Space war and other completely unnecessary distractions
When Troy Meink, the chief of the US Space Force, announces for no obvious reason that the United States “now has on-orbit space-control weapons”, people naturally assume that something is ...
World is rethinking strength of US dollar
For decades, international markets treated US government bonds as a zero-risk asset and safe haven during times of crisis. However, the escalating US national debt is causing concern, broadly affecting ...
Market economies are failing society
Democratised market systems in most Western countries, including the diverse economies of the United States and Cyprus, are failing society in that wealth has become increasingly concentrated among the very ...
‘I cannot destroy humanity,’ AI tells the Cyprus Mail
There has been much doomsday talk recently following a claim by AI experts that unless its progress is curtailed there is a 10 per cent possibility it could destroy humanity in ...
From Troy to Trump: the ancient lessons we still refuse to learn
Dolly Parton and Donald Trump are same generation American entertainers. Self-made, a generous philanthropist, Dolly was smart, prolific musically, warmly loved. Trump, born to wealth, a wily taker, a prolific ...
Not AI doom
Somebody was bound to sound the alarm eventually. In this case it was a young British artificial intelligence researcher called Jacob Coxon, who quit his job at the AI company ...
Great Sea Interconnector ties Cyprus to regional volatility
The geopolitical contest for strategic primacy across the Levantine Basin has now converged upon the seabed, centred on the execution of the Great Sea Interconnector.
Conceived as a 1,208-kilometre high-voltage ...
Netanyahu’s expansionist obsessions have become mainstream in Israel
It has been a year since Canada, France and the United Kingdom officially recognised the State of Palestine (under Israeli occupation, final border to be determined). The killings by Israelis ...
Trump’s foreign policy: unconventional methods, traditional goals
What if Donald Trump’s foreign policy is not as chaotic as it looks?
Last year, I argued that beneath the spectacle, contradictions and unpredictability, Trump’s foreign policy had ...
Revisiting Cyprus’ doctrine of necessity
Like an old dog barks now and again to remind himself he is a dog, an old Cypriot scribbler feels the need to write about the Cyprus problem now and ...
Cyprus’ prison crisis: why new capacity can’t wait
By Dina-Perla Portnaar
A society reveals its moral temperature through the order it imposes when the guilty are placed behind bars. Justice doesn’t rise from the ashes of neglected ...
Climate: “No good outcomes”
“El Niño is being supersized before our eyes,” said United Nations Secretary General António Guterres. “The science leaves no room for doubt: the planet is in uncharted waters, ...
Cyprus solar power: where the money really goes
The debate over Cyprus’ high electricity prices has increasingly focused on renewable energy producers and, in particular, whether commercial solar parks are earning excessive returns. This is a legitimate question ...
Skipping tough economic choices now will only make them harder later
Last week I wrote about the possibility of a financial crisis in the United States. Given that the three indicators I identified were grounded in fact rather than speculation, I ...
Global economy is increasingly shaped by geopolitics
Traditionally, economics and political science were regarded as distinct disciplines. Economic analysis was grounded primarily in the benefits of free competition and countries’ comparative advantages in determining patterns of trade, ...
The Anabasis of Kilimanjaro: the mountains we all climb
Five days into our climb of Mount Kilimanjaro, shortly after midnight on June 15, 2026, under a sky ablaze with stars and thinning air, Karim Tabet, my fellow climber from Lebanon, our ...
The mirage of leverage: Crans-Montana and the laws of geography
The collapse of the 2017 Crans-Montana conference remains the defining strategic blunder of modern Greek Cypriot statecraft, illustrating the fatal flaw of relying on legalistic paper promises in an era of ...
Cyprus’ inadequate and unsustainable pension reform
The social security “reform”, proposed by the Christodoulides government is inadequate, unfair and unsustainable.
This is mainly because the scope for bringing many vulnerable persons out of the risk of ...
There must be full investigations into Cyprus boat tragedies
There were two tragedies at sea in Cyprus last week. August is a most dangerous month in the sea around Cyprus, known in Greek as kakavgusties when the sea is ...
The hidden cost of being a ‘cat lady’ in Cyprus
I have books on Celtic archaeology sent to me by a dear friend that I read through and kept till I had leisure time to enjoy studying them. It never ...
Fidias’s challenge: Let’s finally open the electricity bill
MEP Fidias Panayiotou’s initiative to reduce electricity prices by 20 per cent has sparked intense public debate. The government, professional bodies, and market stakeholders quickly disputed his calculations, particularly regarding ...
Cyprus needs Mozart’s magic flute
This summer, my wife and I attended Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in southern France. The performance began at 9.30pm in the sweltering ...
Cyprus’ cartel politics and a fragmented Republic
In late August 2026, former President Nicos Anastasiades delivered an address over the state-run Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation that fundamentally unsettled the country’s political landscape.
Ostensibly arranged as an elder statesman’...
Why the US may be heading for a financial crisis
Last Sunday night I woke up sweating at around 1am after a particularly bad nightmare. Usually, I cannot get back to sleep easily, but this time I was so deeply ...