The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Honourable Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has received Open letters of appointment from five newly appointed ambassadors-designate to Ghana as they formally presented their Open Letters of appointment.
The diplomatic engagements reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to strengthening international relations and expanding cooperation across various sectors.
On Monday, June 9, 2025, the Minister received H.E. Edouard Nduwimana, Ambassador-Designate of Burundi, who emphasized investment opportunities in health, education, and tourism while highlighting Burundi’s democratic progress.
H.E. Antit Mohsen of Tunisia underscored trade, agriculture, and sports collaborations, and expressed Tunisia’s eagerness to foster regional unity through a Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation (PJCC).
Representing Jamaica, H.E. Lincoln George Downer praised Ghana’s Year of Return and Black Star Experience programs, inviting Ghanaian investors to explore Jamaica’s growing ICT sector.
Meanwhile, H.E. Athanasios V. Kotsionis of Greece discussed tourism, the green economy, and maritime cooperation, reaffirming the longstanding ties between Ghana and Greece.
The Minister also hosted H.E. Bui Quoc Hung of Vietnam, marking six decades of bilateral cooperation between the two nations. Their discussion focused on trade, agriculture, and value addition, emphasizing mutual economic benefits.
Additionally, Rwanda’s High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Rosemary Mbabazi, expressed deep appreciation for Ghana’s contributions to Rwanda’s peace process, acknowledging the Ghana Armed Forces’ role in peacekeeping efforts.
She called for the establishment of a PJCC to further strengthen diplomatic relations.
The Honourable Minister congratulated all the Ambassador-Designates on their respective appointments and commended their efforts in building their nations.
The meetings reaffirm Ghana’s dedication to global cooperation, showcasing its role as a strategic partner for economic, diplomatic, and security collaborations.
Authorities were told by the Italian coast guard that a boat was in trouble 27 nautical miles (31 miles, 50 kilometers) south of Crete. The coast guard of Greece saved 40 people with ships and later two more people were rescued by a Greek navy helicopter.
The coast guard has been told by survivors that three people are still missing. Officials are searching for them. It was not known right away what type of boat the passengers were on or why the boat called for help.
Thursday’s rescue happened before a trial for nine Egyptian migrants in Greece. They are being accused of causing a shipwreck that killed people last year.
Greece is a common destination for people escaping war and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, trying to get into the European Union. Many people come to Greece from Turkey by crossing the eastern Aegean Sea islands. Some people also try to go from North Africa to Italy through the longer and more dangerous Mediterranean route, bypassing Greece.
The boats that are carrying too many things often have problems with the engine or get blown off course. This can make them end up near southern or western Greece.
In June 2023, a very full fishing boat that had left Libya sank in deep waters near the western coast of Greece, and around 500 people died. More than 100 people were saved, but less than 80 dead bodies were found.
Nine people from Egypt who survived a shipwreck will be on trial next week in a Greek city called Kalamata. They are accused of helping people enter the country illegally, being part of a criminal group, causing a deadly accident, and other crimes.
Their legal representatives from Greece said on Thursday that they were wrongly accused, and mentioned that an investigation into why the boat sank is still happening.
“For almost a year, nine people have been locked up in prison and they don’t know why,” said lawyer Dimitrios Choulis to reporters in Athens.
“They survived even though they couldn’t swim and didn’t have life jackets. They were facing certain death. Nine other survivors told the authorities about them,” Choulis said.
“It makes me very sad to visit and see people in prison who don’t know why they’re there. “
Recently, more people have been coming to Crete from Libya. The government of Greece said they will give more money and hire more coast guard workers to deal with this.
On Sunday night, a boat with 74 people was found 25 nautical miles south of a small Greek island called Gavdos. The coast guard brought the 73 men and one woman to Crete on a patrol boat.
It wasn’t clear right away where or when the boat started or where the passengers were from. No one got hurt or sick. They were brought to a temporary place to stay.
Greece is a main way for people from the Middle East, Africa and Asia to come into the European Union when they are running away from fighting and not having enough money.
In the last few months, more migrants have been arriving on Gavdos, an island 27 nautical miles south of Crete, and the southern coast of Crete. The coast guard said that in many instances, they had traveled across the Mediterranean Sea from the eastern Libyan port of Tobruk. They had to give money to smuggling gangs, sometimes as much as $5,000 each.
The increase in visitors to Gavdos, a small island with only a few residents, has made it difficult for the authorities to manage.
The person in charge of migration in Greece, Dimitris Kairidis, went to Crete and Gavdos on Monday. He promised to give more money to the area and said the government would also send more coast guard workers there.
“We have the money and the resources,” Kairidis said. Crete and Gavdos will not be left by themselves. Gavdos is a very tiny island with only a few people living there.
Mitsotakis talked to Vassy Kapelos for an interview that will be shown on Sunday. This happened while the prime minister was visiting Canada.
Canada is working on eight projects to make natural gas into a liquid. The first export place will start working next year and will send goods to some Asian countries.
The question of whether Canada should sell its products to European countries in the future has been a long-standing political argument.
The problem has become more urgent after Russia invaded Ukraine. Many Western countries are now trying to stop buying Russian oil.
“We handle a lot of LNG and serve not only Greece, but also Balkan and Eastern Europe,” Mitsotakis said. “In theory, we could also give supplies to Ukraine. ”
âWe are very interested in getting LNG at good prices, he said. “We need a steady source of electricity, and in Greece, we don’t use nuclear power and are moving away from coal. So, for now, natural gas will continue to be an important source of energy for making electricity. ”
“He said Canada and our country have similar beliefs and opinions on some big issues like Ukraine and Gaza. ”
In August 2022, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he wasn’t sure if exporting LNG should be part of Canada’s long-term plan to provide clean energy to Europe.
Speaking with the German Chancellor at a press meeting, Trudeau seemed to doubt if it makes sense to invest in LNG projects.
“We’re trying to increase our energy production and might send LNG to Europe if it’s profitable,” Trudeau said.
“But in the future, Canada can become a major energy supplier to the world in a net-zero economy. ” This means putting money into hydrogen and critical minerals, as well as other solutions.
Mitsotakis is the first leader of Greece to come to Canada in over 40 years. He wants to tell everyone that Greece is ready to do business. Economists think the economy will grow steadily and prices will not go up as much in the next few years, after a long time of very bad economic problems.
“Greece has made a really good recovery in the economy. I believe that we have moved past the crisis,” he said. “I think now is a good time for Canadian businesses to consider investing in Greece. ”
Mitsotakis talked about how Canada needs to spend more money on its military, aiming to reach the NATO goal of spending two per cent of the country’s GDP on defence. He also talked about the war in Ukraine.
“I know it can be tempting to not spend money on defense and use it for other things, but we never had that option,” he said. “We always put more than two percent of our money towards defense. ”
Mitsotakis talked about the trade deal between Canada and the European Union, called CETA, and the problems in approving it. He said he will talk about this with Trudeau this weekend.
The Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the groups of people were getting into their cars when they heard a loud explosion. He said that this was a strong reminder that Odesa is in a war with Russia. He says that it’s different to learn about war than to actually go through it yourself.
Zelenskyy said that the explosion hurt and killed many people, but the exact number is not known yet. “He told reporters that they don’t care where to hit. ”
Russian officials did not respond right away.
Zelenskyy often goes to cities and military units on the front line during the war, but nobody knows until he’s gone. Leaders from other countries have visited Ukraine many times. Sometimes, they have had to go to shelters to stay safe when air raid alarms go off.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, criticized the “terrible attack” during the visit to Greece on X. She said this on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. She said Russia is trying to scare people again.
Zelenskyy guided Mitsotakis around the damage in Odesa. In the latest big Russian attack, 12 people, including five kids, died when debris from a Russian drone hit an apartment building on March 2nd.
Mitsotakis said that Odesa is very important to Greece because it’s where the Filiki Etairia organization was started. This organization fought for Greece to be free from Ottoman rule in the 1800s.
The bill needed at least half of the members in the parliament to vote for it in order to pass.
Mr Mitsotakis wanted to pass the bill, but he needed the help of other political parties to do it because many members of his own party were against it.
The prime minister said in parliament that people who have been ignored will be noticed, and many children will finally get the support they deserve.
“The reform helps some people without hurting others. ”
LGBTQ groups in Greece are happy about the vote.
“This is a very important moment in history,” said Stella Belia, who leads a group for same-sex parents called Rainbow Families, in an interview with Reuters news agency. “Today is a happy day. ”
Fifteen out of the 27 countries in the European Union have made same-sex marriage legal. It is allowed in 35 countries around the world.
In a garden in the north part of Athens, a four-year-old named Niovi pretends to run a shop and sells imaginary cakes.
Christina and Victoria may soon see their dream come true as Greece is close to making same-sex marriage legal for them.
The Parliament will decide on the bill presented by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Thursday. He will have to get support from the left-wing opposition because some people in his own party disagree.
Christina and Victoria will be inside the chamber, hoping for it to pass. Two years ago, they came back to Greece from the UK, where they had gone for work and to be together without any restrictions.
They got married in the UK and their daughter, Niovi, was born there. If the law is approved, they want their marriage to be legal in Greece.
I don’t have a voice.
After Niovi was born in London, her parents tried to officially record her as a Greek citizen at the Greek embassy, but they were turned away. Christina remembers someone saying, “You should have thought before having her. ”
“It was really bad, I cried in the car for 45 minutes and couldn’t stop. It still brings back bad memories,” Victoria says, tears filling her eyes. “It feels like your own country doesn’t want you. ”
In Greece, the law doesn’t recognize Christina and Victoria as married. Because of this, only Victoria is considered Niovi’s mother, even though Christina provided the egg for Niovi’s birth.
In school, she can’t make decisions and when Niovi was in the hospital, Christina wasn’t allowed to go in her room.
“I am really scared that if something terrible happens to Victoria and she passes away, our child will have to go to social services. They will then check if any of Victoria’s family members want to take care of her,” she said.
“If they don’t, she will have to go to a place for help. ” I cannot make a choice. So the child wouldn’t just lose one mother, she would lose both of us.
Greece has not kept up with other countries in Europe because its strong church has been against changes. If the law is accepted this week, it will be the first country where most people are Christian Orthodox, and the first in the southeastern part of Europe, to allow marriage for everyone.
Gay couples can adopt children, but they cannot have a baby through a surrogate. Only straight couples with a medical need can do that.
“Greece is located in the southeast, but its culture and politics are more aligned with the West,” according to Alex Patelis, who is the prime minister’s top economic advisor and also part of the committee that worked on the marriage bill.
Mr Mitsotakis won the election easily and is now dealing with a weak opposing party. This gives him the opportunity to focus on their issues without hurting his own chances of staying in power.
Mr Patel says that the bill is very important to the Prime Minister’s beliefs. It’s often believed that human rights and equality are only cared about by left-wing parties, but this bill shows that it’s important to everyone. This is from a center-right political party. It’s important to know that equality and individual rights are also beliefs of the right-wing.
There are two different groups in Greek society. A recent survey for Proto Thema newspaper shows that 55% of people support same-sex marriage and a slightly smaller majority support adoption by same-sex couples.
About 50 out of the 158 MPs in Mr. Mitsotakis’s party are expected to either vote against the bill or not be present during the vote.
The Church of Greece doesn’t like the change. They read a letter during church to say that it would be bad for children if same-sex couples can have children. They think it puts the feelings of gay adults before the needs of kids.
Bishop Seraphim of Piraeus has been one of the most vocal religious leaders. We watched the priest leading a busy church service at Agii Anargiri Church in the city. People were dressed nicely and kissing icons and bowing their heads.
He said he would stop MPs who support the bill from coming to his church, and he wishes they were never born.
He said he won’t baptize kids with same-sex parents because he wants to show them that their parents’ actions are wrong.
People are gathered outside parliament in Syntagma Square to protest against a bill. They have banners that say “No children for perverts” and are yelling “Take your hands off our kids”.
A video has images of religious symbols and also has Bill Gates in it. Some people think that Greece is being controlled by a powerful group, and this idea is mixed with the beliefs of traditional Greeks who feel like their customs are being ruined.
Rallou Perperidou says the Bible states that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and anything else is considered a serious sin.
God destroyed people who were practicing homosexuality, like he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God will forgive them if they admit they did something wrong and stop doing it.
Kyriaki Chantzara, who is 38 years old, is at the protest with her sister, who is going to have her tenth baby.
“Gay people can’t be good role models for kids because we believe it’s important for them to have both a mom and a dad as examples. ” “Every child has the right to have a dad and a mom,” she says.
In the north of Athens, Niovi, who is four years old, is practicing her English by singing nursery rhymes. Her mom helps her as she reads “Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock. ”
As the parliamentary vote gets closer, the women are getting more and more excited. Christina says she is very happy.
“It’s the beginning of recognizing and appreciating all kinds of people in our country, and understanding that everyone deserves the same rights. ” This will be real for us because I am Niovi’s mother, and the law should support this. The law will make the truth clear.
The owner of a French restaurant has been accused of causing the death of a woman who died from botulism after eating at his restaurant.
Botulism is a rare and dangerous illness that can cause paralysis and is fatal for about 10% of people who get it.
It comes from a strong poison made by a germ that can live in food that’s not preserved or cleaned properly.
A 32-year-old woman from Greece got sick after eating bad sardines at a wine bar in Bordeaux during the rugby world cup.
After going to the southwest city to see a rugby game with her husband, the couple got sick when they came back to their home in Paris and had to go to the hospital. The woman died later.
French health authorities and police found that about 25 people were affected by the bad sardines served at the wine bar.
At least 12 people were taken to the hospital, and 7 of them were in the intensive care unit.
Yesterday, the owner of the restaurant was arrested and today accused of causing accidental deaths, injuring people, putting others in danger, not helping someone in danger, and selling food that was contaminated or poisonous.
If found guilty, he could be sent to prison for up to five years.
Five people from Greece who were helping others in need and three people from Libya who were part of a family, were killed in a car accident in the eastern part of Libya.
The helpers were part of a group that was going on a bus to the city of Derna, which had been badly affected by a flood. However, their bus crashed into a car that had the family inside.
According to a Libyan official, two people in the car and eight people on the bus were seriously hurt.
An investigation has started.
