Month: April 2019

‘Every Single Community Has Joy And Is Thriving In Whatever Ways It Can’: Molly Swain

Posted on by pirhi

Molly Swain knows that everything isn’t perfect in Indigenous communities, but she is passionate about how we need to highlight joy now and then.

Molly is Métis from Calgary and is currently living in Edmonton. She’s starting her PhD in what she hopes will be Métis political relationality. She also co-hosts Métis In Space, a podcast where she and Chelsea Vowel deconstruct the science fiction genre with a decolonial lens.

She lived in Montreal for a while, but as soon as she left the Prairies, she knew she needed to find her way back. Edmonton feels like a very Indigenous space for Molly because of the city’s larger Indigenous population and that changes the dynamic, especially when it comes to visibility.

A thread weaves itself through Indigenous communities and people across the country. That thread is resistance, and it’s something Molly has thought a lot about — her master’s thesis even touched on it. But she thinks the way we talk about resistance needs to change.

It’s really important for us to have a narrative that recognizes that resistance to Canada is valid and valuable for us as Indigenous people in that, you know, the Canadian state is still a colonial state. As much as it tries to frame itself as being in this era of “reconciliation,” etc., it’s still doing the work of the colonial state, which is to eradicate us.

Indigenous communities have been plagued with an almost constant stream of outside negativity. A discussion happening among Indigenous people right now is the need for joy.

Molly came across a Yup’ik student on Twitter, who suggested that educators build a syllabus about Indigenous joy; she agrees, and has been thinking about it ever since.

I’d like to see more writing on Indigenous joy. I think one of the things reconciliation is sort of doing, is trying to fit us into this multicultural paradigm, where we become boiled down to our cultural expression. It’s either drumming, dancing, or art – which are all amazing – but it’s also important to remember that we are also people living our day-to-day.

That, as much as there is suffering in our communities, and things are really hard, and colonialism works to make things challenging for us — every single community has joy and is thriving in whatever ways that it can. It would be great to see that narrative expanded outside of artists and our cultural expression, to what amazing things are we doing in our communities on a day-to-day. How is it that we’re working to feel good? And how are we feeling good?

Just everyday joy.

Why can’t we have that mindless entertainment? The silly comedy? That’s one of the things I loved about “Thor: Ragnarok,” for example. I felt like it was such an Indigenous film. It was just irreverent and silly, and also just great and had really strong moments of family. Sure, it had identity and struggle, and all that … but we should also be sharing and highlighting those moments when we’re just being ridiculous. Whether that’s going out with friends, going on dates — we need to have those narratives exist in resistance to colonialism, instead of essentializing us into either struggle or this superficial knowledge of our cultures that the mainstream has.

Molly has spent the better part of her life living as an urban Indigenous person — from Calgary to Montreal, and now Edmonton. She understands that there isn’t a single urban experience, but the community is growing and mobilizing.

Urban Indigenous people are expressing ourselves and relating to one another in ways that I think are both unique to each city and just really exciting. Pan-Indigeneity doesn’t really capture the complexity of how we relate to one another.

There’s a lot of Indigenous people now being born in cities and raised in cities; they visit their communities, but the city is what they know.

There isn’t one urban Indigenous experience you can point to and say this is what an urban Indigenous culture is like. But I do think that it’s something that’s unique and it’s vibrant in new ways. And people are coming together to build things relationally, politically that are unique and exciting. We’re building exciting new Indigenous spaces for ourselves without necessarily falling into the trap of homogeneity.

I think a lot of people have a really good sense of who they are and where they come from. But this is where we live, this is our day to day, our everyday life in the city, and so we need to express ourselves in this space as well.

Some of the responses in this piece have been edited for clarity and brevity.

This story is part of Not My Territory*, a HuffPost Canada series about urban Indigenous perspectives driven by the people who are part of the country’s fastest growing populations.

*Some Indigenous people live in cities that don’t overlap with their community’s traditional territory, and many feel burdened by being regularly called on to represent cultures and backgrounds that aren’t their own.

Not My Territory* gives urban Indigenous people a platform to speak for themselves.

Children of Isil’s caliphate left to toil in squalid refugee camps

Posted on by pirhi

Eight-year-old Hamed cast a critical eye at the at tent peg, raised a hammer above his head and began thwacking it into the hard, stony ground.

