Telda has launched a new in-app investment service on Sunday, 29 March, designed to bring securities investing to a wider audience in Egypt. The digital financial platform says the feature allows users to invest in equities listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) as well as in a range of investment funds, using a mobile application experience that combines trading, account setup, and everyday access to funds in one place. According to Telda, the service lets users execute buy and sell orders, track stock prices in real time, and subscribe directly to fund units through the app, removing the need for traditional brokerage channels. Users can also open investment accounts digitally within minutes by using their national ID, eliminating the barriers associated with visiting physical branches or completing manual paperwork. Telda also integrated the investment feature with its existing card ecosystem, enabling users to fund their investment accounts seamlessly and access returns through their Telda cards. The company says deposits and withdrawals can be conducted without transfer fees or waiting periods, and that investment returns can be used for everyday spending purchases or withdrawn via ATMs. Ahmed Sabbah, CEO of Telda,…
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Echoing the title pun, this year's front page features Iran-related jokes. The two featured articles are headlined "Unemployed Senior Really Banking on Job Offer from the Military Draft" and "Iran Announces New AI-yatollah, First Chatbot Supreme Leader":
Below the fold, there's "Alpha Phi to Monitor Situation in Iran", "Alert: All men [WHARTON EXEMPTED] ages 18-25 to Report for Service", and "Al-Qaeda Claims Responsibility for 1920 Commons Dinner Last Night":
Geoff Pullum documented a few Linguistics April Fool's in-jokes years ago (here and here), and I'm sure there have been others that escape my memory at the moment.
Egypt has launched a new transit service to transport cargo from Europe to Gulf countries via Damietta Port, according to a statement by the Ministry of Transport on Monday 30 March. The service will handle both refrigerated and dry goods arriving from Europe through the Ro-Ro shipping line linking Damietta Port with Trieste in Italy, before being transported onward to Safaga Port and then to Gulf destinations. The move is part of Egypt’s broader strategy to position itself as a regional hub for transport, logistics, and transit trade. Officials said the new model aims to streamline the movement of goods by reducing procedural requirements, including exempting transit shipments heading to Gulf countries from prior registration in the Automated Cargo Information (ACI) system. Authorities said coordination between the Damietta Port Authority, the Ro-Ro line operator Pan Marine Group, customs officials, and other stakeholders has helped speed up operational and clearance procedures through the use of digital systems. The development reflects ongoing efforts to modernise port operations, particularly through the expansion of digital infrastructure and logistics services. Launched in November 2024, the Damietta–Trieste Ro-Ro line has been positioned as a key link…
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Israel’s parliament passed a law on Monday, 30 March, making the death penalty the default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks, fulfilling a demand from far-right coalition partners. The measure has ignited fierce debate over its discriminatory nature and comes amid reports highlighting systemic injustices faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. The legislation targets individuals convicted of “intentionally causing the death of a person within the framework of an act classified as terrorism.” In the occupied West Bank, it mandates hanging within 90 days of sentencing in military courts, with life imprisonment permitted only in unspecified “special circumstances.” No pardons are allowed, though the prime minister may request a delay of up to 180 days. Palestinian officials and factions reacted with outrage. The Palestinian Presidency condemned the law as a “breach of international law” and a “doomed bid” to intimidate Palestinians. Fatah stated that it “legalizes killing policies.” U.N. experts expressed concern over vague definitions of “terrorism” that could lead to executions for non-terrorist conduct. Amnesty International cautioned that the measure could entrench an “apartheid system,” clash with the global abolition movement, and potentially…
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Just received my physical copies of At the World's Mercy vols 1-2. I actually forgot I had pre-ordered this many months ago from Rosmei. The paper stock is of a nicer quality than the US print on demand books I've bought in the past. The freebie extras were also quite nice.
When this cover of Bob Dylan’s seminal protest song came out we didn’t know that one day a bloated orange psychopath would start yet another shitty war in the Middle East yet. We definitely didn’t know that same orange turd was gonna become president – twice. I mean, at this point we didn’t even know he’d one day shill for that shitty stuffed crust Pizza Hut pizza. We also didn’t know Tom Cruise was in a crazy churchcult. And we didn’t know this was probably the last we’d hear from Edie Brickell because she was gonna marry Paul Simon. As, ignorance continues to be bliss. Happy Monday, kittens.
Make this decadent gluten free dairy free chocolate cake without any dairy-free butter or milk substitutes for a cake that's designed to be made without dairy. It's rich in chocolate flavor, stays fresh at room temperature for days, and is even tender when chilled.
Why this recipe works
This rich chocolate cake doesn't call for any nondairy substitutes that you may not already have, so you can bake it for a dairy free friend without having to buy something special at the store. Plus, the flavor of vegan butter can have an artificial taste due to added culturing agents.
