#Warsaw Conference

[i-merani]

Watching Warsaw Security Forum 2024 and seeing countries finally talking Russian threat seriously, after years of yelling, convincing, begging to take this threat seriously… since 2007, and even before having to beg these countries to be serious, having to endure war and it still not being enough, them still not being convinced and now after all of that, after parts of Ukraine are leveled to the ground, thousands dead, oh thank you dear west for having Russia on your agenda and it only took more than a decade and thousands of deaths!

[wrathum]

I don't wanna go back to my city 😭😭

[gamereporter]

Conferência Game Industry fortalece seu papel no cenário europeu de games

A 17ª edição da Game Industry Conference (GIC) reuniu quase 3.300 participantes e profissionais do setor em Poznan, na Polônia, consolidando-se como o maior evento de negócios para a indústria de games da Europa Oriental. O evento, que se encerrou no último domingo (27), atraiu um número recorde de visitantes e ofereceu uma programação abrangente, com palestras, painéis e mesas-redondas em 199…

[nobuyukikakigi]

ワルシャワでの国際ヴァルター・ベンヤミン協会の研究集会に参加して

今年は、ワルシャワのゲットーでユダヤ人が蜂起してから80年の節目にあたる。1943年4月19日、この強制隔離居住地区に残っていたユダヤ人は、ナチの言う「最終的解決」へ向けて一掃されるのに抗して武装抵抗を開始した。一か月近くに及んだ戦闘の後、ゲットーは解体され、ユダヤ人の街は灰燼に帰することになる。捕らえられた人々は、収容所などで虐殺された。この80年前の出来事を記念し、その犠牲者を追悼する催しは、ワルシャワで、そして各地で続いているが、それをつうじて想起されるべきは、出来事がその核心においてけっして過ぎ去っていないことである。特定の人々の存在を否定しようとする言動は今も止まない。それに対する抵抗は続けられなければならない。 9月27日から30日にかけてワルシャワの二つの学術機関（ポーランド科学アカデミーとSWPS大学）を会場に、国際ヴァルター・ベンヤミン協会の研究集会を開催することもま…

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Advice for any academically trained historians (meaning, MA+) trying to write for the general public/trade audience/civilians

Mentally create two projects, one for a general public, and one is your dissertation. The book I’m writing for general audiences etc is The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto: The True Story of Five Courageous Young Women Who Sparked an Uprising; while the version that is a dissertation is titled Banditen: a Female Military History of the Warsaw Ghetto, its Uprising, and its Aftermath, 1939-1945.

Now that you’ve done that, you have to make sure you grasp the differences in purpose between the two pieces of writing. The book for the trade press/general audience is to bridge the gap between academia and everyone else/those who have no patience for academic prose and constructions; and to help the general public gain a better understanding of an important Thing.

Your dissertation, however, is written to demonstrate to a committee of your tenured peers that you have an outstanding and sophisticated grasp of the field and its historiography, and all tangentially and closely related subfields. Beyond that, it has to be an original work of history which adds new knowledge to the field.

I wrote Girl Bandits in the interest of injecting far more of the female experience(s) of the Holocaust into collective memory, and emphasizing that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, despite its artist depictions, was NOT a men-only event.

But my hypothetical dissertation committee already knows all of that. So Banditen, this imaginary dissertation, would exist to both demonstrate my command of Holocaust history and historiography (etc) to my committee, AND build on the historiography of the kashariyot as founded by Dr. Lenore Weitzman, and on the larger historiography of women and the Holocaust as founded at that landmark 1983 conference [Katz, Esther and Joan Miriam Ringelheim, eds. Proceedings of the Conference on Women Surviving the Holocaust. New York: The Institute for Research in History, 1983.]

In the dissertation, the narrative exists to support the context and analysis and nuance; in the book, context, nuance etc exist to support the narrative.

Should I teach a course on this for historians?

[haartemis]

THE ALCHEMY | PART II

pairing: kylian mbappe x fem!reader

word count: 3.9k

warnings: swearing, mentions of mental illness

A/N: thank you to those who read the first part. let me know what you think of this one <333

summary: working at real madrid is a dream come true— until kylian mbappe, football's biggest star and the last person you ever want to see, joins the club. as tensions rise between you two and the lines between frustration and fascination blur, you wonder: can you truly resist the man you've sworn to hate?

PART ONE

mallorca is a great place to let loose, have fun, bask in the sun. mallorca is not a great place to be stuck in a meeting with your ex-one night stand and his lawyers, discussing the nitty gritty of his salary and bonuses.

It’s little over a month after kylian’s presentation, and only a couple days after the men’s first team won the super cup in warsaw. you and a handful of others from the finance team flew out to mallorca for the match, and most importantly, for the post-game meeting with the club's leadership. that in itself lasted two hours and was draining, but last minute, you got dragged into this impromtu session with kylian and his lawyers. you don't even know why, to be honest. you're not familiar with the finer points of his deal, since that was your boss' responsibility.

anyways, here you are in one of the conference rooms in the hotel where the team's staying, completely zoned out as your boss speaks. your eyes zero in on kylian, who's just as bored as you, albeit hiding it way worse. he's absentmindedly doodling on a notepad while his lawyer next to him listens attentively to your boss. he's left handed? what a pick me, you think.

as if he can hear your thoughts, kylian glances up and shoots you a wink when his gaze catching yours. you're even more annoyed now. after you reminded him about the disappointing night you shared, you expected at least a little embarrassment from him the next time you saw him. but no, he was completely unfazed when you walked into the room and shook hands with him and his lawyer, and now he's being playful, maybe even a little flirtatious with you. the man is truly shameless.

