The Japanese city of Nagasaki on Monday commemorated the 76th anniversary of its destruction by a US atomic bomb, with the mayor calling for the global community to build on a new nuclear ban treaty. Nagasaki was flattened in an atomic inferno that killed 74,000 people, three days after the nuclear bomb that hit Hiroshima. […]
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In the Austrian Alps, post-Holocaust escape is re-enacted
Sidestepping a roaring waterfall and stumbling over rocks, an Austrian amateur theatre group re-enacts the treacherous Alpine escape of thousands of Jews seeking a new home after the Holocaust. Surrounded by Austria’s snow-capped peaks, two dozen spectators hike alongside lay actors who perform scenes based on the real experiences of as many as 8,000 Holocaust […]
One of the last survivors of Auschwitz women’s orchestra dies
Esther Bejarano, one of the last survivors of the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz, has died at the age of 96, the head of the Anne Frank Education Centre said on Twitter on Saturday. Bejarano, who played the accordion in the Auschwitz orchestra, died in the night from Friday to Saturday, Meron Mendel, head of the […]
Wars, bankruptcy, pandemics: Asia’s oldest paper still going strong
It has survived two world wars, the fight against colonialism, global financial slumps and on Thursday, Mumbai Samachar, Asia’s oldest newspaper still in print, entered its 200th year confident of beating the pandemic-driven decline that has hit many rivals. Printed in a British-era building in Mumbai’s financial district, the Gujarati-language daily was founded on July […]
China’s ‘space dream’: A Long March to the Moon and beyond
The liftoff of three astronauts for China’s new space station on Thursday marks a landmark step in its space ambitions, its longest crewed mission to date. The world’s second largest economy has put billions into its military-run space programme, with hopes of having a permanently crewed space station by 2022 and eventually sending humans to […]
New Zealand to apologise for ‘racist’ historic police raids
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday she will offer a formal apology to New Zealand’s Pacific community over “demeaning” police raids that targeted them in the 1970s. Ardern said the notorious “dawn raids” were carried out by police and immigration officials seeking to identify and deport visa overstayers. In addition, she said Pacific islanders were […]
Biden vows to ‘fill the silence’ over 1921 massacre of African Americans
US President Joe Biden on Tuesday honored the forgotten victims of a 1921 massacre in the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of the worst episodes of racist violence in US history. “I come here to help fill the silence because in silence wounds deepen,” Biden told an audience that included survivors of the Tulsa race […]
100 years after Tulsa massacre, Black residents await Biden, and reparations
In Tulsa, the city that still bears the scars of a 1921 racial massacre, African American residents are eagerly awaiting the arrival of President Joe Biden on Tuesday, hoping he will hear their call for financial reparations. “I just want him to feel our pain,” said local activist Kristi Williams. The Democratic leader will attend […]
Chicago makes history electing Lori Lightfoot as first black female mayor
Lori Lightfoot, a political newcomer, was elected the first black female mayor of Chicago on Tuesday, defeating opponent Toni Preckwinkle by a landslide in a runoff to take over a city struggling with crime and weak finances. A former federal prosecutor, Lightfoot won 74 percent of the vote with nearly all precincts counted compared with […]
Taliban defeated by the quiet strength of Pakistan’s Buddha
The Buddha of Swat, carved on a cliff in the seventh century, was dynamited by the Pakistani Taliban in 2007. Now it has been restored, a powerful symbol of tolerance in the traumatised Pakistani valley. The holy figure, depicted in a lotus position at the base of a granite cliff in northern Pakistan, was severely […]