Since this cake was originally made with mayonnaise instead of a combination of an egg and oil, it's easily adapted to being made with vegan mayonnaise for an egg-free, dairy-free cake with deep cocoa flavor.
Recipe ingredients
Here are a few things to keep in mind about each of the ingredients in this cake and what role they play in a successful result:
Boiling water: Water of course adds moisture to bring the cake together. We use boiling water to dissolve the cocoa in boiling water in a process called “blooming,” which deepens the chocolate flavor.
Cocoa powder: Adds lots of rich chocolate flavor. Since this cake has baking soda in it to neutralize any acid in your natural cocoa powder, you can use natural cocoa powder or Dutch-processed, or even Hershey's Special Dark cocoa powder, which is a blend of the two.
Brewed coffee: Deepens the chocolate flavor without adding any noticeable coffee taste. You can use decaf or caffeinated coffee, or replace it with more water.
Dairy free chocolate: Adds more chocolate flavor and creates a fudgier, more dense and rich texture. You can use vegan chocolate disks or chopped chocolate. Be sure to use melting chocolate that is made for baking, and avoid chocolate chips which contain added wax to prevent them from melting in the oven.
Egg: Adds structure, some lift and keeps the cake from falling as it cools.
Oil: Adds fat for richness and mouthfeel, and keeps the cake moist for longer at room temperature and even when chilled.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and tenderizes the cake's crumb by locking in moisture.
Salt: Enhances the other flavors.
Vanilla extract: Vanilla extract is as delicious in chocolate cake as it is in our gluten free vanilla cake, deepening all the other flavors. Use vanilla bean paste for extra flavor.
Gluten free flour blend: Any well-balanced gluten free flour blend that is designed to work well to make cakes should work, as long as it has finely ground rice flour or the cake will be gritty. I like Better Batter's classic blend, Bob's Red Mill's 1-to-1 blend with an additional 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum (the blend has some gum but not enough), or Vitacost's Multi-Blend gluten free flour with added xanthan gum as listed in the recipe. Avoid Nicole's Best here, since it contains dairy.
Baking soda – Helps give the cake lift, and neutralizes acidic ingredients like natural cocoa powder, if you're using it.
How to make gluten free dairy free chocolate cake (step by step photos)
This visual guide demonstrates how to make this cake in your own kitchen and includes an explanation for each step. For the exact ingredient amounts and instruction, please see the recipe card below.
Make the hot chocolate mixture In a 4 cup/950 ml heat-safe measuring cup or medium-size bowl, whisk boiling water, hot brewed coffee and 1/2 cup cocoa powder. The cocoa powder will resist combining so keep whisking until it's smooth.
Add chopped dairy free chocolate to the hot mixture and whisk it in so it melts, then let the mixture sit for 5 minutes so the cocoa powder blooms, or develops its full flavor potential.
Add the remaining wet ingredients The chocolate mixture should be warm, but no longer hot, so it's cool enough enough that it won't cook the egg when you add it. Add an egg, oil, sugar and vanilla. Whisk vigorously to emulsify the egg, oil and water together into a stable mixture that ensures even moisture distribution in the cake. This creates a glossy mixture that won't turn greasy.
Whisk the dry ingredients In a large separate mixing bowl, whisk together gluten free flour, xanthan gum, salt and baking soda to avoid any pockets of leaveners.
Combine wet and dry ingredients Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredient mixture so you can incorporate them together gradually, decreasing mess and creating a more uniform batter quickly and easily.
Finish the cake batter Whisk together the dry and wet ingredients. As you mix, it will turn smooth and glossy. Make sure to scrape the bottom of mixing bowl to incorporate any dry patches into the batter.
If you'd like to add chocolate chips, you can mix in up to 4 ounces of dairy free chocolate chips now using a spatula. You can also scatter up to 1 ounce more on top of the raw cake after transferring it to the pan.
Transfer the batter Scrape the batter into a lined baking pan, and smooth it into an even layer with a small spatula. The batter will be thick enough to spread, but not so thick that spreading is difficult.
Bake the cake Bake at 350°F until the cake is rounded at the edges, and a tester inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs attached, at most. If the tester comes out wet but you're concerned you may overbake the cake, reduce the oven temperature to 325°F or even lower until done.
Cool in the pan Let the cake cool completely in the pan while it rests on a wire rack. The cake is so moist that, if you try to turn the cake over onto a wire rack and remove the pan before it's completely cool, it will stick to the rack.
Expert tips
Avoid olive oil
Olive oil has a distinct fruity and earthy flavor that will compete with the chocolate flavor of this cake. Any neutral oil without any flavor of its own will work though. Try canola, vegetable, grapeseed, avocado, or peanut oil.
