Indonesia volcano erupts again after killing nine day earlier

AFP
Tue 5 November 2024 

Villagers flee a volcano eruption in eastern Indonesia 

 (ARNOLD WELIANTO/AFP/AFP)

A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted again on Tuesday, blowing an ash column into the sky a day after it spewed fireballs on nearby villages that killed nine people.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,703-metre (5,587-feet) twin volcano located on the popular tourist island of Flores, shot flaming rocks at residential areas overnight Monday, setting wooden houses on fire and pockmarking the ground.

Authorities said it killed at least 10 people and injured dozens more, but on Tuesday revised the toll down by one.


Lewotobi Laki-Laki erupted again on Tuesday, shooting ash a kilometre into the sky (0.6 miles), according to an AFP journalist near the volcano.

There were no immediate reports of fresh damage to villages surrounding the crater.

The local search and rescue agency in the town of Maumere on Flores said in a statement that no residents had been reported missing, but rescuers were still combing through the volcanic debris as a precaution.

Some nearby residents who appeared to have stayed in their homes were evacuating in trucks after the latest eruption, the journalist said.

Authorities on Monday raised the volcano's alert level to the highest of a four-tiered system, telling locals and tourists not to carry out activities within a seven-kilometre (4.3-mile) radius of the crater.

Roofs of houses collapsed after they were hit by volcanic rocks, and locals were forced to shelter in communal buildings after the eruptions.

Residents described their horror when they realised they were in the shadow of an eruption, which they said was initially masked by adverse weather.

"I saw flames coming out and immediately fled. There were ashes and stones everywhere," said 32-year-old hairdresser Hermanus Mite.

The disaster mitigation agency said more than 10,000 were affected.

There were multiple tremors and eruptions at the volcano last week, sending columns of ash between 500 and 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) into the sky several days in a row.

Laki-Laki, which means "man" in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano named after the Indonesian word for "woman".

Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent eruptions due to its position on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an area of intense volcanic and seismic activity.

Indonesian rescuers dig through volcanic ash after eruption kills 9 and destroys buildings
JAKOBUS HERIN
Updated Tue 5 November 2024 








Indonesia Volcano
Houses are seen damaged from the eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki in East Flores, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (AP Photo)

MAUMERE, Indonesia (AP) — Rescue workers on Tuesday sifted through smoldering debris and thick mud in search of survivors, a day after a volcano on Indonesia’s island of Flores erupted, killing at least nine people with its searing lava and ash.

Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki spewed thick brownish ash as high as 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) and searing lava, gravel and ash were thrown up to seven kilometers (4.3 miles) from its crater, blanketing nearby villages and towns with tons of volcanic debris and forcing residents to flee.

The National Disaster Management Agency on Tuesday lowered the death toll from an earlier report of 10, saying a victim trapped under tons of debris in a collapsed house who was feared dead was rescued in critical condition. The agency said 63 other people were hospitalized, 31 of them with serious injuries.

More than 2,400 villagers streamed into makeshift emergency shelters after Monday's eruption that burned down seven schools and 23 houses, including a convent of nuns, on the majority-Catholic island, said the agency’s spokesperson, Abdul Muhari.

Smoldering debris, thick mud and a power blackout hampered the evacuation and search efforts, said Kensius Didimus, a local disaster agency official.

“We’ll do everything we can to evacuate villagers by preparing trucks and motorbikes for them to flee at any time,” he said, adding that the debris and lava mixed with rainfall formed thick mud that destroyed the main roads on the island.

Authorities warned the thousands of people who fled the volcano not to return during Tuesday’s lull in activity. But some were desperate to check on livestock and possessions left behind. In several areas, everything — from the thinnest tree branch to couches and chairs inside homes — was caked with ash.

“We were all ordered to leave our village, because the volcano alert status had reached its highest,” said Andreas, who uses only one name. He and other residents were taken out by truck.

Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency showed roads that were covered in heavy gray ash and houses covered by thick gray mud, rocks and uprooted trees.

Adelina Nuri and her relatives fled to a shelter from their house in the village of Hokeng.

“The tremendous roar of the volcano suddenly woke us up that night, followed by flashes of lightning,” said Nuri, a mother of three. “I saw a dazzling light like a glowing giant lamp out from the mountain when volcanic materials began to hit our zinc roof, created noise in my house. We were scared and panicked,”

She grabbed her children and run out with her husband and other villagers in the darkness, and it turned out that the atmosphere outside was more terrifying, they had to endure the rain of thumb-size glowing rocks and hot ashes. People were screaming for help and children were crying.

“We ran and took shelter under a big tree that could protect our heads from hot volcanic materials,” Nuri said, adding that both of her hands were injured from having to protect her children’s heads.

The country’s geology agency said a series of eruptions since Thursday had created an accumulation of hidden energy due to a blockage of magma in the crater, which reduced detectible seismic activity while building up pressure.

“The eruptions have eased pressure that had been building under a lava dome perched on the crater,” said Priatin Hadi Wijaya, who heads the Center for Volcanology and Disaster Mitigation. “But we should anticipate hot ash and debris could tumble down from the crater due to heavy rains.”

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has instructed his Cabinet and disaster and military officials to coordinate the response, said Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture Pratikno, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.

The country’s volcano monitoring agency increased the volcano’s alert status to the highest level and more than doubled the exclusion zone to a seven-kilometer (4.3-mile) radius after midnight on Monday as eruptions became more frequent.

Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of a pair of stratovolcanoes in the East Flores district of East Nusa Tenggara province known locally as the husband and wife mountains. “Laki laki” means husband, while its mate is Lewotobi Perempuan, or woman.

About 6,500 people were evacuated in January after Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki began erupting, spewing thick clouds and forcing the government to close the island’s Frans Seda Airport. No casualties or major damage were reported, but the airport has remained closed since then due to seismic activity.

This is Indonesia’s second volcanic eruption in as many weeks. West Sumatra province’s Mount Marapi, one of the country’s most active volcanos, erupted on Oct. 27, spewing thick columns of ash at least three times and blanketing nearby villages with debris, but no casualties were reported.

Lewotobi Laki Laki is one of the 120 active volcanoes in Indonesia, an archipelago of 280 million people. The country is prone to earthquakes, landslides and volcanic activity because it sits along the “Ring of Fire,” a horseshoe-shaped series of seismic fault lines around the Pacific Ocean.

