{"id":4969,"date":"2026-06-22T16:47:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T13:47:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ojars.kapteinis.lv\/?p=4969"},"modified":"2026-06-22T16:47:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T13:47:24","slug":"saites-21-06-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ojars.kapteinis.lv\/en\/2026\/06\/22\/links-21-06-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"links: 21.06.2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

LSM: Turning all of P\u0101rdaugava into one big Victory Square? An interview with researcher Skaidr\u012bte Lasmane<\/a><\/p>\n

Skaidr\u012bte Lasmane \u2014 an emeritus professor, philosopher and historian at the University of Latvia \u2014 discusses the history of Riga’s Victory Square (Uzvaras laukums) and the grandiose construction planned under K\u0101rlis Ulmanis, which was deliberately turned into a nationwide volunteer effort, a tool for national unification. She sharply opposes proposals to rename the square, calling them irresponsible, and notes that after the Soviet monument was removed the park was transformed beyond recognition but never given a new meaning.<\/p>\n

Radio Free Europe\/Radio Liberty: Stitched Up: Belarusian Political Prisoners Highlighted Through Traditional Embroidery<\/a><\/p>\n

The Prague National Gallery is showing “Framed in Belarus,” an exhibition that uses traditional cross-stitch embroidery to draw attention to Belarus’s political prisoners, jailed in the crackdown that followed the disputed 2020 election. Artist Rufina Bazlova and volunteers from around the world created 681 embroideries \u2014 one for each prisoner \u2014 and she argues that the very “niceness” of cross-stitch speaks about hard subjects more effectively than shocking documentary images.<\/p>\n

Financial Times: ‘You’re dead’ \u2014 Europe’s SpaceX fights back against Musk prophecy<\/a><\/p>\n

Europe’s Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket \u2014 whose demise Elon Musk predicted a decade ago \u2014 is trying to claw back ground lost to SpaceX, and is already flying satellites for Amazon’s low-Earth-orbit constellation. The rocket is more expensive and expendable, so it cannot compete on launch volume, but its backers stress that Europe must be able to put its own satellites \u2014 including military ones \u2014 into space without depending on anyone.<\/p>\n

LRT: Behind the propaganda: why makeup influencers are suddenly talking politics<\/a><\/p>\n

A study by the Lithuanian firm Repsense reveals how pro-Russian narratives on social media reach people who normally avoid politics: they are spread by seemingly apolitical creators \u2014 makeup-tutorial makers, lifestyle accounts, second-hand-clothes Facebook groups \u2014 who gradually weave propaganda into everyday content. Most of it is distributed by real people, not bots, and the same playbook operates in Armenia, Hungary and Germany; the analyst recommends better counter-narratives rather than bans.<\/p>\n

The New York Times: A Diocese Tries to Protect Its 29-Foot Jesus From Trump’s Border Wall<\/a><\/p>\n

The Catholic diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is fighting Trump’s border wall in court over Mount Cristo Rey \u2014 a pilgrimage site crowned by a 29-foot statue of Jesus. The Department of Homeland Security wants to use eminent domain to seize 14 acres for about 1.5 miles of wall, but the diocese argues a steel barrier would desecrate the holy site and violate religious freedom.<\/p>\n

NPR: Freed from Cambodia’s scam compounds, trafficking victims face a new crisis<\/a><\/p>\n

After Cambodia began cracking down on online scam compounds, thousands of foreign workers \u2014 lured in and held captive in them \u2014 have been freed onto the streets of Phnom Penh with no money or shelter. Aid groups consider them trafficking victims, but Cambodian authorities demand visa-overstay fines and detain them \u2014 a crisis the government, while trumpeting its crackdown, is effectively ignoring.<\/p>\n

Le Monde: ‘Despite the tracksuits, we have brains’: The French youth staging literary battles in housing projects<\/a><\/p>\n

A group of young people from a housing project on the outskirts of Avignon has built a viral “book club” in which friends in tracksuits and caps stage mock “battles” between writers and thinkers (Marx vs Smith, Zola vs Flaubert). They are out to break the stereotype that kids from the projects are just delinquents \u2014 “despite the tracksuits, we have brains” \u2014 and have already caught the eye of France’s National Library and its National Book Center.<\/p>\n

Financial Times: King Charles to be first monarch to disclose personal tax bill<\/a><\/p>\n

King Charles is set to become the first modern British monarch to disclose his personal tax bill, releasing it alongside the annual royal accounts in a push for greater transparency after scandals involving his brother Andrew. For the first time it will show the tax paid on his personal profits, including income from the Duchy of Lancaster, which came to about \u00a324mn last year.<\/p>\n

ABC News: Experts say gambling companies use ‘dark patterns’ to hook Australians<\/a><\/p>\n

Experts warn that gambling companies use “dark patterns” \u2014 deliberately deceptive interface design \u2014 to push Australians to bet more: accounts that are hard to close, higher default stakes, countdown clocks and personalised lures after big losses. Australians lose $32bn a year on gambling \u2014 more per capita than anyone in the world \u2014 yet regulation lags behind this design.<\/p>\n