Sunday, August 9, 2026
0e64cf3e-543d-4b81-8b9f-d85f1b028f94
| Summary | ⛅️ Clear throughout the day. |
|---|---|
| Temperature Range | 23°C to 33°C (73°F to 91°F) |
| Feels Like | Low: 74°F | High: 100°F |
| Humidity | 54% |
| Wind | 13 km/h (8 mph), Direction: 266° |
| Precipitation | Probability: 0%, Type: No precipitation expected |
| Sunrise / Sunset | 🌅 06:03 AM / 🌇 07:42 PM |
| Moon Phase | Waning Crescent (87%) |
| Cloud Cover | 2% |
| Pressure | 1006.08 hPa |
| Dew Point | 65.46°F |
| Visibility | 6.19 miles |
The role of personal doctors has come under scrutiny as part of a recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report on our national health system (Gesy).
The report, titled ‘Strengthening primary health care and reducing overprovision of low-value specialist care: policy options for Cyprus’, was prepared by four experts – including academics from LSE and Brown University – for the WHO and the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies.
It’s wide-ranging, and quick to note the benefits that Gesy – introduced in 2019 – has brought to the island.
“The share of the population reporting unmet health care needs has declined,” it points out, “dropping from 1.4 per cent in 2018… to 0.1 per cent in 2022, well below the EU27 average of 2.2 per cent.”
When it comes to primary care, however – the lynchpin of the whole system – the function of personal doctors (GPs) isn’t working out as intended.
The approximately 800 GPs in Cyprus, each with a panel of patients (capped at 2,500), are supposed to act as a filter, streamlining services – but too often act as mere middlemen, funnelling patients to specialist doctors which is what many patients seem to want anyway.
“Patients who are used to direct access to OSs [specialists] often prefer to bypass personal doctors,” says the report, “perceiving them as bureaucratic gatekeepers rather than trusted providers of care…
“Additionally, cultural factors and perceptions of OSs as more capable or accessible than personal doctors further drive a preference for outpatient specialist service.”
At the moment, figures from the Cyprus Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) show that around 35 per cent of all visits to a personal doctor end with referral to a specialist. The equivalent figure for the NHS in Britain, for instance, is 8-12 per cent.
Clearly – though the report doesn’t say so – any system with such an imbalance at its core is heading for trouble, and potential collapse.
It remains to be seen if the report will lead to anything. Disy – which takes credit for making Gesy happen – said the WHO “affirms the success of Gesy, and exposes the government’s inertia with regard to next-day challenges”. The HIO, which runs the service, hailed the report, saying its recommendations are in line with the HIO’s own policies.
The report doesn’t just identify problems, it also proposes solutions. Some are long-term, like promoting multi-doctor practices instead of solo GPs. Others are short-term, representing “foundational reforms” which should happen before anything else does.
One big change being proposed has to do with how personal doctors are paid.
“Their remuneration, largely comprised of capitation fees, is paid primarily based on patient numbers, irrespective of the quality or quantity of care,” says the report – and proposes a blended model which would also include ‘fee for service’ (the actual care provided) and performance-based pay.
Personal doctors in Cyprus get 80 per cent of their income from capitation fees. The equivalent figure in Estonia – another small country – is about 50 per cent.
“In the legislation creating Gesy, the figure was 70-30,” Dr Mary Avraamidou, president of the Cyprus Association of Personal Doctors, told the Cyprus Mail. Once the service was up and running, initially it was 100 per cent capitation, and now, for the past few years, it’s been 80-20 – “but we’re not at all satisfied”.
The problem, she says, is that the HIO “are still unable to use real quality indicators” to calculate the performance-based part, the only exception being perhaps vaccination coverage (for the flu vaccine). Instead, they’ve done things like setting a cap on how many patients should be referred for X-rays and lab tests – a crude metric that also tends to penalise conscientious GPs.
The criterion should be “health outcomes,” says Avraamidou. “HIO should come and see, for instance – how many of my diabetics have A1C [average blood sugar] levels under seven?” How many patients had cholesterol levels successfully lowered? How many have been checked for atrial fibrillation, and prescribed coagulants to lower the risk of a stroke?
In short, doctors should be rewarded for being doctors. Yet, it seems, the infrastructure is still not in place, seven years later, to do the job properly.
When the health ministry sent her to Portugal, notes Avraamidou, to see how their version of Gesy works, their system was putting out automatic daily alerts “that this or that patient is diabetic, and six months have passed since their last check-up”.
Here, on the other hand, “right now the HIO software can’t even let me find, with a single click, who my diabetics are”, let alone what their needs are.
As for referrals, Avraamidou doesn’t dispute the 35 per cent figure, but notes that many of those referrals – actually, she claims, most of them – aren’t initiated by GPs themselves.
Instead, what often happens is that a patient – often a chronic patient, someone with myasthenia or rheumatoid arthritis – makes an appointment with their specialist, who then directs the patient to their GP to issue a referral. The GP never even gets to see the patient. Her own proposal, she says, is for such referrals to be marked down to the specialist (as long-term referrals), not ascribed to the personal doctor.
The report isn’t just about personal doctors. It also recommends, for instance, scrapping the so-called global budget for specialists (basically a lump sum, incentivising them to provide as many services as possible) and instead setting volume caps based on the population’s health needs – though, again, we’d first need to have better data, so as to calculate the population’s health needs.
