President Donald Trump has entered the artificial intelligence debate in familiar fashion: by reframing a policy fight as a political attack. In a series of Truth Social posts on Saturday, Trump dismissed growing concerns about AI safety and data center expansion as yet another Democratic “hoax,” while also floating a new name for the technology and hinting at a future federal AI czar.

Trump Rebrands AI, Then Calls Safety Concerns A Hoax

Trump first suggested that the term “Artificial Intelligence” sounds “inaccurate” and “ineloquent,” before posting a poll asking followers to choose a replacement: Superior Intelligence, Extreme Intelligence or Supreme Intelligence. The poll remained active at the time of publication.

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Hours later, he escalated the message, claiming that efforts to “decimate” or “destroy” AI were part of a broader pattern of Democratic deception, grouping the issue with everything from Russia and Ukraine to global warming and impeachment.

He offered no evidence for the assertion. Nor did he address the fact that skepticism toward AI and large-scale data center projects has emerged across the political spectrum, including in states such as New York, where officials have moved to pause permits for major new developments.

Data Centers Have Become A Political Flashpoint

Trump’s comments also reflect the growing backlash around the infrastructure behind AI. Across the country, communities and lawmakers have raised concerns about energy demand, water use, land consumption and the industrial footprint of hyperscale data centers. Supporters argue the projects bring investment and tax revenue; critics say the benefits are often overstated and the costs are local.

That tension has made data centers an unusually broad political target. Trump framed the criticism as an attack that began with data centers before shifting to AI itself, but the reality is more complex: opposition has come from both left and right, driven as much by zoning, utility constraints and environmental concerns as by ideology.

Trump Signals Support For The Industry — On His Terms

Even as he attacked the backlash, Trump insisted he would “cherish” the AI industry, help it and “watch over it” as it grows. He then said he is creating an AI Force, drawing a parallel to the Space Force launched during his first term.

He also said he will soon announce an AI “Czar,” adding that “only high I.Q. individuals need apply.” Trump did not outline what the role would do or how it would fit into the federal government’s existing technology and national security apparatus.

The position would follow the departure earlier this year of venture capitalist David Sacks from his post as Trump’s AI and crypto czar. Sacks later moved into a leadership role on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

AI Safety Debate Continues To Intensify

The president’s remarks come as the AI safety debate has sharpened in recent weeks. An AI researcher recently said he was leaving Anthropic over fears that leading companies believe the technology could pose a catastrophic threat by the end of the decade. Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei has since published a plan aimed at slowing the frontier of development, a position that appears to have earned at least partial backing from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

At the same time, critics argue that high-level existential warnings can obscure more immediate concerns, including labor displacement, misinformation, surveillance, discrimination and the concentration of power among a handful of tech giants.

That tension captures the heart of the current policy fight: whether AI safety is a genuine governance challenge, or a rhetorical cover for broader competition over who gets to shape the next major computing platform.

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang Backed Trump’s Framing

Adding to the momentum behind the industry, Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang recently appeared alongside Trump at the All-In Summit and agreed with the president that the backlash against AI amounts to a “hoax.” Huang also said the industry would not allow a slowdown to take hold.

The remarks underscore how closely the AI boom now intersects with politics, industrial policy and corporate influence. What was once framed as a technical debate about models, compute and guardrails has become a far larger contest over power, regulation and economic advantage.

Moody’s Ratings has raised its outlook on Greece’s sovereign credit rating to positive from stable, while affirming the country’s Baa3 investment-grade rating, in a sign that the country’s reform agenda is beginning to translate into measurable credit strength.

The agency said Greece’s economic and fiscal resilience has been improving faster than it had anticipated, with reforms helping to support a higher structural growth rate and strengthen the government’s capacity to keep cutting public debt.

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Reforms Are Strengthening The Credit Case

Moody’s said the country’s greater resilience should help preserve the multi-year decline in debt, including through further early repayments of liabilities accumulated during the financial crisis.

The positive outlook also reflects increasing, though still incomplete, confidence that recent fiscal gains and political support for continued debt reduction will hold through the economic cycle.

