Friday 10th July 2020

Listen live online each week 17:00 to 19:00 BST, 10:00-12:00 EST, 09:00-11:00 PST. Repeats 2100 & 0900 BST daily https://www.internet-radio.com/station/prsc/

BCfm’s weekly Politics Show presented by Tony Gosling with Irish Republican Labour activist Martin Summers continues online after being ‘rested due to the pandemic’ on 24 March 2020 by BCfm managing editor Pat Hart. The Internet only BCfm Politics Show is now available 17:00-19:00 live Drivetime Fridays.

We are ready to go live on BCfm’s FM server remotely, awaiting the go-ahead from the managing editor. Initially we were told ‘In the light of government and Ofcom guidance’ his team have decided not to broadcast discussion or political shows that ‘might put the FM licence at risk, and don’t want the burden of dealing with potential Ofcom complaints. Now we’ve been told a wider ‘reorganisation’ is underway and this show may be allowed to return to FM in October or November 2020.

February 2019 Ofcom complaint result: UKLFI exposed as creation of Israeli foreign ministry – Bristol Post article: BCfm cleared after being reported to Ofcom for anti-semitic conspiracy theories

Radio4All audio files usually available 1-3hrs, after TX
Any probs mp3s should be on alternative links below by then
Feel free to forward this show through networks and to media contacts

First hour News Review:  

Matt, former employee of waste contractor May Gurney, discusses the waste service in Bristol and Bristol Waste’s inability to collect rubbish: bullying; Pyrolysis plant at Avonmouth where plastic is turned into diesel, giving off pollutants; Julian Parry’s waste system;

Biomass gasification & pyrolysis – How UK support for ‘energy innovation’ leads to business failures and particularly inefficient and dirty biomass power stations – This Biofuelwatch report focuses on biomass (including waste wood) rather than non-biomass waste gasifiers and pyrolysis plants. However, the policy framework and subsidies are largely identical for both, and the technologies – and therefore the technical challenges – are very similar. The findings in the report will therefore be relevant to Municipal Solid Waste gasifiers and pyrolysis reactors, too. Biofuelwatch has identified 40 biomass and pyrolysis plants with a capacity of at least 1 MW which have been proposed across the UK in recent years. At least 9 such plants have been built, though some of them may never have been fired up. 8 of these gasifiers have failed and been shut down. Two have been redesigned and re-opened. One of them (supposedly a pyrolysis plant rather than a gasifier) appears to have generated no energy as yet and the other one, according to the most recent published evidence, was operating at less than one-tenth of its capacity for the first five months, indicating technical problems. One company claims to have built another biomass gasifier but Biofuelwatch could find no planning consent for that one and there are contradictory statements from two other companies that also claim to be behind this plant. By comparison, Biofuelwatch is aware of 13 conventional biomass power stations built in the UK with at least 15 MW capacity, none of which have been shut down….

Bristol: St Pauls fly-tipping like living in slum, say residents – Specially designed communal bins were installed in 2010 to be used in place of individual wheelie and recycling bins – Fly-tipping has led to “slum-like” conditions in one area of Bristol, residents claim. People living in St Pauls say communal bins are overflowing with “mountains” of rubbish left on the street and the council is not tackling it. Emma Reynolds described it as “soul-destroying” and said she avoided trips out because she could not cope mentally with the piles of litter. Bristol’s mayor told residents he has deployed extra waste crews to the area. But residents say that when they have reported fly-tipping to the council, the authority has failed to do anything about it within the promised 48-hour period….

