Albania’s Parliament voted Wednesday to impeach President Ilir Meta, after the ruling Socialist Party accused him of meddling in the April 25 national election and violating the country’s constitution.
 
The issue goes now to the Constitutional Court, which will have the final say.
 
One hundred and four lawmakers voted in favor, seven against and three abstained in the Socialist-dominated legislature. Ninety-four votes, or two-thirds, were needed for the impeachment.
 
Some 30 years since the Balkan nation’s communist era came to an end, it is the first time that Albania’s Parliament has voted to impeach the president. Lawmakers followed an accelerated procedure to impeach after an ad hoc investigative commission worked for three weeks to conclude that Meta had committed impeachable offenses.
 
According to the commission’s findings, the head of state committed major constitutional violations, with at least nine offenses such as meddling with the election and damaging relations with Albania’s strategic partners along with the country’s reputation.
 
“Ilir Meta has destroyed the institution of the guarantor of national unity,” Prime Minister Edi Rama said in Parliament. “Ilir Meta has violated the vital separation of powers in our parliamentarian democracy.”
 
In Albanian law, the president does not belong to a political party and symbolizes the unity of the country.
 
Reacting on social media, presidential spokesperson Tedi Blushi called the vote an “anti-constitutional and ridiculous” parliamentary decision.
 
The governing Socialist Party controls the Parliament since the main opposition parties in an unprecedented move vacated their seats in 2017. The Socialist Party will be in power for the next four years after winning the general election in April.
 
The new Parliament takes over in September.
 
Meta, who called the move to oust him “illegitimate,” did not appear in front of the Investigative Commission or Parliament to defend himself.
 
He hosted an arts event at the presidential headquarters as the vote was carried out.
 
The final decision to remove the president from office now stands with the country’s Constitutional Court, which does not have a deadline to consider the case.
 
“The court will have to review the procedure that led to the Parliament decision, including the alleged violations, to decide whether they justify ousting him,” Aurela Anastasi, professor of constitutional law at Tirana University’s Law School, told VOA.
 
The judicial body faces its own challenges, with two of its nine seats currently vacant.
 Ilirian Agolli contributed to this report, which originated in VOA’s Albanian Service.   
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President Joe Biden headed to Europe Wednesday on his first overseas trip as the U.S. leader, set to hold high-level talks with other Western heads of state before meeting next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Geneva.  As he boarded Air Force One, Biden said his goals for the trip were strengthening ties with allies, while “making it clear to Putin and to China that Europe and the United States are tight.” President Joe Biden talks to reporters prior to boarding Air Force One, from Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, June 9, 2021.Biden also said he would be announcing a new strategy for vaccinating the world against the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. has vaccinated more than half of its adult population, but impoverished countries in Africa and elsewhere have trailed far behind that level of inoculations. As he left for Britain, the White House said the trip “will highlight America’s commitment to rallying the world’s democracies, coming together to shape the rules of the road for the 21st century, defend our values and tackle the world’s biggest challenges.”  Biden is holding talks Thursday with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson before attending the G-7 summit of leading industrial nations in Cornwall, Britain, from Friday to Sunday. He and first lady Jill Biden are also meeting Sunday with Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle before leaving for a NATO summit in Brussels on Monday. While in the Belgian capital, Biden will hold separate talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a NATO ally who has angered Washington by his go-it-alone stance in buying a Russian-made air defense system that is incompatible with NATO’s. On Tuesday, Biden meets with Belgian King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, as well as attending a U.S.-European Union summit. In Geneva on Wednesday, Biden is meeting with Swiss Confederation President Guy Parmelin, before his potentially contentious sit-down with Putin — the first time the two leaders have met face to face since Biden became president.  Throughout his trip, Biden said he hopes to present a different face for the U.S. than former President Donald Trump, who often contended that NATO allies were not for the most part contributing their fair share to support the seven-decade-old Western military alliance. The White House said Biden would “affirm the United States’ commitment to NATO, trans-Atlantic security and collective defense.” At the G-7 summit, the White House said Biden “will reinforce our commitment to multilateralism, work to advance key U.S. policy priorities on public health, economic recovery and inclusive growth, and demonstrate solidarity and shared values among major democracies.” Meeting with Putin Biden’s relations with Putin are already strained. Trump held Putin blameless of allegations that Russia intruded in the 2016 U.S. presidential to help Trump’s election victory. FILE – Security officers stand outside the Villa La Grange, ahead of the June 16 summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Geneva, Switzerland, June 4, 2021.By contrast, Biden, in early phone conversations with Putin, has bluntly told the Russian leader the U.S. holds the Kremlin responsible for election interference, a massive cyberattack on U.S. government agencies and the poisoning of Putin opponent Alexey Navalny. Each country has expelled some of the other’s diplomats from Moscow and Washington.    In a television interview, Biden also said he considered Putin to be a “killer,” a claim Putin quickly turned against the U.S. by citing its slaughter of Native Americans in the 18th century settlement of the country, and deadly abuse of minorities throughout its history. Steve Herman contributed to this report.
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Four-year-old Kirill Zherebtsov  was born deaf and without ears. He was scheduled for a special surgery in California but a day before his flight, his mother died unexpectedly. What happened next is a story in resilience. Angelina Bagdasaryan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice.
Camera: Vazgen Varzhabetian  
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French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped Tuesday while shaking hands across a barrier in a small southeastern French town.
 
Video from the scene showed Macron striding toward a small crowd of people waiting behind a barrier. According to Reuters, as Macron reached out to shake hands, a man in the crowd shouted “A bas la Macronie” (Down with Macronia) and slapped Macron in the face.#Macron se fait gifler en direct de #Tainpic.twitter.com/tsXdByo22U— ⚜️ (@AlexpLille) June 8, 2021The president was swept away by security, and the man was seized immediately.  French news agency Agence France-Presse quoted the local prosecutor’s office as saying two men in their 20s were brought in for questioning. No motive for the slap was provided.
 
Macron had just finished touring a high school in the village of Tain-l’Hermitage in the Drome region.  
 
He resumed walking the streets and meeting with local residents a short time later.
 
Later Tuesday, while speaking before the National Assembly in Paris, French Prime Minister Jean Castex told members of Parliament the attack on Macron was an attack on democracy itself.  
 
