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  • Thieves steal 4 Renaissance artworks in Sicilian museum heist on Italian holiday

    Thieves steal 4 Renaissance artworks in Sicilian museum heist on Italian holiday

    On Italy’s most celebrated summer public holiday, Ferragasto, a brazen art theft unfolded at Sicily’s MuMe Regional Museum that has sent shockwaves through the global art community. Thieves successfully bypassed the institution’s layered alarm and security infrastructure Saturday evening to steal four irreplaceable works attributed to iconic 15th century Sicilian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina, Italian national news agency LaPresse confirmed in a Sunday report.

    Among the stolen pieces are three of the only five surviving panels from da Messina’s 1473 San Gregorio Polyptych, one of the artist’s most celebrated early Renaissance commissions. The thieves also absconded with a rare double-sided panel that features the Virgin Mary on one side and a depiction of the dead Christ in Pietà on the other. LaPresse’s sources confirm that the thieves forcibly removed the double-sided work from its reinforced armored display case to complete the heist, which investigators have timed to just before 10 p.m. Saturday.

    Museum leadership has described the theft as an incalculable cultural loss for the local community and the global art world. “We are devastated by what happened. They were two of Antonello da Messina’s most important and best-known works. It is a tremendous loss for the museum, the city, the community and the art world,” MuMe director Marisa Mercurio told Italy’s ANSA news agency in the immediate aftermath of the discovery.

    The high-profile theft comes at a moment of growing public attention for da Messina’s work. Just months prior, in March 2024, the Italian government purchased another of the artist’s devotional works, titled “Ecce Homo”, for $14.9 million from Sotheby’s New York auction house, a move that significantly lifted the painter’s international profile and underscored the rarity and value of his surviving works.

    Art crime experts warn that while the heist itself was successfully executed, the stolen works’ extreme notoriety makes any legitimate private sale on the art market nearly impossible. Lynda Albertson, chief executive of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art (ARCA) and a leading art-crime analyst, told Italian daily *La Repubblica* that the works are so widely recognizable that they cannot be moved through any reputable sales channels. “Stealing an Antonello may be far easier than selling one. If these are ordinary thieves, they will soon discover that — to their cost,” Albertson said. She added that high-profile stolen cultural pieces like these rarely enter private collections; instead, they are often passed between criminal networks and used as collateral to fund other illegal enterprises.

    In the wake of the theft, MuMe remained closed to the public Sunday as investigative teams from Italy’s Carabinieri cultural heritage protection unit processed the crime scene to gather forensic evidence. As of Sunday evening, neither senior museum officials nor Carabinieri investigators had released additional details on possible suspects or leads in the case.

    The theft occurred during Ferragosto, the annual Italian holiday that marks the Feast of the Assumption of Mary and serves as the peak of the country’s summer vacation period, when many tourist sites and public institutions operate on reduced staffing. The heist also comes just days after Italian law enforcement announced a major win in a separate high-profile art crime case: police in the northern city of Parma confirmed they had recovered three stolen masterpieces by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse, with an estimated combined value of 10 million euros ($11.5 million), that were stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation in Parma province in March. Five suspects have been detained in connection with that earlier theft.

  • Corgis race, bark and sniff their way to glory at a growing international race

    Corgis race, bark and sniff their way to glory at a growing international race

    On a recent Saturday in Lithuania’s capital city, Vilnius, Vingis Park played host to far more than the usual weekend picnics and joggers. More than 150 short-statured, big-personality corgis, alongside their enthusiastic owners from nine countries across Europe and North America, converged for the fifth annual Corgi Race Vilnius — an event that has grown far beyond a casual local gathering to become the largest international corgi celebration on the continent.

    What began as a small 2019 meetup drawing just 40 corgis from a single Lithuanian city has exploded in popularity year after year. This year’s milestone event marked a major first: a competitor traveled all the way from the United Kingdom, the birthplace of the Pembroke Welsh corgi breed famously adored by the late Queen Elizabeth II. Organizer Edvinas Miskas noted that the event’s expanding international reach lends new weight to the city’s playful self-title as Europe’s “corgi capital.”

