New at Transitions Online

The Sage of Sorbia

An interview with Jurij Koch, an eminent writer among the Slavic-speaking community in eastern Germany. Read more.

Around the Bloc – 9 July

News from around the bloc: Poland at odds with Germany; Lithuania bans RT; match fixing in Armenia; Facebook and Ukraine; and demographics in Bulgaria. Read more.

When Dictators (Almost) Fall

By Nida Dincturk – Lukashenka will likely hold on to the presidency in August, but it won’t be nearly as easy as in the past. Read more.

Masks4All

By Emma Whitt – How a Czech influencer and his friends helped make his country a world leader in the adoption of face masks. Read more.

Around the Bloc – 7 July

Today’s news headlines: Britain’s Magnitsky sanctions; Estonia’s “strawberry war”; a precocious Romanian vlogger; and more. Read more.

Around the Bloc – 3 July

In the news today: military intelligence in Russia; NATO, Poland and the Baltics; faulty masks flood Europe; Moldova’s bootleg helicopters; and remembering Jan Kuciak through song. Read more.

El Dorado in Czech Cyberspace?

By Ivana Karaskova and Filip Sebok – The pandemic has prompted an upswing in Chinese propaganda, but its impact is questionable. From the Digital Communication Network. Read more.

The Turkish Village That Came Back to Life

Once caught in a war zone, the local Assyrian population – many of whom left for Western Europe – has been returning and working hard to revitalize the town of Kafro. Read more.

Tackling the COVID-19 Infodemic: join us for a FREE webinar.

Join us on Wednesday July 15th at 5PM CET for a Practical Guide webinar – it’s free and open to everyone upon the registration here  Tackling the COVID-19 Infodemic: Practical lessons from Polish fact-checkers Debates on disinformation and misinformation related to COVID-19 have dominated discussions in the media industry, but what specific actions can we take to tackle the spread of false or misleading information? What tools should we use and how can we find and motivate the people who will do the monitoring and fact-checking? And what strategies should we employ to spread all that debunking to a broader audience, the ones who really need it? Join Mikołaj Rogalewicz, a fact-checker and senior analyst at the Polish fact-checking organization Demagog Association, for lessons learned while debunking COVID-19 disinformation as part of the wider koronawirusPRAWDA (coronavirusTRUTH) initiative. This webinar is the third in a series. Watch a recording of the session covering the Czech Republic here, and the one on Slovakia here.