All posts by Carmen Gomaro

Carmen Gomaro - leading international news and investigative reporter. Worked at various media outlets in Spain, Argentina and Colombia, including Diario de Cádiz, CNN+, Telemadrid and EFE.
INTERNATIONAL

Trumpist Debates: Ramaswamy’s Impact and Trump’s Influence on Republican Candidates

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How can you carry out a debate in a political party when almost half of the voters in that formation trust one of its leaders more than their own mother?

That is the position in which the Republican Party found itself on Wednesday. Eight candidates for the White House, with a voting intention between 1% (Doug Burgum and Asa Hutchinson) and 16% (Ron DeSantis) debated for two hours on the television network closest to their candidates, Fox News.

And, meanwhile, another candidate, Donald Trump (62% voting intention), gave an interview to the former fired star of Fox News, Tucker Carlson, on Twitter, the social network of the richest and most influential businessman in the United States who, In addition, he has gone from voting Democrat to Republican, Elon Musk.

So what was seen on Wednesday night (early Thursday morning in Spain) could be called Donald Trump and the Eight Dwarfs, if it weren’t for the fact that the mere mention of the studio that made that classic, Disney, is a declaration of war for the supporters DeSantis still has left.

On the one hand, there was the former president, on Twitter, in an interview with a commentator who supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, strongly believes in the ‘replacement theory’ invented by Frenchman Renaud Camus, who claims that ‘globalist elites ‘ have laid out a plan for the white race to be replaced by darker ones, and that he has recorded a video in which he suggests that, to limit the loss of virility in modern society, Western men should tan their testicles.

On the other, eight candidates who wait for Yahweh to open the waters of the Red Sea and allow them passage to the Promised Land, without wanting to realize that Donald Trump is already building a temple in Jerusalem..

In such a situation, the winner of the debate was, of course, the most bizarre and Trumpist candidate – both personally and politically – of all: Vivek Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old businessman with zero experience in politics who is threatening the second place of a Ron DeSantis who started this campaign as the favorite of the anti-Trump Republicans and in just seven months he has achieved the impossible: discourage his supporters, embolden his rivals, bore the curious, scare away the undecided, disappoint the anti-trumpists and fail to convince the trumpists.

Ramaswamy repeated, almost point by point, the ways and manners of Donald Trump, but with his own style.

He sent a more than catastrophic message, declaring that “we are living in a moment of darkness” in the United States, denied that climate change exists (in that, DeSantis supported him and none of the other six candidates was able to say “yes” or “no”), stated emphatically that if he wins the presidency he will immediately cut aid to Ukraine, and mocked, in the style of Donald Trump in the 2015 and 2016 debates, the other participants.

“You have ridiculed everyone on this stage,” said the former ambassador to the United Nations with Trump and former governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, who has a 2% vote intention, according to the YouGov company for the chain of cbs television. More than an accusation, it was a verification.

With his exaggerated gestures, his ability to break the rules of debate and speak when he felt like it, Ramaswamy dominated the conversation.

Former vice president, Mike Pence (5% voting intention), broke with his image of a sober evangelical and made it clear that he can’t stand him.

The former governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie (2% support), who had gone to the debate basically to put Donald Trump back and a half – of whom he has been a rival, an ally and, now, a rival again – called him ” amateur” and said “you sound like ChatGPT”.

The point is that ChatGPT is very popular, so Ramaswamy, at least, managed to be the center of the debate. Which is not little, although most likely, as Trump himself has said, the most that comes out of those eight candidates is the candidate to be vice president with him.

That is the big problem with these candidates.. The aforementioned YouGov poll for CBS states that 71% of Trump voters feel that the former president is telling the truth, compared to only 63% who place that trust in their family and friends, and 42% who give it their religious leaders, an especially low number in a markedly Christian party like the Republican.

If it is taken into account that in the same poll Trump obtained 62% of the intention to vote, it turns out that 43% of Republicans believe the former president before, for example, his spouse.

