One month after a powerful quake devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, hundreds of thousands of people still need shelter and sanitation, and an appeal for $1 billion to assist survivors is only 10% funded, hampering efforts to tackle the humanitarian crisis, a United Nations official said Monday.
An unseasonably warm winter may be welcome to households struggling to pay the elevated cost of heating, but it may also spell trouble.
Last Tuesday’s deadly rail crash was a major test for the government’s crisis management capabilities, even though it has spent most of its nearly four years in power responding to such crises, from the coronavirus pandemic to major wildfires.
Greece intends to submit a request for additional loans from the Recovery Fund totaling 5 billion euros, in the context of REPowerEU (which concerns energy transition projects), probably by March 15.
Greek rail workers went on strike for a sixth day on Monday to protest over safety conditions following a train crash last week that killed 57 people.
Recovery crews in northern Greece cleared the final sections of wreckage from a deadly train collision from the tracks on Monday, as protests and political fallout from the country’s worst ever rail disaster continued.
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) accepts a proposal for the party’s Istanbul and Ankara mayors to serve as vice presidents if the opposition wins the May presidential election, a senior CHP official told Reuters on Monday.
Saudi Arabia said Monday it deposited $5 billion into the Turkish central bank, likely helping Ankara firm up its long-weakening currency, the lira, after last month’s massive earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and northern Syria.
Almost a week after Greece’s deadly rail crash, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Monday she discussed with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis “further technical support that the EU can provide to Greece to modernize its railways and improve their safety.”
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has written to Supreme Court Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos to ensure that an investigation into last week’s deadly rail collision is given the highest priority.