___

Niniek Karmini and Andi Jatmiko in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.


Ten dead as volcano erupts on Indonesian island of Flores ...Tech & Science Daily podcast

Mark Blunden and Rachelle Abbott
Mon 4 November 2024 at 9:17 am GMT-7·1-min read

(AP)

Listen here on your chosen podcast platform.

At least 10 people died after a volcano erupted on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia that spewed explosive plumes of lava and forced authorities to evacuate nearby villages.

Indonesia’s Centre of Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation said molten debris and rocks hit the nearest settlements around two miles from the crater, burning and damaging residents’ houses.

Ten people are confirmed dead as rescuers hunt for survivors.

WAIT, WHAT?!

Remains of nearly 30 Civil War veterans found in a funeral home's storage are laid to rest

MICHAEL CASEY
Mon 4 November 2024




Remains of nearly 30 Civil War veterans found in a funeral home's storage are laid to rest
In this photo provided by The Valley Breeze, Civil War re-enactors participate in ceremonies during funeral services Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, for the burial of the cremated remains of Byron R. Johnson, a Union soldier who was born in Pawtucket, R.I. in 1844 and fought in the Civil War, during funeral services, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, at Oak Grove Cemetery, in Pawtucket, after his remains were transferred from storage at a cemetery in Seattle. (Charles Lawrence/The Valley Breeze via AP)

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) — For several decades, the cremated remains of more than two dozen American Civil War veterans languished in storage facilities at a funeral home and cemetery in Seattle.

The simple copper and cardboard urns gathering dust on shelves only had the name of each of the 28 soldiers — but nothing linking them to the Civil War. Still, that was enough for an organization dedicated to locating, identifying and interring the remains of unclaimed veterans to conclude over several years that they were all Union soldiers deserving of a burial service with military honors.

“It's amazing that they were still there and we found them,” said Tom Keating, the Washington state coordinator for the Missing In America Project, which turned to a team of volunteers to confirm their war service through genealogical research. “It's something long overdue. These people have been waiting a long time for a burial.”

Most of the veterans were buried in August at Washington's Tahoma National Cemetery.

In a traditional service offered to Civil War veterans, the historical 4th U.S. Infantry Regiment dressed in Union uniforms fired musket volleys and the crowd sang "The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Names were called out for each veteran and their unit before their remains were brought forward and stories were shared about their exploits. Then, they were buried.

Among them was a veteran held at a Confederate prison known as Andersonville. Several were wounded in combat and others fought in critical battles including Gettysburg, Stones River and the Atlanta campaign. One man survived being shot thanks to his pocket watch - which he kept until his death — and another deserted the Confederate Army and joined the Union forces.

“It was something, just the finality of it all,” Keating said, adding they were unable to find any living descendants of the veterans.

While some remains are hidden away in funeral homes, others were found where they fell in battle or by Civil War re-enactors combing old graveyards.

Communities often turn reburials into major events, allowing residents to celebrate veterans and remember a long-forgotten war. In 2016, a volunteer motorcycle group escorted the remains of one veteran cross country from Oregon to the final resting place in Maine. In South Carolina, the remains of 21 Confederate soldiers recovered from forgotten graves beneath the stands of a military college’s football stadium were reburied in 2005.

Sometimes reburials spark controversy. The discovery of the remains of two soldiers from the Manassas National Battlefield in Virginia prompted an unsuccessful attempt in 2018 by several families to have DNA tests done on them. The Army rejected that request and reburied them as unknown soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

Along with those buried at Tahoma, Keating said, several others will be buried at Washington State Veterans Cemetery and a Navy veteran will be buried at sea. The remains of several more Civil War veterans were sent to Maine, Rhode Island and other places where family connections were found.

Among them was Byron Johnson. Born in Pawtucket in 1844, he enlisted at 18 and served as a hospital steward with the Union Army. He moved out West after the war and died in Seattle in 1913. After his remains were delivered to Pawtucket City Hall, he was buried with military honors at his family's plot in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien said Johnson's burial service was the right thing to do.

“When you have somebody who served in a war but especially this war, we want to honor them,” he said. “It became more intriguing when you think this individual was left out there and not buried in his own community.”

Grebien said the burials recall important lessons about the 1861-1865 war to preserve the Union, fought between the North's Union Army and the Confederate States of America at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.

“It was important to remind people not only in Pawtucket but the state of Rhode Island and nationwide that we have people who sacrificed their lives for us and for a lot of the freedoms we have,” he said.

Bruce Frail and his son Ben — both long active in the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War — were on hand for service. Ben Frail was also a re-enactor at Johnson's service, portraying a Union Army captain.

“It's the best thing we can do for a veteran,” said Bruce Frail, a former commander-in-chief with the Sons of Union Veterans and state coordinator for Missing In America Project.

“The feeling that you get when you honor somebody in that way, it’s indescribable,” he said.

The task of piecing together Johnson’s life story was left to Amelia Boivin, the constituent liaison in the Pawtucket mayor's office. A history buff, she recalled getting the call requesting the city take possession of his remains and bury them with his family. She got to work and Johnson's story became the talk of City Hall.

She determined Johnson grew up in Pawtucket, had two sisters and a brother and worked as a druggist after the war. He left to make his fortune out West, first in San Francisco and eventually in Seattle, where he worked nearly up until his death. It doesn't appear Johnson ever married or had children, and no living relatives were found.

“I felt like it was resolution of sorts,” Boivin said. “It felt like we were doing right for someone who otherwise would have been lost to history."

Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael review – bitchy Da Vinci conquers the army of gnarly nudes

Jonathan Jones

THE GUARDIAN
Tue 5 November 2024

Swirling … a copy of The Battle of Anghiari painted by Rubens, based on Da Vinci’s engraving of 1558.Photograph: Vandeville Eric/ABACA/Shutterstock


‘Art is a serious subject,” say posters put up by the Royal Academy in London to champion art in schools. But is the Royal Academy itself serious? Its main galleries are now full of vacant paintings by Michael Craig-Martin, RA, while three of the greatest artists who ever lived are crammed into a couple of rooms round the back.

Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c 1504 is based on the rivalrous encounter between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo when both were commissioned to paint battle scenes by the Florentine republic. First, Leonardo was tasked to paint a mural of The Battle of Anghiari, in which Florence had defeated Milanese mercenaries. As Leonardo planned it, Michelangelo was commissioned to paint another battle on the same wall.

