The British Museum is in talks with four undisclosed governments over returning artifacts. Credit: Kashif Haque. CC BY 2.0/flickr
The British Museum chiefs are in talks with four undisclosed foreign governments regarding the return of certain artifacts in its collection. This is after George Osborne negotiated a deal to loan the Elgin Marbles back to Greece.
The British Museum is holding private discussions with four foreign governments about the return of artifacts in its collection, though the museum will not reveal what artifacts have been discussed.
This comes after reports of a”‘negotiated deal” between the museum’s chairman, George Osborne, and the Greek government last year which may see the Elgin Marbles loaned to Greece as part of an exchange.
The east pediment of the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum. Credit: wallyg. CC BY-2.0/flickr
Under UK law, the British Museum is not permitted to return any of its artifacts except under very unique circumstances. However, in recent years, items have been given back to their country of origin on so-called “long term loans.”
The Daily Telegraph reported it has seen documents showing that, since 2015, the museum has received twelve separate formal requests for items to be returned. Four of these have come from foreign governments using ‘confidential diplomatic channels’ rather than using the media’s spotlight such as was done by the Greek government.
Talks between the governments and the museum are ongoing, and the British Museum will not reveal what artifacts were spoken of. The museum said it would not share that information because it “would have a detrimental effect on its relationship with the states in question at a time when communications are ongoing,” as reported by the Daily Mail.
It did, however, confirm the Rosetta Stone, one of the most precious artifacts in the museum’s collection which was key in translating Egyptian hieroglyphs, was not among the four items privately requested for return.
Artifacts loaned by the British Museum or waiting to be loaned
In recent years, a number of artifacts have been returned to their country of origin on loan agreements, including an agreement reached in January this year to loan a collection of gold items, known as Ghana’s “crown jewels,” back to Ghana.
The agreement to loan back these items, known as Asante gold, forms part of a three-year loan deal with the option to extend for a further three years.
A similar deal is reportedly being worked out with Greece which may see the Elgin Marbles returned to the Mediterranean country as part of an exchange for other artifacts from Greece to “fill the void,” Greece’s Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said.
The Elgin Marbles have been a source of tension between Greece and the UK for a long time. The marbles were moved from Athens between 1801 to 1812 by the Early of Elgin, who had plans to set up a private museum before they were sent to the British Museum.
Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is pursuing hotel and apartment complex projects in Albania and Serbia. Credit: Gage Skidmore. CC BY-2.0/flickr
While Donald Trump readies for another push towards the US presidency, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is following up on hotel and apartment deals in Serbia and Albania. The projects are sure to bring growth, but they also face opposition.
One of Kushner’s proposed schemes in the Balkans centers on the redevelopment of a site in Serbia’s capital of Belgrade. Negotiations were begun ten years ago by his father-in-law.
Two years before Trump set off for his presidency campaign in 2016, he told Serbian authorities that he was keen to build a luxury hotel and apartment complex on the site of the former headquarters of the Yugoslav army, the General Staff building, decimated in 1999 by NATO’s bombing campaigns.
The former Yugoslav army general staff building, Belgrade. Credit: ftrc. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Despite that scheme having fallen through, Kushner, who filled a senior White House official role during Trump’s presidency, has now reportedly come to an agreement with the Serbian government to move forward with the development project.
According to The New York Times, which received a draft outline, the agreement, with a 99-year lease at no charge, would allow Kushner to construct a luxury hotel, residential units, shops, and a museum on the site.
Funding from Saudi Arabia
The $500 million (£462 million) of capital needed for the project is expected to come from Kushner’s investment firm, Miami-based Affinity Partners, which he founded after leaving the White House. Since the end of Trump’s tenure in office, it is estimated that Kushner has secured $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, while sovereign wealth funds in the UAE and Qatar have sent hundreds of millions of dollars into his firm.
Kushner shared recently that the involved parties had tentatively agreed to give the Serbian government 22 percent of the profits generated by the project. President Aleksandar Vucic and his government claim that Belgrade would do well to develop further and create more business opportunities.
