Sunday, June 28, 2026
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| Summary | ⛅️ Clear until afternoon, returning in the evening. |
|---|---|
| Temperature Range | 22°C to 29°C (72°F to 85°F) |
| Feels Like | Low: 77°F | High: 100°F |
| Humidity | 74% |
| Wind | 10 km/h (6 mph), Direction: 193° |
| Precipitation | Probability: 24%, Type: No precipitation expected |
| Sunrise / Sunset | 🌅 05:37 AM / 🌇 08:04 PM |
| Moon Phase | Waxing Gibbous (46%) |
| Cloud Cover | 10% |
| Pressure | 1010.57 hPa |
| Dew Point | 70.56°F |
| Visibility | 6.31 miles |
Barring this year’s heavy rainfall, coming in the nick of time as the reservoirs were about to empty out, droughts in Cyprus are becoming increasingly frequent, making reliance on desalination all but a fait accompli. Desalination facilities have sprung up all over the place, with plans for even more. Inevitably, there’s been some pushback from local communities.
Earlier in the week, the community council of Mazotos called on the president to step in and order a rethink of plans for a mobile desalination unit in the area, citing environmental and archaeological concerns.
The planned unit at Mazotos will be a mobile/temporary one, with a capacity of 20,000 cubic metres of water a day – expandable to 40,000 m3.
Residents say the size speaks to a facility that can’t be described as temporary or easily relocatable. Here they may have a point, given that the biggest desalination plants in Cyprus – the permanent ones – have an output of 60,000 m3 a day.
Wary they’ll get stuck with the plant for the foreseeable future, they’re mobilising to nip the project in the bud.
What’s the difference between a permanent and a mobile/temporary desalination unit? According to the working definition of the Water Development Department (WDD), permanent means “a large, fixed facility built to provide a long-term, reliable water supply for cities or regions, with high output and infrastructure designed to operate for decades.
“By contrast, a mobile or temporary desalination unit is a smaller, portable system that can be quickly deployed to address short-term needs – such as droughts, emergencies, or remote locations – offering flexibility and speed but at a lower capacity and higher cost per unit of water.”
For Mazotos, the government has got its ducks in a row – securing the environmental studies, requesting expropriations, such as for the access roads leading to the facility, and initiating the tenders’ process. Officially, the aim is to have the facility up and running by the summer of 2027.
But the local community council has challenged the cabinet’s decision. The matter will be decided at the administrative court.
The Cyprus Mail reached out to the WDD for an overview of the use of desalination. It turns out that authorities are going for it full-steam ahead.
Cyprus has five permanent desalination plants: Dhekelia (60,000 m3/day), Larnaca (60,000 m3/day), Vasilikos (60,000 m3/day), Limassol (40,000 m3/day) and Paphos (15,000 m3/day) – with a nominal capacity of 235,000 m3/day.
In addition, three mobile units are currently in operation: Moni (15,000 m3/day), Kissonerga (12,000 m3/day) and Limassol port (10,000 m3/day). These give an additional capacity of 37,000 m3/day.
We asked how much of our water needs get covered by desalination. The WDD said it varies from year to year: for 2024 and 2025 it clocked in at 67 per cent and 64 per cent of the water consumed, respectively.
In “extreme drought years” it can go up 76 per cent.
As to the financial cost of the plants, again this varies year to year, depending on the amount of water ordered from the operators. In 2024 the cost was €118 million.
The annual average of power consumption of the permanent plants comes to around 187 gigawatt-hours – corresponding to 4.2 per cent of the country’s produced electricity.
We also queried the WDD as to whether any of the facilities use energy generated from renewables. They do not.
“However, there are efforts to install photovoltaics for the needs of the Larnaca plant as well establishing agreements with energy producers from renewable sources to power the plants in the future. Additionally, the four new permanent plants planned for operation in 2029 in east Limassol, Ayia Napa, Chrysochous and the New Dhekelia plant, will make use of renewables,” the WDD said.
Beyond the three mobile plants in Kissonerga, Moni and Limassol port, and the one planned for Mazotos, another facility at Garyllis (Limassol district) will soon be coming online.
Michalis Michael, senior executive engineer at the WDD, earlier told media that the Garyllis unit is currently in its testing/commissioning phase.
Unlike the other units which draw from the sea, the 10,000 m3 facility at Garyllis will tap brackish water from an underground aquifer. This requires a different process, and once authorities are satisfied with the quality of the water, they’ll give the green light for commercial operation.
