Jul 26 2023
Late Night Music: Tomorrowland – One World Radio
Jul 25 2023
Six In The Morning Tuesday 25 July 2023
Still no sign of Qin Gang as China says foreign minister has been replaced
Beijing announces former US ambassador has been removed from office after speculation about his whereabouts
China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, who has not been seen in public for almost a month amid a mysterious absence, has been removed from office and replaced by his predecessor, Wang Yi, China’s top legislative body has announced.
The sudden calling of a special meeting Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC) with one day’s notice, had fuelled speculation there may be answers about the disappearance of Qin, who was last seen in public almost a month ago.
UN races to avert ‘ticking time bomb’ oil spill off Yemen
The UN says it has begun an operation to pump 1 million barrels of oil from a rusting supertanker off Yemen’s coast, hoping to avoid an environmental disaster that could devastate local ecosystems and major ports.
The United Nations said on Tuesday it had begun pumping oil from a decaying supertanker off Yemen‘s Red Sea coast in a bid to prevent an environmental disaster that it estimates would cost $20 billion (€18 billion) to clean up.
The 47-year-old tanker, called the FSO Safer, is a floating storage and offloading facility that has been moored around 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the port of Hodeida since the 1980s. The corroding vessel has not been serviced since war broke out in Yemen eight years ago.
It is carrying four times as much oil as was spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska, according to UN officials.
Taliban makeover: Afghan women despair over beauty parlour ban
Shirin booked her bridal makeover weeks ago, but instead of relaxing as beauticians pampered her, everyone in the Kabul salon was on edge, ready to hide the bride should the police appear.
Shirin was the last customer at a salon in Afghanistan’s capital, one of thousands across the country shuttered on Tuesday by order of Taliban authorities.
“I have someone on watch outside in case the Taliban arrive. If something happens, we’ll put her in the bathroom or store room and look busy packing,” salon owner Aziza said.
“Even if they put me in prison, I will do her makeover because I promised her.”
As some beauticians fluttered around Shirin, others were busy packing up the salon.
U.N. rights body in Japan to investigate entertainment industry abuse
A delegation of the U.N. Human Rights Council will investigate abuse in Japan’s entertainment industry, starting this week and lasting until early August, people familiar with the matter said Monday, as former members of top male talent agency Johnny & Associates Inc accused its late founder of sexual abuse.
The Working Group on Business and Human Rights will speak to an association composed of several of these members who claim to be victims of Johnny Kitagawa, as well as others in the industry, to examine Japanese government and business efforts in protecting human rights.
The U.N. group also plans to speak to Megumi Morisaki, an actress and the president of Arts Workers Japan, which is composed of freelancers, to learn more about the harassment and labor conditions they face.
A traumatised father battles Russia on Ukraine’s front line
The losses in eastern Ukraine are felt by soldiers and civilians alike. For many, nothing remains of their homes but memories.
Through fields and down off-road tracks, amid the constant sounds of artillery guns being fired, is Ukraine’s eastern front line.
Along a tree line used as cover, vehicles are hidden – camouflaged with branches and shrubbery.
Andrii Onistrat is a commander of a drone unit there. He has a confident swagger about him and is comfortable in front of a camera.
Before the war, he was a successful businessman and had his own television show. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine turned him into a soldier.
Ghana minister Cecilia Abena Dapaah reported a robbery. Why was she arrested?
A government minister in Ghana must have thought she was doing the right thing by going to the police to report a theft at her house, but it backfired spectacularly when she was arrested.
According to a court charge sheet dated last Thursday relating to those accused of the theft, Cecilia Abena Dapaah had a vast amount of money stolen.
It describes a “cash sum” of $1m (£780,000), as well as 300,000 euros ($333,000) and 350,000 Ghana cedis ($30,000), plus other personal items including handbags valued at $35,000 and $95,000-worth of jewellery.
The 68-year-old disputes the figures given in the court document but the revelations outraged many in Ghana.
Jul 24 2023
Six In The Morning Monday 24 July 2023
Israel judicial crisis : Parliament ratifies divisive bill
- Israel’s parliament voted into law a contested curb on some Supreme Court powers submitted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, the Knesset speaker has announced.
- The bill passed by a 64-0 vote, the speaker added, after opposition lawmakers abandoned the Knesset plenum in protest.
Israel turning into a ‘fascist dictatorship’: Knesset member
Knesset Member Ofer Cassif, who represents Israel’s communist Hadash party, says the rolling back of Israel democratic values is a consequence of the way the country has been ruled for more than half a century.
“There is no democracy with occupation. For more than 50 years now, Israel has been engaged in an ongoing dictatorship, a military dictatorship, in the occupied Palestinian territories, East Jerusalem, West Bank and the Gaza Strip,” Cassif told Al Jazeera.
“Either there is democracy or there is no democracy. With occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, which Israel has been pursuing for ages – in the last two years and especially in the last seven months even more so – there cannot be any democracy,” he said.
Talks initiated with North Korea over US soldier who ran across border
British general says US-led United Nations Command gives few details of contacts over Travis King who crossed line on 18 July
The US-led United Nations Command has initiated talks with North Korea about the American soldier who ran into that country and crossed one of the most militarized borders in the world, according to an official.