Try canned dairy free frosting
I love the taste of shelf stable frosting in the can, and many of them are gluten free and dairy free. Miss Jones brand canned frostings are gluten free and dairy free; so are many Pillsbury and Duncan Hines frostings, but always read labels to be sure. To give canned frosting more of a homemade consistency, attach one beater to a handheld mixer, insert it in the can, and beat until smooth before using to frost the cooled cake.
Don't skip the coffee
Brewed coffee deepens the chocolate flavor and we use so little that you really don't taste it, so I recommend using it even if you don't like the taste of coffee. You can also double down on the coffee and replace some more or all of the hot water with more coffee. Espresso granules dissolved in the boiling water should also work well.
Ingredient substitutions
Egg free
You can try using a 150 grams of a vegan mayonnaise in place of the egg and oil, or try an egg replacer like Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer, a chia or flax egg, or JustEgg liquid egg replacer (in the refrigerated case).
Oil
This recipe was originally developed to use mayonnaise in place of oil and eggs. I found that the crumb of the cake was too fragile, so I reworked it for a cake made with 2/3 cup of oil and 1 egg. The result is a more tender cake with a crumb that's still very moist but less fragile. If you'd like to avoid using oil as an individual ingredient, though, you can replace the oil and the egg with 2/3 cup (150 grams) full-fat mayonnaise at room temperature.
Coffee
If you want to avoid coffee altogether, you can use more boiling water in its place. Decaffeinated coffee works just as well. Keep in mind that chocolate and cocoa powder also add some caffeine.
Chocolate
You can't leave out the cocoa powder and chocolate to make this into a vanilla cake, but if you'd like, you can leave out the chocolate as a separate ingredient. The cake will have a more mild chocolate flavor and will be overall less rich. For a vanilla version, try our vanilla-flavored gluten free dairy free cake.
Storage instructions
This cake is moist enough that it will stay fresh on the counter, covered well, for a couple of days. Wrap the cooled and unfrosted cake tightly in plastic wrap, and store it at room temperature for 3 to 5 days. Once you frost the cake, it's really hard to wrap it tightly, so it's best to serve it the same day after frosting.
For longer storage, wrap this cake tightly in freezer-safe wrap like Glad Press ‘n' Seal. You can freeze it frosted or unfrosted, but it's easiest to store the uncut cake unfrosted.
If you have leftover cake that's already been frosted, slice it into squares and wrap each frosted square tightly on its own, then freeze. Defrost at room temperature, or in the refrigerator.
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease and line an 8-inch square or 9-inch round baking pan. Set the pan aside.
In a medium-size, heat-safe mixing bowl or measuring cup, place the boiling water and brewed coffee and the cocoa powder, and whisk until well-combined. The cocoa powder will resist combining, so just keep whisking.
Add the chocolate discs or pieces to the hot mixture and whisk until melted and smooth. Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes to deepen the chocolate flavor.
To the chocolate mixture, add the egg, oil, sugar, and vanilla, and whisk until smooth and well-combined.
In a separate large mixing bowl, place the flour blend, xanthan gum, salt, and baking soda, and whisk to combine well.
Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the wet mixture.
Whisk until very smooth and well-combined. Keep whisking until the batter begins to thicken.
Transfer the cake batter to the prepared pan, and smooth into an even layer using a spatula or broad, flat knife.
Place the pan in the center of the preheated oven and bake for about 30 minutes, or until done.
Doneness should be determined by a few things: the cake should be puffed and rounded at the edges. It also shouldn’t jiggle when moved back and forth, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out mostly clean (and certainly not wet).
Place the cake pan on a wire rack and allow it to cool completely in the pan. If you've used mayonnaise instead of an egg and oil, chill the cake pan in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes for cleaner slices.
For the topping
Place the chopped dark chocolate in a small, heat-safe bowl.
Place the coconut cream in a small, heavy-bottom saucepan and over a low flame just until melted and then simmering. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate.
Allow the chocolate and hot cream to sit, undisturbed, for about 5 minutes before whisking until completely smooth.
Pour the glaze directly over the cooled cake, and allow it to set at room temperature.
To whip the chocolate ganache into frosting, allow it to cool at room temperature, then cover and refrigerate it until beginning to set (about 20 minutes).
Using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the frosting until lighter in color and relatively fluffy (about 3 minutes).
Frost the cakes as desired, then slice into 9 equal pieces and serve.
Notes
Flour blend notes I recommend Better Batter's original all purpose blend, Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 (in the blue bag) with an additional 1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum (it contains gum but not enough), or Vitacost's Multi-Blend Gluten Free Flour with added xanthan gum. Nicole's Best doesn't work here because it contains dairy. If you'd like to make your own blend, please see my all purpose gluten free flour blends page. About the brewed coffee You can use decaffeinated coffee. You can also replace the brewed coffee with more water.Egg and oil In place of the egg and oil, you can use 2/3 cup (150 grams) regular, full fat mayonnaise. I can only recommend Hellmann's brand regular mayonnaise. Avoid anything flavored, any sort of light mayo, or mayo made using olive oil (which is really just light mayo by another name). The cake will rise a bit less and be a bit more fragile.
