Mahsa Amini mural in Washington is about 'action' not suffering, artist says

Muralist Rodrigo Pradel and his friend Yasi Farazad joined forces to pay tribute to the symbol of Iran's protest movement

Mahsa Amini mural in Washington keeps Iranian protest movement alive

Jihan Abdalla
Washington
Aug 07, 2023

Between two roaring lions, surrounded by the swirling colours of the Iranian flag, an image of Mahsa Amini peers down on to Washington's bustling U Street.

Written below the slightly smiling symbol of Iran’s protests movement is “Woman, Life, Freedom” – words that have come to encapsulate the campaign for human rights in the country.

Chilean-American artist Rodrigo Pradel painted the mural back in January, in collaboration with Yasi Farazad, his Iranian-American friend.

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London council urged to rename Iranian embassy road after Mahsa Amini

“Although I'm not from Iran, I've always wanted to work on projects that are bigger than me and that have a great purpose,” Mr Pradel, a full-time muralist, tells The National.

“This is my way of helping.”

Ms Amini was a 22-year-old Kurdish woman whose death in Iranian police custody last year sparked months of nationwide protests that rocked the regime to its core. She had been detained for wearing her hijab “improperly”, in breach of Iran's strict dress code for women.

“We wanted to capture that energy, that strength, that roar of women, these human rights that should be there,” Mr Pradel, who grew up in Canada, says.

“We didn't want it to just be about suffering, we wanted it to be about action.”

After picking a suitable location, Mr Pradel and Ms Farazad got to work on the design of the mural.

“In Iranian culture, the Iranian woman is typically referred to as the lioness,” Ms Farazad tells The National.

“And so it only felt right to have the lioness represented in the mural somehow, because we knew that we wanted Mahsa to be in the centre.”

But while Iranian women have been at the forefront of the national protest movement – which generated a swift and brutal crackdown by the government – men have been marching alongside them, Ms Farazad says.

More than 500 protesters have been killed in rallies and about 20,000 have been detained. Seven men have been executed after being accused of violence against security forces during rallies.

Human rights groups have slammed the death sentences as unfair and said they were a government tool to quell dissent.

“It only felt appropriate to not just have the lioness, but also the lion in there as well,” Ms Farazad says.

Despite the uplifting message of the mural, part of it has been painted over twice by a competing graffiti artist, Mr Pradel says. But he adds that he intends on fixing it up again soon.

Muralist Rodrigo Pradel painted the mural in January. Joshua Longmore / The National.

In Washington, home to the second-largest Iranian community in the US, support for Ms Amini and the protesters has been unequivocal.

In late July, senators introduced the Mahsa Act following unanimous approval on the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in April.

“Iranian protesters have demonstrated tremendous courage in voicing their outrage toward the Iranian regime after the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini,” said Alex Padilla, the Democratic senator from California who introduced the bill alongside Republican senator from Florida Marco Rubio.

“We must do our part to hold Iranian leaders accountable for their violent crackdown of these protests and the regime’s ongoing repression, censorship, and abuse against its people,” Mr Padilla said in a statement.

The bill requires the President to annually determine whether to apply sanctions on Iranian entities and people who are believed to be responsible for human rights abuses in Iran, including Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Muralist Rodrigo Pradel says he intends on restoring the mural after it has been painted over twice. Joshua Longmore / The National.

On U Street, home of historic “Black Broadway” and more recently a trendy nightlife scene, pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles pass by the mural at all hours of the day.

Ms Farazad, who spent months taking part in the weekly protests in Washington, says the events in Iran and those surrounding Ms Amini's death have deep personal significance to her.

She and her family left Iran for the US when she was a child a week after Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, overthrew the government in 1979. She has not been back since.

While she senses a gradual change taking place in her ancestral homeland, she worries about the government’s continued insistence on violently cracking down on protesters.

“Mahsa is really the representation of the Iranian woman,” she says.

“I think that's one thing that we’ve realised here. This is the fight of the people, so the people just got to continue to fight.”

Mr Pradel, meanwhile says murals, which are large, expressive and available for all to see, are a powerful and empowering form of art.

“I think it quiets the mind, or it allows you to reflect,” Mr Pradel says.

