The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Wednesday on Karnakis & Karnakis, a law firm based in Greece and Panama, saying it had for years provided legal assistance to Iranian shipping networks.
The US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network also issued an administrative subpoena to advance an investigation into a Greek bank over potential ties to Iran, according to a Treasury statement, which did not name the bank.
FINCEN also issued requests for information to six other European banks that it did not name over relationships with Iranian financial institutions under US sanctions.
“Whether you are conducting illegal oil transfers at sea or sitting in the corner office of a law firm, if you are supporting the Iranian regime, we will find you and sanction you,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessentsaid in a release.
Karnakis & Karnakis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Treasury also imposed sanctions on Singapore- and UAE-based shipping agents that it said directly aid Iranian shadow fleet operations.
A dramatic animal rescue took place on the island of Kythera, when a group of climbers discovered an injured and newborn baby seal without its mother. The baby seal estimated to be 7 days old was dehydrated and malnourished and weighed approximately 15 kilograms. Members of the “Outdoor Activities Greece” team spotted the injured baby […]
Match-fixing scandal in Greek basketball: Six arrests and €820,000 in cash found in the safe of one referee. Implicated in the scandal that shakes the Greek Basketball is also the president of the Hellenic Basketball Federation (EOK), Vangelis Liolios, ANT1 TV who has been also arrested and other media reported on Tuesday afternoon. Law enforcement […]
Two police officers and two members of the public were injured in an explosion at a building in central Athens, Greek police said on Wednesday.
All four were taken away in ambulances, police said in a statement.
A police official who declined to be named said the explosion occurred when officers reached the building in the area of Kolonos and picked up a backpack thought to contain drugs.
Police had earlier received a call from the manager of the building notifying them of the suspected drugs at the building’s entrance. The manager was also injured in the blast, which police are not treating as a terrorist act, the police official added.
Thousands of students and teachers took to the streets across Greece on Wednesday, demanding higher state funding for education, better facilities and less-crowded classrooms, echoing protesters in other European countries.
About 10,000 demonstrators, including school and university students, rallied peacefully in central Athens and suburbs, police said. Others joined rallies in cities across the country, all voicing their solidarity with growing protests in France and elsewhere in Europe over soaring living costs and over what they called crumbling school conditions.
The protests add pressure on Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ centre-right government, which faces elections in mid-2027, as Greeks struggle with stagnant wages, high rents and rising energy costs years after the country’s debt crisis.
“From Greece to France, we want public, free education,” protesters chanted as they gathered outside parliament. Students had set up tents in central Athens’ Syntagma Square and staged an overnight protest before Wednesday’s march.
State school and hospital operations were disrupted as some primary school teachers and doctors walked out, protesting over pay and staff shortages.
Education Minister Sofia Zacharaki said before the protests that she was hearing students’ demands. She acknowledged housing costs were putting pressure on Greek households and said projects worth more than €733 million ($823 million) were underway for new student residences and facilities upgrades.
Greece has recovered from a 2009-2018 debt crisis, when wages and education spending were cut under austerity in exchange for three international bailouts worth about €290 billion. Salaries have increased since, but real purchasing power for many Greeks is still among the lowest in the EU and has taken a fresh blow from rising inflation and soaring fuel prices linked to the Iran war.
The average monthly salary of €1,500 remains stuck at the 2009 level and many young Greeks have been priced out of housing in cities by skyrocketing rents.
“Surviving here is very difficult, the rent is really high, the houses are really small. Our parents can’t make ends meet to pay for our rent, the electricity, for our life here,” said university student Georgia Foukidou, 21, who joined the protest in Athens.
The demonstrations follow days of protests in France and Albania, where anger over rising living costs and perceived corruption has led to clashes and heavy property damage.
Protests in Greece have been largely peaceful in recent months. Mitsotakis’ government has said state subsidies and other aid to prop up households and businesses against rising energy costs would reach about €1 billion.
A massive scandal is rocking Greek sport after the president of the Hellenic Basketball Federation, Vangelis Liolios, and other basketball figures were arrested or named in arrest warrants over allegations of match-fixing, bribery and illegal conduct linked to games, while €820,000 in cash was reportedly found at a referee’s home.
The developments emerged on Wednesday, following a three-month investigation by Athens sports prosecutor Apostolos Grammenos into allegations concerning Greek basketball, according to Greek sports media outlet Sport24.
Six arrest warrants were issued in total, with the case reportedly involving the federation’s leadership, referees and other basketball figures.
Liolios, who has led the federation since September 2021, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon, Sport24 reported.
Three other people were also reported arrested, although reports differed on the identities of those detained as the investigation developed.
The warrants reportedly concern alleged offences including bribery and accepting bribes under sports legislation, as well as suspected manipulation of matches in Greece’s top basketball division and other categories over at least the past five years.
According to Sport24, the warrants cover three referees, a chief referee or refereeing adviser, and a businessman who is also a former athlete, alongside Liolios.
Referees Vaso Tsaroucha and Petros Papapetrou were among those reported to be wanted, as was basketball official Giorgos Mavraganis. Papapetrou reportedly retired during the summer.
Greek outlet SDNA separately reported that referee Elias Koromilas had also been arrested, and that €820,000 was found at the home of a referee in Katerini during searches connected to the case.
The amount was described by the outlet as unexplained, but the allegations have not been established in court.