Incidentally, regarding the mobile desalination units donated by the United Arab Emirates last year, these have been incorporated into the facility at Moni.
Irrigation gets taken care of from water from the reservoirs, plus some treated wastewater. Desalination is for domestic use; however, most people don’t drink from the house tap.
But will all these projects be enough to tackle what’s been dubbed the ‘water stress’ – a situation where the demand for safe, usable water exceeds the available supply during a specific period?
The government says it’s taking steps to always ensure adequate supply, given the unpredictable weather: in 2017 the reservoirs ran low; in 2019 the rains returned; in 2021 the dams overflowed; 2023 saw the return of the drought; and 2025 marked the eighth worst hydrological year since 1901.
In a recent article of hers published in the media, Agriculture Minister Maria Panayiotou asserted that they aim to cover “100 per cent of our water needs by the year 2050”. It’s a bold statement.
But hydrologist Giorgos Christodoulou strongly contests the notion that desalination alone is a permanent solution.
“We’re a small country with limited natural resources,” he said. “It’s not just climate change and less rainfall; the population is growing at a logarithmic rate, particularly in Limassol and Paphos, while big construction developments – with swimming pools, jacuzzi etc – take up a great deal of water.”
What’s needed, the expert stressed, is a recalibration of the economic model at large, making it more sustainable.
Moreover, there’s the impact on marine environments: desalination produces brine which, among others, wreaks havoc on sea weed. Transitioning from conventional fuel-powered facilities to ones using solar energy would still cause pollution.
President Nikos Christodoulides is due to meet former British prime minister Sir Tony Blair on Monday, amid renewed diplomatic efforts concerning the future governance and reconstruction of Gaza.
The presidency announced the meeting on Friday but did not provide further details on the agenda. Blair is on the board of the Gaza Board of Peace initiative, which is expected to hold meetings in Cyprus on June 30 and July 1.
Government officials have repeatedly stressed that Cyprus is not organising or co-organising the meetings and participates only in discussions relating to proposals for Gaza’s future administration and reconstruction.
Cyprus foreign ministry spokesman told the Cyprus Mail on Saturday that Cyprus is only involved “in the proposals concerning the plan for Gaza, which arise from the decisions of the United Nations Security Council and Resolution 2803”.
The Cypriot proposal is structured around six operational pillars and builds on the experience gained from the “Amalthea” initiative, (Cyprus initiative for a sea humanitarian aid corridor to Gaza) which operates through a bilateral security mechanism in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
The discussions come as international attention returns to Gaza following recent regional tensions. In a joint statement issued on Thursday after a ministerial meeting between the United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the “historic participation” of Gulf states in the Board of Peace and reaffirmed support for President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2803.
It remains unclear whether the main executive body of the Board of Peace, chaired by US President Donald Trump, will participate directly, or whether the meetings will instead involve the Gaza Executive Council and the National Committee for Gaza Administration (NCAG), the Palestinian technocratic body established as part of the post-war governance framework.
However according to the Turkish news blog Yetkin Report, the discussions are expected to involve Blair and the High Representative for Gaza, former UN special coordinator Nikolay Mladenov, or representatives from their respective offices.
The publication also reported that Israeli businessman Yakir Gabay, who participates in the wider Gaza governance framework, or one of his representatives, could travel to Cyprus for meetings with Palestinian officials.
While no official confirmation has been issued regarding Israeli participation, the possibility of direct contacts between Israeli and Palestinian representatives would add further significance to the meetings being hosted on the island.
The Yetkin Report suggested that Cyprus was selected partly because of its logistical advantages and air connectivity, particularly for participants travelling from Israel and elsewhere in the region as Cyprus and Greece remain among the few countries in the eastern Mediterranean capable of facilitating such high-level regional contacts with relative ease.
The meetings have attracted particular attention in Turkey, which has confirmed it will not participate. Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli told the publication that the gathering in Cyprus should be viewed as a technical coordination meeting rather than a formal session of the broader Gaza Board of Peace framework.
The timing of the Cyprus meetings is also notable, coming shortly before a Nato summit due to be held in Turkey next month, where regional security issues, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, developments in Iran and security in the eastern Mediterranean, are expected to feature prominently.
Blair, who has played various diplomatic and advisory roles in the Middle East over the past two decades, has been linked to the broader Board of Peace initiative established under the UN-backed framework for post-conflict governance in Gaza.