Othman Abdeljalil, who is in charge of healthcare in the eastern part of the country, said in a press conference that a group of people was traveling from Benghazi, a city in the east, when the accident occurred.
He said that four people died, but Greek officials said that five members of their aid team were killed.
The Greek army and foreign ministry are bringing back five people, including three officials and two translators, to Athens on Monday. This was announced by the Greek chiefs of staff, according to AFP news agency.
The Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, described the accident as a very sad and unfortunate event.
“He said that everyone in the entire country is feeling very sad. ”
Libya is divided into two rival governments. One is supported by the United Nations and is located in the capital, Tripoli. The other is supported by Egypt and is based in Benghazi.
The Greek authorities say that a bus with medical workers crashed into a car going the other way.
They said it wasn’t clear what happened and they’re trying to figure it out with Libya’s help. They’re also bringing their people back.
A person who knows about diplomacy told a news site in Greece that 16 of the team members were rescue workers from Greece and three were translators.
They were going to meet up with teams from France and Italy that were already on the ground.
A lot of people died when two dams near Derna broke because of a big storm last week. The United Nations says that about 11,300 people have died.
More than 10,000 people are still officially considered missing, according to information from the UN’s Office for the Co-Ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Four individuals have lost their lives after a tourist bus and a car crashed into each other on a road in Greece.
The big bus had license plates from Serbia, and it had about 80 people on board.
Photos taken at the location near Kilkis in the northern part of the country depict a vehicle turned over on its side in a trench with its windows broken or taken out.
The police first said that three people had died, but later a fourth person also died due to their injuries.
Local news reports say that 49 people on the bus got hurt and were taken to hospitals in Kilkis and Thessaloniki.
According to a Greek news site called Kathimerini, there were Serbian people who were visiting the coastal town of Asprovalta for their vacation.
The website said that another car was also involved in the accident. Approximately 20 firefighters went to the accident with six vehicles for rescuing people.
The local police started an investigation into the crash.
Many parts of Greece are currently experiencing storms and floods.
Videos from the island of Skiathos, which is located to the east of the mainland of the country, showed fast-moving floodwater passing by hotels and homes earlier this week.
An Austrian couple who were on their honeymoon in Greece are now missing. The heavy rain caused their house to be washed away.
Emergency services have informed the BBC that they are looking for the couple and some other people who cannot be found.
In central Greece, some people were stuck on their roofs because of floods that covered entire villages in water.
At least twelve people have died after Storm Daniel struck Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria this week.
The couple from Austria chose to stay inside the bungalow they had rented for their honeymoon because it was raining heavily in central Greece. According to the owner of the place, Thanasis Samaras.
According to him, the house in Potistika, a beach resort near Mount Pelion, was washed away by sudden floods.
He and the other people who were visiting had gone to a safer area and told the couple to do the same.
The situation was really terrible. Samaras said that it is very hard to make a decision in a situation like that.
He said that the couple, who are from the Austrian city of Graz, got married soon after they arrived on their vacation.
The Greek firefighters are looking for missing people, including the newly married couple.
In the past few days, certain areas in Greece got a lot of rain, up to 800mm (31. 5 inches) – which is more rain than they usually get in an entire year.
The Karditsa plain in the middle of Greece became like a lake, and the villages near Palamas were covered in water.
The mayor of Palamas, Giorgos Sakellariou, went on Greek TV and urgently asked for assistance because people were trapped in their houses and were in immediate danger.
“He said the situation in Palamas is very sad,” was quoted as saying on Skai TV. People cannot leave their houses. People will drown. The rescue efforts are being delayed because some bridges in the area have fallen down and the roads are badly broken.
The very bad weather also affected Athens and the island of Skiathos. Many tourists are stuck there, and the coastal areas near Volos and Pelion were also affected.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided to cancel a major government event that was scheduled for the weekend due to the worsening crisis.
Storm Daniel has been causing damage in Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria since Monday. So far, more than twelve people have died, with at least four deaths in Greece.
Climate scientists have said that because of global warming, more water will evaporate in the summer and that can cause stronger storms.
Flooding has caused the death of at least three people in Greece, two in northwestern Turkey, and three on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coastline.
More flooding could happen in Greece because they have already had a lot of rain.
A level 2 of 3 warning was given for severe storms in Greece on Wednesday. This means that there could be very heavy rain and even tornadoes in some areas.
On Tuesday, the city of Volos, which is on the coast, got hit with a lot of rain. It rained about 10 times the usual amount in just 14 hours. The rain totaled approximately 375 mm.
The storm has killed at least three people in the country. An elderly man in his 80s was taken away by the flooding near the town of Karditsa in central Greece.
Greek Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said today that four people are still missing in central Greece, which has been severely affected by the storm. Kikilias said the storm was like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
Kikilias said that Volos, a port city, is still facing lots of rain and the consequences of flooding on Tuesday. The flooding caused damage to buildings and cars and made roads and bridges collapse. The storm will keep going on Thursday, and the port of Volos is not working because many parts of the city do not have electricity.
On Wednesday, meteorologist Dimitris Ziakopoulos, who works for the Greek government’s civil protection department, said that the amount of rainfall in Greece is very high compared to what is usually seen in Greece and other parts of Europe. Greek meteorologists have said that the rainfall is more than what is typically seen in a whole year.
The floods in Pelion, near Volos, caused the roads to collapse. People living in a nursing home in the city had to move to a different place because a part of the building fell down because of heavy rain. This was reported by Greek public broadcaster ERT on Wednesday.
Many people who were stuck in the floods in Pelion were saved and brought to safety by the Greek fire service. Greece’s weather service observed that 600 to 800 millimeters of rain fell in the area near mount Pelion in central Greece in just one day.
The police have stopped traffic from flowing in the towns of Trikala, Farsala, and Karditsa in central Greece.
The Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said that the country was experiencing a very severe weather event. He advised the public to obey instructions given by the authorities.
At least two people have died in Turkey due to flooding in the Igneada Sisli Valley of the Kirklareli district. This information was provided by the Turkish Ministry of Interior Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency.
According to AFAD, six people were saved, but four people are still missing.
Heavy flooding has also hit the coastline of Bulgaria’s Black Sea. On Wednesday, it was reported by the national broadcaster BNT that three people died in the Tsarevo area in southern Bulgaria. One more person is currently not found in Tsarevo.
Flooding in the area has made the buildings and structures break and hurt the roads and bridges.
The heavy rain is caused by a very powerful weather system with low pressure. The middle of the storm has started to move very slowly to the west of Greece in the Mediterranean Sea. It is predicted to cause lots of rain in the area for the next day or two.
The storm seems to be turning into a special kind of cyclone called a “medicane” which is similar to a tropical cyclone. These systems can cause dangerous weather in the Mediterranean Sea and nearby countries, like tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean or typhoons in the Pacific Ocean.
The flooding is the last event of a summer in Europe that has had very bad weather, including hot weather, and dangerous and damaging wildfires. Scientists say that as the climate crisis caused by humans gets worse, these kinds of extreme weather events will happen more often and be more intense.
Greece is experiencing heavy rain that has caused floods in homes, businesses, and roads. The extreme weather caused a wall to collapse, resulting in at least one person dying.
In the past day, some areas have received a lot of rain due to a strong storm passing through. This has caused flash floods, which can be very dangerous.
Greece’s leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, says they are experiencing very bad weather and wants people to listen to the authorities.
The rainfall is very heavy in central Greece and on the island of Evia and the Sporades Islands.
A man was killed on Tuesday when a wall fell on him in a village called Agios Georgios, near the city of Volos. The Greek fire service reported this.
Another man is missing because his car was carried away on the edges of Volos, as reported by the fire service to CNN.
The police in Volos and nearby areas, and also on Skiathos island, have prohibited traffic movement. Part of the hospital in Volos has been flooded.
The storm named Daniel by meteorologists in southeast Europe is moving slowly across the country towards the southwest.
The middle part of the storm is moving towards the Mediterranean Sea, but it will still cause a lot of rain and flooding in Greece and nearby islands in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Warnings for heavy rain and thunderstorms have been posted for several provinces, specifically the coastlines in the east. The thunderstorms will happen regularly until Wednesday.
When the storm moves into the Mediterranean Sea, it might become similar to a tropical storm.
Medicanes are like tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic or typhoons in the Pacific, and they can create dangerous situations in the Mediterranean Sea and coastal countries.
The storm might get stronger in the next day or two because the temperature of the sea is warm, around 27 to 30 degrees Celsius, in the eastern Mediterranean.
The storm is arriving just when Greece is finally getting the wildfires under control after they caused a lot of damage in the country for several weeks.
Scientists say that the very bad weather in Greece this summer, like floods, fires, and extreme heat, will happen more often and get worse if people keep burning fossil fuels that warm the planet.
Areas near Athens and the Evros region near the Turkey border are still experiencing uncontrolled fires that have already claimed the lives of 20 people in Greece.
It is suspected that the eighteen individuals who recently crossed the border and were found hiding in the forests north of Alexandroupolis have lost their lives, with indications that they were refugees or migrants. Greece is very sad about the deaths in the Dadia forest near the Turkish border.
Fires have been burning near the city and along the coast for five days.
Firefighters are working to prevent a fire from spreading on the slopes of Mount Parnitha, which is located to the northwest of Athens.
Their attempts are being stopped by powerful winds that are making the fire grow and very hot temperatures of up to 40C (104F).
The fire service found the victims on Tuesday near a small house outside the village of Avantas, which is located north of Alexandroupolis.
“Sadly, their time in the Dadia forest ended in tragedy,”stated Pavlos Marinakis, a spokesperson for the government. He mentioned that people in the area had raised an alert about their presence and sent emergency evacuation messages using the mobile 112 service.
People who want to go to the European Union may face many dangers, like getting hurt, having their things stolen, getting arrested, being sent back to their country, or dying in the Mediterranean Sea. Now there is also a dangerous situation in northern Greece called a ring of fire.
According to Yiannis Artopios, a spokesperson for the fire service, no one has been reported missing. The people who died are believed to have just crossed the long border between Greece and Turkey along the River Evros.
For many people who are really eager to get to the European Union, the river is the way they can enter and the big forest on the other side helps to hide them.
According to the local coroner Pavlos Pavlidis, all the people who died were males. Out of those, two were underage. Their bodies were discovered in an area within a 500m radius, and some were found near a sheep pen.
Their bodies have been moved to Alexandroupolis to be examined after death. However, it will be hard to recognize these individuals and authorities will require families to step forward.
A man from Syria told the BBC that he is worried his cousin, who is 27 years old, died in the fire because he hasn’t been able to contact him for four days. The cousin was with a group of people from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They all wanted to go through a forest using a popular route.
The person from Syria said they wouldn’t have asked Greek authorities for help, even though they were told to evacuate, because they were scared of being sent back to Turkey.
Greek police have reported that during August, around 900 people per day attempted to cross the border, and several traffickers were taken into custody. People smuggling is a large and illegal industry that involves organized groups of criminals.
Last night, at the Ipsala border crossing, some young men attempted to climb onto a truck that was waiting to enter Greece.
Someone was able to hide by laying down flat on top of something. The rest of the people disappeared into darkness when they were seen.
Many people in the villages near Alexandroupolis are very angry because they think that the fires are being started by migrants who come across the border and hide in the forest before going further inland.
However, there is no proof that migrants caused the fire in the Dadia forest. Earlier this week, the mayor of Alexandroupolis said that the fires were caused by lightning during a storm.
A video was taken in Alexandroupolis that made many people in Greece very upset. It shows a man catching refugees and migrants and putting them in a trailer attached to his car. The man is walking around the trailer and blaming the migrants and refugees for trying to harm Greek people by setting them on fire. Then, he opens the door and inside are a group of scared young men.
The police took the man into custody, along with two other people who are believed to have assisted him. They also said that the video showed that 13 people from Syria and Pakistan were being held against their will, which is against the law.
Additionally, Georgia Adeilini, a top court investigator, is requesting two separate investigations. One will focus on determining what caused the fires in the Evros region, while the other will look into reported cases of racist violence towards migrants that have occurred after the tragic death of 18 individuals in the Dadia forest.
On the other side of the border, in a province called Canakkale in western Turkey, there have been wildfires for two days. Because of this, the government has asked 1,200 people from 11 villages to leave their homes for safety.
On Wednesday, boats were not allowed to travel in the Dardanelles Strait so that helicopters and other aircraft could collect water to fight the fires.
There are still fires happening in the Dadia forest in north-eastern Greece, but the largest area of fire in the Evros region has now moved to the west of Alexandroupolis.
The situation is getting worse for firefighters in the outskirts of Athens. They have evacuated three nursing homes from the town of Menidi.
Houses in Hasia and Fyli, near Mount Parnitha, have been destroyed by fire.
Greek authorities have asked thousands of people in the north-west part of the capital city, Ano Liosia, to leave due to safety concerns. However, many people have chosen to remain instead of evacuating.
Greece has criticized those responsible for starting fires and called them “arsonist scum” after police arrested 79 people for causing the wildfires that are destroying the country.
The Minister of Civil Protection, Vassilis Kikilias, said that some people tried to start more fires on Mount Parnitha near Athens.
The country has already experienced numerous fires that have resulted in the death of at least 20 people this week, and this fire is just one of them. Mr Kikilias said that you are doing something illegal against the country. “Mr Kikilias warned Greeks during a TV emergency briefing that bad people who start fires are putting forests, property, and especially human lives in danger. “
“We won’t let you get away with it. We will search for you and make sure you are responsible for what you did. “
Summertime fires often happen in Greece, and scientists believe that the growing number and strength of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, are caused by climate change.
Stefan Doerr, who leads the Centre for Wildfire Research at Swansea University, explains that when landscapes become more prone to catching fire, either because of hot weather or lack of proper vegetation control,it becomes easier for incidents like arson to quickly escalate into wildfires that spread rapidly.
The police and Greek intelligence service EYP are looking into the events, according to a report from AFP.
A government representative named Pavlos Marinakis told a Greek TV station that out of 140 people arrested for wildfires, 79 were arrested for starting the fires on purpose.
Many firefighters in Greece are fighting dangerous wildfires.
The big fire that started on Saturday near the city of Alexandroupolis has become the biggest fire ever recorded in the EU, says European commissioner Janez Lenarcic.
At the moment, there are fires happening on Mount Parnitha near Athens. These fires are burning in a forest that is close to the capital city, and they are also putting a national park at risk.
