Monday, June 22, 2026
d43fa2bb-8ec0-4da6-894c-1439b4e09d7d
| Summary | ⛅️ Clear until afternoon, returning overnight. |
|---|---|
| Temperature Range | 21°C to 29°C (69°F to 84°F) |
| Feels Like | Low: 70°F | High: 93°F |
| Humidity | 65% |
| Wind | 13 km/h (8 mph), Direction: 264° |
| Precipitation | Probability: 40%, Type: No precipitation expected |
| Sunrise / Sunset | 🌅 05:35 AM / 🌇 08:04 PM |
| Moon Phase | Waxing Gibbous (27%) |
| Cloud Cover | 14% |
| Pressure | 1010.01 hPa |
| Dew Point | 65.48°F |
| Visibility | 6.36 miles |
Parliamentary committees will begin meeting this week under the new composition of the House of representatives following the May 24 election, marking the formal resumption of parliamentary business after the vote.
Ministers, government officials and auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou are scheduled to appear before committees as MPs begin examining legislation, regulations and various public policy issues.
One of the first major issues on the agenda will be the government’s preparedness for the wildfire season. The House interior committee is due to examine whether the state has sufficient personnel, equipment and resources for fire prevention and firefighting operations. Representatives from multiple ministries, the fire service, forestry department, civil defence, police and other agencies have been invited to attend.
The House ethics committee will begin examining amendments to legislation governing asset declarations by public officials. The proposed bill would remove the president and members of the advisory council from the list of officials required to submit electronic declarations of assets.
The legal affairs committee will hold its first meeting with Justice Minister Costas Fitiris for an exchange of views on issues falling under the committee’s purview.
Meanwhile the House refugee committee will meet Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou and discuss matters within its remit.
Environmental issues will also feature prominently with the House environment committee set to discuss proposed amendments to waste management legislation, including regulations introducing a landfill tax on municipal waste.
The transport committee will meet Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades, while the health committee will hold its first meeting with Health Minister Neophytos Charalambides.
The defence committee is expected to discuss recent developments from the defence ministry, with Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas, National Guard chief Lieutenant General Emmanuel Theodorou and other officials invited to attend.
Separately, the audit committee will hold a meeting with auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou to discuss various issues.
According to the bulletin, plenary sessions have been scheduled for July 2, July 9 and July 15 – the latter being the annual commemorative session marking the anniversaries of the 1974 coup and the Turkish invasion.
Within the next few days, clarification is expected whether a plenary session will take place on June 25 as well.
Can you go a day without your phone? The honest answer, for most of us, is no.
We depend on them for time, contacts, news, calendars, and directions, which has made us reliant on these devices. This constant flow of information has gradually distanced us from the world around us, making it harder to be present and leading to excessive screen time.
Even so, what we all really need is a pause. A moment of rest. A digital detox, even if it’s brief.
Now imagine you’re a child again, growing up in the 1980s when life was simpler, slower, and more about living than posting. You spent your days outdoors, under the sun, playing with friends until it got dark.
Along the way, that kind of presence became rare. Today, self-reflection and rest are often neglected. We discuss children’s screen addiction but rarely consider our own.
Have you checked how many likes a post received more times than you’d admit? Or scrolled aimlessly, your thumb on autopilot? We must decide if we need a complete reset or just a brief break.
Life is currently passing us by in fragments. No breathing. No living. No real interaction.
This shift is evident everywhere. In 2024, the small French village of Seine-Port, about 50 kilometres southeast of Paris, took an unusual step by voting to discourage smartphone use in public spaces.
Mayor Vincent Paul-Petit called it a response to the “smartphone invasion”, particularly among younger people. Shopkeepers were encouraged to display signs asking customers to put their phones away and engage with others. Teenagers were offered old-fashioned “brick” phones if they agreed to avoid smartphones until age 15.
Though it may seem extreme, the idea is straightforward: we sometimes need to disconnect to remember how to live without constant stimulation.
Residents were asked to refrain from scrolling while walking, sitting in cafés, restaurants, or shops. There was no police enforcement; the aim was to reclaim public space for genuine conversation, eye contact, and human connection.
The scale of the problem
Screen time reveals how ingrained this has become in our lives. My phone logged about 1 hour and 30 minutes by 2.30pm one day.
At the Cyprus Mail, usage varies from 37 minutes to 5 hours and 32 minutes daily. On average, that totals around 2 hours and 26 minutes each day, equating to about 17 hours a week, 73 hours a month, and nearly 890 hours a year. This means roughly 37 full days a year are spent staring at a screen.
Some use their phones minimally, while others are almost constantly on them, highlighting how normalised this behaviour has become.