“You feel smaller, but not in a negative way, and I think it allows you to listen to it more, that's the strength of murals.

“It's more than just a pretty picture – murals, to me, are bigger than life.”

‘Vampire child’ with padlocked ankle dug up in 17th-century cemetery: ‘Feared during life’

By Samantha Ibrahim
August 7, 2023 


Sink your teeth into this discovery.

Archaeologists have found the remains of a so-called “vampire child” dating to the 1600s in a Pień, Poland, cemetery.

The skeletal scraps were estimated to be from a child aged between 5 to 7. The remains were discovered lying face down with a triangular padlock attached to one of its feet.

Archaeologist Dariusz Poliński, from the University of Nicolaus Copernicus, gave some insight into his exploration and why the corpse was bonded to the lock.

He noted that the item placed under the foot “symbolizes the closing of a stage of life and is meant to protect against the return of the deceased, which was probably feared,” according to the Daily Mail.

“Such practices originated in folk beliefs and are sometimes described as anti-vampiric,” the excavator said.

Excavators from the University of Nicolaus Copernicus found a “vampire child” skeleton dating to the 17th century.

The child was 5 to 7 years old when it died.

University of Nicolaus Copernicus

A padlock was found attached to the child.University of Nicolaus Copernicus

The rituals of the time period reportedly state that when a person was buried face down, the dead would “bite into the ground and not harm the living,” according to Poliński.


Padlocked, restrained female ‘vampire’ discovered in 17th-century graveyard

Thirty other internments were uncovered — and archaeologists believed that people who were “feared not only during life but also after death” were also entombed in the region.

Pieces of a green-stained jaw also were unearthed and may have originated from a copper coin put into the mouth of a dead child, one of three others found, researchers said.

The remains of a pregnant woman were additionally found, including a fetus that was “determined to be roughly 5 to 6 months old,” according to college representative Magdalena Zagrodzka.

“This is surprising because the bones of children of this age are poorly mineralized, so they are usually not preserved,” she explained.

The area where the possibly blood-sucking kiddie was acquired turns out to be the same 17th-century graveyard where a “vampire woman” was discovered by Poliński and his research crew in September 2022 — with a sickle seemingly restraining her neck and a padlock on the big toe of her left foot.

Researchers also uncovered remains seemingly restrained by a sickle.

University of Nicolaus Copernicus

A green stain is seen on a set of teeth at the gravesite.

The remains date to the 1600s.University of Nicolaus Copernicus

The skeletal remains of three kids and a pregnant woman were also uncovered.

University of Nicolaus Copernicus

“Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them and smashing them with a stone,” Poliński said.

He further divulged that the sickle was not laid flat; instead, it was put on her neck “in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up, most likely the head would have been cut off or injured.”

The padlocked toe symbolizes “the closing of a stage and the impossibility of returning,” according to the historian.

‘Vampire’ grave shows 17th-century fear of women who ‘didn’t fit in’

By Adela Suliman

The Washington Post

The remains of a female “vampire” with a sickle across her throat are seen on Aug. 30 after they were unearthed at an archaeological site in a 17th-century cemetery in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

 (Courtesy of Mirosław Blicharski)

A sharp sickle was placed across her neck, ready to decapitate her should she jolt awake after death, and a padlock was put around her big toe.

That’s what scientists found when they excavated the corpse of a woman they believe was suspected of being a vampire in 17th-century Poland.

The unnamed woman — thought to be young and of a high social class, given that she was buried in a silk scarf — was probably accused of being supernatural because she stood out, experts said. A large protruding tooth may provide some clues.

A professor from Poland’s Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun said burials involving a sickle are extremely unusual. Archaeologists from the university made the discovery in the southern village of Pien in the Eastern European nation last month and published their findings this week.

“Ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them and smashing them with a stone,” Dariusz Polinski, who led the research team, told The Washington Post. Instead, in this case, a sharp scythe is “not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up, most likely the head would have been cut off or injured.”

The woman’s exhumed remains are now being studied by Polinski’s team.

Her burial reveals “paranoia” and “fear” around vampires — and the “gender politics” at the time, Stacey Abbott, author of “Undead Apocalypse: Vampires and Zombies in the 21st Century,” told The Washington Post on Wednesday.