It is heavy work, and he would rather be in school. But he has little choice.

“I get about 2,000 lira for putting up one tent,” he said, using the popular term here for Syrian pounds. “I can do three or four a day, so that is 8,000.”

That, he said, is just about enough to feed himself, his mother, and her newborn baby twice a day. “But we can’t eat all the time,” he said. "My mother explained, we can’t spend so much money on food because we need to buy stuff for the baby now."

Hamed is one of about 41,000 children in al-Hol, the largest of three sprawling camps in north eastern Syria that houses former members, children, and prisoners of the Islamic State terrorist group.

The fate of the children who emerged from Isil’s doomed caliphate is a matter of humanitarian urgency and critical to international security.

And yet the lack of provision made by world governments, including Britain’s, is striking.

The Telegraph has seen dozens of malnourished infants as Isil families left Baghuz, Isil’s last bastion, in the past two weeks.

At least 108 children have already died en route to or soon after arriving at the camp, mostly from severe acute malnutrition, pneumonia, and dehydration, according to the International Rescue Committee.

The vast majority of them were under five years old, and most of those babies younger than one.  Many are also carrying serious injuries from shrapnel.

The casualties included Jarrah Begum, Shamima Begum’s newborn son, who died of a lung infection last month.

Unicef has described the living conditions for those children who reach the camp as "extremely dire."

Hamed, who spoke to the Telegraph with the permission of his German mother and on condition of anonymity, said he bitterly misses his old life in Europe.

“If there was a school, I’d go to it,” he said, as he took a pause in his tent work to speak to the Telegraph. "But there isn’t one here."

“When I was in Germany I was learning, then in Doula I learnt nothing,” he said, using the Arabic word for “State” – the term many Isil families use for the group.

“They just teach like the Quran… and they teach you that you have to fight. But I said: ‘I don’t want to fight’. I don’t like to fight. I just want to be a normal one, I just want to live in a house and make my job. I don’t want to fight, I don’t want to be a warrior.”

He said he had left Germany when he was five years old, and only emerged from the Islamic State two months ago.

The camp, he said, is a miserable and filthy place. “Kids poop everywhere,” he said. “You have to watch where you walk. You can’t just sit anywhere, like you can in Germany.”

It is not surprising. Adults in the section of the camp where Hamed lives told the Telegraph many of the young children have chronic diarrhoea.  

“Play”, if there is such a thing, involves picking on one another or chucking rocks at moving cars.  

“They call me a dog and things. They think it is a joke,” said Hamed, when asked about his friends. “My mother doesn’t like me to be like the other children. She says maybe there is a little baby there, like three years old, and maybe you’ll hit him. Even though I don’t like to throw rocks,” he said.

“It’s not a game. They come, they throw, the glass breaks,” he said. “In Germany it is not like this, you’re not hitting on cars. If you want to play you go to your friends, you have friends, they don’t call you anything, you play a bit.”

Most children have little time for that though.

Adults here told the Telegraph that almost every child from about the age of eight upwards is a low-paid labourer in the camp’s grey economy.

“They’re already entrepreneurs. I think they wake up and the first thing they think is: who am I going to hit up for money today?” said Lorna Henri, a 54-year-old woman from the Seychelles who has become the de-facto guardian of two unaccompanied children in the camp. "I try to give them what I can."

Ms Henri said boys generally sent by their mothers to run errands in the camp market, which children can access more easily than adults, and put up tents. Girls clean or offer to cook.

The market, in the larger and more loosely regulated section of the camp for Syrian and Iraqi citizens, is crowded with small boys hauling hand carts for 200 Syrian pounds per errand.

Such Dickensian scenes are not unusual amidst humanitarian crisis. And across the Middle East, children are generally expected to pull their own weight at an earlier age than in the West.

But the prospects for these children are bleak in more than one way.

Radical Isil supporters continue to exert influence inside al-Hol, including by harassing women who want to remove their veils.  There have been reports of punishment tent-burnings by an underground “religious police”, and several women from different countries who the Telegraph spoke to complained about being labelled “infidels” by their fellow inmates.

