Latest news with #Kirchner
Bloomberg
8 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Kirchner's Return Risks Dividing Opposition in Boon for Milei
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is back on Argentina's political scene for the first time since President Javier Milei took office, set to challenge the libertarian and contest power within her own Peronist party in an upcoming local vote. Kirchner, a two-time president and former vice president, announced her candidacy to represent the most populous section of Buenos Aires province in September's legislative elections during a television interview Monday night. While it may seem like a step down for one of Argentina's biggest power brokers, the result will set the stage for a national midterm vote the next month, in which Milei needs to convince investors Argentines still support his aggressive economic reforms.
The Citizen
27-05-2025
- Sport
- The Citizen
Former Bok, Bulls fullback gets Uganda coaching gig
One of SA rugby's up-and-coming coaching talents and well-travelled playmakers has joined the Uganda national team support staff. Former Springbok and Vodacom Bulls fullback Zane Kirchner has linked up with the Cranes as a backs coach, and will work closely with head coach Fred Mudoola and assistants Leonard Lubambula, Timothy Mudoola and Marvin Odongo. 'I'm grateful for the opportunity to work with the Uganda Rugby Cranes. I've been following the growth of rugby in Uganda, and I'm excited to contribute to that journey,' Kirchner said in an statement. 'The talent is real, and I'm looking forward to working with the players and coaching team to help unlock the next level.' ALSO: All Blacks legend to plot Lions downfall 𝗪𝗘𝗟𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 𝗧𝗢 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗖𝗥𝗔𝗡𝗘𝗦 Former Springbok and Bulls fullback Zane Kirchner joins the @RugbyCranes XVs technical team as backs coach ahead of the 2025 #RugbyAfricaCup and World Cup qualifiers.#UgandaRugby #RAC25UG #FeeltheAfricanSpirit — Uganda Rugby Union (@UgandaRugby) May 26, 2025 Kirchner replaced Anton Moolman as head coach of the SWD Eagles in January 2024, having previously worked as an assistant coach at the Currie Cup First Division side, but recently parted ways with the Outeniqua-based outfit after a disappointing SA Cup campaign. The 40-year-old played 31 Tests, as well as making almost 90 appearances for Irish giants Leinster after representing Griquas and the Bulls. He also represented Welsh club Dragons and Bristol Bears in England before retiring from professional rugby in 2018. The post Former Bok gets Uganda coaching gig appeared first on SA Rugby Magazine.
Business Wire
07-05-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Xperi Inc. Announces First Quarter 2025 Results
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Xperi Inc. (NYSE: XPER) (the 'Company' or 'Xperi'), an entertainment technology company that invents, develops, and delivers technologies that enable extraordinary experiences, today announced first quarter 2025 financial results for the period ended March 31, 2025. 'The first quarter marked the entry of the TiVo One ad platform into the North American market through updates to our video-over-broadband device footprint and the launch of Sharp TVs powered by TiVo,' said Jon Kirchner, chief executive officer of Xperi. 'We are very pleased with the expanded rollout and adoption of our monetization platform, driving our installed base to 2.5 million monthly active users primarily in Europe. Feedback on the products from our TV and broadband operator partners, as well as from end users, has been extremely positive. Through the rest of this year, we expect monetization to begin to build as users engage more through our platform and we gain more scale in certain territories.' Mr. Kirchner continued, 'Importantly, our profitability as measured by adjusted EBITDA rose over two hundred percent due to continued business transformation efforts, including savings from cost reductions and business divestitures. This performance is in line with our profitability and operating cash flow goals for the year.' Financial Highlights 1 The contribution from Perceive, which was divested on October 2, 2024, accounted for approximately $2.2 million of revenue in Q1 2024. 2 Attributable to the Company. 3 For further information on supplemental non-GAAP metrics included in this press release, refer to the 'Non-GAAP Financial Measures' description and 'GAAP to Non-GAAP Reconciliations' provided in the financial statement tables. Expand Recent Key Operating Achievements Media Platform Reached a footprint of 2.5 million TiVo One Monthly Active Users (as defined below) at the end of the first quarter of 2025, consistent with expectations, which sets a foundation for future monetization in Western Europe and the United States. Successfully rolled out a home page ad unit, a new connected TV advertising unit across the TiVo One platform including video-over-broadband devices and TiVo OS smart TVs, creating an additional monetization opportunity over time. Launched over 80 additional streaming services onto the TiVo OS platform in multiple regions, including Sony Channels