Nov 27 2023

Six In The Morning Monday 27 November 2023

Gaza truce extended by two days, Qatar says

Hamas says truce will continue with same conditions – Reuters

More now on the extension to the truce, which was due to expire after today but Qatar says has now been extended by two days.

A Hamas official has just told Reuters news agency in a phone call that the temporary truce will have “the same conditions as in the previous truce”.

The current truce sees one hostage freed by Hamas in exchange for the release of three Palestinians detained in Israel, and has seen 39 Israeli hostages released in exchange for 117 Palestinian prisoners.

We haven’t yet heard from Israel on the extension of the truce.

  1. Families have been informed by the Israeli government that a further release of hostages will take place later on Monday
  2. As part of the Israel-Hamas deal, 39 Israeli hostages in Gaza have been released so far with 117 Palestinians freed from Israeli jails

Cop28 host UAE planned to promote oil deals during climate talks

Leaked briefing documents for meetings with governments contained ‘asks’ from state oil firm

The host of the UN Cop28 summit, the United Arab Emirates, planned to use climate meetings with other countries to promote deals for its national oil and gas companies, according to leaked documents.

Cop28 begins on Thursday and will be run by Sultan Al Jaber, who is the chief executive of the national oil company Adnoc as well as the UAE’s climate envoy. This dual role has been criticised as a conflict of interest, and climate summit veterans said the new revelations undermined trust in Al Jaber’s presidency of Cop28, potentially threatening a successful outcome.

The Guardian reported recently that Adnoc had the largest net zero-busting expansion plans of any company in the world and that state-run oil and gas fields in the UAE had been flaring gas almost daily despite having committed 20 years ago to a policy of zero routine flaring. Adnoc questioned the figures behind the report but did not provide its own figures.

France: 6 teens go on trial over 2020 teacher beheading

Samuel Paty was killed by a suspected Islamist after showing cartoons of Prophet Mohammad to his class. Five teenagers are charged with identifying the teacher to his killer for payment.

The trial of six teenagers linked to the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty — a case that shocked France — began on Monday in Paris.

Paty, a 47-year-old history and geography teacher, was stabbed and then beheaded near his secondary school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine by an 18-year-old suspected radical Islamist, who was identified as Abdoullakh A.

The assailant, a Russian-born Chechen refugee, was shot dead by the police soon after the attack.

The teens — aged 14 to 15 at the time — face charges of criminal conspiracy and false accusation, with possible sentences of up to 2.5 years.

South Korean city turns to matchmaking to boost low birth rates

 

Against the backdrop of Christmas songs, 100 South Korean men and women gathered at a hotel near Seoul dressed in their best with name tags hanging on their clothes, hoping to find love. They were participants at a mass blind dating event hosted by Seongnam city, an attempt by the local government to reverse a falling birth rate in a country where the popularity of marriage and enthusiasm towards parenthood have nosedived.

Incoming New Zealand gov’t to abandon anti-smoking laws

 

New Zealand’s incoming conservative government will jettison world-leading measures to stub out smoking, new Prime Minister Christopher Luxon confirmed Monday, in a move described by health campaigners as a “huge win for the tobacco industry”.

Unveiled under former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, the so-called “generational smoking ban” aimed to prohibit the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after 2008.

Praised by public health experts and anti-smoking advocates, a suite of near-identical measures were recently announced in the United Kingdom.

 

China launches criminal probe into ‘insolvent’ shadow bank

By Laura He, CNN
 3 minute read
Updated 4:09 AM EST, Mon November 27, 2023

 

The troubles besetting one of China’s biggest privately-owned financial conglomerates have deepened with Zhongzhi now at the centre of a criminal investigation.

Beijing police have begun a probe into the wealth management unit of Zhongzhi Enterprise Group, the authorities said over the weekend. The announcement comes just days after the company told investors that it is “severely insolvent.”

According to a statement posted on Saturday, police suspect Zhongzhi of “illegal crimes” and have enforced “mandatory criminal measures” against a number of suspects, including one surnamed Xie. The founder of the group, Xie Zhikun, died of a heart attack in December 2021, but his nephews hold key posts in the group, according to Chinese state media.