"...so that will be the figure you'll receive as a bonus if you ever win the ballon d'or as a real madrid player" you catch the end of your boss' words.

"let's hope that's never happening" you mutter under your breath.

you freeze when you realize you've said that louder than you thought.

kylian’s eyes twinkle in amusement. “sorry, what was that?” he asks, leaning back in his chair and twirling the pen in between his fingers, clearly enjoying your slip up.

"n-nothing" you stammer, avoiding looking at your boss who's going red with anger.

your boss continues droning on and on about sums and figures, and an hour or so later, when he declares the meeting finished, you slip out of the room quickly. you don't want to exchange another word with him at all.

a while later you’re at one of the hotel lounge areas, staring blankly at yet another excel sheet when your boss slides up to you with a solemn look on his face. 

“we need to talk” he says.

you know exactly what he’s going to say. in fact, you’ve been anticipating this conversation ever since all the players returned to training and the season started.

you hold up your hand. “before you start, i want to say sorry for what was said when... when he visited. it was totally unprofessional, and i should’ve kept my mouth shut. I’m honestly really lucky you were the only one who overheard.”

he rubs the back of his neck, a relieved look on his face. “ i'm glad you brought it up, y/n. honestly, who cares how long it took the guy to get here, or how much he cost? the important thing is he's here now. he's gonna win us games, and he's sure as hell gonna bring in a lot of cash. so don't dwell on the past, okay?"

you nod along. you don't tell him that a few months ago, this would've been your perspective as well, and you don't say the real reason you hate kylian, because, well, it would be a little tmi to share with your boss, wouldn't it? nonetheless, you enthusiastically express your agreement, ready to move on from your blunder.

"oh, and please, try and make amends" he adds. "i've heard through the grapevine that he mentioned to the coaching staff he wasn't happy with the reception he got from a certain someone in the finance team"

"he didn't mention any names, nor did he file a complaint" he quickly adds at the panicked look on your face. "but you have to be careful with big personalities like his... just apologize if you get the chance, and then keep your head down" he pauses, sighing. "you're my best analyst, y/n. i don't want you to get into trouble over something like this"

"i understand" you reply, voice steady even though you feel anything but. "i'll handle it. whatever it takes to smooth things over. thank you for letting me know"

after he leaves, you bury your head in your hands, groaning. what did i get myself into? you think

a couple days later on a warm madrid evening, you find yourself at the front door of a pretty villa on the outskirts of the city, one hand ringing the bell and the other holding a bottle of wine. you're here for a dinner party hosted by rafael, one of the physiotherapists working in pintus' team. he's a decade or so older than you, but you two struck an unlikely friendship a couple months ago when you were the only two people to join the book club set up by hr to 'enhance company culture'. he's kind and easy to talk to, so it was a no brainer for you to accept when he extended the invitation.

the door swings open, and rafael greets you enthusiastically, giving you a small hug and ushering you in. as you follow him inside the house, you nod hellos to the few familiar faces you see, though you don't recognize most of the people because you don't work with them directly.

"why don't you get yourself a drink?" rafael says as he guides you to the living room, where there's an assortment of drinks laid out on a table. "i still have to finish up in the kitchen. make yourself at home ok?"

you nod, nervously glancing around as he walks away. you’re not socially anxious, but you’re not used to being the youngest person at a social gathering by several decades, either. you start pouring yourself a glass of wine but pause when you hear a familiar laugh.

you glance up, and of course he's here.

kylian stands in the corner of the room, drink in hand, casually leaning against a wall. he's deep in conversation with brahim, laughing at something he said. you're immediately infuriated by the casual confidence he exudes, the magnetism that seems like second nature for him. he's dressed in a simple black t-shirt and jeans, and you're horrified at the wave of attraction that hits you when your eyes catch the way the fabric clings to his bicep, or the way his fingers grip his glass. you're just ovulating you think to yourself, trying to remind yourself of the horrible night you shared – something you should never want to repeat.

you look away before he notices you staring, heading over to a group of people that seem friendly enough. you start chatting with clara, a lovely older lady who works as a receptionist at the training center. when you mention how old you are, her eyes light up.

"oh, there's a couple boys your age here. you have to meet them, they're the sweetest." she starts leading you towards another corner of the room, and your heart sinks a little when you realize who she wants to introduce you to. sure enough, clara stops in front of kylian and brahim.

"kylian, brahim – meet y/n" clara beams.

brahim greets with a warm handshake, but kylian only stares with narrowed eyes, eyes scanning your face for something.

"I take it you two know each other already?" clara asks, pointing between you and kylian.