which are curated, genre-specific, ad-supported streaming (FAST) channels comprised of premium content from Sony's robust catalogue. Expanded TiVo OS global supply chain, designed to allow for broader and more flexible sourcing in multiple production regions. Connected Car HD Radio momentum continued with the signing of two multi-year HD Radio agreements with Tier-1 manufacturers, expanding use and longer-term commitment to our technologies. Also, HD Radio was launched in 15 new models in North America. DTS AutoStage finished the first quarter of 2025 with a footprint of 11 million vehicles in over 130 countries, with several new models launched across partners such as BMW, Ford, Hyundai, and Tesla. Previously announced design win, Audi, has now launched DTS AutoStage video service powered by TiVo in Japan. Pay TV Finished the first quarter of 2025 with over 2.75 million video-over-broadband (IPTV) subscriber households, up 36% year over year. Released updated software to North American Pay TV operators to enable enhanced sports features and the TiVo One home page advertising unit on certain video-over-broadband devices. Expanded the U.S. based connected TV monetization footprint for the TiVo One advertising platform by signing several new customers, bringing the cumulative total of TiVo broadband wins to over 30. Consumer Electronics Signed several long-term DTS audio renewals with customers including Skyworth, TCL, Hisense, TPV and Best Buy. Signed IMAX Enhanced renewals with Honor and Philips/TPV, expanded content commitments with Sony Pictures, and continued to add new hit titles to the Disney+ line up, including the latest Marvel hit, Captain America: Brave New World. Financial Outlook The Company maintains its outlook for fiscal year 2025 as it continues to monitor macroeconomic conditions: 1 See discussion of 'Non-GAAP Financial Measures' below. 2 With respect to Adjusted EBITDA Margin, the Company has determined that it is unable to provide a quantitative reconciliation of this forward-looking non-GAAP measure to the most directly comparable forward-looking GAAP measure with a reasonable degree of confidence in its accuracy without unreasonable effort, as items including restructuring and impacts from discrete tax adjustments and tax law changes are inherently uncertain and depend on various factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Expand Conference Call Information The Company will hold its first quarter 2025 earnings conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific Time (5:00 PM Eastern Time) on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. To access the call toll-free, please dial 1-888-596-4144, otherwise dial 1-646-968-2525. The conference ID is 5483252. All participants should dial in 15 minutes prior to the start of the call using the conference ID listed above. Alternatively, the call can be accessed via the following webcast link: Xperi Q1 2025 Earnings Call. Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains 'forward-looking statements' within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding: expectations regarding our future results of operations and financial position, margin expansion and overall growth, including, without limitation, expectations regarding revenue growth and Adjusted EBITDA Margin growth, the deployment by third parties of their products that use our technology, objectives for future operations, and ongoing strategies and operating initiatives, including, without limitation, regarding supply chain and sourcing, content commitments, subscriber and device targets including the number of TiVo One Monthly Active Users, monetization goals and expectations, expansion expectations, our media platform and licensing businesses growth, profitability, operating cash flow and other objectives. These forward-looking statements are based on information available to the Company as of the date hereof, as well as the Company's current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections that involve risks and uncertainties. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the words 'expect,' 'anticipate,' 'intend,' 'plan,' 'believe,' 'could,' 'seek,' 'see,' 'will,' 'may,' 'would,' 'might,' 'potentially,' 'estimate,' 'continue,' 'target,' 'goal,' and similar expressions or the negatives of these words or other comparable terminology that convey uncertainty of future events or outcomes. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors are described under the captions 'Risk Factors' and 'Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the 'SEC'), as updated in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2025 to be filed with the SEC, and our other filings with the SEC from time to time. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this press release and are based on information available to the Company as of the date of this press release, and the Company does not assume any obligation to, and does not intend to, publicly provide revisions or updates to any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by securities and other applicable laws. About Xperi Inc. Xperi invents, develops, and delivers technologies that enable extraordinary experiences. Xperi technologies, delivered via its brands (DTS ®, HD Radio™, TiVo ®) are integrated into consumer devices and media platforms worldwide, powering smart devices, connected cars and entertainment experiences, including IMAX ® Enhanced, a certification and licensing program operated by IMAX Corporation and DTS, Inc. Xperi has created a unified ecosystem that reaches highly engaged consumers, driving increased value for partners, customers and consumers. ©2025 Xperi Inc. All Rights Reserved. Xperi, TiVo, DTS, HD Radio, DTS Play-Fi, and their respective logos are trademark(s) or registered trademark(s) of Xperi Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. IMAX is a registered trademark of IMAX Corporation. All other trademarks and content are the property of their respective owners. Definition for TiVo One Monthly Active User Xperi defines a 'TiVo One Monthly Active User' as a unique device that has connected to the TiVo video service, which includes the TiVo One advertising platform, at least once within the last 30 days. The TiVo One advertising platform integrates with the device's operating system on certain 'Powered by TiVo' devices, including smart TVs and video-over-broadband products. Non-GAAP Financial Measures In addition to disclosing financial results calculated in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles ('GAAP'), the Company's press release contains non-GAAP financial measures, including Non-GAAP Operating Income/(Loss), Non-GAAP Net Income/(Loss) attributable to the Company, Non-GAAP Net Income/(Loss) Per Share attributable to the Company, Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA, and Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA Margin. Non-GAAP Operating Income/(Loss) is defined as GAAP Operating Income/(Loss), less the impact of stock-based compensation; amortization of intangible assets; transaction, integration and restructuring costs; severance and retention costs; and other items not indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Non-GAAP Net Income/(Loss) attributable to the Company is defined as GAAP Net Income/(Loss) attributable to the Company excluding the impact of stock-based compensation; amortization of intangible assets; transaction, integration and restructuring costs; severance and retention costs; and other items not indicative of our ongoing operating performance; and related tax effects for each adjustment. Non-GAAP Net Income/(Loss) Per Share attributable to the Company is defined as Non-GAAP Income/(Loss) attributable to the Company divided by Non-GAAP weighted average shares outstanding - diluted. Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA is defined as GAAP Net Income/(Loss), less the impact of interest expense; provision for income taxes; stock-based compensation; depreciation expense; amortization of intangible assets; amortization of capitalized cloud computing costs; transaction, integration and restructuring costs; severance and retention costs; and other items not indicative of our ongoing operating performance. Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA Margin is defined as Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA divided by total revenue. Management believes that the non-GAAP measures used in this press release provide investors with important perspectives into the Company's ongoing business and financial performance and provide a better understanding of our core operating results reflecting our normal business operations. The non-GAAP financial measures disclosed by the Company should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Our use of non-GAAP financial measures has certain limitations in that the non-GAAP financial measures we use may not be directly comparable to those reported by other companies. For example, the terms used in this press release, such as adjusted EBITDA, do not have a standardized meaning. Other companies may use the same or similarly named measures, but exclude different items, which may not provide investors with a comparable view of our performance in relation to other companies. We seek to compensate for the limitation of our non-GAAP presentation by providing a detailed reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in the tables attached hereto. Investors are encouraged to review the related GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. All financial data is presented on a GAAP basis except where the Company indicates its presentation is on a non-GAAP basis. Set forth below are reconciliations of the Company's reported GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures. XPERI INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (in thousands) (unaudited) December 31, 2024 ASSETS Current assets: Cash and cash equivalents $ 87,988 $ 130,564 Accounts receivable, net 58,185 58,745 Unbilled contracts receivable, net 83,921 83,075 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 36,598 32,488 Total current assets 266,692 304,872 Note receivable, noncurrent 30,271 29,702 Deferred consideration from divestitures 18,617 18,217 Unbilled contracts receivable, noncurrent 51,916 45,396 Property and equipment, net 45,703 44,473 Operating lease right-of-use assets 33,275 30,082 