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Sunday, July 5, 2026

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• Cyprus wants 85,000 electric vehicles by 2030, but how?

  A small island nation that takes merely a couple hours to drive across, Cyprus has consistently had one of the lowest electric vehicle adoption rates in Europe but recent data is looking increasingly positive.

  It is Cyprus’ goal, according to Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, to have 85,000 electric vehicles on the roads by 2030. Vafeades has expressed optimism about meeting the goal, noting it will take roughly 15,000 new EV registrations annually, but he has acknowledged that developments across Europe will influence the pace of adoption.

  According to data on passenger cars and vans from the European Alternative Fuels Observatory, updated through 2025, Cyprus has the lowest percentage of battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) in the European Union at 0.77 per cent.

  Eurostat data from 2022 indicated the only European countries with lower EV adoption rates were Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Turkey. Turkey has since significantly increased its percentage of electric vehicles.

  However, BEVs accounted for 4.7 per cent of total vehicle registrations in 2025, up from 4.0 per cent in 2024 and 2.7 per cent the year prior, and the market share of BEVs and PHEVs for passenger vehicles now exceeds eight European Union countries.

  Despite Vafeades’ optimism, Cyprus remains far from its goal. According to Angelos Sofocleous, an officer at the road transport department, there are about 8,200 licensed electric vehicles in Cyprus across all vehicle categories, including motorcycles, buses and trucks.

  In light of these challenges, what could Cyprus do to boost electric vehicles in the country?

  Concerns have frequently centred on charging. For years, the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC) offered the only public charging network in the country, and drivers needed a subscription card to use their network while the number of chargers hovered around a couple of dozen.

  But public charging options have significantly increased in recent years, with private operators like EV Power installing chargers at many supermarkets and petrol stations. And, at the start of 2025, a law requiring non-residential buildings with over 20 parking spaces to install at least one charging point took effect.

  Additionally, many EVs now have a range of over 400km, which is generally enough to drive to travel from Paphos to Ayia Napa and back for example. Though some EVs still have lower battery ranges, and expanding the number of charging points remains a challenge, it is no longer as significant a practical barrier.

  Much of the discussion on EV adoption has been around government-funded subsidies, which have faced their own challenges. Previous rounds of grant schemes have subsidised thousands of electric cars, motorcycles and other vehicles and were funded through the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility.

  The third scheme, announced in 2024, gave a €9,000 subsidy to 1,827 new and 104 used zero-emission vehicles. Additionally, 1,228 subsidies of €7,500 were available for those who replaced their old vehicles with a BEV or PHEV. However, in April 2025, the government abruptly reduced the number of subsidies, citing unused subsidies prior to EU funding deadlines.

  Michael Toumbas, the former chief technology officer and co-founder of EV Power, attributed the unused subsidies to misuse of the system by the general public and insufficient knowledge that people would have to buy the vehicle by a set deadline.

  A fourth scheme was later opened in December and allotted 520 subsidies of €9,000 or more for zero-emission vehicles, with a deadline for registration this past Tuesday, June 30.

  The strength of regular hybrid vehicles has also been notable. Regular hybrid cars combine a gasoline engine, an electric motor, and a battery pack to save fuel. You never have to plug them in. In the first five months of 2026, they accounted for 48.8 per cent, or nearly half, of new passenger vehicle registrations. However, because they still rely primarily on internal combustion engines (ICE), they have not been eligible for subsidies because they are more polluting.

  The government has not yet shared details about future grant schemes, although it has announced intentions to offer a scheme through 2030.

  “No detailed information is currently available regarding the potential incentives, eligibility criteria, or implementation timeline of any future scheme,” Sofocleous told the Cyprus Mail.

  Sotos Trikomitis, the president of the Association of Motor Vehicle and Electric Vehicle Importers (Semio), has criticised the lack of clarity surrounding future grant schemes, and argued that more funding is needed.

  Trikomitis has pushed for annual subsidies totalling between €15 million and €20 million, which is significantly more than the €5.6 million of funding for the fourth scheme.