Other proposals seem more minor. Tightening the criteria to become a personal doctor has already happened, more or less, after the initial free-for-all to make up the numbers.
Making it harder to change one’s personal doctor would be useful (as things stand, patients can threaten to leave if a GP is slow to provide referrals) but not too radical – though it does indicate that patients, not just doctors, need a change of mindset if Gesy is to survive.
In the end, the most important bit of the report may be ‘Policy option 7: Incorporating patient decision aids into personal doctor consultations’ – not for what it is, but for what it represents.
The proposal is simple, to incorporate special tools (often AI) that illustrate to patients what their options are, with the GP guiding them through the process – what Avraamidou calls “shared decision-making”.
This, in a nutshell, is the relationship of trust – putting the ‘personal’ in personal doctor – that Gesy is based on. Unless and until people start seeing their GPs as trusted partners, as opposed to bureaucratic appendages whose role is to sign bits of paper, it’s unlikely the system will change for the better.
Platres comes alive this summer with a plethora of events happening as crowds spend their August vacations in the green mountain village. At the peak of the holiday season, AgroFest returns for its sixth edition, bringing an outdoor cinema night and two evenings of mega parties this August 14, 15 and 16.
The event begins with an open-air cinema experience, which is said to be a concert-style production setup. A massive screen will be mounted at the Platres Arena to screen Interstellar under the star-filled sky. The space-related film also coincides with the Perseids Meteor Shower, which will happen in the night sky next week.
Doors to the cinema event open at 7pm as the ground also includes street food, cocktails and popcorn, while the film screening begins at 8pm.
On Saturday, August 15, the Urban Leggo party will fill the Platres Arena with reggaeton, R&B and dance music. DJs will take over the decks from 5pm, playing dance tunes. International DJ Val is set to perform alongside local DJs Deeze, Dazero, Englezos, Gosha, Veira and El Gato. Shisha stations, bars, street food and entertainment zones will operate throughout the fiesta.
The three-day event will wrap up with an epic Aspro Pato Greek Night party on August 16, bringing Greek hit songs to the mountains. For this event, Agro collaborates with Aspro Pato, bringing a celebration of Greek music, summer parties and unique experiences in rural Cyprus locations!
6th AgroFest
Outdoor cinema night screening Interstellar. August 14. 8pm. €15. Urban Leggo party with DJs playing reggaeton, R&B and dance music. 5pm. €25-30. Aspro Pato Greek Night party. August 16. 4pm. €20. Tel: 97-902609, 99-917160 www.agroescape.com
The Cyprus Greece passenger ferry service is secured through 2027, but the government will decide next year whether to continue subsidising the route from 2028, deputy shipping ministry director Kyriakos Aliouris said on Saturday.
Aliouris informed the Cyprus News Agency that the existing contract, which began in 2022 and was initially agreed for three years with an option for a further three, has been extended until 2027.
“Until next summer, the contractor is obliged to provide the services based on the terms of the contract,” he said.
“There is no issue at the moment,” Aliouris assured. “Next year the line will be operating normally, that is, the sea connection between Greece and Cyprus.”
The assurance follows comments from Scandro Holding Ltd chief executive Charalambos Manoli that the service cannot continue without renewed state support.
Manoli has warned that 2027 could be its final year if passenger demand does not increase sufficiently to make the route financially sustainable.
The ferry operates seasonally from the end of May to early September.
Manoli said passenger numbers remain relatively low outside the peak summer period, with around 100 passengers per sailing in June and between 200 and 250 in July, while sailings are generally full only in August.
“You can’t run a sustainable line for three months,” Manoli said, arguing that the vessel would need to generate income during the remaining nine months of the year.
Aliouris said the government was aware of the operator’s concerns but stressed that the subsidy was introduced because there had initially been no reliable data on demand.
“There was no data at all about what was happening. We didn’t know if and how much people would use it,” he said.
Five years of operation have since provided the shipping ministry with data that will be assessed before any decision is made.
Aliouris said the ministry would submit a proposal to cabinet next year after the current operating period has ended.
“So at this moment it is both premature and risky to say anything, whether it is stopping or continuing,” he said. “No decision has been made.”
Passenger traffic has increased year on year, according to Aliouris, who said “people have embraced the line”.
The service also has a social dimension, he said, serving passengers who are unable to fly, people with health concerns and travellers wishing to take pets or vehicles to Greece.
Manoli said bookings in 2026 were around 8,900 passengers, 2,700 vehicles and 371 pets, compared with 8,238 passengers, 2,660 vehicles and 379 pets in 2025.
The route’s future will also depend on operating costs, as Manoli has warned of higher fuel costs and the future impact of EU carbon emissions charges, while Aliouris said any new subsidy would have to reflect fuel prices and regional conditions at the time.
The final sailing of the current season is scheduled for September 1 from the port of Piraeus.
It takes a moment to even realise it’s her, this slim young woman in a light-pink T-shirt, dwarfed by the gaudy tower of Ayia Napa marina. She looks like she’s just come from the beach (as indeed she has). She doesn’t really look like an MP – albeit from the freshest, least stuffy party, Fidias Panayiotou’s Direct Democracy.