Aleksandar Vucic, President of Serbia. Credit: World Economic Forum. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Economist and investment consultant Milan Kovacevic agreed that the city needs to diversify and allow more development in order to meet the demands of a growing population and tourism industry. “Belgrade definitely needs hotels, including those of high quality, but they should be urbanistically positioned and built where they are needed,” he told DW.
He also warned that “there should be a market” for an open and transparent bidding process and claimed that by giving exclusive rights to just one investor, Jared Kushner, “too much is left to corruption and arbitrariness.”
Opposition politicians and building experts are reportedly confused by the interest in the development plans, and some have gone as far as to call it a scandal which must be prevented. “Serbia is not a buffet, and Vucic is not a waiter. This is not his private property,” said Aleksandar Jovanovic Cuta, leader of the movement Ecological Uprising.
“The same thing is happening with our natural resources, rivers, forests, minerals. Vucic is giving away everything of value without informing the people about the contracts and the benefit for the citizens of Serbia,” he told DW.
Dorde Bobic, Belgrade’s Chief City architect twenty years ago, is not happy by the planned schemes. He said it was an arrogant move to simply demolish the former General Staff headquarters to build a few hotels, and “give away the most precious place” in the city to the “foreign force” that bombed Belgrade in 1999 and to “trade it for political or personal interests,” as reported by DW.
Jared Kushner’s Albania hotel and apartment project
Kushner recently announced on his social media platforms that he was “excited to share early design images for development projects that have been created for the Albanian coast.” Prime Minister Edi Rama said his country was proud to welcome the projects, but the response from Albania’s environmentally-focused communities has been more questioning.
One of the sites proposed is located in the Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park on Sazan island, which used to be a military base. The other is on the Zvernec peninsula in southwestern Albania, part of the Vjosa-Narta Protected Landscape. This region which would accommodate blocks of hotels and villas forms part of the Vlore community.
Resistance from environmental experts
Albania’s parliament has recently passed an amendment to the country’s law on protected areas, with the bill paving the way for the economic development of said protected areas, regardless of cautions by environmental experts.
“Law 21/2024 allows the construction of 5-star mega-resorts in protected areas. In addition, according to the decision of the National Territorial Council, the construction of almost any other project is allowed and there are no more red lines,” Mirjan Topi, an ecologist at the Agricultural University of Tirana, told DW.
“The new changes in the law no longer protect nature and protected areas in Albania,” he added. According to Topi, the amendment to the current law has been changed to facilitate Kushner’s investments.
“It is very clear that the law has been predetermined because there is no other way to explain the rush of the parliamentary majority to adopt it. Before the law was [even] decreed by the president, concrete projects emerged,” he said.
Growth for Albania’s economy with Kushner’s hotel plans?
At the other end of the response scale, the business community in Albania, especially the tourism sector, envisions massive economic benefits, though with a few potential setbacks.
“I consider it a very positive investment, but only if it really is a touristic investment, if [there] are villas or units for accommodation,” Besnik Vathi, CEO of the Albanian Travel and Hospitality Service told DW.
He is reportedly worried that the prospect of building residential villas would solely benefit those who invest in them.
“After the sale, there is no income for Albanian tourism. [But] investing in hotels or accommodation units will bring revenue for Albania continuously,” he told DW.
The local tourism sector and the wider economy, he said, would benefit from the creation of local jobs in Sazan and Zvernec. What concerns Vathi is the nature of the investment Kushner is pursuing and who will benefit most from it.
Arrian, the most famous biographer of Alexander the Great, was a soldier, statesman, philosopher, and author. Credit Alexander Gale / Greek Reporter
Over 2,300 years have passed since the death of Alexander the Great, but he remains one of the most famous historical figures of all time. The conqueror’s fame might have dimmed, however, were it not for the biographers who committed his exploits to the written word.
Arrian (Greek: Arrianos) is considered by many historians to be the most reliable source on the life of Alexander. This is despite the fact that he was writing in the second century AD, roughly four centuries after Alexander’s death.