A day without technology
The idea of a digital reset isn’t new. It was inspired in part by YouTuber Niklas Christl and his video “DOPAMINE DETOX: How to Take Back Control Over Your Life.” I watched it a couple of years ago, but like many things, I didn’t act on it. I told myself I didn’t have time.
Then came 2020.
During Covid, the world slowed down in a way none of us expected. Nature responded in ways we noticed immediately: clearer waters, quieter skies, even dolphins returning to Venice after decades.
But we were still inside still online, still scrolling, still consuming. Locked down, yes, but more connected to screens than ever.
Try this: take a phone away from a child for just ten minutes and watch the reaction. Or try it on yourself.
When was the last time you navigated a day without your phone? Could you read a map without Google Maps? Could you sit through a moment of silence without reaching for something to fill it?
This isn’t about shame. It’s about awareness.
Because when we remove the constant stimulation, something interesting happens we feel uneasy. Disoriented. Restless. And that discomfort tells us something important: we’ve become dependent on stimulation.
Introducing ADWYP
This is where “A Day Without Your Phone” (ADWYP) comes in.
ADWYP is a simple concept: a structured break from constant digital stimulation. It’s designed for people who feel overstimulated, distracted, or overly dependent on external sources of pleasure.
The goal isn’t to reject modern life. It’s to reset your sensitivity to become comfortable with stillness again. To reconnect with your own thoughts, your surroundings, and your ability to simply be.
During ADWYP, you can still read, walk, exercise, journal, or have real conversations.
Even a weekly 24-hour reset can make a difference. Think of it as retraining the brain. That small internal signal that says, “That was fun—let’s do it again,” doesn’t have to control you. It can be observed, understood, and managed.
The goal is simple: awareness.
Try it once a week. A full day without your phone.
Not as punishment, but as practice.
Walk without distraction. Talk without interruption. Sit without stimulation. Let time feel slower again.
And most importantly, don’t wait for tomorrow to try it.
Your present moment is already becoming your past.
So, live it, properly, fully, and while it’s still here.
A new village square and semi-underground car park were officially inaugurated in the Troodos mountain village of Gourri on Sunday, with the government describing the €1.8 million project as part of a broader effort to revitalise rural and mountain communities across the island.
The project, co-financed through European and national funds, is intended to upgrade the village’s infrastructure and provide a modern public space for both residents and visitors.
Speaking on behalf of President Nikos Christodoulides, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou said the redevelopment had been designed to respect the village’s traditional character while incorporating modern standards of accessibility, sustainability and functionality.
According to Ioannou, the project will improve local residents’ quality of life while helping attract more visitors to the area.
He said the new square is expected to become a focal point for community life, serving as a gathering place for cultural activities and local events, while the operation of a farmers’ market is expected to support local producers and stimulate economic activity.
The minister also highlighted that several other development projects are currently underway including the completed €1.5m redevelopment of the village centre in Farmakas, the €1.34m regeneration project in Ayios Epiphanios, expected to be completed in September, and a planned €1.9m redevelopment of Kampi village.
The minister also referred to the recent completion of new community buildings in Kalo Chorio and Klirou, a project costing €405,000, of which 70 per cent was funded by the state.
Ioannou said the projects form part of the government’s wider strategy to strengthen the development prospects of rural areas and ensure communities remain viable and attractive places to live.
The aim, he said, is to create opportunities for residents, particularly younger people, to remain and build their future in their own communities.
Balkan, jazz, folk and experimental wind music is blowing this way as the Windcraft Music Fest returns to Katydata village on July 24-26. The quiet Nicosia district village will come alive with late-night concerts, workshops, exhibitions, walks and music-filled experiences.
Artists from Cyprus and abroad, original collaborations and musical traditions from around the world meet once again for the festival’s 12th edition.
With a focus on wind instruments, the festival continues to build bridges between tradition and contemporary creation, combining concerts, performances, workshops, site-specific installations and participatory activities in a three-day celebration filled with music and creative encounters.
This year’s festival opens with a day dedicated to the community and collective participation. The winds of the Windcraft Band and the songs of the Windcraft Voices, the performance Postcards from my Homeland, a swing party with the Misharoz Band, and a traditional fiesta with zournas led by Ta Takouria, along with other parallel activities, breathe life into the village. With reduced admission prices, the opening day offers an even wider audience the opportunity to experience the festival’s special atmosphere.
What follows is a two-day programme featuring an exciting international line-up that brings to Katydata an eclectic spectrum of sounds and original collaborations: jazz interwoven with classical and global traditions, contemporary music enriched with traditional influences, and acoustic sounds blending with electronic elements. Among the highlights are the trio of award-winning French saxophonist Sylvain Rifflet, New Zealand saxophonist Hayden Chisholm, and Christos Yerolatsitis’ international project Daydreaming, featuring guest saxophonist David Lynch.
