
Australia to mandate cash payments for essential purchases from 2026
Australia will introduce a nationwide cash mandate requiring major grocery and fuel retailers to accept cash payments from January 1, 2026, in a move aimed at protecting consumers who rely on physical currency for everyday

Liberal MP breaks ranks to call for increase to Newstart
Liberal senator Dean Smith has broken ranks with the federal government to call for an increase to the Newstart payment. WA Senator Dean Smith has become the first Liberal MP to publicly back an increase

Aged care homes spending as little as $7 a day on residents food
Some aged care homes spend as little as $7 a day on food for each resident, a royal commission has been told. Celebrity chef Maggie Beer says that sort of budget is inadequate to prepare

Vic wants federal funds to remove cladding
The Commonwealth is being asked to stump up $300 million to help remove dangerous cladding from hundreds of buildings across Victoria. The state Labor government is establishing a $600 million fund, to be overseen by

Asylum seeker tries to set himself on fire at Melbourne detention facility
Another incident of self-harm has occurred in an Australian detention centre. An asylum seeker detained in the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation facility has been taken to hospital after trying to set himself on fire, according

No paperwork, increasing rent: Sydney landlords exploiting international students
International students are being exploited by landlords in Sydney’s tight housing market, a new report has found. International students in Sydney are falling victim to financial exploitation by dodgy landlords, who are overcharging on bonds,

Record number of Aussies rush to file tax returns
A record number of Australians have lodged their tax returns in the hope of getting their hands on a hefty refund. About 650,000 people have already filed their tax returns, with this year’s early rush

Mitsotakis unveils major housing, loan and farming measures during Budget speech
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis used his address to Parliament during the debate on the State Budget to announce a series of significant policy initiatives targeting housing affordability, Swiss franc loan holders, and farmers. The announcements were described as some of the most substantial interventions of the current parliamentary term.

Two Germans sentenced for taking down the Greek Flag and raising a German flag on Crete
Two 23-year old German nationals were sentenced by a court in Chania, Crete on Monday for taking down the Greek flag down from a flagpole and raising the German flag in its place. The incident

Turkey threatens to install S-400 near Greece and Cyprus
Despite warnings from the international community and particularly the United States, Turkey is determined to proceed with the purchase of the Russian missiles defense system S-400. And not only that. Ankara is threatening its neighbour

VirtualDIVER: Innovative platform for underwater experience around Santorini
The innovative platform VirtualDIVER for virtual underwater experiences targeting the cultural and tourism industries has been developed in cooperation of Greek academics and private companies. VirtualDIVER will allow people to “travel” and “explore” the magical

Athens unveils its first electric bus
An electric bus built by Chinese automobile manufacturer BYD, which is silent and boasts of having no environmental footprint whatsoever, was presented for the first time in Athens on Tuesday. The BYD bus is 100%

Increase of households with Greek flag on their balconies
An impressive increase of households with the Greek flag on thier balcony has been recorded after the signing of the Prespes Agreement between Greece and North Macedonia and its adoption by the Parliament. This is

Mr. Tsipras’ twists and turns
Those who have closely followed the evolution of SYRIZA and Alexis Tsipras since they rose to power are aware of their constant Ovidian metamorphoses over many years. SYRIZA started off in 2008 as a basically

Libya parliament speaker declares Turkey–Libya memorandum invalid, opens door to talks with Greece, Egypt and Turkey
Libya’s House of Representatives Speaker, Aqila Saleh, has publicly declared the 2019 Turkey–Libya maritime memorandum “invalid,” marking the first such statement in six years and signalling a potential shift in Libya’s approach to maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean. Speaking to the Libyan News Agency, just days after an official

Hungary refuses to dance to US tune and step up pressure on Russia
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has boasted that he has good relations with Vladimir Putin and opposes EU sanctions against Russia; he has also challenged the EU’s immigration policy and slammed George Soros for his

“Surveillance Capitalism”: Google sister company to package and sell location data from millions of cellphones
A subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, Sidewalk Labs, is using real-time mobile location data from millions of cellphone users collected over long periods of time in order to help urban planners make critical decision

Skopje responds to Bulgarian Deputy PM’s threat over Zaev’s “Macedonian language”
The VMRO leader accused the representatives of the former Yugoslav republic of wanting to “validate a false version of history” The Foreign Ministry in Skopje has responded to Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and VMRO party

FYROM’s name change deal may be an achievement for the E.U., but undemocratic
After the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1991, Greece’s northern neighbor stole the Greek name “Macedonia”—but Athens refused to recognize it, saying it gave legitimacy to territorial, historical, and ethnic claims over the millenial old northern

Ancient Greek and Roman artifacts found in Alexandria
An announcement from the Archaeological Mission of Alexandria has revealed that an array of Greek and Roman artefacts has been found in Alexandria, Egypt. That date back to the 1st and 2nd centuries BC. The