    “Now that corgi lovers from the breed’s homeland are choosing to come to our event instead of us traveling to theirs, that nickname starts to feel a lot more credible,” Miskas said.

    While many attendees came to watch the 25-meter sprint that serves as the event’s flagship race, the celebration was designed to highlight far more than just the dogs’ running speed. Ninety-four corgis competed across qualifying rounds, semifinals, and a tightly contested final race, where the top three spots were split between international competitors. Taking home first place was American corgi GG, short for Gustave the Girl Dog, who notched another win after a previous first-place finish at a major corgi race in Washington state. Fellow U.S. contestant Mr. Corgington finished a narrow second, just ahead of two-time former champion Moka, a local favorite from Lithuania.

    Outside of the main sprint, the event featured three fun competitions that celebrated corgis’ varied skills and personalities. Thirty-eight corgis took part in a crowd-favorite costume parade, showing off outfits ranging from a full dinosaur costume to formal gowns and custom canine sports gear. It was Amigo, a corgi who has attended every single edition of the race, that won both judge and public votes for his intricately designed knight costume, taking home the top prize.

    In the “smartest nose” challenge, which tested corgis’ scent-tracking skills by asking them to locate hidden treats around the park, two Latvian corgis, Tora and Rusty, shared the first-place title. The most anticipated off-track event, however, was the competition for the loudest bark. The only British contestant at the whole event, 12-year-old Duke from Sedbergh, England, skipped the main sprint due to his age but joined the bark competition, with his owner noting he had spent his whole life training for the challenge. Ultimately, it was second-place race finisher Mr. Corgington who claimed the bark title with a particularly booming, attention-grabbing howl.

    Organizers highlighted that half of all registered corgis this year were first-time competitors, a sign of the event’s growing global popularity among corgi owners. Six dedicated returning corgis — including costume winner Amigo — have attended all five editions of the race, cementing their status as event veterans and fan favorites. For attendees and organizers alike, the event is more than a race: it’s a global gathering of people united by their love for one of the world’s most recognizable and beloved dog breeds.

  • Five killed as Russia launches fresh aerial attacks across Ukraine

    Five killed as Russia launches fresh aerial attacks across Ukraine

    After months of stagnant attritional combat along Ukraine’s hundreds-of-kilometer front line, the war between Russia and Ukraine has shifted dramatically to an intense battle of the skies, with both sides trading devastating waves of missile and drone attacks that have left civilian populations caught in the crossfire. This latest round of escalation has even spilled over into neighboring NATO territory, triggering an interception by a allied fighter jet.

    Ukrainian officials confirmed Sunday that at least five civilians were killed and more than a dozen others wounded in a fresh wave of Russian long-range strikes that hit multiple regions across the country overnight. Among the hardest-hit targets was a popular outdoor book market in central Kyiv, where emergency services and firefighting teams rushed to the smoldering site to rescue trapped survivors and extinguish blasts sparked by the incoming missile. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure, a repeated pattern in Moscow’s recent aerial campaign.

    Local officials across Ukraine confirmed additional casualties in multiple attack sites: In Kryvyi Rih, a 44-year-old man previously reported missing was pulled dead from the rubble of a destroyed structure, with another civilian killed and 14 steel plant workers left injured. In Zaporizhzhia, two civilians in their 60s died when their residential home was leveled by a strike. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko added that at least six people, including one child, had been injured in strikes on the capital, where air-raid sirens have sounded four times since Saturday night. Zelenskyy noted that the strikes hit Kryvyi Rih and Kremenchuk with ballistic missiles, stating, “Wherever the Russians can reach with their ballistic missiles, they strike civilian infrastructure.” Across the past week alone, Zelenskyy said Russian forces have launched more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles across 13 Ukrainian regions.

