podlist.gr

After 16 years, Germany is saying farewell to Angela Merkel, its longtime Chancellor. As Germans head to the polls on Sunday, the rest of Europe will also be watching closely to see who emerges as the next leader of Germany. Throughout her tenure, Chancellor Merkel has steered Germany and the European Union through a number of crises, from the euro-debt crisis to the migration crisis - both of...

16 λεπτά

Earlier this week His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros, joined by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, attended an event marking the opening of the Turkish House - or the Turkevi Center - in New York. Both leaders chose to attend the event, which was officiated by Turkish President Erdogan, despite having prior knowledge that Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar would participate at the event...

16 λεπτά

Over the last decade we’ve seen the involvement of Turkey and the Gulf states grow significantly in the Horn of Africa, and the region became one more arena - like Libya and Tunisia - of competition between Turkey and Qatar on the one hand, and Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE on the other. While clashing interests and ideologies still shape dynamics in the Horn, President Biden’s election has...

17 λεπτά

On Saturday Greece opened a new migrant camp on the eastern Aegean island of Samos. The facility is the first EU-designed, EU-funded migrant camp in the country, and is part of a broader European response to the tent cities that had emerged on Greece’s frontline islands since migrants and refugees began to arrive en-masse at the beginning of the migration crisis in 2015. The new facility, which...

14 λεπτά

The Biden Administration announced on Monday that it will lift coronavirus travel restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers, reopening its borders for the first time in more than a year and bringing an end to the series of travel bans first imposed by President Donald Trump 18 months ago. This decision by the White House also answers a growing EU grievance — that EU countries had opened up to...

12 λεπτά

Nine EU countries on the Mediterranean held a summit in Athens on Friday to discuss issues ranging from climate change to migration, security, and Afghanistan. The summit comes two days after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen - who was also in Athens on Friday - underlined the need for a common EU strategy in dealing with climate change, migration, and defense. Hours after the...

15 λεπτά

A constitutional court in Cape Verde has issued a recent ruling that would pave the way for the extradition of Alex Saab, a Colombian-born businessman indicted in 2019 for facilitating sanctions evasion and bribery schemes by the Maduro regime in Venezuela. His extradition from Cape Verde, combined with ongoing US efforts to extradite a Turkish money laundering suspect from Austria, could help...

18 λεπτά

Energy prices in Europe have skyrocketed as economies emerge from the pandemic, boosting demand just as supplies are falling short. Even with mild weather in September, gas and electricity prices were breaking records day after day across the continent, with no relief in sight. A number of countries, including Greece, have already announced measures to ease the pressure on consumers as...

14 λεπτά

Is it time for the US to leave Incirlik airbase in Turkey? That’s the focus of a recent op-ed by Michael Rubin, who argues that rather than remaining a strategic asset, Incirlik is now a strategic liability. Michael Rubin joins our host Thanos Davelis on The Greek Current to discuss his op-ed - “The one foreign base Biden should abandon” - and explains why it’s time for the US to end its...

15 λεπτά

Greece has created its first-ever ministerial post to exclusively handle the fallout from climate change in the wake of this summer’s devastating wildfires — and it has brought in a former EU crisis management expert for the role. Christos Stylianides, a Cypriot national who previously served as the EU commissioner for humanitarian aid and crisis management, was sworn in as minister on Friday...

13 λεπτά

On Friday Lebanon’s President and Prime minister announced a new cabinet after thirteen months of political deadlock and a spiraling economic downturn. Lebanon has been without a fully empowered government since the catastrophic August 4, 2020 explosion that rocked the port of Beirut and forced the resignation of then Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government. In the meantime, an economic...

15 λεπτά

This week when Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias travelled to Tunisia, he wasn’t just traveling with a diplomatic team. He was also bringing 100,000 Covid-19 vaccines with him. This follows a delivery to Rwanda last week of 200,000 vaccines. These are the latest steps Greece is taking to combat the global pandemic that has seen it deliver vaccines to Libya, Albania, North Macedonia,...

16 λεπτά

In December, 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the European Green Deal, the EU’s ambitious plan to lead the world on climate action and make Europe carbon neutral by 2050. The record heat waves and destructive wildfires that hit Greece and other countries in the Mediterranean have only highlighted the need for action among experts and policymakers. Constantine...

21 λεπτά

Hundreds of people gathered on Monday at Athens Cathedral to pay their final respects to Greek composer and politician Mikis Theodorakis, who was an integral part of the Greek political and musical scene for decades. Theodorakis passed away last week on Thursday at the age of 96. After his death was announced, Greece declared three days of national mourning, while tributes poured in from...

24 λεπτά

Turkish President Erdogan and the de-facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nayhan, spoke on the phone earlier this week in the latest sign of a possible thaw between the regional rivals. Turkey and the UAE have been at odds over Ankara’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and on opposing sides on a number of issues - from the conflict in...

16 λεπτά

Vassilis Nedos, Kathimerini’s diplomatic and defense editor, joins us on The Greek Current today to look at his latest op-ed in Kathimerini, where he highlights what Greece needs to be paying attention to when we look at the ripple effects in the region to the US and NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover of the country. We also look into Vassilis Nedos’s latest coverage of...

14 λεπτά

With the world and the US focused on Afghanistan, Turkey carried out airstrikes that hit genocide survivors in Iraq and members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in mid August. One of the airstrikes hit a medical clinic in Sinjar, killing eight people, while another airstrike saw a Turkish drone kill Yazidi leader Hassan Saeed on the day he was scheduled to meet with the Iraqi prime...

16 λεπτά

US Senator Bob Menendez, the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was in Greece and Cyprus last week and this week, where he held a number of key meetings with leading officials, including Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades. His trip highlighted the increasing strategic value of Greece and Cyprus for US policy in the Eastern...

13 λεπτά

Earlier this year Turkey’s President Erdogan had hoped to build leverage over the US, the EU, and NATO by reaching a deal with Washington, DC to take over and secure Kabul’s international airport after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. That deal is all but dead after the Taliban took over Kabul. Turkey is continuing its dialogue with all the sides in Afghanistan, however, including the...

17 λεπτά

At the end of July, the leaders of Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania met in Skopje, where they agreed to bolster regional economic integration, vowing to abolish border controls between their countries by January 2023. They named their initiative “Open Balkans” or “Mini-Schengen” – after the European Union’s free travel zone. The announcement comes as leaders in the Western Balkans are...

13 λεπτά