Month: April 2022
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Werner Herzog Has Never Liked Introspection | The New Yorker
Werner Herzog Has Never Liked Introspection A conversation with the filmmaker about the place of literature, the toll of war, and the conviction that his writing will outlast his movies. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/werner-herzog-has-never-liked-introspection When I wrote “Fitzcarraldo,” I was in San Francisco, and Francis Ford Coppola offered me the use of his mansion…
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The National Guard Soldiers Trying to Unionize | The New Yorker
The National Guard Soldiers Trying to Unionize When Governor Greg Abbott took immigration policy into his own hands, sending ten thousand troops to the border, not everyone went along. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/the-national-guard-soldiers-trying-to-unionize I got spun up on this mission quicker than I did for Hurricane Harvey.” Schuler put in a request to be…
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How China’s Response to COVID-19 Set the Stage for a Worldwide Wave of Censorship | The New Yorker
How China’s Response to COVID-19 Set the Stage for a Worldwide Wave of Censorship Authoritarian governments in eighty nations have enacted restrictions on free speech and political expression that were falsely described as public-health measures. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-chinas-response-to-covid-19-set-the-stage-for-a-worldwide-wave-of-censorship on January 23, 2020, the city of Wuhan went into lockdown. The next day, Chen…
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The Plan to Make Michigan the Next Space State | The New Yorker
The Plan to Make Michigan the Next Space State Residents are up in arms about a proposed spaceport project, the first of its kind in the Midwest, which would involve launching rockets near the shoreline of Lake Superior. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-plan-to-make-michigan-the-next-space-state Perhaps the most striking comment in the report—and potentially the most damaging…
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How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens | The New Yorker
How Democracies Spy on Their Citizens The inside story of the world’s most notorious commercial spyware and the big tech companies waging war against it. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/25/how-democracies-spy-on-their-citizens During a recent visit to NSO’s offices, windows and whiteboards across the space were dense with flowcharts and graphics, in Hebrew and English text, chronicling…
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Is the Russian Military a Paper Tiger? | The New Yorker
Is the Russian Military a Paper Tiger? At a critical juncture in the war in Ukraine, logistical miscalculations and poor planning have revealed key weaknesses in Putin’s armed forces. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/is-the-russian-military-a-paper-tiger They were showing the same kind of problems back then: this disunity of command; logistical weaknesses; poorly trained, poorly motivated, poorly…
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He Was a Penniless Donor to the Far Right. He Was Also a Russian Spy. – The New York Times
He Was a Penniless Donor to the Far Right. He Was Also a Russian Spy. An investigation in Slovakia has exposed how Russian clandestine operations are trying to sow discord in Europe and create sympathy for Moscow over Ukraine. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/world/europe/russian-spies-europe-ukraine.html “I told Moscow that you are such a good boy,” the Russian spy, Sergei…
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Opinion | They Are the Heirs of Nazi Fortunes, and They Aren’t Apologizing – The New York Times
Opinion | They Are the Heirs of Nazi Fortunes, and They Aren’t Apologizing In a country that is celebrated for its culture of reckoning and remembrance, the richest families are often an exception. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/opinion/bmw-porsche-nazi-germany-quandt-flick.html How can it be that three of Germany’s most powerful business families, their companies and their charities are so out…
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Atrocities in Ukraine War Have Deep Roots in Russian Military – The New York Times
Atrocities in Ukraine War Have Deep Roots in Russian Military Like the shelling of cities, the seemingly pointless, close-up killing of individuals recalls wars in Chechnya. Do they reflect intent, or only indifference, propaganda and a military culture of violence? Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/17/world/europe/ukraine-war-russia-atrocities.html The brutality of Moscow’s war on Ukraine takes two distinct forms, familiar to…
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The Slime Machine Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees | The New Yorker
The Dark-Money Group Targeting Dozens of Biden Nominees In an escalation of partisan warfare, a little-known dark-money group is trying to thwart the President’s entire slate. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/a-reporter-at-large/the-slime-machine-targeting-dozens-of-biden-nominees When I asked Jones for an interview, through the A.A.F.’s online portal, he replied, “Ms. Meyers . . . Go pound sand.” Citing an article that I…
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The Casualties at the Other End of the Remote-Controlled Kill – The New York Times
