ThaWilsonBlock Magazine

Omar Karmi 27 May 2025 Asa Winstanley speaking at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign event in Newcastle last month. The journalist was raided by police in October 2024. (Sam Bacon/Canny Candid Photography) A British court has ruled that UK police must hand back electronic devices seized from The Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley in October 2024, in what lawyers have described as a “resounding victory for press freedom.” All seven seized items were handed back on Tuesday, Winstanley confirmed in a statement. The recorder of London, Mark Lucraft, London’s highest circuit judge, on 13 May ruled that a search warrant used by London’s Metropolitan Police to seize seven items from Winstanley’s home was unlawfully issued. “I am very troubled by the way in which the search warrant was drafted, approved and granted where items were to be seized from a journalist,” Judge Lucraft wrote in his ruling. The judge also denied the police’s request for a “production order,” a legal power that ...

Ending the program may upend the lives of migrants who settled across the country — from Florida to California — and embedded themselves into U.S. communities. A migrant family from Venezuela walks to a Border Patrol transport vehicle in June 2021 after they and other migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and turned themselves in. (Eric Gay/AP) By Anumita Kaur and Lauren Kaori Gurley Washington Post The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to terminate, for now, a Biden-era program that allowed about 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to live and work in the United States while their immigration cases proceed. The Trump administration has maintained that the migrants pose a public safety threat, and in a statement celebrating Friday’s high court decision, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said ending the programs would be “a return to America First.” But immigration advocates say the decision upends the lives o...

This is the 7th EP from Washington D.C. emcee/producer  Oddisee . Getting introduced to him through his incredible 7th album &  Mello Music Group debut  The Good Fight  a decade ago weeks before my high school graduation, I also happen to enjoy his work with Diamond District, the  Odd Seasons  mixtape series, his 4th EP  Alwasta  &  The Good Fight ’s successor  The Iceberg . I happened to cover  And Yet Still  exactly a year ago feeling like it was a solid jazz rap EP, staying  En Route  for a follow-up. “Tomorrow Can’t Be Borrowed” delivers streams of consciousness over some jazzy piano chords disputing the “borrowed time” notion whereas “A Rare Thing” works in a horn-tinged boom bap instrumental talking about it being uncommon to know love & couldn’t help but make me think of the increased hate speech on Twitter in the past few years. “Small Talk” heads for a funkier approach putting everyone’s b...

Los Angeles, California duo  Coyote  ending the month with their 5th studio LP. Consisting of the Morales brothers LadiesLoveGuapo & Ricky Blanco , they went on to gain traction in late 2022 off their debut album  Thicker than Water  noted for its witty punchlines & East coast influences. Their sophomore effort  L.Aliens  last summer quickly became their breakout project to the point where people were recommending to me & easily understood the appeal, eagerly waiting to hear  yoteLAndia  coming off their feature on the new  Reason  mixtape  I Love You Again . “Sea of Darkness” is a sample-driven boom bap opener talking about being in the end days whereas “Dodging Bullets” kinda has a Memphis influence instrumentally showing off how violent both siblings can get when necessary. “SLAng” featuring B-Real  & Zoe Osama samples “Deep Cover” by  Dr. Dre  marking the debut of WWE Hall of...

Africa’s Richest Country Has About Half of Its Oil-refining Capacity Shut Adekunle Agbetiloye 28 May 2025 02:05 PM Roughly 49% of South Africa’s refining capacity remains idle. Over the past five years, South Africa’s refining capacity has been cut in half due to a combination of accidents and underinvestment. Africa’s richest country has about half of its oil-refining capacity shut Nearly half of South Africa's refining capacity is currently idle. Domestic refining has declined due to accidents and underinvestment, halving capacity over five years. Imports now fulfill over 60% of the nation's fuel demand, projected at 15.5 million tons in 2025. Roughly 49% of South Africa’s refining capacity remains idle. Over the past five years, South Africa’s refining capacity has been cut in half due to a combination of accidents and underinvestment. As a result, the country now relies on imports to meet over 60% of its fuel demand, according to Transnet SOC Ltd., the state-owned...

Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Halted by Court of International Trade Most of President Trump’s tariffs were halted late Wednesday by a US trade court in a sharp rebuke of the president’s signature trade war policy. May 28, 2025 at 8:32 p.m. EDT President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden last month. (Brendan Smialowski /AFP via Getty Images) By David J. Lynch and Cat Zakrzewski, Washington Post A specialized federal court in New York on Wednesday ruled that most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs — including those on Chinese goods — are illegal, upending negotiations with more than a dozen nations and creating fresh uncertainty for countless American businesses that depend upon foreign suppliers. The decision by the little-known Court of International Trade neuters the president’s signature trade initiative: the comprehensive flurry of import taxes he announced on April 2 under the banner of “Liberation Day.” Those tariffs sent t...

Trump Tariffs Ruled Illegal by Federal Judicial Panel The U.S. Court of International Trade said the president had overstepped his authority in imposing his “reciprocal” tariffs globally, as well as levies on Canada and Mexico. President Trump, wearing a white Make America Great Again cap, spreads his arms while speaking on a tarmac. A series of microphones are thrust toward him.  The U.S. Court of International Trade gave the executive branch up to 10 days to complete the process of halting some of President Trump’s steepest tariffs. By Tony Romm and Ana Swanson Reporting from Washington May 28, 2025 9:52 p.m. ET A panel of federal judges on Wednesday blocked President Trump from imposing some of his steepest tariffs on China and other U.S. trading partners, finding that federal law did not grant him “unbounded authority” to tax imports from nearly every country around the world. The ruling, by the U.S. Court of International Trade, delivered an early yet significant set...