    For its part, Russia claimed all of its overnight strikes targeted military-related infrastructure connected to Ukraine’s war effort. The Russian defense ministry said its attacks on Kyiv targeted a FirePoint facility producing parts for Ukraine’s Flamingo missiles and a drone component factory. It also confirmed strikes on the Kremenchuk oil refinery in the Poltava region, which it says supplies fuel to Ukrainian frontline forces, a Kryvyi Rih steelworks producing weapons components for the Ukrainian military, and a dry cargo vessel off the coast of Odesa that it claims was carrying military equipment.

    The escalation is not one-sided: Overnight, Ukraine launched roughly 600 drones toward the Russian capital Moscow, in one of Kyiv’s largest drone attacks on the city in months. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that air defenses intercepted around two-thirds of the incoming drones, but three people were injured in the attack, and a large warehouse belonging to leading Russian online retailer Wildberries, located 25 kilometers outside central Moscow in Koledino, was directly hit. Amateur video footage from the site shows large flames billowing from the structure and a thick black plume of smoke rising visible for kilometers.

    Wildberries, often described as Russia’s domestic equivalent to Amazon, has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes since July. At the start of the campaign against the retailer, Kyiv confirmed it was targeting the logistics hub because the facility is used to route military supplies to Russian frontline forces, with the goal of disrupting Russia’s military supply chains. Russian defense officials reported that overall, Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones launched across Russian territory in the latest exchanges.

    In a development that underscores the risk of the war spilling beyond Ukraine’s borders, Romania’s defense ministry announced Sunday that a Spanish NATO F-18 fighter jet shot down an unauthorized drone that breached Romanian airspace near the country’s border with Ukraine and Moldova. The drone entered Romanian airspace from Moldovan territory, and was intercepted at 05:01 local time Sunday by the jet, which is deployed to NATO’s eastern flank air policing mission. Debris from the downed drone fell in an unpopulated area of Romania’s Galati region, close to the Ukrainian border, and no injuries or damage to civilian property were reported.

    Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently maintains control of roughly 20 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory. After more than two years of war, ground advances by both sides along the thousand-kilometer front line have been minimal, turning the conflict into a war of attrition. In recent months, the fighting has increasingly shifted to aerial exchanges, with both side launching long-range missile and drone strikes to degrade the other’s military capacity and disrupt frontline supply lines.

  • Firefighters battle a massive Belgian wildfire, forcing hundreds to evacuate

    Firefighters battle a massive Belgian wildfire, forcing hundreds to evacuate

    A catastrophic wildfire tearing through Belgium’s iconic High Fens nature reserve has become the largest blaze the country has seen in modern history, forcing mass evacuations and prompting an international cross-border rescue effort amid an ongoing regional heat and drought crisis.

    The inferno, which was first detected as it expanded rapidly in eastern Belgium near the German border, had already scorched more than 27 square kilometers of protected heathland and peat bog by Sunday — double the size of the previous record-breaking 2011 fire that burned through the same protected ecosystem. The challenging landscape of the High Fens, with its mixture of dry, flammable heath and deep peat deposits, has severely hampered containment efforts for emergency crews.

    When shifting winds pushed thick toxic smoke toward populated areas on Saturday, local officials ordered 600 residents across two nearby municipalities in Liège Province — Waimes and Bütgenbach — to evacuate immediately. Tourists visiting the popular natural reserve were also told to leave the high-risk zone, and a local gymnasium was set up as a temporary emergency shelter for displaced people. As of Sunday morning, authorities confirmed no residential structures had been damaged by the fire, but the blaze remains dangerously close to populated neighborhoods, and heavy smoke continues to blanket the region. Officials have issued a strict order for non-emergency personnel to avoid the fire zone, noting that excess civilian traffic could block access for response vehicles and slow ongoing firefighting operations.

    To scale up response efforts, Belgium activated the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism to request support from other member states. “The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone,” Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, announced on the social platform X. In response to the call, Sweden dispatched two specialized water-bombing aircraft, while the Netherlands and the Czech Republic each contributed additional firefighting helicopters to join the two helicopters already operated by Belgian federal police. In total, more than 250 emergency personnel have been deployed to the fire line, including firefighters from both Belgium and neighboring Germany, police officers, military personnel and civil protection workers.

