Russia Withdraws From Worldwide Flora & Fauna

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The Russian Flora and Fauna organisation has severed ties with World Wide Flora and Fauna and will no longer participate in its awards program. The coordinator of the Russian Flora and Fauna Award programme announced on the RFF website that it is withdrawing from World Wide Flora and Fauna activities effective immediately. Vitaly, RN3ANT, wrote that the decision was made with regret because of recent actions by the WWFF Committee, including the elimination in April of Crimean RRF park references.

Vitaly said in the 7th June 2024 posting that award applications that have already been approved will be completed but new RFF-H applications through WWFF will not.

He said that Russia's own Flora and Fauna programme will continue to operate and issue awards.

This incident closely follows a dustup - that is now resolved - wherein China pulled out of Parks on the Air, only to re-enter the programme after differences were resolved.

Japan Tests Suspension of AM Radio Stations

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Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications is testing the impacts of shutting down AM radio stations. For a year-long period beginning this past February, 34 AM radio stations in Japan will shut down for at least a subset of that period. Stations are encouraged to relay programming via other channels such as FM, television, and internet.

The experiment is designed to measure the impact of AM radio going away. Comments from the public are being collected during the period.

Media Story - https://daily.hamweekly.com/2024/06/japan-tests-am-radio-station-suspensions/

Hackers Gain Access to ARRL Headquarters-Based Systems

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Users of the ARRL's Logbook of the World® and the ARRL Learning Center were struggling with a service disruption following what the league described as "a serious incident involving access to our network and headquarters-based systems."

The ARRL posted on its website a reassurance that its member database contains only details that are available from public records, such as name, address and callsigns, adding that no credit-card information or other sensitive information is stored.

More Information - https://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-systems-service-disruption