As global heating sees a surge in wildfires, we hear from those tackling the blazes, who face injury, death and trauma, often without proper equipment or support
In Greece, fires take up a lot of resources. There isn’t enough money to recruit the number of [firefighters] needed or to buy the necessary equipment. Volunteers plug the gaps.
Continue reading...Critics compare figure of famous soprano erected in Greek capital to an Oscar statuette
Drama in life, drama in posterity. For Maria Callas, Greece’s greatest diva, there is, even 44 years after her death, no let up from the artistic wrangling that was her lot.
But this time the uproar is focused on a statue erected at the foot of the ancient Acropolis, opposite the Roman theatre where the world-renowned opera singer made her debut.
Continue reading...Prospect of the FDP’s Christian Lindner taking charge has ‘half of Europe quaking in its boots’
Germany’s biggest neighbours are watching the formation of the country’s new government with a mixture of hope and fear, amid concerns that a fiscal hardliner hotly tipped to become the next finance minister could drag the continent back to the frosty standoffs of the eurozone crisis.
The Social Democratic party (SPD), the German Greens and the Free Democratic party (FDP) were expected to inch further towards a “traffic light” power-sharing deal on Friday, with formal coalition talks likely to start next week.
Continue reading...Residents sent fleeing into the streets and schools evacuated from quake on Greek island
The Greek island of Crete has been hit by an earthquake killing one man and injuring 20, while damaging homes and churches and causing rock slides near the country’s fourth-largest city.
The quake, which had a preliminary magnitude of at least 5.8, sent people fleeing into the streets in the city of Heraklion, where schools and older buildings were evacuated.
Continue reading...Former Afghan government’s ambassador in Greece appalled by Athens’ media blitz against ‘illegal migrant flows’
In other times, Mirwais Samadi would have welcomed a campaign to deter his compatriots from opting to become illegal migrants and embarking on the often dangerous trek from Afghanistan to Europe.
By far the worst part of his job as Afghanistan’s ambassador to Athens – apart from the strange limbo he has found himself in representing a nation whose leaders he refuses to recognise – is notifying families back home of loved ones who died along the way. Invariably they are the victims of smuggling networks motivated solely by profit.
Continue reading...A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Myanmar to Germany
Continue reading...Region’s leaders make joint declaration vowing to step up efforts to address extreme weather
With the catastrophic effects of this summer’s unprecedented wildfires still being counted, leaders from around the Mediterranean – the European region most at risk from climate breakdown – have vowed to intensify their efforts to tackle the challenges posed by extreme weather.
A joint declaration, signed in Athens, has fired the starting shot on what is hoped will bring groundbreaking change in how the neighbouring states shore up their defences against natural disasters.
Continue reading...The €38m asylum seeker centre on Samos – the first of five – has restaurants and air-conditioning but it’s like a prison, say critics
It has eight restaurants, seven basketball courts, three playgrounds, a football pitch, special rooms for vulnerable people, and is purportedly eco-friendly.
But Greece’s new “closed” migrant camp for 3,000 asylum seekers on Samos is also surrounded by military-grade fencing, watched over by police and located in a remote valley, and has been likened by critics to a jail or a dystopian nightmare. Its message is clear: if Europe-bound asylum seekers reach the country, they are going to be strictly controlled.
Continue reading...Joe Biden has introduced a vaccine mandate affecting millions, but some countries have gone further
Following the decision by the US president, Joe Biden, to introduce a vaccine mandate for millions of workers, and the UK government’s decision to row back on its push to require vaccine passports for nightclubs and other crowded events, where does the issue of insisting on vaccination stand globally?
Continue reading...Man allegedly caught 74-year-old who had died while spearfishing in his net but failed to report it
A fisherman in Greece has been arrested after allegedly catching a dead spearfisherman in his net and throwing the body back into the sea.
The alleged incident happened on Sunday, the same day that a 74-year-old man who had been out spearfishing in shallow waters was reported missing near the coast of Pelion.
