Saudi Arabia’s Sela, a Public Investment Fund company, and Egypt’s Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) have launched a strategic consortium to create and manage an integrated entertainment ecosystem and live events in Egypt.

The agreement was launched in the presence of Turki bin Abdulmohsen Alalshikh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA).

Under the partnership, Sela will lead the development and operation of live experiences and events, including venue operations, festivals, concerts, and on-ground execution. TMG will act as the destination and community partner, leveraging its real estate assets, hospitality platforms, and large-scale communities across Egypt.

The consortium plans to deliver a range of entertainment and cultural offerings, including concerts, festivals, seasonal events, family experiences, theatre and comedy shows, and sports events. A flagship initiative under the agreement is “The Corridor,” a cross-border entertainment platform connecting Saudi Arabia and Egypt through a curated lineup of cultural and entertainment events.

Sela Managing Director Dr. Rakan Alharthy said the consortium marks a new milestone in the company’s international presence.

“Our entry into Egypt through a strategic consortium of this scale reflects a natural progression in Sela’s regional expansion, building on Saudi expertise that has proven its strength in leading global markets and can now contribute to the wider region’s entertainment landscape,” Alharthy said.

“At Sela, we are driven by a clear vision to redefine experiences by developing destinations, events, and content that leave a lasting impact extending beyond the moment,” he added.

Hisham Talaat Moustafa, Group CEO and Managing Director of Talaat Moustafa Holding Group, said the collaboration aims to drive a qualitative shift across entertainment, culture, arts, and sports in Egypt.

Moustafa said the consortium supports the group’s vision of developing vibrant communities that offer a sustainable quality of life, create added economic value, contribute to recurring revenue growth, and position its urban communities as attractive destinations on the regional and global entertainment tourism map.

The consortium combines Sela’s background in experience design, event management, and content creation with TMG’s capabilities in residential, commercial, and hospitality development.

Founded in 1997 as the first Saudi company accredited by FIFA for athlete representation, Sela has since expanded into sports marketing, live experiences, destination development, and event management. The company has developed and operated destinations including Boulevard City, Boulevard World, Via Riyadh, Jeddah Superdome, and the Jeddah Yacht Club, while expanding into major global cities, including London and Las Vegas.

Talaat Moustafa Group, operating for nearly 55 years, has developed fully integrated cities across Egypt, including Madinaty, Al Rehab, and Noor in East Cairo, and is currently developing SouthMED on Egypt’s North West Coast. The group also holds international projects in Saudi Arabia and Oman. Its hospitality portfolio comprises 16 hotels operated under brands including Four Seasons, Kempinski, Marriott, and Mandarin Oriental, totalling nearly 5,000 rooms and suites and accommodating approximately 1.5m visitors annually.

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In his exhibition, As Far As the Eye Can See, Wael Hamdan presents a contemplative visual interpretation of the city, transforming urban landscapes into geometric structures and ornamental rhythms that explore the relationship between people and place. His works reveal layers of beauty often hidden beneath the noise and complexity of everyday life.

Meanwhile, in Whispers of the Soul, Abdel Moein Saleh turns inward, exploring emotional and spiritual dimensions that transcend spoken language. His paintings are imbued with profound human sensitivity, translating moments of intimacy and inner connection into delicate yet expressive visual narratives.

While Hamdan deconstructs and reimagines the external world, Saleh delves into the depths of personal emotion and spiritual experience. Together, the two exhibitions create a compelling dialogue between the material and the emotional, highlighting both the diversity and interconnectedness of contemporary artistic expression.

The exhibitions will remain open to visitors until May 22, daily from 11:00am to 9:00pm.

Commenting on the opening, Hassan Nassar, Chairperson of KPM Group — the parent company of Odyssey — said: “At Odyssey, we remain committed to presenting diverse artistic experiences that reflect the richness and evolution of the contemporary art scene. This exhibition forms part of our ongoing dedication to supporting different artistic voices and creating spaces for dialogue between varied yet complementary perspectives, offering audiences a renewed visual experience that redefines the relationship between art and its viewers.”

Odyssey Gallery is among the leading brands under KPM Group, specialising in exceptional artworks, rare pieces and unique artistic creations. Since its launch in 2023, the gallery has expanded its presence in the local market through notable exhibitions, including Khalli Balak Men Zozo, showcasing works that celebrate culture through distinctive artistic perspectives.