Voters in Aglandjia will head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new deputy mayor following the resignation of Andreas Constantinou, who won a seat in parliament with Disy in the May 24 parliamentary elections.
Two independent candidates are contesting the post: Prokopis Prokopiou and Andri Hadjiandreou.
Polling stations will open at 7am and remain open until noon, before closing for a one-hour break and reopening at 1pm. Voting will conclude at 6pm.
A total of 15,182 voters are registered to cast their ballots, including 167 EU citizens and 23 displaced voters.
Twenty-six polling stations will operate across six schools in Aglandjia. These include five polling stations at Aglandjia’s First Primary School, four at the Third Primary School, five at the Fourth Primary School, five at the Fifth Primary School, four at the Sixth Primary School and three at Archbishop Makarios III Gymnasium (Platy).
The largest polling station, located at the First Primary School, has 651 registered voters, while the smallest, at the Fifth Primary School, has 517.
Voters can check their designated polling station through the “Where Do I Vote” service available on the elections website.
A telephone information service will also operate throughout election day from 7am to 6pm through the office of the returning officer on 22-804340.
The result of the by-election is expected to be announced at around 8.30pm on Sunday.
A wildfire that broke out in the Trachoni area of Limassol on Saturday afternoon has been brought under control after firefighting forces, assisted by British bases personnel, worked to prevent the flames from reaching nearby homes.
According to fire service spokesman Andreas Kettis, firefighters managed to protect a number of homes and a livestock unit containing various animals as the blaze spread through dry grass and wild vegetation within a residential area.
Three residents required medical assistance after attempting to protect their properties using garden hoses. Two people suffered minor burns to their hands, while a third experienced respiratory problems. An ambulance was called to the scene to provide treatment.
Kettis said the fire burned approximately three hectares of dry grass, wild vegetation, manure piles, discarded materials, rubbish, wooden pallets and an abandoned enclosure.
“No homes or operational premises suffered damage,” he said, adding that one abandoned livestock structure was destroyed.
The firefighting operation involved three fully staffed fire engines from the Cyprus Fire Service, three fire engines from the British bases, two excavators and a portable firefighting unit from Kourion municipality, as well as volunteers from the Atlas and Blue Heart groups. Two firefighting aircraft also participated in the operation.
Earlier, Kettis said initial indications suggested that the fire may have started after a lorry came into contact with overhead electricity cables belonging to the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC).
The circumstances surrounding the outbreak of the fire are being investigated by the SBA police.
A 22-year-old man was arrested on Friday by the drug squad (Ykan) as part of an ongoing investigation into the importation of a large quantity of dried poppy bulbs discovered in postal packages in the Famagusta district.
In a statement issued on Saturday, police said the arrest relates to the seizure of dried poppy bulbs with a total weight of 6.05 kilogrammes.
The dried poppy bulbs were found in postal parcels and subsequently confiscated by officers from Ykan operating in the Famagusta district, the statement said.
Police noted that two other suspects, aged 35 and 30, had already been arrested in connection with the same case on June 25.
The three suspects appeared before the Famagusta district court on Friday, which ordered that they remain in custody for seven days to facilitate police investigations.
The Famagusta district branch of Ykan is continuing its investigations into the case
Meanwhile record cocaine seizures and the emergence of powerful new synthetic drugs have prompted concern among Cyprus police, who warned that criminal networks are rapidly adapting their methods and introducing increasingly dangerous substances to the local market.
Police said they had already seized more than 75kg of cocaine this year, surpassing the total amount confiscated during the whole of 2025 by 130 per cent, alongside sharp increases in methamphetamine seizures and the appearance of several synthetic drugs not previously encountered in such quantities in Cyprus.
The agriculture ministry has confirmed that it has received a new request for additional financial support from the Union of Sheep and Goat Producers’ Groups and said the matter will be assessed by the competent authorities under the existing legal framework.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the agriculture ministry said it understood the difficulties faced by sheep and goat farmers as a result of restrictive measures introduced to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease and remained in close contact with the sector.
The ministry said the government had recognised from the outset the importance of sheep and goat farming to both the primary sector and the wider Cypriot economy.
“For this reason, substantial support has already been provided to the sector through increased subsidies, while almost 50 per cent of the major investment programme, worth around €30 million, concerns investments in sheep and goat farming,” the statement said.
It added that compensation payments to livestock farmers affected by foot-and-mouth disease had already been approved and were being paid as part of measures adopted to support the sector.
