Category: Cyprus News Agency

CYPRUS DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY

FORECAST FOR THE SEA AREA OF CYPRUS (C)

FOR THE PERIOD FROM 1800 11/09/2026 UNTIL 1800 12/09/2026

Area covered is 8 kilometers seawards.

Winds are in BEAUFORT scale. Times are local times.

Atmospheric pressure at the time of issue: 1011hPa (hectopascal)

Seasonal low pressure is affecting the area. The weather will be mainly fine, but tonight and in the morning locally increased low cloud coverage may be present at times, with risk of local mist over eastern and southern areas.

Visibility: Good, but moderate to poor in mist

Sea surface temperature: 29°C

Warnings: NIL

AREA PERIOD WIND STATE OF SEA

West Coast

Night Northwest to North 3 to 4, locally near the coast North to Northeast 3 Slight, locally near the coast Smooth to Slight

Morning Northwest to Northeast 3, gradually Southwest to West 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Afternoon West to Northwest 3 to 4, locally 4 to 5 Smooth to Slight, locally Slight

South Coast

Night Southwest to Northwest 3 to 4, gradually Variable 3 Smooth to Slight

Morning Variable 3, gradually Southeast to Southwest 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Afternoon Southwest to West 4, gradually locally 4 to 5 Smooth to Slight, gradually locally Slight

East Coast

Night Southwest to Northwest 3 Smooth to Slight

Morning Variable 3, later East to Southeast Smooth to Slight

Afternoon South to Southwest 4 Smooth to Slight

North Coast

Night Southwest to West 3, near the coast Southeast to Southwest Smooth to Slight

Morning Southeast to Southwest 3, later Southwest to Northwest 3 to 4 Smooth to Slight

Afternoon Southwest to Northwest 3 to 4, locally 4 Smooth to Slight

Cyprus government condemned the Houthi attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the legitimate Yemeni Government.

The Cyprus Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X that the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is unacceptable.

”Cyprus stands in full solidarity with the affected countries and their peoples, and stresses the importance of upholding freedom of navigation and international law, in accordance with UNCLOS”, the post says.

From April 2024 until today, 80 fishing vessels have been modernised, whilst, for the first time, small-scale coastal fishing professionals have been able to benefit from grant schemes covering 100 per cent of eligible expenditure, with no private contribution required, Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and the Environment, Christos Senekis said addressing the 1st Fish Festival – Fishermen’s and the Liopetri River Festival on Thursday evening. He added that the compensation scheme for damage caused to fish catches by dolphins and other protected marine mammals is continuing, supporting around 300 professional fishermen each year, whilst ‘since the scheme came into effect in 2025, compensation totalling pound 1 million has already been paid out, whilst total support is expected to reach pound 4 million by 2029.

He added that, at the same time, targeted measures are being implemented to support fishermen’s incomes and address the day-to-day challenges they face. ‘This includes compensation for the temporary suspension of fishing activities, as well as support for the collection and removal of pufferfish,’ the Minister said.

He also emphasised that the support measures are adapted to changing circumstances which are creating new pressures on the sector, explaining that, in view of the energy crisis arising from the situation in the Middle East, “we have gone ahead with implementing a financial compensation scheme for the cost of diesel used in agriculture.”

Regarding to the co-funded project to develop the Liopetri River Fishing Shelter, he stated that “this is one of the largest infrastructure projects for the Cypriot fishing industry, which will substantially upgrade the infrastructure and operations of the coastal zone, whilst also generating benefits for the economy of the wider region.”

He acknowledged that ‘the project’s progress has not been without difficulties.” The implementation of a project of this scale and complexity, he explained, “presented challenges along the way, which affected the initial timetable and, inevitably, the daily lives of the region’s professional fishermen.”

“We are aware of this reality and the difficulties they have faced,” he noted.

Senekis added that work is now “back on track”. As he said, work on the construction of roads and pavements has already been completed, while the port works are expected to be finished in the first half of 2027, followed by the completion of the building facilities.

At the same time, he noted that progress on the project must be accompanied by “substantial support for the people affected by its prolonged implementation period.” In this context, support for each eligible professional fisherman has been significantly increased for the years 2025 and 2026, he said.

The Agriculture Minister expressed his confidence that, upon completion of the project, “our fishermen will now have at their disposal a safe haven with all the modern and necessary infrastructure and facilities that will substantially improve the conditions under which they practise their profession.”

The employment rate among people aged 20 to 64 in Cyprus remained at 82.3% in the second quarter of 2026, unchanged compared with the first quarter of the year, according to data published by Eurostat on Friday.

At EU level, the employment rate edged up to 76.4% in the second quarter, from 76.3% in the first quarter of 2026. As a result, the rate in Cyprus was 5.9 percentage points higher than the EU average.

Between the first and second quarters of 2026, the employment rate increased in 14 EU countries, remained unchanged in four, including Cyprus, and decreased in nine.

The largest increases were recorded in Portugal and Malta, at 0.6 percentage points each, followed by Greece with an increase of 0.5 percentage points. In Latvia and Slovenia, the employment rate rose by 0.4 percentage points.