Today, Odyssey continues to strengthen its footprint in Egypt while expanding across Gulf markets, offering artistic experiences that blend authenticity with contemporary creativity while honouring the cultural identity and heritage of each destination.

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Speaking at the second plenary session of the Education World Forum in London, titled “Education for Future Readiness in a Rapidly Changing World,” Abdellatif stated that skills are the true engine of state power. He outlined Egypt’s agenda to align curricula, assessments, teachers, technology, data, and school governance to prepare learners for a rapidly changing world driven by artificial intelligence, climate pressures, demographic shifts, and global competition.

Abdellatif noted that future readiness requires redesigning education itself rather than merely adding technology to outdated structures. He highlighted the introduction of the Egyptian Baccalaureate, describing it as a structural and philosophical shift aimed at moving learning away from exam pressure towards mastery, applied knowledge, research, critical thinking, and student choice. The new system seeks to produce students capable of explaining answers, defending opinions, and linking knowledge to real life, aligning with both international standards and national priorities.

“If we evaluate memorisation only, we teach memorisation,” Abdellatif said, adding that evaluating thinking, application, and communication teaches students how to think.

For years, education systems measured progress through access indicators such as enrollment rates, school numbers, desk availability, and completion rates, the minister noted. While these remain essential, Egypt is shifting its focus from whether children are in schools to whether effective learning is occurring in the classroom.

Recent state interventions have focused on restoring the central role of the school by boosting attendance, reducing class densities, addressing teacher shortages, increasing learning time, and utilising data to guide decisions. Abdellatif emphasised that these operational details are the foundation of reform, noting that success is not a finish line but a responsibility to achieve continuous improvement.

The minister stressed that future readiness does not mean abandoning basic learning, asserting that AI requires literacy and innovation requires numeracy. Egypt’s reform links fundamental learning with digital skills, technical abilities, financial literacy, communication, creativity, teamwork, and ethical decision-making.

Addressing the role of technology, Abdellatif said AI should be treated as a supportive tool rather than a trend, functioning to expand access without replacing the human connection central to learning. A future-ready classroom empowers teachers with better tools, training, and data, while students must learn to use technology consciously and responsibly.

The reform agenda also targets technical and vocational education, which the minister identified as central to national competitiveness and social mobility. Abdellatif called for multiple educational pathways that command equal respect, ensuring technical tracks are linked to industry, digital transformation, green skills, and entrepreneurship.

He added that systemic reform must be equitable, with success measured by improvements in the most crowded classrooms, rural schools, and underprivileged communities. Data is crucial in this effort, allowing the state to identify where teachers are needed, where class densities are high, and where support must be redirected.

Abdellatif concluded that Egypt remains open to global expertise while maintaining its national privacy and identity. The overarching goal, he stated, is to build individuals equipped with both future skills and strong values, who are globally competitive yet connected to their communities.

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When families lose trust in education, they do not lose trust in schools alone. They lose trust in the very idea of merit. People begin to feel that success is no longer linked to effort, that certificates no longer guarantee upward mobility, and that class differences have become stronger than the school’s ability to overcome them. At that point, the crisis of education becomes a political and social crisis, because it touches the meaning of justice in society.

During my membership in the Egyptian Senate, I followed the education file closely, particularly through my work in the Education and Scientific Research Committee, as well as through public discussions with education ministers and parliamentary proposals related to the philosophy, fairness, and stability of education. One of the issues I have always considered highly dangerous is the frequent and rapid change in Egypt’s educational system, as if every new minister begins from zero rather than from a stable national vision.

Egypt is a major country, and its educational system should not change with every ministerial change. This contradicts the most basic principles of strategic planning and the idea of a state that builds its policies on accumulated knowledge and experience, not on temporary judgments or short-term solutions. Education cannot be managed through constant experimentation on entire generations.

In this context, I submitted a request for a general discussion in the Senate, addressed to the Minister of Education, to clarify the government’s policy regarding the exclusion of the second foreign language from the overall high school grading system, a decision that effectively marginalised it academically.

This happened in Egypt, a country with African ties that extend into an important Francophone sphere; a Mediterranean country surrounded by a highly diverse linguistic environment; a tourism-based economy that depends significantly on engagement with foreigners; a large country that should be translating knowledge from and into its own language; and a country with major agreements with European partners to promote the teaching of their languages.