Mayonnaise is, indeed, dairy free. There is sometimes confusion about whether mayonnaise is dairy free, presumably since it's so creamy and looks like dairy. It's a stable mixture of egg and oil.
Can I make cupcakes with the same cake batter?
I haven't tried making cupcakes with this batter, but I think it would work. Fill the muffin tins 2/3 of the way full and check for doneness at about 20 minutes.
The Egyptian Gymnastics Federation has officially released on Sunday 29 March the final list of countries confirmed to participate in the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup 2026 for both men and women, taking place in Cairo from 3-6 April at the Cairo Stadium indoor halls complex. According to the federation, the tournament will feature 33 countries, including host nation Egypt, alongside teams from across multiple regions such as Algeria, Armenia, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Chile. While the championship will be a major sporting event, the federation emphasized that promoting Egypt’s civilization and heritage is among the key objectives behind hosting the competition. Federation President Ehab Amin said that sports tourism is central to Egypt’s approach to international events, explaining that such tournaments offer an opportunity to introduce participating delegations to Egypt’s rich cultural legacy. He added that the federation has prepared informative guides and materials highlighting major tourist and historical destinations. Among the attractions featured in the federation’s plans are Khan El Khalili, the Grand Egyptian Museum, and the Pyramids of Giza, with additional visits to key sites scheduled in parallel with the event. Amin also noted that Egypt’s hosting role…
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This may sound hopelessly old-fashioned. People were making the accusation more than half a century ago, but the same problems it points to persist even today.
In computer science, garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is the concept that flawed, biased or poor quality ("garbage") information or input produces a result or output of similar ("garbage") quality. The saying points to the need to improve data quality in, for example, programming. Rubbish in, rubbish out (RIRO) is an alternate wording
The dangers of GIGO / RIRO have only been magnified with the advent of AI.
Garbage In, Garbage Out: Scientific Publishing Faces Pandemic-Like Spread of Fake Studies
Fake science is big business, and it’s spreading faster than the real thing
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A professor of engineering sciences and applied mathematics at Northwestern University, Luís Amaral, describes his latest research — on fraud in scientific publishing — as “probably the most depressing project I’ve been involved with in my entire life.”
Despite having spent his career studying complex social systems — how institutions fracture and how incentives corrupt behavior at scale — Mr. Amaral says nothing prepared him for what he and his colleagues uncovered when they turned their analytical lens toward the global scientific publishing apparatus.
His recent study, published in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” found that organized scientific fraud, involving networks of paper mills, brokers, and compromised journals, is increasing rapidly and now outpaces the growth of legitimate publications. The repercussions of fraudulent science cannot be understated, he warns.
“If we do not create awareness around this problem, worse and worse behavior will become normalized,” Mr. Amaral told reporters at his university. “At some point, it will be too late, and scientific literature will become completely poisoned. Some people worry that talking about this issue is attacking science. But I strongly believe we are defending science from bad actors.”
A Criminal Enterprise, Not a Rogue Lab
Peer-reviewed literature underpins medical treatments, public health guidance, pharmaceutical approvals, and policy decisions at every level of government. If the literature is being systematically poisoned, the downstream effects touch virtually everything that relies on the authority of science.
For decades, the public narrative around scientific fraud centered on the lone bad actor — the ambitious researcher who fudged a dataset, the graduate student who plagiarized a passage. That framing, the Northwestern team argues, is now dangerously outdated.
For the co-founder of Retraction Watch, Ivan Oransky, the reckoning has been a long time coming.
“Publishers really need to acknowledge that they’ve known about paper mills since at least 2013,” Mr. Oransky told The New York Sun. “Now they’ve grown a lot, and they’ve industrialized. They don’t just sell papers. They sell authorships, citation manipulation, and ways to boost your standing in the rankings. And now, of course, they’re using AI to do even more of it.”
In their research, Mr. Amaral and his colleagues uncovered sophisticated global networks systematically undermining the integrity of academic publishing. At the center are paper mills, outfits functioning like production lines for academic manuscripts, selling papers to researchers who want to pad their publication records quickly.
These manuscripts often contain fabricated data, manipulated or stolen images, plagiarized text, and sometimes claims that are scientifically impossible. Scientists can buy not just papers, but also citations — conjuring the appearance of a well-regarded academic career from nearly nothing.
By any measure, the market is profitable. Authorship slots sell for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. One survey of medical residents at tertiary hospitals in southwest China found that nearly 47 percent of respondents reported buying and selling papers or having others write them. Some major publishers have estimated that as many as one in seven submissions show signs of paper mill origin.