Greece’s Baa3 rating, the agency said, is supported by a long record of reforms, favourable debt sustainability dynamics and a marked improvement in the public finances. But the credit profile is still constrained by high public debt, large external deficits, moderate productivity and a sizable stock of distressed debt outside the banking system.

Broader Reform Gains Are Beginning To Show

Moody’s said structural reforms are gradually easing long-standing barriers to investment and resource allocation, while bringing more businesses into the formal economy.

The agency pointed to progress in tax administration, business licensing, insolvency procedures, the justice system, land management, spatial planning, labour taxation and skills policy. Those changes have been accompanied by stronger employment, firmer exports and healthier private-sector balance sheets.

“The strength of the evidence varies across reform areas and remains uncertain in several of them, but the breadth of these positive signals increases the likelihood that their cumulative effect will prove significant for Greece’s credit profile,” Moody’s said.

An Investment-Led Growth Model Is Emerging

Moody’s also said Greece’s growth model has become more investment-focused and increasingly supportive of productivity. Private investment accounted for almost two-thirds of the five percentage point increase in the investment-to-GDP ratio since 2020, suggesting the recovery is broader than a temporary lift from the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

That matters. In effect, Moody’s argued that EU-backed support through grants, subsidised loans and complementary public infrastructure has reinforced an investment cycle already underway rather than creating it from scratch.

The agency estimated Greece’s potential growth rate at about 1.5 per cent, adding that the ongoing structural transition raises the possibility that both growth and fiscal resilience could outperform current expectations.

Debt Metrics Continue To Improve

Greece’s public debt fell to 146.1 per cent of GDP in 2025, down from 154.2 per cent in 2024 and far below the 209.4 per cent peak reached in 2020. Moody’s expects that ratio to decline further to 120 per cent by 2030.

Primary budget surpluses of roughly 2.5 per cent to 3.0 per cent of GDP are expected to support the reduction.

Digitalisation of transactions and employment has also reduced the scope for under-reporting income. Greece’s estimated VAT compliance gap fell to about 9 per cent in 2024 from 24 per cent in 2019, underscoring the impact of better enforcement and a more formalised economy.

Greece also repaid €5.3 billion of debt early at the end of 2025 and plans to repay a further €13 billion by the end of 2026. Moody’s said the move reduces gross debt and future servicing costs while signalling a continued commitment to balance-sheet repair.

Challenges Have Not Disappeared

Despite the upgraded outlook, Moody’s warned that Greece still faces structural headwinds. A deeply negative net international investment position and long-term demographic pressures will continue to weigh on labour supply and medium-term growth.

While Greek banks no longer carry the high levels of non-performing loans seen during the crisis, a substantial amount of distressed debt remains elsewhere in the economy. Greece’s debt burden is also likely to remain among the highest of all Moody’s-rated sovereigns through the end of the decade, even if its debt structure limits exposure to global interest rate shocks.

For investors, the message is clear: Greece is no longer simply a post-crisis recovery story. It is becoming a case study in whether sustained reform, fiscal discipline and investment-led growth can permanently alter a sovereign credit trajectory.

Anthropic has taken its first concrete step toward CEO Dario Amodei’s push to slow the pace of frontier AI development, announcing a new partnership with Accenture that embeds outside evaluators inside the company to assess safety practices and model behavior.

A Trial Run For Amodei’s AI Slowdown Proposal

The arrangement is the clearest early signal that Anthropic intends to put Amodei’s recent three-step framework into practice. The company said Friday it has selected Accenture as an “embedded evaluator,” a role designed to give third-party specialists employee-level access so they can test safeguards, conduct red-team exercises and help determine whether advanced systems are acting in line with human values.

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Anthropic said both companies plan to invest at least $1 billion over the next five years to build capacity in this area. But the company added that it will directly fund Accenture’s work for now, arguing that the current funding model is a stopgap until pooled industry or government financing exists.

Why Anthropic Is Moving First

Amodei’s proposal landed with unusual force in a sector already under intense scrutiny. Anthropic and OpenAI have faced mounting concern from researchers and safety advocates who warn that increasingly capable models could cause catastrophic harm if development outpaces safeguards. In that context, Anthropic is positioning itself as both a technical leader and a policy test case.

