This week, Kristina Mikulova talks about Lebanon's current situation as it waits to see what Hezbollah will do next; André & Jjay talk about the creative process of Music Making; & Monique Kirsch tells us about the upcoming Science Festival.

Lebanon's looking on

Dr Kristina Mikulova is the Representative of the European Investment Bank to Lebanon, and has been recently forced to leave Lebanon due to its proximity to the Israel-Hamas war.

During her time in Lebanon, Kristina could see the effects of a country battered by economic and social stressors, where the currency has lost over 90% of its value in the past few years.

Currently, Lebanon has a three-month stock of supermarket supplies of water, food and basic necessities. Fuel reserves would only last twelve days at current levels, even if they continued to be delivered by sea. Lebanon has one accessible airport, both airports in neighbouring Syria have been bombed. Lebanon also shelters 2 million refugees from Syria.

Lebanon has not had a President since 2019. It’s running on a care-taker government who don’t want to get dragged into this war and still, as Prime Minister Najib Makati said, they may have no choice.

We talk about Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s chief, who issued his first statement on Friday since Hamas’s surprise attack on Israel on 7 October.

This statement came after we recorded this interview. In this, Nasrallah said that Hezbollah is prepared for all options and can resort to them at any time. He said that they are tying up Israeli forces along the Lebanese border to ease the burden on Hamas.

Hezbollah has fired rockets across the border daily, mainly hitting military targets in northern Israel, but it has a substantial arsenal capable of hitting anywhere in Israel, over Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’. It seems that, for the time being, neither Hezbollah nor Israel want to increase the geography of this war.

Dr Mikulova also spoke about the influence of Iran and how Nasrallah is one of a number of leading figures in the ‘axis of resistance’: a network of Iranian backed militia in several Arab countries.

Producing Beats

André Sevn is a music producer, co-founder and owner of Magestick, signed to Sony Music Publishing Group. He specialises in producing and selling beats online. Collaborators include artists such as Lil Durk, NLE Choppa, Apache, Sido, and Samra. He’s had particular success in Germany and the United States.

Magestick specialises in hip hop, RnB and pop beats. André now focusses on building up up-coming artists and providing knowledge to songwriters, producers and the industry. Magestick has the biggest YouTube following in Luxembourg.

https://magestickrecords.com

https://instagram.com/andresevn

https://instagram.com/magestickofficial

https://youtube.com/magestickrecords

Jjay is a new, up-coming artist in R&B music from Ettelbruck. Due to his Brazilian roots, he mixes afro and latino vibes to his R&B songs

Jjay is preparing his first album with André Sevn, due to be launched next year.

You can find his music here.

https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/artist/3xbt2MUk8ynDWw2pTGwf2R?si=63103882e8cb47fa

https://www.instagram.com/iamjjayofficial

Science Festival

Monique Kirsch is Chargée d’étude dirigeante at the Natur Musée and has organised the Science Festival for 20 years.

You can find out more about the Festival Programme here.

And some of the events require (free) reservation here.

https://live.eventtia.com/fr/sciencefestival23/Programm-2023

https://www.neimenster.lu/evenements/science-festival-2023/

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Listen on Today Radio Saturdays at 11am, Sundays at noon and Tuesdays at 10am.