Earlier this week, the bodies of 19 people, including children, were found near the Evros region in northeastern Greece. It is believed that these people were migrants.
On Monday, a shepherd died in the fires in the Boeotia region.
According to Mr. Kikilias, the country is experiencing its worst summer since fire-risk maps were published in 2009.
Thousands of people were recently compelled to evacuate flames that broke out on the Greek island of Rhodes as well as in other parts of the nation.
The Greek fireservice says they have found eighteen dead bodies in a forested part of northern Greece that has been affected by wildfires for the past four days.
Preliminary information indicates that the people who passed away could have been immigrants. A coroner and a team of investigators are going to the Dadia forest to look into something.
The area called Evros in northeastern Greece, which is close to the border with Turkey, has been badly damaged by fires.
Patients had to leave the hospital because the fires came close to Alexandroupolis.
The fire reached the area around the city’s hospital. Newborn babies and patients needing special care were moved to a boat at the city’s port.
Another person, who was also thought to be a migrant, had died earlier in a nearby village close to Alexandroupolis. The emergency services sent text messages to the surrounding areas, telling people to evacuate.
The Dadia national park is a big forested place north of Alexandroupolis, and fires have been spreading there quickly since Monday.
According to a spokesperson for the fire service named Yiannis Artopoios, they are looking into the possibility that the 18 people who were found dead on Tuesday might have entered Greece without permission because there were no reports of anyone missing.
The Evros region has become a common path for Syrian and Asian migrants to enter the European Union by crossing the River Evros from Turkey.
Three people who are allegedly Russian spies in the UK have reportedly been apprehended and prosecuted as part of a large national security probe, according to the BBC.
The defendants, who are all Bulgarian nationals, have been incarcerated since their detention in February.
They are accused of possessing these while knowing they were fake and of doing so with “improper intent.”
The documents are from the UK, Bulgaria, France, Italy, Spain, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, and the Czech Republic. They also include passports, identity cards, and other paperwork.
Five persons were detained in February on suspicion of violating the Official Secrets Act, including the trio.
They are scheduled to return in September to answer police bail after being detained by counterterrorism detectives from the Metropolitan Police, which is in charge of national policing of espionage.
Later in February, three of them were accused of violating the Identity Documents Act.
Orlin Roussev, 45, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Bizer Dzhambazov, 41, of Harrow, north-west London
Katrin Ivanova, 31, of the same Harrow address
They are still being held and will next be seen at the Old Bailey.
The trio has been residing in the UK for many years, holding a range of jobs, and residing in several suburban homes.
Mr. Roussev has previously conducted business in Russia.
He relocated to the UK in 2009 and worked three years in a technical capacity in the financial services industry.
His eventual ownership of a company engaged in signals intelligence, which entails the interception of communications or electronic signals, is noted on his online LinkedIn page.
Mr. Roussev claims he had served as an adviser to the Bulgarian ministry of energy. His most recent address is a coastal hostel in Great Yarmouth.
Former neighbours in Harrow called Mr. Dzhambazov and Ms. Ivanova a couple.
Ms. Ivanova defines herself as a laboratory assistant for a private health company on her online LinkedIn profile, while Mr. Dzhambazov sees himself as a chauffeur for hospitals.
The two, who immigrated to the UK some ten years ago, established a community initiative that assisted Bulgarians by introducing them to the “culture and norms of British society.”
Online state records for Bulgaria show that they also worked for electoral commissions in London that made it easier for nationals of other countries to participate in Bulgarian elections.
Speaking to the BBC, neighbours at two homes that the couple previously called home claimed they left gifts of round pies and cakes.
Neighbours claimed investigators spent a lot of time searching their most recent Harrow property, and there was a noticeable police presence there for more than a week.
At the Old Bailey in London, the three accused are scheduled to stand trial in January. They have not yet pleaded guilty to the accusations.
Counterterrorism police have openly discussed the growing amount of time devoted to investigating alleged state threats and espionage, particularly with regard to Russia.
Their worry stems from well-known occurrences involving Russian intelligence operations in the UK in recent years.
In Salisbury, Wiltshire, in 2018, Russian agents made an attempt to kill ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia by using the lethal nerve chemical Novichok. The two were hospitalised for treatment and at risk of passing away, along with responding detective Nick Bailey.
Dawn Sturgess, a local resident and unrelated to the Skripals, passed away later that year after being exposed to the nerve toxin that had been put in a perfume bottle in Wiltshire.
Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer, died in London in 2006 after being poisoned by assassins employed by the Russian government.
Based on the most recent UK weather forecast, people should be prepared for a soggy week because nine days of rain are expected.
Forecasters have issued a warning to those who are currently spending their summer vacations at home, saying they may experience a washout.
The heatwave that has triggered wildfires and droughts around the world is still going strong, so while the UK faces heavy rain showers, Europe will continue to experience blistering temperatures.
Beginning on Sunday, July 30, Britain can anticipate showers and a chilly wind for nine straight days.
Greece and Italy‘s temperatures will continue to climb in the meanwhile.
The arrival of this weather coincides with the recent summer break for millions of kids from school.
The inclement weather may prevent thousands of families from taking planned excursions to the beaches and national parks in the UK.
The end of August is expected to bring ‘sometimes warmer’ weather, according to the Met Office.
A protracted dry and hot spell, it was noted, seemed improbable.
The driest weather is expected to be in sections of the West and South, while the North and North East will likely have cloudier skies and more frequent showers.
It will frequently be windy, more so than normal, and there may even be significant gusts. Most temperatures will be below average.
In the meantime, flames have been raging around Greece for more than two weeks, including outside the capital Athens and in Rhodes.
Fires have claimed the lives of five persons, including two firefighting pilots. The mercury has surpassed 40C.
Several large explosions at an air force ammunition stockpile have been brought on by wildfires in Greece.
In central Greece’s Volos region, raging fires eventually spread to the military installation in Nea Anchialos due to strong winds.
As the area was previously evacuated, officials have confirmed there have been no injuries reported, according to ITV.
Greek F-16 fighter bombs and ammo were reportedly kept at the location, according to local media.
The sequence of big explosions on the nearby homes reportedly caused windows to break.
The local villages have not reported any injuries, according to the fire department.
Twelve communities in the Volos-Nea Anchialos region were told to evacuate, according to Fire Service spokesman Ioannis Artopios.
Our men failed to put out the fire despite their extraordinary efforts, he claimed.
In addition to delaying national rail services travelling through the area, the blaze caused the closure of a portion of Greece’s main roadway and burnt on three fronts.
Achilleas Beos, the mayor of the city of Volos, urged the remaining villagers’ citizens to heed the evacuation order, noting that about 80% of them had already departed. Numerous locals, according to the coastguard, were transported to Volos on small private boats.
Up to 10,000 British tourists may have been impacted by the evacuation of thousands of tourists from the nation.
Rhodes residents beg for assistance, saying, “We have no control over the fire.”
On the island of Rhodes, about 19,000 people have been evacuated, while at least 2,500 people have also left Corfu.
Due to the rising flames, tourists were forced to leave hotels and were forced to walk through temperatures above 40°C while sleeping on sun lounger cushions on the ground.
There have been requests for the Foreign Office to modify its recommendation that people should postpone all but absolutely necessary travel to Rhodes.
Extreme temperatures have been created by the Cerberus and Charon heatwaves in southern Europe, with Gythio in Greece topping the records so far with 46.4C.
A British mother spoke of feeling helpless as flames tore through the Greek island of Rhodes, leaving her family “stranded.”
Rhodes is a famous summer holiday destination for British tourists in Greece and is well-known for its sand beaches, historic temples, and nightlife.
However, authorities claim that roughly one in ten tourists have been touched by the flames, which have prompted thousands of residents to leave from seaside settlements.
Footage from Kiotari and Lardo resorts has shown sightseers against a murky orange sky dragging suitcases or fleeing hotels without their luggage at all.
Others have described waking up today to ash falling on them from above as wildfires raged for the sixth night.
Thousands of miles away, Brits like Debbie Antoine are watching the unfolding scenes and are terrified of what will happen to their families vacationing there.
Greek police say it’s the country’s largest-ever evacuation operation in response to a fire (Picture: AP)The wildfires have scorched southeastern beaches, officials sayNearly 20,000 people have been evacuated so far (Picture: Michael Stokes / SWNS)
Her daughter, Kelly Nicholls, who is staying at a five-star hotel along the upscale Kiotari beach strip, has lost ‘everything’.
‘My daughter Kell, her husband and two young children along with another family of four had to run for their lives from the Princess Andriana Resort & Spa,’ Debbie said, according to The Mirror.
‘They have walked for miles to escape and no one except local people have given them drinks,’ she said, adding that they have been sleeping on sun beds.
‘The hotel gave them towels and nothing else, no food or drink,’ Debbie added.
‘They are literally stranded and have lost everything as they ran in their swimwear.’
Eileen Mawton and her daughter Hannah Gormley and eight-year-old granddaughter Annabelle, also staying at the Princess Andriana Resort & Spa, said they had to run on foot in 40°C heat.
Some tourists have been hauled up in emergency shelters in stadiums (Picture: Reuters)
Friend Glynis Wall told The Mirror: ‘They said it was like images of a warzone.
‘Everyone around them was panicking. There were children and babies crying and mothers trying to protect them from the smoke.’
While Corinne Watson, 42, who is holidaying with her husband and two sons, said power outages at their hotel ’caused chaos’ but staff are ‘working exceptionally hard’.
‘For others, both tourists and locals, it is awful and terrifying,’ she told the PA news agency.
More than 19,000 people have been vacated so far in what police told local news outlet Ellada 24 is the largest fire evacuation operation ever carried out in the country.
Preliminary police data suggests 16,000 people have been evacuated over land and 3,000 by sea.
The wildfire has been burning since last week but was confined mainly to mountainous regions until winds and scorching temperatures pushed it eastside.
Orders to leave homes and hotels in Asklepiio and Kiotari and move to Gennadi were issued at 1:42pm yesterday, the Greek news agency ANA-MPA reported.
Holidaymaker David Woodhouse tweeted footage of him walking in a bathing suit alongside countless others from the TUI Plimmiri Hotel shortly after the alert.
Greece’s Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection said the evacuation ‘took place without problem’ and ‘care has been taken for the accommodation of those who had to be removed’.
Nine people have been admitted to hospital with breathing problems, regional health officials said.
The British Embassy in Athens said it is ‘closely monitoring the wildfire in Rhodes’.
The Foreign Office’s travel advice for Greece adds: ‘If you are a British national affected by wildfires in Rhodes near Kiotari, Pefkoi, Lindos and the surrounding area, please follow the guidance from the emergency services.
‘If you are planning to travel to Rhodes, please check with your travel operator or hotel prior to travel that the area you plan to visit is not impacted by the current wildfires.’
It comes as at least 46 forest fires were ignited throughout Greece in the last 24 hours, the country’s fire brigade tweeted at about 6:20pm local time.
Greece’s fire service spokesman, Ioannis Artophios, told reporters yesterday evening: ‘An extreme risk of fire is predicted in Attica, Evia, Boeotia, Phocis, Fthiotida, Magnesia, Larissa, Argolis, Corinthia, Messinia, in areas of Achaia and Ilia, and in the islands of the Rhodes Regional Unit, while the risk remains very high in the rest of the country.
‘The new heat wave creates dangerous conditions for the occurrence and spread of fires.
‘In the extreme situation we are experiencing, the attention of all of us is required.’
The tinder-dry temperatures are set to continue in Rhodes today, with Greece’s national weather service predicting 32°C in the morning before rising to 40°C by midday.
Even in the evening, the mercury will only lower by eight degrees, according to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service.
Cleon, named by Greek weather officials after the Athenian general and otherwise known as Cerebrus, has engulfed Greece, igniting wildfires last week near Athens.
Dan Jones, a director of sports for a school football team in Torbay, England, tweeted that the Rhodes wildfires have been the ‘scariest moment in my entire life’.
He said he and his three children climbed on a fishing trawler to get to safety.
‘I don’t know how they’ll process this when the dust settles, but what brave boys,’ he said. ‘Family is everything.’
It has been reported that pieces of a dismembered body were discovered at a waste management facility in Greece.
The head of a man was discovered in a blue plastic bag by the Dedisa staff, who work in the suburbs of Chania on the northwest coast of the island of Crete.
According to zarpanews.gr, a set of legs were also extracted from a second bag on Tuesday after further scrutiny.
It is understood the rubbish truck carrying the remains had arrived in Chania from Rethymno, another city in Crete.
According to the medical examiner called to the scene, the skull belongs to a man of Asian descent who had been dead for about 10 days.
An investigation into his death has been launched while the area around the plant has been cordoned off.
DEDISA general manager Kostas Paterakis stressed the workers have been left in a state of ‘shock’.
He said: ‘I was informed by the shift supervisor that a human dismembered corpse was found on the material sorting tape.
‘The production process was immediately stopped and the police department of Chania was duly informed.
‘There were three workers on the sorting line who brought the human limbs. From the side of the business, we will help the families of the employees.’
Authorities in Greece have now forced to restrict highways to prevent wildfires from reaching an oil refinery.
Tonight, low-flying water-dropping aircraft and helicopters battled two wildfires to the west of Athens.
To assist Greece, Italy and France each sent two firefighting aircraft.
Popular vacation destinations were evacuated just yesterday due to wildfires.
The planes and their teams are part of an EU civil protection mechanism, and they will join some 30 Romanian firefighters already stationed in Greece.
Forecasters have indicated more extreme heat is on the way, with temperatures so hot that the Acropolis was closed.
Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Varthakoyiannis said the main fire near Athens rapidly became a major crisis.
‘The Fire Service had to intervene in many instances to get people out of their homes,’ the spokesman said.
Officials cancelled holidays and leave for firefighters, while Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis cut short a visit to Brussels and returned to Athens to meet with the heads of the Fire Service and Civil Protection Agency.
Wildfires continued to burn out of control on Tuesday to the north and west of Athens, including a blaze near the resort town of Loutraki, where more homes were damaged and evacuations were expanded.
In Mandra, west of Athens, police ran through narrow streets to help residents into cars as the flames approached.
Earlier, police helped nuns leave a hilltop Orthodox Christian monastery that was also under threat.