Charges of being vampires were often made against people who “didn’t fit in,” Abbott said. “Anxiety about vampires came from people being different,” as was often the case in witchcraft accusations, she added.

The woman may have been singled out for her gender, a physical deformity or any social anomaly considered “immoral,” Abbott said, as people sought “a supernatural explanation” for those they perceived as outcasts.

It is not unusual for “vampiric graves” to be found on roadsides or crossroads, said Bethan Briggs-Miller, a British folklorist and paranormal historian. This is because the deceased were not permitted to be buried close to others or in consecrated ground and cemeteries. The suspected individuals would often be buried with chains or multiple stakes driven through their bodies. Others found in such graves may have died by suicide.

The fear was that they could “have wandered the earth and risen from the grave,” she said.

Women were “very susceptible” to retaliation for any kind of accusation or anomaly — from refusing to marry, having a miscarriage or even not menstruating, said Briggs-Miller, co-host of the “Eerie Essex” podcast. That her clothes indicate a high social status proves that such accusations of vampirism “affected women from all stations,” she said. It was “all part of this demonizing of women that took place for a long time.”

“If you stood out in any way, similar to the witch trials, to be slightly different created the same sort of hysteria,” she continued. “It would have been a case of accuse first, otherwise you’d be accused yourself.”

Visible traces of a pillow can be seen under the remains of a female “vampire” with a sickle across her throat in Bydgoszcz, Poland. (Courtesy of Mirosław Blicharski)

Despite the 17th-century medical community’s relative lack of scientific knowledge about communicable diseases or mental health, the burials were performed with a great degree of “pragmatism” to prevent the dead from rising from the grave, Abbott said. “Coming back as a vampire was a fate worse than death.”

Accusations of vampirism were common across Europe at the time, especially in what are now Serbia, Romania, Greece and Italy, she said. The church and other authorities were “systematic” in investigating and exhuming bodies and hunting for evidence of vampirism, which could include a lack of decomposition, red cheeks, blood in the mouth or swollen corpses.

“In some respects, these were very superstitious beliefs,” but the investigative methods “were very scientific,” Abbott said.

The myth of vampires has evolved over the centuries; some historians trace their origins back to biblical references to Lilith, an apparently demonic wife of Adam who preyed on the weak and young. Others cite the ancient Greek myth of Lamia, a blood-lusting daemon who also fed off children. The stories are common across the world, sliding on a scale between zombies and transformative bats, but they generally have some elements in common, experts say, such as an association with blood, feasting on the living and being contagious.

A padlock was attached to the big toe on the left foot of the remains of a female “vampire” unearthed in Poland. (Courtesy of Mirosław Blicharski)

Vampires have long fascinated the modern imagination, from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” to the television hit “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the “Twilight” romance novels and movies and the popular children’s animation “Hotel Transylvania.”

“We are naturally drawn to dark stories,” Briggs-Miller told The Post, explaining the centuries-old interest in vampires.

For Abbott, our fascination has transformed over time. “As we shift and change and our fears change, vampires often come to embody different things,” she said. Originally linked to religion and fear, they are now given a “more sympathetic” treatment representing “groups that have been oppressed,” and we wish them happy endings rather than death. “We like them,” she added.

They also allow the living to ponder the “perennial question” of life after death, said Abbott, stoking a morbid curiosity that continues to draw in readers, historians and the public — not just on Halloween.

But European historian and professor Martyn Rady told The Post on Wednesday that “there is nothing at all odd in this discovery.” The use of a sickle across the neck was “pretty tame,” he added.

“This is not a vampire, but a revenant. All cultures have a belief in the ‘undead,’ ” he explained, describing them generally as “people that have led violent lives or died violently or have not been buried with the proper funeral rites.”

In some parts of Europe, “bodies may be cut in two down the middle, or the head sliced off, or a stake driven through the corpse to pin it down,” he continued. “In Chinese accounts, one way to keep the corpse immobile is to bury it with rice, since the undead like nothing better than to count rice grains,” he said. Similar accounts have been found in Europe, with seeds being sprinkled inside graves for suspected vampires to count until the sun comes up.


“There is, incidentally, nothing odd in the revenant being a woman,” Rady said of the Polish case. “Quite why the locals feared the woman might become undead is unknown: possibly, something as simple as dying violently by falling off a cart.”

