A stabbing attack took place on Saturday at a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia. Credit: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
At least five people have been killed during an attack at a shopping mall in Sydney, Australia with multiple reported stabbings. Nine people may have been stabbed in total.
The suspected attacker was reportedly shot dead by a police officer. The Australian police force has assured the public there is “no continuing threat” and the attacker “acted alone.”
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Westfield Bondi Junction mall complex, where the stabbing attack took place. The area remains locked down, and the authorities have urged people to avoid the area.
Australian authorities respond to Sydney stabbing attack
The Australian police force reported that a lone unit officer in close proximity to the scene took responsibility for disarming and shooting the suspected attacker.
“She confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level 5,” Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke, told journalists this morning.
“As she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him, he turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm, and that person is now deceased,” he added.
“She is certainly a hero,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in praise of the police officer who confronted the attack. “There is no doubt that she saved lives through her action. And it is a reminder that those people who wear uniform are people who rush to danger, not away from it. And I give thanks to every, every one of them, for the actions that they’ve taken up to now and the actions that they will take over the coming days, which will be a difficult period as well. Thank you.”
Cooke was asked whether the police had identified any motivations for the attack, but he responded that they were still conducting their investigation.
In recent years, terror attacks have increasingly involved the use of crude weapons, such as knives or even vehicles. However, it is important to stress that the motive behind the attack is not yet known, so it cannot be confirmed or denied whether this was an act of terrorism.
Eyewitness accounts
Some eyewitness accounts of the fatal stabbing attack in Sydney have already been shared by international media outlets.
Johnny, a 33-year-old man who was visiting the area from New South Wales Central Coast, witnessed the attack from within the shopping center. He heard a disturbance and turned to see a woman and her baby being assaulted.
“She was getting stabbed. Everyone was in shock [and] didn’t know what to do,” he said. Johnny also described seeing what he thought was a body on the floor.
The wounded woman was able to rush towards a nearby Tommy Hilfiger, locking the doors shut behind her when she got inside.
“Some of the other shoppers were using clothing and things to try and…stop the bleeding,” the witness said. “The lady was pretty bad…there was a lot of blood and she was panicking…hopefully, she pulls through.”
Enigmatic binary star HD 148937 in the Dragon’s Egg nebula. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ team. Credit: CASU
Scientists have uncovered a cosmic secret. There were three stars called HD 148937. Now, only two remain. They appear unusual because they used to be part of a trio.
Researchers discovered that two of these stars collided, forming the stunning Dragon’s Egg nebula where they now reside. These stars, though, are an odd couple, linked by gravity in a unique celestial phenomenon.
Astronomer Abigail Frost from KU Leuven in Belgium and the European Southern Observatory in Chile expressed her fascination with the system.
She noted that it’s uncommon to find a nebula encircling two big stars, sparking curiosity about what might have occurred in this particular system. Upon analyzing the data, the intrigue only grew, according to Frost.
Each star may form a black hole after dying
Situated approximately 3,800 light-years away from Earth, this system comprises two immense stars revolving around each other in a 26-year cycle.
These stars are hefty, with one weighing about 29.9 times the mass of the Sun, while the other is around 26.6 times as massive. Based on this theory, these stars are so large that they’re expected to transform into black holes when they reach the end of their lifecycle.
The larger star in this duo holds a strange characteristic. Prior studies indicate that it possesses a magnetic field. This is quite unusual because stars exceeding approximately seven times the mass of the Sun typically lack the convective interiors necessary to sustain a magnetic field, unlike smaller stars.
Rätsel im Drachenei Nebel gelöst? Das Doppelsternsystem HD 148937 liefert nicht nur fantastische Bilder. Es ist auch außergewöhnlich. Astronomen haben jetzt seine wilde Vergangenheit erforsch. nasa pic.twitter.com/okqFmqcFcy
This anomaly intrigued Frost and her team. They delved into nine years’ worth of observational data on the system, gathered using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, along with archival data from the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope. This comprehensive analysis enabled them to thoroughly understand the stars and their orbital dynamics, as reported by ScienceAlert.
Two stars in the same binary system normally have similar age
Upon closer examination, the researchers observed an anomaly. Typically, two massive stars in a binary system like this would be of similar age, originating from the same stellar nursery around the same period.
However, upon analyzing the chemical composition of the stars, which provides insights into their age, they discovered a notable contrast. The larger star seemed to be approximately 2.7 million years old, while its smaller companion appeared to be at least 4.1 million years old. This age gap is quite significant, as reported by ScienceAlert.