"yes. we know each other" kylian says, voice cool.

" how wonderful!" clara says, blissfully unaware of how you know each other. she turns to you with a smile. "then y/n you must already know how much of a gentleman kyky is. the other day, he gave my grandson a signed shirt and a tour of the training center! he made that little boy's year, i tell you"

a gentleman? you almost snort. that must be a bad joke.

kylian glances at you, waiting for your reaction, his gaze almost daring you to contradict clara's words.

"that's...nice" you force out weakly.

clara leans over and pinches kylian's cheeks. "he's a real sweetheart our kyky. such a kind soul."

kylian shrugs humbly. " i'll never say no to kids. they're special"

clara coos even more, completely charmed by him, before excusing herself and walking off to greet a friend who just arrived. you grow frustrated as you watch her go – how can someone who left you feeling so insignificant be seen as this perfect figure by everyone else?

"your strap" kylian mutters, suddenly leaning closer.

"huh?"

without another word, he reaches up and adjusts the spaghetti strap of your top that had slipped off your shoulder. his fingers brush lightly against your skin, and without meaning to, you hold your breath. the sensation is infuriatingly gentle, his touch lingering longer than necessary. you don’t let out the breath you're holding until his hand leaves your skin.

"wait, how do you guys know each other again?" brahim, who was watching closely, asks rather curiously.

"old friends" kylian responds quickly.

brahim looks between you two suspiciously, then seemingly decides to let it go. he claps kylian on the back. " so, y/n. think we'll be back to back champions of europe now that this guy's joined?"

"depends" you shrug, taking a sip of your wine. your mind is elsewhere; you're still recovering from his hand on you.

kylian's jaw tightens in annoyance. "why? you don't think i can pull weight?"

" i didn't say that" you say smugly. "but out of everyone in the squad, you do have the lowest success rate in that particular area"

brahim, sensing the tension, quickly changes the subject before kylian responds. they start talking out about recovery routines after matches, and you zone out completely.

when rafael announces dinner is ready, you get a lightbulb moment: this is the perfect opportunity to politely apologize to the guy, as your boss suggested, so he doesn't get you fired. you say sorry tonight, and then you stay out of his way forever. because no matter how much he hurt you, confronting him every chance you get is definitely not worth losing the job that you worked so hard to land.

you stride over to his corner of the table and pull the chair right next to him. he only turns to look at you when you sit down, and it's comical how the smile on his face is completely wiped.

"hi" you say sweetly.

"...hi?" he peers at you suspiciously.

"listen, i–"

"you have a stain right there" he smirks, pointing at a small wine stain on your chest. " honestly, how many tops do you go through in a day? do i need to lend you some cash for the dry cleaners?"

your jaw drops. did he just call you poor?

"why do you stare at my boobs so much?" you whisper back, unable to help yourself.

"what?" he scoffs. "i don't do that"

"you do" you mutter. "only explanation why you notice every fucking imperfection on my clothes"

"do you want me to stare?" he smirks.

"no thanks" you say "i'd rather chew denim"

"pity" he says, flashing you a grin. "i thought maybe you wanted a re-do of that night in paris"

you look at him like he's crazy. "why would i–"

"i'm probably the best you've ever had" he shrugs.

you snort. "quite the opposite actually"

he physically cringes for a second before rearranging his features into a look of casual confidence and winking at you. "okay, that wasn't my best moment. but it's exactly why we need to have a redo"

you stare at him confused. one second he's insulting you, and the other he's hitting on you? you don't understand this man at all.

you don't responding but instead focus on the toast rafael is making to the whole table. you two don't speak for the rest of the dinner, him conversing with brahim and you with your seat neighbor on the other side. at some point, he excuses himself from the table and doesn't return.

at the end of dinner, you find your happy and satisfied, both with the food and the company (well, excluding kylian). you didn't manage to apologize to him like you planned, but whatever. he'll forget about you soon enough; at least that's what you hope.

before you leave, you wander upstairs to look for a bathroom to freshen up. the house is big, with the first floor lined with several closed doors. there's no sign of where the bathroom might be, so you decide to try your luck with the room closest to the stairs.

you stop dead in your tracks at the sight in front of you when you push the door open. kylian sits on the edge of the bed in what seems to be rafael's bedroom, judging from the pictures on the bedside tables. he has his phone in his hand, completely absorbed by whatever's on the screen. his head immediately snaps up at the sound of the door opening.

you frown. “what are you doing in here?”

“watching a game” he says, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

“you can’t go a couple hours without football?” you snort, leaning against the door frame. “you really are dedicated”

“my little brother’s playing” he says quietly. “it’s is his first game with his new team”

you sense something in his tone, a hint of longing and vulnerability. for the first time, it hits you: he's new here. madrid might've been the dream, but he's alone in a new city, away from his friends and family. he’s probably missing his loved ones, you realize, but you quickly shake the sympathy away. I’m here to deliver a fake apology and leave you remind yourself not feel bad for him.

you swallow, shutting the door behind you. he raises his eyebrows, but he locks his phone and meets your gaze.

