The head of the Church of Greece, Archbishop Ieronymos, has tested positive for COVID-19 and is being treated with mild symptoms in a central Athens hospital, Greek media reported on Thursday.
Ieronymos, 82, is the spiritual head of the Church in the deeply devout nation of more than 11 million which overwhelmingly identify themselves as Greek Orthodox Christians.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who met the prelate on Nov. 14, has twice in the past seven days tested negative for the novel coronavirus; once before his meeting with the cleric, and a second time before travelling to the United Arab Emirates, an official statement said.
Pope Francis (L) gestures next to Archbishop Ieronymos II on the Greek Island of Lesbos during a visit aimed at supporting refugees and drawing attention to the front line of Europe’s migration crisis in Lesbos, Greece, April 16, 2016. REUTERS/ Filippo Monteforte.
“Taking that into account, experts recommend there is no reason for precautionary quarantine,” government spokesman Stelios Petsas said, adding the government wished Ieronymos a speedy recovery.
Metropolitan Bishop Ioannis of Lagadas, 62, was buried earlier this week after dying of COVID-19. The town of Lagadas near the northern city of Thessaloniki, is in a region currently experiencing the highest rate of infection in a surge of the coronavirus in Greece.
A nationwide lockdown has been imposed until the end of the month in an effort to get the spread under control. Greece, a country of about 11 million people, currently has more than 82,000 confirmed positive coronavirus cases and nearly 1,300 deaths.
Couples across South Australia scrambled to beat a wedding ban which went into effect from midnight last night, tying the knot with just hours to spare.
One couple was Tanya and Stan Kapoulitsas.
Tanya, 41, was doing last minute wedding shopping in Rundle Mall, Adelaide, when she watched Premier Steven Marshall’s press conference slamming the door shut on her planned wedding this Saturday with 300 guests.
”I was sitting on a bench in the Mall and burst out crying,” the Burnside resident tells The Advertiser.
Her fiance Stan Kapoulitsas, 47, rang her and suggested they get married that night, sparking a flurry of calls to suppliers, friends and family.
Tanya and Stan Kapoulitsas were married just before SA’s wedding ban came into effect. Photo: The Advertiser.
In the end, everyone gathered for a full ceremony at St Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Church, Prospect at 8pm.
The couple had dinner at a Greek restaurant at Magill and got home by 11.55am in what Mrs Kapoulitsas describes as a moment out of Cinderella. In a video posted by Mrs Kapoulitsas moments after the happy event, she gives the virus the bird.
Mrs Kapoulitsas says they would wait until life was “back to normal” so they could throw a party to celebrate the wedding.
Impact on the wedding industry:
Kelly Markos, who operates venues Utopia@Waterfall Gully, Glanville Hall and Adelaide Pop-Up Weddings, tells The Advertiser that she has cancelled three weddings this weekend, in addition to other events, due to the lockdown.
She says the future of another seven weddings scheduled from Wednesday were also uncertain, potentially blowing a $150,000 hole in her earnings.
Seven of the 10 weddings were rescheduled from March and April after the initial COVID-19 restrictions.
She believed a lockdown was inevitable but that it would have a “huge impact” on her business and the industry generally which was starting to try and “claw our way back.”
“This was an incredibly busy week and next week we were moving into our main event season,” she says. “I think for many (businesses) this might be the final straw.”
Former CEO of Dow Chemical, Andrew Liveris AO, gave a passionate keynote speech looking at the issues of climate change and Australia’s private and public sector during The Australian‘s Strategic Forum 2020.
On the issue of climate change, Mr Liveris said “the debate is no longer the correct debate topic” and Australia needs to focus on affordable, risk management policies to reach the net zero by 2050 goal.
“This is not coal versus renewables. This is not fossil fuels versus green energy. This is an all-of-the-above energy emissions policy that includes a risk-managed and affordable transition,” Mr Liveris said during the forum.
“We need energy efficiency standards… the optimisation of the fossil fuel mix, the pursuit of safe and reliable alternatives such as hydro, solar, wind, batteries for storage and even nuclear.”