The presence of the nebula adds another layer to the research. Estimated to be around 7,500 years old, its existence is already unusual. Typically, nebulas like this form as stars approach the end of their lives. However, both stars at the core of this nebula are still in their prime.
Moreover, the nebula contains a significant amount of nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen—elements usually confined within stars rather than floating freely outside them.
One possible explanation for the magnetic properties of the massive stars is the merger of two smaller stars. Such an event could scatter internal star material into the surrounding space. Collectively, these findings strongly suggest that a merger of two smaller stars indeed occurred in the case of HD 148937, according to ScienceAlert.
Alexander the Great was nearly killed by a grievous wound in 326 BC. Credit: Public Domain
Alexander the Great died at age 32 after falling ill with a high fever following a night of heavy drinking. Twelve days later, the legendary general succumbed, leaving behind a vast empire unlike any other before.
There is an inescapable irony that a king so renowned for leading his troops in battle from the front met his demise in bed at age 32. Whether he was poisoned by conspirators or died of alcohol poisoning or some other cause will never be known.
Yet, in 2018 a group of Greek surgeons (Efstratios Apostolakis, Nikolaos A. Papakonstantinou, Nikolaos G. Baikoussis, and Georgia Apostolaki) took the task of researching the cause of death of the great stratelates and wrote a paper with the title Alexander the Great’s Life-Threatening Thoracic Trauma, published in the Korean Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery.
The paper details the wound that Alexander had suffered that should have killed the Macedonian king.
Drawing from the accounts of historian and Alexander‘s biographer Arrian of Nicomedia, the Greek surgeons discovered the specific wound that Alexander suffered in a battle in what is now Pakistan, along with how ancient battlefield medicine treated it. He was lucky to have regained consciousness, let alone survive, the doctors claim, concluding that it was a fatal case of tension pneumothorax.
According to the US National Library of Medicine, tension pneumothorax is a life-threatening emergency wherein a large air collection in the pleural space compromises respiration and cardiac function.
“There is no part of my body free from wounds”
In many battles, Alexander the Great fought on the front line alongside his soldiers. In his book The Anabasis of Alexander the Great, Arrian of Nicomedia describes the young Macedonian king clashing with the Persians next to his men during the Battle of Granicus.
In earlier battles, generals were forced to scold Alexander for throwing himself against the enemy as a regular soldier defying danger. In one battle, general Parmenion saved the young king from the hands of a Persian who was ready to slay him by cutting the enemy’s arm.
Alexander’s zeal to fight cost him many injuries, some of them serious. At Granicus, he was hit in the head by a sword that knocked his helmet off. In the same battle, he was hit with a missile that pierced his shield and lodged in his shoulder.
Rather than being deterred, Alexander used those wounds in a speech to inspire his soldiers to cross the Indus River:
“There is no part of my body, in front at any rate, remaining free from wounds, nor is there any kind of weapon used either for close combat or for hurling at the enemy, the traces of which I do not bear on my person.”
As if pain was a concept unknown to him, the great commander soldiered on, fighting battle after battle, thus forging one of antiquity’s greatest empires.
The wound that nearly killed Alexander the Great
While throwing himself fearlessly into battle, there was one that nearly cost the Macedonian king his life.
Before crossing the Indus River, the men of Alexander’s army were disillusioned from the many casualties, the hardships, and the harsh Asian climate. It took the inspirational speech of their great leader to convince them to continue.
After crossing Indus, the Macedonians came face to face with the Mallians of Punjab, in modern-day Pakistan. The Mallians refused to allow Alexander’s army to cross through their territory leading to a conflict that lasted almost four months.
The Mallians had an army of 50,000 men, a sizeable force that was not easy to confront. Yet the Macedonian army fought them and forced them to retreat to their citadel with a wall of a mile-long perimeter.
After the Macedonians made their way into the outer parts of the citadel and started undermining the next layer of walls, Alexander grew impatient, grabbed a ladder, and climbed it himself with only two soldiers following him. Others started climbing the ladder to protect him, but the ladder broke due to their weight.
The Mallians recognized the king and attacked him immediately. His soldiers called to him, urging him to jump down to them. Alexander did not. Instead, he leaped down to the inner area and started cutting down the Mallians with his sword, killing their leader.
The Mallians started shooting arrows at Alexander and one of them hit the king in his left breast. Alexander kept fighting even though he was bleeding profusely until he finally collapsed on his shield. Meanwhile, more Macedonians had entered the city. Upon seeing Alexander lying on his shield they thought he was dead. In a rage, they started killing every Mallian on site.
After realizing that Alexander was alive, they ran back taking the unconscious king to a tent to remove the arrow. General Perdiccas volunteered to make the incision to remove the tip of the arrow. Then they moved the king to the camp to recover.