And on Twitter, a much calmer Trump than his rivals gave his faithful new tenets to believe in.. Or, rather, he endorsed some of the conspiracy theories that have been circulating for years in the bowels of the Internet and to which Elon Musk has given free rein on Twitter.

For example, Trump lent some credence to the theory that financier and pimp Jeffrey Epstein didn’t commit suicide in prison but was murdered, and he rounded it out by indicting his own attorney general (a title equivalent to attorney general). ), Bill Barr, of covering up the murder. He also said that his enemies may try to kill him — “they are wild animals.

They’re sick, really sick. I have seen what they do; I have seen what they are capable of doing” – and again implied that, if he does not win in 2024, there is likely to be violence.

“There is a degree of passion like I have never seen. There is also a degree of hate that I have not seen either. Those two things are probably a tricky combination.”.

INTERNATIONAL

Trump’s Strategy: Freedom of Expression Defense and Civil War Threat

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After the arrest – foreseeably the last one that Trump will have to suffer, although it is not ruled out that more accusations could take place – the former president and his followers have designed a strategy based on a double line of action.

On the one hand, declaring that he limited himself to exercising his right to freedom of expression by rejecting the validity of the elections; on the other, that if he is convicted and imprisoned there will be a civil war.

Trump himself has played both cards.. On Thursday, after being booked in Georgia, he declared at the Atlanta airport that “you should have the right to reject the result of an election.

I thought that the elections were fraudulent, that they had been stolen, and I think that I should have the right to do so.”

Trump cited Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton, who ran with him for the presidency in 2016, and Stacy Abrams, who tried unsuccessfully to run for governor of Georgia that same year, as examples.

Trump was lying. Clinton never questioned the legitimacy of the 2016 election. On the contrary. In her first post-election appearance, the day after the election, Clinton said: “Donald Trump is going to be our president.

We must welcome him with an open mind and give him the opportunity to lead us.”. Clinton also claimed that the day before “I called Trump and offered to work with him for all Americans.”. I hope he is a successful president for the good of the American people.”

The threat of civil war was repeated several times by the president himself in the interview he gave to commentator Tucker Carlson and which was broadcast on the X social network, formerly called Twitter.

Trump stated that “there’s a degree of passion like I’ve never seen. There’s also a degree of hate like I’ve never seen.

Those two things are probably a bad combination.” A more direct message was sent by the former candidate for Republican vice president in 2008 and former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, declaring that “I would like to ask those who want to carry out this falsification of justice [in reference to the processes against Trump] if what they want is to lead us to a civil war, because that is what is going to happen. We are not going to allow this. We need to rebel.”

INTERNATIONAL

Immigrants Denounce Harrowing Conditions on Evacuated Barge in the UK

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The 39 irregular immigrants temporarily housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge, which had to be evacuated four days later due to an outbreak of legionella, have written to the Secretary of the Interior Suella Braverman to denounce the feeling of “insecurity, fear and isolation” in the floating residence and the suicide attempt of one of its first occupants.

The Department of the Interior has reiterated, however, its intention to “reship” the immigrants, who arrived by boat through the English Channel, as soon as the health authorities give the go-ahead and certify that the dangerous bacteria found in the water system of the barge is no longer a threat to health.

Suella Braverman’s initial plan was to “embark” 506 immigrants on the Bibby Stockolm, anchored in the port of Portland, in southern England.

Conservative MP Chris Loder has stated his intention to block the return of immigrants citing security problems, since the Bibby Stockolm was designed to house 222 occupants.

Several parliamentarians have openly called for Braverman’s resignation due to the successive fiascos of his immigration policy, such as the deportations to Rwanda stopped by the courts.

Criticism has peppered the “premier” Rishi Sunak for his hard line against immigration under the slogan “Stop the Boats” (“Stop the boats!).

The letter of the 39 immigrants has been released by the British media one day after the news of a new record number of asylum seekers (175,457) waiting for their cases to be resolved. The figure represents an increase of 44% over last year.

