Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 2d

With current trends, Greece faces an annual climate change bill in the billions by the end of the decade. That is one reason why it is decarbonising faster than most EU members. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greece’s mounting climate costs, and what we’re doing about it

Greece is an above average EU performer in the green transition; it is also an above average loser to climate change

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Reposted by John T Psaropoulos

John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 9d

Greece is overhauling its armed forces structure and weapons arsenal to have a battle-worthy fighting force capable of projecting power in the East Mediterranean by 2030. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greece prepares its armed forces for war

New Democracy’s rearmament and restructuring reforms aim to put the military back in fighting shape by 2030

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 9d

Greece is overhauling its armed forces structure and weapons arsenal to have a battle-worthy fighting force capable of projecting power in the East Mediterranean by 2030. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greece prepares its armed forces for war

New Democracy’s rearmament and restructuring reforms aim to put the military back in fighting shape by 2030

open.substack.com

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 11d

Trump recently praised Ukraine’s resilience and suggested it could win a complete military-economic victory with Western help, in an apparent reversal of his pro-Russia stance. But will he now approve a weapons ‘mega-deal’ with Ukraine? open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

As Ukraine pounds Russian refineries, Trump appears to turn on Russia

Trump praises Ukraine’s resilience and suggests it could win a complete military-economic victory with Western help

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 17d

Can the ruling conservatives in Greece regain public trust? The question is an important one for Greece’s ability to govern itself after the 2027 election. johntpsaropoulos.substack.com/p/greece-fac...

Greece faces the spectre of ungovernability

Can Mitsotakis regain public trust? The question is an important one for Greece’s ability to govern itself after the next election

johntpsaropoulos.substack.com

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 18d

While Russia embarked on a campaign to intimidate Europe ahead of the UNGA, Ukraine quietly demolished its refineries. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Russia tries to intimidate Europe with threats beyond Ukraine

Russian violations of Estonian and German airspace after its drone incursion in Poland have put NATO on edge

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 22d

Greece will veto Turkish defence contractors’ participation in European SAFE programmes with European defence industries, unless Turkey drops a 30 year-old threat of war against Greece. The EU supports the Greek position.
open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greece is leveraging defence tech to bring Turkey to arbitration

Turkey is failing to intimidate Greece with coercion in the field, but Greece is succeeding in isolating Turkey

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 26d

Ukraine has continued a highly successful, two-pronged strategy to choke off fuel supplies to the Russian economy and military, and to choke off Russian revenues from energy exports.
open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Ukraine’s strikes choke off Russian oil exports and domestic fuel supplies

Evidence is mounting that Russian regions are short of fuel and state revenues from exports are suffering

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · 26d

open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Tax cuts nudge Greece towards prosperity, but will they save it?

Greece is changing – but is it changing fast enough to outrun its vices and maintain faith in centrist politics?

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Sep 15

Greece is pursuing a transport, energy and data corridor from Alexandroupolis to Odesa as part of a vision to rebuild Ukraine and strengthen economic and military resilience in Southeast Europe. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Greece envisions Vertical Corridor to rebuild Ukraine, remake region

Angelos Syrigos, advisor to premier Mitsotakis, talked to Hellenica about why Greek foreign policy needs to think regionally

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Sep 12

Ukrainian defenders reclaimed 62 sq km of territory in Donetsk during August, foiling Russian attacks, but warns they are preparing new assaults. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Ukraine’s advances refute Putin’s claims of success ‘in all directions’

Ukrainian defenders reclaimed 62 sq km of territory in Donetsk, foiling Russian attacks, but warns they are preparing new assaults

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Sep 9

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on September 6 announced a €1.6 billion package of tax cuts affecting more than four million taxpayers - essentially all working Greeks - hoping to stave off the populism plaguing Western democracies. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Tax cuts nudge Greece towards prosperity, but will they save it?

Greece is changing – but is it changing fast enough to outrun its vices and maintain faith in centrist politics?

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Sep 8

Beijing postures as a neutral mediator, but it has materially and politically backed Russia’s war and profits from it.
www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/9/...

