Japan Earthquake, Hollywood Brawl, and Global Voyages

Florida: Real And Imagined

In this episode of 'The World Spins Fine On Her Own' podcast, hosts Larry Whitler and Robin MacBlane dive into a world in crisis. From the devastating Japan earthquake that claimed 48 lives to the shocking Hollywood brawl involving actor Ian Ziering, the hosts provide insights into the global events shaping our reality. Explore the heroic rescue efforts in Japan's Noto peninsula and the alarming rise of street hooliganism. Plus, get the inside scoop on the viral TikTok trend surrounding Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise. Join Larry and Robin as they navigate through the latest international news, offering humor and perspective in the face of challenging times.

Show Prep for Tuesday, January 2, 2024

WAJIMA, Japan, Jan 2 (Reuters) - At least 48 people were killed after a powerful earthquake hit Japan on New Year's Day, with rescue teams struggling on Tuesday to reach isolated areas where buildings had been toppled, roads wrecked and power cut to tens of thousands of homes.

The quake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.6 struck on Monday afternoon, prompting people in coastal areas to flee to higher ground as tsunami waves hit Japan's western seaboard, sweeping cars and houses into the water.

A 3,000-strong rescue crew of army personnel, firefighters and police officers have been sent to the quake site on the Noto peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, during an emergency meeting on Tuesday, that rescuers were finding it very difficult to access the northern tip of the Noto peninsula where helicopter surveys had discovered many fires and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure. There are around 120 cases of people awaiting rescue, his government spokesperson said.

Many rail services and flights into the area have been suspended. More than 500 people were stranded at Noto's airport which has closed due to cracks in its runway and access road and damage to its terminal building.

In Suzu, a coastal town of just over 5,000 households near the quake's epicentre, up to 1,000 houses may have been destroyed, according to its mayor Masuhiro Izumiya.

CNN

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A Japan Airlines plane carrying hundreds of passengers burst into flames on landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday after it was in collision with another aircraft involved in earthquake relief efforts.

JAL flight 516 ignited after flying into Haneda from the northern Japanese city of Sapporo at 5:47 p.m. local time (3:47 a.m. ET)

All crew members and passengers, including eight children under the age of two, were safely evacuated from the passenger plane, according to the airline. One person on the Coast Guard plane escaped, but five are unaccounted for.

JAL is investigating the details and cause of the plane fire, a representative for the airline told CNN.

Footage showed the passenger jet moving and then igniting with a large fireball. The plane was then seen at a standstill with people using emergency slides to flee the inferno as firefighters tried to battle the growing flames.

The Japan Coast Guard (JCG) confirms to CNN that one of its aircraft, likely a fixed-wing MA722, collided with commercial flight 516 on the runway.

A JCG spokesman told CNN that the JCG aircraft was headed from Haneda airport to a JCG airbase in Niigata prefecture to help with relief efforts following a 7.5-magnitude earthquake on Monday.

South Korea's opposition leader Lee Jae-myung has been stabbed in the neck during a visit to the city of Busan.

Mr Lee, who narrowly lost the 2022 presidential election, sustained a 1cm laceration on the left side of his neck, reports said.

He was airlifted to hospital. Doctors say the wound is not life-threatening.

The 66-year-old man who attacked him said he had intended to kill Mr Lee, Yonhap news agency reported. The motive for the attack is unclear.

Mr Lee, who leads the Democratic Party of Korea, was addressing reporters at a news conference during a visit to a construction site in the port of Busan on Tuesday morning when the stabbing happened.

The attacker reportedly approached him to ask for an autograph, before suddenly lunging forward to stab him. The weapon was an 18cm (7in) knife which the attacker said he bought online, police said at a media briefing. The attacker was immediately overpowered and arrested.

A magnitude 4.1 earthquake off the Los Angeles County coast brought weak shaking throughout Southern California on Monday.

The temblor, which occurred at 8:27 a.m., was felt throughout Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, according to earthquake sensing instruments and residents reporting what shaking they felt to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Did You Feel It? website.

Firefighters said the earthquake was “felt by several in Pasadena” as the Rose Parade was underway, “but no injuries or damage reported.”

The weak shaking felt across the region is defined by the Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale as being felt noticeably by people indoors and rocking standing motor vehicles slightly.

The earthquake epicenter was about 10 miles southwest of San Pedro, 11 miles southeast of Rancho Palos Verdes, 16 miles southwest of downtown Long Beach, and 16 miles northwest of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island.

Hundreds of sealed court filings pertaining to the late sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein are set to be made public this week, and several prominent names -- including Britain's Prince Andrew and former President Bill Clinton -- are expected to appear in the documents.

U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska ruled earlier this month there was no legal justification for continuing to conceal the ex-president's name and more than 150 names other "John and Jane Does" mentioned in the records. Preska ordered the unsealing to begin after Jan. 1.

The documents stem from a 2015 civil lawsuit centered on allegations that Epstein's one-time paramour, Ghislaine Maxwell, facilitated the sexual abuse of Virginia Giuffre, an alleged trafficking victim. Giuffre also accused Epstein and Maxwell of directing her to have sex with Prince Andrew and several other prominent men. Prince Andrew denied the allegations and claimed he could not recall ever meeting Giuffre. He later settled a lawsuit she filed against him.

An early Walt Disney movie featuring the first appearance of Mickey Mouse is among the copyrighted works from 1928 moving into the public domain on Jan. 1, 2024.