Regarding the producers’ latest request for additional financial assistance, the ministry said it would be examined by the relevant services “on the basis of the existing institutional framework and taking into account the needs of the sector”.
Meanwhile, authorities are also considering possible relaxations of some of the restrictions currently in force due to foot-and-mouth disease.
Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) on Saturday, president of the Cyprus Veterinary Association and member of the epidemiological team Dimitris Epaminondas said discussions had taken place on Friday with agricultural organisations regarding requests from livestock groups for the easing of certain measures, taking into account the current epidemiological situation.
He said the issues raised would be finalised next week, making it “most likely” that a new decree would be issued either during the coming week or, if this proved impossible, the following week.
He also said that nationwide surveillance sampling for foot-and-mouth disease had begun.
According to Epaminondas, the first test results from Limassol and Nicosia were negative, while results from the remaining districts are still pending after samples were sent to laboratories for analysis.
Asked about factors affecting the survival and transmission of the virus, Epaminondas said that the high temperatures and ultraviolet radiation typical of this time of year were not conducive to the virus’ survival, reducing the likelihood of transmission.
So far an astounding 80,000 animals have been culled, and it’s taken a heavy toil on both farmers and vets.
A trilingual commemorative album documenting the history and legacy of the Melkonian Educational Institute was officially presented at the Presidential Palace last week, in an event celebrating the memory, education and cultural heritage of Cyprus’ Armenian community.
The publication, released by the Press and Information Office (PIO) in Greek, Armenian and English, was co-organised by the education ministry and the office of the Armenian religious representative in parliament.
The nearly 400-page volume traces the 79-year history of the Melkonian Educational Institute, from its establishment in 1926 by philanthropist brothers Krikor and Garabed Melkonian as a refuge for orphans who survived the Armenian genocide, through its evolution into one of the world’s leading educational centres for the Armenian diaspora, until its closure in 2004.
Addressing the event, Education Minister Athena Michaelidou described the publication, which is illustrated with historic photos, as “an act of historical and moral duty” towards the Armenian people, their history and culture.
She said the Melkonian Institute represented a living testament to the Armenian community’s efforts to preserve its identity, language and cultural heritage, while also serving as a unique educational institution with international reach.
“The Melkonian is not only an educational institution with historical significance for the Armenian community, but also a living part of Cyprus’ own reality,” she said, adding that it reflected the deep ties of friendship and cooperation between Cypriots and Armenians, as well as the Armenian community’s longstanding contribution to the island.
PIO director Aliki Stylianou said the publication represented more than another government publication and was instead “an act of memory and honour”.
“The Melkonian was not simply a place of education,” she said. “It was a place where the traumatic experience of displacement was transformed into a force for hospitality and creation.”
The 1929-1930 school year teachers and male students. In the middle is headmaster Krikor Guiragossian
She noted that the institute was founded at a time when thousands of survivors of the Armenian genocide were seeking safety and a new beginning, adding that the decision by the Melkonian brothers to establish the institution in Cyprus reflected the island’s long history as a place of coexistence, refuge and hope.
Armenian representative in parliament Vartkes Mahdessian described the publication as the culmination of a collective effort to document, in three languages, the history of one of the most important educational institutions of the Armenian community in Cyprus.
He recalled that the Melkonian Institute had been founded nearly a century ago to provide shelter and education to Armenian genocide orphans and had gone on to become a pan-Armenian centre of education and culture, playing a vital role in preserving Armenian language, history and identity.
Mahdessian also revealed that work on the commemorative volume began in March 2021, involving a five-member editorial committee, with contributions from former students, graduates and friends of the institute.
He said that while the educational mission of the Melkonian Institute had been interrupted by its closure in 2005, its memory and legacy remained alive, expressing hope that the institution might one day reopen and continue the mission envisioned by its founders.
The event also featured a presentation of the commemorative album by education inspector Antonia Loizou, who headed the editorial team, followed by a cultural programme including performances by the Surp Asdvadzadzin Youth Choir and the Sipan dance group of the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society.
To view the publication go here
I started reading Matthew Philip Long’s debut novella a couple of months after my mother passed away. And I had to stop. Set in Cyprus, Life Goes on Without You and Me follows a man returning to the island of his birth after his mother’s death, searching for traces of her in the land she once loved. Grief, memory, belonging – he writes about all of it with a rare eloquence that left me breathless, capturing what none of us can escape: loss.
