
Greek urban guerrilla group claims attack on Hellenic Train
In a statement uploaded on Athens Indymedia website on Sunday, the Revolutionary Class Self-defence group said it carried out the April 11 explosion at railway operator Hellenic Train in response to a 2023 train crash which killed 57 people.
The explosion caused minor damage and no injuries. Police had evacuated the area after two media outlets received calls warning of the attack.
In its statement, the group said it was responding to underinvestment and safety concerns at the railway, which was privatised during Greece's 2009-2018 debt crisis. Hellenic Train, a unit of Italy's Ferrovie dello Stato, operates passenger and freight routes in Greece.
The group also claimed responsibility for a 2024 attack on the labour ministry in Athens, which also caused no injuries after police evacuated the area following a warning.
The group said it dedicated both attacks to Palestinians in the Gaza war.
Greek anti-terrorism police were examining the claim of what appeared to be a new guerrilla group, without ruling out links with groups active in the past, police spokeswoman Constantina Dimoglidou told state TV ERT.
Small-scale attacks on businesses, police, politicians and embassies are frequent in Greece, which has a long history of political violence by leftist and anarchist groups. On October 31, a bomb exploded in a flat in Athens, killing a man and injuring a woman.

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Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Putin has laid cunning trap that makes Zelensky's White House visit a minefield… Russian leader knows the peace he wants
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) AT first sight, Friday's summit meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin came to no clear conclusion. But the Russian leader has cunningly laid a trap, hoping that Volodymyr Zelensky is the one to say 'No' to President Trump's peace plan. 6 Russian leader Vladimir Putin has cunningly laid a trap Credit: Reuters 6 He is hoping that Zelensky is the one to say 'No' to President Trump's peace plan Credit: AP 6 Putin got what he wanted when Trump treated him as an equal partner Credit: AFP Since Alaska, Trump has shifted from demanding an immediate ceasefire to calling for immediate and full peace agreement. This is what Putin wants — to bounce Zelensky into a take-it-or-leave-it deal. But what would peace be like? To be sure, Putin knows what he means by peace — Ukraine surrenders to his key demands. Kyiv gives up a swathe of territory to Russia. It abandons any hope of integrating into Western institutions such as Nato or the EU. And it disarms so it cannot repeat the tough fight it has put up since February 2022, in case Russia decides to re-invade. In the meantime, sanctions on Russia are lifted and the Kremlin gets back its $300billion assets frozen in the West. A fast-tracked peace deal means Ukraine agreeing to complicated things such as who gets what territory, to what kind of country it will be internally. Putin wants to keep the Crimea peninsula plus the four southern regions which his army occupies. He might swap a slither of land for the tiny bit of Russia's Kursk region which Ukraine's army holds, but he will never give up Crimea. Crimea is a floating aircraft carrier and naval base which would give the Kremlin dominance of the Black Sea. Its surrounding waters hold huge oil and gas reserves which can only be exploited once the fighting stops. Trump-Putin latest- Don says 'no deal' on Ukraine war & holds call with Zelensky after saying it's now 'up to him' Seizing Crimea without a shot in 2014 was a huge boost to Putin's prestige at home. Similarly, the western part of the Donetsk region is a fortress which blocks any future Russian grab into the heart of Ukraine. Putin is prepared, apparently, to make superficial concessions in other places to get the Ukrainians out of that key strategic area. Although it sounds like a swap, in reality Putin is prepared to give up his claim to places he doesn't fully control such as the cities of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia — though not the nuclear power station there — in return for Zelensky handing over places in Donetsk which the Ukrainian army still holds. Annexing this key region would be an achievement he's been unable to achieve in years of fighting. Putin also wants to reverse many of the changes Ukrainians voted for in the past ten years. Most of all, he wants Zelensky out of office. As the hero of Ukraine's resistance, he is Putin's biggest bugbear. 6 6 That makes Zelensky's visit to Washington tomorrow such a minefield for him. Zelensky needs to avoid the kind of Oval Office ambush he faced in February when he had a shouting match with US leaders. To be fair, Trump looks likely to offer Ukraine carrots to make any concessions to Russia easier to swallow. Already, Washington has got the Ukrainians to agree to an economic partnership worth up to $500billion to develop the country's mineral and rare earth resources. Trump sold that deal by saying it would be worthwhile for Ukraine to share 50 per cent of the profits with America because Putin wouldn't reinvade if US companies' assets were in the line of fire. Well, that didn't stop him in 2022. Putin and Zelensky both know Trump is a man in a hurry Mark Almond But that selling point goes to the heart of what Ukraine sees as an acceptable peace settlement. Zelensky wants the US to guarantee any agreement with Russia will be kept. It has to be a cast-iron guarantee like Nato's promise to defend each member's territory if it is attacked. Ukrainians remember how Bill Clinton and John Major persuaded them to hand over the Soviet nuclear missiles on their territory to Russia in 1994 in return for a guarantee of their borders. We know what that piece of paper was worth. Keir Starmer and his European partners say they are a 'coalition of the willing' ready to put troops on the ground to enforce any deal that Trump and Putin concoct. 