Have the dreamy Greek eyes grabbed your attention yet? Panagiotis Vasilakos will steal the hearts of Greek women as he prepares to become the first ever Greek contestant on the popular reality television series ‘The Bachelor Greece’.
Running on American and Australian television for over 18 years, racking up multiple seasons each year with ‘Bachelorette’ and ‘Bachelor in Paradise’ spinoffs, the series is one of televisions most watched programmes.
20 women will attempt to win the love and attention of Vasilakos as they attempt to charm him with their personality and looks. By the end, only one will steal the Greek mans heart.
“Every week at the Rose Ceremony, I will give a flower to as many women as I want to keep. Those who do not get a rose leaves ‘The Bachelor’.”
The 30-year-old Panagiotis is originally from Mani and has been playing football since he was a student.
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Panagiotis Vasilakos also has featured on the exclusive catwalks. He collaborated with the Italian La Perla, while the Italian company Versace also asked for his exclusive collaboration.
The Bachelor Greece will begin airing in September on Alpha.
The European Union is preparing sanctions against Turkey that could be discussed at the bloc’s next summit on Sept. 24 in response to the eastern Mediterranean dispute with Greece, the EU’s top diplomat said on Friday.
The measures, meant to limit Turkey’s ability to explore for natural gas in contested waters, could affect individuals, ships or the use of European ports, Josep Borrell said. The EU would focus on everything related to “activities we consider illegal”, he added.
Borrell spoke in Berlin where EU foreign ministers met to discuss support for Greece after Athens ratified a pact on its maritime boundaries to counter Turkey’s claims to energy resources in the region.
In a fresh sign of tensions, Turkey’s Defence Ministry said Turkish F-16 jets on Thursday prevented six Greek F-16 jets which took off from the island of Crete from entering an area where Ankara is conducting maritime activity.
Sidelines of the informal talks of the EU foreign ministers in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Aug. 28, 2020. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)
Greek media reported that Turkish fighter aircraft had harassed Greek jets which were returning to base on Crete. Accusations and counter accusations on military issues are common between the two NATO allies.
In Berlin, Borrell said the bloc was ready to sanction Turkish vessels, block their access to EU ports and cut off supplies.
Possible Sanctions
“We can go to measures related to sectoral activities … where the Turkish economy is related to the European economy,” Borrell told a news conference, referring to possible sanctions.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the EU had no basis for its stance and rejected Greek maritime claims. President Tayyip Erdogan told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg Turkey will continue to protect its rights and interests everywhere.
“Our President told him NATO must fulfill its responsibility against unilateral steps which disregard international law and harm regional peace,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement.
In this photo provided by the Greek Defense Ministry, warships take part in a military exercise in Eastern Mediterranean sea, Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020. (Greek Defense Ministry via AP)
France has notably taken a tough stance on Turkey’s actions in the eastern Mediterranean and French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday this was to set red lines because Ankara respects actions not words.
Borrell and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the EU first wanted to give dialogue a chance to cool tensions.
Turkey is a formal candidate to join the EU, although its candidacy is at risk and could be withdrawn as a type of sanction, diplomats have said.
Two senior EU diplomats told Reuters that foreign ministers agreed to leave any decision to EU government leaders, who are set to meet for a two-day summit from Sept. 24.
“Nothing will be decided before the September European Council,” a senior diplomat said, although the envoy added that Turkey could also be rewarded with greater access to the EU’s market of 450 million consumers if it curtailed its drilling.
Greek world number six Stefanos Tsitsipas was outclassed this morning by Canadian Milos Raonic who defeated the Greek 7-6(5) 6-3.
In the opening 11 games, the servers dropped 13 points overall and offered very little to the returner. In the end the Canadian finished with a first serve win percentage of 90, with Tsitsipas earning a smaller percentage of 78.
Tsitsipas put in a tough effort against the Canadian who held at 15 in the opening game with a service winner.
Raonic used his forehand to break through the defence of Tsitsipas early in the second set and, on his first break point at 2-1, successfully broke Tsitsipas’ serve with a low backhand passing shot.
Losing the first-set tiebreak, Tsitsipas ultimately struggled to get back into the match. Raonic held his advantage and served out the match to love.
