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☆ NATO’s next challenge: How to reverse years of underfunding defense
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

For over a decade, allies have chronically underspent on defense while the West’s adversaries modernized and bolstered their own military capabilities. Defense spending stayed low across the West not just because of budget pressures, but also because everyone – including the US – was frightened to provoke Russia. However, the nature of NATO allies’ support for Ukraine – much of it direct military support – has exposed the vulnerability that years of underfunding has caused the alliance. Fabian Bimmer/Pool/ReutersThis means that the challenge in front of NATO allies now is not just how can they meet the demand for weapons coming from Ukraine, but how do they reverse years of underfunding their own defenses? Some allies don’t trust that others will be quite so generous with defense spending if the Russia-Ukraine war were to end.

Persons: Vladimir Putin’s, Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, Murat Kula, ”, ” John Herbst, Antony Blinken, Ulf Kristersson, Andrew Caballero, Reynolds, underfunding, It’s, Herbst, NATO’s, –, Jens Stoltenberg, Olaf Scholz, Fabian Bimmer, Stoltenberg, ” Stoltenberg, Peter Ricketts, Douglas Lute, “ Organizations: CNN, NATO, Turkish, Anadolu Agency, Pentagon, “, Swedish, US State Department, Getty, Ukraine, Rheinmetall, Trump Locations: Soviet, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, United States, British, Vilnius, Russia, Kyiv, Europe, Germany, AFP, North Korea, Iran, Washington, Unterluess, Baltic, Brussels, Finland, Sweden, NATO

☆ Odawara: Japanese castle town invites travelers to become ‘daimyo’ for a day
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Julian Ryall | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Simon Celestine arrived at Odawara castle as a tourist from France but he is now lord of one of the most impressive feudal-era fortresses in Japan – if only for a day. Odawara Tourism AssociationOdawara has been selected as one of the first recipients of government assistance to tell its story and local tourism authorities have been busy devising initiatives that play on its strengths. Five generations of the Hojo clan made Odawara castle one of the most formidable in the country and it was never successfully stormed in battle. Odawara Tourism AssociationThe innermost courtyard is across another bridge over a moat, up a flight of steep steps and through a gate set into a two-meter-thick wall. The “Lord of the Castle” experience can be booked through the official Odawara Tourism Association website.

Persons: Simon Celestine, Hojo, Naoya Asao, ” Celestine, ”, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Hideyoshi, Meiji, Celestine, Tomomi Iwayama, Iwayama, sashimi Organizations: CNN, Japan CNN, Odawara Tourism, Odawara, Odawara Tourism Association, CNN Travel Locations: Odawara, Japan, France, Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Hakone, Izu, Sagami Bay, Mount Fuji, Edo, Kanto

☆ UK museums to loan looted gold artifacts to Ghana
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The United Kingdom will send back gold and silver artifacts looted from Ghana in the 19th century after a long-term loan agreement was struck. Both the British Museum and the V&A will send items related to the Asante royal court to Ghana, where they will be displayed at the Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, according to a press release from the UK museums Thursday. “Asante kings grew powerful on local gold deposits and the palace in Kumasi became the focal point for a lucrative international gold trade,” it adds. The items will be displayed in Ghana on a long-term loan. Lissant Bolton, keeper of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the British Museum, hailed the partnership with the Manhyia Palace Museum.

Persons: Asante, ”, Osei Tutu, Albert Museum “, “ Asante, Albert Museum Tristram Hunt, he’s, Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II’s, Hunt, Lissant Bolton, Emmanuel Macron, Lord Elgin Organizations: CNN, British Museum, Asante, Albert, Victoria, Albert Museum, “, French Locations: United Kingdom, Ghana, Manhyia, Kumasi, Asante, Victoria, London, Asantehene, Africa, Oceania, Americas, Bolton, Greece

☆ Black Folk Musicians Are Reclaiming the Genre
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-10 | by ( Adam Bradley | Justin French | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

[GUITAR PLAYING] I really think folk music can find its origins in all Black music. [BANJO PLAYING] The main thing about folk is it is a storytelling genre. So any genre that conveys a story to the audience I would consider folk music. [FOLK MUSIC PLAYING] There was a particular act called the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I’m also trying to lift up all the different voices so that we have a more well-rounded picture of African-American folk music traditions.