“Democracy, as you are demonstrating, is about debate, dialogue, the face-off of ideas, the expression of legitimate disagreement, of course. But it can be in no case about violence,” he told lawmakers.
 
Macron received an outpouring of support from across the French political spectrum. AFP reported that Jean-Luc Melenchon, a far-left leader in Parliament, said he stood “in solidarity with the president,” while far-right politician Marine Le Pen called the slap “unacceptable and profoundly reprehensible in a democracy.”
 
The president’s office described his tour of southern France as a “listening tour” designed to “get the pulse of the country” as the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be entering its final stages. Macron is up for reelection next year. 
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The World Meteorological Organization, the United Nations climate agency, reported Tuesday that Europe saw its coldest March through May since 2013, with temperatures 0.45 C below the 1991-2020 average.During a briefing from the agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis cautioned that Europe’s cool start did not reflect any pause in the world’s climate change problems.In fact, data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service show that the global average temperature for May was 0.26 C higher than the 1991-2020 mean, according to the U.N. News website.  Greenhouse Gases Threaten Ocean Ecosystems: WMOThe ocean absorbs around 23 percent of the annual atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide and acts as a buffer against climate changeAlso according to U.N. News: “Temperatures were well above average over western Greenland, north Africa, the Middle East and northern and western Russia while below-average May temperatures were reported over the southern and central United States, parts of northern Canada, south-central Africa, most of India, eastern Russia, and eastern Antarctica.”  Nullis said there was also “quite a considerable rise” in carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere at the Mauna Loa Observatory, an atmospheric monitoring station operated by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association in Hawaii.She said, “The fact CO2 does have such a long lifetime in the atmosphere does mean that future generations — and we’re not just talking about one or two, we’re talking about many generations — will be committed to seeing more impacts of climate change.”  Nullis warned rising CO2 levels will also have a “very serious impact” on the planet’s oceans, which absorb almost a quarter of CO2 emissions. 
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French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face on Tuesday by a man in a crowd of onlookers while on a walkabout in southern France, video of the incident showed.Macron’s security entourage quickly intervened to pull the man to the ground and move Macron away from him. Two people were arrested in connection with the incident, broadcasters BFM TV and RMC radio reported.#Macron se fait gifler en direct de #Tainpic.twitter.com/tsXdByo22U— ⚜️ (@AlexpLille) June 8, 2021French Prime Minister Jean Castex said the incident was an affront to democracy.The incident took place while Macron was on a visit to the Drome region in south-eastern France, where he met restaurateurs and students to talk about how life is returning to normal after the COVID-19 epidemic.In video circulating on social media, Macron, dressed in shirt sleeves, could be seen walking towards a crowd of well-wishers who were behind a metal barrier.The French president reached out his hand to greet one man, in a green T-Shirt, with glasses and a face mask.The man could be heard shouting out “Down with Macronia” (“A Bas La Macronie”) and then he delivered a slap to Macron’s face.Two of Macron’s security detail tackled the man in the green T-shirt, while another ushered Macron away. But Macron remained in the vicinity of the crowd for a few more seconds, and appeared to be talking to someone on the other side of the barriers.The presidential administration said there had been an attempt to strike Macron, but declined further comment.The identify of the man who slapped Macron, and his motives, were unclear. While slapping the president, he could be heard shouting “Montjoie Saint Denis,” which was the battle cry of the French armies when the country was still a monarchy.
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U.N. judges are set to rule Tuesday on former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic’s appeal of his 2017 conviction for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mladic, 78, was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of leading the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, and of terror and unlawful attacks against civilians in Sarajevo during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war. Mladic maintains his innocence.  His lawyers argued that his conviction was based on what they say were legal and factual mistakes, and that he should be acquitted or re-tried because others were responsible for atrocities.  Prosecutors have also appealed Mladic’s acquittal on another genocide charge related to the conflict.  In 2016, Mladic’s political chief Radovan Karadzic was found guilty of similar charges and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment for masterminding atrocities by Bosnian Serb forces. A United Nations court later increased Karadzic’s term to life in prison in 2019.Karadzic Appeals Sentence, Gets More Time in Prison

        A United Nations court has increased the sentence to life in prison for convicted Bosnian Serb war criminal Radovan Karadzic, after hearing his appeal of the original sentence.Karadzic, 73, was in court in The Hague, Netherlands, Wednesday appealing his original sentence of 40 years for organizing mass killings in the Bosnian War, which lasted from 1992 to 1995. He was also appealing his 2016 convictions of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, for ordering the July 1995 mass killing of 8…

Dubbed the “Butcher of Bosnia” Mladic and Karadzic are accused of taking part during the war that claimed the lives of about 100,000 people.  
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The German Defense Ministry said Monday it had been forced to deal with an unexpected problem regarding their troops in Afghanistan — a surplus of beer. At a news briefing in Berlin on Monday, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Christina Routsi explained that Germany’s troops in Afghanistan had been permitted to consume alcohol at times and in limited quantities. Soldiers were allowed two cans of beer — or the equivalent in other beverages — per day. But Germany’s commander of its armed forces in Afghanistan, citing a high enemy threat level, banned all consumption of alcohol. Routsi said this created a problem for the German military, as there was already a large quantity of alcohol in the country for the troops. She said under the stationing agreement between Germany and Afghanistan, the import of alcohol into the country is prohibited, with the exception of Camp Marmal, the German base in Afghanistan. Alcohol cannot be sold in Afghanistan, due to local religious restrictions, or destroyed for environmental reasons. Routsi said the military had to hire a civilian contractor to take the 22,600 liters of alcohol — including almost 60,000 cans of beer — out of the country ahead of the German troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan as the NATO mission in the country ends in the coming months. The German army said the contractor will sell the beer elsewhere, which should cover the cost of transporting it out of Afghanistan.  
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, pleading to meet U.S. President Joe Biden prior to Biden’s talks in Geneva next week, was rebuffed by the White House on that request but was awarded a consolation phone call on Monday that included an invitation to Washington.”They had the opportunity to talk at some length about all of the issues in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship, and President Biden was able to tell President Zelenskiy that he will stand up firmly for Ukraine sovereignty, territorial integrity and its aspirations as we go forward,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told White House reporters.Sullivan also said Biden told the Ukrainian president that “he looks forward to welcoming him to the White House here in Washington this summer after he returns from Europe.”Following the phone call, Zelenskiy said the U.S. president invited him to visit in July.Thank you Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko shakes hands with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden before their meeting in Kyiv, Nov, 21, 2014.Asked about whether that subject was raised, Sullivan replied to a reporter in the White House briefing room: “In terms of the specifics of what they discussed, I’m going to let the two of them speak for themselves. I’m not going to read out that aspect of the meeting.”In the Axios interview, Zelenskiy, a professional comedian who was elected president in 2019, said he was surprised and disappointed that Biden had not done more to prevent development of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, which is seen by Kyiv as a Kremlin project to eliminate it from the European gas transit system.During the administration of former President Donald Trump, Zelenskiy was in the spotlight because of a phone call in 2019 in which Trump pressured him to investigate Biden and his son Hunter’s activities in Ukraine.Trump denied any wrongdoing concerning the call, which led to his first impeachment by the House of Representatives on charges of abusing the power of his office and obstructing Congress. Trump was subsequently acquitted during the Senate trial. 
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Authorities on Greece’s most popular tourist island, Mykonos, will deploy more than a dozen drones to spot those who defy safety protocols aimed at preventing the spread and resurgence of COVID-19. 
 
