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A criminal court in Nicosia on Tuesday acquitted two former senior Cypriot politicians accused of having improperly intervened in citizenship applications under the country’s now-defunct “golden passport” program, ruling that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence. 

The defendants, Demetris Syllouris, a former parliament president, and Christakis Giovanis, a former lawmaker, had denied wrongdoing. In a 170-page judgment, the court said key witnesses did not appear and had not been summoned, a lapse judges described as decisive in dismissing the case.

Speaking after the verdict, Syllouris said he had been vindicated. “I was clean and remained clean,” he said, rejecting allegations of corruption and criticizing what he called attempts to politicize the proceedings.

The case stemmed from a scandal that erupted after an undercover investigation by Al Jazeera in 2020 exposed apparent willingness by officials to help a fictitious Chinese businessman with a criminal record obtain Cyprus citizenship. The report, titled The Cyprus Papers Undercover, prompted both men to resign almost immediately and intensified scrutiny of the investment-for-citizenship scheme.

An independent investigation chaired by former Supreme Court judge Myron Nicolatos examined the legality of massive naturalisations granted under the Citizenship by Investment Program, and concluded in its 2021 report that the scheme had been applied unlawfully in a significant number of cases.

The government abolished the program later that year after mounting criticism over abuses.

Criminal proceedings formally began in 2022 and were marked by suspensions, re-filings and the dismissal of co-defendants, gradually narrowing to the two politicians. The trial concluded in December 2025, with the verdict delivered Tuesday.

It was the third first-instance criminal case linked to the program. Defendants in two earlier cases were also acquitted, though those rulings are under appeal, and a fourth case involving a former minister is still pending.

In its 2025 rule-of-law assessment, the European Commission said further steps were needed to ensure effective investigation and prosecution of corruption cases, warning that tackling graft remained essential to maintaining public trust in state institutions.

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.

When it comes to government spending, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking a cue from the Trump administration.

As his second term nears its end, DeSantis is spearheading a campaign to slash property taxes, which provide around 30% of local government revenue. He’s also looking to dramatically pare down state-funded programs, and he’s commissioned a state-level version of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” to do so. DeSantis’ DOGE will be run by his hand-picked chief financial officer, the creator of a YouTube show called “Government Gone Wild.” In a signal of his seriousness about cutting spending, the governor’s proposed budget for this year is 10% lower than his 2019 budget in inflation-adjusted and per-capita terms.

To make these cuts happen, the Sunshine State’s climate programs are in the crosshairs.

The DOGE report that the governor’s office published last month singled out local efforts to confront climate change as examples of the “irresponsible spending” that Florida must end. The state task force targeted Jacksonville’s efforts to purchase electric vehicles, St. Petersburg’s hiring of a “sustainability and resilience officer,” and Miami’s efforts to build out buses and rail systems. The report directed specific ire at Palm Beach County’s Office of Resilience, which had a mandate to “reduce resident, business, and natural resource vulnerability” to disasters that “include flooding, more frequent and intense storms, extreme heat, [and] saltwater intrusion.”

The Resilient Florida program has become one of the country’s most robust climate adaptation programs.

DeSantis’ DOGE justified this criticism by appealing to a controversial report from the federal Department of Energy, which concluded that “scientific evidence does not support claims of a long-term increase in so-called ‘extreme’ weather events, including hurricanes, tornadoes, [and] floods.” Yet laws signed by DeSantis himself take the opposite view — and, perhaps as a result, the state’s largest climate resilience program is proving itself immune to the governor’s purge. 

During his first term as governor, DeSantis inaugurated a grant program known as Resilient Florida, which doles out millions of dollars a year to ward off flooding and sea level rise. The statute authorizing the program even “recognizes that the state is particularly vulnerable to adverse impacts from flooding resulting from increases in frequency and duration of rainfall events, storm surge from more frequent and severe weather systems, and sea level rise.” It requires that the state conduct a regular assessment of these threats.