The largest decreases were recorded in Austria, at 0.4 percentage points, as well as in Lithuania and Sweden, at 0.3 percentage points each.

Cyprus managed the tourist crisis in a successful manner because of the excellent cooperation between the public and private sectors, Tourist Deputy Minister Costas Koumis said Friday. He also pointed out that the decrease recorded during the first seven of the year was limited to 8%, and it is estimated that the annual decline will stand around 5%.

Koumis participated in a meeting with representatives of the Limassol Tourism Development and Promotion Company, the Limassol hoteliers and local authorities, to discuss the challenges and prospects of the tourism sector of the city.

He spoke of the cooperation between public and private sectors, noting that we all have a responsibility to ensure that tourism industry operates effectively and efficiently, and that our country remains a competitive destination.

He referred to the crisis that all had to handle due to the war and tension in the region that resulted in thousands of cancellations, pointing out that that ‘we managed it very successfully’.

Koumis referred to data saying that the decrease for June was around 1% and slightly above 1% for July. He said that estimations show that figures will be higher than in 2024.

Speaking in particular about Limassol, he noted that its share of the tourism product has remained around 12% for years. He went on to say that each geographical area of the island ought to highlight its comparative advantages and strive for its share in the market.

He referred specifically to the village of Pissouri in the Limassol district and the new museum that will be set up there. He said that such sites will become comparative advantages for the tourism product of the city and district of Limassol.

Asked about the sea pollution in Limassol Koumis said that this is an issue under the competence of the Shipping Deputy Ministry and that they are in constant contact as regards the problem.

He noted that Cyprus’ waters are one of the country’s comparative advantages, adding that we have a duty to safeguard the high quality of the island’s seas.

Chair of the Limassol Tourism Development and Promotion Company Andreas Tsouloftas said that the aim of the meeting was to set up a plan for the upcoming period and how best to promote the tourism product of Limassol city and district.

He explained that over the years smaller hotels have been converted into other types of premises, such as residential units, resulting in a loss of bed capacity.

He stressed the fact that Limassol attracts tourists with higher income levels.

Head of Limassol hoteliers Christos Tsanos said that the goal is for Limassol to maintain its current standard. He said that the Hoteliers Association has a multi-faceted campaign and is in contact with other bodies and organizations with the aim of strengthening their marketing committee on various levels.

The Cyprus Center for Trustworthy AI (CyCAT) at the Open University of Cyprus has successfully concluded its PINNACLE project (Public Engagement in AI Evaluation for Education and System Benchmarking), carried out with the generous support of the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation (BRIDGE2HORIZON/0823E/0203). Over 18 months, the funding (150.000 Euro) enabled our team to conduct initial scientific research and to coordinate a proposal to extend the work through Horizon Europe.

With the continued emergence of Generative AI and Foundation Models, new AI-enabled products and services enter the market every day. Google’s AI-generated answers to our search queries, or the recommendation systems that quietly decide what appears next in our Netflix and Spotify feeds, are just some of the ways in which we now interact with AI in “everyday” contexts, often without even realising it. Yet as these systems become ever more embedded in daily life, most of us have little means of judging whether they treat us fairly, safeguard our privacy, or behave as they should. PINNACLE set out to address precisely this gap by placing the people who use AI at the centre of evaluating it.

Throughout the project, our team developed innovative mechanisms by which members of the public can participate actively in discovering and evaluating AI-enabled products and services, in the spirit of the EU’s vision for Trustworthy AI. According to this vision, which underpins the EU AI Act, to be trustworthy, AI systems must respect a particular set of principles, such as being technically robust, fair, non-discriminatory, and respectful of users’ privacy. The PINNACLE methodology enables members of the public to have their say in evaluating the extent to which the AI-enabled systems they encounter are truly “trustworthy,” in a systematic way that can be documented.

In this spirit, we offered the online course “AI in Everyday Life” twice, using it to test two complementary approaches to public AI evaluation. In the first run, participants adopted a bottom-up approach, reporting each week on an AI application they had genuinely used and assessing its adherence to key ethical principles. In the second, they took a top-down approach, each selecting a single chatbot (ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot) to use throughout the course and following guided weekly tasks to evaluate it. Across the two runs, more than 500 members of the Cypriot and Greek communities took part, and the project successfully collected user-sourced evaluations of AI across both groups.

Beyond the course, PINNACLE laid down a conceptual framework for user-centred AI evaluation, produced nine peer-reviewed scientific publications, and coordinated a Horizon Europe proposal that scored well above threshold and will be revised for a future resubmission. Together, these outcomes have strengthened the team’s participation in Horizon Europe and expanded its network of collaborators across Europe.

CYPRUS DEPARTMENT OF METEOROLOGY

FORECAST FOR THE SEA AREA OF CYPRUS (B)

FOR THE PERIOD FROM 1200 11/09/2026 UNTIL 1200 12/09/2026

Area covered is 8 kilometers seawards.

Winds are in BEAUFORT scale. Times are local times.

