Author: Despoina Calatou

All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday (31 March). All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18. In July Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30…

The U.S. military should reassess its force posture in Europe and reduce its reliance on revolving door-style unit rotations, a major think tank’s analysts concluded in a Monday report. The Center for Strategic and International Studies’ transnational threat team based their study on official documents, open-source materials and interviews with subject-matter experts. The report’s authors recommend that the Army abandon the rotational armor brigade deployment model that “eats up … the Army’s force structure and long-term readiness.” Currently, two armor brigades are deployed to Europe. Instead, the report said, the service should permanently station an Armored Brigade Combat Team in Poland to…

Financial hardship caused by out-of-pocket payments for medicines, medical products such as hearing aids, and dental care affects millions of people, even in Europe’s richest countries, reveals a new WHO report. On International Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day 2023, the report “Can people afford to pay for health care? Evidence on financial protection in 40 countries in Europe” highlights that out-of-pocket payments push between 1% and 12% of households into poverty or make them poorer. Out-of-pocket payments lead to catastrophic health spending for between 1% and 20% of households on average. This rises to between 2% and 69% of households in…

While it is only the third most reported disease transmitted from animals to humans, infections by mosquitos carrying the West Nile virus are growing in the EU, according to the EU Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Cases of mosquito-borne West Nile virus saw a more than sevenfold increase in 2022 on the previous year mainly due to an epidemic outbreak involving Italy and Greece, according to the latest EFSA report on zoonotic diseases. The transmission season documented in 2022 by the report published on 12 December was the second-highest ever recorded in Europe with 1,133 infections – up from 152 the…

Super League matches to take place without spectators for 2 months, says government spokesperson Greece on Monday announced a set of measures in football matches to deal with violence from fans. Speaking at the weekly press meeting, Government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis football games would be played without spectators until Feb.12, 2024, and would also extend to the Greek Cup games and friendlies of Super League teams. He added that football supporters should undergo identity checks before returning to the stadiums. When asked why the measure was not extended to other sports, including basketball and volleyball, Marinakis maintained that the government…

Frankfurt (3/12 – 12) The relatively rapid cohesion of disparate nations, historically competitive or even at war with one another, into the European Union came about in part because of the ongoing threat from the Soviet Union. The specter of a tank invasion from Warsaw Pact nations, today forgotten, was such a reality that the German government kept a major portion of its gold bullion across the Atlantic. The USSR, an ally in World War II after being double-crossed by Hitler – remember the “Non-Aggression Pact signed in Moscow by von Ribbentrop and Molotov – was soon appraised as a…

Indonesian Vice President Ma’ruf Amin called on the Hellenic Parliament to collaborate to strengthen tolerance and respect for followers of different religions amid the inconducive global situation. Amin made the call for interfaith tolerance during his meeting with First Vice-President of the Hellenic Parliament Ioannis Ioshf Plakiotakis in Athens on Wednesday. On Thursday, Vice President Amin has been scheduled to meet Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Ieronymos II. According to Vice President Amin, Indonesia and Greece need to continue efforts to promote interfaith tolerance and be good role models of how to maintain interfaith unity amid the unconducive global…

A decade after the launch of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), Greek painter Barbara Gerodimou, in her colorful studio in the seaside town of Marathon near Athens, said she was breathing in the fresh air through the window that the project opened for Greece and the world. “If this (initiative) did not exist, we should really be looking for something like this. This is the right time. It is something that should materialize,” she said. For Gerodimou, as well as for billions of people around the world, building bridges and bringing peoples closer together through major infrastructure projects that…

A decade ago, Greece’s economic situation was dire. Almost a third of the workforce was unemployed and the country was underneath heavy austerity measures to huge bailouts from their eurozone neighbors, especially Germany. But today, Greek might just be in the midst of an economic boom. “In the last several years, there’s been sort of an acceleration of an economic turnaround,” said Liz Alderman, chief European business correspondent for the New York Times. “We’re basically at a point now where Greece is essentially booming.” Alderman, who reported on Greece’s upturn, spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal about the change in Greek fortunes. To…

Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) has announced it entry into the electric vehicle (EV) charging market with GRID Charge, the new business unit of subsidiary company, GRID Telecom. Entrance into the EV charging market illustrates the Greek TSO’s aim to accelerate the uptake of electric mobility in the country. One of GRID Charge’s primary areas of focus will be the ultra-fast charging sector. The company plans to install new EV fast chargers, including Superchargers DC and Ultra-rapid DC chargers, at specific locations across Greece. “With the creation of Grid Charge, IPTO Group continues to expand its business activities and enters…