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☆ In its latest terror response, Russia is no longer attempting to disguise the brutality of its state security
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-26 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Their state appeared designed to create an impression of aggression and brutality, showing the consequences of crossing the Russian authorities. Though the brutality of Russia's security services has long been known, never has it been so brazenly paraded, say analysts. "It was no secret that Russian security agencies torture people, mutilate suspected terrorists and generally practice all known ways of extracting information. AdvertisementThe abuse of terror suspects in Russia has been documented before. But the treatment of the Moscow terror suspects seems to mark a new milestone in the normalization of brutality by officials in Putin's Russia.

Persons: —, Mukhammadsobir Faizov, Dalerdzhon, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, Shamsidin, Vladimir Putin, Mirzoyev, Rajabalizoda, Fariduni, mutilate, Anton Barbashin, Akram Azimov, Abror, lionized, Andrei Soldatov, Russia's Wagner, Kenneth Roth Organizations: Service, Business, CNN, Nazi, RFE, Human Rights Watch, St, New York Times, UN, Moscow ISIS, Kremlin, Human Rights Locations: Moscow, Tajikistan, Russia, St Petersburg, Ukraine, Putin's Russia

☆ Steven Spielberg: ‘The echoes of history are unmistakable in our current climate’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Alli Rosenbloom | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Steven Spielberg had words of caution and hope on Monday while accepting an honor from the University of Southern California. Celina Biniaz, 92, one of the last living Holocaust survivors from Oskar Schindler’s List, was also honored at the event. In my grandparents’ home Cincinnati, Ohio where I lived until I was three, my grandmother, Jenny, taught English to Hungarian Holocaust survivors. In listening to them, the echoes of history are unmistakable in our current climate. These 56,000 testimonies that we have recorded are a foundation upon which bridges can be built, and we here at the USC Shoah Foundation are building those bridges.

Persons: CNN — Steven Spielberg, Spielberg, ” Spielberg, Celina Biniaz, Oskar Schindler’s, Biniaz, Schindler, —, ‘, “, Leah, Carol, Folt, I’ve, ’, Jenny, –, It’s, Hana Rychik, ” Organizations: CNN, University of Southern, USC Shoah Foundation, Los Angeles Times, Shoah Foundation, Shoah, Democratic, USC, Foundation Locations: University of Southern California, German, Auschwitz, Israel, Cincinnati , Ohio, Hungarian, California, Krakow, Europe, Gaza

☆ Lawsuit by Elon Musk's X was an attempt to punish free speech, judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Dominick Reuter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

download the appSign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read previewA lawsuit that Elon Musk's X filed last year against a research group was thrown out Monday, with US District Judge Charles Breyer saying, "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech." But Breyer wrote "there can be no mistaking" that the real motive of the suit was to bully X's critics into silence. Related storiesWhen asked for comment on the decision, the press email for X replied, "Busy now, please check back later." Musk has previously said he's a "free speech absolutist" and that his "thermonuclear" lawsuits against media-watchdog groups are about "protecting free speech."

Persons: —, Elon Musk's X, Charles Breyer, X, Breyer, Musk, Imran Ahmed, lawfare Organizations: Service, US, Northern District of, Business, X Corp, Media Matters Locations: Northern District, Northern District of California

☆ Lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X against nonprofit CCDH thrown out by judge on free speech grounds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, writing in a judgement Monday that the "case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech." X sued the research group in July, accusing it of implementing a "scare campaign" to drive away advertisers. The company also accused CCDH of improperly accessing data from the platform and selectively picking posts to "falsely claim" that X is "overwhelmed with harmful content." CCDH also found that Twitter failed to act on 89% of anti-Jewish hate speech and 97% of anti-Muslim hate speech on the platform. In one instance, X has sued an Israeli web data collection company called Bright Data over its allegedly unauthorized scraping of data from its social media platform.

