Worldcrunch
PARIS — Every day, tourists in the Louvre crowd around the Venus de Milo. The two-meter high armless marble lady is one of the museum’s most renowned pieces of art. But the statue, recovered by a farmer on the Greek island of Milos in 1820, might have to go home soon. The statue of Venus, […]
Ta Nea, May 9, 2016 As a three-day general strike that paralyzed large parts of Greece ended Sunday, the leftist government of Alexis Tsipras won a Parliamentary vote to bring about tough austerity measures. “Hostages of Syriza’s austerity,” headlines Athens-based daily Ta Nea in its Monday edition. Over the weekend, outside the Parliament in Athens, […]
U.S., CHINA AGREE ON N. KOREA RESOLUTION The United States and China agreed yesterday on a United Nations draft resolution containing “very tough measures” against North Korea over its nuclear “provocations,” AFP reports. Both countries have bristled at the hubris of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. The draft resolution will now be presented to the […]
And watch out for Pablo Iglesias, leader of Spain’s leftist Podemos party.
“Second Chance for Syriza,” reads the front page of Greek financial daily Naftermporiki on Monday, following the election that returns the leftist party’s leader Alexis Tsipras as prime minister. With just over 35% of the vote, Syriza came out on top, leaving center-right New Democracy behind at 28%. But Tsipras’ victory is less resounding than […]
Despite some hopes inside and outside of Greece that a political coalition will emerge in Athens to lift the country out of crisis, the nation’s deeper forces do not bode well.
GERMANY REINSTATES BORDER CONTROLS In an unexpected reversal of Germany refugee policy, the country has introduced temporary controls on its border with Austria and halted all cross-border train traffic with its neighbor. The decision to temporarily exit the Schengen open-border system comes after German regions said they could no longer cope with a record influx […]
NORTH KOREAN ARMY COMBAT READY North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered full combat readiness for the army after declaring a “quasi-state of war” with South Korea following yesterday’s exchange of fire between the two countries, Yonhap reports. Meanwhile, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has issued orders for the military to retaliate to any provocation […]
GREECE APPROVES THIRD BAILOUT After what the newspaper Kathimerini describes as “a tempestuous night of debate,” Greek lawmakers this morning approved the deal reached with international lenders for a third Greek bailout. It will now go to the Eurozone’s finance ministers, who are due to meet later today, and all eyes will focus on the […]
With the recent Iran and Greece agreements, diplomacy has regained its prior glory. Three former diplomats say negotiation is all about balancing tenacity and flexibility.
Banks are back, the stock market has reopened and all economic signs (including the banks and stock market) are disastrous. Normalcy has returned to Greece! The more serious truth is that the deal signed last month by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras — which includes new austerity measures in exchange for a third bailout to […]
The Church is hugely wealthy and exempt from almost all taxes. But its charitable works are crucial in Greece, ravaged by financial crisis and an inept public sector.
GREEK BANKS REOPEN Photo: Marios Lolos/Xinhua/ZUMA Greek banks reopened today for the first time in three weeks, marking the return of some semblance of normalcy for the bankrupt country. VERBATIM “The conditions of the agreement, however, are positively alarming for those who still believe in the future of Europe,” former International Monetary Fund director Dominique […]
In the wake of the showdown over the Greek debt crisis, Germany has wound up in the role of European bad guy. Germans ask if there’s a way to make things better.
“Wounded, He Continues Until Further Notice,” writes left-leaning Greek daily Efimerida ton Syntakton on the front-page headline of its Thursday edition after the Greek parliament approved a package of tough measures leading a third bailout deal. The he in question is Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who won a bittersweet approval late Wednesday of the […]
Photo: Ahmad Halabisaz/ZUMA IMF URGES MORE GREEK DEBT RELIEF The Eurozone must “go well beyond what has been under consideration to date” to relieve Greek debt, and it could even eventually forgive a part of it, IMF officials wrote in a report obtained by Reuters.
HISTORIC DEAL INKED ON IRAN NUCLEAR PROGRAM After years of on-again, off-again negotiations, Iran and six world powers agreed Tuesday to a deal to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons program in exchange for an end to crippling economic sanctions. Together with five negotiating partners, Russia, China, France, UK and Germany, American diplomats had demanded a framework […]
PARIS — After a marathon 15-hour meeting, Greece and the 18 other Eurozone members finally reached an agreement to avoid a “Grexit.” The Greeks will keep the euro and receive financial support in exchange for implementing a stringent program of reforms by Wednesday at the latest. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras welcomed the deal which […]
GREXIT AVERTED, TSIPRAS IN TROUBLE AT HOME After a 15-hour negotiation that represented the longest European summit meeting in history, Greece and its EU partners finally reached a unanimous agreement to avoid a “Grexit” and keep the euro in Greece. European Council President Donald Tusk announced the success of the marathon negotiations this morning in […]
Despite negotiations, perhaps the Greek Prime Minister wants to lead his country toward a Latin American-style leftist populism, like Venezuela, Bolivia and Ecuador.
PARIS — The Eurozone is going through the most serious crisis of its short history. It will emerge from it either stronger — but this requires exceptional leadership from European leaders who, so far, have shown none — or deeply weakened. If the latter is the case, we will look back in history and say […]
A visit with Munich’s surprisingly robust Greek community finds families caught in the middle of Europe’s unfolding existential drama. Or tragedy.