Although Arrian’s name has been overshadowed by the subject of his most famous biography, the life of this ancient Greek writer was also quite extraordinary. Arrian befriended emperors and philosophers, rode to war in Asia Minor, and held offices in Rome, Athens, and Cappadocia.
Youth and education of Arrian
Arrian was born between 85 and 90 AD in Nicomedia, an ancient Greek city in the Anatolian region of Bythynia in what was then a part of the Roman Empire. His parents were Greeks but also held Roman citizenship.
The family had probably enjoyed Roman citizenship for several generations and adopted the Roman surname, “Flavius”. The family must have been important in the region since Arrian was granted the priesthood of Demeter and Kore as a young man. These two deities were the most important in Bythynia.
Sometime during his youth, Arrian traveled to Nicopolis, a city in Epirus on the western coast of Greece, to study philosophy under the tutelage of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus.
Most of what we now know of Epictetus’ philosophy is thanks to Arrian. He wrote the Discourses of Epictetus and Enchiridion of Epictetus based on the lecture notes he took during his time as a pupil in Nicopolis.
Whilst in Nicopolis, Arrian met the future Roman emperor Hadrian, and the pair would go on to become lifelong friends. No doubt this helped immensely with the former’s military and political career.
Arrian (left) and emperor Hadrian (right). Credit: WikiSysop / CC BY 2.5 / Capitoline Museums / Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Political and military career
Sometime after his studies, probably around 107 AD, Arrian probably served as an officer in the Roman legions. This was prompted by a sense of duty and a desire to advance his political career, which was typically dependent on some prior military service in the first centuries of the Roman Empire.
He may have served for a time as a cavalry officer in Noricum, in what is modern-day Bavaria. This theory is based on his extensive knowledge of the region. His military career must have been more extensive, however, since he was later given command of two legions. Therefore, it is possible that he fought in Dacia under emperor Trajan. He may also have fought against the Parthians between 115 and 117 AD.
When his friend Hadrian became emperor in 117 AD, Arrian was probably made a praetor (a judicial officer) in the 120s, and then very likely became a proconsul (governor) of Andalusia around 125 AD.
Although the picture of Arrian’s early career is largely speculative, historians are certain that he was appointed consul in Rome in 129 or 130 AD. He served alongside another consul named Severus. His duties in Rome would have kept him very active because the emperor was in Egypt and Greece at the time.
Governor of Cappadocia
After his consulship, Arrian was appointed governor of Cappadocia. It is due to this position that historians are sure of Arrian’s extensive military experience despite the lack of direct evidence. Arrian’s extensive writings on military matters also hint at his in-depth knowledge.
Cappadocia was on the frontier of the Roman Empire and under constant threat from attack. Thus, the governorship of the region also came with the added responsibility of commanding two legions. A military novice would not have been appointed to govern this region.
Arrian’s time as governor was eventful. In 134 AD, the Alans – a nomadic tribe from the steppes of what is today Kazakhstan – invaded the region. Arrian took two legions, the XV Apollinaris and XII Fulminata, and defeated the Alans in battle. After the battle, he wrote and published Order of Battle Against the Alans, a military treatise that gave other Roman commanders advice on fighting the nomadic tribes.
In 137 AD, Arrian left Cappadocia and settled as an honorary citizen of Athens where he also held political office. He died sometime around the year 160 AD.
Map of the Roman province of Cappadocia in the second century AD. Credit: Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons
Arrian and the biography of Alexander the Great
Arrian is mostly remembered for the Anabasis of Alexander, which documented the life and campaigns of Alexander the Great.
Since he was writing hundreds of years after the death of Alexander, Arrian drew most of his accounts of Alexander’s life from Aristobulus and Ptolemy. In his mind, these were the best sources because one had served alongside Alexander, and the other ruled over a Hellenistic successor state after his death. He also drew on other sources like Nearchus, a naval officer who served the Macedonian king.