"kylian" you start your practiced script while you take a seat next to him on the bed. "i just want to say i'm really sorry for what i said the day of your presentation. it was uncalled for, and not to mention unprofessional. we may have an...unpleasant past, but that's not an excuse for the way i handed things. so, again, i'd like to apologize and put that behind us, if you're willing"

he stares at you for a long moment then bursts out laughing. "that's the fakest apology i've ever heard. did they threaten your job or something?" he pauses, eyes gleaming as he leans forward and clears his throat, putting on a childish voice. " 'kylian, please say yes to this apology i'm only saying because my boss told me to' "

"that's not what i sound like" you say, face burning.

"you're right. your voice is way more high pitched" he smirks.

you close your eyes, trying to keep the irritation off your voice. " oh my god, kylian. can you just say we're good so we can move on with our lives?"

the smirk on his face is replaced by furrowed eyebrows. "are you listening to yourself? you're literally scolding me for not accepting your apology"

"well what choice do i have?" you grit your teeth. "you're not listening to me!"

"because of how you act, y/n" kylian raises his voice. " you go around insulting me in front of my new teammate, even my fucking lawyer. you think you know me but you don't"

you hadn't realized it, but you're sitting much closer to each other, faces inches apart. the tension between you two is thick, and for a moment you swear you see his eyes flicker down to your lips briefly. you don't have time to dwell on it though because his phone suddenly pings loudly and you both jump apart.

kylian's face spreads into a smile as soon as he sees the notification on his screen.

"ethan assisted a goal" he announces, tone full of pride. he lets out a triumphant laugh, and your anger slightly subsides at the happiness in his voice.

"do you miss him?" you ask after a moment.

"yeah. a lot" he admits, not meeting your eyes.

there's a moment of silence, and you're about to awkwardly change the subject when he continues, voice unsure. " i've lived away from my family before when i was younger, but never in a different country. this is new. i kind of feel... lonely"

"don't we all?" you murmur.

"what do you mean?"

you sigh, shrugging. "i think it's more common than you think. we're all lonely in our own little ways. whether you've moved to a new country or not. some of us just hide it better"

"do you– what about you? have you ever felt like that?"

you think back to the months you couldn't get out of bed. when you felt like no one understood you. yeah, you definitely know what lonliness feels like.

you nod wordlessly. he doesn't ask more questions, which you appreciate.

you clear your throat. "what do you miss most from home?"

a small smile starts playing on his face. " i miss my niece and nephew. here look–"

he taps his phone and shows you the wallpaper on his lock screen. it's a picture of two adorable little kids, a boy and a girl, grinning widely at the camera.

"aww" you coo. "they're so cute!"

"i know right?" he stares at the picture fondly, a slight look of longing on his face.

you didn't expect he'd be the type to wear his heart on his sleeve, especially given his playboy reputation. you think back to clara's words from earlier in the evening, about how good and kind he is, and something tugs at your heart. the thought slowly creeps in: maybe one awful night wasn't enough to fully know someone's character. maybe there's more to him than what his exterior showed.

"i'm sure they're super proud of their uncle kyky, killing it at his dream club" you say teasingly.

he chuckles. "i feel like a part of you just died calling me kyky"

"oh absolutely" you mutter with a deadpan look.

you catch his gaze and you both burst lout laughing at the same time, the sound filling the room. wow, have his eyes always been this sparkly? without thinking, you lean in a little closer. he mirrors your movement, and this time you're absolutely sure he eyes your lips. as the laughter fades, the air cackles with tension, with potential. but just when you think the space between you two is about to vanish entirely, the sound of approaching footsteps jolts you.

instinctively you grab kylian by the arm and pull him towards the walk in closet. you've just managed to get both of you inside the small space and close it when you hear the sound of the bedroom door opening.

someone, who you assume is rafael, shuffles around the room while whistling softly to themselves. meanwhile your eyes adjust to the darkness in the closet, and when you realize your back is pressed up against kylian's front, you try to move away. except there's no space to move.

lovely, you think.

the sound of the footsteps get awfully close to the closet and suddenly you feel kylian's fingertips land on your hips. your breath hitches, and you feel him tense up behind you. the smell of his cologne fills your senses, and you're immediately transported to a stuffy club in paris– the heat, the music, the feeling of his hand on your thigh, the way his lips grazed your neck in the backseat of the car. you remember it all. but just as suddenly, kylian snatches his hand away, snapping you out of your reverie.

"sorry" he whispers. "i didn't mean to. i - sorry"

you tense again when you feel something poking your behind. is that...? you get your answer when you feel kylian shift around uncomfortably. this could not get more awkward for you.

a few moments later you hear rafael leaving the room, and you immediately walk out of the closet, flushing furiously.

your mind whirls, searching for something to say that could distract from the very obvious.

"so, about the apology. am i forgiven?" you blurt.

he scratches the back of his neck. "well, you've made it very hard for me–"

"i can tell" you smirk, glancing down at the bulge in his pants.

"– but we're good" he finishes, ignoring your comment. you, however, don't miss the embarrassed look on his face.

you stand there awkwardly for a second. you think about the fact that he's confided in you that he feels lonely, and you get an idea.