Without intervention, there is a good chance the children here will be brought up in the same poisonous ideology that turned many of their fathers into terrorists.

The United Nations has expressed “alarm” at the situation. Last week  Henrietta Fore, the executive director of Unicef, urged member states “to take responsibility for children who are their citizens or born to their nationals, and to take measures to prevent children from becoming stateless.”

Some governments have heeded the call. Last week, the French government said it had evacuated several children.

But Kurdish officials have told the Telegraph that Britain has refused to take back British Isil members or their children in the camps on the grounds that it has full confidence in the legal and administrative system of Rojava, the unrecognised Kurdish proto-state in northern Syria.

Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary, last week claimed that it would have been “too risky” to send British officials to save Jarrah Begum, although he remained a British citizen after his mother was stripped of her own citizenship.

However, the al-Hol camp is run by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led Western-backed armed group that Britain is allied to. Journalists, including from the Telegraph, and aid workers visit the camp on a regular basis, safely and without incident.

Nor is it true, as Mr Hunt claimed, that journalists are afforded special protection unavailable to UK officials in Syria or in the camps.

In al-Hol, the foreign women constantly exchange rumours about which governments might take Isil members back. For their children, who committed no crime, the only thing on the horizon is more arduous work.

"I’d like to…sell stuff. Or you know, build houses," shrugged Hamed, when asked what he would like to do when he grows up. Those are the only careers on offer in al-Hol camp.

He picked up his hammer, and went back to hitting the tent peg. His blows made little impact on the stony ground.

Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security 

Luther joins Texas schools in top three of NFCA Division III poll

Posted on by pirhi

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Luther College was the unanimous choice to join top-ranked Texas-Tyler and No. 3 Texas Lutheran in the top three of the NFCA Division III Top 25 poll this week, as an 1-3 stretch dropped Emory eight places to No. 10.

The (32-4) Eagles had been the consensus top three with Texas-Tyler and Texas Lutheran the past two weeks, but Luther’s continued winning ways coupled with Emory’s split with Division II Shorter and sweep at the hands of new No. 6 Birmingham-Southern (29-6), moved the surging (25-1) Norse into the second slot. Birmingham-Southern’s two solid wins — and 4-0 week overall — propelled the Panthers up eight places from 14th last week.

Meanwhile, Virginia Wesleyan (26-5) continued its climb, up another position to No. 4 on the strength of a 5-1 week. Salisbury (23-4) likewise moved up one spot following a lopsided sweep of Penn State-Harrisburg to round out the top five.

Big movers this week include St. Thomas (up five places to No. 15) and Washington University (down five places to No. 18), as well as No. 22 Massachusetts Institute of Technology and No. 23 Manhattanville, who moved into the Top 25 after receiving votes previously. Previously unranked Ithaca joins the rankings at No. 21, while Williams is back in the mix of teams receiving votes.

Trine, which had been ranked all season, Widener and Worcester Polytechnic Institute dropped out.

The NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll is selected by Division III head coaches representing the eight NCAA regions. Records through Sunday’s games are listed, with first-place votes in parentheses.

NFCA Division III Top 25 Poll – April 13, 2016

Rank Team 2016 Record Points Previous 1 Texas-Tyler (8) 31-2 200 1 2 Luther 25-1 192 4 3 Texas Lutheran 33-2 184 3 4 Virginia Wesleyan 26-5 171 5 5 Salisbury 23-4 169 6 6 Birmingham-Southern 29-6 156 14 7 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 22-6-1 143 7 8 Illinois Wesleyan 18-4 129 9 9 Christopher Newport 28-5 128 8 10 Emory 32-4 127 2 11 Berry 27-6 120 10 12 Alma 17-5 117 12 13 East Texas Baptist 26-7 101 11 14 Rowan 20-6 97 15 15 St. Thomas (Minn.) 19-3 91 T20 16 Messiah 23-2 85 18 17 St. Catherine 17-2 77 17 18 Washington (Mo.) 26-8 56 13 19 Moravian 19-3 51 19 20 St. John Fisher 15-3 32 16 21 Ithaca 15-5 26 NR 22 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 17-5 25 RV 23 Manhattanville 23-1 23 RV T24 Heidelberg 15-5 21 23   Wheaton (Ill.) 18-4 21 25

 

Others receiving votes: Cortland 19, Williams 18, Central (Iowa) 12, Whitworth 6 and Simpson 3.