This exhibition could have been, should have been, a mighty epic. In the golden age of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Florence these two geniuses emerged. They were different ages and had opportunities beyond Florence, so they didn’t meet until “c 1504”, as the exhibition subtitle has it, when both were back in town.

It was a changed place. A revolution inspired by the preacher Savonarola chucked out the Medici and established a popular republic. Savonarola supported a new democratic assembly and spurred the building of the Great Council Hall. Then he was executed. One of his critics, Niccolò Machiavelli, future author of The Prince, became a powerful political figure.

It was probably Machiavelli who came up with a cunning plan to excite the citizens by getting both Leonardo and Michelangelo to paint histories of Florentine battles in the hall. Then it kicked off. Michelangelo insulted Leonardo by goading him about his failure to finish his bronze horse in Milan. At a meeting to decide the location for Michelangelo’s new, nude statue of the biblical hero David, Leonardo suggested the back of the Loggia della Signoria. And its genitals should be covered. Ooh, you bitch, Leonardo.

The Royal Academy’s exhibition tells practically none of this. It makes little attempt to bring “Florence c 1504” to life. There’s nothing about the hall where the standoff took place: I wanted wall-filling photos, digital projections and hi-tech sculptural and architectural simulacra.

No. This is an academic show. A drawing by Raphael of David from behind has to stand in for Michelangelo’s great statue. There is too much Raphael. The show’s insistence on treating him as a third contestant in the Renaissance Turner prize is nonsense.

So up to its halfway point this is a bore. Then the lad from Vinci steps into the ring. The fight is on and it’s not even a contest. Leonardo devastates Michelangelo. The second part brings together many of their preparatory drawings, plus copies of their battle-scene works. It leaves you struggling to give Michelangelo attention.

For without its political background, Michelangelo’s Battle of Cascina is baffling. In a 16th-century copy, naked men are clambering out of a river, rushing to get dressed. In a soft, sensitive sketch, Michelangelo maps out this scene with much warmer beauty.

Is he just indulging his passion for male bodies? One of the models in his drawings turns provocatively, another adopts a boxer-like stance. Michelangelo dwells on back muscles with such gnarly power you feel you are looking at landscapes.

But he is not only pleasing himself – he is satisfying Machiavelli. The story of how a Florentine army was taking a break to swim in the Arno at Cascina when the Pisans attacked, and the soldiers rapidly armed to secure a victory for Florence, is told in Renaissance history books. It was relevant in 1504 because Florence was again at war with Pisa. It was going badly. Machiavelli believed this was because of the bad habit of hiring mercenaries. A republic should have a citizen army always ready – like Michelangelo’s energetic nudes.

Michelangelo was painting propaganda. David, too, was installed in front of the civic palace as a symbol of republican readiness. The political ideas behind them go to the heart of republican theory. The Battle of Cascina and David express the belief in citizen soldiers bearing arms that later inspired the US second amendment. But Michelangelo had not seen war and his designs look false beside the blast of Leonardo’s The Battle of Anghiari.

Just before this, Leonardo served as military engineer to Cesare Borgia, psychopathic son of Pope Alexander VI. You can witness the soulless, inhuman snarls of the killers he had encountered in a copy of The Battle of Anghiari by Rubens. It’s an interpretation rather than a replica but Leonardo’s drawings confirm its scene of an old warrior howling from his leathery cruel face as he prepares to chop off an enemy’s hand.

This frenzied hate makes Leonardo’s preparatory drawings in red chalk and brown ink throb like beating hearts that have just been torn out of an enemy body to eat. On one sheet horses rear, their mouths churning, a furious human face mirrors their madness and a snarling lion is thrown in for good measure. In another, a rearing horse shakes its body so violently Leonardo draws it in a blur of positions that anticipates Eadweard Muybridge and futurism.

Related: Drawing the Italian Renaissance review – Christ, naked and muscly, leaps from the grave

If he looks forward, he also looks back. He sees in The Battle of Anghiari a basic, primal human capacity to transform from civilised creature to wild animal. A drawing that reduces a horse to a rush of red chalk lines thrusting through space resembles cave art.

At the same time, Leonardo worked on inventions. On one sheet war sketches are mixed up with cogwheels. His interests, including an attempt to fly, distracted him and the Florentine republic got furious. Michelangelo was called away by Pope Julius II. The Medici retook Florence, desecrated the Great Council Hall and probably destroyed The Battle of Anghiari.

This is a flawed exhibition but you will never forget Leonardo ’s vision of war. Fill your nightmares with apocalypse c 1504.

• Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael: Florence, c 1504 is at the Royal Academy, London, from 9 November to 16 February

Guy Fawkes’ punishment was one of the most severe in English history – here’s what happens when a body is hung, drawn and quartered

LIKE POOR WILLIAM WALLACE

GUY FAWKES THE ONLY MAN TO ENTER PARLIAMENT WITH HONEST INTENTIONS

OLD ANARCHIST SAYING

Michelle Spear, Professor of Anatomy, University of Bristol
Tue 5 November 2024 

Fawkes and his co-conspirators were sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering. Crispijn van de Passe the Elder/ Wikimedia Commons

After their infamous plot to destroy parliament was foiled, Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators received one of the most severe judicial sentences in English history: hanging, drawing and quartering. According to the Treason Act 1351, this punishment involved:

That you be drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, where you shall be hanged by the neck and being alive cut down, your privy members shall be cut off and your bowels taken out and burned before you, your head severed from your body and your body divided into four quarters to be disposed of at the King’s pleasure.

This process aimed not only to inflict excruciating pain on the condemned, but to serve as a deterrent – demonstrating the fate of those who betrayed the Crown. While Fawkes reportedly jumped from the gallows – which meant he avoided the full extent of his punishment – his co-conspirators apparently weren’t so lucky.

By dissecting each stage of this medieval punishment from an anatomical perspective, we can understand the profound agony each of them endured.

Torture for confession

Before his public execution on January 31, 1606, Fawkes was tortured to force a confession about his involvement in the “gunpowder plot”.

The Tower of London records confirm that King James I personally authorised “the gentler tortures first”. Accounts reveal that Fawkes was stretched on the rack – a device designed to slowly pull the limbs in opposite directions. This stretching inflicted severe trauma on the shoulders, elbows and hips, as well as the spine.