Persons: Elon Musk's, X, CCDH, Musk, Charles Breyer, Breyer, Roberta Kaplan, Donald Trump, E, Jean Carroll, Trump, Carroll, Xfinity Organizations: CCDH, Northern District of, Twitter, CNBC, X, Bright, Media Matters, America, Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle Locations: California, Northern District, Northern District of California, Silicon Valley, Texas

☆ An Arms Smugger, a Daring Heist, and the Birth of Israel
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( David Kushner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +35 min

Joining the Haganah, Schwimmer discovered, wasn't as easy as just strolling through the door. "He felt he had to do his part in creating a Jewish state, so this could never happen again," Schwimmer recalled. Rather than melt down the surplus weapons for scrap, Liff told Greenspun to take as much as he wanted — free of charge. "It went against the grain to buck the same government we had fought to preserve only a few years before," Hank Greenspun recalled. In 2001, at the urging of Brian Greenspun, Schwimmer received a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton.

Persons: Danny Schwimmer, They'd, Rina, Al —, David Ben, Gurion, Al Schwimmer, Schwimmer, Bugsy Siegel's, Meyer Lansky, Frank Sinatra, Sinatra, —, Boaz Dvir, Israel —, Danny, Al, I've, Hank Greenspun, Greenspun, Brian, Adolph, Dick Tracy, " Schwimmer, Wing Walker, America, Yehuda Arazi, Arazi, they'd, Schwimmer's, Sam Lewis, Leo Gardner, Milton, Milt, Rubenfeld, Paul Reubens, Herman, Reubens, Bugsy Siegel, Siegel, — Schwimmer, Nathan Liff, Liff, PhotoQuest, Bernarr McFadden, Pat, Ptacek, Rafael Trujillo, Teddy Kollek, Erwin Johnson, Bill Gerson, Gerson, Bud King, Gerson's, Ben, Joel Kimmel, Lewis, Lansky, hadn't, Tommy, Messerschmitts, David, Milt Rubenfeld, Israel, Charlie Winters, Winters, weren't, aren't, America's, Joseph McCarthy, John F, Kennedy, Brian Greenspun, Golda Meir, Bill Clinton Organizations: Israeli Air Force, TWA, Haganah, United Nations, Lockheed Air, Los Angeles Examiner, USC, Getty, US Naval, Schwimmer Aviation, FBI, UN, Customs Service, Palestine . Volunteers, Embassy, Israel, Service Airways, State Department, BI, Pepsi, Zionist, Nazi, Star, American, Avia, Messerschmitt, Pennsylvania State University who's, Las, Sun, Israel Aerospace Industries, IAI, they're, Israeli Locations: Tel Aviv, Israel, Connecticut, Palestine, New York, Copacabana, United States, Hungary, Auschwitz, storages, Arizona, Bridgeport, Rome, Burbank , California, Burbank, Las Vegas, Hawaii, Oahu, Santa Claus, California, Washington, Burbank ., Acapulco, Mexico, it's, Mexico City, Central, South America, Dominican Republic, China, America, Mexican, Panama, Panamanian, Corsica, Oklahoma, Detroit, Suriname, Brazil, Senegal, Casablanca, Sicily, Catania, Europe, Czechoslovakia, Czech, Egypt, Cairo, Los Angeles, American, Gaza, Iran

☆ 'America's greatest gift to Israel'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-24 | by ( David Kushner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +35 min

As the country's founder and first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, once declared, "America's greatest gift to Israel was Al Schwimmer." Joining the Haganah, Schwimmer discovered, wasn't as easy as just strolling through the door. "He felt he had to do his part in creating a Jewish state, so this could never happen again," Schwimmer recalled. Rather than melt down the surplus weapons for scrap, Liff told Greenspun to take as much as he wanted — free of charge. In 2001, at the urging of Brian Greenspun, Schwimmer received a presidential pardon from Bill Clinton.

☆ An MIT professor devised a 'Fortress Ukraine' plan in 1994 that proved remarkably right about the Russian invasion
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Michael Peck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

An MIT professor envisioned a defensive strategy in 1994 for Ukraine to survive a Russian attack. AdvertisementIn 1994, an American professor came up with a plan for Ukraine to defend against Russian invasion. Rather than seizing all of eastern Ukraine, Russia currently occupies about 18 percent of Ukrainian territory, mainly in the southeast and along the Black Sea coast. AdvertisementA member of 120th Independent Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine takes part in training exercises on March 16. "The Ukrainian force can cover about 60 percent of the front with no reserves.