Since the largest part of his army was still away, rumors spread that the king was dead. The soldiers became desperate and despondent. They wondered who would become their new leader to safely lead them back to Greece. Arrian wrote that upon the rumors of his death, “at first there arose a sound of lamentation from the entire army, as one man handed the rumor on to another. When they ceased their lamentation, they became spiritless, and felt perplexed as to the man who was to become the leader of the army…as if “everything was difficult, if not impossible, without Alexander.”
However, a still-living and awake Alexander the Great was put on a boat to sail on a nearby river to show his army that he was alive. When the rest of the army was informed that the king was alive, they couldn’t believe it. When they saw him, some ran near him to touch him or his clothes to confirm that he was alive indeed.
Modern-day surgeons and the thorax wound
Based on historical accounts, the modern-day Greek surgeons who wrote the article believe the arrow pierced Alexander’s thorax on his left breast, entering the thoracic wall and puncturing the lung.
In The Anabasis of Alexander the Great, Arrian describes symptoms of dizziness and swooning. From that, the surgeons inferred that Alexander’s lung collapsed, which is a life-threatening condition that would send anyone to the intensive care unit.
The surgeons called this tension pneumothorax, which would lead to a drop in blood pressure, and cause Alexander to lose consciousness, as historians reported. When he fell onto his shield, it closed the air leak, which allowed him to wake up.
The arrow was lodged in the king’s breastplate, and the point in the space between his muscle tissue and his heart. Removing it risked breaking Alexander’s ribs and causing internal bleeding. Nevertheless, it was removed. The body of the arrow was torn away and then an incision was made using a sword. The arrowhead was cut out of the king’s chest, which caused severe hemorrhaging and he fell unconscious.
The historical accounts do not mention how Alexander managed to survive the wound or how long it took him to recover since there is no medical data.
The surgeons note that the shape of the arrowhead prevented it from going further into Alexander’s body than the lung. If it had, it would have penetrated his heart and the king would have died. No record of his recovery exists, but the doctors also note that if his remains were discovered, evidence of this wound would surely be visible in his left rib cage.
Stefanos Kasselakis, the Syriza leader. Credit: AMNA
SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis told the Delphi Economic Forum that his party will close the gap with ruling New Democracy and “shock Europe and the country” in the upcoming European Parliament elections.
The main opposition party leader said it was his responsibility “for the renewed SYRIZA to put forth a new governance team as well as program.” When asked about the state of the economy, Kasselakis highlighted that while Greece’s fiscal stability in terms of debt-to-GDP was “positive,” the country’s convergence with the European Union has been “despicable.”
He claimed Greek taxes are as high as in Sweden, and that Greeks have a purchasing power just above that of Bulgarians and see very little private investment in their country. On the war in Ukraine, Kasseslakis said he is in favor of Greece providing humanitarian aid but not military equipment to Kyiv.
Kasselakis since taking over leadership of Syriza
Kasselakis started his brief military service in an army barrack in Thebes in March. He received basic military training for twenty days.
Military service is mandatory for all Greek males. Kasselakis had been exempt from military service, as he had been residing in the US since age fourteen. When he returned to Greece, he had two options. He could either spend six months in the military or serve for three weeks and buy off the rest of his time.
While it has a sizeable number of professional troops, Greece’s military is still conscription-based with service in most cases set at twelve months.
Before entering the army barracks, he was welcomed by locals in the the central square of Thebes, where he was offered gifts and wished well. Some said it was their honor to have the leader of the opposition in the town.
“It is an honor to be here to serve my country as an expatriate who has returned to contribute to his country,” Kasselakis said.
In March, he posted a video on TikTok with an “army-style” haircut. The video begins with Kasselakis holding his dog, Farley, and saying, “I’m going to miss her.” The hairdresser asks how he would like his hair done and he replies: “SYRIZA,” which, in Greek, means very short and to the roots.
When asked about the parting of his hair, he says: “Toward the left, where my heart beats.”
Kasselakis, 36, a former businessman without political experience who is gay, was the surprise winner at the SYRIZA elections held last September.
He took the reigns of the party a few months after the catastrophic election results in June and July 2023 after which the former leader and former PM Alexis Tsipras was forced to resign.
His meteoric rise to leadership had upset many left-wing traditionalists who accused him of “right-wing populism” and authoritarian practices.
On November 23, 2023, nine Members of Parliament (MPs), one Member of the European Parliament (MEP), and fifty-seven central committee members declared their departure from the political party in protest of Kasselakis’ leadership.
