…ανταπόκριση από τις ΗΠΑ… Το ζήτημα της πιθανής επανένταξης της Τουρκίας στο πρόγραμμα των F-35 τέθηκε κατά τη διάρκεια της κατάθεσης του υπουργού Εξωτερικών Μάρκο Ρούμπιο ενώπιον της Επιτροπής Εξωτερικών Υποθέσεων της Βουλής των Αντιπροσώπων. Η Δημοκρατική βουλευτής Ντίνα Τίτους αναφέρθηκε στις πρόσφατες δηλώσεις του πρέσβη των ΗΠΑ στην Τουρκία Τομ Μπάρακ, σύμφωνα με τις οποίες η Άγκυρα θα πρέπει να επιστρέψει στο πρόγραμμα των F-35, και σημείωσε ότι μια τέτοια θέση δεν συνάδει με την ισχύουσα αμερικανική νομοθεσία και τη διαχρονική πολιτική των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών. Στη συνέχεια ζήτησε από τον Ρούμπιο να διευκρινίσει εάν η Τουρκία μπορεί να αποκτήσει F-15 ή F-35. Απαντώντας, ο υπουργός Εξωτερικών υπενθύμισε ότι η Τουρκία συμμετείχε στο πρόγραμμα των F-35 και ότι αποκλείστηκε μετά την αγορά του ρωσικού συστήματος S-400. Όταν η Τίτους επισήμανε ότι η Άγκυρα εξακολουθεί να διατηρεί τους S-400 και παραμένει υπό καθεστώς υποχρεωτικών κυρώσεων, ο Ρούμπιο συμφώνησε και απάντησε ότι το ζήτημα «ρυθμίζεται από τον νόμο». «Αυτή τη στιγμή δεν έχουμε αυτή την επιλογή, διότι το θέμα διέπεται από νομοθετικές διατάξεις, τόσο από προβλέψεις του NDAA όσο και από άλλες διατάξεις της αμερικανικής νομοθεσίας», δήλωσε χαρακτηριστικά. www.ertnews.gr

Η Κένυα θα λειτουργήσει το κέντρο καραντίνας για τους Αμερικανούς πολίτες που εκτέθηκαν στον ιό Έμπολα στη Λαϊκή Δημοκρατία του Κονγκό, διαβεβαίωσε σήμερα ο υπουργός Υγείας Άντεν Ντουάλε, παρά τις αντιδράσεις στη χώρα αλλά και τη δικαστική απόφαση που ανέστειλε προσωρινά την εφαρμογή αυτού του σχεδίου. Πολλοί Κενυάτες φοβούνται ότι η επιδημία θα εξαπλωθεί στη χώρα τους, η οποία δεν συνορεύει με τη ΛΔ του Κονγκό και δεν έχει καταγράψει κανένα κρούσμα μέχρι τώρα. Πολλά χρόνια κακοδιαχείρισης και διαφθοράς έχουν αποδυναμώσει το υγειονομικό σύστημα στην Κένυα. «Η αεροπορική βάση της Λαϊκιπία είναι το ένα από τα 23 κέντρα καραντίνας και απομόνωσης που κατασκευάζουμε. Και δεν θα σταματήσουμε» είπε ο Ντουάλε στο κοινοβούλιο, υπογραμμίζοντας ότι το κέντρο αυτό δεν θα στεγάσει μόνο αλλοδαπούς. «Η κυβέρνηση δεν έκανε τίποτα το παράνομο», επέμεινε. Στις μαζικές κινητοποιήσεις κατά της κατασκευής του κέντρου στο Νανιούκι, μια πόλη κοντά στη Λαϊκιπία, σκοτώθηκαν δύο άνθρωποι – από σφαίρες, όπως κατήγγειλαν προασπιστές των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων. Μέσα ενημέρωσης της Κένυας μετέδωσαν ότι σημειώθηκαν συγκρούσεις με τις δυνάμεις ασφαλείας. Το Ανώτατο Δικαστήριο της Κένυας διέταξε την περασμένη εβδομάδα να ανασταλεί η λειτουργία του κέντρου, που ήταν προγραμματισμένη για την προηγούμενη Παρασκευή. Την Τρίτη, παρέτεινε την απαγόρευση λειτουργίας και κάλεσε την κυβέρνηση να δώσει στη δημοσιότητα «όλες τις συμφωνίες» που έχει κάνει για την κατασκευή του, μέσα σε επτά ημέρες. Εκτός από τη ΛΔ του Κονγκό, κρούσματα του Έμπολα έχουν καταγραφεί μόνο στην Ουγκάντα. Πηγές: ΑΠΕ-ΜΠΕ-AFP www.ertnews.gr

The V-BAT can launch from ship decks or small island clearings without a runway. Credit: Shield AI Greece has signed an agreement to expand its fleet of Shield AI V-BAT unmanned aerial systems for maritime surveillance operations across the Aegean Sea, the American company announced June 2. The deal deepens an existing partnership that has already seen the Hellenic Army deploy these advanced drones for intelligence and reconnaissance missions. Concluded between Shield AI and the Hellenic Army, the agreement bolsters Greece’s existing V-BAT fleet. The company says that the agreement will enhance the nation’s capacity to maintain persistent situational awareness over hundreds of islands, remote coastlines, and contested maritime approaches. Company says drone is ideal for Greece’s needs The V-BAT can launch from ship decks or small island clearings without a runway, fly for over 12 hours on a single sortie, and operate seamlessly despite aggressive electronic warfare attempts to disrupt its navigation and communications. “V-BAT is exceptionally well-suited for operations in Greece, where forces operate across dispersed islands, remote coastlines, deep valleys, mountain ranges, and complex maritime environments,” said James Lythgoe, Shield AI’s regional director for Eastern and Southeast Europe. “V-BAT has proven itself in combat operations in Ukraine, including in GPS- and communications-denied environments, and was built for exactly these kinds of operational realities.” Combat-proven resilience In Ukraine, the V-BAT has successfully operated