• After the people’s protests (if any), the developments

• Trump’s big trick on the sultan

• Ministers Wanted—The Great Bargaining of 2028

• Deputy Ministry of Innovation or… Misfortune?

Good morning, everyone. I must say I’m relieved because, to be honest, I had believed our President when he said we’d see spectacular developments in the Cyprus issue around late July–early August. And I thought, “Oh well, this man’s passion for resolving the Cyprus issue is going to ruin our vacations.” In the end, it seems everything is being postponed until after “the people’s summer vacation.”

• Of course, this postponement is also due to “Turkey’s negative stance.” The possibility that we might have thrown our own parties and rushed to stick our tongues out (yet again) before the milk curdles is out of the question. We always have the purest intentions and the most sincere dispositions…

• A scene from the Presidential Palace: Nikos Christodoulides is on pins and needles, anxiously awaiting a call from Ursula to find out what Erdogan ultimately said about the Cyprus issue during his crucialwith European institutions. The phone rings; he snatches up the receiver in a flash, asks what happened, and then doesn’t speak again until he hangs up. “What did he tell you, Mr. President?” they ask, their anxiety mirroring that of his aides. “… Nothing! Erdogan sat slumped in his chair, said he was tired, gave them a list of his demands, and took a quick nap.” Just kidding—that’s more or less how Erdogan’s much-talked-about dinner with Ursula and Costa went.

• Since we’re on the subject of Erdogan, let’s also take a look at the commotion caused by Donald Trump’s—almost romantic—compliments from Donald Trump to the Turkish President and the massive F-35 deal that Turkey is frantically seeking. The usual “saviors of the nation” in Greece and Cyprus have come out again to explain to us how “the sultan got everything he wanted.” Really, what did he get? Trump and Erdogan met again nearly a year ago at the White House. On September 25, 2025, when Trump declared in front of Erdogan that “the U.S. would move to lift the sanctions imposed on Turkey under the CAATSA law and would seriously consider selling F-35s to the country.” A year later, in July 2026, Trump stated that “he would seriously consider Turkey’s request to rejoin the F-35 program.” This is what Erdogan ultimately received after a year of waiting. The very same statement from 2025. And this will continue until the sultan decides to permanently part ways with the Russian S-400s.

• Erdogan certainly threw the NATO leaders into a tizzy, however. The reason was the gift he gave to each of them—a pistol engraved with their names and loaded with live ammunition. Britain’s Starmer left his in Ankara, as importing weapons into his country is prohibited. Germany’s Merz also left it at his country’s embassy in Ankara, while the Belgian prime minister was wondering what to do with this strange gift when he opened the box at the airport and saw the pistol. The one who would have been pleased by this is, without a doubt, Trump.

• Back to our own affairs. There’s a lot of confusion surrounding the various unofficial campaign teams currently being formed for the 2028 presidential election. Averof has gotten to work, as has Anita, and Pamboridis is also preparing to enter the fray. That’s the situation with DISY. As for the presidency, there’s a bit of panic in the air. On the one hand, the President is struggling to keep Nikola close to him; on the other, he’s casting a net to the right; and, in the midst of all this, he’s making sure to give a little attention to the extra-parliamentary parties as well, which, let’s face it, collectively account for over 10% of the vote. How he’ll strike a balance in all this is a huge gamble, especially with Nikola looking for an excuse to break ties with him.

• The most ridiculous situation is the one involving the cabinet reshuffle. Christodoulides proposed (don’t listen to what people say) that both Tornaritis and Kousiou take on ministerial posts. The former rejected the offer. As for Kousiou, as soon as she found out, Anita rushed to tie her firmly to the DISY bandwagon by appointing her as the party’s deputy press secretary. Come on, folks—any of you interested in an appointment or a promotion within the party, put your name forward now while the opportunity is still there. The Presidency’s “heirs apparent” are ready to offer the moon and the stars.

• It’s not enough that we have politicians with their shenanigans; now we also have the black hole that is our legal system. We’ve reached the point where we can’t find a single lawyer who hasn’t been professionally involved in some scandalous case to appoint as a criminal investigator. And this is true not only in Cyprus but also in Greece. And while this situation must come to an end somewhere (with people constantly questioning it), the reality is this: there have been—and continue to be—so many scandals in this country that their tentacles seem to be spreading across nearly the entire planet.

• And we also have the Attorney General stating (in Parliament) that “he isn’t interested in being liked; he’s interested in being useful to the country.” Mr. Savvidis, with all due respect, you are neither well-liked nor useful. Because a General Prosecutor who is forced to recuse himself from what is perhaps the most serious case he has ever been called upon to handle cannot be considered useful.

• Shouldn’t we rename that Ministry of Innovation the Ministry of Misfortune? Because there hasn’t been a single initiative to upgrade technological support for citizens that hasn’t ended in a fiasco. The mess with the televisions was the worst of it. We haven’t even managed to make the transition to something more modern. And after people were forced to buy set-top boxes, change their antennas, throw away their TVs, and buy new ones, the Deputy Ministry decided to keep the old system in place for a few months in the hope of making the transition smoother. This is something that, as I’ve been told, the TV stations had proposed early on, even suggesting a period of 1–2 years rather than just a few months. But who listens to those affected? The Deputy Ministry of Culture—doesn’t it know what it’s doing?

• In any case, all this commotion showed just how attached Cypriots are to television. The thousands of phone calls received by the stations and service providers, as well as everyone’s efforts to resolve the problem they were facing at home, proved that television in Cyprus still has a future. Because there were many who were quick to write it off as finished and assume that social media had swallowed it up as well.

• I’ll close with something unpleasant. It was brought to my attention, and I couldn’t believe it. The President of the Republic did not deem it appropriate to attend the funeral of journalist Giorgos Tsalakos. Nor did any of his ministers. Victor Papadopoulos represented them all. On the other hand, Anita and Averof were there. They said the President had other commitments. And we’re talking about the very same President who, just the other day, went to TV studios to discuss the World Cup—the one who never misses a single event throughout Cyprus. What a shame. Such a shame. Not for Tsalakos, but for the President.

Have a good Sunday. And, be careful—as the heat intensifies, avoid exposure to… toxic people and toxic situations. The sun does far less harm than they do.