Author: staff

The crash happened just before midnight on 28 February, 2023, when a freight train and a passenger train crashed head-on on the line linking Athens with Thessaloniki, killing 57 people. Thousands of high school and university students have blocked traffic in central Athens in an anti-government protest against delays in an investigation into a 2023 rail crash that claimed 57 lives.Protesters marched through the city centre, chanting “Murderers! Murderers!” as hundreds of police officers, many in riot gear, monitored the march.”What is happening today is nothing more than a demand – not only for justice – but, for me, an open…

Details of the planned exchange emerged as US President Donald Trump continued to talk up his widely criticised proposal to move all Palestinians out of Gaza and redevelop the Strip as an international travel destination. Hamas and Israel are due to exchange hostages for prisoners later on Saturday, the fifth such swap since both sides agreed to a fragile ceasefire which came into force on 19 January.Hamas has said it will release Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Or Levy, three men captured during the 7 October 2023 incursion into southern Israel which sparked the war in Gaza.Sharabi was taken captive…

Last year, the Russia-friendly ruling party adopted a law branding NGOs and media receiving more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad as “foreign agents.” This week, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze doubled down on Western donors and their “coordinated work against the Georgian people and state,” saying foreign-funded NGOs attempted revolution. Another bill will scrap the state’s obligations to involve civil society in legislative decision-making. “Nobody should be able to keep the country in a constant state of turbulence with non-existent problems and trumped up accusations,” Mdinaradze said. On Thursday, the Georgian parliament also adopted a set of…

USAID is the American government’s principal arm for overseas development. It was formed via an executive order by then President John F. Kennedy and currently employs around 10,000 people, two thirds of whom work overseas. A federal judge in the United States has dealt President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk the first setback in their dismantling of the US Agency for International Development, saying he will order a temporary halt to plans to pull thousands of agency staffers off the job.District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated by Trump, sided with two federal employee associations in agreeing to a…

Building on previous Commission analyses, we can estimate that delivering the deal’s objectives might entail additional annual investments to the order of €50 billion by 2030. And though this figure appears substantial, it might actually be quite conservative, as it doesn’t take into consideration the potential cost of escalating global trade tensions or the re-skilling programs necessary for workers during the transition. The private sector is expected to deliver most of the investment needed, but the public sector will continue to play an important role in de-risking and helping to unleash private capital. And doing so will be arduous, as…

Lawmakers need to resolve how to start negotiations with EU member states to agree on choice of next European Data Protection Supervisor. A decision on who will be the next European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) – the privacy watchdog of the EU institutions – is likely to come in March at the earliest, sources familiar with the matter told Euronews. The mandate of the current EDPS, Poland’s Wojciech Wiewiórowski, expired early December. After hearings in January, the European Parliament and the EU member states both favoured different candidates from among the four contenders shortlisted by the European Commission.The Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice…

Eleven people — including the perpetrator — were killed in what Sweden’s PM described as the worst mass shooting in the country’s history. Sweden’s government has announced its intention to pursue a gun control reform law after an attack in the city of Örebro killed 11 people, including the attacker, this week. The plan would include limiting access to powerful semi-automatic weapons, such as AR-15 rifles, and strengthening suitability testing of individuals who want to obtain a gun license. A framework will also be developed to more effectively report people who may be medically unfit to possess firearms.Swedish news outlets…

The US president suggested this week that a nuclear deal with Tehran might be possible. Iran’s supreme leader has reacted with scepticism to US President Donald Trump’s plan to hold bilateral talks over the country’s nuclear enrichment programme. Speaking to air force officers in Tehran on Friday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that in light of Trump’s actions during his first presidential term, negotiations with Washington “are not intelligent, wise or honourable”. The 85-year-old, who has been Iran’s most powerful figure for more than 35 years, added that “there should be no negotiations with such a government”. During Trump’s first four…

New York is being sued by 22 other US states who say its climate change damage fund may ’cause an energy crisis’. A new law has been enforced in New York which requires a group of major energy producers to pay $75 billion (€72 bn) into a fund to cover climate change damage. 22 US states filed a lawsuit on Thursday contending that the new law is unconstitutional.While the complainants say this could lead America into an energy crisis, New York spokesperson argue it will help the state’s climate resilience plans – and the entire nation to transition away from…

The number of migrants arriving Cyprus has fallen massively over the past three years after tough measures from the government. A Syrian man has been jailed for three years by a Cyprus court for causing the death by negligence of a 3-year-old girl who died of dehydration aboard an overloaded migrant boat. The Famagusta criminal court ruled that the 48-year-old captain had failed to ensure the safety of the 60 Syrian migrants in January last year during a journey on the small wooden craft, which carried no navigational aids or appropriate communications equipment.The captain had told the passengers at some…