Sunday, October 08, 2023

Two months of fire and flood: Greece’s climate disasters, visualized

Record rainfall and wildfires have devastated the country since the summer. Here’s a look at the disasters that will leave the country changed for years.

A flooded road after Storm Elias in Sotirio, central Greece, on Sept. 29 and a burning tree after wildfires in Archanes, north of Athens, on Aug. 23.

Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP-Getty Images

Oct. 8, 2023,
By Mithil Aggarwal and Jiachuan Wu

Greece is at war with climate change.

Wildfires and record rainfall devastated the country this summer, first scorching entire forests then flooding complete towns.

Here’s a look at two months of disasters that will leave the country changed for years.
The fires

The blaze began near the city of Alexandroupolis in the eastern Evros region on Aug. 19, spreading rapidly, merging with smaller fires and forming an inferno that reduced hundreds of square miles of forest to dust and ash.

The extent of the Greek wildfires

More than 672 square miles have burned so far this year.

GREECE

Athens

BULGARIA

Burnt area

Aug. 19-Sept. 14

GREECE

Aegean Sea

GREECE

Athens

BULGARIA

Burnt area

Aug. 19-Sept. 14

GREECE

Aegean Sea

GREECE

Athens

BULGARIA

Burnt area

Aug. 19-Sept. 14

GREECE

Aegean Sea

Overnight, walls of flames raged through forests, prompting authorities to evacuate complete villages and hospitals as first responders battled to tame the fire for days.

Hundreds of firefighters from Greece and across the European Union were deployed along with dozens of aircraft.

The hot, tinder-dry conditions, which scientists said were made worse by climate change, created one of Greece’s hottest summers on record and the perfect conditions for blazes that killed at least 18 people.

While the total number of fires recorded through Wednesday this year, 51, is lower than last year’s total of 66, the blazes have burned almost nine times more land.

The fires were the largest ever faced by the European Union, Janez Lenarčič, the European commissioner for crisis management, said in August.

Scientists say extreme weather phenomena are only going to be more common as the effects of climate change worsen.

When all was over in early September, residents had begun to return to what remained of their villages only to be battered by record rainfall.
The floods

Storm Daniel, the deadly cyclone that flooded areas of the Mediterranean from Greece to Libya in early September, became one of the most fierce storms Greece had ever seen, sweeping houses off their foundations with rainfall that lasted three days and claimed at least 17 lives.

In the year to mid-September, 51 fires burned more than 672 square miles in Greece.

1,049

165

138

203

122

505

672

Homes and roads were destroyed, bridges collapsed, and fertile crops in the Thessaly plains in western Greece — known as the country’s breadbasket — were wiped out.

Many farmers lost their life’s work.

The flood area in Greece

GREECE

Athens

Aegean Sea

Flooding area as of Sept. 10

Larissa

Marathea

Palamas

Karditsa

In rural towns like Koskinas and Palamas, which were among some of the worst-hit areas, walls were ripped off of homes and cars were covered in thick sludge as people searched for their belongings for days.

Georgia Bloufa, a 60-year-old widow in Palamas, worked at a local restaurant that was destroyed by the floods. She escaped her family’s house around 5 a.m., her youngest grandson carried on his father’s shoulders. Her cousin called the police, but it was no use.

“They said they don’t know anything,” she previously told NBC News. “People were not warned.”

Flood damage in the village of Koskinas, in the central region of Thessaly, Greece

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last month the country has faced “an unprecedented weather event, a catastrophe of immense proportions.”

“We need an unprecedented response,” he told European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.

Flood damage in the village of Agia Triada, Greece

Just a few days later, Storm Elias wreaked havoc on the port city of Volos, again flooding streets that had barely dried up from the previous disaster.

More than 3,000 people had been relocated due to the crippling rain, the country’s fire service said last week.

Mithil Aggarwal is a Hong Kong-based reporter/producer for NBC News.

Jiachuan Wu is a national interactive journalist for NBC News Digital.

'NOT INVINCIBLE'

Israel's security forces face questions after Hamas attack lays bare intelligence gaps
2023/10/08

By Emily Rose

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - As Israel reeled from a deadly attack by Hamas militants who broke through barriers around Gaza and roamed at will, killing scores of civilians in Israeli towns, defence chiefs faced growing questions over how the disaster could have happened.

A day after the 50th anniversary of the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur war, when Israeli forces were caught off guard by Syrian and Egyptian tank columns, the military appeared once again to have been surprised by a sudden attack.

"It looks quite similar to what happened at that time," said retired General Giora Eiland, a former head of Israel's National Security Council. "As we can see it, Israel was completely surprised, by a very well coordinated attack," he told a briefing with reporters.