The incentives, Mr. Oransky explained, extend well beyond individual researchers, all the way up to the institutions employing them, creating a system in which fraud is not just tolerated but structurally rewarded.
“If you spend a few hundred, even a few thousand dollars to buy a paper that is guaranteed to be published, and then because of that you end up getting tenure or a promotion, as an investment, you can see how it makes sense,” he said. “Universities benefit too. The international university rankings are, I would argue, pernicious in their impact. It’s kind of like Lance Armstrong — it’s the same kind of doping, but in academia.”
The corruption runs deeper than publish-or-perish anxiety, said the chief editor of the “Radiation and Health” journal at Frontiers in Public Health and adjunct professor of biochemistry at the University of Helsinki, Professor Dariusz Leszczynski.
“Financial incentives are a very important factor. However, not only is money the problem,” Mr. Leszczynski told the Sun. “Advancing careers through ‘beefing up’ publication records is pretty common. Also, climbing up the ladder and becoming a recognized expert through ‘fake citations’ is also common.”
The fraud does not stop at fabricated manuscripts. Brokers serve as intermediaries, connecting paper mills to compromised journals while bypassing quality controls. When legitimate journals prove too difficult to penetrate, these networks target defunct publications.
“This happened to the journal ‘HIV Nursing,’” a postdoctoral researcher at Northwestern University, Reese Richardson, told the Sun. “It was formerly the journal of a professional nursing organization in the United Kingdom, but it stopped publishing, and its online domain lapsed. An organization bought the domain name and started publishing thousands of papers on subjects completely unrelated to nursing, all indexed in Scopus.”
Despite efforts to curb paper mills, suspected paper-milled articles are growing exponentially, doubling every one and a half years — compared to total publications, which double every 15 years.
In 2023 alone, publishers retracted more than 10,000 papers, a record driven largely by the collapse of publisher Hindawi, which retracted over 8,000 articles after paper mills were found to have systematically infiltrated its journals, costing parent company Wiley an estimated $35 million to $40 million.
The thrift shop in my neighborhood is closing/moving to an as-yet-unfound new location, and today was the pay-what-you-wish final day; I now have a backgammon set and a few more mason jars (including a wide-mouth one, which are surprisingly hard to find) and one of those read-in-the-bath things. I resisted all the pretty glassware, please clap. (I love beautiful glassware and I inherited all of my grandmother's flea market finds; she had great taste and I have no more room for glassware, especially fancy glassware I don't, strictly speaking, need.)
I read 84, Charing Cross Road and loved it, and then figured out it was a memoir, not an incredibly well-written novella, and I may never recover.
The goddamn squirrels have uprooted many if not all of my crocuses and I extremely upset about it. It is not quite warm enough to go to the garden and cut back everything that died over the winter, but I yearn for the day. I lost my temper yesterday and ripped the window film off and threw open the windows, and god does it feel great to have fresh air in here, even if the fresh air is also cold.
Egypt’s medical tourism sector generated around USD 8 million (EGP 421.1 million) in revenues in 2025, marking a significant increase compared to the previous year, according to a statement by the General Authority for Healthcare on Saturday, 28 March. The authority said it provided medical services to approximately 35,000 patients from 124 countries, reflecting a growing international demand for treatment in Egypt. Officials attributed the rise to ongoing improvements in healthcare services and the quality of care across facilities, which have contributed to building trust among international patients. Revenues from medical tourism rose by 76.7 percent compared to 2024, when the sector recorded around USD 3.7 million (EGP 194.8 million), signalling what the authority described as strong momentum for future growth. The initiative is part of a broader strategy to position Egypt as a global destination for medical tourism under the “In Egypt We Care” brand, with a focus on attracting international patients and offering treatment programmes aligned with international standards. Plans are also underway to develop a more integrated digital system to manage the patient experience, from initial inquiries to treatment and follow-up care. Looking ahead, the authority said…
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Arab foreign ministers have approved the appointment of Egypt’s former foreign minister Nabil Fahmy as Secretary-General of the Arab League, according to statements released following ministerial meetings on Sunday, 29 March. Fahmy is set to assume the role on 1 July 2026 for a five-year term, succeeding Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who has held the position since 2016. The decision comes after Arab ministers endorsed Egypt’s nomination during a virtual session of the Arab League Council, which addressed ongoing regional developments and security concerns. During the meeting, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aty reaffirmed Cairo’s position on regional stability, stressing the importance of safeguarding the sovereignty and security of Arab states amid rising tensions. Fahmy brings decades of diplomatic experience to the role. He served as Egypt’s foreign minister between 2013 and 2014 and previously held ambassadorial posts in both the United States and Japan. Over the course of his career, he also contributed to international discussions on disarmament and global security through roles within the United Nations and participated in key diplomatic negotiations. Beyond government service, Fahmy founded the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the American University…
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Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced Saturday, 28 March, a sweeping package of energy conservation measures, including a nationwide partially remote work mandate, as Egypt moves to manage an economic strain he described as unprecedented in scope. Speaking at a news conference following an inspection tour of the Al-Obour market on the outskirts of Cairo, Madbouly said all government institutions, with the exception of service and production sectors, would shift to one day of remote work per week beginning the first Sunday of April, for an initial period of one month. Only schools, universities, factories, and hospitals are exempted. Should the measure prove effective, a second remote workday could be added, he indicated. The Prime Minister outlined two additional steps to curb energy consumption. First, the government will fully suspend work on large state infrastructure projects that are heavy consumers of diesel and gasoline for a minimum of two months, with ministries directed to audit their project portfolios accordingly. Second, all government vehicles will face an immediate 30 percent cut to their fuel and energy allocations. On the question of commodity supplies, the prime minister sought to project calm, saying that…
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Tahrir Square is one of those places whose name arrives before it does, heavy with history, with crowds, with a city that has repeatedly insisted on remaking itself. A few steps away on Kasr El Aini Street, sits the AUC Tahrir Square campus: a historic landmark that has seen it all. This April, AUC is opening up its gates once again for the third edition of Tahrir CultureFest, and the question it wants to answer is a bold one: what does C-ai-ro’s future actually look like?
