LONDON — The head of the Church of England, spiritual leader of the global Anglican Communion, is under pressure to resign after an investigation found that he failed to inform police about serial physical and sexual abuse by a volunteer at Christian summer camps as soon as he became aware of it.

Some members of the General Synod, the church’s national assembly, have started a petition calling on Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to step down, saying he had “lost the confidence of his clergy.” The petition had garnered more than 1,800 signatures on Change.org by late morning London time on Monday.

Compounding the pressure, a senior cleric added her voice to those who believe he should resign. Helen-Ann Hartley, the bishop of Newcastle, told the BBC that Welby’s position is “untenable.”

Calls for Welby’s resignation have grown since Thursday, when the church released the results of an independent review into John Smyth, who sexually, psychologically and physically abused about 30 boys and young men in the United Kingdom and 85 in Africa over five decades.

The 251-page report concluded that Welby failed to report Smyth to authorities when he was informed of the abuse in August 2013, soon after he became Archbishop of Canterbury.

Welby last week took responsibility for not ensuring that the allegations were pursued as “energetically” as they should have been after he learned of the abuse but said he had decided not to resign.

On Monday, his office issued a statement reiterating Welby’s “horror at the scale of John Smyth’s egregious abuse.”

“As he has said, he had no awareness or suspicion of the allegations before he was told in 2013 — and therefore, having reflected, he does not intend to resign,” the statement said. “He hopes the Makin Review supports the ongoing work of building a safer church here and around the world.”

Church officials were first made aware of the abuse in 1982, when they received the results of an internal investigation into Smyth. The recipients of that report “participated in an active cover-up” to prevent its findings from coming to light, the Makin Review found.

Between 1984 and 2001, Smyth moved to Zimbabwe and subsequently relocated to South Africa. He continued to abuse boys and young men in Zimbabwe and there is evidence that the abuse continued in South Africa until he died in August 2018.

Smyth’s abuse wasn’t made public until a 2017 investigation by Britain’s Channel 4 television, which led Hampshire Police to start an investigation. Police were planning to question Smyth at the time of his death and had been preparing to extradite him.

The Makin Review found that if Smyth had been reported to police in 2013, it could have helped to uncover the truth, prevented further abuse and led to a possible criminal conviction.

“In effect, three and a half years was lost, a time within which John Smyth could have been brought to justice and any abuse he was committing in South Africa discovered and stopped,” the review found.

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the head of the Church of England and is seen as the spiritual leader of the Anglican Communion, which has more than 85 million members in 165 countries. He is considered first among equals with respect to the communion’s other primates.
…

warsaw, poland — Polish President Andrzej Duda marked Independence Day on Monday with a call for sustained U.S. commitment to Europe’s security in view of Russian aggression in the region and argued that Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders should be restored.

Weighing on the minds of many is the war across Poland’s border in Ukraine, and an expectation that Donald Trump’s return to the White House will bring a change in the security situation in the region.

Some fear Trump could end the U.S. commitment to NATO or make a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could result in a permanent loss of territory for Ukraine and encourage Russia to attack other nations. Others believe Trump could persuade Putin to stop the fighting.

Duda, who has had friendly relations with Trump, said in a speech in Warsaw that Europe will continue to need U.S. protection.

“It is a pipe dream — as some people think — that Europe can ensure its own security today,” Duda said.

He emphasized that the security guarantees of successive U.S. presidents are extremely important in times of resurgent Russian imperialism.

“Today we have no doubts that for the security of Europe and the world, it is necessary to strengthen Euro-Atlantic ties,” Duda said.

He said the territorial integrity of all countries, especially Ukraine, should be respected and it “must return to its borders from before the Russian attack, not only the one in 2022 but also the first one, in 2014.”

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and launched its full-scale invasion in 2022.

Later in a news conference, Duda said he had spoken to Trump and that they would meet before the inauguration in January.

Duda spoke as Poland marked the 106th anniversary of its restored independence at the end of World War I after more than a century of being partitioned and ruled by Russia, Germany and Austro-Hungary. The date of Nov. 11 carries powerful weight for a nation where the trauma of losing national sovereignty endures.