The forces exerted by the rack probably exceeded those required for joint or hip dislocation under normal conditions.

Substantive differences between Fawkes’ signatures on confessions between November 8 and shortly before his execution may indicate the amount of nerve and soft tissue damage sustained. It also illustrates how remarkable his final leap from the gallows was.

The rack slowly pulled a prisoner’s limbs in opposite directions. Wellcome Collection/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

Stage 1: hanging (partial strangulation)

After surviving the torture of the rack, Fawkes and his gang faced the next stage of their punishment: hanging. But this form of hanging only partially strangled the condemned – preserving their consciousness and prolonging their suffering.

Partial strangulation exerts extreme pressure on several critical neck structures. The hyoid bone, a small u-shaped structure above the larynx, is prone to bruising or fracture under compression.

Simultaneously, pressure on the carotid arteries restricts blood flow to the brain, while compression of the jugular veins causes pooling of blood in the head – probably resulting in visible haemorrhages in the eyes and face.

Because the larynx and trachea (both essential for airflow) are partially obstructed, this makes breathing laboured. Strain on the cervical spine and surrounding muscles in the neck can lead to tearing, muscle spasms or dislocation of the vertebra – causing severe pain.

Fawkes brought his agony to a premature end by leaping from the gallows. Accounts from the time tell us:

His body being weak with the torture and sickness, he was scarce able to go up the ladder – yet with much ado, by the help of the hangman, went high enough to break his neck by the fall.

This probably caused him to suffer a bilateral fracture of his second cervical vertebra, assisted by his own bodyweight – an injury known as the “hangman’s fracture”.
Stage 2: Drawing (disembowelment)

After enduring partial hanging, the victim would then be “drawn” – a process which involved disembowelling them while still alive. This act mainly targeted the organs of the abdominal cavity – including the intestines, liver and kidney, as well as major blood vessels such as the abdominal aorta.

The physiological response to disembowelment would have been immediate and severe. The abdominal cavity possesses a high concentration of pain receptors – particularly around the membranous lining of the abdomen. When punctured, these pain receptors would have sent intense pain signals to the brain, overwhelming the body’s capacity for pain management. Shock would soon follow due to the rapid drop in blood pressure caused by massive amounts of blood loss.

Stage 3: quartering (dismemberment)

Quartering was also supposed to be performed while the victim was still alive. Though no accounts exist detailing at what phase victims typically lost consciousness during execution, it’s highly unlikely many survived the shock of being drawn.

So, at this stage, publicity superseded punishment given the victim’s likely earlier demise. Limbs that were removed from criminals were preserved by boiling them with spices. These were then toured around the country to act as a deterrent for others.

Though accounts suggest Fawkes’s body parts were sent to “the four corners of the United Kingdom”, there is no specific record of what was sent where. However, his head was displayed in London.

Traitor’s punishment

The punishment of hanging, drawing and quartering was designed to be as anatomically devastating as it was psychologically terrifying. Each stage of the process exploited the vulnerabilities of the human body to create maximum pain and suffering, while also serving as a grim reminder of the consequences of treason.

This punishment also gives us an insight into how medieval justice systems used the body as a canvas for social and political messaging. Fawkes’s fate, though unimaginable today, exemplifies the extremes to which the state could, and would, go to maintain control, power and authority over its subjects.

The sentence of hanging, drawing and quartering was officially removed from English law as part of the Forfeiture Act of 1870.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Michelle Spear does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

What is the weather forecast for Guy Fawkes night? Scotland set for mild evening
Mark McDougall
Mon 4 November 2024 at 1:12 am GMT-7·2-min read


The festival will be held at the Royal Highland Centre (Image: Fawkes Festival)

Scotland is set to experience a mild but cloudy Guy Fawkes night on Tuesday with temperatures sticking at around 10 degrees throughout the day and evening across the country.

Glasgow could even experience it being warmer, with suggestions from the Met Office that the temperature could reach as high as 12 degrees Celsius, and it’s due to get even warmer as the week goes on with the potential for high teens.

It’s good news for anyone celebrating Guy Fawkes night, which commemorates a failed attempt to blow up the UK parliament in 1605.

People across the UK celebrate it with fireworks displays and bonfires and they may be able to do so without the need to get as wrapped up as they normally would at this time of year.

The Met Office says Tuesday will be “remaining dry with a good deal of cloud and also some brighter interludes. Staying mild. Maximum temperature 12 °C.”

It’s a similar story in Edinburgh with temperatures expected to be a degree or two lower than in the west of Scotland, while it’s likely to be a bit colder in the Highlands too but still not at freezing levels.

READ MORE

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Tom Morgan, a meteorologist with the Met Office, said: “It’s going to be mild for this time of year, so you won’t necessarily need hats and scarves and gloves.

“With temperatures expected to be probably still in the double figures for many places in the evening hours.”

Mr Morgan also said the UK would be unaffected by the recent weather patterns that have brought heavy rain and flash flooding to Spain.

He said: “You’ve got contrasting fortunes whether you’re living in north-west Europe and down across southern Europe.

“It’s very different weather patterns affecting Iberia.

“It’s a slow-moving area of low pressure that’s bringing the very unsettled thundery weather with heavy rain and thunderstorms.

“Across the UK, we’ve got high pressure, which acts as a lid on our weather.

“It causes the air to descend, and as that happens, there’s no upward motion in the air, so it means there’s no recipe for clouds to produce rain, and it also means the winds are going to be light.”

REMEMBER, REMEMBER
THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER 

South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users


South Korean Personal Information Protection Commission’s director Lee Eun Jung speaks during a briefing at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (Lee Jung-hun/Yonhap via AP)

BY KIM TONG-HYUNG
 November 5, 2024

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.

It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.

Following a four-year investigation, South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.

It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.

South Korea’s privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.

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The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.

The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.

“While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent,” Lee said.

Lee also said Meta put the privacy of Facebook users at risk by failing to implement basic security measures such as removing or blocking inactive pages. As a result, hackers were able to use inactive pages to forge identities and request password resets for the accounts of other Facebook users. Meta approved these requests without proper verification, which resulted in data breaches affecting at least 10 South Korean Facebook users, Lee said.

In September, European regulators hit Meta with over $100 million in fines for a 2019 security lapse in which user passwords were temporarily exposed in an un-encrypted form.