The Cypriot creative scene will also have a strong presence at the festival, with the Ermis Michail Amped Quintet, Krúe, and Ogmios – joined by Demetris Yiasemides on trombone – showcasing original compositions and new musical approaches. At the same time, Zoe Georgallis’ music and dance performance Tip Tap Toe offers a unique experience for children and families.
The festival will reach its peak with an explosive dance fiesta led by the Bojan Ristić Band and Federico Pascucci, filling Katydata with the energy and virtuosity of authentic Balkan brass bands. The festival’s finale will be a dynamic mega jam with an intense pulse, bringing musicians from different participating bands together on stage in a spontaneous musical exchange.
The artists’ residency programme Rites of Life: Beauty and Destruction is another key aspect of the festival. Supported by the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists (EFFEA), it brings together trumpet player Milad Khawam (Syria-Germany) and Cypriot performer Annie Khoury to co-create a new work that will premiere at the festival.
Beyond its music programme, Windcraft Music Fest continues to serve as a platform for contemporary creation and active audience participation. A variety of workshops, exhibitions, installations and interactive activities for all ages enrich the visitor experience, highlighting the festival’s multidimensional character.
The free parallel programme includes the three-day workshop for wind instruments Total Tuning with Hayden Chisholm, as well as workshops on Balkan music, Italian tarantella, jazz improvisation and the art of making a pithkiavli (shepherd’s flute).
In the scientific corner, the interactive installation Shape the Sound will give visitors the opportunity to convert sounds into laser images. At the same time, workshops on cyanotype technique, cocoon creations and recycled paper making will take place. Those wishing to get to know the village, its people and its stories more deeply will have the opportunity to walk through the exhibition Sounds of the Fountains, experience the immersive installation Stone Pulse, or participate in the treasure hunt Why, Bird, Don’t You Sing?
In one of the most enchanting valleys of Cyprus, Windcraft Music Fest invites audiences to a memorable celebration of music, culture and community spirit – a festival that brings out creativity, embraces diversity and turns Katydata into a meeting point for people, ideas and sounds from around the world.
12th Windcraft Music Fest
Three-day music festival with concerts from global and local artists, workshops, installations, exhibitions and more. July 24-26. Katydata village, Nicosia district. www.windcraftmusicfest.com
The government has placed the repatriation of skilled professionals at the heart of its economic strategy, launching an ambitious campaign to reverse decades of skilled Cypriots’ exodus abroad.
The programme, branded Minds in Cyprus, has been presented as a flagship effort to address perennial labour shortages in key sectors. This includes careers in STEM with a strong focus on Cyprus’ burgeoning tech sector in particular.
The initiative was launched in May 2025 with a dual objective, that being to reconnect Cyprus with highly skilled professionals abroad, and in turn make their return easier through “a combination of incentives, practical facilitation and direct links with employers” said Deputy Minister to the President Irene Piki.
But nearly a year after its glittering launch in London, the available data suggests a growing gap between engagement and results.
According to figures submitted to parliament, 233 matches have been made between candidates and vacancies through the platform as of March 2026.
However, the labour department has reported that neither employers nor applicants have provided systematic feedback on those matches, leaving authorities unable to determine how many resulted in actual employment or relocation.
Officials acknowledge this limitation, for Piki’s office remarks that Minds in Cyprus operates primarily as “an enabling and connecting mechanism”, where employment outcomes are ultimately concluded between employers and candidates and are not always centrally captured.
That absence of outcome tracking has become a central limitation in assessing whether the programme is functioning as intended, with officials largely relying on registration numbers and participation levels rather than verified returns. More presentations will take place in Birmingham on June 22 and in London on June 23.
Piki has said the programme’s mandate aims to rebuild the country’s ties with its far-reaching diaspora rather than produce immediate returns.
“It represents an open invitation to reconnect Cypriots abroad with the possibilities and prospects of Cyprus,” she said.
President Nikos Christodoulides has previously framed the initiative as an attempt to convert “brain drain into brain gain”, positioning it as part of a wider strategy to shift Cyprus toward a knowledge-based economy.
The programme operates through the Talent Repatriation Action Plan, which combines job matching services with tax incentives, relocation guidance and information on housing, education, healthcare and employment conditions.
Piki’s office said the action plan has now reached around 90 per cent implementation, with tax incentives, employer engagement and facilitation tools already in place, and the remaining phase focused on “awareness, conversion and measurable impact”.