Bulgarian Waste Mafia Arrested: Bulgaria’s deputy environment minister, facing criminal charges, dismissed – Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov has fired Deputy Environment Minister Krassimir Zhivkov, the government press service said on June 1, following Zhivkov’s arrest on May 28 on criminal charges. Zhivkov and nine others face charges related to crimes involving hazardous waste imports and management. He has been remanded in custody, along with business person Atanas Bobokov and three others allegedly involved in organised crime. The Prosecutor-General’s office said earlier that of those facing charges, seven are accused of being part of an organised crime group, while three face tax evasion charges. An investigation began in January after a large amount of unseparated waste imported from Italy was found in Bulgaria’s town of Pleven. Among the allegations are that Zhivkov pressured subordinates to grant permits to process unseparated waste to companies that did not meet the legal requirements to do so. Prosecutors allege that Environment Ministry staff that were unwilling to comply were forced out of their jobs. Prosecutors also allege that the former head of the environmental inspectorate in Pleven was involved in the scheme….

Barrages and tidal energy. David Ord, Merchant Venturer and Tory donor: With these abridged version of events the land was sold to the Bristol Port Company, with the council retaining a 12.5% non-voting share, unconnected to the freehold. The Bristol Port Company owner Terence Mordaunt proclaimed “the city’s decision to sell the freehold is a vindication of the Mayoral system…”. The decision to sell at that value may or may not have been a good one for financial reasons. £1m will be allocated to the Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston Neighbourhood Partnership. The use of the remaining £9m remains unclear. Yet questions remain about the influence of some of the most powerful people in the city, and country. The Bristol Port Company has routinely been pulling levers to protect their interests at the Port. And David Ord and Terence Mordaunt, “good chaps” as described by Ferguson, have many levers to pull. Over the years, the owners have deployed standard methods of corporate lobbying to stake out their interests in the city and beyond. In the run up to the mayoral election of November 2012, the Port Company offered a donation of £2000 to each of the main party candidates, as well as to George Ferguson’s party Bristol First. Initially, according to the Port Company, Bristol First repaid the sum in December 2012, after the election. This information was subsequently amended in a Freedom of Information disclosure where the Port Company stated that Bristol First refused to accept the donation in the first place, before the election. However, this is still unclear as George Ferguson told the Cable “I did return (emphasis added) a £2000 donation to the Port Co, as I felt that it was inappropriate to accept funding from a company in which the City Council has a shareholding and that I might as Mayor have to take decisions about the future of the port.” … David Ord, awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by Bristol University 24 days after donating £5,000 to the institution, also gifted £77,500 to the Conservative Party whilst the barrage project was being reviewed in Parliament. His individual donations to the Tories now total nearly £600,000. The barrage project was eventually dropped by the Government. Coincidentally, George Ferguson stated his own opposition to the tidal energy project, citing concerns for the Welsh economy and the Port’s business. The Mayor denies any conflict of interest, saying “I only had one interest and that was to strike an excellent deal for the city, which we did, with best professional advice.” With the freehold now firmly in hand, the Port can crack on and “invest in this important UK asset” and develop the £600m container terminal, unconstrained by local government. To what end we don’t know, although a meeting and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in June 2015 with the Chinese state owned Guangzhou Port Authority may be a sign of things to come…

Cumbria tidal barrage: The return of British sea power – Twice a day, every day, the Atlantic Ocean surges up on to the UK’s Continental Shelf and around our coastline. This creates one of the highest tidal ranges in the world, an untapped energy source with huge potential. In 2011, we set out to solve a century-old puzzle: how to harness natural power from the rise and fall of the tides, sustainably and at scale. Tidal Lagoon Power was formed to develop, construct and operate tidal lagoon power plant in the UK and internationally. To date, the number of potential gigawatt-scale UK tidal lagoon locations identified from an engineering, power generation and commercial viability perspective stands in double figures and could equate to over 25GW of installed capacity. We are currently developing a national fleet of six tidal lagoons to meet up to 8% of UK electricity demand, or power for around 30% of UK homes, as well as progressing a number of potential projects overseas…

