On Friday, 03 April 2026, following an overview of current affairs and the day’s newspaper headlines, we spoke with Charalampos Papasotiriou, Professor of International Relations and Strategic Studies at Panteion University, about developments in the Middle East, the deadlocks surrounding Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu’s objectives, and the prospects for de-escalation—and when this might become feasible.
Immediately afterwards, we discussed developments in the OPEKEPE scandal and a recent interview by Alexis Tsipras with Kostas Poulakidas, parliamentary correspondent. The second hour began with international news updates from Ivana Djordjevic.
We then turned to a deeply moving human story—the story of the “lost children”: thousands of children who were given up for adoption in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s under very particular circumstances, often due to poverty, but also for political reasons (including children of communists who were forcibly separated from their families). Following a ministerial decision issued a year ago, many of them have now begun to regain Greek citizenship. The discussion was prompted by an event held on the afternoon of Thursday, 02 April, at the American College of Athens, where 50 of these individuals—now older adults—came together to celebrate the restoration of their Greek nationality.
On this topic, we spoke with Gonda Van Steen, Professor of Modern and Byzantine Greek History, Language and Literature and holder of the Koraes Chair at King’s College London. Driven by her philhellenic interest, she has spent years conducting research across the globe and in Greece, uncovering these stories, documenting them in a book, and supporting efforts to restore citizenship.
We closed the program with another powerful subject related to modern history: the presentation of the project “Digital Repository of Historical Memory and Culture of the Jewish Communities of Greece – Iosipos”, introduced by representatives of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki at the Athens Concert Hall. Our guest was Giorgos Patseas, technical coordinator of the “IOSIPOS” project, who spoke about the demanding and meticulous process of collecting archival material—including documents, audio testimonies and personal objects—preserving the historical memory of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki. The project is now available online and will soon form part of a museum exhibition.