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Lightning strike damages Rome’s ancient Constantine Arch

rome — Workers mounted a crane Wednesday to secure Rome’s Constantine Arch near the Colosseum after a lightning strike loosened fragments from the ancient structure.

A violent thunder and lightning storm that felled trees and flooded streets in the Italian capital damaged the honorary arch late Tuesday afternoon.

Fragments of white marble were gathered and secured by workers for the Colosseum Archeological Park as soon as the storm cleared, officials said. The extent of the damage was being evaluated.

“The recovery work by technicians was timely. Our workers arrived immediately after the lightning strike. All of the fragments were recovered and secured,’’ the park said in a statement.

Tourists visiting the site Wednesday found some stray fragments that they turned over to park workers out of concern they might have fallen from the arch.

“It is kind of surreal that we found pieces,″ said Jana Renfro, a tourist from the U.S. state of Indiana, who said found the fragments about 3 meters (12 feet) from the base of the monument.

The group’s tour guide, Serena Giuliani, praised them for turning over the found pieces, saying it showed “great sensitivity for Roman antiquities.”

The honorary arch, more than 20 meters (nearly 70 feet) in height, was erected in A.D. 315 to celebrate the victory of Emperor Constantine over Maxentius following the battle at Milvian Bridge.
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British hiker found dead after flood on Spanish island of Mallorca

BARCELONA, Spain — A British woman has been found dead while emergency services search for a man of the same nationality after both were apparently swept away in a flash flood while hiking on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, Spanish police said Wednesday. 

Spain’s Civil Guard said that both people were taking a trail that leads through a small canyon to the sea when the storm hit on Tuesday. 

The police initially issued the erroneous information that they had found the corpse of the man and were searching for the woman. They later corrected themselves and said it was the woman who had been found dead on Wednesday. 

Firefighters collaborated with police in the search. 

More inclement weather was forecast for the island and parts of Spain’s mainland. The Balearic Islands and a large swath of Spain’s eastern coast was under alert for strong winds and heavy rains. 

More thunderstorms over Barcelona forced the organizers of the America’s Cup sailing event to postpone racing. That decision came after lightning struck near a yacht on Tuesday, forcing a race to be abandoned. 
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Egyptian President el-Sissi makes his first visit to Turkey, as relations thaw

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Ukrainian foreign minister submits resignation

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Lightning damages ancient Roman Arch of Constantine

rome — The Arch of Constantine, a giant ancient Roman arch next to the Colosseum, was damaged after a violent storm hit Rome, conservation authorities said on Tuesday. 

In a statement to Reuters, which first reported on the accident, the Colosseum Archaeological Park confirmed that the monument had been hit by lightning.  

The triumphal arch was built in the fourth century A.D. to celebrate the victory of Constantine — the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity — over his rival, Maxentius.  

It is about 25 meters high and in the same pedestrian area where the Colosseum stands, a major tourist hotspot. 

“A lightning strike hit the arch right here and then hit the corner, and we saw this fly off,” a tourist told Reuters, pointing to a large block of stone on the ground. 

Reuters video images showed other blocks of stone and rubble lying around the monument and archaeological park staff  collecting them. 

“All fragments were recovered and secured. Damage assessments have already begun and the analyses will continue tomorrow morning,” the archaeological park said. 

The arch was hit on its southern side, where conservation work had started two days ago and which will now also focus on repairing the damage, it said.  

The accident took place during a heavy thunderstorm that felled trees and branches and flooded several streets of the Italian capital. 

The Civil Protection agency said 60 millimeters of rain fell on central Rome in less than one hour, about as much as would normally fall in a month during autumn. 

The freak weather was a so-called “downburst,” Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said, referring a severe storm featuring powerful downward winds, the kind believed to have caused the sinking of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s yacht last month off Sicily.  

“The event that hit Rome is truly unprecedented, because it was so powerful and concentrated in a very short time and in some areas of the city, starting from the historic center,” Gualtieri said in a statement.  
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German far-right surge raises doubts about Berlin’s support for Ukraine

london — The future of German military aid to Ukraine and support for Ukrainian refugees in Germany are being called into question after a surge in support saw the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party emerge victorious Sunday in elections in the state of Thuringia.

The AfD won with 32.8% of the vote, ahead of the Christian Democrats with 23.6%. The newly formed far-left BSW party was in third place with 15.8%. The AfD came in second in the neighboring state of Saxony, just behind the Christian Democrats.

Björn Höcke, the AfD leader in Thuringia, said it was a “historic victory.”

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you and then you win. And today, dear friends, we have won!” Höcke told cheering supporters Monday in the eastern town of Erfurt.

It’s the first state victory for Germany’s far right since World War II.

Rival parties, however, have vowed not to work in coalition with the AfD, meaning complex coalition talks could lie ahead for control of the state legislature.

Although widely predicted, the results have shocked many of Germany’s allies – not least Ukraine. Germany is Ukraine’s second-biggest donor of military aid, behind the United States. That is now in doubt, said Mattia Nelles, co-founder of the German-Ukrainian Bureau, a political consultancy based in Düsseldorf.

“Both the far-right and the far-left populist forces were campaigning on cutting German aid for Ukraine, and they were explicitly calling for a reduction in military aid,” Nelles told VOA. “They called on the government to finally pressure Ukrainians to start negotiating with Russia. They were for pressuring Ukraine into submission. And that is very unfortunate for Ukraine to have these very vocal forces gaining traction in these regional elections.”

