The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently been walking back statements it made on how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic that has been wreaking havoc in the world since December of last year. COVID-19 has killed at least 407,914 people around the world as of Tuesday evening, according to statistics produced by AFP. The virus has infected more than 7,169,550 people in 196 countries and territories since the outbreak began. The World Health Organization has retreated from its position on three basic issues regarding the coronavirus. First: Is a face mask useful in preventing the virus? At the onset of outbreak, the WHO announced on its official website that there was no evidence to support or deny the usefulness for healthy individuals of wearing medical or other face masks. However, the organization is studying the rapidly developing scientific knowledge on face masks and is constantly updating its guidance in this regard. Earlier this week, the WHO retreated from its earlier statement and issued a recommendation to governments to ask people to wear cloth face masks in public spaces in order to help limit the spread of coronavirus. The new directives, supported by the results of studies conducted in recent weeks, emphasize that face masks are only one of a group of tools that reduce the risk of the virus spread. “Masks alone will not protect you from COVID-19. We advise governments to encourage people to wear masks, and we specifically mean cloth masks, that is, non-medical masks,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization s director-general, told reporters. Second: What about asymptomatic transmission? As the virus began to spread, the WHO said on its official website that “COVID-19 infection is mainly caused by respiratory droplets secreted by a person who coughs or has other symptoms such as fever or fatigue, but many people with COVID-19 infection show only very mild symptoms.” This is especially true in the early stages of the disease, and the virus can be caught from someone who has a mild cough and does not feel ill. Some reports indicate that the virus can be transmitted even by people who show no symptoms. The extent of this type of infection transmission is not yet known, however, and the WHO continues to evaluate ongoing research and will publish any updated results. Two days ago, the organization revised its position again, stating that coronavirus transmission from people who carry the virus without symptoms is “very rare,” a statement that contradicts the its previous statements. At a press conference in Geneva Director of the Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases Unit of the WHO Maria Van Kerkhove said that, “It passes from an individual through infectious droplets. If we actually followed all of the symptomatic cases, isolated those cases, followed the contacts and quarantined those cases, we would drastically reduce — I would love to be able to give a proportion of how much transmission we would actually stop — but it would be a drastic reduction in transmission,” she said. “When we actually go back and we say how many of them were truly asymptomatic, we find out that many have really mild disease,” Van Kerkhove said. “They re not quote-unquote Covid symptoms, meaning they may not have developed fever yet, they may not have had a significant cough, or they may not have shortness of breath — but some may have mild disease,” she said. “Having said that, we do know that there can be people who are truly asymptomatic.” Yesterday evening, shortly after the previous statement, Van Kerkhove attempted to clarify a “misunderstanding” resulting from her previous statements that people with coronavirus who show no symptoms rarely transmit infection. She explained that she was referring to a limited number of studies in her previous speech, studies that attempted to follow-up coronavirus patients who show no symptoms. Van Kerkhove said: “What I was referring to yesterday at the press conference was very a few studies — some two or three studies that were actually published on follow-up with cases that show no symptoms and that point to how effective they are in transmitting the virus.” Third: Is Hydroxychloroquine effective against COVID-19? Nine days after the suspension on May 25 of clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine, due to the publication of a study in the scientific journal The Lancet stating that the drug is not beneficial to health and is misused to treat COVID-19, the WHO decided to resume trials. The aim of the suspension was to allow the organization to analyze the available information and to make a decision in mid-June. “We are very confident now that there is no difference in deaths,” Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist told a news conference at WHO headquarters in Geneva. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said that after analyzing “available data on deaths,” members of the organization s Safety and Follow-up Committee felt that there was no reason to amend the clinical trial protocol.

Egyptian short film Hazehy Laylaty ("This Is My Night"), starring actress Nahed Elsebaeiy, is competing in the 15th edition of the Geneva International Oriental Film Festival (FIFOG), taking place from 8 to 14 June 2020. The 15-minute 2019 production is directed by Yusuf Noaman, who wrote the screenplay with Ahmed Ehab Abdel-Wareth. The film is about a poor lady who decides to enjoy a day out in classy Cairo and have some ice-cream with her son, who suffers from Down syndrome. Instead, she faces a big struggle, although she insists on holding onto happy moments. Sixty films from different genres will be shown at the oriental festival taking place in Geneva and its municipalities under the theme Resistance… feminine.’ The 2020 edition is celebrating "the images of women" among other things. "It will amplify the hope of youth, will question the resistance of peoples and will explore the dynamism of societies in the Orient, especially their will to oppose moral and political conservatism with gentleness and a smile," stated the FIFOG.With over 200 institutional partners, the 60 films of the 15th FIFOG are from various genres and countries and vary from long and short fiction, short and long documentaries. Almost 60 discussions with directors or actors will be held at the festival s 25 venues in Geneva and its neighboring areas; Versoix, Vernier, Presinge, and Carouge. After premiering at Al-Gouna Film Festival in 2019,This Is My Night has been screened in many festivals worldwide, including Festival du Court Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand, gaining the interest of many critics and fans in addition to entities like the European Union.