Coffee Berry is too noisy so we head to the air-conditioned tower, pretending to be waiting for the gym to get past security. It all feels a bit disorganised. Then we get to talking, however, and Diana Constantinides is impressive indeed – talking of ideals and accomplishments, and a life marked by tragedy.
Her English is superb, after all it’s been her work language for the past 10 years, as a barrister in London (she’s with 33 Bedford Row) specialising in human rights and international criminal law. Her Greek, I assume, is very good too, after all she started out here – not quite Napa, where she grew up, but a lawyer in Paralimni, just down the road – and of course it’ll be her work language for the next five years (at least), having won a seat in May’s elections.
The segue into politics wasn’t accidental. “In 2016, before we got married with my husband, we made this vision board, where you sit down and write ‘What is it that you want?’, ‘What do you want to achieve in your life?’. On an individual basis, but also as a union together,” she tells me.
“And at that point, in 2016, I did say that I would be getting into politics – and I think actually the year [on the board] was 2026! So it’s quite surreal sitting out here talking to you.”
There’s a certain type of person who makes a ‘vision board’ – taking their future by the scruff of the neck – and Diana is that type of person. So is her husband, a successful entrepreneur whose latest venture is a sports app called Actxion. He’s Portuguese, but grew up in Mozambique and endured that country’s civil war during his childhood – a traumatic event for a child and indeed, she says, the way he’s handled that trauma is “something I really admire” about him.
Sounds like it rhymes with something in her own childhood, I suggest, not wanting to ask directly.
“Indeed, yes,” she replies briskly. She gives it a beat, then begins: “So, in 1993, my mother was murdered…”
Diana’s mother was Christine Constantinides, a Swedish housewife raped and murdered by Antonis Prokopiou Kitas, nicknamed Al Capone. Her body was found in Kotsiatis landfill months later, by which time Kitas – who’s still in prison, serving two life sentences – had also murdered another woman, Romanian dancer Oxana Lisna.
It’s among the most notorious cases in Cyprus legal history, in fact it was part of the syllabus when Diana was studying to be a lawyer – though she herself was “kindly exempted” from having to study it, she notes wryly. She was five years old when it happened (she turned 38 last month). How much was she told, at that age?
“Um… Let’s put it this way, my childhood was interrupted abruptly. And there was a clear realisation as to what was happening.
“I did understand that my mother was – was dead. I did realise something wasn’t right. I may not have known the details of it, which was something that unravelled throughout my childhood – and every detail that unravelled was taking away part of my existence.
“It took a lot of effort and work in my life to restore that part of myself – but never quite so successfully that I am completely restored, unfortunately. So there’s always going to be a part of me that’s dedicated to my mum’s memory.
“That emptiness I feel inside me, it will never be completed – by no person, and no-one in this world. It is the mother’s love.”
There was counselling, even in the 90s, but the sessions didn’t really help. “What I did find helpful was reading a lot. It was my space to process, by reading things.” From about eight years old she was deep into books, though the reading list sounds a bit advanced: Greek mythology, German psychoanalysis, yoga, Buddhism, The Art of War. (That one may have come later, she admits.) So essentially she withdrew from the world?
“I think someone once described me as ‘being there, but not quite being there’… So my mind was always travelling into processing, and dealing with things. And nothing I did was quite enough.”
Her dad – she adores him – helped tremendously. Summers in the Swedish countryside were also therapeutic. But the “curse”, as she puts it, persists to this day – that sense of constantly trying, yet feeling it’s never enough. You might say she’s chasing a phantom, unconsciously trying to restore that empty part of her, the mother’s love she lost and can never regain.
She keeps trying, though – and in fact that may be key, the way life has turned Diana into a dogged pursuer of causes, even quixotic ones. I ask if she ever fell into depression, during her various ups and downs – but she shakes her head.
“Because I knew that my mother fought a lot – to stay alive – that sort of fire and resilience, I think, has been passed on by my mother to me,” she replies.
“I don’t like to dwell on things. I like to stand up and keep moving forward.
“If I can’t walk, I will crawl. If I can’t crawl, I will – y’know, move one finger. If I can’t move a finger, I will keep breathing. But no matter what, I will keep going forward, in any shape or form. And that really defines everything I do.”
Being an international lawyer is quixotic right now. She’s involved in what her professional bio calls ‘the Darfur situation’, representing victims and appearing before the ICC (International Criminal Court) – but the ICC is being dismantled by the Trump administration after issuing warrants against Israeli politicians, and Gaza has exposed the system as a sham anyway. Isn’t it just the law of the jungle now?
“When we see the darkness emerging, there always need to be people to stand up for the light,” she replies idealistically. “I mean that’s the problem now, there is impunity… So I think it’s important for, not just activists but also the legal community, to keep talking about it.”
“It all comes down to those principal questions, such as ‘Who are we, and what do we do?’. And I think the question as to who we are – well, we’re humans, and ‘What do we do?’, we need to speak up for humanity. So that’s what we have to keep doing.”
Direct Democracy is also quixotic, with its vision of an app where voters can directly express their ‘priorities’ – though of course it depends who you ask. Many in Cyprus seem determined to view it as a joke, a buffoonish project.
Diana, who’s the party vice-president, has encountered pushback for a series of videos she posted highlighting the clothes she’s been wearing to the plenum – the tone of the criticism being that, like Fidias himself, she’s blurring the line between politician and social-media influencer.