    The wildfire follows weeks of record-breaking high temperatures and minimal rainfall across Western Europe. Belgium recorded another round of extreme heat earlier this week, with temperatures hitting 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) across parts of the country on Friday. The dry conditions have turned vegetation across the region into tinder, increasing wildfire risk dramatically.

    The cross-border impact of the blaze has already prompted emergency precautions in Germany. Local authorities in the German border town of Monschau warned overnight Saturday that the fire front was just 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the German border, and placed local firefighting units on high alert. Early Sunday, officials ordered temporary evacuation for three outlying districts near the border, citing unavoidable health risks from drifting wildfire smoke.

    The Belgian blaze is part of a wider pattern of extreme wildfire activity across Western Europe this summer. In southwestern France, firefighters have spent days battling a separate wildfire that has burned 17 square kilometers of pine forest in the Landes region. Local prefect Gilles Clavreul reported Sunday that the fire had not seen any major new flare-ups overnight, noting that “the situation is developing rather favorably.” Around 650 residents have already been evacuated from the Landes area, and this blaze marks the third major wildfire to hit the region’s vast pine forests this summer, following two large outbreaks in late July. Just last month, a massive wildfire in the neighboring Gironde department burned more than 420 square kilometers of land, forced 220,000 people to evacuate, and spread toward the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux.

  • Ukraine launches one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, killing at least 6 people in Russia

    Ukraine launches one of its largest aerial attacks of the war, killing at least 6 people in Russia

    In one of the most extensive aerial offensives launched by Kyiv since the start of the full-scale Russia-Ukraine war, Ukraine deployed hundreds of drones across Russian territory on Sunday, leaving at least six people dead and widespread damage in its wake. The large-scale coordinated attack marked a sharp escalation in Kyiv’s increasingly frequent deep strikes into Russian soil, a campaign that has accelerated steadily through 2024.

    Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced that its air defense systems intercepted and destroyed 822 Ukrainian drones during the overnight assault. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that roughly 600 of the unmanned aerial vehicles were detected heading toward the Russian capital, with roughly one-third of those intercepted and destroyed before they could reach targets within the Moscow region itself.

    Local Moscow region Governor Andrey Vorobyov confirmed one fatality from the attack: an 83-year-old man who died when a Ukrainian drone crashed into a private residential property. Vorobyov also added that the strike ignited a large blaze at a warehouse operated by Wildberries, Russia’s largest domestic e-commerce retail giant, located in the town of Podolsk. Footage and images shared by local Russian media outlets showed thick plumes of black smoke billowing from the burning facility, visible for miles across the area.

    Further south, in Russia’s southwestern Rostov region, a multi-target drone strike involving more than 150 drones left five people dead, according to regional Governor Yury Slyusar. The assault damaged multiple residential properties and a local railway station, and ignited an uncontrolled forest fire that spread across adjacent woodland areas.

    This latest large-scale attack aligns with a clear shift in Ukraine’s military strategy in 2024. Over the course of this year, Kyiv has ramped up the frequency and scale of strikes inside Russia, using a combination of long-range missiles and mass drone swarms to target key Russian infrastructure including military production facilities and energy hubs. Wildberries warehouses have emerged as an increasingly common target: repeated strikes on the retailer’s storage sites have destroyed billions of dollars worth of stored goods, and brought the direct impact of the war to ordinary Russian civilians, nearly four and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Hours after Ukraine’s drone offensive, Russia launched retaliatory strikes across multiple Ukrainian cities, leaving three people dead and multiple more injured. In a post to social media Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed two people and wounded 14 others. A third fatality was recorded in the northern city of Sumy, Zelenskyy added. A separate Russian strike on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv ignited multiple fires across the city and left six people with injuries.

