Watching the powerful historical testament to the horrors of war and the depths of human cruelty in “The Kiev Trial” at the Venice Film Festival, it can seem that little has changed. The out-of-competition documentary by Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa uses archival footage of a now-forgotten war crimes trial of 15 Germans held in Kyiv in 1946.   But the atrocities that witnesses recount in the black-and-white film has echoes of war crimes that Ukraine accuses Russia of having committed on its soil in recent months. The International Criminal Court is currently investigating war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine. “History repeats itself when we do not learn from history. When we don’t study and don’t want to know,” warned Loznitsa, speaking to journalists Sunday.    This year, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February, “we all realized we were (back) 80 years ago,” he said. “We just started to repeat the same things. And it means we did not learn after the war.” The trial was held in January 1946, just as the Allies’ groundbreaking Nuremberg Trials against Nazi war criminals were beginning   Stalin sought to use the trials in Kyiv for his own propaganda …

The little-known story of a teenage scientist who passed U.S. nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union is the subject of a new documentary that premiered at the Venice Film Festival this week. A Compassionate Spy, by celebrated U.S. filmmaker Steve James, hopes to reignite debate about nuclear weapons at a time of rising geopolitical tensions. “Climate change and other issues have taken our attention away from that threat, but it’s always been there and it’s coming back,” James told AFP in Venice. Ted Hall was just 19 when he was recruited to work on the top-secret Manhattan Project during World War II that led to the creation of the world’s first nuclear weapon. Sympathetic to the Communist cause and fearing a future in which only the U.S. had the bomb, Hall decided to pass designs to Moscow. The story has been largely forgotten, even though Hall came clean in the last years of his life in the 1990s. “Many people will no doubt conclude that he should not have done it, that his fears of the U.S. becoming fascist or the U.S. pre-emptively striking the Soviet Union were not grounded,” said James, who is known especially for his landmark 1994 …

The Washington, D.C., area is multicultural, with embassies, international businesses and a host of ethnic restaurants. People from Ethiopia, El Salvador, the Caribbean and more live in the city and the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs. To showcase the food, artisans and traditional dance of these many cultures, the Around the World Cultural Food Festival recently took place for the 6th year. The event is the largest outdoor cultural food festival in the Washington area. With flags flying, 40 nations were represented at a park in historic Alexandria, Virginia. The event featured African countries, such as Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Ethiopia. Thailand, Lebanon, Jamaica and El Salvador were also included. Corina Serbanescu, the event manager, said the festival provides the opportunity to learn about various cultures. “Although the Washington area is multinational,” she said, “people don’t necessarily know about one another’s cultures, including the food.” Feride Ozkan, owner of Istanbul Kitchen in McLean, Virginia, was giving visitors a taste of Turkish cuisine including chicken borek, made with vegetables and mozzarella cheese, and simit, a Turkish bagel. “Turkish cuisine consists of a melting pot of cultures brought together over the centuries,” she said. “I’m serving food that I learned to cook from …

Barack Obama is halfway to an EGOT. The former U.S. president won an Emmy Award on Saturday to go with his two Grammys. Obama won the best narrator Emmy for his work on the Netflix documentary series, Our Great National Parks. The five-part show, which features national parks from around the globe, is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground. He was the biggest name in a category full of famous nominees for the award handed out at Saturday night’s Creative Arts Emmys, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Attenborough and Lupita Nyong’o. Barack Obama is the second president to have an Emmy. Dwight D. Eisenhower was given a special Emmy Award in 1956. Barack Obama previously won Grammy Awards for his audiobook reading of two of his memoirs, The Audacity of Hope and A Promised Land. Michelle Obama won her own Grammy for reading her audiobook in 2020. EGOT refers to a special category of entertainers who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony. To date, 17 people have done it. The late Chadwick Boseman also won an Emmy for his voice work on Saturday. The Black Panther actor won for outstanding character voiceover …

A cap designed for Black swimmers’ natural hair that was banned from the Tokyo Olympics has been approved for competitive races. Swimming governing body FINA said on Friday the Soul Cap was on its list of approved equipment.   “Promoting diversity and inclusivity is at the heart of FINA’s work,” executive director Brent Nowicki said in a statement, “and it is very important that all aquatic athletes have access to the appropriate swimwear.” The London-based Soul Cap brand was designed larger than existing styles to contain and protect dreadlocks, weaves, hair extensions, braids, and thick and curly hair. Last year, British swimmer Alice Dearing was refused permission to wear a Soul Cap in the 10-kilometer marathon swim in Tokyo, with FINA suggesting the size could create an advantage. The furor at that decision prompted an apology from the governing body and a promise to review the application. Soul Cap welcomed the approval that has come more than one year later as “a huge step in the right direction” in a sport that historically has had few Black athletes. “For a long time, conventional swim caps have been an obstacle for swimmers with thick, curly, or volume-blessed hair,” the company said. …

