Author: Sotiris Antonotis

Sarah and Sonia pile out of a rain-smattered train at Berlin Central Station, surprised they feel so rested after sleeping on Europe’s newest night train service, but also over an hour late. “When you see the beds, they don’t look like the most comfortable ones,” said Sarah, a midwifery student from Belgium. But, pulling on their rucksacks after their journey from Brussels, the friends feel ready for a weekend of sightseeing. They travelled with European Sleeper, a Dutch-Belgian startup whose launch in May is part of a renaissance of night train travel. The company says there’s demand for such services,…

Brussels, Frankfurt (10/11 -12) Words like ‘neocolonialism’ and ‘neo-imperialists’ are being tossed around by spokesmen of freshly-installed military regimes in Central and West Africa – but the language of their pronouncements is French, reflecting the centuries of invasion, cooperation, exploitation and alliance of France in the Sahel. Commonly referred to as ‘Francophone Africa’, the jigsaw puzzle of countries have in quite recent times seen a dramatic shift of power, and one not in its favor. Traditional cozy relationships with decades-long dictatorships – ostensibly democracies but controlled and corrupt in a heads-I-win-and-tails-you-lose elite pageantry are under serious siege. Look at hapless,…

To really end labour shortages, Ankita Anand writes, Europe must transform its contract with the global south. According to the World Migration Report 2022, Europe hosts some 87 million international migrants. Almost ten million workers in Europe are ‘non-EU citizens’, of whom a number would fall into the ‘essential’ category. Majority-world workers might have been compelled to migrate in search of employment. But there is also a demand for their labour in European markets. Yet as with most employer-employee equations, this is not exactly a symbiotic relationship. In Europe and central Asia combined there are 4.1 million forced labourers. In Serbia, Indian workers…

Wellington, Sydney (6/10 – 33) Nearly a month after suffering brutal humiliation by host country France, New Zealand has barged through to the 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-finals. France is supposed to be a polite, cultured society, but on 8 September they whacked the All Blacks 27-13. Sacré bleu! In that distant past, an ugly performance with questionable strategy and ill-disciplined plays made New Zealand an unlikely choice of becoming the first country in line to win the Rugby World Cup four times. All the rugby world was amazed as the All Blacks boomeranged back in style, picking themselves up…

Greece has a key geostrategic role in the new trade routes India is building, with the support of countries such as the US, South Korea and Japan. Long before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Athens in late August and his meeting with PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, India’s ambassador to Greece held meetings with the management of the Thessaloniki Port Authority (ThPA). It was then announced that “the two sides pledged to maintain open channels of communication in order to develop commercial partnerships between ThPA and Indian companies.” Informally, however, the prospect of India’s cooperation with the Thessaloniki port acquiring…

Warsaw (21/08 – 60) The amount of Russian oil to be piped through Kazakhstan to Uzbekistan in 2023 has been reduced to 180,000 tons, reported by the Head of the Transportation Department of Kazakhstan’s Kaztransoil pipeline monopoly. In July, the company had announced an agreement to pump 300,000 tons of oil from Russia to Uzbekistan through Kazakhstan this year. Department Director, Abay Beisembaev commented that Kazakhstan had transported 48,500 tons of Russian oil to Uzbekistan in the first half of 2023 and a further 131,500 tons were planned in the second half of the year. No reason was given for…

Greece has called out “arsonist scum” after police made 79 arson arrests over wildfires ravaging the country. Civil Protection Minister Vassilis Kikilias said there had been several attempts by arsonists to start new fires on Mount Parnitha, north-west of Athens. The blaze is one of hundreds in the nation where wildfires have already killed at least 20 people this week. “You are committing a crime against the country,” Mr Kikilias said. “Arsonist scum are setting fires that threaten forests, property and, most of all, human lives,” Mr Kikilias told Greeks during a televised emergency briefing on Thursday. “You will not…

Paris, Auckland, Sydney (9/9 – 10) Disclaimer. This article may offend you. Well, tough luck, go and read the science section or volunteer for the Girl Scouts. This is men’s rugby. Redneck, muscles and unabashed violence. Not suitable for the “Woke Generation”. Swearing, alcohol consumption and “guy talk” included. Political correctness? Dumped in the Men’s Room with the rest of the waste. There was once a myth going that claimed that “All Blacks are unbeatable”. Like, “the Russians are invincible and can’t be beaten”, “Americans are the Gods of basketball” (but beaten by the darn Krauts, whoever would have imagined…),…

Two Australian families have been allowed to leave hospital with their babies as six others remain in limbo after a surrogacy scandal in Greece. DNA results have come back and found they were a biological match, allowing them to move to a hotel after the Mediterranean Fertility Institute in Crete was accused of exploiting 169 women. The two families have been told they can pick up their babies’ birth certificates, have a final health check and go home on Monday. It’s alleged the women – from countries including Ukraine, Romania and Georgia – were forced to be surrogate mothers or egg donors and kept…

Copenhagen (17/08 – 78) Kidnapping, intimidation, and blackmail are just some of the means used to hit enlistment quotas in Tajikistan. When conscription season comes around in Tajikistan, military recruiters begin resorting to desperate measures. Scooping young men off the streets in actions tantamount to kidnapping is standard. But that is just for starters. To pressure communities into giving up their sons, recruiters will disconnect the electricity, detain relatives, and shut down mosques. Eligible levees draw lots to decide who will be the one to hand themselves over. The hunting season for men of draft age, which applies to people…