  However, he told the Cyprus Mail that, even if not everyone can get subsidies, more people would buy electric vehicles if the government gave greater clarity on what to expect.

  “They don’t want to buy now and lose €9,000,” Trikomitis said, referring to the future scheme.

  He said, if “customers understand what will happen, they will start buying”, because electric cars, in the long-term, are “much more economical” than other cars.

  Constantinos Mikellides, the founder of NMC HomeSync, a company that installs home chargers, echoed Trikomitis’ view.

  “If the government says ‘we don’t give a subsidy for the electric cars,’ I’m sure that Cypriots will go to buy,” Mikellides said. “Now, people stay at home and [are] waiting [for] the news when the subsidies start again.”

  Trikomitis also noted that some EV options are now comparable in price to petrol cars.

  However, Toumbas presented a different perspective, noting that, when comparing the same models between internal combustion cars and EV versions, the EV version is typically significantly more expensive.

  Nevertheless, he also remains optimistic about the appeal of electric vehicles, even for those who don’t get a subsidy, due to cheaper operating costs.

  “Running costs, of course. And everything else: the ride quality, the comfort, the safety, low center of gravity,” Toumbas said. “Financially, it makes sense.”

  Sofocleous said “market developments” suggest EV prices will continue to decrease, making them “an increasingly attractive option for consumers”.

  He also referenced a new European emissions trading system, called ETS2, which will gradually factor the cost of carbon emissions into road transport fuel prices beginning in 2028. These changes will “further strengthen the transition towards zero-emission vehicles”, Sofocleous said.

  One policy that may be preventing even cheaper EV models is European Union tariffs on Chinese-made cars. The Chinese-owned company BYD began selling in Cyprus last year with a 27 per cent EU tariff placed on its vehicles, but still offers some of the lowest prices on the market. BYD also plans to start operating a factory in Hungary at the end of 2026 to avoid some tariffs.

  Nevertheless, Stelios Vanezos, the sales manager of BYD Cyprus, expressed confidence despite the current tariffs.

  “Everybody keeps saying that if the tariffs were not there, the cars would have been even cheaper, but since they are cheaper than the competition, nobody asks about that,” Vanezos told the Cyprus Mail. He said the most frequent concerns from customers are the time it takes for charging and the price of charging outside the home.

  Toumbas argued the primary challenge Cyprus faces in increasing EV adoption is education.

  In general, he said, there is a lack of understanding about the costs surrounding EVs, how charging works, the range of the battery and other aspects of electric vehicles and electricity more broadly.

  He described a future where people charge their electric vehicles during the daytime while they are at work, making use of solar panels while they are actively producing energy. Then, the vehicle would be used as a battery to power their household at night, like “an energy wallet on wheels”.

  Christos Kypris, a longtime EV owner based in Nicosia, told the Cyprus Mail about a different issue he sees.

  “The thing is, Cypriots do not have access to cheap used electric vehicles,” Kypris said.

  He pointed to a lack of import options because Cyprus is the only country in the EU that drives on the left side of the road following Brexit, and there is a law that prohibits most imports of cars outside the EU that are older than five years old.

  Kypris argued the five-year cap should be changed to “give an exception to electric vehicles”. He noted that one reason for the law is because of environmental concerns over older vehicles, which are not applicable to electric vehicles.

  However, Trikomitis pushed back on relying on imports. Trikomitis, who works with A. Tricomitis, a company that represents Suzuki Motors in Cyprus, said that for Suzuki cars, “there are approximately 1,000 to 1,200 items different from Japanese spec to European spec”, and recommended greater regulation of used imported cars.

  Kypris also called for greater government support throughout more aspects of electric vehicles. He gave as an example older houses that may not have the electrical capacity to handle home chargers, and suggested “the government should be funding the electricians” that can install new cables.

  Ultimately, Sofocleous emphasised that the 85,000 electric vehicles goal is only “part of the wider transition” to sustainable mobility. He said continued increases in ICE vehicle registrations and a reliance on private cars, in part due to limited public transport, pose continued challenges.