Is there anybody who is of a larger stature and has had a greater impact on comedy in the Arab world than Naguib El-Rihani? His strength is obvious to everyone, from those who attempted to harm his reputation and belittle his impact to those who are learning, if not imitating, his performance style. Above all, there are millions of viewers who adored what little of his art reached us. What if this man had appeared in the time of television, or if he had lived longer and given us – as others have – dozens of films and plays? El-Rihani was born Naguib Elyas El-Rihani in 1889 in Bab El-She reya, a district in the heart of Old Cairo, to a father of Iraqi Chaldean Christian origin who worked in horse-trading and the gypsum trade and an Egyptian Coptic mother from Upper Egypt. El-Rihani learned French at the Collège des Frères de la Salle, though he did not complete his education due to family circumstances as well as his fascination with acting. El-Rihani was an accomplished stage actor and that his glory and name are engraved in the Egyptian theatre’s almanacs. He acted in 81 plays between 1916 and 1949, though no known recording of them exists. His most famous roles included The Egyptian Pound (1931), Men Don t Know How To Lie (1935), Five Till (1943). However, it is on the cinema screen where he secured his artistic immortality and high stature.Even though he was not initially enthusiastic about cinema and did not invest much into it, it was this medium that has captured a fraction of El-Rihani’s art: his husky voice, which is familiar and unmistakable, as well as his artistic style and school of acting that left its imprint on his theatre company’s members. It is thanks to him that these members went on to become stars. Whether they acknowledge this fact or not, whether they admit his influence on them or not, they all bear his mark. He also appeared in nine films between 1931 and 1949, of which seven survived. The latter works help us understand his genius and the art he represented. Although the copies of two of his three early films were lost, the characters El-Rihani performed in both films, His Excellency Keshkesh Bey (1931) and His Highness Wants to Marry (1936), did not differ much from the characters he portrayed in theatres of the time. A spirit of the theatre in cinema The character of Keshkesh Bey, the mayor of Kafr El-Ballas, is exploited by traders in the morning at the Cotton Stock Exchange and at night by beautiful girls in casinos. This character was similar to a clown, with no dialogue yet giving a performance that communicated well without words, according to El-Rihani’s own memoirs, which he published in 1937. In front of the camera, El-Rihani used a lot of improvisation, often co-authoring the script with his friend Badie Khairy. Starting with his fourth film Salama is Alright (1937), directed by Niazy Mostafa, El-Rihani began giving up on improvisation. He reached the pinnacle of his artistic maturity in his last film, Flirtation of Girls (1949), directed by Anwar Wagdi. The performance in Flirtation of Girls was a far cry from that of a man who began his life on the edge of clownishness, moving to presenting characters with depth and provoking thought. The first thing one notices in El-Rihani s films is that the actor’s long theatrical experience immensely influenced his acting. In film, the dialogue is at the forefront and the actors movement is limited in comparison to theatre. There is also larger diversity in shot sizes and angles.El-Rihani tried to find his own vocabulary within this kind of medium, always pushing theatre into it. Even though such theatrical performances would in many instances not be accepted in film, we should not ignore how much El-Rihani influenced the directors with whom he worked, especially since all of them, with the exception of Anwar Wagdi, made their directorial debuts with El-Rihani. Being a theatre icon, El-Rihani used his skill to portray contradicting emotions in one scene, moving cleverly between tragedy and comedy and inciting the laughter of the viewer. By plucking the strings of feeling within the viewer, El-Rihani knew well how to gain the audience s sympathy before addressing their minds and driving them to contemplate; displaying the flexibility of a trapeze performer. Unlike many other actors, El-Rihani s comedy did not aim to provoke laughter per se; he was rather satisfied with drawing even the most subtle smile on the faces of his audience, pushing them to think in the process. El-Rihani died of typhoid on 8 June 1949 at the age of 60.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly inspected the final stage of the Tahrir Square lighting project, after the Misr Company for Sound and Light finished installing the square’s lights. In a Thursday evening inspection tour, Madbouly said that work is being done to develop downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square into its most magnificent state yet, and join it among Egypt’s archaeological and tourist attractions.Tahrir Square’s development falls within the umbrella of a general project to develop Khedive Cairo, ordered by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as part of a plan to renovate all of Cairo’s historical areas. During his previous visit to the square lighting project, the Prime Minister was keen to follow up on observations made during the previous tour.Madbouly inspected the lighting elements added to buildings overlooking the square to harmonize with lights at the Egyptian Museum as well as the Tahrir Complex, and also checked the removal of visual clutter and advertisements from these buildings. Egypt seeks to renovate Tahrir Square with all its traditional luster while simulating some of the world’s most famous squares, Madbouly said, which is appropriate for the site of many historically important events.The Tahrir Square renovation project started up last year. A Ramses II obelisk, parts of which were unearthed in Egypt last August at Zagazig city in Lower Egypt, was fully re-assembled and displayed at the Square. The Antiquities and Tourism Ministry also installed four sphinxes from Luxor’s Karnak Temple to Tahrir Square after safely relocating them to the capital.

