Five Stories from Europe You May Have Missed

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1. Dutch journalist targeted in Molotov cocktail attack

A Dutch journalist has been targeted in a Molotov cocktail attack in the northern city of Groningen.

Police said that "burning material" had been thrown through the window of the home of Willem Groeneveld, who writes for the Groningen blog "Sikkom".

Groeneveld and his partner were woken by breaking glass on Wednesday night and managed to extinguish the flames and throw the material outside.

Police officers later found flammable material in front of their upstairs flat in the Tuinwijk neighbourhood of the city.

https://www.euronews.com/2021/08/19/dutch-journalist-targeted-in-molotov-cocktail-attack-at-groningen-home


2. Merkel Makes Farewell Trip To Meet Putin Amid 'Deep Disagreements'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a long list of contentious topics to discuss during Merkel's last official visit to Russia before retiring from politics after next month's general elections.

The controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan, the Iranian nuclear deal, and the stalled peace process to end the conflict in Ukraine were just some of the headline issues discussed by the two leaders during their nearly three-hour talk in Moscow on August 20.

Also up for discussion in the Grand Kremlin Palace were upcoming elections both in Russia and Germany and the continuing postelection crisis in Belarus, with Merkel stressing at the beginning of the meeting that Moscow and Berlin need to maintain dialogue despite “deep disagreements."

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-merkel-last-visit/31419645.html


3. Levelling up Pompeii: grave shows how a former slave went far

The inscription on the gravestone proudly attests to how far Marcus Venerius Secundio, a former slave of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, went in life. In order of importance, he lists his achievements after being liberated. The first was his role as custodian of the Temple of Venus, built soon after the creation of Pompeii as a Roman colony.

He also joined the ranks of the Augustales, a college of priests who were in charge of a form of emperor worship. But perhaps the most telling indication of his eventual status was that he financed entertainment events in Greek and Latin.

“Being a slave is humiliating, you are in the possession of someone else,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii’s archaeological park. “So here we see evidence of a transformation in social ranking … he is showing that he became a different person, that he made it in life.”

snip

Secundio, who was first identified as a public slave in archives belonging to Caecilius Iucundus, a rich banker who lived in the city, is believed to have died at around the age of 60 in the decades before Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. Two urns were also found in the tomb, one with the name Novia Amabilis, possibly Secundio’s wife, along with a coin celebrating Greek athletic games organised by Emperor Nero.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/21/levelling-up-pompeii-grave-at-site-shows-how-a-former-slave-went-far


4. Bulgaria Moves Closer To Third Election This Year After GERB Party Fails To Form Cabinet

Bulgaria's political crisis has deepened, moving the country closer to its third parliamentary elections this year, after GERB became the second political party to give up efforts to form a new government since last month's inconclusive vote.

The center-right GERB party's choice for prime minister, Daniel Mitov, returned a mandate to the president on August 20, prolonging the crisis and leaving few options to avoid fresh elections.

The prolonged political uncertainty could hamper the European Union's poorest member state's ability to effectively deal with a fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and tap the bloc’s multibillion-euro coronavirus-recovery fund.

President Rumen Radev had asked GERB, the party of former long-serving Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, to try and lead the country after an antiestablishment party that narrowly won the July 11 polls gave up efforts to form a minority government.

https://www.rferl.org/a/bulgaria-third-parliamentary-elections/31419951.html


5. Rain falls on peak of Greenland ice cap for first time on record

Rain has fallen on the summit of Greenland’s huge ice cap for the first time on record. Temperatures are normally well below freezing on the 3,216-metre (10,551ft) peak, and the precipitation is a stark sign of the climate crisis.

Scientists at the US National Science Foundation’s summit station saw rain falling throughout 14 August but had no gauges to measure the fall because the precipitation was so unexpected. Across Greenland, an estimated 7bn tonnes of water was released from the clouds.

The rain fell during an exceptionally hot three days in Greenland when temperatures were 18C higher than average in places. As a result, melting was seen in most of Greenland, across an area about four times the size of the UK.

The recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded it was “unequivocal” that carbon emissions from human activities were heating the planet and causing impacts such as melting ice and rising sea level.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/20/rain-falls-peak-greenland-ice-cap-first-time-on-record-climate-crisis

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