 

Nov 27 2023

Late Night Music:Minimal Techno & EDM Minimal House & Bounce Live Radio – Psychedelic Party Music

Nov 26 2023

Six In The Morning Sunday 26 November 2023

Third day of Gaza truce holds, with more Israeli hostages set for release

Uncle of released teenagers: captivity wasn’t a smooth ride

Hugo Bachega

Reporting from Jerusalem

The 13 Israeli hostages released on Saturday included 17-year-old Noam Or and his sister, Alma, who is 13. Their mother was one of the more than a hundred people killed at the Kibbutz Be’eri on 7 October while their 48-year-old father, Dror, remains in captivity.

Noam and Alma’s uncle, Ahal Besorai, told me the siblings did not know their mother had been killed. “They had to be confronted with the fact that their mother was murdered by Hamas terrorists. So this was quite an ordeal. Just coming back from captivity, from being kidnapped, and be confronted with this news.”

Respiratory infection clusters in China not caused by novel virus, says health ministry

Data has been supplied to World Health Organization and China says flu and other known pathogens are culprits

A surge in respiratory illnesses across China that has drawn the attention of the World Health Organization is caused by the flu and other known pathogens and not by a novel virus, the country’s health ministry said on Sunday.

Recent clusters of respiratory infections are caused by an overlap of common viruses such as the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and adenovirus, as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae, which is a common culprit for respiratory tract infections, a National Health Commission spokesperson said.

The ministry called on local authorities to open more fever clinics and promote vaccinations among children and elderly people as China grapples with a wave of respiratory illnesses in its first full winter since the removal of Covid-19 restrictions.

A Tour of Hell

With the Israeli Army in Gaza

The only way for Western journalists to access Gaza currently is through tours led by the Israeli military. Reporters encounter streams of refugees and rubble from the destruction, but to what extent does it really deepen their understanding of the war?

By Jonathan Stock

Gaza, on this particular morning, is still little more than a promise. We won’t just be seeing rubble, the buildings, the tanks as has thus far been the case, says the press spokeswoman. No, today, for the first time, we’ll be seeing people, real refugees, Palestinians. “Exciting,” says the spokeswoman.

Three television teams are waiting in the mud next to her, along with a reporter from the Guardian. They have all put on their protective vests and are holding their helmets. One of the journalists passes around sunblock. It’s hot in Gaza. Good thing it rained, says one of the camera operators, noting that it helps keep dust out of the lenses.

The journalists are waiting on the outskirts of the Be’eri kibbutz, so close to the Gaza Strip that children here used to have nightmares of terrorists attacking them in their bedrooms. Until October 7, when they actually did, slaughtering 108 people in the kibbutz, filming themselves as they did so. They even tortured pets. Be’eri has since become a base for the Israeli army. The fighting is still ongoing in Gaza; no cease-fire has yet been agreed to.

India flies in new kit as race to free 41 trapped workers enters third week

India’s military brought in specialised equipment Sunday as efforts to free 41 trapped workers entered a third week, with digging ongoing in three directions after repeated setbacks to the operation.

 

The Indian air force said Sunday that they were “responding with alacrity”, as they flew in their third load to a rescue operation since the partial collapse of the under-construction Silkyara road tunnel on November 12 in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand.

Rescue officials said they called for a superheated plasma cutter to be brought to the remote mountain location, after engineers driving a metal pipe horizontally through 57 metres (187 feet) of rock and concrete ran into metal girders and construction vehicles buried in the earth.

A giant earth-boring machine snapped just nine metres from breaking through.

The plasma cutting will be used to remove the broken giant earth-boring drill and metal blocking the horizontal route, before digging will continue by hand.

 

Sierra Leone declares curfew, says repelled barracks attack

The West African country declared a “nationwide curfew” with immediate effect. It said “unidentified individuals” tried to infiltrate an armory but they had been “rebuffed.”

Sierra Leone’s government said on Sunday that unidentified gunmen attacked a military barracks and tried to break into an armory at the site in the capital, Freetown.

