Panonharma in Hungary
AP
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Books from tens of thousands of centuries have been drawn from the shelves of Hungary’s medieval monasteries to save them from rhinoceros beetles, which could wipe out centuries of history.

One thousand years ago, Pannonhalma Archabbey is one of Hungary’s oldest learning centres and a vast Benedictine monastery registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Restoration workers have removed about 100,000 handshake books from the shelves and carefully put them in wooden frames.

Drugstore beetles, also known as bread beetles, are often found in dried foods such as grains, flour and spices. But they are also attracted to the gelatin and starch-based adhesives found in the books.

They are found in the library section that lives around a quarter of the 400,000 volumes of the monastery.

“This is an advanced insect invasion detected in several parts of the library, so the entire collection must be classified as infected and at the same time,” says Zsófia, who edits Hajdu, the project’s main restorer. “I’ve never encountered an infection of this level.”

Rhinoceros beetle invasion was first detected during daily library cleaning. Employees noticed an unusual layer of dust on the shelf, and then saw a hole in some of the thorns in the book. When I opened the volume, I saw a burrow hole in the paper the beetle had bitten.

The monastery of Panonharma was founded in 996, four years before the establishment of the Kingdom of Hungary. Sitting on a tall hill in northwestern Hungary, the monastery features the country’s oldest collection of books, with many of the earliest and most important written records.

For over a thousand years, the monastery has been the most prominent religious and cultural location in Hungary and all of Central Europe, and has survived centuries, including the Ottoman invasion and Hungarian occupation in the 16th century.

Ilonaásványi, director of the Pannonhalma Archabbey Library, said she was “humble” with the historical and cultural treasures the collection holds with each visit.

“It’s dizzy to think of a library here a thousand years ago and we are the guardians of Hungary’s first book catalogue,” she said.

Among the library’s most outstanding works are 19 codes, including the complete 13th century Bible. It also houses hundreds of manuscripts in front of the invention of printing presses in the mid-15th century and tens of thousands of books from the 16th century.

The oldest and rarest prints and books are stored separately and are not infected, but Asbani said the damage to the collection represents a blow to cultural, historical and religious heritage.

“When you look at books that have been bitten by beetles or otherwise infected, you feel that the culture has been lost, no matter how exchangeable the books are,” she said.

To kill beetles, the book’s wooden boxes are placed in tall, sealed plastic bags where all oxygen is removed. After six weeks in a pure nitrogen environment, the monastery hopes that all beetles will be destroyed.

Each book is individually inspected and vacuumed before receiving a reshell. Books damaged by pests will be reserved for later repair work.

The monastery, which hopes to reopen libraries early next year, believes that the effects of climate change have played a role in spurring beetle invasion as average temperatures rise rapidly in Hungary.

Chief restoration company Hajdu said that when temperatures get high, beetles can experience several development cycles each year than cool weather.

“Higher temperatures are advantageous for insect life,” she said. “So far, we have dealt with mold damage mainly in both deposits and open collections. But now I think more and more insect invasions will appear due to global warming.”

The library director said life at the Benedictine monastery complies with a set of rules used for nearly 15 centuries.

“In the rule of St. Benedict, it states that all property in the monastery should be considered to be of the same value as the sacred ships on the altar,” Asvany said. “I feel a responsibility for what this conservation and conservation really means.”

Associated Press
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Emergency services competed on Sunday at the scene of a small plane crash at London Southend Airport.

Details on where the plane was heading or how many people were on board were not immediately disclosed.

In a social media statement, the airport confirmed “serious incidents” that include what is known as common aviation aircraft.

He later said all flights to and from the airport have been cancelled until notification and that police, emergency services and air investigators are assessing the incident.

British media said it was a medical transport jet equipped with a medical system to transport patients, particularly the Beechcraft B200 Super King Air heading to the Netherlands.

Immediately after the crash, the images circulated on social media, showing plumes of fire and black smoke emanating from the crash site. The plane involved is said to be 12 meters (39 feet).

An eyewitness to John Johnson, who was at the airport with his family, said the plane saw a “big fireball” after the plane “first crashed its head to the ground.”