"do you want to grab some desert some place else?" the words are out your mouth before you could second guess them. "you know how the spanish love their late dinners. i have a spot i could show you" you put on grin, hoping he sees this as an olive branch.

"oh" his face immediately twists into an apologetic expression. "i can't tonight. i have to get up for an early meeting in the morning. sorry"

"no worries" you say casually, but a small part of you deflates. at least you tried.

"right" he says "well i should probably head home. and good call back there, by the way. would've looked super weird if rafael saw us in his bedroom all by ourselves"

"yeah" you say, tone even. "super, super weird"

you make sure the coast is clear before heading out of the room and making your way downstairs. after you've both said your goodbyes and thanked rafael, you find yourselves at the front door, him waiting for his driver and you for your uber.

"i could drop you off, you know" he offers. his tone is polite, like you're a stranger he's just met and not someone who he's had heated arguments with. it makes you feel weird.

"it's fine" you wave him off with a smile.

when your uber arrives, you turn to him to say goodbye. you hesitate for a second, a part of you hoping he'll change his mind about getting desert or maybe ask again about dropping you home.

but he only says "i'll see you around"

"see you" you say, and you walk over to the car.

at home, late at night, you're sleepless. you think about the almost kiss. the awkwardness in the closet. you toss and turn, but you can't get kylian out of your mind. you replay every word you said to each other, every touch you exchanged.

but that bubble bursts the next morning when you come across a picture on your instagram explore page that makes your blood boil. it's a paparazzi shot of kylian and a scantily clad woman leaving a club late at night. the caption reads, real madrid star kylian mbappe seen leaving club with mystery blonde

the timestamp reveals it's from last night. the same night he refused your kind offer to spend time with him. you feel deceived, disappointment and anger simmering inside you. you can't believe you were starting to like the guy, that you almost opened up to him.

you send the post to his instagram account, typing out a quick message :

hope she got better sex <3

tags: @kyliansonlygf @ynkfreeastheocean @scottishthistle @user6373738 @lucysantos6-blog @tuliptopiasstuff @kennasutopia @cinderellawithashoe @akiracim @kymb-10 @germanapples @loonworld @ajsboys @whateveryouloser @greyishbach

[whencyclopedia]

The Invasion of Poland in 1939

The leader of Nazi Germany Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) ordered the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939. Hitler's refusal to withdraw brought a declaration of war from Britain and France on 3 September, and so began the Second World War (1939-45). The USSR invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, and the country was divided and occupied by two totalitarian regimes.

Warsaw after the German Invasion, 1939

Imperial War Museums (CC BY-NC-SA)

Hitler's Aggressive Foreign Policy

To understand why Poland became the country Britain and France decided to go to war over, it is necessary to trace the path of Germany's expansion from 1935. Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933, and two years later, he began a series of land grabs, each time using a combination of military manoeuvres, diplomacy, and bluff to convince world leaders that each new step into neighbouring territory would be his last. Hitler had promised the German people he would regain the territories lost after the First World War (1914-18) in the humiliating Treaty of Versailles (1919). Hitler said Germany needed Lebensraum ('living space') for its people, that is, new lands where they could prosper.

In March 1935, Hitler took back the coal-rich Saar region on Germany's western border, an area that had been governed by the League of Nations (the forerunner of today's United Nations) since the end of WWI. In March 1935, voters in the Saar decided overwhelmingly to rejoin Germany. Hitler, encouraged by the lack of an effective international response to Japan's invasion of Chinese Manchuria in 1931 and Italy's invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in 1935, next occupied the Rhineland, an area between Germany and France which the Versailles Treaty had stipulated must remain demilitarised. German troops entered the Rhineland in March 1936. Hitler then formally repudiated the Treaty of Versailles and embarked on a programme of rearmament. In 1936, he made an alliance with Italy, the Rome-Berlin Axis. In March 1938, Hitler occupied Austria, the country of his birth. The Anschluss ('fusion') with Austria was later endorsed by a plebiscite.

Next, Hitler wanted the Sudetenland, a neighbouring region of Czechoslovakia that had a German-speaking majority. Even though France and the USSR had signed a treaty in 1935 promising to protect Czechoslovakia from outside aggression, neither was willing to go to war when it came to the crunch. The majority of the population of Britain, like in France, was against the idea of a war and even against the policy of rearmament. At the Munich Conference of September 1938, Britain, France, Italy, and Germany met. In the Munich Agreement, the four powers agreed the Sudetenland would be handed over to Germany. The governments of Czechoslovakia and the USSR had no say in the matter. Hitler had promised to respect what remained of Czechoslovakia, but this he did not do, instead, he promoted the separation of Slovakia and invaded Bohemia and Moravia in March 1939. In the same month, Germany seized Memelland in Lithuania. In April, the fascist dictator in Italy, Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), occupied Albania. It was now clear to even the most naive of diplomats that nothing Hitler or Mussolini signed could ever be trusted.

Europe on the Eve of WWII, 1939

Simeon Netchev (CC BY-NC-ND)

Continue reading...