For me, this was not a defence of a single subject. It was a defence of an entire educational philosophy. Language is not merely vocabulary and grammar. It is a cultural and intellectual bridge, a window to the world, and a tool for understanding others without dissolving into them.

The Senate also played an important role in confronting another dangerous proposal: an amendment to the Education Law that would have allowed students to retake the general secondary school exam in return for a financial payment. The core objection was that educational opportunity should not become a commodity, and that a student’s ability to try again should not depend on the financial capacity of his or her family. When money becomes a gateway to improving one’s chances in a decisive exam, we are not reforming education; we are opening a new door to class discrimination.

The school is not merely a place for transferring knowledge. It is a major institution for producing society’s understanding of itself. Inside the school, the child learns the meaning of authority, discipline, opportunity, and fairness. The child learns whether rules apply to everyone or only to the weak. The child learns whether effort is rewarded or whether outcomes are already determined by class, money, and social connections.

For this reason, education reform requires governance, not fragmented experiments. It requires stable policies, clear indicators, real accountability, and serious social dialogue. Above all, it requires the state to understand that the school is not just a building, the curriculum is not just a book, the exam is not an end in itself, and the student is not merely a number in a database.

Technology may help, but it cannot solve the crisis of trust by itself. It may provide more data, but it does not automatically guarantee greater justice. The teacher, too, is not merely an implementer of the curriculum. The teacher is a social actor who helps shape, inside the classroom, the meanings of justice, opportunity, and trust.

In the end, education is not merely a service. It is a promise. A promise that effort has meaning, that poverty is not a final destiny, and that society does not leave its children trapped in the places where they were born. When this promise is broken, we do not lose only an educational system; we lose one of the pillars of public trust.

Therefore, a country like Egypt should not only ask how to reform education. It must ask how education can once again become a reasonable and fair path to the future. This, in my view, is one of the most important questions facing the modern state.

Dr Ramy Galal is a governance and institutional reform specialist focusing on state capacity, accountability, and the design of effective public institutions. His work examines how institutional arrangements shape policy outcomes and government performance, particularly in emerging and middle-income contexts. He also engages with the concept of governance of meaning as an analytical lens for understanding how authority, narratives, and interpretation influence policy environments.

He is an Assistant Professor and a former Senator, bringing a combination of academic expertise and hands-on experience across both legislative and executive domains. He previously served as an advisor and official spokesperson for Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, with direct involvement in policy design, government decision-making, and implementation processes at the centre of government.

He holds a PhD from Alexandria University, a master’s degree from the University of East London, and a diploma in public administration from the University of Chile.

The post Opinion | When Education Is No Longer a Promise of Justice first appeared on Dailynewsegypt.

Egypt is now entering a post-nostalgia phase. The late-twentieth-century model of ‘soft power’—defined by Joseph Nye as attraction rather than coercion—feels increasingly inadequate in a cultural arena where creative authority has ceased to be linear or institutionally contained. Instead, it is dispersed across platforms, audiences, and algorithms that redirect attention and shape perception. Influence no longer flows predictably from centre to periphery, and memory persists, though in an altered form: shifting from a static archive into an active heritage that is continually reinterpreted, refracted, and remixed. Development, in this sense, is measured not merely through infrastructure or capital, but through the symbolic coherence of a society and its landscape—the capacity to recognise itself clearly even amid profound change.

A state-level commitment to cultural justice informs this transformation. As we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the Grand Egyptian Museum—which recently hosted Art Cairo 2026 under the theme ‘Arab. Art. Here.’—and the City of Arts and Culture in the New Administrative Capital stand as tangible testaments to a refreshed aesthetic direction. Initiatives like the digital cultural card for students and the modernisation of 30 culture palaces in a single year represent the democratisation of public spaces. Through the ‘Collection from the Museum’ programme, the Ministry of Culture partners with platforms to release modern masterpieces out of storage and into the public sphere, along with the ‘Craft-to-Cabinet’ integration of traditional ‘Turathna’ artistry within new cities. And, by designating North Sinai as the Capital of Culture 2026, Egypt is decentralising its creative baseline to ensure active heritage is enjoyed nationwide.