September 7, 2022 

By Adela Suliman is a breaking-news reporter in The Washington Post's London hub. Twitter

Headless ‘vampire’ remains discovered in 1800s Polish mass grave site

By Brooke Kato
June 10, 2023

Archeologists found the remains of approximately 450 people in Luzino, Poland.

Gmina Luzino/Luzino

A bone-chilling mass graveyard containing headless skeletons and “anti-vampire” items has been unearthed in northern Poland amid road construction.

Workers in the Kashubian village of Luzino stumbled upon the burial ground while widening Kościelna Street by an 18th century church, Poland’s The First News reports.

Many of the 450 bodies appeared to have been exhumed and re-buried, with experts believing superstitious family members dug up their loved ones and decapitated them to end the “vampire curse.”

Several of the deceased had a skull between their legs and a coin in their mouth — a sign of the anti-vampire rituals common in the 19th century.

“We discovered examples of belief in the dead returning from the grave, which could only be stopped by decapitation,” Maciej Stromski, who is leading the excavation, told Nadmorski24.pl this week.

Decapitation was once thought to ward off the emergence of vampires

Researchers discovered loose bones in three ossuaries.

“It was believed that if a member of the deceased’s family was dying shortly after the funeral, he or she could be a vampire,” he added. “Therefore, after burial, the grave was dug up and the deceased’s head was cut off, which was then placed in the legs.”

Stromski told The Post that 20-30% of the recently discovered bodies had bricks next to their head, arms and legs. A coin was placed in each mouth, with one dating back to 1846.

The coin apparently sealed in the person’s soul and gave them currency to travel to the afterlife.

The bodies appeared to be decapitated with a skull placed between their legs.

It’s thought that the people of the village were terrified of the deceased 

coming back from the dead as vampires.

The deceased had a skull between their legs and a coin in their mouths,

 a sign of the anti-vampire rituals common in the 19th century.

Gmina Luzino/Luzino

“We also discovered an example of a woman after decapitation,” Stromski continued. “The skull of a child was laid on her bosom.”

First News reports the church was built at the beginning of the 18th century and expanded after 1945.

At some point, its old graves were liquidated and large quantities of bones were deposited in ossuaries.

Stromski noted his team discovered loose bones in three ossuaries.

“We also discovered an example of a woman after decapitation,” 

Stromski added. “The skull of a child was laid on her bosom.”

i

The gravesite was unearthed during construction next to the town’s church.

Gmina Luzino/Luzino

A Luzino community Facebook page noted in March that construction was underway by the church, with renovations expected to last into September.

Just last year, researchers in Pień, Poland, reported discovering the remains of a female “vampire” who had been buried with a sickle across her neck and a padlock on the big toe of her left foot to prevent her return from the dead.

PHOTO'S Maciej Stromsk

 

Ice Age Cave Entrance in Germany Discovered 16,000 Years After It Was Last Occupied

Caleb White 

SCIENCE TIMES 

Aug 06, 2023 

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Mary and Angus Hogg)
Entrance to Ice Age Cave in Germany Discovered 16,000 Years After It Was Last Occupied

The original entrance of an Ice Age cave last occupied 16,000 years ago was finally found. The cave has been known to the archaeologists for years, but it took them long to locate its entry.

Ice Age Cave Entrance Found

A team of archaeologists led by Dr. Yvonne Tafelmaier of the University of Tübingen located the entrance to an Ice Age cave that was last inhabited between 16,000 and 14,000 years ago during the Magdalenian period in southern Germany, Newsweek reported.

Archaeologists already knew about the cave, but up until now, they had not found the original entrance. According to a press announcement about the discovery, Ice Age hunter-gatherers would have been the last to enter the cave through its original entrance.

Archaeologists collected more information while conducting six weeks of further digs that started in 2021, but the original cave entrance remained a mystery. However, researchers from the University of Heidelberg began exploring the cave in April of this year.

Using an imaging technique, they found a 65-foot cavity, and on July 4, they finally discovered the cave's original entrance. Sediment had entirely sealed the opening, making it difficult to locate until today.