Under the scheme, eligible professionals receive a 25 per cent income tax exemption capped at €25,000 annually, while the qualifying period spent abroad has been reduced from 15 to seven.
Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis described the policy shift as “another decisive step toward achieving a strategic national goal”.
Officials argue that the incentives are structured to attract new taxpayers rather than redistribute existing ones, and therefore carry no direct fiscal burden.
Piki’s office adds that the incentive framework is now entering the stage where “awareness, uptake and measurable return outcomes can begin to develop at scale”.
Interest in the programme has been admittedly significant.
More than 750 people attended the London launch event last year, with thousands more participating online.
By the most recent data, over 600 professionals had registered on the platform, alongside more than 300 job vacancies posted by participating employers.
The government has also pointed to broader economic transformation as a supporting factor.
The technology sector now accounts for around 14 per cent of GDP, following rapid growth over recent years, with demand increasing across IT, healthcare, education, green technology and research industries.
Piki said that during meetings with international companies in Silicon Valley, workforce availability was consistently raised as a key concern.
“The first question they were asking was, ‘what type of talent do you have in the country?’,” she said.
Her office has argued that the initiative must be understood within a broader value proposition, that being that Cyprus may not compete on salary alone, but offers “quality of life, career opportunity, and personal connection to the diaspora”.
Despite these developments, officials acknowledge that Cyprus continues to face structural constraints, particularly in salary competitiveness compared with larger European labour markets.
That gap between domestic conditions and international opportunities is frequently cited as a key reason why many professionals remain abroad.
Piki’s office notes that “the decision to return is rarely based on salary alone,” and typically reflects a combination of financial, professional and personal considerations.
Venture capitalist Demetrios Zoppos – co-founder of 33East, an early stage investor in tech startups with a connection to Cyprus – said the initiative should be understood as part of a broader ecosystem rather than a standalone solution.
“Tax alone is not going to be the thing that basically brings people,” he said. “We have to be competitive internationally.”
He said relocation decisions are rarely immediate and are often influenced by family, career stage and enduring stability.
“There is huge interest, I myself am receiving great interest from young professionals looking to move back to Cyprus but relocation is a question of time,” he said.
Zoppos also pointed to visible changes in Cyprus’ business environment, particularly in the technological sectors.
“There has been a dramatic rise in tech companies relocating to Cyprus already,” he commented, remarking on the growth in startups and increased engagement from diaspora professionals exploring return options.
But for many analysts, the central issue is not whether interest exists, but whether Cyprus can provide comparable career progression to larger labour markets.
Lucas Irwin, a DPhil student at the University of Oxford and Fellow at the Centre for AI Governance, said the key constraint is structural rather than financial.
“The central issue is that young professionals face difficulties advancing their careers in Cyprus,” he said.
He added that fiscal incentives alone cannot compensate for a limited labour market.
“Incentives such as tax breaks must be paired with a dynamic business environment conducive to career growth.”
Irwin argued that Cyprus could strengthen its position by attracting major technology companies to establish regional headquarters on the island, particularly in emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence.
“The government would benefit from attracting major AI and technology firms to headquarter their EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) operations in Cyprus,” he said.
He said Cyprus’ geographic position could support such a strategy.
Irwin added that the presence of global firms would not only expand job opportunities but also reshape perceptions among younger professionals considering whether to return.
“This would signal to young professionals that Cyprus is a serious contender for their career development,” he said.
For those who have already left Cyprus, however, the gap between ambition and opportunity is described in more personal terms.
Antonis Kalimeri, now working in the Netherlands for a major pharmaceutical company, said his early attempts to enter the Cypriot job market proved decisive in his departure.
“After I completed my bachelor’s at the University of Nicosia in 2015, I spent around six months looking for employment,” he said.
He described a process characterised by a lack of responses and limited entry points into professional roles.
“I met consistent dead ends and very few responses.”
Kalimeri said the issue was not limited to securing employment but extended to progression once inside the system.
“My field is of course STEM, but my options in Cyprus were severely limited in terms of growth or promotion,” he said.
He said the absence of structured graduate pathways created a barrier at the very start of a career.
Piki’s office acknowledges this broader challenge indirectly, noting that the platform’s role is to improve visibility of opportunities rather than reshape demand itself, and that participation “can continue to broaden across sectors” as more employers engage.
Kalimeri added that this gap shaped early career trajectories in ways that incentives introduced later cannot easily reverse.
“The salaries are stagnant for young professionals in Cyprus, even in my field.”
By contrast, he said the Netherlands offered a more structured labour market with clearer progression and stronger institutional support for graduates entering the workforce.