A distinctly national formula is taking shape: modernising through local linguistic and emotional codes rather than borrowed Western templates. In doing so, Egypt asserts an independent right to articulate its own history—a definitive departure from an era when Egyptian heritage was mined as a global inventory. Inevitably, cultural practices alter the way cities evolve. Alongside the rise of sleek infrastructure, a counter-movement toward architectural authenticity is beginning to take root. Instead of yielding entirely to the neutrality of minimalism, a new generation of design is turning toward self-referential forms deeply attentive to local materiality, climatic logic, spatial memory, and the familiarity of place. In Alexandria, Al Nabi Daniel Street has gracefully ambled towards a new pedestrian identity, and in the capital, the restoration of the Khedivial centre has revived coherence across passages like Talaat Harb Street, while enclaves like the Al-Borsa Triangle have been reactivated as arts and community hubs, reshaping commercial layers while preserving the area’s ‘sui generis’ informal rhythm.

The renewed use of signifiers such as ‘Egyptian blue’ offers a compelling example of the negotiation between continuity and reinvention. Historically, the world’s first synthetic pigment, the colour has been transmuted from an ancient vestige into a modern strategic asset—serving as a visual code and a technical tool for energy-efficient cooling. This logic guides active restoration around heritage sites in Luxor, Saqqara, and historic Cairo, just as it informs the design of contemporary developments across the country. Importantly, earlier forms of preservation—photographs, architectural surveys, and cinematic records—allow for an informed reconstruction of atmosphere in these renovated districts. Together, this material becomes a reference system through which proportion and historic character are reintroduced into spaces undergoing transformation.

Woven into this urban fabric, a new cultural wave is reshaping visual identity. Today, Gen Z operates under the ethos that what feels authentic is what feels sophisticated. Local symbols carry supreme cachet, driven by an atavistic instinct for Egyptian aesthetics that subverts the ‘khawaga complex’ of the Gen X cohort coming of age in the early globalisation era. Independent fashion brands and diaspora micro-labels render Egypt’s landmarks, cartography, figures, and typography into wearable form—vanguard streetwear serving as a medium for civilisational branding in everyday life. These items function as mobile merchandise where national memory becomes globally legible; this aesthetic is frequently co-opted abroad by activists, Middle East studies undergraduates, and the culturally initiated, who wear these local icons as a badge of being ‘au courant’ with subcultural niches and regional nuances.

A parallel visual vocabulary exists in accessories, where Pharaonic motifs like the Ankh and lotus flower are experiencing an assertive reclamation rather than a nostalgic revival. This preoccupation with what Jacques Derrida termed archive fever was once reinforced by external frames—romanticising a cosmopolitan history abroad more intensely than it was actively inhabited at home—but today the archive has been re-appropriated, transformed from tokenistic souvenir into wearable pride.

This metamorphosis extends beyond objects and visual culture into the organisation of shared memory itself. Egyptian audiences once inhabited a unified broadcast environment, with households and communities across the country gathered around a screen to share a viewing experience. Commercials historically played a formative role; they were not just adverts for products but recurring cultural touchstones, with jingles and catchphrases absorbed collectively, quoted colloquially, and remembered long after campaigns ended. Today, that shared experience has pluralised, as audiences no longer follow the same schedules or programming. Indeed, the old gatekeeper era—the age of the monolithic broadcast and the scripted monologue—is giving way to texture, spontaneity, and recognisable humanity. Social media has altered the hierarchy of trust; audiences encounter meaning first through creators and eyewitnesses whose credibility relies on raw immediacy rather than a sanitised setup. Even legacy talk shows now operate as downstream consumers of the internet, relying on viral clips and trending hashtags to shape their rhetoric. The centralised transmission is no longer the epicentre of public attention, but a secondary node in a diversified attention economy.

Yet this does not signal the disappearance of shared popular culture, only its reconfiguration within new systems of circulation. Egypt’s distinct, of-the-moment humour and perspectives keep its presence unmistakable on the modern screen. Occasionally, an Egyptian scene, meme, or advertisement circulates virally in ways that reveal just how relatable contemporary Egyptian expression can be—travelling globally without the need for translation. Egypt’s prestige cinema, highbrow television, and iconic theatrical works have long shaped the Middle Eastern media landscape, establishing Egyptian Arabic as the definitive lingua franca of storytelling. This timeless audiovisual repertoire created a structural intelligibility that no later market entrant has displaced, despite the mass circulation of imported, dubbed, remade, and original series across pan-Arab streaming platforms. Even as newer regional production centres expand their output and visibility, Egyptian content continues to instinctively attract audiences through its enduring charm and gravitas. Cairo remains the central organising hub of Arab screen culture, a role reinforced by the return of Al-Mahrousa—Egypt’s national pavilion at the Cannes Film Market—bringing together filmmakers, producers, and global distributors, while underlining Egypt’s enduring cinematic impact on the universal stage.