The cost of dealing with the avalanche has doubled to reach 4,600 million euros per year. The Home Department has warned that the number of migrants risking their lives crossing the English Channel is “unacceptable” and is straining the UK’s asylum system.

The British government intended to enable at least half a dozen barges like the Bibby Stockolm to house thousands of immigrants temporarily staying in hotels.

The resistance of the municipalities, however, forced the plans to be left to soak, except in the case of Portland, where the barge has been compared with the HMP Weare floating prison that was in use until 2005 in the same port.

The Bibby Stockholm has in fact been adapted to double its capacity by installing berths in the cabins.

The immigrants denounce in their letter the hygienic conditions, the oppressive feeling and the lack of living space on the barge, surrounded by barbed wire, from which it is only possible to leave and return by bus until eleven at night.

“In a tragic incident, one of the asylum seekers attempted suicide, although swift action prevented the unfortunate incident,” the letter read.”Considering the difficulties, it is to be expected that these situations may occur in the future.”

“The days I spent there have been horribly marked in my brain,” says one of the immigrants.. “Being locked up on a barge makes us feel like we’re criminals or second-class citizens.. We are upset, and even more so by the Department of the Interior’s decision to go ahead with this “horror show.”

“Within a few hours I had stomach aches and dizziness,” warns another of the signatories of the letter addressed to Suella Braverman. “A few started coughing and people were scared. You would turn on the showers and the water would burn your eyes. We were the last to be informed of the legionella outbreak.”

“Would you put a member of your family there for just one day?”, the immigrants ask Suella Braverman. “We have been fleeing persecution and now we are persecuted in the UK.”

The Bibby Stockholm had to be evacuated four days after its first occupants arrived on August 7, after discovering the legionella outbreak.

The 39 immigrants were transferred to a disused hotel where the days count for a decision: “The barge has sabotaged all our hopes. Our morale is below zero.”

INTERNATIONAL

Controversial Electoral Council Swearing-in Raises Concerns in Venezuela

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“The election of such a professional, balanced, and high-level National Electoral Council (CNE) is good news for Venezuela,” a euphoric Nicolás Maduro stressed to the country after the swearing in of a new electoral referee designed to suit him. next year’s presidential.

The Bolivarian caudillo has imposed one of his closest collaborators, Elvis Amoroso, at the head of the CNE, who, to make matters worse, was in charge of the disqualification of opposition leaders from the Office of the Comptroller General of the Republic.

“The disabler who disables the most, a good disabler will be. It is his prize for pleasing the autocracy,” criticized the chavista critic Nicmer Evans.

Thanks to the disqualifications of Amoroso, always at the service of the Miraflores Palace, neither the conservative María Corina Machado, who leads all the polls for the opposition primaries in October, nor the centrist Henrique Capriles can participate in next year’s presidential elections. Amoroso is sanctioned by the United States.

“He is an unconditional and complicit in dirty tasks,” recalled Juan Guaidó, former president in charge also disabled, from exile.

On the bench of substitute magistrates Maduro has another tough Chavista, General Fabio Zavarse, designated by the International Criminal Court for “induction and complicity” in crimes against humanity.

The opposition has not forgotten how Zavarse, who was the general commander of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB), allowed the violent ambush of Chavista paramilitaries against his deputies at the very gates of the CNE.

Along with the controversial Amoroso there will be two other “furious maduristas”, as defined by the opposition leader Luis Florido.

This is Colonel Carlos Quintero, the shadow power of the CNE in recent years, and the until now secretary of the revolutionary legislative body, Rosalba Gil, widow of Darío Vivas, another historic member of the pro-Maduro faction of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( PSUV).

It was precisely Cilia Flores, the first revolutionary combatant and wife of Maduro, who was in charge of directing with an iron hand the process that has led to the replacement of the previous CNE by the current one, both under the formula of three revolutionaries for two opponents, these without any ability to prevent revolutionary arbitrariness.