“My job in the Netherlands is simply not comparable in terms of benefits,” he said.
He said migration decisions are often misunderstood when reduced to financial incentives or tax policy alone.
“It’s not merely so binary as to why people leave home for work,” he said.
For Kalimeri, the decisive factor was not taxation or short-term financial gain, but the absence of a visible professional pathway in Cyprus.
“In Cyprus there is no platform, no support for graduates,” he said again.
“For people like me, the decision was never about tax,” he said. “It was about whether there was a real pathway for career growth and to be judged on the merit of my abilities which is not always the case back home.”
Health Minister Neophytos Charalambides on Sunday reiterated the government’s commitment to securing a reunited Cyprus free of occupation troops, saying unity and collective responsibility were essential to achieving that goal.
Speaking at a memorial service for Eoka fighter Petros Eliades, Charalambides said “Cyprus continues to live with the consequences of the Turkish invasion and the ongoing occupation.”
“Thousands of our compatriots are still deprived of the right to return to their ancestral homes, while our homeland remains divided.”
He added that the duty of the current generation was not only to honour those who sacrificed their lives for the country, but also to work towards conditions that would allow Cyprus to be reunified.
The minister said the government and President Nikos Christodoulides were making persistent efforts to restart dialogue and negotiations aimed at achieving a “viable and functional solution” to the Cyprus problem.
Such a solution, he said, must be based on UN resolutions, international law and the principles and values of the European Union.
“Our goal remains a free homeland, without occupation troops, a homeland where all its lawful residents can live in conditions of security, peace, equality and mutual respect,” Charalambides said.
“These efforts require unity, seriousness and collective responsibility. They require us to remain steadfast in our objectives without deviating from our principles and without losing hope for the future.”
Referring to Eliades, who was mortally wounded by British soldiers in 1956 at the age of 23, Charalambides described his sacrifice as a reminder that freedom, dignity and democracy should not be taken for granted.
He said the example of those who fought for Cyprus should continue to inspire efforts towards a peaceful and reunited future for the island.
“By honouring Petros Eliades today, we renew our commitment that the sacrifices of our heroes will never be forgotten,” he said. “We will continue to draw strength from their example and work with for a free, peaceful and reunited Cyprus.”
In March 2023 European Central Bank (ECB) chief Christine Lagarde fell for a prank call where she unwittingly revealed that Europe’s central bank digital currency, the digital euro, will have a “limited amount of control”. Though anecdotal, it was one more cog in the general direction of travel where physical cash gets pushed aside by digital means of payment that’s both issued and controlled by a central authority. Whatever the motive, benign or not, the issue comes down to control.
In the video prank posted online, a prankster impersonating Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had a conversation with Lagarde.
“We are considering whether for very small amounts, anything that is around €300 [or] €400, we could have a mechanism where there is zero control, but that could be dangerous,” said Lagarde, recalling a previous terrorist attack in France believed to be financed by rechargeable and anonymous credit cards.
Last week the Cyprus Mail published an article by Cyprus-based lawyer Andreas Shialaros on how, as of July 1, cash can no longer be used to pay rent – supposedly to crack down on tax evasion. He argued that this can’t be seen in isolation, citing for example Greece where an omnibus bill before parliament requires every transaction of €500 or above to be settled electronically – and where the total value of the transaction matters rather than the individual receipts, to prevent splitting bills into small cash chunks to stay off the radar.
And at the EU level, the new Anti-Money-Laundering Regulation already foists a €10,000 cap on cash business transactions across the bloc from July 10, 2027, expressly permitting member states to set lower national limits. The European Digital Identity Wallet, meanwhile, is moving from large-scale pilots into deployment.
In follow-up commentary, Shialaros explained what the digital euro is, what it isn’t, and what it means for the average person.
The ECB meantime, cognizant of concerns about individual liberty and anonymity, insists the digital euro will not supplant, but complement cash.
“The ECB and the Eurosystem would not be able to identify who you are or what you are buying from the payment data we get,” their website says.
They aim to be ready for a potential first issuance of the digital euro during 2029, assuming the necessary EU legislation is adopted in 2026.
As for the Central Bank of Cyprus, it has this to say: “We are examining how to make our currency digital. The way people prefer to pay is changing and it is important for our currency to evolve in parallel. It would complement – not replace – cash.”
Shialaros goes back to basics, asking what kind of money is the digital euro, in law.
“The euros in a bank account are not central bank money,” he explained.
They’re a private liability of the commercial bank, redeemable on demand into central bank money in the form of cash. When a customer pays with a debit card, the bank’s promise is transferred from one private intermediary to another, with the card network and the payment processor in between, and the central bank sees the interbank settlement, not the individual retail transaction. The state can compel disclosure of those records by court order, but the architecture is decentralised across many private actors, none of whom has a complete view.