Stefanos Tsitsipas was one of several younger competitors tipped to make an impact as the Grand Slam starts on Monday. Milos Raonic will play in the final of the Western & Southern Open against either Novak Djokovic or Roberto Bautista Agut.
“It would be incredible [to win an ATP Masters 1000 title]. Just generally as part of my career, it’s not just the past six months coming back [and] playing. Just with everything else, I want to go to heights I haven’t achieved yet and this is a part of it,” said Raonic.
A crippled yacht carrying 55 migrants has been safely towed to port on the southeastern Aegean Sea island of Rhodes following an overnight search and rescue operation, Greek authorities said Friday.
Two of the people on the yacht were arrested on suspicions of working with a trafficking ring that arranged for the migrants to illegally enter Greece from nearby Turkey. Officials said everyone on the vessel was in good health.
A coast guard statement said the rescue effort was hampered by high winds blowing in the area since late Thursday, which prevented the migrants from being transferred onto ships that hastened to the spot, some 17 miles southeast of Rhodes.
Greek authorities found the yacht partially sunk west of the small island of Halki, near Rhodes. Photo: Greek Coast Guard via AP
In separate incident on Tuesday, a total 96 people were rescued from the sea by helicopters, patrol boats and nearby merchant ships after their yacht partially sank west of the small island of Halki, near Rhodes. Two other people originally on the boat have been reported missing.
Thousands of migrants try to reach Greece’s eastern islands every year from Turkey, usually paying high sums to smuggling rings that place them on unseaworthy boats without any crew on board — offering instead a reduced price to passengers who are prepared to navigate by trial and error.
Greek authorities say increased vigilance in patrolling has cut sea arrivals by about 95% so far this year, compared to January-August 2019, despite reduced cooperation by the Turkish coast guard amid high tensions between Greece and Turkey.
The skills of a true cobbler are sewn in from a young age. The early-mid 1900’s saw many Greeks become masters of the trade, many of whom then brought their shoe repair skills to Australia to make a living as a traditional cobbler.
Miltiadis Vassiliotis learned the basics of shoe repairs from his father at a very young age and since then has used his skills to transform and adapt ‘Civic Shoes’ into a business with an elongated future.
Hailing from Karpathos, a small Greek island in the Dodecanese, Vassiliotis’ father came to Australia in 1956 and worked as a cobbler from that time. He then opened his own business in 1973, which was passed on to become Miltiadis’ shoe repair store.
Maintaining the shops “traditional” ethics as a shoe repair store, the Greek Australian hasn’t been shy to expand and deliver new products to his loyal customers.
Miltiadis Vassiliotis learned the basics of shoe repairs from his father at a very young age. Photo: Supplied
“Three years ago I started designing the custom made shoes and custom made inner soles,” Vassiliotis says to The Greek Herald.
“We’re doing something different than everyone else around.
“We’re the first to bring the 3D scanner, which measures 52 different measurements on your feet, in Australia. Through these measurements we build up the shoes.”
The custom made shoes, as Vassiliotis explains, are not made in Canberra, but instead the feet dimensions are transferred to factories overseas. The factory employees can then read the transmitted data, build the shoes, and ship them directly back to Canberra.
While bringing a new product option to his customers, Vassiliotis has made sure to stay true to his roots as a hard working cobbler.
“We’ve kept the shoe repairs as traditional as it was before. So we haven’t change anything,” Vassiliotis says.
While bringing a new product option to his customers, Vassiliotis has made sure to stay true to his roots as a hard working cobbler. Photo: Supplied
The first COVID-19 wave hit businesses across Australia with a fiery fist, with Vassiliotis’ being no exception. Vassiliotis was forced to close his shop for a week after Canberra was sent into lockdown.
“It slowly began to pick up,” Vassiliotis says.
“Going well now so I can’t complain. We will worry about the second outbreak if it comes.”
The expert quality provided by Civic Shoes has not gone unnoticed by some of Australia’s biggest stars, with Vassiliotis saying that many “politicians, actors and football players” regularly come into his store for his services.
Being based in Canberra, Vassiliotis’ reveals that his skills have also attracted the likes of Rugby Union side ‘Canberra Brumbies’ and NRL’s ‘Canberra Raiders’.