Persons: Barry Posen, —, Posen's, Posen, Vladimir Putin, Gian Marco Benedetto, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, envelopments, didn't, Ukraine hadn't, George Barros, Barros, Michael Peck Organizations: MIT, Service, Russia —, NATO, Ukraine —, 120th Independent Brigade, Territorial Defense Forces, Russia, Mechanized, Russian, Institute for, Defense, Foreign Policy, Rutgers Univ, Twitter, LinkedIn Locations: Ukraine, American, Russia, Ukrainian, Russian, Dnipro, Posen, Soviet Union, Soviet, Moscow, America, Britain, Crimea, Donetsk, Nazi Germany, Washington ,, Kharkiv, Luhansk, Forbes

☆ Martin Greenfield, tailor for US presidents and survivor of the Holocaust, dies at 95
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-23 | by ( Harmeet Kaur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Martin Greenfield, a tailor who dressed six US presidents, countless A-list actors and professional athletes, died on March 20 at the age of 95, according to his sons Jay, Tod and David Greenfield. Dubbed by GQ and other media outlets as “America’s greatest living tailor,” Greenfield founded the longstanding menswear shop Martin Greenfield Clothiers in Brooklyn in 1977 after 30 years of working in a clothing factory. “God has a wonderful sense of humor.”In 1947, he immigrated to the US and changed his name to Martin Greenfield to sound more American. “In fact, virtually every suit he’s worn since February 2011 has been one of ours,” Greenfield wrote. Niko Tavernise/Warner Bros. EntertainmentAfter Greenfield retired, his sons Jay and Tod took over the family business, according to the Martin Greenfield Clothiers’ website.

Persons: CNN — Martin Greenfield, Jay, Tod, David Greenfield, ” Greenfield, Martin Greenfield Clothiers, Frank Sinatra, Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, LeBron James, Greenfield, “, ”, Bazmark, Shutterstock Greenfield, Maximilian Grünfeld, — Greenfield, ’, Martin Greenfield, Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Obama, Barack Obama, Evan Vucci, didn’t, “ Martin Greenfield, Martin, Sinatra, Denzel Washington, Joaquin Phoenix, Niko Tavernise Organizations: CNN, GQ, Warner Bros, Auschwitz Survivor, Big, White, Denzel, HBO, Entertainment Locations: Brooklyn, Pavlovo, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Auschwitz, Greenfield, Hollywood

☆ Why does Biden keep mentioning January 6? Because Trump won’t stop talking about it
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-16 | by ( Edward-Isaac Dovere | Steve Contorno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

It’s Biden’s campaign aides who have been surprised how much that’s true. A running mate litmus testBiden aides say January 6 and the footage from it will be a central feature of their advertising campaigns, the convention and beyond. Trump, for his part, keeps talking about it and his aides aren’t really trying to stop him. About 56 percent of independent voters continue to believe Trump was largely responsible for it, virtually unchanged during that stretch. But Biden aides say that’s a big part of why the images and memories of January 6 itself are so important.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Joe Biden, It’s, ”, Mike Donilon, “, We’re, ’, Kamala Harris, CNN —, reverberating, Biden, Jan, litmus, aren’t, Mike Pence, Elise Stefanik, Ohio Sen, J.D, Vance, South Carolina Sen, Tim Scott, Ben Carson, Doug Burgum, Pence, Scott, Burgum, ’ Biden, didn’t, it’s, ” Donilon, there’s, Mike Johnson, Barry Loudermilk, That’s, Loudermilk, Matt Gaetz, Tim Burchett, Jeff Van Drew, insurrectionists, they’ll, Harris, Matt Barreto –, –, Barreto, ” Barreto, ” Biden, Kari Lake’s, denialism, Chris DeLuzio, —, ” DeLuzio, ” Will Rollins, Ken Calvert —, ” Rollins, Annie Grayer, Ariel Edwards, Levy Organizations: CNN, Capitol, Democratic, Biden, Trump, South, North Dakota Gov, Republicans, Trump voters, Washington Post, University of Maryland, White, Congressional Republicans, GOP, Republican, House Republican Conference, ”, Trump Republicans, Democratic National Committee, —, Democrat, Southern Californians, GOP Rep Locations: Wilmington, New York, Ohio, South Carolina, America, Charlottesville, Valley Forge, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, New Jersey, Ukraine, Israel, U.S, Arizona, Pennsylvania

☆ Japan launches bullet train service to a region that 'guidebooks rarely mention'
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Rob Goss | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Japan is launching a new high-speed bullet train, or shinkansen, extension on Saturday that will make an under-the-radar prefecture far more accessible to travelers. The new train will pass through the city of Fukui, the town of Awara and other places guidebooks rarely mention, before reaching the port town of Tsuruga, adding some 78 miles to the Hokuriku Shinkansen's existing Tokyo-to-Kanazawa service. A Geisha walks through a performance hall in Awara, Japan. The end of the lineThe new shinkansen service ends in the town of Tsuruga. Kehi-no-Matsubara in Tsuruga, Japan.