“I think some have missed the point,” she shrugs. For one thing, the clothes are sold by small local businesses, the idea being not a paid promotion (she buys everything herself) but a way of supporting those businesses. For another, “women in politics does not mean you’re dismissing the part of being a woman”. Besides, she has form when it comes to social-media primers. Her YouTube channel includes a video from seven years ago called ‘A day in the life of a human-rights lawyer’, sharing her trip to the ICC; it has almost 35,000 views.
Politics is going to be a snake pit, for sure. “You’re not just uneducated, you’re dangerous too,” snarled a Facebook comment last week, after she posted about the need for a Truth Commission in Cyprus. Still, she’s unlikely to be fazed, having been a lawyer all her life – and a barrister since moving to London in 2015.
The UK system is famously adversarial and requires quick thinking, barristers (who appear in court, unlike solicitors) often getting thrown in at the deep end. And there’s something else too. The only time Diana hesitates is when I ask if she’s faced sexual harassment in the profession. “Yes…” she replies after a long pause.
She’s seen a lot, more than the Facebook haters know. She’s seen evil, the same malignant force that poisoned her childhood.
Oddly, when I ask for an example, she mentions another child – a 12-year-old she represented three times, who already had a criminal record. The last of those times, the boy – faced with the threat of prison – looked up at the magistrates and, seemingly contrite, started crying. “And then he turns, he looks at me, he smiles, and wipes his tears,” she recalls, unable to forget that fiendish smile (revealed only to her) and the way that kid “really manipulated the courtroom”. That was the only case when she wondered if some people might just be born bad.
Another good story is the one about getting locked in prison with a drug dealer – though what’s interesting isn’t just the story (the door was locked, the emergency button didn’t work; they stayed there for an hour, before the guards found them) but also her reply when I ask if she was scared, as a young woman in her 20s.
“The thing is that when you go into the courtroom there should be no fear,” she replies. “Because I can sense fear, so I think other counsellors may detect it as well. So when I’m there, I don’t feel or share my fear. So I don’t think he felt that I was afraid.”
Again and again, we come back to the same themes – all the lessons she learned as a lost, incomplete girl who had her mother torn away so violently. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Keep trying. Keep moving forward. Hide the fear. Face your demons.
Life in Ayia Napa must be pleasant and relaxed, I venture. (They moved back a couple of years ago.) “I guess my lifestyle is never relaxed,” replies Diana. “I don’t like relaxed environments.”
Well, any hobbies?
“I like extreme sports… I’ve done bungee jumping, gliding, paragliding, parachuting, I’ve done scuba diving. I drive boats up to 15 metres, I’m licensed.” Parachuting was okay but she liked gliding more, especially doing the loop up in the air. “My instructor was like, ‘Are you ready for the acrobatics?’. I said, ‘I’m more than ready!’.”
Does she not feel fear? Or does she like the fear?
“I like fear,” she replies instantly. “But I’m not scared of extreme sports,” she adds, “I really enjoy them. I think now I want to get my licence for a motorbike – a big motorbike.”
She does still read, by the way: every morning, even if it’s just a few pages, currently Kipling’s The Jungle Book. (Before that it was Gandhi’s autobiography.) And of course she also reads to her daughters – a five-year-old and a four-year-old – at bedtime, currently lots of Greek mythology after which, without fail, they recite the poem that’s been “like a prayer for me” ever since her own childhood, “I know it by heart”: Cavafy’s ‘Ithaca’, the one about the journey being more important than the destination.
It all fits together. The causes pursued, even if nothing changes, though she’s actually unshakeably optimistic (“Miserably optimistic!”) that things will change. The journey, the imperative to keep moving forward – but then also the ‘curse’, the knowledge that nothing will ever be enough, the destination elusive. The mother can never be returned, a certain part will always be empty. Still, the journey remains.
Right now, Diana’s journey involves going to Nicosia four days a week – though she plans to keep her job in London too, working remotely.
“If this is just a five-year term for me, I’m fine with it,” she says candidly, sounding quite unlike the usual Cypriot politician. “I’ll go back to law. The courtroom is kind of my arena, it’s where I belong.” But there’s politics too, and motherhood, and human rights, and big noisy motorbikes – “and, you know, everything else that life throws at us”. She heads off to face it, a brand-new MP in a light-pink T-shirt.
Police are investigating a robbery after a 23-year-old food delivery driver was attacked in the Ayios Sylas area of Limassol in the early hours of Saturday.
According to a complaint made to police, the man was in the area at around 1.30am to deliver an order when he was approached by two unidentified young men.
The pair allegedly assaulted him before taking the food order, his mobile phone and cash, before fleeing.
The delivery driver suffered abrasions to his hands during the attack.
Limassol police are investigating the case.
The government defended the role of the advisory council on Saturday as criticism continued over the appointment of boards to semi government organisations, with deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou describing attacks on the body as “unfair”.
Antoniou said the council was created as part of a new system intended to improve transparency and merit in public appointments, while acknowledging that the system had “problems” and “weaknesses”.
Speaking on CyBC, he said the government was nevertheless no longer operating under the previous system, when appointments were based primarily on “the party origin of each person”.
“Criticism is unfair,” Antoniou said, arguing that the new process sought to give people from across the political spectrum the opportunity to serve.
The advisory council’s chairman Giorgos Aresti said the cabinet had adopted most of the council’s recommendations following its assessment of applicants.