    “Wherever Russian ballistic missiles can reach, they strike civilian infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said in his statement. “Since this morning, air raid alerts have continued across many regions – the Russians have launched another wave of drone attacks.”

    The ongoing escalation of cross-border strikes follows months of increasing long-range attacks by both sides, as the war enters its fifth year. For the latest full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, follow the Associated Press’ ongoing reporting hub.

  • A bus crash in Hungary kills 12 people, police say

    A bus crash in Hungary kills 12 people, police say

    A devastating early-morning highway accident has left 12 people dead and multiple others injured after a passenger veered off the roadway and overturned in a roadside ditch in eastern Hungary, local law enforcement confirmed Sunday. The collision unfolded at approximately 1 a.m. local time, roughly 87 miles (140 kilometers) to the east of Hungary’s capital city of Budapest, according to initial police accounts.

    The passenger bus involved in the crash carries Polish registration plates, investigators confirmed. Based on early evidence gathered at the crash site, law enforcement officials have stated that the most probable cause of the incident is driver drowsiness, with the operator likely falling asleep at the wheel before losing control of the vehicle.

    Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar publicly addressed the tragedy in a statement posted to his official Facebook page, updating that at least 10 of those injured in the crash were in serious condition. Magyar extended his deepest condolences to the family members and loved ones of the 12 people who lost their lives, and also offered formal recognition and gratitude to the first responders and rescue teams that were rapidly dispatched to the remote crash site to extract survivors and provide emergency care.

  • Twelve killed as Polish bus veers off Hungarian motorway

    Twelve killed as Polish bus veers off Hungarian motorway

    A devastating early-morning road accident has left 12 people dead and multiple others injured after a Polish tourist bus veered off a major Hungarian motorway and crashed into an adjacent ditch in the early hours of Sunday local time. The crash unfolded around 1:00 a.m. local time — equal to 23:00 GMT Saturday — along the M3 motorway, a critical transportation corridor that links Budapest, Hungary’s capital, to Nyíregyháza, a major city in the country’s northeast. Following its departure from the roadway, the bus overturned, leaving dozens of people trapped inside and underneath the vehicle.

    Preliminary investigations from law enforcement indicate the crash occurred because the bus driver fell asleep while operating the vehicle. The driver has since been taken into police custody pending further formal investigation into the incident.

    As of the latest updates from Hungarian state media, rescue crews including firefighters have successfully pulled 35 of the 57 passengers on board, plus both of the vehicle’s two drivers, to safety. According to Hungary’s state-run news agency MTI, first responders faced challenging working conditions in the immediate aftermath of the crash: before heavy cranes could arrive on site to lift the entire 24-tonne bus, crews worked frantically to raise the vehicle’s rear axle to reach people trapped underneath the chassis.

    Hungary’s national ambulance service confirmed the breakdown of injuries among those involved in the crash: one person remains in critical, life-threatening condition, nine people are suffering from serious injuries, and an additional 37 people have been treated for minor wounds.

    In the hours following the tragedy, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar released a statement extending his deepest and most sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the crash. He also shared public wishes for a full and speedy recovery for all those who were injured during the incident.

  • Ireland’s small but determined wine industry warming up

    Ireland’s small but determined wine industry warming up

    For centuries, Ireland has been globally synonymous with two iconic alcoholic beverages: creamy, rich stouts and smooth, amber-hued whiskey. When asked to name a signature Irish drink, few people around the world would immediately reach for a glass of local wine. That narrative is now shifting, however, after the European Commission formally granted the Republic of Ireland official recognition as a wine-producing country – a milestone that caps decades of slow, steady experimentation by local grape growers and winemakers.

    Today, Ireland remains home to only a small handful of commercial vineyards, alongside dozens of small-scale hobbyists testing growing conditions across the country. But the total area of land dedicated to viticulture has expanded consistently year over year, with a major new development near Slane in County Meath marking the largest single vine planting in Irish history: roughly 36,000 grape vines spread across 30 hectares of land.