“Long-term, we think funding should come from pooled or government sources, as we called for in our Advanced AI Framework in June,” the company said. “As neither exists today, we plan to work with different evaluators under different funding arrangements.”

Accenture’s Role Inside Anthropic

Anthropic said it will initially embed employees from Faculty, Accenture’s specialist AI business, to evaluate safeguards, red-team models and assess model alignment. The partnership is not exclusive, and Anthropic said it is also in discussions with the research nonprofit METR and other potential partners.

That matters because the company is not outsourcing responsibility. Anthropic stressed that it remains accountable for the safety of its models and that outside evaluators will supplement, not replace, internal oversight. In practical terms, the structure resembles an internal audit function with independent specialists, rather than a detached consulting review.

A Governance Model The Industry May Have To Follow

Amodei said Saturday that Anthropic had “unilaterally” committed to the first part of his proposal and urged other AI companies to do the same. His plan has drawn support from some of the industry’s most visible figures, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Others, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, have dismissed the call for new regulation.

The debate is sharpened by Anthropic’s own business momentum. The company is widely expected to pursue a blockbuster IPO, raising a basic question for the market: can a frontier AI company slow down development, strengthen oversight and still preserve the commercial urgency that public investors expect?

The Bigger Question: Safety At Scale

Anthropic’s announcement does not settle the policy debate. But it does translate an abstract safety proposal into an operational model that other AI developers can study. If embedded evaluators can provide meaningful oversight without weakening execution, the approach could become a template for the next stage of AI governance.

For now, Anthropic is making a clear statement: in a race defined by speed, it wants to prove that discipline can still be a competitive advantage.

The Office of the Commissioner for State Aid Control and the Research and Innovation Foundation (RIF) have taken a step toward a more structured partnership, with senior officials meeting earlier this week to deepen institutional cooperation.

A More Formal Framework For Coordination

The meeting brought together State Aid Control Commissioner Stella Michaelidou and RIF board chairman Demetris Skourides. At the centre of the discussion was the creation of a clearer framework for collaboration, including regular communication and a more systematic exchange of knowledge and expertise.

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The proposed approach builds on an existing relationship between the two organisations. The commissioner’s office has already played a role in assessing, advising on and deciding matters linked to RIF schemes and programmes.

Early Consultation To Avoid Delays

Both sides underlined the value of involving the office at an early stage, before new RIF schemes and programmes are finalised. That, they argued, could help identify state aid issues sooner, reduce the likelihood of redesign later in the process and accelerate implementation.

For public bodies, this kind of early engagement can be the difference between a programme that moves swiftly from design to delivery and one that is slowed by compliance adjustments at a later stage.

Greater Use Of The Gber

The discussion also focused on wider use of the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER), especially in the design of support schemes for small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to the commissioner’s office, proper application of the regulation can streamline procedures and speed up the rollout of compatible state aid measures. For policymakers, the appeal is clear: less administrative friction, faster approvals and a more efficient route to implementation.

Artificial Intelligence In Public Administration

Another major topic was the use of artificial intelligence in public administration. The two sides discussed how AI tools can improve productivity, process information more quickly and support public officials in their duties.

The conversation included RIF’s AI in Government programme, with both parties stressing that such tools must be deployed safely and responsibly. Protecting confidential and personal data, they said, remains essential, as does maintaining human oversight and final decision-making authority.

Training And A Possible Innovation Academy

The meeting also covered targeted training for RIF officials on state aid and related issues. In addition, the two sides explored the possible creation of a State Aid Innovation Academy, designed to build expertise in research, development and innovation funding, GBER implementation, assessment of innovative projects and the responsible use of AI and other digital tools.

Both parties said they intend to continue discussions and identify specific areas where cooperation can be expanded.

Artificial intelligence may be transforming enterprise operations at unprecedented speed, but a new study from SAS and IDC suggests that the organisations seeing the strongest returns are not simply those deploying more AI. They are the ones governing it better.

The second annual Data and AI Impact Report, titled The New Economics Of Trust, found that organisations applying what the researchers describe as trustworthy AI practices were 15 times more likely to report strong or high returns on investment from their AI initiatives.

