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☆ Latest news: Wagner Group chief Prigozhin plane crash, Russia's war in Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

As reports of the plane crash poured in on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin was in the southwestern Kursk region leading a ceremony honoring both the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk and Russian forces currently fighting in Ukraine. ET), while state media reported that the crash had occurred around 6 p.m. local time. There were 10 people on board, including three crew members, and all were killed, Russian state media said. While in Kursk, Putin also met with residents, video on Russia 24 showed. Residents shook hands with Putin and some even gave him a hug, in the Russia 24 clip.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin's, ” Organizations: Soviet Union, Embraer, West Locations: Kursk, Russian, Ukraine, Nazi Germany, Ponyri, Russia, Tver region, Kuzhenkino, Moscow, St . Petersburg, Ukrainian, Johannesburg

☆ Who is Dmitry Utkin, the Nazi-obsessed Wagner commander presumed dead in the same crash as Prigozhin?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Dmitry Utkin, a close associate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, is presumed dead in Wednesday's plane crash. The Wagner Group is named after Utkin's callsign, which stems from his fascination with Nazi Germany. AdvertisementAdvertisementNonetheless, Utkin's influence is woven into the Wagner Group's origin story and its exploits. AdvertisementAdvertisementWith Moran, Utkin served in a failed operation sponsored by the Syrian government to suppress Islamic State militants, the think tank wrote. The US sanctioned Utkin along with the Wagner Group in 2017, citing activities that "threaten the peace, stability, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of Ukraine."

Persons: Dmitry Utkin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin's, Utkin, Bellingcat, Prigozhin, Utkin's, Time, Moran, Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Peskov, Prigozhin's Organizations: Service, Wagner Group, Center for Strategic, International Studies, Concord Management, Consulting, BBC, Third, Nazi, Russia's, Moran Security Group, CSIS, Islamic, Radio Free Europe, US, Guardian Locations: Nazi Germany, Wall, Silicon, Moscow, Ukraine, Russian

☆ What now for Putin? Kremlin critic says Prigozhin’s apparent death will ‘cement his authority’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Sam Meredith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Gavriil Grigorov | Afp | Getty ImagesProminent Kremlin critic Bill Browder believes the presumed death of Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin will shore up President Vladimir Putin's shaken authority, saying the Russian leader "never forgives and never forgets." His comments come shortly after Russian aviation officials said Wednesday that Prigozhin was believed to have been killed in a plane crash. A view of site after a private jet, allegedly carrying Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin and other passengers crashed in Russia's northwestern Tver region, Russia on August 23, 2023. This will cement his authority and is standard Putin operating procedure," Browder said. The Wagner boss had struck an apparent deal with the Kremlin in the aftermath of the June rebellion.

Persons: Vladimir Putin, Gavriil Grigorov, Bill Browder, Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin's, Prigozhin, Dmitry Utkin, Utkin, of, Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin, Putin, Browder, Ian Bremmer, Prigozhin's, Bremmer, Wagner chief's, he's, CNBC's Organizations: Sputnik, Afp, Getty, NBC, Telegram, Wagner Group, Grey, Anadolu Agency, Federal Agency for Air Transport, Russian Embassy, Kremlin, Eurasia Group Locations: Kursk, Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Moscow, Tver, Ukraine, Syria, Libya, Africa, of Russia, Russia, Russia's, Russian, London, Belarus

☆ Britain will host AI summit at World War Two code-breaking centre
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A piece of paper sits on the Colossus machine at Bletchley Park in Milton Keynes, Britain, September 15, 2016. REUTERS/Darren Staples/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Britain will host a global summit on artificial intelligence at the old home of Britain's World War Two codebreakers in November as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pitches Britain as global leader in guarding the safety of the fast-developing technology. The summit will take place on Nov. 1 and 2 at Bletchley Park, the site in Milton Keynes where mathematician Alan Turing cracked Nazi Germany's Enigma code, the government said on Thursday. "The UK has long been home to the transformative technologies of the future, so there is no better place to host the first ever global AI safety summit than at Bletchley Park," Sunak said. Governments around the world are wrestling with how to control the potential negative consequences of AI without stifling innovation.