This civilisational reach extends beyond the arts, no longer channelled through the outmoded paradigm of soft power but operating as a robust framework of human capital and intellectual exchange. Two hundred years after the landmark educational mission of 1826, thousands of international students come to study in Egyptian universities each year in continuum of Egypt’s ancient role as a destination for scholars. Alongside this, the country steadily broadens its impact in science, engineering, and technology with growing participation in advanced manufacturing and global electronics supply chains. The resulting ecosystem is increasingly coalescing into a sovereign framework in which local creativity and national development reinforce one another. Egypt is not simply safeguarding culture; it is shaping the terms through which Egyptian identity is encountered, interpreted, and appreciated both internally and externally. Ultimately, this profound cultural transition demonstrates that heritage is not a stagnant archive to be passively preserved, but a vital, living “culture in motion.” Ours is a nation uniquely equipped to turn memory into momentum, heritage into invention, and everyday life into a sustained cultural language—not as a repetition of the past, but as a deliberate expansion of what the present can confidently become.

Nadine Loza is a development strategist, opinion columnist, and Founding Director of the Egypt Diaspora Initiative.

The post Opinion | New Republic, Post-Nostalgia first appeared on Dailynewsegypt.

On May 19, 2026, the Penguin Random House imprint Kokila will publish “Landing in Place: A Graphic Novel,” a coming-of-age story exploring an Egyptian American girl’s search for identity across her college experiences, family life, and the wider world.

The young adult novel, which the publisher described as “poignant,” is the work of what it called a “powerhouse author-illustrator duo”: author Sherine Hamdy and illustrator Myra El Mir. Billed as an update to modern classics such as “Persepolis” and Tahereh Mafi’s “A Very Large Expanse of Sea,” the book illustrates how “the political is personal”. It weaves an Egyptian American family’s narrative with global historical events, spanning the 1956 Suez crisis, the 2011 Arab Spring protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, and contemporary protests for Palestinian rights.

Landing in Place narrative centres on Anisa, a university freshman attempting to follow in her sister Reem’s footsteps at her alma mater. Anisa is on the same pre-medical track and has inherited her sister’s old textbooks, mini-fridge, and hotpot. Despite her preference for studying art, her parents discount the field as a valid career choice. As her prescribed path crumbles, Anisa feels she does not belong among her organic chemistry classmates or the other Muslim students on campus.

After failing her first semester, Anisa begs her parents for time off to visit Cairo and stay with her “beloved grandfather”. The trip provides her with the freedom to have her own experiences, prompting a journey of self-discovery where she begins to develop her artistic voice while confronting familial, societal, and religious expectations. Upon returning to the United States, she finds that many of these expectations have shifted, but learns to rely on the love of friends and family—even those she is frequently at odds with—to remain true to herself.

Hamdy noted that the project originated in 2013 as a “snarky manuscript” titled “Hijabville,” which was based on her “annoyed experiences wearing hijab in my early adulthood”. In early drafts, the hijabi character, Anisa, never spoke, with others constantly projecting assumptions onto her.

“When I decided to give Anisa her voice, I had to trade snark for sincerity,” Hamdy stated. “The result was LANDING IN PLACE – a story that celebrates the beauty in Muslim cultures and hijab instead of rebelling against them”. Through the protagonist’s journey, Hamdy hopes readers will feel empowered “to discover the hidden historical and political traumas that inform their own families, as well as the important link between foreign intervention, neocolonialism, migration, and diaspora”.

Hamdy is a medical anthropologist teaching courses on Middle East culture, comics, and literary anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. She is the author of “Our Bodies Belong to God,” the co-creator of the graphic novel “Lissa,” and co-editor of the academic series ethnoGRAPHIC for the University of Toronto Press, which publishes works integrating comics and ethnography. Born in New York to Egyptian parents, Hamdy grew up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Bamako, Mali; and Mexico City, Mexico, and currently resides in Irvine, California, with her husband and two daughters.

El Mir is an illustrator who tells stories through comics, picture books, and activist posters. She grew up in Batha, Lebanon, where she studied fine arts and gender studies. El Mir is a co-founder of Research by Comics—an initiative bringing scholars and artists together—and of Space 27, a former artists’ community house in Beirut. She lives with her dog, Jeanie, and cat, Fara.