The reports said searches of properties linked to people under investigation uncovered substantial sums of cash that authorities suspect may not be consistent with the individuals’ declared financial circumstances.
The case reportedly includes complaints and allegations made by people in basketball, as well as messages and other evidence examined during the prosecutor’s investigation.
According to Greek media, the warrants were issued after the case file was referred to an investigating magistrate, with the agreement of the sports prosecutor.
The reported grounds for issuing the warrants included concerns that some suspects, who remain active in the sport, could potentially commit further offences.
Those arrested were expected to appear before the investigating magistrate as the legal process continued.
The investigation remains ongoing, and the allegations against the individuals mentioned are currently accusations rather than proven findings.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday said that his country will not object to the undertaking of seabed surveys between Crete and Cyprus ahead of the construction of the planned Great Sea Interconnector, provided that it is provided with a written notification of the plans in advance.
“We do not raise any objections. We discussed it with [Greek] Prime Minister Mitsotakis and [French] President Macron. My president raised the issue in New York during his meeting with Prime Minister Mitsotakis,” he told Greek newspaper Ta Nea of the cable which, if completed, will link the energy grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel.
He added that during those discussions, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had “described the project as remarkable” but had gone on to say that “I would prefer you to buy electricity from us rather than transporting it from a distance of 2,000 kilometres and spending over €2 billion of European funds”.
“I can provide from a distance of just 70 miles from mainland Turkey water, electricity, and natural gas, from which everyone, Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, and the entire population, can benefit,” he said.
On the question of the waters which are disputed between Turkey and Greece, he said that “we have not yet touched on the issue” in high-level discussions between the leaderships of Turkey and Greece, but stressed that Turkey would not stand in the way of the interconnector if it is informed of work in advance.
“What we are asking is that when a ship conducts research at sea, it send us a written notification, not just an oral one, stating, ‘we are going to undertake specific actions in this area, here are the coordinates’. That is all we are asking for. Nothing more,” he said.
‘We do not want the status quo to be disturbed’
“We do not want the status quo to be disturbed, or a precedent to be created in a completely wrong way, which will cause even greater problems for both sides.”
It has been reported that the Greek and French governments intend to notify Turkey of their intentions prior to issuing a navtex, a message used to transmit information to seaborne vessels, regarding planned seabed surveys for the laying of cables.
On this front, Cypriot Energy Minister Michael Damianos had said last week that the navtex for the seabed surveys will be issued before the end of this month, with the Greek coastguard having said that French-flagged research ship the Abeille Marengo will be the ship conducting the surveys.
Damianos said on Monday that “if the project progresses”, it is believed that it will be fully completed by 2031.
Turkey plans to connect Cyprus’ water, gas, electrical infrastructure to its own
Fidan’s reference to the possibility of power being provided by Turkey comes with the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot authorities having drawn up plans to link the island’s energy grid with that of Turkey.
However, the European network of transmission system operators for electricity (Entso-E) has not included plans for a cable linking Turkey and Cyprus in its ten-year development plan, and said that the Great Sea Interconnector “is the only interconnector project connecting the Republic of Cyprus” in its plans.
Since then, Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot authorities have signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of a natural gas pipeline between Cyprus and Turkey, though both the European Union and the Republic of Cyprus have rejected it.
On water, offers made by Turkey as early as 2015 to supply the whole island with water from the Taurus mountains have thus far been met with a cool response by successive Republic of Cyprus administrations, though the water is nonetheless pumped via an undersea pipeline to the Panagra reservoir in the island’s far northwest and used by Turkish Cypriots.
Students and teachers in Athens and Thessaloniki demand affordable housing, higher wages and increased funding for public education.
Students and teachers in Greece have mobilized in Athens and Thessaloniki to demand affordable housing, higher wages and greater investment in public education, joining a wave of youth-led protests over rising living costs and housing insecurity across Europe.
Tents have been erected in Athens’ Syntagma Square and in Thessaloniki as demonstrators call for fair rents, more university housing and increased funding for public education.
Authorities deployed more than 3,000 police officers in Athens to monitor a demonstration scheduled for Wednesday, organized by students and teachers. The protests come amid similar mobilizations in France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and Albania, where young people are challenging housing costs that they say make it increasingly difficult to combine work or study with securing a home.
Students pitch tents near Greek parliament over rising costs
📍 Students set up tents in Athens’ Syntagma Square, near the Greek parliament
The Greek primary school teachers’ union, DOE, called a 24-hour strike to demand a 20% pay rise, housing assistance for teachers assigned to work in other cities and improvements to school facilities.
Around 20 student associations in Athens joined the mobilization, planning to march alongside teachers. Their demands include decent housing for all university students, particularly those from low-income families who move to other cities to pursue their studies, higher student allowances and more places in public university residences.
Students are also calling for lower electricity and heating fuel costs, highlighting the pressure of energy expenses alongside the cost of accommodation.
The demonstrations reflect broader grievances among young Europeans over housing affordability. Protesters across several countries have pointed to property speculation, tourism-driven pressures on housing and austerity policies imposed by the European Union as factors affecting their ability to secure a home.
Athens Mayor Haris Dukas, a social democrat, expressed support for students and teachers while making clear his opposition to violent protests.
The demonstrations add Greece to a broader wave of Generation Z mobilizations across Europe over housing costs, economic pressures and access to public services, with students and educators pressing for changes to living and working conditions.
Login
