Dick Cheney, George W. Bush’s two-term vice-president, emerges as the power behind the throne in Adam McKay’s sardonic film, Vice, which takes a dim view not only of Cheney but of Bush and many of the major figures in his administration. Superbly portrayed by Christian Bale, a British actor who imitates his monotone mid-western accent with […]
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, a notorious and shameless antisemite, claims he has a “right” to deny Israeli athletes the chance to compete in a forthcoming swimming competition in his predominately Muslim country. Speaking recently at Oxford University’s debating club, the Oxford Union, he argued that governments have “the right to keep their borders closed […]
On his last visit to Israel earlier this month, John Bolton, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security advisor, allotted a few hours of his time for a special tour. Weather permitting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would show him the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since the Six Day War and which it annexed […]
On February 1, 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini landed at Tehran’s Mehrabad International Airport after more than 14 years in exile. And the world changed forever. An Iranian monarchy that had seemed so secure had now crumbled into dust and the country’s ruler, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, had already fled the country. A few months […]
Pawel Pawilkowski’s stark black-and-white Polish film, Cold War, charts the course of a tempestuous romance between two people temperamentally at odds — Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), a serious-minded musician who strives for artistic freedom, and Zula (Joanna Kulig), a flighty dancer and singer who’s content with the status quo. The lovers are loosely modelled after Pawilkowski’s late […]
A lavish period piece set in early 18th century Britain, The Favourite brims with intrigue, personality clashes, power struggles and secret sexual liaisons. At the center of it all are Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), the last Stuart monarch; Sarah, the Duchess of Marlborough (Rachel Weisz), her childhood friend and closest advisor, and Abigail Hill (Emma Stone), […]
The emergence of right-wing populist fringe groups in Europe today could well owe its origins to one man — Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943. Some have dismissed him as a buffoon, but this would be a false and misleading appraisal of the architect of fascism, which plunged continental Europe into darkness. A […]
Steve King, a nine-term Republican congressman from Iowa, should have known better than to conflate Western civilization with white supremacy. In a recent interview with The New York Times, he put his foot in his mouth when he said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” His subsequent observation concerning the […]
Derek Black, the great white hope of the neo-Nazi movement in the United States, disavowed his beliefs in 2013, transformed himself and disappeared from view. Eli Saslow, a Washington Post reporter who wondered what had happened, tracked him down and interviewed Black and his family and friends. Saslow’s compelling book, Rising Out of Hatred: The […]
It’s the highest mountain peak in Switzerland accessible by train. At 3,454 metres above sea level, Jungfraujoch, commonly referred to as the Top of Europe, towers majestically over the alpine village of Grindelwald in the Bernese Alps. Peaks of this dizzying height normally can only be reached by expert climbers. But Jungfraujoch can be accessed […]