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Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler are greeted by the people with the Nazi salute on the occasion of the Day of Commemoration of Heroes on 25 February 1934.

Photo: Berliner Verlag/Archiv via Reuters

The night Hitler consolidated totalitarian power

How do democracies fall? They implode. Sunday marked the 90th anniversary of the day on which, in retrospect, the tide of totalitarianism in Germany couldn’t be turned back — Adolf Hitler’s violent purge of Nazi leadership known as the Night of the Long Knives.

Hitler’s rise

Two years before the putsch, chaos reigned in German politics. The feeble Weimar Republic struggled to keep order as Nazi and Communist paramilitaries fought in the streets. Unemployment and inflation — already severe problems for the post-World War I German economy — were compounded by the Great Depression. The Nazi Party had capitalized on the ensuing political polarization to surge to national prominence, blaming social outsiders including Jews, Roma, and homosexuals for polluting Germany’s racial purity.

In December 1932, center-right Chancellor Franz von Papen stepped aside after a series of snap elections had given the Nazi Party the largest share of seats in Parliament. President Paul von Hindenburg reluctantly appointed Hitler chancellor in January 1933 — whereupon Hitler used a fire lit in the Reichstag building by a Dutch communist in February to intimidate the legislature into giving him emergency powers.

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Annie Gugliotta

D-Day in 2024: Is it even possible?

A few days before US President Joe Biden arrived on the beaches of Normandy to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a smaller war erupted on the GZERO office Slack channels.

“It’s impossible to imagine us launching something like D-Day again,” I wrote in our group channel. “Skepticism of foreign intervention is too high. The Forever Wars are too recent. Our society is too polarized. No way our leaders could get enough people to support it.”

But my colleague Matt Kendrick, one of the most thoughtful and historically minded guys you’ll ever meet – the guy can reliably write 1,000 (legit fascinating) words about how some obscure naval battle actually shaped our world more than the steam engine and the internet combined – pushed back on me.

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Ian Explains: Why Russia has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council
Ian Explains: Why Russia has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council | GZERO World

Ian Explains: Why Russia has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council

Why does Russia have a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council?

On August 1, the United States will take over the Security Council presidency and it has a lot of major issues on the agenda, including food security, human rights, and addressing ongoing humanitarian crises in Haiti and Sudan.

But with Russia a permanent, veto-wielding member of the Council, the chances of any major resolutions the United States proposes actually passing are pretty slim, Ian Bremmer explains on GZERO World.

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How to avoid World War III
Ian Explains: How to Avoid World War III | GZERO World

How to avoid World War III

On May 9, Vladimir Putin marked Russia's Victory Day in World War II by ... celebrating the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin has co-opted triumph against the Nazis to justify his aggression by claiming a delusional Nazi threat in Ukraine to justify the war. But this is nothing new.

Indeed, former Finnish PM Alexander Stubb says Russia never really moved on from World War II, relying on the narrative that "the rest of the world is out to get us" to drum up patriotic sentiment.

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Putin couldn't declare victory in Ukraine - so he changed the "war" objectives
Putin Couldn’t Declare Victory in Ukraine – So He Changed the “War” Objectives | GZERO World

Putin couldn't declare victory in Ukraine - so he changed the "war" objectives

For Michael McFaul, Vladimir Putin's May 9 Victory speech was a "nothing burger."

But there was something in there that signals his intentions in Ukraine, the former US ambassador to Russia tells Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.

McFaul says Putin changed the "phraseology" he's been using for the last two months when referring to the Donbas, where perhaps he now knows he can't prevail.

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Putin invasion of Ukraine: Worst outbreak of war since 1939
Putin Invasion of Ukraine: Worst Outbreak Since Hitler Invaded Poland | Europe In :60 | GZERO Media

Putin invasion of Ukraine: Worst outbreak of war since 1939

Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, shares his perspective from Europe on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The worst has come to happen. The Putin invasion of Ukraine that we now see unfolding is the worst outbreak of war that we've had since Hitler invaded Poland in September of 1939. The same motives, the same technique, the same lies leading up to it. What will happen now remains to be seen. Sanctions will have to be imposed very fast and very thoroughly, although that particular policy of deterrence has obviously failed, but it was good to try. We must help the fight in Ukraine. We must treat the Putin regime in the way that it deserves in all single respects. And we are heading bleak days when it comes to the security of Europe in the next few days. Transatlantic solidarity will be absolutely key.

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Australian, British aid workers killed in blast in Solomon Islands

September 21, 2020 10:20 AM

SYDNEY (REUTERS) - Two men from Australia and Britain who worked for an aid agency that helps to dispose of unexploded bombs were killed in a blast in Solomon Islands, their employer said on Monday (Sept 21).

WWII submarine discovered off Thailand coast

September 21, 2020 5:00 AM

BANGKOK • In the murky waters of the Strait of Malacca, about 144km south of Phuket, Thailand, four divers discovered a World War II submarine that was scuttled 77 years ago and is now teeming with marine life.

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