Persons: dino, Juratic, Dogen, it's, Buddhika Weerasinghe, Arief, Sugihara Chiune, Sugihara, Matsuo Basho Organizations: Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, Zen, Getty, Humanity Museum, Mixa Locations: Japan, Fukui Prefecture, Tokyo, Fukui, Awara, Tsuruga, Kanazawa, Katsuyama, Kanaz, Suishouhama, Poland, Lithuania, Nazi

☆ The UK government has published a new definition of ‘extremism.’ Critics fear it could curtail free speech
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Luke Mcgee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The British government has published a new definition of extremism in response to a surge in hate crimes following Hamas’ October 7 attacks on Israel, a move critics warn could threaten free speech. The new definition has no legal standing and does not affect current criminal law. The government said the new definition was necessary due to a rise in hate crimes since the October 7 attacks. The UK’s most recent net migration figures hit a record high and reducing these numbers has become a key priority of the incumbent Conservative government. However, it is not clear that the government’s new definition will help ease tensions and has been criticized across the political spectrum.

Persons: ’, ” Michael Gove, Canterbury, Justin Welby, Gove Organizations: CNN, Conservative, Daily Mail Locations: Israel, British

☆ Heirs Awarded Nazi-Looted Art Are Still Waiting, 17 Years Later
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Nina Siegal | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In a museum storage depot in Amersfoort, the Netherlands, a 17th-century painting by a Dutch old master is packed away, unseen and unappreciated. Once the property of an elderly British-Jewish couple living in France, it was seized by Nazi collaborators during World War II and sold to Hermann Göring, Hitler’s second in command. Because of an administrative error in the war’s aftermath, it ended up in the Netherlands, where it was displayed in a museum for decades. The collectors heirs sought its return in 2006, and the country investigated the case and recommended restitution the following year. But the family still doesn’t have the painting back, and they don’t know when that will ever happen.

Persons: Hermann Göring, ”, Alain Monteagle Locations: Amersfoort, Netherlands, British, France, Nazi

☆ How a key witness lifted the lid on Trump’s handling of classified documents
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —A new glimpse inside Donald Trump’s inner circle shows how the ex-president’s men and women often confront a fateful dilemma under huge personal pressure. Butler’s comments are important because they foretell how he might testify in the federal classified documents trial that could be hugely damaging to Trump but that is increasingly unlikely to happen before Americans vote in the fall. Why ‘Trump Employee 5’ broke his silenceIt is too early to say whether Butler’s testimony would be decisive in the federal trial in the classified documents case. Walt Nauta, a Trump personal aide, and De Oliveira, who have not broken with the ex-president, have also denied wrongdoing. Cohen will be a key witness when Trump becomes the first ex-president to go on trial over a hush money case in New York later this month.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Brian Butler, “, hoarded, Butler, Trump, who’s, ” Butler, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, ”, Mar, Carlos De Oliveira, Stephanie Grisham, Grisham, ” Grisham, CNN’s Erin Burnett, –, Peter Navarro, Rudolph Giuliani, CNN’s Collins, Jim Sciutto, John Kelly, John Bolton, Adolf Hitler, ‘, ’, Walt Nauta, De Oliveira, John Irving, Jack Smith, Andrew McCabe, Ryan Goodman, Burnett, Smith, Michael Cohen, Cohen, Cassidy Hutchinson, Mark Meadows, Hutchinson, she’s, Cassidy, ” Hutchinson, Joe Biden, Robert Hur, Hur Organizations: CNN, Trump, “ Trump, West Palm Beach, FBI, White, White House, Capitol, New York, Republican, ‘ Trump, Mar, ”, New York University, Republicans, CBS, GOP Locations: Florida, West Palm, New Jersey, Lago, New York

☆ Trump former advisers sound the alarm that he praises despots in private and on the campaign trail
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Jim Sciutto | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

“He views himself as a big guy,” John Bolton, who served as national security adviser under Trump, told me. Trump lamented that Hitler, as Kelly recounted, maintained his senior staff’s “loyalty,” while Trump himself often did not. “He truly believed, when he brought us generals in, that we would be loyal — that we would do anything he wanted us to do,” Kelly told me. ‘Shocked that he didn’t have dictatorial-type powers’Trump’s former advisers say he most consistently lavished praise on Russian President Vladimir Putin. At a town hall organized by Fox News in July 2023, Trump said, “Think of President Xi: central casting, brilliant guy.

