Global

Floods Overwhelm Sydney

Hundreds of homes have been flooded in and around Sydney, Australia, causing an emergency that is affecting 50,000 people.

Emergency teams on Tuesday carried out rescues of hundreds of people trapped in vehicles on flooded roads or trapped in flooded homes, State Emergency Service manager Ashley Sullivan said.

Several days of torrential rainfall have caused dams to overflow and waterways to break their banks, leading to the fourth flood emergency in 16 months.

New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said, “This event is far from over. Please don’t be complacent, wherever you are. Please be careful when you’re driving on our roads. There is still substantial risk for flash flooding across our state.”

Meanwhile, the New South Wales state government declared a disaster across 23 local government areas overnight, activating federal government financial assistance for flood victims.

Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Jonathan How noted, “The good news is that by tomorrow afternoon, it is looking to be mostly dry but, of course, we are reminding people that these floodwaters will remain very high well after the rain has stopped.

“There was plenty of rain fall overnight and that is actually seeing some rivers peak for a second time. So you’ve got to take many days, if not a week, to start to see these floodwaters start to recede.”

Taliban Wants International Recognition

A Taliban-run gathering over the weekend included thousands of religious and ethnic leaders and ended with a call to foreign governments to officially recognize Afghanistan’s new regime as the country’s legitimate government.

Western governments have withdrawn funding and enforced sanctions against the Taliban since the terror group took control last year.

In a statement issued at the gathering on Saturday, the Taliban said, “We ask regional and international countries, especially Islamic countries … to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan ... release all sanctions, unfreeze (central bank) funds, and support in development of Afghanistan.”

Though the Taliban initially promised that girls’ schools would reopen when it took control, it later backtracked, leaving the girls to remain at home.

Speaking on state television, the Taliban’s deputy leader and Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said that these issues take time. But the Taliban’s Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada insisted that foreigners should not give orders to the Taliban.

The group also promised not to interfere with neighboring countries and asked to receive the same courtesy in return.

An article by Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch last month noted, “Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August, a grave human rights crisis has been unfolding, especially for women and girls…. The Taliban’s March 23 decision to continue their ban on girls’ secondary schooling may be the first time a rights violation prompted near simultaneous condemnation from the EU, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and 16 female foreign ministers.”

The Eiffel Tower in Paris is in need of repairs. The iconic structure is riddled with rust. For now, instead of the repairs it so greatly needs, it is being given a cosmetic 60-million-euro paint job ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, according to confidential reports cited by French magazine Marianne.

The wrought-iron 324-meter (1,063 ft) high tower, built by Gustave Eiffel in the late 19th century, is among the most visited tourist sites in the world, welcoming about six million visitors each year.

“It is simple, if Gustave Eiffel visited the place he would have a heart attack,” one unnamed manager at the Tower told Marianne.

Some 30% of the structure was supposed to have been stripped and then have two new coats of paint applied but delays to the work caused by the COVID pandemic and the presence of lead in the old paint means only 5% will be treated, Marianne said.

Societe d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel is reluctant to close the Tower for a long time because of the tourist revenue that would be lost. This is the twentieth time the Tower has ever been painted.

Hacker Steals 1 Billion Records

A hacker may have stolen one billion Chinese residents’ records from the Shanghai police. If the report is true, it would possibly be the biggest data breach in the country’s history.

ChinaDan posted on “Breach Forums,” listing the information “on one billion Chinese national residents and several billion case records” in exchange for 10 Bitcoin, or the equivalent of about $200,000.

The poster added that the information included the “name, address, birthplace, national ID number, mobile number, all crime/case details.”

The post has not yet been verified but has drawn attention both in China and abroad.

Forum administrators on Sunday night closed the thread, which had received one offer of six Bitcoin.

In a tweet, Kendra Schaefer, a partner at consultancy firm Trivium China, said that if the report is true, the breach would be “bad” for several reasons.

“Most obviously, this would be among the biggest and worst breaches in history,” she explained. “Two, China’s Personal Information Protection Law just came out late last year. It requires government bodies to protect the info of citizens, which, if the source is indeed MPS, MPS has failed to do.

“I would be surprised if they don’t also contain files on celebs and minor officials,” she added.

