Category Archives: Greece

More than 600 people have died trying to cross Mediterranean in 2026, UN says

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Deadliest start to a year in more than a decade, according to the International Organization for Migration

A least 606 people trying to reach Europe in search of refugee have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2026, marking the “deadliest start to a year” in more than a decade, the UN’s migration agency said on Monday.

The figure includes at least 30 people who are feared dead or missing after their boat capsized in severe weather off the coast of Greece on Saturday. Authorities rescued 20 people, including four minors, and recovered the bodies of three men and one woman, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said.

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Greek secondary school teachers to be trained in using AI in classroom

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Some teachers and pupils voice concerns about pilot programme after government’s agreement with OpenAI

Secondary school teachers in Greece are set to go through an intensive course in using artificial intelligence tools as the country assumes a frontline role in incorporating AI into its education system.

This week, staff in 20 schools will be trained in a specialised version of ChatGPT, custom-made for academic institutions, under a new agreement between the centre-right government and OpenAI.

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Greek police increase security after protests against Israeli cruise ship

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Measures are being taken at the harbours of Patras and Katakolo after demonstrations earlier this week

Greek authorities have stepped up security in two harbours in an attempt to keep protesters away from a cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists on an 11-day tour around the Mediterranean.

The measures taken at Patras and Katakolo in the Peloponnese followed demonstrations when the MS Crown Iris docked at Kalamata earlier this week. In July passengers on the same ship were prevented from disembarking and it was forced to divert to Cyprus after local people staged a protest in support of Palestine on the Cycladic isle of Syros.

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Relief for campaigners as five-star hotel on Milos’s famous ‘moon beach’ halted

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Authorities revoke building licence for cascading hotel complex on one of Greece’s most photographed shorelines

Environmental campaigners have welcomed a decision to halt construction of a disputed five-star hotel on a Greek beach known for its outstanding natural beauty.

Local authorities on the Cycladic island of Milos said a building licence for the resort on the world-renowned “moon beach” had been revoked by the municipality’s planning department after falling short of inspection standards.

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Greece announces €1.6bn relief package to tackle population decline

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Government to use tax breaks and other financial incentives to encourage people to have more children

Greece has announced drastic measures, including tax breaks and other financial incentives, to address a population decline that is on course to make it the oldest nation in Europe.

The prime minister said the €1.6bn (£1.4bn) relief package had been dictated by one of the biggest challenges facing the Mediterranean nation : a demographic crisis of unprecedented scale.

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Couple tell of ordeal when kittens went missing after being left in plane hold

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British newlyweds feared worst when transportation of rescue cats from Greece to Paris went awry

A newlywed couple who married in Greece have said they feared the worst when three kittens they rescued from Crete went missing after being left in the hold of an aeroplane.

They first travelled to the island in September 2023 and found the mother cat, who “had a very distinctive bulging eye that needed to be removed”, Bethany Mulcahy-Stephenson, a veterinary nurse, said.

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Body found on Greek island identified as missing British tourist

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Michele Bourda’s husband says police and coastguard were ‘criminally slow’ in responding to her disappearance in August

A body found on a barren Greek island has been identified as that of Michele Bourda, the British tourist who vanished from a beach more than a month ago.

Greece’s coastguard confirmed that the body of the 59-year-old, whose disappearance sparked a big rescue operation, had been discovered by a passing yacht on the islet of Fidonisi.

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Search intensifies for British woman missing from Greek beach

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Coastguard and police continue to scour land and sea for Michele Bourda, who was last seen on a sunbed

A mammoth search-and-rescue operation for a British woman last seen lounging on a sunbed in Greece has intensified days after her “mysterious” disappearance.

The Hellenic coastguard, backed by a flotilla of pleasure craft and fishing boats, has fanned across the waters off Ofrynio beach near the northern town of Kavala, where Michele Bourda, 59, went missing on 1 August.

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Thousands in Greece and Turkey evacuate as winds and heat fan wildfires

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Czech firefighters and Italian aircraft join rescue effort in Greece, and firefighter among those killed in Turkey

Thousands of people in Greece and Turkey have been forced to evacuate homes as firefighters in the countries battled to contain wildfires fanned by strong winds and searing heat.

As temperatures in south-eastern Europe exceeded 40C for a seventh straight day, the Greek prime minister praised rescue workers for waging “a titanic battle” to bring blazes under control.

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Wildfire burns through northern suburb of Athens as residents told to evacuate

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People in Kryoneri, north-east of the Greek capital, receive SMS messages telling them to get to safe areas

A wildfire burned through a northern suburb of the Greek capital of Athens on Saturday and some residents were ordered to evacuate, the country’s fire service reported.

Residents of the town of Kryoneri, 12.5 miles (20km) north-east of Athens, received three SMS messages to evacuate to safe areas, fire service spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakoyannis told reporters.

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Two wounded in Greece after explosion at home of prison guard official

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Target of the explosion, Konstantinos Varsamis, is unharmed after ‘cowardly attack’ in Thessaloniki

Two people have been wounded in a bomb attack in a suburb of Greece’s second city Thessaloniki, damaging a block of flats and six cars.

