Evacuees from Israel arrive in Slovakia and Czech Republic
Slovak authorities said the first evacuation flight with 73 people, including 25 Slovak tourists and five family members of Slovak diplomats working in Tel Aviv, had arrived in the capital Bratislava late on Monday.
Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said Slovakia had also helped bring citizens of other countries to Europe, including 15 Poles, mainly children, 14 Czechs, nine Austrians, two Slovenians and one citizen each of Estonia, Spain and Malaysia.
'Our partners are contacting us and we are preparing another flight on Tuesday, which should include citizens of the Slovak Republic, as well as citizens of the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Latvia, and France,' Blanar said.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Slovakia had helped evacuate seven Hungarians.
Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said that a flight with 66 people evacuated from Israel had landed near Prague.
Poland said on Monday that it was organising the evacuation of around 200 of its citizens from Israel via Jordan.
On Tuesday, the Polish foreign ministry said it planned to use two planes from Egypt and Jordan for the evacuation, the first of which would take off on Wednesday.
'The plane from Sharm el-Sheikh will take off first, the one from Amman will take off second, most likely on Thursday morning,' said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Henryka Moscicka-Dendys.
'We want to service this connection with a military plane, because we see that there are not as many people willing to evacuate as it might seem.'
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Daily Maverick
2 days ago
- Daily Maverick
Conspiracy theories simply ignore history
Conspiracy theorists and conspiracies are thriving on social media. Sometimes these conspiracy theories are clearly bunk, and stem from intellectual laziness. Sometimes they are reproduced by people who feel aggrieved and believe that the world is against them. At other times, they stem from rich, fertile and quite creative minds, but most of the time, when it's not dangerous, conspiracy theorising is laughable. Among the things about conspiracy theories which is especially noxious is the misrepresentation and manipulation, the torturing or wilfully ignoring of facts. This noxiousness and self-dramatising apostasy are distinct markers of Donald Trump's corte milione. Trump is the cynosure of il millione, the braggart who knows more about anything and everything than anyone alive, and his retinue, unabashedly obeisant, provide the vacuous encomia. We probably should not dismiss out of hand the likelihood that conspiracy theories can be titillating – we should also not ignore the pleasure and self-satisfaction gained from reproducing conspiracies. Very many statements by our politicians evidence the appeal (among their followers) of conspiracy theories, often couched in polite terms or language which help shore up their self-senses of importance, legitimacy and, of course, eternal innocence. But let's move on from the public politics and discuss the fun stuff. As a starting point, I should state at the outset two things. The first (something which I have worked on for decades) is that there is no capitalist conspiracy in the sense that a group of people sit down every day and work out how to intentionally destroy the lives of people. Capitalism is, itself, a beast that destroys people, families, communities and society through alienation, excessive individualism, the belief that individual utility maximisation (and the dictum made famous by that auntie who headed the British government that there is no such thing as society), and 'market forces' or 'the invisible hand' necessarily being the ultimate arbiter of human life and agency. Don't give me that 'well capitalist technological innovation'… Soviet innovation (those darn communists!) was at the forefront of the technology that gave us the first human space flight and early satellite technologies. From personal inquiry a generation ago (and things have improved significantly), the infant mortality rate in Cuba (those pesky communists) was/is lower than in the US. The Chinese (communists) have led the world in infrastructure development, scientific innovation and development of social safety nets… And don't dump Pol Pot or Stalin's horrors on my plate. Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler were famous for being virulently anti-communist (in the case of Hitler) and between them were responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of Germans, Poles, Hungarians, Dutch, French and Russians, among others, between 1914 and 1945. The second thing is that the 'theory' part of a conspiracy theory should be taken seriously – until the evidence proves it to be wrong. Careful now, or you'll spill your beer! What I am suggesting is that, yes, there may be a sighting of a UFO (unidentified flying object), until the flying object has been identified. Imagine how many sightings there have been of UFOs (or stories of ghosts, for that matter), but we have yet to see evidence, and have it corroborated. So, this same thing may be said about any conspiracy theory. Sure, state your theory, but, and I paraphrase Richard Feynman, it does not matter how thrilling or exciting or beautiful or seductive your theory is, if the evidence does not support it, either abandon the theory or start all over again… Mushrooming conspiracies of our times The first conspiracy theory I heard of was about the Bermuda Triangle. It was the 1960s, and I was a prepubescent lad who spent a lot of time listening to the BBC World Service (I have progressively been avoiding the BBC since it began to resemble CNN) and reading whatever texts I came across. It was at about the same time, or maybe a little later, when I first learnt about Marco Polo, about which I have written elsewhere. The Bermuda Triangle was