Persons: Gibson, Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson, Joe Thompson, ”, Gwendolyn Brooks, darlin ’ Corey, ’ Corey, ” I’ve, I’m, —, I’ve, We’re, ” “ Organizations: Music, East Tennessee State University, West Locations: Johnson City, That’s, New Orleans, West African, Holbrook

☆ ‘Make Noise Enough’: Excavating Shakespeare’s Songs
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Corinna Da Fonseca-Wollheim | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Musicians from the early-music ensemble Collectio Musicorum were practicing a 17th-century round on a recent afternoon in Manhattan. The tune was jaunty, full of the cantering rhythms and mimetic horn calls that fit a song about hunting. But sung in canon, some of the notes bumped roughly against one another in daring dissonance. Jeff Dailey, the group’s director, glanced up encouragingly from his music stand. Remember, you’re drunk at this point.”The performers were preparing a program of songs, ballads and rounds from Shakespeare plays that brings to life the tunes scholars think might have been part of the earliest productions.

Persons: Collectio Musicorum, Jeff Dailey, glanced, you’ve, Shakespeare, Shepherd, Robert Johnson, Thomas Morley, Dailey, ” Organizations: Faith Presbyterian Church, Globe Theater Locations: Manhattan, “

The collection amassed by Jein, who died last year at age 76, will be offered up by Heritage Auctions next month in Dallas. Jein, who had an Oscar and Emmy nominated career making miniature models, was also a collector of costumes, props, scripts, artwork, photographs and models from the shows he loved. But a small preliminary model, which is about 5 inches (12 centimeters) long, is among Jein's creations that will be offered at the auction. Chang said Jein loved his work and also had a passion to learn about a wide array of topics. After Jein died, his cousin found that his book collection spanned topics from cooking to the military.

Persons: Greg Jein, Jein, “, Joshua Benesh, ” Jein, Steven Spielberg's, Benesh, ”, William Shatner, Kirk, Leonard Nimoy’s “ Mr, Spock, ” Lou Zutavern, Jein’s, ” Zutavern, Jerry Chang, Chang, Chang's, you’d, ” Chang Organizations: DALLAS, “ Star, Heritage Auctions, Air and Space Museum, “, Hollywood, California State University , Los Locations: Dallas, Los Angeles, dumpsters, California State University , Los Angeles, Hollywood

☆ This rare female painter in Edo Japan was ‘coveted’ for her exquisite ink paintings
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

But he laments the fact that Yukinobu — and other women artists from Japan — are not given more prominence beyond occasional inclusion in broad group shows. But she never signed her paintings, according to Kanō tradition, as Kanō Yukinobu. The Denver Art Museum alone has 13 imitations of Yukinobu paintings, and only one authentic work. A peony in the collection of MFA Boston (not on view), which holds several Yukinobu paintings. “There’s a core group of female scholars who are pursuing this (the study of Japanese women artists),” he explained.

Persons: Kiyohara Yukinobu, —, ”, Einor Cervone, Yukinobu, Benzaiten, Paul Berry, “, ” Berry, Kanō Tan’yū, Kusumi Morikage, Berry, Cervone, Yang Guifei, Tang, Xuanzong, it’s, Kiyohara, consort Yang Guifei, ” Cervone, Boston Berry, he’s, don’t, Picasso, I’m, It’s Organizations: CNN, Denver Art Museum, Tokyo National Museum, Miho Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, Suntory Museum of Art, Women’s University Locations: Japan, Kyoto, New York, “, Tokyo, Shibuya, East Asia

☆ NATO unity will be tested at upcoming summit. Ukraine's possible entry may be the biggest challenge
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Patriot long-range air defence systems of the German Bundeswehr armed forces are deployed at Vilnius Airport ahead of the upcoming NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania on July 7, 2023. "I don't think it's ready for membership in NATO," President Joe Biden told CNN in an interview airing Sunday. More than two-thirds of alliance members have banned the weapon because it has a track record for causing many civilian casualties. As for Ukraine's possible entry into NATO, the alliance said in 2008 that Kyiv eventually would become a member. "That's an issue that will cause tension and dissent, and that's not what the Vilnius summit is all about," he said.

Persons: NATO's, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Biden, Douglas Lute, Barack Obama, Vladimir Putin, Wagner, Lute, Mitch McConnell, Putin, Daniel Fried, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finland, Erdogan, It's, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Max Bergmann, They've, Bergmann, Viktor Orban, Idaho Sen, Jim Risch, aren't, Risch, I'm, we've, Jens Stoltenberg, who's, Mette Frederiksen, Stoltenberg, Rasmussen, Skip Davis, that's Organizations: German Bundeswehr, Vilnius Airport, NATO Summit, NATO, CNN, Republican, Kentucky, Associated Press, Putin, Atlantic Council, Ukraine, State Department, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Senate Foreign Relations, Danish, Center for Locations: German, Vilnius, Lithuania, Russian, Ukraine, Sweden, Eastern Europe, United States, Israel, Moscow, Finland, U.S, Russia, Kyiv, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Turkey, Stockholm, Idaho, Hungary, Baltic, Norwegian, Danish

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