An army spokesman said there would be discussions on the intelligence preparation "down the road" but for the moment the focus was on fighting. "We'll talk about that when we need to talk about it," he told a briefing with reporters.

Israel has always regarded Hamas as its sworn enemy, but since inflicting heavy damage on Gaza in a 10-day war in 2021, Israel had adopted a mix of carrot and stick to maintain stability in the blockaded enclave.

It offered economic incentives including thousands of work permits allowing Gazans to work in Israel or the occupied West Bank, while maintaining a tight blockade and the constant threat of air strikes.

For the past 18 months as violence has raged across the West Bank, Gaza had been relatively quiet, apart from sporadic cross border clashes mainly involving the smaller Islamic Jihad movement with Hamas remaining largely on the sidelines.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government has always made great play of its security credentials and taken an uncompromising stance towards the Palestinian militant factions including Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.

"INTELLIGENCE FAILURE"

However when the time came, Israel's security apparatus appeared to break down as a force of Hamas gunmen estimated in the hundreds by the military broke through security fences and scattered into towns.

"This was an intelligence failure; it could not be otherwise," said Jonathan Panikoff, the U.S. government's former deputy national intelligence officer on the Middle East, who is now at the Atlantic Council think tank.

"It was a security failure, undermining what was thought to be an aggressive and successful layered approach toward Gaza by Israel," he said.

For Israelis, images of dead bodies lying in the streets or groups of civilians being driven or marched into captivity in Gaza came as a profound shock.

More than 250 Israelis were killed and over 1,500 wounded, an unprecedented number of Israeli victims in a single day. The military suffered significant losses and Palestinian militant groups said they had captured dozens of soldiers.

The gunmen also seized security posts including a police station in the southern town of Sderot and overran the Erez crossing, a high security facility that channels people entering and leaving Gaza through a tight series of controls.

On Saturday, Hamas media circulated footage showing fighters ranging through abandoned offices and running past the high concrete walls of the site.

"They've been planning this for a long time," said former Israeli National Security Advisor Eyal Hulata. "Obviously this is a very coordinated attack, and unfortunately they were able to surprise us tactically and cause devastating damage."

(Additional reporting by Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by James Mackenzie; Editing by Chris Reese)

© Reuters

Analysis-In striking Israel, Hamas also took aim at Middle East security realignment
2023/10/08

By Samia Nakhoul, Nidal al-Mughrabi, Matt Spetalnick and Laila Bassam

DUBAI/GAZA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - When Islamist group Hamas launched a spectacular attack against Israel, it also took aim at efforts to forge new regional security alignments that could threaten Palestinian aspirations for statehood and the ambitions of the group's main backer Iran.

Saturday's assault, the biggest incursion into Israel in decades, coincides with U.S.-backed moves to push Saudi Arabia towards normalising ties with Israel in return for a defence deal between Washington and Riyadh, a move that would slam the brakes on the kingdom's recent rapprochement with Tehran.

Palestinian officials and a regional source said the gunmen who stormed Israeli towns, killing 250 Israelis and taking hostages, were also delivering a message that the Palestinians could not be ignored if Israel wanted security and that any Saudi deal would scupper the detente with Iran.

More than 250 Gazans have been killed in Israel's response.

"All the agreements of normalisation that you (Arab states) signed with (Israel) will not end this conflict," Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas which runs Gaza, said on Al Jazeera television.

A regional source familiar with the thinking of Iran and that of the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah added: "This is a message to Saudi Arabia, which is crawling towards Israel, and to the Americans who are supporting normalisation and supporting Israel. There is no security in the whole region as long as Palestinians are left outside of the equation."

"What happened is beyond any expectation," the source said. "Today is a turning point in the conflict."

The Hamas attack launched from Gaza follows months of rising violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with stepped-up Israeli raids, Palestinian street attacks and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages. Conditions for Palestinians have worsened under the hard-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Peacemaking has been stalled for years.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia and Israel have both indicated they are moving closer to a normalisation deal. But sources previously told Reuters the kingdom's determination to secure a U.S. defence pact meant it would not hold up a normalisation agreement to win substantive concessions for the Palestinians.

Laura Blumenfeld, a Middle East analyst at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies in Washington, said Hamas may have lashed out due to a sense that it was facing irrelevance as efforts advanced toward broader Israeli-Arab relations.

"As Hamas watched the Israelis and Saudis move close to an agreement, they decided: no seat at the table? Poison the meal,” she said.

TIMING THE ASSAULT

Osama Hamdan, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, told Reuters that Saturday's operation should make Arab states realise that accepting Israeli security demands would not bring peace.