PMQs Steve Baker – border between Northern Ireland and Britain – Boris Johnson questioned by angry Brexiteer about plot to keep UK in EU tariff regime – BREXITEER Steve Baker has warned against any possibility of the UK being trapped in the EU’s tariff regime after the end of the year – prompting an extraordinary intervention from Boris Johnson himself to offer reassurance. Speaking in the Commons, Mr Baker raised concerns about a post-Brexit trade and UK tariffs, on the same day a leaked letter written by International Trade Secretary Liz Truss to Michael Gove and Rishi Sunak the UK’s ports were not yet ready for an independent trade regime. Mr Baker asked: “To avoid drama later, we need to complete the process of getting Brexit done in the next few months, so will the PM, therefore, please confirm for the benefit of everyone listening, that nothing in the Northern Ireland protocol will be allowed to stop the UK charging our own tariffs for the whole UK from the 1st January 2021?”…

Big 4 auditors need to break up – Britain’s Big Four auditors have just three months to outline how they will break up their businesses after a string of scandals – Britain’s Big Four auditors have just three months to outline how they will break up their businesses after a string of scandals. The accounting watchdog has told EY, PwC, KPMG and Deloitte they must submit plans by October on how they will split their audit arms from their consulting businesses. It comes after the major accountancy firms were accused of poor practice and conflicts of interest, following their oversight of a number of corporate failures, including Wirecard, Carillion, Thomas Cook and BHS. The incidents prompted a series of reviews into the auditing industry, which eventually resulted in a recommendation to break up the heavy-hitting Big Four. The orders from the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) to push ahead with the splits mark the first major shake-up of the accounting industry in decades. Sir Jon Thompson, the watchdog’s chief executive, said the FRC has delivered ‘a major step in the reform of the audit sector by setting principles for operational separation of audit practices from the rest of the firm’. For investors and customers, auditing is arguably the most important job the Big Four firms undertake. Many shareholders rely on an auditor to flag concerns about the company’s finances – though in cases such as Wirecard and Thomas Cook, where the parlous state of their balance sheets remained unnoticed until shortly before their collapse, this proved unreliable…

Craig Murray – government giving contracts to friends – Why would the NHS turn to this ethically sordid but zeitgeist banal private wealth management office to provide a quarter of a billion pounds worth of PPE to the NHS? Wealth Manager magazine, who have done excellent journalism on this story, have the contract as supplying only face masks. They have confirmed the astonishing fact that there was no published tender for the quarter billion pound contract. Normal tendering processes were suspended in March through secondary legislation at Westminster for the Covid-19 Crisis. This is all simply astonishing. The normal public procurement tendering process has pre-qualification criteria which companies have to meet. These will normally include so many years of experience in the specific sector, employment of suitably qualified staff, possession of the required physical infrastructure and a measure of financial stability. This is perhaps obvious – otherwise you or I could simply stick in a bid to build the HS2 railway that is £10 billion cheaper than anybody else, win the contract then go and look for a builder. Ayanda Capital would fail every single test in normal procurement criteria to supply PPE to the NHS. I can see no evidence that anybody in the company had ever seen PPE except when visiting the dentist. They appear to have no medical expertise, no established medical procurement network, no quality control inspection ability, no overseas shipment agents, no warehousing or logistics facilities. We have of course seen this before from these crooked Tories with their “emergency procurement”, with the “ferry company” with no ferries. But this – a quarter of a billion pounds – is on a whole different level…

Hargreaves Lansdown – Woodford as ‘best buy’ JEFF PRESTRIDGE: A welcome revamp but Hargreaves Lansdown’s ‘shortlist’ still has faults – The wealth manager’s move is long overdue, coming more than a year after it was deservedly criticised for labelling investment fund Woodford Equity Income a best buy right up until the day it was suspended. It will do little to appease those who kept faith with Woodford – or bought into the Woodford fund – because of Hargreaves Lansdown’s unremitting (and erroneous) faith in his ability to make proverbial investment silk purses out of sows’ ears. The losses they made from investing in Equity Income on the back of its support for the fund will not be made good. The revamp is not without its faults. Eyebrows will be raised at the continued involvement of Mark Dampier in the overseeing of the so-called Wealth Shortlist. It was Dampier, as head of research at Hargreaves Lansdown, who did more than anyone to champion Woodford and ensure his funds (Equity Income and Income Focus) remained on the Wealth 50 – the precursor to the Shortlist. In keeping him on board, it could be argued that Hargreaves Lansdown has not made a clean enough break from its past problems…