From April 2 to 4, the campus will open its doors to what promises to be the festival’s most ambitious iteration yet. The theme, loosely framed as the intersection of tradition and technology, is not so much a marketing concept as it is a genuine provocation: what does Cairo’s next era actually look like, and who gets to shape it?
A Festival That Thinks
The program of the AUC Tahrir CultureFest 2026 is built around that question. Among the headline events is a workshop called Scenario Thinking: The Future of Cairo, which invites participants to imagine futures that are not hypothetical so much as urgently plausible. A Cairo where the Nile’s waters are managed through smart technology, where electric mobility networks unsnarl streets that have defeated urban planners for decades. It is the kind of speculative, solutions-oriented thinking that rarely gets serious institutional space in the region, and AUC is betting that a public festival is exactly the right venue for it.
Equally compelling is Higher Ed in the Age of AI, which frames universities not merely as institutions scrambling to adapt to artificial intelligence, but as actors who must take a leadership role in shaping how AI reshapes learning, assessment and the very production of knowledge.
Alongside it, AI and the Economy: Opportunities and Implications broadens the lens to ask what the technology means for jobs and growth, while Behind the Screen: How AI Is Changing What We Read, Watch and Believe brings in questions of media, misinformation and digital literacy.
There is also a book talk, Digital Resurrection: How Medical Imaging Is Transforming Egyptology, which gestures at something often missing from AI conversations: the technology’s capacity not just to disrupt the future, but to recover the past.
In a country where the youth population is vast and higher education is under pressure from every direction, economic, demographic, technological, these conversations feel less like academic panels and more like civic necessities.
TEDx on the Square
The TEDx AUC Tahrir Square stage brings together a notably eclectic group of speakers.
Karim El Shafie of Al Ismaelia for Real Estate Investment will speak on placemaking and destination creation, a topic with obvious resonance in a downtown neighbourhood that has spent years being reimagined. Mohamed Nagaty, a technology investor and entrepreneur, takes on the question many in the audience will be quietly asking themselves: Is AI Coming for My Job? Basma Rady of Beltone Holding offers a counterpoint with Built to Last: Five Human Qualities That Outshine Any Algorithm.
Meanwhile, Sara Aziz of Safe Egypt addresses digital safety in Unmuted: Reclaiming Your Voice in a Digital World, and Caro Doss, a personal stylist and intentional living advocate, asks what it means to be Dressed, But Disconnected.
The full lineup suggests a festival comfortable holding contradiction: enthusiastic about technology, and clear-eyed about its costs.
More Than Talks
CultureFest has always understood that ideas need atmosphere to breathe. The performances program is now confirmed and spans considerable range: composer and AUC alumnus Hisham Kharma performs A Fusion Symphony, Musicana presents The Sound of Intelligence, and the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music brings its Salute to Gaza choir.
For younger audiences, the theatre company Sitara stages Tomorrow’s World, a comedy in which a Teta decides her local kiosk needs a robotic upgrade, sparking a generational clash that will feel entirely believable to anyone who has tried to explain a smartphone to a Cairo grandmother.
The exhibitions strand of the program is equally ambitious. Hassan Ragab’s I Don’t Know Who I Am Anymore grapples with questions of identity in the digital age, while Anah: Conversations with AI invites visitors into a more intimate dialogue with the technology. Time Will Tell and the overarching Future C-AI-RO Exhibition complete a gallery program that treats artificial intelligence not as a subject for panels alone, but as material for art.