Persons: Donald Trump, Viktor Orbán, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong, Adolf Hitler “, Putin, Kim, ”, John Kelly, “, Putin wouldn’t, Orbán, CNN's Jim Sciutto, ” Trump, he’s, autocrats, Trump, Powers, Kelly, ” John Bolton, Erdogan, anybody’s, ” Kelly, Hitler Trump, Hitler, ’, ‘, ’ ” Kelly, Mussolini, Hitler’s, Steven Cheung, “ John Kelly, John Bolton, Vladimir Putin, Bolton, ’ ”, Xi, Reuters “ Trump, Matthew Pottinger, Xi —, authoritarians, Joe Biden, ” Bolton, Biden Organizations: CNN, NATO, Hungarian, Mar, Republican, Trump, Nazi, North, KCNA, Reuters, Fox News, Fox, Russian, Anadolu, Getty Locations: Hungarian, North Korea, Europe, Turkey, Nazi Germany, Panmunjom, South Korea, Hollywood, France, Osaka, Japan, Anadolu, NATO, Ukraine

☆ Russian student jailed after naming Wi-Fi router with pro-Ukraine slogan
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( Darya Tarasova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A Moscow court has sentenced a Russian university student to 10 days in jail for naming his Wi-Fi router with a pro-Ukrainian slogan, Russian media reported. The student was found guilty of propaganda and the “public display of Nazi symbols” by the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow on Thursday, and authorities confiscated his router, state-run RIA reported. Dissent has been effectively outlawed in Russia since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Expressing support for the Russian opposition figure, whose movement authorities outlawed as extremist, can be perilous. Russian state media largely ignored his death, while hundreds of people were reportedly detained for turning out at makeshift memorials in the largest wave of arrests at political events in the country in two years.

Persons: Oleg Tarasov, Slava Ukraine, Vladimir Putin, Alexey Navalny, “ Putin, ” –, Putin Organizations: CNN, Moscow State University, Ukraine ”, Russian Telegram, Novosti, Riot Locations: Moscow, Ukrainian, Ukraine, Nikulinsky, Russia, Russian

☆ Israeli President Herzog opens Holocaust museum in Amsterdam amid domestic protest
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Reuters —Israeli President Isaac Herzog attended the opening of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam on Sunday amid pro-Palestinian protests demanding an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza. Human rights group Amnesty International put up detour signs around the museum to direct Herzog to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Demonstrators protest against Israel's President Isaac Herzog attending the opening of the new National Holocaust Museum. Peter Djeong/APPeople protested with signs and Palestinian flags near the museum. The museum told media that it had invited Herzog before the Hamas attack and Israel’s subsequent offensive in Gaza.

Persons: Isaac Herzog, “, Herzog, Peter Djeong, Mouneb, Erev, Herzog’s, ”, Israel, ” Herzog Organizations: Reuters, National Holocaust Museum, ” Health, Hamas, Amnesty, International Court of Justice, AP, Anadolu Agency, Getty, Palestinian Community, Socialists International, Court of, Israel, Labor Locations: Amsterdam, Israel, Gaza, The Hague, South Africa, Nazi Germany

☆ Jonathan Glazer Condemns ‘Occupation’ and Violence in Israel and Gaza
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-10 | by ( Matt Stevens | More About Matt Stevens | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The Israel-Hamas war was prominently addressed on the Oscars stage on Sunday in an acceptance speech for “The Zone of Interest,” which follows the domestic life of a Nazi commandant whose house is just outside the Auschwitz concentration camp. The director Jonathan Glazer read from prepared remarks after the film won for best international feature, offering thanks to collaborators before turning to the conflict. “All our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present — not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather, ‘Look what we do now.’ Our film shows where dehumanization leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present.”Glazer, who is Jewish, said that he rejected “Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation, which has led to conflict for so many innocent people,” he said.

