Following the loss of airspace radio frequencies due to a technical issue that has confounded authorities, incoming and outgoing flights were temporarily suspended in Greek airports.
On Sunday, thousands of travelers were spotted stranded in airports for several hours due to poor communication and air traffic.
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Authorities claim the disruption started at 9 a.m. local time (07:00 GMT), when extensive interference hit the majority of aviation radio frequencies, causing a protective shut down of Greek airspace.
The cause of the indeterminate “noise” that was reported by Greece’s civil aviation authority was unknown.
According to a statement, “the “noise” that was detected in the frequencies was continuous, involuntary emission.”
On Sunday, airports across Greece suspended arrivals and departures at the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, a Greek airport, [Louiza Vradi/Reuters]
All frequencies suddenly disappeared, according to Panagiotis Psarros, the head of the Association of Greek Air Traffic Controllers, leaving no way to communicate with aircraft in the sky.
He claimed that the aging infrastructure should have been replaced many years ago, placing blame on outdated systems.
Prior to Sunday afternoon’s backup frequencies being restored, the authorities were only able to provide flyover services for an extended period of time. According to them, air traffic has been gradually returning and is now fully recovered.
Greece’s minister of infrastructure and transportation, Christos Dimas, claimed that flight safety had not been compromised by the incident.
By late afternoon, an official reported that about 45 flights were leaving Greek airports each hour. In the first 11 months of 2025, according to the country’s civil aviation authority’s press office, 31.6 million passengers passed through Athens airport.
The Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, an air traffic control unit that manages aircraft entering and leaving of Athens, was affected by the breakdown, according to the air traffic controllers’ association.
Its responsibilities include speed and altitude monitoring, radar monitoring, and ensuring the safe separation of aircraft in the sky.
In less than 24 hours, the US bombed Venezuela, brutally abducted its president and his wife from their Caracas compound, and transported them to a New York detention facility. How did regime change happen over night?
Donald Trump, the president of the United States, and his associates have been saying for weeks that Venezuela’s rhetoric and military stances were intended to stop the flow of narcotics.
However, a lot of evidence, including Trump’s own words in response to President Nicolas Maduro’s abduction, suggests that Venezuela’s vast, proven oil reserves, which are estimated to be the largest in the world, account for about 303 billion barrels, are what Washington’s true interest is.
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Officials called the attacks on Saturday in Caracas an “abduction of two indicted fugitives” on narcotrafficking charges, which the US president had initially characterized as an anti-drug operation. According to other allegations, Maduro was charged with “narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy” in the Southern District of New York courts.
Trump, however, began openly discussing oil and US control of Venezuela shortly after the US attacks on Caracas, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians, officials, and military personnel.
The US president made the claim at a press conference held at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida that the country would “run the country” for the time being, rebuild the oil industry, and “take out a tremendous amount of wealth from the ground” to sell to global customers, including rivals China and Russia.
Maduro has consistently denied involvement in the drug trade and accused Washington of using it as an excuse to import oil and other resources, despite the Trump administration’s repeated calls for fentanyl from Venezuela to be “weapon of mass destruction” and launches airstrikes on ships accused of transporting controlled substances.
(Al Jazeera)
Oil is essential for Venezuela’s recovery
There hasn’t been a significant change in the South American country’s power structure as a result of the president’s sudden abduction.
As a future legal framework is being created, Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has been given the order from Venezuela’s Supreme Court’s constitutional chamber to act as acting president “to guarantee administrative continuity and the comprehensive defense of the nation.”
She had previously served as the country’s oil minister and finance minister, which greatly influenced the country’s troubled economy and efforts to revitalize the underdeveloped oil sector, which had been the result of sanctions and mismanagement.
If Rodriguez “does what we want,” Trump threatened to not occupy Venezuela. Additionally, he objected to Maria Corina Machado, the opposition leader, claiming she lacks the support or “reputation” of the populace.
Venezuela’s oil, which Trump and other US officials have characterized as US oil, is likely to play a role in what the US wants from Rodriguez, given that the country’s nationalization of its oil industry between the 1970s and the 2000s, which led to the departure of the majority of US oil companies.
“They took all of our oil rights, if you’re any good, from not very long ago,” if you recall. And in December, Trump said, “We want it back.”
Trump has added that Venezuela’s oil reserves will pay for any costs the US will incur as a result of its alleged US damage.
Venezuela depends heavily on oil, and the US had used its influence to exert pressure on it prior to Maduro’s disappearance.
Since 2017, US policy toward Venezuela has been heavily influenced by US sanctions, particularly in light of combined Trump-era directives. Washington has implemented measures to impose restrictions on the shipment of diluents necessary for heavy crude, including the state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, SA (PDVSA).
Trump imposed a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuelan waters, which resulted in the confiscation of at least two tankers, among other sanctions, including last month.
Venezuela’s oil exports and pressure are just a few of the main causes of Venezuela’s oil reserves not being comparable to those of the US.
According to preliminary estimates based on ship movements, Venezuela’s oil exports averaged about 950, 000 barrels per day (bpd) in November, and the US “oil embargo” reduced them to around 500, 000 barrels per day (bpd) last month.