The Cairo Centre for Strategic Studies (CCSS) has announced that it has launched the Adel Mahmoud Science Forum as part of the centre s intellectual programmes. “The forum aims to honour the name of one of our greatest scientists, and looks forward to promoting scientific culture on viruses and biology, especially as community attention to biological issues mounts in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic,” political writer Ahmed El-Maslemani, president of the CCSS, said in a press statement. “The forum, which will be chaired by a prominent biologist, will be an arena for developing knowledge about health policy and biosecurity,” El-Maslemani added. Professor Adel Mahmoud (1941-2018) was one of the most prominent scientists in the world who contributed to the invention of vaccines in modern times. The great scientist was mourned by prominent figures when he passed away in a New York hospital in June 2018, including Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, who said “the world has lost one of the greatest vaccine developers of our time, Dr. Adel Mahmoud, who saved countless children’s lives.” Born in Cairo in 1941, Professor Mahmoud graduated from Cairo University Medical School in 1963 to fulfil the dream of his mother, Fathia Osman, who attended the same college but was prevented from being a doctor by her family who believed at that time that women should not become doctors. Mahmoud moved to the United States in 1973, where he later became head of the Department of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, and in 2006 he became a professor at the prestigious Princeton University. Mahmoud was a pioneer in biomedical research and global health policy and oversaw the production and marketing of many vaccines that have made significant progress in public health.

The Metropolitan Opera canceled its fall 2020 performances on Monday and postponed several new productions to future seasons as the coronavirus continues to wreak havoc with New York s cultural life. The storied opera house, which has been dark since mid-March because of the health crisis, said it still planned to go ahead with an abbreviated season to start December 31 instead of September. "Given the enormous organizational complexity of the Met s schedule, we have no choice but to cancel our fall season," General Manager Peter Gelb said. "The health and safety of our company members and our audience is our top priority, and it is simply not feasible to return to the opera house for a September opening while social distancing remains a requirement." The announcement comes a week before New York City is slated to begin its "phase one" reopening following a near-total shutdown of most non-essential activities as the city implemented social distancing protocols to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The first phase permits manufacturers, wholesale suppliers and some retailers to resume operations with restrictions. However, live performances are not permitted until "phase four" of the New York State plan, for which there is still no timetable. The Met s truncated schedule means it won t stage a new production of Verdi s "Aida" scheduled to open the season, or a premiere of Prokofiev s "The Fiery Angel." Those new productions will be performed in future seasons, the company said. The Met will also postpone new productions of two Mozart operas, "The Magic Flute" and "Don Giovanni," and will instead present revivals of the pieces in the 2020-21 season. The opera house still intends to go ahead with the April 2021 premiere of the modern work "Dead Man Walking" by Jake Heggie. The Met also announced other tweaks to its plans, including shortening some performances and moving up the curtain time to earlier in the evening when possible.

The management of a commercial center in Sheikh Zayed announced the opening of a drive-in cinema inside their mall. On its Facebook page, the mall’s management wrote that customers can suggest the films they want to see from their comfort of their cars. “Tell us about the films that you would love to watch and the types of food you would love to find and you can watch it from your car,” it wrote. During the 1990s, drive-in cinemas were popular throughout Egypt and was a project at the Cairo-Isamailia road. The project eventually stopped.