“In the early hours of Sunday, some unidentified individuals attempted to break into the military armory at the Wilberforce barracks. They have been rebuffed,” Information Minister Chernor Bah said in the statement.

Nationwide curfew in place

The government said security forces were again in control of the situation but it nevertheless said it was issuing stay-at-home orders across the country.

New maps show where snowfall is disappearing

By Eric Zerkel, CNN

 

Snowfall is declining globally as temperatures warm because of human-caused climate change, a new analysis and maps from a NOAA climate scientist show.

But less snow falling from the sky isn’t as innocuous as just having to shovel less; it threatens to reinforce warming, and disrupt food and water for billions of people.

Climate scientists say the future of snowfall is pretty clear: A warmer world driven by human pollution means precipitation is more likely to fall as rain than snow, all else being equal.

 

Nov 26 2023

Late Night Music:New Order – Blue Monday

Nov 25 2023

Six In The Morning Saturday 25 November 2023

 More Israeli hostages to be freed today in exchange for Palestinian prisoners

People gather in Tel Aviv ahead of expected release of more hostages

Hugo Bachega

Reporting from Tel Aviv

Relatives and friends of those being held by Hamas in Gaza have been gathering outside the Museum of Art in Tel Aviv, in a plaza that is now know as Hostages Square, hours ahead of the expected release of another group of captives.

Here, empty yellow chairs represent the hostages while posters with their faces have been attached to walls, lampposts and railings, next to the omnipresent slogan “Bring them home now”.

Sigalit Salminis is waiting for news related to her nephew, 39-year-old Carmel Gat, who was taken from Kibbutz Be’eri, hoping that she could be included in the groups of people to be freed as part of the truce between Israel and Hamas.

Anger across Italy as killing of student highlights country’s femicide rate

Death of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, allegedly at hands of ex-boyfriend, casts spotlight on violence against women

Anger and outrage have erupted across Italy following the killing of a university student, allegedly at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, casting a spotlight on violence against women in a country where on average one woman is killed every three days.

The body of Giulia Cecchettin, 22, an engineering student, was found days before her graduation ceremony in a ditch near a lake north of Venice. She had been wrapped in plastic and reportedly stabbed multiple times.

The discovery came after a week-long search that had gripped the country. Prior to her disappearance, roadside cameras are said to have captured her former partner, Filippo Turetta, hitting her.

Germany: Last Generation activists blockade Berlin streets

 

Hundreds of climate protesters took part in the blockade, hours before another rally — against sending arms to Ukraine — was due to take place in the German capital.

 

Activists from the climate protection movement Last Generation disrupted traffic in the German capital, Berlin, on Saturday, police said.

A police spokeswoman said more some 800 protesters blocked streets near the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column.

Organizers said up to 1,500 people took part in the demonstration, supported by two other groups, the Parents Against the Fossil Industry initiative and researchers from Scientist Rebellion Germany.

They later held a rally on the Strasse des 17. June (Street of the 17th of June), whose name refers to the June 1953 uprising in communist East Germany.

‘Pallywood propaganda’: Pro-Israeli accounts online accuse Palestinians of staging their suffering

 

Since Hamas carried out its deadly attack on October 7 and Israel began retaliatory military operations in Gaza, a parallel war is being fought online. A barrage of disinformation, fake news and misinformation has swarmed social media feeds. Pro-Israeli accounts on social media are using the term “Pallywood” to accuse Palestinians of faking their suffering.

 

 

Amid the thick fog of this information war, one word has consistently come out from behind the haze. Pro-Israeli accounts online have been deploying the word “Pallywood” as a means to undermine the plight of Gazans.

A blend of the words “Palestine” and “Hollywood”, the term insinuates that stories of suffering coming from Gaza are contrived or embellished for propaganda purposes. The accusations range from hiring crisis actors, to doctoring footage and editing it in a dishonest way that misrepresents reality.

Detractors argue the pejorative term is a deliberate attempt to delegitimise the very real hardships endured by Gazans, and to dehumanise Palestinian lives.

