ATHENS: Greece’s finance minister accused creditors of trying to “terrorize” Greeks into accepting austerity, warning Europe stood to lose as much as Athens if the country is forced from the euro after a referendum on Sunday on bailout terms.
After a week in which Greece defaulted, shuttered its banks and began rationing cash, Greeks vote on Sunday on whether to accept or reject tough conditions sought by international creditors to extend a lending lifeline that has kept the debt-stricken country afloat.
The left-wing government is urging a “No” vote, saying Greece’s European partners are bluffing when they warn that would mean a Greek departure from Europe’s single currency, with unforeseeable consequences for Greece, Europe and the global economy.
Opinion polls on Friday gave the “Yes” camp, which favors accepting the bailout terms, a slender lead but all were within the margin of error and pollsters said the vote was too close to call.
Only one had the “No” vote winning, despite turnout of at least 50,000 opponents of the deal at a rally in central Athens on Friday that appeared significantly bigger than a simultaneous rally by the “Yes” camp.
“What they’re asking us to accept is eternal slavery,” said Ermioni Tenekidou, 54, a teacher.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble of Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor and toughest critic, said any so-called Grexit, Greek exit from the euro zone, might only be temporary.
“Greece is a member of the euro zone. There’s no doubt about that. Whether with the euro or temporarily without it: Only the Greeks can answer this question. And it is clear that we will not leave the people in the lurch,” he said.
But it is far from clear how a temporary exit from the 19-nation euro currency bloc might work. Some economists have raised the idea of a temporary suspension, whereby Greece would revert to a national currency for a number of years until its economy stabilized.
‘TERRORISM’
Greece’s European partners say the euro zone is better placed to minimise the impact on its vulnerable southern flank from a Greek exit than several years ago when the debt crisis exploded. But Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said Europe stood to lose more than Greece.
“If Greece crashes, a trillion euros (the equivalent of Spain’s GDP) will be lost. It’s too much money and I don’t believe Europe could allow it,” he told Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
Varoufakis reiterated he would resign if Greeks vote “Yes,” and accused creditors of trying to terrorize voters by capping a liquidity line to Greek banks.
“What they’re doing with Greece has a name: terrorism,” he told El Mundo. “Why have they forced us to close the banks? To frighten people.”
Greece accounts for barely 2 percent of the euro zone’s economic output, but its exit would represent a massive blow to the prestige of Europe’s grand project to bind its nations into a union they said was unbreakable.
It would also spell even greater hardship for Greece, stricken by one of the worst economic crises in modern times that has left one in four workers without a job, hammered pensions and pay and fueled political instability.
Germany’s Welt a.m. Sonntag newspaper, citing a “senior negotiator” among Greece’s creditors, said the Athens government had money “for perhaps a week, but certainly not much longer.”
Critics accuse Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a 40-year-old former student protest leader, of gambling Greece’s future with a plebiscite called with eight days’ notice after negotiations with the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund hit a wall.
They point out that the offer Greeks will vote on is no longer on the table and the question is worded in cryptic legalese, leading the Council of Europe, a major European rights watchdog, to say the plebiscite falls short of international standards of fairness.
Echoing a defiant Tsipras at Friday’s “No” rally, 60-year-old teacher Giorgos Sarafianos said the referendum was a question of “dignity.”
“The only message that can be sent tomorrow is that if we want to be part of the European community, it should not be with our heads bowed,” he said.
Varoufakis accuses creditors of ‘terrorism’
Varoufakis accuses creditors of ‘terrorism’
AI’s shift toward proactive healthcare
- Experts reveal how AI is reducing burnout and streamlining workflows
JEDDAH: Artificial intelligence is increasingly moving from the margins of healthcare innovation into its operational core. Rather than replacing clinicians, AI is being deployed to address persistent challenges across health systems, from administrative overload and staff burnout to fragmented data and inefficient patient flow.
Speaking to Arab News, Abbes Seqqat, chief executive officer of Rain Stella Technologies, and Eric Turkington, chief product officer, discussed how AI is already transforming healthcare delivery — and why its impact is most meaningful when embedded directly into clinical workflows rather than treated as a standalone tool.
Seqqat describes AI’s role as accelerating a structural shift in healthcare delivery. “AI is accelerating the shift in healthcare from reactive to proactive care, because AI fundamentally helps detect, analyze and predict,” he said, noting that many health systems lack the resources to perform these tasks at scale.