Dropped out: Trine, Widener and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

‘History repeats itself’: Vandals target Jewish memorial stone for synagogue destroyed by Nazis

Posted on by pirhi

A large marble slab commemorating the synagogue burnt to the ground by Nazis during WWII was knocked off its plinth in Strasbourg as France faces a rise of anti-Semitic attacks.

“A new incident of anti-Semitism in our town,” Alain Fontanel, Strasbourg’s deputy mayor, wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning posting a photo from the scene.

The official later told local media that the damage was caused intentionally since “you can’t push a stele of this weight by chance especially since the message is clearly written on it.”

The memorial stone marks the site of the Strasbourg’s Kleber Wharf synagogue, which was looted and burned by the Nazis in 1940.

The memorial location might have been significant for the perpetrator, a local Jewish organization spokesman suspects, saying that vandals sought “to erase the memory of the Kleber wharf synagogue by destroying it twice.”

Officials promised to take all necessary actions to punish those responsible for the act, while Strasbourg Mayor Roland Ries admitted he is “very worried about this resurgence of the anti-Semitism.”

“Sadly, history repeats itself,” the mayor wrote on his Facebook page.

In February, France witnessed a number of high-profile anti-Semitic attacks. Dozens of graves were desecrated at a Jewish cemetery outside Strasbourg prompting president Emmanuel Macron as well as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come up with strong-worded statements.

Anti-Semitic acts also hit Paris as swastikas were sprayed on post boxes with portraits of the prominent French politician and Holocaust survivor Simone Veil. In another incident, offenders drew the word Juden (German for Jews) on the window of a bakery in central Paris.

In 2018, the total number of anti-Semitic attacks in France increased by 74 percent, jumping to 541 from 311 in 2017, France’s interior minister Christophe Castaner said adding that anti-Jewish sentiments “spread like poison.”

Think your friends would be interested?

Seventy people dead after overcrowded ferry capsizes in Iraqi city of Mosul

Posted on by pirhi

A ferry overloaded with people has capsized on the Tigris river near the Iraqi city of Mosul, killing more than 70 people.

Most of the casualties on the ferry were women and children who could not swim, according to Saif al-Badr, a spokesman for the Ministry of Health, who said they accounted for at least 45 of the dead.

The rescue team is still retrieving survivors and has rescued 30 people so far.

The small boat, which was carrying people to a popular picnic area, was believed to be carrying around 150 people when it overturned.

Many were there celebrating the Kurdish New Year of Newroz and Mother’s Day, which fall on the same day.

Videos showed a number of people struggling to stay afloat amid floating bodies in the fast-flowing water in the Tigris, which appeared engorged.

The authorities had warned people to be careful after several days of heavy rains led to water being released through the Mosul dam, causing the river level to rise.

People looked on from the banks of an amusement park known as "Tourist Island", unable to reach those in the water. Some were seen jumping in to try to help.

The disaster comes as Mosul has begun to rebuild areas like Tourist Island after years of Islamic State rule. The battle to retake Iraq’s second city destroyed much of it.

Climate Change Is Killing Canadians, Say Doctors

Posted on by pirhi

A new report from one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals says Canada’s failure to cut greenhouse-gas emissions isn’t just killing the planet, it’s killing Canadians.

The report on the health impacts of climate change, published Wednesday in The Lancet, concludes that successfully tackling climate change would be the single biggest thing governments can do to improve human health this century.

Chronic exposure to air pollution from greenhouse-gas-emitting activities is contributing to the deaths of an estimated 7,142 Canadians a year, and 2.1 million people worldwide, the report said.

Heat waves, forest fires, flooding and major storms are causing more deaths and long-term illnesses but little data is available on how many.

The first recommendation in the report is simply to track the number of heat-related illnesses and deaths in Canada, something that isn’t done at all in most provinces.

Last summer, public-health officials in Quebec said 90 people died during a heat wave. Southern and eastern Ontario suffered the same heat but Ontario doesn’t track heat-related deaths the same way, so nobody knew how many people had been affected in the province.

