‘Once you’re a football fan, the time doesn’t really matter’
The first World Cup that Giovanni remembers vividly was South Africa in 2010. He was 15 at the time, on summer holiday, and went a little football-mad, watching every game.
Life got ...
Articles
‘I’ve been through hell and back’: cancer, love and a miracle baby
Stronger and softer, says Yianoula Kyprianides when I ask how her experience – actually more the experience of her husband Kyriacos – has changed them both.
‘Stronger’ is obvious enough. “‘Stronger’ as ...
Congolese community on the march in Cyprus
A march in Larnaca last Saturday by the Congolese community in memory of Christian Ndjondo, who died on May 27 after falling from a third-floor balcony during a police immigration raid.
‘Should same-sex marriage be legal in Cyprus?’
With Cyprus Pride 2026 coming up, we asked a selection of people on the streets of Nicosia.
Is the idea of non-citizens voting in all Cyprus elections just ridiculous?
A total of 378,150 people voted in last Sunday’s parliamentary elections – but what about the foreign nationals?
That number represents 66.4 per cent of those who were eligible to vote, but ...
The new voice of Cyprus politics
It’s a game, of course. We the People vote for MPs every five years – then, once results are in, those politicians can relax.
Voters have very little power to ...
Liopetri fishing shelter and an old familiar story
The upgrade of Liopetri fishing shelter (Potamos Liopetriou) isn’t the most extreme example of a scenic spot being altered – some would say destroyed – in Cyprus. It’s not even ...
Brazen dolphins are not a fisherman’s friend
Dolphins – cute, clever dolphins, the tourist’s friend – are actually a menace, according to fishermen.
“This is an SOS,” says Antonis Zampas, a fisherman in the Famagusta district, describing how ...
Time to dance: ‘A journey to come to terms with death’
The facts are there, hidden behind a curtain in Arianna Economou’s rehearsal space in old Kaimakli: shelves upon shelves of boxes, the earliest dated ‘1983’. This is her personal archive, ...
‘Eurovision: Does it mean something to you?’
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.
The ballad of Cyprus, and who we are
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 ...
Yes, a Cyprus connection
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 ...
‘Trusted flaggers’ to police the web
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 ...
Teens in Cyprus: ‘Don’t blame social media’
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 ...
Cyprus Film Days switches focus
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 ...
‘It’s a sickening example of a colonial mindset’
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 ...
‘An uneasy peace between two sides’
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 ...
‘It’s like going through hell every day’
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 ...
A forage through the fields of Cyprus
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 ...
Change is coming for the ambulance service
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, ...
‘A missile comes so fast it’ll hit you before you know it’
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 ...
‘British bases, out!’
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. ...
Is Cyprus in danger?
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 ...
Both a lament and a pep talk at sustainable tourism conference
“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 ...