HAPPY NEW YEAR! At my local Shinto shrine. In Japan, New Year celebrations are very peaceful and there are only countdown parties at dance clubs and hotels in the city centers
Sunday, December 31, 2017
New Year 2018 in Tokyo at a Shinto Shrine
HAPPY NEW YEAR! At my local Shinto shrine. In Japan, New Year celebrations are very peaceful and there are only countdown parties at dance clubs and hotels in the city centers
History through Cuban eyes: Noticiero ICAIC
A Listening Post special looking back at a time when Cuban movie theatres delivered the news like nobody else.
This is a story of history recorded on film; a history of revolutionary Cuba; a history of the world seen through Cuban eyes.
'Noticiero ICAIC Latinoamericano' was a series of cinematic newsreels produced from 1960 to 1990 by the Cuban film Institute ICAIC. The weekly news programme, covering major local and global events, would be shown before film screenings in the capital, Havana, and in towns and villages around the island.
Many of those 1,493 newsreels could just be derided as propaganda, but they pushed the limits of news, of visual storytelling, and have left a legacy.
Six In The Morning Sunday December 31
North Korea vows to press on with nuclear agenda as Russia denies trade violations
Pyongyang warns world leaders not to expect any change in policy, declaring itself a ‘responsible’ nuclear power
Russia has denied claims that UN sanctions against North Korea have been breached by Russian tankers transferring fuel to the regime’s tankers at sea.
The statement from the foreign ministry said Russia has “fully and strictly observed the sanctions regime”. It came in response to a Reuters report citing two separate, unidentified western European security sources who said ship-to-ship transfers took place in October and November and represented a breach of sanctions.
The statement did not address whether the ships had transferred the fuel. It did however say resolutions by the UN security council had imposed limits on North Korea’s refined oil imports but had not banned them altogether.
In 2018 the barbarous wars in Iraq and Syria may finally be coming to an end
The new area of instability in the Middle East today is further south in the Arabian Peninsula – the war in Yemen is now the bloodiest and cruellest in the region
I spent most of the last year reporting two sieges, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, which finally ended with the decisive defeat of Isis. This was the most important event in the Middle East in 2017, though people are already beginning to forget how dangerous the Isis caliphate was at the height of its power and even in its decline. Not so long ago, its “emirs” ruled an area in western Iraq and eastern Syria which was the size of Great Britain and Isis-inspired or organised terrorists dominated the news every few months by carrying out atrocities from Manchester to Kabul and Berlin to the Sahara. Isis retains the capacity to slaughter civilians – witness events in Sinai and Afghanistan in the last few weeks – but no longer has its own powerful centrally organised state which was what made it such a threat.
The defeat of Isis is cheering in itself and its fall has other positive implications. It is a sign that the end may be coming to the cycle of wars that have torn apart Iraq since 2003, when the US and Britain overthrew Saddam Hussein, and Syria since 2011, when the uprising started against President Bashar al-Assad. So many conflicts were intertwined on the Iraqi and Syrian battlefields – Sunni against Shia, Arab against Kurd, Iran against Saudi Arabia, people against dictatorship, US against a variety of opponents – that the ending of these multiple crises was always going to be messy. But winners and losers are emerging who will shape the region for decades to come. Over-cautious warnings that Isis and al-Qaeda may rise again or transmute into a new equally lethal form underestimate the depth of the changes that have happened over the last few years. The Jihadis have lost regional support, popular Sunni sympathy, the element of surprise, the momentum of victory while their enemies are far stronger than they used to be. The resurrection of the Isis state would be virtually impossible.
Anti-government demonstrations in western Iran turn deadly
Two protesters taking part in demonstrations roiling Iran were killed at a rally overnight, a semi-official news agency reported Sunday, the first deaths attributed to the ongoing protests.
The demonstrations, which began Thursday over the economic woes plaguing Iran, appear to be the largest to strike the Islamic Republic since the protests that followed the country's disputed 2009 presidential election.