Dr. Courtney Howard, an emergency physician from Yellowknife, who wrote the Canadian section of the report, said right now that the world is on pace for temperature increases we can’t adapt to, resulting in more deaths and disease.

The world’s average surface temperature is already about 1 C warmer than it was in the pre-industrial era, and if we continue to emit greenhouse gases at present levels, the increase will be between 2.6 C and 4.8 C by the end of the century, she said.

“We’re not sure we can adapt to that in a way where we can maintain the same civilizational stability and health-care systems we’re used to,” said Howard.

“We’re talking about not just maintaining disease levels, we’re talking about our ability to provide health care.”

Fine particles of pollutants in the air cause premature deaths from heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, acute respiratory infections and chronic lung disease. More frequent heat waves contribute to heat stroke and more intense pollen seasons, which can aggravate allergies and asthma, as can forest fires.

Warmer temperatures are also helping insects thrive, which means more bug-borne illnesses. The incidence of Lyme disease, which is carried by ticks, went up 50 per cent in 2017 alone.

Howard said a new term emerging among mental-health professionals is “eco-anxiety,” describing mental stress caused by climate-related changes — or even just the threat they might occur.

Public health officials are going to have to adapt their responses to dangers such as forest fires, because the increased intensity and frequency of the fires means more communities have bad air for far longer, Howard said.

Most health authorities will advise people to stay indoors on smoky days, but when those periods last for weeks, that is not a sustainable solution.

‘This is an emergency’

In San Francisco this month, smoke from wild fires made the air some of the most dangerous in the world. Doctors told people to stay in, and to wear masks if they absolutely had to go outdoors.

Howard said work is underway to improve smoke forecasting, so people can be told when they can expect to go outdoors and get exercise and sunlight safely during extended smoke warnings.

She said the last few summers have alerted Canadians to what climate change is going to look like, with record-breaking forest-fire seasons in British Columbia in both 2017 and 2018, drought on the Prairies, heat waves in central Canada, and flooding in communities almost from coast to coast. She said some people think this is a new normal — but it’s not.

“It’s going to be worse in 10 years,” she said.

Howard said if we don’t step up our efforts, the change to the world will be massive, including more wars and migration.

“I’m an emergency doctor and I’m working on this because this is an emergency,” she said.

Both the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Public Health Association say they agree with the Lancet’s findings and recommendations.

“Health care professionals see first-hand the devastating health impacts of our changing climate,” said Dr. Gigi Osler, president of the Canadian Medical Association, in a statement.

“From wildfires to heat waves to new infectious diseases, we’re already treating the health effects of climate change,” she said.

“This is the public health imperative of our time.”

Sega Classic Collection Comes to Amazon Fire TV

Posted on by pirhi

Amazon has teamed up with Sega to bring 25 classic Sega Genesis games to Fire TV customers. That’s the Sega Mega Drive to Brits.

Amazon Fire TV customers can pick up the Sega Classics bundle of 25 Genesis/Mega Drive games from today. All they need is their Fire TV remote, and they can access a library of classic retro titles that includes 15 multiplayer games.

Touted as “the most extensive SEGA collection on any streaming media player,” the bundle celebrates the 30th anniversary of the console.

If playing classic Sega games with a TV remote isn’t up your street, you can also play with compatible Bluetooth controllers.

The games included in the bundle are listed below:

  • Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Sonic the Hedgehog 2
  • Sonic CD
  • The Revenge of Shinobi
  • Ristar
  • Golden Axe
  • Beyond Oasis
  • Decap Attack
  • ESWAT: City Under Siege
  • Street of Rage
  • Street of Rage II
  • Street of Rage III
  • Gunstar Heroes
  • Dynamite Headdy
  • Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
  • Columns
  • Bio-Hazard Battle
  • Comix Zone
  • Alien Storm
  • Bonanza Bros
  • Golden Axe II
  • Golden Axe III
  • Gain Ground
  • Altered Beast
  • Sonic Spinball

Sega released a larger bundle of over 50 classic Genesis/ Mega Drive games earlier this year for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which includes all of the titles above, so if you’re curious as to how that holds up, you can check out our review right here.

The console collection also came to Nintendo Switch this month.