“The digital euro is something quite different. It is, like cash, a direct liability of the ECB – public money, not a bank’s promise. Unlike cash, it lives on infrastructure operated by the Eurosystem itself, with supervised payment service providers sitting between the user and the Eurosystem.
“The shift is that the issuer of the currency would, for the first time, be the operator of the rails on which retail payments run.”
Cash, in the form of euro banknotes, is what lawyers call a bearer instrument: whoever holds it owns it, and using it requires the consent of no third party. Under Article 128(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, euro banknotes are the only notes with the status of legal tender within the Union.
The proposed digital euro, though also a direct liability of the central bank, departs from cash in three respects that matter in law. It is an account, or a record on a settlement platform operated by the Eurosystem and accessed through supervised payment service providers.
Online, every transfer requires the cooperation of the system. Offline – meaning device-to-device – the transactions are designed to mimic cash, but only within identity-bound wallets and only up to capped amounts the holder does not choose.
The ECB has openly tested hypothetical holding caps of up to €3,000 per person, to prevent customers moving their balances out of commercial banks in a crisis.
“Cash,” stressed the lawyer, “has no holding cap, no identity-bound wallet, and no third party standing between the holder and the next transaction. A bearer instrument with a holding cap is, by definition, no longer a bearer instrument.”
The question is: how exactly will the digital euro be legally equivalent to cash, and in what respects will it not?
“‘Complement, not replace’ is a slogan suitable for a press release. It’s not an answer suitable for primary legislation,” Shialaros told us.
The proposed Digital Euro Regulation provides for a limited form of offline functionality intended to mimic the anonymity of cash, up to low transactional thresholds yet to be finalised.
Above those thresholds, every transaction will be tied to a verified identity through anti-money-laundering rules and, in due course, through the European Digital Identity Wallet.
“The right to make a small, lawful, anonymous payment is not a criminal concession. It’s a feature of any free society,” said the attorney.
“A democracy in which every coffee, every donation to a political party, every contribution to a church or a mosque, every payment to a lawyer in a sensitive matter is identified at the point of payment is a different kind of democracy from the one we have today.
It gets dicier: a digital currency that’s programmable wrests more control away from the individual.
Officials are careful to insist that the digital euro will not be programmable. They mean the holder will be free to spend it on whatever they wish.
“That’s a narrower assurance than it sounds, and it relies on the listener not noticing the difference between ‘is not’ and ‘cannot be’,” Shialaros pointed out.
“A programmable infrastructure that is not programmed today can be programmed tomorrow by amending the rulebook, and the ECB has openly confirmed that such a rulebook is under active development.”
The ECB has been careful to distinguish ‘programmable money,’ which it disclaims, from ‘conditional payments,’ which it does not. The current draft of the Digital Euro Regulation reflects that distinction: programmable money, in the sense of money whose use is limited by the issuer to specific goods, services, time periods or geographical areas, is to be prohibited; conditional payments, that is, automated payments instructed by the user when pre-defined conditions are met, are to be permitted.
So far, so reassuring, the lawyer remarked. But the protection is only as good as the final text agreed. The Commission’s proposal of June 2023 has not been enacted, and the boundary it draws between ‘programmable’ and ‘conditional’ is technical, narrow, and amendable.
Second, the rulebook sitting beneath the regulation is being drafted by the ECB-coordinated Rulebook Development Group.
Third, the hypothetical holding caps of up to €3,000 per person that the ECB has been asked to test are themselves a feature that cash does not have, and that the ECB has openly defended on financial-stability grounds.
The question isn’t whether officials currently intend the digital euro to behave like a programmable instrument. It is what, in binding legal form, prevents it from ever doing so, and what democratic process would be required to remove that protection.
Here, one need only recall China’s social credit system.
“Capabilities, once built into national infrastructure, do not stay unused merely because their builders said they would,” Shialaros observed.
He doesn’t contest that the trajectory toward digital and centralised money has a “respectable” public-policy rationale: tax compliance, fighting the shadow economy, modernisation.
“What I dispute is the picture presented to the public, in which the digital euro is a discrete, neutral, sovereignty-enhancing technical project. It is nothing of the kind. It is the keystone of an architecture whose other stones are already being laid: identity in the wallet, payment in the system, cash progressively restricted by category and by amount.
“When that architecture is complete, the question of whether the digital euro is ‘voluntary’ will answer itself. It will be voluntary in the same sense that having a bank account is voluntary today: you may decline, and you may keep your savings under the mattress, provided your landlord, your employer, your utility company and the tax authority are willing to work around your eccentricity. They will not be.”