Targeted at readers aged 12 and older, the title will be released in paperback (ISBN 9780735229457) for $17.99 and as an ebook (ISBN 9780735229464) for $10.99. Promotional materials indicate that readers can “download high-res images and start reading here”.

The book has garnered starred reviews from trade publications, with Kirkus Reviews describing it as a “measured, thoughtful, and complex coming-of-age story,” Booklist calling it “refreshing, timely, and well-developed,” and School Library Journal noting it is “a riveting read”. Additional praise included a review from Hijabi Librarians, who stated the book “presents a thoughtful, generous account of learning to live with a changing self in an everchanging world, affirming personal growth as continuous and ongoing” for all readers. The outlet Scary Mommy called the work “gorgeous,” while Huda Fahmy, author of the National Book Award Finalist “Huda F Cares?”, described the novel as “deeply emotional and powerful”.

Kokila’s parent company, Penguin Random House, is the world’s largest trade book publisher, with a stated mission of “nourishing a universal passion for reading by connecting authors and their writing with readers everywhere”. Formed on July 1, 2013, by Pearson and Bertelsmann, the company has been fully owned by Bertelsmann since April 1, 2020. Operating more than 300 brands and imprints across six continents, the publisher comprises adult and children’s fiction and nonfiction trade publishing businesses in English, German, and Spanish across more than 20 countries. It employs over 10,000 people globally and sells more than 600m print, audio, and eBooks annually, releasing over 15,000 new titles per year. Its publishing lists feature hundreds of widely read authors and more than 80 Nobel Prize laureates.

The post New Graphic Novel “Landing in Place” Explores Egyptian American Identity Amidst Global History first appeared on Dailynewsegypt.

This issue is more crucial than ever, occupying a central place in cultural discussions, given Egypt’s increasing openness to international cultural cooperation through exchange programmes, grants, and specialized seminars. These initiatives reflect an institutional orientation toward building partnerships based on knowledge and cultural interaction. In this context, translation has become the most important tool for reintroducing Egypt’s valuable cultural heritage into shared spaces, without reduction or distortion.

This approach is clearly evident in the strategic vision of the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, which seeks to support cultural industries and enhance soft power by presenting Egyptian artistic and cultural heritage as an active entity capable of interacting with others, rather than merely a static inheritance. Hence, the focus is on translating arts and literature as dynamic mediums capable of faithfully presenting this heritage while respecting the diversity of cultural spheres to preserve its essence.

Within the Academy of Arts, this role has been realized through the establishment of the Higher Institute for the Translation of Arts, Literature, and Artistic Media. Its vision prioritizes preparing specialized personnel capable of dealing with artistic texts as intricate semantic systems that transcend the limits of language to encompass culture, customs, traditions, image, sound, and performance. Translating a work of art is not a literal transfer but a re-creation of an aesthetic experience, requiring strong awareness of identity on the one hand and of the mechanisms of global reception on the other. Egypt’s prominent writers, such as Naguib Mahfouz, Taha Hussein, Yahya Haqqi, Youssef El-Sebai, and countless others, did not simply produce distinguished literary works. Their writings were literary studies and penetrating insights into the human psyche and its complexities, undoubtedly transcending local boundaries. This is precisely what the translator must convey: universal messages that can inspire all cultures and foster a broader understanding of the human experience.

Similarly, Egypt’s timeless cinematic and theatrical heritage, with all its giants who transmitted world heritage to us and left their mark, deserves our utmost attention. We must retranslate it within the same global context that emphasizes the artwork’s cultural content, rather than focusing solely on the technicalities of dialogue, which are certainly open to multiple interpretations. Our cinematic heritage of comedic works from the 1940s and 1950s confirms this, as these films transformed comedy into a weapon of political defiance against occupation, inspiring audiences worldwide. Likewise, the realistic films of the 1990s, which reflected the early signs of globalization and foreshadowed our current situation, offered insightful artistic perspectives that interpreted and engaged with the world, rather than being confined to their own culture.

Perhaps the greatest challenge today lies in transforming translation into an effective tool of soft power, consolidating Egypt’s cultural presence on the international stage, not only through artistic production but also through its accurate and conscious presentation, which respects its distinctive character and illuminates its richness and universality.