How China forgot promises and ‘debts’ to Ukraine, and backed Russia’s war

China postures as a neutral mediator, but it has materially and politically backed Russia’s war and profits from it.

www.aljazeera.com

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Sep 5

Greece’s small businesses continue to provide 90 percent of jobs as multinationals are turned away by lengthy court procedures, a bloated state bureaucracy, lack of meritocracy which exposes them to costly political favours, and an absence of the rule of law. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Thoughts on the Greek economy ahead of the Thessaloniki International Fair

Economists are calling for a fundamental restructuring of the economy. It doesn’t appear likely

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Sep 5

Putin lieutenants inflated Russia’s war record ahead of his trip to China. Meanwhile Ukraine caused genuine injury to his economic backbone. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Ukraine knocks out Russian refineries as Russia kills dozens of civilians in Kyiv

Ukraine has deprived Russia of about a fifth of its refining capacity in a long strategy of starving its war machine

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 31

Russia is not making much progress in Donetsk, where Ukraine has reprioritised defence in light of Putin’s demand that the unoccupied part of the territory be handed over. Ukraine is answering with a barrage on Russia’s refineries. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Ukraine makes major gains in the air as Russia threatens Kupyansk

Ukraine has been successfully striking Russian refineries leading to price rises and rationing for gasoline

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 24

Divers exploring the wreck of the Britannic in Greek waters have discovered clues about why its sister ship, the Titanic, sank in the north Atlantic. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

At the bottom of the Aegean lie vital clues to the cause of Titanic’s doom

A sunken giant at the bottom of the Kea Strait has been helping to solve the mysteries of the Titanic’s loss, while creating a new underwater museum for divers

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 22

Since assuming office, Trump has veered closer to Russian positions on Ukraine than European. Two summits on August 15 and 18 pushed him further in that direction. Europe still relies on the US for security while transitioning to autonomy, but time is running out. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

A week of summitry reveals Trump is closer to Moscow than Europe

US summits with Putin and European leaders offered a glimmer of hope for peace, but Russia seemed to cloud it

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 17

Salamis cemented the Athenian people into a democratic state with a sense of public purpose. Everyone was needed to man the navy & army. Its political unity was a threat to Persia & Sparta, who colluded to defeat it. Beware, democracies, of foreign malign influence. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Salamis after twenty-five centuries

In 480 BC, the Athenians led a Greek fleet to victory over a Persian fleet four times bigger, arresting the spread of the Persian Empire into Europe

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 15

As Putin and Trump prepare to meet in Alaska, Putin is intensifying his ground assaults on Ukraine and expanding his army at a rate of a division every two months. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Putin talks peace to Trump, as his army grows and attacks on Ukraine increase

Ukraine has publicly rejected any land swap deal with Russia, but some reports suggest it may be open to it

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 11

There are at least five good reasons why Germany should distinguish between reparations, which it considers settled, and an occupation-era loan it extracted from the Bank of Greece in 1941-44, which constitutes intra-EU debt and should be repaid. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Occupied Greece lent Nazi Germany billions. Now it seeks repayment, but is afraid to ask

The German occupation of Greece ended 81 years ago. Berlin still refuses to discuss an occupation-era loan extracted from the Bank of Greece, saying reparations issues have been settled

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 10

The German occupation of Greece ended 81 years ago. Berlin still refuses to discuss an occupation-era loan extracted from the Bank of Greece, considering it a settled reparations issue. Experts say it is a sovereign debt separate from reparations. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Occupied Greece lent Nazi Germany billions. Now it seeks repayment, but is afraid to ask

The German occupation of Greece ended 81 years ago. Berlin still refuses to discuss an occupation-era loan extracted from the Bank of Greece, saying reparations issues have been settled

open.substack.com

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 7

After a 16-month battle, Russia finally overran a key high ground in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, and claimed to have laid siege to Kupyansk in the north. Now he eyes Ukraine’s ‘fortress belt’ of cities in the east. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Ukraine’s Chasiv Yar falls after a 16-month battle, fight for Kupiansk begins

Russia claims Ukraine is not ready for peace talks, but its actions show it is not interested in de-escalation

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 3

Two remarkable books on the Greeks reveal that soft power preserved them as a nation during periods when they failed at political unity.
open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

How the Greeks came of age

Two remarkable books on the Greeks reveal that soft power preserved them as a nation during periods when they failed at political unity

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John T Psaropoulos @johntpsaropoulos.bsky.social · Aug 1

The US sought to formally position itself as Europe’s biggest seller of protection and energy security following a $750bn trade ‘deal’ on Sunday July 27. open.substack.com/pub/johntpsa...

Trump sells the EU more energy and protection, muscling Russia out

Moscow called an EU-US trade deal “anti-Russian” as the US formally took over its former energy market

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