The Unseen Scars of Those Who Kill Via Remote Control (Published 2022) Capt. Kevin Larson was one of the best drone pilots in the U.S. Air Force. Yet as the job weighed on him and untold others, the military failed to recognize its full impact. He fled into the California wilderness. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/15/us/drones-airstrikes-ptsd.html In the…
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The Forgotten Movement to Reclaim Africa’s Stolen Art | The New Yorker
The Forgotten Movement to Reclaim Africa’s Stolen Art A new book explores the first campaign to decolonize Europe’s museums—and exposes the conspiracy that smothered it. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-forgotten-movement-to-reclaim-africas-stolen-art Only a handful of objects have actually been restituted, despite thousands of outstanding requests. Few governments have enacted general return policies. And some of the…
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The Most Popular Chess Streamer on Twitch | The New Yorker
The Most Popular Chess Streamer on Twitch The former chess prodigy Hikaru Nakamura was widely disliked on the professional circuit. Then he started streaming. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-most-popular-chess-streamer-on-twitch Nakamura beat the crafty Hungarian Grandmaster Richárd Rapport in the first of two semifinal matches. In the video detailing his second, he explained his philosophy. “Now,…
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Only Gilbert Gottfried Could Be So Dirty and So Heartbreaking – The New York Times
Only Gilbert Gottfried Could Be So Dirty and So Heartbreaking He turned shocking jokes and “Howard Stern” appearances into something of an art form, one he practiced even when the occasion was a school fund-raiser. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/13/arts/gilbert-gottfried.html Other times, he brought opportune lightning bolts to dopey TV fare. In one notorious clip from “Celebrity Apprentice,”…
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Before Giving Billions to Jared Kushner, Saudi Investment Fund Had Big Doubts – The New York Times
Before Giving Billions to Jared Kushner, Saudi Investment Fund Had Big Doubts Before committing $2 billion to Mr. Kushner’s fledgling firm, officials at a fund led by the Saudi crown prince questioned taking such a big risk. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/us/jared-kushner-saudi-investment-fund.html Those objections included: “the inexperience of the Affinity Fund management”; the possibility that the kingdom would…
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Bucha’s Month of Terror – The New York Times
Bucha’s Month of Terror We documented dozens of killings of civilians and interviewed scores of witnesses to uncover Russian atrocities in Ukraine. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/04/11/world/europe/bucha-terror.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage§ion=World%20News Reporters and photographers for The New York Times spent more than a week with city officials, coroners and scores of witnesses in Bucha, uncovering new details of execution-style atrocities against civilians.…
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Trump and Ukraine: Former Advisers Revisit What Happened – The New York Times
‘This Was Trump Pulling a Putin’ Amid the current crisis, Fiona Hill and other former advisers are connecting President Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine to Jan. 6. And they’re ready to talk. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/magazine/trump-putin-ukraine-fiona-hill.html Cheney took umbrage at Hill’s assessment. “So, you’re telling me you’re opposed to freedom and democracy,” she says he snapped. According…
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How Ireland Took On the Church and Freed Its Soul | The New Yorker
How Ireland Took On the Church and Freed Its Soul A nation learned to dodge God’s law in everything from biscuits to birth control, until religious doublethink became an agent of its own undoing. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/11/how-ireland-took-on-the-church-and-freed-its-soul-fintan-otoole-we-dont-know-ourselves-a-personal-history-of-modern-ireland Hypocrisy shrivels when it is named in sunlight. In the nineteen-nineties, that sunlit naming happened fast,…
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Opinion | How Do We Deal With a Superpower Led by a War Criminal? – The New York Times
Opinion | How Do We Deal With a Superpower Led by a War Criminal? There’s never been a pariah state as consequential as Russia. Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/10/opinion/putin-russia-ukraine.html But with Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, his indiscriminate crushing of its cities and mass killings of Ukrainian civilians, he went from “bad boy” to “war criminal.” And when…
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What Happens When Twelve Thousand Game Developers Converge? | The New Yorker
What Happens When Twelve Thousand Game Developers Converge? A week of boba, crypto, and introspection at the Game Developers Conference, in San Francisco. via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/what-happens-when-twelve-thousand-game-developers-converge “There’s, like, a crypto boulevard there,” he said. “Like, a crypto hallway that you have to walk through. You just hold your breath.” At G.D.C., he was…