It is known that a cocompact special group $G$ does not contain $mathbb{Z} times mathbb{Z}$ if and only if it is hyperbolic; and it does not contain $mathbb{F}_2 times mathbb{Z}$ if and only if it is toric relatively hyperbolic. Pursuing in this dire
ction, we show that $G$ does not contain $mathbb{F}_2 times mathbb{F}_2$ if and only if it is weakly hyperbolic relative to cyclic subgroups, or cyclically hyperbolic for short. This observation motivates the study of cyclically hyperbolic groups, which we initiate in the class of groups acting geometrically on CAT(0) cube complexes. Given such a group $G$, we first prove a structure theorem: $G$ virtually splits as the direct sum of a free abelian group and an acylindrically hyperbolic cubulable group. Next, we prove a strong Tits alternative: every subgroup $H leq G$ either is virtually abelian or it admits a series $H=H_0 rhd H_1 rhd cdots rhd H_k$ where $H_k$ is acylindrically hyperbolic and where $H_i/H_{i+1}$ is finite or free abelian. As a consequence, $G$ is SQ-universal and it cannot contain subgroups such that products of free groups and virtually simple groups.
This article is dedicated to the study of asymptotically rigid mapping class groups of infinitely-punctured surfaces obtained by thickening planar trees. Such groups include the braided Ptolemy-Thompson groups $T^sharp,T^ast$ introduced by Funar and
Kapoudjian, and the braided Houghton groups $mathrm{br}H_n$ introduced by Degenhardt. We present an elementary construction of a contractible cube complex, on which these groups act with cube-stabilisers isomorphic to finite extensions of braid groups. As an application, we prove Funar-Kapoudjians and Degenhardts conjectures by showing that $T^sharp,T^ast$ are of type $F_infty$ and that $mathrm{br}H_n$ is of type $F_{n-1}$ but not of type $F_n$.