Several smaller fires also broke out closer to the capital, where winds remained moderate but where scrub and forest land were dried out by extreme temperatures last week.
Authorities said sections of two motorways linking Athens to the western city of Corinth were closed to give firefighters better access to the fires and to stop the flames from approaching a major oil refinery.
Greece also activated a rapid mapping evaluation system, which uses EU satellite data to assess fire damage.
A second heatwave is expected on Thursday, with temperatures as high as 44C expected in central and southern parts of the country by the end of the week.
A wildfire in Greece that authorities are working to contain has been fueled by evening winds.
The enormous wildfire, which began on Tuesday to the west of the nation’s capital Athens, has so far consumed 35 square kilometres (13.5 square miles) of forest and shrubland.
Although authorities had the wildfire under control, recent strong gusts have caused it to start expanding once more.
Many residents have ignored an evacuation order from fire authorities in an effort to try and save their homes.
Resident Chrysoula Renieri, 72, tried to save her family home with some help but the wildfire cut off water in the area.
‘It’s all gone. We have suffered too much damage,’ she said.
Greece’s prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the fire service and civil protection authority would remain on alert as a new heat wave moved east across the country.
‘The hard times are clearly not over yet,’ Mr Mitsotakis said. ‘We are facing another heat wave and a possible strengthening of the winds. So, absolute vigilance and absolute readiness are required over the next few days.’
The country is set to hit 45C on Sunday.
The wildfire has been caused by stiffling heat which has gripped many Mediterranean countries like Spain, Italy and Greece.
A state of emergency was declared on the Greek island of Rhodes on Thursday, where evacuation orders were issued in several mountainous regions.
Meanwhile in Murcia, Spain, temperatures peaked at 44C and a man died from a heat-related issue, Spain’s public news agency EFE reported.
Temperatures in Spain are expected to rise again on Sunday like in Greece and Italy.
In Italy, temperatures of 44C were recorded in Sicily, while public health warnings to protect children, older adults and people with health problems remained in place on the island and mainland.
As the Cerberus heatwave continues to engulf the continent, temperatures in Europe could surpass records in the ensuing days.
With maximum temperatures reaching 37°C in Italy today, 39°C in Spain, 40°C in Cyprus, and 45°C in Greece this weekend, the heat is intensifying.
Rome, Bologna, and Florence are among the ten Italian cities that have been placed on red alert.
Spain also recorded its highest-ever land temperatures at 60°C on Saturday.
Italian politician Nicola Fratoianni tweeted: ‘We are facing an unbearable heatwave.
‘Maybe it’s the case that in the hottest hours all the useful precautions are taken to avoid tragedies like the one that happened today in Lodi.’
It was reported by local media that a man aged 44 collapsed in the town of Lodi, near Milan, due to the heat. He was taken to hospital and later died.
And storms in the northern Lombardy region ripped roofs off buildings, knocked down trees and caused severe flooding.
More than 200 firefighters were called to emergencies in Milan, near Lake Como and in the Alps.
Meanwhile in Greece, with the extreme temperatures expected to reach 45°C, the government is taking measures to protect citizens.
People are currently banned from entering nature reserves and forests due to the risk of wildfires, and air-conditioned areas are being opened in public areas so people can escape the heat.
Working animals – such as horses and donkeys offering rides to tourists – will not be allowed to work while temperatures are between 35°C and 39°C in the shade between midday and 5pm, and if temperatures exceed that they will not be allowed to work at all.
Spain reached temperatures of 45°C on Monday and more than 100 weather stations registered temperatures of at least 35°C as early as 6am yesterday.
The heatwave has been named after Cerberus – the three-headed dog from Greek mythology which guards the gates to the underworld.
Meteorologist Stefano Rossi told Italian outlet La Stampa: ‘Metaphorically, the three heads indicate the three main climatic zone into which Italy will be divided.’
Pictures show British tourists struggling in the heat, resting under trees and using their shirts as parasols.
But forecasters have confirmed the UK will be spared the extreme temperatures.
Met Office spokesperson Grahame Madge said: ‘The heatwave conditions which are affecting parts of south west Europe and north west Africa are expected to extend eastward.
‘Much higher than average temperatures are also likely at times further north across Europe, but these will be shorter lived and less impactful.
‘Communities in the affected regions should expect health impacts and the potential for wildfires.’
Scientists recently revealed heat-related deaths soared to 61,000 across Europe in 2022, which was the continent’s hottest-ever summer.
The Mediterranean region is expected to see temperatures rise faster than most areas across the world due to climate change.
Teenager who passed away while on vacation in Greece had “so much love to give,” his funeral service was told.
One of the teenagers who travelled to the island of Ios to commemorate the completion of their Leaving Certificate exams was Andrew O’Donnell, a student at St. Michael’s and other Dublin institutions.
On July 1, the 18-year-old passed away after allegedly falling while returning home from a night out. Max Wall, a fellow student, also passed away after becoming unwell hours later.
His funeral was held on Wednesday at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook and his beloved golden retriever dogs were amongst the mourners.
His father, Gavin O’Donnell, told the funeral: ‘Andrew filled our home with love and joy from the moment he arrived.
‘He loved, and was loved, by so many people.
‘We couldn’t be prouder of Andrew and the man he became – and we will miss him dearly.
‘Goodbye Andrew, my beautiful boy.’
His mother, Bebhinn O’Donnell, said they would always remember their son as ‘that wonderful and unconditionally loved bundle of joy’ they welcomed into their home when he was born.
‘You had so much love to give and you gave it out in buckets.’
She added: ‘Sleep well, we love you, we miss you but we will see you again one day.
‘Goodnight my beautiful boy, we are truly heartbroken.’
A photo of Andrew was placed on top of his woven coffin, and items including sporting medals, a Liverpool jersey, a lead used to walk his dogs Marnie and Maisie, and a Kanye West vinyl were laid at the alter.
Parish priest Ciaran O’Carroll offered his heartfelt condolences to Andrew’s family and the wider St Michael’s College school community.
Father O’Carroll said Andrew possessed a ‘vibrant spirit, a kind heart, unfailing loyalty, and a sense of humour that brightened even the darkest days’.
Father Moran, chaplain of St Michael’s College, told the mass: ‘We are here for the saddest of reasons, to say farewell to Andrew, a beloved son, a beloved older brother.’
He described Andrew’s life as ‘a mosaic of so many marvellous pieces’, acknowledging his family’s ‘time of unimaginable grief’ and adding: ‘Our hearts are broken as we think of your suffering.’
Father Moran also read tributes from classmates which have been pinned to a memory wall in St Michael’s College, many of which were addressed to Mr O’Donnell’s initials ‘AJOD’.
One read: ‘Wherever you are now, you are still making me laugh and be happy – just as much as when you were here. I love you bro.’
Another said Andrew’s smile ‘never failed to light up the room’.
One school friend wrote: ‘Andrew, you were a core part of the year and your loss is like having the heart ripped out of us.’
The funeral for Mr Wall, who was also 18, was held on Monday.
A boat sank off the southern coast of Greece, leaving at least 78 people dead and hundreds more still missing at sea.
According to local media, the ship capsized 45 miles south-west of the Peloponnese region with 700 passengers on board.
Since then, dozens more bodies have been pulled from the river, and the awful death toll is rising every hour.
The boat, which is thought to have been loaded with migrants and to have left from the port city of Tobruk in eastern Libya, is thought to have been travelling towards Italy.
A search and rescue operation is underway, but it remains unclear how many are missing at sea, the Greek coast guard said.
Authorities confirmed that 104 people have been rescued so, including four who were taken to hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.
Six coast guard vessels, a navy frigate, a military transport plane, a helicopter, and several private vessels from the European Union border protection agency Frontex are taking part in the ongoing search.
The Italian coast guard first alerted authorities and Frontex about the approaching vessel on Tuesday.
Traffickers are increasingly taking dangerously overloaded boats into international waters off the Greek mainland to try to avoid local coast guard patrols.
This comes after 90 migrants on a US-flagged yacht were rescued in the area after they made a distress call on Sunday.
Separately, a yacht with more than 70 migrants on board was towed to a port on the south coast of Greece’s island of Crete after authorities received a distress call.
A tragic incident occurred off the southern coast of Greece, where a fishing vessel carrying migrants capsized, resulting in the loss of at least 59 lives.
Over 100 individuals were fortunate to be rescued in the aftermath, making it the deadliest shipwreck in Greece this year.
The exact number of people aboard the boat remains uncertain, with Greek authorities and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) suggesting that there could have been hundreds on board. The boat was located in international waters by a Frontex aircraft, the EU border agency, late on Tuesday, according to Greece’s coastguard.
Unfortunately, despite the rescue operation’s initiation, the passengers reportedly declined assistance and were not wearing life jackets.
Tragically, a few hours later, the boat capsized and sank, further complicating the search and rescue efforts due to adverse weather conditions, including strong winds.
The vessel was reportedly heading from Libya to Italy, and the majority of those on board were said to be men in their twenties.
A migration ministry source told the AFP news agency that “hundreds” of people were on board. “We fear there will be a very large number of missing persons,” the official said.
The IOM tweeted: “We fear more lives were lost. Initial reports suggest up to 400 people were on board.”
The nationalities of the victims have not yet been announced. Survivors have been taken to the town of Kalamata for treatment.
Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last month the Greek government came under international criticism over video footage reportedly showing the forceful expulsion of migrants who were set adrift at sea.
More than 70,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe’s frontline countries this year, with the majority landing in Italy, according to UN data.
100 bricks of cocaine were discovered by police in the northern part of Greece among bundles of bananas.
The containers were part of a shipment from South America that was making its way through the port of Piraeus.
Officers brought the suspicious crates to Thessaloniki where they discovered 161kg of narcotics hidden within.
The estimated market value of the cocaine discovered yesterday is €3,200,000, or £2.75 million.
It is believed that the drugs would have been distributed around Greece and wider Europe if they had not been intercepted.
For several weeks, Greece has been carrying out a joint investigation with North Macedonian authorities and the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
Last month, they found around 100kg of cocaine at a warehouse in Thessaloniki, also hidden in containers of bananas.
There have been 14 arrests made relating to that discovery, including several people believed to belong to an international organised crime ring.
In that case, the fruit shipment was ordered and paid for by a company based in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje.
While the size of Saturday’s discovery was significant, it’s fairly tiny compared to a consignment found in Portugal at the beginning of May.
Yet again smuggled via a container of bananas, the cocaine seized at the port of Setubal, south of Lisbon, weighed 4.2 tonnes and was worth around €100 million.
In the past few years, the drug has also been found creatively hidden in shipments of oranges, sweet potatoes, soy flour and Covid masks.
Former England midfielder,David Beckhamhas noted that he sometimes acted abnormally in his marriage due to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
David Beckham and Victoria have been married for years and know each other perfectly well.
“Everything must be ordered in a straight line and [things] must always be even,” Beckham said.
“When I put soft drinks in the fridge, they must be even numbers, if they are odd I remove one and put it in a different cabinet. If I go to a hotel, before I relax I have to put all the pamphlets and books in the room in a drawer.”
Beckham will soon release a documentary on his illustrious career. It will be produced by Netflix and directed by Fisher Stevens.
The release date has yet to be announced but everything suggests that it will be at some point this year. According to the first information that came out, David will discuss about the hours he spends cleaning and tidying his house before going to sleep and we will see him every night aligning the light switches or cleaning candles.
“It’s tiring going around every single candle cleaning it,” he noted.
“I clip the candle wax, I clean the glass, that’s my pet hate, the smoke around the inside of a candle… I know, it’s weird.
“The fact that when everyone’s in bed I then go around, clean the candles, turn the lights on to the right setting, make sure everywhere is tidy.”
These habits have led to many arguments with Victoria. Some of these disagreements will be shown in the series.
One of the reasons the couple argues is leaving the salt out of place in the kitchen. In addition, both of them in front of the cameras will exchange opinions on this matter in a funny and sarcastic way.
Throughout the series, we will get to know Beckham better as he will show unpublished images of his childhood and home videos of intimate moments of his family.
He will also discuss his professional career and remember his best matches, as well as the goal he scored against Greece to help England to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.
‘Bags of love notes’ are reportedly being sent to the murderous husband of Caroline Crouch, who strangled her before staging a robbery.
Babis Anagnostopoulos, 34, has received a reported ‘astounded’ number of letters from ‘fans’ since being sentenced to 27 years in prison.
The 19-year-old was killed by the helicopter pilot, who then tied himself up and killed their dog Roxy to make it appear as though thieves were responsible for the attack in May 2021.
He also abandoned their infant Lydia, who was found in Attica, Greece, next to her mother’s decomposing remains.
Now in prison in remote Malandrino, Anagnostopoulos apparently has ‘bags’ of fan mail.
A guard at the high-security jail told The Sun: ‘We read, as is protocol, all the mail and have been left astounded.
‘They are written by women, Greek women, who say they are in love with him.
‘They believe he is innocent, that Caroline’s murder was premeditated and everything happened in the heat of the moment.’
Caroline suffered a ‘long and agonising death’ after Anagnostopoulos suffocated her with a pillow (Picture: REX)
A state coroner said Caroline suffered ‘a long and agonising death’.
She was pinned down as she slept while Anagnostopoulos held a pillow over her face for five minutes.
After police analysed his smart watch it became clear he was the killer.
He is trying to overturn the sentence by arguing there were ‘mitigating circumstances’ around the brutal murder.
An appeal was due to take place yesterday, but this was postponed as his lawyer fell ill.
Caroline’s dad, David Crouch, from Liverpool, has said his priority is now raising Lydia.
He told local TV station Mega: ‘I am determined that the monster who killed her mother, as well as those two ridiculous people who are his parents, will never see my granddaughter again.’
The now three-year-old girl lives in the Philippines with the family of Caroline’s half-sister.
Anagnostopoulos’ parents are only allowed to speak to her for only one hour a week via Skype or other electronic means, according to a court order.
On Thursday, officials revealed recordings in which a train driver involved in one of the country’s deadliest train accidents in recent years was instructed to disregard a red signal, adding to the anger in Greece over lax rail safety.
After a passenger train carrying more than 350 people and a freight train collided head-on on Tuesday evening in Tempi, close to the city of Larissa, protesters descended onto the streets. Late on Thursday, the crash’s dead toll reached 57.