    David Llewellyn, one of the pioneers of modern Irish winemaking, first entered the sector in the late 1980s, when he began testing dozens of different grape varieties to identify which strains could survive Ireland’s cool, wet maritime climate. He founded Lusca Vineyard in County Dublin in 2002, and today the small operation produces between 1,500 and 2,000 bottles of wine annually. For most consumers, Llewellyn notes, Irish wine is still viewed as a curious novelty, not a serious commercial product.

    After decades of trial and error, Llewellyn has settled on two grape varieties that he says are uniquely suited to Irish conditions: the red grape Rondo and the white variety Madeline Angevine. He explains that very few grape types can be grown reliably in Ireland, and that Irish viticulture faces far more challenging conditions than its counterpart across the Irish Sea in the United Kingdom. “It’s less marginal than we are – we are really the extreme,” Llewellyn says. Classic European grape varieties that thrive in southern England, such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, cannot survive in Ireland’s climate, he warns, even as some new growers continue to attempt to plant these ill-suited strains.

    Llewellyn now makes a point of connecting with emerging Irish winemakers to share his decades of hard-won knowledge, arguing that successful Irish wine production is achievable for any grower who selects the right grape varieties for the right location, and builds the necessary skills to work with Ireland’s unique conditions. He hopes the domestic industry grows in a thoughtful, sustainable way, rather than rushing to expand at the cost of quality, warning that the spread of substandard “fake Irish wine” made with incorrectly grown grapes or imported bulk product poses the biggest threat to the young sector’s credibility.

    Further south in County Waterford, David Dennison launched Viking Winery in 2009, starting with just 30 Rondo vines. Today, his operation spans 3.5 hectares, growing 14 different grape varieties to produce red, white, and pet nat sparkling wine. All of Dennison’s grapes are hybrid varieties, cross-bred from multiple distinct grape species to combine disease resistance with favorable flavor profiles.

    Dennison is convinced hybrid grapes hold the key to the future of Irish winemaking. “The flavours you get from the wines are just spectacular,” he says. As an certified organic producer, he does not use any chemical sprays, a practice made possible by the natural disease resistance of hybrid grapes that aligns perfectly with Ireland’s cool, damp climate. His winery currently produces between 2,500 and 3,000 bottles annually, and he projects output will reach 4,500 bottles this year, with a long-term target of 15,000 bottles once all his vines reach full production.

    Unlike many Irish producers who look to the UK for industry benchmarks, Dennison follows developments in Scandinavian viticulture in Sweden and Denmark, where growers are facing the same cool climate challenges that define Irish wine production. Like all agricultural crops in Ireland, grape growing is heavily dependent on weather conditions, with late spring frost posing one of the biggest annual threats to early white grape harvests, requiring growers to deploy protective candles and burners to save crops.

    Dennison is currently organizing a new Irish Winemakers’ Association, which has already attracted nearly 30 prospective members who agree to adhere to shared production and labeling rules. The need for clearer industry standards was highlighted recently, when a large County Louth winery was dropped by its distributor after its labeling failed to disclose that it used imported French grapes for some of its production.

    Climate change expert Professor John Sweeney says he is not surprised by the emergence of a commercial Irish wine industry, and expects viticulture will become increasingly viable as average summer temperatures in Ireland continue to rise. “Viticulture benefits from relatively dry summers and again the models are predicting summers will become drier in Ireland,” he explains. Most existing Irish vineyards are located on the country’s east coast, where well-drained, sandy soils provide ideal growing conditions, and Sweeney does not expect the industry to expand rapidly across the whole country. However, by the end of the century, shifting temperatures could open up new areas to commercial viticulture, including parts of Northern Ireland, where well-drained sandy areas around Dundrum could become viable growing regions. At present, he notes, the wetter, cooler climates of western and northwestern Ireland are unlikely to become suitable for commercial grape growing.