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Governance Is Now A Performance Driver

According to the study, enterprises with the strongest governance, data quality and auditability practices reported at least twice the return on investment from AI deployments compared with other organisations. While SAS noted that these leaders still represent a relatively small segment of the market, their advantage is clear: trust is becoming a source of competitive differentiation.

At the other end of the spectrum, fewer than one in 20 organisations classified as laggards in trustworthy AI reported similarly strong returns.

“When AI works, it’s incredibly impactful,” said SAS chief technology officer Bryan Harris. “However, it is well documented that state-of-the-art agents can have error rates that exceed 25 per cent on complex tasks, which is unacceptable in high-stakes decision-making.”

Harris added that organisations must embed domain expertise into agentic workflows while keeping people at the centre of governance and oversight. “Organisations that do this successfully will close the trust gap and gain a competitive advantage in the market with AI,” he said.

Why Trust Is Becoming A Scaling Requirement

IDC vice president Chris Marshall said the challenge is intensifying as AI systems become more autonomous. “As AI becomes more autonomous, organisations face a new challenge: maintaining confidence in systems people don’t fully understand,” he said.

“Our findings show that stronger oversight, explainability, accountability and data foundations are becoming prerequisites for scaling AI successfully,” Marshall added.

The report found that employees frequently override AI-generated recommendations, with a lack of explanation emerging as the leading reason. Researchers said users were increasingly unwilling to rely on systems when they could not determine whether the output was correct or understand how the model reached its conclusion.

That trust deficit becomes more costly as AI systems take on greater autonomy. Manual corrections can slow workflows, reduce productivity and erode profitability, even when the underlying model is technically capable of making accurate recommendations.

According to the study, 97.2 per cent of users override AI-generated recommendations in at least some cases. The most common reason, regardless of whether employees believed the output was correct, was that the system could not explain its reasoning.

Autonomy Increases Both Opportunity And Risk

The report also found that trust declines as systems become more autonomous, falling from 76 per cent for generative AI to 66 per cent for agentic AI. That drop matters because organisations are increasingly deploying AI in settings where decisions are more consequential and less transparent.

SAS and IDC said the findings point to a widening performance gap between organisations that prioritise trustworthy AI and those that do not. The difference, they argued, is not necessarily the technology itself, but how it is managed and governed.

Organisations investing in trustworthy AI measures were 15 times more likely to report strong or high returns on investment, with 62 per cent doing so compared with 4 per cent among organisations without such practices. Those with the strongest trustworthy AI capabilities also reported 1.85 times greater gains across 13 business outcomes, including revenue growth, cost savings and customer experience.

The study further found that 85 per cent of AI leaders with strong trustworthy AI practices were increasing investment in the area by more than 10 per cent in 2026, a signal that the gap may widen further.

Data Foundations Remain A Bottleneck

Beyond governance, the research highlighted weak or outdated data foundations as another major barrier to adoption. SAS and IDC said many organisations are still deploying AI on underdeveloped data infrastructure, limiting their ability to deliver the transparency and explainability required for effective oversight.

Only 17.5 per cent of enterprises were found to have a fully optimised data infrastructure mature enough to meet the demands of agentic AI. Organisations with such a foundation were four times more likely to expect strong returns from AI projects and six times more likely to require data quality and explainability controls designed to build trust.

The study was based on a global survey of 2,699 decision-makers with knowledge of or influence over their organisations’ data and AI programmes across 28 countries and four industries: banking, insurance, life sciences and the public sector.

Industry Leaders Are Treating Governance Differently

In banking, 85 per cent of AI leaders had established AI governance frameworks, compared with just 29 per cent of organisations classified as laggards. The report said leading banks are increasingly viewing AI governance as both a competitive and operational issue, not merely a compliance obligation.

In the public sector, 41 per cent of leaders said they were increasing investment in trustworthy AI by more than 20 per cent in the coming year, one of the highest rates across the survey.

Life sciences showed another important pattern: 23 per cent of organisations had scaled AI across their entire companies, the highest proportion among the four sectors studied.

What The Report Means By Trustworthy AI

SAS and IDC define trustworthy AI as artificial intelligence designed to be reliable, fair, secure and compliant with regulatory requirements, while also being able to explain how it reached a decision.

