washington — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on his early November election victory.

President Joe Biden has not hosted Erdogan at the White House though the two have met on sidelines of international summits and spoken by phone.

Speaking to journalists accompanying his return from visits to Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, Erdogan expressed his hope for improved U.S. ties, adding, however, that in-person meetings would be needed to achieve that end, and that Ankara needs to wait to see what kind of a Cabinet Trump forms.

The two leaders had a close personal relationship during Trump’s first term in office. However, bilateral relations have also been marked by tough times during that administration. With Trump’s January return to the White House, analysts told VOA that although there may be opportunities for more cooperation in some areas, they don’t expect major changes.

James Jeffrey, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2008 to 2010, sees Ukraine as one area with potential for cooperation.

Referring to Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine, Jeffrey says Turkey could play a role in negotiating a cease-fire, making both sides “well-aligned for a productive relationship.”

Alan Makovsky, a senior fellow for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, also believes Trump’s priority to end the war in Ukraine creates a significant opportunity for Erdogan.

A NATO ally, Turkey has adopted a careful balancing act amid the war in Ukraine, supplying armed drones to Ukraine while maintaining ties with Russia in energy and tourism.

Erdogan, who has maintained good relations with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, has long said neither side is gaining from the war and offered to host and mediate negotiations.

Disagreement over Syria

Disagreements between Turkey and the United States during Trump’s first term included Ankara’s frustration with U.S. support for Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by Kurdish militia — People’s Protection Units, known as YPG in northern Syria.

After a phone call with Erdogan on October 6, 2019, Trump unexpectedly announced that the U.S. would withdraw from Syria. Many U.S. military officials, all of whom were caught off guard by the announcement, did not support the idea.

Tension between the allies worsened after Trump on October 9 sent a letter to Erdogan, warning him against a military incursion into Syria.

Following Trump’s withdrawal announcement, Turkey launched a military operation in northern Syria targeting the YPG on October 9.

A cease-fire agreement was reached during then-Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Ankara on October 17.

Now, some in Ankara expect the U.S. may reconsider its presence in northern Syria during Trump’s second term.

Jeffrey, a U.S. envoy for Syria from 2018 to 2020, suggests Trump’s administration may reassess this issue.

“Each time people were able to convince [Trump on Syria, it] was that the troops were serving a set of important purposes. This is one of the most low-cost, high-return military deployments. We are keeping the Islamic State under control. Secondly, we are holding vital terrain, blocking Iranian, Assad and Russian ambitions,” he told VOA.

Washington has long said its SDF partnership is necessary for the enduring defeat of ISIS and countering Iran.

Ankara considers YPG a Syrian offshoot of PKK, which U.S. officials have also designated as a terrorist organization.

Trump nominated Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, for secretary of state. Rubio was one of the strongest opponents of a U.S.-pullout from Syria at the time.

He labeled the decision as “a catastrophic mistake that will have dire consequences far beyond Syria,” urging Trump to reconsider it.

“We’ll have to see how that works out and how Marco Rubio’s views may have changed to accord more with Trump’s or vice versa,” Makovksy said. “But anyone who thought that Trump’s election meant that the U.S. would soon be withdrawing from Syria would certainly have to rethink that view in light of the Rubio appointment. I think that makes it unlikely that we will withdraw from Syria.”

Trump’s nominees for Cabinet positions will require Senate approval before they assume office.

F-35 program

One complicating factor in U.S.-Turkey relations during Trump’s first term was Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 missile defense system from Russia, which prompted Washington to remove Ankara from an F-35 joint strike fighter program.

“The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities,” said a White House statement when the system was delivered in July 2019, explaining the U.S. decision to remove Turkey from the project.

The Trump administration in December 2020 sanctioned Turkey under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Turkey, which has since requested removal of CAATSA sanctions, has returned to talks with U.S. officials about a possible return to the F-35 program.

Analysts say that while there is a likelihood that CAATSA sanctions might be lifted during Trump’s second term, any solution to the S-400 issue that is not permanent would not be technically acceptable to the U.S. military.

Describing the F-35s as the U.S. military’s largest project since World War II, Jeffrey said, “A permanent solution is that they [the S-400s] go away, they’re sold to somebody else. I would like to have a solution, but technically, I don’t think there is one.’’

Makovsky called Turkey’s return to the F-35 program unlikely in the near term.

“If they completely get rid of the S-400s, really give up possession as the law requires, there could be a reasonable chance for F-35,” he told VOA. “But it will be up to the so-called Four Corners – the chairman and senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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ROME — The ancient Roman Colosseum will be the venue of gladiator fights — albeit staged — for the first time in two millennia under a $1.5 million sponsorship deal with Airbnb that aims to promote “a more conscious tourism.”