The decision, known as “Operation Mykonos,” comes after a string of local so-called  “Corona-parties” organized by entrepreneurs at private villas and estates in recent weeks to bypass safety rules banning the operation of nightclubs. 
 
It also comes as the beleaguered government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis scrambles to revive its battered tourism sector, luring foreign travelers — mainly from the United States, Europe, Israel, and Russia —  with the promise of a safe summer holiday stay under the Greek sun. 
 
Foreign travelers are required to abide by local lockdowns, curfews, and safety protocols during their stays. 
 FILE – People gather as the sun sets at the windmills on the Aegean Sea island of Mykonos, Greece, Aug. 16, 2020.Under “Operation Mykonos,” authorities will deploy 15 drones to fly over private villas or establishments in Mykonos that in recent weeks were host to parties packed with hundreds of locals and foreigners. Ten-member strong teams of officers will also be formed to raid the establishments upon notice, arresting and fining the offenders, authorities told VOA. 
 
Fines range between $365 to over $6,000. 
 
Officials tell VOA the measures, coupled with heightened police controls, inspections and added surveillance cameras across Mykonos, will serve as a blueprint for other popular hotspots among foreign travelers. These include Rhodes, Santorini and Paros, according to authorities. 
 
“Illegal parties spell a greater risk of seeing the virus spread, infecting more and more people,” warned Nikos Hardalias, the head of Greece’s Civil Protection Agency, on Sunday. “It spells a spike in COVID cases that can lead to fresh restrictions, leading businesses to shut down, causing major damage to tourist areas.” 
 
“It is high time,” he warned, “for everyone to size up to the challenge and take on full responsibility of their actions.” 
 
On Monday, government spokesman Aristotelia Peloni also criticized the mushrooming “corona-parties” gripping the country, saying she wished “Greece’s youth showed similar zeal and enthusiasm in the state’s nationwide vaccination drive.” 
 
“The country’s freedom,” she said, “can only come through comprehensive immunization.” 
 
Effectively in lockdown since last November, Greece started easing some of its sweeping restrictions, including curfews and travel bans, in mid-May when it re-launched international travel. 
 
The latest crackdown, however, underscores the paradox of what critics call a hasty and ill-thought-out strategy.  FILE – A waiter serves a group of people in a restaurant of Plaka district, as restaurants and cafes in Greece open after six months of lockdown, amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Athens, Greece, May 3, 2021.“You can’t say ‘restaurants and bars can open but no music playing in the background to block crowds from gathering,’” said Heracles Zissimopoulos, a leading entrepreneur on the island of Mykonos. “It’s absurd.” 
 
“The government should seriously rethink its policy, and provide locals and tourists with an outlet, instead. Otherwise, these types of parties will be difficult to stop,” he added. 
 
Greece recorded less than 3,000 cases during the country’s first bout with the pandemic. But as tourists streamed in last summer, infections and deaths sky-rocketed, making Greeks apprehensive to foreign travelers. 
 
But with 20 percent of the nation’s domestic output reliant on tourism, Greeks now know they can ill afford to lose a second summer tourism season in a row. 
 FILE – People wait at the reception hall of a COVID-19 vaccination mega center in Athens, Feb. 15, 2021.Under a campaign called “Blue Freedom,” the government wants to vaccinate all 700,000 or so adult residents of Greece’s islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas by the end of June, hoping Greece can be included in Britain’s revised green-list of travel nations. All islanders are being offered the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to boost immunization. 
 