In conclusion, translation is no longer a cultural choice but a tactical necessity imposed by the nature of the times. It is the means by which we reshape ourselves to the world and participate in forming a more balanced and pluralistic global discourse, a discourse that acknowledges and celebrates difference, rather than obliterating it.

Prof. Inas Abd-ElKhaleq – Dean, Higher Institute of Art, Literature, and Artistic Media Translation

The post Opinion | The Translation and Preservation of National Identity and Cultural Heritage in the Age of Globalization: A Perspective from Egyptian Cultural Institutions first appeared on Dailynewsegypt.

Against this background, the recent *Youth in Germany 2025* study offers more than empirical insight; it opens a window into what I would describe as a deeper structural tension within the modern state. While the report itself is not an institutional publication of the Hertie School, it is closely connected to its intellectual environment through the contribution of Professor Klaus Hurrelmann, situating it within a broader tradition of rigorous, policy-relevant research.

At first glance, the findings are familiar: psychological strain, economic pressure, digital overuse, and rising openness to emigration. Yet the analytical value of the study lies not in these indicators individually, but in the paradox they collectively reveal. Young people remain willing to work, to contribute, and to assume responsibility. What is weakening is not motivation, but confidence in the system’s ability to translate effort into outcome.

This distinction is critical. It suggests that the issue is not one of performance failure, but of meaning failure. In other words, we are not simply observing a crisis of resources or policy effectiveness, but a disruption in the relationship between individual effort and its perceived fairness and purpose. What emerges here is not merely a descriptive crisis; it is an empirical manifestation of what I conceptualise as a crisis in the governance of meaning.

By governance of meaning, I refer to the capacity of the state to render its actions intelligible, coherent, and normatively justifiable to its citizens. Modern states do not rely on performance alone; they rely on the ability to explain that performance in ways that sustain trust. When this explanatory capacity weakens, legitimacy begins to erode, even when institutions continue to function effectively.

The study provides multiple indications of this shift. Expectations around economic security, housing, social justice, and political participation remain central to how young people evaluate the system. However, what appears to be declining is the credibility of the link between these expectations and actual outcomes. The issue is not that the system produces nothing, but that what it produces is no longer fully convincing.

This helps explain the volatility in political preferences. The fragmentation observed among young voters is not merely ideological polarisation; it reflects a search for meaning. Support moves across parties not because of stable conviction, but because no single narrative fully captures what fairness, security, and future prospects should look like. In this sense, the political field becomes a space of interpretive competition.

Migration intensifies this dynamic. The study shows diverging expectations, from calls for stricter control to support for openness and integration. Yet what matters analytically is not the divergence itself, but what it represents. Migration becomes a site where deeper questions about fairness, distribution, and belonging are negotiated. It is less a policy issue than a test of how meaning is constructed within the state.

This is why debates around migration often appear disproportionate to their immediate scope. They are not only about borders or integration, but about whether the system operates according to a logic that citizens can recognise as fair. When that logic becomes unclear, even coherent policies may lose their legitimacy.

What the study ultimately reveals, therefore, is not a society in collapse, but a society under interpretive strain. Germany remains institutionally strong and economically capable. Yet even within such a context, the alignment between performance and meaning is no longer guaranteed.

This insight extends beyond Germany. Across contemporary states, the challenge is shifting. It is no longer sufficient to design efficient policies; the central question is whether those policies can be embedded within a framework of meaning that citizens understand and accept. The problem is not only what the state does, but how what it does is perceived, interpreted, and justified.
This perspective reflects a broader line of research I have been developing on what I describe as the “governance of meaning,” where legitimacy depends not only on performance, but on the state’s capacity to render that performance intelligible and normatively credible to citizens.

From this vantage point, the study reads less as a warning of decline and more as an early signal of structural transformation. It suggests that the mechanisms through which trust is produced are under pressure, even in high-capacity states.
The implication is direct. Efficiency alone is no longer sufficient. A state must not only deliver outcomes; it must also sustain a shared understanding of why those outcomes are fair, necessary, and meaningful.
When a state fails to explain itself, it does not simply lose efficiency; it loses legitimacy itself. Because legitimacy, at its core, is not performance alone; it is the continuous ability to justify the meaning of that performance.

Dr Ramy Galal is a governance and institutional reform specialist focusing on state capacity, accountability, and the design of effective public institutions. His work examines how institutional arrangements shape policy outcomes and government performance, particularly in emerging and middle-income contexts. He also engages with the concept of governance of meaning as an analytical lens for understanding how authority, narratives, and interpretation influence policy environments.