Notable figures among them included Effi Achtsioglou along with other former ministers. A few days later, previously resigned MPs Euclid Tsakalotos and Peti Perka joined forces with the nine MPs to announce the establishment of a new political entity called the “New Left.”
Burning the aerogel that had adsorbed and reduced gold from an e-waste solution produced this 0.5 g gold nugget with a purity of around 91%, corresponding to 21 to 22 carats. Credit: Raffaele Mezzenga/ETH Zurich
An aerogel made from old milk can extract highly pure gold nuggets from discarded computer motherboards.
Discarded electronics, known as e-waste, often contain large amounts of gold and other heavy metals. Scientists have come up with methods to recover the valuable metals, but these processes often rely on synthetic chemicals that can damage the environment.
Raffaele Mezzenga at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues have developed a way to recover gold from e-waste by using a milk-derived aerogel.
He and his colleagues started with whey protein, a byproduct of the cheesemaking industry, and made a low-density aerogel. Making the spongelike material is cheap, he says. “The value of the gold we recover is 50 times the value we invest to transform the protein into this sponge.”
The researchers placed whey protein into an acidic solution and heated it, which unraveled the proteins from tiny balls into strands. Then they freeze-dried the solution, forming a lightweight puck with high porosity.
“You can place them on the top of a flower. And the advantage of having aerogels is that they have high surface area,” says Mohammad Peydayesh, a chemical engineer who’s also part of the research team at ETH Zurich.
The researchers tested the gel’s ability to adsorb gold from a solution also containing other metals—including copper, lead, and nickel—at the same concentration.
Aerogel from old milk sucked up 93 percent of the gold
The aerogel sucked up 93 percent of the gold while removing less than 10 percent of any of the other metals. To test the protein sponge with real e-waste, the team dissolved computer motherboards in aqua regia, a mix of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid.
Gold ions from the mixture settled on the surface of the aerogel and were reduced, forming metallic gold. Each gram of aerogel snatched 190 mg of gold. Burning the aerogel freed the gold, turning it into a tiny hunk of metal.
“It was really exciting to find this nugget in the ashes,” Peydayesh recalls. The nugget was about 91% gold, which corresponds to about 21 to 22 carats.
The method already presents an improvement over activated carbon, a more typical adsorption method used to recover gold. Each gram of activated carbon only adsorbed about 60 mg of gold from an e-waste mixture, the team found. Because it takes a lot of energy to create activated carbon, recovering the same amount of gold using activated carbon had a higher environmental impact in a life cycle analysis.
The team is already eyeing other food waste proteins, such as keratin and those from the production of tofu, that could potentially help with other needs, such as the recycling of rare earth metals.
“We can simultaneously address the global waste of food and e-waste to produce something really precious,” Peydayesh says.
The Greek flag was proudly raised in Manhattan. Credit: Mayor of New York Eric Adams
On Friday, two days before the annual Greek parade in New York celebrating Greek Independence, the ceremony of raising the Greek flag at Bowling Green, Manhattan, took place as part of the official events.
The ceremony’s highlight was the presence of the Evzones of the Presidential Guard and the famous Mantzaros Philharmonic band of Corfu, who will also take part in the annual parade on New York 5th Avenue on Sunday, April 14th.
An amazing 🇬🇷Flag Raising Ceremony at Bowling Green, on April 12th, 2024, with special guests, to start the Celebrations for the #GreekIndependenceDayParade. The #Evzones Marched with the 🇬🇷🇺🇸 Community from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church & National Shrine to Bowling Green. pic.twitter.com/Jqi9s0KG13
The parade on Sunday celebrates the 203rd anniversary of Greek Independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Thousands of Greek-Americans and others are expected to descend onto Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to watch the traditional parade and participate in the festivities to mark the anniversary of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Turks.
— Consulate General of Greece in New York (@GreeceinNewYork) April 12, 2024
The annual event, a celebration of Hellenic identity, culture, and achievements in the world, is organized and hosted by the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, a non-profit organization committed to fostering an appreciation of Greek-American heritage and achievement.
Last year, George M. Logothetis, Executive Chairman of Libra Group, was the Grand Marshal of the parade, and he walked along Archibishop Elpidophoros, Greek Ambassador to the US Alexandra Papadopoulou, and other dignitaries.
“As a proud Greek-American, it is an honor to be named a Grand Marshal for New York’s Greek Independence Day Parade,” said Logothetis.
George Karlaftis will be the Grand Master of the New York Greek parade
George Karlaftis’ father, Matt, a javelin thrower, was a star in track and field at the University of Miami. His father, while attending graduate school, met his mother Amy at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue has an unsung relationship with Greece and Greek-Americans.