As of early June, Mykonos had vaccinated about four in ten of its residents, and Santorini over 50% — among the highest in the country. 
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Spain jumpstarted its summer tourism season on Monday by welcoming vaccinated visitors from most countries as well as European visitors who can prove they are not infected with coronavirus. It also reopened its ports to cruise ship stops.
The move opened borders for the first vacationers from the United States and other countries outside of the European Union that had been banned since March last year, when the pandemic hit global travel.
Matthew Eisenberg, a 22-year-old student, stepped out of Madrid airport’s arrivals lounge in excitment, ready to enjoy the Spanish capital along with two more American friends.  
“We came to Spain the first day we could, because we are very excited to travel here,” Eisenberg said, showing the certificate for the two Moderna jabs he received in February and March.  
The official certificates need to show that visitors were vaccinated at least 14 days before the trip or that they overcame a COVID-19 infection in the past six months, according to a Spanish government order published Saturday.
The certificates can be in Spanish, English, French or German — or their equivalent translations in Spanish, the order said. The vaccines accepted are those approved by Europe’s drug regulator — Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — as well as two Chinese vaccines authorized by the World Health Organization, Sinopharm and Sinovac.
The same documents will be valid for visitors from the European Union until the bloc gets together its “Digital Green Certificate” that some have dubbed a vaccine passport for traveling.  
Non-vaccinated travelers from the EU’s 27 countries can also enter Spain now with the negative results of recent antigen tests, which are cheaper and faster than PCR tests for coronavirus.
But Spain is still banning nonessential travelers from Brazil, India and South Africa, where virus variants have been been a major source of concern.
The Spanish government has set a goal of receiving between 14.5 million to 15.5 million visitors between July and September. That’s about 40% of the tourists in the same period of 2019 but twice as many as last summer, when only EU visitors could enter Spain.
Tourism is a major industry that in 2019 accounted for over 12% of Spain’s GDP.
In a setback, many of the British tourists who love Southern Europe’s beaches and are the top spenders among foreign visitors in Spain, aren’t expected in mass yet because they are required to quarantine by British authorities on their return to the U.K.
Manchester resident Randolph Sweeting said that despite the mandatory isolation, his holiday in Mallorca, one of the Mediterranean islands favored by many European tourists, was worth the mandatory self-isolation.
“I was here twice last year and when I went home I had to quarantine on my own for two weeks. So it’s not a problem for me, I’ve done it before,” the 68-year-old said at the Palma de Mallorca airport.
Belén Sanmartín, director of the Melià Calvià Beach Hotel in Mallorca, said that the U.K. government’s decision to keep Spain in its list of high-risk territories was hard to understand in the Balearic Islands, where the infection rate is lower than in Britain.
“It has been a big disappointment because we were ready to receive visitors from the British market, we had done our homework,” Sanmartín said, adding that bookings in her hotel were slowly picking up mostly because of Spanish mainlanders, and German and French tourists.
In another move to boost tourism, Spanish ports opened to cruise ships on Monday, nearly 15 months after they were banned as the first coronavirus outbreaks were detected.
After peaking in late January at nearly 900 new cases per 100,000 residents in 14-days, the coronavirus contagion indicator in Spain has dropped to 117 per 100,000. Still, its descent has stalled in the past days as new infections are spreading among unvaccinated groups.
Spain has counted over 80,000 COVID-19 deaths in the pandemic. 
…

Authorities on Greece’s most popular tourist island, Mykonos, will deploy more than a dozen drones to spot those who defy safety protocols aimed at preventing the spread and resurgence of COVID-19. 
 
The decision, known as “Operation Mykonos,” comes after a string of local so-called  “Corona-parties” organized by entrepreneurs at private villas and estates in recent weeks to bypass safety rules banning the operation of nightclubs. 
 
It also comes as the beleaguered government of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis scrambles to revive its battered tourism sector, luring foreign travelers — mainly from the United States, Europe, Israel, and Russia —  with the promise of a safe summer holiday stay under the Greek sun. 
 
Foreign travelers are required to abide by local lockdowns, curfews, and safety protocols during their stays. 
 FILE – People gather as the sun sets at the windmills on the Aegean Sea island of Mykonos, Greece, Aug. 16, 2020.Under “Operation Mykonos,” authorities will deploy 15 drones to fly over private villas or establishments in Mykonos that in recent weeks were host to parties packed with hundreds of locals and foreigners. Ten-member strong teams of officers will also be formed to raid the establishments upon notice, arresting and fining the offenders, authorities told VOA. 
 
Fines range between $365 to over $6,000. 
 
Officials tell VOA the measures, coupled with heightened police controls, inspections and added surveillance cameras across Mykonos, will serve as a blueprint for other popular hotspots among foreign travelers. These include Rhodes, Santorini and Paros, according to authorities. 
 
“Illegal parties spell a greater risk of seeing the virus spread, infecting more and more people,” warned Nikos Hardalias, the head of Greece’s Civil Protection Agency, on Sunday. “It spells a spike in COVID cases that can lead to fresh restrictions, leading businesses to shut down, causing major damage to tourist areas.” 
 
“It is high time,” he warned, “for everyone to size up to the challenge and take on full responsibility of their actions.” 
 
On Monday, government spokesman Aristotelia Peloni also criticized the mushrooming “corona-parties” gripping the country, saying she wished “Greece’s youth showed similar zeal and enthusiasm in the state’s nationwide vaccination drive.” 
 
“The country’s freedom,” she said, “can only come through comprehensive immunization.” 
 
Effectively in lockdown since last November, Greece started easing some of its sweeping restrictions, including curfews and travel bans, in mid-May when it re-launched international travel. 
 
The latest crackdown, however, underscores the paradox of what critics call a hasty and ill-thought-out strategy.  FILE – A waiter serves a group of people in a restaurant of Plaka district, as restaurants and cafes in Greece open after six months of lockdown, amid the coronavirus outbreak, in Athens, Greece, May 3, 2021.“You can’t say ‘restaurants and bars can open but no music playing in the background to block crowds from gathering,’” said Heracles Zissimopoulos, a leading entrepreneur on the island of Mykonos. “It’s absurd.” 
 
“The government should seriously rethink its policy, and provide locals and tourists with an outlet, instead. Otherwise, these types of parties will be difficult to stop,” he added. 
 
Greece recorded less than 3,000 cases during the country’s first bout with the pandemic. But as tourists streamed in last summer, infections and deaths sky-rocketed, making Greeks apprehensive to foreign travelers. 
 
But with 20 percent of the nation’s domestic output reliant on tourism, Greeks now know they can ill afford to lose a second summer tourism season in a row. 
 FILE – People wait at the reception hall of a COVID-19 vaccination mega center in Athens, Feb. 15, 2021.Under a campaign called “Blue Freedom,” the government wants to vaccinate all 700,000 or so adult residents of Greece’s islands in the Aegean and Ionian Seas by the end of June, hoping Greece can be included in Britain’s revised green-list of travel nations. All islanders are being offered the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to boost immunization. 
 