Continue reading...A roundup of the coverage of the struggle for human rights and freedoms from Thailand to Texas
Continue reading...Gideon Mendel has been photographing people returning home after the devastation of recent wildfires on the island of Evia in Greece. The work follows his earlier projects about people affected by wildfires in New South Wales, Australia, and flooding globally
At the end of August, as part of my long-term work on the global climate emergency, I travelled to Evia in Greece to explore the impacts of the unprecedented fires that had devastated village communities and the ecology of the island. I chose not to chase the drama of the burning flames, but rather to seek out their aftermath. I encountered endless blackened landscapes and made these portraits of people whose lives have been destroyed by the fire they describe as a “burning hell”. I know that it was not easy for my subjects to return to their homes to be photographed, and for some this was the first time that they had stepped inside since the fire. However, I found that they embraced this moment of having their fractured situation witnessed and were keen to share their stories. I was moved by their openness to my camera after all the horrors of their recent experience. Visually I found that an eerily precise symmetry seemed to emerge from the unspeakable chaos of their ruined homes, many of which are situated in places of profound beauty. I hope that their gaze at the camera will provoke a visceral sense of the climate threat we all face.
Continue reading...Musician will be best remembered for scoring the film Zorba the Greek and defiance during military rule
The renowned Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, who scored the 1964 classic film Zorba the Greek and was an icon of resistance to the former military junta, has died in Athens, aged 96.
A prolific talent and political maverick, Theodorakis was revered in his home country for his inspirational music and defiance during the junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974.
Continue reading...A roundup of the struggle for human rights and freedoms, from Afghanistan to Greece
Continue reading...Head of Turkish-controlled north, Ersin Tatar, calls move by Greek Cypriot government ‘racist’ and ‘anachronistic’
A war of words has erupted on Cyprus as the divided island’s two ethnic communities exchange barbs over the decision by the Greek Cypriot government to rescind the passports of senior Turkish Cypriot officials.
Ersin Tatar, who heads the Turkish-controlled north and is among those affected, described the policy as “an assault” on attempts to find a solution to the country’s partition. Previously he had called the move “racist” and “anachronistic”.
Continue reading...Athens calls for a united response, as refugees already in Lesbos hope their asylum claims will now be reconsidered
Greek officials have said that Greece will not become a “gateway” to Europe for Afghan asylum seekers and have called for a united response to predictions of an increase in refugee arrivals to the country.
Greece’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has spoken to Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, about the developing situation in Afghanistan this week. Greek migration minister Notis Mitarachi last week said: “We cannot have millions of people leaving Afghanistan and coming to the European Union … and certainly not through Greece.” The country has just completed a 25-mile (40km) wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system with cameras, radars and drones.
Continue reading...Personalising the ‘silent killer’ hot spells could raise awareness in time to avert loss of life and property, say scientists
Spurred on by this summer’s record temperatures, Greek scientists have begun discussing the need to name and rank heatwaves, better known for their invisibility, before rampant wildfires made the realities of the climate crisis increasingly stark.
A preventative measure, the move would enable policymakers and affected populations to be more prepared for what are being described by experts as “silent killers.”
Continue reading...After Greece finished building a 40km fence along its natural border with Turkey, the minister for citizen protection, Michalis Chrisochoidis, defended the move, saying the country could not wait for EU decisions.
Amid concerns that the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan could lead to increased refugee flows to Europe, the EU border agency, Frontex, is helping Greece to secure its land and sea borders as well as using new detecting technology
Continue reading...Shepherd Giannis Tsiboukas, 36, confronts the ‘total destruction’ caused after a wildfire ravaged his land on the island of Evia in Greece. Tsiboukas lost more than 40 animals to the fire that destroyed more than 50,000 hectares. Peoples homes and livelihoods have been decimated.
Hundreds of wildfires have torn through Greece this month on the heels of its most severe heatwave in decades, which left its forests tinder dry. Other Mediterranean countries – Turkey, Italy, Algeria and Spain among them – have suffered similar problems.
Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving more extreme weather events.
Continue reading...Greek and foreign firefighters continued to tackle flare-ups in northern Evia from a blaze which has already burned more than 50,000 hectares of forest. Drone footage shows kilometres of charred, blackened hillsides and damaged homes in a region known for agricultural production as well as tourism
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