He is an Assistant Professor and a former Senator, bringing a combination of academic expertise and hands-on experience across both legislative and executive domains. He previously served as an advisor and official spokesperson for Egypt’s Ministry of Planning and Economic Development, with direct involvement in policy design, government decision-making, and implementation processes at the centre of government.

He holds a PhD from Alexandria University, a master’s degree from the University of East London, and a diploma in public administration from the University of Chile.

The post Opinion | Is Germany losing confidence? A Hertie-informed perspective first appeared on Dailynewsegypt.

The find was made by a Spanish mission from the University of Barcelona and the Institute of the Ancient Near East, led by Maite Mascort and Esther Pons Mellado. Excavations uncovered a rare Roman-era tomb containing several mummies, some wrapped in elaborately decorated linen with geometric motifs. Wooden coffins were also found, along with three golden tongues and one copper tongue—ritual objects believed to have been placed in the mouths of the dead. Traces of gold leaf applied to some mummies further highlight the richness of burial practices.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Sherif Fathy hailed the discovery as a valuable addition to Minya’s growing record of significant finds, underscoring Egypt’s cultural diversity across historical eras. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, noted that the mission also uncovered a rare papyrus inside one mummy, containing a passage from Book Two of Homer’s Iliad—the famed Catalogue of Ships—adding a remarkable literary dimension to the site.

Excavations east of Ptolemaic Tomb No. 67 revealed a trench with three partially preserved limestone chambers. In one chamber, archaeologists found a stone slab and a jar containing cremated remains of an adult, an infant’s bones, and the head of a feline, all wrapped in textiles. Another chamber held a jar with two cremated individuals and animal bones of the same species.

South of the site, terracotta and bronze figurines were unearthed, including depictions of Harpocrates as a horseman and a small statue of Cupid. Meanwhile, work in Tomb No. 65 revealed additional golden and copper tongues, Roman-period mummies, and painted wooden coffins inside a hypogeum, though the tomb showed signs of ancient looting.

Professor Hassan Amer of Cairo University emphasized that these discoveries reinforce El-Bahnasa’s importance as a key archaeological site, continuing to reveal Egypt’s layered and multicultural past.

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The discovery was made by a mission from the Supreme Council of Antiquities working at the Al-Qalaya site in Hosh Issa.

The building, unearthed within the Al-Ruba’iyat area, is believed to reflect early developments in monastic architecture and communal religious life in Egypt.

According to Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of the council, the find represents an important addition to the study of early monastic architecture in the country. He noted that Al-Qalaya is regarded as the second-largest monastic settlement in the history of Christian monasticism, with its architectural style reflecting the earliest phases of monastery development.

Excavations revealed that the structure underwent several architectural modifications over time, indicating its evolving function. The building comprises 13 rooms with multiple uses, including individual and communal living quarters for monks, as well as larger spaces designated for hospitality and teaching.

Diaa Zahran, Head of the Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities Sector, said the northern section features a spacious hall with decorated stone benches, likely used to receive visitors. At the centre of the building is a designated prayer area (apse), where a limestone cross is set into the eastern wall, underscoring the structure’s religious significance.

The mission also uncovered a range of artistic elements, including wall paintings depicting incomplete figures of monastic individuals identified by their attire, alongside intricate plant motifs. Among the notable artworks is a mural illustrating two gazelles surrounded by vegetal decorations and a symbolic circular motif, reflecting the richness of early Coptic artistic expression.

Field director Samir Rizk Abdel Hafez reported additional finds such as a two-metre marble column, column capitals and bases, pottery vessels, and numerous ostraca, some inscribed with Coptic letters or decorated with geometric and floral patterns.

Animal and bird bones, as well as seashell remains, were also discovered at the site, offering insights into the daily dietary practices of the monks.

One of the most remarkable discoveries is a rectangular limestone slab bearing a Coptic inscription believed to be a funerary stele. Preliminary readings suggest it commemorates the death of a figure named “Abba Kyr, son of Shenouda,” pointing to continued habitation and spiritual activity at the site during the flourishing of monastic life.

The mission has been working at Al-Qalaya since 2023, during which it previously uncovered monastic clusters known as “manshobiyat,” along with service buildings and additional wall paintings, further reinforcing the site’s status as one of Egypt’s earliest centres of monasticism.

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