The Pandemic Is Over: Week 25 graphs from Christopher Bowyer – More Covid-19 graphs from Christopher Bowyer. ONS data here (up to week 25, week ending 19 June). NHS England data here. (NHS data is more recent, see dates on graphs).  England deaths with Covid-19 by absence (yellow) or presence (green) of a pre-existing condition. Data from NHS England. Percentage of deaths with Covid-19 by pre-existing condition. (95.26% have one or more P.E.C.) NHS England data. Note that the most common pre-existing conditions are diabetes, followed by dementia, chronic pulmonary disease, and chronic kidney disease. Covid-19 hospital deaths in England by date of death, with 3-day moving average trendline (the thicker line). (Note that numbers in grey area may increase over the next few days.) NHS England data. A graph of deaths with Covid-19 in England which occurred each day, by the delay in reporting. Thick line is overall daily announced deaths. NHS England data…

UK pandemic has so far cost £133 billion of bailout/borrowing. Economic crisis and Covid 19. Finance minister Rishi Sunak has rushed out emergency measures worth an estimated 133 billion pounds ($163.7 billion) since the start of the crisis, mostly to keep people in jobs after many businesses were forced to close due to the COVID-19 lockdown. The economy shrank 25% in March and April as entire sectors were shuttered. With the economy beginning to re-open, Sunak will give an economic update on Wednesday where he is expected to outline further measures of support for workers and businesses…

PMQs Covid 19 spreading to care homes is governments fault. – Matt Hancock has announced that the long period of self-isolation in care homes is coming to an end very soon. The Health Secretary explained “people are yearning to see their loved ones” and said announcements will be made in the “next few days”. He hinted that indoor visits would be within the allowed restrictions…

Serbia – riots as parliament stormed, in complaint about lockdown – Lockdowns infringement of civil liberties?  Serbia: Protesters try to storm parliament amid fresh unrest – A new bout of violence rocked Serbia despite the government’s ban on mass gatherings. The protesters decry the state’s handling of the pandemic, with many of them pelting the police with bottles, rocks and flares. Hundreds of protesters in Serbia clashed with the police in front of the parliament building in Belgrade on Friday, as protests rocked the country for the fourth consecutive day. Serbia faces a new wave of coronavirus infections, which the protesters blame on the government’s pandemic policy. Despite the ban on mass gatherings, thousands rallied in Belgrade and other major cities. Groups of protesters threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police guarding the parliament. The rioters also used the protective metal fence around the building as a weapon in the scuffles with the police. The police fired tear gas at the protesters and prevented people from entering the building. Fourteen police officers were injured in the rioting, and 71 people have been detained so far, said police director Vladimir Rebic. Several reporters have also been hurt…

Leah Hunt-Hendrix, granddaughter of a key JFK assassination plotter H.L. Hunt, is funding Black Lives Matter – And the dialectic continues… George Soros is funding Black Lives Matter through the Democracy Alliance (DA). The DA also includes Leah Hunt-Hendrix, the “Occupy heiress,” who is the granddaughter of Texas oil tycoon H.L. Hunt, the JFK conspirator who also funded the Nation of Islam despite his ties to the Klan and the John Birch Society. – Major donors consider funding Black Lives Matter – Activists for the protest movement are meeting in secret with liberal funder club –  According to a Democracy Alliance draft agenda obtained by POLITICO, movement leaders will be featured guests at a Tuesday dinner with major donors. The dinner, which technically precedes the official conference kickoff, will focus on “what kind of support and resources are needed from the allied funders during this critical moment of immediate struggle and long-term movement building.” The groups that will be represented include the Black Youth Project 100, The Center for Popular Democracy and the Black Civic Engagement Fund, according to the organizer, a DA member named Leah Hunt-Hendrix. An heir to a Texas oil fortune, Hunt-Hendrix helps lead a coalition of mostly young donors called Solidaire that focuses on movement building. It’s donated more than $200,000 to the Black Lives Matter movement since Brown’s killing. According to its entry on a philanthropy website, more than $61,000 went directly to organizers and organizations on the ground in Ferguson and Baltimore, where the death of Freddie Gray in police custody in April sparked a more recent wave of Black Lives-related protests. An additional $115,000 went to groups that have sprung up to support the movement… 