Arrian is highly regarded by modern historians because he named most of his sources and speculates as to their validity within the text. In this way, Arrian possessed a sort of precursor to the academic rigor expected of modern historians.
Spyridoula Daravigka launched an appeal that would help her mobility in Athens. Photo provided.
14-year-old Spyridoula Daravigka is a disabled student in Athens, Greece looking for help to improve her mobility in a city not designed for people in wheelchairs.
She has spinal muscular atrophy type 2 (SMA 2), a rare genetic disease that affects all her muscles. She uses a power wheelchair consistently.
“I do not have any independence in my daily life. Getting out of my house has become very hard because my family’s car does not have a ramp,” she told Greek Reporter.
“This means that whenever I need to go. my parents have to give me a lift and move my wheelchair in and out of the car which as you can imagine, is very hard and dysfunctional.”
Those familiar with the traffic chaos in the Greek capital know that cars are often parked on the pavements, and moving by a power wheelchair is extremely difficult. “My school has a ramp but there are so many cars parked outside my school that getting there with a wheelchair is close to impossible some days,” Spyridoula says.
Getting to school is often dangerous as she has to move her wheelchair onto the road as pavements are broken down or filled with parked cars.
She aims to help her family buy a vehicle accessible to the disabled. The cost of acquiring such a car is around €30,000 which her family cannot afford.
“I decided to start this fundraiser to raise money to buy a vehicle that has a ramp and therefore is easy to use.”
Her appeal has raised over €3,000 until Tuesday. You can contribute to the fundraising campaign by following the link.
No state help for the disabled girl in Greece
Her mother, Olympia Kostaki, tells Greek Reporter that Spyridoula’s movements are done exclusively with an electric wheelchair, such as going to school, to physical therapy, to the doctors who attend her, and also to extracurricular activities.
“Her accessibility to all of these duties has been reduced, as she needs a specialized car with a ramp to get her wheelchair up and down.”
She adds that there is no state subsidy for buying a car tailor-made for the disabled. “The government does not fund any of the cost, although it offers discounts on circulation taxes and toll post payments.”
Life for the disabled in Greece a constant struggle
Disabled people in Greece face the challenge that the country was not designed for people in wheelchairs. Even before uneven streets and steps were created, the topography of the country was rocky and mountainous.
Although the country has made great strides in disabled persons’ ease of movement and access since the 2004 Athens Olympics, huge challenges remain to be addressed.
Getting around Athens in a wheelchair can be challenging because of numerous areas with cobblestones or hills. Additionally, many parts of Athens have broken concrete on curbs and in the sidewalk ramps at street intersections.
Frangiskos Levantis, an Athens-based property developer who has been in a wheelchair since he was 29, recently told Greek Reporter about the everyday challenges he faces.
“If I have to meet with a client outside of my office in a public or private space requires a Google Maps search to predict disabled parking availability, ramps for entry into the venue, etc.”
The tourist attractions in Athens are somewhat spread out, and disabled tourists may want to take taxis between locations. This is particularly true when visiting the National Archaeological Museum located on the north side of the city.
On a positive note, disabled tourists will find that the metro system is perhaps the most accessible in all of Europe, with nearly all stations having elevators down to the platforms.
World Central Kitchen sent hundreds of tonnes of aid from Cyprus to Gaza. Credit: Cyprus News Agency
International aid charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) is suspending its operations in Gaza following the death of seven of its workers in an Israeli air strike.
The charity said those killed were part of an aid convoy that was leaving a warehouse in central Gaza on Monday. According to WCK, the workers who died were Australian, Polish, British, Palestinian and a dual US-Canadian citizen.
Some 240 tonnes of aid to Gaza are set to turn around without completing their delivery, Cyprus’s foreign ministry has said. WCK, which has been on the ground for months and which had just brought in a second 400-tone shipment of aid by sea from Cyprus, is playing an increasingly prominent and important role in preventing Gaza from sliding into famine.
