Federal Investigators Search Rudy Giuliani's Apartment as Part of Ukraine Probe | MSNBC

The New York Times' Michael Schmidt joins MSNBC with news that federal investigators executed a search warrant at Rudy Giuliani’s Manhattan apartment and seized his electronic devices.

Federal Investigators Search Rudy Giuliani’s Apartment and Office »

Federal Agents Execute Search Warrant on Rudy Giuliani's Apartment

Federal agents executed a search warrant at the Manhattan apartment of Rudy Giuliani, advancing a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors that has been underway for months, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Anger as Ex-Generals Warn of 'Deadly Civil War' in France

BBC: Controversy is growing in France over an open letter signed by former and serving members of the military, warning of the threat of civil war.

About 1,000 servicemen and women, including some 20 retired generals, put their names to the letter.

They blame "a certain anti-racism" for creating divisions between communities, and say Islamists are taking over whole parts of the nation's territory.

Ministers have condemned the message published by a right-wing magazine.

The letter was first published on 21 April - the 60th anniversary of a failed coup d'état.

"The hour is grave, France is in peril," the signatories said. » | Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Ursula von der Leyen Says EU Could Punish UK over Brexit Breaches

THE GUARDIAN: European commission president speaks before MEPs prepare to consent to Brexit agreement

Ursula von der Leyen has warned that the EU will not hesitate to use the “real teeth” in the Brexit deal to punish the British government for breaching its obligations as MEPs prepared to consent to the historic agreement, marking the end of four years of high political drama.

Speaking ahead of an evening vote by MEPs, where a positive result is not in question, the European commission president said the trade and cooperation agreement would give the EU more leverage over the UK.

The UK government has been accused of breaching its commitments in Northern Ireland and on an agreement on fisheries, which was brought into force provisionally along with the rest of the trade deal in January, ahead of scrutiny by MEPs and their formal consent. » | Daniel Boffey, Brussels | Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Caspar Hirschi | Krisen über Krisen – das Ende der Welt, wie wir sie kennen?

Weltfinanz-, Euro- und Schuldenkrise, Corona-Pandemie, beschleunigter Klimawandel und Zerfall der liberalen Weltordnung: Die Krisen der Gegenwart scheinen sich zu häufen. Ist das tatsächlich so oder nur eine Frage erhöhter medialer Selbstwahrnehmung? Geschichte verlief immer schon krisenhaft, und oft waren es Krisen, die dem Fortschritt unter Schmerzen zum Durchbruch verhalfen. Wie krisenfest sind wir heute? Wer steht in der Verantwortung? Sind wir wirklich fähig, aus Krisen zu lernen?

Über die Turbulenzen unserer Epoche sowie die Möglichkeiten ihrer Bewältigung und Strategien dazu unterhält sich der NZZ-Chefredaktor Eric Gujer mit dem Historiker Caspar Hirschi.

Sendung vom 21.03.2021

Face au terrorisme, le poison de la démagogie

LE MONDE: Le 23 avril, à peine l’attaque contre une fonctionnaire de police de Rambouillet commise, Marine Le Pen, suivie par plusieurs responsables de la droite, a fait un lien entre cet acte terroriste et la politique migratoire française. Instrumentaliser cette question à des fins électorales est un jeu dangereux.

Editorial du « Monde ». Le meurtre d’une fonctionnaire de police, âgée de 49 ans, mère de deux enfants, vendredi 23 avril, dans le sas d’entrée du commissariat de Rambouillet (Yvelines), a soulevé une légitime indignation dans le pays. L’acte, de nature terroriste, est le fait d’un ressortissant tunisien âgé de 36 ans, inconnu des services de police, dont les premiers éléments de l’enquête commencent à reconstituer une dérive récente vers une radicalisation islamiste.