Andrew Liveris. Photo: The Greek Herald / Andriana Simos.
Mr Liveris added that Australia needs to give a “firm signal to the market” that the country is serious on climate change.
“A signal such as proactively enabling renewables to be a part of a redesigned national electrification market with no subsidies.”
Repurposing Australia’s private and public sector:
Mr Liveris went on to discuss Australia’s private and public sector, saying the private sector “has to deliver on its role in the social contract” and become more aware of its social responsibility to “drive purpose and community as much as profit.”
He later added that Australia struggles with bringing people in from the private sector and putting them into public sector roles.
“This struggle comes at the cost of the quality of public policy outcomes. Many in public service are not well-informed about demands on the private sector and there is resentment between the two sectors as well as ignorance and superstition,” Mr Liveris explained.
“Measures to deal with this include much more exchange between the two sectors and personnel, including swaps and internships at very high and low levels in the organisations.”
Going further, Mr Liveris says Australia has a “long history of high quality policy debate and innovation” and continues to be a “bold experimenter of new policy approaches.”
“This spirit is still alive and it needs to be focused on the redesign of our institutions and the re-invigoration of the policy mindset,” he said.
“The system needs to be designed to reflect the dynamics of technology and science. We need an education system that retrains Australians for meaningful and rewarding work.
“We also need to look at the new manufacturing paradigm… that translates Australia’s brilliant innovation engine into high quality products, jobs and values.”
An ambitious outlook on the future of Australia by proud Greek Australian bussinessman, Andrew Liveris.
The Hellenic Initiative has today launched its online Winter Appeal for Greece to support people facing severe hardship over the coming months.
Funds raised will assist THI Australia’s trusted partner charities in Greece, which face additional challenges supporting the vulnerable and the destitute during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“As we look forward to summer after an extremely challenging year, the onset of the second wave of COVID-19 in Greece is bringing new challenges for those at risk this winter,” said THI Australia President, Nicholas Pappas AM.
The Winter Appeal for Greece will help organisations such as Emfasis Foundation provide basic necessities and support services to people at risk during this winter, including sleeping bags, hygiene products, face masks, sanitiser, SIM cards, food vouchers and access to psychological support.
COVID-19 has hit just as Greece was emerging from a decade of economic hardship, and the disruption to international tourism in 2020 has already had a severe impact on the local economy.
“This has been a crippling summer for many people, particularly those reliant on the tourist season, and many families will struggle to cover essentials such as food and electricity bills during winter,” Mr Pappas said.
“We are more determined than ever to continue providing financial assistance to our respected partner charities in Greece to ensure they can keep supporting those most in need.
“As Christmas approaches, we are calling on Greek Australians and philhellenes to join our Winter Appeal and help support Greece during these uncertain times.”
If you would like to donate to THI Australia’s Winter Appeal, you can do so here.
James Gargasoulas’s murderous Bourke Street rampage was helped by a “perfect storm” of police deficiencies, which led to a “confluence of events” that worked in the killer’s favour, a Victorian coroner has found.
Gargasoulas is currently serving at least 46 years in jail for murdering six people and injuring 27 others by driving a Holden Commodore through the Bourke Street Mall on January 20, 2017.
Coroner Jacqui Hawkins delivered her findings following an inquest into the deaths, and said “poor planning, a lack of assertive leadership [and a] lack of adequate resources,” combined with “inflexible attitudes,” allowed Gargasoulas to roam across Melbourne before speeding through the lunchtime crowds in Melbourne’s CBD.
James Gargasoulas’s murderous Bourke Street rampage was helped by a “perfect storm” of police deficiencies, a Victorian coroner has found.
Ms Hawkins said a plan to persuade Gargasoulas to surrender was destined to fail. She said a formal pursuit should have been called, and a failure to do so led to a lack of oversight.
But the coroner said she was unable to determine if the murders would have been prevented if any circumstance had been different, saying stopping moving offenders was “incredibly difficult.”