fascinating. As young children, teenagers, we spoke about it with much authority. It was all real. True. For the uninitiated, the Bermuda Triangle is an area in the North Atlantic where ships and aeroplanes mysteriously 'disappeared'. It was all based on supernatural and paranormal beliefs – and nonsense. Today, in the third decade of the 21st century, new life has been given to the assassination of former US president JF Kennedy, Malcolm X, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrice Lumumba, former Secretary-General of the UN, Dag Hammarskjöld or the former president of Mozambique, Samora Machel. The conspiracies of 9/11 have been growing exponentially, and the real doozy is the moon landings. In terms of the latter, I follow the scientists, and with the former, I have always avoided walks during blizzards of half-truths and titillating tales. In these senses, I stick to the official version of stories – until there is actually evidence to prove otherwise. There are very many creative minds out there, some of which can be quite darkly creative. Others are pernicious and tend to be shaped by biases and prejudices. One theory is about a particular group of people who 'rule the world' and who have won a disproportionate share of Nobel Prizes. I will not give these theories oxygen. What I will say is this, going back to wearing my other hat, Europeans dominated the world in arts and science, and in propagating their successes (and the supremacy of the European Enlightenment) most aggressively since what they refer to as the 'Glorious Revolution' in 1688. (Conveniently occluding things like slavery, witch burnings, the cruel injustices of empires, etc). It stands to reason, then, that the most celebrated composers and music theorists like Peter Tchaikovsky, or Dmitri Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev (my favourite composer) or Arnold Schönberg were European. Not dissimilarly, the liberal capitalist economics fundamentalism that Adam Smith is associated with was picked up by (European) economists from Alfred Marshall to Paul Samuelson, and more latterly by European settler colonists in North America, people like Paul Krugman or Joseph Stiglitz. It's hard to believe, then, that there is some genetic disposition towards genius or greatness among people who 'rule the world' – other than the (more readily acceptable) fact that the Europeans have dominated the world for most of the past 500 years. For what it's worth, classical music has historically been dominated by white people and jazz by black people. The conspiracy that one particular people rule the world is just nonsense. It's probably safer to say that capitalism has dominated the world, that it sprang from a corner of England in the 18th century, and on the backs of empires, was spread around the world. On this point, I will leave the last word to that other European, Karl Marx (a statement about capitalism which is empirically verifiable): 'The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere.' As for conspiracy theories. Well, they are part of what makes us ugly and dangerous. Everyone does, actually, have one or two favourite conspiracy theories. Among mine are that Marco Polo never did get to China, and that Donald Trump has not read a whole book in his adult life (a book that is not about himself, that is), and that his adviser, Stephen Miller, is one of the most awful, cruel and objectionably racist white supremacists. For the rest of it, I follow the official conclusions of the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York City and Washington, and the official conclusions on the assassination of John F Kennedy. I believe that there are things like UFOs, until they are identified, which is almost immediate – that is, besides the fact there is no actual, verifiable, evidence of their existence. There is no such thing as a ghost, because there is no evidence. I also believe that the moon landing is (for now) humanity's greatest scientific achievement. 'For now' refers to a time in the future when (hopefully) we find a cure for cancer, or eradicate things like infant blindness in Africa. DM
Daily Maverick
17-06-2025
- Daily Maverick
Evacuees from Israel arrive in Slovakia and Czech Republic
Another Central European country, Poland, said on Tuesday that the evacuation of Poles from Israel was planned for Wednesday and Thursday. Slovak authorities said the first evacuation flight with 73 people, including 25 Slovak tourists and five family members of Slovak diplomats working in Tel Aviv, had arrived in the capital Bratislava late on Monday. Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said Slovakia had also helped bring citizens of other countries to Europe, including 15 Poles, mainly children, 14 Czechs, nine Austrians, two Slovenians and one citizen each of Estonia, Spain and Malaysia. 'Our partners are contacting us and we are preparing another flight on Tuesday, which should include citizens of the Slovak Republic, as well as citizens of the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Latvia, and France,' Blanar said. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Slovakia had helped evacuate seven Hungarians. Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said that a flight with 66 people evacuated from Israel had landed near Prague. Poland said on Monday that it was organising the evacuation of around 200 of its citizens from Israel via Jordan. On Tuesday, the Polish foreign ministry said it planned to use two planes from Egypt and Jordan for the evacuation, the first of which would take off on Wednesday. 'The plane from Sharm el-Sheikh will take off first, the one from Amman will take off second, most likely on Thursday morning,' said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Henryka Moscicka-Dendys. 'We want to service this connection with a military plane, because we see that there are not as many people willing to evacuate as it might seem.'