In Warsaw, tens of thousands of people took part in a march organized by nationalist groups that has sometimes seen violent clashes in past years but passed without major incident Monday. Organizers estimated turnout at 250,000 while city hall put it at 90,000. Police said they detained 75 people and seized banned items from participants, including pyrotechnic materials, knives, telescopic batons and brass knuckles.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the conservative Law and Justice party, which governed Poland from 2015-2023 and is seeking a comeback, joined the march with other party members.
…

London — A British soldier accused of passing sensitive information to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pleaded guilty Monday to escaping from prison while awaiting trial.

Daniel Abed Khalife is on trial at London’s Woolwich Crown Court, accused of collecting sensitive information between May 2019 and January 2022.

Khalife, who is no longer a member of the British armed forces, also denies leaving a fake bomb on a desk and absconding from his barracks in 2023.

Prosecutors had also alleged Khalife escaped from London’s Wandsworth prison in September 2023 by tying himself to the bottom of a delivery van, sparking a brief nationwide manhunt.

The 23-year-old had originally pleaded not guilty to escaping from lawful custody but changed his plea to guilty Monday after having given evidence for several days earlier this month.

Khalife is also charged with gathering information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iran, obtaining information likely to be useful for terrorism and perpetrating a bomb hoax.

He still denies those three charges and his trial continues.
…

LISBON, PORTUGAL — Lisbon will this week play host to Europe’s biggest annual tech conference, Web Summit, where industry leaders and lawmakers will weigh the pros and cons of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

Senior executives from firms such as Apple, Microsoft, and Meta will join high-ranking officials from Europe for debates about the future of artificial intelligence, social media regulation, and the impact a second Trump presidency may have on the continent.

Trump has previously promised he could end the war between Ukraine and Russia within 24 hours of taking office. Days after Trump’s re-election, two senior Ukrainian government officials, Alex Bornyakov and Mykhailo Fedorov, will take to the stage to discuss how the country has continued innovating in the face of conflict.

John Adam, chief revenue officer at software development firm Aimsoftpro, is among those attending. About 70% of the company’s workforce is still based in Ukraine, with the rest having relocated around Europe after the war’s outbreak in 2022.

“There’s mixed feelings because the Trump approach looks like it’s more geared towards the present lines of conflict, which is not an ideal scenario for Ukraine, and there’s a reluctance to accept that. At the same time, we would like this to have an endpoint,” he said.

The X factor

While not expected to attend, tech billionaire and vocal Trump supporter Elon Musk will be a recurring theme, from his role in Ukraine via satellite service Starlink to his success with space exploration firm SpaceX and controversial stewardship of social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

One panel will debate how Europe might develop a homegrown rival to SpaceX; another whether Musk “destroyed Twitter.” Joe Benarroch, who quit his role as X’s de facto spokesperson and head of business operations in June, will join a panel titled “What to do about social media.”

While the EU has tried forcing online platforms to clamp down on harmful content, Trump’s election may lead to them reducing moderation efforts, according to Mark Weinstein, founder of privacy-focused social media platform MeWe, who will share the stage with Benarroch on Wednesday.

“Historically, Trump has been highly critical of online moderation,” he said. “To avoid political retribution, major social networks are likely to continue the trend of becoming significantly more permissive with content they allow on their platforms.”
…

Manchester, England — Taylor Swift came out top at the 2024 MTV EMAs on Sunday, walking away with best artist, best U.S. act, best live act and best video for “Fortnight” (featuring Post Malone). 

Swift, who is currently finishing up her Eras tour on the other side of the Atlantic, thanked the fans for the bounty of prizes via video message. 

The U.K. show opened with an acrobatic Benson Boone suspended in the air on a gold grand piano performing his viral hit “Beautiful Things” and latest release “Slow it Down.” Boone also accepted his first EMA for best new act. 

South African newcomer Tyla gave Swift a run for her money picking up three awards for best afrobeats, best R&B and best African act. 