Il souligne la vulnérabilité de la France face aux attaques commises par des individus isolés mais radicalisés qui, brusquement, sèment la terreur dans une démocratie soumise à rude épreuve depuis 2015. Après l’attentat contre Charlie Hebdo et les tueries du Stade France et du Bataclan, qui ont endeuillé le quinquennat de François Hollande, la décapitation de Samuel Paty, un enseignant qui défendait auprès de ses élèves la liberté de pensée, a marqué celui d’Emmanuel Macron. Au cours des quatre dernières années, 14 attentats, perpétrés au nom de l’islamisme radical, ont provoqué la mort de 25 personnes sur le sol français, et 36 autres ont été déjoués, selon le décompte du gouvernement. » | Éditorial, Le Monde | lundi 26 avril 2021

Helmut Schmidt | Erfahrungen und Einsichten (NZZ Standpunkte 2009)

Er gilt als einer der herausragendsten Politiker in der Nachkriegsgeschichte Deutschlands und Europas, und er hat wie kein zweiter in den letzten Jahrzehnten die politische und gesellschaftliche Debatte seines Landes als Minister, Regierungschef, Intellektueller, Publizistik und Herausgeber der Hamburger Wochenzeitung „Die Zeit“ geprägt: Alt-Bundeskanzler Helmut Schmidt. Mit Helmut Schmidt, der im Dezember 91 Jahre alt wird, unterhalten sich NZZ-Chefredaktor Markus Spillmann und Marco Färber über die deutsche Wiedervereinigung, die Rolle und die Begrenzung Deutschlands in Europa und der Welt, über Freundschaften und ihren Stellenwert in der internationalen Politik und über die Bedrohung und Herausforderungen der Zukunft. Und über das Altern und Gott.

Saïda Keller-Messahli | Der radikale Islam – Angriff auf den Westen

Seit einer gefühlten Ewigkeit steht der Westen im Kampf gegen den radikalen Islam. Bis jetzt ist es weder gänzlich gelungen, Terrorakte zu verhindern, noch konnte Propaganda und Unterwanderung ein Riegel geschoben werden. Wer sind die Akteure, wo liegen die Brennpunkte? Wie kann sich Europa der mit Brutalität und Schläue verfolgten Idee eines weltweiten neuen Kalifats erwehren, ohne seine freiheitlichen Grundsätze preiszugeben? Kann es einen säkularen liberalen Euro-Islam geben?

Mit der Schweizer Islam-Kennerin und Extremismus-Expertin Saïda Keller-Messahli spricht der NZZ-Chefredaktor Eric Gujer über Möglichkeiten und Strategien, der islamistischen Gefahr wirksam zu begegnen.

Sendung vom: 25.04.2021

The Observer View on Boris Johnson’s Fitness for Office

THE OBSERVER: Weak and dishonourable, the prime minister fails the Nolan test of public life and brings further disgrace on the government

Integrity is one of the seven principles of public life, alongside selflessness, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. Enunciated by Lord Nolan in 1995, they set out the ethical standards to which all those who work in the public sector should adhere. It would be fair to expect the prime minister, the most senior public office holder in the land, to set an example for other public servants. But with every week he is in No 10, it becomes clearer that Boris Johnson – a “vacuum of integrity”, according to former attorney general Dominic Grieve – is a man who comprehensively fails the Nolan test and who brings the office of prime minister into utter disrepute. » | Observer editorial | Sunday, April 25, 2021

Turkey Summons US Ambassador over Armenian Genocide Recognition | DW News

Turkey has reacted angrily after US President Joe Biden formally recognized the Armenian genocide, which took place during the Ottoman era. Ankara has summoned the US ambassador over the remarks.

In his statement, Biden said he and all Americans honor the memory of all those Armenians who perished in a genocide that began exactly 106 years ago. Thousands of people in Armenia's capital Yerevan have been commemorating the mass killings, deportations and forced marches.

Armenian officials led the nation in commemorating the horrors of the past. The procession at this hilltop memorial in the capital Yerevan, included Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Members of the public too streamed in, to honor the dead.