[theoutcastrogue]

Members of an ethical hacking group called Dragon Sector, including Sergiusz Bazański and Michał Kowalczyk, were called upon by a train repair shop, Serwis Pojazdów Szynowych (SPS), to analyze train software in June 2022. SPS was desperate to figure out what was causing "mysterious failures" that shut down several vehicles owned by Polish train operator the Lower Silesian Railway, Polish infrastructure trade publication Rynek Kolejowy reported. At that point, the shortage of trains had already become "a serious problem" for carriers and passengers, as fewer available cars meant shorter trains and reduced rider capacity, Rynek Kolejowy reported.

Dragon Sector spent two months analyzing the software, finding that "the manufacturer's interference" led to "forced failures and to the fact that the trains did not start," and concluding that bricking the trains "was a deliberate action on Newag's part."

According to Dragon Sector, Newag entered code into the control systems of Impuls trains to stop them from operating if a GPS tracker indicated that the train was parked for several days at an independent repair shop.

The trains "were given the logic that they would not move if they were parked in a specific location in Poland, and these locations were the service hall of SPS and the halls of other similar companies in the industry," Dragon Sector's team alleged. "Even one of the SPS halls, which was still under construction, was included."

The code also allegedly bricked the train if "certain components had been replaced without a manufacturer-approved serial number," 404 Media reported. [...]

404 Media noted that Newag appeared to be following a common playbook in the right-to-repair world where manufacturers intimidate competitor repair shops with threatened lawsuits and unsubstantiated claims about safety risks of third-party repairs. So far, Dragon Sector does not appear intimidated, posting its success on YouTube and discussing its findings at Poland’s Oh My H@ck conference in Warsaw.

[tomorrowusa]

Jimmy Carter's emphasis on human rights contributed to the fall of the Soviet empire.

President Carter had an almost instantaneous effect on human rights in Latin America when he became president. The Nixon-Kissinger policy of officially propping up dictators was replaced with one of supporting democracies. A majority of Latin American countries in 1976 were authoritarian. Within a decade, a majority were democratic or at least democratizing.

The Carter human rights policy had a more subversively indirect effect on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Historian and journalist Kai Bird said this at Washington Monthly:

He put human rights, that principle, as a keystone of U.S. foreign policy, and none of his successors have been able to walk back from that or ignore it completely. They’ve talked about some of the hypocrisy and impracticality of the policy, but you can’t ignore it. I make this argument in my biography, that human rights, the talk about human rights, and the focus on dissidents in the Soviet Union, and in Czechoslovakia, and Poland—all of that did much more to weaken the Soviet empire in eastern Europe than anything Ronald Reagan did by increasing the defense budget or threatening Star Wars. The Soviet Union was a weak adversary, not a strong adversary. It was falling apart, and along comes Carter, talking about human rights, and as Jon has said, ideas are powerful, and this idea remains powerful, and it really contributed monumentally to the falling of the Berlin Wall and people seizing power in the streets, and wanting to have personal freedom. That, in part, can be attributed to Jimmy Carter.

Michael Hirsh of the journal Foreign Policy (archived) was more emphatic.

Perhaps the least understood dimension of Carter’s much-maligned, one-term presidency was that he dramatically changed the nature of the Cold War, setting the stage for the Soviet Union’s ultimate collapse. Carter did this with a tough but deft combination of soft and hard power. On one hand, he opened the door to Reagan’s delegitimization of the Soviet system by focusing on human rights; on the other hand, Carter aggressively funded new high-tech weapons that made Moscow realize it couldn’t compete with Washington, which in turn set off a panicky series of self-destructive moves under the final Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev. [ ... ] Although he was mocked for being naive at the time, it was in large part thanks to Carter and his more hawkish national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, that human rights issues later came to the fore inside the Eastern Bloc, acting like a gradually rising flood that eroded the foundations of Moscow’s power. Helped along by the 1975 Helsinki Accords, which authorized “Helsinki monitoring groups” in Eastern­ Bloc countries (perhaps most famously with Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, which set the human rights movement in motion with a 1977 petition), these newly formed dissident groups during the 1980s undermined the legitimacy of Warsaw Pact communist satellites—and thus the Soviet bloc—from within.

Daniel Friend, former US ambassador to Poland, has this to add at the Atlantic Council.

An implicit axiom of President Richard Nixon’s détente was that the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe at the end of World War II, marked by the imposition of the Iron Curtain, was a sad but by then immutable fact. Official Washington and most of US academia regarded the Soviet Bloc­­—communist-dominated Europe from the Baltic to the Black Sea east of West Germany—as permanent and, though this was seldom made explicit, stabilizing. Talk of “liberating” those countries was regarded as illusion, delusion, or cant. Maintaining US-Soviet stability, under this view of Cold War realism, required accepting Europe’s realities, as these were then seen. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Final Act of Helsinki, a sort of codification of détente concluded under President Gerald Ford, did include general human rights language, and this turned out to be important. [ ... ] Carter’s shift toward human rights challenged this uber-realist consensus. It came just as democratic dissidents and workers’ movements inspired by them began to gather strength in Central and Eastern Europe, especially Poland. Carter, and his national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, put the United States in a better position to reach out to these movements and to work with them when communist rule began to falter as Soviet Bloc communist regimes started running past their ability to borrow money on easy “détente terms,” making them vulnerable. More broadly, by elevating human rights in the mix of US-Soviet and US-Soviet Bloc relations, Carter put the United States on offense in the Cold War and on the side of the people of the region.