Adrian Hayday, immunologist at Kings College London, and part of Francis Crick Institute, on BBC World Service, discussing how autopsies have shown Covid 19 to have an AIDS element to it. Is Covid 19 a bio weapon? PMQs Corona virus hitting young people hard. – Like HIV, corona hits immune cells: Studies – NEW YORK: Researchers have discovered that in many Covid patients, the immune system is threatened by a depletion of certain essential cells, suggesting eerie parallels with HIV. In May, John Wherry, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania, and his colleagues posted online a paper showing a range of immune system defects in severely ill patients, including a loss of virusfighting T cells in parts of the body. Another study, conducted by Adrian Hayday, an immunologist at King’s College London, found an increase in levels of a molecule called IP10, which sends T cells to areas of the body where they are needed in Covid patients. Ordinarily, IP10 levels are only briefly elevated. But in Covid-19 patients IP10 levels go up and stay up. The result: a confused response from the immune system…

Ian R Crane on how Corona virus is difficult for young people….fund raiser – Ian R Crane is an ex-oilfield executive who now lectures, writes and broadcasts on the geo-political webs that are being spun; – YouTube channel – with particular focus on US (Global Corporatist) Hegemony and the agenda for absolute control of all global resources. Primarily Ian focuses his attention and research on the geopolitical arena and raising awareness of the Unconventional Gas (Fracking) agenda but has a deep personal interest in folklore, mythology and the cosmological belief systems of ancient and indigenous cultures. In fact, it is Ian’s research and understanding of these systems and beliefs which provides him with a unique insight into the unfolding global drama providing the catalyst for humanity’s evolution into a new plane of existence (Homo Luminous perhaps?)…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wyquDLGaSQ

Are masks necessary? Hector Drummonds graph of Covid 19 cases – Covid-19 hospital deaths in England by date of death, with 3-day moving average trendline (the thicker line). (Note that numbers in grey area may increase over the next few days.) NHS England data. – Face Masks Pose Serious Risks to the Healthy – By Dr. Russell Blaylock – “By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain.” — Russell Blaylock, MD Researchers found that about a third of the workers developed headaches with use of the mask, most had preexisting headaches that were worsened by the mask wearing, and 60% required pain medications for relief. As to the cause of the headaches, while straps and pressure from the mask could be causative, the bulk of the evidence points toward hypoxia and/or hypercapnia as the cause. That is, a reduction in blood oxygenation (hypoxia) or an elevation in blood C02 (hypercapnia). It is known that the N95 mask, if worn for hours, can reduce blood oxygenation as much as 20%, which can lead to a loss of consciousness, as happened to the hapless fellow driving around alone in his car wearing an N95 mask, causing him to pass out, and to crash his car and sustain injuries. I am sure that we have several cases of elderly individuals or any person with poor lung function passing out, hitting their head. This, of course, can lead to death. A more recent study involving 159 healthcare workers aged 21 to 35 years of age found that 81% developed headaches from wearing a face mask. Some had pre-existing headaches that were precipitated by the masks. All felt like the headaches affected their work performance. Unfortunately, no one is telling the frail elderly and those with lung diseases, such as COPD, emphysema or pulmonary fibrosis, of these dangers when wearing a facial mask of any kind—which can cause a severe worsening of lung function. This also includes lung cancer patients and people having had lung surgery, especially with partial resection or even the removal of a whole lung…

Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file – [right click to download]
Radio4All audio file – [right click to download]
Complete 120 minute show – [right click to download] 

Second hour International News Followed By Investigative reports:

