islamic 'Caliphate' Will Rule Spain, China and Balkans

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS TIMES: As the Isis (now known as Islamic State) terror group continues to consolidate its self-declared "caliphate" in territory seized in its march across north-eastern Syria and northern Iraq, a map has been released that details the "ten-state solution" it hopes to achieve over the next decade.

Walid Shoebat, a former Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) terrorist turned Islamic scholar, has translated the Arabic map of the expansionist caliphate to show the Balkans, Spain and Portugal are long-term targets for the militants.

The group, which stemmed from al-Qaeda and the Salafist ideology, rejects the notion of nationalism, aiming to remove secular governments and replace them with a pan-Islamic caliphate. » | Jack Moore | Wednesday, September 03, 2014

A Surge of Serbs and Macedonians: Germany Seeks to Halt Influx of Balkan Asylum Seekers
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: With a massive surge in asylum applications from people of the Roma minority from Serbia and Macedonia, Germany's interior minister is calling for new rules to expedite processing these cases. Although many come to the EU for better economic opportunities, they also face racial discrimination at home, advocacy groups say.

After observing an extreme rise in the number of asylum seekers from Serbia and Macedonia in recent weeks, Germany's interior minister is calling for tighter rules for processing the applications.

"Those who originate from safe countries, should be provided with reduced cash benefits in the future," Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, a conservative with Bavaria's Christian Social Union party, told the daily Die Welt.

Two weeks ago, Friedrich advised Germany's federal states that they could better defend themselves against the flood of applicants by providing vouchers for food and services rather than cash benefits to the asylum seekers, many of whom are of the Roma minority. » | dsl -- with wires | Thursday, October 25, 2012