Amid global lockdown measures caused by the coronavirus pandemic and with only a few months left till the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), organisers are facing a tough decision that will determine the fate of the 42nd edition of the festival. With the spread of the virus obstructing filming globally, top cinema festivals have been forced to postpone or cancel this year s editions, including Cannes, which was cancelled in May. However, some festivals will proceed, including the Venice festival, whose planners announced days ago that they will hold minimal activities in their upcoming edition in September, despite the tough conditions in Italy. The CIFF director Mohamed Hefzy has announced that a detailed press release will be issued by the festival s board this week to address enquiries regarding the future of the CIFF s 42nd edition. The board of the festival, which is scheduled for November, has been in ongoing meetings and discussions since the crisis broke out, but the final decision still has not been made given that is it unclear how long the crisis will last and when travel will resume. On Sunday, the CIFF s artistic director Ahmed Shawky told a radio station that "all scenarios are still possible amid the current situation." "We have been in discussions over the past two months. Circumstances could force cancelation, but the most agreed upon plan so far is to prepare normally for the next edition while taking into consideration all possible expectations," explained the Egyptian film critic.While other festivals have been suspended in Egypt, ideas like reducing activities, holding the festival without public attendance or turning to online streaming platforms are possible options for the CIFF as well. "I think we must plan for it to be held as scheduled in case changes happen," prominent Egyptian critic Tarek El-Shennawy, a member of the CIFF consultancy panel, told Ahram Arabic news website earlier on Monday. "But from my point of view, I believe we can t present a final decisive vision before August," added El-Shennawy, explaining that Egyptians should look to the Venice festival preparations. Organised by the Ministry of Culture in Egypt and sponsored by many public and private entities, the 41st edition of the CIFF, named after former longtime artistic director Youssef Cherif Rizkallah, was quite successful, screening over 150 films from 63 countries and holding various parallel activities. Under the helm of prominent filmmaker Hefzy, new categories have been added to the competitions and various panels and workshops have made a big part of the prestigious festival, with side events like Cairo Industry Days proving to be a success. Currently, all movie theatres are closed in the 100-million-strong country, same as all cultural, sports and entertainment venues, with the number of recorded infections surpassing 25,000 and with almost 1,000 dead. With airports closed, Egypt has applied stricter precautionary measures this week in addition to the 8pm-to-5am curfew, including obligatory facemasks at public venues and on transportation. So far, the coronavirus has infected over 6.1 million globally and caused the death of over 370,000 people.

The Nasr City Family Court on Saturday ordered actor Ahmed Ezz give 41,700 GBP to actress Zeina to pay for their twin children s schooling fees for 2018, 2019 and 2020, and also pay LE42,350 in school bus fees during this period. The issue began in 2012 when Ezz claimed he was not the father of Zeina s twin children. Zeina filed a lawsuit against Ezz claiming that they were married on June 15, 2012, and that the twins are his children. A verdict from the Nasr City Family Court on June 2015 stated it had been proven that the children were Ezz s. The verdict compelled Ezz to recognize his paternal responsibilities, allowing Zeina to issue birth certificates and other official documents for the children. The same court in April 2019 ordered Ezz to pay LE30,000 a month to support the children.

Lockdown bans on live performances have left many British musicians on the breadline, fuelling a campaign for them to get a bigger share of the profits from streaming their songs online. "I m getting contacted by lots of young artists who have millions of streams from 200,000 monthly listeners and don t make the minimum wage," musician Tom Gray from English indie band Gomez told Reuters. Gray has founded the Broken Record campaign to pressure the industry into doing more for the people who make the music. While platinum-selling Gomez has racked up millions of plays on Spotify, the market-leading online music platform, this amounts to "a few pennies" of income for Gray. That is because the money paid by consumers for major online music platforms goes into a central pot that is distributed to artists according to market share. So if someone pays 10 pounds ($12) a month and listened only to Gomez, their money would still find its way to the world s top artists and their record labels. The streaming companies say they are doing their utmost to help artists during the lockdown. Spotify has pledged to match donations to music charities up to a total of $10 million and Apple Music launched a $50 million fund for independent record labels and distributors. The Help Musicians UK charity has paid 8.5 million pounds to 17,500 musicians who have run out of money for essentials. But many more musicians are struggling, shut out of state lockdown support programmes because their incomes are irregular. A Musicians Union survey earlier this month found 38% were not eligible for government help. "I know how hard this is already for so many people and I can see how truly terrifyingly bad it s going to get," said Gray, whose campaign is backed by Boy George, John Grant, and the Shins. Hot Chip, a popular electro-tinged indie band, had planned a global tour through 2020. Now, the musicians and their nine-strong crew have lost much of their income, despite millions listening to their music online every month - a fanbase that might have earned Hot Chip a "bed of gold" decades ago. "We ourselves don t know where the next chunk of cash is really coming from," said Al Doyle, a member of Hot Chip. Despite a likely 25% drop in global music revenues this year because of the pandemic, the industry is set to double in value by 2030, a Goldman Sachs research note published this month showed. But many artists have doubts about their future. "If coronavirus continues like this for the whole of the summer, then really that s going to feel like my life in music has been decimated," said Theo Bard, a songwriter who was hoping to promote an album set for release this summer. Doyle from Hot Chip conceded that only consumers might have the power to redress the balance, by buying music directly from their favourite artists s websites or via online platforms such as Bandcamp where the artists control the prices. "If it s unsuccessful, then I think you ll find lots of mid-level artists, probably kind of on our level, deciding that this is not a feasible way to support ourselves." ($1 = 0.8160 pounds)