As of early June, Mykonos had vaccinated about four in ten of its residents, and Santorini over 50% — among the highest in the country. 
…

Serena Williams turns 40 in September. Roger Federer hits that milestone the month before. No one knows how many more French Open appearances each will make, and this year’s tournament ended for both on Sunday.Williams fell way behind and could not put together a comeback against a much younger and less-experienced opponent in the fourth round at Roland Garros, losing 6-3, 7-5 to Elena Rybakina, who wasn’t even born when the American made her tournament debut in 1998.Asked whether that might have been her last match at the clay-court major, Williams replied: “Yeah, I’m definitely not thinking about it at all. I’m definitely thinking just about other things, but not about that.”Her defeat came hours after Federer withdrew, saying he needed to let his body recover ahead of Wimbledon after a long third-round victory that ended at nearly 1 a.m. on Sunday.Wimbledon, which Federer has won eight times and Williams seven, begins June 28.”I’m kind of excited to switch surfaces,” Williams said. “Historically I have done pretty well on grass.”She has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles; Federer has won 20. They are two of the sport’s greatest and most popular players, so it was quite a blow to the tournament, its TV partners and tennis fans to see both gone from the French Open field one after the other — and a week after Naomi Osaka pulled out, citing a need for a mental health break.Switzerland’s Roger Federer returns a shot to Germany’s Dominik Koepfer during their match on day seven of the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros in Paris, France, June 5, 2021.Williams has won the French Open three times. But the American hasn’t been past the fourth round in Paris since she was the runner-up in 2016.Rybakina is a 21-year-old from Kazakhstan who is ranked 22nd. This was just the seventh Grand Slam appearance for Rybakina — and the first time she ever made it past the second round.”When I was small, of course, I was watching her matches on TV. So many Grand Slams,” Rybakina said of Williams.Against Williams, whose right thigh was heavily taped, Rybakina hit big, flat serves. She dealt with, but managed to steady, her nerves. She even produced the occasional return winner off Williams’ speedy serve, breaking her five times, including in the next-to-last game.”I knew that the serve was going to be difficult for me to return. She’s powerful, but I was ready,” Rybakina said. “Then, after few points, I felt … comfortable.”Rybakina said she followed her coach’s strategy of sending shots to Williams’ backhand side and trying to stay away from her forehand.Every time Williams appeared as if she might turn things around, she could not quite get the momentum fully in her favor.Repeatedly one sort of mistake or another undid Williams. She ended up with 19 unforced errors and only 15 winners.  “I’m so close. There is literally a point here, a point there, that could change the whole course of the match,” Williams said. “I’m not winning those points. That, like, literally could just change everything.”Since winning the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant for her most recent major singles title — No. 23 set a record for the professional era — Williams has come close to tying Margaret Court’s all-time mark of 24. That includes four runner-up finishes at Grand Slam tournaments, most recently against Bianca Andreescu at the 2019 U.S. Open.But since then, Williams has been beaten twice in semifinals, and once each in the third and fourth rounds. Last year at the French Open, she withdrew before the second round, citing an injured left Achilles.Federer, meanwhile, never had pulled out of a Grand Slam tournament once he had started competing in it until now.
 
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Turkey’s environment minister pledged on Sunday to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara, using a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.A thick, slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry.Harbors, shorelines and swathes of seawater have been blanketed by the viscous, greyish substance, some of which has sunk below the waves, suffocating life on the seabed.Environment Minister Murat Kurum said Turkey planned to designate the entire Sea of Marmara a protected area, reduce pollution and improve treatment of wastewater from coastal cities and ships, which has helped the sea snot to spread.He also called on local residents, artists and nongovernmental organizations to join what he said would be Turkey’s biggest maritime cleanup operation, starting Tuesday.”Hopefully, together we will protect our Marmara within the framework of a disaster management plan,” Kurum said, speaking from a marine research vessel that has been taking samples of the slimy substance.”We will take all the necessary steps within three years and realize the projects that will save not only the present but also the future together,” he added.Kurum said the measures Turkey planned would reduce nitrogen levels in the sea by 40%, a move he said scientists believed would help restore the waters to their previous state.Scientists say climate change and pollution have contributed to the proliferation of the organic matter, which contains a wide variety of microorganisms and can flourish when nutrient-rich sewage flows into seawater.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed the outbreak on untreated water from cities, including Istanbul, home to 16 million people, and vowed to “clear our seas from the mucilage scourge.”   
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Sunday marked the 77th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed on the beaches of France’s Normandy region. Historians say the months-long battles that followed liberated Europe from Nazi Germany and gave the Allies the upper hand in World War II. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi reports how survivors marked the day.
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Turkey’s environment minister pledged on Sunday to defeat a plague of “sea snot” threatening the Sea of Marmara with a disaster management plan he said would secure its future.A thick slimy layer of the organic matter, known as marine mucilage, has spread through the sea south of Istanbul, posing a threat to marine life and the fishing industry.Harbors, shorelines and swathes of seawater have been blanketed by the viscous, greyish substance, some of which has also sunk below the waves, suffocating life on the seabed.”Hopefully, together we will protect our Marmara within the framework of a disaster management plan,” Environment Minister Murat Kurum said, speaking from a marine research vessel which has been taking samples of the slimy substance.”We will take all the necessary steps within 3 years and realize the projects that will save not only the present but also the future together,” Kurum said, adding that he would soon give details of the action plan.Scientists say climate change and pollution have contributed to the proliferation of the organic matter, which contains a wide variety of microorganisms and can flourish when nutrient-rich sewage flows into seawater.President Tayyip Erdogan blamed the outbreak on untreated water from cities including Istanbul, home to 16 million people, and vowed to “clear our seas from the mucilage scourge.” 
 