  Achieving the target will take “a broader policy approach” that includes replacing older vehicles, expanding charging infrastructure and encouraging sustainable transport options, Sofocleous said.

  Despite the challenges that electric vehicles in Cyprus have faced throughout the years, many of those in the field are optimistic that rapid growth is around the corner.

  “It’s in our culture. The Cypriot doesn’t want to try something new,” Mikellides said. “But if they’re able to try it, after they bought it, everybody [wants it].”

  “I believe in electric cars,” Trikomitis said. “I am very surprised with the performance, and to be honest, I love it.”

• Earthquake felt in Limassol

  An earthquake measuring 2.2 on the Richter scale occurred in Limassol on Saturday afternoon.

  According to the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 8.4 kilometres at around 3.20pm local time.

  Locals reported light trembling.

• Property issue can only be solved through ‘sincerity’

  The Greek Cypriot leadership continues efforts to instrumentalise the law for political purposes in matters relating to property, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman said on Saturday.

  “The property issue is not only a problem for Greek Cypriots, but also for Turkish Cypriots – and the solution is through sincerity,” he said.

  Erhurman said that the issue was “impossible to resolve” through lawsuits brought by Greek Cypriots against Turkish Cypriots or vice versa, stressing that it formed part of a wider political problem clearly reflected in the scope of negotiations.

  He reiterated Turkish Cypriot commitment to a comprehensive settlement, saying that the Turkish Cypriot side had established the Immovable Property Commission, making available the remedies of restitution, exchange and compensation during the period until a comprehensive settlement is reached.

  Attempts to use the law as a political instrument to build political positions or create domestic political “success stories” through the hardship experienced by individuals could not be tolerated, Erhurman said.

  “If there is genuine sincerity, efforts should instead be focused on achieving a comprehensive settlement, which would also bring about a resolution of the property issue,” he said.

  Erhurman stressed that the losses were not solely those of Greek Cypriots, noting that the north had “never endorsed approaches that target individuals and use the law as an instrument of politics by making them bear the burden of the Cyprus problem.”

  “At the same time, no one should assume that we have no means of responding in these matters, nor should anyone fall into the mistaken belief that we will accept positions advanced on the basis of such assumptions,” he said.

  He underlined that the north would continue to support the efforts of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and advance its “wide-ranging preparations” regarding the property issue until a settlement has been reached.

  Erhurman was referring to several cases of the illegal sale of Greek Cypriot property in the north by real estate agents such as Simon Aykut, an Israeli land developer who has been sentenced to five years in prison for several charges including the possession of stolen land, money laundering and conspiracy to commit a crime in 2025.

• Can tidying your Cyprus home improve your mental health?

  A friend found it in their mailbox. A small brown envelope, unaddressed, seemingly promotional but sporting a handwritten message, the writing calligraphic in its symmetry and the obvious care taken: ‘A calmer home starts here’.

  Inside – on thick, glossy cream-coloured paper, like a menu at the better class of restaurant – was the heading ‘CURATED SPACE CO. Luxury Home Transformation’ and a list of services offered, from ‘Space-saving folding & techniques’ to ‘Storage solutions’ and even ‘Decision-making support/Guidance through emotional or difficult decisions’.

  ‘Imagine opening your closet and finding everything beautifully arranged and effortless to reach,’ mused the menu, giving a number to call and finally making this promise: ‘A beautifully curated home where everything has its place. A refined, discreet, judgment-free process.’

  The idea of paying someone to rearrange and organise your wardrobe (or kitchen, or pantry) might’ve seemed outlandish not long ago – the kind of caprice one associates with heiresses and footballers’ wives, women (it’s mostly women) with time on their hands. But things have changed, a trend led by various ‘organising consultants’ but especially Marie Kondo, a Japanese woman behind four bestselling books and an Emmy-nominated Netflix series, Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.

  Two of Kondo’s books – Kurashi at Home and Spark Joy, both in Greek translation – stare up at me from the sofa in Nicoletta’s house on the outskirts of Nicosia, left there as if for inspiration.