Shialaros said he doesn’t oppose the digital euro outright. His take is that Cyprus, a small member state that has historically been a price-taker on EU financial regulation, should approach the closing stages of this legislative process “with its eyes open and its conditions clear”.
Cyprus should insist on a number of points.
First, an unambiguous statutory guarantee that euro banknotes and coins will retain their status as legal tender, with mandatory acceptance by payees subject only to limited and proportional exceptions.
Second, a meaningful threshold for offline, identity-free use of the digital euro, set high enough to preserve the everyday function that cash performs today, and entrenched in the Regulation itself rather than left to a Commission implementing act.
Third, a binding prohibition on programmable features, expiry, geofencing, conditional release, negative interest on retail balances, removable only by an explicit act of the European Parliament.
Fourth, clarity from the Central Bank of Cyprus, in advance of the Governing Council’s eventual design decisions, on the position the Governor will take on holding limits, on the offline anonymity threshold, and on the privacy architecture, all of which the Regulation will partly delegate to the ECB and partly to the Commission.
Fifth, a public national review of how the pieces of this architecture interact in the life of an ordinary Cypriot household.
Police have arrested a third suspect in connection with a drug case involving the seizure of opioid narcotics in Limassol.
According to the police, the 22-year-old man was wanted in relation to the case and was arrested on Sunday under an outstanding court warrant.
The arrest follows the earlier arrest and subsequent remand of two other suspects, aged 23 and 21.
During checks carried out after his arrest, police established that the 22-year-old was residing illegally in the Republic and he was subsequently rearrested for the offence of unlawful stay.
On Friday afternoon, the 23-year-old suspect was stopped by the police while walking along a street in Limassol. A search of his bag uncovered two nylon packages containing dried poppy pods with a total gross weight of 418 grams.
Officers subsequently searched the suspect’s home, where they found the 21-year-old and a cardboard box containing eight nylon packages of dried poppy pods with a total gross weight of 1.682 kilograms.
Both men were arrested and later brought before the Limassol district court, which ordered their detention for eight days.
Police arrested five people for a range of offences during overnight operations carried out across Cyprus.
According to the police, the arrests related to offences including drug possession, traffic violations and illegal residence in the Republic.
Police stopped 698 vehicles and carried out checks on 985 drivers and passengers.
Traffic enforcement operations led to 301 citations for various violations, including 90 cases of speeding.
A total of 460 breathalyser tests were carried out, with 37 drivers returning positive results. Police also conducted 11 preliminary roadside drug tests, five of which returned positive.
Twenty-six vehicles were impounded as part of the investigations.
Police also conducted inspections at 55 premises, resulting in nine reports.
A wildfire that broke out between the villages of Alaminos and Kofinou on Saturday burned six hectares of dry vegetation and hay bales with firefighters remaining on alert overnight.
On Sunday, fire service spokesman Andreas Kettis said the blaze erupted at around 2.45pm and affected fields, wild vegetation and scattered hay bales.
Because of the large number of hay bales involved, firefighting crews remained at the scene throughout the night due to the risk of flare-ups, he said.
The response involved four fire engines from the fire service, three fire engines from the forestry department, a vehicle from the game and fauna service, seven tractors and two excavators.
Separately, he said the fire service responded to 34 incidents over the previous 24 hours, including 18 fires, 14 special assistance calls and two false alarms.
Providing the weekly roundup, Kettis said the service attended a total of 248 incidents, including 79 urban fires, 40 countryside fires, 28 rescue operations, two road traffic collisions, 83 public assistance calls and 16 false alarms.
The day will be mostly clear, although increased cloud cover is forecast to develop during the afternoon, bringing the possibility of isolated showers and perhaps a thunderstorm, mainly in mountainous areas.
Temperatures are expected to rise to 35C inland, 29C on the west coast, around 32C in other coastal areas and 23C in the mountains.
Conditions will remain mostly clear overnight.
Temperatures will fall to 19C inland, around 21C on the coast and 15C in the higher mountains.
Looking ahead, Monday and Tuesday are expected to be mostly clear, although increased cloud cover is likely to develop during the afternoon, bringing isolated showers and thunderstorms, mainly over inland areas and the mountains.
If we do something like
buff := “cool”
buff := “super”
We get error from lsp that no new variable on left side and i think go compiler will also complain
But in many documentations i have seen and i myself in production code written
myVal,err := myfunc()
data,err := notBad()
As u see err is defined twice and we should get error that no new variable on left side but we dont get it and go also compiles it
But as u see err variable is defined twice
So is this legal and why and how ??