Tafelmaier said in a statement that such a find is exceedingly uncommon in Paleolithic research and provides the chance to use current techniques to address significant concerns concerning the actions of late Ice Age hunter-gatherers.

Tafelmaier and her colleagues also discovered stone tools from the Ice Age and animal bones. When scientists made a hole in the cave's ceiling in 1978, they could determine when it had been in use and discovered a small portion of the cave. They discovered that hunter-gatherers would have likely found shelter in the cave during the Ice Age. Future archaeologists were left to do more research after the cave's opening was sealed off.

Excavations will continue next year.

ALSO READ: 240 Million-Years-Old Fossils of New Scorpion Species Discovered in Milan Museum

What Is Ace Age?

Ice Ages started 2.4 million years ago and lasted until 11,500 years ago. The Earth's climate fluctuated between extremely cold periods when glaciers covered a major portion of the globe and extremely warm eras when much of the glaciers melted. Warm times are known as interglacials, while cold periods are known as glacials, per CDM.

However, geologist Ro Kinzler says we are still in the ice age, which has been going on since about 2.5 million years ago. He claimed that the last ice age hadn't ended yet.

He added that the strange thing about ice ages is that the Earth's atmosphere's temperature doesn't stay frigid all the time. The climate fluctuates instead between what scientists refer to as "glacial periods" and "interglacial periods."

Tens of thousands of years pass during glacial periods. More of the earth is covered in ice, and temperatures are substantially colder.

However, the climate during interglacial eras is comparable to today's Earth and lasts only a few thousand years. Currently, we are in an interglacial phase. It started about 10,000 years ago, near the conclusion of the last glacial period.

 

 14,000-year-old cave — where Ice Age

 hunter-gatherers lived — unearthed in

 Germany

 BY MOIRA RITTER 

AUGUST 07, 2023

The cave held Ice Age stone tools and animal bones, archaeologists said.

 State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Regional Council of Stuttgart It’s been 45 years since an attempt to lay sewage lines at a Paleolithic site in Germany revealed an ancient cave. Now, experts have finally discovered the entrance to the cave — and have a better understanding of its purpose.

 Experts first identified the site in 1978 after a hole was made in its ceiling, according to an Aug. 2 news release from the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Stuttgart Regional Council. Archaeologists determined that the cave likely dated back to between 14,000 and 16,000 years ago, but they resealed the cave after a short excavation. 

Archaeologists returned to the site in 2021 in hopes of learning more about the cave, officials said in the release. It wasn’t until July 4, 2023, that the entrance to the ancient cave was finally unearthed after being almost completely blocked by sediment. 

The cave dates to about 14,000-16,000 years ago, experts said. Thomas Beutelspacher State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Regional Council of Stuttgart The cave appears to have been a residence for hunter-gatherers during the Ice Age, archaeologists said.

It held some Ice Age stone tools and animal bones. The discovery will grant experts greater insight into the lives of Ice Age hunter-gatherers in the area, according to Yvonne Tafelmaier, who led the excavations. Their research is set to continue next year. 

The Ice Age era cave was first identified in Germany in 1978, but archaeologists only discovered its entrance in July.

 Simon Werner State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the Regional Council of Stuttgart The cave was discovered in the town of Engen in southwest Germany, near the border with Switzerland. 

SPACE RACE 2.0

Russia to launch first lunar mission in nearly half a century Friday

Moscow (AFP) – Russia said Monday it plans to launch a lunar lander this week after multiple delays, hoping to return to the Moon for the first time in nearly fifty years.

Issued on: 07/08/2023 -

The four-legged Luna-25 lander, which weighs around 800 kilograms, is expected to touch down in the region of the lunar south pole 

© Handout / Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP

Russian space agency Roscosmos said it had scheduled the launch of the Luna-25 lander for the early hours of Friday.

With the lunar mission, Russia's first since 1976, Moscow is seeking to restart and build on the Soviet Union's pioneering space programme.

The launch is the first mission of Moscow's new lunar project and comes as President Vladimir Putin looks to strengthen cooperation in space with China after ties with the West broke down following the start of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine last year.

Engineers have assembled a Soyuz rocket at the Vostochny cosmodrome in the Russian Far East for the launch of the lander, Roscosmos said.

