Bulgaria and North Macedonia began periods of national mourning on Wednesday, a day after a bus traveling through Bulgaria carrying tourists to neighboring North Macedonia crashed and caught fire, killing 45 people.
With the European Union under immense pressure from increased migrant flows through various routes, the only area with a decrease in arrivals – by 11% this year compared to 2020 – is that of the Aegean islands.
Marios Themistokleous, secretary-general in charge of vaccinations, on Wednesday highlighted the significance of the nationwide inoculation program against Covid-19 for Greece’s primary healthcare, praising the so-called Operation Freedom (Eleftheria) as “the best manifestation of the executive state.”
Greece’s total health spending will bump up to 11.7 billion euros next year, Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told the Athens Health Summit on Wednesday.
The turmoil in the Turkish economy may be primarily a neighbor’s internal affairs, but its political management is raising reasonable concerns in Athens, as the recent examples of incendiary rhetoric and other actions emanating from Ankara targeting Greece would suggest.
The head of the European Union’s public health agency Andrea Ammon said on Wednesday that Covid-19 vaccine boosters should be considered for all adults, with priority for those above 40 years, in a major change to the agency’s guidance.
Greece is facing a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” State Minister Akis Skertsos said Wednesday, adding that nine out of ten intubated Covid-19 patients in the country’s hospitals are unvaccinated.
Turks attempting to buy iPhones and other electronics received online error messages on Wednesday, including from Apple Inc’s local website, after a historic 15% plunge in the lira the day before caused havoc for prices.
Turkey’s lira tumbled anew on Wednesday towards a record low, gripped by worries over soaring inflation and other economic fallout, after a 15% crash a day earlier that was driven by President Tayyip Erdogan’s defence of recent rate cuts.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is hosting Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Wednesday, as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates seek to repair their tense relations and increase economic cooperation.