The explosion in the early hours on Saturday morning targeted the home of the president of the Greek association of prison guards in the suburb of Sykies.

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Israeli cruise ship turned away from Greek island by Gaza war protest

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Tourists greeted on Syros by banner saying Stop the Genocide and prevented from disembarking

A cruise liner carrying Israeli tourists has been forced to reroute to Cyprus after being turned away from the Greek island of Syros after a quayside protest over the Gaza war.

Around 1,600 Israeli passengers on board the Crown Iris were prevented from disembarking amid safety concerns when more than 300 demonstrators on the Cycladic isle made clear they were unwelcome over Israel’s conduct of the war and treatment of Palestinians in Gaza. A large banner emblazoned with the words Stop the Genocide was held aloft alongside Palestinian flags.

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Greek PM vows to investigate €290m ‘fake’ farmer fraud scandal

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis sets up taskforce over alleged scamming of EU agricultural funds after resignation of five senior officials

The Greek prime minister has vowed to get to the bottom of how a scheme of fraudulent EU subsidy claims could have operated undetected in the country for years, as he admitted that the scandal had revealed “the state’s inadequacy” in dealing with corruption.

Faced with revelations that “fake” farmers had been scamming designated agricultural funds to the tune of a reputed €290m (£249m), Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday a special taskforce would be set up to “immediately and exhaustively” investigate the illegal payments.

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Greek court strips three far-right MPs of seats over electoral fraud

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Tribunal rules Spartans lawmakers ‘deceived’ voters after convicted ex-leader of Golden Dawn found to hold influence over party

A landmark court decision has dealt a blow to the far-right movement in Greece after MPs with the neo-fascist Spartans party were deprived of seats in parliament.

Citing electoral fraud, a specially assembled electoral tribunal stripped three of the group’s lawmakers, including its leader, of their status in a move that, for the first time since the collapse of military rule, leaves Athens’ 300-seat parliament operating with just 297 MPs.

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Greek vase ‘looted’ in Italy removed from sale by London gallery

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Contact from the Observer prompts withdrawal as dealers urged to do more to stop illicit trade in antiquities

A London antiquities dealer has withdrawn an ancient Greek amphora from sale after evidence arose that links it to a notorious smuggler.

The Kallos Gallery in Mayfair, London, has removed a black-figure amphora – a jar with two handles and a narrow neck made around 550BC – from sale after the Observer contacted it about concerns raised by an expert in the illegal trade of antiquities.

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‘Incompatible with the symbolism’: Yorgos Lanthimos denied permission to shoot new film at the Acropolis

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The country’s best-known director was refused by Greece’s culture ministry when he applied to shoot scenes for sci-fi comedy Bugonia at iconic Athens site

Greece’s leading contemporary director has had a request to shoot footage for his new film at the Acropolis in Athens denied by his country’s culture ministry.

Yorgos Lanthimos had filed a request to film scenes for sci-fi comedy Bugonia at the fifth-century BC site in April. But in a statement on Thursday, the culture ministry said permission had been refused because “the proposed scenes are incompatible with the symbolism … and the values the Acropolis represents”.

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Greece’s Aegean islands reel from ‘lake of mud’ flash floods before Easter rush

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Authorities race to complete clean-up operation after devastation from gales and heaviest rainfall in 20 years

People on the Aegean islands, more used in April to the sight and scent of spring’s blossoms, have been left reeling from flash floods spurred by typhoon-strength gales, with authorities calling a state of emergency in some of Greece’s most popular destinations less than three weeks before Easter.

“It’s a total catastrophe and it happened in just two hours,” said Costas Bizas, the mayor of Paros, the island worst hit by weather not seen in decades. “We need all the help we can get.”

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Greek PM seeks ‘reset’ with former far-right activist as migration minister

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Shaken by rail protests, Kyriakos Mitsotakis brings in new transport minister while tacking right on migration

The Greek prime minister has appointed a former far-right student activist to the helm of the migration ministry as part of a broad reshuffle aimed at “resetting” his government amid public outrage over its handling of a deadly 2023 train crash.

In an attempt to stem declining approval ratings, Kyriakos Mitsotakis placed the self-described nationalist, Makis Voridis, in the sensitive post while selecting a number of younger officials to key portfolios including the transport ministry.

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Global celebrations and protests mark International Women’s Day

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From Istanbul and Warsaw to Athens and Madrid, activists demand equality and the end of gender-based violence

Women took to the streets of cities across Europe, Africa and elsewhere to mark International Women’s Day with demands for ending inequality and gender-based violence.

On the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul, a rally in Kadiköy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing in the spring sunshine. The colorful protest was overseen by a large police presence, including officers in riot gear and a water cannon truck.

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Greek PM vows to upgrade railways as government faces confidence vote

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Kyriakos Mitsotakis says protests over train disaster emphasise the need for ‘safe and modern’ transport system

The Greek prime minister has vowed to upgrade the country’s railways as his embattled government braces for a vote of no confidence after huge protests over a 2023 train crash that killed 57 people.

Two days after hundreds of thousands took to the streets in fury over the response to the disaster on its second anniversary, Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged that not enough had been done to build a “safe and modern” transport system, saying the largest protests in recent history had emphasised the demand for action.

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