In Doroud, a city some 325 kilometers (200 miles) southwest of Tehran, in Iran's western Lorestan province, protesters gathered for an unauthorized rally that lasted into the night Saturday, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Mehr quoted Habibollah Khojastepour, the security deputy of Lorestan's governor, as saying the illegal gathering ignited clashes. The two protesters were killed in the clashes, he sai
DRC blocks internet as anti-Kabila protests planned
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has ordered a countrywide shutdown of internet and SMS services ahead of planned anti-government protests on Sunday.
The country's telecommunications minister, Emery Okundji, issued a letter instructing operators to suspend their services at 18:00 local time (17:00 GMT) on Saturday until further notice, citing "state security" reasons.
The move comes as Catholic church activists have called for a "peaceful march" in various cities, demanding that President Joseph Kabila step down. There is growing anger over Kabila's refusal to relinquish power after his second full term ended in December 2016.
Japanese media’s hits and misses of 2017
BY PHILIP BRASOR
The term “fake news” was used in so many different situations this year that it no longer describes an agreed upon concept but rather anything you don’t agree with. This is why the U.S. press has had a difficult time making sense of its president’s conflation of cynical policy aims with his own deranged self-esteem.
Aside from players with axes to grind on either side of the ideological divide, outlets such as The Washington Post managed to keep facts in sight and as a result did some of their best work in years.
Matters aren’t as problematic in Japan because the mainstream media here rarely acts in an adversarial capacity. Japan’s masukomi (mass communication) is on the same power continuum that runs through the country’s political and economic worlds, but the fact that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has bet the nation’s well-being on the Manichean delusions of U.S. President Donald Trump should make all Japanese reporters and editors with a conscience worry about the state of their soul
The most bizarre stories from around the world in 2017
By Amanda Erickson
It’s been a chaotic year, and a strange one. So much of what’s happened seems scary, or at least unsettling. But it wasn’t all bad.
Here are some of our favorite chronicles from 2017:
It was supposed to be a staid and serious interview about a corruption scandal in South Korea. Instead, a professor was interrupted by his two adorable children — and harried wife — on live TV, apologizing all the while. The professor, Robert E. Kelly, managed to keep a straight face throughout, and he and his wife became viral stars. They later explained that their daughter was in a “hippity hoppity mood.”Saturday, December 30, 2017
Has Donald Trump broken the media?
In this UpFront special, we discuss Donald Trump's first year in office and the challenge of covering his presidency.
2017 has been a year of controversy and crisis, most notably for Donald Trump. From promoting US neo-Nazis to retweeting British neo-fascists and threatening a nuclear war with North Korea, there has never been a US president quite like Trump. His actions, statements and repeated attacks on the media have left many asking: how do you cover President Trump?
"When he attacks the media ... one of the things he's doing is to delegitimise any independent source of information that might criticise him, immunise himself against any of the bad stories that are coming," says Charles Sykes, a former Conservative radio talk show host, and author of How the Right Lost its Mind.
Six In The Morning Saturday December 30
Trump warns Iran 'world is watching' amid rare protests
The US has warned Iran to respect people's right to protest as rare anti-government rallies, which began over the high cost of living, grip cities in the Islamic Republic.
About 300 people protested in Kermanshah, a city in western Iran, on Friday, according to the semi-state news agency Fars. Police there used water cannon and tear gas to disperse demonstrators.
Protests also broke out in the capital Tehran, according to social media.
The year of Trump has laid bare the US constitution’s serious flaws
Jonathan FreedlandI once wrote a hymn of praise to the achievements of the founding fathers. There’s still much to celebrate – but their inspirational vision needs an urgent update
There’s a million things to love about Hamilton, the musical that has opened in London to reviews as glowing as those that greeted its debut on Broadway. The lyrics are so ingenious, so intricate and dexterous, that the show’s creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, has a claim to be among the most exciting writers, in any medium, in the world today. Rarely have I seen an audience delight in the tricks and rhyming pyrotechnics of language the way I saw a preview audience react to Hamilton a fortnight ago.