The report argues that users and decision-makers across an organisation should be able to hold an AI system to a predetermined chain of accountability when its output is incorrect or absent. In practice, that means AI cannot be treated as a black box if it is expected to support high-stakes decisions at scale.

The companies assessed organisations across five dimensions of trustworthy AI and scored them out of 100. Those with an average score of at least 80 were classified as trustworthy AI leaders.

The five dimensions were data quality and governance, model governance and oversight, explainability and fairness, responsible AI policy, and audit and accountability.

The message from the report is unmistakable: in the next phase of AI adoption, the winners may not be those experimenting the fastest, but those building the strongest foundations of trust.

Disney is making a clear statement about where it wants to compete next: at the intersection of storytelling, data and artificial intelligence.

The company said Friday that it has hired Karandeep Anand, most recently chief executive officer of Character.AI, as senior executive vice president and chief technology officer, effective Oct. 2. The newly created role will report directly to Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro and is designed to sharpen the company’s technology strategy across the enterprise.

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A New Technology Mandate At Disney

Anand will oversee enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and artificial intelligence platforms, as well as product and engineering. Disney said he will work across technical teams to modernize how the company builds and delivers technology across the business.

“Karandeep brings a rare mix of experience across infrastructure, consumer technology and AI, and will be a vital addition to Disney’s senior leadership team as we further our three priorities: great storytelling as our North Star, technology in service of creativity, and operating as One Disney,” D’Amaro said in the company’s announcement.

The hire reflects a broader strategic shift under D’Amaro, who has emphasized that Disney must use technology not as a support function, but as a growth engine. Since taking the top job, he has focused on reinforcing the company’s strongest businesses — especially streaming and parks — while building new digital capabilities that can extend Disney’s intellectual property across more consumer touchpoints.

Streaming Sits At The Center

Disney+ remains central to that plan. D’Amaro has said the company is considering a free, ad-supported tier for the service as a potential “front porch” to bring more consumers into the ecosystem. The idea underscores a broader push to turn Disney+ into more than a subscription platform.

On Thursday, Disney also named Adam Smith chairman of direct-to-consumer for Disney Entertainment, further signaling the importance of streaming in the company’s next phase of growth.

Executives have also suggested that shopping and streaming will become more tightly connected on Disney+, with more details expected in the spring. At an investor conference earlier this month, CFO Hugh Johnston described the effort as an “integrated ecosystem” under the Disney+ banner — one that could bring together films, television, consumer products, parks, cruises and gaming through Disney’s vast library of intellectual property.

Why Character.AI Matters

Anand joins Disney from Character.AI, a platform that lets users create and interact with character-based chatbots. Disney said he led the company through a period of rapid growth while keeping user trust and safety at the forefront. In addition to Anand, Disney is also bringing in members of Character.AI’s technical team.

His background spans consumer technology, infrastructure and financial technology, with prior roles at Brex and Meta’s Facebook. That combination appears to fit Disney’s ambitions as it seeks to modernize internal systems while also building more personalized, scalable consumer experiences.

The move is also notable given Disney’s complicated history with Character.AI. Last year, Disney sent the startup a cease-and-desist letter over the use of copyrighted characters without authorization. Character.AI later said it removed the characters referenced in Disney’s complaint.

Still, the appointment suggests Disney is prepared to lean into the very technologies it once challenged — provided they can be used to reinforce its core assets and extend the value of its intellectual property. In an entertainment market increasingly shaped by AI, platform design and consumer data, that may prove to be a competitive necessity rather than an option.

Company websites: The Walt Disney Company, Character.AI

Cyprus cannot rely on diesel or natural gas as a long-term solution to its energy needs, according to Cyprus Institute president Stavros Malas, who argued that the country must pair renewable generation with durable energy storage if it is serious about lowering costs and strengthening energy security.

A Testbed For Cyprus’ Energy Future

Malas made the remarks on Friday during a visit by Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Nicodemos Damianou to the Cyprus Institute’s PROTEAS research facility in Pentakomo. He described PROTEAS as “a miniature version of Cyprus as it should be,” pointing to its role as a real-world platform for testing technologies in renewable energy production and storage.