US Supreme Court rules half of Oklahoma is Native American land – In a joint statement, the Five Tribes of Oklahoma – Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole and Muscogee Nation – welcomed the ruling. They pledged to work with federal and state authorities to agree shared jurisdiction over the land. “The Nations and the state are committed to implementing a framework of shared jurisdiction that will preserve sovereign interests and rights to self-government while affirming jurisdictional understandings, procedures, laws and regulations that support public safety, our economy and private property rights,” the statement said…

Is today’s Thanksgiving based on a Massacre of Pequot Indians? – In 1637 near present day Groton, Connecticut, over 700 men, women and children of the Pequot Tribe had gathered for their annual Green Corn Festival which is our Thanksgiving celebration. In the predawn hours the sleeping Indians were surrounded by English and Dutch mercenaries who ordered them to come outside. Those who came out were shot or clubbed to death while the terrified women and children who huddled inside the longhouse were burned alive. The next day the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared “A Day Of Thanksgiving” because 700 unarmed men, women and children had been murdered. Cheered by their “victory”, the brave colonists and their Indian allies attacked village after village. Women and children over 14 were sold into slavery while the rest were murdered. Boats loaded with a many as 500 slaves regularly left the ports of New England. Bounties were paid for Indian scalps to encourage as many deaths as possible. Following an especially successful raid against the Pequot in what is now Stamford, Connecticut, the churches announced a second day of “thanksgiving” to celebrate victory over the heathen savages. During the feasting, the hacked off heads of Natives were kicked through the streets like soccer balls. Even the friendly Wampanoag did not escape the madness. Their chief was beheaded, and his head impaled on a pole in Plymouth, Massachusetts — where it remained on display for 24 years.

Donald Trump’s Independence Day speech at Mount Rushmore – President Trump delivers remarks at the 2020 Mount Rushmore Fireworks Celebration. – On the eve of Independence Day, President Donald Trump used a speech before Mount Rushmore on Friday to condemn protesters across the country for attacking monuments while announcing he would sign an executive order to establish a “National Garden of American Heroes.”

UN Special Rapporteur On Extrajudicial Assassinations Agnes Callamard on Press TV, discussing the drone killing of Solemeini and Iraqi officials. UN rapporteur : US drone killing of Iran’s General Soleimani sets dangerous precedent – A senior UN human rights investigator says the United States’ assassination of top Iranian commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad was an “unlawful” killing in violation of the international law. Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said on Monday that the US has failed to provide sufficient evidence of an ongoing or imminent attack against its interests to justify the January drone strike on General Soleimani’s convoy as it left Baghdad airport. “Absent an actual imminent threat to life, the course of action taken by the US was unlawful,” Callamard wrote in a report. The drone attack “violated the UN Charter”, Callamard added, calling for accountability for targeted killings by armed drones and for greater regulation of the weapons. “The world is at a critical time, and possible tipping point, when it comes to the use of drones. … The Security Council is missing in action; the international community, willingly or not, stands largely silent,” Callamard, an independent investigator, told Reuters…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-JqDYyKEgw

Russia’s Lavrov saying we’re getting closer to nuclear war – The presidents of Russia and the United States should jointly declare that the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told an international forum, the Primakov Readings, on Tuesday. “From a political perspective, it’s of principal importance that Russia and the US calm the rest of the world and pass a joint statement at a high level that there can be no victory in a nuclear war and therefore it is unacceptable and inadmissible,” Lavrov said. Lavrov recalled that the leaders of the US and the Soviet Union had earlier made such statements. “We do not understand why they cannot reconfirm this position now. Our proposal is being considered by the US side,” Russia’s top diplomat said…

