"Since the escalation of conflict in 2013 and 2014, South Sudan has faced a significant rise in the number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs). Over the past six years, this number has continued to grow due to the climate crisis and extreme flooding in areas where people had resettled or were still displaced from the 2014 conflict. Many of these individuals could not return to their original villages for various reasons, including destruction of homes, looted properties, fear of further violence, or illness."

✍🏽 📷 Christina Simons

Check out the new photo essay on Turning Point.

The Politics of Force: Militarized Care and Disaster Recovery in Acapulco

"Under the auspices of security and humanitarian aid, military-led efforts to rebuild and fortify Acapulco’s affluent areas have been slow and entangled, focusing on “rich” Acapulco while marginalizing the needs of poorer families and neighborhoods. Weil’s meditation on the dehumanizing power of force can be seen in the aftermath of disasters and in the experiences of military personnel, where individuals may feel powerless and reduced to their basic physical needs."

✍🏽 Beki McElvain
📷 Miguel Dimayuga

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Housing Emergency

"In recent years, the market has seen a sharp increase, with rents rising by up to 120% and property prices by 47% in some cases. No significant measures were taken to stop this increase, with authorities bowing to speculation and market liberalism. Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine have only worsened the situation: the number of homeless has increased by up to 70%. According to Eurostat, 9.6 million full-time workers aged 25-34 still live at home with their parents; this adds up to one in five workers of that age group. Such data is quite shocking, and when analyzed in the context of inflation and stagnant salaries, it is easy to understand how difficult the situation is. People can’t afford to live in many European cities."

✍🏽 Turning Point
📷 Daniele Napolitano

Read our new editorial on Turning Point.

Exarcheia Under Siege: The Battle Against Gentrification in Athens

"Gentrification is always violent, but the violence of Exarcheia’s transformation is ideologically and politically charged. It directly and overtly targets anarchists and the radical left and strikes at all levels. It strikes at those who stand against government policies, as it attempts to push them out of spaces in which they can meet, gather and express themselves. For passers-by, gentrification is no bargain, as the building sites are taking their toll on pedestrian routes, pavements and public spaces in general. Gentrification is hitting residents hard, sometimes forcing them to leave their homes because of soaring rents."

✍🏽 Eva Betavatzi
📷 Nicolas Vigier

Read the full article on Turning Point.

The Cost of Popularity: Lisbon’s Housing Crisis

"The housing crisis has been decades in the making, with roots deep in Portugal's history, therefore it is difficult to pinpoint an exact starting point. However, between 2012–2022 real estate prices grew 120% while salaries stayed the same. What happened?"

✍🏽 Sofia Craveiro
📷 Ma‌rio Martins

Read the full article on Turning Point.

“Almost Impossible for Locals to Live”: Barcelonians Fight Against Touristification

"Without a vision for the city that aims to ensure not only greater availability of houses but also a decrease in prices and individual interests, the city will remain difficult to inhabit—except for those with abundant finances."

✍🏽 Andrea Cegna
📷 David Schalliol

Read the full article on Turning Point.

A European Coalition Urges to Take Action Against the Housing Crisis

"There is only one path against incessant dispossession: regrouping and working together to maintain or to gain housing justice."

✍🏽 George Zamfir
📷 An interactive map showing Housing Action Days 2024 activities across Europe, created by the European Action Coalition for the Right to Housing and to the City. Map tiles CC BY 3.0 CartoDB; map data © OpenStreetMap contributors under ODbL.

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Alternatives Are a Matter of Survival

"As more people live outside the prescribed remedies society has offered, hope for the safety and health of humanity lies increasingly in the hands of people who have taken initiative."

✍🏽 Turning Point
📷 Maryam Ashrafi

Read the new editorial on Turning Point.

Breaking a rule to create a chance: The story of Quarticciolo Ribelle

"Quarticciolo as a neglected suburb shares the stories of many other peripheries in Italy, but what Quarticciolo Ribelle is writing is a possible alternative plot, a different story."

✍🏽 Maria Edgarda Marcucci
📷 Daniele Napolitano

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Building Alternative Universities in the Midst of War and Revolution

"Three universities, several higher education institutions, and academies are now operating in northeast Syria. However, the real challenge is not simply to build schools and universities, but to develop an entirely new educational system with a philosophy based on new sociological principles."

✍🏽 Luqman Guldivê
📷 Sîmav Ehmed Heyder

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Living in a place with more green spaces puts you at lower risk of heat death.

— Elisa Gallo, epidemiologist.

This week's article will explore urban strategies for adapting to climate change. We will delve into how cities are finding alternatives to the current, ecologically devastating forms of urbanization.