Persons: Darren Staples, Rishi Sunak, Alan Turing, Sunak, Joe Biden, Matt Clifford, Jonathan Black, Andrew MacAskill, Tomasz Janowski Organizations: REUTERS, Bletchley, Tech, European Union, Thomson Locations: Milton Keynes, Britain, Washington, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United States, Hiroshima

☆ A Backfire bomber being blown apart deep inside Russia's territory is the latest in a string of glaring failures to protect its strategic bases
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-23 | by ( Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Last weekend, an apparent drone strike destroyed a prized Russian Tu-22M3 Backfire bomber. The attack occurred far from the front lines of the war and may have been launched from inside Russia. The strike on a vulnerable Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire bomber is part of a growing list of Russian failures to protect its critical bases and vital aerial assets. If that's the case, it may speak to both Ukraine's expanding ability to threaten domestic Russian air bases and Russia's inability to protect them. AdvertisementAdvertisementIn the aftermath of the Tu-22M3 attack, there's a question of how Russia might adapt.

Persons: — Engels, Samuel Bendett, they're, Bendett, ALEXANDER NEMENOV, It's, Ukraine Anton Gerashchenko Organizations: Service, Russian Defense Ministry, Aviation, Center for Naval Analyses, Russia, Russian Aerospace Forces, NATO, Russian Defence Ministry, Kremlin, Nazi, Getty, Internal Affairs, Mobility Artillery, Systems Locations: Russian, Russia, Wall, Silicon, Ukraine, St . Petersburg, Saratov, Ryazan, Moscow, Novgorod Oblast, Russia's, Nazi Germany, AFP, Murmansk, Finland

CNN —Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Russian mercenary group Wagner, was on the passenger list of a plane that crashed northwest of Moscow, killing all 10 on board, according to Russian state media. The bodies of eight people have been found at the crash site, state media outlet Russia 24 reported. Earlier, TASS reported the plane “burned up” on impact after being in the air for about half an hour. One of two Wagner planesVideo published by Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti showed a plane falling out of the sky with one wing missing. A separate video, also released by RIA Novosti, purports to show plane engine debris at the crash site.

Persons: Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Prigozhin, “, Vladimir Putin’s, Reuters Wagner, ”, Volodymyr Zelensky, Joe Biden, Putin, ” Biden, I’m, FlightRadar24, Don –, Biden, Bill Burns, Antony Blinken, Burns, ” Burns, ” Blinken Organizations: CNN, Embraer, Federal Air Transport Agency, Russian Ministry of Emergency Services, TASS, Russian Investigative Committee, Wagner, Ostorozhno, Reuters, Nazi, Novosti, RIA Novosti, Wagner Group, Biden, Kremlin, CIA, NATO Locations: Moscow, Tver, Kuzhenkino, Russia, Belarus, Russia's Tver, Ostorozhno Novosti, Soledar, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Kursk, Soviet, Nazi Germany, Rostov, –, St, Petersburg, United States

☆ Russian soldiers are fighting Ukraine high on amphetamines, a report claims. The Nazis did it first.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Ukrainian soldiers have speculated that Russian troops are fighting while high on amphetamines. Nazi troops were given methamphetamines during World War II to decrease fear and increase aggression. Germany even organized a rehab program for "overflown" pilots, or those who were addicted to the drug, Ohler said. The Russian military gave its soldiers vodka rations to get through World War II; France opted for red wine; and alcohol remained the "number one" drug for Germans during the war, Ohler said. "I would be surprised if drugs were not being used in the Ukrainian-Russian war," Ohler said.