The council, he said, evaluated applications and prepared lists of three candidates for each position before submitting them to the relevant minister.
“Our role is purely advisory. In no way can we influence the final decision of the cabinet,” Aresti insisted.
His comments came after Akel accused the advisory council of being bypassed in the appointment of members to semi-government boards and called for the process to be explained publicly.
In a direct attack on President Nikos Christodoulides, the party accused his government of having “surpassed even the previous administration in cronyism and patronage”.
The issue has been registered with the House institutions committee following claims that some 21 individuals appointed to boards had not even submitted applications to the advisory council.
Committee chairman and Disy MP Demetris Demetriou said the matter concerned “the issue that arose at Cyta and the information regarding appointments of individuals without applying”.
Akel has claimed that, if confirmed, such appointments would mean the council had been “completely annulled” and used as an “alibi” for predetermined appointments.
The party called on Christodoulides and council members to explain how the appointments were made, while criticising the exclusion of the left from the latest boards, arguing that previous governments had allowed opposition parties even limited representation.
The controversy intensified after the government agreed to replace a newly appointed Cyta board member – Loizos Economides – following concerns over a possible conflict of interest.
Economides is a retired senior Cyta executive whose wife remains employed by the organisation.
The company worker’s union (Aset) also said he serves on the management committee of the staff pension and benefits fund and had been vice president of the staff union and a member of its negotiating team when he applied for the board.
Antoniou said the relationship with Cyta had not been declared during the appointment process and that the omission created a potential conflict of interest.
The cabinet appointed around 85 members to the boards of 11 semi state organisations and public bodies on Thursday, including the EAC, Cyta, CyBC, Thok, the University of Cyprus and Tepak.
Pavlos Pavlou was appointed chairman of CyBC, Maria Tsiakka was reappointed as Cyta chairwoman and Loizos Loizou was appointed chairman of the EAC.
The appointments have also exposed tensions within the governing coalition, with Diko emerging as the main beneficiary while coalition partners Dipa and Edek have expressed dissatisfaction over their representation.
Diko is understood to have secured most of its preferred nominees following consultations between coalition parties ahead of the appointments.
Dipa is reported to have secured representation on boards including Cyta, Thoc, CyBC, the symphony orchestra as well as the licensing authority, but party officials have expressed disappointment over the overall outcome.
Edek is likewise also reported to have expected greater representation following the recent cabinet reshuffle.
The appointments have further fuelled discussion over Diko’s influence in the energy sector, with the party holding senior positions across the energy ministry, the natural gas corporation, the energy regulatory authority as well as the electricity authority (EAC).
Some 1,250 Turkish Cypriots crossed through the Limnitis roadblock towards Kokkina on Saturday to attend annual events marking the 62nd anniversary of the Turkish air force bombings of Tillyria in 1964.
The commemorations in Kokkina began at 10am, with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman travelling to the area by helicopter.
The anniversary marks the Turkish air force attacks on Tillyria between August 7 and 9, 1964.
The bombings resulted in both military and civilian casualties, with the Turks having employed napalm during the air raids.
At the Kokkina ceremony, Erhurman said the Turkish Cypriots who fought during the period had made “the greatest sacrifice” to protect their community, adding that their struggle continued to guide them.
He said the responsibility of the present generation was to work towards a future “where peace, justice, and security prevail” and ensure that the suffering of the past was not repeated.
1964 intercomunal violence occurred following the collapse of the constitutional order in 1963, after the Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the government having rejected Archbishop Makarios’ thirteen-point amendment to the constitution.
The Turkish Cypriot insurgency, TMT, regarded the Kokkina and Mansoura enclaves as a vital supply route, with the Greek Cypriots considering them an illegal channel for weapons and a potential bridgehead for Turkish intervention.
The fighting intensified after National Guard forces captured strategic positions around the enclave on August 7.
Turkey subsequently intervened, with its air force bombing positions and populated areas on August 8 and 9.
Air raids were reported at Pachyammos, Pomos, Ayios Theodoros and Kato Pyrgos, with the hospital at Pachyammos also being bombed.
55 Greek Cypriots and Greeks were killed, including 28 civilians, while 125 military personnel and civilians were wounded.
Among those killed were six Greek sailors and Cypriot volunteer Antis Filitas who died after the patrol vessel Phaeton was bombarded by Turkish aircraft in Xeros Bay.
The fighting ended following international pressure, when the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 193 on August 9 calling for an immediate ceasefire, while then US president Lyndon B Johnson pressed both Ankara and Nicosia to halt military operations.
Kato Pyrgos mukhtar Nikos Cleanthous said the anniversary remained a day to honour those killed, arguing that Tillyria “paid a heavy price” in 1964.
He also called for the opening of the Kokkina crossing, saying its continued closure had contributed to the isolation and population decline of the area.
The crossings for Saturday’s commemoration took place with the involvement of Unficyp.
Residents and local groups marched outside RAF Akrotiri on Saturday to protest plans for a major expansion of military antenna infrastructure, citing concerns over potential health, safety and environmental effects.
The march was organised by Kourion municipality and began at 9.30am from the first entrance to the Akrotiri municipal district before proceeding towards the British bases.
Kourion mayor Pantelis Georgiou said the protest was not directed against the British people but concerned the rights of residents.