6 But without US involvement that force would be a paper tiger. Think back to how pathetic the European peacekeepers were in the Balkans in the 1990s until the US cavalry came over the horizon to stop the wars in ex-Yugoslavia. Trump knows his voters are bitterly opposed to US boots on the ground in foreign danger zones. Putin and Zelensky both know Trump is a man in a hurry. Got what he wanted They are at war but it is the President who wants a deal most urgently. Trump sees himself as a peacemaker worthy of the Nobel Prize. To be fair he has knocked heads together between smaller, weaker states like Armenia and Azerbaijan. But Putin's Russia sees itself as a global superpower. Putin got what he wanted on Friday when Trump treated him as an equal partner. The devil will be in the details of any peace deal. Putin is a master of detail. Trump is a master of ceremonies, lavishing attention on the media image of signing deals. Zelensky has to tread very carefully. A weekend is a very short time to prepare a peace to end three brutal years of war. Meeting 'a big win for Vlad' By Michael Hamilton VLADIMIR Putin will feel emboldened after the summit in the US, a former top military intelligence officer is warning. Colonel Philip Ingram said he feared Kremlin's tyrant had come out on top after the Alaska talks. The security and terror analyst added: 'This is a big win for Putin. His body language afterwards showed he had achieved more than Trump. 'Donald Trump was treating this as a business transaction, and wanted a quick victory. 'But Putin is tickling the fish and playing a longer game.' He warned it would be alarming to Ukraine but stressed that, importantly, the US had not made any concessions.


Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Melania sends Putin deeply personal letter that Trump hand-delivered in Alaska
First Lady Melania Trump wrote a personal letter to Vladimir Putin in which she criticized the forced kidnapping children, officials said. Although Slovenian-born Melania Trump was not on the trip to Alaska, she made sure her thoughts were heard and had the note hand-delivered through her husband, two officials told Reuters. The officials would not divulge the contents of the letter other than to say it mentioned the abductions of children resulting from the war in Ukraine. The existence of the letter was not previously reported. Russia's seizure of Ukrainian children has been a deeply sensitive subject for Ukraine. Kyiv has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide. Previously, Moscow has said it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone. However, a database of nearly 300 Ukrainian children up for adoption popped up. They are presented with photos, age, gender and personality traits. Some were described as 'obedient' and 'calm.' It allowed prospective adopters to filter children by age, eye and hair color, and the preferred form of guardianship, such as adoption or foster care. While Ukrainian officials have identified nearly 20,000 children who have been abducted by Russia, the real number is believed to be far higher. Some believe it could be as 300,000. The United Nations Human Rights Office has said Russia inflicted suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. In recent months, Trump has been more publicly critical of Putin's continued missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, crediting Melania for calling out the Russian leader's violence against Ukrainian civilians. Trump previously explained that he speaks to the Russian leader often, before sharing how Melania has helped in pointing out Putin's continued bombing of Ukraine. 'My conversations with him are always very pleasant. I say, isn't that very lovely conversation? And then the missiles go off that night, I go home, I tell the first lady... I spoke with Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She [says]: "Oh, really, another city was just hit,"' Trump said. Ahead of Friday's trip to Anchorage, Trump tempered expectations about what he might accomplish in Alaska, giving himself a '25 percent' failure rate. 'The second meeting is going to be very, very important, because that's going to be a meeting where they make a deal,' Trump said. 'But there is a 25 percent chance this meeting will not be a successful meeting,' Trump added. Trump previously explained that he speaks to the Russian leader often, before sharing how Melania has helped in pointing out Putin's continued bombing of Ukraine Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours at a US military base in Anchorage without reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Ukraine. The Putin and Trump Administrations on Friday ended with the US and Russian leaders admitting there was still work to be done. After the meeting concluded, the two leaders held a brief joint press conference. In an extremely uncharacteristic move, Trump allowed Putin to speak first - at what had been billed as a bilateral press conference - and then didn't answer a single question before shaking hands with Putin again and sauntering offstage. Their whole appearance before the press lasted just 12 minutes. Speaking aboard Air Force One as it flew toward Anchorage, the president declared his mission was nothing less than to 'stop the killing' and demanded that a truce between Russia and Ukraine be reached 'rapidly.' 'I don't know if it's going to be today,' Trump admitted, 'but I'm not going to be happy if it's not today. Everyone said it can't be today - but I want the killing to stop.' Trump said he made 'some headway' during his 2.5-hour-long meeting. 'We had an extremely productive meeting, and many points were agreed to,' Trump said. 'We didn't get there, but we have a very good chance of getting there.' What was clear was that there was no immediate ceasefire or peace deal to end the Ukraine war. Trump, who held a summit with Putin on Friday, said he agrees the best way to end the war was to go straight to a peace settlement - not via a ceasefire, as Ukraine and its European allies, until now with US support, have been demanding. Trump signaled that he and Putin had discussed potential land swaps and security guarantees for Ukraine, a proposal that has left Europe reeling as analysts brand it 'deeply disturbing' and a 'clear 1-0 for Putin.' The US also reportedly proposed an agreement that would see Ukraine not join Nato - but instead be offered Nato-esque protections similar to Article 5, diplomatic sources have claimed. Article 5 on Nato's founding treaty agrees collective defense - meaning allies see an attack on one as an attack on all of them. Trump reportedly floated the plan with Zelensky and European leaders during a call after his meeting with Putin.