Persons: Jonathan Glazer, ” Glazer, ” Organizations: Nazi Locations: Israel

☆ The once-forgotten flying wing has taken over the US's bomber fleet
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Ben Brimelow | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Originally designed before America's entry into the Second World War, the YB-49 flying wing was intended to be America's first intercontinental bomber. US Air ForceThe flying wingThe YB-49 was the final iteration of a flying wing bomber concept created by legendary aircraft designer Jack Northrop, founder of the Northrop Corporation. A larger test aircraft, the N-1M, was tested in July of 1940, proving the potential of the flying wing design. The problems with aerial instability could now be solved by computers utilizing fly-by-wire technology and differential thrust, and so a flying wing design was submitted. In order to maintain a powerful bomber force and to keep up with technological innovation, the Air Force launched the Long Range Strike Bomber program in 2011.

Persons: —, Northrop Grumman, Jack Northrop, Northrop, Dunne, elevons —, William Lewis, Defense Lloyd Austin Organizations: Service, US Air, US Air Force, Northrop Corporation, United States Army Air Forces, US Army Air Forces, Britain, USAAF, Air Force, Flag, Nellis, Nellis Air Force Base, Raider, Technology Bomber, Northrop, ATB, Defense Locations: Nazi, Europe, British, Jan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya

☆ The incredible story of how POWs played golf at the ‘Great Escape’ prison camp
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Jack Bantock | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

In comparison to other POW camps under German control, captives at Stalag Luft III received “excellent” treatment for the majority of the war, according to a 1944 US Military Intelligence Service (MIS) report. The rubber from such items would wrap around the core and then be cased within leather stripped from shoes — a process eerily reminiscent of “featheries,” some of the earliest post-wooden golf balls ever made. Immortalized in a book and then a film of the same name, what became known as the “The Great Escape” wasn’t even the first breakout at Stalag Luft III. When three prisoners made a successful escape, suspicious German eyes homed in on the golf course and its sprawling mounds and greens. In 1979, he donated two balls he made while in Stalag Luft III to the USGA Golf Museum, artifacts that headline its exhibit on golf during the Second World War.

Persons: — “, Stalag Luft, —, “, ”, John Strege, Pat Ward, Thomas, Victoria Nenno, ” Nenno, Tee, Sydney Smith, Smith, Ward, John Mummert, Thomas ’, Sagan, Stalag, Roger Bushell’s, Tom, ” “ Dick, Harry ” —, Adolf Hitler Organizations: CNN, Luftwaffe, British Royal Air Force, RAF, United States Army Air Force, Military Intelligence Service, Geneva Convention, USGA Golf, PGA, Stalag Luft, USGA Museum, Ward, Thomas, USGA, RAF Squadron, Guardian, USGA Golf Museum Locations: Nazi Germany, Berlin, Zagan, Poland, Norway, New Zealand, Geneva, Netherlands, New Jersey, Ward, Germany, —, England

☆ A French Star Brings Her Career-Saving Play to New York
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Laura Cappelle | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In 2003, three decades into her career, Dominique Blanc experienced every actor’s worst nightmare: The phone stopped ringing. Blanc’s character, lifted from a book by the French author Marguerite Duras, awaits her husband’s return from a Nazi concentration camp in 1945, uncertain whether he is even alive. The show grew out of a series of readings she did from the book with the director Patrice Chéreau, a longtime collaborator. In 2008, Blanc pitched him a light stage version, requiring only a table, chairs and old costumes from Blanc’s closet. While Duras’s book was translated into English as “The War: A Memoir,” its original title simply means “Pain,” and in her show, Blanc starkly recreates women’s anguish as their partners return from untold horrors.

Persons: Dominique Blanc, Jean Racine’s “, ” Blanc, “, ”, Florence, Marguerite Duras, Patrice Chéreau, Blanc Organizations: Florence Gould Hall Locations: New York, French

☆ Opinion | We Need to Talk About This Republican Candidate’s Antisemitism
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-07 | by ( Michelle Goldberg | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Mark Robinson, the Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, has for some reason not bothered to take down his old Facebook posts about the Jews. He regularly argued on Facebook that focusing on the evils of Nazism obscured the greater danger: the one represented by the Democratic Party. He has refused to apologize for these statements, though he called them “poorly worded” and has denied that he’s antisemitic. None of this appears to have hurt Robinson with the Republican electorate in North Carolina, where on Tuesday he won nearly 65 percent of the vote in the gubernatorial primary. But Robinson is a reminder that in electoral politics, there is far more tolerance for antisemitism in the Republican Party than the Democratic one.