Persons: playbook, Norman Ohler, Ohler, Pervitin, Otto Ranke, Ranke, Adolf Hitler, Hoffman, — Organizations: Nazi, Service, Russian, Royal United Service, Reich, Institute for General, Defense, Ohler, France Locations: Wall, Silicon, Ukraine, Russian, Nazi Germany, Europe, Germany, Poland, West, France, Belgium, Holland, British, Soviet Union, German, Vietnam, Ukrainian

☆ Auschwitz Memorial criticises Musk's X for not removing antisemitic content
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A man walks through the grounds of the former Nazi German Auschwitz death camp for the annual International "March of the Living" in Oswiecim, Poland April 18, 2023. Jakub Porzycki/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWARSAW, Aug 17 (Reuters) - The Auschwitz Memorial on Thursday criticised social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, for failing to remove an antisemitic post on the site. Researchers have found an increase in hate speech and antisemitic content on the platform since he took over, and some governments have accused the company of not doing enough to moderate its content. More than 1.1 million people, most of them Jews, perished at the Auschwitz camp in gas chambers or from starvation, cold and disease. X earlier this month sued a nonprofit that fights hate speech and disinformation, accusing it of false claims and spooking advertisers.

Persons: Jakub Porzycki, Wyborcza.pl, Elon Musk, Alan Charlish, Andy Sullivan Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Center, Thomson Locations: Nazi, Oswiecim, Poland, Nazi Germany, Europe

☆ Opinion | ‘Oppenheimer’ and the Shadow of Stalin
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Ross Douthat | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

So the point of reading McMeekin’s book is to give early Cold War anti-communism its due. Just this, “Stalin’s War” suggests: They saw Stalin clearly. Nor was Stalin any kind of naïve, unsuspecting victim of Hitler’s Barbarossa onslaught, as some historical clichés would have it. And these Soviet machinations benefited from the same mixture of philo-communism among New Deal liberals and outright Soviet espionage that shaped Oppenheimer’s milieu. As I said, McMeekin’s account is polemical, written as a corrective to other histories and open to counterarguments in turn.

Persons: Stalin, ”, Hitler, McMeekin, Hitler’s Barbarossa, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, It’s Organizations: Soviet, New Deal, Soviet Union Locations: Nazi Germany, Tokyo, Japan, United States, Eastern Europe, East Asia, Baltic States, America, Soviet

The four-count, 45-page indictment charges Republican Trump with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's victory and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election. The charges stem from Special Counsel Jack Smith's sprawling investigation into allegations Trump sought to reverse his loss to Biden. "President Trump will not be deterred by disgraceful and unprecedented political targeting!" [1/5]Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, U.S., July 29, 2023. Tuesday's charges represent a second round of federal charges by Smith, who was appointed special counsel in November by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Joe Biden's, Mike Pence, Tanya Chutkan, Barack Obama, Jack Smith's, Biden, Weeks, Smith, Trump's, Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Pence, Lindsay DeDario, Giuliani, Robert Costello, Eastman, Charles Burnham, Clark, General Merrick Garland, Stormy Daniels, Kevin McCarthy, Ron DeSantis, Fani Willis, Garland, Jacqueline Thomsen, Sarah N, Lynch, Rami Ayyub, Andrew Goudsward, Luc Cohen, Jack Queen, Kanishka Singh, Dan Whitcomb, Costas Pitas, Mike Scarcella, Tim Reid, Jeff Mason, Gram Slattery, Joseph Ax, Scott Malone, Will Dunham, Howard Goller, Grant McCool, Michael Perry Organizations: U.S, Capitol, Republican, ., Trump, Congress, Justice, REUTERS, Reuters, Presidential, TRUMP, REPUBLICAN, Republicans, Democratic, Justice Department, Thomson Locations: American, Washington, U.S, Washington ,, Nazi Germany, Georgia, Erie , Pennsylvania, Miami, Manhattan's, Florida, Fulton County, The Hague, Kosovo, New York

☆ Trump legal risks deepen with charges of plot to reverse 2020 election
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Sarah N. Lynch | Jacqueline Thomsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

According to the indictment, Trump ignored advisers who told him the election was not fraudulent and helped organize fake slates of electors to try to capture electoral votes in states he had lost. The Trump campaign issued a statement accusing the Biden administration of targeting him for political gain. Trump, the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, has been indicted on three separate occasions this year. Strategists said that while the indictments could help Trump solidify support among Republican voters, who view the charges as bogus, they could prove more damaging among independent voters in the general election against Biden. Many Republican officials, unwilling to anger Trump’s substantial base of supporters, attacked Biden instead, claiming that the latest charges were politically motivated.