“I am heartbroken and appalled that we – World Central Kitchen and the world – lost beautiful lives today because of a targeted attack by the IDF,” the charity’s chief executive Erin Gore said in a statement.
“The love they had for feeding people, the determination they embodied to show that humanity rises above all, and the impact they made in countless lives will forever be remembered and cherished.”
The vehicle of the international aid workers and their Palestinian 🇵🇸 driver.
All murdered by the Israeli 🇮🇱 airstrike
Look at the precision of the strike. They have been targeted for bringing food to Gaza 🇵🇸
Charity is one of the main suppliers of desperately needed aid to Gaza
It said that it would “be making decisions about the future of [its] work soon”.
According to the charity, the aid convoy was hit while leaving the Deir al-Balah warehouse, “where the team had unloaded more than 100 tons of humanitarian food aid brought to Gaza on the maritime route.”
The convoy was made up of three vehicles, including two that were armored. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had recovered all seven bodies from the scene of the incident following a “challenging operation spanning several hours”.
The humanitarian group added that the bodies had been taken to the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital in southern Gaza in preparation for their evacuation through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
This was the last video from the World Central Kitchen.
Moments later, Israel killed 6 international volunteers and a Palestinian for supplying food to the starving people of Gaza.
Movement locations had been shared with Israel beforehand.
Israel admits “unintentionally hitting innocent people”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged that Israel’s forces hit “innocent people”. Netanyahu released a video message on Tuesday in which he said Israeli forces were behind the attack.
“Unfortunately, in the last 24 hours there was a tragic case of our forces unintentionally hitting innocent people in the Gaza Strip,” he said.
“It happens in war, we check it to the end, we are in contact with the governments, and we will do everything so that this thing does not happen again.”
The IDF had earlier said it was conducting a thorough review at the highest level to understand the circumstances of the “tragic incident”.
“We will get to the bottom of this and we will share our findings transparently,” IDF spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari vowed.
“The work of WCK is critical; they are on the frontlines of humanity.”
The first Homo sapien outside Africa was discovered in a Greek cave. Public Domain/University of Tübingen
A partial skull found in a cave in Southern Greece is the earliest evidence of the presence of Homo sapiens outside of Africa, scientists say.
In 1978, archaeologists excavating Apidima Cave on the Mani Peninsula of Greece discovered two significant fossils: a partial skull and a jawbone. These fossils were originally thought to belong to Neanderthals, the archaic human species that dominated Europe in the Middle Paleolithic era.
However, a reexamination of the fossils in 2019 revealed that they were much older than previously thought and that one of them belonged to a Homo sapien, the first anatomically modern human species.
Homo sapiens skull in Greece 150,000 older than others found in Europe
The team of researchers dated the skull to about 210,000 years old, which makes the skull about 150,000 years older than the oldest fossil of Homo sapiens found in Europe. This also makes it the third-oldest known example of modern humanity.
A second skull found in the same location was estimated to be at least 170,000 years old and belongs to Neanderthals, a species widespread in Europe until 40,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens took over.
The Apidima Cave in Mani Peninsula. Public Domain
Initial attempts to determine the age of the skulls were inconclusive in part because the skulls were found wedged high in cave walls. There may have also been interference from mudflow.
Greek researcher Katerina Harvati, director of Paleoanthropology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany, and her colleagues found the relevant skull fragments in the Museum of Anthropology at the University of Athens.
Both were recognized as human fossils of some sort but had not been dated or properly analyzed. Dr Harvati and her team have now done so, using computer reconstruction, a technique unavailable to the original finders.
Credit: University of Tübingen
The research team ended up creating virtual reconstructions of parts of the skull and used a radiometric dating method—one that analyses the decay of uranium to determine the age. The challenge scientists now face is to figure out how Apidima 1 fits into our ancient history.
Over the past two decades, researchers have gathered a great deal of evidence indicating that human populations living outside of Africa today, all descended from small groups of migrants who departed the continent some 70,000 years ago.
Expansion of Homo sapiens into Europe from Africa
Archaeologists have documented it by tracking the spread of human DNA from remains and tools from Africa.