  Nicoletta is today’s client. She’s not an heiress, or a footballer’s wife (she actually works at a software company) – and she has a problem with her kitchen, specifically two problems. The first is that she can’t reach some of the cupboards. The second is that everything’s so full that she can’t find what she needs easily. Sounds like a job for Curated Space Co.

  Andrie Alexandrou is Curated Space Co, having started the business just a couple of months ago, after 32 years as a bookkeeper. It wasn’t exactly a lifelong dream, just because she didn’t know it was possible till she discovered Kondo a few years ago – but it’s certainly something that fits her personality.

  “I’ve just always liked being organised – in my house, my office, my closets,” she says, admitting that her passion for order is “to the point of being a little OCD. Like, if I’ve picked up a pair of scissors, and used them, I absolutely have to put them back in their place. I can’t just leave them there… Every object needs to have its home. Like we each have our own home.”    

  Her warm demeanour hides a painful story. In her early 40s (she’s now 52) she began having stiffness in her joints, especially the fingers and especially in the mornings. The stiffness spread, “then came excruciating pain”. It was rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder – though doctors took years to diagnose it, leaving her in pain both physically and (since she didn’t know what was going on) spiritually.

  Andrie’s body is a literal document of those painful years – because she decided to start getting tattoos, as a kind of distraction from the pain and also, perhaps, a creative riposte, turning herself into an artwork.

  On one arm is the Archangel Michael, further down a plane-tree leaf to honour her heritage (she’s from Kakopetria). Her first-ever tattoo has the lyrics from ‘Carmina Burana’, a reminder of her dark mental state during those years: ‘O Fortuna, velut luna, statu variabilis… Vita detestabilis, nunc obdurat et tunc curat’. ‘O Fortune, like the moon you are changeable… Hateful life, that oppresses and then soothes.’ 

  Bookkeeping wasn’t such a bad profession for a mind that thrives on order and organisation – but it was never her happy place. Andrie was always the artistic type, painting in her spare time and crafting little bowls and bells out of clay. Then came the illness – and that was the last straw. She knew it was time for a new chapter.

  “Yeah, I left it late,” she laughs. “But okay, everyone has their own timing. And when you get older, it’s important to be happy in your daily life… And you start to realise some things – like for instance, at the very least, you want to live whatever time you have left doing something you love.”

  This is all quite relevant to Curated Space, as Marie Kondo would be the first to confirm. It’s not just that health problems spurred Andrie Alexandrou to follow her passion in middle age – it’s also that organising one’s space in particular (and, by extension, helping others to organise theirs) has a great deal to do with health, especially mental health.

  Kondo’s mission is “to help more people tidy their spaces by choosing joy”, as it says on her YouTube page. “If you tidy your space, you can transform your life,” claims the page. This is not (just) about finding things more easily when you’re trying to get dressed in the morning. It’s about mental ‘wellness’, that ubiquitous buzzword.

  It makes sense, of course. Modern life is filled with clutter, especially in a Western society where the proverbial machine keeps pushing us to buy and acquire stuff. There’s a deep satisfaction in dumping (or just harnessing) the clutter, a sense of control – plus of course the aesthetic pleasure of a neat cupboard, or items grouped by category, or clothes folded into cute little squares, Kondo-style.

  Why not do it yourself, though? What does Andrie know that her clients don’t?

  “Nothing,” she replies frankly. “Everything I know they could learn by reading books, or spending time watching videos… They could even ask ChatGPT ‘How do I sort’, it’ll tell them now, with technology. I have no special knowledge. What I have is a great love for what I do.”

  Her role is really to enable. Rearranging closets takes time – she budgets around three hours per client – and it’s a chore, especially on your own. It becomes a whole lot easier with someone who’s willing to take the lead, doing the donkeywork of shifting things around and discussing the process, helping with priorities, giving ideas on what goes where, and even bringing ‘organisers’ like baskets and boxes.

  One such helpful gadget is a plastic step Andrie brings to Nicoletta’s kitchen – basically adding a shelf within a shelf, allowing items to be stored both on the step and under it. If this were a bedroom, and drawers were available, she’d also do some Kondo-style folding – but of course it’s a kitchen, so the job is different.