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For an island economy with no interconnection to larger power systems, the challenge is not only how electricity is generated but also how it is stored and delivered when the sun is not shining. Malas said the transition must begin now “if we do not want to remain a country producing very expensive electricity.”

“Neither the fuel we have now, diesel, nor natural gas are long-term solutions,” he said.

Why Storage Matters As Much As Generation

The message reflects a broader reality facing energy markets worldwide: renewable generation alone is not enough. Without storage, solar and wind power can struggle to provide a stable, around-the-clock supply. For Cyprus, that issue is magnified by geography, limited grid flexibility and the costs of imported fuels.

Malas’ argument is that the country should treat storage as a core part of energy strategy, not an afterthought. In practical terms, that means investing in technologies that can capture excess power during periods of high production and release it when demand rises.

A Living Example Of Innovation

Damianou described PROTEAS as “a living example of what Cyprus wants to become,” framing the facility as a place where advanced technologies can be tested and translated into broader commercial and industrial use.

He said the site shows that Cyprus can evolve beyond the role of a passive energy consumer and instead become a destination for innovative firms developing solutions for a changing energy landscape.

“The reason I am here is to see and examine, as a government, these innovative solutions being implemented at PROTEAS,” Damianou said.

Research With Commercial And Climate Relevance

During the visit, the deputy minister toured the facility and received a briefing on its work, including research tied to climate change mitigation. He was accompanied by the deputy ministry’s director of research and innovation, Constantinos Kleovoulou.

PROTEAS is the Cyprus Institute’s experimental platform for the research and demonstration of renewable energy technologies, with a particular focus on concentrated solar thermal energy and energy storage. The Pentakomo site allows researchers to test solar technologies under Cyprus’ specific climatic conditions, with applications that could extend to other regions with similarly high solar potential.

The institute says its solar thermal research has also attracted interest from private companies, some of which have installed heliostats at the facility to support research and innovation efforts. That commercial interest suggests a wider opportunity for Cyprus: to turn its natural advantages into a platform for clean-tech development, investment and exportable expertise.

Monthly Trade Balance Strengthens In July

The euro area posted a €14.20 billion surplus in goods trade with the rest of the world in July 2026, according to first estimates from Eurostat. That marked an increase from €10.70 billion a year earlier and a sharp improvement on the €7.20 billion surplus recorded in June.

Exports of goods from the euro area to non-member countries rose to €276.00 billion, up 9.0% from €253.30 billion in July 2025. Imports also increased, but at a slower pace, climbing 7.9% year on year to €261.80 billion from €242.60 billion.

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Sector Mix Drives The Improvement

The year-on-year increase in the euro area’s July surplus was driven mainly by stronger balances in chemicals and related products, other manufactured goods, and food and drink. That gain was partly offset by a narrower surplus in machinery and vehicles, which remains one of the bloc’s most important trade categories.

In practical terms, the data suggests that the euro area’s trade performance remains sensitive to shifts in industrial demand and the composition of exports. Gains in higher-margin sectors helped lift the monthly balance, even as broader import growth continued to absorb momentum.

Year-To-Date Surplus Narrows Significantly

Despite the stronger July reading, the euro area’s cumulative trade position weakened materially over the first seven months of 2026. Between January and July, the bloc recorded a surplus of just €17.00 billion, down sharply from €92.80 billion in the same period of 2025.

Over that period, extra-euro area exports increased by only 1.2% year on year to €1.76 trillion, while imports rose much faster, advancing 5.8% to €1.75 trillion. The result: a trade balance that remains positive, but far less comfortable than it was a year earlier.

Trade within the euro area also expanded, with intra-euro area trade reaching €1.65 trillion, up 5.0% from the first seven months of 2025.

EU Trade Balance Turns To Deficit

The broader European Union told a similar story, though with an even weaker cumulative result. In July 2026, the EU recorded a €8.00 billion surplus in goods trade with countries outside the bloc, down from €9.80 billion a year earlier, but well above the €2.40 billion surplus posted in June.

Extra-EU exports rose 7.8% to €247.10 billion, while imports increased 9.0% to €239.10 billion. The year-on-year deterioration in the monthly balance was mainly linked to a lower surplus in machinery and vehicles. That was partially offset by stronger surpluses in chemicals and related products and food and drink, as well as a reduced deficit in other manufactured goods.