Egyptian pop singer and actor Tamer Hosny released his latest video clip Wa Enta Maayia (When You re With Me) Remix, in which are featured three North African stars. The song was released during the Islamic holiday of Eid El-Fitr, the celebration which follows the fasting month of Ramadan. The remix of his 2019 album song, that originally featured Algerian King of Raï Cheb Khaled, has seen the contribution of famous singers Moroccan Abdel-Fattah Grini and Tunisian record-breaking rapper Balti. Published on Hosny s YouTube channel to which over 5.6 million viewers are subscribed, Wa Enta Maayia was remixed by Moroccan Jalal Al-Hamdaoui in a dance recipe that blended various popular EDM beats with Reggaeton and Egyptian Maqsoum. After an intro scene of Hosny and Khaled at a barber s shop, Hosny s rich production sees colourful entertaining locations, styling, modelling and dance routine starting with a shot of wall-posters of Egyptian movies, including one of his latest hit El-Floos (Money), by the same director of the clip Said Al-Marouk. Lebanese director Al-Marouk, who was among Michael Bay s crew of the 2010 worldwide cinema hit Transformer Revenge of the Fallen, has directed tens of hit music videos for the most successful Arab singers and is also known for Ahmed Ezz and Donia Samir Ghanem s comedy hit of 2011; 365 Youm Saada (365 Days of Happiness). With his joyful presence Cheb Khaled, of the worldwide fame for hits like Didi, Aïcha and C est la vie, is always keen to appear with Egypt s first class stars that included Mohamed Mounir in a concert in Cairo a few years after the 1999 Qalbi (My Heart), one of Amr Diab s very few duets. Grini, who is most known for Ahla Mafy El-Donya (The Sweetest in the World) and 3 Kelmat (3 Words), sings his verse with Hosny in a Moroccan dialect despite his big collection of Egyptian dialect hits that also include his latest Ya Habibi (O Lover) and Laffa (Roll); a significant introduction of Mahragan beats. Collaborating with many known singers, the widely known Tunisian singer, composer and rapper Balti has a number of hit watched by tens of millions, such as ; Muslim - Mama, Baba, Clandestino, and Wala Lela. His smash hit Ya Lili is one of the top watched Arabic songs on YouTube with 667 million views so far. Wa Enta Maayia is not Hosny s only release during Eid Al-Fitr. On Sunday he released a video for Welcome to the Life duet with Akon from their concert at JJTX Music festival in Jeddah, early 2020, that sees the Senegalese American star singing a verse in Arabic. Hosny has also given a no-crowd charity concert on Sunday at the Sound and Light Theatre at the foot of the Giza Pyramids with the accompaniment of several musicians. Organised by ONTV, that also interviewed Hosny, the concert was sponsored by WE Egyptian Telecom and Zed Park that both featured the star in their Ramadan season advertisement campaigns in which he presented two new songs. Hosny, who said earlier that the Pyramids concert "aims to raise funds for those who were affected by the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic", has last month chanted for the same cause joining Mounir, Yousra, Samira Said and other Arab super stars in the Medhat El-Adl ode to humanity Enta Aqwa (You re Stronger), composed by Amr Mostafa. Due to the ongoing lockdown; Tamer Hosny, who announced earlier that he would only hold no-crowd live-streamed concerts if made for the benefit of poor families affected by the pandemic, has temporarily halted the shooting of his new film Mosh Ana (Not Me) in a precautionary move despite the fact that many Ramadan series were shot amid the pandemic. Hosny is keen to publish human development posts to boost people s morale during the ongoing crisis, and has recently posted an Islamic prayer song in supplication to God to lift the plague. The Egyptian star Hosny, who made it to the Guinness World Records book twice, has accomplish a two-decade successful singing and acting career that was kickstarted by producer Nasr Mahrous Free Mix 3 album that also witnessed the beginning of the rising fame of Egyptian star Sherine Abdel-Wahab. From Mahrous to Mazzika and Rotana, Hosny s discography includes almost a dozen of successful albums with the latest releases produced by him. His filmography includes commercially successful films in which he collaborated with many prestigious writers, directors and actors; such as Halet Hob (2003), Sayed El-Atefy (2005), Captain Hima (2008), Nour Einy (2011), Tesbah Ala Kheir (2017), El-Badla (2018) and Omar & Salma trilogy, in addition to a number of TV series.