Shooting in Denmark

A 22-year-old Danish man arrested on suspicion of carrying out a shooting in a Danish mall is being remanded in a psychiatric facility for 24 days.

The shooting that took place on Sunday left three dead and several others injured. The suspect, who was known to psychiatric professionals and was named by authorities as an “ethnic Dane,” has been charged with manslaughter.

For now, the court has placed a gag order on the names of the suspect and victims.

At a press conference, Copenhagen’s Head of Police Soren Thomassen said two 17-year-old Danish citizens, one male and one female, and a 47-year-old Russian national had been killed in the gunfire. He also said that two Danes and two Swedes were in critical but stable condition.

In a statement, police said three people sustained light injuries from stray bullets, and a total of 27 were wounded or injured in the shooting, 20 of them lightly and during evacuation. The arrested man is the only suspect in the shooting, and there is no indication he acted together with others, Thomassen reiterated, adding that an investigation is ongoing and that the shooter did not have a gun permit.

In a statement, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sent sympathy to the wounded, their relatives and the bereaved, as well as “all the Danes who were close to these frightening events.”

“We have all been brutally ripped from the bright summer that had just begun. It is incomprehensible. Heartbreaking. Meaningless. Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second,” Frederiksen said.

The shooting took place at Field’s shopping mall on the outskirts of the capital of Denmark flooded with teenagers around the time of a concert that was scheduled to begin shortly. The concert was subsequently cancelled.

Victims of the shooting will be remembered at the Tour de France this week with a moment of remembrance.

The last shooting on this scale in Denmark was in February 2015, when a 22-year-old man was killed in a shootout with police after an attack in the capital that left two people dead and five police officers wounded.

North Korea Slams Trilateral Military Cooperation

North Korea on Sunday blasted the U.S., South Korea, and Japan for working to increase their trilateral military cooperation targeting the Hermit Kingdom. North Korea warned that the trilateral move is prompting calls for the rogue nuclear power to reinforce its military capacity.

In a statement, North Korea’s Foreign

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Ministry said, “The prevailing situation more urgently calls for building up the country’s defense to actively cope with the rapid aggravation of the security environment of the Korean Peninsula and the rest of the world.

“The chief executives of the U.S., Japan and South Korea put their heads together for confrontation with (North Korea) and discussed the dangerous joint military countermeasures against it including the launch of tripartite joint military exercises,” the statement added.

It also claimed that the U.S. exaggerated rumors about North Korean threats in order to “to provide an excuse for attaining military supremacy over the Asia-Pacific region including the Korean Peninsula.”

In June, the defense chiefs of the U.S., South Korea, and Japan agreed to resume their combined missile warning and tracking exercises as part of their efforts to deal with North Korea’s escalating weapons tests.

Cairo Confiscates Historic Houseboats

Egypt’s Irrigation Ministry last month gave official notice that the houseboats in the Nile corniche on the west side of Cairo would be confiscated within days. The government has named a variety of reasons for the decision, among them that some of the boats were not licensed.

Meanwhile, residents and their lawyers have called government contacts seeking clarity about the plans.

Some of Cairo’s residents see the seizures as an affront to their country’s heritage and culture.

The houseboats on the Nile date back to the Ottoman era, when Egyptian elites used the houseboats as a place to entertain guests. By the mid-20th century, the number of houseboats had reached into the hundreds, and they were featured in classic Egyptian literature and films. But over time, most of the houseboats were destroyed: just 32 were kept as private homes, until authorities impounded over half of them, among them three boats belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In 2016, officials began to raise the rents, prompting many to stop paying in protest. Some filed lawsuits. Last year, the Egyptian military told some houseboat residents that it would take over the administration of the properties. The Egyptian military controls the Nile’s banks.

Aymen Anwar, head of the Central Administration for the Protection of the Nile River in Greater Cairo, spoke on Egyptian television saying that the houseboats are dilapidated, noting a 2020 presidential directive prohibiting residential houseboats but allowing people to keep their boats if they apply for commercial or tourist licenses.

U.S. to Provide Ukraine with Missile Systems

The United States has announced that it will provide Ukraine with $820 million in new military aid, including new surface-to-air missile systems and counter-artillery radars.