"For those who want stability and peace in the region, the starting point must be to end the Israeli occupation," he said. "Some (Arab states) unfortunately started imagining that Israel could be the gateway for America to defend their security."

Netanyahu promised "mighty vengeance for this black day" after the launch of Saturday's attack, which came almost exactly 50 years since the start of the Yom Kippur War in 1973 when Israel was attacked by Egyptian and Syrian forces and fought for its survival.

Mirroring the timing of the 1973 war, Hamas official Ali Baraka said of Saturday's assault: "It was necessary that the leadership of the resistance take a decision at the appropriate time, when the enemy is distracted with its feasts."

He said the assault by air, land and sea was "a shock to the enemy and proved the Israeli military intelligence failed to find out about this operation," after Israel, which prides itself on its infiltration and monitoring of militants, was taken by surprise.

In the years since 1973, Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and several other Arab states have also since normalised ties, including some Gulf Arab states next to Saudi Arabia. But the Palestinians have moved no closer to their aspiration of securing a state, which looks as distant a prospect as ever.

"While not likely the main driver of the attacks, Hamas’s actions send a clear reminder to the Saudis that the Palestinian issue should not be treated as just another subtopic in normalisation negotiations," Richard LeBaron, a former U.S. Middle East diplomat now at the Atlantic Council thinktank, wrote.

IRAN'S REACH

A senior official in U.S. President Joe Biden's administration told reporters it was "really premature to speculate" about the effect the Israeli-Hamas conflict could have on efforts towards Saudi-Israeli normalisation.

"I would say for certain Hamas, terrorist groups like Hamas, will not derail any such outcome. But that process has a ways to go," added the official, speaking on conditional of anonymity.

Netanyahu has previously said the Palestinians should not be allowed to veto any new Israeli peace deals with Arab states.

A regional source familiar with the Saudi-Israeli-U.S. negotiations over normalisation and a defence pact for the kingdom said Israel was committing a mistake by refusing to make concessions to the Palestinians.

In its response to Saturday's attacks, Saudi Arabia called for an "immediate cessation of violence" between both sides.

Iran, meanwhile, has made no secret of its backing for Hamas, funding and arming the group and another Palestinian militant organisation Islamic Jihad. Tehran called Saturday's attack an act of self-defence by Palestinians.

Yahya Rahim Safavi, adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Tehran would stand by the Palestinian fighters "until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem."

A Palestinian official, close to Islamist militant groups, said after the Hamas attack began with a huge barrage of rockets fired from Gaza: "Iran has hands, not one hand, in every rocket that is fired into Israel."

"It doesn't mean that they ordered (Saturday's) attack but it is not a secret that it is thanks to Iran, (that) Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have been able to upgrade their arsenal," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iran's backing for Palestinian groups is part of a broader network of militias and armed groups it supports across the Middle East, giving Tehran a powerful presence in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, as well as Gaza.

Analysts said Iran already appeared to have sent a signal last week that a Saudi deal would hit Riyadh's detente with Tehran, when Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi group killed four Bahraini soldiers in a cross-border strike near the Saudi-Yemeni border. That attack jeopardised peace talks to end Yemen's eight-year conflict.

Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator who is now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, added: "This is all about preventing the U.S.-Saudi-Israel breakthrough."

(Reporting by Samia Nakhoul and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai, Nidal El Mughrabi in Gaza, Laila Bassam in Beirut, Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Edmund Blair)

A USEFUL GO BETWEEN FOR THE TALIBAN AND PAKISTAN

Special Envoy on Afghan Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yue Xiaoyong Attends the Fifth Meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan

2023-10-07 23:55

On September 29, 2023, the fifth meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan was held in Kazan, Russia. Special Envoy on Afghan Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yue Xiaoyong attended and addressed the meeting as the Chinese representative upon invitation. During the meeting, Yue Xiaoyong had wide interactions with representatives of various parties and granted Sputnik and other media outlets interviews.

China Holds Tripartite Meeting with Afghanistan and Pakistan

2023-10-07 23:55

On September 29, 2023, Special Envoy on Afghan Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yue Xiaoyong held the China-Afghanistan-Pakistan tripartite meeting with Acting Foreign Minister of the Afghan Interim Government Amir Khan Muttaqi and Pakistan's Special Representative on Afghanistan Asif Durrani on the sidelines of the fifth meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan in Kazan, Russia.

Aliyev and Michel speak on the phone as efforts continue to restore the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks

8 OCTOBER 2023

There was widespread disappointment in the international community last week, when Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev failed to turn up in Granada, Spain for a planned meeting with the Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan, which was to be facilitated by senior European leaders.