“There was never any intention for anyone else to read it,” says Long sitting in the heart of Nicosia, a town he now calls home. “It started off as diary entries when I started traveling back and forth to Cyprus a couple years after my mum died. I decided to try and find something of her to kind of cling on to; I brought a camera with me and some notebooks, and started making journal entries about feelings”.
There’s no doubt that Long’s words are written from experience. And a need to understand. That’s what makes it so poignant. The rhythm, the word choice, the humility toward such a difficult and multilayered subject, the respect for the emotions it stirs, a love for the island – it comes together into something truly all-encompassing.
“I finished writing the book about 18 months ago. Now I’m just trying to get back into the mindset of it again,” admits Long. The book will be launched on June 26. As we swap notes I understand what he means by getting back into the mindset. There seems to have been so much growth, so much reflection, so much change that took place as he wrote these pages. Having to talk about this as he launches his novel is not easy.
“This book was about trying to understand my own grief, and also to create a language for it. I don’t think I had the tools to speak about grief openly and that’s what the diary entries were for, and that’s what this became. It became creating my own language to understand grief and the loss of what my mother meant to me, what Cyprus and the role it played in her life meant to both of us,” he adds.
Long was born in Ayios Nikolaos, Dhekelia, one of the island’s British military bases. “My dad was a British soldier here, and my mom moved here with him from the UK. I was a child of a military family,” he explains. Although the family only spent a couple of years on the island, his mother’s experience here and adoration for the island was evident throughout his childhood. “I have no (personal) memories of Cyprus. But what I do have, and I guess where the desire to find a connection with the island came from, is its memories lived through another; my mom used to talk to me about Cyprus all the time and in such a loving way. It was a happy time in her life, which was an anomaly in a lot of my mom’s life, so it really stuck with me. I remember so many times when I was younger, rather than reading a bedtime story, she would bring out photo albums and show me photos of me growing up here, or you know, me, her and dad in Cyprus, and the first years we spent together.”
Thirty years later, her death urged him to come back. “It started off as more of a photo project, I came with a bunch of the photos from the albums, and I was using a camera to try and recreate those images, those memories, desperately trying to make those memories mine; something tangible rather than something that was I was losing, but the writing just took over. The more I wrote, the more I found some healing in that form of expression, and started thinking that this is something that other people might connect with, or might resonate with.”
Long has managed to create a beautiful language of grief. “We found out that she was terminally ill, and she died three weeks later. It all happened very quickly… there wasn’t enough time, not that there’s ever enough time with these things, my life transformed overnight, and I think that’s another part of the book; it’s also about that thing that people don’t really talk about. When someone dies, you’re also mourning for a part of you that you’ve lost; mourning for when before my mom got sick, that version of me no longer exists, he’s gone. Different things can never be the same again, so it’s also about trying to grieve that part of myself, and to say goodbye, and acknowledge that I’m now moving on to a completely different stage in my life, when you’re confronted with the death of a parent, a loved one, things can never go back to how they were.”
And that’s perhaps the crunch of the story. Long didn’t really find what he was looking for in Cyprus. But what he did find is himself. “The end of the book is the realisation that I was desperately clinging to something that doesn’t belong to me, and I needed to let that go. I would say that the connection to Cyprus is essential to the book, but it could have been anywhere. A huge part of the process was research and just reading as much as I could about Cypriot history and particularly British colonial history here,” says Long.
The book also explores how the landscapes we inherit shape the lives we continue after loss. “(British colonial history) became tied to my journey, not only reclaiming memories, trying to find connection, understanding home, and belonging in a country, but a place that has been so scarred by colonial history, and I was born here because of colonialism and colonial legacy. You can read everything you want about colonial history, but to see a physical embodiment of what that means is still quite a challenge for me,” he adds. “But the longer the journey went on, the more I looked, opened my eyes, and discovered and talked to people here, the more it helped with an understanding and acceptance of what it means to be British here. Part of it was also trying to understand, or trying to come to terms with the fact that again, I was searching, and how I was using grief to find a home, belonging, and a connection that can never happen. I’m not Cypriot, I have no ties or connection to this island.”
Yet today, Long calls Nicosia home; it’s now where he lives. “Before you can make something home, there has to be an internal truth and reconciliation process: this is what we (British) did here, this is the legacy that is still ongoing, especially in the last five-six months with the role of the British bases here, and how active that has been in the region. It’s about allowing myself to embrace all parts of it, but also to acknowledge that even the idea of trying to find belonging in a land that doesn’t belong to me is also a colonial attitude.”
