EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan State has been sued over the Adolf Hitler question that appeared on Spartan Stadium screens before a game last season, with the quiz's creator saying the university didn't have permission to use its product that “was not created for a mass-market use at an American college football game.”
Floris van Pallandt, owner of Carsilius Media, BV, and operator of The Quiz Channel on YouTube, filed a federal lawsuit against the school’s Board of Regents last week that asks for $150,000 in damages plus legal fees. Van Pallandt alleges using the quiz was copyright infringement and the company was subject to disparagement and ridicule for Michigan State's public showing of the Hitler question, “especially in light of current events.”
The question appeared Oct. 21 during pregame of Michigan State's matchup with Michigan. Spartan Stadium videoboards ran a stream of the the YouTube channel, and among the 40 questions on the European history quiz was one asking where Hitler was born. A photo of him was displayed before Austria was shown as the answer.
University spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
The employee responsible for showing the quiz was disciplined, the university issued a public apology and athletic director Alan Haller said his department was accountable for all content on its videoboards.
The Michigan-Michigan State game was two weeks after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.
An athletic department spokesman, in a separate apology, characterized the quiz as “inappropriate content by a third-party source” and said the school would not use the third-party source going forward.
In his lawsuit, van Pallandt said MSU did not have permission to use the quiz and that “once its theft was uncovered” the university attempted to damage the reputation of van Pallandt and Carsilius Media.
“The quiz that was used without permission was not created for a mass-market use at an American college football game, and Plaintiff does not believe it should have been used at such a time or at such an event, especially in light of current events,” the lawsuit said.
Van Pallandt, a citizen of the Netherlands whose business is based in Colombia, said in the lawsuit that if MSU had reached out to him, he could have put together a customized quiz appropriate for the venue and event and charge an appropriate fee.
“At a minimum, this attempt to deflect blame is dishonest by ommitting any comments about Michigan State’s role in this fiasco,” the lawsuit said.
AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football
FILE - Michigan State players take the field before an NCAA college football game against Western Michigan, Friday, Sept. 2, 2022, in East Lansing, Mich. (AP Photo/Al Goldis, File)
BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli official confirmed that the Israeli military targeted Ibrahim Akil, a senior Hezbollah military official, in Friday's airstrike on Beirut.
It wasn't immediately clear if Akil was killed in the Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs that killed at least three people and wounded 17 others, according to Lebanese health officials. The Israeli official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a behind the scenes security matter.
An official close to the Hezbollah militant group, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to brief the media, confirmed to The Associated Press that Akil was supposed to be in the building when it was targeted Friday. The official couldn't confirm if Akil was killed.
Akil has served as the head of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan Force and Jihad Council, the group’s highest military body. The U.S. State Department has sanctioned Akil for his alleged role in carrying out the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut and that he had directed the taking of American and German hostages in Lebanon and held them there during the 1980s.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli strike on Beirut on Friday killed at least three people and wounded more than a dozen others, Lebanese health officials said, the first Israeli attack on Lebanon's capital in months that came shortly after Hezbollah pounded northern Israel with 140 rockets.
Israel announced the strike, but didn't immediately specify the target in Beirut's crowded southern suburbs, where Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group holds sway. An Israeli officials
Lebanon's Health Ministry reported that at least three people were killed and 17 others wounded as local networks broadcast footage of wounded people being pulled from the ruins of a flattened building and ambulances rushing to the scene of the strike.
The strike in Dahiyeh, just kilometers from downtown Beirut, hit during rush hour, as people were leaving work and students headed home from school.
The escalation came as the region awaited the revenge promised by the militant group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, for this week’s mass bombing attack on pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members.
Israel's rare strike on the Beirut suburbs came after Hezbollah pounded Israel with 140 rockets, which the Israeli military said came in three waves targeting sites along the ravaged border with Lebanon.
Following the attacks, the Israeli military said that it had struck areas across southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah infrastructure, but didn’t provide details of damage.
Hezbollah said that its attacks had targeted several sites along the border with Katyusha rockets, including multiple air defense bases as well as the headquarters of an Israeli armored brigade they said they’d struck for the first time.
The Israeli military said that 120 missiles were launched at areas of the Golan Heights, Safed and the Upper Galilee, some of which were intercepted. Fire crews were working to extinguish blazes caused by pieces of debris that fell to the ground in several areas, the military said.
The military didn’t say whether any missiles had hit targets or caused any casualties.
Another 20 missiles were shot at the areas of Meron and Netua, and most fell in open areas, the military said, adding that no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah said that the rockets were in retaliation for Israeli strikes on villages and homes in southern Lebanon, not two days of attacks widely blamed on Israel that set off explosives in thousands of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies.
On Thursday, Israel said its military had struck “hundreds of rocket launcher barrels” in southern Lebanon, saying that they “were ready to be used in the immediate future to fire toward Israeli territory.”
The army also ordered residents in parts of the Golan Heights and northern Israel to avoid public gatherings, minimize movements and stay close to shelters in anticipation of the rocket fire that eventually came Friday.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged near-daily fire since Oct. 8, a day after the Israel-Hamas war’s opening salvo, but Friday’s rocket barrages were heavier than normal.
Nasrallah on Thursday vowed to keep up daily strikes on Israel despite this week’s deadly sabotage of its members’ communication devices, which he described as a “severe blow.”
At least 20 were killed in the attacks and thousands were wounded when pagers, walkie-talkies and other devices exploded in Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The sophisticated attacks have heightened fears that the cross-border exchanges of fire will escalate into all-out war. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in the attacks.
In recent days, Israel has moved a powerful fighting force up to the northern border, officials have escalated their rhetoric, and the country’s security Cabinet has designated the return of tens of thousands of displaced residents to their homes in northern Israel an official war goal.
Fighting in Gaza has slowed, but casualties continue to rise.
Overnight, Palestinian authorities said that 15 people were killed in multiple Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip.
Those included six people, including an unknown number of children, in an airstrike early Friday morning in Gaza City that hit a family home, Gaza’s Civil Defense said. Another person was killed in Gaza City when a strike hit a group of people on a street.
Israel maintains that it only targets militants, and accuses Hamas and other armed groups of endangering civilians by operating in residential areas. The military, which rarely comments on individual strikes, had no immediate comment.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says that more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between fighters and civilians in its count, but says a little over half of those killed were women and children.
Israel says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.
More than 95,000 people have also been wounded in Gaza since Oct. 7, the Health Ministry said.
The war has caused vast destruction and displaced about 90% of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million.
A woman checks the scene of a missile strike from her damaged house in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Rescuers carry a body at the scene of a missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Ambulances arrive at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
People stand on top of a damaged car at the scene of a missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People and rescuers gather at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People gather near a damaged building at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People gather at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
People gather at the scene of an Israeli missile strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept a rocket fired from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