But a British lieutenant general who helps lead the UN command stopped short of saying exactly when talks about Travis King began, whether they have been constructive or how many exchanges there have been. The lieutenant general, Andrew Harrison, also would not address any known details about King’s health condition.
Russia jails Navalny aide on ‘extremism’ charges
A campaign organizer for imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to nine years in prison as Russian authorities continue to crack down on political opposition.
Russian authorities on Monday sentenced an ally of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to nine years in prison for “participating in an extremist organization,” Navalny’s team announced on Telegram.
Vadim Ostanin was head of Navalny’s office in the Siberian city of Barnaul and was detained in December 2021. He was also charged with belonging to a nonprofit that “infringes on citizens’ rights.”
According to Navalny’s team, Ostanin had carried out “legal political work.”
Ostanin’s conviction is part of a wider crackdown on political opposition in Russia. This has intensified since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Navalny is an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He was arrested in January 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he had been recovering from nerve agent poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin.
Pandas: China’s secret soft-power weapon amid growing tensions with the West
A French zoo will bid farewell to one if its star attractions – a 5-year-old giant panda – on Tuesday, with the bear set to participate in a breeding programme in China’s Sichuan province. Although Yuan Meng was born in France, he is Chinese property on loan to the zoo as part of China’s international “panda diplomacy” programme.
Yuan Meng’s parents, Yuan Zi and Huan Huan, arrived in France from China in 2012, loaned to Beauval Zoo under a Chinese conservation scheme aimed at breeding pandas around the world.
The French team was successful: Yuan Meng became the first panda born on French soil on August 4, 2017, and twin siblings Yuandudu and Huanlili followed in 2021.
As well as boosting numbers of the “vulnerable” species, the pandas have heightened interest in Beauval Zoo in central France. The year Yuan Zi and Huan Huan arrived, visitor numbers doubled to more than 1 million. In 2022, they reached 2 million.
“The pandas gave us an identity. Today, we’re the zoo where you can see pandas,” Beauval’s operations manager, Samuel Leroux, told radio network France Bleu.
Fukushima nuclear plant water release plan raises worries about setbacks to businesses
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Beach season has started across Japan, which means seafood for holiday makers and good times for business owners. But in Fukushima, that may end soon.
Within weeks, the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is expected to start releasing treated radioactive wastewater into the sea, a highly contested plan still facing fierce protests in and outside Japan.
The residents worry that the water discharge 12 years after the nuclear disaster could deal another setback to Fukushima’s image and hurt their businesses and livelihoods.
“Without a healthy ocean, I cannot make a living.” said Yukinaga Suzuki, a 70-year-old innkeeper at Usuiso beach in Iwaki about 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of the plant. And the government has yet to announce when the water release will begin.
Russia accuses Ukraine of Moscow drone attack
Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind a drone attack that damaged at least two buildings in the capital Moscow early on Monday morning.
The Russian defence ministry said two drones were “suppressed and crashed”, adding that there were no casualties.
Russia’s state-owned Tass news agency reported that one drone fell close to the defence ministry.
Ukrainian officials are yet to comment, but they rarely claim responsibility for attacks inside Russia.
In a separate development, Russian-installed officials ordered people to evacuate one district of Crimea – the Ukrainian southern peninsular annexed by Moscow in 2014 – after a reported overnight Ukrainian drone attack.
Jul 23 2023
Six In The Morning Sunday 23 July 2023
Wagner mutiny: Junior commander reveals his role in the challenge to Putin
A mercenary who took part in the attempted mutiny against Russian President Vladimir Putin says he and his fellow fighters “didn’t have a clue” what was going on.
In the space of just 24 hours, the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an insurrection, sending troops into the southern city of Rostov, then further on towards Moscow.
Wagner fighters rarely talk to the media, but BBC Russian spoke to a junior commander who found himself in the middle of the action.
Gleb – not his real name – had previously been involved in the fighting for the symbolic town of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. As the mutiny began, he was resting with his unit in barracks in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region.
Hun Sen issues threat to Cambodians who spoiled ballots
Authoritarian ruler said voters who destroyed ballot papers will face legal action
Cambodia’s authoritarian leader has warned voters who destroyed their ballots to turn themselves in or face legal consequences, as polls closed following a one-sided election in which he ran virtually uncontested.
The party of Hun Sen, 70, who has governed for almost four decades, claimed victory on Sunday evening. There had been little doubt over the outcome of the vote, given that the only opposition party big enough to pose a threat, the Candlelight party, was barred from running after it was accused of not submitting the correct paperwork.
A crackdown on opposition voices ahead of the vote, which also included legal challenges to prevent voter boycotts, left spoiled ballots as one of the only remaining outlets for people to protest against the regime.