But Cyprus feels like home. “I’m still an outsider, and always will be an outsider here, but I love Cyprus. I love the feelings it’s given me. I had such an incredible experience here, and one that belongs to me, and it felt right to actually just make this place my home. Cyprus is very much a part of who I am now.”
As we part, we touch upon the art of writing, how it is a means to understand the world we live in and ourselves. “Writing is, or should be, when done honestly, about being a witness, taking a step back rather than trying to solve problems, I didn’t want to write some kind of definitive book or manual on grief. I wanted it to represent a process. The intention was for it to be meditations, reflections on grief, but also a love letter to Cyprus and to the country, while being as respectful as possible.”
Although the novella follows a man returning to the island of his birth after his mother’s death, the place he finds is not the one she once described. Divided by history and silence, the landscape becomes a mirror of his grief in this moving work on the search for belonging.
Life Goes on Without You and Me, published by Armida Books, will be available from June 26 on Amazon, online, and local bookstores in paperback and ebook formats. Book presentations by the author are due to follow in October
New allegations published by Saudi media have placed the north of Cyprus under scrutiny over claims that it has been used as a transit and operational hub by networks linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, involving alleged educational fraud, forged documents and the movement of Islamist fugitives.
According to reports published on Saturday by Saudi broadcasters Al Arabiya and its sister network Al Hadath, authorities in the north have deported a senior figure linked to the Muslim Brotherhood who was allegedly active in Turkey and served as the office director of a prominent leader associated with the Salah Abdel Haq faction of the organisation.
Salah Abdel Haq, an Egyptian physician and Islamist preacher born in Cairo in 1945, has since 2023 been regarded by one faction of the Muslim Brotherhood as its acting supreme guide. He is associated with the group’s so-called “London front”, also known as the Salah Abdel Haq wing.
According to the Saudi reports, the man deported from the north had established a network offering educational brokerage services targeting young people and prospective students seeking to study at universities in the north.
The reports allege that he collected large sums of money from students and their families by promising enrolment in four-year degree programmes. However, the students later discovered they had been registered for only one academic year, while the remaining funds had allegedly been misappropriated.
The same network is also alleged to have facilitated the movement of Muslim Brotherhood members who had been convicted or sentenced in Egypt.
According to the reports, the aim was to secure educational credentials or student status documentation from institutions in the north, which would then assist individuals in obtaining entry to Turkey.
The allegations further include claims of forged IELTS language certificates being sold for up to $5,000 each.
The reports also claim that the individual worked with another person to establish unlicensed and unrecognised educational institutions intended to gather young Muslim Brotherhood members in the north.
According to the Saudi media reports, the case highlights how the north can function as a grey zone for networks involved in illicit movement, fraud and political facilitation.
The reports place particular emphasis on the higher education sector in the north, arguing that it has, for years, become one of the main mechanisms for attracting foreign nationals, while operating under limited international oversight and with increased potential for abuse, including by extremist networks.
A request for emergency financial support due to the foot-and-mouth crisis has been made to the agriculture minister from groups representing sheep and goat producers.
In a letter to minister Maria Panayiotou on Saturday, the association representing the producers said it fully recognised the necessity of taking strict measures to protect public and animal health, however, it added that the measures “has imposed an unbearable financial burden on producers, who are called upon to bear alone the cost of an emergency health situation that directly affects the viability of their units”.
The letter referred to the impacts of restrictions on animal movements and the prolonged delay in the availability of lambs and kids on the market, as well as the reduction in their selling price, “an event that further worsens the economic position of producers”.
Producers report that even in the event of a possible lifting of the grazing restriction, the increased feed costs may be mitigated, but will not be fully addressed.
In their letter, they request the immediate granting of extraordinary financial aid for all dairy sheep and goats, in order to cover the increase in feeding costs as long as the restrictive measures are in place, and payment of compensation for lambs and kids that remain on farms due to restrictions on movement and trade.
They also call for a comprehensive economic study to record the real impacts of the measures on the sheep and goat farming sector, and the implementation of a permanent mechanism to support producers in cases of animal diseases and emergency health crises.
“Failure to support producers in a timely manner may lead to serious and irreversible consequences for the sector, with loss of income, abandonment of units and weakening of domestic production,” the association said.