“We took off and about 3-4 seconds after taking off, we started snatching the bank big to the left, and within a few seconds that we were more or less flipping and crashing straight to the ground,” he said. “There was a big fireball.”

Johnson said he and his family waved to the pilot, “They all turned to us,” before the plane was located for takeoff.

After the crash, Johnson said the airport firefighters responded immediately, with two fire trucks sent to the crash scene, followed by local police, ambulances and firefighters.

Essex police said they were warned just before 4pm local time by a “serious incident” at a relatively small airport about 45 miles (72km) east of the capital.

“We are currently working with all emergency services on the ground and that work will continue for several hours,” Essex police said.

David Burton Sampson, a local member of the council, urged people to stay and get emergency services to do their jobs.

“My idea is with everyone involved,” he said.

CNN
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Former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari died at the age of 82, a former military general who campaigned to eradicate corruption in the government, the Presidential Press Bureau said in a statement on Sunday.

He died in London around 4:30pm after a “long-term illness,” according to the statement.

Nigeria’s current President Bora Ahmed Tinubu expressed his sadness to Buhari’s wife and ordered the Vice President to travel to the UK to return Buhari’s body to Nigeria.

Tinubu praised Buhari’s legacy as “patriots, soldiers and politicians” and his country’s “deep commitment to unity and progress.”

“He led the most disturbing times with solid strength, deep integrity and unwavering belief in the possibilities of Nigeria. He defended the discipline of public service, confronted corruption head-on, and outperformed the nation in turn over personal interest,” Tinubu said.

Buhari was elected president in 2015 after three failed attempts. He was re-elected in 2019 for a further four-year term.

The former general, who first came to power in the 1983 military coup, was only overthrown by another military coup two years later, and Buhari is remembered in a strong anti-corruption agenda in a country known as “fantastically corrupted” by former British Prime Minister David Cameron. Others praise his harsh attitude towards Boko Haram’s uprising and security issues that have plagued the country’s northeast for years.

He was born in December 1942 in Daura, Katina, in the northern state of Nigeria, and completed military training in Kaduna, the UK, India and the US.

He first became politically prominent in 1975, and came after a military coup that overcame then-directed Jakub Gorson. Buhari became military governor of Borno Province. It is a state that is troubled by Boko Haram.

Buhari, who married twice and has 10 children, was part of a Nigerian dominant facility that called himself out during the 2015 election campaign and won the landslide.

The Nigerians lined up the streets celebrating his victory. However, the honeymoon didn’t last long, as many believed that many had wasted his goodwill by being too late in the president’s actions.

He took six months to appoint a minister to the cabinet and then failed to act swiftly to tackle the country’s economic crisis.

For months, Buhari refused to devalue Nigerian’s falling currency, Naira and its weakening trust in investors. This created the Gulf Coast between the official and black market exchange rates.

According to economic analyst Bismarck Rewane, one of Buhari’s failures was his limited understanding of modern economics and market policies, which led the country to a recession. According to Rewane, this lack of understanding was rooted in delusions and doubt after he overthrew during his first military rule.

He said: “Buhari felt that he had been scam when asked by the IMF to remove Naira’s underestimation and grants.. ”

Lewan, who met President Buhari several times on the campaign trail and gave him policy advice after his victory, says Buhari will be remembered as a “strong and principled leader.”

“He was a very unique governor,” Lewan told CNN. “Some people will say he’s stiff, he didn’t shift when he believed something. But I think it’s a good thing. He’s very rare in this part of the world. People here are so flexible and corrupt.”

Buhari’s first term was the separatist pro-Biafra movement in eastern Nigeria, characterized by wars on many fronts, including the Boko Haram rebellion assaulting Fulani herdsmen throughout Nigeria.

Despite growing concerns about the country’s security situation, Buhari was re-elected in 2019. During his second term, furious protests against police brutality erupted across the country, denounced reports of terror by police forces, harassing, and controversial police forces.

Buhari vowed to fight the extremist groups and do more to fix the economy as the demonstrations became fatal and continued to boil down for the rest of the presidency.

In his final UN speech in 2022, Buhari criticized the “corrosive” effect of fellow leaders who extend term restrictions to stick to power. The following year he praised his successor and party member Tinubu as “the best person for the job.”