George’s parents returned to Athens, where his father became a professor. The family had four children. Everything changed, however, when their father died of a heart attack while traveling for work at age forty-four. Within days, their mother, Amy, moved the children back to Indiana, where she had more support.
It was in Indiana that George, who played many sports in Greece, fell in love with American football.
Leo Stefanos inspects chocolate making standing above his wife in the early days of Dove Bar. Credit: Greek Reporter / handout by Alexis Stefanos Marneris
The legendary Dove Bar ice cream was created by Greek immigrant Leo Stefanos in Chicago, Illinois in 1956, bringing a little sweetness to the Windy City’s South Side—and eventually the entire country.
One day, Stefanos saw his son, Mike, chasing an ice cream van down a busy street and swore right then and there that he would create a delicious, new ice cream that could be enjoyed in the safety of his own store.
Stefanos spent months slicing blocks of ice cream and dipping them in chocolate. Eventually, he created the right result: the sensational Dove Bar was created.
The chocolate-covered bars were originally sold only in the Chicago area for 15 cents. In 1977, Leo Stefanos passed away and Mike took over his father’s business.
Mike Stefanos took over Dove Bar after his dad’s death. Credit: dovechocolate.com
Dove Bar expands coast to coast
By the late 1970s, over one million Dove Bars were sold in a single year by street vendors to eager children, and adults, from coast to coast across the US.
In 1984, things really got going when Mike took the Dove Bar to the Fancy Foods Show in Washington, D.C., and orders started flooding in. Within three months, Dove Bars were being shipped to 3,500 supermarkets around the country.
The right offer to mass-produce the ice cream finally came from Richard Zacharras, a 73-year-old local financier who, at the urging of his chocolate-loving wife, tasted his first Dove Bar at his country club.
The company was formed in March 1985, at a start-up cost of about $2 million. Nowadays, production is up to a staggering 92,000 hand-dipped bars a day in the 13,000-square-foot Burr Ridge plant. There are 117 people working three shifts every day in an effort to meet the demand of grocery stores, specialty stores, and street vendors throughout the country for the irresistible treat.
The company was bought out by Mars Incorporated in 1986. As noted on its website: “Mars sees the potential in Dove Bar and welcomes the Stefanos’ business into its family. A nationwide sensation is born…”
Since then it has expanded into different ice cream flavors and chocolate bars. However, it all started, as so many successful businesses do, with one Greek immigrant to America.
The ancient Greeks devised a banking system which went on to influence the Ptolemies and the Romans. Credit: Helen in Wales. CC BY 2.0/flickr
The ancient Greeks and Romans were responsible for some of the world’s earliest banking systems, with the Athenians developing a sophisticated banking system in the 5th century BC that would eventually influence economies throughout the Greco-Roman world.
Modern Western culture owes a huge debt to the ancient Greeks and Romans, being that writing, religion, government, and all types of art came to medieval Europe through these ancient civilizations. Banking is yet another concept that has its origins in the Hellenic world, albeit its influence on medieval Europe was not so direct.
The aforementioned Athenian banking system, developed in the 5th century BC, was adopted by Hellenistic kingdoms, and later the Romans would expand on this system with their own monetary practices.
The Treasury of the Delian League
In the intervening years of the Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC) and the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) Athens grew to become the foremost Greek city state, with the Athenians achieving their status through a combination of clever political moves, naval prowess, and effective economic policies.
Another key factor contributing to Athenian dominance in the Hellenic world was the control it had over the Delian League. The Delian League started out as an anti-Persian alliance of Greek city-states in 478 BC, during the mid-stages of the Greco-Persian Wars. Although Athens was the head state in the league, the ships and gold the alliance shared were originally held on the island of Delos.
Other major cities which had significant sanctuaries, such as Delphi and Olympia, also had notable treasury houses. These early treasury houses were a mixture of sacred, state, and financial institutions, storing many goods including votive offerings, cult statues, weapons, gold, and silver.
Athenian statesman, Pericles. Credit: PabloEscudero. CC BY 1.0/flickr
The cunning Athenian statesman Pericles saw huge economic potential in this system and thus decided to move the Delian League’s treasury to Athens in 454 BC.
When Pericles and the Athenians took control of the Delian League’s treasury, it led to the Greco-Roman economies following a new path. The Athenians decreed that their allies would adopt Athenian coins, weights, and measures, thus raising Athens’ economic rank in the ancient Greek world. The decision also meant that the Athena cult would essentially become the Bank of Athena.