Dr. Harvati said that Apidima 1 points to an early expansion of Homo sapiens into Europe from Africa.
That wave of humans may have thrived outside Africa because they brought better tools. “If there’s an overarching explanation, my guess would be a cultural process,” Dr. Harvati said.
Greece might be a good place to test this idea. Southeast Europe may have served as a corridor for various kinds of humans moving into Europe, as well as a refuge when ice age glaciers covered the rest of the continent.
“This is a hypothesis that should be tested with data on the ground,” Dr. Harvati said. “And this is a really interesting place to be looking at.”
Dr. Harvati added “This discovery highlights the importance of Southeast Europe for human evolution.
Given the site’s importance, a 5-year program of field investigation was undertaken by the Norwegian Institute in Athens, led by Prof. Harvati and Dr. Tourloukis (University of Tübingen).
This research aims to investigate the chronology, site formation processes, and additional paleoanthropological and paleolithic evidence from the cave complex.
Work began in 2022, and the first season focused on securing safe access to the site itself and to all the caves of the complex. Development of a three-dimensional excavation grid was also a goal, as was conducting a geoarchaeological assessment of cave sediments and limited cleaning of surfaces.
The discovery of the Apidima fossils is a major breakthrough in our understanding of human evolution. It suggests that the story of how humans spread out of Africa is more complex than we once thought, and it raises new questions about the interactions between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.
Trizonia: The Uknown Greek Island Onassis Almost Bought. Credit: Davide Mauro/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0
Even today, travelers to Greece can still find many hidden treasure destinations which retain their almost unspoiled beauty, such as Trizonia, the small island that Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis almost bought.
As hard as it may be to believe, because Greece has such a long coastline, as well as countless islands, there remain a multitude of locations where one may feel as if they are off the map.
One such island without a doubt is Trizonia, located in the Corinthian Gulf just 400 meters (1,312 feet) off the southwestern coast of the region of Fokida.
Aristotle Onassis once tried to purchase the Greek island of Trizonia
The island is said to have been named for the sound of its crickets, which can always be heard singing away.
This is the famed island which, after visiting it in the 1960’s, Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis attempted to buy—lock, stock and barrel—from the local people who lived there, by offering them an enormous lump sum of money.
The locals refused, famously saying that this specific paradise was not for sale. Minas, a local restaurateur, shared with Greek Reporter that occasionally, the thought that “it would have been good if Onassis had bought the island” does cross his mind.
The islanders’ refusal is what later led Onassis to the purchase of the island of Skorpios in the Ionian Sea, which he made into his own personal Eden.
There are no cars or motorbikes on the island
The island of Trizonia has been called by many a miracle of nature. While staying on the island, which is just 2.4 square kilometers, or barely one square mile, travelers can leave the outside world, including the cars, motorbikes, noise, and, most importantly, all the stress, behind them.
Trizonia is also an island garden of sorts, boasting almond, prickly pear, eucalyptus, holly, plum, and olive trees, as well as pine and cedar trees throughout.
There are too many delights on this island to list. First of all, everyone gets around on bicycles, making the environment extremely quiet and peaceful.
The sea surrounding it is very calm, with deep blue crystal-clear waters, almost demanding that you take a boat ride of some kind to explore its shores.
On top of these attractions, island residents are very welcoming to tourists despite the cold shoulder Onassis once received from them!
The restaurateur Minas explained to Greek Reporter why he has chosen to live his life on Trizonia. “I was born and raised here, my father is from here, and the past two years he has been living here permanently,” he said.
He adds that he doesn’t want to live in Athens due to the noise pollution there, since a peaceful environment is important to him. “I prefer my peace and quiet,” he explains, while adding that “in the summer, there are at least 600 to 1000 people on the island, and we have a marina for 650 boats.” According to Minas, four restaurants that serve plenty of fresh fish, and two cafeterias, are located on the island, besides the bar that Minas himself owns.