And they welcome the announcement from Washington, calling those past events a genocide. In 1915, a million Armenians were brutally murdered by Ottoman Turks. Many more were deported and sent on death marches into the Syrian desert.

Armenians have long campaigned for the crimes against their people to be recognized internationally as genocide. Turkey argues that there was no systematic attempt to wipe out Armenians, and no such order from the Ottoman authorities.

But nearly thirty countries have recognized the atrocities as genocide.

Many Armenians would consider the diplomatic spats over terminology a distraction from the memory of atrocities of more than a century ago that haunt their nation to this day.

Russia Today: Worlds Apart: One & Only No More? Ft. Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director at the CCEIS* at the HSE (University)

Playing hard to get has long been an underlying rationale of US foreign policy, it’s no secret that the Americans view themselves as an indispensable nation, talking to which is both an imperative and a dispensed grace to any other nation. Does it apply to Russia? Should Moscow continue walking alongside Washington while it chews its gum, occasionally popping it in Russia’s face? To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director at the Center for Comprehensive European and Intl. Studies at HSE

• Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies

Pink Supermoon Set to Brighten UK Night Skies Next Week

THE GUARDIAN: Celestial event due to take place shortly before sunset on Tuesday and will be visible until next morning

A pink supermoon is set to brighten the night skies over the UK next week, though there will not be any noticeable difference in colour, as the name might suggest.

The full moon in April is also known as the “pink moon” as it is named after pink flowers, known as phlox, which bloom in the springtime.

The celestial event is expected to take place just before sunset on Tuesday 27 April as the moon rises in the east and will be visible until it sets in the west the next morning.

It is also a supermoon because the full moon will occur when it is near its closest point to the Earth in its orbit. » | PA Media | Sunday, April 25, 2021

Was King Solomon the Ancient World’s First Shipping Magnate?

THE OBSERVER: Marine archaeologist unearths evidence suggesting biblical king’s riches were based on voyages he funded with Phoenician allies

King Solomon is venerated in Judaism and Christianity for his wisdom and in Islam as a prophet, but the fabled ruler is one of the Bible’s great unsolved mysteries.

Archaeologists have struggled in vain to find conclusive proof that he actually existed. With no inscriptions or remnants of the magnificent palace and temple he is supposed to have built in Jerusalem 3,000 years ago, the Israelite king has sunk into the realm of myth.

Now British marine archaeologist Dr Sean Kingsley has amassed evidence showing that Solomon was not only a flesh-and-blood monarch but also the world’s first shipping magnate, who funded voyages carried out by his Phoenician allies in “history’s first special relationship”.

Over 10 years, Kingsley has carried out a maritime audit of “the Solomon question”. By extending the search beyond the Holy Land, across the Mediterranean to Spain and Sardinia, he found that archaeological evidence supports biblical descriptions of a partnership between Solomon, who “excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom”, and the Phoenician king Hiram, who “supplied Solomon with cedar timber and gold, as much as he desired”. » | Dalya Alberge | Sunday, April 25, 2021

Frankreich: Lehrer in Gefahr | Fokus Europa

Immer mehr Pädagogen, die Kritik an radikalen Islamisten üben, stehen in Frankreich unter Polizeischutz. Die Polizei befürchtet weitere Attentate, wie das auf den Lehrer Samuel Paty im Oktober 2020.

What Living in London Was Like During The Blitz | Cities At War: London | Timeline

This programme includes an award-winning trilogy whose theme is the miraculous resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

Documenting Nazi Persecution of Gays: Josef Kohout/Wilhelm Kroepfl Collection

In 1994, the Museum acquired the unique collection of Josef Kohout. More widely known as Heinz Heger, Kohout recorded his experiences in The Men with the Pink Triangle, the first published account of a gay survivor of the Nazi camps. Dr. Klaus Müller, the Museum's Representative for Europe, shares his story.