  Preparation is key, explains Andrie. She starts with a video call a few days before the visit, where the client (having previously completed an ‘intake form’) shows her the general situation – so she already knows that Nicoletta’s cupboards are indeed full to bursting, though at least it’s a kitchen so the big question (What to Throw Out) is a bit less emotionally fraught. 

  Admittedly, there’s the salt. Nicoletta, it turns out, has a lot of salt – several jars of it – and some of the salt was collected personally from the sea (or perhaps a salt lake) by her own grandmother (!), so it has sentimental value.

  Andrie’s position is surprisingly firm. “We never throw those things out,” she asserts when I ask about clothes (it’s usually clothes, not salt) that we no longer wear but may have belonged to a mum or grandma. She won’t advise clients to dump anything they’re “emotionally attached to, that’s very important… It’s part of their life, their family. There are so many other things they could throw out”.

  There are limits, of course. Souvenirs don’t have the same emotional attachment, and can usually be culled; if you have a T-shirt and a fridge magnet from that trip to New York, do you really need both? Bric-a-brac and baubles are also disposable; “If your house caught fire and you could only take five, which would you choose?” she asks clients, urging them to keep only those. Smaller handbags can go into bigger ones. Bottles of booze are another source of clutter. “If you get a new bottle, an old one has to go” – one way or the other.

  With Nicoletta, the mission is clear: rearrange items so the ones she uses least often go in the hard-to-reach cupboards, and tidy (and thin out) the items in general.

  I don’t stay long enough to see what the ‘After’ version looks like – but I stay for the first stage, the clearing-out, all cupboards emptied and everything placed on the counter. There’s vanilla, maple syrup, nuts, spices, cooking butter, pomegranate juice. A bottle of zivania which she didn’t even know was there (it’s transferred to the freezer). Two glass jugs are unearthed, and Nicoletta looks surprised.

  “I never use those!”

  “‘Never’? Excellent, I like ‘never’,” replies Andrie, and sets the jugs aside for future storage, probably in the basement.

  It’s all common sense, needless to say. One easy-to-reach cupboard is full of cookbooks, but Nicoletta (who loves to cook) admits she only uses a few of them on a regular basis – so the others can be moved somewhere else, clearing up space. Expiry dates are checked. Everything gets sorted into categories, so it can be stored more functionally. There’s a brief discussion on pots and pans. And the salt? “Just don’t buy more salt,” counsels Andrie.

  She’s not dogmatic about the need for order. “Especially for artists, messiness can be their inspiration,” she admits, as an artist herself – but even painters, for instance, need to be able to find their paintbrushes, and store them all in one place.

  Home organising – and life organising – isn’t about making everything dull and antiseptic. On the contrary, it’s about empowerment. Rather like feng shui, it shows how, by taking a step back and rearranging daily life in a new permutation – using common sense, for the most part – one can feel refreshed, almost purified, and more in control. It’s a way of making life seem full of possibilities again.

  “When you decide to make your space more beautiful, and tidy it up, your energy is better,” says Andrie – and clients confirm it. “I’ve had them say things like, ‘I open my closet and it feels like being in a clothes shop’… They feel good.”  

  She, I assume, feels good too – this woman who spent her entire adult life in a job she didn’t love, racked with pain for the last few years, and is now showing others the path to calmness and peace of mind. ‘Order isn’t just for your home,’ declares the Curated Space menu in the small brown envelope. ‘It’s a gift you give your mind.’ True.

  CURATED SPACE CO. Luxury Home Transformation can be contacted on 99-488079, Instagram: @curatedspacecy, Facebook: Curated Space Co, curatedspaceco@outlook.com)

• Man remanded after drugs, explosives and weapons found

  A 57-year-old man was on Saturday remanded for eight days by the Larnaca district court over the alleged possession of drugs, explosives and weapons.