Egypt s Medical Syndicate has placed the blame for the rising number of physician deaths to the coronavirus outbreak squarely on the Health Ministry, citing its negligence and inaction in a Sunday statement which listed the current number of medical staff deaths at 19. The syndicate went as far as to warn of legal procedures against everyone involved in these deaths. It accused the Health Ministry of failing to perform tests early on to diagnose virus cases among medical staff, and failing to carry out tests on those in contact with positive cases. The ministry also failed to provide quick enough treatment for the infected personnel, alongside not providing them with the appropriate personal protection garb. It demanded the ministry remedy these failings and provide a better treatment plan for medical staff, alongside granting them better forms of personal protection and supplies such as medicine. The statement requested that training be provided on how to deal with coronavirus in hospitals, and to perform smear tests on suspected cases and those known to be in contact with positive cases. These medical staff combat the coronavirus out of a sense of national duty which they perform with the utmost seriousness, the statement said, adding that they therefore deserve better treatment from the Health Ministry. All physicians must exercise their right to report any issues to the syndicate regarding means of protection or an inability to treat coronavirus cases, it stressed. The Medical Syndicate on May 13 called for the allocation of a quarantine hospital specifically for physicians and nurses, due to increased delays in transferring medical professionals infected with coronavirus over the past few days. Because of the delays, the syndicate said, medical professionals were slow to receive the medical care that is necessary to ensure a speedy recovery and a quick return to their work helping to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The Venice Film Festival will go ahead as scheduled at the beginning of September, Luca Zaia, the governor of the region around the Italian city said on Sunday as the spread of the new coronavirus in the country slows. Organized by the Biennale di Venezia company, Venice is the world’s longest running film festival. In January it announced that Cate Blanchett would preside over its 77th edition. Due to the lockdowns imposed on the film industry across the world to limit the spread of the virus, the festival will probably be attended by fewer productions, said Zaia, who is also a board member of the Biennale di Venezia. The Cannes Film Festival, the world’s largest, was forced to postpone its latest edition in May due to the virus epidemic. Italy plans to lift all travel curbs from June 3 and travelers from European Union countries will be able to enter without going into quarantine. The country recorded 119 new deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic on Saturday, bringing the death toll in Italy from the outbreak to 32,735, the third highest total in the world after the United States and Britain.

Egyptian actress Ragaa al-Geddawy has contracted the coronavirus, medical sources said on Sunday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the sources said that an ambulance transported 81-year-old Geddawy from her house to the Abo-Khalifa isolation hospital in Ismailia. Geddawy participated in this Ramadan drama season s “Loabat al-Nesyan” (Game of Forgetting) series. Two days ago, Geddawy posted a photo on Instagram with the show s crew, including actress Dina al-Sherbiny. “Congratulations to all of the work team.. thank God .. Ferkesh (finito),” she captioned the photo. The state-owned al-Ahram newspaper reported that the show s crew was concerned following Geddawy s diagnosis, as all of them had been in contact with her. Geddawy had reported a high fever on Saturday, Ahram said, leading to an examination which tested positive for the coronavirus, despite Geddawy being in good health two days ago. Born on September 6, 1938 in Ismailia Governorate, Geddawy boasts a great artistic career spanning nearly half a century ago in distinguished works of cinema and television.