Persons: Donald Trump, Jack Smith, Trump’s, Joe Biden’s, Trump, “, Biden, President Trump, Scott Morgan, Smith, General Merrick Garland, Mike Pence, ”, Fani Willis, Willis, Ron DeSantis Organizations: WASHINGTON, Trump, U.S . Marshals Service, Social, U.S, Capitol, Soviet Union, Republican, REUTERS, Department, White, Biden Locations: Washington, Georgia, Nazi Germany, Bluffs , Iowa, U.S, The Hague, Manhattan, Atlanta, Florida

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, U.S., July 7, 2023. According to the indictment, Trump ignored advisers who told him the election was not fraudulent and helped organize fake slates of electors to try to capture electoral votes in states he had lost. The Trump campaign issued a statement accusing the Biden administration of targeting him for political gain. Trump, 77, the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, has been indicted on three separate occasions this year. Many Republican officials, unwilling to anger Trump's substantial base of supporters, attacked Biden instead, claiming that the latest charges were politically motivated.

Persons: Donald Trump, Scott Morgan, Jack Smith, Trump's, Joe Biden's, Trump, Biden, President Trump, Smith, General Merrick Garland, Fani Willis, Willis, Ron DeSantis, Sarah N, Lynch, Jacqueline Thomsen, Joseph Ax, Scott Malone, Michael Perry Organizations: U.S, Republican, REUTERS, Trump, Capitol, Soviet Union, Department, White, Biden, Thomson Locations: Bluffs , Iowa, U.S, Washington, Georgia, Nazi Germany, The Hague, Manhattan, Atlanta, Florida

☆ Why Trump’s latest indictment will reverberate for years to come
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

And he’s not just any former president – Trump’s the front-runner for the GOP nomination, whom polling shows is closely matched with President Joe Biden in a hypothetical rematch. “The lawlessness of these persecutions of President Trump and his supporters is reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s, and other authoritarian, dictatorial regimes,” it said. Trump’s congressional Republican backers ignored Smith’s evidence, branding the indictment an attempt to distract from questions they’ve raised about the business activities of the current president’s son, Hunter. The political inferno ignited by the indictment will raise questions about whether such an ordeal is truly in the national interest. Ron DeSantis stands to gain in the GOP primary from any eroding of Trump’s political prospects.

Persons: CNN —, Donald J, Trump ”, “, –, Joe Biden, George Washington, Jack Smith’s, Trump, President Trump, they’ve, Hunter, Smith, insurrectionists, …, Biden, they’d, Scott Jennings, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mike Pence, it’s, ” Smith, ” George Conway, John Lauro, ”, Jeffrey Clark, ” Clark, Pence, Trump’s, Ron DeSantis, Kevin McCarthy, Wyoming Sen, John Barrasso –, weaponizing, Chris Sununu, who’s Organizations: CNN, GOP, Trump, Biden, Department, Republicans, New York Times, Siena, Justice Department, Republican, White House, Trump thickens, White, Justice, Florida Gov, Harvard Law, US Navy, Capitol, New Hampshire Republican Gov Locations: United States, America, Washington, Manhattan, Nazi Germany, Fulton County , Georgia, Wyoming

☆ How Four Female Philosophers Responded to a Dire Decade
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Jennifer Szalai | More About Jennifer Szalai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

THE VISIONARIES: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, and the Power of Philosophy in Dark Times, by Wolfram Eilenberger. If hell is other people, then so, too, is this world. “Around us other people circled, pleasant, odious or ridiculous: They had no eyes with which to observe me. I alone could see.”It’s a quote that Wolfram Eilenberger uses to potent effect in “The Visionaries,” which traces the lives of four philosophers in the tumultuous decade before 1943. Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt and Ayn Rand: Each addressed the foundational question of the relationship between the self and others, between “I” and “we,” only to arrive at wildly different conclusions.

