Greece is facing severe water shortages affecting both islands and the mainland, public broadcaster ERT reported Wednesday.

On-site inspections of ancient monuments in Dionyssos, Marathon and Penteli continued Wednesday by the Antiquities Ephorate of East Attica to assess possible fire damage.

The taste that always lingers after a disaster is bitter and sour.

The financial aid platform, arogi.gov.gr, for citizens who have suffered damages to their homes or businesses due to the fire in Attica, will open by August 21, according to the Deputy Minister of Climate Change, Christos Triantopoulos.

A European Union satellite mapping agency says 104 square km (40 sq. miles) of land was burned northeast of Athens this week during a deadly wildfire that gutted dozens of homes and prompted multiple countries to send assistance.

When news of a potential US-Russia prisoner swap broke last week, a familiar name appeared on the list of possible exchange candidates. Alexander Vinnik, known as “Mr Bitcoin,” was arrested while on vacation in Greece in July 2017 on a US warrant for laundering over $4 billion through his crypto exchange, BTC-e. After spending two years in a French prison, he was extradited by Greece to the US in 2022. Vinnik pleaded guilty to money laundering in May 2024.

Fires broke out on Wednesday in Larissa, Argolis and Aetolia-Acarnania.

Two individuals, aged 43 and 22, were arrested at the airport on Mykonos island for drug trafficking.

The prosecutor handling the case of the 8-year-old who drowned in a swimming pool has ordered a safety investigation into the children’s camp in Kryopigi, Halkidiki, where the incident occurred.

Panagiotis Karipoglou, president of the Serres Bar Association, will file a complaint with the chief prosecutor over the ongoing fire on Mount Orvilos, near Greece’s northern border with Bulgaria.

The prospect of a further deterioration of the situation in the Middle East, as well as the unforeseen direction that the Russian-Ukrainian war has taken, has generated concern in Athens, which is closely monitoring developments but, of course, unable to have a meaningful impact. 

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has visited an air base in Elefsina to thank the country’s aerial firefighters.

Greek police, with assistance from Israel, have arrested eight foreign nationals, dismantling a criminal ring that used yachts to traffic drugs from Europe to Israel.

About 150 residents affected by the recent fires in northeastern Attica have been accommodated so far in the Athens Olympic Stadium, which opened to receive them on Sunday night.

For thousands of drivers and pedestrians traveling daily on Alexandras Avenue near the Panathinaikos soccer stadium, the view of the refugee apartment blocks has remained largely unchanged for at least 40 years: faded ocher facades, rickety balconies, peeling walls, tattered curtains, scattered satellite dishes and political and soccer slogans. Few notice the four black, neatly arranged banners on the only apartment building (out of eight) facing the avenue.

Firefighters battled on Wednesday to extinguish the remnants of a wildfire near Athens that killed a woman, torched buildings, devoured woodland and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Coast guard officers have rescued 52 migrants off the south of Crete after receiving a call for help through the emergency 112 number.

Police in the northeastern region of Halkidiki have arrested two people following the death of an eight-year-girl in a pool in a children’s summer camp.

Almost two-fifths of Attica’s forests have burned down in the last eight years, an analysis conducted by the National Observatory of Athens’ meteorological service has found.