Carrie Lamb on the new NSL law in Hong Kong – If you’re reading this, Beijing says its new Hong Kong security law applies to you. The full text of Hong Kong’s controversial new national security law came out late at night on June 30, the day it was enacted. Lawyers and legal scholars were quick to dissect the text and offer their analysis. In those early hours, one feature of the legislation stood out. Its 38th article seems to give the national security law (NSL) boundless reach. The text states that the NSL, in addition to covering anyone in Hong Kong, regardless of nationality or residency status, also applies to offenses committed against Hong Kong “from outside the Region by a person who is not a permanent resident of the Region.” “The scope of the law exceeds the wildest of expectations,” said Cora Chan, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong. Legal experts question the feasibility of enforcing Article 38 on foreign nationals outside China, and its massive jurisdiction won’t be tested until the first case arises. But the provision’s sweeping latitude and threats of detention and surveillance are enough to prompt self-censorship and discourage visitors from traveling to Hong Kong—the kind of fallout that could undercut business confidence in the financial hub. “The sheer uncertainty of when Beijing would feel the need to use the law…will be the main way through which the law reaps its effect: by chilling conduct,” Chan said…

‘The Real Story’ on BBC World Service – hospitals closed in Lebanon – Lebanon on the brink. The Real Story – The financial crisis in Lebanon seems to have accelerated rapidly ever since the government defaulted on a ninety-billion-dollar loan in March.The currency has lost nearly eighty percent of its value pushing a large group of its population below the poverty line. A shortage of cash has led many to barter household goods for food on Facebook. Even the Lebanese army has stopped serving meat to its soldiers. And many of its citizen are seeking refuge abroad. At the heart of the crisis is the country’s banking sector. Protesters see it as the embodiment of a corrupt economic system that has enriched the elites who are now unwilling to foot their share of the bill. Now, compounded by the outbreak of the coronavirus, has Lebanon entered its most critical moment since the end of the civil war? As the country stares into the abyss will its disparate political groups be willing to come together to prevent a financial meltdown? Ritula Shah and a panel of expert guests discuss what hope there is for Lebanon.  – Contributors: Freddie Baz – Lebanese economist; Henri Chaoul – Managing partner of financial advisory company, Levantine partners; Sybille Rizk – Lebanon Correspondent for the French Newspaper, Le Figaro; Sami Halabi – Director of Policy at Triangle research consultancy in Beirut.

Melvin Bragg’s ‘In Our Time’ show podcast from 2014 – Dr Mark Woolmer from Durham University discusses who the Phoenicians were. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a people from the Levant who were accomplished sailors and traders, and who taught the Greeks their alphabet. He called them the Phoenicians, the Greek word for purple, although it is not known what they called themselves. By about 700 BC they were trading all over the Mediterranean, taking Egyptian and Syrian goods as far as Spain and North Africa. Although they were hugely influential in the ancient world, they left few records of their own;

Interview with Philip Beale, former Royal Navy officer, who researched the Phoenicians, built a replica Phoenician galley trading ship in 2008, sailed it round Africa and then, in late 2019, from Morocco to the Caribbean in 29 days: history of the Phoenicians; famous Ra expedition in a reed-built Egyptian ship to the Americas across the Atlantic in 1971 by Thor Heyerdahl after previous 1940s Kon-Tiki expedition in the Pacific; evidence the Phoenicians made it across the Atlantic to the Americas;  

With 300 settlements down the Eastern Atlantic coasts, did the ancient Phoenicians beat Christopher Columbus and John Cabot to North Americas by 3,000 years? Nicotine and Cocaine found in ancient Egyptian tombs. Similar alphabets to the Phoenicians found in South America, same with Scandinavian runes. Ancient Phoenician DNA found in modern Cherokee indian tribe. Phoenician visits to the Americas taught in Haitian and Mexican schools until the 1970s. Carthaginian coins found in the Azores on the way BACK from the Americas. – Replica Phoenician ship, Phoenicia, arrived into the Dominican Republic on 31st December 2019, after 39 days at sea. Having departed Tunisia on 29.09.19, the success of the Expedition reinforces the notion that the Phoenicians had the capability and skill to sail to the Americas. The Phoenicia has since moved north to the USA for a stay in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. The expedition aims to prove that the Phoenicians could have reached the Americas 2000 years before Christopher Columbus.  – Phoenicians Before Columbus Facebook page – 