Atmospheric pressure at the time of issue: 1013hPa (hectopascal)

Seasonal low pressure is affecting the area. The weather will be mainly fine, but tonight and in the morning locally increased low cloud coverage may be present at times, with risk of local mist mainly over eastern areas.

Visibility: Good, but moderate to poor in mist

Sea surface temperature: 29°C

Warnings: NIL

AREA

PERIOD

WIND

STATE OF SEA

West Coast

Afternoon

West to Northwest 3 to 4, locally 4 to 5

Smooth to Slight, locally Slight

Night

Northwest to North 3 to 4, locally near the coast North to Northeast 3

Slight, locally near the coast Smooth to Slight

Morning

Northwest to Northeast 3, gradually Southwest to West 3 to 4

Smooth to Slight

South Coast

Afternoon

Southwest to West 4, locally 4 to 5

Smooth to Slight, locally Slight

Night

Southwest to Northwest 3 to 4, gradually Variable 3

Smooth to Slight

Morning

Variable 3, gradually Southeast to Southwest 3 to 4

Smooth to Slight

East Coast

Afternoon

South to Southwest 4

Smooth to Slight

Night

Southwest to Northwest 3

Smooth to Slight

Morning

Variable 3, later East to Southeast

Smooth to Slight

North Coast

Afternoon

Southwest to Northwest 3 to 4, locally 4

Smooth to Slight

Night

Southwest to West 3, near the coast Southeast to Southwest

Smooth to Slight

Morning

Southeast to Southwest 3, later Southwest to Northwest 3 to 4

Smooth to Slight

The Cabinet approved on Thursday the appointment of the first Board of Directors of the National Cancer Institute, Health Minister Neofytos Charalambides said following the meeting, at the Presidential Palace.

‘Following the establishment of the National Cancer Institute, we are now moving to the next stage, namely its operation and the practical implementation of the important responsibilities assigned to it,’ Charalambides said.

He added the National Cancer Institute ‘represents a major reform in the way our country organises, coordinates and implements its policy for tackling cancer.’

The Health Minister stressed that ‘prevention and early diagnosis, equal access for patients to quality health services, improved care, and the utilisation of research and innovation are key priorities in this direction.’

Oncologist Dr Pavlos Dragos was appointed President of the first Board of Directors of the National Cancer Institute.

The Board of Directors also includes eight members, including representatives of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance, the Cyprus Medical Association (PIS) and the Cyprus Patients Associations Federation (OSAK).

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides expressed hope that there will be political will from everyone in the upcoming meetings in New York, during the UN General Assembly week, so that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres could call for a broader format meeting on the Cyprus issue.

President Christodoulides, who was arriving at an event in Athienou, Larnaca, on Thursday evening was asked if the Greek Cypriot side was informed by the UN about the phone communication between the Secretary-General’s personal envoy and Antonio Guterres. He replied that “we have not been informed and that we knew from the Secretary-General himself that there would be a telephone conversation, because it was not possible for Maria Angela Holguin to travel to New York.”

“We will certainly be informed in the next twenty-four hours,” he said. At the same time, he added, “the European Union has also begun preparatory work so that the conditions for the resumption of talks are created, taking into account the very important role it can play.”

President Christodoulides described the week in New York as critical and decisive. “I hope that there will be political will from everyone, that there will be a response, so that the Secretary General can move forward with an expanded meeting’, he noted.

He was also asked about the wish expressed by the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, with whom he met today in Nicosia, for Cyprus to host a Cyprus-Israel-Lebanon trilateral meeting, the President said that this is indicative of how neighbouring states view our role.

‘We are the [EU] member state of the region, which speaks with all neighbouring states, we have excellent relations with all neighbouring states and I am glad that they recognise this role of ours,’ he pointed out.

He also noted that we will do whatever we can to create conditions of security, cooperation and stability in our region.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term nears its end, announced he would convene another meeting in broader format, after adequate preparation, but gave no timeline. He secured to that end the consensus of both sides and of the guarantor powers. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties. Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto acts as the European Commission’s Special Representative for Cyprus, succeeding EU special envoy Johannes Hahn.

Port and Maritime Police and the Navy of Cyprus and Egypt took part in an international training in the field of port and maritime security. The training, which was completed at CYCLOPS, the Cyprus Centre for Land, Open Seas and Port Security, in Larnaka, focused on maritime search and detention operations and on handling threats from chemical, biological and radioactive materials.

A press release says that the training took place between August 31-September 9 and focused on conducting VBSS/CBRN operations (Visit, Board, Search and Seizure/Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear), policing operations at sea, in relation to threats of chemical, biological and radioactive materials.

According to the press release, instructors from the Port and Maritime Police contributed to the training program, along with personnel from the Underwater Demolition Unit and the Commando Unit of the National Guard, officers from the Deputy Ministry of Shipping, and personnel from the Ambulance Service and the Port and Maritime Police.

The closing ceremony of the training program, at CYCLOPS was attended by the Admiral of the Northern Fleet of the Egyptian Navy, representatives of the Embassy of Egypt in Cyprus, representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Officers of the Naval Command, as well as Officers from the Cyprus Police.