Protesters clashed with police in the capital Athens, the country’s transport minister resigned in the wake of the tragedy and a rail workers’ union is going on strike, accusing the government of “disrespect” in the sector.
Another 48 people remain in hospital as a result of the crash, which left toppled carriages and scorched debris in its wake. Six of the injured being treated are in critical condition due to head wounds and serious burns, public broadcaster ERT reported Thursday.
After a train station manager in Larissa was arrested in connection to the collision, Greek authorities on Thursday made publicstriking dispatch recordings that show one of the train drivers receiving instructions to ignore a red light.
“Proceed through red traffic light exit until traffic light entry of Neon Poron,” the station master is heard saying.
“Vasilis, am I good to go?” the train driver responds, to which the train master says “Go, go.”
In a second conversation, the station master can be heard ordering an employee to keep one of the trains on the same track.
“Shall I turn it now?” the employee asks.
“No, no, because 1564 is on this route,” the station master says.
The station master has been charged with mass deaths through negligence and causing grievous bodily harm through negligence. Upon arrest he blamed the collision on a technical fault, though later admitted to “making a mistake.”
Protesters gathered outside the central Athens headquarters of Greek rail company Hellenic Train again on Thursday evening in a demonstration organized by student and worker unions.
Police already had a presence outside the Hellenic Train headquarters before the demonstrators arrived. The protest was peaceful, following unrest on Wednesday in which demonstrators clashed with police.
Most of the passengers involved in the accident were young, a local hospital told ERT. The accident came soon after a holiday weekend.
Search and rescue operations will continue on Thursday and Friday at the site of the crash, according to the Fire Service.
Meanwhile, relatives of those missing are still awaiting news regarding their loved ones as the identification process continues at Larissa General Hospital.
Speaking earlier to Greek media, Dimitris Bournazis, who is trying to get news about his father and brother, said no one has given him any information. Bournazis said he was trying to contact the company to find out where on the train his relatives were sitting at the time of the crash. He said he called the offices of Hellenic Train three times but no one has called him back.
“The prime minister and the health minister came here yesterday. Why? To do what? To explain what? Where are they today?” Bournazis told Greek broadcaster SKAI, adding that “no one has given us any information, no one knows how many people really were inside.”
“We cannot only blame one person for this because of a mistake. Where is everyone else now? They all await the election to speak,” he said.
Speaking to ERT, passenger Andreas Alikaniotis, who was in the second carriage during the collision, described the moments following the crash.
“What we did was to break the glass, which was already cracked, and to throw the luggage outside the carriage, so we can land somewhere soft,” he told ERT, describing how he helped around 10 people escape.
“We jumped 3 to 4 meters,” he added, “first the more seriously injured and then us with lighter injuries”
Alikaniotis added that he remembers pulling up two or three girls and helping them get to the window to jump. “There was panic,” he added.
Greece has a weak record of railway passenger safety compared with other countries in Europe, recording the highest railway fatality rate per million train kilometers from 2018 to 2020 among 28 nations on the continent, according to a 2022 report from the European Union Agency for Railways.
In an extraordinary meeting, the Greek federation of rail workers decided unanimously to launch the 24-hour strike on Thursday to highlight poor working conditions and chronic understaffing.
It accused the federal government of “disrespect” towards railways for causing the crash, saying “more permanent staff, better training and mainly the implementation of modern security systems, are permanently thrown in the bin.”
Separately, another 24-hour strike was announced by Greek metro workers, who said in a statement: “There are no words to describe such tragedy.”
Greek transport minister Kostas Karamanlis said the railway system the government inherited was “not up to 21st century standards” as he stepped down from his role Wednesday.
He said the transport minister’s decision to resign was honorable, and added that the heads of Hellenic Railways Organization and its subsidiary ERGOSE have also submitted their resignations.
Condolences have poured in from across the world, while a three-day period of mourning is under way in Greece.
Britain’s King Charles said in a statement that he and his wife Camilla, Queen Consort, have been “most shocked and profoundly saddened by the news of the dreadful accident.”
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted: “My thoughts go out to the families of the victims of the terrible accident that took place last night near Larissa. France stands alongside the Greeks.”
After a goods and passenger train collided in Greece, at least 36 people perished, prompting hundreds of people to hurry to donate blood.
Just before midnight on Tuesday, a passenger train from Athens to Thessaloniki collided with a goods train heading from Thessaloniki to Larissa.
In one of the deadliest rail catastrophes in recent years in the country, carriages once carrying more than 350 passengers and employees were crumpled and twisted into knots of smokey metal.
Many of the young people who died were college students returning from carnival celebrations in Athens – the first since the coronavirus pandemic.
Why the head-on crash happened is still unclear (Picture: EPA)Hundreds gathered at an emergency blood donation drive in Larissa to help survivors Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras (C) was among those giving blood (Picture: AFP)
Around 85 people found injured within the buckled carriages or injured by the ensuing fire have been taken to hospitals in Larissa, the closest city to the site.
Shock, anger and grief were the emotions Greeks felt this morning as news of the fatal wreck spread.
Within hours, Central Square in Larissa was lined by hundreds of people voluntarily donating blood.
An emergency blood drive was organised by the Greek humanitarian group, the Hellenic Red Cross, in collaboration with two local hospitals to help those injured.
The former prime minister and current leader of the opposition, Alexis Tsipras, was among those donating blood outside the city’s general hospital.
The makeshift donation clinic was set up between humanitarian campaigners and hospital staffThe passenger train was travelling from Athens to Thessaloniki (Picture: metro.co.uk)
Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned this morning, saying he felt it was his ‘duty’ to step down ‘as a basic indication of respect for the memory of the people who died so unfairly’.
‘When something so tragic happens, it’s impossible to continue as if nothing had happened,’ he said.
‘It’s a fact that we inherited the Greek railway in a state that is not fitting for the 21st century,’ he added.
‘In those three and a half years we made every effort to improve this reality. Unfortunately, those efforts were not adequate to avert such a tragedy.’
The cause of the crash near the Vale of Tempe, a river valley about 235 miles north of Athens, is still unclear. It happened shortly after the passenger train came out from under a highway underpass.
Yiannis Ditsas, head of the Greek railway workers union, told Skai television that the trains raced toward one another for 12 minutes without realizing it as the automatic signalling at the spot of the crash hadn’t been working.
Passenger train collides with freight train in Greece, killing dozens
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The state’s railway system, he said, has the worst safety track record in Europe.
Police said this afternoon that the station manager in Larissa, about 20 miles from the crash site, has been arrested.
Local news media reported that the man, 59, who was in charge of signalling, had directed the shipment train onto the same track as the passenger train.
The stationmaster has been charged with causing mass deaths through negligence and causing grievous bodily harm through negligence, a police official said.
He has denied any responsibility, attributing it to a possible technical failure, and will be brought before an investigator tomorrow.
Two other rail officials have also been questioned.
Survivors have described scenes of horror. The impact of the two trains smashing into one another sent riders flying through train car windows, while others were buried beneath metal beams.
It appeared to be the country’s deadliest rail accident in recent years Dozens were injured and many more are feared missing Survivors have described watching the train carriages be consumed by fire and panic (Picture: AFP)
State broadcaster ERT quoted rescuers saying they found victims’ bodies 100 to 130 feet from the impact site.
Fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis said temperatures in the first carriage had reached 1,300° C, making it hard to identify those trapped inside.
Stefanos Gogakos, who was in a rear carriage, said the crash felt like an explosion. Flames, he said, consumed the front of the train, burning it to a shell.
‘The glass in the windows shattered and fell on top of us,’ he told ERT.
‘My head hit the roof of the carriage with the jolt. Some people started to climb out through the windows because there was smoke in the carriage.
‘The doors were closed but in a few minutes train staff opened them and we got out.’
16-year-old boy’s shooting last week has been the cause of days of unrest in Thessaloniki, Athens and other parts of Greece.
A teenage boy from Greece’s Roma community who was shot in the head during a police chase over an allegedly unpaid petrol station bill has died, according to members of the Roma community and the hospital that was treating him.
The 16-year-old had been hospitalised for more than a week in the northern city of Thessaloniki after he was shot in the early hours of December 5 by a police officer on a motorcycle.
Police were pursuing the boy after he allegedly filled up his pickup truck at a gas station and then left without paying the 20 euros ($21) bill.
The shooting led to days of often violent protests in Thessaloniki, Athens and other parts of Greece by members of the Roma community, despite pleas by community officials and some members of the boy’s family to maintain calm.
“Everyone here is crying. It is unjust for a child to leave like this,” said Antonis Tasios, secretary of the Roma community where the boy lived, confirming his death on Tuesday. “We have great pain.”
The hospital treating the boy, who has not been formally identified, said he was hospitalised in critical condition in the intensive care unit after undergoing emergency surgery, but that despite all efforts by medical staff, he died on Tuesday morning.
Racist motives
The Roma community has denounced the shooting as having racist motives.
Several Roma men were injured or fatally shot in recent years while allegedly seeking to evade arrest for breaches of the law.
Members of the Roma community in Greece have long faced discrimination, and many live on the margins of society.
The 34-year-old police officer accused of firing the shot has been suspended and under house arrest since Friday pending a court decision on whether to remand him into custody before trial in a felony count of attempted manslaughter with possible intent and a misdemeanour count of illegally firing his weapon.
Police have said the teenager tried to ram the police motorcycles involved in the chase with his pick-up truck.
The officer said during an initial court appearance last week that he had fired his weapon because he feared for the lives of his colleagues.
Citizens’ Protection Minister Takis Theodorikakos, who has jurisdiction over Greek police, tweeted his “deep sorrow for the death of the 16-year-old boy” and extended his condolences to the teenager’s family.
“I repeat that this case is being investigated by the judicial system, which is the only one competent to assess the facts and judge responsibilities,” the minister wrote. “Let us all respect that.”
An EU embargo on Russian oiland a transit fee hike to use the Bosphorus Strait are reviving a shelved pipeline plan.
A European Union embargo on Russian oil that takes effect on Monday has led Greece and Bulgaria to talk about reviving a long-defunct oil pipeline project that bypasses the Bosphorus Strait.
The pipeline would run 280km (about 174 miles) from the port of Alexandroupolis on the Aegean Sea to the port of Burgas on the Black Sea, and might continue as far north as the port of Constanza in Romania, Bulgaria’s Energy Minister Roman Hristov told Al Jazeera.
“We have a two-year derogation [from EU sanctions] to buy Russian oil, but after that, we will face problems because of the hike in transit fees through the Bosphorus,” Hristov said in answer to a question from Al Jazeera at an energy conference in Athens.
So, we have begun discussing the revival of the Burgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, and its extension north to the ports of Varna and Constanza,” he added.
“We support the project,” said Greek Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas in a statement. Neither minister agreed to answer further questions.
The EU move disrupts tanker trade from Russia’s oil export terminal at Novorossiysk on the Black Sea’s east coast to EU ports on its west coast.
Other suppliers
Refineries at Burgas and Constanza can still buy oil from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
A Kazakh oil pipeline ends at the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) Terminal near Novorossiysk, and an Azeri oil pipeline terminates at Georgia’s Supsa further south.
But it is not enough to satisfy their needs, especially when Ukraine’s needs are taken into account.
The deficit is filled by additional volumes from other sources that are shipped into the Black Sea through the Bosphorus Strait.
The original Burgas-Alexandroupoli pipeline idea, first aired in 1993, was to flow south, exporting crude oil from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean and beyond.
“The real problem was delays and bottlenecking at the strait. This is very easy to overcome with a pipeline,” said Mike Myrianthis, a Greek oil industry veteran who was involved in the project at the time.
“We wanted to be tied to a major producer for long-term supply … There was a very good relationship with Russia then,” he told Al Jazeera. “I remember we were talking about a second, parallel pipeline.”
In 2007, Greece, Bulgaria and Russia signed a political agreement to build the pipeline, with Russia promising to provide 35,000-50,000 tonnes of oil a year to fill it.
A 650,000-tonne tanker farm in Alexandroupolis would ensure a constant supply to ships.
But Bulgaria pulled out of the project in 2010, citing environmental concerns. Industry insiders tell Al Jazeera it was US opposition to dependence on Russian oil that scuppered the project.
But Russia would not benefit from the north-flowing pipeline, and the idea has acquired new urgency with Western sanctions on Russian oil, which the International Energy Agency assumes to be permanent.
Last October, Turkey added impetus to the pipeline when it hiked transit fees for tankers using the Bosphorus Strait fivefold to $4 per tonne of oil, adding about half a percentage point to current oil prices.
Turkey would raise its income from transit fees from $40m to $200m a year, according to the Daily Sabah newspaper.
Turkey has its own plan to bypass the congested Bosphorus with a waterway running west of it. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan proposed Canal Istanbul amid great fanfare in 2011, but construction has not yet begun.
Geopolitical contest
Until the war in Ukraine, oil and gas pipelines flowed south from Russia through Ukraine and the Balkans.
The Ukraine war has thrown Greece and Turkey into geopolitical competition, as Alexandroupolis has begun to reverse these energy flows, while Turkey is becoming Russia’s new southern conduit.
“The idea is to create a north-south pipeline axis for gas and oil, which will also be reinforced by rail transport. All this network is ultimately meant to end up in Ukraine so even that country can be supplied from the south,” said Myrianthis.
In this contest, Greece’s region of Western Thrace has already become an important alternative to the Bosphorus.
A 2019 defence agreement has allowed the United States to use the port of Alexandroupolis as a logistics base to ship supplies and reinforcements to forward NATO members Bulgaria and Romania, and weapons into Ukraine itself.
The border of Romania with Moldova and Ukraine is only a day away from Alexandroupolis by rail, a faster transit than through the Bosphorus, and a more dependable one since Turkey announced it was closing the strait to all military traffic in response to the war in Ukraine.
Last May, Russia cut gas flows to Bulgaria, ostensibly because it refused to pay in roubles.
Greece has since become Bulgaria’s sole source of gas, which travels from Azerbaijan across Turkey and northern Greece through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
A member of the staff stands over a part of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) gas pipeline [File: Alexandros Avramidis/Reuters]
An Interconnector Greece Bulgaria (IGB), operational since October, siphons off a billion cubic metres a year from TAP to the Bulgarian gas network.