Shabana is a freelance writer who enjoys JRPGs, wine, and not finishing games. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Six programs undefeated after first day of 2016 NFCA DIII Leadoff Classic

Posted on by pirhi

COLUMBUS, Ga. – The first day of the 2016 NFCA Division III Leadoff Classic is in the books and six teams completed the day undefeated. Texas-Tyler, Christopher Newport, Virginia Wesleyan, Texas Lutheran, Lake Forest and Trine all finished 2-0 on the first day at the South Commons Softball Complex.

Tournament Central | Full Results (pdf)

The No. 1 team in the NFCA poll, Texas Tyler and its stingy pitching staff did not allow a run in a pair of 7-0 triumphs over No. 10 Berry and No. 13 Illinois Wesleyan. In the opener, Kelsie Batten tossed a six-hit shutout with four strikeouts, while Alaina Kissinger was even stingier, surrendering just two base knocks and striking out six. Five-run innings keyed the Patriots’ offense with those coming in the second (Game 1) and sixth (Game 2) innings, respectively.

No. 3 Christopher Newport put nine runs on the scoreboard in each contest to post 9-2 and 9-3 victories over Fontbonne and No. 23 Linfield. The Captains drew 14 walks in the opener against the Griffins, while Tara Heatwole struck out eight and walked just one in a complete-game effort in the circle and Meagan Jones went 3-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored. In their nightcap, the Captains raced out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first and did not look back. They were paced offensively by a 4-for-4 effort from Sarah Clark and a home run off the bat of Brittney Walters.

Eighth-ranked Virginia Wesleyan scored a pair of 10-1 victories behind an offense that recorded 23 hits and its pitchers (Kandis Kresinske & Mary Shipp) twirling a pair of four-hitters. Sparking the offense was leadoff hitter Courtney Bogan, going 5-for-8 with five runs scored, while Cassetty Howertin, Blake Henderson and Kayla Dost all left the yard for the Marlins.

Texas Lutheran cruised to a 9-0 victory over Western Connecticut State before needing a seventh-inning, two-out rally to defeat No. 17 Central, 5-3. The Bulldogs received a five-hit shutout from Taylor Grissom and were powered by a seven-run fifth to open the tournament. Nicole Snow highlighted the big inning with a game-ending grand slam and finished the five-inning affair 2-for-3 with a double, home run and four RBI. Against the Dutch, the Bulldogs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second, only to see Central rally to even the contest in the fifth. However, a pair of two-out walks followed by a clutch two-run double by Jennifer Gallagher in the top of the seventh sealed the win.

Rounding out the 2-0 teams were Lake Forest and Trine. The 23rd-ranked Foresters needed extras and a squeeze play to upend No. 22 Alma, 2-1, in eight innings. They continued with another tightly-contested affair against St. Thomas (Minn.). With the score deadlocked at 1-1 in the sixth, Lake Forest pushed across the winning run thanks to a two-out, go-ahead two-run single by Kat Beall.

After squandering an early 5-0 lead and trailing 6-5, the Thunder quickly regained the advantage to win a thrilling 10-7 game over Eastern Connecticut State in their opener, and later in the evening upset No. 7 East Texas Baptist, 6-1. After spotting the Tigers a 1-0 lead in the first, the Thunder scored six unanswered runs to pick up the victory. Jessica Robles was stellar in the circle, allowing just two hits and striking out eight in the complete-game effort.

Seeding will be on the line tomorrow as each team will play their final pool play games at 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Following the end of those contests, the teams will be seeded and start bracket play at 4:30 p.m. The top eight programs will play at 4:30 p.m. in the first round of the gold bracket, while the second eight will start at 7 p.m. in the silver bracket. The final eight squads will take part in the bronze bracket, which will be split into two games at 4:30 p.m. and two at 7 p.m.

The tournament concludes on Sunday with the first games scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and the last ones slated for 1 p.m.

Gigantic waves and gale-force winds lash Malta with torrents of… fish (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

Posted on by pirhi

Malta residents ignored repeated warnings to stay indoors as the island nation was battered by record winds and ferocious waves, all for the promise of some free, freshly caught fish.

Much like the Maltese streets, social media was flooded late Sunday and early Monday as images of locals braving the elements for a catch of the day were shared far and wide. The Xemxija suburb on the western part of St. Paul’s Bay was particularly hard-hit.

