In the financial markets, there’s little hope of any major breakthroughs tonight, says Chris Weston of IG:
Greece is living in its final hours before passing into the unknown territory that lies beyond the bailouts of the past five years. It is a journey that even Jason and his Argonauts might balk at venturing on.
Europe’s stock markets ended the day deep in the red again, with the Greek crisis causing some alarms again (although not a full-blown crash).
There was a last-minute selloff (how appropriate!), driving the FTSE 100 down 99 points for the day:
Other members of Greece’s negotiating team have joined Yanis Varoufakis and Alexis Tsipras at the PM’s mansion to discuss the situation (in a blow for photographers, they didn’t all arrive on motorbikes)
Updated at 4.47pm BST
The latest rumblings out of Brussels don’t sound too good for Greece….
But one thing’s clear, this story ain’t over yet.
The campaign for a Yes vote in Sunday’s referendum will begin holding demonstrations in central Athens, in around an hour’s time.
— spyros gkelis (@northaura)June 30, 2015
#greececrisis Athens tonight: pro-“yes” (for #Greferendum) demo at #syntagma sq. Hashtag: #YesEurope #MenoumeEvropi
— Dimitris Kourkoulas (@kourkoulasdim)June 30, 2015
35.000 persons have already confirmed in Facebook their presence in today’s pro-EU rally in Athens. #MenoumeEvropipic.twitter.com/EU6MU9kF26
Updated at 4.40pm BST
Germany isn’t alone in reacting warily to Greece’s request for a third bailout; Politico’s Ryan Heath hears that others countries are unimpressed.
— Ryan Heath (@PoliticoRyan)June 30, 2015
#EU govts not reacting well to #Greece loan request. “Lots of countries at this stage against new money and debt relief,” Nat spoke source
Wall Street has gone back to – largely – ignoring the Greek crisis after yesterday’s dip.
In morning trading the Dow, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are all up marginally. There has been speculation that the Federal Reserve may delay raising interest rates if the eurozone crisis escalates, which could account for today’s better mood.
At least someone’s happy…
As news of the third bailout request sent ripples through the eurozone, Greece’s finance minister left the finance ministry.
His destination — the prime minister’s residence, Maximos Mansion, for a meeting.
First though, Yanis Varoufakis had to negotiate his way through the Athens traffic, and the gridlock of reporters outside his office.
Angela Merkel has told lawmakers in Germany that her government can’t consider any new proposal from Greece until Sunday’s referendum has taken place.
Is that slamming the door, or leaving it tantalisingly ajar?
Updated at 4.17pm BST
Sundeep B 