Intangible assets, net 154,006 163,714 Deferred tax assets 7,327 7,228 Other noncurrent assets 25,669 24,076 Total assets $ 633,476 $ 667,760 LIABILITIES AND EQUITY Current liabilities: Accounts payable $ 14,542 $ 16,979 Accrued liabilities 79,168 94,420 Deferred revenue 24,033 23,950 Short-term debt — 50,000 Total current liabilities 117,743 185,349 Long-term debt 40,000 — Deferred revenue, noncurrent 18,866 20,932 Operating lease liabilities, noncurrent 24,369 19,932 Deferred tax liabilities 1,491 1,491 Other noncurrent liabilities 12,105 10,979 Total liabilities 214,574 238,683 Equity: Common stock 45 44 Additional paid-in capital 1,280,559 1,274,561 Accumulated other comprehensive loss (3,892 ) (6,084 ) Accumulated deficit (857,810 ) (839,444 ) Total equity 418,902 429,077 Total liabilities and equity $ 633,476 $ 667,760 Expand XPERI INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (in thousands) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2025 2024 Cash flows from operating activities: Net loss $ (18,366 ) $ (13,371 ) Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities: Stock-based compensation expense 12,102 14,757 Amortization of intangible assets 9,722 11,039 Depreciation of property and equipment 2,905 3,584 Accrued interest income from note receivable (569 ) (352 ) Accretion of discount from deferred consideration from divestiture (400 ) (162 ) Gain from divestiture — (22,934 ) Deferred income taxes (99 ) 223 Other 830 827 Changes in operating assets and liabilities: Accounts receivable 233 (10,521 ) Unbilled contracts receivable (7,366 ) (4,324 ) Prepaid expenses and other assets (4,197 ) (2,788 ) Accounts payable (2,653 ) (821 ) Accrued and other liabilities (12,417 ) (26,427 ) Deferred revenue (1,983 ) 1,483 Net cash used in operating activities (22,258 ) (49,787 ) Cash flows from investing activities: Purchases of property and equipment (1,066 ) (1,845 ) Capitalized internal-use software (3,127 ) (2,603 ) Purchases of intangible assets (14 ) (39 ) Net cash used in divestiture — (227 ) Net cash used in investing activities (4,207 ) (4,714 ) Cash flows from financing activities: Repayment of short-term debt (50,000 ) — Withholding taxes related to net share settlement of equity awards (5,288 ) (4,671 ) Payment of debt issuance costs (823 ) — Proceeds from long-term debt 40,000 — Net cash used in financing activities (16,111 ) (4,671 ) Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents — (46 ) Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents (42,576 ) (59,218 ) Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period (1) 130,564 154,434 Cash and cash equivalents at end of period $ 87,988 $ 95,216 Expand (1) Includes $12.3 million of cash and cash equivalents classified as held for sale at December 31, 2023. Expand XPERI INC. GAAP TO NON-GAAP RECONCILIATIONS (in thousands, except per share amounts) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2025 2024 Reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to the Company: GAAP net loss attributable to the Company $ (18,366 ) $ (13,120 ) Adjustments to GAAP net loss attributable to the Company: Stock-based compensation (1) 12,102 14,757 Amortization of intangible assets 9,722 11,039 Gain on divestiture — (22,934 ) Transaction, integration and restructuring related costs: Transaction, integration and restructuring costs (2) (54 ) 3,162 Severance and retention (3) 4,644 2,904 Income tax adjustment (4) (623 ) 2,148 Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to the Company $ 7,425 $ (2,044 ) (1) Stock-based compensation included in above line items: Cost of revenue, excluding depreciation and amortization of intangible assets $ 1,044 $ 744 Research and development $ 4,423 $ 4,333 Selling, general and administrative $ 6,635 $ 9,680 (2) Transaction, integration and restructuring costs included in above line items: Cost of revenue, excluding depreciation and amortization of intangible assets $ — $ (1 ) Research and development $ — $ (3 ) Selling, general and administrative $ (63 ) $ 2,760 Interest and other income (expense), net $ 9 $ 406 (3) Severance and retention included in above line items: Cost of revenue, excluding depreciation and amortization of intangible assets $ 225 $ 485 Research and development $ 2,716 $ 2,244 Selling, general and administrative $ 1,703 $ 175 (4) The provision for income taxes is adjusted to reflect the net direct and indirect income tax effects of the various non-GAAP pretax adjustments. Reconciliation of net income (loss) per share attributable to the Company: GAAP net loss attributable to the Company $ (0.41 ) $ (0.29 ) Adjustments to GAAP net loss per share attributable to the Company: Stock-based compensation 0.27 0.33 Amortization of intangible assets 0.22 0.25 Gain on divestiture — (0.52 ) Transaction, integration and restructuring related costs 0.10 0.13 Income tax adjustment (0.01 ) 0.05 Difference in shares used in calculation (0.01 ) — Non-GAAP net income (loss) per share attributable to the Company $ 0.16 $ (0.05 ) GAAP weighted-average number of shares - basic and diluted 44,773 44,521 Non-GAAP weighted-average number of shares - diluted 45,719 44,521 Expand XPERI INC. GAAP TO NON-GAAP RECONCILIATIONS (in