"The Luna-25 will have to practise soft landing, take and analyse soil samples and conduct long-term scientific research," Roscosmos said in a statement.

The four-legged lander, which weighs around 800 kilograms (1,750 pounds), is expected to touch down in the region of the lunar south pole. By contrast, most previous Moon landings have occurred near the lunar equator.

The spacecraft is expected to reach the Moon around five days after launch.

'Total sanctions'

After Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would not cooperate with Moscow on the upcoming Luna-25 launch as well as future 26 and 27 missions.

Despite the pullout, Moscow said it would go ahead with its lunar plans and replace ESA equipment with Russian-made scientific instruments.

Speaking at the Vostochny cosmodrome last year, Putin said the Soviet Union put the first man into space in 1961 despite "total" sanctions.

After Putin sent troops to Ukraine last year, the European Space Agency (ESA) said it would not cooperate with Moscow 

© Handout / Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP

The Kremlin chief insisted Moscow would similarly continue to develop its lunar programme despite current Western sanctions in response to the assault in Ukraine.

"We are guided by the ambition of our ancestors to move forward, despite any difficulties and any attempts to prevent us in this movement from the outside," Putin said.

In June, the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, Yuri Borisov, described the upcoming launch as high-risk.

"This mission involves landing at the south pole. No one in the world has ever done such things," he said during a meeting with Putin.

"The probability of successful completion of such missions is estimated at around 70 percent."

Evacuation

Ahead of Friday's launch, local authorities said that residents would be evacuated from the village of Shakhtinsky in the far-eastern region of Khabarovsk, where the rocket's boosters are expected to fall.

During the last Soviet Moon mission in 1976, the Luna-24 brough back samples of lunar soil.

With Sputnik, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite into space in 1957 and later sent into orbit the first animal, a dog named Laika, the first man, Yuri Gagarin, and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova.

With Sputnik, the Soviet Union launched the first man-made satellite into space 

© Handout / Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP

But compared with the Soviet era, modern Russia has struggled to innovate and its space industry is fighting to secure state funding while the Kremlin prioritises military spending.

Russia's space agency is still reliant on Soviet-designed technology and has faced a number of setbacks, including corruption scandals and botched launches.

Moscow is also falling behind in the global space race, facing tough competition from the United States and China.

(AFP)

GOD NYET! (NO GOD HERE)

 

Venezuela: Union Leaders Imprisoned

Tuesday, 8 August 2023, 
Press Release: ITUC

The ITUC and its regional organisation for the Americas, TUCA, deplore the sentencing of Venezuelan union leader Gabriel Blanco and three other trade union officials to 16 years imprisonment.

Gabriel Blanco, the Communications Director of the Caracas branch of ITUC affiliate ASI, was initially detained by military intelligence in July 2022.

In a joint letter to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, ITUC Acting General Secretary Luc Triangle and TUCA General Secretary Rafael Freire described the sentencing as “arbitrary and in violation of the most basic rights of individuals, as well as constituting a serious breach of the right to trade union activity”.

They also emphasised that the government’s actions in this case have been damaging to efforts to establish effective social dialogue and address recommendations made by the ILO’s main supervisory bodies about the situation in Venezuela.

The ITUC and TUCA have pledged to support all efforts to overturn the sentences and to ensure respect for fundamental human and trade union rights in Venezuela.

NATO, EU send aid to Slovenia after devastating floods kill six and destroys homes

NATO FINALLY DOES SOME GOOD

AP
7 Aug, 2023 

Entire villages in Slovenia are still underwater in Slovenia, with crops destroyed and cars buried in mud. Major highways have been closed and bridges have also collapsed. Photo / AP

The European Union and Nato have begun sending urgent aid to Slovenia after severe flooding over the weekend affecting two-thirds of the small European country killed at least six people and left hundreds homeless.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke by phone with Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, expressing his sympathy and Nato’s strong solidarity with Slovenia, a Nato statement said.

“I express my deepest condolences to the people of Slovenia for the loss of life and widespread devastation caused by this weekend’s floods,” Stoltenberg said.

At the weekend, Slovenia and Cyprus activated a European Union Civil Protection Mechanism because of the floods in Slovenia and wildfires in Cyprus that have affected those EU states.