While AI use cases in healthcare are broad, Seqqat emphasized that the most effective applications today focus on operational and clinical fundamentals, including reducing administrative burden, identifying patient risks earlier, and capturing clinical data more reliably and in real time.
RST’s portfolio reflects this approach, spanning surgical data capture and workflow automation, cloud-based electronic medical records, and health information exchange. Across these systems, the common goal is improving data quality and usability so clinicians can spend less time managing information and more time delivering care.
According to Turkington, RST’s systems rely on a mix of established and emerging AI technologies.
“Across the portfolio, we are using a wide range of AI and predictive technologies, from voice technology to reliably capture clinician inputs, to large language models that analyze and act on collected data,” he said.
A key focus has been adapting AI to regional and clinical realities. Voice models, for example, have been trained on UAE and GCC accents and grounded in medical terminology to improve accuracy in real-world settings. RST also uses retrieval-augmented generation and multi-agent AI architectures, allowing different AI components to perform specialized tasks such as classifying surgical notes, identifying unusual events, or assisting with billing and coding, Turkington explained.
DID YOU KNOW?
• AI can detect, analyze, and predict patient risks faster than traditional methods.
• Systems like Equinox use voice input and predictive analytics to actively support clinical decisions.
• AI assistants provide real-time updates, automate documentation, and improve coordination in operating theaters.
One of the central concerns around AI adoption is whether it adds complexity to already demanding clinical roles. Seqqat argues the opposite should be the goal.
“For nurses and frontline staff, AI’s greatest contribution is removing the invisible administrative friction that leads to burnout,” Seqqat said.
In operating theaters, AI systems can replace manual coordination methods such as phone calls and whiteboards by providing real-time situational awareness. By automating updates, anticipating delays, and serving as an on-demand clinical notepad, AI reduces cognitive load and allows staff to remain focused on patient care, he explained.
RST’s voice-enabled assistant, Orva, is designed specifically for perioperative environments.
Turkington said it enables hands-free documentation and coordination, helping surgical teams manage schedules and resources more effectively.
By capturing live updates through voice input, Orva can surface delays, flag bottlenecks, and prompt coordination between departments. It also assists with documentation and coding, reducing errors and supporting more accurate reimbursement— an area where incomplete records often create downstream challenges.
Electronic medical records remain central to healthcare delivery, but Turkington noted that AI can move them beyond passive data repositories.
“We designed Equinox as an EMR that enables you to spend less time with the software and more time with patients,” Turkington said.
Through voice input, automated documentation from visual annotations, and AI-generated pre-visit summaries, the system can actively support clinicians rather than slow them down. Predictive analytics, such as identifying no-show risks or highlighting care gaps, further shift EMRs toward decision-support tools rather than administrative obligations.
Both executives stressed that AI’s effectiveness depends heavily on data access and quality. Seqqat pointed to interoperability as a prerequisite rather than an afterthought.
“AI is only as powerful as the data it can access,” he said, adding that fragmented records limit both clinical insight and system-wide learning.
Health information exchanges, such as RST’s Constellation platform, enable patient data to be viewed longitudinally across providers. AI can then assist with patient identity matching and population-level analysis, allowing trends and risks to be identified across large datasets.
Turkington shared an example from an operating theatre where AI helped prevent cascading delays. When a surgical case ran late, a nurse verbally updated Orva that the patient was ready to exit. The system alerted the recovery unit, analyzed schedule conflicts, and prompted management to reassign staff before delays affected subsequent procedures.
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By tagging the cause of the delay and feeding that data into predictive models, the system helped prevent similar issues in the future — without additional manual coordination.
According to Seqqat, the primary returns from AI adoption come from combining efficiency with financial accuracy. Streamlined workflows allow providers to treat more patients without compromising care, while improved documentation reduces revenue leakage.
Looking ahead, Seqqat sees AI becoming central to Saudi Arabia’s healthcare transformation. He described its role as advancing smart hospitals, predictive patient flow, and precision medicine aligned with Vision 2030 goals.
“The role of AI in Saudi Arabia’s healthcare sector is evolving from a supporting technology to a foundational pillar of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 transformation. Over the next few years, we expect to see AI move into the realm of smart hospitals, where predictive analytics optimize patient flow and AI-driven precision medicine leverages the Saudi Genome Program to provide hyper-personalized care. By unifying national health data and automating complex administrative workflows, AI will enable a more proactive, value-based healthcare model that improves patient outcomes and operational efficiency across the country.”
