🚗Nicosia: car veers off road and crashes into tree
On Saturday, April 25, around 2:07 PM on Dimitris Christofias Avenue in Nicosia, a car lost control, left the carriageway and crashed into a tree. The front of the vehicle was severely damaged.

🚓 Police arrived promptly at the scene.

📌 Fortunately, there is no information about any injuries so far. The road was presumably slippery, or the driver may have been distracted. Be careful behind the wheel. 🌳💥
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🚨Overnight police raids: 12 arrests, 517 fines and 24 vehicles impounded
Police carried out another large‑scale overnight operation across Cyprus.

👮‍♂️ 12 people were detained on suspicion of:
— attempted arson
— assault occasioning grievous bodily harm
— driving under the influence of alcohol
— illegal residence in the territory of the Republic of Cyprus

🚗 Road checks:
— 947 vehicles stopped, 1,225 drivers and passengers checked
— 517 traffic violation fines issued
— 232 for speeding
— 320 alcohol tests: 35 positive
— 2 for driving under the influence of drugs
— 24 vehicles impounded

🏪 Establishment checks:
48 premises inspected, 9 complaints received (related to licences).

📌 Context: Police continue enhanced raids every day. Violations have increased even more — especially speeding and alcohol. The night showed that many drivers still do not understand that drunk driving kills. Be responsible. Do not get behind the wheel drunk. And do not speed. 🚫🍷🚗
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🏃‍♀️Paphos: run against drink-driving — "I'd rather walk than drive drunk"
This morning at 9:00 AM, a charity 5‑kilometre run started on Saint Nicholas Promenade in Geroskipou. The finish line is at Paphos medieval castle.

🎗️ Who and what it’s about

The run is organised by the "Dr. Jota Dimitriou – The Dancing Queen" Foundation. The foundation is named in memory of child psychologist Dr. Jota Dimitriou, a victim of a fatal accident in November 2008 caused by a drunk driver.

Dr. Dimitriou’s vision was to help children, adolescents and their families through child psychology. The foundation continues her work, offering hope and financial support to families in need of psychological assistance.

⚠️ Purpose of the event

To raise awareness of the devastating consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol. The event runs under the slogan: "I'd rather walk than drive drunk."
📌The run has been held for 17 years (usually in Limassol) and is the foundation's main source of income. Today it took place in Paphos. Together against drink-driving. 🚫🍷🚗
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🚗Limassol: woman freed from vehicle after night-time crash
Tonight at 00:55, in the community of Moniatis (Limassol), a private car veered off the road, hit the parapet of a sewage collector and came to rest on its side.

🚑 The woman was extricated using hydraulic equipment and taken to the trauma centre of Limassol General Hospital.

🚒 Two fire engines attended the scene.
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🔥Paphos: fire in warehouse of hotel supplies in Agia Varvara industrial zone
Yesterday evening, around 7:14 PM, in the Agia Varvara industrial zone (Paphos), cardboard boxes on wooden pallets stacked outside a warehouse caught fire. The boxes contained hotel supplies.

🚒 Two fire engines attended the scene.

🕵️‍♂️ The cause of the fire is being investigated together with the police. It remains unknown for now.

📌 Damage and casualties have not been specified. Fortunately, the flames did not reach the warehouse building itself. 🤞
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💦🌿After the prolonged rains that have fallen over the past two months, the island's reservoirs have finally begun to fill up.
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🇪🇬🇨🇾Cyprus expands labour agreement with Egypt: thousands of vacancies
Minister of Labour Marios Mousiouttas held talks in Cairo and agreed to expand the memorandum with Egypt (originally signed in June 2024). The agreement now covers tourism, construction, IT and waste management. Employers had barely used the old deal — so it has been revised.

Why is this urgent?

The Cypriot economy is growing faster than the labour market can keep up:

· GDP grew by 3.8% in 2025 (revised data from the Statistical Service), and growth of 3% is forecast for 2026.
· Labour shortages are being felt ever more acutely.

Where are the biggest gaps?

Construction – the most critical situation. The Federation of Building Contractors (OSEOK) estimates a deficit of at least 5,000 workers – from general labourers and drivers to civil engineers. This is holding back even public projects.

Hotels need around 4,000 employees (data from the PASYXE and STEK associations). Due to the Middle East conflict, tourist flows from Israel (the second-largest market) have temporarily declined, but hoteliers expect demand to recover quickly.

Retail – about 2,500 vacancies. The opening of two new shopping centres in Limassol ("Limassol Mall" and "The Mall of Limassol") will create an immediate need for another 1,000 staff.