On this occasion, Chavismo has given its approval as magistrates to Aimé Nogal Méndez, close to the opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT), and Juan Carlos Delpino, who was substitute rector of the CNE in 2020 at the request of the Supreme Court of Justice ( TSJ).

Nogal is identified with the group of Stalin González, a UNT leader who has participated in the negotiations in Mexico, under international supervision, between the government and the democratic opposition..

“The CNE folded to the system will be one of the many barriers that we are going to tear down,” Machado added.. Once again, the CNE fails to comply with the constitutional requirements, which expressly prohibit those elected from being linked to political organizations.

With this coup in the electoral tribunal, the “son of Chávez” was not only seeking maximum fidelity once he has made the decision to remain in power until 2030 at whatever price. In the Miraflores Palace they also tried to impact the opposition with a few weeks to go before the primaries. and he has achieved it.

“This CNE is one more farce of the regime, we reject it. It is the result of the unanimous alliance of the dictatorship and its pseudo-opponents,”

protested Julio Borges, leader of Primero Justicia (PJ), who has lost one of his magistrates and sees how both UNT and Acción Democrática, which make up the G -3 from the opposition, will sit in the electoral body.

From the opposition Unitary Platform, criticism was launched at the two parties for being part of the new CNE behind the back of the National Commission of Primaries.

“What will the new CNE do? Cancel the primaries and organize fraudulent and early mega-elections (presidential and local), “said political analyst Georg Eickhoff.

INTERNATIONAL

Unconfirmed Death of Wagner’s Boss Sparks Denials and Investigations

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The death of Wagner’s boss has yet to be confirmed by the Russian government, but the Kremlin has denied ordering his assassination.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, declared that accusations that the Kremlin gave the order to kill Prigozhin are “a complete lie.”

“In addressing this issue, it is necessary to rely on the facts. not many facts yet. It is necessary to determine them in the course of the investigation,” Peskov said..

The United States and officials from some Western countries have said that preliminary data from their intelligence services suggests that an explosion brought down the plane in which Prigozhin was listed as a passenger, killing all 10 people on board.

The detonation could have been caused by a bomb or other device placed on the plane, although other theories are also being explored, such as adulterated fuel..

The presidential spokesman added that he could not say anything about Wagner’s future, noting that Wagner has no formal legal existence in Russia, though acknowledging that he has made a “great contribution” to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

He assured that Putin had not recently met with Prigozhin and even denied, contrary to what the Russian president had recently pointed out, that Wagner had state financing.

It was when a journalist asked Peskov if Wagner would continue to receive Russian money by being registered in Belarus.

“There was no government funding. This has nothing to do with being in Belarus, this is a completely different topic.”

But this summer, after the Prigozhin-led mutiny, Putin said the mercenaries had been “fully financed” by Russian authorities.

He assured that from May 2022 to May 2023 they received more than 86,000 million rubles, about 840,000 euros in their current exchange rate, from the state budget.

US President Joe Biden has suggested Putin is behind Prigozhin’s death: “It doesn’t happen much in Russia that Putin isn’t behind it”.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov responded that these comments illustrate Washington’s contempt for diplomacy:

“It is not up to the US president. talk about such tragic events of this kind,” Riabkov said, according to the state news agency TASS.

The catastrophe, which has decapitated Wagner, does not yet have an official cause: it could have been an explosion inside or outside the plane: that is, a bomb or a missile.

But the precipitous drop and scattered debris, experts say, point to a sudden explosion of the plane rather than mechanical failure.

The thesis of the explosion inside the device is gaining strength, according to US intelligence data.

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko said on Friday that he was not responsible for ensuring Prigozhin’s safety despite having helped broker an end to the brief Wagner mutiny in Russia, which ended with an agreement that Prigozhin and his faithful stay on Belarusian soil.

Lukashenko said he did not suspect Putin, suggesting that the Russian leader is very careful and that this assassination has not been.

The disappearance of Prighozin already has direct consequences for Wagner. The oligarch’s mercenaries continue to gradually leave Belarus.