    For the sector’s pioneers, the road ahead remains long. Dennison notes that most consumers still do not even know Ireland produces wine, and low overall output means the product rarely reaches a mass audience. But as the new official recognition from the European Commission paves the way for future growth, producers are optimistic that Irish wine will eventually carve out its own unique space in the global market, as long as growth remains rooted in quality and transparency.

  • Athens is cleaning its all-marble Olympic stadium for the first time in more than a century

    Athens is cleaning its all-marble Olympic stadium for the first time in more than a century

    Nestled in the heart of Athens, one of the world’s most iconic sports landmarks is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation. The marble-clad Panathenaic Stadium, a site that has hosted every milestone from the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 to global rock concerts and the annual Olympic torch handover, is receiving its first systematic deep cleaning in more than 100 years.

    Carved entirely from gleaming white marble — the same prized stone used to construct the Acropolis — the U-shaped stadium is a cornerstone of global Olympic history, and it remains the official starting point for every Olympic torch relay, including the one that will eventually travel to the 2028 Los Angeles Games. The restoration project is far more than a cosmetic touch-up: it is a delicate conservation effort designed to preserve the monument while revealing its original, radiant character that earned it the beloved Greek nickname Kallimarmaro, meaning “beautiful marble.”

    Unlike standard construction or cleaning projects, the work demands extreme precision to avoid damaging the porous, centuries-old stone. Teams of conservation workers in blue and white overalls traverse the stadium’s 47 steep seating tiers, relying on low-pressure, carefully calibrated water spray lances to lift accumulated grime without eroding the marble surface. Special vacuum systems immediately collect runoff water to prevent any moisture damage, while targeted steam treatments are used to dissolve decades-old blackened chewing gum stains and lift discoloration left by soft drinks and scuffs from high-heeled shoes. According to senior site conservator Dimitris Selemis, the goal of the project is not to artificially whiten every inch of the stone, but to remove layers of accumulated organic dirt and environmental buildup that have obscured the monument’s original condition.

    “This process lets us better understand the changes the stadium has undergone from weather, time, and millions of visitors over decades,” Selemis explained, noting that shaded areas with less direct sunlight have accumulated more dirt and weed growth than exposed sections. “By removing the surface contaminants, we can get a clearer picture of the monument’s current state to plan for long-term preservation.”

    The site’s history stretches back thousands of years: originally hollowed out from a natural ravine, it hosted ancient Greek athletic festivals, then Roman spectacles before falling into ruin and disuse for centuries. It was rebuilt entirely from marble for the inaugural modern Olympic Games in 1896, and in the decades since, it has hosted everything from fashion shows and world-famous rock concerts to national celebrations, even lavish patriotic ceremonies ordered by Greece’s mid-20th century military dictatorship. Today, it is one of Athens’ most popular tourist attractions, drawing visitors from across the globe who come to walk in the footsteps of Olympic legends.

    Along with the deep clean, the stadium is receiving a range of upgrades, including a new athletic track, improved lighting systems, and modernized support facilities. The entire multi-year project is privately funded by a Greek shipping company, overseen by the Hellenic Olympic Committee, and carried out under the expert guidance of Greece’s Culture Ministry conservation specialists.

    Work is scheduled to continue through 2026, but crews are prioritizing the stadium’s curved end section to have it ready in time for the upcoming Olympic torch handover ceremony on September 10. That ceremony will mark the handover for the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games, set to run from October 31 to November 13 in Senegal — a historic milestone as the first Olympic competition ever hosted on the African continent. Hellenic Olympic Committee president Isidoros Kouvelos confirmed that International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, a gold-medal winning Zimbabwean swimmer, will attend the September ceremony.

    Kouvelos emphasized that the restoration project is a labor of national pride for Greece. “We call it Kallimarmaro because it is made of the finest marble ever produced, and we are very proud of it,” he told the Associated Press. “It needed to be cleaned of everything that has accumulated over all these years. This way the Panathenaic Stadium will show all its brilliance and will once again be the foremost monument of humanity for the Olympic Movement.”