Tyla performed her smash hit “Water” for the EMA audience at the Co-op Live, Manchester, flanked by a host of dancers, as well as singing energetic new track “Push 2 Start.” 

British singer Rita Ora, who hosted the show for a record third time, paid tribute to former One Direction star Liam Payne, who died last month after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires. 

Ora had a close relationship with the singer and the pair recorded a song together in 2018, “For You (Fifty Shades Freed).” She addressed the audience saying, “I want to take a moment to remember someone. Liam Payne was one of the kindest people I knew.” Her voice broke as she asked the crowd to take a moment to remember Liam saying, “He had the biggest heart and he left such a mark on this world.” 

Hip-hop legend Busta Rhymes was awarded the EMAs global icon award from British rapper Little Simz telling the crowd that in 34 years of professionally recording this was his first award from MTV and it felt incredible. The 12-time Grammy Award nominee, who has more than 10 million album sales under his belt, performed a mega medley of his greatest hits “Break ya Neck,” “Touch it” and “Put Your Hands Where the Eyes can See” accompanied by dancers wearing tracksuits with giant dragon heads. 

Shawn Mendes gave an intimate and heartfelt performance and also received the award for best Canadian act. Sabrina Carpenter picked up the honors for best song for her hit “Espresso,” while Ariana Grande was crowned best pop act and Eminem took away best hip hop act. 

U.K. duo Pet Shop Boys were honored with the inaugural Pop Pioneers Award for their contribution to pop music and closed out the show accompanied by local orchestra Manchester Camerata with a cover of David Bowie’s “All the Young Dudes” followed by their iconic hit “West End Girls” in celebration of the song’s 40th anniversary. 

Other performers on the night included K-Pop quintet Le Sserafim, Mexican singer and rapper Peso Pluma, English singer and songwriter Raye, multi-platinum singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes, American powerhouse Teddy Swims, Mexican rock sisters the Warning. 

LL Cool J, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, mother-and-daughter musicians Neneh Cherry and Mabel and TV and film stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lucien Laviscount all presented awards. 
…

Paris — Paris police said Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for a France-Israel soccer match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transportation a week after violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam. 

France and Israel are playing in a UEFA Nations League match Thursday. 

“There’s a context, tensions that make that match a high-risk event for us,” Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez said on French news broadcaster BFM TV, adding authorities “won’t tolerate” any violence. 

Nuñez said that 2,500 police officers would be deployed around the Stade de France stadium, north of the French capital, in addition to 1,500 others in Paris and on public transportation. 

“There will be an anti-terrorist security perimeter around the stadium,” Nuñez said. Security checks will be “reinforced,” he added, including with systematic pat-downs and bag searches. 

Nuñez said that French organizers have been in contact with Israeli authorities and security forces to prepare for the match. 

Israeli fans were assaulted last week after a soccer game in Amsterdam by hordes of  

young people apparently riled up by calls on social media to target Jewish people,  

according to Dutch authorities. Five people were treated at hospitals and dozens were arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as antisemitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe. 

On Sunday, Dutch police detained several people for taking part in a demonstration in central Amsterdam that had been outlawed following the violence targeting Israeli fans, a local broadcaster reported. 

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed Friday that the France-Israel match would go ahead as planned. 

“I think that for a symbolic reason we must not yield, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans from around the world came together for the Paris Olympics this year to celebrate the “universal values” of sports. 
…

London — King Charles III led the nation Sunday in a two-minute silence in remembrance of fallen service personnel in central London as the Princess of Wales looked on, a further sign the royal family is slowly returning to normal at the end of a year in which two of the most popular royals were sidelined by cancer.

Remembrance Sunday is a totemic event in the U.K., with the monarch leading senior royals, political leaders, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his eight living predecessors, and envoys from the Commonwealth countries in laying wreaths at the Cenotaph, the Portland stone memorial that serves as the focal point for honoring the nation’s war dead.

The service is held on the second Sunday of November to mark the signing of the armistice to end World War I “on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” in 1918. Across the U.K., services are conducted at the same time in memory of the dead.