‘Strategy never had a chance of succeeding’:
Gargasoulas had been pursued by police since the early hours of the morning of January 20 after he stabbed his brother Angelo.
Gargasoulas is serving at least 46 years in prison for killing six people and injuring 27 others. Photo: AAP/Stefan Postles.
A search for him began about an hour after the stabbing, but police failed to stop him until after his deadly attacks at about 1:30pm.
About half an hour before the killings, Detective Murray Gentner, who had several previous interactions with Gargasoulas including at his bail hearing six days earlier, tried to negotiate for Gargasoulas to surrender.
“The strategy never had a chance of succeeding,” Ms Hawkins said.
The coroner noted police came agonisingly close to stopping Gargasoulas as he drove towards the city, but said police were fearful of the consequences of ramming his car.
She said police had done much “soul searching”, and that a number of changes to policy on pursuits had already been made, limiting the need to make drastic findings.
Out of respect for the families of the dead, Ms Hawkins did not use Gargasoulas’s name when delivering her findings.
A Greek candlemaker has come up with a novel way of highlighting the need to wear a mask to curb the spread of the COVID-19 – putting them on his Santa candles.
Alexios Gerakis, in the northern town of Thessaloniki, has made decorative candles featuring Father Christmas with a big blue surgical mask covering his white beard.
A Greek candlemaker has put masks on his santa candles.
“Because of the times, we are trying to convey a message that health comes first, then everything else,” Gerakis, 37, told Reuters Television. Snowmen are also sporting a mask.
Thessaloniki has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic in a second, more aggressive surge which resurfaced in the autumn, forcing Greek authorities to reimpose a nationwide lockdown which expires at the end of November.
“We are trying to convey a message that health comes first,” Greek candlemaker, Alexios Gerakis, told Reuters.
Greece registered a further 3,209 cases and 60 deaths on Wednesday. It has reported a total of 82,034 coronavirus infections since February, and 1,288 deaths.
“Christmas is a bit of a question mark for all of us this year I think, we don’t know how this will end. We have to be optimistic, but it’s uncertain what will happen,” Gerakis said.
Greece, on the front line of migration into Europe, promised on Wednesday to build new reception centres for asylum seekers and refugees, and cut the maximum stay in camps on its now-overcrowded islands.
The country bore the brunt of a large influx of refugees and migrants into Europe in 2015 and 2016, many arriving via its outlying Aegean islands close to Turkey.
The flow has since ebbed significantly, though more than 90,000 migrants remain in Greece, of which about 19,000 live in filthy temporary camps, some for months or years.
Refugees make their way into Kara Tepe camp on the island of Lesvos, Greece. Photo: Reuters/Elias Marcou/File Photo.
Authorities will have finished the construction of better-equipped camps on the islands of Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Leros and Kos by the autumn of 2021, Migration Minister, Notis Mitarachi, said. None of the asylum seekers would be on an island for more than six months.
“In 12 months from today we should not have any of the legacy reception system we are seeing today,” Mitarachi told a news conference called to present the country’s migration strategy over the next two years.
Authorities were restructuring the asylum service to introduce remote and digital applications in order to faster process a backlog of about 87,000 asylum requests, he said.
In September, a fire razed Greece’s largest migrant camp on Lesvos, leaving about 12,000 people stranded. Most of them have now been moved to a temporary tent camp.
The conservative New Democracy government, elected in July 2019, has taken a tougher stance towards migration than its left-wing predecessors. It has placed limits on an appeals process which previously took months or years to navigate.
Each year, Lonely Planet produces a much-anticipated bucket list ranking of the top spots to travel to in the following year called ‘Best in Travel.’
This year, the ‘Best in Travel 2021‘ list was re-imagined to “reflect how the world and attitudes to travel have changed” and “(recognises) places and people demonstrating a genuine commitment to sustainability, community and diversity.”
And in some exciting news, Greece was listed as the top travel destination in the entire world in the “Sustainable Food” category.