Jane Fonda said on social media Friday that she has cancer. “So, my dear friends, I have something personal I want to share. I’ve been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and have started chemo treatments,” the 84-year-old actor wrote in an Instagram post. “This is a very treatable cancer,” she added, “so I feel very lucky.” Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a cancer that begins in the white blood cells and affects parts of the body’s immune system. Fonda acknowledged that unlike many, she is privileged to have insurance, and access to the best doctors and care. “Almost every family in America has had to deal with cancer at one time or another and far too many don’t have access to the quality health care I am receiving and this is not right,” she said. Fonda said she has begun a six-month course of chemotherapy, is handling the treatments well, and will not let it interfere with her climate activism. Fonda has dealt with cancer before. She had a tumor removed from her breast in 2010 and has also had skin cancer. Part of a legendary Hollywood family, Fonda gained fame for both her acting and her activism starting in the late 1960s. …

Serena Williams was eliminated from the U.S. Open on Friday in what may be the last match of her illustrious career but the impact she had on the game she dominated for over two decades will be felt for generations to come. Williams, who made her professional debut in 1995 a year after her older sister Venus, has been one of the game’s most marketable stars. She has a slew of corporate partners and in 2019 became the first athlete to land on Forbes’ list of America’s richest self-made women. Williams, 40, who also lost in the U.S. Open doubles competition alongside sister Venus, said in a Vogue article last month that she was “evolving away from tennis” and added in an Instagram post that “the countdown has begun.” While Williams has not stated precisely when her last tournament is, U.S. Open organizers feted her with an elaborate farewell ceremony after her first-round match on Monday. Williams revolutionized women’s tennis with a lethal mix of powerful serves, groundstrokes and superb athleticism and became the most successful player in the Open Era by collecting 23 Grand Slam titles, the most recent coming in 2017. That success also inspired a generation of …

A defiant Serena Williams bid an emotional goodbye to the U.S. Open with a third-round loss to Ajla Tomljanovic on Friday, in what may have been the last singles match of her glittering career. Defeat has always been hard to swallow for the fiercely competitive Williams and no doubt the 7-5 6-7 (4) 6-1 loss to the 46th ranked Australian stung her to her core. But after a joyous run into the third round there was no shame in a loss to the gritty Tomljanovic, allowing the 23-time Grand Slam winner to exit with dignity intact and head held high. Her three matches, highlighted by a second-round win over world number two Anett Kontaveit, were a gift to her fans, the relentless never surrender attitude that made her tennis’ dominant player for over two decades on display right until the very final point. Always up for a fight, the 40-year-old came out swinging, forcing Tomljanovic to go the distance. The Australian needed six match points to deliver the knockout punch and bring an end to an engrossing three-plus-hour slugfest. Williams had signaled her intention to retire last month, saying she was “evolving away from tennis” but never confirming the U.S. …

Imagine if they could bottle a potion called “Just Serena.” That was Serena Williams’ succinct, smiling explanation for how she’d managed — at nearly 41, and match-rusty — to defeat the world’s second-ranked player and advance Wednesday to the third round of a U.S. Open that so far, doesn’t feel much like a farewell. “I’m just Serena,” she said to roaring fans. Clearly there’s only one Serena. But as superhuman as many found her achievement, some older fans in particular — middle-aged, or beyond — said they saw in Williams’ latest run a very human and relatable takeaway, too. Namely the idea that they, also, could perform better and longer than they once thought possible — through fitness, practice and grit. “It makes me feel good about what I’m doing still at my age,” said Bess Brodsky Goldstein, 63, a lifelong tennis enthusiast who was attending the Open on Thursday, the day after Williams’ triumph over 26-year-old Anett Kontaveit. Yet Goldstein, like any athlete, suffers her share of aches and injuries, like a recent knee issue that set her back a few weeks. Watching Williams, she said, shows ordinary folks that injuries — or, in Williams’ case, a life-threatening childbirth …