 

Russia launches biggest drone attack against Kyiv since start of war, Ukrainian officials say

By Maria Kostenko, Daria Tarasova-Markina, Jessie Yeung and Hafsa Khalil, CNN
 3 minute read
Updated 7:01 AM EST, Sat November 25, 2023

 

Russia on Saturday launched its largest drone attack against Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv since the start of its invasion, according to local officials.

“A total of nearly 75 Shahed drones were launched from two directions – Primorsko-Akhtarsk and the Kursk region, Russia. The primary target was the city of Kyiv,” said Ukraine’s Air Force in a Telegram post, describing the attack as a “record number” of drones.

It said air defenses intercepted 71 of the Iranian-made drones across six regions of Ukraine – but the vast majority of the drones were intercepted in the Kyiv region.

 

Prison sketches by wartime Japanese doctor finally returned

By KEI YOSHIDA/ Staff Writer

November 25, 2023 at 14:32 JST

 

It took 75 years, but the family of an American prison guard managed to finally make good on a promise made to a Japanese military doctor wrongly held after the war for vivisection experiments on captured U.S. soldiers.

The doctor, Shichiro Matake, was held at Tokyo’s Sugamo Prison, where wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was hanged. Matake was accused of carrying out gruesome experiments on captured American soldiers at what was then Kyushu Imperial University.

The circumstances behind his incarceration were the inspiration for the acclaimed novel by Shusaku Endo translated into English as “The Sea and Poison.”

Nov 25 2023

Late Night Music:Steely Dan – Do It Again

Nov 24 2023

Six In The Morning Friday 24 November 2023

Israeli hostages reported to be in Egypt after being released by Hamas

Israel source confirms hostages handed over

AFP news agency quotes an Israeli security source as saying that 13 Israeli hostages have been handed over to Israeli forces.

We will bring you more as soon as we have it.

Red Cross vehicles seen crossing from Gaza into Egypt

TV footage streamed from the Egypt-Gaza border has just shown a number of Red Cross vehicles crossing the border into Egypt.

  1. Later today, 39 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli jails are due to released to the West Bank
  2. More aid is also being allowed into Gaza – 60 lorries carrying medical supplies, fuel and food entered today from Egypt
  3. Hamas’s attacks on 7 October killed 1,200 people, with about 240 taken hostage
  4. Since then, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says more than 14,000 people have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign

 

Irish police chief warns of further disruption by far right after Dublin riot

Drew Harris says radicalised people exploited ‘terrible crime’ of knife attack to unleash mayhem on streets

Ireland’s police chief has warned that far-right radicalisation will continue to disrupt the country after a night of arson, rioting and looting left parts of Dublin resembling a war zone.

The capital was tense but calm on Friday as significant numbers of police remained on the streets and Dublin counted the cost of an anti-immigrant protest that turned into anarchy, leaving the political establishment shocked.

The cleanup began as fresh details emerged of the stabbing attack outside a school that left three children and a carer injured, two of them critically, and the suspect, reportedly a naturalised Irish citizen in his 50s, in custody and requiring medical treatment.

Russia vows retaliation over Moldova’s backing of EU sanctions

 

Russia views Moldova‘s decision to join EU sanctions against it as a hostile step aimed at destroying ties with Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday, vowing to retaliate.

“We regard this as yet another hostile step by the Moldovan leadership, which is fully integrated into the anti-Russian campaign of the ‘collective West,'” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Its aim is the complete destruction of Russian-Moldovan relations, which, through the fault of official Chisinau, are already in a very deplorable state,” the ministry added.

Moldova has, so far, backed four of the six packages of EU sanctions against Moscow in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Along with Ukraine, Moldova is a candidate for EU membership. Brussels requires future EU members to coordinate their foreign policy, including complying with the EU’s sanctions policy.

 

Climate activists fear surveillance, detention at COP28 talks in UAE

 

Rights groups are preparing for the COP28 climate talks in the United Arab Emirates with trepidation, fearing surveillance and detention under the oil-rich monarchy’s strict criminal justice system.