But some visitors to the monument Thursday, as well as housing activists, were skeptical about the value of the arrangement, citing ongoing controversies in many cities over the role of short-term rental platforms in fueling overtourism and limiting affordable housing for residents and students.

Under the deal announced by Airbnb and the Colosseum on Wednesday, the sponsorship by the short-term rental giant will cover the renewal of an educational program inside the ancient Roman amphitheater covering the history of the structure and gladiators.

Eight of the platform’s users and their plus-ones will be able to participate in faux gladiator fights after the Colosseum’s closing time on May 7-8, taking the same underground route used by gladiators in ancient Rome to reach the arena. People can apply for the experience on November 27 at no cost, and the “gladiators” will be chosen by lottery.

The superintendent of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, Alfonsina Russo, told The Associated Press that the deal is in conjunction with the release of Ridley Scott’s new film “Gladiators II,” which opened in Italy on Thursday.

Russo characterized the sponsorship arrangement as one of the many such deals to help finance projects at the park.

The Italian fashion brand Tod’s, for example, has funded a multimillion renovation of the Roman monument, including a cleaning, replacing the locking system of arches with new gates and redoing the subterranean areas.

Alberto Campailla, the coordinator of the Nonna Roma nonprofit organization that focuses on housing and food for the poor, called the campaign with Airbnb “a disgrace,” and a form of “touristification.”

Airbnb and other platforms offering short-term rentals “are literally driving people out of not only the city center, but also the outskirts and suburban neighborhoods,” Campailla said.

Tourists from other European cities grappling with overtourism also took issue with the deal.

“It seems to me that the purpose of the Colosseum today is to be a tourist attraction, but not to create an amusement park within it,” said Jaime Montero, a tourist visiting from Madrid. “In the end, tourism eats the essence of the cities, here in Rome, as in other capitals.”

Visiting from Naples, Salvatore Di Matteo saw the deal as “yet another takeover of the territory” by big companies.

“If they start to touch sacred monuments such as the Colosseum here in Rome, it is obviously something that should make us think and is, in any case, a bit worrying,” he said.

The Colosseum is the most important and largest amphitheater constructed by the ancient Romans. Built in the 1st century, it was the center of popular entertainment, hosting hunts and gladiator games, until the 6th century. 
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Various human rights groups accuse Russia of committing crimes that amount to crimes against humanity in Africa. Several reports also have exposed Russia’s illegal export of gold worth more than $2.5 billion from Africa to sponsor its war in Ukraine.
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Amnesty International reported that French-manufactured military technology incorporated into armored personnel carriers (APCs) made by the United Arab Emirates is being used in Sudan’s civil war, a likely violation of a United Nations arms embargo. 

In a report posted online Thursday, the human rights organization said it first became aware of the armored vehicles’ presence in Sudan in July, when another study revealed what the group described as “a constant flow of weapons into the country” from several nations, including China, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, the UAE and Yemen. 

The APCs were part of the flow of weapons that in some cases were taken to Darfur, the scene of heavy fighting in western Sudan. 

Amnesty International said additional research showed the APCs include sophisticated French-designed and manufactured reactive defense systems. The report said the vehicles are in use by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group.  

The conflict broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary fighters after relations broke down between military leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF chief General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. 

The two generals are former allies who together orchestrated an October 2021 coup that derailed a transition to civilian rule following the 2019 ouster of longtime leader Omar al-Bashir. 

Amnesty International said the APCs are manufactured by the UAE company Edge Group and are equipped with the French Galix reactive defense system. Amnesty identified the systems in pictures posted on social media after APCs were captured or destroyed by the Sudanese army.  

The Galix technology is a defense system for land vehicles that release counter measures — decoys, smoke and projectiles — when close-range threats are encountered.  

In a statement, Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said any use of the French-made weapons technology in Darfur would be a clear breech of the U.N. arms embargo on Sudan. She called on France to ensure the makers of the defense systems immediately stop the supply to UAE manufacturers. 

Callamard called on all nations to “immediately cease direct and indirect supplies of all arms and ammunition to the warring parties in Sudan. They must respect and enforce the U.N. Security Council’s arms embargo regime on Darfur before even more civilians’ lives are lost. ” 

The U.N. arms embargo is part of a series of sanctions that include asset freezes and travel bans imposed against Sudan for systematic human rights abuses by both the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces against the people of Darfur. 