Persons: Arendt, Beauvoir, Rand, Weil, Wolfram Eilenberger, Shaun Whiteside, Simone de Beauvoir, Otherness, ”, Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Walter Benjamin, Ernst Cassirer, Simone Weil, Hannah Arendt, Ayn Rand, Eilenberger, ” Arendt, Red Simone Organizations: Dark Times, Magicians, Gestapo Locations: France, Rouen, Berlin, Nazi Germany, Paris, Russian, Hollywood and New York

☆ Opinion | A President Accused of Betraying His Country
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The scope of Mr. Trump’s plot touched every level of American political life. The fourth crime is against the American people, millions of whom Mr. Trump sought to deprive of their right to have their vote counted. If Mr. Smith’s previous indictment of Mr. Trump is any indication, we have not heard the end of the charges in this case. Several are lawyers who advised or worked for the former president, including Mr. Giuliani, Sidney Powell and John Eastman. After he voted to acquit Mr. Trump, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, said there were other ways to bring Mr. Trump to account.

Persons: Smith, Trump, Joe Biden, Biden, ”, Smith’s, Mr, Trump’s, Giuliani, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Mitch McConnell, “ Organizations: U.S ., Republican, Mar Locations: Atlanta, Georgia, Nazi Germany

☆ Indictment could propel Trump closer to 2024 Republican nomination
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Tim Reid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Carlos Barria/File PhotoAug 1 (Reuters) - Donald Trump's indictment on Tuesday for his alleged role in efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat will likely fuel his march toward the Republican Party's 2024 presidential nomination, analysts and party strategists say. Opinion polls show Republican support for Trump surging since the first of three indictments was issued in March. Minutes before the indictment was announced, Trump called it "fake" on his Truth Social media platform. A Trump campaign statement later said: "President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys." I just happen to be standing in their way," Trump declared at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 29.

Persons: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Carlos Barria, Donald Trump's, Stu Rothenberg, Ron DeSantis, Trump, Democrat Joe Biden, Biden, Chris Jackson, Trump's, DeSantis, Jackson, John Feehery, Feehery, Rothenberg, I'm, Tim Reid, Ross Colvin, Howard Goller Organizations: Democratic U.S, REUTERS, Republican, Trump, Social, Democrat, Reuters, Department, Republicans, Biden, Democratic, Thomson Locations: Washington , U.S, Nazi Germany, York, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ipsos

U.S. President Donald J. Trump speaks during the Victory Rally by the Republican National Committee in Dalton, Georgia, United States on January 04, 2021. The Trump campaign attacked the Biden administration and the Department of Justice in a furious statement after the grand jury investigating interference in the 2020 election handed up an indictment. The campaign in a statement did not explicitly say that Trump had been indicted in the special counsel's probe. But his campaign wrote that that "the answer is, election interference!" "President Trump has always followed the law and the Constitution, with advice from many highly accomplished attorneys," the statement said.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, Biden, Trump's, Joe Biden, Kevin Breuninger Organizations: Republican National, Biden, Department of Justice, weaponized Department of Justice Locations: Dalton , Georgia, United States, Nazi Germany

The four-count, 45-page indictment charges Republican Trump with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's victory and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election. The charges stem from Special Counsel Jack Smith's sprawling investigation into allegations Trump sought to reverse his loss to Biden. The indictment lays out numerous examples of Trump's election falsehoods and notes that close advisers, including senior intelligence officials, told him repeatedly that the election results were legitimate. "President Trump will not be deterred by disgraceful and unprecedented political targeting!" Tuesday's charges represent a second round of federal charges by Smith, who was appointed a special counsel in November by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Persons: Donald Trump, Trump, Joe Biden's, Mike Pence, Tanya Chutkan, Barack Obama, Jack Smith's, Biden, Weeks, Smith, Rudy Giuliani, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman, Pence, Lindsay DeDario, Ted Goodman, Clark, Eastman, General Merrick Garland, Stormy Daniels, Kevin McCarthy, Ron DeSantis, Trump's, Fani Willis, Garland, Jacqueline Thomsen, Sarah N, Lynch, Rami Ayyub, Andrew Goudsward, Luc Cohen, Jack Queen, Kanishka Singh, Dan Whitcomb, Costas Pitas, Mike Scarcella, Tim Reid, Jeff Mason, Gram Slattery, Joseph Ax, Scott Malone, Will Dunham, Howard Goller, Grant McCool Organizations: U.S, Capitol, Republican, ., Trump, Congress, Justice, REUTERS, TRUMP, REPUBLICAN, Republicans, Democratic, Justice Department, Thomson Locations: American, Washington, U.S, Washington ,, Nazi Germany, Georgia, Erie , Pennsylvania, Miami, Manhattan's, Florida, Fulton County, The Hague, Kosovo, New York

