We speak with Mitchell Kaplan, founder of Books & Books, a leading independent bookshop chain based in South Florida. Plus: Tom Ellis, editor in chief of Greece’s ‘Kathimerini English Edition’, and we find out more about South Korean publications ‘Magazine B’ and ‘Magazine F’.By Monocle Radio

The Financial Times recently reported that Greece and some other EU countries have been under pressure to send more aid to Ukraine, specifically air defense systems. Prime Minister Mitsotakis has ruled this out, citing Greece’s defense needs. Constantinos Filis, the director of the Institute of Global Affairs and a professor of international relati…

This summer will mark 50 years since Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, and for the last five decades tens of thousands of Turkish occupation troops have been present in the northern part of the island. 50 years later, the US still refuses to officially recognize Turkey’s illegal occupation as an occupation. Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American…

Politicians, scientists and organizations from all over the world were in Athens this April as Greece hosted the 9th International Our Ocean Conference. Greece, the US, and all stakeholders made some 450 commitments totalling billions of dollars for the protection of the oceans and seas, including two new marine parks in the Aegean and the Ionian s…

After originally leaking that a White House visit was in play in the lead up to municipal elections at the end of March, President Erdogan is now postponing his May meeting with President Biden in Washington, DC. No reason was cited, but, as some analysts note, the move will likely upend efforts to mend ties between the two NATO allies. Wolfango Pi…

Voters in North Macedonia went to the polls on Wednesday for the first round of presidential elections in a vote widely seen as a litmus test for upcoming parliamentary elections. There are some concerns the election outcome could affect North Macedonia’s relations with Greece and Bulgaria - given references to the Prespa Agreement and constitution…

Claims that Turkish President Erdogan has canceled an upcoming meeting at the White House have been circulating in Turkish media. With neither Washington nor Ankara formally denying the rumors, it is raising more questions about whether they are true or not. In the meantime, it seems Ankara is once again putting up hurdles with regard to NATO, this…

Today marks 109 years since the Armenian genocide began. With commemorations taking place across the world, there is a renewed fear that the lessons of “Never Again” have been forgotten following Azerbaijan’s attack on Nagorno Karabakh and the subsequent mass exodus of over 100,000 Armenians from the region in what has been described as ethnic clea…

Changes to Greece’s Golden Visa scheme are set to kick in at the end of the summer. This will see increases in the minimum amount needed to invest in order to secure a residence permit in an effort to tackle the country’s housing crisis. This move comes as golden visa programs are being phased out or shut down around Europe, and as housing has beco…

Investments in Greece have shot up over the past years, with the country outperforming its Eurozone partners when it comes to the pace with which it is attracting and increasing investments. Despite this positive picture, there are a number of myths around investments in Greece, especially when it comes to real estate and the Golden Visa scheme. Mi…

We speak with ‘Wildsam Magazine’ editor in chief Taylor Bruce. Plus: we talk to the founder of Paper Café in Nairobi and visit an exhibition on Japanese music books at Japan House London.By Monocle Radio

Since emerging from its international bailouts and a decade-long economic crisis, the Greek economy is now surging, outperforming its eurozone partners with its economy expected to grow nearly 3% this year. Despite this positive outlook, there are key challenges ahead, as some economies in the eurozone have slowed down, and many Greeks hurt by the …

Following Iran’s latest attack on Israel over the weekend Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said that Greece plans to develop a defense system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome aimed at safeguarding the country against airborne threats. Meanwhile, while Iran was also the focus of a summit in Brussels, EU leaders also highlighted relations with Turkey, lin…

Back in February, the readout from the 5th US-Greece strategic dialogue saw the US and Greece stress the importance of integrating youth in climate change mitigation and resilience, including through a youth corps exchange program that links the California Conservation Corps with Ecogenia in Greece. Thanos Davelis caught up with Larry Notheis, the …

The memoirs of former German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble were recently released in Germany. As expected, Greece features heavily. All the key moments of the crisis and its main actors are sketched in his memoirs, from the times Grexit was genuinely on the table, to his dealings with prime ministers Papandreou, Samaras, and Tsipras, and finan…

Last week thought leaders, politicians, experts and the business community gathered in Delphi in Greece for the 9th Delphi Economic Forum. The Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC) had an important presence there as well, leading discussions on the role of the diaspora, the importance of Cyprus, the Middle East post October 7th, and the futur…

We speak with author and journalist Simon Kuper on his new book about Paris, ‘Impossible City – Paris in the Twenty-First Century’. Plus: food titles are invited to a special event at Salone del Mobile, and the return of ‘Saveur’ magazine.By Monocle Radio

Reports indicate that a new flotilla to Gaza is being prepared out of Turkey. 14 years ago we saw a similar move take place, when the attempt to send the Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza led to a diplomatic crisis. Rich Goldberg, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies with a deep expertise in sanctions policy who previously serv…

Years after its collapse in Iraq and Syria at the hands of a US-led coalition, it looks like ISIS is making a comeback. As reports indicate, ISIS has been expanding its presence in Syria, attacking regime soldiers, civilians, and the US-backed Kurdish-led SDF. An underreported element of this story is Turkey’s role in the revival of the Islamic Sta…