By the end of 2023, Alexandroupolis will acquire a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) to import liquefied natural gas (LNG), and the IGB pipeline will be extended 28km (about 17 miles) south to reach it, further eroding the Russian gas monopoly in Southeast Europe.
There is talk of a second IGB pipeline being built parallel to the first, and of at least two more FSRUs.
Greece-North Macedonia pipeline
Greece is in discussions with North Macedonia to build a separate gas pipeline to that country.
Greece, which plans to export 8.5 billion cubic metres of gas to the Balkans by 2025, is fast becoming the main supplier of non-Russian gas to the region.
The Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline would add another dimension to its role as a provider of energy security.
Turkey, too, has acquired geopolitical weight as Russian energy is gradually dislodged from Eastern Europe. Three Russian gas pipelines already enter Turkey.
At a meeting with Erdogan in Astana, Kazakhstan on October 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he was prepared to build a fourth, turning Turkey into an export hub for Russian gas.
“If there is an interest in Turkey and our potential buyers in other countries, [we] could consider building another gas pipeline system and creating a gas hub in Turkey for sales to other countries, to third countries, primarily, of course, to European ones, if they are, of course, interested In this,” Putin was reported as saying.
Following the explosion,the suspect fled to Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, which is far from the Taksim area where the blast occurred, according to Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul.
Before she was arrested at 2:50 a.m., Istanbul police checked 1,200 security cameras and conducted raids at 21 different locations where the woman was linked.
“The Turkish interior minister said that the police had a voice recording of a talk among PKK members that said she should be killed before police captures her,” Koseoglu said.
“The minister said the next step for the perpetrators was to escape to Greece before being captured by Turkish police.”
Tension between Turkey and Greece has escalated over recent months, largely surrounding disputes over border issues.
Andye was onlyin Paris for three days. On day one, she met Steven on board the Metro. It was a journey that would change their lives forever.
Andye was only in Paris for three days. On day one, she jumped aboard the Metro train that would change her life forever.
It was September 2016. Andye, born in Haiti and brought up in the US, was 25 and finishing up a Master’s degree in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands.
She was in that in-between phase of a degree when studies are over, but graduation is still to come.
“I decided, ‘I’m just going to travel for a month and then come back to Amsterdam,’” Andye tells CNN Travel.
Andye planned a month’s adventure exploring Italy, Greece, Egypt and India. On her way back, she returned via Paris to visit a close friend, Seyna, who lived in the French capital and was looking after some of Andye’s belongings.
“I got on the Metro to head back to my friend’s house where I’d dropped off my suitcases,” Andye recalls to CNN Travel. “And that’s where he got on.”
“He” was Steven, a 26-year-old Master’s student originally from the Central African Republic studying in Paris and working part-time in a school. (Andye and Steven have asked that only their first names be used for privacy reasons).
When Steven boarded the train, the carriage was already full of travelers. He was one of several passengers standing.
Meanwhile, Andye was sitting, her traveling backpack on her knee and her headphones on. Steven noticed her right away.
“I found her really beautiful,” Steven tells CNN Travel.
A few stops went by, the carriage emptied out, seats freed up and Steven ended up sitting opposite Andye. He kept glancing her way. She seemed to be looking at him too. Their eyes kept meeting.
Andye also noticed Steven amid the crowds of travelers.
“We just kept looking at each other,” she recalls. “He would turn around to look at me, and I would look away, and we just kept on doing that for like a good 15 minutes, just staring at each other and looking away.”
As the train sped underground the Parisian streets, Steven tried to think of a polite way to broach conversation with the girl with the backpack. He wanted to speak to her, but he was also conscious of respecting her space and privacy.
Meanwhile, Andye was silently fantasizing about the stranger opposite her.
She recalls being struck by his “calming energy.”
“He had really nice, muscular arms. I was like, ‘Wow, he looks like someone I could really get a nice hug from.’”
As these thoughts flashed through Andye’s mind, they were followed by another, sinking realization.
“I was like, ‘What if he’s my husband, but I’ll never know? Because I’m going to get off this train without ever speaking to him.’”
“Then, at some point — when our eyes finally caught each other, and neither of us turned back — I saw his lips move. So I removed one of my headphones.”
Metro meet-cute
Steven and Andye started chatting when they were on the same Paris Metro train in September 2016.
In French, Steven was suggesting Andye could move her heavy-looking backpack onto the now vacant seat next to her.
Andye, who is fluent in French, replied that it wasn’t necessary — the bag wasn’t heavy.
“Then, somehow, I just did not put on my headphones back, because I kind of was hoping that we would keep on talking,” says Andye. “And then the conversation continued.”
Steven asked if Andye was a student — because of the backpack — and she told him about her studies. Steven explained he was also working towards a Master’s degree.
“At some point, I had to get off the train to transfer, and he asked if he could get off with me. And I said, ‘You can do as you please.’”
As they got off the train together, Steven offered to help carry her backpack.
“I felt a bit nervous because I didn’t know him and I thought about how he could probably run away with my bag,” says Andye. “But my gut felt comfortable enough to allow him to take it.”
The two waited for the next subway station together, Steven holding the backpack. Then they got on the next train together and sat next to one another.
“We just kept on talking,” says Andye. “That’s when we realized that we actually were doing our Master’s in the same field of study. We were both studying sustainable development, and we started talking about that a bit.”
When the train arrived at Andye’s stop, Steven got off with her, handed her the backpack. They exchanged numbers, then Steven asked if he could give her a hug goodbye. Andye agreed.
“I thought that was so weird, because in France people just do the kisses on the cheek, they don’t hug,” recalls Andye.
“I was like, ‘Wow, what if this guy is a mind reader? Because earlier I was just thinking I could get a really nice hug from him.’”
After their hug, the two went their separate ways. Steven, glancing at his phone, realized his Metro detour had made him late for work.
Meanwhile, Andye reunited with her friend Seyna and immediately shared details of her Metro meet-cute.
Later that evening, Steven messaged Andye and nervously waited for a reply.
“When she responded, I screamed and ran to my cousin,” says Steven, recalling announcing that Andye was the woman he would marry.
Andye and Steven messaged back and forth all evening, trying to figure out if they could meet up again before Andye returned to Amsterdam. She had a tight schedule, and at first suggested it would be easier to meet in a few weeks — after graduation she planned to return to Paris for a week before she headed home to the US.
“Even if we see each other for just a quick second, I really want to see you before you leave,” wrote Steven in response.
Eventually, the two settled on meeting for a quick dinner on Andye’s last evening. Steven wanted to impress Andye and take her to a swanky restaurant, but Andye wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be late home, given she was traveling the next day.
They settled on a casual fast food spot, right next to the Metro stop where they’d parted the first time.
As Andye was getting ready for the date, Seyna teased her about her romantic Metro meeting and the subsequent date plans.
“She was really giddy about me going on the date,” Andye laughs.
When they saw one another again, both Andye and Steven felt excited.
“I felt butterflies in my stomach,” says Steven.
“We did the usual French greeting with one kiss on each cheek AKA ‘la bise,’” recalls Andye, who remembers trying to temper her excitement, given her imminent return to the US.
Inside the restaurant, the two settled into conversation quickly.
“We started talking and getting to know each other a bit,” recalls Andye.
Steven was straightforward with Andye, explaining he was looking for a relationship.
“I thought that was like, ‘Whoa, first date, like you’re doing too much for me.’ But I appreciated his sincerity,” says Andye. “We kept on talking and I got, again, that kind of like, calm feeling being around him.”
Andye’s original plan to keep the evening short no longer seemed so important. She suggested they go into the center of Paris to a bar.
Later, Steven accompanied Andye back to her friend’s apartment. Outside the door, they kissed. Then Steven returned to where he lived, further into the suburbs of Paris.
It was later than he’d realized, and trains had stopped running, so he walked most of the way. Steven says he didn’t mind, he was just caught up in the excitement and romance of the evening.
Meanwhile, Andye excitedly told Seyna about the date and how well it went.
“Then the next day I left to go to Amsterdam, but we kept in touch. He was messaging me the whole time I was in Amsterdam,” recalls Andye.
Long distance
Andye went back to the US, but she stayed in touch with Steven.
After graduation, Andye returned to Paris for a brief stopover before her return to the US. Once again, she arranged to meet Steven at the Metro stop by Seyna’s apartment.
The two hopped on the train together and went for a stroll along the Champs Élysées, through the Trocadéro area and towards the Eiffel Tower.
Andye and Steven tried to see each other as much as they could during those few days, often riding the Metro together. On one of these journeys, Steven turned to Andye and said he didn’t want her to return to the US.
“Why?” asked Andye.
“Because I love you,” said Steven.
“How can you love me? You don’t even know me!” said Andye.
Andye boarded her flight to the US at the end of September, with no imminent plans to return to Europe.
“We didn’t make plans to meet up, we kind of held hope that we were gonna see each other again, at some point,” says Andye.
“We decided that we’re going to keep in touch, and just keep writing to each other and talking,” says Steven.
Three months later, Andye started working with an international organization based in Washington DC. She soon learned the role involved business travel, mostly to Guinea. Serendipitously, flights often included a layover in Paris.
In March 2017, six months after their first Metro encounter, Steven and Andye reunited at Charles de Gaulle airport for Andye’s 24-hour stopover.
In the intervening months, the two had been in constant communication. But it wasn’t the same as finally seeing one another in person again.
“Wow, this person actually exists,” Andye remembers thinking.
“We talked a lot, we hugged a lot,” says Steven of their reunion.
But before long they were saying goodbye again.
Andye’s role involved traveling to West Africa every three months or so. She figured that each time, she would try to incorporate a Paris layover.
But Steven felt guilty that Andye was the one always traveling — he didn’t have a visa to travel to the US, so he couldn’t reciprocate the trips.
“It was getting complicated,” he says. “Because it was always Andye who would have had to travel, I thought it would have been even more complicated later on in the process.”
Steven didn’t communicate these worries to Andye. But she sensed something was up.
“I just remember him being less attentive, really distant. And I said, ‘Look, if you’re not into this, let’s just end it. I am not going to chase you. I love you. But I don’t like one-sided relationships. I would like for this to be reciprocal. And since it’s not, I’m kind of removing myself out of the equation.’”
Reunited in Paris
Andye and Steven reconnected in Paris after a few months apart.
A couple of months passed. Andye and Steven didn’t talk during this period, but they both thought about one another often. Meanwhile, Andye planned a trip to Paris to visit Seyna.
“I’m usually the kind of person, like once it’s over, it’s over. But with him I felt like this was more kind of a break than a breakup,” says Andye.
“I had my friend Seyna kind of reach out to him to see if he was okay, since I hadn’t heard from him, and tell him that I was coming to France for a week for vacation.”
Steven and Andye arranged to meet up during Andye’s trip.
“We talked a lot. We went out dancing, and then we kind of got back to how things were before,” she says. “I was in Paris for at least four to five days and we spent most of the time together.”
Steven says seeing Andye again after months of silence “reignited a fire” inside him.
“At that moment I thought to myself, ‘If I don’t make it work, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life,’” he says.
The two were able to talk candidly about the situation, with Andye explaining she didn’t mind that she was always the one traveling, given she could incorporate visits into work trips.
They parted on stronger terms.
“I was really easy and confident in our relationship after that visit, but I do think that it took a while for me to warm back up into it,” says Andye.
The relationship did have another wobble when Andye was back in DC. When they came back together again, Andye was firm: She told Steven they both had to be all in.
“I was like, ‘Look, I don’t have time to play games. If this is what you want to do, it’s not for me, I was very strict on my boundaries. I told him, ‘Look, if you’re really serious about this, here’s my mom’s number. You let her know that you’re serious about her daughter.’”
Within a week, Steven had sent a long paragraph to Andye’s mother.
“I tried to tell her a bit about myself,” Steven explains. “I said I was serious about Andye.”
Steven’s message had the effect of taking Andye and Steven’s relationship to the next level. They started talking about what country they might live in the future, and plans for marriage.
Andye and Steven’s temporary breakup made the relationship stronger.
The next time they reunited in France, in November 2017, Andye built a week’s vacation into her stopover.
“He came to pick me up and brought my favorite chocolate croissants to the airport,” she recalls. “He knows I’m addicted.”
It was during this trip that Steven proposed.
“When I met Andye, I felt at peace, in sync with all of nature’s elements,” says Steven. “But when I wanted to propose to her, I felt a wave of different feelings. I was asking myself what I would do if she said no and at the same time, I was excited at the idea that she would accept to be my wife. I was nervous and shaking internally.”
Andye accepted Steven’s proposal.
“I got that same calm feeling that I had that first day that I met him,” says Andye of the moment she said yes.
The couple kept the news to themselves for a short while, first telling Seyna, Andye’s Paris-based friend, and later Steven’s best friend.
The two decided to enjoy the engagement for a little while, and not rush into marriage They continued their long-distance romance and the following summer Andye spent four months in France with Steven. She’d quit her job and was in the middle of a short break, reconvening and figuring out her next steps career-wise.
“It was a really wonderful summer,” says Andye, recalling quality time spent with Steven, his family and friends.
While she was in France, Andye also looked into applying for jobs in Paris. But this proved trickier than she expected
Andye and Steven had previously figured it made most sense for Andye to move to France — Andye was fluent in French, after all. But after she struggled to find a France-based job, the couple started discussing the possibility of living together in the US instead.
Almost a year later, in July 2019, Steven’s fiance visa was approved. To celebrate, Andye and Steven went to Haiti. While there, they were inspired to plan their own Haiti-based wedding celebration.
Move to the US
Andye and Steven got married exactly three years after they met on the Metro.
Steven and Andye started their American life together in a tiny studio apartment in DC. They had a small wedding at a court office on September 16, 2019 — the three year anniversary of their Metro meeting — while anticipating a larger celebration in Haiti the following year.
Both Andye and Steven were thrilled to be living together after years of long distance. The two started a company together, Afrayiti, creating handmade apparel using African fabric.
Not long afterwards, Covid-19 hit the US. Steven lost his job, and early on, Andye caught the virus and was hospitalized.
She recovered physically, but struggled with anxiety for some time afterward.
“I became really anxious to the point where I didn’t leave my place for three months,” Andye recalls. “I didn’t even step outside of the door of our apartment.”
During this time, Andye says Steven was a huge support.