Cape Town rising talent  MEME  makes an uncompromising statement with his debut project “ WHAT” , a 10-track album with zero features, just pure, undiluted artistry. From boom-bap’s gritty soul to grime’s razor-sharp edge and jazz-rap’s smoky textures, this project is a one man showcase of MEME’s versatility, vision, and unshakable confidence.  “Africa is full of creative talent, and I’m one of them,”  he declares, turning his life’s journey into a lyrical and sonic odyssey. No collaborations, no distractions, just MEME’s voice, his beats, and his truth.  WHAT.  isn’t just an album; it’s a manifesto for the self-made. Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Reddit Share on Pinterest Share on Email

  Info here .  Pretty pedestrian instrumental funky stuff for my taste with nothing much to cling to.  But I am well aware it's incredibly popular and in demand, as it was requested before. I find, especially, the boingy synth melody sound that shows up here and there really hard to swallow. The best I could come up with is Una Sera di Tokyo  with its very Italian soundtracky sound: The title track is quite representative, rightly or wrongly so: source https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2025/05/tropico-with-chikara-ueda-mellow.html

AfDB Kicks Off Annual Meeting, to Pick New Head On Thursday Africa Development Bank "Serving as President of the African Development Bank Group has been the greatest honor of my life," he said. "It has been a decade of relentless purpose, of enduring passion, and of tireless service." - African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina addressing a breakfast briefing with journalists at the Bank's Annual Meetings in Abidjan. 27 May 2025 Leadership (Abuja) By Leadership News The African Development Bank (AfDB) has on Monday kicked off its annual meeting that will see Africa's multilateral lender pick a new president at a time when the continent's biggest multilateral lender faces unprecedented challenges from funding cuts by the U.S. government. Washington wants to cut $555 million in funding to the AfDB and its African Development Fund, which offers low-priced financing to the continent's poor nations. The annual gathering of heads of state...

  With regards to these guys, discogs says : Profile: The Elliot Freedman Group advances a harmonically elegant, compositionally uncompromising, non-canonical adventurous jazz.  “Very, very good avant fusion” Guitar Player magazine Of course the title of this one is either ironic or ridiculous, you choose.  As described, it's tight fusion with some contemporary jazz elements (eg acoustic jazz piano).  His personal style is very similar to Alan Holdsworth, but I find the sound of the guitar which is somehow passed through a synth (?) quite distracted sometimes with its twangy whistling aspect.  You'll see what I mean when you listen to it. For ex., the first track, Finding Form For : source https://progressreview.blogspot.com/2025/05/request-elliot-freedman-group-bands-of.html

I just posted Volume 1 of my "Covered" series albums for British songwriter Tony Macaulay. Here's the second and final volume already. As I mentioned in Volume 1, Macaulay had a remarkable knack for writing catchy, poppy hits. His winning streak continued well into the 1970s. His biggest hits in this volume were "You Won't Find Another Fool Like Me" by The New Seekers in 1973, "Don't Give Up on Us" by David Soul in 1976, and "Silver Lady," also by David Soul, in 1977. All three of those songs reached Number One in the British charts. He did have a lot of chart success in the U.S., for instance "Don't Give Up on Us" was a Number One there as well, but for some reason he had more success in Britain. In 1970, he stopped working with his main songwriting partner in Volume 1, John Macleod, when they began working for different publishing companies. But he worked with other professional songwriters, especially Geoff Stephens...

I need to post more of these albums from my "Covered" series. I keep finding more and more songwriters that I'd never even heard of before starting on this project. Here's one such example: Tony Macaulay. In the 1960s and 70s, there was a whole stable of professional songwriters in Britain writing lots of hits, and Macaulay was one of the more successful ones, so much so that I found enough for two volumes.  Macaulay was unabashedly aiming for hit singles with practically every song, so get ready for a poppy sound. But he had hit after hit because he had a knack for writing catchy melodies. He started working by getting an office job at a record company. That very quickly turned into production and songwriting as his musical talents became evident. For the first few years, he mostly wrote songs with John Macleod, who was two decades older and much more musically experienced. Macleod showed him the ropes of professional-level production and songwriting, allowing him ...

By SAM METZ and MONIKA PRONCZUK 5:12 PM EDT, May 25, 2025 TAN TAN, Morocco (AP) — The U.S. military is backing off its usual talk of good governance and countering insurgencies’ underlying causes, instead leaning into a message that its fragile allies in Africa must be ready to stand more on their own. At African Lion, its largest joint training exercise on the continent, that shift was clear: “We need to be able to get our partners to the level of independent operations,” Gen. Michael Langley said in an interview with The Associated Press. “There needs to be some burden sharing,” Langley, the U.S. military’s top official in Africa, said on Friday, the final day of the exercise. For four weeks, troops from more than 40 countries rehearsed how to confront threats by air, land, and sea. They flew drones, simulated close-quarters combat and launched satellite-guided rockets in the desert. Maneuvers mirrored previous editions of African Lion, now in its 21st year. But mostly gone n...

My name is Michael Bernard Taylor, Jr., and I am calling for a **peaceful and lawful resolution** to a legal process that has repeatedly violated my constitutional rights. I am not evading justice — I am resisting a system that has denied me equal protection, due process, and the ability to participate meaningfully in my defense. I have filed a **civil rights lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983** for egregious violations of my constitutional rights and am seeking immediate attention to three reasonable and necessary conditions to protect both my liberty and the integrity of the legal system. ### 1. **Verification of Competency Evaluation Authorization** I request that the court **produce and verify the original court order and corresponding PACE form** authorizing the Penal Code § 730 competency evaluation conducted by Dr. Pietro D’Ingillo. To date, no such order has been confirmed. If this evaluation was conducted without proper judicial authorization, it constitutes a fraudulent act under...