Current Events

Cyprus is all set to reopen its airports on June 9 after ending strict lockdowns put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This reopening is happening right as said lockdown restrictions which were imposed to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus are being slowly lifted.

In a statement to the media, Cypriot’s Deputy Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios said that the authorities expect to fully contain virus’s by June. This means that it would be safe to go back to business as usual and open airports and other transportation means – especially since it is very essential.

The island nation was one of the few countries in Europe that took early measures to prevent the coronavirus outbreak to take deadly proportions. Borders were sealed in around the middle of March – much before other European nations, and went on to stop all passenger flights since March 21.

Cyprus currently has 918 cases of COVID-19.

The government has reported a sharp increase in welfare spending resulting from the outbreak of COVID-19.

The report says that the state’s welfare spending has increased to a total of €513 million as the state has launched multiple support programs to ensure the personal and professional safety of its residents.

The money spent during the period of January to April 2020, is an increase of a whopping 108% – as compared to the €246.9 million that was spent between January to April 2019.

The report clearly attributes the spike in welfare spending to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the resulting expansion of the National Health Scheme and its payment.

The top spender in this regard has been the Ministry of Labor, which spent over €153 million in the month of April. Its total expenditure in the January-April period has been €407 million. This was confirmed by Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou, who explained to the Parliament how a sum of €219 million was paid to the people from March May through a variety of welfare schemes.

The spending has had an adverse effect on the state’s financial status. The state revenue has gone down by 13.5% during this period, as opposed to the expenditure which has risen up by 16.5%.

As coronavirus outbreak eases, European nations are slowly opening up to return to a new normal. Temporarily shut down Ryanair is all set to begin flights to and from Cyprus from the 1^st of July.

The budget airliner reported that it will start offering daily flights all Northern European countries including the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, Germany and Belgium, to top holiday destination airports such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and of course Cyprus.

It will, however, be operated only at 40% of its schedule and remain compliant with health and social distancing guidelines – even as it continues to serve during peak tourism season.

To give the business a much-needed boost, Ryanair is launching an exclusive travel sale, offering travelers fares as low as €29.99 for a one-way flight. Seats must be booked by May 28 midnight, however.

The Cypriot government is all set to deport 17 migrants for having links with terrorist organizations.

The government recently announced that the 17, who were arrested on the basis of suspicion of having links to extremist groups or being part of terror activities were being held in a detention centre.

They will be deported once the transport system is back online after the end of the coronavirus lockdowns and restrictions.

According to a statement by the ministry, the information of the individuals’ involvement in terror groups was verified by Interpol and Europol. Both organizations iterated that these people either belonged to extremist groups, or were directly involved in acts of terrorism.

The details of these people were not disclosed for security reasons.

Cyprus has successfully tested over 12% of its total population for the novel coronavirus.

Health minister Constantinos Ioannou recently revealed to the House health committee that the island nation is now the sole country in all of the European Union to achieve this status.

He further added that Cyprus will continue its contact tracing to further test people for the deadly pandemic-causing virus.

Minister Ioannou went on to explain how over €6.7m has been spent thus far over testing, and that the expectations are for prices to go down further.

Tests in Cyprus currently cost €65, only second to Romania’s €63 – which is the cheapest in the European Union.

According to Google, many “hacker-for-hire” firms that are backed by the Cypriot government are now targeting consulting firms, healthcare facilities and financial institutions all over the island nation.

Google went on to say how they sent over 1700 warnings to users whose accounts were compromised by these government-based hackers. Clearly exploiting the coronavirus pandemic, they use phishing and hacking techniques under the guise of messages related to COVID-19.

Google’s Threat Analysis Group says that many of these “hacker-for-hire” firms are actually based in India. They have been creating Gmail accounts that spoof top organizations such as the United Nations (UN) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The coronavirus pandemic has led to lockdowns all over the world, with all forms of transport suspended till further notice. With no trains or planes in sight, all travel plans, and trips have been foreseeably canceled. This has not, however, stopped the wealthy and affluent in Russia from fulfilling their plans.

Private jet companies have reported a sharp rise in demands of planes from rich Russian nationals who wish to spend time away in Europe away from their home country.

Many of these have close relations with countries such as the UK or Cyprus – be that the form of owned property, close relatives, permanent residency or even dual nationality.

