Author: staff

Tourist traffic in Greece continued its upward trend in July 2026. According to provisional data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), arrivals at hotels, campsites and short-stay accommodation reached 6.61 million, while overnight stays rose to 31.70 million. Compared with July 2025, arrivals increased by 2.5%, and overnight stays by 2.0%. Foreign visitors driving tourism growth The picture differs markedly between Greek and foreign visitors. Foreign visitors made around 5.30 million arrivals in July 2026, compared with 1.30 million arrivals by Greeks. Foreigners therefore account for 80.3% of all arrivals, while domestic travellers make up 19.7%. The gap is even…

Published on 22/09/2026 – 12:17 GMT+2•Updated 12:23 The ancient city of Troy, perched on the Hisarlik hill in north-west Turkey, continues to yield surprises for researchers and history enthusiasts, increasingly so with the release of Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey. Archaeological excavations carried out by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, launched in 2014, have uncovered the remains of the oldest agora in the city, dating back roughly 2,800 years. Until now historians believed that the city had been completely abandoned for several centuries after its fall (traditionally dated to 1184 BC), until the…

However, Germany and allies from Northern Europe — whose contributions to the budget exceed their EU payouts — are pushing in the opposite direction, insisting that the EU slash its cashpot by hundreds of billions of euros. They argue that introducing new EU taxes is not an alternative to major cuts. “One has to wonder whether Mr. Costa has completely lost touch with reality by now,” Krichbaum told reporters. He added that “national budgets are under enormous pressure … and everyone knows that the sky isn’t the limit.” EU governments are lobbying the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU — which…

Published on 22/09/2026 – 11:54 GMT+2•Updated 12:00 The European Commission struck a trade agreement with the Philippines on Tuesday, stepping up its diversification strategy across the Indo-Pacific region. The deal comes more than a year after the US introduced sweeping new tariffs on many of its trading partners, prompting retaliatory measures and adding to global trade tensions. Since then, the EU has been seeking new trade ties, recently concluding major deals with India, Australia and Indonesia. “This agreement sends a clear signal that the EU is reinforcing its engagement with the Indo-Pacific,” EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said on Tuesday.…

A teenager opened fire outside a high school in western Turkey on Tuesday, wounding 11 people before being detained by police, authorities said. The incident happened around 8 am local time (7 am CEST) in Turgutlu, Manisa province, near the city of Izmir, the regional governor’s office said. “Eleven students were injured, two of them seriously,” Justice Minister Akin Gürlek wrote on X. “The minor who carried out the attack was quickly apprehended and taken into custody,” he added. Gürlek said the suspect’s parents and grandfather had also been detained by investigators probing the attack, which saw police and rescuers…

The Czech government said on Monday that it would cap fuel retailers’ margins, cut excise duty on diesel and introduce a temporary tax on refiners as prices continue to rise because of the war in the Middle East. Czechia joins other European countries, including Germany, Croatia, Romania and Italy, that have recently announced or extended fuel-price controls and tax cuts as European governments seek to shield motorists from fuel prices, which reached record levels in the EU last week. In Czechia, it is the second such step by Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s government this year, following price controls and a…

Published on 22/09/2026 – 10:53 GMT+2 Residents of a small Austrian town are taking on Google over plans for a data centre the size of around 70 football pitches. Around 400 people protested against the planned 50-hectare complex earlier this month outside the headquarters of the Upper Austrian regional government in Linz. Kronstorf, where the data centre is being built, has around 3,500 inhabitants. Construction works on Google’s first data centre in Austria began in April, with the first phase expected to become operational in 2027. The US tech giant says the centre will support growing demand for cloud and…

Jorge Palma, one of the most influential singer-songwriters in contemporary Portuguese music, died this Monday at the age of 76, his family announced in a message on social media. “It is with deep sorrow and consternation that Jorge Palma’s family and agency announce his death, which occurred this Monday night, at the age of 76, following a cardiorespiratory arrest,” the musician’s family said. In what they describe as a moment of “immeasurable pain”, Rita Tomé, the musician’s wife, his sons Vicente and Francisco Palma, and his agents, André Sebastião and Tiago Branco, asked that Jorge Palma be remembered through what…

In einer Zusammenfassung des Telefonats, das die Kommission auf ihrer Website veröffentlichte, hieß es dagegen, die EU und die Philippinen stünden erst „kurz vor dem Abschluss der Verhandlungen über ein Freihandelsabkommen“. Das deutet darauf hin, dass weitere Gespräche erforderlich sein werden, um das Abkommen mit allen Details abzuschließen. In einer separaten Erklärung schrieben EU-Handelskommissar Maroš Šefčovič und die philippinische Ministerin für Handel und Industrie, Maria Cristina Aldeguer-Roque, sie hätten eine „substanzielle Einigung“ erzielt, die das Abkommen „auf einen klaren Kurs in Richtung eines formellen Abschlusses in den kommenden Monaten“ bringen werde. Am Montag hatte Šefčovič einen geplanten Besuch in Manila…

French President Emmanuel Macron said he had “very constructive” talks with his US counterpart Donald Trump on the conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. Macron spoke with Trump after arriving in New York ahead of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations. “We had a very good discussion. It was very constructive,” he told reporters after the meeting. Macron said there was a “willingness to reopen (the Strait of) Hormuz,” a vital shipping route for the world’s oil and gas, which has been blockaded by Iran during the war in the Middle East. “Several solutions were…