On Thursday, with an impassive face, Vladimir Putin promised that he would investigate what happened, but announced to the Russians that the truth would take time to be known.

He offered his condolences to the family of Prigozhin, describing him as a talented man who made mistakes.

Prigozhin’s death may leave thousands of families of dead combatants pending payments, waiting for the government to clarify who will take care of those compensations.

The media have already removed the mercenary boss from their front pages. The newspaper ‘Kommersant’ that gave Prigozhin its cover on Thursday, left the case on its inside pages on Friday.

Already in the news the day after the catastrophe, the Rosiya 1 channel opened its first newscast on Thursday with Putin presiding over the anniversary ceremony of the Battle of Kursk, the destruction of Ukrainian equipment at the front, the Republican debate in the US and even fishing quotas. As BNE IntelliNews correspondent Jonny Tickle noted, “Prigozhin is buried.”

HEALTH

Hospital Emergencies in Spain Struggle with Summer Surge and Resource Shortages

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Hospital emergencies throughout Spain are saturated, a situation that health workers already anticipated before the summer, but which has worsened with an average of 10% more patients than in the same period last year, and with the most complicated weeks concentrated between July 15 and August 15.

The first vice president of the Spanish Society of Emergency and Emergency Medicine (SEMES), Pascual Piñera, has attributed this situation to the heat wave that has favored the decompensation of chronic pathologies in the elderly and the increase in covid cases -19, “not with many admissions, but with a lot of assistance in the emergency room”.

Another reason that overloads hospital emergencies, especially in summer, is, according to Piñera, the situation of Primary Care, with a shortage of personnel and resources that leads to a landing of patients in the emergency room, “service with easy access and open 24 hours”.

Piñera, head of the ER at the Reina Sofía University Hospital in Murcia, explains that the patients who do end up being admitted are the “elderly”, 75 years and over, with chronic illnesses and multiple pathologies, most affected by heat waves.

In fact, and according to this specialist, there is a progressive increase in emergency care for people over 85 years of age in summer, an upward trend for a decade.

Hotter and longer

From the Federation of Associations for the Defense of Public Health (FADSP), its spokesman Marciano Sánchez Bayle has agreed with the vice president of SEMES that this summer is worse than the previous one in terms of health pressure both due to heat waves, ” that destabilize the chronically ill”, such as the increase in covid cases.

“There will be more and more prolonged heat waves” and this will result in greater pressure on care in hospitals during the summer months, warned the FADSP spokesman.

Sánchez Bayle has also referred to the high closure of hospital beds throughout Spain and that, according to calculations by this Federation, the Community of Madrid leads, with more than 19% and almost 2,500 fewer beds in public hospitals during the months of July and August .

For this spokesperson, the situation in Madrid is “disproportionate to reality” for many reasons, “mainly because the population leaving the Community is less than it was a few years ago, and those who go on vacation do so for less time.”

In short, according to this platform of public health associations, the forecasts for closing beds have been fulfilled this summer in “excess” and exceed those of 2022, as well as the saturation of hospital emergencies.

Precisely in Madrid, 31 doctors from the La Paz University Hospital have filed a complaint this week with the duty judge for the “collapse” in the emergency services.

According to the Red Workers union, the hospital has dozens of patients about to be admitted while keeping 435 beds closed “with the excuse that fewer sick people come in summer.”

This month, the same union has also denounced that the La Paz pathology laboratory is overwhelmed with 11,600 biopsies pending analysis, many to diagnose some type of cancer.

Scooter accidents

However, emergencies are also saturated by banal pathologies and those linked to summer such as allergies, sunburn, dehydration, digestive disorders, gastroenteritis or food poisoning.

Some of the assistances that call attention due to their increase are those referring to injuries caused by driving scooters.

According to the first vice president of SEMES, with the rental of scooters on the street their use has become widespread, but accidents involving users who use this means of transport without a helmet or protections have also increased.

This worries the emergency services that have been warning of this situation for months and asking the administrations concerned for measures.