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The United States will stand with its European allies against Russia, President Joe Biden has promised ahead of the first face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin of his administration.   Biden will head to Europe Wednesday and is set to attend both the G-7 and NATO summits as well as holding a high-stakes meeting with the Russian leader in Geneva on June 16.   The summit comes amid the biggest crisis in ties between the two countries in years, with tensions high over a litany of issues including hacking allegations, human rights and claims of election meddling.   In an op-ed for The Washington Post published Saturday, the U.S. president promised to shore up Washington’s “democratic alliances” in the face of multiple crises and mounting threats from Moscow and Beijing.   “We are standing united to address Russia’s challenges to European security, starting with its aggression in Ukraine, and there will be no doubt about the resolve of the United States to defend our democratic values, which we cannot separate from our interests,” he wrote.    “President Putin knows that I will not hesitate to respond to future harmful activities,” he said. “When we meet, I will again underscore the commitment of the United States, Europe and like-minded democracies to stand up for human rights and dignity.”    Since taking office in January, Biden has ramped up pressure on the Kremlin, and his comments likening Putin to a “killer” were met with fierce criticism in Moscow.    But both leaders have expressed hopes that relations can improve, with the Russian president saying Friday he expected a “positive” result from the talks.   Biden in his weekend op-ed also stressed that Washington “does not seek conflict” — pointing to his recent extension of the New START arms reduction treaty as proof of his desire to reduce tensions.   “We want a stable and predictable relationship where we can work with Russia on issues like strategic stability and arms control,” he wrote.    
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When the sun rises over Omaha Beach, revealing vast stretches of wet sand extending toward distant cliffs, one starts to grasp the immensity of the task faced by Allied soldiers on June 6, 1944, landing on the Nazi-occupied Normandy shore.Several ceremonies are scheduled Sunday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the decisive assault that led to the liberation of France and western Europe from Nazi control, and honor those who fell.On D-Day, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches code-named Omaha, Utah, Juno, Sword and Gold, carried by 7,000 boats. This year on June 6, the beaches stood vast and empty as the sun rose, exactly 77 years since the dawn invasion.For the second year in a row, anniversary commemorations are marked by virus travel restrictions that have prevented veterans or families of fallen soldiers from the U.S., Britain, Canada and other Allied countries making the trip to France. Only a few officials were allowed exceptions.Most public events have been canceled, and the official ceremonies are limited to a small number of selected guests and dignitaries.Denis van den Brink, a WWII expert working for the town of Carentan, site of a strategic battle near Utah Beach, acknowledged the “big loss, the big absence is all the veterans who couldn’t travel.”“That really hurts us very much because they are all around 95, 100 years old, and we hope they’re going to last forever. But, you know…” he said.A picture of an unknown soldier is seen on the shore of Omaha Beach in Saint-Laurent-Sur-Mer, Normandy, June 6, 2021 on the eve of 77th anniversary of the assault that helped bring an end to World War II.“At least we remain in a certain spirit of commemoration, which is the most important,” he told The Associated Press.Over the anniversary weekend, many local residents have come out to visit the monuments marking the key moments of the fight and show their gratitude to the soldiers. Dozens of French World War II history enthusiasts, and a few travelers from neighboring European countries, could also be seen in jeeps and military vehicles on the small roads of Normandy.Some reenactors came to Omaha Beach in the early hours of the day to pay tribute to those who fell that day, bringing flowers and American flags.On D-Day, 4,414 Allied troops lost their lives, 2,501 of them Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded. On the German side, several thousand were killed or wounded.A few kilometers away from Omaha Beach, the British Normandy Memorial is to be inaugurated on Sunday outside the village of Ver-sur-Mer. Visitors stand in awe at the solemnity and serenity of the place providing a spectacular view over Gold Beach and the English Channel.The monument, built under a project launched in 2016, pays tribute to those under British command who died on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy. The names of more than 22,000 men and women, mostly British soldiers, are written on its stone columns.Later Sunday, another ceremony will take place at the American cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, on a bluff overseeing Omaha Beach. Charles Shay, 96, a Penobscot Native American who now lives in Normandy, is expected to be the only veteran present in person.Some other veterans, and families of soldiers, will be able to watch the broadcast on social media.The cemetery contains 9,380 graves, most of them for servicemen who lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. Another 1,557 names are inscribed on the Walls of the Missing.Normandy has more than 20 military cemeteries holding mostly Americans, Germans, French, British, Canadians and Polish troops who took part in the historic battle.  
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Voters in Saxony-Anhalt went to the polls Sunday to elect a new state assembly in what is seen as the last big test for Germany’s political parties before a national election in September.Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union won the last election in the sparsely populated state of 2.2 million five years ago. Recent opinion polls show it faces a strong challenge from the far-right Alternative for Germany, which came second in Saxony-Anhalt in 2016.Incumbent governor Reiner Haseloff, a member of Merkel’s CDU, is popular with voters in the state. A strong win would also be seen as a sign that the party’s new leader, Armin Laschet, can hope for support from both conservatives and centrists in this fall’s national election.Alternative for Germany has benefited from anti-government sentiment in the state, which until 1990 was part of communist East Germany. The party has lately campaigned strongly against pandemic restrictions, and its election posters urged voters to demonstrate their “resistance” at the ballot box.The environmentalist Greens, who have been riding high in national polls, aim to reach 10% in Saxony-Anhalt, while the center-left Social Democrats are hoping to stay above that mark. Both have been part of Haseloff’s governing coalition for the past five years.Haseloff has ruled out any cooperation with Alternative for Germany or the ex-communist Left party.Polls indicate the pro-business Free Democrats may enter the state assembly again after missing out five years ago.
