Cities across Israel have taken measures to prepare for Byron, but Palestinian citizens there have no resources.

Israel is bracing itself for heavy downpours and flash floods that Storm Byron is forecast to produce, especially in the coastal areas.

The Israel Meteorological Service said on Thursday that rain is likely to cover cities from northern Israel to the Negev in the south, with floods possible in low-lying cities. Up to 150mm (5.9 inches) of rain is estimated in some coastal areas, with wind gusts of up to 90km/h (56mph).

The Israeli army chief, Eyal Zamir, issued safety guidelines for the military, cancelling all leave until 6am on Friday, prohibiting all outdoor training activities and limiting soldiers to “operational” and “essential” activities.

Israel has been on high alert. Cities across the country have taken measures to prepare for the storm, reinforcing emergency teams and opening shelters in case they are needed.

Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen assessed the situation with various government bodies to ensure an uninterrupted electricity supply during the storm.

In contrast, unrecognised Bedouin communities in southern Israel are bracing for disaster, hoping for a miracle. Close to 30,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel live in those communities without any basic services, including electricity, water, or infrastructure. Many of the homes and buildings in these communities are under demolition orders. They will face the brunt of the storm without recourse for help from Israeli authorities.

‘Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people’

Recognised non-Jewish towns in the Negev have a tense relationship with the state. On Wednesday, Omar al-Asam, head of the Tal al-Sabe Council, announced a strike to protest against the police blocking off the town’s only entrance and assaulting one of the residents.

“The police’s racist and aggressive conduct is unacceptable, and it goes to show the police’s racist attitude towards Arab citizens across the country, especially in the Negev,” al-Asam told local media.

This tension is a mainstay in Israel’s relationship with its non-Jewish citizens. In 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Israel is not a state of all its citizens.”

“According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people – and only it,” Netanyahu wrote on Instagram in response to criticism from Israeli actor Rotem Sela.

This attitude is part of Israel’s institutional discrimination against non-Jewish citizens, amounting to apartheid according to experts and human rights organisations. In the past two years, right-wing politicians have advocated for the expulsion of Palestinian citizens of Israel or conditioning nationality on loyalty. Some have repeatedly attempted to outlaw non-Jewish parties and expel members of Knesset, the Israeli parliament, most recently in June 2025.

Byron poses ‘lot of challenges’

Meanwhile, the occupied West Bank also faces serious challenges from the storm.

Youssef Abu Saadah, the head of the meteorological service in Palestine, told Al Jazeera, “The expected rain from Storm Byron is more than a third of the average yearly rainfall. This poses a lot of challenges.”

He clarified that flood warnings in the Negev are partly because of the downstream from the Hebron hills in the West Bank.

Since the start of the occupation in 1967, Israel has barred Palestinians in the West Bank from collecting rainwater. This means that much of the downpours in the Hebron area will find their way to the Negev.

As the U.S. ramps up attacks on alleged drug-trafficking boats, blowing up vessels and killing their crews, American allies across the Atlantic are waging their own at-sea fights with suspected narcotics smugglers.

“Europe is literally being flooded with cocaine,” Artur Vaz, Portugal’s narcotics police chief, told Fox News.

“Criminal organizations… acquire the drugs in Latin America, and then the price at which they place it in the markets… there’s a big profit margin here,” said Vaz, director of the National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking at Portugal’s Judiciary Police.

The drugs come over in cargo ships, high-speed boats and, increasingly, low-budget, semi-submersible vessels known colloquially as “narco-subs.” These boats sail largely undetected with only the top of the craft visible — often painted, researchers say, in steely blues and grays to blend in with the stormy Atlantic waves and evade surveillance efforts.

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Portuguese authorities scored a notable capture this fall, intercepting a narco-sub in the mid-Atlantic with 1.7 metric tons of cocaine on board. But European authorities acknowledge that many others are making it past their defenses.

“The interdiction rates for these subs is between 10%, roughly, and maybe as low as 5%,” said Sam Woolston, a Honduras-based investigative journalist specializing in organized crime.

“Even if one or two get nabbed by the authorities, it’s not enough to dissuade them.”

European authorities mostly choose to intercept narco boats, stopping far short of the Trump administration’s policy of destroying them. Instead, the often low-rung crews are detained for interrogation, in the hope of shedding light on shady drug kingpins, gang operations and distribution networks.

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Officials tell Fox News, though, that they would like to do more.

“We must be more muscular — that is, with greater means and a greater capacity for intervention,” said Vaz. “But, of course, within the rule of law.”

As for the narco-subs, those vessels aren’t new, but they never used to cross oceans.

“It’s mind-boggling, the level of sophistication,” Derek Maltz, a former acting chief of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told Fox News.

“But it’s all about the money, and it’s all about the risk, and right now I don’t think these networks perceive Europe as a huge risk for them.”

Journalist Woolston says the transatlantic voyage is typically crewed by “desperate people,” given its perilous nature.

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“You’ll be locked up in a very small compartment for days, usually inhaling things like diesel fumes. There have been cases of narco submarines found with a crew of dead bodies.

“The kingpins would not get on these boats.”

Published on
10/12/2025 – 13:07 GMT+1

Trying to understand tech billionaire Elon Musk is like trying to assemble IKEA furniture in the dark.

Except we have no instructions, and the pieces keep changing shape.

Some Europeans dismiss him as a “barbaric cowboy”. We pride ourselves on being the educated adults in the room.

Well, if we are so clever, let us prove it and use Carl Jung to talk about Elon. This Swiss psychologist defined archetypes — the universal roles.

But there is a catch. For every positive one, there is a shadowy downside.

First, there is the Creator. As one, Musk is the visionary building rockets to take him to Mars one day. But his shadow is the Anarchist. He treats SpaceX explosions as “data” and he is willing to burn billions — and occasionally break laws — to see if his toys work.

Second, the Ruler. If money is the measure of success, he is the most profitable CEO in the world who just secured $1 trillion deal at Tesla to keep him.

But his shadow is the Tyrant. When he took over Twitter — now X — he did not just restructure the social media network, he decapitated it. He fired 80% of the staff in weeks, demanding “hardcore” loyalty just to prove he holds the crown.

And third, the Jester. The internet troll posts memes that make people laugh. But here, his shadow is the Nihilist, the cruel trickster who retweets posts comparing the European Union to the “Fourth Reich.”

He burns institutions not for a plan, but for the “lols” — because he believes nothing matters anyway.

Musk is a spectacle we cannot look away from. So, Mr Musk, which Elon are you today?

Watch the Euronews video in the player above for the full story.