Cyprus Mail

Four arrested in Paphos over turtle-throwing video

The police on Tuesday announced that they have made four arrests after a video emerged of four men appearing to kick and throw a turtle. They said they had received a complaint at around 1.30pm on Monday and that they attended the scene of the video, a beach near the Paphos district village of Chlorakas, […]

Qatar and UAE to join U.S.-led effort to bolster technology supply chain

Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will soon join a U.S.-led initiative to secure AI and semiconductor supply chains, Undersecretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg told Reuters in an interview. The addition of those two countries is notable given the Middle East’s history of political divisions and reflects a U.S.-led effort to bring […]

Diagne to brief Unficyp contributing countries in New York

United Nations special representative in Cyprus Khassim Diagne is late on Tuesday expected to brief representatives of countries which contribute personnel to the UN’s peacekeeping force on the island (Unficyp) in a series of behind-closed-doors meetings in New York. The meetings will mark his first engagements held in New York ahead of a planned vote […]

Trump piles on the pressure with 25% tariff threat on countries trading with Iran

President Donald Trump said on Monday any country that does business with Iran will face a tariff rate of 25% on any trade with the U.S., as Washington weighs a response to the situation in Iran which is seeing its biggest anti-government protests in years. “Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic […]

Cyprus Business Now: shipping, banking, CFA, tourism, government employment

Cyprus’ tourism strategy for the new year, the challenges facing the sector and Paphos’ decisive contribution to overall performance were discussed on Monday during a meeting between Deputy Tourism Minister Kostas Koumis and local bodies in the Paphos district. Addressing stakeholders, Koumis described 2025 as the best tourism year in Cyprus’ history, stressing that the Deputy […]

Musk’s X to open source new algorithm in seven days

Elon Musk said that social media platform X will open to the public its new algorithm, including all code for organic and advertising post recommendations, in seven days. “This will be repeated every 4 weeks, with comprehensive developer notes, to help you understand what changed,” he said in his X post. Get weekly news and […]

UK employers report weaker hiring but stronger pay growth in December

Britain’s jobs market cooled in December but starting salaries for permanent jobs rose at a faster pace, according to a survey of recruiters that will be studied by the Bank of England as it considers when it should cut interest rates again. The monthly survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation trade body and accountants […]

Goldman projects lower oil prices in 2026 as supply swells

Oil prices are likely to drift lower this year as a wave of supply creates a market surplus, although geopolitical risks tied to Russia, Venezuela and Iran will continue to drive volatility, Goldman Sachs said in a note on Sunday. The investment bank maintained its 2026 average price forecasts of $56/$52 per barrel for Brent/WTI, […]

Nicosia mayors call for restoration of bicommunal peace education programme

Nicosia mayors from both sides of the divide have called for the revival of the bicommunal peace education initiative Imagine. A recent event by the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) at the Home for Cooperation in Nicosia saw 200 participants attend, including Nicosia mayor Charalambos Prountzos and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mehmet Harmanci. […]

Our View: Christodoulides should shutter support agency, it has no value

Director of the president’s office Charalambous Charalambous announced his resignation on Monday, bowing to calls to step down by almost all the political parties including those participating in government. It was a decision aimed at easing the political criticism of the government and quelling the social media anger sparked by the video released last week […]

Men filmed throwing and kicking sea turtle in Chlorakas

Video footage emerged on social media on Monday, showing four men, reportedly employees of the Chlokaras community council, kicking and throwing a sea turtle on a local beach. According to philenews, the local community council said that the turtle had already been dead and that council staff was instructed to collect the turtle and bury […]

Apple, Google strike Gemini deal for revamped Siri in major win for Alphabet

Apple AAPL.O will use Google’s Gemini models for its revamped Siri coming later this year under a multi-year deal that deepens the tech giants’ alliance in the artificial intelligence era and bolsters Alphabet’s position in the race against OpenAI. The deal announced Monday marks a major vote of confidence for Google. Its technology already drives […]

