Google Middle East celebrated the 119th birthday of Egyptian poet Jamila Al-Alaily on Wednesday with a doodle featuring her on the search engine page. Al-Alaily was born in Mansoura in 1907, moving to Cairo as an adult. Her poems were featured in the famous Egyptian magazine Apollo, published by the Apollo society for literature, winning the praise of its famous members like writers Ibrahim Nagy and Ali El-Gendy.

Alexandria University’s Archaeological Mission unearthed several anchors on Monday while surveying the Bagosh area near Marsa Matrouh, under the supervision of the Central Department of Submerged Antiquities of the Ministry of Antiquities. Head of the Submerged Antiquities department Ihab Fahmy stated that the anchors were made of stones, irons and lead and dated from the Hellenistic era until the 20th century.

In collaboration between the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and Brooklyn Museum, an exhibition titled “Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt” will run at the Brooklyn Museum from March 22 until August 11. According to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation s website, this exhibition is the first to portray the history of iconoclasm (destruction of religious art) within ancient Egypt. Utilizing almost 40 artifacts from the museum s collection, the exhibition aims to shed light on the widespread campaigns of intentional destruction that was religiously and politically motivated. The legacies of pharaohs Hatshepsut (reigned ca. 1478–1458 BCE) and Akhenaten (reigned ca. 1353–1336 BCE) are the main subjects, in addition to the topic of iconoclasm targeting religious beliefs of the time by devastating their objects. Both intact and damaged pieces will be put on display. By focusing on how iconoclasm as a practice existed within ancient times and continues until day this, visitors will question the nature of ownership, memory, and visual culture.

Hundreds of thousands of young people skipped school across the globe on Friday to march through the streets for an international day of student protests aimed at pushing world leaders into action on climate change. Classrooms in capitals from Bangkok to Berlin and Lagos to London emptied as organizers of the student strike called demonstrations in more than 100 countries.

Minister of Agricultural and Land Reformation Ezz El Din Abu Steit and Governor of Aswan Ahmed Ibrahim launched the workshop “Role of the Botanical Garden in the Agricultural Development and Environment in Aswan,” on Thursday as part of the environmental initiative “Tashgeer” in Aswan. General Supervisor of the botanical garden and the initiative’s coordinator Hesham al-Tayb clarified that the garden would participate in the initiative, which aims to plant 100 thousand trees in Aswan.

Khalid Elewa, head of Alexandria Passenger Transportation Authority (APTA) announced on Tuesday that Alexandria s new tram has begun trial operation. Elewa pointed out that the tram first operated without commuters in six trial trips under the supervision of experts from the Ukrainian technical committee. The tram s trial operation later transported commuters and stopped in 30 lines starting from San Stephano s station to Ras al-Tin Station.

The Information Center of the Cabinet denied rumors that 32 percent of the artifact of Egypt, equal to 32,600, were smuggled since 2011. The center said in a report that it had contacted the Ministry of Antiquities, which categorically denied the news, stressing that 32 percent of the Egyptian antiquities were neither smuggled nor sold abroad and that the state has been careful to preserve it s cultural heritage against illegal attempts to smuggle Egyptian antiquities abroad.

Thursday marked the grand opening of the ninth edition of the Hakawy International Arts Festival for Children, the only large-scale annual event in Egypt which brings local and international theatre shows to a young audience. The highlight of the day was the iconic puppet musical El-Leila El-Kebira (“The Grand Night”). Prior to the official opening in Cairo, the festival had already held events in Alexandria (from 4 to 5 March), visiting a few locations with a number of shows and attracting numerous children who came with their schools or families.

After five years of absence from television, Bassem Youssef announced that he will return in a program about the plant based diet (PBD) on BBC Extra. Youssef will be talking about the PBD in a series of episodes. He has been following the diet for several years. He said on a BBC teaser that he will be discussing PBD from multiple scientific perspectives including both those that support and oppose it.

