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.

Fathy Abdel Wahab, head of the cultural development fund, announced that the Naguib Mahfouz museum at the Muhammed Bek Abu al-Dahab Complex would be fully prepared March 30, Youm7 officially reported. Former Minister of Culture, Helmy Namnam previously announced in 2017 that with the help of Mahfouz’s family, museum would showcase the legendary novelist’s office, including many of his belongings. Furthermore, the museum will feature numerous drafts of his novels, showing Mahfouz’s intimate process of creating the characters featured in these novels.

Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani announced that the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM)’s construction has been completed at 88 percent and is set to open by 2020, during his speech at Helwan University on Monday February 18. Anani said that the GEM is one of the ministry’s largest projects. Despite the numerous reforms and discoveries publicized in 2018 by the Ministry of Antiquities, the opening of the GEM was not among them. Two dates had been announced in 2018 regarding the museum’s opening, and both were postponed.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York’s executive director, Daniel Weiss apologized in a statement to Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities Khaled al-Anani, saying he would return a valuable artifact in the museum’s possession which had been smuggled from Egypt in 2011. The museum announced Friday that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office found evidence showing that the museum was given a false date of ownership on a gold-plated coffin dating back to the 1st century BC, inscribed for Nedjemankh. According to the New York Times, Nedjemankh was a high-ranking priest of the ram-headed god Heryshef of Heracleopolis.

First it was the furor over a proposed new “popular” film category, then it was the fiasco over planned host Kevin Hart, and last month the organizers of the Oscars were accused of intimidating celebrities not to present at rival award shows. Last week, another storm erupted when, as part of a pledge to shorten next Sunday s Oscars ceremony, plans to present awards for cinematography, film editing, live-action shorts and makeup/hairstyling during commercial breaks were slammed as insulting by actors, directors and cinematographers. Five days later, the plan was scrapped.