A Warlord and His SmugglersKhalifa Haftar and His Role in The Deadly Shipwreck Off Greece
By Mohannad al-Najjar, Sara Creta, Muriel Kalisch, Felix Keßler, Steffen Lüdke und Lina Verschwele
Dayyan Al-Numan had to wait a long time for his departure. The Syrian recalls by phone how it took weeks. Al-Numan describes a store house on the outskirts of Tobruk, in eastern Libya, where he was forced to wait. Each day, he was given a piece of bread and a piece of cheese, and he had to drink dirty water.
Al-Numan says the time he spent waiting was bad. Humiliation, threats and beatings were routine. He said he had to be quiet and that he wasn’t allowed to leave the store house. Even just asking for a second piece of cheese was going too far. “If they go to the stores in Tobruk and dig the ground around and look around, they will find a lot of bodies.”
Massive crowds rally in Israel as vote on judicial overhaul looms
Protesters set up camp outside Israeli parliament as hundreds of thousands rally in Tel Aviv against far-right government’s judicial plans.
Tens of thousands of Israelis have marched into Jerusalem and more protesters took to the streets in Tel Aviv in a last-ditch show of force aimed at blocking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s contentious judicial overhaul plan.
Protests have intensified in the days leading up to the debate that began Sunday ahead of a parliamentary vote on Monday which could see a key part of the proposals passed into law.
The bill would limit the Supreme Court’s powers to void what it considers “unreasonable” government or ministerial decisions. Critics view the legislation as a threat to Israel’s democracy.
3 hurt in stabbing on train in Osaka Prefecture; suspect arrested
Three people were injured after being slashed by a man with knives Sunday on a rapid train to Kansai airport in Osaka Prefecture, police said.
The man, Kazuya Shimizu, 37, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder at a station next to the airport, with an officer drawing his handgun and warning him to drop the weapons, the police said. He was in possession of three knives at the time of his arrest.
Shimizu told the police he had trouble with a man on the train and that he was not acquainted with the three people who were slightly injured.
He was arrested at the Rinku-Town Station in Izumisano after slashing the neck and temple of the 23-year-old man, who was in the same train car at around 10:25 a.m.
Shimizu admitted to the allegation, the police said.
Jul 23 2023
Roger Sprung: August 29 1930 – July 22 2023
An entertainer for the ages…
Old Molly Hare – Roger Sprung and the Picking Gypsies
… From- String Music Recorded live at the 43rd Annual Old Time Fiddlers Convention, Union Grove, NC on the Union Grove Label. This is track 10.
From the back cover: “Roger Sprung, virtuoso banjoist from New York City, needs no introduction to Southern Convention audiences. He has played ‘the circuit’ for several years and draws a large following. Teaming up with his West Virginia friend, Frank George, they do a refreshing twist to an old number.
…
One of my favorite Roger Sprung stories-
When Roger Sprung was in his 80s and I was a beginner banjo student in my 40s, I drove Roger to a concert and an afterparty. There were two young rising stars in the Bluegrass/String Music genre, both virtuoso guitar players, playing at a church in southwestern CT. I think it was in Easton but maybe it was New Canaan? Doesn’t matter.
Anyhow these two young hot shots had just released an album and I guess it was a really big deal that someone was able to get them to perform at this local venue. Roger and I arrived late for their concert and went straight to the afterparty site, a home near the church, while the concert was still in progress. The host who had helped book the artists at the church, was busy putting out a spread of food and drink. I helped set up some chairs, while Roger helped himself to all the food. By that point in Roger’s life, his wife had started strictly policing his diet and every chance he had to indulge, he did. He picked up a hunk of cheese as big as an apple and just started chowing down.
We talked with our host about the performance we were missing. She had been at the concert earlier and said the music was extremely technical. So technical, one song blended into the next and they all pretty much sounded the same. She asked if Roger wanted a lift to the church to hear the last part of the performance and Roger looked up from the buffet table just long enough to say he’d play with them later at the party. It was clear that Roger, with his advanced age and experience, wasn’t one who was easily impressed by rising stars. He was there for the party.
About an hour later folks finally started arriving from the concert. Nearly everyone had an instrument case with them. There were more instrument cases than people and there were easily fifty plus, all packed into this small house. A group of about twenty settled into the garage, set the chairs in a circle and started jamming immediately. Another dozen or so between the kitchen and the dining room. It was cold in the garage, so Roger and I found chairs in the living room. After a half hour or so the two young guns came into the living room and were introduced by the host to Roger, the World Champion Banjo player and legend of the Washington Square bluegrass scene for decades. They were actually pretty nice guys. They asked Roger if he had enjoyed the concert, and Roger replied in a way that didn’t give away that he hadn’t actually gone to it. Something like “I heard good things”. The host told the two young guys, you’ve got to play with Roger while you are here.
There in the living room after everyone had filled up on food and drink, it felt like the real show was about to begin. People started getting out their instruments. And there was a tension in the air. How would these two rising virtuoso players get along with Roger. As is tradition, someone has to start it off, giving the name of the tune and the key. All eyes went to Roger. Someone yelled “Hey Roger, Whatcha got?” Roger replied straight faced “hopefully nothing that can’t be cured with a couple of shots!” The room erupted in laughter. And the real show began.
He was a legendary entertainer. He was loved and he’ll be dearly missed.
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