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The idyllic image of peaceful Swiss Alpine pastures is being shattered by upcoming votes on pesticides which have sharply divided opinion in rural Switzerland.The Swiss will vote on June 13 on a proposal which, if it passes, would make Switzerland the first country in the world to ban synthetic pesticides.Proponents seek to ban pesticides with non-naturally occurring chemicals — and not only for agriculture but also for public green spaces, private gardens, and even for killing the weeds on railway tracks.The initiative, entitled “For a Switzerland free from synthetic pesticides,” would also ban the import of foodstuffs produced with synthetic pesticides, so as not to put Swiss farmers at a disadvantage.A campaign marked by heated debates boiled over in the western Vaud region when arsonists torched a trailer in a field displaying banners calling for a “No” vote, infuriating farmers.Meanwhile farmers in the “Yes” campaign say they have been the victims of insults, threats and intimidation.Slurry on the ballotUnder Switzerland’s direct democracy system, referendums and popular votes occur every few months at national, regional and local levels.Any topic can be put to a national vote if it gathers 100,000 signatures in the wealthy nation of 8.6 million people.Launched by a committee headed up by a winegrower and a soil biology professor from Neuchatel University, the pesticides initiative gathered 121,307 signatures.A parallel vote is also being held, on an initiative entitled “For clean drinking water and healthy food.”Under the proposal, government subsidies to farms would be limited only to those that do not use pesticides, and to those that do not use antibiotics as a preventative measure, but only to treat sick animals.To limit the amount of slurry (liquid manure) being used on fields — and thereby potentially entering the water system — it would also limit subsidies to only farms that can feed animals with the fodder they produce themselves.Supporters of the initiative, which garnered 113,979 signatures, say taxpayers’ money must not be used to subsidize damage to public health and the environment.Agriculture groups splitLarge agricultural organizations, including the Swiss Farmers’ Union and the Association of Swiss Vegetable Producers, have called for a double “No” vote, deeming the measures too extreme.”We feed you, we get punished,” runs their slogan.Beekeepers want a double “Yes” vote, while the Bio Suisse group of organic producers and gardeners — in a country where organic farming accounts for 15% of all farms — wants a “Yes” vote on pesticides and a “No” vote on the second initiative.It says that despite the second initiative’s good intentions, the fodder limits would make the work of organic farmers all the harder, without resolving the issue of intensive farming — as large farms could simply renounce subsidies and keep big herds.The Swiss government recommends a double “No” vote, warning of the risks to food supply that could see prices soar, to the detriment of lower-income households in a country where the cost of living is already high.’Agriculture must change'”Agriculture must change, we agree on that,” Francis Egger, deputy director of the Swiss Farmers’ Union, told AFP.”There are two times 100,000 people who have signed, so there is a clear message from consumers,” he admitted, adding up the two separate petitions.But these initiatives go “too far,” he said, and risk heavily penalizing Swiss farmers who have already made significant efforts to reduce pesticide use.Antoinette Gilson, a biologist by training and a member of the committee behind the pesticides initiative, insisted: “Our initiative is not directed against farmers.”It aims to ban synthetic pesticides, which are “the most dangerous,” and to which farmers themselves are highly exposed, she said, but not organic pesticides or alternatives that do not contain “toxic chemicals.”Some 107 active ingredients used for bio-pesticides, including sulfur and copper, would still be authorized, as opposed to 383 today.The two initiatives started the campaign with clear leads in the polls but have seen their support levels drop.A poll published on June 2 by the Tamedia press group said the pesticides initiative had 42% support, while the drinking water initiative was running at 41% backing.Rural voters favor rejecting the proposals while urban voters are overwhelmingly in support of them, the survey showed. 
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When the leaders of the world’s industrialized nations meet next week in Cornwall, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask them to commit to “vaccinate the entire world against coronavirus by the end of 2022,” according to a statement Saturday.”Vaccinating the world by the end of next year would be the single greatest feat in medical history,” Johnson said in a statement. “I’m calling on my fellow G-7 leaders to join us to end this terrible pandemic and pledge we will never allow the devastation wreaked by coronavirus to happen again.”He may run into some pushback from his own country.New cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, have dropped dramatically since the United Kingdom began its vaccination campaign. Now nearly 68 million people have received at least one shot and nearly 27 million are fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. That’s 40% of the population.But cases of the Delta variant are on the rise and that could threaten the nation’s progress. As Britain opens up, Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Reuters, a rise in cases is expected. The vaccine, he said, has broken the link between rising cases and rising deaths.“But it hasn’t been completely severed yet, and that’s one of the things that we’re watching very carefully,” he added.In China’s Guangzhou city, a port city of more than 13 million people, new restrictions took effect Saturday because of a rise in COVID-19 cases that began in late May.Of the 24 new cases of COVID-19 reported in China on Saturday, 11 were transmitted in Guangzhou province, where the city is located.Authorities had imposed restrictions earlier in the week but sought additional limits on business and social activities. Authorities closed about a dozen subway stops, and the city’s Nansha district ordered restaurants to stop dine-in services and public venues, such as gyms, to temporarily close.A man is admitted at the COVID unit of the Moscoso Puello hospital in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, June 2, 2021, as the country suffers a spike in the number of positive cases.Officials in the districts of Nansha, Huadu and Conghua ordered all residents and any individuals who have traveled through their regions to be tested for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, Reuters reported.As Afghanistan attempts to beat back a surge in COVID-19 cases, it has received the news that the 3 million doses of vaccines it was expecting from the World Health Organization in April will not arrive until August, according to the Associated Press.Afghan health ministry spokesperson Ghulam Dastagir Nazari told AP that he has approached several embassies for help but has not received any vaccines. “We are in the middle of a crisis,” he said.The war-torn country reported nearly 7,500 new cases in the week ending Saturday, a record, according to Johns Hopkins, and 187 deaths, also a record. The official figures are no doubt an undercount because they include only those in hospitals, while most people who become sick stay home and die there, the AP said.Afghan health officials are blaming the Delta variant, first discovered in India, for its soaring infection rate. Travel to India is unrestricted and many students and those seeking medical care go there, according to the AP.While the government has tried to enforce mask wearing and social distancing, most Afghans resist.”Our people believe it is fake, especially in the countryside,” Dr. Zalmai Rishteen, administrator of the Afghan-Japan Hospital, the only hospital dedicated to COVID-19 patients, told the AP. “Or they are religious and believe God will save them.”About 626,000 Afghans have received one shot of a coronavirus vaccine, with about 145,000 fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins.On Saturday, India’s health ministry reported 120,529 new COVID-19 cases in the previous 24 hours period, the lowest daily count of new infections in 58 days. More than 3,000 deaths were also recorded.Johns Hopkins reported Saturday more than 172 million global COVID infections. The U.S. has the most cases with 33.3 million, followed by India with 28.7 million and Brazil with nearly 17 million. 