“This is not about rivalry with a people but about love for our country,” Georgiou said.
The municipality has raised concerns over the scale of the proposed infrastructure.
Georgiou previously said local authorities had initially been informed that 20 antennas would be installed while 18 existing antennas would be removed.
They were later told that 68 antennas would be installed during the first phase, followed by another 68.
The municipality has also requested updated information on radiation emissions and further independent monitoring.
Georgiou said existing measurements had shown levels within legal limits.
Deputy mayor of Akrotiri Giorgos Konstantinou said the protest should send a message to the British bases “that we do not negotiate, neither our health, nor our property, nor the environment”.
Protesters marched towards the entrance to the British bases carrying placards including “No to the antennas of death” and “Our health is not negotiable”.
Georgiou subsequently delivered a resolution to a British bases’ representative expressing the municipality’s “categorical opposition” to the installation and operation of what it described as spy antennas and other military infrastructure in Akrotiri.
The resolution said further militarisation of the area, particularly amid heightened international tensions, raised concerns over “security, peace and stability”.
Environmental organisations Terra Cypria and BirdLife Cyprus have further raised concerns, pointing to the ecological importance of the area and scientific studies recording bird deaths and collisions involving existing antenna infrastructure.
The Akrotiri salt lake is protected under the Ramsar Convention and the Natura 2000 network, while the wider peninsula is an important migration corridor for birds in the Levant.
The organisations, which are participating in the consultation, have called for the project’s assessment to be “scientifically substantiated” and compliant with environmental legislation.
The British bases administration has said it is “committed to ensuring that this project is delivered responsibly” and in cooperation with local authorities and communities.
A 44-year-old Romanian national was remanded in custody for two days on Saturday over a series of burglaries in Androlykou and Argaka.
The Paphos district court ordered his detention after hearing that police had yet to complete their investigation and expected to take a further 10 statements from people connected to the suspect.
The court heard that available evidence indicated the man was allegedly involved in burglaries, thefts and malicious damage reported in the two villages during last year.
One case concerns a break-in at premises in Androlykou on March 2, 2025, where according to the complainant, generators and other equipment worth some €225,000 were stolen.
DNA evidence at the scene was collected as part of the investigation.
The suspect is also allegedly connected to the theft of generators and other items worth about €2,000 from premises in Argaka.
Police recovered various items from both locations and sent them for forensic examination.
The suspect appeared in court without a lawyer and did not object to his detention.
He complained regarding his detention conditions, informing the court that he had been forced to sleep on the floor due to two prisoners sharing a cell with one bed.
Paphos CID are continuing their investigations into the case.
Cyprus will provide €150,000 to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem towards the restoration of the historic Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza, which was partially destroyed during an Israeli bombardment in October 2023.
The Greek Orthodox church was struck on October 19, 2023, while hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering inside the compound.
At least 18 people were killed, according to reports at the time, including a three-month-old baby, while parts of the building were destroyed.
The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) claimed the church was not the target of the strike and that an attack had been directed at a Hamas control centre nearby.
Saint Porphyrius is among Gaza’s oldest Christian places of worship.
The church was established in the early fifth century around the tomb of Saint Porphyrius, who served as bishop of Gaza between 395 and 420, with the present structure dating largely from the 12th century.
The church has served as a place of worship and community life for Gaza’s Christian population, as well as a refuge for civilians.
Cyprus’ funding will also support educational and social programmes, expanded school facilities and childcare through the Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
A further €20,000 grant has been approved for Cypriot monks of the Holy Sepulchre serving in Bethlehem, Bethany and Jordan.
The government has allocated a further €148,000 to the Patriarchate of Antioch for assistance in Syria.
Some €100,000 will fund the reconstruction of a primary school in Hama province serving children from different religious communities, while €48,000 will support Orthodox and other Christian churches and monasteries with food, water and medical care.
Cyprus has also announced support for church programmes in Jordan and is considering further assistance for Christian communities in Iraq.
The programme is being implemented through Cyprus’ special representative for religious freedom and the protection of minorities in the Middle East.
Police have opened a second criminal investigation into journalist Makarios Drousiotis over alleged personal data offences connected with his book Mafia State, some four years after its publication and two months after the anti-corruption authority delivered its findings on allegations contained in the book.
Drousiotis disclosed the investigation in a post on X on Saturday, saying police headquarters had begun taking statements from people involved in the production of the book, including its printer, editor and designer.
He said the police department investigating the new case was the same department that investigated the Sandy affair and accused authorities of attempting to intimidate people who worked with him.
Drousiotis described the development as an attempt to “terrorise and criminalise investigative journalism” and said the case concerned personal data.
The journalist is already facing criminal proceedings in the separate Sandy case, in which he and a woman known publicly as ‘Sandy’ have been served with indictments involving around 101 counts.
That case concerns allegations that fabricated messages and false claims were used to accuse public figures of serious crimes.
Police previously concluded that the disputed messages had been fabricated using a mobile application and said the material had been supplied to Drousiotis by Sandy, who investigators said admitted creating it.
Drousiotis has rejected the police findings and accused investigators of predetermining the outcome of that investigation.
He has also alleged that the criminal proceedings are intended to undermine his role as a witness in the Mafia State affair.
The new investigation is separate from the authority’s examination of allegations contained in Mafia State.
“We are now living in dark times,” Drousiotis wrote.