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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MOSCOW — A Russian man went on trial Thursday on charges of high treason for a video he allegedly sent to Ukraine’s security services, the latest in a growing series of espionage cases involving the conflict.

The Volgograd District Court began hearing a new case against Nikita Zhuravel, who is currently serving a 3½-year sentence for burning a Quran in front of a mosque.

The new charges are based on allegations that Zhuravel filmed a trainload of military equipment and warplanes in 2023 and sent the video to a representative of Ukraine’s security agency. He could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Rights activists say Zhuravel is a political prisoner who was beaten while in custody.

While in pretrial custody before his first sentence, Zhuravel was beaten by the 15-year-old son of Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-appointed strongman leader of the mostly Muslim region of Chechnya. The elder Kadyrov posted the video on social media and praised his son, causing public outrage. He later awarded his son with the medal of “Hero of the Republic of Chechnya.”

Federal authorities have refrained from any criticism of the Chechen strongman.

Separately, a military court on Thursday sentenced to 24 years in prison a man convicted of treason and terrorism for setting fire to a military recruitment office in Moscow. Prosecutors said Sergei Andreev committed the November 2023 attack on instructions from the Ukrainian special services that he received on a messaging app.

Treason and espionage cases have skyrocketed after President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. The cases have targeted a wide range of suspects, from Kremlin critics and independent journalists to scientists, drawing attention from rights groups.

The legal definition of treason has been expanded to include providing vaguely defined “assistance” to foreign countries or organizations, effectively exposing to prosecution anyone in contact with foreigners.
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On the first day of 2025, Ukraine’s contract with Russian state-owned Gazprom will expire, shutting down a major Russian natural gas pathway to Europe.

Although the Kremlin says it is ready to continue the transit deal, urging Europeans to persuade Ukraine to extend the contract, Kyiv has said it won’t budge.

Russian natural gas supplies were a cornerstone of European energy security before Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, when it temporarily cut off 80 billion cubic meters of gas supplies to the continent in response to sanctions and a payment dispute.

The cut-off dealt a major blow to Europe’s economy that remains palpable in 2024, according to an International Monetary Fund analysis.

Since 2021, however, Europe has secured alternative suppliers for natural gas, with Russian imports via Ukraine dropping from 11% to 5%, according to Rystad Energy, an Oslo-based energy analysis firm.

Observers say some EU countries have taken the issue more seriously than others. Germany and the Czech Republic, for example, have invested heavily in liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals in record time, said Olga Khakova, deputy director for European energy security at the Washington-based Atlantic Council.

“A lot of landlocked countries, like Czech Republic, have gone out of their way to look at alternative supplies and invested in alternative options,” she told VOA.

Others, like Hungary, have doubled down on their reliance on Russia, while Slovakia and Austria have increased Russian imports.

Those countries, said Khakova, “will have to live with this decision,” explaining that they’ll need to secure alternative routes. Turkey, for example, offers the only other operational pipeline for Europe-bound Russian energy.

Although some European nations would prefer to maintain Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine, it’s “a difficult sell for the EU,” said Christoph Halser, Rystad’s gas and LNG analyst. He expressed confidence in Europe’s political will and supply chain logistics to forfeit dependence on Ukraine’s pipelines for Russian gas.

Other analysts argue that the EU should do more to send a clear signal to companies that cheap Russian gas will no longer be available. With enforceable goals from the EU for phasing out Russian pipeline gas, companies will invest in competing projects to supply reliable European customers, Khakova said.

LNG to compensate?

Although Russia’s pipeline exports to Europe have decreased, Moscow has compensated for some of the shortfall with LNG deliveries via sea, road and rail, seeing the overall share of European LNG imports increase from 15% to 19%.

Rystad’s Halser, however, calls further expansion unlikely, given Western sanctions against Russia.

“To further increase, and to compensate for the set of pipelines, is not possible with current infrastructure,” he told VOA. “New unsanctioned projects on the Russian side would be necessary.”

Growing LNG deliveries from the United States could replace Russian gas, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she brought up with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during a phone call late last week.

“LNG is one of the topics that we touched upon — I would not say discussed,” she told reporters in Budapest, according to Agence France-Presse. “We still get a whole lot of LNG via Russia, from Russia. … Why not replace it with American LNG, which is cheaper and brings down our energy prices.”

Will Ukraine’s pipeline be empty?

Ending the transit of Russian gas to Europe poses some difficult questions for Ukraine. With the contract’s termination imminent, Khakova and other analysts say Russia feels emboldened to attack Ukraine’s natural gas system, adding to Ukraine’s concerns this winter over how to protect the country’s energy infrastructure.