After the two-minute silence, buglers from the Royal Marines played the Last Post and Charles led the wreath-laying part of the service.

The 75-year-old king, dressed in his Royal Navy uniform of the Admiral of the Fleet, laid a wreath of poppies at the base of the Cenotaph in recognition of the fallen from conflicts dating back to World War I.

His eldest son and the heir to the throne, William, left his own floral tribute — featuring the Prince of Wales’ feathers and a new ribbon in Welsh red.

Dressed in somber black, his wife, Kate, watched on from a balcony of the nearby Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, as is tradition. Queen Camilla, who would normally be standing next to the princess, was not present as she recovered from a chest infection.

It is the first time since the start of the year that Kate is carrying out two consecutive days of public official engagements. On Saturday, she attended the Royal British Legion Festival Of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.

Following the wreath-laying, around 10,000 veterans, including those who have fought in wars this century, notably in Afghanistan and Iraq, marched past the Cenotaph. With the passage of time, there were only a handful of World War II veterans present.

Charles’ ceremonial role as commander in chief of the armed forces is a holdover from the days when the monarch led his troops into battle. But the link between the monarchy and the military is still very strong, with service members taking an oath of allegiance to the king and members of the royal family supporting service personnel through a variety of charities. Charles and William served on active duty in the military before taking up full-time royal duties.

“They are showing respect to us, as we’ve shown to them by serving,” said Victor Needham-Crofton, 91, an army veteran who served during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and later in Kenya.

Charles was diagnosed with an undisclosed form of cancer in February, forcing him to step away from public appearances for two months as he focused on his treatment and recovery. Just a few weeks later, Kate announced her own cancer diagnosis, which sidelined her for much of the year as she underwent chemotherapy.

The king has been in good form in recent months and recently completed a taxing trip to Australia and Samoa. Kate, who made her first post-diagnosis public appearance during the monarch’s birthday parade in June, is slowly returning to public duties.

Prince William reflected this week on the strain that the cancer scare has placed on the royal family.

“I’m so proud of my wife, I’m proud of my father, for handling the things that they have done,” William told reporters on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day trip to South Africa. “But from a personal family point of view, it’s been, yeah, it’s been brutal.”

While the Cenotaph was the focus of the national remembrance service, communities throughout the U.K. held their own ceremonies on Sunday.

Needham-Crofton, who served with the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers before a truck accident ended his military career, planned to attend a local service in Eastbourne on the south coast of England.

He has spent much of his time honoring veterans and trying to help them, including 20 years as a volunteer for the Taxi Charity for Military Veterans. Like some of his army tasks, raising cash was rather grueling as it involved standing in front of London subway stations collecting coins to help fund the group’s efforts.

“I like to respect all the veterans and do what I can for them,’’ he told The Associated Press. “It’s a brotherhood really. Even if you don’t know a veteran that you meet, you feel a kinship toward them. That is very important to me. I shall be like that for the rest of my life.’’
…

MOSCOW — Ukraine attacked Moscow on Sunday with at least 34 drones, the biggest drone strike on the Russian capital since the start of the war in 2022, forcing flights to be diverted from three of the city’s major airports and injuring at least one person.

Russian air defenses destroyed another 36 drones over other regions of Western Russia in three hours on Sunday, the Defense Ministry said.

“An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using an airplane-type drones on the territory of the Russian Federation was thwarted,” the ministry said.

Russia’s federal air transport agency said the airports of Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky diverted at least 36 flights, but then resumed operations. One person was reported injured in Moscow region.

Moscow and its surrounding region, with a population of at least 21 million people, is one of the biggest metropolitan areas in Europe, alongside Istanbul.

For its part, Russia launched a record 145 drones overnight, Ukraine said. Kyiv said its air defenses downed 62 of those. Ukraine also said it attacked an arsenal in the Bryansk region of Russia, which reported 14 drones had been downed in the region.

Unverified video posted on Russian Telegram channels showed drones buzzing across the skyline.

The 2½ -year-old war in Ukraine is entering what some officials say could be its final act after Moscow’s forces advanced at the fastest pace since the early days of the war and Donald Trump was elected 47th president of the United States.