Daily Maverick
02-06-2025
- Daily Maverick
Polish conservative Nawrocki leads presidential vote
By Marek Strzelecki and Anna Koper A late exit poll by Ipsos for broadcasters TVN, TVP and Polsat showed Nawrocki at 51% and his rival, liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, at 49%. Readings published just after voting ended had Nawrocki losing at 49.7% to 50.3%. Official results were due on Monday. Nawrocki, 42, an amateur boxer who ran a national remembrance institute, campaigned on a promise to ensure government economic and social policies favour Poles over other nations, including refugees from neighbouring Ukraine. While Poland's parliament holds most power, the president can veto legislation, and the vote was being watched closely in Ukraine as well as Russia, the United States and across the European Union. Both candidates agreed on the need to spend heavily on defence as Trump, the U.S. president, is demanding from Europe and to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia's three-year-old invasion. Poland is a member of the 32-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization security alliance. But while Trzaskowski sees Ukraine's future membership of NATO as essential for Poland's security, Nawrocki said recently that if he were president he would not ratify it because of the danger of the alliance being drawn into war with Moscow. Russia has demanded that NATO not enlarge eastward to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics as a condition of a peace deal with Kyiv, sources have said. Nawrocki has presented the ballot as a referendum on the broad coalition government of pro-Europe Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the leader of the Civic Coalition (KO) party who took office about 18 months ago. 'This will be a good counterweight to the government,' said Mateusz Morawiecki, who was prime minister in the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government that lost power in 2023. Although technically an independent, Nawrocki was backed by PiS in the election. Trzaskowski, 53, had promised to help Tusk complete his government's democratic reforms, which they both say aim to repair an erosion of checks and balances under the former PiS government. Trzaskowski's campaign initially proclaimed victory on Sunday and did not immediately comment after poll readings showed a move in Nawrocki's favour. TUMULTUOUS CAMPAIGN The first round of the election on May 18 saw a surge in support for the anti-establishment far-right, suggesting that the KO-PiS duopoly that has dominated Polish politics for a generation may be starting to fracture. Nevertheless, after a tumultuous campaign in which Nawrocki in particular faced a slew of negative media reports about his alleged past conduct, once again candidates representing the two main parties faced off in the second round. Nawrocki dismissed accusations of wrongdoing in his acquisition of a flat from a pensioner and participation in mass organised fights among football hooligans. Social issues were also at stake in the election. Trzaskowski has said he wanted to see Poland's near total ban on abortion eased, something that outgoing nationalist President Andrzej Duda strongly opposed. A win by Nawrocki will likely mean that Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban and Slovakia's Robert Fico gain an ally in central Europe. His victory could lend momentum to the Czech Republic's eurosceptic opposition leader and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis who leads opinion polls ahead of an October election. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem spoke in Nawrocki's favour in May, telling a conservative gathering in Poland that he 'needs to be the next president.'