“I’ve already started talking with the Canberra Brumbies and Canberra Raiders and I’m just waiting for some samples and when I have the samples I’ll start going to the trainings and do some foot measuring. Then I can design some custom made boots.
“All the rugby players have big feet and they can’t find a proper fitting football boot. So my next step is to help them.”
The owner of Civic Shoes also expressed the importance of designing custom inner soles for people who suffer from chronic foot problems and health issues.
“For people who have plantar fasciitis and foot problems, I have a special device that can make a custom pair of inner soles in 10 minutes.”
An artist of the trade, Vassiliotis skills are appreciated by many locals in the Canberra community. Asked if his children would follow on in his legacy as a cobbler, Vassiliotis didn’t feel pressured to pass on his love for shoe repairs to his two children.
Greek Australian Vanessa Pappas has been announced as the interim head of embattled video-sharing app TikTok, taking over after its chief executive quit after less than three months in the job.
The announcement comes after the shock resignation of Kevin Mayer, who blamed the changing “political environment” for his decision to leave the job he only started on June 1.
Chinese company ByteDance has come under pressure from US President Donald Trump to sell TikTok, which the US Government considers a security risk.
Incredibly proud and humbled to take the role of interim head of TikTok. Our community and our team who work so hard to enable this product continue to inspire me. It's truly amazing what we've accomplished in 2 years, I have no doubt what we can accomplish in this next chapter!
Ms Pappas has been working as the general manager of the US branch of the company since January 2019, and has been overseeing the Australia and New Zealand operations since June last year.
A graduate of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, she has previously worked at online video companies Next New Networks and YouTube.
Ms Pappas wrote on Twitter that she was “proud and humbled” to take on the interim role.
“Our community and our team who work so hard to enable this product continue to inspire me,” she wrote.
“It’s truly amazing what we’ve accomplished in two years, I have no doubt what we can accomplish in this next chapter.”
ByteDance launched TikTok in 2017, then bought Musical.ly, a video service popular with teens in the US and Europe, and combined the two. A twin service, Douyin, is available for Chinese users.
The app is popular among youth and has amassed more than 680 million monthly active users around the world.
Tech giant Microsoft and retailer Walmart have made a joint bid to buy TikTok’s US business, according to Reuters.
Pikionis Dimitris is remembered as one of societies greatest modern architects, highly recognised for his work in shaping modern Greek architecture, particularly the streets of Athens.
Dimitris was born in Piraeus in 1887 by parents of Chiot descent. By 1908, he became the first student to be taken by K. Parthenis, a distinguished Greek painter at the time. In the same year, he graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and set out to work and study in Paris.
While Dimitris attended architectural composition lessons at the École des Beaux-Arts, his true desire was to work with painting, not architecture.
View of the Saint Dimitrios Loumbardiaris courtyard and the path leading to Filopappou Monument, 1954–58. Photo: Agni Pikioni Archive, Dimitris Pikionis A.M.K.E., Athens
In 1912, in the period of military recruitment for the Balkan wars, he returned to Greece and began to design his first houses from the folk architecture of Aegina. Being limited to designing blueprints for graves in the 1940s and 1950s, Dimitris got his big breakthrough after being given the opportunity to work on the formation of the archaeological site around the Acropolis and Philopappos Hill.
One of his longest projects, it became his most important and famous work that still leaves it’s mark on the city of Athens. He particularly made use of rough-finished marble for his designs, using various shapes that appear irregular, yet are strictly geometric.
The combination of his artistic imagination and structural knowledge in architecture made his work recognised by some of the worlds greatest architects and world leaders.
In 1966, he was elected a regular member of the Academy of Athens (order of Letters and Arts) in the Architecture Chair.
Dimitris died in Athens on 28th of August 1968, aged 81.
Sophie Cotsis, Member for Canterbury, visited McCallum’s Hill Public School to view the stage one completion of the school’s new sensory garden.
The garden was supported by Federal MP Tony Burke and State MP Sophie Cotsis, as well as the Lantern Club in Roselands.
“The school’s leadership and P&C committee shared a vision to convert an unused space and convert it into a spectacular interactive open space which has now been incorporated into school teaching and learning” said Ms Cotsis.