Some observers say Ukraine may not find another commercial use for its dormant infrastructure. Bloomberg reported late last month that European buyers were in talks with Azerbaijan on a deal that would, through a swap arrangement, effectively deliver Azeri-branded gas to Europe though the Russia-Ukraine pipeline network.

Subsequent reports, however, indicate that no deal has been reached, and Oleksiy Chernyshov, head of state-owned Naftogaz — Ukraine’s largest oil and gas company — told reporters last week that there is no alternative to halting the delivery of Russian gas via Ukrainian pipelines.

Any arrangement short of completely halting the transit of gas across Ukraine would send a negative signal to Europe, said Aura Sabadus of the London-based Independent Commodity Intelligence Services.

“If Ukraine allows for this gas to flow from 2025 onwards, even if it’s sold under a different label — let’s say Azeri gas — other countries might come around and say, ‘well, if Ukraine is doing it, why can’t we do it?’” she told VOA.

Sabadus said industrial consumers in Germany, for example, could then increase pressure to resume gas flows via the Nord Stream network of offshore natural gas pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea, which stretch from Russia to Germany and were the target of apparently deliberate underwater explosions in September 2022.

But Rystad’s Halser finds it unlikely that a short-term transitional deal to keep the natural gas flowing across Ukraine would prompt demands to reopen Nord Stream.

“There is no political consensus in Germany for taking Russian gas in the near future,” he said, adding that an agreement with a third party to deliver gas across Ukraine might benefit all sides involved and bolster commercial interest in Ukraine’s pipeline system.
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The European Parliament on Thursday approved a one-year delay on implementing the bloc’s landmark anti-deforestation rules, while also voting to loosen some requirements of the controversial law. 

The move triggered an outcry from environmental groups, which had hailed the law as an unprecedented breakthrough in the fight to protect nature and combat climate change. 

Parliament was called to sign off on a delay requested by the European Commission following pressure from trading partners such as Brazil and the United States, and some member states including Germany. 

But lawmakers on the right used the vote to bring new amendments, passed with support from right-wing and far-right groups.  

This de facto restarted the legislative process, as the new text should now be re-discussed by the commission and member states — creating further uncertainty over its implementation.  

The legislation would prohibit a vast range of goods — from coffee to cocoa, soy, timber, palm oil, cattle, printing paper and rubber — if produced using land that was deforested after December 2020. 

Exporting countries considered high-risk would have at least nine percent of products sent to the EU subjected to checks, with the proportion falling for lower-risk ones. 

Among the amendments introduced Thursday was the creation of a “no risk” category that would see products from some countries — such as Germany — face virtually no scrutiny. 

Julia Christian, a campaigner at environmental group Fern, said it was the equivalent of giving “EU forested countries a free pass.” 

“The message to the rest of the world is unmistakable: you must stop destroying your forests, but the EU won’t end the widespread degradation afflicting its forests,” she said. 
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Russia’s military reported capturing a village in east Ukraine on Thursday, with forces closing in on the town of Kurakhove.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the army captured the village of Voznesenka in the Donetsk region.

The town had a population of about 20,000 before the war began in 2022, Agence France-Presse reported.

Russia also reported damaging Ukrainian airfields and energy facilities and shooting down 78 drones, according to state news agency RIA.

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 21 of 59 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack.

The fighting followed a massive aerial attack on Kyiv and other locations in Ukraine early Wednesday, involving ballistic and cruise missiles and dozens of drones.

Ukraine’s air force said its units shot down four missiles and 37 drones launched by Russia over eight regions.

“It is important that our forces have the means to defend the country from Russian terror,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said after attack.

In his Wednesday address, Zelenskyy praised the country’s “air defense warriors.”

“Every night, every day, they shoot down Russian ‘Shahed’ drones and missiles,” he said. “This morning, they intercepted Russian ballistics. This is significant. Every such success means saving the lives of our people.”

Ukraine has been appealing to allies to supply more air defense systems to protect against Russian attacks, and Zelenskyy said the country was grateful “to all our partners who help us with anti-missiles and air defense systems.”

“The strategic goal is to reach a practical level of cooperation with our partners that will enable us to produce the air defense systems and anti-missiles we need here in Ukraine,” he said.

He added Ukraine needs to “finally push Russia towards making a fair peace.”  
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Ukrainian overnight drone attacks have set several non-residential buildings on fire in Russia’s Kaluga and Bryansk regions, regional governors said on Sunday.