Persons: Mark Robinson, ’, ” Robinson, “ George Soros, Adolf Hitler, ”, “, Robinson, Josh Stein, Donald Trump, Martin Luther King Organizations: Republican, NAZI, Facebook, Democratic Party, Democratic, Republican Party Locations: North Carolina

The tool is derived from another AI image-generator, DALL-E 3, made by Microsoft's close business partner OpenAI. His letter to Microsoft urges the company to take it off the market until it is safer. “Many of the issues with Copilot Designer are already addressed with ChatGPT's own safeguards,” he said via text. A number of impressive AI image-generators first came on the scene in 2022, including the second generation of OpenAI's DALL-E 2. Google has temporarily suspended its Gemini chatbot's ability to generate images of people following outrage over how it was depicting race and ethnicity, such as by putting people of color in Nazi-era military uniforms.

Persons: Shane Jones, Jones, Microsoft's, OpenAI, ”, Lina Khan, “, OpenAI's DALL, ChatGPT — Organizations: Microsoft, Associated Press, U.S, Senate, Federal Trade Commission, CNBC, Senate's, Google Locations: “, Washington

☆ Josette Molland, Who Told of Life in Nazi Camps Through Art, Dies at 100
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Adam Nossiter | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the spring of 1943, Josette Molland, a 20-year-old art student, was certain of two things: that she was making a pretty good living creating designs for Lyon’s silk weavers, and that it was unbearable that Germans occupied her country. She joined the Resistance. Fabricating false papers and transporting them for the famed Dutch-Paris underground network unburdened her of guilt. Captured by the Gestapo less than a year later, Ms. Molland lived the hell of Nazi deportation and Nazi camps for women, at Ravensbrück and elsewhere. “I had a happy life for the next 50 years,” Ms. Molland said in a privately published autobiography, “Soif de Vivre” (“Thirst for Life”), in 2016.

Persons: Josette Molland, Molland, “, ” Ms, Vivre, — Locations: Paris, Ravensbrück, France

☆ Most countries have made ‘little or no progress’ in returning Nazi-looted art, report finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( Carlie Porterfield | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Of the 47 nations that endorsed the 2009 Terezin Declaration, which incorporated the principles, seven have made major progress, three have made substantial progress, 13 have made some progress and some 24 countries have made little or no progress, according to Tuesday’s report. “This report underscores the critical need for advancement in art and cultural property restitution,” Gideon Taylor, the president of WJRO, said in a statement. The 13 countries that have made some progress include Argentina, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland and Serbia. Frederick Florin/AFP/Getty ImagesMost countries that signed onto the Terezin Declaration have made little or no progress, according to the report. This marks the first governmental document on Holocaust restitution to be endorsed in nearly 15 years, a step WJRO said will help advance the restitution of art and cultural property.

Persons: CNN —, —, restitutions, ” Gideon Taylor, WJRO, Frederick Florin, Antony J, Blinken, ”, Stuart E, “, Colette Avital Organizations: The Art, CNN, Jewish, Organization, Washington Conference, Washington, Palais Rohan Museum, Getty, WJRO, US State Department, of Holocaust Locations: Nazi, Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Netherlands, Argentina, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Strasbourg, AFP, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Turkey, New York, Washington, Israel

☆ Josette Molland’s Testimony: Scenes of Life in Nazi Camps
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-06 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Josette Molland, who died at 100 in France on Feb. 17, was a young member of the French Resistance during World War II when she was captured by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Nazi forced-labor camps for women. Later, after her return to France, she would speak to students about her experiences. In her 80s, however, worrying that her story wasn’t getting through to them, she concluded that telling them of her camp life was not enough. So she set about painting, from painful memory, scenes of the harsh incarceration that she and many other female inmates suffered. Here are five of them, with the text she wrote to accompany them.

Persons: Josette Molland Organizations: Nazi Locations: France

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