In the short term, Nelles said the state election results won’t affect the federal government’s funding of aid to Ukraine, “but you already see a slight change in the rhetoric of the centrist parties [toward Ukraine]. We have four centrist parties, and some of them already took some of the narratives or the frames that the populist and far-right parties were using,” he added.

Germany is set to hold nationwide federal elections next year.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the liberal Free Democratic party – part of the ruling coalition – is pushing for aid to Ukraine to be halved in the next budget. His party gained less than 5% in the Thuringia state election and fears a repeat in the 2025 federal elections, noted analyst Liana Fix of the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations.

“[They] are afraid that they will not get into parliament, which has happened already once before, that they were not able to cross the 5% threshold for the German parliament. So it’s really a sort of a fight, a battle for political survival, especially for the liberals who are pushing for this agenda of cutting the budget for Ukraine,” Fix said.

Immigration was a major issue driving votes for the far right, with much rhetoric directed at non-European, and especially Muslim, migrants. Germany, however, is also hosting more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees – and the financial cost was under the spotlight during the state election campaigns of both the far right and far left, said analyst Nelles.

“They were both – though on separate notes, different tonalities – campaigning on lesser aid or cutting of aid for Ukrainian refugees in Germany. The question whether and how they should be funded and whether they should be drafted or sent to Ukraine – that is a delicate issue,” Nelles said.

“We have males, Ukrainian males, that are legally eligible for the draft. So, there is growing pressure also on the male Ukrainian refugee population in Germany to push them back to Ukraine,” he added. “Germany is unable for good reasons to send males back to Ukraine. But the pressure on the government to do so is growing.”

The federal government has given no indication that it intends to cut support for Ukrainian refugees or send them back to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said last month that Berlin would support Kyiv with military aid “as long as necessary.”

Scholz’s Social Democrat Party highlighted Monday that German intelligence services had classified the AfD as an extremist party and said its victory in Thuringia must act as a “wake-up call.”
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German far-right surge raises doubts over Berlin’s support for Ukraine

German military aid to Ukraine and support for Ukrainian refugees in Germany are being called into question following elections in which a far-right political party won power in an eastern state. The far-left also made gains in the elections. Henry Ridgwell has more on the outcome and what it might mean for Ukraine going forward.
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4 nations launch venture to install power line under Black Sea

BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania, Hungary, Georgia and Azerbaijan launched a joint venture Tuesday to install a power line under the Black Sea aimed at bringing more renewable energy into the European Union from the eastern Caucasus.

The project, approved by leaders of the four countries in 2022, gained momentum after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and spotlighted the EU’s reliance on Russian energy as prices sharply rose. The 27-nation bloc has since pushed to wean itself off Russian energy.

The cable would link Azerbaijan, which is seen as having substantial potential to generate power at Caspian Sea wind farms, to EU members Romania and Hungary via Georgia.

Government ministers from the four countries launched the joint venture at a meeting Tuesday in Romania’s capital, saying the project would help strengthen energy security and drive down electricity prices for consumers.

Romanian Energy Minister Sebastian Burduja said the project was of strategic importance for his country and the EU.

“If you look at the energy map of Europe over the past few months … you see that on the eastern flank essentially we are paying a very high price recently — and that’s because there is not enough diversification,” Burduja said.

Azerbaijanian Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said the harnessing of renewable energy would help tackle climate change issues. The undersea line is important for energy security, he said, “but at the same time it is going to provide the green energy … which is very high on the agenda of the international community.”

Bulgaria’s deputy energy minister also joined Tuesday’s meeting, and there were discussions about the EU member joining the infrastructure project. Burduja and Shahbazov said the next meeting on the project would be at a U.N. climate change meeting later this year in Azerbaijan.
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Report: EU chief to hand economy job to Italy’s far-right 

Berlin, Germany — EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has made her first picks for her top team, with the key economy vice-president job going to Italy’s far-right nominee, German newspaper Die Welt reported Tuesday.

Von der Leyen, who secured a second term as commission chief in July, is expected to unveil her proposed lineup following a Friday deadline for states to name their nominees.

Die Welt, citing senior EU diplomats and European Commission insiders, said she is set to give Raffaele Fitto from the far-right Brothers of Italy party the executive vice-president portfolio in charge of the economy and post-pandemic recovery.

The job would oversee how the bloc’s pandemic recovery fund worth hundreds of billions of euros is deployed.

Fitto is Rome’s minister for European affairs.

Others to be named EU vice presidents include Valdis Dombrovskis, from Latvia and currently EU’s trade chief. His role will be EU expansion and Ukraine reconstruction, according to the report.

France’s Thierry Breton, the bloc’s internal market commissioner, will take on industry and strategic autonomy according to Die Welt.

Spain’s Environment Minister Teresa Ribera has been chosen for a “transition” portfolio which will include ecology and digital affairs. 

The nominee for the EU’s foreign policy chief, Estonia’s outgoing leader Kaja Kallas, will also be named an executive vice president.  

Each European member state put forward nominees for von der Leyen’s 26-person team.

Slovakia’s Maros Sefcovic, currently an executive vice president, is set to remain as a commissioner in charge of inter-institutional affairs.

Czech Industry and Trade Minister Jozef Sikela will be in charge of energy, while Poland’s ambassador to the EU, Piotr Serafin, will handle budgetary issues.

After the Commission president names her line-up, the candidates undergo confirmation hearings in the European Parliament in September and October. 
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Clearview AI fined by Dutch agency for facial recognition database

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Russian leader Putin visits Mongolia, defies international warrant for his arrest

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