Trump, who takes office in January, said during campaigning that he could bring peace in Ukraine within 24 hours, but has given few details on how he would seek to do this.

When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called Trump to congratulate him on his presidential election victory, Tesla CEO and Trump supporter Elon Musk joined the call, according to media reports. Musk owns SpaceX, which provides Starlink satellite communication services that are vital for Ukraine’s defense effort.

Moscow ‘umbrellas’

Kyiv, itself the target of repeated mass drone strikes from Russian forces, has tried to strike back against its vastly larger eastern neighbor with repeated drone strikes against oil refineries, airfields and even the Russian strategic early-warning radar stations.

While the 1,000-kilometer front has largely resembled grinding World War I trench and artillery warfare for much of the war, one of the biggest innovations of the conflict has been drone warfare.

Moscow and Kyiv have both sought to buy and develop new drones, deploy them in innovative ways, and seek new ways to destroy them — from using farmers’ shotguns to advanced electronic jamming systems.

Moscow has developed a series of electronic “umbrellas” over Moscow, with additional advanced internal layers over strategic buildings, and a complex web of air defenses which shoot down the drones before they reach the Kremlin at the heart of the Russian capital.

Both sides have turned cheap commercial drones into deadly weapons while ramping up their own production. Soldiers on both sides have reported the visceral fear of drones — and both sides have used macabre video footage of fatal drone strikes in their propaganda.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to insulate Moscow from the grinding rigors of the war, has called Ukrainian drone attacks that target civilian infrastructure such as nuclear power plants “terrorism” and has vowed a response.

Moscow, by far Russia’s richest city, has boomed during the war, buoyed by the biggest defense spending splurge since the Cold War.

There was no sign of panic on Moscow’s boulevards. Muscovites walked their dogs while the bells of the onion-domed Russian Orthodox churches rang out across the capital. 
…

VALENCIA, Spain — Tens of thousands of Spaniards marched in the eastern city of Valencia on Saturday to demand the resignation of the regional president in charge of the emergency response to last week’s floods that left more than 200 dead and others missing. 

A group of protestors clashed with riot police in front of Valencia’s city hall, where the protestors started their march to the seat of the regional government. Police used batons to beat them back. 

Regional leader Carlos Mazon is under pressure after his administration failed to issue flood alerts to citizens’ cellphones until hours after the flooding started on the night of October 29. 

Many marchers held up homemade signs or chanted “Mazon Resign!” Others carried signs with messages such as “You Killed Us!” Upon arrival at the regional government seat, some protesters slung mud on the building and left handprints of the muck on its facade. 

Earlier Saturday, Mazon told regional broadcaster A Punt that “there will be time to hold officials accountable,” but that now “is time to keep cleaning our streets, helping people and rebuilding.” 

He said that he “respected” the march. 

Mazon, of the conservative Popular Party, is also being criticized for what people perceive as the slow and chaotic response to the natural disaster. Thousands of volunteers were the first boots on the ground in many of the hardest hit areas on Valencia’s southern outskirts. It took days for officials to mobilize the thousands of police reinforcements and soldiers that the regional government asked central authorities to send in. 

In Spain, regional governments are charged with handling civil protection and can ask the national government in Madrid, led by the Socialists, for extra resources. 

Mazon has defended his handling of the crisis, saying that its magnitude was unforeseeable and that his administration didn’t receive sufficient warnings from central authorities. 

But Spain’s weather agency issued a red alert, the highest level of warning, for bad weather as early as 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning as the disaster loomed. 

Some communities were flooded by 6 p.m. It took until after 8 p.m. for Mazon’s administration to send out alerts to people’s cellphones. 

Mazon was with Spain’s royals and Socialist prime minister when they were pelted with mud by enraged residents during their first visit to a devastated area last weekend. 

Sara Sanchez Gurillo attended the protest because she had lost her brother-in-law, 62-year-old Candido Molina Pulgarin. She said his body was found in a field of orange trees after he was trapped by the water in his home in the town of Cheste, west of Valencia. 