The island only has forty to fifty residents in the winter. However, Minas maintains that “in the winter it’s a bit difficult, it gets a bit cold, but if you have good company, good wine, and good food, everything is fine.”
With a natural, unspoiled landscape that amazes visitors, its lacework of interconnected, continuous beaches, and its sapphire waters, Trizonia and its singing crickets beckon to the discerning visitor who needs a break from the modern world.
Men are more often perpetrators of domestic violence against women, but men are the victims of domestic violence, as well, experts report. Too often, they feel isolated in situations without proper resources, options, or choices for them to get help.
According to a search on the issue in the US National Library of Medicine, studies yielded prevalence rates of 3.4 percent to 20.3 percent for domestic physical violence against men.
Most of the affected men had been violent toward their partners themselves. It is said that 10.6 to 40 percent of these men reported having been abused or maltreated as children. Alcohol and drug abuse, jealousy, mental illness, physical impairment, and short relationship duration are all associated with a higher risk of becoming a victim of domestic violence.
The reported consequences of violence include mostly minor physical injuries, impaired physical health, mental health problems such as anxiety or a disruptive disorder, and increased consumption of alcohol and/or illegal drugs.
Scientists say men are often less likely to report domestic violence due to social stigma and feelings of shame. This can make it difficult to get a fully accurate picture of how widespread the issue is.
Zack Mackey who works at Lutheran Settlement House told Fox29 recently that men often don’t reach out the way female victims of domestic violence do, “Some of their fears are that they won’t be believed or they’ll be made fun of. Some other fears are that they will be ridiculed. Sometimes they’re scared of retaliation from their partners’ families.”
New study in Germany highlights domestic violence against men
Against this backdrop, a new study on violence in partnerships in Germany is calling for more protection centers for men affected by violence and their children.
Currently, there are hardly any places for men to turn to if they decide to seek protection, Philipp Müller from the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony (KFN) told the German Press Association (DPA).
“In rural areas, there is virtually no help at all,” he criticized.
In the KFN research project, almost 12,000 men between the ages of 18 and 69 were contacted in an online survey, 1,209 of whom took part. The researchers also conducted 16 interviews with those affected.
According to the results, more than half, namely 54 percent of the men surveyed had already experienced violence in a relationship in their lives. Almost 40 percent cited psychological violence while almost 39 percent cited controlling behavior by their partner. Moreover, practically 30 percent reported physical violence against them.
Although it was mostly supposedly minor acts such as pushing one away, those affected suffered massively from the consequences of partner violence, with 66 percent of them feeling psychologically burdened by these experiences.
There needs to be greater social awareness of the fact that men can also be victims of violence in relationships, said Müller. However, the two sexes should not be played off against each other.
It is mainly women who suffer from violence in relationships, according to the latest situation report on domestic violence from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office.
In the area of intimate partner violence, the number of victims rose by 9.1 percent to 157,818 in 2022 compared to the previous year. According to the police, 80.1 percent of the victims were female and 78.1 percent of the suspected perpetrators were male.
A study in the European Journal of Human Genetics claimed that they were able to determine when and how Italy and Sicily were colonized by Greeks, through DNA analysis.
“There are scenarios ranging from a colonization process based on small groups of males moderately mixing with indigenous groups to substantial migrations from Greece and a Hellenic origin for a significant part of the pre-Roman Italian population,” noted lead author Sergio Tofanelli and his colleagues.
Comparing DNA of people in Italy with samples retrieved from Greeks
The team picked up DNA samples from people who live in southern Italy and Sicily and compared it to samples retrieved from Greeks in Euboea and Corinth, where archaeologists believe the first wave of colonizers came from.
When the researchers analyzed the Y chromosome data and modeled the typical mutation rate over the centuries, they “recovered a signature of the Greek Contribution to Sicily during the Archaic Period” or between the 8th and 5th centuries BC.
More specifically, this wave of colonists likely arrived in East Sicily first and then dispersed into West Sicily and South Italy.