After years of fighting Jira and Linear while working from the terminal, I decided to just build the tool I actually wanted.
SprintOS is a TUI-first project manager: sprints, kanban, time tracking, standups, GitHub sync, and an MCP server so Claude can literally manage your board for you.
Built with Go + Bubble Tea. happy to talk about the architecture if anyone's curious.
It's open source (MIT), self-hostable, and free.
Would love your feedback guys.
For image uploading on server they are mainly two market players ig one of them is cloudinary, and it is good and have many features like image resizing and much more and working with image uploading becomes so easy but it is expensive if you want to do it on a scale, i have homelab so instead of paying to cloudinary is there a way to run cloudinary like thingyy locally like i can run mongo and postres locally on my homelab so that i dont have to pay, it works for me to save bills .
So how to run cloudinary locally on my homelab, do u know any alternatives which have cloudinary like features to run locally??
Hello,
I am building a new product and need to have a robust queue system but I'm not sure what product to choose.
I've worked in Amazon before and usually AWS tools are the default go-to but in my own time for small project I've used things like: https://github.com/hibiken/asynq for basic tasks.
My concern with the above is that it's still in "early" development; from their README:
```
Status: The library relatively stable and is currently undergoing moderate development with less frequent breaking API changes.
☝️ Important Note: Current major version is zero (v0.x.x) to accommodate rapid development and fast iteration while getting early feedback from users (feedback on APIs are appreciated!). The public API could change without a major version update before v1.0.0 release.
```
I'm building something right now that will require something very robust; scheduling, long running workflows with several external dependencies (which may have failure and need retries and notifications, webhooks, etc)
Ideally I want to use the same tool for everything; so that would also include basic things like fan-out (like user singed-up: fan out to email service to queue welcome sequence, notify another service, make api request to another dependency, etc.)
There are so many too choose from: NATS, RabbitMQ, Asynq, AWS tools, Google Pub/Sub, etc.
There are so many options and I'm always very excited to explore tools but I need to pick one and us that across entire project for everything; since it won't be just me and having one interface/tool to learn reduces cognitive load.
What do you use normally and why?
I have a string that will look something like this "https://example.com/1234/5678"
I will only want to extract the two integers, ideally in two different variables, how do I do it?
Hey everyone, I'm learning the repository pattern in Go and need help with scaling.
I've been studying the repository pattern through blogs and articles, but most examples only show a single service and repository. Here's a typical example:
package repository import ( `"context"` `"github.com/......./blog/internal/models"` ) type AuthRepository interface { `GetByEmail(ctx context.Context, email string) *models.User` } // //*************************************************************** // package services import ( `"context"` `"github.com/........../blog/internal/repository"` ) type AuthServices struct { `repo repository.AuthRepository` } func NewAuthServices(repo repository.AuthRepository) *AuthServices { `return &AuthServices{repo: repo}` } func (s *AuthServices) Login() { `ctx := context.Background()` `s.repo.GetByEmail(ctx, "rainbow123@gmai.com")` } // //************************************************************** // package handler import ( `"net/http"` `"github.com/.........../blog/internal/services"` ) type AuthHandler struct { `AuthServices *services.AuthServices` } func NewAuthHandler(services *services.AuthServices) *AuthHandler { `return &AuthHandler{AuthServices: services}` } func (h *AuthHandler) Login(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) { } // //**************************************************************** // package routes import ( `"net/http"` `"github.com/........../blog/internal/handler"` ) func NewRoutes(handler *handler.AuthHandler) http.Handler { `mux := http.NewServeMux()` `mux.HandleFunc("/login", handler.Login)` `return mux` } // //************************************************************* // func main(){ `cfg, err := config.Load()` `if err != nil {` `logger.Error("config error", "message", err.Error())` `os.Exit(1)` `}` `ctx := context.Background()` `dbPool, err := LoadDb(ctx, cfg)` `if err != nil {` `logger.Error("database pool error ", "message", err.Error())` `os.Exit(1)` `}` `defer dbPool.Close()` `storage := storage.NewUserStorage(dbPool)` `services := services.NewUserServices(storage)` `handler := handler.NewUserHandler(services)` `server := &http.Server{Addr: fmt.Sprintf(":%d", cfg.Port), Handler: routes.NewRoutes(handler)}` `if err := server.ListenAndServe(); err != nil {` `logger.Error(err.Error())` `}` } This pattern works fine for one repository, service, and storage layer. However, I'm struggling to understand how to properly implement this pattern when I have many services, repositories, and storage layers.
How do experienced Go developers handle multiple repositories and services? What's the best way to structure and wire everything together?
English isn't my first language, so I appreciate any feedback!