Hands-on activities include the Innovation Discovery Zone, a Turning Cairo into Pixels session, and the Best of ANIMATEX 2026 showcase. Alongside the panels and workshops, this year’s program also includes a TEDx AUC Tahrir Square event, a book fair, a bazaar featuring local vendors and makers, downtown excursions into the surrounding neighbourhood, and a dedicated children’s program.
That the campus sits in the heart of downtown Cairo is not incidental and complements these activities. The surrounding area, Wust El Balad, with its crumbling Belle Époque facades, its street vendors and old bookshops, its art spaces and its ghosts, is itself a living argument for why the conversation between tradition and modernity matters here more than almost anywhere. AUC’s annual attempt to open its gates and invite the city in is, among other things, a reminder that a university campus in the middle of a capital city carries a particular kind of obligation.
Cairo’s Crossroads Moment
Egypt is, by almost any measure, at a pivotal moment. A population surging past 105 million, a government investing heavily in new cities and digital infrastructure, a creative class navigating the tension between ambition and circumstance. Against this backdrop, a festival that asks young Cairenes to imagine, seriously, playfully, collectively, what the city could become is not merely cultural programming. It is, in its way, a form of civic participation.
The third edition of AUC’s Tahrir CultureFest arrives at a moment when that conversation feels more urgent than ever. Whether the festival can hold space for both the optimism that futures-thinking requires and the honest reckoning that Cairo’s complexities demand remains to be seen. But the attempt itself, staged over three April days beside one of the world’s most resonant public squares, is worth watching.
On February 24th this year, I began writing a romance novel. I finished writing it this morning. At the age of nearly 45, I have finally completed the first draft of a novel. This is a big deal for me, obviously. I am planning to launch a membership on Labour Day for the work-in-progress to earn enough money to pay for a professional editor. This month I am planning to begin working on the Rupalaya novels, a shared universe of fantasy books I had envisioned in my twenties.
The foreign ministers of Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are set to convene in the Pakistani capital on Monday, 30 March, for emergency talks aimed at halting nearly four weeks of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian territory, a senior Pakistani official confirmed Saturday. The gathering represents the most visible multilateral diplomatic push yet to end the conflict. Pakistan has emerged as the principal intermediary between Washington and Tehran, relaying a 15-point American proposal, endorsed by U.S. President Donald Trump, that demands the full dismantlement of Iran’s nuclear program, curbs on its missile arsenal, and effective cession of the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran has reviewed the plan and concluded it serves only American and Israeli interests, though Iranian officials stressed that diplomacy had not been exhausted. Trump urged Iran on Thursday, 26 March, to get serious before “it is too late.” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi countered that Tehran had no intention of direct talks with Washington, insisting that the exchange of messages through mediators did not constitute negotiations. The economic fallout has been severe. Iranian strikes on Gulf states and a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have…
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Every media revolution has transformed who distributes information, what messages are distributed and what form they take. As such, some media are fundamentally democratising and polarising, widening the pool of publishers and views beyond a narrow elite and amplifying radical and anti-establishment voices. TikTok and the printing press arrived almost 600 years apart but share these characteristics. Others push the opposite way: radio and television had high barriers to entry, creating a monopoly for the voices and views of elites and experts.
As the use of AI chatbots takes off, it’s worth pausing to ask which of these categories they fall into. There is good reason to believe it is the latter.
The article presents some evidence for the view that social media is populist and polarising, while AI is elitist and technocratising, based on data from the Cooperative Election Study:
Egypt’s leading Sunni Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, has issued on Friday 27 March, a strong condemnation of the ongoing closure of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Israeli authorities, describing the move as a grave violation of religious freedom and international law. In an official statement published on its social media platforms, the Sheikhdom denounced the continued restriction of access to the mosque, particularly during the holy month of Ramadan and the holiday of Eid al-Fitr, and extending beyond. Al-Azhar stressed that Al-Aqsa holds a unique place in Islam as the first of the two Qiblas and the third holiest site, making such measures deeply offensive to Muslims worldwide. “It constitutes a confiscation of the Palestinians’ right to practice their religious rites, a provocation of the feelings of Muslims worldwide, and a flagrant violation of international law,” the statement read. Israeli authorities enforced strict closures and access restrictions around the Al-Aqsa compound since February 28, preventing worshippers from entering and forcing many to pray in the streets surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem. The measures drew particular attention during Eid prayers, when large numbers of Palestinians were barred from accessing the site. The report…
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Egypt’s cabinet has approved the state budget for the 2026/2027 fiscal year, according to a statement made by the Egyptian cabinet on Thursday 26 March. The budget, which was reviewed by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi ahead of its approval, includes allocations for 65 public economic authorities and forms part of the country’s wider economic and social development plan. Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk said the new budget is designed to support both citizens and investors, while maintaining momentum in economic activity. Public spending will continue to prioritise key sectors including healthcare, education, and social protection, alongside initiatives aimed at boosting production and exports. The government also signalled that it will maintain a degree of flexibility in managing potential economic risks. The draft outlines a projected increase in public revenues of 27.6 percent, bringing total revenues to EGP 4 trillion (USD 75.9 billion). Government spending is also expected to rise by 13.2 percent, reaching EGP 5.1 trillion (USD 96.8 billion). Social protection remains a central component of the budget, with EGP 832.3 billion (USD 15.8 billion) allocated to support vulnerable groups, marking a 12 percent annual increase. In parallel, EGP 90 billion…
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Anne Abeillé's recently-published book "La Grammaire se Rebelle" describes linguistic prescriptivism as "la jungle puriste" / "the purist jungle".