With Ludwig van Beethoven s 250th birth anniversary falling in 2020, music venues around the world prepared to celebrate the birthday of the decade, showing their appreciation for one of the greatest composers of all time. But with the current pandemic, those plans have been largely modified or simply shattered. While putting Beethoven events on hold might be understandable, the same cannot be said of the decision not pursue his birthday celebrations within the coronavirus restrictions. But let us start from the beginning. The marketing campaign of Beethoven s anniversary started as early as early 2019, when many cultural institutions began preparing the audience for the grand celebrations, announcing programmes filled with world-class orchestras and soloists performing Beethoven, releasing teasers of what 2020 would bring to their stages. New York s Carnegie Hall fused its Beethoven plans with its 2019/2020 season and as such beginning the celebrations early. Bonn (Beethoven s birthplace) and Vienna (where he spent most of his life) understandably took the lead, competing over the largest and most impressive programme of concerts, exhibitions, lectures, symposia, tours, even mobile apps. According to one press release, “in a unique cooperative venture, the Federal Republic of Germany, the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Rhine-Sieg District and the City of Bonn have joined forces to set up the Beethoven Jubiläums GmbH (Beethoven Anniversary Society) in order to coordinate this important jubilee and to publicize it beneath the umbrella brand BTHVN2020.” With the slogan “Rediscover Beethoven” BTHVN2020 gave its first press conference on birthday plans as early as in 2016 – four years prior! The programmed included over 300 projects at dozens of venues: concerts, dance events, operas, lectures, theme weeks and festivals. Vienna did not fall behind. The Wiener Symphoniker brought 36 concerts with music by Beethoven to its season at the Wiener Konzerthaus, the State Opera was preparing for a new staging of Leonore (1805), the composer s only opera, while the Theater an der Wien planned on launching its own Beethoven Festival 2020 (February-May), which among many gems would include Fidelio (1806), a more successful revision of Leonore, directed by the Oscar-winning Christoph Waltz. I will not go into further details. Suffice to say that, elsewhere in Europe, America and the world at large, the celebrations were taken just as seriously. I can just picture chocolates with the composer s pensive face engraved on them, souvenirs and paraphernalia, pocket-size recordings of Fur Elise or the Moonlight Sonata. Not only is Beethoven a composer whose musical gems carry enormous value and timeless delights, he is also a figure capable of generating high profits internationally. Mozart s 250th anniversary in 2006, Chopin s 200th in 2009 and, a little less bombastic but bombastic enough, Liszt s 200th in 2011: all were huge, lucrative occasions. All over the world, Beethoven s weight is arguably even greater. In Egypt, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra celebrations started in January with the object of going on uninterrupted till December. According to Ahmed El Saedi, the music director and principal conductor of the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, “Our Beethoven celebratory repertoire includes many interesting works: five piano concerti, nine symphonies, the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives, Fidelio, among others. The celebrations will end with Missa solemnis in D major (a solemn mass), planned for 16 December, the day Beethoven was born.” Fidelio, for which El Saedi was bringing over an international cast including expatriate Egyptians, would ve been the Egypt premiere. But none of it was to happen. Together with the entire music industry, Beethoven fell prey to Covid-19, and the famed four notes opening Symphony no 5, a fate motif (a term based on a bogus story that has nonetheless persisted) began to ring in my ears. El Saedi is but one among thousands bemoaning the way Covid-19 cut the birthday season short: “During the first weeks of the year, we managed to perform all five piano concerti, fused with non-Beethoven programming elements. We also performed Symphonies number 1 and 2. In March we had only one rehearsal for the Eroica, when we heard about the general shutdown of all cultural activities.” He hopes to make up for lost time once musical activities reopen. And shockwaves notwithstanding, only days into the closure, musicians from all over the world resurfaced online. Individual musicians played for their followers on social media. Ensembles used technology to play together, adding a new perspective to creative possibilities. Cultural institutions began to share their archives, others offered some of their work for a limited time. Valiantly, as it seems, the Theater an der Wien – where Christoph Waltz s Fidelio was ready – made it available on medici.tv and ARTE Concert (both of which require a subscription) for the first 10 days of April. In short, musicians and music programmers found ways past the shutdown. How come Beethoven was left out? That is certainly the case judging by any web search – with a number of interesting exceptions. The Liszt Academy in Budapest celebrated with two concerts on their YouTube channel: Symphony no. 6 “Pastorale” (recorded in December 2018) and Symphony no. 9 (recorded this February). Deutsche Welle Radio has used its YouTube channel DW Classical Music to release “Best of Beethoven”, a series on the composer, together with concerts. The initiative began months before the pandemic, but it came in handy when live concerts were cancelled all over the world. Closer to home Emirati musicians performed Ode to Joy from Symphony no. 9, in a YouTube video. It may not have been the best performance of the famous piece, but they deserve credit for the thought. Egypt s Ministry of Culture launched the “Stay at Home: Culture in Your Hands” initiative on YouTube, bringing theatre performances, concerts and other cultural events to the audience. In March, the ministry posted a concert by the Paris-based, internationally renowned Egyptian pianist Ramzi Yassa playing Beethoven s piano concerto no. 5 in E-flat major, Emperor, with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra. However, no mention was made of the work s name or the anniversary celebrations inside the video or in its description and the front cover poster reveals some details which are almost illegible. The need for Beethoven concerts is a function not only of expectations but of money. Artists will not be compensated, and organisers will not profit if the enormous financial investments that have been made do not pay off. The BTHVN2020 found its own solution to the situation announcing that “celebrations in honour of Ludwig van Beethoven s 250th birthday will continue until September 2021. This will allow the creative potential of BTHVN2020 to continue to unfold, despite the restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.” The BTHVN2020 s strategy is to postpone events. Meanwhile, however, I was hoping to see some online – and yes, free of charge. It would have said something, demonstrated something. “There is little holding me back from ending my own life. It is only art that keeps me going,” Beethoven is known to have said while spending time in a health resort in Heiligenstadt in 1802, trying to deal with his progressing deafness. I am not sure how the Beethoven birthday situation can fit into this claim. Beethoven as art did not keep the pandemic from ending cultural life, but is archival, even fragmentary participation too much to ask? Then again, Beethoven himself would probably not have cared for our materialistic world. It is doubtful whether, in response to Covid-19 and its aftermath, he would even have given us his trademark look of scorn.