“This is a fantastic addition to the amazing school and will be enjoyed by kids today and into the future.”
“The sensory garden will especially help those students with greater needs and will encourage a more stimulating classroom environment.”
“Thank you to the school’s principal Mrs Georgia Constanti, and P&C President Paul Robertson for their continued dedication to student education and well-being.”
Debbie Waicokacola, General Manager of the Lantern Club, announced the club would donate a further $10,000 to invest into stage 2 of the garden’s development.
Harry Maguire landed in a lot of trouble after taking part in a brawl in Mykonos last week, being found guilty of assault and bribing the ELAS.
Speaking on BBC Radio Four’s Today programme, the lawyer who represented two police officers in the assault case says it is “shocking” that there has been no apology from the Manchester United captain and his co-defendants.
“This is what I find quite shocking and quite unsporting. Fair play means when I’ve done something wrong I apologise or at least I say I am sorry for what happened to the other person,” Dr Yoannis Paradissis said to the British programme.
The Manchester United midfielder has defended the actions that led to his arrest in Greece, insisting he has no reason to apologise for the incident, but instead feels regret at causing potential embarrassment to his club.
In this Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020 file photo, England soccer player Harry Maguire leaves a court building on the Aegean island of Syros, Greece.(AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
“I don’t feel like I owe an apology to anybody. An apology is something when you’ve done something wrong or regret. I regret being in the situation,” Maguire said, adding that he is confident he will be cleared in the retrial.
“I have great faith in the Greek law, the retrial will give us more time to prepare, gather the evidence, allow witnesses into the court. And I am really confident that the truth will be told and come out.”
The court on the Greek island of Syros handed the footballer suspended 21-month prison sentence. The 27-year-old England defender, who did not attend the trial, quickly indicated his intention to appeal, releasing a statement saying that he and his family and friends had been the victims.
Paradissis said an appeal would start the trial afresh but that in Greek law some of the accusations could be withdrawn if an apology was given and that “the outcome might be different.”
Maguire was dropped from the England squad for the Nations League matches against Iceland and Denmark after initially The impact of Maguire’s conviction is already being felt, with England manager Gareth Southgate withdrawing him from the squad for the Nations League matches against Iceland and Denmark next month, having initially selected him.
Australia’s Ambassador to Greece, Arthur Spyrou, met with political leaders in the South Aegean during an excursion to Rhodes yesterday, discussing potential ways to strengthen community ties between Rhodes and Australia.
As part of the Ambassador’s tour in Rhodes, Spyrou met with the Governor of the South Aegean Region, George Hatzimarkos, as well as the Mayor of Rhodes, Andonis Cambourakis.
Discussions with the Governor focused on the region’s strong war and community links with Australia and the potential commercial opportunities that can arise from an EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Ambassador Arthur Spyrou met with the Governor of the South Aegean Region, George Hatzimarkos, in #Rhodes. The…
The Governor thanked Spyrou for his interest in the South Aegean islands and said he was proud that an expatriate represents Greece in Australia.
“We are proud that an expatriate now represents a foreign country in our homeland,” Hatzimarkos said.
“For us Greeks, the Greek community is a great national asset, with invaluable contribution from those who, serving in positions of responsibility, do not forget their roots. In a period that tests the global community, but also with the historical challenges we face in the “neighbourhood”, it is important for us islanders to feel that there is another Greece that is firmly by our side.
“The Greeks of Australia, at every opportunity show that they always hold for our country, a place in their hearts.”
The Australian Ambassador to Greece also met with Mayor of Rhodes, Andonis Cambourakis, to discuss the island’s wartime connections with Australia, the vibrant Greece-Australia community with links to Rhodes, and opportunities to strengthen trade relations between the two countries.
Spyrou, during his expedition to Rhodes, stopped by the the Commonwealth War Graves Commission War Cemetery in Rhodes to pay respect and honour the ANZACS who served and lost their lives on Rhodes and other islands during operations in the Aegean in WWII.
At the @CWGC War Cemetery in #Rhodes today, I paid my respects to the #Anzacs who served and lost their lives on Rhodes and other islands in the Aegean during WWII. The memory of their service and sacrifice lives on. 🌺 @AWMemorialpic.twitter.com/xXMPupSSdX