The EU is sending to Cyprus two Canadair firefighting airplanes from the EU’s Civil Protection Pool stationed in Greece. Greece is also sending 20 tons of liquid retardant via the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

A flooded area in Crna na Koroskem, Slovenia, after torrential rains caused rivers to swell swiftly and burst into houses, fields and towns. Photo / AP

The flooding in Slovenia was the worst in recent history in Slovenia, a country of some 2 million people, according to Slovenian officials.

France is sending two excavators with engineering units to Slovenia, while Germany is sending two prefabricated temporary bridges and two excavators with accompanying staff, the European Commission said.

Bulgaria and Croatia have also offered support, including helicopters, excavators, prefabricated bridges and engineering teams. The United States has also deployed staff to Ljubljana to assess the situation and determine urgent humanitarian needs.

The German Interior Ministry said it was sending a team from the Federal Agency for Technical Relief to Slovenia.

The floods were caused by torrential rains that caused rivers to swell swiftly and burst into houses, fields, villages and towns. Slovenia’s weather service said a month’s worth of rain fell in less than a day.

Experts say extreme weather conditions are partly fueled by climate change. Parts of Europe have seen record heat and wildfires this summer.

Entire villages are still underwater in Slovenia. Crops have been destroyed and cars are stuck in mud. Major highways in parts of Slovenia have been closed. Many bridges have also collapsed.

Slovenia's weather service said a month's worth of rain fell in less than a day. Photo / AP

Slovenian authorities warned of danger from possible mudslides and swollen rivers that could overflow at any time, overtaking banks of sandbags placed by emergency teams.

Several severe storms in the Alpine nation earlier in the summer blew off roofs, downed thousands of trees and killed one person in Slovenia and four others elsewhere in the region.

Flash floods were also reported in neighboring Austria and Croatia and heavy rains and storms caused major damage farther east in Serbia, which is downstream from the swollen Sava river that flows from Slovenia and Croatia over the Balkans.

Watch: Building destroyed in flooding in Alaska’s capital from glacial lake water release

AP
7 Aug, 2023 

The swollen Mendenhall River courses along in Juneau, Alaska, after a glacial dam burst 

caused flooding. Photo / BeckyBohrer, AP

At least two buildings have been destroyed and residents of others have been evacuated from Juneau after flooding caused by a release of water from a glacier-dammed lake near Alaska’s capital city, officials said.

The Mendenhall River flooded because of a major release from Suicide Basin above Alaska’s capital city, a news release from the City and Borough of Juneau said.

Video posted on social media showed towering trees behind a home falling into the rushing river as the water ate away at the bank. Eventually, the home, teetering at the edge, collapsed into the river.

River levels have since begun to drop but the city said the banks of the river remained highly unstable. Some roadways were blocked by silt and debris from the flooding.

Such glacial outburst floods happen when glaciers melt and pour massive amounts of water into nearby lakes. A study released earlier this year found such floods pose a risk to 15 million people around the globe, more than half of them in India, Pakistan, Peru and China.

Suicide Basin has released water that has caused flooding along the Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River since 2011, according to the National Weather Service. However, the maximum water level in the lake at the time of the buildings’ collapse exceeded the previous record flood stage set in July 2016, the weather service reported.

US Navy ships shadowed Russian-Chinese flotilla off Alaskan islands

By Geoff Ziezulewicz

NAVY TIMES
Aug 7, 2023

The guided-missile destroyer John S. McCain, shown here in 2021, and three other Navy destroyers shadowed a Russian-Chinese flotilla off of Alaska's Aleutian Islands last week, according to media reports and U.S. officials. (Navy)


The U.S. Navy shadowed a fleet of Russian and Chinese vessels off Alaska last week, according to media reports and U.S. Northern Command.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Saturday that 11 Russian and Chinese ships were steaming near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, citing anonymous U.S. officials.

According to the Journal report, those ships never entered U.S. waters but were shadowed by a P-8 Poseidon aircraft and four destroyers.

The Journal report does not note which days last week the patrol arrived near Alaska. NORTHCOM confirmed the sequence of events to Navy Times Monday but declined further comment.

“NORAD and USNORTHCOM actively monitored the Russian and Chinese combined naval patrol that operated near Alaska earlier this week,” according to a statement from the command. “Air and maritime assets under our commands conducted operations to assure the defense of the United States and Canada. The patrol remained in international waters and was not considered a threat.”