thousands) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2025 2024 GAAP operating loss $ (16,440 ) $ (32,327 ) Adjustments to GAAP operating loss: Stock-based compensation 12,102 14,757 Amortization of intangible assets 9,722 11,039 Transaction, integration and restructuring related costs: Transaction, integration and restructuring costs (63 ) 2,756 Severance and retention 4,644 2,904 Non-GAAP operating income (loss) $ 9,965 $ (871 ) Expand XPERI INC. GAAP TO NON-GAAP RECONCILIATIONS (in thousands) (unaudited) Three Months Ended March 31, 2025 2024 GAAP net loss $ (18,366 ) $ (13,371 ) Adjustments to GAAP net loss: Interest expense 897 851 Provision for income taxes 3,489 4,272 Stock-based compensation 12,102 14,757 Depreciation expense 2,905 3,584 Amortization of intangible assets 9,722 11,039 Amortization of capitalized cloud computing costs 1,084 1,141 Gain on divestiture — (22,934 ) Transaction, integration and restructuring related costs: Transaction, integration and restructuring costs (54 ) 3,162 Severance and retention 4,644 2,904 Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA $ 16,423 $ 5,405 Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA Margin (1) 14.4 % 4.5 % Expand (1) Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA Margin is calculated by dividing Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA, derived as above, by the Company's total revenue, expressed as a percentage. Expand
The Guardian
14-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Muscle-flexing or urgent threat?' How Trump's assault on culture echoes the Nazis targeting ‘degenerate art'
Donald Trump has unveiled a new portrait of himself and it's the most autocratic yet. A painted version of his fist-pumping stance after being shot in July 2024 now greets visitors in the entrance hall of the White House. This 'Fight, fight, fight!' canvas is true strongman art. It is just the latest in a series of artistic moves by Trump that look disturbingly tyrannical. When he complained that a portrait of himself in the Colorado State Capitol building was 'purposefully distorted' it was taken down as quickly as if the US were Stalin's Soviet Union. And he has ordered JD Vance to purge the Smithsonian museums of 'improper ideology'. But how seriously should any of this be taken? Is it an urgent threat to democracy and culture or mere muscle-flexing? A show currently in Paris offers a troubling historical perspective on Trump's art antics. 'Degenerate' Art: The Trial of Modern Art Under Nazism, at the Musée Picasso, takes you back to the age of the dictators when totalitarian regimes sought to control art absolutely and use it to their own ends. I wasn't keen to plunge into Nazi cultural history after the sunny pleasures of David Hockney's epic retrospective, but I was politely dragged along. The chill was instant. The show opens with fragments of sculpture displayed like archaeological relics – which is what they are. In 2010, archaeologists in Berlin excavating land cleared for a new underground line discovered not Roman coins or a medieval plague pit but remains of modernist artworks confiscated by the Nazis, branded 'degenerate art' and dumped in a store that had been bombed in an air raid in 1944. The most compelling fragment, by the expressionist sculptor Emy Roeder, is the head of a primitive angelic being, severed at the shoulders. It's a reminder of the fate of modernist art in German museums in the 1930s. Much of it was destroyed or lost, but not all. In 1937, more than 700 works of modern art went on display in Munich in the exhibition Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) in order to be held up to ridicule and contempt. Afterwards, those with the most market appeal were sold abroad to benefit the Reich. At the Musée Picasso, some of these masterpieces have been reunited, borrowed from the collections where they ended up. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's 1913 painting Street, Berlin has come from MoMA in New York. Its purple and black energy lifts you, as Kirchner depicts edgy, eroticised city life on the eve of the first world war, with two women parading past a crowd of sexually intimidated men. Kirchner's painting was condemned for its attack on classical order and harmony, its jagged planes and purposeful distortions. Metropolis is another riotous vision, as the artist George Grosz equates artistic and political revolution. These and other 'degenerate' works were contrasted with the 'healthy' Nazi art that was also unveiled in the same city in 1937 in a simultaneous exhibition called Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung (Great German Art). Hitler was in town to open it, and in the speech he gave, he defines degenerate art as the opposite of the Nazi athletic ideal that had been celebrated the previous summer by the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Rhetorically addressing the modernists, he tells them they just don't get it with their primitivist art that looks like it comes from the stone age. They don't see the beauty of Nazi man; degenerate Art, according to Hitler, portrayed 'degenerate' people. It depicts, he claimed, 'deformed cripples and cretins, women who can only have a