Important Takeaways:
- The U.S. embassy in Ukraine cited “specific information of a potential significant air attack” on Wednesday morning, ordering its citizens in the country to shelter in place, as tensions between America and the Russian Federation rise ever higher.
- The American embassy compound in western Kyiv was closed on Wednesday morning, with a convoy of diplomatic vehicles apparently evacuating the buildings. A message posted by the embassy staff stated it had received “specific information of a potential significant air attack” that was thought to be planned for Wednesday. The closure was out of an “abundance of caution”, they said, but nevertheless embassy staff were told to shelter in place and American citizens in Ukraine told to be prepared to take shelter.
- Advice given by the embassy to Americans in Ukraine stated they should now: “Identify shelter locations in advance of any air alert… Immediately take shelter if an air alert is announced”.
- Spain and Greece have also closed their embassies this morning and the British government is considering whether to close theirs, too.
- The so-called “unusual” embassy closure comes just 24 hours after Ukraine launched what appears to be its first U.S.-made ATACMS ballistic missile into Russia, as opposed to Russian-occupied land in Ukraine, where such weapons have hitherto been targeted.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Thick grey smoke engulfed Mount Pentelicus that dominates Athens on Monday as the Greek capital battled the infernal fallout from what promises to be its hottest summer on record.
- A 30-kilometre (20-mile) long line of fires was moving towards Athens, reports said, and one has already engulfed the mountain, also known as Mount Pentelikon, famed for the marble used in the Acropolis and other ancient buildings in Athens.
- The nearby historic town of Marathon has also been ordered evacuated.
- Brick homes on roads leading out of Marathon had huge black stains up the sides of their walls left by the flames. Their roofs had been turned to cinders.
- “It’s a catastrophe,” said Marathon social worker Maria Kanavaki. “It’s all burnt. There is a fear what will happen. This summer was the hottest. And the water — will we have enough water?” the 55-year-old told AFP.
- Greek authorities have thrown hundreds of firefighters with trucks and water carrying aircraft into what has become an annual battle as global temperatures soar.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- No Farmers No Food: Greek Tractor Protests Head to Parliament
- Scores of bright-colored tractors were parked outside Greece’s parliament Tuesday, horns blaring, as thousands of farmers angry at high production costs shifted their protests to Athens.
- “Without us, you don’t eat,” one banner said. Some farmers carried mock coffins and funeral garlands as symbols of their plight.
- The farmers – whose demands are similar to those at farmer protests elsewhere in Europe – have spent weeks staging sporadic blockades along highways and in rural towns. Farmers in central Greece are also still reeling from major floods last year.
- Protesters say that’s not enough. They want tax-free fuel, debt forgiveness, measures against foreign competition and speedier compensation for damage from natural disasters. Farmers also criticize the substantial markup in shelf prices compared to what wholesalers pay them for their produce.
- Manolis Liakis, a farmer from the southern island of Crete, singled out fuel costs. He said farmers pay more than three times as much for petrol as shipping companies due to tax disparities.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The death toll from severe rainstorms that lashed parts of Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria increased to 14 on Wednesday after rescue teams in the three neighboring countries recovered seven more bodies.
- Greece’s weather service said a Pilion region village received 75.4 centimeters (nearly 30 inches) of rain late Tuesday, by far the highest level recorded since at least 2006. It noted that the average annual rainfall in the Athens region is around 40 centimeters (15.75 inches).
- The storm comes on the heels of major summer wildfires that hit Greece over the past few weeks, with some burning for more than two weeks and destroying vast tracts of forest and farmland. More than 20 people were killed in the fires.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Important Takeaways:
- Rhodes wildfires ‘out of control’ with new evacuations ordered & 10,000 Brits trapped as flames ravage Corfu
- At least 19,000 locals and tourists have already been rescued from the fire-ravaged island in the biggest evacuation effort Greece has ever seen – with up to 10,000 Brits still stranded.
- Terrified holidaymakers have been forced to flee burning hotels, wade through water and sleep on gym floors – with repatriation flights finally arriving on Monday to rush Brits out of the country.
- Wildfires erupted on the island of Corfu – and Level 5 alerts were issued for Crete amid fears of a similar inferno.
