downplay, play down, invoke, far-right. “What have I done?” Ben’s receding hairline became an obsession. His decision to treat it had devastating consequences

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“What have I done?” Ben’s receding hairline became an obsession. His decision to treat it had devastating consequences




• Trump invokes rare powers to combat coronavirus outbreak he previously downplayed, calling it ‘war’

Sean McMeekin's new book on the history of Russo-Turkish relations, "The Ottoman Endgame", is deeply empathetic with Turkish concerns. This is not to say that it downplays the extent, and the brutality, of the Armenian genocide


German far-right party slapped with massive accounting fine

German parliament has slapped a 2.2 million euro ($2.8 million) fine on the
far-right National Democratic Party for accounting irregularities. The
penalty could mean financial ruin for the NPD.



Debate Over Drugs For ADHD Reignites
New data from a large federal study have reignited a debate over the effectiveness of long-term drug treatment of children with hyperactivity or attention-deficit disorder, and have drawn accusations that some members of the research team have sought to play down evidence that medications do little...
(By Shankar Vedantam, The Washington Post)

Le Pen's Holocaust Remarks Stir Outrage in European Parliament

European Union parliamentarians have promised to block France's notorious
far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen from presiding over the chamber in
July. MPs were outraged that Le Pen continues to downplay Nazi atrocities.

Ex-Press Aide Writes That Bush Misled U.S. on Iraq
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" and "downplaying the major reason for going to...
(By Michael D. Shear, The Washington Post)


The largely middle class protesters are keen to downplay any political aspect of their defiance. They insist on calling their well-organised marches "going for a walk" events.

invoke

verb [ T ]

   formal

UK 

 /ɪnˈvəʊk/ US 

 /ɪnˈvoʊk/

 

to use a law in order to achieve something, or to mention something in order to explain something or to support your opinion or action:

Police can invoke the law to regulate access to these places.

 

to request help from someone, especially a god, when you want to improve a situation:

Their sacred dance is performed to invoke ancient gods.

 

to make someone have a particular feeling or remember something

far-right


IN BRIEF: adj. - Extremely conservative.


downplay
verb [T]
to make something seem less important or less bad than it really is:
The government has been trying to downplay the crisis.