Believing that their private homes abroad would be safer than those at home, these people have been seeing paying a lump sum of anywhere between 16,000 to 25,000 euros per flight. Notably, this would generally be the cost of the air fare of more than 13 passengers.

A massive fire burned more than 2½ hectares worth of vegetation in Cyprus’ Softades area.

The fire broke out in the early hours of the morning on the road from Kiti to Mazotos. The vegetation it destroyed included olive and eucalyptus trees, reeds and other wild plants and vegetation.

It took over 2 hours of fighting before the firefighters finally brought it under control. More than 4 vehicles from the Larnaca station were used for this purpose.

Rumors have finally been put to rest as Norwegian energy company Hoegh LNG has finally confirmed that it had indeed submitted a proposal to install of a Floating Storage Regasification Unit (FRSU) in Cyprus.

According to a statement from the company itself, officials sent letters to President Nicos Anastasiades along with finance and energy ministers, where they highlighted the key benefits and advantages to installing an FSRU in Cyprus, and especially at Vasiliko.

Hoegh LNG went on to add that the main purpose behind sending these letters was to help the government understands more regarding the proposal that had officially been submitted to Cyprus Energy Regulatory Authority (Cera).

In the meantime, CERA itself, refused to make any comments due to the ‘under-review’ status of the application.

The proposal in question includes installing said FSRU at Vasiliko in Quarter 1 of of 2021, along with a pipeline that would to transport gas to EAC’s power plant, as well as other potent users.

In news that indicates hard time for the Cypriot economy, a Eurostat report has revealed that over 40% of exports have dropped in the period of January to February in 2020.

According to the report, the value of exported goods reached around €0.4 billion – around €0.1 billion less than the average €0.3 billion.

In the meantime, imports remained steady at €1.5 billion – out of which, €0.8 billion was from the EU while the remaining €0.6 billion was from other parts of the world.

This means that Cyprus faced a -€1.0 billion deficit in the aforementioned January-February period.

The struggling economy of the EU along with the growing crisis of the coronavirus pandemic are being touted as the main reasons for this downturn.

The coronavirus pandemic and its resulting lockdown have kept many on the edge, and many are resisting and violating the law. In the latest incident, over 80 persons were arrested within 12 hours in the space of Saturday night and Sunday morning during the Easter weekend.

The police, who carried out over 4,000 during the time booked violators of the lockdown. They conducted checks 976, 815, and 311 checks in Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca, booking 31, 20 and 16 persons respectively.

Others were booked in Famagusta and adjoining areas, where over a thousand were checked.

In a news that reveals much about Cyprus’ demographics, a Eurostat study has shown that Cyprus some of Europe’s lowest birth rates.

According to data obtained from the study, countries with the lowest birth rates in Europe included Luxembourg (at 1.38 births per woman), Greece (1.35), Cyprus (1.32), Italy (1.29), Spain (1.26) and Malta (1.23).

In the meantime, highest birth rates were observed in Czech Republic (at 1.71 births per woman), Denmark (1.73), Ireland (1.75), and Sweden and Romania (tied at 1.76). France was seen having the highest birth rate at 1.88.

Meanwhile, for 2018, the average birth rate for all of European Union (EU) was 1.55, as of 2018.

Amidst severe tensions with Cyprus and Greece, and the coronavirus pandemic to boot, the Turkish Navy was seen carrying out operational readiness exercises in the Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean seas.

The military exercise included several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and helicopters, a maritime patrol aircraft, and 27 warships participated actively in the training.

The military drill is being touted as bad news as Ankara is currently on bad terms with both Nicosia and Athena due to its forced hydrocarbon drilling activities.

On the 21^st of April, the government of Cyprus called Turkey’s drilling activities an “act of piracy” that breached the island nation’s rights. Greece had released a statement criticizing Turkey as well.

Turkey, on the other hand, made it clear that its drilling activities were on the west of island, which they regard as well within its rights.

In what is being considered great news amidst the looming pandemic, The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has not reported any new COVID-19 cases in the last week.

In a statement to the media, Turkish Cypriot Health Minister Ali Pilli revealed that in 2,868 conducted in the last few weeks, not a single sample tested positive. He went on to say that 546 persons were tested on Friday alone, with no positives.

The last positive case in Northern Cyprus was confirmed on April 17. This was after the first case was reported in the territory on March 10 – a tourist from Germany. 108 cases have been reported there so far, and 4 persons have died.