“I wouldn’t have survived this pandemic, if it wasn’t for him.”
Steven says there is no one but Andye who he’d want to spend lockdown with.
The Haiti wedding celebration canceled, the couple instead spent their time cooking, sewing and designing together.
As the pandemic waned, Steven encouraged Andye to reenter the world. She’s grateful for his patience during this period.
“I was so scared to go outside and he kind of really pushed me into taking just small steps,” says Andye.
In summer 2021, the couple relocated to Florida, enticed by the idea of more space, warm weather and proximity to the beach. They feel, says Andye, “at peace” in Florida.
A real life romantic comedy
Andye and Steven feel like fate brought them together.
Today, Andye and Steven are still Florida-based, planning future adventures together. Since the world opened up, they’ve visited Tanzania, Zanzibar and Costa Rica together.
When their Haiti wedding celebration was canceled, the couple decided to start a tradition where they plan a vacation to coincide with their anniversary. Right now, they’re in Mexico celebrating six years since their Metro meeting and three years since their courthouse wedding.
“One of the things that is symbolic — and I don’t think he notices — is when we’re traveling, he likes to ask me [if he can] carry my backpack,” says Andye.
Steven’s been carrying her bag, “since day one,” says Andye, laughing.
While Andye and Steven think they were fated to meet Steven on the Metro that day, they both have moments when they marvel at what happened.
The couple love to travel together. Here they are in Costa Rica in 2021.
“There are days where I say to him, “God, I’m married to a stranger that I met on the train in Paris,’” she says.
“What if I was late to take the train, what would have happened?” says Steven. “It’s destiny that brought us together.”
When Steven and Andye tell others how they met, they’re often told their story resembles a romantic comedy.
“Honestly, I feel like I am living a rom-com with him,” says Andye. “Especially as a Black woman, you don’t often see international love stories with Black women or Black men in them.
And I think for me, just sometimes when I think about it, I’m like, ‘Wow, I’m living my own rom-com.’ I don’t need to see it on TV, this is it.”
“There are days where I say to him, “God, I’m married to a stranger that I met on the train in Paris,’” says Andye. Here’s the two in Tanzania in 2021.
Source:myjoyonline.com
The BBC has learned that a new organisation working to repatriate the alleged Elgin Marbles to Greece would be overseen by a former Conservative culture minister.
Lord Vaizey, who served as minister of culture from 2010 to 2016, says that “a deal is within reach.”
On Thursday, the House of Lords will debate an act that restricts museums from disposing of objects in their collections.
The government said it had no intention of changing the law.
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) said: “The British Museum is prevented by law from removing objects from its collections, except in some narrow circumstances. The government has no plans to change this act.”
The Elgin Marbles are currently housed in the British Museum.
In a statement, the museum said: “We will loan the sculptures, as we do many other objects, to those who wish to display them to the public around the world, provided they will look after them and return them.
“Deepening public access and understanding, creating new ways and opportunities for collections to be shared and understood right across the world, and forging connections between the present and the past, remain at the core of what the British Museum seeks to achieve,” they added.
Asked recently about a potential deal that could lead to the return of the sculptures to Athens, Prime Minister Liz Truss said: “I don’t support that.”
IMAGE SOURCE,UK PARLIAMENT Image caption, Former culture minister Ed Vaizey will chair the new board aiming to return the sculptures to Greece
The fate of the Parthenon Sculptures, as they are more frequently becoming known, is the most high profile in the hotly contested debate about whether museums should return items in their collections to their countries of origin.
For years, Greece has lobbied to bring the sculptures home. They were removed from Greece’s Parthenon temple in the early 19th Century by the Scottish soldier and diplomat, Lord Elgin.
The British Museum has always said that only the government can decide their fate, though the government says the “collections are a matter for the trustees”.
Now an advisory body plans to campaign for a “win-win” deal as a poll shared exclusively with the BBC appears to show the majority of British people support sending the Marbles home.
Lord Vaizey is joined by other founding members on the advisory board of the Parthenon Project, an organisation founded by the Greek businessman John Lefas.
The board also includes two other Conservative peers, the renowned author Lord Dobbs and Baroness Meyer. They’re joined by Stephen Fry and the journalist Sarah Baxter.
The former Conservative Chancellor, George Osborne, now chairman of the British Museum, said earlier this year a “deal is to be done”, though the current Conservative administration appears less keen.
A poll of nearly 2,000 people, commissioned by the Parthenon Project, suggests while 16% of the British public think the Parthenon Sculptures should stay in Britain, 54% think they should be returned.
The strongest reason for supporting the return was because they “rightfully belong to Greece”.
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS Image caption, Polling suggests a majority of British people would support returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece
The Parthenon Project points to a breakdown of the poll which shows, amongst people who voted Conservative in 2019, 44% thought the sculptures should go to Greece and 28% didn’t mind either way.
Lord Vaizey, new Parthenon Project chair, said: “I am confident that a deal is within reach. Support for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures in Athens from the public, and in particular Conservative-leaning voters, is clear.”
He added it would be “in the best interests of the British Museum and UK government to begin meaningful engagement on this issue”.
On Thursday, Lord Vaizey will prompt a debate in the House of Lords about the National Heritage Act.
With growing calls from some quarters to return items held in British collections to their original countries of origin, some museums, including the V&A, run by Tristram Hunt, have called for the act to be amended or replaced.
The British Museum says it is restricted from returning items from its collection, including the Benin Bronzes from Nigeria, by another act, the British Museum Act of 1963. It has similar terms to the Heritage Act.
Other smaller museums aren’t bound by the same restrictions. London’s Horniman Museum recently announced it was returning its collection of Benin Bronzes. These items were looted by British forces in the late 19th Century.
Glasgow Museums has also agreed to return seven stolen artefacts to India.
The Parthenon Project believes a cultural exchange is a solution to the stalemate over the Elgin Marbles.
Fry said he was “delighted” to be supporting the Parthenon Project, adding: “I firmly believe that we now have a real chance to find a solution that benefits both Britain and Greece. It is time to put our energies into an exchange involving a revolving collection of never-seen-in-London before artifacts populating the Duveen Gallery in the British Museum,whilst the sculptures are returned to Greece.”
Egypt’s and Greece’s foreign ministers met Sunday in Cairo following controversial maritime and gas deals that their shared rival Turkey signed with a Libyan leader, officials said.
Cairo and Athens have strengthened ties in recent years, including cooperation in developing energy resources, combating terrorism, and signing new maritime border agreements with Cyprus.
At a joint news conference, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shukry, focused on the memorandums of understanding between Turkey and Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, the leader of one of two competing governments in divided Libya.
He said such agreements were a threat to regional stability.
The deals, signed last week in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, include the joint exploration of hydrocarbon reserves in Libya’s offshore waters and national territory.
Dendias slammed the deals as illegal, saying they infringed on Greek waters.
The Egyptian foreign minister, meanwhile, said Dbeibah’s government has no authority to conclude such deals, given that its mandate expired following Libya’s failure to hold nationwide elections in December last year.
He called for the U.N. to take a clear position on the legitimacy of Dbeibah’s government, saying the international body should not keep silent.
Turkey’s agreements with Dbeibah’s government came three years after another controversial agreement between Ankara and a former Tripoli government. That 2019 deal granted Turkey access to a contested economic zone in the gas-rich eastern Mediterranean Sea, fueling Turkey’s pre-existing tensions with Greece, Cyprus and Egypt over drilling rights in the region.
Dendias said the two ministers also discussed developments in the Aegean Sea, in reference to tensions with Turkey over the alleged deployment of dozens of U.S.-made armored vehicles by Greece to the Aegean islands of Samos and Lesbos.
There were no immediate comments from Turkey or Dbeibah’s government.
As a result, borrowing costs for the government will be higher than for Italy and Greece.
The UK does still have a cheaper rate for 10-year borrowing.
Professor Sir Charlie Bean, the former deputy governor of the Bank of England for monetary policy told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It now costs the UK government more to borrow than Italy or Greece, who we have traditionally thought of as being not quite basket cases, but certainly weaker-performing sovereign entities.”
Sir Charlie added the Bank was “rightly reluctant to have emergency meetings”, but added: “I think on this occasion if I had still been at the Bank in my role as deputy governor, I certainly would have been counseling the governor that I think this is one of the occasions where it might have made sense.”
Asked about the economic turmoil this could cause, he said: “The key thing is, if you call it, you have to take significant action.”
“The lesson is you go big, and you go fast,” he added.
Heat records tumbled and firefighters faced new blazes as much of Western Europe baked in a gruelling heatwave.
The UK, normally used to milder climates, saw temperatures of more than 40C (104F) for the first time.
Germany saw its hottest day of the year so far while Portugal raised its death toll after days of excess heat.
Deadly wildfires have swept the continent. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned there was worse to come.
Heatwaves have become more frequent and more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change.
“In the future these kinds of heatwaves are going to be normal, and we will see even stronger extremes,” WMO chief Peterri Taalas said.
In addition to record temperatures in the UK, several fire services declared major incidents after a surge in fires.
A major blaze in Wennington, east London, set homes alight. Residents who had to be evacuated told the BBC that some eight homes and possibly a local church had been destroyed in the fire, while a firefighter at the scene described it as “absolute hell”.
In France, 64 different areas registered record-high temperatures on Monday.
Although the all-time high for mainland France has not been topped, the south-west of the country has experienced its biggest wildfires in more than 30 years. Since 12 July, fires have engulfed more than 20,300 hectares (49,400 acres) of the wine-growing Gironde region.
Nearly 37,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes.
Cooler weather has now returned to the UK and France.
In Belgium, a fire broke out in dunes at the Belgian resort of De Haan, setting several vehicles alight. But following the ferocious heat, the country is now bracing itself for thunderstorms that could lead to 20-30mm of rain in some region, Le Soir newspaper reports.
Weather warnings are still in place in Germany as the heatwave continues to move north and east.
On Tuesday, the country experienced its hottest day of 2022. The national weather service recorded 39.5C in the western city of Duisburg. The Netherlands also reached the same high of 39.5C in Maastricht, forecasters said.
Temperatures in Portugal have decreased significantly. However, more than 1,000 heatwave-related deaths have been recorded since last week.
Wildfires have become a common consequence of these extreme temperatures across Europe.
Central and north-western Spain has also been ravaged by wildfires.
The Copernicus monitoring service – part of the EU’s Earth observation programme – said total carbon emissions from wildfires between June and July are the highest seen in Spain for the period since 2003.
In Belgium, a fire broke out in dunes at the Belgian resort of De Haan, setting several vehicles alight. But following the ferocious heat, the country is now bracing itself for thunderstorms that could lead to 20-30mm of rain in some region, Le Soir newspaper reports.
Weather warnings are still in place in Germany as the heatwave continues to move north and east.
On Tuesday, the country experienced its hottest day of 2022. The national weather service recorded 39.5C in the western city of Duisburg. The Netherlands also reached the same high of 39.5C in Maastricht, forecasters said.
Temperatures in Portugal have decreased significantly. However, more than 1,000 heatwave-related deaths have been recorded since last week.
Wildfires have become a common consequence of these extreme temperatures across Europe.
Central and north-western Spain has also been ravaged by wildfires.
The Copernicus monitoring service – part of the EU’s Earth observation programme – said total carbon emissions from wildfires between June and July are the highest seen in Spain for the period since 2003.
In Greece, a wildfire fuelled by gale-force winds raged on the mountainous region of Penteli, near Athens. It has damaged homes and and prompted local authorities to evacuate at least four areas and a hospital.
Forecasters in Italy are warning of temperatures as high as 40-42C between Wednesday and Friday.
Several wildfires have already been reported in the country, and blazes that broke out on Monday evening in Tuscany were still raging on Tuesday afternoon.
Residents and holidaymakers have fled towns and villages in France as fires are whipped up by high winds and tinder-dry conditions in several countries in Europe.
More than 10,000 people have been forced to leave the south-western Gironde region in the past few days.
Dozens of fires are burning in Portugal and Spain where temperatures have surged above 40C.
At least 281 deaths in the two countries were linked to the heatwave.
Several towns in western Spain have been evacuated.
Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.
Firefighters in Spain fought to protect the town of Monsagro as fires erupted further south in the Monfragüe national park, home to rare species of birds. The main N-5 route in Cáceres just east of the park was cut off when a forest fire reached the road.
— Emilio Mateos Ortega (@emiliomoska) July 14, 2022
Temperatures were set to top 40C in large areas of western Spain as well as Portugal on Friday. At Pinhão in the north, 47C was recorded on Thursday, a record high for July in mainland Portugal.
However, forecasters in Spain said temperatures would begin to fall on Friday.
The Carlos III Health Institute said on Thursday that at least 43 people had died during the first two days of the latest heatwave, on Sunday and Monday, because of the heat.
Health officials in Portugal recorded 238 deaths more than normal since 7 July which they attributed to the very hot and very dry conditions. The worst affected are the elderly, children and people with chronic diseases.
More than 30 fires were active in Portugal on Friday morning, including one in a forest at Pombal in the central region of Leiria which has lasted a week. More than 300 sq km have been torched this year, a bigger area than in all of 2021.
The EU’s Copernicus emergency management service tweeted a map showing the biggest fire risks across Southern Europe and Morocco.
Extreme Danger is present in areas of:
🇵🇹🇪🇸🇫🇷🇮🇹🇦🇹ðŸ‡ðŸ‡·ðŸ‡§ðŸ‡¦ðŸ‡²ðŸ‡ªðŸ‡¦ðŸ‡±ðŸ‡¸ðŸ‡°ðŸ‡µðŸ‡±ðŸ‡ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡·ðŸ‡¸ðŸ‡¬ðŸ‡·ðŸ‡¹ðŸ‡·ðŸ‡¨ðŸ‡¾ pic.twitter.com/mkmsshOvJg
Police in south-west Francewent from door to door in an effort to evacuate 4,000 residents from the Cazaux district south-west of Bordeaux. Smoke could be seen close to the town of La Teste-de-Buch and there were long queues of traffic as people tried to leave and police blocked entrances to stop drivers getting in.
One holidaymaker, Matthias, told BFMTV how he and his son had been told to escape immediately: “We started packing our things but the lady told us, no, you have to leave everything as it is. You try to keep calm but it’s hard not to be scared because it happens so fast.”