We've released our Best in Travel list for next year! Find out how this year’s list spotlights not only places, but also people and communities who are transforming the travel industry. #BestInTravelhttps://t.co/Ly3bN3Ezwspic.twitter.com/gHlz2HKhge
In a statement, Lonely Planet explains that Greece won the category thanks to its “organic produce markets and island seafood.”
“Greece is an unintentional leader of the world’s most sustainable food locales,” Lonely Planet writes.
Greece may not be known worldwide for implementing formal initiatives surrounding sustainable practices, but informally, Greeks have been green for centuries.
The age-old habit of growing vegetables, harvesting olives and preparing silky oil, and cooking up a storm with tomatoes, fresh fish and wild greens is the norm for most folk whether they live on an island or the mainland.
But nothing is more genuine than the massive serving of filoxenia (hospitality) extended to anyone and everyone – it’s a way of life for the Greeks.
At 22 weeks pregnant, Victoria Malliaras fears she and her husband will become “homeless” if they aren’t able to return to South Australia this week.
They were scheduled to board a Qatar Airways flight from London to Adelaide on Thursday, where they were to undertake mandatory hotel quarantine before returning home to Melbourne.
But as the city grapples with a fresh outbreak of coronavirus, the South Australian Government has cancelled all inbound international flights — including theirs.
“The anxiety I feel right now is extreme. I can’t concentrate [on anything else],” Ms Malliaras told ABC News.
There are now more than 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 linked to Adelaide’s Parafield coronavirus cluster. Photo: ABC Radio Adelaide/ Spence Denny.
“I feel extremely vulnerable with my pregnancy and I’m very worried about how this anxiety is impacting the health and development of our baby. I’m literally not sleeping at the moment as I’m so stressed.”
Mrs Malliaras has received little information about the status of their flight despite constantly refreshing the Qatar Airways app and repeatedly calling the airline’s contact centre.
“We’ve had radio silence from Qatar. [It appears] there has been a total breakdown of communication between Qatar Airways frontline staff, Qatar head office and the Australian Government — no-one has been able to advise us on what the contingency plan is,” she says.
“With less than 48 hours to our scheduled flight, we’re feeling totally dejected and hopeless. We’re in limbo. We’ll be homeless if we don’t get home this week.”
The Board of Airline Representatives estimate 30,000 Australians remain stranded in the United Kingdom due to a cap on the number of citizens and permanent residents allowed to return each week.
There are now 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 linked to Adelaide’s Parafield coronavirus cluster, which genomic testing has determined originated from a traveller staying at the Peppers Waymouth medi-hotel.
Greece and the United Arab Emirates have agreed to forge a strategic alliance that includes not only economic cooperation, but also extends to the areas of cooperation in defense and foreign policy, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday during his visit to Abu Dhabi.
“My visit to the United Arab Emirates today and the signing of the relevant agreements constitute a strategic upgrade of Greece-United Arab Emirates relations,” Mitsotakis noted.
Greece’s Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, met with the UAE’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
“There is now a clear roadmap for how relations between the two countries can become even closer. Both countries are facing the challenges in the East Med through the same perspective. They remain committed to the peaceful settlement of disputes and respect for international law.”
In a joint statement after the meeting between Mitsotakis and Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the two sides condemned Turkish violations of the territorial integrity and the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus.
Σε συνάντηση με τον Διάδοχο του Θρόνου των ΗΑΕ Σεΐχη Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan συζητήσαμε τη ραγδαία πρόοδο που έχει επιτευχθεί τους τελευταίους μήνες στις διμερείς σχέσεις και σε όλο το φάσμα της διμερούς συνεργασίας, αλλά και τις εξελίξεις στην περιοχή της Αν. Μεσογείου. pic.twitter.com/gSuggsHo5x
They also decried Ankara’s aggressive behavior in the Middle East, the Southeastern Mediterranean and the South Caucasus region, describing it as a blatant violation of international law.
“Greece and the UAE underline their steadfast commitment to international law and the UN Charter as the foundation for peace, security, good neighbourhood relations and the peaceful resolution of problems for all the countries of the region,” they wrote in the statement.
Both governments also reaffirmed their commitment to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries of the region.