“Every democratically minded citizen must react, and the journalistic family must take a stand.”
He said the issue extended beyond his own case and concerned “freedom of expression, transparency, accountability” and the rule of law.
Drousiotis has consistently rejected the allegations against him in that case and has maintained that the proceedings are connected to his work on Mafia State.
Omonia footballer Tasos Hadjigiovanis has donated €12,500 to cover the medical expenses of a child battling stage four neuroblastoma, ending a fundraising campaign on Saturday.
Neuroblastoma is a rare type of cancer that develops from immature nerve cells (neuroblasts) in infants and young children, most often starting in the adrenal glands above the kidneys or along the spine, belly, chest or neck.
The donation covered the full amount required for Demetris, according to the charity Children’s Joy, which called on the public to make no further deposits after the target was reached.
“Sometimes miracles have a name,” the organisation said in an announcement, identifying Hadjigiovanis as the donor.
Children’s Joy said the footballer had supported its work for several years and had previously contributed to efforts assisting children in need.
It said Hadjigiovanis had also spoken directly with Demetris’ mother and planned to meet the family in person when he returns to Cyprus.
The charity said the €12,500 donation came after three days of fundraising, during which members of the public had also contributed towards the child’s medical costs.
Children’s Joy also thanked the footballer for his continued involvement with its work, describing his support as extending beyond the financial contribution.
Hadjigiovanis, who plays for Omonia, has previously been involved in philanthropic initiatives through the organisation, according to its statement.
Two men were arrested in Ayia Napa on Saturday after police found 300 unused nitrous oxide capsules in their possession during a vehicle inspection.
Police conducting regular checks stopped the vehicle being driven by a 26-year-old man, with a 29-year-old man as a passenger.
A search found and seized 300 unused nitrous oxide or ‘laughing gas’ capsules, as well as a number of balloons.
The two men were arrested, subsequently charged in writing and released.
The case is being investigated by Ayia Napa police.
The 30th anniversary of the deaths of Tasos Isaac and Solomos Solomou will be marked on Saturday with a memorial event in Paralimni attended by President Nikos Christodoulides.
The event will take place at 8pm at the Isaac and Solomou monument on Nikou Psara Street.
Christodoulides is due to deliver a speech during the ceremony, organised by the Paralimni Dheryneia municipality and the Isaac and Solomos Memorial Initiative.
Motorcyclists taking part in memorial events renewed their call for justice and for arrest warrants to be executed against those wanted in connection with the deaths.
The events will continue on Sunday with the 30th annual memorial service at the Church of Agios Dimitrios in Paralimni.
Motorcyclists are expected to spend Saturday night at the Dheryneia roadblock before attending the service.
Isaac was murdered on August 11, 1996, when Greek Cypriot motorcyclist protesters were met in the buffer zone by Turkish Cypriot counter-protesters who, according to the UN report on the incident, were “accompanied by factions of the Turkish Grey Wolves”.
Isaac became entangled in barbed wire whereupon he was beaten to death by Turkish Cypriots and Turks.
Three days later, Solomou was shot dead when, following Isaac’s funeral, he approached a Turkish military post, attempted to climb a flagpole to remove a Turkish flag and was fatally shot by a Turkish soldier.
Last month, Christodoulides said there had been “developments” concerning the cases and described the deaths as “murders and nothing else”.
“The matter is not closed,” he said, adding that there were developments that he did not consider appropriate to discuss publicly.
The president said he would inform the families “away from the spotlight”.
Friday’s commemorative programme included a symbolic closure of the Zodia- Astromeritis crossing point by motorcyclists, who distributed leaflets before continuing their procession through crossing points in Nicosia.
The memorial initiative’s events will conclude on Sunday with the service and subsequent commemorative activities in Paralimni.
Cyprus will remain under mainly clear skies on Saturday, with temperatures reaching 40C inland as hot weather continues across the island.
Temperatures will reach around 33C around Paphos and Kyrenia, while Limassol and Larnaca will see highs of around 36C, temperatures in Troodos will reach about 30C.
Clouds are expected to form during the afternoon, bringing a chance of isolated rain.
Temperatures will fall to around 24C in Nicosia, and around 20C in Troodos.
Mainly clear weather is forecast till Tuesday, with some temporary cloud developing in during the afternoons.
Temperatures are expected to remain slightly above average for this time of year through Tuesday.
Residents and local groups began a protest march outside RAF Akrotiri on Saturday over plans for new military antennas in the area, amid concerns regarding both the potential environmental and health implications of their installation.
The march, organised by Kourion municipality, began at 9.30am from the first entrance to the Akrotiri municipal district.
A resolution is due to be delivered to the British bases following the march.
The British bases administration has said the project concerns the modernisation of infrastructure in the Akrotiri Salt Lake area and that construction cannot begin until the environmental assessment process and public consultation have been completed.
Environmental organisations Terra Cypria and BirdLife Cyprus have further raised concerns, pointing to the ecological importance of the area and scientific studies recording bird deaths and collisions involving existing antenna infrastructure.
The Akrotiri salt lake is protected under the Ramsar Convention and the Natura 2000 network, while the wider peninsula is an important migration corridor for birds in the Levant.
The organisations, which are participating in the consultation, have called for the project’s assessment to be “scientifically substantiated” and compliant with environmental legislation.