  His remand followed police seizing a pistol, seven full pistol cartridges, improvised explosive devices, a quantity of gunpowder, approximately 210g of cannabis plant material, approximately 70g of cocaine, 5g of cannabis resin, two packages of cannabidiol, as well as precision scales and €40,000 in cash from his home on Friday.

  The items were found during a combined operation between the CID and the drug squad Ykan which saw homes, business premises and cars searched.  

• ‘We do not accept partition as a solution’

  The division of the island cannot be a solution to the Cyprus problem, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said on Saturday, speaking at an event for the fallen and missing in Serres, Greece.

  “Fifty-two years later, the Greek Cypriot community continues to experience the tragic consequences of the barbaric Turkish invasion. Fifty-two years later, the refugees cannot return to their ancestral homes (…),” he said.

  Ioannou emphasised that the government would not “compromise with the fait accompli of the occupation”, describing the status quo as a fundamental violation of human rights and saying that the current situation resembled an “open wound” for many Cypriots .

  “(…) Our position is firm and unchangeable. Our goal is the liberation, the reunification of Cyprus, the liberation from the occupation troops and the anachronistic guarantees,” he said.

  In this context, he highlighted the support that Cyprus has received from European countries, particularly Greece, saying that Greece had stood by Cyprus’ side for 52 years.

  When asked to comment on the mission of the Greek frigate to Cyprus last March, Ioannou noted that, in addition to the pride experienced by Greek Cypriots, the mission’s essential goal was to defend Cypriot Hellenism against potential attacks.

  “So, in addition to the symbolic value, it also had a practical contribution to the defence and defensive armouring of Cyprus,” he said.

• Man arrested driving 16 times legal limit

  A 36-year-old man was on Friday evening arrested for driving in Xylofagou with a blood alcohol level of 150µg, no license and no insurance, police said on Saturday.

  A breathalyzer test performed on the driver showed a final reading of 150 µg, well above the legal limit of 9µg.

  The 36-year-old was arrested and taken to the Xylofagos police station.

  He is expected to appear before the Famagusta district court on July 6 for the immediate registration of the case.

  Investigations into the case are ongoing.

• Foreign ministry congratulates US on Independence Day

  Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos on Saturday congratulated the United States on the occasion of Independence Day, saying he extended “warm wishes” to the people of the US in a post on X.

  “This historic day stands as a testament to the enduring values of freedom and democracy that our nations proudly uphold,” he said.

  Kombos reiterated that Cyprus stood as a reliable partner to the United States “actively contributing to peace, security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond.”

  The United States are on Saturday celebrating the 250th anniversary of their independence from Great Britain.

• School assistants to be introduced for children with disabilities

  A total of 290 new positions for school assistants and chaperones for children with disabilities, as well as an increase in social benefits, were approved by Cabinet this week, President Nikos Christodoulides announced on Saturday.

  “This week in Cabinet, we took two significant decisions of particular social importance that substantially improve the daily lives of our fellow citizens,” he said in a post on X.

  The increase in benefits applies to five different areas, including a 50 per cent increase on the car purchase subsidy, a 33 per cent increase in the transport allowance, a 10 per cent increase in the personal assistance and home care allowance, doubling the day centre participation allowance, and the addition of almost 5,000 new beneficiaries by 2028.

  “Undoubtedly, these are social policy decisions with substantial content,” he said.

  Αυτή τη βδομάδα στο Υπουργικό Συμβούλιο λάβαμε δύο σημαντικές αποφάσεις ιδιαίτερης κοινωνικής σημασίας που βελτιώνουν ουσιαστικά την καθημερινότητα των συμπολιτών μας.
  
  Πρώτον, 290 νέες θέσεις σχολικών βοηθών και συνοδών για παιδιά με αναπηρίες, ανεβάζοντας τον συνολικό αριθμό σε… pic.twitter.com/AQWE5dWeLX

  — NikosChristodoulides (@Christodulides) July 4, 2026

• Cyprus ‘condems’ bomb attacks in Damascus

  The Republic “strongly condemns” the bomb attacks carried out in the Al-Hijaz area of ​​Damascus on Thursday, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

  “We express our sincere condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to all those injured,” it said, adding that those responsible “must be held accountable immediately.”