President Carter's human rights policy was also popular among Americans of Eastern European descent.

[jokeroutsubs]

EXCLUSIVE NEWS: Joker Out sign with Wasserman agency.

As reported by Siol, Metropolitan, and other Slovenian media outlets, Joker Out have signed a contract with a booking agency, Wasserman. The Wasserman agency, which was established in 2002, is one of the biggest agencies in the world and is active in a total of 32 countries around the world.s

The following is a translation of the Siol article, published today, 7.11.2023:

DO NOT REPOST!

New success for Joker Out

Exciting news is coming from the camp of the hottest Slovenian group. Recently, an agency that takes care of a number of celeberities has taken them under their wing, they just recieved a gold plaque in Finland for their song Carpe Diem, meanwhile they're playing multiple sold out concerts.

After playing the biggest headlining concert in their career, Joker Out signed a contract with the booking agency Wasserman, who represents many famous musicians, such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Billie Eilish, Imagine Dragons, Lorde, Skrillex and Run The Jewels.

[Photo caption: Joker Out with the golden plaque which they received for their success on the Finnish music market. Photo: Vita Orehek]

After signing with the agency Wasserman, the group recieved another award - a golden plaque for their single Carpe Diem, which gathered two million streams in Finland. The award was presented on Friday by Virgin Music Group at a press conference in Belgrade which was confirmed by IFPI Finland. The song Carpe Diem has gained over 40 million streams worldwide.

"Proof that language isn't a barrier for a successful international career"

"This award isn't only a confirmation of their success outside their national domestic market, but also proof that language isn't a barrier for a successful international career," said Fabian Stilke, general manager for Universal Music Group in the western Balkan region.

[Photo caption: Concert in Belgrade. Photo: Vita Orehek]

In October, Joker Out played two concerts in Novi Sad, were guests at Rakičan manor, fired up Vienna, and played two more euphoric concerts in Belgrade at the end of last week.

The Serbian music portal Headliner wrote that it was a concert "As if tomorrow didn't exist". On Friday and Saturday, they're preparing the same party in Tvornica Kulture in Zagreb, which will be followed up by concerts in Warsaw, Vilnius, Wroclaw, Poznan, Prague, Rijeka, Skopje, Munich, The Hague, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona, Celje, Maribor and Novo mesto.

Translation cr: @joyridinglove, proof read by IG Gboleyn123

DO NOT REPOST!

[mariacallous]

Nearly half a year has passed since the White House asked Congress for another round of American aid for Ukraine. Since that time, at least three different legislative efforts to provide weapons, ammunition, and support for the Ukrainian army have failed.

Kevin McCarthy, the former House speaker, was supposed to make sure that the money was made available. But in the course of trying, he lost his job.

The Senate negotiated a border compromise (including measures border guards said were urgently needed) that was supposed to pass alongside aid to Ukraine. But Senate Republicans who had supported that effort suddenly changed their minds and blocked the legislation.

Finally, the Senate passed another bill, including aid for Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel, and the civilians of Gaza, and sent it to the House. But in order to avoid having to vote on that legislation, the current House speaker, Mike Johnson, sent the House on vacation for two weeks. That bill still hangs in limbo. A majority is prepared to pass it, and would do so if a vote were held. Johnson is maneuvering to prevent that from happening.

Maybe the extraordinary nature of the current moment is hard to see from inside the United States, where so many other stories are competing for attention. But from the outside—from Warsaw, where I live part-time; from Munich, where I attended a major annual security conference earlier this month; from London, Berlin, and other allied capitals—nobody doubts that these circumstances are unprecedented. Donald Trump, who is not the president, is using a minority of Republicans to block aid to Ukraine, to undermine the actual president’s foreign policy, and to weaken American power and credibility.

For outsiders, this reality is mind-boggling, difficult to comprehend and impossible to understand. In the week that the border compromise failed, I happened to meet a senior European Union official visiting Washington. He asked me if congressional Republicans realized that a Russian victory in Ukraine would discredit the United States, weaken American alliances in Europe and Asia, embolden China, encourage Iran, and increase the likelihood of invasions of South Korea or Taiwan. Don’t they realize? Yes, I told him, they realize. Johnson himself said, in February 2022, that a failure to respond to the Russian invasion of Ukraine “empowers other dictators, other terrorists and tyrants around the world … If they perceive that America is weak or unable to act decisively, then it invites aggression in many different ways.” But now the speaker is so frightened by Trump that he no longer cares. Or perhaps he is so afraid of losing his seat that he can’t afford to care. My European colleague shook his head, not because he didn’t believe me, but because it was so hard for him to hear.