amid intense Russian electronic warfare, where GPS signals are actively jammed and drone communications are disrupted. This proven resilience against satellite spoofing and signal jamming ensures the system remains operational against sophisticated adversaries, rather than falling out of the sky. Classified as a NATO Class I unmanned aircraft (weighing under 330 pounds), the V-BAT acts as a highly tactical asset deployable by ground units and small naval vessels without requiring massive support infrastructure. Its twelve-hour flight endurance allows a single aircraft launched at dawn to maintain continuous coverage through the entire day. This enables crucial “pattern-of-life” analysis to reveal suspicious maritime activity. By expanding its V-BAT fleet, the Hellenic military strengthens its layered early-warning architecture across the Aegean, giving commanders the vital reaction time needed to respond to maritime intrusions before situations escalate. Related: Classified US Stealth Drone Makes Rare Appearance in Greece

The Loire River, likely part of the Eridanos River of Greek mythology. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 3.0, LPLT The Eridanos River of Greek mythology is a mysterious river whose location has long been debated. Numerous real-world rivers around Europe have been suggested, but some scholars believe it is completely mythical and corresponds to no real-world location. Nevertheless, some may wonder where this river might actually be situated. The Eridanos River of Greek mythology To try to understand which real-world river it might correspond to, we first need to look at what ancient sources say about it. The Eridanos River is most famous for its connection with Phaethon and amber. In the relevant legend, it’s the river into which Phaethon crashes after he steals the chariot of the sun god. Phaethon’s sisters, the Heliades, grieved the loss of their brother, and the gods transformed them into poplar trees. These trees, in turn, supposedly produced amber for which the river was well known. Numerous scholars have attempted to use this information to identify this body of water. Furthermore, we know that the Eridanos River cannot have been an obscure, minor river. Hesiod mentions it in his list of the offspring of Oceanus. Eridanos appears first in the list, and Hesiod even calls it “deep-swirling,” which is an expression normally reserved for the great Oceanus itself. Where was the Eridanos River? With these facts in mind, what have scholars argued about the location of this river? Well, one popular candidate is the Vistula River, since this flows through Poland and leads to the Baltic Sea. This was a major source of amber in the ancient world, and this fits the criterion of the Eridanos River being a source of amber. Furthermore, Herodotus associates the Eridanos River with a certain “northern sea.” Since the Baltic Sea is to the north of Greece, it could fit Herodotus’ description. However, another popular candidate is the Po River, which flows through northern Italy and enters the Adriatic Sea. In fact, several ancient sources explicitly identify the Eridanos with this real river. At first, that might seem to settle the matter. However, it’s more complicated than that. A closer look at Herodotus’ description Herodotus, in the fifth century BC, was not the first person to mention the Eridanos River. As we saw earlier, that was Hesiod. However, he does seem to provide the earliest useful description of it. His description reads: “As to the extremities of Europe towards the West, I am not able to speak with certainty: for neither do I accept the tale that there is a river called in Barbarian tongue Eridanos, flowing into the sea which lies towards the North Wind, whence it is said that amber comes; nor do I know of the real existence of the Cassiterides from which tin comes to us… However that may be, tin and amber certainly come to us from the extremity of Europe.” As we can see from this description, the Eridanos River was explicitly said to flow into the sea which lies towards the North Wind, and Herodotus refers to this region as the “extremity of Europe”. This definitively rules out the Po River, which flows into the Adriatic Sea near Greece itself. Does this mean that the Vistula River is the most likely candidate? At first, that might seem to match Herodotus’ reference to the “extremity of Europe” and the fact that the river flowed into the sea towards the North Wind. However, that does not work either. Herodotus prefaces this passage by referring to the “extremities of Europe towards the West”. Since the Vistula and the Baltic Sea are essentially directly north of Greece, this does not match this aspect of Herodotus’ description. Jason and the Argonauts Jason and the Argonauts disembark at Colchis, Charles de La Fosse, 1672. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 3.0 The Argonautica, by Apollonius Rhodius of the third century BC, reveals the answer to this conundrum. Although it contains some fictional geography, it is clear about where the Eridanos River was supposedly situated, and this aligns perfectly with Herodotus’ description. According to Apollonius, Jason and the Argonauts sail from the Black Sea through the Danube and then reached the Adriatic Sea via a fictional channel between the two. They then sail up into the Eridanos River, actually signifying the Po River in this context. Eventually, they make it to the Rhodanus River, or the Rhone as it is known today, a body of water which flows through France relatively close to the Po River source and then spills into the the Mediterranean Sea on the country’s southern coast. This is significant because it demonstrates that the Greeks believed the Po and the Rhone were connected. In fact, other ancient texts attest to this same belief. Consequently, this means Apollonius is presenting the Rhone as part of the Eridanus River. How the Argonautica reveals the true location of the Eridanos River At this point in the Argonautica, the true nature of the Eridanos River is made clear. Apollonius writes: “Thence they entered the deep stream of Rhodanus which flows into Eridanus; and where they meet there is a roar of mingling waters. Now that river, rising from the ends of the earth, where are the portals and mansions of Night, on one side bursts forth upon the beach of Ocean, at another pours into the Ionian Sea, and on the third through seven mouths sends its stream to the Sardinian sea and its limitless bay.” Apollonius refers to the Eridanos River as having three mouths. One arm of the river flows into the Ionian Sea, which is an ancient reference to the Adriatic Sea. That is the arm of the river that Jason and the Argonauts have just been described as sailing up. Another one of the arms of the river is said to flow into the Sardinian Sea. That would be the Rhone, in accordance with Apollonius who explicitly presents the Rhodanus (the Rhone) as part of the Eridanos. The third arm is the final piece of the puzzle. According to Apollonius, it flows into the “beach of Ocean.” Incidentally, this matches Herodotus’s description of the Eridanos flowing into the sea on the other side of Europe, which doesn’t match the Rhone nor the Po. The notable point is that this shows that the Ancient Greeks believed the Po, the Rhone, and a third river were all part of one enormous waterway in Europe, which they referred to as the Eridanos. What was the third arm of the Eridanos River? A few lines later, Apollonius refers to the mouth of the river in the southern part of France as the middle of the three mouths of the Eridanos. With the Po River having the mouth closest to Greece, and the Rhone having the intermediate one, the third mouth must have been even further west. This, again, is in harmony with Herodotus’ description, which associated the Eridanos with the western extremity of Europe. Based on this, the only plausible candidate for the third arm of the Eridanos River is the Loire. This is a river whose mouth is further west than the mouth of the Rhone. It flows out into the Atlantic Ocean on the western side of France and is located towards the north—another detail of Herodotus to keep in mind. Furthermore, it flows quite close to the Rhone near its source, making sense of the belief that they were connected. In summary, it appears that the Greeks imagined the Loire, the Rhone, and the Po Rivers to all be connected. The Greeks received their amber via the Po River, since it was the final part of the Amber Road which originated in the Baltic Sea. However, they believed that the Po was connected to the Loire. This perfectly matches up with Herodotus’ description of the Eridanos River in its entirety. As we saw, he claimed it flowed into the sea on the other side of Europe and associated it particularly with the north and the west, which points to the Loire.

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