Miscellaneous News

delft said:

I'm just listening to BBC Radio 4 news talking about an Iranian woman married to a British man who was on holiday in Iran, arrested and sentenced to five years jail. Foreign Minister Boris Johnson told a committee of the UK parliament that she was in Iran "to teach journalists" for which she was taken into court again and told her sentence was to be doubled. The news presenter and his intervuee, former Foreign minister Liam Fox, agreed that Johnson should call his Iranian colleague and tell him that he had misspoken in that committee and that Iran believe his lie that she was just on holiday.

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Adolf Hitler waxwork removed from Indonesian museum

A life-size model of Adolf Hitler used for "selfies" by visitors to an Indonesian museum has been removed.

Pictures shared on social media show people grinning as they pose with the Nazi leader in front of an image of the gates of Auschwitz concentration camp.

It was only when the international community reacted with outrage that the De ARCA Statue Art Museum realised it had caused any offence.

The museum, in Jogjakarta, Java, said it had only wanted to educate.

"We don't want to attract outrage," the museum's operations manager, Jamie Misbah, told news agency AFP.

Pictures on social media show numerous people posing with the fibreglass statue, including a group of young boys dressed in orange uniforms performing a Nazi salute.

It has left many around the world sickened - even if, as the museum originally said, no visitor had actually complained.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, of Jewish human rights organisation The Simon Wiesenthal Center, told news agency AP: "Everything about it is wrong. It's hard to find words for how contemptible it is.

"The background is disgusting. It mocks the victims who went in and never came out."

An estimated 1.1 million people, mainly European Jews, but also groups including Roma gypsies and Soviet prisoners-of-war, died at Auschwitz during the Holocaust.

Some people have blamed a lack of education about the Holocaust on the lack of sensitivity, but Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono suggested it revealed anti-Jewish feeling in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The display, one of about 80 in the museum, came less than a year after a Nazi-themed cafe was shut down in Bandung, Java.

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Trump asked Xi to look at cases of UCLA basketball players

US President Donald Trump said he personally asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to help in the case of three American college basketball players accused of shoplifting last week.
The three UCLA freshmen -- LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill -- were arrested last week while their team was in Hangzhou ahead of the team's season opener in Shanghai. They've been questioned about stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store near their hotel.

UCLA's trip coincided with Trump's two-day state visit to the Chinese capital, Beijing. Trump told reporters Tuesday that Xi had been helpful in working to resolve the case.
UCLA defeated Georgia Tech 63-60 in what was the season opener for both teams. The game was the culmination of a week-long cultural and sports exchange involving the student athletes.

But Ball -- who is the younger brother of Lakers rookie Lonzo Ball -- Riley and Hill missed the game as they were confined to their hotel as the legal process plays outs.
They did not travel home with the rest of the team and are still believed to be at the hotel.
The men's college basketball season started earlier this month. The three could miss significant time if the legal proceedings are drawn out. UCLA's next game is Wednesday against Central Arkansas. If convicted of grand larceny, the players could face a prison sentence of between three and 10 years, according to Chinese criminal law.
Ball's father, LaVar, said in a statement on social media that the process could take months. LaVar Ball and his youngest son, LaMelo, are expected to be in Hong Kong Tuesday evening to promote a pop-up shop for the family's athletic apparel line, Big Baller Brand. LaVar, LaMelo and Tina Ball -- the family's matriarch -- all went to China to watch LiAngelo play his first game as a Bruin and promote the opening of a Big Baller Brand pop-up shop in Shanghai. Trump's request was first reported by the Washington Post. The President wraps up a 13-day trip to Asia on Tuesday.

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Franklin said:

A museum in Indonesia has removed a lifesize statue of Adolf Hitler with Auschwitz as background after outrage have been expressed when people posted selfies with it on social media.

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kwaigonegin said:

Hitler's influence and by proxy the evils of Nazism is hardly felt nor remembered as much in most parts of Asia. The persecution of Jews, Holocaust etc. has similar dynamics as well.

Hitler to most Asians is viewed more from an academic viewpoint not so much emotional or psychological and that's with those who knows history. To most he is just some famous or notorious leader of Germany during WWII nothing more.

Heck!, when I was in Asia I actually saw an Asian guy with the Nazi swastika emblem on his shirt and I'm 99.99% sure he isn't some neo nazi wannabe.
Also before someone points it out.. I do know the difference between the Nazi emblem from the original Buddhist one.

Same argument can be said about Europeans and their feelings toward IJA. Heck I would presume outside of academia, the average European knows very little about the evils of IJA or events like the Rape of Nanking.

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AlyxMS said:

Also, maybe it's time to take off "NO DISCUSSION" from the title.

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Franklin said:

Trump asks Xi to intervene on behalf of shoplifting basketball players.

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