BERLIJN (ANP) - De Duitse defensieminister Boris Pistorius waarschuwt dat Rusland wapens en munitie opspaart voor "latere conflicten". Rusland produceert veel meer dan het in de oorlog tegen Oekraïne erdoorheen jaagt, hield Pistorius het parlement in Berlijn woensdag voor.
"Moskou gebruikt grote delen van zijn budget - dat mogen we niet vergeten - om zijn arsenalen te vullen voor latere conflicten", zei Pistorius in de Bondsdag. "Gemiddeld worden maar tachtig van de honderdvijftig korte- en middellangeafstandsraketten die Rusland maandelijks produceert ingezet in Oekraïne." Bovendien heeft het Kremlin volgens de Duitse minister straks anderhalf miljoen soldaten onder de wapenen, plus nog "het kanonnenvoer" uit landen als Noord-Korea.
Rusland bewapent zich enorm en dat baart zorgen. Het recente bezoek van de Amerikaanse CIA-baas aan Moskou duidt daar volgens Pistorius ook op. Die ging "zeker niet om matroesjka's te kopen of naar het ballet te gaan".
Matt Brittin says ‘cupboard is bare’ after staff reject average 2.1% pay rise in dispute
The BBC’s director general has conceded there is a real prospect of industrial action at the broadcaster, as he battles an ongoing dispute over pay and pushes ahead with plans to cut as many as 2,000 jobs.
In a call with staff on Tuesday, Matt Brittin faced a series of questions over both the corporation’s plans for huge cuts, as well as pay talks that have now seen staff reject an average 2.1% salary increase.
Continue reading...Period instruments are miles away from retro affectation, and as two Proms this week will show, can actually bring historical music up to the moment
Nostalgia. What a kick. And what a commercial boon for the music industry. Love the sound of 60s pop and 70s disco? You need the original synths if you’re a composer or producer. You listen to music on digital streams? Loser! Join the retro-future of vinyl enthusiasm, and feel the grooves under your fingers like your parents or grandparents used to. Or you can even make music physical again through the horrible medium of cassettes: all that plastic, all those tiny liner notes, all that high-speed dubbing.
Retro-futurists cherish what they claim is the extra warmth and sonic richness of vinyl, but there is no acoustic reason why vinyl is better. It is in fact objectively worse as a carrier of sonic information than any high-resolution stream of the same track, song or symphony. For cassette nostalgists, if it’s got that old-fashioned tape hiss, it sounds more “real”. We’re now looking for things to sound less clean. Because we distrust today’s technological utopia, we want signs that our music is less polished, less perfect, and thus more human.
Continue reading...‘I would predict that you’ll see some guys leave’
LIV bankruptcy will invalidate deals with players
Rory McIlroy believes traditional tours will soon have “decisions to make” as a player exodus from LIV Golf edges closer. LIV filing for bankruptcy in the United States on Tuesday means its deals with several high-profile golfers will soon be invalid, leaving them free to negotiate a route back to the PGA and DP World Tours. When asked whether remaining with LIV in its planned, far-less lucrative form would hold appeal, McIlroy was characteristically candid. “I’m not in their shoes but LIV at the start looked a lot more attractive than what LIV 2.0 might be from a financial standpoint,” said the Masters champion.
The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing – stating around $45m (£33.2m) is owed to players – represented LIV’s latest step in rebooting the business due to the removal of funding from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). Sources familiar with the situation insist contracts have not yet been breached. Terms in place with star names are now unaffordable for LIV. Contracts will inevitably either be renegotiated or cancelled.
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Word je succesvoller als je elke dag om vijf uur opstaat en dan meteen mediteert, sport en je inbox leegmaakt? Nu de zomer afloopt en het werk weer begint, vraag ik me af wat de beste manier is om de dag te starten. Wat weten we over gezonde ochtendrituelen?