IT – the sector accounts for 14% of GDP and also faces a serious shortage. A PwC Cyprus survey found that 43% of CEOs name a shortage of skilled personnel as a serious threat, particularly in the field of artificial intelligence.
📌 The economy is growing, but workers are lacking. The new agreement with Egypt is an attempt to close the gap quickly. Whether it succeeds remains to be seen. But builders and hoteliers are already waiting. 🏗️🏨
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💰Elections in Cyprus: candidates to pay €500 per place on the list. More than 1,000 people = half a million euros
Parliamentary elections in Cyprus are set for 24 May. Nominations will take place on 6 May at the district administrations of all cities. A registration fee of €500 is required for each nomination.

📊 How it works

If a party fields a full list of 56 candidates, it will pay €28,000. The total number of candidates across the island is estimated to exceed 1,000 (around 20 parties). Multiply 1,000 × €500 = approximately half a million euros.

🔄 Will the money be returned?

Yes, but not to everyone. Parties that secure at least one third of the votes in a given district will have their fees refunded. The rest lose the money. It goes into the state fund.
📌 Participation in elections comes at a cost. If a party is weak and does not reach the one‑third threshold, its candidates pay €500 per slot — and that money is not returned. The state collects a "prize fund" from the losers in advance. 🗳️💰
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🛵Limassol: delivery rider injured in crash on Archbishop Leontiou Street
On Thursday, 23 April, on Archbishop Leontiou Street in Limassol, a delivery motorcycle and a passenger car collided.

🚑 An ambulance was at the scene. The scooter was overturned, with debris and personal belongings scattered across the road.

📌 No information has been released yet on the rider’s condition. We are waiting for updates. The accident is yet another reminder: drivers, look around you. Riders, do the same. 🛵💥
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🗓100 years ago people already imagined 2026: voice input, translators, rockets, climate crisis and AI – which sci‑fi predictions came true?
In 1926, science fiction writers, journalists and inventors tried to imagine what the world would be like a hundred years later. Some forecasts now look ridiculous, others are almost eerily accurate.

🚀 Technologies of the future

The American magazine Amazing Stories, launched in 1926, wrote about supertelescopes, interplanetary flight, autograph machines, voice‑typewriters with translation into other languages, and even mind‑reading devices.

Sounds like fantasy? Not entirely. Voice input, automatic translation, GPS trackers, AI text analysis and satellite communications have long become part of our reality.

🤖 AI, translators and strange inventions

A fictional character, Dr Hackenshaw, invented a typewriter that could take dictation and translate text into Russian, Chinese and other languages. Today that is a standard smartphone function.

He also proposed an anti‑theft device that, after a car was stolen, would light up a sign on the body reading "car stolen". Today, trackers and alarms do the job.

🌍 Global warming was predicted too

In Murray Leinster's novella The Mad Planet, published in 1926, the future suffers from excess CO₂. The world is overrun by giant fungi and insects. The details are fantastical, but the theme of warming turned out to be unexpectedly relevant.

👩‍🚀 Space: dreams faster than reality

On 16 March 1926, Robert Goddard launched the first liquid‑fuelled rocket. It rose only 12.5 metres and flew 56 metres. Yet newspapers were already writing about flights to the Moon. The actual Moon landing was still 43 years away.

🏙 Dystopias also kept pace

Metropolis imagined a future city split between an upper elite and a lower working class. Machines, inequality, technocracy – it does not sound so outdated.

🔮 What came almost exactly true:
— voice input and machine translation
— satellite communications
— anti‑theft systems
— AI in text analysis
— climate anxiety

❌ What did not come true:
— Martians in fashionable clothes
— children on personal mini‑airplanes
— an automatic judge
— the revival of frozen people
— flights to the Moon already in 1926
📌 The people of 1926 got the details wrong, but they correctly grasped the main point: the future would depend on technology, energy, climate, space and inequality.

And the most curious thing – 100 years ago, they were already thinking about us. Arguing, fantasising and seriously asking: "What will the world be like in a hundred years?"
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📱Cyprus bans social media for children under 15 — age verification via Digital Citizen app
President Nikos Christodoulides has announced the introduction of a ban on social media for children under 15. Age verification will be carried out through the state Digital Citizen app (currently used by around 145,000 Cypriots).

🛡️ How the check will work

The European Commission has developed a mechanism to confirm age without transferring personal data to platforms — a "zero‑knowledge proof" principle. Roughly speaking, you prove that you are 15 or older without showing your passport or revealing your name. The Digital Citizen app will become the national tool for this verification.