She wanted Mazon to go, but also had harsh words for the country’s leaders. 

“It’s shameful what has happened,” Sanchez said. “They knew that the sky was going to fall and yet they didn’t warn anyone. They didn’t evacuate the people. We want them to resign!” 

“The central government should have taken charge. They should have sent in the army earlier. The king should have made them send it in. Why do we want him as a symbolic figure? He is worthless. The people are alone. They have abandoned us.” 

The death toll stood at 220 victims Saturday, with 212 coming in the eastern Valencia region, as the search for bodies goes on. 

Thousands more lost their homes and streets are still covered in mud and debris 11 days since the arrival of a tsunami-like wave following a record deluge. 
…

BERLIN — Germany marks 35 years since the Berlin Wall fell with festivities beginning Saturday under the theme “Preserve Freedom!” as Russia’s war rages in Ukraine and many fear democracy is under attack.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz — whose governing coalition dramatically collapsed this week — said in a message to the nation that the liberal ideals of 1989 “are not something we can take for granted.”

“A look at our history and at the world around us shows this,” said Scholz, whose three-party ruling alliance imploded on the day Donald Trump was elected president in the United States, plunging Germany into political turmoil and toward new elections.

November 9, 1989, is celebrated as the day East Germany’s dictatorship opened the borders to the West after months of peaceful mass protests, paving the way for German reunification and the collapse of Soviet communism.

One Berliner who remembers those momentous events, retiree Jutta Krueger, 75, said about the political crisis hitting just ahead of the anniversary weekend: “It’s a shame that it’s coinciding like this now.”

“But we should still really celebrate the fall of the Wall,” she said, hailing it as the moment East Germans could travel and “freedom had arrived throughout Germany.”

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will kick off events on Saturday at the Berlin Wall Memorial, honoring the at least 140 people killed trying to flee the Moscow-backed German Democratic Republic during the Cold War.

In the evening, a “freedom party” with a music and light show will be held at Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate, on the former path of the concrete barrier that had cut the city in two beginning in 1961.

On Sunday, the Russian protest punk band Pussy Riot will perform in front of the former headquarters of the Stasi, former East Germany’s feared secret police.

Pro-democracy activists from around the world have been invited for the commemorations — among them Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya and Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.

Talks, performances and a large-scale open-air art exhibition will also mark what Culture Minister Claudia Roth called “one of the most joyous moments in world history.”

Replica placards from the 1989 protests will be on display along 4 kilometers of the wall’s route, past the historic Reichstag building and the famous Checkpoint Charlie.

Among the art installations will be thousands of images created by citizens on the theme of “freedom,” to drive home the enduring relevance of the historical event.

Populism and division

Berlin’s top cultural affairs official Joe Chialo said the theme was crucial “at a time when we are confronted by rising populism, disinformation and social division.”

Axel Klausmeier, head of the Berlin Wall foundation, said the values of the 1989 protests “are the power-bank for the defense of our democracy, which today is being gnawed at from the left and the right.”

Most East Germans are grateful the East German regime ended, but many also have unhappy memories of the perceived arrogance of West Germans, and resentment lingers about a remaining gap in incomes and pensions.

These sentiments have been cited to explain the strong support for the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, in eastern Germany, as well as for the Russia-friendly and anti-capitalist BSW.

Strong gains for both at three state elections in the east in September highlighted the enduring political divisions between eastern and western Germany over three decades since reunification.

While the troubled government led by Scholz’s Social Democrats and the opposition CDU strongly supports Ukraine’s defense against Russia, the antiestablishment AfD and BSW oppose it.

The AfD, which rails against immigration, was embarrassed this week when several of its members were arrested as suspected members of a racist paramilitary group that had practiced urban warfare drills.

On the eve of the anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall, government spokesperson Christiane Hoffmann recalled that the weekend will also mark another, far darker chapter in German history.

During the Nazis’ Kristallnacht or Night of Broken Glass pogrom of November 9-10, 1938, at least 90 Jews were murdered, countless properties destroyed, and 1,400 synagogues torched in Germany and Austria.