ITV News
2 hours ago
- ITV News
UK must bring in sick and injured children from Gaza 'without delay', MPs demand
A cross-party group of 96 MPs have urged the government to bring sick and injured children from Gaza to the UK for treatment "without delay". In a letter to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the MPs warn the health system in Gaza has been "decimated" and that conditions in the territory are "worsening by the minute". More than 50,000 children are estimated to have been killed or injured in Gaza since October 2023, according to Unicef. With "essential infrastructure destroyed" and a long-running blockade by Israel of food, water and medical supplies, they say the population now faces a "medical and humanitarian catastrophe of horrific proportion". Citing World Health Organisation estimates, the letter warns 14,800 Palestinians are "in urgent need of medical evacuation - including children at immediate risk of death from trauma injuries and severe pre-existing conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.". "Given this grave reality, we urge the government to launch the medical evacuation scheme without delay". The letter, co-ordinated by Labour MP and GP, Dr Simon Opher, welcomes the government "finally prioritising" the issue but calls on senior ministers to "recognise the real urgency around medical evacuations". The group make six key demands of ministers while a scheme is developed: Timeline: MPs ask ministers to confirm the planned timeline for a medical evacuation scheme for Palestinian children. "This should be done in close coordination with the WHO and civil society organisations, with all eligible evacuees and their accompanying family members expedited as a matter of urgency," they add. Medical needs first: " The prioritisation of medical evacuations from Gaza must be determined solely based on clinical necessity and individual case assessment, without regard to financial implications, political considerations or reputational interests," the letter says. Funding: "Large-scale evacuations cannot rely on private donations or diversion of aid from other conflict responses," MPs say. "We urge you to ensure adequate government funding for medical treatment, psychosocial support, housing and other essential costs." Family unification: The 96 MPs say it is "vital" that children are accompanied by parents, close family members or another appropriate caregiver. "There is clear medical evidence to suggest their presence can positively impact the recovery of sick or injured children," they add. Legal status of evacuees: Ministers are asked to clarify the legal status of evacuees upon their arrival in the UK and following completion of medical treatment, including any rights to remain and pathways to settlement."We would urge that children and their families are given the option of applying for asylum, humanitarian protection or the chance to resettle in the UK. Evacuees must not be returned to Gaza," the MPs say. Biometrics:"The requirement for biometrics as a prerequisite to issue visas remains a major barrier, given that the only authorised biometrics centre in Gaza closed in October 2023," the groups warns. "We urge you to waive biometric requirements for evacuees under this scheme and permit applications to be completed after departure from Gaza." ITV News has contacted the government for comment on the MPs demands. Ministers have already started working on plans to evacuate up to 300 seriously ill or injured children from Gaza for NHS treatment in the UK. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in late June that the government was 'urgently accelerating' efforts to bring children over for treatment. Two weeks ago a government spokesperson said: 'We are taking forward plans to evacuate more children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care. 'We are working at pace to do so as quickly as possible, with further details to be set out in due course.' Scottish First Minister John Swinney welcomed the move to fly up to 300 children from Gaza but criticised the Westminster government for not taking action sooner. 'We have been consistently clear that the suffering being inflicted on the people of Gaza is beyond any justification.'People in Gaza are being bombed and left to starve by Israel on a massive scale. I wrote to the Prime Minister on 9 July to request support from the UK government in meeting the call from Unicef to provide medical care for children from Gaza.'If the UK government is prepared to evacuate Palestinians for medical treatment it would be entirely only regret is the UK government has taken this long to act."