Azerbaijan cited "French bias" in favour of Armenia, and a failure to agree to include Turkey as one of the co-hosts of the talks as the reason for the president's absence. It seems however that there is hope that talks can be brought back on track, since both Armenia and Azerbaijan appear now to have agreed to attend talks in Brussels hosted by European Council president , Charles Michel, before the end of the month.

Speaking in Granada on Thursday (5 October), after meeting with the Armenian prime minister, Charles Michel said

"We just had a good meeting with Prime Minister Pashinyan, together with Chancellor Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron. We issued a clear joint communiqué. We believe in diplomacy, we believe in political dialogue, and that is why I will invite both leaders – Prime Minister Pashinyan and President Aliyev – to a meeting in Brussels by the end of October.

I think three principles are extremely important. First, the mutual recognition of the territorial sovereignty and integrity of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, including taking into account the square kilometres. The second important principle is the idea that the delimitation of the borders should be based – must be based – on the Almaty declaration. And the third important principle is related to connectivity. The development of connectivity is of the utmost importance, but it must be based on the principles of sovereignty, jurisdiction and reciprocity.

Finally, I would like to share with you that we are determined to play a positive role – a constructive role – in the normalisation process, and that is why several elements are important: the peace treaty, the delimitation of the borders, connectivity, the exchange of prisoners, the question of missing persons, and demining.

You can see that we are determined to play a role to support a stable and prosperous Caucasus. We do not have any hidden agenda, and that is why we think that we can be an effective interlocutor to support efforts towards more stability, more prosperity and more security.

And it shows that this unique political platform, this intergovernmental and leaders' platform, is relevant. It is relevant because in addition to the plenary session, in addition to the round tables, which allow for a sincere and direct exchange of views on fundamental challenges that we are facing together on the European continent, there is the possibility to have many informal bilateral conversations at the level of the leaders. This is what we did here, and this is useful because it is helpful to prepare the next steps. And the next steps will be – for Azerbaijan and Armenia – that meeting that is supposed to take place by the end of October. "

Michel on Saturday (7 October) spoke on the phone with the Aliyev.

In the Azerbaijani readout, reported by the local media, Aliyev noted that including Azerbaijan in the quadrilateral statement without the participation of Azerbaijan in Granada was not the right approach. President Ilham Aliyev also said that due to the well-known position of France, Azerbaijan did not participate in the meeting in Granada. He emphasized that the provision of weapons by France to Armenia was an approach that was not serving peace, but one intended to inflate a new conflict, and if any new conflict occurs in the region, France would be responsible for causing it.

The President of Azerbaijan pointed out that the anti-Azerbaijani statement adopted by the European Parliament on the basis of a xenophobic and chauvinistic approach and the opinions expressed in it were unacceptable, adding that this did not serve peace and stability in the region.

President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan had fully restored its sovereignty by using the right of self-defense in accordance with international law and the UN Charter, and neutralized illegal military units existing in its territory. In this regard, the steps taken by Azerbaijan were in full accordance with international law. He added that, on the contrary, the states that did not understand the essence of this issue had serious problems with international law due to their policies in different regions of the world.

President Ilham Aliyev said the central government had provided humanitarian assistance to the Armenian residents of Karabakh and the process of their registration had started. The President of Azerbaijan stressed that it was the so-called regime that had forced Armenians to leave the territory.

President Ilham Aliyev said that eight villages of Azerbaijan were still under Armenian occupation, and stressed the importance of liberating these villages from occupation.

Aliyev noted that work was being carried out towards the creation of a regional transport corridor between Azerbaijan and Iran, and that a groundbreaking ceremony had been held for the construction of a bridge and border and customs infrastructure, as well as shore fortification projects in the area near Aghband settlement of the Zangilan district.

It was not clear from the Azerbaijani read-out if Aliyev had confirmed his attendance at the meeting in Brussels at the end of the month but senior Azerbaijani officials have indicated that he is expected to attend.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

Here’s How Sam Bankman-Fried Allegedly Used Customer Funds On Alameda Research

by Opeyemi Sule

On day four of the criminal trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Gary Wang, who co-founded the now-bankrupt crypto exchange and served as its former chief technology officer (CTO), testified. During his testimony, the former FTX executive revealed details about the connection between the cryptocurrency exchange and Alameda Research.
FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Allegedly Gave Alameda Research ‘Special Privileges’

According to various reports, on Friday, October 6, Wang appeared again in court and testified that Alameda Research’s account on FTX was allowed to trade more funds than it had available. The former FTX CTO reportedly said that Sam Bankman-Fried authorized the integration of a “allow negative” feature, which afforded Alameda “special privileges” on FTX.