The new package brings the total amount committed by the U.S. to over $8.8 billion in weapons and military training. Of that, approximately $7 billion was announced since Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year.

At a press conference, U.S. President Joe Biden said, “We are going to support Ukraine as long as it takes.” He added that the aid gives Ukraine “the capacity” to allow them to “continue to resist the Russian aggression.”

“And so, I don’t know how it’s going to end, but it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine,” Biden added.

Russia has recently launched dozens of missiles across Ukraine, prompting Ukraine’s leadership to request additional military support from the international community.

18 The new package will include two systems known as NASAMS, an anti-aircraft system that is used to protect the The Jewish Home | JULY 7, 2022 airspace around the White House and Capitol in Washington, as well as four counter-artillery radars. Meanwhile, Ukrainians are being trained to use the new systems. At the same time, the Pentagon will provide additional ammunition for the medium-range rocket systems it provided to Ukraine in June. In a Facebook video, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “I am especially grateful today to the United States and to Biden personally for the package of support for Ukraine announced today, which includes very powerful NASAMS — an anti-aircraft missile system that will significantly strengthen our air defense. We have worked hard for these supplies.”

Glacier Kills Hikers

A large chunk of an Alpine glacier on Sunday broke loose and tumbled down a mountain in Italy, killing at least six hikers and injuring nine others.

Civil Protection official Gianpaolo Bottacin emphasized that since the situa-

Two of those hospitalized are in grave condition.

The Marmolada range glacier is the largest in the Dolomite mountains in northeastern Italy, but in recent years, it has been rapidly melting away.

Throughout the day on Sunday, chunks of ice continued falling, and rescuers put the mission on hold due to the risk that more of the glacier could break off.

According to the SUEM dispatch service, 18 people were above the area where the ice hit and would need to be evacuated.

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Record Deforestation in the Amazon

It’s been a tough year for Brazil’s Amazon rainforest. The first half of 2022 saw the world’s largest rainforest deforested by a record amount, according to the country’s Space Research Institute (INPE).

Data from INPE satellites shows that 3,750 square kilometers (1,448 square miles) of the Amazon were lost in Brazil between January 1 and June 24, the largest area since 2016, when the institute began this type of monitoring.

In May, INPE detected 2,287 fires in the rainforest, the highest number for that month since 2004.

Destruction of the world’s largest rainforest has surged since President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019 and weakened environmental protections. Although he has passed several executive orders and laws to protect the rainforest, he has cut funding to certain government-run environmental protection and monitoring programs.

Zelensky: Ukraine Forces Undeterred

time, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised his military’s victory in Luhansk.

The city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine fell to Russia on Sunday, ending one of the largest battles Europe has seen in generations and giving the Luhansk province to Russia.

In his nightly video message on Monday, Zelensky told his nation, “There have been no significant changes on the battlefield in the past 24 hours. The Armed Forces of Ukraine respond, push back and destroy the offensive potential of the occupiers day after day. We need to break them. It is a difficult task. It requires time and superhuman efforts. But we have no alternative.”

Earlier that day, Putin told his military that those who participated in the conquest of Lysychansk should “absolutely rest and recover their military preparedness,” and congratulated his forces on their “victories in the Luhansk direction.”

Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, said, “We need to win the war, not the battle for Lysychansk.... It hurts a lot, but it’s not losing the war.”

On Monday, during the opening of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Switzerland, Zelensky told world leaders, “The reconstruction of Ukraine is not a local project. It’s not a project of one nation, but a common task of the entire democratic world, all countries who can say that they are civilized.”

The Ukrainian president also said that restoring his country means restoring the principle of life, “restoring the space of life, restoring everything that makes humans human.”

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen announced on Monday that the European Union has proposed setting up a reconstruction platform to help the Ukrainian government rebuild the country after the war with Russia.

She noted that the Kremlin’s aim is to “undermine Ukraine’s very existence as a state” and pursue the “the military, political and economic destruction” of the country and that the European Union “will never let that happen.”

Von der Leyen added that the EU has already mobilized 6.2 billion euros in financial support and that “more has to come and more will come.”