PARIS — Europe is truly a strange character. In Greek mythology, Europa was a princess kidnapped by a white bull whose breath smelled like Crocus flowers. In today’s reality, it’s a body threatening to cut off its own limbs. Its left foot is considering stopping its own blood flow. Suffering from cramps for the past […]
TOLL OF CHINESE SHIPWRECK CLIMBS Photo: Stringer/Cpressphoto/ZUMA Hopes of finding survivors of China’s shipwreck were fading Wednesday, after a total 14 survivors were rescued from the Eastern Star, the cruise ship carrying 456 that sank Monday night in China’s Yangtze River after a storm hit. So far, 19 bodies have been recovered, leaving more than […]
HUNDREDS MISSING AFTER CHINA SHIPWRECK At least 400 people were missing this morning after a Chinese ship carrying 458 passengers and crew was hit by an apparent cyclone and sank in the Yangtze River late yesterday, Chinese news agency Xinhua reports. So far, there are only 15 to 18 survivors, and just five bodies recovered, […]
Ethnos, June 2, 2015 “Dramatic night in Berlin & Athens,” reads the front page of Athens-based newspaper Ethnos“ Tuesday edition, as the heads of IMF and ECB unexpectedly joined late-night talks on the Greek debt crisis in Berlin. French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who were scheduled to meet German Chancellor […]
The Greek Prime Minister’s ultimatum to Eurozone partners and other negotiators as the debt crisis reaches a critical hour. The full Le Monde editorial in English.
U.S. BOOSTS WEAPON DELIVERY TO SAUDI-LED COALITION The U.S. is speeding up its weapon deliveries and intelligence sharing with the Saudi-led coalition against Houthi rebels in Yemen, as the toll in the latest Middle East war begins to mount. Al Arabiya reported on U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s press conference in the Saudi […]
With scant help common from Frankfurt, a group of French intellectuals is calling for online donations to help the Greek people. Desperate times indeed.
ATHENS — In her beautiful Athens offices, billionaire Gianna Angelopoulos nurses a large cigar and calls it like she sees it on the promise of the radical-left Syriza party to levy new taxes to avoid the country going bankrup. “It’s gonna take balls,” says the 60-year-old. The wealth of her and husband Theodore is estimated […]
“NO SURVIVORS” EXPECTED IN ALPS PLANE CRASHPhoto: A Germanwings Airbus A320 — Xinhua/ZUMAAn Airbus A320 carrying 150 people crashed in the southern French Alps near the town of Digne this morning, and French President François Hollande has said officials expect no survivors in what represents the first crash of a low-budget airline in Europe. VERBATIM“It […]
I Kathimerini, March 24, 2015 Alexis Tsipras and Angela Merkel look like they were having a hard time understanding each other on Tuesday’s front page of Greek daily I Kathimerini. The German chancellor was welcoming the Greek prime minister in Berlin — his first visit to Germany since taking office in January — as Tsipras […]
MERKEL MEETS TSIPRAS IN BERLINGerman Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Berlin today, starting a week that Bloomberg characterizes as “decisive for Greece’s future in the euro area.” According to the Financial Times, Tsipras told Merkel in a letter last week that without the European Union’s continued support, it would […]
Ambitious and unafraid to anger foe or friend, the 38-year-old Speaker of Parliament may be Greece’s most powerful woman. And fighting corruption is at the top of her agenda.
WAR AGAINST UKRAINE “UNLIKELY,” PUTIN SAYSPhoto above: Mikhail Metzel/TASS/ZUMARussian President Vladimir Putin has said in an interview with Russian television that war against its neighbor Ukraine was “unlikely,” expressing his hope that this “apocalyptic scenario” would “never happen.” Asked about the Minsk agreement, he said that if fully implemented it would see the situation in […]
-OpEd- MUNICH — Talk to a Greek person about the difficult situation their country faces and you’re likely to hear some pretty astounding things. Some argue, for example, that the financial collapse came at the right moment, that without it Greece wouldn’t have been pressured into the reforms needed to halt its downward spiral. But […]
U.S., UK HACKED SIM CARD PROVIDERThe NSA and its British counterpart GCHQ illegally hacked into the internal computer network of Gemalto, the world’s largest SIM card manufacturer, and stole encryption keys to facilitate eavesdropping on global cellular communications, The Intercept reports. The documents, leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, show that intelligence agencies have therefore been […]
UKRAINE PARTIES REFUSE PULLBACKPhoto: Donetsk airport — Source: Sokolov Mikhail/TASS/ZUMAGovernment forces and pro-Russian rebels have failed to withdraw heavy weapons from the front line despite today’s agreed deadline, The Guardian reports. Fighting has stopped in most areas since a ceasefire began three days ago, but not in the city of Debaltseve where a Ukrainian military […]
Greeks are used to making history, and they’re at it again. What will last month’s election victory of Alexis Tsipras and his anti-austerity Syriza party mean for the future beyond Greece? And more specifically, could it mark a turning point for the urgent global issue of environmental change? A not-so-subtle fil rouge exists between economic […]
From Greece and Spain, to Brazil and beyond, people are no longer convinced that politics is working for the greater good.