Fresh fish were flung across the promenade in Ximxija and onto the roads along St. Paul’s Bay.

“One of the fish farms must have broken open and there are hundreds of fish being washed ashore… and people are picking them up from the middle of the street – unbelievable,” said Rene Rossignaud, who caught most of the action throughout the day.

Trees were uprooted, walls toppled, streets and buildings flooded as record gusts of up to 101kph (Force 10, almost Force 11) were registered by the weather station in Gharb, the most powerful on record.

Miraculously, no injuries were reported, in spite of the extreme amateur angling visible on social media. One local was even swept out to sea and had to be rescued by his neighbors.

Homes were evacuated in Sliema and Vittoriosa due to severe flooding while there are major fears for the local farming communities who are likely to be hardest hit by this unprecedented tempest.

“We still have to quantify the damage. The whole operation is going to take days,” said Cleansing Department Director Ramon Deguara, as cited by the Times of Malta. “A number of large trees were partially uprooted and we’re expecting them to fall soon.”

Like this story?

Vatican tomb may hold key to 35-year-old murder mystery as family told ‘look where the angel is pointing’

Posted on by pirhi

The mystery surrounding a teenage girl who went missing from the streets of Rome more than 35 years ago has taken a new twist with her family saying they believe she may have been secretly buried in a cemetery inside the Vatican.

The case of Emanuela Orlandi, whose father was a Vatican employee, has intrigued Italy ever since she vanished on her way home from a flute lesson in June 1983.

Her disappearance has prompted countless conspiracy theories involving claims of corruption, financial skulduggery by the Vatican, mafia involvement and sex rings.

Her family have received an anonymous tip-off that claims that the 15-year-old is buried in a tomb within the Teutonic Cemetery, an area reserved for Germans, Austrians, Dutch and Flemish people inside the walls of the tiny city state.

Above the tomb is the statue of a marble angel whose hand points to the ground. “Look where the angel is pointing,” the anonymous letter sent to the family said.

The Orlandi family have asked the Vatican to scrutinise all records relating to the burial plot and to open the tomb to see if Emanuela’s remains are inside.

The tombstone bears an inscription dedicated to a German prince, Gustavo von Hohenlohe, who was made an archbishop by Pope Pio IX in 1857.

Tests carried out on the tomb indicated that it has been opened at least once in the past, according to Italian daily Corriere della Sera, which broke the story this week.

“Some people knew there was a chance Emanuela Orlandi’s body had been hidden in the German cemetery," Laura Sgrò, the family’s lawyer, wrote in a letter to the Vatican.

She said that someone had been regularly leaving flowers on the burial spot “for some years”.

The Vatican said it was actively considering the request.

"I can confirm that the letter from Emanuela Orlandi’s family has been received by Cardinal Pietro Parolin," said Alessandro Gisotti, Vatican spokesman, referring to the Secretary of State. The family’s request to have the tomb reopened “will be studied”, he said.

The existence of the tip-off, and the family’s request to the Vatican, came as Pope Francis announced that he will open up archives relating to the controversial wartime papacy of Pius XII, who has been accused of failing to speak out against the persecution of the Jews and Hitler’s Final Solution.

“Seeing as the Pope has decided to open the Vatican archives for the pontificate of Pius XII in 2020, we make an appeal to the pontiff to give us access to the dossier that regards the investigation into the disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi,” said Ms Sgrò, the family’s lawyer. “Francis must clarify this deeply shadowy story as well.”

The teenager was the daughter of a Vatican employee and lived inside the city state, the world’s smallest sovereign nation. She was also a Vatican citizen.

There have been multiple theories as to what happened to her. It has been suggested that she was kidnapped to force the release from jail of Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk who tried to assassinate Pope Jean Paul II in 1981.

It has also been suggested that she was taken by an organised crime group in an attempt to recover a loan made to the Vatican.

Her family have campaigned tirelessly to find out the truth about what happened to her.

Hopes were raised in October when workmen stumbled on human remains beneath the foundations of the Vatican’s embassy to Italy in Rome.

But tests later proved that the skeleton was not that of a teenage girl.

Sign up for your essential, twice-daily briefing from The Telegraph with our free Front Page newsletter.