The dispute has also raised concerns among local authorities over the scale of the planned military infrastructure.
Kourion mayor Pantelis Georgiou previously said the municipality had initially been told that 20 antennas would be installed while 18 would be removed, however they were later informed that 68 would be installed in the first phase, followed by a further 68.
Georgiou has raised concerns regarding possible health and safety implications and said the municipality was seeking updated information on radiation emissions.
Existing measurements, he said, had shown levels within legal limits, although the municipality had requested newer monitoring equipment and further independent assessment.
Residents have also pursued legal options over the project, including examining whether proceedings could eventually be taken to the European court of human rights.
The British bases administration has said it is “committed to ensuring that this project is delivered responsibly” and in cooperation with local authorities and communities.
A series of free, creative workshops in two mountain villages is coming up this summer, connecting an old photographic process with Cypriot nature. Artist The.Curious.Curly participates in the Cultural Decentralisation Programme of the deputy culture ministry, bringing participatory events to Pedoulas and Ayios Theodoros Pitsilias.
A photographic printing method from the 1840s takes centre stage and invites participants to explore Cypriot nature and the season’s flowers and plants by learning to create their own cyanotype prints. The workshop series Nature, Sun and Cyanotype in the Village takes place this August, September and October, welcoming participants as young as eight years old.
The series includes six independent workshops, all offered with free entrance as the activity is funded by the deputy ministry.
Taking place in collaboration with the village community councils, the workshops will introduce this camera-less process and show participants how to create their own prints using only sunlight, plants they will collect from the village and photosensitive material. To immerse the visitors in the rural setting, participants will be led on a walk exploring the village’s sights, observing nature and gathering materials for their cyanotypes.
The first workshop happens in Pedoulas on August 13, followed by two more events on September 5 and 13. In Ayios Theodoros Pitsilias, the workshops will take place on August 14, September 6 and October 4. All workshops will run from 10am to 1pm, except for September 5’s session which will be in the afternoon, starting at 3pm.
At the end of the workshop, participants will take home the botanical cyanotypes they made as a special souvenir from the village excursion.
Nature, Sun and Cyanotype in the Village
Cyanotype workshop series by The.Curious.Curly. Part of the Cultural Decentralisation Programme, with funding by the Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture. August 13, September 5 and 13. Pedoulas village, Nicosia district. August 14, September 6 and October 4. Agios Theodoros Pitsilias, Limassol district. 10am-1pm (except for 05/09 ,3pm-6pm). Free entrance. In Greek, English upon request. Registrations mandatory. FB/IG: @The.Curious.Curly
I’ve started learning networking with Go and I’m having a lot of fun with it. So far I’ve built TCP client/server programs and learned Listen, Accept, Dial, buffers, goroutines, multiple connections, timeouts, EOF, race conditions and mutexes. Next up is channels. Any suggestions on what I should build next?
I've been working on an open-source Go project called Network Doctor, and recently built a simulator around it using Linux network namespaces.
The interesting part is a deterministic hunt mode.
A hunt starts from known-good network scenarios, applies seeded mutations, runs the real Network Doctor binary inside the resulting topology, records simulator ground truth, and analyzes the structured diagnostic report for disagreements.
Cases have stable identities:
That made it possible to build unattended GitHub triage without immediately creating an issue-spam machine.
The nightly pipeline now:
During rollout it actually caught bugs in both directions.
First, the hunt analyzer produced a false positive: it interpreted IPv4 failure + IPv6 success on the same interface as evidence of an alternate route. Manual review caught it, I tightened the invariant, and the false positive disappeared.
After that, the hunt produced one medium reproducible finding:
transient_fault_not_resampled
A generated routed-network case caused DNS to fail temporarily and then recover. Network Doctor began a DNS lookup during the outage, waited for its timeout, and never sampled the recovered resolver again.
Reproduction:
./netdoc-sim hunt healthy-routed-network --seed 20260102 --case 3 --json
The GitHub triage replayed that exact case, got the same case/finding fingerprints, and automatically opened issue #14.
I then ran the workflow again. It rediscovered the finding, recognized the stable issue fingerprint, and created no duplicate.
Current nightly coverage is 3 baselines × 15 generated cases and takes about three minutes on a hosted runner.
It's certainly not formal verification, but having the simulator know the state it injected and mechanically compare that against the diagnostic program's interpretation has turned out to be a really useful way of testing software whose entire purpose is reasoning about messy network state.
I am very proud of making the simulator.
Hi everyone!
I'm a beginner Go developer, and this is my first serious project: an ecommerce platform I'm building for my portfolio.
It's still under development, but I'd like to get some feedback before going further.
I'm especially interested in feedback about:
* Architecture
* Go code quality
* Security
* Separation of responsibilities
* What you would improve
The project currently uses Go, MySQL, Redis, Docker, JWT, CSRF protection, rate limiting, and a hexagonal-inspired architecture.
The current version is available on the `develop` branch.
GitHub: https://github.com/KennedyJCodes/ecommerce-platform
Any constructive criticism is welcome. I'm here to learn!
Thanks!
The minor releases have a monthly cadence, and I see all but one item in the roadmap is merged (an item deferred multiple time), so does anyone know when the next release might be? Does the upcoming 1.27 release delay things?
https://github.com/golang/go/issues?q=milestone%3AGo1.26.6%20label%3ACherryPickApproved