Over 8,423 persons have been tested for the disease so far.

Cyprus has been receiving medical supplies to combat the coronavirus crisis – the island nation is currently accepting its fifth consignment of medicines and supplies from China.

In a statement to the press, Health Ministry of Cyprus announced that the consignment will contain shoe covers, protective masks, and testing swabs – all of which are necessary equipment for medical professionals.

Donated by China, the supplies, once received, will be distributed to State Health Service hospitals for usage.

The island country has so far used around 35 tons of medical supplies donated by China.

The Chinese Embassy in Cyprus recently said in a statement to the press that Health Ministry has expressed its regards to China for their kind contribution. Huang Xingyuan, the Chinese Ambassador to Cyprus went on to praise the preventative efforts made by the Cypriot authorities in his social media account.

Cyprus currently has a total of 795 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.

The lockdowns put in place have inconvenienced many, and tourists are no exception. In Cyprus alone, hundreds of tourists have been left stranded.

British tourists standred here, however, are about to get a reprieve, the British government is making arrangement to fly them out of the island nation.

In one of the biggest repatriation missions of recent times, the British government will be sending 10 flights to rescue all British tourists who are currently left stranded due to ongoing travel restrictions.

The flights, which will run from April 25 to April 30, will be operated by Aegean Airlines. The flights will arrive to Larnaca and return to Edinburgh, Heathrow, and Manchester.

The meaure has been taken by the Foreign Office seeing the plight of stranded tourists and the ban on flights that is set to remain at least till April 30.

A statement by the Foreign Office clarified the situation, saying that while all commercial flights have been banned, few cargo and humanitarian flights will still be allowed on a case-by-case basis.

In what is being considered a breather for the frontline fighters in the novel coronavirus pandemic, retail giant Lidl has collected €40,000 to be donated to the Cyprus Red Cross Society.

The amount, which was collected through the Favorina initiative, was sourced from selling Favorina products at 17 Lidl stores on the island nation in the months of March and April.

The company sent a heartwarming message to patrons by showcasing Favorina products as their Easter specials to support the Cyprus Red Cross Society (CRCS). The organization, which has been working tirelessly to manage the pandemic, will be receiving the €40,000 financial reward.

The money was specifically collected by donating €0.30 from every sold product under the Favorina label. The collected grand total of €40,000 will be used to support the vulnerable, the elderly, and migrants, tending to their alimentary needs.

Besides the donation, Lidl Cyprus has also donated “Love Packages.” These include food and essentials for citizens in need.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to the death of several industries and business, and the Cyprus tourism industry is no exception. As a result of the nationwide lockdown that been put in place to curb the spread of the pandemic, tourist arrivals in the island nation has fallen manifold.

According to statistics, the percentage of tourist arrivals has fallen by a record-breaking 67.4% – going down from 169,934 in March 2019, to 55,342 in March 2020.

This is due to the lockdown that has been imposed from 15 March. It includes bans on entry and exit to the country for all residents and non-residents, including tourists. This led to the number of tourist arrivals falling by leaps and bounds.

Arrivals from the UK fell by a record 70.2% in March 2020 (as opposed to the same time last year), while that from Russia and Greece declined by 60.8% and 66.6% respectively.

This has been a very bad news for the country’s economy, especially after it enjoyed a record 3.97 million visitors in 2019.

In the latest instance of migrants seeking asylum, a boat with around a hundred migrants reached the southern part of Cape Greco.

The Cypriot Coast Guard is currently on the way to offer them necessary supplies but will not be able to allow them to enter the country due to the lockdown in place to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The boats currently lies around 10 nautical miles off of the south coast of Cape Greco.

A pipe bomb has exploded right outside MC Digital Media Group’s office building.

The building currently houses the Cyprus Times along with other media outlets that the group owns. The offices are located in Limassol in south Cyprus.

The windows were cracked, and some minor damage was sustained by the building. No one was injured.

According to Myriella Avraamidou, the editor-in-chief of Cyprus Times, the attack was related to the reporting activities of the news outlet. That being said, she had neither heard of nor received any threats regarding any of the articles before the bombing.

So far, the police have negated any personal motivations behind the attack. They are currently investigating ties between the bombing and the journalistic activities of the outlets of MC Digital Media Group.