Who reached America first – Columbus or the Phoenicians? – A replica Phoenician vessel made in Syria is sailing the Atlantic to prove the ancient civilisation did it 2,000 years before Columbus – Describing Columbus – who landed in the Americas in 1492 – as a “war criminal”, Beale said historical sources point to the Vikings (under Leif Erikson) having arrived in North America around 1000AD, followed, a few centuries later, by mediaeval Basque fishermen. Legends say Irish monk St Brendan also made the voyage in a leather boat; and that 14th-century emperor of Mali Abubakari II abdicated to set sail across the Atlantic in 1311. “The Phoenicians assembled one of the biggest fleets and almost certainly sailed to America. There doesn’t appear to be any record of ships returning but there are stories of African cultures being found in the jungles of Brazil so maybe they landed on the shores but couldn’t get back,” he said. – Writer and film-maker Lindsay McCauley travelled to Tunisia from Australia. While researching a book about Mayan architecture, he has drawn parallels between measurement systems used by the Mayans, the ancient Israelites and ancient Egyptians. “I can think of no other way for that measurement system to reach Mexico other than via a Phoenician ship, so this expedition is a crucial part of my research.”…

The vicious slaughter and genocidal crimes of ‘war criminal Christopher Columbus – A young, Catholic priest named Bartolomé de las Casas transcribed Columbus’ journals and later wrote about the violence he had witnessed. The fact that such crimes could potentially go unnoticed by future generations was deeply troubling to him. He expanded upon the extent of Columbus’s reign of terror within his multi-volume book entitled the “History of the Indies”: “There were 60,000 people living on this island, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it.” Such words offer the reader a firsthand account of the state-sponsored genocide that the Spanish Empire had financed through Columbus. Clearly, the intent of the Spanish Empire was to eradicate the islands of indigenous people through slavery and violence. In doing so they had further established their already dominant political/economic standing within Europe. In a matter of years, Columbus and his men decimated the indigenous people of the Caribbean islands….

Ancient coin suggests early activity on Bristol Channel – The details of the coin have been released two years after it was found near the River Avon – A 2,300-year-old coin found after flooding along the River Avon near Bath has revealed details of early maritime activity up the Bristol Channel. The 20mm coin was spotted in receding floodwaters in 2012, but the owner kept the details private until now. It has been verified by the British Museum and is understood to be a Carthaginian coin, minted around Sardinia in 300-264 BC. Several similar examples have been recorded but only from the coastline. On one side of the coin is an image of Tanit – a Punic and Phoenician goddess – and on the reverse is a horse’s head. Its owner wishes to remain anonymous but has allowed it to be included in a history project in Saltford, where the coin was found. Project organiser Phil Harding said: “[The coin] predates the Great Wall of China, it predates the Roman Empire, it predates the birth of Jesus Christ, it predates Alfred the Great – it’s just fantastic.”…

Danish nod gives Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline fresh traction – The Danish Energy Agency has greenlighted the use of Russian ships that could speed up execution of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. US sanctions, however, may still put a dampener on the project. – When the Danish Energy Agency (DEA) this week authorized the use of Russian ships able to lay the final part of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, advocates of the delayed project rejoiced. The move paves the way for the pipeline to reach its destination in Lubmin near Greifswald on Germany’s Baltic coast before the end of this year. But US sanctions and technical issues could still upset the best laid of plans. Some 1,230 kilometers (775 miles) in length, Nord Stream 2 is set to run from Russia’s Ust-Luga, but is now on hold 160 kilometers off the German coast after US sanctions came into force before Christmas seeing Swiss-Dutch company Allseas to withdraw its ships. The €10 billion ($11 billion) pipeline would double Russia’s direct export capacity to Germany as a first entry point to the EU to 110 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year. It is strongly opposed by Poland and Ukraine in Europe and the US…

Radio4All download pages
BCfm audio file – [right click to download]
Radio4All audio file – [right click to download]
Complete 120 minute show – [right click to download]