Since then, I’ve had a version of that conversation with many other Europeans, in Munich and elsewhere, and indeed many Americans. Intellectually, they understand that the Republican minority is blocking this money on behalf of Trump. They watched first McCarthy, then Johnson, fly to Mar-a-Lago to take instructions. They know that Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent figure at the Munich Security Conference for decades, backed out abruptly this year after talking with Trump. They see that Donald Trump Jr. routinely attacks legislators who vote for aid to Ukraine, suggesting that they be primaried. The ex-president’s son has also said the U.S. should “cut off the money” to Ukrainians, because “it’s the only way to get them to the table.” In other words, it’s the only way to make Ukraine lose.

Many also understand that Trump is less interested in “fixing the border,” the project he forced the Senate to abandon, than he is in damaging Ukraine. He surely knows, as everybody does, that the Ukrainians are low on ammunition. He must also know that, right now, no one except the U.S. can help. Although European countries now collectively donate more money to Ukraine than we do (and the numbers are rising), they don’t yet have the industrial capacity to sustain the Ukrainian army. By the end of this year, European production will probably be sufficient to supply the Ukrainians, to help them outlast the Russians and win the war. But for the next nine months, U.S. military support is needed.

Yet Trump wants Congress to block it. Why? This is the part that nobody understands. Unlike his son, Trump himself rarely talks about Ukraine, because his position isn’t popular. Most Americans don’t want Russia to win.

Often, Trump’s motives are described as “isolationist,” but this is not quite right. The isolationists of the past were figures such as Senator Robert Taft, the son of an American president and the grandson of an American secretary of war. Taft, a loyal member of the Republican Party, opposed U.S. involvement in World War II because, as he once said, an “overambitious foreign policy” could “destroy our armies and prove a real threat to the liberty of the people of the United States.” But Trump is not concerned about our armies. He disdains our soldiers as “suckers” and “losers.” I can’t imagine that he is terribly worried about the “liberty of the people of the United States” either, given that he has already tried once to overthrow the American electoral system, and might well do it again.

Trump and the people around him are clearly not isolationists in the old-fashioned sense. An isolationist wants to disengage from the world. Trump wants to remain engaged with the world, but on different terms. Trump has said repeatedly that he wants a “deal” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and maybe this is what he means: If Ukraine is partitioned, or if Ukraine loses the war, then Trump could twist that situation to his own advantage. Perhaps, some speculate, Trump wants to let Russia back into international oil markets and get something in return for that. But that explanation might be too complex: Maybe he just wants to damage President Joe Biden, or he thinks Putin will help him win the 2024 election. The Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee was very beneficial to Trump in 2016; perhaps it could happen again.

Trump is already behaving like the autocrats he admires, pursuing transactional politics that will profoundly weaken the United States. But he doesn’t care. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republicans who understands the significance of this moment, describes the stakes like this: “We are at a turning point in the history not just of this nation, but of the world.” Once the U.S. is no longer the security guarantor for Europe, and once the U.S. is no longer trusted in Asia, then some nations will begin to hedge, to make their own deals with Russia and China. Others will seek their own nuclear shields. Companies in Europe and elsewhere that now spend billions on U.S. energy investments or U.S. weapons will make different kinds of contracts. The United States will lose the dominant role it has played in the democratic world since 1945.

All of this could happen even if Trump doesn’t win the election. Right now, even if he never regains the White House, he is already dictating U.S. foreign policy, shaping perceptions of America in the world. Even if the funding for Ukraine ultimately passes, the damage he has done to all of America’s relationships is real. Anton Hofreiter, a member of the German Parliament, told me in Munich that he fears Europe could someday be competing against three autocracies: “Russia, China, and the United States.” When he said that, it was my turn to shake my head, not because I didn’t believe him, but because it was so hard to hear.

[chicago-geniza]

Saving as much money as possible so that when I go to Kraków for my friend's wedding this summer I can bring home an extra suitcase of books. Gotta start strategizing now. I need part 2 of Jelonka's correspondence, obviously. I have a PDF of the proceedings from that art history conference from 1986 now. The 50s anthology with Stef's Brzozowski essay would be good. Look through every antykwariat in the city for magazines and gov't pamphlets from the interwar period. Look for any books by Stef's contemporaries. Look for that one poet's private library, although I think it mostly got dispersed around Warsaw and through Allegro (such a shame) like an ad hoc piecemeal digital estate sale. RIP that signed first edition of Korzenie. Look for PEDAGOGY JOURNALS from 1921-1935. Oh and fucking. That one book on Lenin and Krupskaya in Austrian Galicia. OH. See about a day trip to Warsaw so you can scan Wiek XX at the Biblioteka Narodowa. That's a top priority.

[csharp-official]

I'm at .NET Developer Days conference in Warsaw right now, expect some posts related to that

[cats-warsaw-archive]

Ewa Lachowicz and Elżbieta Portka performing as Demeter and Bombalurina during a press conference before the start of 2007/2008 season in Roma Musical Theatre

Cats Warsaw September 19, 2007

[romanbymarta]

Emmanuelle Seigner, Roman Polanski, Roman Rogowiecki at a press conference for Polanski’s film The Ninth Gate, Warsaw, Jan. 21, 2000. 

[mypepemateossus]

Conference Room, Royal Castle, Warsaw, Poland.