  The attack was carried out in a cafe in central Damascus, claiming the lives of nine civilians and injuring at least 20 more.

  Citing the Syrian interior ministry, Reuters said that preliminary investigations showed that the blast had been cased by a “crudely made explosive device”. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the blast.

  In its post on X, the ministry reaffirmed its support for the stability of Syria, stressing that it was “an element of vital importance for regional security”.

  Cyprus strongly condemns the bombing attacks in the Al-Hijaz area of Damascus which claimed the lives of civilians and left many others injured.
  
  We extend our deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to all those injured.
  
  The perpetrators…

  — Cyprus MFA (@CyprusMFA) July 4, 2026

• Police bust opiate trafficking ring

  The police anti-drug squad Ykan on Saturday said it has dismantled a Cyprus-wide drug ring active in the importation and circulation of opiates.

  During the investigation, authorities seized approximately 60kg of opiates and investigated a total of 17 related cases. Twenty-one people were arrested, while two others are wanted.

  According to police, 16 of the 17 cases have already been registered before the court and were referred to the criminal court for trial while 21 defendants are being held in custody as pre-trial detainees.

  During the investigation, testimony was also obtained against three of the defendants, according to which they allegedly imported additional quantities of poppy seeds into Cyprus during the last three months. They face additional charges.

  As part of the framework of actions to stop the import of this type of drug, Ykan said that it had contacted a foreign company through which the packages containing the seized quantities had been sent to Cyprus.

  The company has since implemented the relevant recommendations and measures to terminate the possibility of sending the specific products to Cyprus.

  The bust includes recent seizures of opiates by the police, ranging from 2 to 30 kilograms.

• Preparatory meetings ahead of Holguin visit

  The Greek and Turkish Cypriot side continue to hold regular meetings with the United Nations ahead of the visit of UN Special Envoy Maria Angela Holguin to the island later in July.

  Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA), sources said that both the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides are holding separate meetings with representatives of the UN on “substantive issues” regarding the Cyprus problem as part of preparations for the Holguin’s upcoming visit later in the month.

  Following her visit in Cyprus, Holguin is also expected to visit Brussels for meetings in mid-July.

  Earlier this week Holguin called on Cypriots to seize the opportunity to find a solution.

  Holguin was last on the island in early June when she met both President Nikos Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman and other civil groups.

• Today’s weather: Sunny at up to 39 degrees

  On Saturday, the weather will be overwhelmingly clear with temporary cloud cover in the higher mountains in the afternoon.

  Temperatures will range from 39 degrees Celsius inland, around 31 degrees in the southeast and on the east coast, 35 degrees on the north coast and around 30 degrees on the rest of the coast, as well as in the higher mountains.

  Winds will blow south- to northwest, initially locally variable and weak to moderate at up to 4 Beaufort but later increase to locally strong winds in the south, reaching up to 5 Beaufort. The sea will be a little rough.

  Tonight, the weather will be mainly clear with temporary increased low clouds will be on the west coast.

  Later and during the dawn hours, locally increased low cloudiness and sparse fog or mist are expected to form, mainly on the eastern half of the island.

  Winds will blow mainly south- to northwest and locally variable, ranging from 3 to 4 Beaufort and the sea will be slightly rough.

  Temperatures will drop to 21 degrees Celsius inland, around 23 degrees on the coast and 19 degrees in the higher mountains.

  On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, isolated rain or storms are expected in the mountains and inland in the afternoon and evening as clouds develop.

  Temperatures will gradually drop until Monday, mainly in the mountains and inland, with no significant change is expected on Tuesday.

Reddit

r/golang

• Has Go Started Moving Away from Its Original Philosophy?

  One of the reasons I originally liked Go was its philosophy: there was usually one obvious way to solve a problem. That simplicity made codebases easier to read, easier to review, and easier for new developers to understand.

  Generics solved a real problem. Before Go 1.18, it was common to duplicate code for different types or fall back to interface{}. In that sense, generics were a worthwhile addition.