In the five years since its inception, the Resilient Florida program has become one of the country’s most robust climate adaptation programs — rivaling not only those of any other state but also federal resilience efforts spearheaded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Florida has distributed well over $1 billion in resilience money to local governments who then match the funding. By comparison, FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program has distributed around $5 billion to the entire country.

Resilient Florida has funded the construction of “living shorelines” to prevent erosion at the U.S. Navy base in Pensacola and the relocation of an island wastewater treatment plant in Fort Pierce to prevent flooding during high tide events. Palm Beach County, the same jurisdiction that Florida’s DOGE singled out for criticism, has received tens of millions of dollars in state funding. That money has helped raise an island park to protect against sea level rise and has funded the construction of a $30 million storm drain system on a major road that’s seen routine flooding. (However, DeSantis vetoed an additional tranche of money for that project last summer.)

Jim Mooney, a Republican state legislator representing the Florida Keys, said the program represents an example of smart state spending. Local governments must match each dollar of state grants, and Mooney said he believes the arrangement is a wise use of local property tax dollars.

“The idea is you need to have shovel-ready projects, because getting these grants is hard,” said Mooney, one of the leading supporters of Resilient Florida. “That’s what you’re collecting people’s property taxes for, to some extent — to get that stuff done.” In Mooney’s island district, Resilient Florida has funded subterranean drainage pipes that reduce residential flooding from high tides.

Resilient Florida was originally set to expire in 2025, but the state Legislature renewed it last year without any controversy; the bill that reauthorized the program passed both legislative chambers in less than a month and without any “nay” votes. Even as DeSantis is proposing to shrink the state budget by about 10%, his administration has firmed up the revenue source for Resilient Florida. The program will now draw its funding from the state’s Seminole gaming compact, an agreement with the Seminole tribe that governs the distribution of revenue from online sports betting in the state. It will be funded next year at $150 million. This time, it does not have an expiration date.

“I think it would’ve continued to be funded [without the gaming revenue], it would’ve just been more of a roller coaster ride,” said Mooney. “There was really no thought that it wasn’t going to move forward.”

Resilient Florida has funded the construction of “living shorelines” to prevent erosion.

Such programs are facing challenges in other parts of the country. The Trump administration has sought to terminate a key federal resilience grant program, and the Department of Homeland Security has paused almost all FEMA hazard mitigation spending. In Louisiana, which has long led the nation on state-level adaptation to climate change, a new governor, Jeff Landry, has halted efforts to fight sea-level rise and prevent coastal erosion. Landry last year canceled a massive sediment diversion project that would have built new coastal land, and the Republican has also meddled with governance for the landmark levee system that protects New Orleans. 

Mathew Sanders, a policy expert at the Pew Charitable Trusts who helps states plan for disaster resilience, says the Resilient Florida’s durability comes down to economics. The Sunshine State’s coastline is an integral part of the state’s economy, and future growth depends on functional roads and sewage plants in beachfront towns. Even if the state wanted to cut Resilient Florida spending, it probably couldn’t afford to.

“There’s a direct connection in Florida between the ecological health of the coastline and their ability to generate revenue,” said Sanders. “It’s so reliant on ecotourism, the pure beautiful beaches and the Everglades. The calculus is just different.”

The post A Massive Climate Resilience Project Escapes Florida’s DOGE Purge appeared first on Truthdig.

At least 52 people have died after Tropical Cyclone Gezani made landfall on the eastern coast of Madagascar on 10 February, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Tuesday, citing the authorities.

Migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers in Libya are enduring ruthless and systematic human rights violations, including killings, torture, sexual violence and trafficking, according to a new report published today by the UN human rights office, OHCHR.   

The large-scale disclosure of materials known as the “Epstein Files” has revealed “disturbing and credible evidence” of what independent human rights experts describe as a possible global criminal enterprise involving systematic sexual abuse, trafficking and exploitation of women and girls.