Hoffmann said, “It is very important for our society to remember the victims … and learn the correct lessons from those events for our conduct today.”
…

berlin — Like many other young women living in communist East Germany, Solveig Leo thought nothing about juggling work and motherhood. The mother of two was able to preside over a large state-owned farm in the northeastern village of Banzkow because childcare was widely available. 

Contrast that with Claudia Huth, a mother of five, who grew up in capitalist West Germany. Huth quit her job as a bank clerk when she was pregnant with her first child and led a life as a traditional housewife in the village of Egelsbach in Hesse, raising the kids and tending to her husband, who worked as a chemist. 

Both Leo and Huth fulfilled roles that in many ways were typical for women in the vastly different political systems that governed Germany during its decades of division following the country’s defeat in World War II in 1945. 

As Germany celebrates the 35th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989 — and the country’s reunification less than a year later on Oct. 3, 1990 — many in Germany are reflecting on how women’s lives that have diverged so starkly under communism and capitalism have become much more similar again — though some differences remain even today. 

“In West Germany, women — not all, but many — had to fight for their right to have a career,” said Clara Marz, the curator of an exhibition about women in divided Germany for the Federal Foundation for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Germany. 

Women in East Germany, meanwhile, often had jobs — though that was something that “they had been ordered from above to do,” she added. 

Front line of Cold War

Built in 1961, the Wall stood for 28 years at the front line of the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets. It was built by the communist regime to cut off East Germans from the supposed ideological contamination of the West and to stem the tide of people fleeing East Germany. 

Today only a few stretches of the 156.4-kilometer (97.2-mile) barrier around the capitalist exclave of West Berlin remain, mostly as a tourist attraction. 

“All the heavy industry was in the west, there was nothing here,” Leo, who is now 81 years old, said during a recent interview looking back at her life as a woman under communism. “East Germany had to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union. Women needed to work our own way out of that misery.” 

By contrast, Leo said, women in the West didn’t need to work because they were “spoiled by the Marshall Plan” — the United States’ generous reconstruction plan that poured billions of dollars into West Germany and other European countries after the war. 

In capitalist West Germany, the economy recovered so quickly after the total devastation of WWII that people soon started talking of a Wirtschaftswunder, or “economic miracle,” that brought them affluence and stability less than 10 years after the war. 

That economic success, however, indirectly hampered women’s quest for equal rights. Most West German women stayed at home and were expected to take care of their household while their husbands worked. Religion, too, played a much bigger role than in atheist East Germany, confining women to traditional roles as caregivers of the family. 

Mothers who tried to break out of these conventions and took on jobs were infamously decried as Rabenmütter, or uncaring moms who put work over family. 

Not all West German women perceived their traditional roles as restrictive. 

“I always had this idea to be with my children, because I loved being with them,” said Huth, now 69. “It never really occurred to me to go to work.” 

A new generation

More than three decades after Germany’s unification, a new generation of women is barely aware of the different lives their mothers and grandmothers led depending on which part of the country they lived in. For most, combining work and motherhood also has become the normal way of life. 

Hannah Fiedler, an 18-year-old high school graduate from Berlin, said the fact that her family lived in East Germany during the decades of the country’s division has no impact on her life today. 

“East or West — it’s not even a topic in our family anymore,” she said, as she sat on a bench near a thin, cobble-stoned path in the capital’s Mitte neighborhood, which marks the former course of the Berlin Wall in the then-divided city. 

She also said that growing up, she had not experienced any disadvantages because she’s female. 

“I’m white and privileged — for good or worse — I don’t expect any problems when I enter the working world in the future,” she said. 

Some small differences between the formerly divided parts of Germany linger. In the former East, 74% of women are working, compared to 71.5% in the West, according to a 2023 study by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung foundation. 

Childcare is also still more available in the former East than in the West. 

In 2018, 57% of children under the age of 3 were looked after in a childcare facility in the eastern state of Saxony. That compares with 27% in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia and 44% in Hamburg and Bremen, according to Germany’s Federal Statistical Office. 

