U.S. declares Myanmar military committed genocide against Rohingya

The U.S. previously described the Myanmar military’s campaign against the Rohingya as “ethnic cleansing” and imposed sanctions on top generals. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday formally declared that Myanmar’s military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the country’s Rohingya minority. “Beyond the Holocaust, the United States has concluded that genocide was committed seven times,”

Richard Slotkin on Guns and Violence – Moyers & Company

Ahead of the one year anniversary of the massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in which Adam Lanza took the lives of 20 school children and six educators, Bill speaks with cultural historian and scholar Richard Slotkin about the role of guns in America’s national psyche. Slotkin has spent his life studying and

Fears of new conflict as Bosnia-Herzegovina faces growing Serb nationalism – BBC News

The peace agreement that holds together Bosnia-Herzegovina is under threat from a rise in Serb nationalism. More than three years of war in the 1990s devastated Bosnia after the fall of Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands of people were killed and hundreds of thousands were driven from their homes by ethnic cleansing. The war ended in

Let’s talk about Maus, Tennessee, and failing a test – Beau of the Fifth Column

A third of students think Holocaust exaggerated or fabricated: study

Nearly a third of North American students think the Holocaust was exaggerated or fabricated, according to a new study, which also found that 40 per cent of students reported learning about the Holocaust through social media. “They’re getting information from who knows where and it’s resulting in… (them thinking), did this event in history happen?” the

Tourist detained for Nazi salute at Auschwitz

Polish police said on Sunday they had detained a Dutch tourist for giving the Nazi salute at the site of the former death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. “Officers from (the southern city of) Oswiecim detained a 29-year-old woman from the Netherlands today,” regional police tweeted. “The tourist had been performing the Hitler salute in front of the

Why Kazakhstan matters in China’s Belt and Road Initiative – DW News

The last two weeks have seen the worst violence in Kazakhstan since it gained independence from the Soviet Union 30 years ago. The country’s importance in terms of raw materials and trade has made the unrest of particular interest to Europe and neighboring Russia. And its massive neighbor to the east, China, is also watching

Polish official fired after calling Holocaust law ‘stupid’

A Polish diplomat charged with improving contacts with Jews worldwide has been fired after he criticized his own government’s approach to regulating Holocaust speech, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. Jaroslaw Nowak, the plenipotentiary for contacts with the Jewish diaspora described a Holocaust speech law passed by his country’s ruling party as “stupid,” in an interview

Gravitas: Tiny Lithuania takes on China – WION

Lithuania is doing what many so-called superpowers have failed to do. They invited Taiwan to open a de-facto embassy in Vilnius and is asking their citizens to dump Chinese phones. Palki Sharma tells you why this Baltic minnow is taking on Beijing.

EU backs international arms embargo after killings in Myanmar

Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell accuses Myanmar’s military rulers of carrying out an ‘appalling act of violence’ in Kayah State. The European Union has called for an international arms embargo on Myanmar’s military government and for toughening its own sanctions following last week’s massacre of more than 35 people. The killings took place on Christmas Eve