  However, I feel the feature is intentionally conservative. For example, Go still doesn't support generic methods, which limits some abstractions that are common in other languages. While I understand the design rationale, it sometimes feels like Go added generics without embracing the full set of patterns they enable.

  The new iterator support leaves me with a similar feeling. Now there are multiple ways to express iteration depending on the API. None of them are inherently bad, but one of Go's original strengths was minimizing the number of equally valid approaches. As the language grows, that consistency becomes harder to preserve.

  My concern isn't that these features are poorly designed. My concern is that each new feature moves Go a little further away from the minimal language that originally attracted many of its users.

  Sometimes it feels like Go is trying to borrow ideas from languages like Rust or TypeScript while intentionally stopping short of matching their expressive power. The result is a language that is becoming more capable, but also more complex.

  I still enjoy writing Go, but I sometimes wonder whether the project would have benefited more from doubling down on performance, tooling, diagnostics, and runtime improvements rather than expanding the language itself.

  I'm curious how others see this. Has Go found the right balance between simplicity and expressiveness, or do you think it's gradually drifting away from its original philosophy?

  submitted by /u/AMiR_ViP
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• "go fix" on Go 1.26+ is awesome

  If you haven't tried the new "go fix" yet, give it a spin.

  It's a proper revival of the old "gofix" idea. In Go 1.26, it was rebuilt on top of the Go analysis framework. So now it can modernize your code with newer language and stdlib features.

  It respects the Go version in your module. If your "go.mod" says "go 1.26", it suggests Go 1.26-compatible changes. It doesn't rewrite your code into something your module hasn't opted into.

  For teams using LLMs, this is great. You don't need to keep leaving PR comments like “use the newer API here” or “we don't write that pattern anymore.” Run it locally or on the CI instead.

  Start from a clean git state:

  go fix -diff ./...

  Then apply it:

  go fix ./...

  Then run it again.

  Some fixes expose more fixes. The Go team recommends rerunning it, and in practice two passes often catches more than one.

  Some useful analyzers:

  • forvar
  • newexpr
  • mapsloop
  • minmax
  • ... and many more

  You can also run one analyzer at a time if you want smaller PRs:

  go fix -newexpr ./... go fix -forvar ./...

  That's useful when one pass touches a lot of files and you don't want one giant mixed cleanup patch.

  The other neat bit is //go:fix inline. Library authors can use it to help users migrate from old APIs to new APIs. That's much better than deprecating something and hoping everyone reads the changelog.

  You can also write your custom analyzer to enforce your own rules. I am writing a few for fun.

  The Go blog has two good posts on it:

  • Using go fix to modernize Go code
  • //go:fix inline and the source-level inliner

  I ran it on a large RPC service, and "newexpr" cleaned up a pile of pointer helper calls. Extremely satisfying.

  submitted by /u/sigmoia
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• Built a local proxy in Go that masks API keys/secrets before they reach ChatGPT/Claude

  Hey r/golang,

  I kept seeing developers paste .env files, configs, and logs

  into ChatGPT/Claude without thinking about what's in them —

  API keys, AWS credentials, DB passwords, all going straight

  to the LLM provider.

  Built a local proxy to catch this before it happens:

  - Sits between your tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor) and the

  LLM provider

  - Detects secrets in the prompt (API keys, tokens, passwords)

  - Replaces them with placeholders before the request leaves

  your machine

  - The real values never reach OpenAI/Anthropic servers

  Example:

  Input: AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=ABC123XYZ

  Review this config.

  Sent to LLM: [[SECRET_A1B2C3]]

  Review this config.

  Technical bits that might interest this sub:

  - Zero external dependencies, pure stdlib for the core proxy

  - Streaming/SSE support so it doesn't break chat UIs

  - In-memory vault for masked values, nothing persisted to disk

  - Provider-agnostic — works at the HTTP proxy layer, not tied

  to a specific API

  Open source, local-first, telemetry is opt-in and off by default.

  Would love feedback on the approach, especially if anyone

  sees edge cases the masking logic might miss.

  submitted by /u/Negative_Arm_9325
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