Greece

Rally in Athens in support of OXI (“NO”) in the run-up to the 2015 referendum

Peace talks for Cyprus have faced a grave setback after Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu explicitly ruled out withdrawing Turkish troops from Cyprus, a sovereign state that Turkey has partly occupied since 1974.
Cavusoglu called the removal of Turkish troops a “non-starter” and told groups representing Greek Cypriots to “wake-up” if they thought that such an option would be realistic.
Most Greek Cypriot activists continue to demand the full withdrawal of Turkish troops from Cyprus as conditions for reunification.
Peace talks continue in Geneva.

Recall this previous post? Greece/Cyprus Provocation as Pretext to Renounce Turkey ?

The Annan Plan in 2004 failed to unify Cyprus because of the thorny issue of Turkish troop removal and security guarantees failed to provide a proper security umbrella, without the need of Turkish intervention hanging over the heads of Cypriots.
The latest talks taking place in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, are entering their second week, and the make or break chapter of security and guarantees is expected to be negotiated by both sides.
Cyprus Mail reports…

News is coming in from the Turkish NTV channel that the Greek coast guard opened fire at a Turkish-flagged cargo ship in the Aegean Sea.
Greek media is stating that it fired “warning shots” at the vessel.
Turkish media oulets report that 16 to 36 bullet holes were counted on Turkish freighter.
Via Yeni Safak…

The Hellenic amphitheatre in Ephesus, now in Turkey, is a breathaking venue for summer concerts. Everyone from operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti to the progressive rock band Jethro Tull have played there.
Recently, a symphony-orchestra played Mendelssohn’s 4th Symphony when a labrador retriever casually walked on stage, eventually deciding to lie down next to the first violin section.
It is unclear if the dog was someone’s pet or where it came from, but it seems like he enjoyed the music as much as anyone else in the audience.

A homeless person changes clothes outside a bank in central Athens. Nearly one-in-four Greeks are unemployed and receive no benefits. Poverty rates have surged here since the start of the crisis in late 2009, with nearly 36 percent of the country living in financial distress. (AP/Thanassis Stavrakis)

This is a superbly written account of the struggle to alleviate the austerity imposed upon the Greek people by the eurozone. Greece, argues Varoufakis, has been put in a debtors’ prison and robbed of autonomy and dignity for the indefinite future. Critics would argue that he failed as finance minister in 2015 because he was insufficiently politic. More plausibly, he could never have succeeded, such were the vested interests arrayed against him. This outcome was — and is — a tragedy, because he was — and is — right. The bulk of Greek debt should indeed be cancelled outright.

Russiagate is fundamentally about two things and neither have anything to do with anyone in the American elite actually believing that Russia had any impact on the US election whatsoever. Those who say that Russia had an influence on the US election are merely providing the bread and circuses to distract the attention of the wider world, including many in Russia from the actual motivation driving the seemingly never-ending scandal.
1. American Geo-political Decline 

A man makes a transaction at an automated teller machine (ATM) of a Piraeus Bank branch in Athens, Greece. (AP/Yorgos Karahalis)
ATHENS (Analysis)– Day by day, we’re moving towards a brave new world where every transaction is tracked, every purchase is recorded, the habits and preferences of everyone noted and analyzed. What I am describing is the “cashless society,” where plastic and electronic money are king, while banknotes and coins are abolished.