HEALTH

Insights into Prehistoric Family Communities: Genetic Study of Bronze Age Burials

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A study by anthropologists from the German University of Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg University (JGU), and an international team of archaeologists now provides new insights into the origins and genetic structure of prehistoric family communities.

JGU researchers Jens Blöcher and Joachim Burger have analyzed the genomes of skeletons of an extended family from a Bronze Age necropolis in the Russian steppe.

The 3,800-year-old Nepluyevsky burial mound was excavated several years ago and lies on the geographical border between Europe and Asia.

Thanks to genomic statistics, the family and marriage relationships of this society have been deciphered.

The study was carried out in collaboration with archaeologists from Yekaterinburg and Frankfurt and was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The kurgan (burial mound) investigated was the grave of six brothers, their wives, children and grandchildren.

The older brother presumably had eight children and two wives, one of whom hailed from the East Asian steppe regions.

The other siblings showed no signs of polygamy and probably lived monogamously with far fewer children.

What the study reveals

“The burial site offers a fascinating snapshot of a prehistoric family,” explains Blöcher, lead author of the study.

“It is notable that the firstborn sibling apparently had a higher status and therefore greater chances of reproduction. The right of the firstborn male seems familiar to us. We know it, for example, in the Old Testament, but also in the aristocracy of historical Europe”.

Genomic data reveals even more. Most of the women buried in the kurgan were immigrants. The sisters of the buried brothers, in turn, found new homes elsewhere.. Burger, lead author of the study, explains:

“The mobility of female marriage is a common pattern that makes sense from an evolutionary and economic perspective. While one sex remains local and ensures continuity of the family line and property, the other marries abroad to prevent inbreeding.”

Consequently, population geneticists in Mainz found that the genomic diversity of prehistoric women was greater than that of men.. Therefore, the women who married into the family came from a wider area and were not related to each other.

In their new homeland, they followed their husbands to the grave. From this the authors conclude that in Nepluyevsky there was both “patrilineality”, that is, the transmission of local traditions through the male line, and “patrilocality”, that is, the place of residence of a family is the place residence of men.

“Archaeology shows that 3,800 years ago, the population of the southern Trans-Urals knew animal husbandry and metallurgy and subsisted mainly on dairy and meat products,” says Svetlana Sharapova, an archaeologist from Yekaterinburg and head of the excavation, adding , “The state of health of the family buried here must have been very poor.. The average life expectancy for women was 28 years, for men 36 years.”

In the last generation, the use of the kurgan stopped suddenly and almost only babies and young children were found. Sharapova adds that “it is possible that the inhabitants have been decimated by disease or that the remaining population has gone elsewhere in search of a better life.”

Similarities around the world

“There is a global connection between different family systems and certain ways of life and economy,” Blöcher.

“However, human societies are characterized by a high degree of flexibility”. He adds that “in Nepluyevsky we find evidence of a pattern of inequality typical of pastoralists: multiple partners and many children for the putative firstborn and no relationships or monogamous relationships for most others.”

The authors find additional genomic evidence that populations genetically similar to the Neplujevsky society lived throughout most of the Eurasian steppe belt.

Burger comments: “It’s quite possible that the local pattern we found is relevant to a much larger area.” Future studies will show to what extent the “Neplujevsky” model can be verified at other Eurasian prehistoric sites.

INTERNATIONAL

Turkish Dardanelles Strait Closed Amidst Wildfires; Greece Battles Multiple Blazes

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Turkey has closed the Dardanelles Strait, the only access for ships to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea due to the advance of the fires, while Greece continues to fight against the advance of the flames in various parts of the north of the country, where the authorities They found yesterday 27 charred bodies of migrants and asylum seekers.

In Turkey, the Ministry of Transport announced the closure of the strait on Tuesday night due to the advance of fires in the province of Çannakale, in the west of the country.

The authorities pointed out that the closure of the canal, through which more than a hundred boats and ships pass every day, is for security reasons due to the smoke released by the fires, but also to facilitate the work of the planes that collect water to put out the fires. spotlights in the area.