The Ancient Greek Bank of Athena
The Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens was another marvel achieved under the reign of Pericles. Dedicated as a temple for the city’s patron goddess Athena, the Parthenon also started to operate as a bank during the Peloponnesian War. The ancient Greek historian Thucydides wrote about how the Delian League’s war effort was funded by this Bank of Athena:
“Their strength came from the financial income they paid and that, for the most part, success in war was a matter of judgment and abundant revenues. He told them they could take confidence, since six hundred talents in tribute usually came in every year from the allies apart from other revenue, and on the Acropolis there was still six thousand talents in coined silver remaining at that time (the largest amount had been nine thousand seven hundred, from which they had made expenditures for the gateway of the Acropolis and the other buildings as well as for Portiada) and, apart from that, uncoined silver in private and public dedications, and there was all the sacred equipment for processions and contests and booty from the Mede and everything else of that sort, not less than five hundred talents; going further, he added the considerable amount from the other sanctuaries.”
Thucydides at Exterior of the Austrian Parliament Building. Credit Yair Haklai. CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons/Yair Haklai
Bullion from the Parthenon along with golden statues were used to produce minted coins, however, the banking processes at the Athena Temple were not limited to holding and minting currency. The temple made interest-laden loans for secular purposes, which it then used to fund the war effort and building projects. The lending and borrowing procedures of the Bank of Athena quickly took on the character resembling that of a modern bank.
A further decree from the authorities in Athens created a board of treasurers who oversaw the operations of the Athena treasury. The board of treasurers looked after everything, not just for the Athena Bank, but also for the other local sanctuaries. Records show that each deity had property and capital assigned to them that were listed separately.
This Athenian banking system was relatively effective in the early stages of the Peloponnesian War, however, this changed as the war went on. Once the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League gained the upper hand, the Athenian banking system started to experience serious monetary problems.
By the end of the fiscal year 423/422 BC, the Athenian debt to the sacred treasuries had hit 5,600 talents (the unit of weight to measure gold, silver, and other precious metals) with an accumulated interest of 1,400 talents. Spartan victory in the war was the final nail in the coffin for Athenian dominance, but Athenian banking concepts survived.
Banking in the Hellenistic World
After Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC, his vast empire was divided by his generals into several kingdoms, bringing in the beginning of the Hellenistic era. This period was marked by the proliferation of ancient Greek art, language, and culture in general, which included coinage, monetary theory, and banking. Greek-inspired banking and economics were most evident in Ptolemaic Egypt.
Egypt was a suitable host for the new, ancient Greek banking and monetary ideas because it was home to pre-existing advanced economic concepts. Records from ancient Egypt indicate that from around 3,100 BC the Egyptians used weights and measures that functioned as a type of currency.
In the 12th dynasty (c. 1,985-1,773 BC), the ancient Egyptians standardized these weights into a sophisticated system, with the deben being a unit of measurement equal to around 93.3 grams, and a kite being equivalent to just under 10 grams. One deben equaled 10 kites.
The deben was used to measure copper, silver, or gold, while the kite was used only to measure the more precious metals of gold and silver. This system of early currency made it far more probable that the ancient Egyptians would assimilate the other advanced economic concepts introduced by the Ptolemies.
The second king of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Ptolemy II, commissioned several major projects. He funded the construction of the Lighthouse of Alexandria and likely the Library of Alexandria, but the latter was probably started during the reign of his father.
A canal that connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea was also built during Ptolemy II’s rule. All of these momentous projects came at a cost, requiring efficient monetary and banking policy to support them.
Ptolemy II set out to complete these significant public projects while adopting some Greek banking and monetary policies. Coin currency made transactions between individuals easier, but it also helped bring about the emergence of banking in Egypt.
Ancient Greek drachma. Credit: jimforest. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Ptolemy I introduced coinage to Egypt, which was based on the drachma used across the Greek world, but due to a lack of silver mines in Egypt, the Ptolemaic drachma weighed less than other drachmas and those used in Egypt were made of bronze.
The number of bronze coins in circulation increased greatly during Ptolemy II’s reign, partially due to the requirement to pay taxes with coins. The universal yet cumbersome nature of hard currency meant that a banking system was needed for the collection of taxes and the loaning of credit.
Ptolemy II supervised the creation of a banking system in Egypt which borrowed from the Athenian system, but added some details of his own too. Both state and private banks were licensed and franchised by the crown, with at least one bank in the capital of every nome (province).
Royal banks collected coin taxes and both royal and private banks gave lines of credit and loans to private individuals at the astonishing rate of 24 percent. This high, fixed interest rate prevented the development of a credit and debt economy.
Roman Banking and Economic Policies
It was not only the Ptolemies who took banking inspiration from the ancient Greek world, the Romans too initiated their banking system and monetary policies from Greek ideas.