⚠️ What about adults?

Lawyer Andreas Shialaros, a specialist in digital rights, warns: "This is not just a tool to check a child's age. It is a state digital gateway connecting every citizen to the online world. If you give the state too much power, it will be hard to take it back."

A separate issue is migrants, refugees and foreign residents. For them, social media are often the only way to stay in touch with family. Authorities have promised that foreign registration documents will be integrated into Digital Citizen by the end of 2026.

🔄 Will it actually work?

Australia's experience (ban from December 2025) is not encouraging:
— 61% of 12–15 year olds still have access to blocked platforms
— 53% continue to log in via VPNs and other workarounds

Australia is already tightening control: platforms face fines of up to €30 million ($49.5 million) for failing to take "reasonable steps" to block underage users.

📅 When will this happen in Cyprus

The legislative process will run until 2027. Implementation of the verification mechanism is expected at the end of 2026 – beginning of 2027. Ahead lie the drafting of a bill, an impact assessment on children's rights, and public consultations.
📌 Protecting children is the right thing to do. But the age verification technology could become mandatory for all social media users. And then the "gateway" to the internet will be controlled by the state. That is a question not only of safety, but also of freedom. 🛂🌐
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🥾15 nature trails in Troodos reopen after winter closure
The Cyprus Department of Forests has announced the reopening of 15 hiking trails in the Troodos mountains. The trails had been temporarily closed for safety reasons (usually for the winter season) and are now accessible again for walking.

🌿 Which trails are open

Circular trails:

· Leivadi (wheelchair accessible)
· Artemis
· Atalanti
· Pissouromoutti – Pouryria
· Leivadi tou Pappou
· Thesia eis tin Madari

Linear trails:

· Persephone
· Kaledonia
· Kampos tou Livadiou – Loumata Aeton
· Mnimata Piskopon
· Kannoures – Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis (Kakopetria)
· Fragma Evretou – Stavroulia
· Evretou – Loumata Aeton
· E4 sector (Troodos)
· Madari – doxas tis odo
📌All routes have been inspected and declared safe. Hikers, cyclists and anyone wanting to breathe fresh mountain air are welcome. Maps and trail descriptions are usually available at the trailheads and on the Forest Department's website. 🏞️🚶‍♀️🌲
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⛪️Former Metropolitan Tychikos: "I was praying, the priest attacked first"
After the scandal in the Church of Apostle Paul in Paphos, where a priest and former Paphos Metropolitan Tychikos got into a fight, the bishop issued a statement through his lawyer. His version of events differs dramatically from that of the priest, who complained of neck pain following the altercation.

🙏 According to Tychikos

He came to the church to pray and submit memorial names — not to serve. While he was praying, the priest allegedly attacked him without reason, making remarks, then grabbed his arm and tried to push him out. Tychikos claims he remained completely calm, even kissing the priest's hand, but the priest continued to be aggressive. To avoid escalating the conflict, Tychikos left the altar and went to the chanters' area (psaltirion).

🚫 "No violence on my part"

Tychikos categorically denies hitting the priest or causing any injury. He believes the claim of neck pain is an attempt to create a false impression. Witnesses, he says, can confirm his version.

⚖️ What next

Tychikos reserves the right to defend his honour and restore the truth. He is in the process of contacting the relevant authorities to officially document the incident. He calls on church authorities not to ignore or restrict the right to pray in religious places.

"Unbrotherly behaviour does not fit the healthy spirit and climate of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus," the statement says.
📌 Two versions of one incident. The priest says Tychikos had no right to serve, and that his neck (recently operated on) was injured. Tychikos says he was simply praying and was attacked. The matter is now not only ecclesiastical but also legal. Who is right will be determined by the police and possibly the courts. ⚖️🙏
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🕯️ Fatal accident in Akrotiri: name of deceased motorcyclist released. Car driver free
Details have emerged of the crash in which a motorcyclist died at Cape Akrotiri (Limassol). The victim is Olekgandr Denysenko, 35, a Ukrainian citizen permanently residing in Cyprus. He had a female passenger, aged 40, who was injured.

🚗 What about the car driver

The driver of the second vehicle is a 74-year-old man. He has been released on bail (personal surety). He will appear in court at a later date.

🍷 Alcohol test
The older driver tested negative.