Meta’s South Korean office said it would “carefully review” the commission’s decision, but didn’t immediately provide more comment.

In 2022, the commission fined Google and Meta a combined 100 billion won ($72 million) for tracking consumers’ online behavior without their consent and using their data for targeted advertisements, in the biggest penalties ever imposed in South Korea for privacy law violations.

The commission said then that the two companies didn’t clearly inform users or obtain their consent to collect data about them as they used other websites or services outside their own platforms. It ordered the companies to provide an “easy and clear” consent process to give people more control over whether to share information about what they do online.


The commission also hit Meta with a 6.7 billion won ($4.8 million) fine in 2020 for providing personal information about itsx users to third parties without consent.

Montana Rep. Zooey Zephyr must win reelection to return to the House floor after 2023 sanction


 Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula, stands in protest on the House floor as demonstrators are arrested in the House gallery, April 24, 2023, at the state capitol in Helena, Mont. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File)

Missoula Rep. Zooey Zephyr, right, and her fiancee Erin Reed, left, wave to supporters during the Missoula Pride Parade, June 17, 2023, in Missoula, Mont. (Ben Allan Smith/The Missoulian via AP, File)

 Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr poses for a photo at the state capitol in Helena, Mont., April 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Tommy Martino, File)

BY HANNAH SCHOENBAUM AND AMY BETH HANSON
November 5, 2024

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr is seeking reelection in a race that could allow the transgender lawmaker to return to the House floor nearly two years after she was silenced and sanctioned by her Republican colleagues.

Zephyr, a Democrat, is highly favored to defeat Republican Barbara Starmer in her Democrat-leaning district in the college town of Missoula. Republicans still dominate statewide with control of the governor’s office and a two-thirds majority in the Legislature.

The first-term Democrat was last permitted to speak on the chamber floor in April 2023, when she refused to apologize for saying some lawmakers would have blood on their hands for supporting a ban on gender-affirming medical care for youth.

Before voting to expel Zephyr from the chamber, Republicans called her words hateful and accused her of inciting a protest that brought the session to a temporary standstill. Some even sought to equate the non-violent demonstration with an insurrection.

Her exile technically ended when the 2023 session adjourned, but because the Legislature did not meet this year, she must win reelection to make her long-awaited return to the House floor in 2025.

Zephyr said she hopes the upcoming session will focus less on politicizing transgender lives, including her own, and more on issues that affect a wider swath of Montana residents, such as housing affordability and health care access.

“Missoula is a city that has cared for me throughout the toughest periods of my life. It is a city that I love deeply,” she told The Associated Press. “So, for me, getting a chance to go back in that room and fight for the community that I serve is a joy and a privilege.”

Zephyr’s clash with Montana Republicans propelled her into the national spotlight at a time when GOP-led legislatures were considering hundreds of bills to restrict transgender people in sports, schools, health care and other areas of public life.

She has since become a leading voice for transgender rights across the country, helping fight against a torrent of anti-trans rhetoric on the presidential campaign trail from Donald Trump and his allies. Her campaign season has been split between Montana and other states where Democrats are facing competitive races.

Zephyr said she views her case as one of several examples in which powerful Republicans have undermined the core tenets of democracy to silence opposition. She has warned voters that another Trump presidency could further erode democracy on a national level, citing the then-president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump’s vice presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has said he does not think his running mate lost the 2020 election, echoing Trump’s false claims that the prior presidential election was stolen from him.

Zephyr’s sanction came weeks after Tennessee Republicans expelled Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the Legislature for chanting along with gun control supporters who packed the House gallery in response to a Nashville school shooting that killed six people, including three children. Jones and Pearson were later reinstated.

Oklahoma Republicans also censured a nonbinary Democratic colleague after state troopers said the lawmaker blocked them from questioning an activist accused of assaulting a police officer during a protest over legislation banning children from receiving gender-affirming care, such as puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.
___

Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City.

Alaska voters deciding a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat, election issues

BY BECKY BOHRER
November 5, 2024Share

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska voters were deciding Tuesday a hard-fought race for the state’s only U.S. House seat that could help decide control of that chamber. They were also choosing whether to repeal the state’s system of open primaries and ranked choice general elections just four years after opting to give that system a go.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola sought to fend off GOP efforts to wrest back the seat held for 49 years by Republican Rep. Don Young, who died in 2022. Peltola’s main challenger was Republican Nick Begich, who is from a family of prominent Democrats and was among the opponents she defeated in special and regular elections two years ago when Peltola, who is Yup’ik, became the first Alaska Native elected to Congress.

In addition to the repeal initiative, the ballot included a measure that would raise the state’s minimum wage and require paid sick leave for many employees, a measure opposed by groups including several chambers of commerce and a seafood processors association.
Fifty of the Legislature’s 60 seats were up for election, too, with control of the state House and Senate up for grabs. The closely divided House has struggled to organize following the last three election cycles. In Alaska, lawmakers don’t always organize according to party.

In Alaska’s marquee House race, Peltola tried to distance herself from presidential politics, declining to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris and dismissing any weight an endorsement from her might carry anyway in a state that last went for a Democratic presidential nominee in 1964. She cast herself as someone willing to work across party lines and played up her role in getting the Biden administration to approve the massive Willow oil project, which enjoys broad political support in Alaska.

Begich, whose grandfather, the late Democrat Nick Begich, held the seat before Young, was endorsed by former President Donald Trump following his showing in the primary.

Trump’s initial pick, Republican Lt. Gov. Nancy Dahlstrom, bowed to pressure from Republicans seeking to consolidate behind one candidate following her third-place finish in the primary and dropped out. Alaska’s open primaries allow the top four vote-getters to advance. The initial fourth place finisher, Republican Matthew Salisbury, also quit, leaving Alaskan Independence Party candidate John Wayne Howe and Eric Hafner, a Democrat with no apparent ties to the state who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for threatening authorities and others in New Jersey, on the ballot.

Begich, the founder of a software development company, sought to cast Peltola as ineffective in stopping actions taken by the Biden administration that limited resource development in a state dependent upon it, including the decision to cancel leases issued for oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Alaska is one of just two states that has adopted ranked voting — and would be the first to repeal it if the ballot initiative succeeds. In 2020, Alaskans in a narrow vote opted to scrap party primaries in favor of open primaries and ranked vote general elections. Most registered voters in Alaska aren’t affiliated with a party, and the new system was cast as a way to provide voters with more choice and to bring moderation to the election process. Critics, however, called it confusing.