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the country’s recovery plan will cost an estimated $750 billion. He added that confiscated Russian assets should be a key source of funding.

“Who should pay for the recovery plan which is already estimated at $750 billion?

20 We believe that the key source of recovery should be the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs. The Russian auThe Jewish Home | JULY 7, 2022 thorities unleashed this bloody war. They caused this massive destruction, and they should be held accountable for it,” Shmyhal said during the conference, adding that “Russia’s frozen assets, according to various estimates, range from $300 billion to $500 billion.” NATO Welcomes

Finland and

Sweden

Ambassadors for each of the 30 countries that make up the NATO alliance signed the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden to join the trans-Atlantic partnership this week.

Although the protocols were signed on Tuesday, each allied government needs to ratify them before the Nordic countries become the newest members of the NATO alliance.

“With 32 nations around the table, we will be even stronger and our people will be even safer as we face the biggest security crisis in decades,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is now in its fifth month, prompted Finland’s and Sweden’s push to join the alliance. Ironically, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that NATO’s eastward expansion in Europe prompted his invasion of Ukraine. The alliance has already grown more unified as a group throughout the war and will soon include another country on Russia’s border.

Finland and Sweden applied to join the alliance on May 18, although their bid was held up by Turkey. Turkish leaders opposed their attempts to join the alliance previously, claiming that both countries have supported “terrorists” on the grounds that both countries have refused to deport Turkish nationals that Ankara has accused of loyalty to an ethnic Kurdish militant group.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Er-

Ethiopia and Sudan Agree

Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Tuesday he had reached an agreement with the leader of neighboring Sudan to peacefully settle a border dispute that has led to clashes.

Abiy met Sudan’s military leader, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in Kenya’s capital Nairobi on the sidelines of a meeting for the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), an eight-member regional bloc for the horn of Africa and neighboring states.

“We both made a commitment for dialogue (and) peaceful resolution to outstanding issues,” Abiy tweeted on Tuesday.

The long-running dispute over a contested fertile border region, al-Fashqa, has fueled a surge in tensions between the two countries in recent years, including clashes.

In the latest trading of accusations between both nations, last month Sudan accused Ethiopia’s army of executing seven Sudanese soldiers and a civilian who had been taken captive. The men had been seized on Sudanese territory on June 22 and were taken into Ethiopia where they were killed, according to the Sudanese foreign ministry.

Ethiopia denied responsibility and blamed the killings on a local militia.

A day after the countries traded accusations over the killings, an Ethiopian official said Sudan’s armed forces had fired heavy artillery during clashes in the disputed area.

Confession in Journalist’s Death

an interview with a Reuters reporter and says he will soon implicate others in plotting to assassinate her.

Speaking from jail in his first comment on the case, George Degiorgio said if he had known more about Daphne Caruana Galizia – the journalist he and two others are accused of killing in 2017 – then he would have asked for more money to carry out the hit.

“If I knew, I would have gone for 10 million. Not 150,000,” he said, referring to the sum in euros that he said he was paid for killing the journalist. “For me, it was just business. Yeah. Business as usual!” he told a Reuters reporter. He later added, “Of course, I feel sorry.”

The interview with Degiorgio was conducted during research for a podcast into the Caruana Galizia case, entitled “Who Killed Daphne?”

His admission came after several attempts by Degiorgio’s lawyers since 2021 to secure a pardon in return for testimony about Degiorgio’s role in Caruana Galizia’s murder and other alleged crimes involving prominent figures on the island.

On June 22, Malta’s Appeal Court rejected remaining legal challenges by Degiorgio to the murder charges against him and his brother Alfred, who is co-accused. The judgement clears the way for trial to go ahead.

The car-bomb assassination of the investigative journalist and blogger caused shock across Europe. Maltese authorities charged Degiorgio and two other men – his brother Alfred and an associate, Vince Muscat – with murdering Caruana Galizia in October 2017 at the behest of a top island businessman.

Until now, both of the Degiorgio brothers had denied involvement in the killing.

Caruana Galizia was killed after she levelled a series of corruption allegations against prominent people, including ministers in the island’s Labour Party government. Her murder raised suspicions that some of the people she was investigating could be involved in plotting her death.