As I say, there are countless other pleasures. The staging is inventive, the melodies memorable and, by having black and minority ethnic actors play Alexander Hamilton and his fellow founding fathers, the musical instantly offers a powerful new take on America’s tragic, enduring flaw: race. But it was the idealism of the show – which venerates Hamilton and George Washington and unabashedly romanticises the revolution that birthed the United States of America – that struck a particular chord for me.
From fighting 'Islamic State' to rotting in Iraqi jail
Foreign fighters against "Islamic State" have been subjected to heavy mistreatment in Iraqi Kurdish prisons. Karlos Zurutuza and Ferran Barber spoke with western volunteers, and recounted months spent in jail.
On a blank sheet of paper, Marcos sketches the plan of the Kurdish prison where he spent 95 days in captivity.
"Just picture more than a hundred people inside a 65-square-meter [700 square foot] cell! We had to lie on our sides against each other to sleep, or even remain seated," the 47-year-old Spaniard told DW from his home in Rabanales, a village in northwestern Spain.
Marcos, whose codename was "Dr. Delil," was one of three Spaniards imprisoned last August in the Irbil General Security Directorate, a huge compound in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan (KRG). He had served as a paramedic in the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS), a Yazidi armed group set up to protect this minority against radical Islamists, namely the "Islamic State" (IS) group.
A look back at the key words of 2017, from 'covfefe' to youthquake
Several new words made their way into the lexicon in 2017 while others were inadvertently invented. FRANCE 24 takes a look back at some of the terms that helped define the year.
Covfefe
US President Donald Trump is no stickler for traditional spelling and usage, but when he tweeted the word “covfefe” in May, millions were baffled. “Despite the constant negative press covfefe,” he wrote. The typo inspired a night of social media speculation before it was deleted and replaced with a tweet reading: “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’?”. Needless to say, the internet had a few suggestions.
By
The president of the United States is not well. That is an uncomfortable thing to say, but it is an even worse thing to ignore.
Consider the interview Trump gave to the New York Times on Thursday. It begins with a string of falsehoods that make it difficult to tell whether the leader of the free world is lying or delusional. Remember, these are President Donald Trump’s words, after being told a recording device is on:
Friday, December 29, 2017
Why this awful sounding album is a masterpiece
Trout Mask Replica, by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band was inducted into the Library of Congress' national recording registry in 2010 - nearly 40 years after it's release. The album has been widely cited by artists of all kinds as a shining point of creativity and original thought - it also is very very hard to listen to. It's the musical equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting. Its discordant rhythms and motifs sound made up on the spot by a child, but every sound and riff you hear on the album was arduously rehearsed over the course of a year by a group of young musicians who were remarkable in their own right
Al Jazeera's must-see documentaries of 2017
Al Jazeera has released dozens of documentaries in the last 12 months, many of them award-winning.
So we've compiled a list of our must-see documentaries of 2017, covering some of the year's major news events.
From the battle in the Philippines to take back Marawi from ISIL, to the showmanship of US President Donald Trump, these are seven Al Jazeera documentaries you cannot miss.
The Boy Who Started the Syrian War
Six In The Morning Friday December 29
Kamala Mills: Fire at Mumbai complex kills 15 people
A massive late night fire that broke out at a Mumbai complex has killed at least 15 people, officials said.
The blaze erupted just after midnight at a building in the popular Kamala Mills restaurant and shopping compound. It engulfed the structure within 30 minutes, local media reported.
More people have been injured in the blaze, with several being treated in hospital.
The fire started at the 1 Above rooftop restaurant, media reported.
According to the Times of India, many of the guests tried to seek shelter in the bathroom and were trapped there. The paper also cites a hospital doctor saying that all the deaths were due to suffocation.