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican and Trump critic who has been at odds with party leaders, appeared in an ad in support of keeping open primaries and ranked voting.

Opponents of the system succeeded in getting enough signatures to qualify the repeal measure for the ballot — and withstood a monthslong legal fight to keep it on the ballot. Begich was among those who supported the repeal, and the state Republican Party also has endorsed repeal efforts.

59% of Boeing machinists vote to accept company's latest contract offer, ending strike

 

Boeing machinists agree to new contract, ending weeks-long strike

Nov. 4, 2024
UPI

The Boeing logo hangs from the Boeing Building, international headquarters in Chicago on March 31, 2011. One of Boeing's key unions voted to approve a new contract on Monday. File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI | License Photo


Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Tens of thousands of striking Boeing machinists voted Monday to ratify a new contract, ending their seven-week work stoppage.

In a statement, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union said its members approved to ratify the contract by 59%.

Workers can return to work as early as the first shift Wednesday, it said.

"Working people know what it's like when a company overreaches and takes away more than is fair," Jon Holden, president of IAM District 751, and Brandon Bryant, president of IAM District W24, said in a joint statement.

Related

Boeing Machinists reject deal to end nearly six-week strike
Boeing to lay off 17,000 workers, delay 777X rollout amid machinists strike
Hundreds of Spirit AeroSystems employees furloughed amid Boeing strike

"Through this strike and the resulting victory, frontline workers at Boeing have done their part to begin rebalancing the scales in favor of the middle class -- and in doing so, we hope to inspire other workers in our industry and beyond to continue standing up for justice at work."

The contract includes a 38% pay increase over the course of the four-year contract but does not include the pension change the union had demanded.

The pay increase is better than the 25% the union turned down before going on strike nearly two months ago, but only slightly better than the 35% the 33,000-member union had turned down in the last vote on Oct. 24.

"This agreement represents a new standard in the aerospace industry -- one that sends a clear statement that aerospace jobs must be middle class careers in which workers can thrive," Brian Bryant, IAM international president, said late Monday following the vote.

"This agreement reflects the positive results of workers sticking together, participating in workplace democracy and demonstrating solidarity with each other and with the community during a necessary and effective strike."

Members voted through 7 p.m. PST on Monday, with the announcement of the tally made late Monday night.

Pro-union President Joe Biden issued a statement congratulating both sides on "coming to an agreement that reflects the hard work and sacrifices" made by the workers.

"Over the last four years, we've shown collective bargaining works. Good contracts benefit workers, businesses and consumers -- and are key to growing the American economy from the middle out and the bottom up," he said.

The machinist's average pay, according to Boeing, will be $119,309 by the end of the offered contract. Many of the union workers in the Seattle area, where most of the airplanes are made, had complained about inflation and the rising cost of living in the area.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat who represents Washington's 7th District, which includes most of Seattle, had voiced support for the striking during the work stoppage.

Following the announcement late Monday, she remarked in a statement on Boeing's history on building the middle class in her city and how this contract "is a promising sign that the new leadership is committed to returning to that role as a business that is contributing to our region, state and country's well-being for current and future generations."

The strike crippled Boeing's union factories.

The plant closures because of the strike left hundreds of Spirit AeroSystems employees furloughed while Boeing has laid off 17,000 others. It has also delayed the debut of its 777X widebody airplane until 2026.

Boeing union  approves contract, ending over 7-week strike

By AFP
November 5, 2024

People look on as the Boeing Machinist union tallies votes on the latest Boeing contract offer at the District Lodge 751 Union Hall in Seattle, Washington on November 4, 2024 - Copyright AFP Jason Redmond

Jason REDMOND with John BIERS in New York

Striking workers at Boeing approved a new contract proposal on Monday, ending a more than seven-week stoppage that had cost the beleaguered aviation giant billions.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751 said it had ratified the offer by a vote of 59 percent after rejecting two prior offers.

The move will send some 33,000 Seattle-area employees back to work and restore operations at two major assembly plants at a time when Boeing is trying to recover from multiple setbacks.

The contract includes a 38 percent wage hike, a $12,000 signing bonus and provisions to lift employer contributions to a 401K retirement plan and contain health care costs.

But the contract does not restore Boeing’s former pension plan that had been sought by older workers.

Jon Holden, head of the Seattle union, described the agreement as a win for workers who were determined to make up for more than a decade of stagnant wages from prior negotiations that had enraged many rank-and-file workers.

“The strike will end and now it’s our job to get back to work and start building the airplanes, increase the rates and bring this company back to financial success,” Holden said at a news conference.

Holden described the contract as “rebalancing the scales in favor of the middle class” after earlier concessions to the company, according to an IAM press release.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg welcomed the ratification, adding that management and workers must work together as “part of the same team,” according to a statement released by the company.

“We will only move forward by listening and working together,” Ortberg said. “There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

The news was also cheered by President Joe Biden, who congratulated the union on the wage hike and provisions that “improves workers’ ability to retire with dignity,” according to a statement released by the White House.

“Good contracts benefit workers, businesses, and consumers — and are key to growing the American economy from the middle out and the bottom up,” Biden said.

Boeing staff can return as soon as November 6 and must be back on the job by November 12, the IAM said on social media platform X.

– Turnaround mode –

The strike had exacerbated Boeing’s already precarious outlook after a January incident in which a fuselage panel blew out mid-flight on a 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines.

There were no major injuries, but the episode plunged Boeing back into crisis after two earlier fatal MAX crashes, with US air safety regulators limiting production output until the company got its house in order.

In March, Boeing announced a management shakeup that included the exit of CEO Dave Calhoun, who was replaced in August by former Rockwell Collins chief Ortberg.

Ortberg has cautioned that a turnaround at Boeing would take time given travails that also include major cost management problems in defense contracts and problem-filled space missions.

In October, as Boeing reported a whopping $6.2 billion quarterly loss, Ortberg described the need for a “fundamental culture change” at Boeing and said he was reviewing the company’s portfolio with an eye towards shrinking its mission in order to restore excellence.

Bu the IAM strike had threatened turnaround efforts under the new CEO.