Wang reportedly revealed that the “allow negative” feature enabled Alameda to hold a negative balance more than FTX’s revenue at some point in 2020 ($200 million against $150 million). According to reports, Wang claimed that he increased Alameda’s line of credit several times and up to $65 billion under Bankman-Fried’s instructions.

When the government’s prosecutors questioned where the money came from, Wang reportedly affirmed that it came from FTX’s customers’ funds. Based on the co-founder’s testimony, Bankman-Fried claimed that the “allow negative” feature was all about FTT, a native cryptocurrency “created to act as equity in FTX.”

Wang reportedly acknowledged that the customers never authorized their funds to be used by Alameda Research. “The customers did not give us permission to use their accounts like this,” the former FTX chief technology officer allegedly said.
Did SBF Repeatedly Lie About Connections With Alameda?

During his testimony, Wang was asked whether he remembered Bankman-Fried making public statements about Alameda’s unusual connections with the FTX exchange. “Yes, he (SBF) said they (Alameda Research) were treated equally and didn’t use FTX funds,” the FTX cofounder allegedly affirmed.

Furthermore, the prosecutors showed Wang – and the court – a 2019 tweet from SBF claiming that Alameda was not using funds from FTX. Interestingly, Wang affirmed that Bankman-Fried ordered the addition of “allow negative” in the exchange’s codebase on the same day the tweet was made.

It appears that is not the only time Bankman-Fried lied about Alameda’s activities on the FTX exchange. The former FTX CTO testified that Bankman-Fried subsequently claimed on Twitter (now X) and on phone calls that customer funds were kept safe.

On Thursday, October 5, Gary Wang reportedly admitted to committing fraud-related crimes while at the FTX exchange alongside Sam Bankman-Fried, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, and former engineering director Nishad Singh. With the trial expected to continue till November, it remains to be seen whether or when the other former top FTX and Alameda executives will take the stand.

Sexist outfits and underwear in public: Spanish city cracks down on hen and stag dos

By Rebecca Ann Hughes

Published on 06/10/2023 - 16:24

The mayor confirmed that those who do not abide by the rules would face a fine.

The Spanish city of Seville has announced it will be cracking down on the antisocial behaviour of stag and hen dos.

The city’s newly elected mayor has said the council will bring in a law to curb “obscene acts” being committed in public.

Jose Luis Sanz, who took up the position as mayor of Seville in May, said rule breakers will face a fine.

Here’s what you need to know if you’re planning to party in the Andalucian city.

Seville bans ‘sexist costumes’

Sanz has declared that a new city council law will ban antisocial behaviour including wearing underwear in public and donning costumes with “sexist elements or messages”, UK newspaper The Times reported.

Outfits “that may violate the moral or sexual integrity of another person” will also be prohibited, as well as “performing or inciting the performance of acts that violate sexual freedom […] or committing acts of obscene exhibitionism.”

The mayor confirmed that those who do not abide by the rules would face a fine although the exact sum has not been revealed.

Sanz said Seville “has no interest whatsoever” in the type of tourism that some bachelor and bachelorette parties bring to the city, according to The Times.

“Anyone can celebrate their bachelor party in Seville,” said Sanz. “What we don’t view favourably are groups of people dressed as whatever, with brass bands behind them, disturbing the many residents of Seville - especially in areas of the historic centre - who also have the right to enjoy their city.”

Stag and hen parties are ‘shameful’

The new measure comes as residents have expressed anger and frustration at visitor behaviour following the rise in tourist numbers post-pandemic.

Inhabitants have applauded the proposed new law. One resident told a local radio station that the conduct of some stag and hen parties was “shameful”.

“People come naked. You can see everything,” the resident said.

Local newspaper ABC published an article saying the behaviour and clothing of some tourists “provoke looks of disgust, especially among the older neighbours.”

In 2022, the Spanish city of Malaga brought in fines of €750 for nudity in public, wearing underwear in the streets or carrying an inflatable doll.

In 2016, Mojácar in Almería banned the wearing of “phallic tiaras” and “unbecoming behaviour with inflatable sex dolls.”

NO MORE PRIDE PARADES IN SEVILLE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment

Sunday, October 08, 2023

The extent of the Greek wildfires

The flood area in Greece

Flood damage in the village of Koskinas, in the central region of Thessaly, Greece

Flood damage in the village of Agia Triada, Greece

Special Envoy on Afghan Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yue Xiaoyong Attends the Fifth Meeting of the Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan

China Holds Tripartite Meeting with Afghanistan and Pakistan

Seville bans ‘sexist costumes’

Stag and hen parties are ‘shameful’

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