Last Sunday the 26th October, the nineteenth Riga International Film Festival 2ANNAS came to an end. 2ANNAS is an independent international film festival, which takes place every year in Riga, gathering together movie-makers and film-lovers from all around the world for several days. The theme this year was “Transgressors – Pathfinders and pioneers of cinema”. From documentaries to fiction, through to the experimental, the movies took different forms, and delivered quite often a message...

Six years after the 2008 financial crisis, Spain’s economy is getting better, with its GDP growing at a rate of 0.6% in the second quarter of 2014 and a decreasing unemployment rate. However, Spanish society has been deeply disturbed. Words of a disillusioned youth: “Spain is getting better”. At least that is what it seems, given the improvement in the economic situation, with positive growth for three quarters and a decrease in unemployment. However, with an unemployment rate of 23.67% between...

On the 8th October, Canada officially joined the war against Islamic State. The House of Commons voted with a large majority in favour of the Canadian armed forces establishing Operation Impact as part of an airstrike coalition led by the United States aimed at bringing down the jihadist organisation. Operation Impact, such as it was voted in the House of Commons of Canada, has plans to deploy six CF188 Hornet fighter jets, two CP 140 Aurora surveillance planes, an air-to-air refueling...

The Tower of David, or Centro Financiero Confinanzas, is an unfinished 45 story building in the center of the business district in Caracas Venezuela’s capital. This autonomous vertical squat is also considered the “highest vertical shantytown in the world”. Jorge Silva, a local photographer, pictured the organization of the micro-society living in what is, to this day, the third highest tower in the country. “Everyday I walked by this building. It became an obsession to enter the tower and to...

In Ukraine, the 26th October legislative elections seemed to close the Euromaïdan chapter that started almost a year ago, in November 2013. Yet the success of pro-European parties have not managed to eclipse the economic and political issues that the new government will have to face. With Putin as the "big bad wolf", the Ukrainian story is only starting to be written. Even if the recent Ukrainian legislative elections place pro-European parties ahead and assure a strong majority to president...

Following a report on the fight against poverty in Europe, published on the 17th of October, The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, The Netherlands has documented increasing levels of poverty in the country. Despite an undoubted upturn in the economy, the decline of important indicators show that the population of The Netherlands is facing social problems.  The 2008 financial crisis affected the country deeply, but today things are improving; this is evidenced in forecasts...

The flu has become a common disease, which is easily cured in Western countries. But when it comes to a virus which has developed quickly, precautions are hard to take. That is the case of the Enterovirus D68, which proved to be deadly for several people in North America. The EV-D68 is quite a common kind of virus. Several groups exist and the consequences of them are usually : a cold, the flu, and others. It is transmitted through the air, and the measures to take are easy : maintain proper...

Burma has been an independent state since 1948, but has been under military control for many years. In 2010, legislative elections took place for the first time in twenty years. President Thein Sein made multiple reforms towards democracy, and released political opponents. As a response, the West lifted most of its sanctions. But the recent increased freedoms in Burma encouraged by the West remains marred by a deep-rooted ultranationalism. This year, Burma is preparing for its second...

Between 2013 and 2014, sexual assaults on public transport increased by 20%, making a total of 1,117 incidents. The British Secretary of Transport decided to respond to this alarming number. On September 29th, during a Conservative party meeting in Birmingham, the Secretary of Transport Claire Perry sounded the alarm: “one million cases, it is far too much. I am determined to make sure things change. We have to think about the security of our public transport.”

“We cannot resign ourselves to imagining a Middle East without Christians”, Pope Francis declared on Monday 20th October, referring to the violence that has shaken the region. The Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, called on the international community to act in order to “prevent possible new genocides”. Nine cardinals from all corners of the world and seven patriarchs from the Middle East gathered together at an Ordinary Public Consistory to listen to Pope Francis’ position on...