Theo Panayides

A few days before the Eurovision song contest, we asked people on the streets of Nicosia how they feel about the contest in general, and Cyprus entry ‘Jalla’ in particular.

Let’s take, for instance, the ‘poiitarides’ – or ‘itinerant poets’, as Nicoletta Demetriou calls them. ‘Poiitarika’ (the category name for their works) were “long narrative songs,” she explains, “the closest ...

Does Yes have a Cyprus connection? In a word, yes. There are actually two obvious links. The more obvious is that Yes – though made by an Israeli filmmaker, and set ...

When does social-media rage turn into hate speech? Is Eoka a terrorist organisation? Should it be legal to blame Nato expansion for the war in Ukraine? And who gets to ...

As the Cyprus government prepares a bill banning social media for the under-15s, we asked a selection of 13- and 14-year-olds at the American International School in Cyprus for ...

It might appear that, like Mark Antony, I’ve come to bury Cyprus Film Days, not to praise it. But in fact the situation around CFD – by far the best ...

You’d be hard-pressed to find an interviewee as open and candid as Melanie Steliou. At one point, however, I ask her something (I won’t mention what) that she ...

Sitting down at Kala Kathoumena in Nicosia, Graham Butler greets me in Greek, then thanks the waitress with a very acceptable “Efharisto” when she brings his coffee. Nigel Hastings does ...

The whole world is watching the US and Israel’s war with Iran. But no-one’s watching as attentively – or with such a knot in their stomach – as the Iranian ...

Mastic and mustard, sea squill and agave and cistus and meadow crane’s-bill. “This is chickweed,” says Katie Richards, pointing out a thin leafy plant. “This one is chickweed. Let ...

The long-running effort to create a national ambulance agency took a big step forward last month, with the House health committee debating a bill aimed at establishing it. The bill, ...

Oksana Cherkashyna tells a story about death. Actually a near-death experience, an account of being on a plane that developed ‘technical problems’ during landing – a polite way of saying they ...

Hundreds of activists gathered in the centre of Nicosia on March 7 to peacefully protest the presence of the British bases in Akrotiri and Dhekelia amid the ongoing war against Iran. ...

A few days after Iranian drones started attacking the British Bases in Cyprus, we asked a selection of people in Nicosia if they felt threatened or in danger, and who ...

“This is a celebratory event – I do understand. It’s not my intention to make it all doom and gloom,” joked Boris Erg of IUCN (International Union for Conservation of ...

Michael Friedrich recalls a journalist from German TV channel ZDF who interviewed him and his wife Sabine while in the West Bank. The journalist (or at least his channel) took ...

The government’s GMI (Guaranteed Minimum Income) scheme provides financial support to around 17,000 families, and some 22,000 people in total. One common criticism, though, is that the scheme acts as a ...

She’s ‘the queen of Colombian trap music’. She also appears in thriller show Fake Profile, “the most-viewed Latin series on Netflix the year it came out”. (Her song ‘Problem ...

Here’s a pro tip, says Christos Soteriou. If you’re in a place with no good options – at the airport, say – and desperate for a coffee, go to Starbucks (...

A new study called Media Coverage of Gaza: The Case of Cyprus has been released by Universitas Publications and the Institute for Mass Media, and will be presented at an ...

A huge, 38-metre wall mural has just been completed on Trikoupi street in old Nicosia – the latest step in the ongoing project to re-brand and rejuvenate the walled city. Trikoupi, ...

George Gavriel’s house is a little tricky to find, the name of the street (a small, dead-end street on the outskirts of Nicosia) not easily discernible when you search ...

Two days before Cyprus takes over the rotating six-month presidency of the EU Council, we asked various people on the streets of Nicosia how they feel about it.

Of all the various stories I wrote in 2025, the one about the dam in Solea – ‘A dam full of water going to waste’, to quote the headline – wasn’t necessarily ...