Local Date

12 December 2024

Local Time

11:42

Location

Hackney Downs, London

Country or Territory

United Kingdom

Name

Sasha Engelmann

Satellite

NOAA-18

Radio Callsign

M6IOR

Archive ID

ow886

London is all glare and reflection today as a very low cloud-mist settles over the city. The sheen of street signs, asphalt, vans, and buses makes everything more obviously aggressive and frantic. As I cycle to south London after dark, a white Prius pulls out in front of my bike, so close I have to skid to a halt. When the driver looks over his shoulder, and sees me braking and motioning my fright, he hardly blinks as he merges into the centre of the road. The tops of tall buildings are drowned in cloud so it feels like we are living in a reduced space, the ceiling coming down. I am reminded of the fictional city Ravicka in Renee Gladman's novel Event Factory. Ravicka is a city of smoggy, ‘yellow air’ that, “vibrates around the foreigner in the street” (Gladman, 2010: 41). Edges and borders shape-shift as the city appears to rearrange itself, or, as the main character observes, “the singing structure eludes me” (Gladman, 2010: 93). Today, in Gaza, a house was flattened in the packed Nuseirat refugee camp, while two separate strikes targeted local workers securing aid convoys. US officials claim they have a 'jurisdictional dispute' with the ICJ and reject its call for arrest of Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant; another 'structure' that continues to elude.

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