☆ Jack Smith’s Experience in The Hague and the Trump Investigations - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Gary J. Bass | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Although part of Kosovo’s legal system, the institution is headquartered in The Hague and staffed by international judges and personnel — which is how Mr. Smith, a U.S. citizen, wound up serving as its specialist prosecutor. It is always difficult and risky to prosecute national leaders with some popularity among their people. Even so, the Truman administration quietly undercut that pledge of unconditional surrender for Emperor Hirohito, fearing that the Japanese might fight on if he was prosecuted as a war criminal. The Truman administration left the emperor securely in the Imperial Palace while his prime ministers and generals were tried and convicted by an Allied international military tribunal in Tokyo. At an earlier point in his career, from 2008 to 2010, Mr. Smith worked as the investigation coordinator in the prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court, the permanent international war crimes tribunal based in The Hague.

Persons: Smith hewed, Smith, Hashim Thaci, Trump, Thaci, Augusto Pinochet’s, Truman, Emperor Hirohito, John Bolton, ”, Mike Pompeo Organizations: United Nations, Kosovo, Chambers, White, Kosovo Liberation Army, Allied, Criminal Court Locations: Nuremberg, Tokyo, Yugoslavia, Rwanda, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Serbia, The Hague, U.S, Kosovo, Chile, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, Imperial, Afghanistan, Zambia

Russian propaganda is spreading into the world’s video games. In Minecraft, the immersive game owned by Microsoft, Russian players re-enacted the battle for Soledar, a city in Ukraine that Russian forces captured in January, posting a video of the game on their country’s most popular social media network, VKontakte. A channel on World of Tanks, a multiplayer warfare game, commemorated the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in May with a recreation of the Soviet Union’s parade of tanks in Moscow in 1945. On Roblox, the popular gaming platform, a user created an array of Interior Ministry forces in June to celebrate the national holiday, Russia Day. These games and adjacent discussion sites like Discord and Steam are becoming online platforms for Russian agitprop, circulating to new, mostly younger audiences a torrent of propaganda that the Kremlin has used to try to justify the war in Ukraine.

Persons: Vladimir V Organizations: Microsoft, Soviet, Interior Ministry Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Nazi Germany, Moscow, Russia, Crimea

☆ Fact Check-Latvia did not fine citizens for celebrating WW2 victory over Hitler
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Fines issued by Latvian police for publishing symbols that are banned by law are being falsely claimed online to be fines for commemorating World War Two victory over Nazi Germany. One X user said: “That is the day celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany. Because Latvia is a Nazi state in Nazi NATO” (here). Riga officially commemorates victory over Nazi Germany on May 8. Local police say the fines were not for commemorating a particular event, but for public displays of outlawed symbols.

Persons: “, Hitler, Saint George, Simona Grāvīte, ”, Grāvīte, Read Organizations: Latvian, Nazi, Facebook, Russia, Victory, Nazi NATO, Latvia’s State Police, Independent State, CIS, Local, Reuters Locations: Nazi Germany, Latvia, Nazi, Riga, Moscow, Estonia, Lithuania, Baltic, Soviet Union, Ukraine

☆ Fox News' Greg Gutfeld is facing new backlash — this time over his comment about Holocaust victims' work skills
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Fox News is facing fresh backlash after one of its hosts made comments about concentration camp victims' work skills. Greg Gutfeld said that those in the work camps with skills survived during the Holocaust — a clear simplification. "Being skilled or useful did not spare them from the horrors of the gas chambers," the Auschwitz memorial said in response. Fox News is facing a slew of backlash after one of its primetime hosts suggested that Holocaust survivors who had work skills survived in concentration camps. "We should avoid such oversimplifications in talking about this complex tragic story," the Auschwitz Memorial concluded.