- The deputy mayor of Rhodes, Konstantinos Taraslias, said the fires are still burning out of control after seven days of fighting them.
- More than 16,000 people have been evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels – many of them Brits.
- Speaking on Monday morning, Theofanis Skembris, deputy mayor of North Corfu, believes the fires on the island were started deliberately.
- He told the BBC: “There were four fires that started simultaneously.
- “We have to wait for the investigation, but their first unofficial assumption is that it was arson – fires can’t start simultaneously in four different places.
- “The situation in the island is better now. Most of the fires are under control. There are firefighting planes helping.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 18:23:’For the merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.’
Important Takeaways:
- Fiery train crash in Greece leaves 36 dead, at least 85 injured
- A fiery train collision in Tempe, Greece, killed 36 people and injured at least 85 others on Tuesday after a passenger train carrying hundreds of people struck an oncoming freight train at high speed.
- Multiple cars derailed and at least three of them burst into flames following the wreck, which occurred just before midnight. Rescue crews illuminated the scene with floodlights as they searched through the smoking debris for survivors.
- Survivors said several passengers were launched through the windows of the train cars because of the impact, while others attempted to free themselves after the passenger train landed in a field next to the tracks near a gorge.
- “Carriage one and two no longer exist, and the third has derailed,”
- It was not immediately clear what led to the collision.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Turkey’s leader warns Greece that ballistic missiles can hit Athens
- Turkey test-fired a locally made, short-range ballistic missile, dubbed Tayfun, which means “typhoon” in Turkish, over the Black Sea in October. The missile can hit targets at a distance of 561 kilometres in 456 seconds, according to Turkey.
- “You say ‘Tayfun’ and they’re scared, they say it’ll hit Athens,” Erdoğan said. “Yeah, of course it’ll hit it. If you don’t stay calm — if you try to send weapons you got from the US to the islands — a country like Turkey certainly won’t go around picking pears. It has to do something.”
- Turkey is increasingly frustrated by what it sees as a growing Greek military build-up on islands close to its coastline and Western military support to fellow NATO member Greece, with which Ankara has long-running territorial conflicts. These frictions have escalated in recent years as Turkey mobilized its navy to claim rights over potential hydrocarbon resources in the eastern Mediterranean
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Rising tensions between 2 of NATO’s biggest militaries are driving fears of the first war between alliance members
- Greece and Turkey have two of NATO’s largest militaries and are in an important corner of Europe.
- They also have longstanding disputes that continue to roil their relationship and affect the alliance.
- Their tensions have escalated in recent years, stoking new fears about the first war within NATO.
- Both countries have lost jets and pilots in encounters over the eastern Aegean, and each side regularly accuses the other of flying over their territory in the area.
- Their disputes include divided Cyprus and the weaponization of migrants, but much of their tension centers on the islands in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean seas.
- Greece, citing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, argues that its hundreds of Aegean islands give it rights to territorial sea and exclusive economic zone. Turkey has not signed UNCLOS and argues that islands do not have the same territorial rights as mainland.
- Turkey’s parliament has authorized a declaration of war if Greece extends its territorial waters in the Aegean from its current 6 nautical miles up to the 12 miles allowed by UNCLOS.
- The island dispute has escalated in recent months.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- Erdogan Threatens Greece
- “We have only one sentence for Greece: Do not forget Izmir [the city of Smyrna]. Your occupying the [Aegean] islands will not stop us; we will do what is necessary when the time comes. You know what we say: ‘Unexpectedly one night we shall come to [conquer] you.” — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sondakika.com, September 4, 2022.
- The Turkish attacks against the Greeks and Armenians of Smyrna began [in 1922] with looting, rapes and massacres, and ended with a fire that destroyed the Christian districts of the city.
- The Republic of Turkey actually boasts of its genocide.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Revelation 16:9 “They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.”
Important Takeaways:
- Wildfires are wiping out one of Greece’s major export products
- Wildfires in Greece are impacting not just humans but the bees that make pine honey, a major export.
- As extreme weather rages, the country is increasing funding available to battle the flames and bringing in firefighters from around Europe.
Read the original article by clicking here.