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Thousands of Hungarians, some holding banners declaring “Treason,” protested Saturday against a Chinese university’s plans to open a campus in Budapest.Liberal opponents of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban accuse him of cozying up to China and fear the campus could undercut the quality of higher education and help Beijing increase its influence in Hungary and the European Union.”I do not agree with our country’s strengthening feudal relationship with China,” Patrik, 22, a student who declined to give his full name, said at the protest in the Hungarian capital.He said funds should be used “to improve our own universities instead of building a Chinese one.”The government signed an agreement with Shanghai-based Fudan University in April on building the campus at a site in Budapest where a dormitory village for Hungarian students had previously been planned.The government has said Fudan is a world-class institution, and the campus would “allow students to learn from the best.”‘Political hysteria’MTI news agency quoted Tamas Schanda, a deputy government minister, as saying Saturday’s protest was unnecessary and dismissing “political hysteria” based on unfounded gossip and media reports.Opposition politicians and economists have criticized what they say will be the high costs of the project and a lack of transparency. Budapest’s mayor opposes the plan.”Fidesz is selling out wholesale the housing of Hungarian students, and their future, just so it can bring the elite university of China’s dictatorship into the country,” the organizers of Saturday’s protest said on Facebook.Beijing said this week that “a few Hungarian politicians” were trying to grab attention and obstruct cooperation between China and Hungary.Orban has built cordial ties with China, Russia and other illiberal governments, while locking horns with Western allies by curbing the independence of scientific research, the judiciary and media.He faces a unified opposition for the first time since assuming power in 2010 before a parliamentary election due in 2022.
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Sunday marks the 77th anniversary of D-Day, when Allied forces landed in Normandy, France, to help liberate Europe from German forces and turn the course of World War II.The June 6, 1944, operation was the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving land, sea and air forces.Nearly 160,000 troops took part in the landing, including those from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.The anniversary of the landmark day usually draws thousands of visitors to Normandy, but for a second year, the celebrations have been scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic.A veteran’s memoriesIn Carentan, France, Charles Shay, 96, commemorated the anniversary at a ceremony Saturday, the only U.S. veteran there. Shay was 19 and a U.S. Army medic when he landed on Omaha Beach, according to The Associated Press. The Penobscot Native American from Maine now lives in Normandy, and said he lost “many good friends” there.On Friday, the U.S. military honored retired Master Sergeant Shay during a small ceremony on Omaha Beach in Normandy, according to the Stars and Stripes newspaper.World War II history enthusiasts parade in WWII vehicles in Ouistreham, Normandy, June, 5 2021, on the eve of 77th anniversary of the assault that helped end World War II.With D-Day veterans now mostly in their mid-90s or older, there are likely only a few hundred veterans still alive, said April Cheek-Messier, the president of the U.S. National D-Day Memorial Foundation.”If you think about the fact that there are 16 million who served during World War II, there are only around 325,000 World War II veterans still living today, and of that, a very small percentage would be D-Day veterans, and we don’t know the exact number, but you can imagine they would probably only be in a few hundred,” Cheek-Messier told Fox News.Only one veteran now remains from the French commando unit that joined U.S, British, Canadian and other Allied troops in storming Normandy’s code-named beaches, the AP reported.World War II history enthusiasts parade in WWII vehicles in Ouistreham, Normandy, June 5, 2021, on the eve of 77th anniversary of the assault that helped end the war.With most of France still under strict travel restrictions for international visitors, the tourists who usually flock to Normandy to mark the D-Day anniversary will be few this year.U.S. Army Colonel Kevin Sharp and three other U.S. military officers from the 101st Airborne Division — the same division that took part in the D-Day operations — were given special, last-minute permission to attend Friday’s commemorations in Carentan.The U.S. military “really values the legacy of the soldiers and the paratroopers who came before us,” he told the AP. “It was important enough to send a small representation here to ensure that our appreciation for their sacrifices is made known.”‘They remember’Tourism may be restricted, but local residents are coming out in greater numbers, the AP said.”In France, people who remember these men, they kept them close to their heart,” Shay said. “And they remember what they did for them. And I don’t think the French people will ever forget.”By contrast, two years ago, U.S. President Donald Trump joined French President Emmanuel Macron, along with tens of thousands of international visitors, to pay their respects to D-Day soldiers on the 75th anniversary of the landing.The French government announced Friday that it planned to open its borders to foreign tourists on June 9, using a color-coded system. The new rules allow vaccinated travelers from Europe and the United States to enter the country without having to be tested for COVID-19.The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Greece has lashed out at Turkey, warning it will push for sanctions against its neighbor if it continues with what it calls “hostile” and “provocative threats.” The warning from Athens comes as the leaders of the two NATO allies, age-old foes, prepare to meet in an effort to accelerate talks aimed at easing growing tension in the past year over energy rights in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas. Chances of a breakthrough look bleak.It was this remark by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that raised critical eyebrows in Athens.He said Turkey was ready to defend territories once held by the Ottomans …and that a recent string of military exercises in the Aegean Sea had Greece… an “enemy” state as he put it …both scared and worried of Turkey’s capabilities to do so.Echoing that threat, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar later called on Greece to uphold international agreements and scrap missiles and military apparatus deployed on a string of Greek islands in the Aegean, situated just miles off Turkey’s Western Coast.Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias rebuffed the demand with a stiff warning.He said Greece has long supported Turkey’s bid to join the European Union. But if Ankara failed to tone down what he called its “hostile” actions and “provocative” rhetoric, then Athens was ready to renew its call for EU sanctions against its neighbor state and NATO ally.Greece, Turkey Resume Talks on Maritime Disputes in Mediterranean Under Pressure from EU and NATO Talks between Athens and Ankara broke down in 2016 after 12 years of insignificant progress Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads for decades, challenging each other’s sea and air rights to the Aegean. But as massive oil and gas reserves have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean in recent years, the two foes have clashed over their rights to explore and tap those energy reserves.The standoff has been so intense that both sides came to the brink of war last year when a pair of Greek and Turkish frigates nearly collided in a dangerous chase over drilling rights in disputed parts of the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas that divide the two countries.As tensions flared dangerously at the time, the U.S. State Department intervened to push the two sides to the negotiating table to ease the energy standoff. Washington remains involved in the process, but the talks so far have yielded little result.Still, in a recent visit here by Turkey’s foreign minister, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed to meet with Erdogan to try and jump start the peace talks. The high-level meeting is scheduled for June 14, on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Brussels.”What we are seeing in the last weeks in a sort of kinetic energy from both sides to talk to each other. So, they are prepared to talk to each other at the highest political level. But this does not mean that the talks will yield results.  This is a completely different story because the differences are existing, they are diachronic and the demands from both sides are contradictory. So, while I am optimistic that both sides are prepared to defuse tensions, I don’t believe they are chances of solving the problems themselves.”Even so, other experts concede, keeping both sides engaged in the peace process may be enough to buy precious time, keeping tempers down and pushing back the chances of an accident that could spark a potential war and serious rift within the NATO military alliance.
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