Day: June 9, 2024

Если журналиста задержат, ему будет грозить до двух лет лишения свободы.

Причиной сбоя могли стать тесты будущих нововведений и обновлений.

TOKYO — Japanese police are searching for the suspects who spray-painted the word “toilet” on a Tokyo shrine that commemorates the country’s war dead, in an apparent protest against the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant, officials and news reports said.

The red graffiti on a stone pillar at the entrance of Yasukuni Shrine was discovered early Saturday. In a video posted on Chinese social media, a man who identified himself as Iron Head criticized the discharge of wastewater from the damaged nuclear power plant into the ocean.

“Faced with the Japanese government’s permission to discharge nuclear wastewater, can we do anything?” the man asks. “No, I will give them some color to see.”

In another part of the video taken at night, he is seen apparently urinating on the pillar and using spray paint to write “toilet” in English.

Tokyo police are investigating at least two suspects, the person who appeared in the video and another who shot it, according to Japanese media including NHK public television and Kyodo News agency. The reports said police believed the incident occurred late Friday after the shrine closed and that the perpetrator is believed to have already left Japan, they said.

Police declined to confirm the reports.

Yasukuni Shrine, in a statement emailed to The Associated Press, said the graffiti was “extremely regrettable” and said it was “an act of degrading the dignity of the shrine.” The shrine said it will continue patrolling so that visitors can pay respects in “a tranquil environment.” Yasukuni Shrine declined further comment, saying it has reported the damage to police and investigation is under way.

The discharge of wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant has been opposed by fishing groups and neighboring countries, especially China, which imposed a ban on all imports of Japanese seafood immediately after the release began in August. The ban has particularly affected Japanese scallop growers and exporters to China.

Yasukuni Shrine honors about 2.5 million Japanese war dead, including convicted war criminals. Victims of Japanese aggression during the first half of the 20th century, especially China and the Koreas, see the shrine as a symbol of Japanese militarism. The countries criticize visits by Japanese lawmakers to the shrine as signs of their lack of remorse over Japan’s wartime actions.

The graffiti appeared to have been cleaned by Monday.

VERONA, Italy — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni joined top political and cultural figures at Verona’s ancient Arena amphitheater Friday night for an open-air celebration of Italian lyric opera’s recognition by UNESCO as a global cultural treasure.

Conductor Riccardo Muti presided over an orchestra of 170 musicians from Italy’s 14 opera houses, joined by over 314 choral singers and a cast of global star opera stars who delivered a greatest hits of Italian opera from Verdi to Puccini, Donizetti to Bellini for an appreciative crowd. La Scala’s two star dancers, Roberto Bolle and Nicoletta Manni, also performed.

“I am here to testify to my enthusiasm and my pride for the fact that Italian lyric opera has received this great recognition,” Muti told the crowd. “Of course, this is an important moment, because recognition is never a point of arrival but a point of departure.”

“The great masterpieces are our heritage, which we Italians have given to the world,” Muti added in a prepared message for the television audience.

While UNESCO included Italian opera on its intangible cultural heritage list in December, the Arena proved a fitting place to celebrate the milestone. The ancient stone amphitheater built by the Romans is home to a popular summer opera festival that for generations has made opera accessible to the uninitiated with lavish productions. More than half of the 400,000 spectators at the Arena each summer are foreigners.

“We have brought together the entire Italian opera system to celebrate, together with the great singers of the world,” said the Arena’s deputy artistic director, Stefano Trespidi. “I am convinced that this evening will bring benefits to the entire music and opera system.”

Joining Italian opera stars like Luca Salsi, Francesco Meli and Vittorio Grigolo were international stars including German tenor Jonas Kaufmann, Australian soprano Jessica Pratt and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko canceled at the last minute due to illness.

Though a previous center-left government prepared the UNESCO bid for Italian lyric opera, the recognition has been embraced by Italy’s far-right-led government. Besides Meloni, also attending the gala were Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano — who has set out to replace foreign opera house directors with Italians — and Senate speaker Ignazio La Russa, both members of her Brothers of Italy Party.

The loudest applause was reserved for Italy’s nonpartisan president, Sergio Mattarella. And Muti seemed to be making a point against Eurosceptics on the far-right when he transitioned from the Italian anthem, with its “Brothers of Italy” refrain echoing the name of Meloni’s party, to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, which is the European Union anthem.

Europeans are voting for European Parliament seats in an election that concludes Sunday and could determine whether far-right parties will have a greater say in the direction of the 27-member bloc.

ROME — The total global volume of fish, shrimp, clams and other aquatic animals that are harvested by farming has topped the amount fished in the wild from the world’s waters for the first time ever, the United Nations reported Friday.

The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, in its latest report on fisheries and aquaculture — or farming in water — says the global catch and harvest brought in more than 185 million tons of aquatic animals in 2022, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

Experts say the milestone in human history had been expected, as the hauls from fisheries have largely stagnated over the last three decades — largely because of limits in nature.

Manuel Barange, who heads FAO’s fisheries and aquaculture division, said aquaculture has benefited from a growing recognition of the nutritional benefits — like omega-3 and other micronutrients found in food from aquatic animals — and lesser environmental impact than food derived from land animals.

The total amount of aquatic animals captured in the wild fell from 91.6 million tons in 2021 to 91 million tons the following year, FAO said in its latest State of the World’s Fisheries and Aquaculture report.

Global production rose to 94.4 million in 2022, up from 91.1 million a year earlier, it said.

Asia was the source of more than 90% of all aquaculture production of aquatic animals, the FAO added.

Some 90% of aquatic animals that are farmed or fished go to human consumption, with the remainder going to other uses like feed for other animals or fish oils.

The most common fish that are captured in the world’s oceans, seas, rivers, lakes and ponds include Peruvian anchovies, skipjack tuna and Alaskan pollock, while freshwater carp, oysters, clams, shrimp, tilapia and prawns are among the most harvested animal life.

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UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 3 : Questions on WHO’s Pandemic Treaty and CubeSats (Week 53)  The Indian Express

Expert explainer: Ethical approaches to mitigate H5N1 bird flu – Western News  Western News