US charges man shot by Border Patrol agent in Portland

The Venezuelan man shot by a border patrol agent last week in Portland, Oregon, was charged on Monday with assaulting federal officers, the U.S. Justice Department said. The department said Luis Nino-Moncada will make a court appearance on Monday to face charges of aggravated assault of a federal officer and depredation of federal property. It […]

UK investigates Musk’s X over Grok deepfake concerns

Britain’s media regulator launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X on Monday over concerns its Grok AI chatbot was creating sexually intimate deepfake images in violation of its duty to protect people in the UK from illegal content. The British government said a new law making it an offence to create sexual deepfakes would come […]

College of Commissioners to pay official visit to Cyprus

The College of Commissioners of the European Union will pay an official visit to Cyprus on January, 15 and 16 in the context of its contacts with the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, in its capacity as the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The aim of the visit is to strengthen […]

January rainfall reaches one third of monthly average

The rain that struck the island in the last three days totalled 22.4 millimetres per square metre, bringing this month’s rainfall to 31 per cent of the usual monthly average by January 12. Since the beginning of the month, Cyprus has recorded 31.6 millimetres per square metre of rain, representing almost a third of the […]

Myanmar made Rohingya lives a nightmare, Gambia tells genocide case

Gambia on Monday told judges at the United Nations’ top court that Myanmar targeted minority Muslim Rohingya for destruction and made their lives a nightmare in a landmark case accusing Myanmar of genocide. It is the first genocide case the International Court of Justice is hearing in full in more than a decade. The outcome […]

Supertankers sailing to pick up Venezuelan oil for China make u-turn

Two China-flagged supertankers that were sailing to Venezuela to pick up debt-paying crude cargoes amid the US oil embargo on the OPEC country have made u-turn and are now heading back to Asia, LSEG shipping data showed on Monday. Following the US announcement last week of a $2 billion deal to export up to 50 […]

Two arrested for burglary and theft

A 48-year-old and a 21-year-old were on Monday arrested pursuant to court warrants in connection with two separate cases of burglary and theft in Larnaca and Nicosia. The first case, involving the 21-year-old suspect, concerns the burglary of a residence in Larnaca on December 16, during which several items including jewlery, were stolen. The second […]

Neapolis, Western Macedonia Universities to offer joint engineeing programmes

A joint English-language Bachelor’s and Master’s programme in product design engineering will be offered by Neapolis University Paphos and the University of Western Macedonia, starting from the academic year 2026 to 2027, they announced on Monday. “We are putting into practice the common academic space between Greece and Cyprus, fully utilising the comparative advantages of […]

Morocco declares end of seven-year drought after winter rains

Morocco’s seven-year drought has come to an end after abundant rainfall this winter, Water Minister Nizar Baraka said on Monday. Rainfall levels so far this winter are up 95% from a year earlier and 17% above the seasonal average, Baraka told members of parliament. The average dam-filling rate has risen to 46%, with several key […]

Disy chief calls for comprehensive investigation into video allegations

The resignation of President Nikos Christodoulides’ chief of staff and brother-in-law, Charalambos Charalambous, was a necessary response to the video accusing him and others of corruption, Disy president Annita Demetriou said on Monday. Demetriou called for the creation of a “coherent action plan”, assuring that those involved take responsibility proving to the public that the […]

Reports of domestic violence outnumber those of previous years More than 3,000 incidents of domestic violence were reported to the police in 2025, marking an increase to previous years, the police’s responsible officer Evi Nicolaou said on Monday. Nicolaou said the rise in complaints reflected a level of trust to the authorities, as victims felt […]

Foreign investment ‘may be transient’

The surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) in Cyprus may be transient, and could swing the other way as many foreign businesses setting up shop here do not have ‘organic’ links to the economy, the head of the Fiscal Council cautioned on Monday. Speaking in parliament, Michalis Persianis said many companies migrated to the island […]