📌 The investigation continues. Motorcycles are a dangerous form of transport even when fully protected. Be careful on the roads, especially at speed. 💔🕊️
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🇫🇷Cyprus and France to sign defence agreement in June: French troops to be stationed on the island
The Republic of Cyprus and France are preparing to sign a new defence agreement in June. According to preliminary information, the document envisages the presence of French military personnel on the island — for humanitarian purposes. This will form part of expanded bilateral cooperation.

🤝 Why this matters

France remains a key security partner for Cyprus. The new agreement will strengthen the island's defence capacity and its international standing.

🗣️ Context

Cyprus and France have long-standing military ties: joint exercises, French air defence systems in Paphos, cooperation within the EU. Now — possibly a permanent presence (in a humanitarian format). The island is becoming an important node in military logistics in the Eastern Mediterranean. 🛡️🇪🇺
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🪖2026 conscription in Cyprus: preparation, process and deployment
The Cyprus National Guard begins the induction of 2026 conscripts (ΕΣΣΟ). An estimated 80 recruits are expected, though the figure may vary (deferrals, repatriates). A gradual increase is expected in the coming years due to a rise in the birth rate.

📍 Distribution by city (share of recruits):

· Nicosia: 40%
· Limassol: 27%
· Larnaca and Famagusta (combined): 23%
· Paphos: 9–10%

🌍 Special units:
100 recruits will be sent to Heraklion (Crete) for SEAP training. There is strong interest in special forces (LOK — Commando Forces).

📞 Process simplified to the maximum

For the first time, a conscription call centre will operate (starting in May, daily until 8:00 PM). It will answer all questions: digital services, guidance for those interested, help for repatriates and the diaspora.

💻 e‑Classification platform (open until 3 May on gov.cy). To log in, you must identify your profile (via Citizen Service Centres, video call, or online banking if you already hold a soldier's account). This will simplify the process for future conscripts, as even citizens over 14 can register.

📋 How conscription will proceed

1. Recruits will receive an electronic notification in their account stating the date of their medical examination.
2. Those deemed fit will report to the supply depot to collect their uniforms and equipment (all issued for home use).

The issue list includes more than 30 items:

· 3 sets of training uniforms
· Socks, trainers, beret, caps, jumper, thermal underwear, tracksuit, T‑shirts
· Bed linen, pillowcases, sleeping mat
· Woolly hat, gloves, slippers
· Two towels (bath, face)
· Mess kit: plate, mug, fork, spoon, foldable knife
· Earplugs, torch with batteries

1. On the day of deployment, conscripts report to the KEN (reception centres) already in uniform. There they are photographed, documents are processed, they receive a QR code with their route, and they are assigned to their units.
📌 The National Guard states that it is fully prepared to receive the new recruits. 🇨🇾
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📉Corruption in northern Cyprus worsens: 150th place in the world and a fifth consecutive year of decline
A new study by academics Ömer Gökçekuş and Sertak Sonan (supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation) has recorded a deterioration in the corruption situation in the occupied territories.

📊 Figures and ranking

Northern Cyprus scored 24 points out of 100 on the Corruption Perceptions Index — placing it 150th in the world. The previous year it scored 26 points, and the index has now been declining for five years in a row.

👥 What residents and businesses say

A survey of 352 respondents found:

· 33% admitted to paying a bribe, giving a gift or offering a service (most often to speed up paperwork).
· 2 out of 3 entrepreneurs believe that corruption has worsened over the past year.
· 63% called corruption a serious obstacle to doing business (only 7% said it did not hinder them).
· 7 out of 10 residents describe corruption as a "very serious problem".

🏛️ Where is corruption strongest?

The most affected areas are:
· allocation of state land and buildings
· issuing of licences
· awarding of government contracts

For the first time, senior officials have overtaken members of the cabinet in the ranking of the most corrupt groups.

😔 Society's attitude is changing for the worse

· Three years ago, only 5% of respondents considered it acceptable to use personal connections to speed up procedures. Now – 19%.
· Tolerance of corruption is steadily rising: a bribe or a call to the "right person" is increasingly seen as a normal way to get things done.
· More than half believe that voter bribery is widespread, and nearly a third report intimidation of voters.

⚖️ Trust in institutions

· More than half of respondents have no trust at all in the executive branch.
· 55% called it completely ineffective in fighting money laundering.
· The courts and police still enjoy slightly more trust than the executive, but confidence in them is also declining.

📌 Context:
The study's authors link the deterioration to scandals and arrests of high‑ranking officials, which have made corruption "more tangible" for ordinary people. Corruption in northern Cyprus is not just a statistic — it is a real obstacle to business and everyday life. And year by year, the problem is only becoming more acute. 📉
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