The fire, which started on Tuesday morning, is advancing uncontrollably due to wind gusts of up to 70 kilometers per hour and has already burned more than 1,500 hectares.

A forest fire in Canakkale, Turkey, on August 22, 2023. Via REUTERS

So far, 1,200 people and hundreds of animals have been evacuated from nine affected towns.

The authorities have recommended that the surrounding population pay attention to the notices posted on television in case there is a change in the direction of the wind and the fire advances in other areas.

At least 48 people have been treated in hospitals in the region for smoke poisoning, although the health minister, Fahrettin Koca, rules out that there are serious injuries.

Another thirty sick and patients in intensive care units have been evacuated from the Çannakale state hospital as a precaution.

The emergency services have deployed 26 helicopters, eight planes and 300 construction machines to try to stop the spread of the flames.

In Greece, the fire continues out of control in Evros, a border region with Turkey, where more than 15 outbreaks have merged into two large fires.

Athens woke up this Wednesday with a strong smell of burning and a thick black smoke covering its sky.

“I have never seen such extreme conditions in 32 years of service,” said the Greek fire chief, Yorgos Purnaras, in turn. Efe agency.

The Immigration Minister, Dimitris Kairos, confirmed last night that the 27 charred bodies that appeared near the Dadia forest are migrants or asylum seekers.

He pointed out that all the deceased were men and among them were two children. The region affected by the fires is part of one of the routes of migrants and asylum seekers who cross overland from Turkey to Greece.

“They were all found in groups of two or three at a distance of five hundred meters, apparently while they were trying to escape,” Pavlos Pavlidi, the forensic examiner who examined the bodies, told the Greek press.

The Greek authorities have not yet confirmed the appearance of another eight bodies during the day on Tuesday.

For his part, the Minister of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection of Greece, Vassilis Kikilias, expressed his condolences for the death of the migrants for “not fleeing the area despite evacuation notices.”.

“This is an unprecedented situation. This summer is the worst since meteorological data was collected,” he added at a press conference.

The minister defended the government’s management of the 300 fires declared throughout the country since Saturday, and which until yesterday had already devastated more than 43,000 hectares.

Thus, for example, he stated that the aerial means reached the focus that appeared in the Parnitha Natural Park, north of Athens, in just four minutes. However, he recognized that despite the improvements applied in Civil Protection since 2019, the result is not what the Government would like.

“Much remains to be done to more effectively manage the situations that will arise from the climate crisis,” stressed the minister, who opined that there is no room for “petty partisan debates” and that “the time will soon come for public debate and harsh criticism and self-criticism.”

Following the fire in Evros, the Supreme Court prosecutor, Georgia Adeilini, asked the Alexandroupoli prosecutor’s office for an investigation to identify evidence for possible arson in the region, while also requesting an investigation for violence against immigrants, according to the Greek daily Kathimerini.

On the other hand, another big fire is out of control in the Parnes region north of Athens. The emergency services tried this Wednesday morning to prevent the flames from reaching the national park located on Mount Parnés, but the authorities announced mid-morning that the fire had spread in the area.

In the same region, two people have been arrested today for negligence after having burned dry herbs in the middle of the fire emergency. Yesterday four other people were arrested in the same region.

The flames are also advancing in the Peloponnese region, where 700 people were evacuated this morning in the city of Amigdaleza.

Greece suffered serious fires during the month of July, when the flames on the island of Rhodes forced the authorities to evacuate more than 20,000 tourists.

ECONOMY

Zara Among Top 100 Valuable Brands Globally, Led by Apple and Google

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Zara, the flagship of the Inditex Group, is the only Spanish brand present among the 100 most valuable brands in the world, according to the Kantar BrandZ Global 2023 ranking.

Specifically, the Spanish fashion brand is ranked 94th in this classification with a brand valuation of 18,395 million dollars (16,829 million euros), according to Europa Press..

For its part, Apple has become the world’s most valuable brand, followed by Google and Microsoft.

