Slovakia Today, English Language Current Affairs Programme from Slovak Radio

As Syria struggles to recover from a civil war which has dragged on for more than a decade, there are efforts to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching many of the people who need it most. Jonathan speaks with Hugo Gloss of the Catholic charity Caritas Slovakia (Slovenská Katolícka Charita), who’s responsible for humanitarian projects in the Middle East, about the complicated situation in the country, and some of the reasons why charitable aid is being actively blocked. Although people in Western societies have long been afraid they are gradually losing many of their freedoms, this fear has been dramatically heightened during the course of the Covid crisis. The Czech-Slovak civic organisation Paralelna Polis was established some years ago precisely as a response to such a perceived loss of freedom. Jonathan speaks with one of its founders, Pavol Luptak, about how it's possible for a society to lose its freedoms almost without noticing.