John Cleese brings his comedy career to Nicosia
It’s the man from the Ministry of Silly Walks, bowler hat on head, floppy leg extended like the gait of some enormous bird. It’s Basil Fawlty, bulkily bobbing, ...
Articles
Why young Cypriots are the EU’s least active citizens
The 2026 Eurobarometer study on Youth and Democracy shows young Cypriots (aged 15-30) ranked last across the EU when it comes to social activism and civic engagement.
That said, the wording ...
From crime fighter to crime writer and a life in Cyprus
Did he ever see anything, I ask Barry Appleton – cop, TV writer, long-time expat – that shocked even him, with all his police experience? He mulls the question over, sat at ...
Mischievous goblins behind Cyprus’ first ‘horror’ film
Why is Motherwitch – opening this Thursday in local cinemas – quite a special kind of movie? Let us count the ways.
“It’s special because it’s Cyprus’ first folk-horror feature ...
Cyprus and Israel ties – good thing or bad thing?
We asked people on the streets of Nicosia for their take on the increasingly close relations between Cyprus and Israel.
Cyprus could escape worst of record-breaking El Niño
Britain and China don’t agree on too many things. Both agree, however, that the 2026-27 El Niño weather event is likely to be the most powerful ever.
“We ...
Nicosia board-game café brings players together
Oleg is Ukrainian, 33, and in finance. It’s 7pm on a Friday, the end of a long working week. You’d expect him to be in a bar, letting off ...
Three in four young Cypriots read no books
It’s no secret that Cypriots don’t read much. A Eurostat poll from two years ago ranked us second-last in the EU, behind only Romania.
That poll made waves, ...
Ukraine Olympic sailing champion finds a base in Cyprus
Ukraine at the Olympics is quite a recent development. For decades, its athletes were enfolded into other teams – tagging along with Poland, Romania and Czechoslovakia in the 1930s, then as ...
Salt of the earth: a tale of colonial Cyprus
What’s the story behind Salt, a brand-new 20-minute film premiering on Monday 12th October at the International Short Film Festival of Cyprus?
In a way, it begins with the ...
Ping pong for peace in Nicosia
We visited Pingy Pongo for Peace, a bicommunal table-tennis event in Nicosia – organised by Pingy Pongo and HADE – bringing together people from both sides of the island for friendly play, ...
Everyday magic, and the spells we create
A pocket-sized hardback with a cover like a vision of Atlantis, all sea-blue and filigreed gold. The Magic We Create reads the title – then, in smaller letters, The Book of ...
Asking Cyprus about 9/11
A few days before the 25th anniversary of 9/11, we asked people on the streets of Nicosia what they remember from that day in 2001, and what it means to them all ...
From Africa to Ayurveda: a journey to healing in Cyprus
Miriam Erne is in what might be called a transitional phase. At 36, “I have lived through some stuff,” she says – vivid stuff and sometimes terrible stuff, images she’ll carry ...
Applications plummet: the latest twist in the PV saga
When it comes to solar power, the ultimate dream is self-sufficiency – both on the macro level, as an island (since we have so much sunshine), and on the micro, household ...
WHO report scrutinises role of personal doctors in Gesy
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 ...
The tragedy that shaped one of Cyprus’ newest MPs
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 ...
This might be Cyprus’ best housing idea – so why is no-one using it?
It’s so rare for a government scheme to be an unqualified Good Thing that it feels downright ungrateful to criticise it.
Then again, even Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou, speaking ...
Cyprus student shares OCD battle in powerful new book
Yiorgos Georghiou puts it bluntly, in the prologue to his book I Was My Own Enemy: “I am not a psychologist. I am not a clinician or a researcher. I ...
Deportation leaves family in limbo
Romani Youssef sits in a detention centre, waiting to be deported back to Egypt after being arrested as a ‘prohibited immigrant’ two months ago.
Meanwhile, his Cypriot fiancée Anthi ...
How do you feel when you hear the sirens?
A day after sirens rang out in the Republic – audible in the occupied north – to mark July 20, the anniversary of the 1974 invasion, we asked people on both sides how it ...
Trying to trick people with cheap gotchas: the Cyprus citizenship exam
Here’s a question (translated from the Greek) from the most recent citizenship exam for third-country nationals, on July 4:
‘Which of the following information about Cyprus is inaccurate:
1. National service ...
Cyprus’ ‘little hacker’: from US extradition to a murder trial
What, you may wonder, has become of ‘the little hacker’?
Joshua Polloso Epiphaniou is one of the handful of local criminals who are so notorious that they’re known by ...
The woman behind Cyprus’ EU Presidency
Sitting in the spokesperson’s office at the Filoxenia Conference Center, the desk stacked with piles of leftover CY2026 stickers and notepads, we’re suddenly distracted by the sound of ...