Persons: Greg Gutfeld, Viktor Frankl, Gutfeld, Gutfeld's, —, Andrew Bates, Abby Phillip, Michael Bornstein, Bornstein Organizations: Fox, Morning, Fox News, CNN Locations: Nazi Germany, Auschwitz, Ukraine

☆ Long after Oppenheimer, the US is still paying benefits to people who were exposed to radiation from nuclear tests
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( Jake Epstein | Chris Panella | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Decades after Oppenheimer, the US still pays benefits to people exposed to nuclear radiation. Civilians who contracted cancer or other diseases due to nuclear testing also receive benefits. Long after the creation and testing of that first nuclear weapon and the many more tests that followed, Washington is still paying benefits to veterans and civilians exposed to radiation from nuclear bomb tests and cleanups. It was over 40 years after the first nuclear test, codenamed "Trinity," before the risks and dangers were officially recognized. Jeff T. Green/Getty ImagesCurrent VA benefits related to nuclear radiation exposure include cleanups at the Marshall Islands and Palomares, Spain, from a 1966 US Air Force plutonium accident.

Persons: Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's, Robert Oppenheimer, Bill Clinton's, Eileen Welsome's, Markey, Ken Brownell, Francis Lincoln Grahlfs, Brownell, Jeff T Organizations: Manhattan, Service, Los Alamos Laboratory, Trinity, Universal Pictures, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MPI, Manhattan Project, Marshall, Air Force, McMurdo, Manhattan Project's Trinity Locations: Marshall, Wall, Silicon, Nazi Germany, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Washington, Japan, Nevada, Hanford, Palomares, Spain, McMurdo Antarctica, Ukraine

☆ Richard Barancik, Last of the World War II Monuments Men, Dies at 98
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Richard Sandomir | More About Richard Sandomir | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Richard Barancik, the last surviving member of the Allied unit known as the Monuments Men and Women, which during and after World War II preserved a vast amount of European artworks and cultural treasures that had been looted and hidden by Nazi Germany, died on July 14 in Chicago. His death, in a hospital, was confirmed by his daughter Jill Barancik. We did everything we could to salvage what the Nazis had done. It’s the best we could do.”An Army private first class, Mr. Barancik served in England and France — where he was not on the front lines, his daughter said, and enjoyed the marching, food and structure of military life — until Germany surrendered. After being deployed to Salzburg, Austria, he volunteered for the Monuments Men serving for three months as a driver and guard.

Persons: Richard Barancik, Jill Barancik, Barancik, — Organizations: Fine Arts, Los Angeles Times, Army, France —, Monuments Locations: Nazi Germany, Chicago, Washington, Europe, England, France, Germany, Salzburg, Austria

☆ Who was J. Robert Oppenheimer? What you need to know before watching Christopher Nolan's biopic
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-20 | by ( Caolán Magee | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Director Christopher Nolan’s latest creation concerns an earlier existential threat, telling the story of the atomic bomb through the lens of its creator, J. Robert Oppenheimer – played by “Peaky Blinders” star Cillian Murphy. ullstein bild Dtl./ullstein bild/Getty ImagesWho was J. Robert Oppenheimer? Oppenheimer is widely considered the father of the atomic bomb. He quickly rose to prominence as an internationally renowned physicist, employed by the US government to create an atomic bomb to quell the threat of Nazi Germany. In the post-WWII era, as the world entered the Cold War, Oppenheimer was suspected by US intelligence of having ties with communists.

Persons: Oppenheimer ”, Christopher Nolan’s, J, Robert Oppenheimer –, “ Peaky, Cillian Murphy, Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Robert Downey Jr, Kai Bird, Martin J, Sherwin’s Pulitzer, Robert Oppenheimer, ” Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer, Fotosearch, Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Jennifer Granholm, ” Organizations: CNN, Trinity, Los Alamos National Laboratory, United States Atomic Energy Commission, Manhattan, Institute for, Study, Committee, Atomic Energy Commission, US Department of Energy, ” Locations: New York, Nazi Germany, New Mexico, Alamogordo , New Mexico, Germany, Los Alamos , New Mexico, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Princeton , New Jersey, Spanish

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