In contrast, major oil exporters like Russia and Saudi Arabia typically export millions of barrels per day.
Former Venezuelan National Assembly head Francisco Rodriguez claimed that the nation’s main prospects for economic growth are gold and oil reserves.
According to him from the US state of Colorado, “If the US moves to remove the sanctions and clear the obstacles for investors to come back in, you can get the oil output to 2.5 million barrels per day in the next three to five years,” he told Al Jazeera.
The former official said, “I believe what the Trump administration is saying is that we need to prioritize the recovery of the oil sector and get the economy to a manageable level so that we can think about a more orderly political transition.”
However, “it can actually be quite dangerous and lead to chaos if you try to give the opposition the power right away without having established the foundation for economic recovery.”
What does this mean for OPEC and others?
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has not experienced a significant change in the organization’s (at least in the near future) because of the developments in Venezuela. However, things could alter fundamentally over time.
Due to Venezuela’s ageing infrastructure, production cannot be increased quickly, and US unilateral US seizures of tankers close to Venezuela’s waters only increased before stabilizing.
Some wells are mechanically compromised, while Venezuela’s upstream oil infrastructure, particularly under PDVSA, frequently requires complete redrilling or complete shutdown, and routine preventive maintenance largely stopped after the US embargoes.
The US has blocked the flow of crude oil, and storage, blending, and upgrading facilities are bottlenecked, with many operating well below the nominal capacity. Additionally, the crude cannot be exported or flown without diluents.
However, theoretically, OPEC will experience a supply glut or be forced to adjust quotas if a US-controlled Venezuela can increase output quickly in the future. Washington would lose indirect but significant influence over global supply, compromising the delicate balance that members have long tried to maintain.
If Caracas long-term leans toward the US, neighboring countries in West Asia like Iran and Saudi Arabia will also suffer.
After the recent demise of senior Iranian officials in the Tehran-backed “axis of resistance,” the anti-US and anti-Israel establishment in Iran has lost a significant ally in Maduro.
Iran’s efforts to grow its oil sector have been hindered by stringent Western sanctions, and it sends its oil, like Venezuela under Maduro, through a shadow fleet of ships, to China. Iranian oil would be further hampered by a robust return to the market for Venezuelan oil.
How Spain forged a global dominance through the use of force, armies, and missionaries to conquer the world.
This movie explores how the Spanish empire combined military dominance, religious conversion, and imperial power to create its global dominance.
The close knuckle between the church, the crown, and conquest was at the heart of the Spanish expansion. Missionary efforts were unrelated because conversion to Christianity served as both a means of control and a justification for empire. Faith and force combined, transforming societies across the Americas.
The documentary explores how Spanish dominance was established through alliances, religious authority, and the Aztec and Incan empires’ conquests. The indigenous life was reorganized around churches, labor unions, and colonial government as a result of the mission system’s spread throughout the Americas. Conversion imposed cultural destruction and forced salvation.
The film also examines Spanish imperial power’s economic foundations. Along with the exploitation of indigenous and enslaved labor, large quantities of gold and silver were extracted from the Americas. These resources helped to integrate the Americas into an emerging global system fueled by inequality and extraction, as well as finance global trade.
According to state media reports, Syrian government officials have spoken with the commander of the country’s top Kurdish-led force about how plans to combine it with the national army, but no “tangible results” have been reported.
A delegation led by Mazloum Abdi (also known as Mazloum Kobani), a top commander and US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement on Sunday that they had discussions with government officials in Damascus regarding the military integration process.
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The SDF’s ability to remain a cohesive unit within the new army or to be disbanded and its members absorbed by themselves has been a major sticking point. The main force that has yet to be absorbed into Syria’s military is the fighters, who have tens of thousands of them.
According to State TV, the parties agreed to hold additional meetings at a later time and that the meeting did not yield “tangible results.”
The SDF, which controls large swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, signed a deal with the leadership in Damascus in March. By the end of 2025, the Kurdish-led force and the Syrian army would be merged, but there are no certain plans for a solution.
Additionally, the agreement would place under the control of the central government all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, as well as airports and oil fields in the northeast. Around 9, 000 suspected ISIL (ISIS) members are expected to be housed in prisons.
The SDF and the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, have engaged in decades-long armed conflict on their soil, but a peace process is currently being pursued by Turkiye, who views them as “terrorists.”
The Kurdish forces are seen by Ankara as a threat to the country’s security, and it has publicly demanded that they be integrated into the state rather than as a separate unit.
The SDF demands a decentralized system of government that would enable it to continue exerting influence in the areas it controls. Violence has occasionally occurred as a result of tensions between the SDF and the government, which opposes decentralization calls.
During a visit to Syria by Turkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in late December, security forces and SDF fighters engaged in fighting in the northern city of Aleppo.
Victor Gao, a political analyst in China, claims that the US has accepted its growing power.
Victor Gao, vice president of the Center for China and Globalization in Beijing, claims that the United States has come to the realization that it cannot continue to “try to control the entire world.”
Gao tells host Steve Clemons that improved Chinese-US relations are “inevitable,” but he cautions that some American policymakers still see China as the biggest threat and that Chinese officials “never underestimate what American neofascists will cook up next.”