Germany as a whole trails behind some other European countries when it comes to gender equality. 

Only 31.4% lawmakers in Germany’s national parliament are female, compared to 41% in Belgium’s parliament, 43.6% in Denmark, 45% in Norway and 45.6% in Sweden. 

Nonetheless, Leo, the 81-year-old farmer from former East Germany, is optimistic that eventually women all over the country will have the same opportunities. 

“I can’t imagine that there are any women who don’t like to be independent,” she said. 
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Washington/Istanbul — Local authorities in Turkey’s metropolitan Istanbul province banned a screening of the LGBTQI-themed movie “Queer” on Thursday because of concerns that it would endanger public peace and security.

The screening of “Queer,” a film directed by Italian director Luca Guadagnino and starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, was scheduled to open a film festival in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district on Thursday. The festival was organized by Mubi, an international streaming platform and film production and distribution company.

Mubi canceled the entire festival, noting “This ban not only targets a single film but also undermines the very essence and purpose of the festival.”

In a statement shared on X, Mubi announced that the Kadikoy District Governor’s Office had notified them of the ban hours before the festival was set to begin.

“The decision states that the film is prohibited on the grounds that it contains provocative content that could endanger public peace, with the ban being imposed for security reasons,” Mubi wrote.

“We believe this ban is a direct restriction on art and freedom of expression,” Mubi added.

The Kadikoy District Governor’s Office has not made a public statement on the ban and has not responded to VOA’s inquiry at the time of this story’s publication.

Rising anti-LGBTQI+ rhetoric

The Turkish government has toughened rhetoric against its LGBTQI+ community in recent years, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan repeatedly calling its members “perverts” or “deviants.”

Authorities have banned pride marches throughout the country since 2015, citing security concerns. At least 15 people were detained in Istanbul in June for taking part in a pride rally.

Yıldız Tar, editor in chief of the LGBTQI news portal KaosGL, does not find the ban surprising considering the government’s anti-LGBTQI stance.

“The reason for the ban on ‘Queer’ is of course that it is a film about LGBTI+ people. When you try to organize any LGBTI+-themed event in Turkey since 2015, you already encounter such bans,” Tar told VOA.

Tar noted that the Kadikoy District Governor’s Office banned the screening of another movie, “Pride,” as part of Pride Month events in June 2023.

The Istanbul festival, which was scheduled to take place November 7 to 10, included a variety of film screenings, talks and performances. According to Mubi, tickets for the festival had sold out days in advance.

Tar views Mubi’s decision to cancel the festival after the ban as “an important and valuable message” and argues that the platform’s decision should be exemplary.

“If LGBTI+ themed films are being censored so openly at this point, then festivals and the world of culture and arts need to raise a very strong voice against this censorship,” Tar said.

Academic and film critic Yeşim Burul also sees the district governor’s ban as censorship.

“We are talking about unacceptable censorship here. It is truly absurd that a district governorship would make such decisions to prevent a film from reaching the audience,” Burul told VOA.

“We, as adults, can decide which film we can and cannot watch. Such festivals are already organized for those over the age of 18, and tickets are sold that way,” Burul added.

The 2024 film “Queer,” with a screenplay adapted from William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel, tells the story of an American expatriate living in Mexico City in the 1950s who establishes an intimate connection with a younger man.

In October, Mubi acquired distribution rights for the film in multiple territories, including Turkey, India, the United Kingdom, Germany and Latin America.

Reactions

Several rights groups and organizations reacted to the ban on the screening.

According to the LGBTI+ Rights Commission of the Istanbul branch of the Human Rights Association, the ban is “a continuation of criminalizing LGBTI+ individuals.”

In a post on X, the rights group argued that the ban violates not only domestic law but also the “protection from discrimination” principle of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Turkey is a signatory.

The Actors’ Union of Turkey called the ban “clearly an application of censorship.”

“The duty of art and artists is to broaden the horizons of societies and offer them new perspectives while telling their own stories,” the union said in a statement published on X. The union also reminded that the law on freedom of expression protects artistic activities in Turkey.
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