  • Díaz thrives and Alaves beats 10-man Getafe 3-0 as La Liga kicks off Europe’s domestic league season

    Díaz thrives and Alaves beats 10-man Getafe 3-0 as La Liga kicks off Europe’s domestic league season

    The new European professional soccer season has officially gotten underway, with Spain’s top-flight La Liga beating the continent’s other four major domestic leagues to kick off its campaign on Saturday. This early start comes just four weeks after the Spanish men’s national team lifted the FIFA World Cup trophy, marking a quick turnaround for the country’s top club competition.

    The opening matchday delivered two thrilling encounters, starting with Alaves’ dominant 3-0 victory over 10-man Getafe. The game’s turning point came just eight minutes before halftime, when Getafe winger Kiko Femenía was shown a red card following a video review of his dangerous foul. What was initially called a yellow card was upgraded, leaving Getafe to play the entire second half with a numerical disadvantage.

    Former Real Madrid forward Mariano Díaz turned in a man-of-the-match performance to power Alaves’ win. He set up Nahuel Tenaglia’s opening headed goal in the 73rd minute, netted the side’s second with a pinpoint shot into the top corner of the net in first-half stoppage? No, stoppage time of the second half, then played provider for Mikel Rodríguez to slot home the final goal in the closing minutes of the match. The result marks a promising opening for Alaves, which finished 14th last season, just one point clear of the relegation zone, even if the squad saw minor off-field drama after full-time: substitute Ángel Pérez was reprimanded by head coach Quique Sánchez Flores for punching the team bench in frustration after being pulled from the game.

    For Getafe, the disappointing opening result comes after a strong 2024-25 campaign that saw the Madrid-based club finish seventh and earn a spot in the UEFA Conference League. The side added high-profile reinforcements Enes Unal and Johan Mojica in the summer transfer window, though neither started the match; Unal only made an appearance off the bench in the second half.

    The second match of the day delivered a last-gasp comeback for Sevilla, who defeated a crisis-hit Rayo Vallecano 2-1. Gerard “Peque” Fernandez converted a penalty kick deep into second-half stoppage time to secure all three points for the hosts after Sevilla had fought back from an early deficit.

    Rayo Vallecano entered the new season mired in off-field administrative turmoil that has forced the club to relocate its opening matches. Safety issues at the team’s home Vallecas stadium mean Rayo must play its first away? No, they were the away side here against Sevilla, and their own first “home” fixture will be held at second-tier Leganes’ ground instead of their usual venue. The off-field instability comes after a breakout season for Rayo, which finished eighth in the league and reached the Conference League final, where it fell to England’s Crystal Palace.

    Sevilla, like Alaves, narrowly avoided relegation last season, finishing 13th with just a one-point cushion above the drop, making their opening victory a confidence-boosting start to the new campaign.

    Top sides defending champion Barcelona and newly revamped Real Madrid will not begin their title campaigns until next weekend. Many of their key players were part of Spain’s World Cup-winning squad, so they were granted extended post-tournament leave, pushing back their opening matches. Barcelona, which is chasing a third consecutive La Liga title, will travel to face Elche on August 23. Real Madrid, now led by José Mourinho following two straight trophy-less seasons that prompted a squad overhaul, opens its campaign against Espanyol on August 22.

    The broader European club season technically got underway earlier this week, when Paris Saint-Germain defeated Aston Villa 2-1 to win the UEFA Super Cup on Wednesday. England’s Premier League, Italy’s Serie A, and France’s Ligue 1 will all kick off their new domestic campaigns next weekend, with Germany’s Bundesliga following a week later.

    Three matches were scheduled for Sunday on the La Liga opening matchday, but one has been postponed: the clash between Celta Vigo and Osasuna was called off after an outbreak of harmful fungus was discovered on Celta’s Balaidos stadium pitch. The match has been rescheduled for August 27, a move that has drawn criticism from Osasuna over the rearranged date. The two remaining Sunday fixtures will see Racing Santander play their first top-flight match in 14 years when they host last season’s third-place finishers Villarreal, while Levante travels to face Espanyol.