But the cartoon creature who stars in the animated short ‘Steamboat Willie’ isn’t a lot like the Mickey we know today.

That means people can creatively reuse only the Mickey Mouse from ‘Steamboat Willie.’ Not the Mickey Mouse in the 1940 movie ‘Fantasia’. Nor the one on ‘Mickey Mouse Clubhouse,’ a kids’ show that aired on the Disney Channel for a decade starting in 2006.

New versions of Mickey Mouse remain under copyright. Copyright applies to creative characters, movies, books, plays, songs and more. And as it happens, Mickey Mouse is also trademarked.

"Trademark law is entirely about protecting brands, logos and names — like Mickey Mouse as a logo, or the name Mickey Mouse," McLeod says.

"And of course, trademark law has no end," adds Harvard Law School professor Ruth Okediji. Disney and other corporations, she says, use trademarks to extend control over intellectual property." As long as the mark remains distinctive in the supply of goods and services, the owner of the trademark gets to protect that trademark."

A new college football tradition was born in the fires of a giant toaster on the night of Dec. 28: the eating of the Pop-Tarts Bowl mascot.

The hilarious celebration involved the victorious Kansas State players joyously chowing down on Strawberry, billed as college football's first edible mascot, after their 28-19 victory over North Carolina State at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Following the win by the Wildcats, the costumed mascot stood atop a giant toaster on the field and waved goodbye to the crowd while holding a sign saying "Dreams really do come true."

The Pop-Tart mascot fulfilled its destiny when it slid down inside the toaster and then a giant, edible version of a frosted strawberry Pop-Tart came sliding down a ramp at the bottom of the toaster.

Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson and head coach Chris Klieman grabbed the first hunks of the pastry before all the players joined them to munch in celebration.

"A mascot was executed and eaten in celebration; long live the @PopTartsBowl," the Reddit college football account posted on X. "This is the greatest sport in the world."

What is the 9-month cruise all over TikTok? Everything to know

On Dec. 10, Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise kicked off its round-the-world tour. TikTok's obsession with the voyage and its partakers quickly followed suit. The hashtag #RoyalCaribbeanUltimateWorldCruise has already accumulated 8.3 million views on the platform, and with the cruise liner ending its voyage on Sept. 10, 2024, that number has plenty of time to continue to climb.

What is the 9-month cruise all over TikTok?

Royal Caribbean’s Ultimate World Cruise is a 274-night trip that began on Dec. 10, 2023, when it left from Miami and is expected to come to an end in the same place on Sept. 10, 2024.

Passengers are currently staying on Serenade of the Seas, a ship that had its maiden voyage in 2003.

Serenade of the Seas will tour the world in four segments: the Americas, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Mediterranean and "Europe and beyond."

Ticket rates are based on a range of 1,073 staterooms and the full 274-night trip ran from $53,999 per person to $117,599 per person. Tickets for different legs of the trip are still available to book.

While the exact number of current passengers on Serenade of the Seas, which can hold up to 2,476 guests, is unknown, recent footage from traveler @brooklynschwetje shows a cruise meeting when it was revealed 1,093 membership passengers were on board.

Ian Ziering is closing out his year with a violent and surreal street brawl in the middle of Hollywood Blvd.

The Beverly Hills, 90210 actor got into a full-on brawl with a number of people while driving down the busy street, leading to the actor getting pummeled and eventually fleeing from the large group of bikers.

In footage obtained by TMZ, around a dozen men and women on mini-bikes appeared to be driving down the street, weaving in and out of traffic.

For reasons that are currently unclear, the Sharknado actor exited his vehicle and got into an altercation with one of the bikers, striking them. Soon, the other bikers came to his aid, and began attacking Ziering.

The actor revealed that his daughter was with him during the incident.

Ian Ziering is addressing a scary situation. One day after the 59-year-old actor was attacked during in a street brawl with bikers, he took to Instagram to explain what happened and reveal how he's doing now.

"Yesterday, I experienced an alarming incident involving a group of individuals on mini bikes," he began. "While stuck in traffic, my car was approached aggressively by one of these riders leading to an unsettling confrontation. In an attempt to assess any damage I exited my car. This action, unfortunately, escalated into a physical altercation, which I navigated to protect myself."

Ziering who's dad to Mia, 12, and Penna, 10, noted that while he's "relieved to report that my daughter and I are both completely unscathed," the incident left him "deeply concerned about the growing boldness of such groups who disrupt public safety and peace."

"This situation highlights a larger issue of hooliganism on our streets and the need for effective law enforcement responses to such behavior," he wrote. "As a citizen and a parent, I find it unacceptable that groups can freely engage in this kind of behavior, causing fear and chaos, while the response from authorities seems insufficient."

5th Precinct officers of the NYPD had no intention of waiting for firefighters to come to the 6-story apartment building in flames right across from their station door.

Officers Willian Finan and William Dottavio along with two other colleagues charged in after residents fleeing the fire said there were elderly people trapped inside.

Released body cam footage worn by Dottavio shows Officer Finan exiting the building with a 99-year-old woman over his shoulder, before Dottavio charges up 5 flights of stairs to find the fourth member of the rescue team, Detective Rodney Rosado, coming out with another elderly woman.

Between the four men, they were able to rescue the 99-year-old, two elderly men aged 96 and 91, as well as a fourth woman whose age was not disclosed—all just 5 days before Christmas.