Jo-Ellen Pozner, an associate professor at Santa Clara University’s business school, had warned ahead of the vote that another rejection by IAM workers could have plunged the company into deeper crisis.

But with the contract now ratified, “there is a way forward,” she said.

The IAM strike had been driven by worker exasperation after more than a decade of near stagnant pay — a problem exacerbated by higher inflation in recent years and higher living costs in the Seattle region, a growing tech hub.

The strike recently surpassed the 2023 United Auto Workers strike against Detroit carmakers to become the costliest in the 21st Century, according to Anderson Economic Group, which estimated the total economic hit at $11.6 billion.

Boeing factory strike ends as workers vote to accept contract


A strike by 33,000 Boeing factory workers is coming to an end. Union machinists voted on Monday to accept the company’s latest contract offer, which includes a 38% pay raise over four years.

 
IAM District 751 president Jon Holden greets union members after announcing they voted to accept a new contract offer from Boeing, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, at their union hall in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

Joe Perry, who has worked for Boeing for 38 years, waits for the results of the union vote on a new contract offer from Boeing, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, at IAM District 751 Union Hall in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

A volunteer sorts votes on a new contract offer from Boeing, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024, at the IAM District 751 Union Hall in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)


BY DAVID KOENIG, LINDSEY WASSON AND HANNAH SCHOENBAUM
November 5, 2024

SEATTLE (AP) — Factory workers at Boeing voted to accept a contract offer and end their strike after more than seven weeks, clearing the way for the aerospace giant to resume production of its bestselling airliner and generate much-needed cash.

Leaders of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers district in Seattle said 59% of members who cast ballots agreed to approve the company’s fourth formal offer and the third put to a vote. The deal includes a 38% wage increase over four years, and ratification and productivity bonuses.

However, Boeing refused to meet strikers’ demand to restore a company pension plan that was frozen nearly a decade ago.

The contract’s ratification on the eve of Election Day cleared the way for a major U.S. manufacturer and government contractor to restart Pacific Northwest assembly lines that the walkout idled for 53 days.
Bank of America analysts estimated last month that Boeing was losing about $50 million a day during the now-ended strike, which did not affect a nonunion plant in South Carolina where the company makes 787s.

Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to employees that he was pleased to have reached an agreement.


Boeing machinists vote on contract to end 7-week strike

Boeing union workers will stay on picket lines after voting against latest offer

Boeing factory workers reject contract, prolong six-week strike

“While the past few months have been difficult for all of us, we are all part of the same team,” Ortberg said. “We will only move forward by listening and working together. There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

According to the union, the 33,000 workers it represents can return to work as soon as Wednesday or as late as Nov. 12. Ortberg has said it might take “a couple of weeks” to resume production in part because some workers might need retraining.

The average annual pay of Boeing machinists is currently $75,608 and eventually will rise to $119,309 under the new contract, according to the company. The union said the compounded value of the promised pay raise would amount to an increase of more than 43% over the life of the agreement.

“It’s time for us to come together. This is a victory,” IAM District 751 President Jon Holden told members while announcing the tally late Monday. “You stood strong and you stood tall and you won.”

Reactions were mixed even among union members who voted to accept the contract.

Although she voted “yes,” Seattle-based calibration specialist Eep Bolaño said the outcome was “most certainly not a victory.” Bolaño said she and her fellow workers made a wise but infuriating choice to accept the offer.

“We were threatened by a company that was crippled, dying, bleeding on the ground, and us as one of the biggest unions in the country couldn’t even extract two-thirds of our demands from them. This is humiliating,” she said.

For other workers like William Gardiner, a lab lead in calibration services, the revised offer was a cause for celebration.

“I’m extremely pumped over this vote,” said Gardiner, who has worked for Boeing for 13 years. “We didn’t fix everything — that’s OK. Overall, it’s a very positive contract.”

Union leaders had endorsed the latest proposal, saying they thought they had gotten all they could though negotiations and the strike. Along with the wage increase, the new contract gives each worker a $12,000 ratification bonus and retains a performance bonus the company wanted to eliminate.

“It is time for our members to lock in these gains and confidently declare victory,” the local union district said before the vote. “We believe asking members to stay on strike longer wouldn’t be right as we have achieved so much success.”

President Joe Biden congratulated the machinists and Boeing for coming to an agreement that he said supports fairness in the workplace and improves workers’ ability to retire with dignity. The contract, he said, is important for Boeing’s future as “a critical part of America’s aerospace sector.”

Biden’s acting labor secretary, Julie Su, intervened in the negotiations several times, including when Boeing made its latest offer last week.

A continuing strike would have plunged Boeing into further financial peril and uncertainty. Last month, Ortberg announced plans to lay off about 17,000 people and a stock sale to prevent the company’s credit rating from being cut to junk status.

The strike began Sept. 13 with an overwhelming 94.6% rejection of the company’s offer to raise pay by 25% over four years — far less than the union’s original demand for 40% wage increases over three years.

Machinists voted down another offer — 35% raises over four years, and still no revival of pensions — on Oct. 23, the same day that Boeing reported a third-quarter loss of more than $6 billion.

The contract rejections reflected bitterness that built up after union concessions and small pay increases over the past decade.

The labor standoff — the first strike by Boeing machinists since an eight-week walkout in 2008 — was the latest setback in a volatile year for the aerospace giant. The 2008 strike lasted eight weeks and cost the company about $100 million daily in deferred revenue. A 1995 strike lasted 10 weeks.

Boeing came under several federal investigations this year after a door plug blew off a 737 Max plane during an Alaska Airlines flight in January. Federal regulators put limits on Boeing airplane production that they said would last until they felt confident about manufacturing safety at the company.

The door-plug incident renewed concerns about the safety of the 737 Max. Two of the planes had crashed less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people. The CEO at the time, whose efforts to fix the company failed, announced in March that he would step down. In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud for deceiving regulators who approved the 737 Max.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said Monday’s vote puts Boeing’s future back on more solid footing.

“Washington is home to the world’s most skilled aerospace workers, and they understandably took a stand for the respect and compensation they deserve,” Inslee said in a statement congratulating the workers.

What next for Moldova after pro-Europe president's win?