IMAGE SOURCE,SDIS33/FRENCH FIRE SERVICE Image caption, Firefighters tried to stop the flames reaching La Teste-de-Buch and thousands of residents were told to leave
An estimated 73 sq km of pine forest has burned down in recent days, including around Arcachon and Landiras. Temperatures are set to reach 40C in some areas and the head of the national firefighters’ federation warned there were still two months of summer to go.
“The situation is highly complex. Our morale is still good but fatigue sets in fast. That’s why we’re calling for a target of 250,000 volunteer firefighters,” Mr Allione told RMC TV.
Italy and Croatia have also reported forest fires this week, and strong winds have greatly increased the risk of wildfires in five regions in Greece, civil protection officials have warned.
Central Greece, Attica and Create are among the areas most at risk and officials have appealed to Greeks not to do anything that could spark a fire.
Fires were reported in Crete and on the mainland in Attica on Friday. Emergency services issued an urgent appeal to residents south-east of Athens to flee the village of Feriza Saronikos for the coast.
The European Commission plans to make further financial support to protect the European Union’s external borders in Greece conditional on protecting human rights, said a commissioner.
“We have said that such a payment should be linked to the establishment of a mechanism to monitor fundamental rights,” European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson told Der Spiegel news magazine.
She said a working group had been established and that progress was expected in this area.
Greek border guards have repeatedly been accused of illegally pushing back migrants who try to reach the country by crossing the Mediterranean, sending them back to Turkey.
The Greek government denies that illegal pushbacks are taking place.
At the height of the refugee crisis six years ago, more than 850,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean from Turkey into Greece – and the European Union – within the space of a year, with much-fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.
Only 1,800 people have reached Greece by boat this year, according to the UN Refugee Agency’s data up to August 22.
Some 45 per cent of those fleeing were from Afghanistan, according to recent figures.
Restaurants and cafes across Greece opened ahead of schedule Monday as the country prepared to launch a shortened tourism season vital to its economy.
But with social distancing rules limiting businesses to around 50 percent capacity, and only outdoor tables allowed, many owners questioned the wisdom of reopening after a lockdown of over two months.
“We have to disinfect everything all the time… we’d have to hire someone to clean up and keep track of the customers… but are unable to do that,” cafe owner Vangelis Daskalopoulos told AFP in Athens.
“I don’t know how we’re going to manage,” he said, adding that he was torn between his fear of the virus and the need to keep his business running.
In cafes like his, a mandatory minimum distance of between 70 cm (28 inches) to 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) between seats is required, and a maximum of six seated customers per table is allowed.
Despite the misgivings of some like Daskalopoulos, patrons were happy for the chance socialise in cafes again.
“I’m thrilled to break the isolation of recent months and reconnect with friends,” said pensioner Giorgos Karavatsanis.
“The cafe in Greece has a social dimension, it’s where the heart of the district beats,” he said.
But some three in 10 cafes or restaurants were predicted to stay closed out of fear of slow business, Nikos Nifoudis of the Thessaloniki Catering Initiative told Athens News Agency over the weekend
“The sector is very anxious to see how returning to business will play out… no one can predict how confident customers are to return to cafes and restaurants,” he said.
Flights to resume
Eateries were originally slated to open June 1, but the slow spread of the pandemic in Greece allowed the date to be moved forward.
The country of 11 million has so far recorded fewer than 180 coronavirus deaths.
Since May 4, Greece has progressively opened tourism-related businesses following a lockdown imposed in March to stave off an economic contraction that could reach 13 percent of output this year.
Paid beaches opened on May 16, while ferry travel to the islands was permitted on Monday. Year-round hotels are to resume operations on June 1, followed by seasonal hotels on June 15.
Flights into Athens will restart on June 15, and to the rest of Greece’s regional and island airports on July 1.
But Daskalopoulos is worried about the risks incoming travellers may pose.
“People will come from countries that have a greater number of infections (than Greece’s) and will not even be checked,” he said.
The EU has said holidaymakers could be asked to wear face masks on planes, respect social distancing on the beach and even book slots to use hotel pools.
Greece had initially wanted incoming tourists to submit to tests at least 72 hours before travel, but Brussels frowned at the suggestion.
Athens now says it will not require travellers to undergo virus testing or quarantine, but sample tests will be carried out for epidemiological purposes.
Restaurants were shuttered on March 14, two days after Greece recorded its first COVID-19 death, with only takeout food and delivery allowed.
Israel said it will lease drones to Greece to defend its borders, in the first military deal between the two countries which includes an option to buy the system.
The Israeli Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that the agreement with the Hellenic Ministry of National Defence was signed digitally due to the coronavirus crisis.
Under the deal, Israel’s Defence Ministry will lease the Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) system, made by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries for three years.
The Heron system, which is used by Israel’s military and in naval forces around the world, is equipped with both day and night activity platforms, maritime patrol radars and satellite communications.
It will be used by Greece primarily for border defence, the Israeli ministry said in a statement, adding that security relations between Israel and Greece were expanding.
“We hope to sign additional agreements with Greece as well as other European partners, assisting them in addressing security challenges in times of the corona pandemic and beyond,” Yair Kulas, head of the Israel’s International Defence Cooperation Directorate, said.
Greece has always prided itself on its sunny weather, beaches and islands. And anyone familiar with the coast of Croatia will know that finding towel room on its increasingly crowded beaches is a challenge.
But the coronavirus pandemic threatens to ruin the summer season, so vital to the economies of both countries, even though they moved fast to stop the spread. Their proximity to Italy concentrated minds, as Covid-19 started spreading rapidly.
How did they react?
Croatia was on alert soon after news of the Covid-19 epidemic emerged from China.
The Institute of Public Health had published guidelines even before the arrival of a busload of tourists from Wuhan in late January.
Local media raised concerns that Chinese workers constructing the Peljesac Bridge on the Dalmatian coast might have returned from virus-affected areas in China.
In Greece, too, the government moved well before the virus reached its shores, as it saw infections spread in Italy. An ad-hoc scientific committee was set up with top epidemiologists, virologists and infectious disease experts.
Some accused the government in Athens of not just entrusting the handling of the pandemic to scientists, but of handing over responsibility too.
When did lockdown start?
The first confirmed Croatian case came on 25 February, almost a month after Italy and the UK. It involved a man who had been in Milan six days earlier to see the now-notorious Champions League match between Atalanta and Valencia.
The match has been linked to one of Italy’s biggest outbreaks – in Bergamo, where Atalanta are based.
The first confirmed case in Greece was recorded a day later than Croatia, on 26 February. And both countries reacted swiftly.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis imposed tighter restrictions over a period of weeks and it was made clear that no exceptions could be made:
Greeks have since been allowed out of their homes only for essential work, buying food or walking the dog.
It became more difficult to enter Croatia immediately after its first case. Although an EU member, it is not yet part of the Schengen border-free area. So, despite protests from neighbouring Slovenia, it had no compunction about imposing “health checks” at border crossings.
By the end of February, a border queue of freight traffic stretched back for miles.
Restrictions tightened rapidly. Within two weeks, arrivals from 18 countries would find themselves confined to quarantine or self-isolation if they entered Croatia.
There were internal measures to match. Most commercial and cultural activity had ceased by mid-March. And on 23 March people were confined to their neighbourhoods unless they obtained an “e-pass” to travel.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionPublic transport has now resumed and shops have reopened as Croatia loosens its lockdown
Greek enforcement was strict too. More than 60,000 fines were issued for violating the lockdown which, according to Greek police, totalled €9,247,800 (£8.1m).
All this seems to have restricted the spread of Covid-19. Croatia’s death rate currently stands at 18 per million, while Greece’s stands at 13 per million.
How Greece handled Easter
One of the biggest challenges facing the Greek government came from the country’s religious tradition. According to Greek Orthodox ritual, priests offer holy communion using the same spoon.
Media captionGreek film directors confined by the pandemic made 10 short films in their homes
The Church of Greece’s leadership insisted for days that diseases could not be contracted from communion, which represents the blood and body of Jesus. Doctors and scientists immediately called on the Church to listen to science.
The prime minister intervened with an emotional, televised speech. “Personally, in recent days I felt the need to invoke my faith in order to draw strength and stand up to the challenges,” said Mr Mitsotakis. However, he said he had to “listen to scientists”. “What applies to public gatherings will also apply to churches.”
As a result, and with only a handful of hiccups, all church Easter liturgies took place behind closed doors.
Can they rescue summer?
Now Croatia and Greece are moving to a gradual easing of those restrictions.
For Croatia the problem is no longer how to keep foreigners out, but to bring them back in. About half of Croatia’s 20 million annual visitors arrive in July and August and tourism is responsible for at least a fifth of its economic output.
Those are the crucial months for Greece’s tourist industry too. This year’s motto, says Tourism Minister Haris Theocharis, is that Greece is coronavirus-safe.
The Greek economy had only just begun to recover from an eight-year financial crisis when the lockdown was imposed.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionGreeks have been able to get out and about again in the past week as the lockdown is eased
Tourism accounts for approximately 25% of Greek GDP and one in five jobs, so a new crisis is looming: 65% of Greek hoteliers say bankruptcy of their business is either “likely” or “most likely”, according to a study by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels.
Greek scientists are working on health requirements for visitors, the tourism minister says. “The basic principles behind the new rules are that social distancing will be required, and that more frequent and different kinds of cleaning procedures are to be followed.”
In other words, hotel staff will be tested regularly to ensure tourists and Greeks themselves are protected.
Why Croatia needs open borders
Croatia needs co-operation from its neighbours, Slovenia in particular.
Slovenians rank second only to Germans in terms of the number of nights they spend in Croatia. If you travel by road from Northern Europe you have to cross Slovenia to reach the beaches of Istria, Dalmatia and the Kvarner Gulf.
The two countries’ tourism ministers met in Zagreb last week to sketch out a plan to allow Slovenians to travel across Croatia’s borders by the end of this month, with other nationalities following in June.
Czech travel agencies are keen to establish a “corona corridor” enabling quarantine-free travel to the coast, a plan warmly received by Croatia’s prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic. A survey in Austria too has indicated that people are still hoping to bask in the Croatian sun.
Uncertainty over air travel
With big questions over when holiday flights will resume, Greece too is initially looking for tourists who can reach the country by road.
It is currently focused on getting the EU to set common rules that would allow people to travel for holidays.
But if there is no consensus, Greece is prepared to go it alone, in order to “open up our economic activity as soon as possible and in a health-wise manner”, says Mr Theocharis.
“We will first see domestic tourism, then tourists from neighbouring countries, and then middle-distance countries and long-distance ones. Travelling by road will be safer initially than flying and we’ll see that kind of tourists earlier.”
Traditional markets like Germany, the UK and the US may well be replaced by countries that are both closer and have not been hit hard by the pandemic.
This may seem like an odd time to be thinking about holidays. But these are both countries with tourism-reliant economies and, having acted swiftly and thoroughly, a successful summer could be seen as a fitting reward.
Greece will transfer about 60 unaccompanied children from overcrowded migrant camps to Luxembourg and Germany next week as worries mount about the coronavirus pandemic.
At least 5,200 unaccompanied minors live in Greece, many of them under harsh conditions in camps on islands in the Aegean. About a dozen European nations have expressed a willingness to take in a number of them.
Germany said on Wednesday that it will accept 50 children and youths after the first coronavirus cases were confirmed among migrants last week in Greece.
The first 12 children will travel to Luxembourg next Wednesday and 50 more at the end of next week to Germany after medical tests, Greek deputy Migration Minister Giorgos Koumoutsakos told reporters.
“It is possible coronavirus was one of the reasons governments decided to move fast on this matter,†Koumoutsakos said.
Greece has confirmed 28 cases of COVID-19 in two migrant camps on its mainland but none on island camps, where aid groups say living conditions are appalling.
Koumoutsakos said authorities were preparing special quarantine areas inside and outside camps, should the need arise.
Tens of thousands of migrants tried to get into European Union member Greece after Turkey said in February it would no longer prevent them from doing so, as agreed in a 2016 deal with the EU in return for aid for Syrian refugees.
More than 40,000 asylum seekers are now stuck in camps on islands close to Turkey. About a dozen European countries have expressed a willingness to take in 1,600 unaccompanied children, including Italy, Finland, Serbia, Ireland and Portugal.
Top European officials are visiting Greece’s border with Turkey to assess the new crisis over refugees and migrants trying to enter the EU.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council chief Charles Michel and European Parliament speaker David Sassoli arrived on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is hoping for support for Greece’s tough line on defending its borders.
Turkey lifted controls on migrants exiting for the EU on Friday.
It took the decision after suffering a heavy military loss in north-west Syria, where it has been trying to create a safe area to resettle millions of Syrian refugees it took in during the ongoing civil war.
At least 24,000 people have been stopped from crossing the border from Turkey since Saturday, according to Greek government figures.
Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz has accused Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of using the migrants as pawns. He also announced that his government had strengthened Austria’s borders to make sure the mass influx of refugees and migrants of 2015 was not repeated.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is due to visit Ankara to discuss Turkey’s decision to drop restrictions on migrants, abandoning a deal struck in 2016.
What is the situation at the border?
Monday night was quiet in comparison with events over the weekend when thousands of migrants clashed with Greek security forces, a Greek army officer told Reuters news agency near the Kastanies border crossing.
“There were only a few attempts today [by migrants to cross the border],” he said. “Let’s hope they get the message.”
Some migrants including women and children could be seen in custody after being detained on the Greek side of the land border.
On the Turkish side, migrants who had been waiting around the border city of Edirne were again moving towards the frontier.
Several hundred migrants crossed to Greece from Turkey by boat in recent days but people were deterred by choppy seas on Tuesday, a police source told Reuters.
A young boy died when a boat capsized off the Greek island of Lesbos on Monday, Greek police say. It was the first reported fatality since Turkey opened its border.
The three EU leaders arrived at the Kastanies border crossing.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said earlier he expected a message of support.
“Greece cannot be blackmailed in this way, and it will not be blackmailed,” he told people in the town of Alexandroupolis.
“I think the fact that today we have, will have the presence of all the leadership of Europe here is the support of this policy because I will never tire of reminding everyone and the Europeans that the borders of Greece are also the borders of Europe.”
Mr. Mitsotakis tweeted photos of himself meeting Greek security forces.
