World and Press January 1
January 1 2022 • No 1 • 74th Year of Publication • Original Pressetexte aus britischen und US-amerikanischen Medien € 2,50 [d] Sprachtraining • Landeskunde • Vokabelhilfen • Übungsmaterial World and Press gibt’s jetzt im Digital-Abo! Liebe Leserinnen und Leser, mit dem neuen Jahr brechen für uns, das Team von World and Press, spannende neue Zeiten an: Wir freuen uns, Ihnen ab dem 3. Januar 2022 unsere Sprachzeitung nun auch als E-Paper anbieten zu können! | Photo: Unsplash By Jennifer Rankin Some school districts in the US are especially hard-hit by a bus driver shortage. Education experts worry this may leave rural children behind academically. Read more on pag e 5 Abdulrazak Gurnah wins the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. The Zanzibari novelist is the first black African writer in 35 years to win the award. Read more on pag e 15 Fortress EU is beating Belarus, with refugees as pawns in cruel game EUROPEAN UNION • REFUGEES Lukashenko’s strategy seems to have backfired, with a united European Union placing sanctions against his regime. | Photo: Getty Images All die informativen Artikel aus der internationalen Presse zu Themen aus Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, die wir in jeder Ausgabe von World and Press für Sie zusammenstellen, können Sie nun auch als digitales Abonnement erwerben. Und selbstverständlich erhalten Sie mit dem Premium-Abonnement für World and Press digital auch das gewohnt umfangreiche Übungsmaterial, das wir zu ausgewählten Texten erstellen. Ob auf Papier oder in digitaler Form – wir wünschen Ihnen weiterhin viel Freude bei der Lektüre von World and Press! Es grüßt Sie herzlich Ihre Katrin Günther 1 THERE WASchaos at the border. Thousands of Middle Eastern refugees and migrants had massed at the crossing point to the European Union, hoping for a better life. Many had been taken to the barbed-wire fence on state-funded buses, after the authoritarian leader made good on years-long threats “to open the gates to Europe”. But when people arrived, the hope of a better life collided with police teargas and stun grenades. 2 This was not a scene from the Poland–Belarus border this week, but Greece’s land border with Turkey less than two years ago. 3 Belarus’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has realised – as Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan knew before him – that desperate people fleeing war and violence can be used as pawns in a cruel political game. The game can be played because the EU wants to keep out irregular migrants at any price, even if it means outsourcing border security to repressive regimes. 4 “Lukashenko is using the only language he understands – force – to try to reopen dialogue with the EU,” Maxim Samorukov of the Carnegie Moscow Center Children on the border between Belarus and Poland in November. | Photo: Getty Images has written. But the plan has come unstuck. Poland, which has banned media, NGOs, and even EU officials from its border with Belarus, has refused to allow migrants to enter. 5 Migrants found shivering in thin blankets in no man’s land have told of being figuratively kicked around like a football, neither allowed to enter Poland, nor return to Belarus. Farther north, Lithuania is reported to be adopting similar tactics along its 420- mile border with Belarus. 6 If Lukashenko was counting on Poland and Lithuania coming under heavy criticism for their treatment of people – and reopening divisive splits within the EU – he was wrong. 7 Six years after the migration crisis, when a million asylum seekers crossed into the European Union, the EU’s gates are tightly shut. While Germany’s outgoing chancellor, Angela Merkel, was widely praised for her humanitarian gesture of welcoming Syrian asylum seekers in 2015, most EU officials drew a different lesson: she was wrong. The combination of “wir schaffen das (we can do this) without any consultation … and [mandatory] quotas” to redistribute refugees around the bloc was an error, one former senior EU official told the ‘Guardian’. Continued on page 12 €2,80 [a] CHF4,50 [ch] 0 FORTRESS “"fO…tr´s‘ Festung — refugees “ÆrefjU"dZi…z‘ Flüchtlinge — pawn “pO…n‘ (fig) Schachfigur — to backfire s. als Eigentor erweisen — to place sanctions against s.o. Sanktionen gegen jdn. verhängen 1 – 2 to mass s. versammeln — crossing point Grenzübergang — barbed-wire fence “ÆbA…bd "waI´‘ Stacheldrahtzaun — state-funded vom Staat bezahlt — authoritarian “ÆO…TÅrI"te´ri´n‘ autoritär — to make good on s.th. etw. in die Tat umsetzen — threat “Tret‘ Drohung — to collide with s.th. “k´"laId‘ auf etw. stoßen — teargas Tränengas — stun grenade Blendgranate 3 – 4 desperate “"desp´r´t‘ verzweifelt — violence “"vaI´l´ns‘ Gewalt — irregular migrant “I"regj´l´‘ irreguläre(r) Migrant(in) — to outsource extern vergeben; auslagern — repressive “rI"presIv‘ unterdrückerisch — force Macht; Gewalt — to come unstuck (coll) schiefgehen — to ban verbieten — NGO = non-governmental organisation — official Beamter(-in) 5 – 6 to shiver zittern — no man’s land Niemandsland — figuratively “"fIgj´r´tIvli‘ im übertragenen Sinn — Lithuania “ÆlITju"eIni´‘ Litauen — to count on s.o. s. auf jdn. verlassen — to come under heavy criticism heftig kritisiert werden — divisive “dI"vaIsIv‘ entzweiend — split Kluft 7 – 8 asylum seeker “´"saIl´m‘ Asylsuchende(r) — outgoing scheidend — chancellor “"tSA…ns´l´‘ Kanzler(in) — to praise rühmen — gesture “"dZestS´‘ Geste — to draw a lesson e-e Lehre ziehen — consultation Rücksprache — mandatory “"mœnd´t´ri‘ verpflichtend — to redistribute “Æri…dI"strIbju…t‘ umverteilen — senior hochrangig