The first Roman silver coins were likely minted to commemorate the completion of the Via Appia from Rome to Capua in 312 BC. Rather than using the widespread drachma as a currency standard, the Romans created the silver denarius as their standard coin.
On top of the denarius, the Romans also minted the sesterce, a bronze coin. Four sesterces were equivalent to one denarius, and in the lower denominations, four copper As was equal to one sesterce. As the coin which carried the medium value among the three denominations, the sesterce was the most commonly used coin for transactions between individuals.
Tiberius AR Denarius 16-34 AD, Obverse. Credit: Icarus Kuwait. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Roman coins were worth their weight in silver, bronze, or copper, but the state also held large amounts of gold. The coins were also minted by the state, which is where Roman banking and monetary theory came from.
Romans generally thought of banking as a low-status profession, which is likely because making money from interest on loans was seen as an unworthy profession. Not all Roman banks and bankers profited from interest, however it seems several did, and many utilized relatively modern monetary policies such as fractional reserve banking.
This means the banks that practiced this policy would lend a portion of their reserves at interest. Roman records convey that loans were referred to as a nomen or nomina (name), as they referred to the names of the debtors.
Roman banks operated similarly to the Ptolemaic model, with the state bank having a monopoly on minting but also permitting private banks. Banks and bankers were further divided into two main categories by function. The faeneratores were moneylenders who functioned like modern brokers and intermediaries, while argentarii could be likened to traditional bankers.
Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain. Credit: QuoteInspector.com, CC BY-ND 4.0
The upcoming Bitcoin halving is one of the most highly anticipated events in the cryptocurrency world, and the upcoming 2024 halving is shaping up to be particularly significant for another major cryptocurrency too, namely Ethereum.
With the relatively recent approvals of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, many mainstream investors have shown particular interest in Bitcoin, something that helped the recent price hikes of the popular cryptocurrency.
It’s worth mentioning that a Spot Bitcoin ETF is an exchange-traded fund that directly holds bitcoins as its asset. This allows investors to gain exposure to the real-time price movements of Bitcoin without having to purchase and store the cryptocurrency themselves, something that is not always convenient.
However, while Bitcoin will undoubtedly be the focus of the upcoming halving—probably in a few days’ time—this could eventually pose major implications for Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
What is Bitcoin halving?
Bitcoin halving is not a natural phenomenon people expect to happen at some point. It is well-embedded in the nature of Bitcoin and is a pre-programmed event that occurs roughly every four years. During the Bitcoin halving, the reward for mining new Bitcoin blocks is very simply cut in half.
This is a key part of the code of Bitcoin and is designed in such a way so as to control the supply of new coins entering circulation. The ultimate goal of this method is the capping of the total supply at 21 million BTC.
Halvings have already taken place in the past. So far, they have occurred in November 2012 (50 BTC to 25 BTC), July 2016 (25 BTC to 12.5 BTC), and May 2020 (12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC). The next halving is expected at some point this month. As one can understand, this eventuality will further reduce the block reward to 3.125 BTC from its current 6.25.
Ethereum’s price action during previous Bitcoin halving events
While the other major cryptocurrency, Ethereum, was only launched in 2015, its price and the overall behavior and action it showed around the previous two Bitcoin halvings provide us with useful information and valuable insight into how it might be impacted by that of the upcoming 2024 one.
If we take a closer look at the Bitcoin halving that happened eight years ago, we would see that in the lead-up to the 2016 halving, the price of Ethereum actually dropped. However, it saw a modest 1.8 percent gain in the three months following the event, balancing out the immediate losses it showed.
Nonetheless, during the 2020 Bitcoin halving, which was the last one, the price of Ethereum displayed a different reaction. It initially surged by 31.8 percent in the month leading up to the Bitcoin halving and was up an impressive 88.6 percent three months after the event. This shows a significantly different reaction to the previous event. Within four months, covering the period before and after Bitcoin’s last halving, Ethereum saw its price more than double. This suggests that Bitcoin halvings can potentially also boost overall cryptocurrency market sentiment and prices, with Ethereum having a chance of benefiting from the increased attention and investment.
Factors that could amplify Ethereum’s moves in 2024
A series of several other factors could also amplify the price of Ethereum movements around the 2024 Bitcoin halving.
First, the potential but still uncertain approval of spot Ethereum ETFs in the United States, following a similar move that happened for Bitcoin, could attract much more mainstream investment into the cryptocurrency. This is something that is not happening at a great scale right now. Such a potential eventuality will most certainly show similar traits to the impact of Bitcoin ETFs being approved in January by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Recently, Ethereum has become increasingly deflationary with the implementation of EIP-1559 and the transition to proof-of-stake consensus. These reduced the overall supply of Ether. It is noted that the EIP-1559 is an improvement proposal that introduced significant changes to Ethereum’s fee market mechanism.