American reams: why a ‘paperless world’ still hasn’t happened
In a world seduced by screens, the future of paper might seem uncertain. But many in the industry remain optimistic – after all, you can’t blow your nose on an email. By David J Unger
Old Mohawk paper company lore has it that in 1946, a salesman named George Morrison handed his client in Boston a trial grade of paper so lush and even, so uniform and pure, that the client could only reply: “George, this is one super fine sheet of paper.” And thus Mohawk Superfine was born.
This premium paper has been a darling of the printing and design world ever since. “Superfine is to paper what Tiffany’s is to diamonds,” Jessica Helfand, co-founder of Design Observer magazine once said. “If that sounds elitist, then so be it. It is perfect in every way.”
Mohawk tells the Superfine origin story every chance it gets: on their website, in press releases, in promotional videos and in their own lush magazine, Mohawk Maker Quarterly. And now Ted O’Connor, Mohawk’s senior vice president and general manager of envelope and converting, is telling it again. He sits on an ottoman in a hotel suite on the 24th floor of what a plaque outside declares is “The Tallest Building in the World with an All-Concrete Structure”. It’s day one, hour zero of Paper2017 in Chicago, the annual three-day event at which the industry, its suppliers and its clients come together to network and engage in “timely sessions on emerging issues”. Attendees are rolling in and registering, and the Mohawk team is killing time before wall-to-wall meetings.The US is pursuing two contradictory strategies with North Korea and it could lead to nuclear war
This is often how armies function, as I remember from my own military service
Since it opened in Berlin in 2015, Ferdinand von Schirach’s Terrorbecame a global hit, with hundreds of stagings all around the world, as well as an unending flow of ethical debates in mass media.
It is a court drama, the report of the trial against Lars Koch, a German fighter pilot who has shot down a Lufthansa plane that has been hijacked by a terrorist; the plane was heading for a stadium of 70,000 people (watching a Germany-England game), and Koch’s pragmatic decision – one in which he broke the constitutional law – was to end the lives of 164 people on the plane rather than allow the terrorist to slaughter a far greater number at the stadium.
Five inspiring stories of our Observers taking action to help the world in 2017
All around the world, individuals, organisations and small companies are taking action to fight for women's rights, the environment, the rights and dignity of refugees and many more worthy causes. We look back on five intiatives that we put in the spotlight as part of our Observers Take Action series in 2017.
ENVIRONMENT In Ivory Coast, locals give their streets a new lick of paint
In April 2017, residents of Treichville, a borough in Ivory Coast's capital Abidjan, had had enough of their dilapidated, dirty neighbourhood. So they rolled up their sleeves and got to work - slapping a new lick of paint on every street, from the pavements right up to the eaves of houses. The project was recognised by the government, and when it had been finished, the Minister of Urban Hygiene Anne Ouloto and the country's first lady Dominique Ouattara came to the town to personally congratulate the workers.
Angry Venezuelans take to streets for 'pork revolution' protests
Updated 0251 GMT (1051 HKT) December 29, 2017
President Nicolas Maduro has accused Portugal of being behind a pork shortage that left thousands of Venezuela's poor without their traditional Christmas dinner and sparked a fresh round of angry street protests.
On Wednesday Maduro announced he had been unable to distribute thousands of pork hind legs to the poorest neighborhoods in the country -- as he had promised earlier in the month. And he put the blame squarely on Portugal.
"What happened to the pork?" Maduro asked during a Wednesday televised address. "They sabotaged us. I can name a country: Portugal."
Japan considers regulations to keep drones away from U.S. military bases
The Japanese government is considering regulating the use of drones above U.S. military facilities in the country, following a request by the U.S. forces overseeing the Asia-Pacific region, a government source said.
Japan has a law that bans drones from being flown over key facilities such as the prime minister's office and the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. But U.S. military facilities are not explicitly mentioned as restricted areas, according to the transport ministry.
The Defense Ministry said drones, when flown above the U.S. military's Camp Schwab on the southern island of Okinawa, could get in the way of helicopters also flying in the area. The drones could also be used for terror attacks, posing a security threat.
Thursday, December 28, 2017
Why is the US squeezing the UN?
