Monday, 13th June 2016
GREECE – Greece’s central bank governor has urged the country’s creditors to rework a core element of Athens’ new bailout, saying ambitious budget surplus targets agreed with the leftwing Syriza government are “unrealistic and socially unattainable.” (Financial Times)
TURKEY – A car bomb has wounded nine people in the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli, according to the security services. The explosion on Monday happened in Ovacik district, about 800km east of the capital Ankara, near a housing block for civil servants working at a local courthouse. (Al Jazeera)
MIGRANT CRISIS – Greece ordered two ships on Monday to search for a boat believed to be carrying about 200 migrants which sent a distress signal off the island of Crete, the coastguard said. (Reuters)
Tuesday, 14th June 2016
ITALY – A judge in Palermo, Sicily, ruled Tuesday that a man extradited to Italy from Sudan last week and suspected of people smuggling must stay in jail, the man’s lawyer said. (The Wall Street Journal)
ISRAEL – Israel’s efforts to reconcile with NATO member Turkey will help enhance Israeli intelligence sharing and other security cooperation with the alliance, a NATO diplomat said on Tuesday. (Reuters)
TURKEY – The European Union’s ambassador to Turkey resigned on Tuesday after less than a year in the job, casting further doubt over the fate of a flagship agreement that has stemmed the flow of refugees to Greece. (The Telegraph)
The European Union’s ambassador to Turkey violated basic rules of diplomacy in showing disrespect to Turkey’s values and its president, Ankara’s EU Minister, Omer Celik, said on Tuesday. (Reuters)
MIGRANT CRISIS – The number of unaccompanied children crossing the Mediterranean on unseaworthy boats has soared this year, the UN children’s agency says. The UNICEF said in a report on Tuesday that nine out of every 10 children arriving in Italy from North Africa were not accompanied by adults. (Al Jazeera)
EU-Turkey refugee deal is illegal, shock court challenge claims. Three asylum-seekers have challenged the European Union’s refugee deal with Turkey in the European Court of Justice. The trio, currently in Greece, have argued Turkey is not a safe place for refugees and filed a complaint to the Luxembourg-based court last week. (Express)
Wednesday, 15th June 2016
IRAQI KURDS – Iraq’s Kurds are ready to strike an agreement with the central government in Baghdad on a deal to increase oil exports, if it guarantees them a monthly revenue of $1 billion, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said. (The Daily Star)
TURKEY – The European Union’s executive confirmed Wednesday that Turkey hadn’t met the outstanding conditions for the bloc to approve visa-free travel by the end of June. (The Wall Street Journal)
MIGRANT CRISIS – Anger on Greek island as refugee registration stalls. More than a million refugees and migrants reached European shores after taking boats across the Mediterranean in 2015. (Al Jazeera)
WAR ON TERROR – Police have been alerted to the possibility that small groups of extremists have left Syria for France and Belgium with plans to stage attacks, but have left threat levels unchanged while authorities work to determine how credible the information is. (The Guardian)
Thursday, 16th June 2016
ISRAEL – Israel’s national water company has denied cutting crucial water supplies to large parts of the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying there was only broad reduction in water supply to the Palestinian territory. (Al Jazeera)
Israel’s defence establishment plans to build a concrete wall that goes tens of yards underground as well as above ground along the Gaza Strip border. (The Jerusalem Post)
LIBYA – A suicide car bomber hit a Libyan police station west of the besieged Islamic State stronghold of Sirte on Thursday, killing 10 people and wounding seven, officials said. (The Jerusalem Post)
SYRIA – More than 50 State Department diplomats have signed an internal memo sharply critical of the Obama administration’s policy in Syria, urging the United States to carry out military strikes against the government of President Bashar al-Assad to stop its persistent violations of a cease-fire in the country’s five-year-old civil war. (The New York Times)
WAR ON TERROR – Islamic State forces have committed genocide and other war crimes in a continuing effort to exterminate the Yazidi religious minority in Syria and Iraq, United Nations investigators said on Thursday, urging stronger international action to halt the killing and to prosecute the terrorist group. (The New York Times)
MIGRANT CRISIS – French authorities on Wednesday banned a massive aid convoy headed to Calais to help desperate migrants camped out in the northern port town, citing concerns over disruption to the “public order”. (France 24)
Friday, 17th June 2016
ISRAEL – Israel allowed hundreds of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip into Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers Friday, an official said, a week after revoking entry permits in response to a deadly attack. (Al Monitor)
TURKEY – Authorities in Istanbul have banned transgender and gay pride marches this month, citing security concerns after ultra-nationalists warned they would not allow the events to take place on Turkish soil. (The Guardian)
MIGRANT CRISIS – Aid group Médecins Sans Frontières will refuse all funding from the EU in protest at the bloc’s handling of the refugee crisis on its southern border. (Financial Times)
WAR ON TERROR – Iraqi forces have retaken the main government compound in the centre of Fallujah from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group, top commanders say. (Al Jazeera)