U.S. Senators Murkowski and Sullivan release Statements on Chinese and Russian Vessels off the Coast of Aleutians

The Alaskan Senators said the incident was a stark reminder of Alaska’s essential role in U.S. national defense and territorial sovereignty.

By

 Elías Thorsson

 -

7 August 2023

From left to right, Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan; Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska; Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, are seen Friday, June 9, 2023, at a Coast Guard change of command ceremony in Juneau. (Photo by James Brooks/Alaska Beacon)

This weekend, U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan released a statement regarding the 11 Chinese and Russian military vessels that were operating off the coast of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska last week. The Republican Senators expressed concerns over the incident and claimed to have been briefed on the matter by military officials.

“We have been in close contact with leadership from Alaska Command for several days now and received detailed classified briefings about the foreign vessels that are transiting U.S. waters in the Aleutians,” said Senator Murkowski. “This is a stark reminder of Alaska’s proximity to both China and Russia, as well as the essential role our state plays in our national defense and territorial sovereignty.”

Senator Murkowski added that incursions like this showcased the need to secure increased funding and resources to expand U.S. military’s capacity and capabilities in Alaska.

Senator Sullivan said the incursion was a reminder of a changing security landscape, defined by “authoritarian aggression led by the dictators in Beijing and Moscow.”

“In recognition of this reality and our state’s unrivaled strategic location, for years, I’ve been pressing the Navy and each successive administration to commit to a greater Naval, Coast Guard, and Marine Corps presence in Alaska, more Arctic-capable vessels, and more infrastructure to host these assets, like the deep-water port of Nome,” said Senator Sullivan.

Last summer, a similar incursion took place off the coast of Alaska and the Senator praised the U.S. Navy for its more robust response this time around.

“Given that our response was tepid, I strongly encouraged senior military leaders to be ready with a much more robust response should such another joint Chinese/Russian naval operation occur off our coast,” said Senator Sullivan. “For that reason, I was heartened to see that this latest incursion was met with four U.S. Navy destroyers, which sends a strong message to Xi Jinping and Putin that the United States will not hesitate to protect and defend our vital national interests in Alaska.”

Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu told CNN that the operation was according to an annual cooperation plan between the Chinese and Russian militaries and claimed the action was “not targeted at any third party and has nothing to do with the current international and regional situation”.

UK
NHS Consultants to strike if government continues to 'refuse' talks and present credible offer, BMA says



ITV News 

Monday 7 August 2023

The British Medical Association (BMA) said that following a two-day strike in July, it has once again written to the Health Secretary Steve Barclay to invite him to discuss pay and reform of the doctors’ pay review body to end the industrial action which has hit the NHS.

Consultants in England are already planning to take industrial action on August 24 and 25.

The most recent NHS figures state that the waiting list for hospital treatment has risen to a record of nearly 7.5 million this year.

Dr Vishal Sharma, BMA consultants committee chairman said: “It is now 133 days since the Secretary of State last met with us, demonstrating the government’s complete disregard for the expertise and value of consultants, and the very future of the health service and its patients.

BMA consultants committee chairman Dr Vishal Sharma.Credit: PA

"We are once again appealing to the Health Secretary to return to the table and discuss both pay and reform of the rigged pay review process, so that we can reach a point where strikes are not necessary."

He continued: "Consultants will go out on strike at the end of this month, and for a further two days in September – demonstrating our resolve and clearly signalling to government that we’re in this for the long haul.

"However, neither of these strikes need to take place at all if the government drops its intransigent position."

Dr Sharma added: "No consultant wants to take strike action but unless we take a stand, we risk losing our most experienced doctors, putting the very future of the NHS at risk.

"It’s not too late to avert these strikes and we call upon the Health Secretary to meet with us urgently."


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Steve Barclay has previously said his "plea to consultants is to recognise they [the government] have listened" and "it is now time to put patients first".But no deal has yet been agreed, and thousands of operations, procedures and appointments have been cancelled and are being rescheduled.

Health leaders have warned that planned care will come to a “virtual standstill”, with senior medics providing only emergency Christmas Day-style cover.