The US is cutting the UN's budget by more than a quarter of a billion dollars
$285m. That's the amount expected to be slashed from the UN's operating budget next year.
The US says it negotiated the cut, to eliminate what it calls "inefficiency and overspending" by the organisation.
The move comes after a tense week for the UN. The General Assembly voted to condemn the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move its embassy there.
Six In The Morning Thursday December 28
China's first constitutional change since 2004 may give Xi Jinping even more power
Updated 0638 GMT (1438 HKT) December 28, 2017
Chinese President Xi Jinping had a good 2017, but 2018 may be looking even better.
The ruling Communist Party (CCP) will discuss changing the country's constitution for the first time since 2004 next month, with analysts predicting Xi will further cement his grip on power.
The change could clear the way for the creation of a National Supervision Commission (NSC), a country-wide anti-corruption task force with sweeping new powers, though some havespeculated there could also be a move to abolish term-limits on the Presidency, allowing Xi to serve on past 2022.
Best of the Best: the South Korean school for hackers hitting back against the North
A series of attacks on government agencies, TV and banking networks convinced Seoul to develop an elite cadre of experts to defend the country
At the fortified border between South and North Korea, students on a computer hacking course are instructed to peer northwards across a strip of empty land toward the enemy state.
“Our country is divided and we are at war, but you can’t see that division in cyberspace,” said Kim Jin-seok. “So we take them to see it in person.”
Kim manages a program called Best of the Best, the goal of which is to train the next generation of so-called white-hat hackers, netizens with elite cybersecurity skills who are able and willing to defend South Korea against malicious hacking attacks, many of which are believed to come from North Korea.
Second World War veteran who endured notorious Bataan death march dies, aged 100
Ramon Regalado was celebrated for his efforts battling the Japanese
Jeremy B White San Francisco
A Filipino-American man who survived one of the Second World War's most brutal episodes and helped America battle the Japanese has died at the age of 100.
Ramon Regalado helped fight to rebuff a Japanese invasion while serving with the Philippine Scouts under the US Army. When that effort failed, he was among the tens of thousands of prisoners who endured a more than 60-mile trek known as the Bataan death march.
After his capture, Mr Regalado escaped and joined a resistance movement battling Japanese troops, according to accounts of his service.
UNICEF: 2017 a 'nightmare year' for children caught in war zones
According to UNICEF, 2017 was one of the worst years for children caught in conflicts and besieged areas. From being deployed as human shields to acting as suicide bombers, children have become targets on a huge scale.
Warring parties in 2017 had a blatant disregarded for international law when it came to the protection of children, an official from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday.
A UNICEF report found that in conflict-ridden regions across the world, high numbers of children had been killed, used as human shields and recruited to fight.
THE SKIFFS ARRIVED a few hours after sundown on September 18, a dark and moonless night in the Peruvian Amazon. They landed at several points along the broad Corrientes River, which flows south over the country’s densely forested border with Ecuador. Hundreds of indigenous Achuar men, women, and children, many carrying ceremonial spears, organized into units by clan and village. They then followed their apus, or chiefs, toward seven targets: the area’s lone paved road, a power plant, and five facilities for the pumping and processing of petroleum.
The sites were occupied, their night staff escorted peacefully outside. By morning, the Achuar of the Corrientes controlled the local infrastructure of Lot 192, the country’s largest and most notorious oil block.
Call to check bullet train for undercarriage cracks went unheeded
Today 06:20 am JST
A shinkansen bullet train that was eventually found to have large cracks in its undercarriage continued running for hours after a request for a safety check went unheeded, the train's operator West Japan Railway Co said Wednesday.
The bullet train ran for more than three hours across 800 kilometers until the issue was investigated, with a 16 centimeter crack and two 14 cm fissures found that the company said could have derailed the high-speed train.
JR West President Tatsuo Kijima admitted at a press conference in Osaka on Wednesday that there had been "insufficient risk management" and the train should have been stopped sooner.
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