Considering all this and knowing that Ethereum has significantly lower market capitalization than Bitcoin, its price could potentially see larger percentage gains if demand significantly increases in the immediate period following Bitcoin halving.
Furthermore, the anticipated excitement around Ethereum’s ongoing development progress and other future upgrades, such as sharding and the danksharding proposal, aimed at scaling the Ethereum blockchain to support more transactions and reduce network congestion, could further fuel investor interest around or after April 2024 and the anticipated Bitcoin halving.
Risks and unknowns to consider
It is always crucial to note that there are associated risks and clearly unknown factors to consider before making an informed and definitive investment decision. The magnitude of Bitcoin and Ethereum’s price gains may be reduced and even diminish significantly with each halving cycle of Bitcoin as the events become more anticipated by the market.
Additionally, the always possible unpredictable shifts in market sentiment by random or unforeseen factors, including regulatory changes and macroeconomic conditions, could significantly impact the anticipated response of the cryptocurrency market to the 2024 halving.
There are also other potential risks directly or indirectly associated with the upcoming reduced mining rewards for Bitcoin. There are the factors of miner capitulation and potential security risks. This would be the case if a significant portion of them are forced to shut down operations due to the upcoming halving.
Finally, while the price of Ethereum may surge leading up to and immediately following the halving of Bitcoin, history suggests a sharp correction could be the result. This would be similar to the patterns observed in the past.
The 2024 Bitcoin halving: A defining moment for Ethereum
The 2024 Bitcoin halving is undoubtedly going to be a milestone and a significant event not only for Bitcoin and its investors but for the entire cryptocurrency market. This makes it clear that Ethereum is also very likely to be one of the major beneficiaries or at least be among the definitively affected players.
Based on what we have seen in previous years and previous Bitcoin halvings, the price of Ethereum could potentially even outperform Bitcoin—on a percentage basis—if factors such as market sentiment around the world and investment flows into the cryptocurrency sector increase at a rapid pace and significantly in the coming period.
However, investors should always be cautious and fully aware of fundamental risks that the volatility associated with these events brings. They should also consider the real potential for sharp corrections following any initial price surges around the time of the halving. Regardless of all these, the upcoming 2024 Bitcoin halving will undoubtedly be a crucial moment for both Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the entire crypto community will be watching closely.
Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk. Credit: connect@epp.eu. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently met with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk in Warsaw to discuss the future of security in Europe and cooperation on migration, with an emphasis on defending borders.
Cooperation between Greece and Poland
“For many reasons, our cooperation with Prime Minister Mitsotakis is always excellent. We can rely on each other,” the Polish prime minister said.
Donald Tusk said that both countries can have a positive influence on the development of European strategies on security and migration, adding that they would share experiences on effective border protection.
“Europe’s member states must protect their territories and control their borders by ensuring that migration policy is not chaotic or uncontrolled,” he stressed.
The Polish prime minister also spoke on the two countries’ common position when it comes to support for Ukraine, saying they were a good pair to work together ahead of the European elections, after which, he added, it will be easy to create new alliances and structures.
Tusk went on to thank Mitsotakis for his generous words regarding the contribution of some of Poland’s firefighters to help deal with fires in Greece last year, and said there would be cooperation for this year’s fire season as well.
The Greek prime minister said that the pair discussed the war in Ukraine extensively. “We are in the third year of this unprovoked and illegal attack by Russia against Ukraine. The impact is being felt in Poland. And yesterday to President Zelensky I had the opportunity to reiterate that we will continue our strong support to Ukraine financially and militarily for as long as it is needed,” Mitsotakis said.
He also made mention of the common challenges experienced by Greece and Poland when it comes to migration, saying “We have to defend our borders, which are also EU borders, and we have made progress in the European Council. It must be up to us who enters Europe and it should not be up to the smugglers.”
Speaking on the topic of defence, he shared that Greece and Poland spend well over two percent of their GDP. “We have to be at the forefront of defence issues in Europe. This may include some joint borrowing or other forms. It should be discussed after the next European elections,” Mitsotakis said.
He also stated that he and Donald Tusk are two leaders from the European People’s Party and can play an important role in Europe’s initiatives in the next election cycle, whether on issues related to defence and security, competitiveness and job creation, or the agricultural sector. He added that the green transition is necessary but it must be managed in a way that does not lead farmers to feel threatened.