Pride Month: The Nazi Persecution of Gay People (2020)

Before the Nazis came to power, Berlin was home to a vibrant gay community. Within weeks of their rise in March 1933, the Nazis drove this population underground and waged a violent campaign against homosexuality. Over the next 12 years, more than 100,000 men were arrested for violating Germany's law against "unnatural indecency among men.” During this time, proof was often not required to convict an individual. Some were sent to concentration camps and subjected to hard labor, cruelty, and even medical experiments aimed at “curing” them.

Gay Pride: Kitty Fischer on Gay Male Rescuer in Auschwitz

For National Gay Pride Month USC Shoah Foundation is featuring a testimony clip every week in June of eyewitnesses to the Nazi persecution of Gay men in the Holocaust. Kitty Fischer recounts her time in Auschwitz-II Birkenau when as a young girl she encounters for the first time a gay male prisoner who will turn out to save her life.

UK Far Right, Lifted by Trump, Now Turns to Russia

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The anti-Islam agitator Tommy Robinson struck gold in America. Keeping it might require help from Moscow, where other British far-right activists are also finding friends.

LONDON — Two days after supporters of former President Donald J. Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol, but failed to reverse his election defeat, a defiant shout sounded from across the ocean. Tommy Robinson, Britain’s loudest amplifier of anti-Islam, far-right anger, insisted the fight was not over.

“You need to pick yourselves back up,” Mr. Robinson said in an online video viewed tens of thousands of times. “As Donald Trump says, it’s only just beginning.”

A former soccer hooligan and founder of the English Defence League, one of Britain’s most notorious nationalist groups, Mr. Robinson has largely been a pariah in his home country but Trump loyalists embraced him much the way they embraced many of the American extremist groups whose members would join the Capitol riot, including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

Mr. Robinson appeared on Fox News and Infowars. A right-wing U.S. research institute even bankrolled a 2018 rally in London that foreshadowed the violence at the Capitol: Mr. Robinson’s supporters attacked police officers in a street fight near Parliament. A month later, Representative Paul Gosar, Republican of Arizona, flew to London to speak at a second rally for Mr. Robinson.

His message? Keep fighting. » | Jane Bradley and Michael Schwirtz | Friday, April 23, 2021

‘The System Has Collapsed’: India’s Descent into Covid Hell

THE GUARDIAN: Many falsely believed that the country had defeated Covid. Now hospitals are running out of oxygen and bodies are stacking up in morgues

Looking out over a sea of jostling, maskless faces gathered at a political rally in West Bengal on Saturday, the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, proudly proclaimed that he had “never ever seen such huge crowds”. A mask was also noticeably absent from Modi’s face.

That same day, India registered a record-breaking 234,000 new coronavirus cases and 1,341 deaths – and the numbers have kept rising since.

The country has descended into a tragedy of unprecedented proportions. Almost 1.6 million cases have been registered in a week, bringing total cases to more than 15 million. In the space of just 12 days, the Covid positivity rate doubled to 17%, while in Delhi it hit 30%. Hospitals across the country have filled to capacity but this time it is predominately the young taking up the beds; in Delhi, 65% of cases are under 40 years old.

While the unprecedented spread of the virus has been partly blamed on a more contagious variant that has emerged in India, Modi’s government has also been accused of failures of political leadership from the top, with lax attitudes emulated by state and local leaders from all parties and even health officials across the country, which led many to falsely believe in recent months that India had defeated Covid.

“Leadership across the country did not adequately convey that this was an epidemic which had not gone away,” said K Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India.

“Victory was declared prematurely and that ebullient mood was communicated across the country, especially by politicians who wanted to get the economy going and wanted to get back to campaigning. And that gave the virus the chance to rise again.” » | Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi | Wednesday, April 21, 2021

India Scrambles to Supply Oxygen as Covid-19 Patients Gasp for Breath »