Seals and whales in the Arctic are shifting their feeding patterns as climate change alters their habitats, and the way they do so may determine whether they survive, a new study has found. Researchers harnessed datasets spanning two decades to examine how two species of Arctic wildlife — beluga whales, also known as white whales, and ringed seals — are adapting to their changing homes. Both species traditionally hunt for food in areas with sea ice and particularly at so-called tidal glacier fronts, where glaciers meet the ocean.

The Indian Embassy in Egypt, alongside Teamwork Arts, launched the seventh radiating edition of the cultural festival India by the Nile 2019 on Tuesday March 5, which will run until March 17. The festival’s cultural and artistic events will take place in several Egyptian governorates including Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said. “Although this is my first year to present India in this glamorous festival, I’ve heard impressive feedback when I was at New Delhi about the success of the prior six editions,” the Indian Ambassador to Egypt Rahul Kulshreshth told Egypt Independent.

Coworking spaces are popping up all over the city, but the space in 42 Abdelkhalek Tharwat Street promises to be one of a kind. The office rental space, called Maktabi, aims to attract a special kind of tenant: people working in the creative industry.

The first days of the Sharm el-Sheikh Asian Film Festival witnessed a crisis between the creators of the opening film “The Crew” and the festival’s management headed by director Magdi Ahmed Ali, the festival’s art director Mohamed Sayed Abdel Rahim and its CEO Mostafa al-Kilany. The crisis began at the opening ceremony when the screening of the movie was delayed and the audience left the room.

During his career as an actor, Morgan Freeman has played the role of God. In real life, he claims to be “undeniably” a believer. Now, the Oscar winner has traveled more than 120,000 kilometers (more than 74,000 miles) and visited 30 cities to try to unravel mysteries of spirituality around the world. Is there a God? What about the devil? How do people experience it? What is behind the secrets of different faiths?

The National Geographic Museum in Washington DC is preparing to host the “Queens of Egypt” exhibition on Friday to allow visitors over six months to learn about ancient Egyptian secrets. “Female rulers are a rare phenomenon — but thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, women reigned supreme. Queens like Hatshepsut, Nefertiti, and Cleopatra controlled the totalitarian state as power-brokers and rulers,” the official National Geographic website read.

Graphic designer Ahmed Walid is another Egyptian alongside American-born actor Rami Malek, to win an Oscar this season, having been amongst the crew for Best Animated Feature Film “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse”. Born in Ismailia, Walid is a computer graphics supervisor at Disney and has had several considerable achievements in the world of animation, such as working as a visual effects coordinator on prominent movies including Spider-Man and Avengers: Endgame.

Ukraine’s national broadcaster has dropped the singer who was meant to represent the country at the Eurovision Song Contest due to apparent political differences over Russia. Anna Korsun, 27, who goes by the stage name Maruv, was selected by a public vote on Saturday to sing at the contest in Israel in May.

Egyptian-American Rami Malek has won the Best Actor Oscars Award for his role as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. “I am the son of immigrants from Egypt. I m a first-generation American, and part of my story is being written right now,” he said to applause.

The “Explosion” art exhibition by abstract artist Shahira Shoukry is set to launch on Saturday, February 23 and will run for two weeks until March 9 at the Mashrabia Contemporary Art Gallery. “The exhibition depicts explosion from various perspectives; it reflects different explosions that I myself experienced,” Shoukry told Egypt Independent.

The Egyptian embassy in Canberra, Australia received the fourth and final part of the stone panel of “Sheshn Nefertem”, which was illegally stolen and smuggled from Egypt. Egypt recovered three parts from Switzerland in 2017. The fourth part was exhibited at the Macquarie Museum, said the director of the museum, Martin Bommas, who showed willingness to return the fourth part to Egypt immediately after he learned that the painting was stolen and smuggled illegally, according to Shaaban Abdel Gawad, General Supervisor of Recovered Antiquities Department at the Ministry of Antiquities.