Hotel bookings in Cyprus are gradually improving after months of disruption linked to the crisis in the Middle East, but the sector is still facing an average loss of around 20 per cent for the rest of the season, the president of the hotel managers association has said.
Christos Angelides said the wave of cancellations recorded over the past two to three months had now stopped, while the flow of bookings had improved in the immediate period and, gradually, for the rest of the season.
However, he told the Cyprus News Agency that bookings had not yet reached a level that could offset previous cancellations to secure a strong year.
He said hotels and tourism businesses were trying to reverse the decline through better prices and advertising, including offers aimed at the domestic market, at a time when air fares and accommodation costs in other destinations have also risen.
“Destinations which were previously considered cheaper than us no longer are,” he told CNA, adding that although travelling abroad remains attractive for many people, more Cypriots were expected to take their financial situation into account before deciding on holidays overseas.
Asked about flight cancellations and route changes by airlines, Angelides said these had indeed taken place, largely due to higher aviation fuel prices. But he was hopeful that, if regional tensions ease, fuel prices and air fares would fall, supporting a better autumn and possibly winter season.
He also said tourism from Israel had started to recover after falling to almost zero for around two to three months. Daily arrivals from Israel were improving and that even short two- or three-day stays would help Cyprus’ tourism recover.
Angelides said last-minute bookings were already helping and could continue to support the sector during the remainder of the season.
At the same time, he stressed that the quality of services must not be affected under any circumstances.
He said the sector had two main challenges: to manage the loss of hotel occupancy recorded in March, April and May, and to avoid undermining what Cyprus has built over the years “as a quality and pleasant destination”.
Angelides also called for a campaign from now until the end of 2027 to help Cyprus regain momentum in foreign markets and remove any doubts over the safety of the destination.
Police investigations are continuing into the death of a 12-month-old boy who died at Limassol general hospital, as authorities await the results of laboratory tests to determine the cause of death.
According to police, a post-mortem examination carried out on Friday did not establish the cause of the infant’s death. Samples were taken during the examination for histopathological and other laboratory analyses, the results of which are expected to shed light on what caused the child’s death.
Police are investigating a case of unnatural death and detectives continue to take statements in an effort to establish the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
The boy had reportedly been unwell in the days leading up to his death and was taken to Limassol general hospital on Thursday night, where he died despite efforts by medical staff to save him.
The funeral of the infant will take place at 10am on Saturday at the Archangel Michael church in Limassol. The child’s parents have requested that mourners attending the service wear white.
A 22-year-old man was arrested in Limassol on Friday as part of an investigation into the theft of a motorcycle and the unlawful possession of property, police said.
According to police, a motorcycle belonging to a 34-year-old man was stolen on Thursday afternoon, while it was parked at the owner’s residence in Limassol. Two electric tools were also reported stolen from the same location.
Shortly after 1pm on Friday, acting on information received, officers from Limassol’s criminal investigation department (CID) located the stolen motorcycle in a parking area of an apartment building in the city.
Police said that during searches of the surrounding area, they also found two electric tools inside a parked car which matched the description of the stolen items.
The owner of the vehicle, a 22-year-old man, was located and police carried out searches of both his car and his residence in Limassol in his presence.
During the searches, officers found various items, including a motorcycle without registration plates, from which the identifying serial numbers had allegedly been removed.
Police said the 22-year-old failed to provide satisfactory explanations regarding the possession of the items discovered in his vehicle and home and was subsequently arrested for the offence of unlawful possession of property.
Further evidence linking the suspect to the theft of the 34-year-old’s motorcycle later emerged, police said, leading to the issuance of a court warrant for his arrest. He was then formally arrested and remanded in custody.
Investigations by the Limassol CID are ongoing.
Eight people were arrested during targeted operations carried out across Cyprus overnight as part of a nationwide effort to prevent serious crime and maintain public order, police said on Saturday.
The eight arrests were made for a range of offences, including illegal employment, working as a private security guard without the required licence and various traffic-related offences.
During the overnight operations, officers stopped and inspected 621 vehicles and checked 952 occupants. Police also carried out inspections at 58 premises aimed at tackling unlawful activity, resulting in 14 reports of offences.
Traffic enforcement operations led to 392 reports for various traffic violations, while 14 cases involving suspected traffic offences remain under investigation. Police also impounded 11 vehicles as part of their investigations.
Among the most common traffic offences recorded were speeding violations, with 132 drivers reported for exceeding the speed limit.