repulsive effect, men who are closer to animals than humans, children who, if they had to live this way, would have to be seen as the veritable curse of God!' Is Hitler's characterisation of modern art in any way recognisable? It took me a while to see why a Nazi may have been offended by Otto Dix's unflattering, vivid portrait of the artist Franz Radziwill. He poses formally holding a T-square, yet looks around vacantly with his bulging upside down pear of a face. Is this an example of the imperfect detritus of humanity? If so, it's just the tip the iceberg, for no artist so provocatively captured the freedom and experimentalism of the 1920s Weimar Republic. Dix's paintings of sex workers and sailors, circuses and sado-masochist brothels, positively embrace degeneracy. As for 'cripples', Dix, Grosz and other German dadaists after the first world war insisted on showing Germany the maimed bodies of its wounded veterans, begging on street corners or playing cards with artificial hands. In other words, the Nazi attack on modern art was really an attack on the attitudes embodied in the Weimar years of liberal hope, and on radical Weimar art that burst with sexual freedom and social compassion. It was a culture war. Marc Chagall's The Pinch of Snuff (Rabbi) is one of the most haunting works in the Paris show. Inspired by a Yiddish tale of how a snuff addiction led to a rabbi's demonic temptation, it was bought by Mannheim's Kunsthalle in 1928. It came under attack as early as 1933, when local Nazis put it on a poster telling people this was what their taxes were paying for. I look into the rabbi's eyes and see the lost world of Jewish eastern Europe that inspired Chagall, and which Nazi Germany would obliterate. In 1941, 16,000 Jews would be shot dead in Chagall's home city Vitebsk, in just one episode among many. Such colossal violence and murder has to make us a bit careful with comparisons between today's far right and nazism. Historians of the 20th century are still debating if today's populism is a type of fascism, but it's worth phrasing this another way: the Nazis were adept populists. Hitler was democratically elected in 1933 and the totalitarian regime he then built always claimed – and probably had – a populist mandate. Hitler boasted of a special connection with the 'true' German people, his base, and for whom he spoke. As for the culture war on modern art, more than a million people saw Chagall's rabbi and the other works in the Entartete Kunst show in just six weeks. L'art 'dégénéré', Musée Picasso, Paris, until 25 May.
Arab Times
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Arab Times
Argentina's President Milei draws pushback over his Falklands War speech
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, April 3, (AP): Argentina's libertarian President Javier Milei on Wednesday marked the anniversary of his nation's failed 1982 attempt to forcibly wrest the Falkland Islands from Britain by expressing hope that the island's residents may one day choose to be Argentine rather than British. Milei's speech came as a surprise to many in Argentina, which still claims sovereignty over the British-controlled archipelago that it calls Las Malvinas despite the British victory. His comments were criticized as overly conciliatory by political rivals who argue that the island's residents have no right to self-determination because they are not an Indigenous people. "We hope for the Malvinenses (Falkland Islanders) to one day decide to vote for us with their feet,' Milei said at a ceremony commemorating Argentina's 74-day war over the South Atlantic territory that killed 649 Argentine service members and 255 British soldiers. "That's why we seek to be a power, to the point that (the islanders) prefer to be Argentine.' The island's roughly 3,000 residents most recently voted to remain a British overseas territory in a 2013 referendum - a result rejected by then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, a left-leaning populist who made Argentina's claims to Las Malvinas a centerpiece of her foreign policy. As president and more recently vice-president over the last decade, Kirchner repeatedly condemned UK control over the islands as a colonial holdover and sought to press Britain to enter talks about the future of the territory that it has ruled since 1833. On Wednesday, Kirchner and her political allies - ideological opponents of the right-wing president - castigated Milei for his accommodating approach to Britain. "There is no self-determination after the occupation and expulsion," former Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero wrote on social media platform X in reaction to Milei's speech, accusing him of "surrendering' the nationalistic claims for which Argentines fought and died. Even politicians from the center-right PRO party expressed confusion over Milei's stance on an issue that long has forged a unifying sense of Argentine patriotism. During Milei's 2023 presidential campaign, the former TV pundit set off a firestorm by admitting that he idolized fellow libertarian Margaret Thatcher, the UK prime minister who dispatched troops to retake the Falklands after Argentina's waning military dictatorship mounted its invasion.