But wait, don't prescriptivists want to turn the natural linguistic wilderness into a well-tended formal garden? Maybe, but in fact prescriptive rules are often incoherent as well as contrary to elite as well as informal usage, as we've often observed.
There's more to say about the many metaphors for linguistic prescriptivism — for example, the parallels with socio-political authority and rebellion — but for now, here's the avant-propos of Abeillé's book, followed by Google Translate's (very good) English version:
Qu’est-ce que la grammaire ? L’ensemble des règles qu’on emploie pour parler et pour écrire. Ces règles sont robustes et souvent séculaires, bien intériorisées par la plupart des francophones, même s’ils n’en sont pas toujours conscients. Mais elle est souvent réduite à une liste de pièges à éviter, de mots à proscrire (malgré que, se rappeler de, en vélo), sans justification rationnelle (« parce que c’est comme ça », « parce que c’est plus beau »). Pourtant, les usages vilipendés par les puristes actuels ont une logique et une histoire, ils sont bien présents dans la littérature qu’on nous cite souvent en exemple, et ils n’ont pas toujours été considérés comme des fautes. Et au lieu de parler de « fautes », il vaudrait mieux, le plus souvent, parler de variantes, et de prestige associé (ou non). Pour qu’il y ait faute, il faut qu’il y ait règle, et les « règles » des puristes sont souvent contradictoires, inapplicables, s’appuyant sur des usages obsolètes et largement fantasmés. Loin d’être de simples coquetteries un peu désuètes, elles nuisent en fait à la compréhension de la langue et à son enseignement.
Ce livre est un exercice de démocratisation grammaticale, pour survivre dans la jungle puriste, qu’on a beau désherber, et qui repousse toujours, avec des diktats d’un autre âge qui visent à réduire nos moyens d’expression. Pour utiliser à bon escient les formes dites « populaires » ou « familières », au lieu de les dévaloriser, puisqu’ailleurs, ces mots sont plutôt positifs (un acteur populaire, une mélodie familière, un parfum familier). Il s’agit de réhabiliter le français de tous les jours, notre langue commune, car pourquoi avoir honte de ce qui nous unit ? Pour retrouver le plaisir d’apprendre et d’enseigner la langue dans toute sa richesse, le plaisir de parler et d’écrire, avec des règles solides, fondées sur des régularités observables.
What is grammar? It is the set of rules we employ to speak and write. These rules are robust—often centuries old—and deeply internalized by most French speakers, even if they are not always consciously aware of them. Yet, grammar is often reduced to a mere list of pitfalls to avoid and words to proscribe (such as *malgré que*, *se rappeler de*, or *en vélo*), without any rational justification—merely "because that’s how it is" or "because it sounds better." However, the usages vilified by today’s purists possess their own logic and history; they are amply present in the very literature often cited to us as a model, and they have not always been regarded as errors. Indeed, rather than speaking of "errors," it would usually be more appropriate to speak of variants—and of the prestige (or lack thereof) associated with them. For an error to exist, there must be a rule; yet the "rules" espoused by purists are often contradictory and inapplicable, relying on usages that are obsolete and largely fanciful. Far from being mere, slightly quaint stylistic affectations, these notions actually hinder our understanding of the language and the way it is taught.
This book is an exercise in grammatical democratization—a means of survival within the purist jungle, which, no matter how often we attempt to weed it out, always grows back, bringing with it archaic dictates aimed at curtailing our means of expression. Its purpose is to make judicious use of forms labeled "popular" or "familiar"—rather than devaluing them—given that, in other contexts, these very terms carry positive connotations (a *popular* actor, a *familiar* melody, a *familiar* scent). It seeks to rehabilitate everyday French—our shared language—for why should we feel ashamed of that which unites us? It aims to restore the joy of learning and teaching the language in all its richness—the sheer pleasure of speaking and writing—guided by solid rules grounded in observable regularities.
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