Keno Verseck

DW

Moldova's pro-European President Maia Sandu was the clear winner in Sunday's runoff election amid ongoing allegations of Russian interference. She now pledges to accelerate reform and consolidate democratization.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu (pictured here with a large bouquet of white roses) won Sunday's presidential election runoff

Image: Vadim Ghirda/AP/dpa/picture alliance


It was an election day like no other in Europe's recent history.

While turnout for the presidential election runoff in the Republic of Moldova on Sunday broke records — especially among Moldovan voters living abroad — the day was overshadowed by widespread attempts to interfere in the election and disrupt voting.

For one thing, there were systematic bomb threats against polling stations, which had to be temporarily closed.

Moreover, Moldovan police are investigating allegations that Russia organized numerous flights to bring voters from Russia to Turkey and other countries so they could cast their vote in embassies and consulates there.
Nerve-wracking vote count

After a nail-biting 90-minute count, the unofficial result was announced shortly after midnight.

In the end, the outcome was crystal clear: Moldova's incumbent president, Maia Sandu, who would like to see her country join the EU and is pushing for radical reforms, won the election with about 55% of the vote.

Turnout in Sunday's presidential election runoff reached record levels by Moldovan standards

Image: Vladislav Culiomza/REUTERS

Her challenger, Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor-general who was removed from office because of corruption allegations and who had the backing of the country's pro-Russian parties, bagged about 45% of the vote.

Turnout on Sunday stood at about 52% — a record for the Republic of Moldova, especially when one considers how difficult it is for many voters to cast their vote: Some of the country's estimated 2.8 million inhabitants live in the separatist pro-Russian region of Transnistria, while hundreds of thousands live elsewhere in Europe.

Manipulation failed despite massive interference

In short, Russia's widespread attempts in recent weeks and months to interfere in polls in Moldova and shape their outcomes failed. The country's pro-European path is secure for the time being.

However, it is likely that without Russia's hybrid attack on the recent elections and referendum, the result for Maia Sandu would have been even more decisive.

The EU referendum two weeks ago, when voters were asked whether the country's ambition to join the EU should be anchored in the Moldovan constitution, passed with a wafer-thin majority of about 10,000 votes.

Police have said that a massive amount of votes were bought in the referendum and first round of the presidential election two weeks ago.
'Today, you have saved Moldova!'

Before midnight, Maia Sandu appeared before her supporters at the headquarters of the party she herself founded, the Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS). She was cheered and celebrated as the winner.

The relief and joy was written all over Maia Sandu's face on Sunday evening after it became clear that she had won the election

Image: DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP

After midnight, already completely hoarse, Sandu spoke to the country and the press. Her acceptance speech was very emotional.

"Today, dear Moldovans, you have given a lesson in democracy, worthy of being written in history books," she declared. "Freedom, truth and justice have prevailed."

Sandu also addressed Moldovans living abroad: "You are incredible," she said. "You have shown that your heart is in our country."

Self-critical remarks

Several times in her speech, the reelected president said that she had heard the critical voices and "the voice of those who voted differently."

At one point, she switched from Romanian, the official language of Moldova, to Russian, and said that regardless of their ethnicity and language, all citizens in the country want to "live in peace, prosperity and in a democracy and united society."

Sandu repeated her serious allegations of fraud from the first round of the election and the campaign of the past two weeks. She said that there had been an "unprecedented assault" on the country, an attempt to buy votes with dirty money and "interference by foreign forces and criminal groups."

'Thieves want to buy our votes and our country, but the power of the people is infinitely stronger than all their machinations,' Sandu told local media after casting her vote on SundayImage: Vladislav Culiomza/REUTERS

She was also critical of herself, noting that the speed of reform had so far been inadequate and saying: "We must speed up the implementation of reforms and consolidate our democracy."
Cabinet reshuffle expected very soon

Both the president and the government she supports are under enormous pressure to deliver. Expectations across the country are very high.

Despite the fact that Sandu has long had a reputation for being incorruptible, a woman of integrity and a determined reformer, as president, she has limited power.

Parliamentary elections are due to take place in Moldova in 2025. If the government of Prime Minister Dorin Recean, a Sandu ally, does not come up with better social policies and more judicial and anti-corruption reforms, the country's pro-European path could be at risk.

A cabinet reshuffle is expected in the near future. It is likely that a number of ministers will be replaced.
Geopolitical election

Commentators on Moldovan public television all agreed that Sunday's election had been a geopolitical one in which Moldova had to decide between Russia and the prospect of a future in a democratic Europe.

The other candidate in Sunday's runoff was former prosecutor-general Alexandr Stoianoglo (pictured here)Image: Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo/picture alliance

Most also agreed that there had been "unprecedented criminal activities" against the country.

"Russia and Ilan Shor's criminal group invested a sum equivalent to 1% of our gross domestic product to influence this election. There was phenomenal pressure and an enormous amount of disinformation and manipulation," said Valeriu Pasa, chairman of the civil society organization Watchdog.

Pasa went on to say that "our government and our country now have many lessons to learn [...] in the judiciary, in the fight against corruption, and in the way we deal with society and above all pensioners — a particularly large number of whom are susceptible to disinformation."

He insisted that "kid gloves cannot be used in the fight against con men like Shor. Vigorous action is needed."
A stark warning to Moldova's European partners

Israeli-born Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor is seen as one of the ringleaders in what is known in Moldova as the "theft of the century," when about a billion euros was stolen from three Moldovan banks between 2012 and 2014. Shor fled to Israel before he was due to begin his 15-year prison sentence. He now lives in Russia.

Police accuse convicted fugitive Israeli-born Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor (pictured here) of being heavily involved in an alleged Russian-backed vote-buying schemeImage: Alexey Filippov/SNA/IMAGO

The Moldovan Police suspect him of working with the Russian secret services to run a large-scale sophisticated vote-buying scheme in the run-up to the recent polls. It is estimated that up to 300,000 votes were bought.

Writer Nicolae Negru said that Russia had used Moldova to test such experimental methods of manipulation, stressing that it is now important to ask how a fraud on this scale was not prevented by the authorities, despite the fact that they had long been aware of it.

Political scientist Iulian Groza of the Moldovan Institute for European Policies and Reforms (IPRE) said that the scale of the manipulation and "Russia's sophisticated tools" must not be underestimated.

"Russia will not stop, neither in our country nor elsewhere in Europe," said Groza. "The recent practices and experience in our country must give all our European partners food for thought."

This article was originally published in German and adapted by Aingeal Flanagan.