In the face of a growing climate crisis, cities are seeking solutions to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat and improve quality of life.
We will explore how the creation of green spaces and urban ecology can play a crucial role in making metropolitan areas more sustainable.

Coming this Wednesday on Turning Point.

Urban Landscapes in the 21st Century: Can Eco-Cities Tackle Climate Change and Pollution?

"Recent advances in ecological engineering have brought new life to the old debate on whether a city can truly be “green,” or if urban greenery merely veils an inherently unsustainable organization of modern metropolitan life."

✍️🏽 Henri Sulku
📷©detstheway

Read the full article on Turning Point.

The Fog of War

"To stand for peace is to stand against bombing, shelling, and invasions, but also—and perhaps more importantly—against the international complicity that enables them."

✍🏽 Turning Point
📷 Diego Ibarra Sanchez

Read the full editorial on Turning Point.

⚠️ Update on Milan’s controversial approach to urban forestation


On October 3, Italian police violently evicted environmentalists who had spent six weeks blocking the cutting down of an urban forest in Gallarate, a satellite town of Milan.

The forest is set to be razed as part of a €16 million "urban regeneration" project, largely funded by the EU. The plan has been fiercely opposed by local residents, some of whom had set up makeshift camps in the forest to prevent its destruction.

"The project does not reflect the needs of the [affected] districts and has been imposed from above without real involvement of the population," said the residents' platform, Save the Gallarate Trees Committee.
"[The urban forest] is a precious buffer zone that protects the neighborhood and social housing from noise and air pollution [from a nearby highway]."

Milan's metropolitan area, of which Gallarate is a part, has committed to a reforestation program aiming to plant 3 million trees by 2030. However, the program has been criticized for disregarding residents' actual needs and interests.


Learn more about urban forestation and Milan's "top-down" efforts on Turning Point.

“Make Yemen Great Again”: How Yemen’s Houthis Won a Place in the Israel-Gaza War and What They Are Planning Next

"As the Houthis have been very careful in strictly controlling the (few) journalists who have had access to their territory—except for rare cases of dual-nationals reporting undercover—the world is vastly unable to understand what North Yemen has become."

✍🏼 📷 Laura Silvia Battaglia

Read the full article on Turning Point.

Ukraine: Love+War, a Review

"FotoEvidence has done it again: A powerful, breathtaking volume focused on the impact of war in Ukraine. The previous FotoEvidence title, Ukraine: A War Crime (2023), specifically documented the first year of the 2022 invasion by Russia. This sister compendium, Ukraine: Love+War, takes a broader look, turning its eye back to the Russian incursion in 2014 and walking forward through 2024, this time with an emphasis on the war’s impact on society, including civilian life, family, and children."

✍🏼 Lauren Walsh

Read the full review on Turning Point.

From Collapse Doctrine to New Peace Talks: Kurdish Resistance at the Edge of Declaring Victory in Turkey

"Peace with the Kurds, a new democratic constitution, and solving problems through dialogue and political methods rather than violence have become the most used concepts in the last two weeks by the ruling elites of Erdogan’s regime."

✍🏽 Sinan Önal
📷 Maryam Ashrafi

Read the full article on Turning Point.

In the Shadow of Empires: From a ‘Hezbollah Stronghold’ to ‘Denazified’ Ukraine, the Experience of an Arab-Ukrainian

"I have lived under the shadows of two occupations, as my homelands in Ukraine and Lebanon face the same monster of unchecked nationalism and imperialism."

✍🏽 📷 Nizar Al Rifai

Read the full article on Turning Point.

If Peace Is the Question, Liberation Is the Only Answer

"In a world descending towards wars and genocides, more and more people, including the Turning Point editoral, feel a strong need to discuss peace, and Ture’s speech summarizes the answers to many questions raised by this common desire. Does the word peace have any meaning?"

✍🏽 Editorial Board
📷 Maryam Ashrafi

Read the full editorial on Turning Point.

Last week, Rexhino 'Gino' Abazaj, one of the defendants in the Budapest Trial, was arrested in France under a European Arrest Warrant. He is currently detained in France and, if extradited, could face up to 16 years in prison in Hungary.

In spring, Turning Point interviewed Rexhino for our article about the Hungarian trial involving 17 anti-fascists from across Europe.

You can read his interview and the full background on Turning Point.

Counter-Protest as Peacebuilding: How a Community Response Helped Extinguishing Anti-Immigrant Riots in Northern Ireland

"As security forces struggled to maintain order, counter-protesters seized the initiative to try and quell the violence, taking up the role the police is ostensibly meant to serve. The riots and the subsequent response can serve as a lesson on the rapid spread of disinformation and disorder, and how to fight back effectively."

✍🏽 Patrick Hilsman

Read the full article on Turning Point.