“Despite the multiple alternative explanations for historical gene flow,” they write, “it is relevant to stress here that a signature specifically related to the Euboea island in East Sicily was consistently found at different levels of analysis, in line with the historical and archaeological evidence, attesting to an extended and numerically important Greek presence in this region.”
Historians and demographers have also debated just how large the migration population was when they arrived in Magna Graecia.
Walter Scheidel, professor of classics and ancient history at Stanford University, has estimated from a demographic perspective that the founding population was likely around 20,000 to 60,000 males.
But if the researchers’ supposition that East Sicily was colonized first is correct, this “points to the lower end of the size spectrum proposed by historical demographers, with values in the order of thousands [of] breeding men and [a] few hundred breeding women,” they write.
“A settler population of 5,000 males, mating with local women, would have had to grow by more than 1% per year for several centuries,” Scheidel says in response to Tofanelli and colleagues’ conclusions, according to Forbes.
This is substantial and out of character for the ancient world, particularly considering the ancient Greeks were not polygamous.
“Maybe growth rates were higher than we think,” Scheidel suggests, “but their settler numbers seem very small. This would translate to just a few dozen ships full of Greeks, over a considerable period of time, which is problematic.
“It’s hard for me to see how a few thousand settlers could have produced the large Greek population we see in Sicily a few centuries later,” he told Forbes.
Newly inaugurated La Divina Hotel in the historical center of Athens. Credit: Aria Hotels
On Monday, Aria Hotels, the Greek-owned subsidiary of the Libra Group, opened the fully renovated historic La Divina Hotel, located on Adrianou Street in Thiseio, Athens.
La Divina is situated in a uniquely aesthetic preserved neoclassical building, dedicated to the legendary Maria Callas and combines neoclassical architecture with luxurious simplicity.
Maintaining the magic of the old Athens Conservatory, and with attention to the smallest detail, it creates a space that reflects the aesthetics of the past, while providing modern amenities.
The hotel has a unique architectural and historical importance. Credit: Aria Hotels
By choosing La Divina for their stay, the hotel’s guests enjoy the authentic Greek hospitality that Aria Hotels stands for, in a building of unique architectural and historical importance that has been renovated with absolute care and diligence, without affecting its character and special architecture.
La Divina has 12 uniquely designed suites, making it the ideal choice for every visitor who would like to combine comfortable and luxurious accommodation, direct access to the most important monuments of Athens, as well as to discover the much-publicized “electrifying” night atmosphere of the historic center.
A uniquely designed suite at La Divina Hotel. Credit: Aria Hotels
Aria Hotels, the family-owned chain of boutique hotels and villas, continues to strategically strengthen its portfolio and dynamically expand its presence in Athens, offering high-quality hospitality experiences, and focusing on promoting the culture, architecture, and history of Greece.
Aria Hotels’ philosophy and properties around Greece
The Aria Hotels philosophy is founded on three principles: respect for the environment, an appreciation of culture, and a passion for discovery. Each hotel has been selected for its architectural merit and its contribution to the preservation of local heritage. Outstanding quality in service and accommodation are the core of the Aria Hotels experience.
Their expanded portfolio includes properties in various island and mainland destinations, offering unparalleled hospitality experiences that successfully meet the needs of the traveler. Aria Hotels’ portfolio includes hotels in Athens, Crete, Cyclades, Sporades, Epirus, Evia, Peloponnese, Dodecanese and Ionian Islands.
All sites have been selected for their architectural value and their contribution to the preservation of local heritage. High-quality service is at the core of the experience.
In 2023 Aria Hotels has won numerous awards including the Gold Award for Greek Hotel of the Year for Aria Estate Suites & Spa, and the Bronze Award for Most Scenic Location at Hotel of the Year for The Windmill.
Grace Mykonos won the Bronze Award for the Luxury Hotel of the Year, and Villa Comi won the Silver Award for New Villa of the Year at the Tourism Awards.
Among other properties of the Aria Hotels Villa Pueblo won the Silver Award for Beach Villa of the Year at the Tourism Awards 2023.
