Angela Merkel

By Yannis Kartalis

We are in a period of international tumult as global geopolitical balances have not settled after the end of the bipolar world.

At a time when there is a predominance of authoritarian leaders, untrammelled populism, and dangerous military moves, the overarching question for Greece in terms of security is, "What exactly is Turkey up to?"

Ljubljana – Prime Minister Janez Janša held a telephone conversation with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday. The issues discussed included the situation in the EU’s eastern neighbourhood and the Polish-Belarusian border, the EU’s common position on migration pressure, and the build-up of Russian military on the border with Ukraine.

Europe remains "in the firm grip" of COVID and the continent's death toll could top 2.2 million this winter if current trends continue, the World Health Organization warned on Nov. 23.

Europe is battling an upsurge in the pandemic that saw Austria return to lockdown this week while Germany and the Netherlands are poised to announce new restrictions.

Germans were warned on Nov. 22 they would be "vaccinated, cured or dead" from COVID-19 by the end of winter, as Europe battles an upsurge in the pandemic that prompted a U.S. travel advisory.

Belgium and the Netherlands are still reeling from clashes that rocked weekend protests against new anti-COVID measures.

Hope for de-escalating the crisis, which has seen thousands camping in desperate conditions on the border for weeks, had been mounting in recent days, after German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke with Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko twice by phone.

Germany's disease control agency reported 52,826 new coronavirus cases on Nov. 17, a number that has roughly doubled in two weeks, stoking calls for fresh measures to curb the country's steadily rising infections.

Leaders of the world's biggest economies on Oct. 30 endorsed a global minimum tax on corporations, a linchpin of new international tax rules aimed at blunting the edge of fiscal paradises amid skyrocketing profits of some multinational businesses.

On the night from Saturday to Sunday, the entire EU moves the clocks back one hour and switches from summer to winter, i.e. normal time calculation. In 2018, EU citizens decided in an online poll that the six month time shift should be abolished.
The European Commission and the European Parliament have agreed with the citizens of the EU.

Greece is a very different country from the one that outgoing Angela Merkel first visited as German chancellor a decade ago, according to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in welcoming visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of a "very different Greece" than the country she dealt with over the last decade.

Noting that he is the eighth prime minister during her 16 years in power with whom the chancellor has held talks, the PM offered a summary of bilateral and EU-Greek relations in that period.