Police also reported 31 cases of driving under the influence of alcohol and two suspected cases of driving under the influence of drugs, identified through preliminary drug tests.
A total of 213 drivers were subjected to alcohol tests, while six drivers underwent drug testing.
“The aim is to protect the public and safeguard public order,” the police said.
The Spanish production of Euripides’ The Trojan Women, directed by Carlota Ferrer, will open the 29th edition of the International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama next month.
Produced by Come y Calla Productions in collaboration with the Mérida International Classical Theatre Festival, The Trojan Women will be presented at Curium Ancient Theatre on July 3 and 4, inaugurating this year’s festival programme. Acclaimed actress Isabel Ordaz stars as Hecuba, leading a remarkable ensemble cast.
The ancient drama begins after the fall of Troy, when the women of the once-glorious city await the fate that the winners have for them: slavery, exile, violence. Amidst a landscape of ruin, the captive Trojan women and their queen, Hecuba, become bearers of a memory that refuses to fade. Pain leads not only to loss, but also to a silent resistance against oblivion.
The Spanish production, which premiered in 2025 at the Mérida International Classical Theatre Festival to critical and audience acclaim, transforms Euripides’ tragedy into a contemporary theatrical experience, where text coexists with physicality, music, movement and visual compositions. Through a dense web of symbolism, projections and soundscapes, the performance highlights the violence of war and its consequences on the bodies and lives of the defeated, particularly women, as the primary bearers of memory and trauma.
The Trojan Women by Euripides
Opening theatre performance of the 29th International Festival of Ancient Greek Drama. By the Spanish Come y Calla Productions in collaboration with the Mérida International Classical Theatre Festival. July 3-4. Ancient Curium Theatre, Limassol district. 9pm. €16. Tel: 7000-2414. www.greekdramafest.com
Temperatures will rise on Saturday to around 38C inland, 29C on the west and southwest coasts, and around 32C along the rest of the coastline. It will hit 28C in the mountains.
Low cloud and occasional mist will lift in the morning to bring mostly clear skies. Some cloud will develop in the mountains later on Saturday with the possibility of isolated rain.
The winds will initially be weak, 3 Beaufort, increasing on the southwest coast to moderate to strong, 4 to 5 Beaufort. The sea will be generally calm but will be slightly rough in the afternoon in the southwest.
Saturday night the weather will remain mainly clear, however, gradually increasing low cloud will form. Later and during the early hours, sparse fog or mist is expected to form in places, mainly in the east and inland. Temperatures will drop to around 22C inland, around 23C on the coast and around 19C in the mountains.
On Sunday, the weather in most areas of the island will be mainly clear with some cloud. In the afternoon, cloud in the mountains is expected to produce isolated rain.
On Monday the weather will be mainly clear, however locally increased cloudiness will be observed at times. On Tuesday the weather will be mainly clear with temperatures gradually increasing.
Right now I'm making a pet project, which is mostly a CRUD on the backend + a React frontend. Right now the backend is written in Java, which is comfortable to work with for me, but it's pretty resource-heavy. Around 500MB of RAM for it, on a 1GB VPS. Is rewriting to either Go or C# a good idea? If yes, what language of these should I choose?
/u/Personal_Pickler is sharing their OpenTamer app, an open source competitor to AppTamer. Written in Go :)! Current functionality includes the ability to monitor and limit CPU usage for applications and receive notifications for apps with high CPU usage.
At present, AppTamer still has more functionality. /u/Personal_Pickler is looking forward to continuing development on OpenTamer, but thought it was in a good place to share. Let them know if you have questions or requests!
Mod note: I screwed this one up; /u/Personal_Pickler posted this, I blocked it, then asked them to post it again and I'd push it through as it met the bar for a front-page post, then I blocked that one too accidentally. In the interests of not approving a post that is hours old I coordinated posting it directly with them so it would be fresh on /new.
Mea culpa. My apologies to /u/Personal_Pickler .
Hey guys,
I'm writing a Redis server clone in Go for learning.
The real redis is famously single-threaded and uses an event loop, but my current implementation just spins up a new goroutine for every new connection.
Is that a bad approach? Should I change it to be single-threaded with an event loop instead(idk how its done), or is the goroutine-per-connection way fine (or even better) in Go?
Would appreciate your guys' input!
Edit: I also need to make sure the memory being accessed is concurrent-safe in my current approach (not a problem), but I'm not sure how Redis does it. (avoiding race and all)