Greece’s government just announced the creation of two new marine parks – in the Ionian and Aegean seas. The move comes a week before Athens is set to host the 9th Our Ocean Conference on April 16 and 17, which will see key stakeholders not only put a spotlight on issues related to the protection of the seas, but also present a series of concrete p…

Turkey announced it was restricting exports on a wide range of products to Israel on Tuesday, in Ankara's first significant measure against Israel after six months of war. The decision comes after Turkish President Erdogan’s party suffered a historic defeat in the municipal elections, a result which experts Sinan Ciddi and Steven Cook argued in For…

The last decade Thucydides has moved to the center of the discussion, with concepts like the “Thucydides trap” debated in policy circles in Washington, DC when looking at how to navigate US relations with a rising China in what appears to be a new era of great power competition. So what can Thucydides tell us about our world today? This was the foc…

We speak with ‘Fortune’ executive editor Alex Wood Morton on their editorial expansion in Europe. Plus, Melinda Stevens on her new book with Assouline – ‘Secret Stays: Pioneering Hosts of the New Chic’. And Serge Ricco and Stéphane Darricau on their new book delving into the history of influential German magazine ‘Twen’.…

Migration is top of the agenda this week in Cyprus, with President Nikos Christodoulides calling for the EU to step in to help Cyprus deal with a surge in arrivals on its shores. Cyprus is pressing Brussels to designate parts of Syria as safe for returns of migrants, and also to condition EU aid to Lebanon on its preventing migrants from departing.…

Greece is ramping up its firefighting efforts, with authorities betting on a host of preventive measures - from the deployment of firefighting aircraft to increased staffing in specialized forest firefighting units - as temperatures touched 30 degrees Celsius in late March and wildfires already broke out weeks earlier than expected. On top of multi…

With the EU elections on the horizon, one party in Greece, Greek Solution, is seeing a notable surge in support. The rise of this far right nationalist party also mirrors broader trends in the far right across Europe, and many are beginning to ask whether this resurgent far-right is here to stay. Dr. Georgios Samaras, an assistant professor of publ…

Greece has just opened a new vacation visa terminal for Turkish visitors this week as part of a diplomatic effort to ease long-standing tensions between the two countries. The move follows the signing of a series of agreements between Greece and Turkey during President Erdogan’s meeting with Prime Minister Mitsotakis in Athens in December, most not…

Less than a year after securing another term, Turkish President Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party suffered its worst defeat in its 22-year history in Sunday’s municipal elections. All eyes were on Istanbul, where Ekrem Imamoglu easily won reelection and is increasingly cementing his place as Erdogan’s political challenger. Amberin Zaman, Al-M…

This week we speak with the team behind the recently launched ‘Numéro Switzerland’. Plus: food title ‘Picnic’, which celebrates the London food scene in its latest issue, and also ‘Pedas’ , a zine on Indonesian cooking. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.By Monocle

On Friday US and Turkish officials confirmed that Turkey’s President Erdogan will visit the White House on May 9th, a move that has been described as an apparent quid pro quo for Ankara’s decision to finally green-light Sweden’s NATO membership. Alan Makovsky, veteran Turkey analyst and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, joins Thano…

Can a small antique table give us insight into the history of an entire city and its broader connections to the region? A recent quest for such an antique sent Sean Mathews, a journalist based in Greece and covering the broader Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, on a trip to Thessaloniki that quickly revealed just how multi-layered and cosmopol…

A few weeks ago Greece passed a law allowing the operation of private, non-profit universities, including allowing foreign private universities to set up branches in the country. The move came despite weeks of demonstrations that included scores of university building occupations by students. Despite this, opinion polls indicate that most Greeks ag…

Earlier this year Kathimerini organized a three-day conference looking back at the 50 years since the restoration of democracy in Greece in 1974, or the Metapolitefsi. We saw a gathering of some of the most influential people of this period, including former prime ministers, who discussed in depth the numerous crises the country has gone through du…

As we celebrate Greek independence day today, March 25th, we’re going to take a deeper look at one of the crucial figures of the Greek Revolution of 1821, Lord Byron. Aside from his status as a world renowned poet at the time, he is also perhaps the most famous philhellene to travel to Greece and ultimately give his life for Greek independence in 1…

This week on ‘The Stack’ we speak with Maria Fernanda Delmas from Brazil’s financial daily ‘Valor Econômico’. Plus Ricardo Moreno celebrates 10 years of ‘The Summer Hunter’ and the new editor of ‘Bon Appétit’.By Monocle Radio

This past week Washington’s attention has been on Cyprus and the humanitarian corridor from Gaza, from President Biden’s letter thanking President Christodoulides, to the National Security Council’s chief of staff visiting Cyprus. Cyprus is also going to be a central theme for diaspora Greeks as celebrations for Greek independence day kick off on M…

With Ukraine facing a resurgent Russia, NATO leaders have been clear that they do not and “will never recognize Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexations, including Crimea.” While Western leaders speak clearly when it comes to Ukraine, their uncompromising positions are unfortunately undermined when NATO remains largely silent over the preceden…

In a speech on Monday Turkey’s President Erdogan not only defended the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, but went even further, stating that if Turkish troops hadn’t stopped then all of Cyprus would be Turkish today. His comments come as a new UN special envoy is looking for ways to restart talks on Cyprus and amid efforts by Athens and Ankara to…