
Trump Turns Up the Heat: Australia Pressured to Boost Defence Spending or Face Trade Penalties
The Trump administration is putting mounting pressure on Australia to drastically increase its defence spending, aligning with NATO’s new benchmark of 5% of GDP. While NATO allies recently accepted this demand, Australia is resisting calls

Regular cannabis use now more accepted by Australians than smoking tobacco, study finds
Source: The Guardian Regular cannabis use has become more accepted than smoking tobacco, the latest National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) has found. The 2019 data, compiled by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare

Telstra moves call centres back to Australia after customers made their preference ‘loud and clear’
Source: 9news Telstra has moved all its call centres that service Australian customers and small businesses back to Australian shores to appease its customers. Telstra CEO Andy Penn has announced the move today, saying it

Cybersafety expert’s alarm over Snapchat’s new precise location feature: ‘Literally shows where you sleep at night’
Source: 9news Sometimes it feels like a full-time job keeping our children safe from online predators. So the last thing we need is technology making the job even harder. But a new feature on the

NASA successfully launches its first rocket from newly created Arnhem Space Centre
Source: ABCnews NASA has successfully launched its first rocket from Australian soil in more than a quarter of a century. After rain and wind delayed the launch by more than an hour, the suborbital sounding rocket took

16 hours from Australia to Greece may become a reality with Qantas
Source: Greekcitytimes Qantas has launched direct flights between Australia and Europe with non-stop routes becoming available between Perth to Rome. The new route will be the only direct flight between Australia and continental Europe offered

Australia’s bulk billing clinics are not covered by Medicare subsidies, doctors say
Doctors warn that regional areas will soon be left with few bulk-billing practices if Medicare subsidies for general practitioners are not increased. An increasing number of practices in Australia have stopped using bulk billing in

Mitsotakis pushes for EU action on Libya migration route and defence funding
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaking after the conclusion of the EU Summit, called for urgent action to address a new irregular migration route emerging from Eastern Libya to Crete. “We will use every means available—carrot and stick—to ensure this route is not consolidated,” he stressed. Mitsotakis announced that the

Cyber-attacks against handful of Greek govt websites
A handful of Greek government and state websites were targets of hackers on Friday evening, with Turkish media reports claiming the cyber-attacks emanated from Turkey. A Facebook page, claiming to represent Turkish “hackers”, said the

The strong symbolism of the Sakellaropoulou nomination
The Prime Minister’s decision to nominate Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou to serve as President of the Hellenic Republic did not startle those in the know. For months most had known that Mr. Mitsotakis had singled out the

Man jailed for 11 months after Greek police mistake baking flour for drugs
A Scopian citizen spent 11 months in a Greek jail suspected of drug trafficking after Greek police mistook a bag of baking flour he was carrying for heroin. The incredible story of the 38-year-old resident

Hundreds of Santas take part in Athens run 2019
Hundreds of people dressed in Santa Claus costumes took part on Sunday in a special 3-kilometer charity run in the center of Athens. This merry tradition returned to the streets of Athens for the sixth

Greek Christmas Question: Melomakarona or Kourabiedes?
This is the eternal Christmas question Greeks are challenged with every year: the traditional to-die-for Greek sweets during the festive days: Melomakarona or Kourabiedes? Melomakarona are egg-shaped calorie-bombs. They are soft and soaked in syrup

Germany: All EU members must take in Migrants
The continuing debate over migration is, at its core, about European federalism and the degree to which the European Union will be allowed to usurp decision-making powers from its 28 member states. If everything goes

Trump Turns Up the Heat: Australia Pressured to Boost Defence Spending or Face Trade Penalties
The Trump administration is putting mounting pressure on Australia to drastically increase its defence spending, aligning with NATO’s new benchmark of 5% of GDP. While NATO allies recently accepted this demand, Australia is resisting calls to push its military budget beyond its current trajectory of 2.3% of GDP—well short of

Ask Your Heart, a film about a Muslim girl who falls in love with a crypto-Christian in Turkey
The Turkish film Yuregine Sor (Ask Your Heart) is a true story about a woman of Muslim faith (Esma) who falls in love with a crypto-Christian (Mustafa). Prior to 1856, Christians in the Ottoman Empire

NATO Command in Smyrna congratulates Turkey on the Asia Minor Genocide
NATO congratulated Turkey for the events that led to the Greek & Armenian Genocides – A similar message was posted by NATO last year, but it was deleted after the strong reaction of Athens In

The British Museum lost the argument that Parthenon Sculptures safer in London
Against the backdrop of the scandal of the theft of hundreds of valuable objects from the British Museum, Greece’s Culture Minister Lina Mendoni stressed that the institution’s argument for the non-return of the Parthenon Sculptures

Turkish attack in Pyla Cyprus is a challenge to status quo
The violent attack on Unficyp personnel in the buffer zone by Turkish Cypriot soldiers and policemen, some in plain clothes was universally condemned by the international community. Never before has an incident in the buffer

French Riviera: Following Herakles’ Steps in Monaco
A whole coastline is full of a glamorous lifestyle, and then, there’s the Principality of Monaco, the second-smallest state after Vatican City and the most densely populated sovereign state in the world. Having a huge

Hagia Sophia’s reverberant acoustic sound as it was 15 centuries ago
With a stunning reverberating sound time of over 11 seconds. The acoustics of Hagia Sophia were measured and analyzed and auralized in real-time on Cappella Romana’s performance by the Icons of Sound team at Stanford