 

 

Highly attuned to international scrutiny, the UAE, where unauthorised protests are illegal, has said it would permit demonstrations in designated areas of the COP28 site, a far-flung development in the Dubai suburbs surrounded mostly by desert.

But those assurances, and a pledge to host the “most inclusive” edition yet of the United Nations climate talks, have done little to assuage campaigners, who say they plan to raise human rights issues during COP28.

“We are deeply concerned about people being detained and arrested,” said Asad Rehman, lead spokesperson for the Climate Justice Coalition, which is planning actions on the ground.

 

S Korean court orders Japan to compensate former ‘comfort women’

By Hyonhee Shin

 

 

A South Korean appellate court on Thursday ordered Japan to compensate a group of 16 women who were forced to work in Japanese wartime brothels, overturning a lower court ruling that dismissed the case and prompting a stern protest from Tokyo.

The legacy of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula remains politically sensitive for both sides, with many surviving “comfort women” – a Japanese euphemism for the sex abuse victims – still demanding Tokyo’s formal apology and compensation.

Bilateral relations between the two U.S. allies have been strained for years by the issues of wartime sex abuse and forced labour, but South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida have sought to improve ties.

 

Beijing hospitals overwhelmed with post-Covid surge in respiratory illnesses among children

By Simone McCarthy and Nectar Gan, CNN
 5 minute read
Updated 1:37 AM EST, Fri November 24, 2023

 

Hospitals in Beijing and northern China are grappling with a surge of children with respiratory illnesses as the country enters its first winter since relaxing stringent Covid-19 controls nearly one year ago.

Wait times to see doctors stretch for hours, with hundreds of patients queuing at some children’s hospitals in major cities across northern China, according to CNN reporting and Chinese state and social media.

An official at the Beijing Children’s Hospital told state media Tuesday that the current average of more than 7,000 daily patients “far exceeds the hospital’s capacity.” The largest pediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin broke a record on Saturday, receiving more than 13,000 children at its outpatient and emergency departments, according to a local state-run outlet.

 

Nov 24 2023

Late Night Music:The Source – Fly Away (Revisited) [Classic Trance]

Nov 23 2023

Translator: Thanksgiving: (Almost) Everything You Know is Wrong

Nine years ago in January of 2013. we lost our friend, Translator aka Dr. David Smith. He suffered from depression and his untimely death left those of us in the blog communities who knew him wondering if we could have done more to help him through his struggles. The holidays are rough on people who suffer from depression, worse for those who live alone. If you know someone like that, call them, visit them, include them. Most important, listen to them, don’t offer advice, offer to help them get help.

There is help available 24/7 and it’s free. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) offers support for people in distress and their loved ones. It is confidential. It is available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress. The caller is routed to their nearest crisis center to receive immediate counseling and local mental health referrals. The Lifeline supports people who call for themselves or someone they care about.

There is now a toolkit for managers on social media platforms to establish best practices to prevent suicide, Support on Social Media. Just remember this one thing, all you can do is try, it is up to the individual to live.

So in remembrance of our dear friend, David, this was his post about Thanksgiving myths. TMC

Popular Culture 20121123: Thanksgiving: (Almost) Everything You Know is Wrong
by Translator, aka Dr. David W. Smith

Continue reading

Nov 23 2023

And Now The Movie

55 years ago Arlo Guthrie took to the stage at the Newport Folk Festival and for 18 and a half minutes entertained the audience with his storied song “Alice’s Restaurant.” You could close your eyes and see the old church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts where the story is centered. At the end of the song the audience was on their feet. The song has since become a Thanksgiving tradition. The along came director Arthur Penn who turn the song into a movie with Arlo playing himself along with the real Sheriff Obie, William Obanhein and James Hanlon, the real blind judge. Alice and Ray Brock were played by Pat Quinn and James Broderick. The movie was released 52 years ago on August 19. Alternet has the story surrounding the song and movie which are based on the garbage toss that took place on Thanksgiving in 1965.

Thanksgiving is not complete without the song and the movie.

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