“Emergency services and firefighters are on the site,” Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Russian border region of Bryansk, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, without providing further detail.

The defense ministry said its air defense units had destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 17 over Bryansk.

Vladislav Shapsha, governor of the Kaluga region, which borders the Moscow region to its northeast, said a non-residential building in the region was on fire as result of Ukraine’s drone attack. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Kyiv has often said its drone attacks on Russian territory are aimed at infrastructure key to Moscow’s war efforts and are in response to Russia’s continued attack on Ukraine’s territory.
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Russian exiles plan a march Sunday in Berlin demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the prosecution of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, and the release of all political prisoners. Ricardo Marquina reports. Narrator: Elizabeth Cherneff.
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Brussels, Belgium    — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured Ukraine and its NATO allies on Wednesday that Washington remains committed to putting Ukraine “in the strongest possible position” in the final months of President Joe Biden’s administration, before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

At the same time, Blinken expressed alarm about Russia possibly bolstering North Korea’s missile and nuclear capacities, as North Korean troops fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.  

“President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20th,” Blinken told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday.

“We’re making sure that Ukraine has the air defenses it needs, that has the artillery it needs, that it has the armored vehicles it needs,” he added.

Blinken told VOA he expects U.S. allies’ support for Ukraine to increase and emphasized that it’s critical for Washington’s partners to “continue to more than pick up their share of the burden.”   

Speaking alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Blinken reiterated that Washington will “continue to shore up everything” to enable Ukraine to defend itself effectively against Russian aggression.

Rutte and other European leaders voiced serious concerns over North Korea’s active support for Russia in its war on Ukraine.

“These North Korean soldiers present an extra threat to Ukraine and will increase the potential for Putin to do harm,” Rutte told reporters.

The U.S. State Department says that more than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to eastern Russia, and most of them have moved to the far western Kursk oblast, part of which Ukraine controls.

On Wednesday, Blinken described the military collaboration between Pyongyang and Moscow as “a two-way street.”

“There is deep concern about what Russia is or may be doing to strengthen North Korea’s capacities — its missile capacity, its nuclear capacity,” as well as the battlefield experience North Korean forces are gaining, he told reporters.

In Brussels, Blinken held talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, European Union High Representative Josep Borrell and British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, among others.

The possibility of Ukraine using Western-supplied long-range missiles on Russian soil was among the topics discussed during Sybiha’s meeting with Blinken.

“We need to speed up all critical decisions,” the Ukrainian foreign minister said before the meeting.

“Ukraine has always cherished strong bipartisan support.  We maintain contact with both [Democratic and Republican] parties and work both with the [U.S.] president-elect and his team and also with the outgoing administration,” he added.

In Washington, officials say Biden was expected to ask Trump during their talks at the White House on Wednesday not to walk away from Ukraine.

Trump’s political allies have indicated that the incoming administration will prioritize achieving peace in Ukraine over enabling the country to reclaim Crimea and other territories occupied by Russia.

Blinken has concluded talks with European counterparts in Brussels. He will next travel to Lima, Peru, for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC meetings, followed by stops in Manaus and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for a summit of the 20 largest economies, the G20. He will join Biden in Peru and Brazil. 
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Madrid — New storms in Spain caused school closures and train cancellations on Wednesday, two weeks after flash floods in Valencia and other parts of the country killed more than 220 people and destroyed thousands of homes.

Coastal areas of Valencia were placed under the highest alert on Wednesday evening. Forecasters said up to 180 millimeters (7 inches) of rain could fall there within five hours.

Cleanup efforts in parts of Valencia hardest hit by the Oct. 29 storm were still continuing, and there were concerns over what more rain could bring to streets still covered with mud and debris.

In southern Malaga province, streets were flooded, while 3,000 people near the Guadalhorce river were moved from their homes as a preventive measure. Schools across the province were closed, along with many stores. High-speed AVE train service was canceled between Malaga and Madrid as well as Barcelona and Valencia.

There were no reports of any deaths.

Spanish weather forecaster AEMET put Malaga on red alert, saying up to 70 millimeters (roughly 3 inches) of rain had accumulated in an hour. Parts of Tarragona province in the east also faced heavy rain and remained under red alert.

The forecast in Malaga delayed the start of the Billie Jean King Cup tennis finals between Spain and Poland, which was set for Wednesday.

The storm system affecting Spain is caused by warm air that collides with stagnant cold air and forms powerful rain clouds. Experts say that drought and flood cycles are increasing with climate change.
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