Thus, Apple leads this classification with a brand valuation of 880,455 million dollars (805,661 million euros), followed by Google with 577,683 million dollars (528,603 million euros), while Microsoft has a valuation of 501,856 million dollars. (464,154 million euros) and is in third place.

Behind them are the 10 most valuable brands in the world: Amazon, which loses the podium and drops to fourth place, McDonald’s (5), Visa (6), Tencent (7), Louis Vuitton (8), MasterCard (9), while Coca-Cola closes the ‘top-10’.

A ranking in which it stands out that in 2023 25% of the most valuable brands in the world come from Asia, with only Tencent being in the ‘top-10’.

However, this year there has been a drop in value, due to the fact that most of the firms, which are technology companies, have been involved in downward market dynamics, such as massive layoffs or the semiconductor crisis, among others. others.

Regarding the most valuable consumer brands, Coca-Cola leads the ranking with a valuation of 98,004 million dollars (89,800 million euros), almost five times more than the second, the Chinese brand Nongfu Spring, which reaches 21,764 million dollars (19,939 million euros), while Pepsi ranks third with 8,826 million dollars (17,253 million euros).

ECONOMY

Rise of Restaurants and Bars Despite Home Delivery Boom

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Home delivery saved the activity of many businesses, bars and restaurants during the coronavirus pandemic, so much so that there were those who feared, in an apocalyptic way, that the new normality would do without many of these places and the bars where they can share beers and tapas with the friends.

Three years later, reality shows that this has not been the case and while the growth of the online channel stabilizes, direct consumption in restaurants does not stop growing.

This is reflected in the latest data from the distribution and consumption employers AECOC, which indicate that delivery billing grew by 13% in the first quarter of the year due to the inflation effect, with a volume of orders that remains stable, while that consumption in bars and restaurants grew twice in the same period, 26%.

In his speech during the organization’s 20th congress, the CEO of Food Delivery Brands Group and Telepizza, Jacobo Caller, highlighted that, “contrary to some forecasts that occurred during the pandemic, delivery has not finished off diners.”

Confinement and Covid-19 generated the great boom in online sales. Before 2019, only 15% of consumers went to the online channel to make their consumer purchases, while at the end of 2022 the percentage was already 26.8%.

One of the sectors where online sales have more weight is that of technological products, and here again the trend is repeated:

if in 2019 the market share of the digital channel in Spain was over 20% -according to GFK data- , since December 2022 the figure has stabilized around 30%.

The change that is beginning to be perceived in recent months poses an interesting dilemma for the food and home delivery industry, and suggests a possible evolution in consumer preferences after the impact of the coronavirus on the habits of Spaniards.

And that despite the increase in prices that inflation has brought with it in the last year and a half.

In this sense, prices in bars, restaurants and cafeterias rose 15.5% in July, compared to the same month in 2019, the pre-pandemic reference year, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Industry experts attribute this change to a number of factors, including the desire of citizens to return to a sense of normalcy after the challenges of the pandemic.

The social experience offered by bars and restaurants, with the possibility of sharing moments with friends and family, has also proved irresistible to many.

In addition, the tendency of people to seek new culinary experiences and support local businesses has also contributed to the increase in the influx to physical establishments.

IESE professor José Luis Nueno attributes the “online slowdown” to consumers seeking lower prices, while companies have adopted a capture model for their customers.

“Now there are still 50% of customers who maintain their digital consumption, so they must bet on their retention with loyalty plans and strategies.”

While the rise of restaurants and bars is positive news for these businesses, it presents a challenge for the delivery industry, which now faces fiercer competition for consumers’ attention.

Many delivery companies are responding to this challenge by diversifying their services, offering online ordering options for local restaurants, and expanding their reach through grocery and other product delivery.

As the food industry evolves, there may be a balance between enjoying restaurant meals and delivery. Consumers may choose to dine in a restaurant for special occasions or social experiences, while turning to home delivery for everyday convenience.

This challenges delivery businesses to keep innovating and improving their service to stay relevant in an ever-evolving market.