For the January-to-July period, however, the EU moved into deficit. The bloc recorded a €13.80 billion deficit, compared with a €84.00 billion surplus in the same stretch of 2025. Exports from the EU to non-member countries edged down 0.6% to €1.57 trillion, while imports rose 5.9% to €1.58 trillion.

Imports Continue To Outpace Exports

The larger message from the July release is clear: both the euro area and the EU are still generating monthly surpluses, but the balance is under pressure. Imports have been rising faster than exports for most of 2026, eroding the cumulative trade position even as individual months have shown resilience.

In the EU, intra-bloc trade also continued to expand, reaching €2.58 trillion from January to July 2026, an increase of 6.1% compared with the same period of 2025.

For policymakers and investors, the data points to a trade environment that remains functional but increasingly dependent on sector-specific strength rather than broad-based export outperformance. The July rebound offers some reassurance, but the seven-month trend indicates that external demand is not yet strong enough to offset import growth across the region.

The Deputy Ministry of Tourism has announced that nine Christmas Villages will operate across Cyprus this year, bringing festive activity to communities in every district during the 2026-2027 holiday season.

Nine Destinations Selected Across The Island

The villages will open in Agros, Deryneia, Kakopetria, Kalopanayiotis, Kyperounta, Lefkara, Lofou, Statos-Agios Fotios and Fikardou. The festive programme will run from 21 November 2026 until 6 January 2027.

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Built On A Proven Tourism Model

The selection followed the completion of the evaluation process for applications submitted under the grant scheme for community and municipal councils along the Heartland of Legends route. The initiative continues the Deputy Ministry’s broader effort to stage Christmas Villages in municipalities and communities, a programme that has delivered strong results and positive visitor feedback over the past five years.

Local Identity At The Centre Of The Experience

This year’s destinations will feature festive decorations, wooden chalets selling local products and handmade crafts, and experiential workshops focused on artisan skills and food and wine culture. Visitors can also enjoy outdoor activities, including nature walks, cycling routes, village tours, and other seasonal attractions.

The Ministry’s long-term objective is to keep enriching the Christmas Villages each year, strengthening their local character and building them into a stronger attraction for both domestic and international visitors.

More Information Online

Further details on the programme and activities of each Christmas Village will be published on the dedicated website: christmasvillages.com.cy.

Cyprus saw the share of renewable energy in its net electricity generation rise to 36.8% in June 2026 before easing to 29.98% in July, according to data released Friday by Eurostat. The monthly figures show a steady climb through spring, with renewables accounting for 34.66% in April and 36.84% in May, followed by a marginally unchanged 36.80% in June and a sharp decline the next month.

European Union Renewables Hold Above 54%

Across the European Union, renewable sources supplied 54.1% of electricity generation in the second quarter of 2026. That was slightly below the 54.3% recorded in the same period of 2025, underscoring both the resilience of the bloc’s clean-energy mix and the variability that remains tied to weather, seasonality and system demand.

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Solar Leads The EU’s Clean Power Mix

Solar power was the largest renewable source in the EU during the second quarter, responsible for 41.6% of total renewable electricity output, up from 37% a year earlier. Wind followed with a 27.7% share, while hydropower contributed 22.6%.

Renewable fuels accounted for 7.7% of generation from renewables, while geothermal and other renewable sources made up the remaining 0.4%.

Wide Gaps Across Member States

The data also highlighted substantial differences among member states. Latvia posted the highest share of electricity generated from renewables at 97.7%, driven mainly by hydropower and solar. Denmark followed with 94.3%, led by wind power, while Croatia reached 92.2%, largely on the back of hydropower.

At the other end of the scale, Slovakia recorded the lowest share at 19.8%, followed by Czechia at 20.9% and Malta at 24.5%.

How Eurostat Measures Renewable Electricity

Eurostat noted that the figures refer to the share of renewables in net electricity generation. They should not be confused with the share of renewables in gross final electricity consumption, which is used to monitor progress toward the EU Renewable Energy Directive targets and is calculated using a different methodology.