Humor, hope, resistance, enthusiasm... This is what emerges from the Mask Mania 2020, a creative initiative launched recently by the cultural association ARAC for Art and Culture. The initiative invites artists to reinvent the masks that we find ourselves obliged to wear in order to protect ourselves from the pandemic. The masks that were transformed by the artists are displayed on ARAC s Facebook page. The project s creator and founder of ARAC Ashraf Reda created a work which he titled The Alphabet of History. He covered the mask with vibrant colours of the rainbow, reflecting the diversity that characterises humanity, adding old Egyptian motifs (pharaonic, Islamic, Coptic, etc.) to the design. He also invented a new Arabic alphabet, painting miniature letters based on elements from Egyptian heritage: pyramids, minarets, fish, and waves stand out on the surface of the mask. In addition, three female artists – Shery Elbeyaa, Hanaa Amin and Randa Fouad – opted for joyful colours to lighten these difficult times. Fatma Hassan painted black and white roses on her mask titled Samra (brunette). She comments on her work by saying, "I opted for black and white because it goes hand in hand with the crisis. The shades of grey give the work a cloudy effect; we are in the dark as it is today. However, I never lose hope of getting to the end of this epidemic." She adds that as she worked on the mask with a very fine brush, she had to deal with the cramped surface which limited her. Hosni Abou Bakr defies the narrow surface, but also the folds forming the mask. On the mask, he draws his mouth, his moustache and his beard. When he wears it, you cannot really see the difference between the mask and his facial features, hence a natural effect which allows the artist not to feel disguised or hooded. “The world lives in the phobia of masks. Mine breaks with this idea; you don t need to worry or comply completely with the constraints of isolation. My mask does not only seek to protect me, but also to free me from constraints, and to entertain me,” Abou Bakr underlines. "Don t let the mask hide your smile," says painter and stylist Niha Hetta, who drew a broad smile on her mask, showing all of her teeth. Her lips are highlighted in red acrylic. "Smiling is one of the most effective ways to increase positive vibes around us and overcome hardship," she says. Cartoonist Yasser Gaessa is inspired by van Gogh, doomed to unhappiness and loneliness. He uses his mask as canvas for wheat fields and flowering orchards, believing that this is a way to generate positive energy. Reda Abdel-Rahman went a step further by creating a video installation using the motion design technique and graphic design work. The protagonist of the video is the artist himself, wearing a different mask for each new image. All of the images are accompanied by mysterious music, expressing unease in the face of confinement. In it we find images of a flower mask, another in the form of a dollar bill or a children s toy, etc. "These are the objects that I have at home, in the United States, the country where I currently reside. Humanity everywhere lives in existential anguish. Neither money nor American nationality can be used. This is the time when man has to think about his life differently," Reda Abdel-Rahman comments on his work. "The initiative has received quite a bit interest from the artists," Ashraf Reda reveals, adding that "several designers and ready-to-wear store owners contacted me to market the masks shared on the ARAC Facebook page. But I prefer to be patient in order to guarantee intellectual property rights. I believe that in Egypt, like everywhere else in the world, we should expect a massive change in cultural and social fashions after the deconfinement. The mask may become part of our clothing accessories." And once the pandemic is over, Reda hopes to organise a large exhibition in the gallery of the Cairo Opera House. "It will probably not be until next June. I hope to be able to display all the masks, in the form of a huge mural, and raise the following questions: how has the coronavirus crisis changed the world? Where are we going? And how do you use art to cheer people up?"

English Premier League football club Manchester City commented on the appearance of one of its jersey s in the Egyptian Ramadan series “Al-Prince” (The Prince), saying “It s not our ethics.” The actor Mohamed Diab, who plays the role of “Kutkut” in the series, wears one of the club s jersey s while trying to kill the series hero “Radwan Al-Prince,” played by actor and rapper Mohamed Ramadan. The club wrote on its official Arabic-language Twitter account on Sunday: “It is not our ethics, Diab.” Diab responded to the tweet soon after, saying, “But this is Kutkut s ethics,” and indicated that it is nothing more than acting. Al-Prince — which has a large viewership in Egypt and the Arab world — is a social drama that chronicles the life of Al-Prince family, especially Radwan Al-Prince who, following the death of his parents, finds himself involved with his family members as he looks after them and tries to guide them through life. However, a conflict arises among the family members over the inheritance of the deceased parent, which causes the siblings to attempt to kill Radwan. The series is written and directed by Mohamed Samy, and produced by Synergy Production Company. The show also stars Rogena, Eman El Assy, Nour, Naglaa Badr, Donia Abd Elaziz, Ahmed Zaher, Edward, Abdel Rahman Abu Zahra, Safa Toukhi, and others. Al-Prince airs on DMC at 7:45 pm and on DMC Drama at 11:30 pm.

American jazz singer Melody Gardot is inviting musicians around the world to play along digitally on her new album to overcome the solitude and financial strain of coronavirus lockdowns. For the song “From Paris with Love” on her new album, Gardot is asking orchestra musicians worldwide - strings, woodwinds or harp - to contribute remotely by playing along to a score and a backing track. Producers will assemble the performances into what she calls a “digital global orchestra” to make it sound as if all musicians are playing together in the same room. The chosen musicians will be paid professional studio rates and royalties will be donated to charities benefiting healthcare workers. Confined in her home in Paris, Gardot had been set to record part of her new album with the London Symphony Orchestra just before a Europe-wide coronavirus lockdown put an end to all music production. For the video clip of the song, Gardot has invited fans to contribute short video portraits of themselves from wherever they are in the world with a sign “From (their city) with Love”. “We all worry about contagion now, but a smile is one of the contagious issues that I would like to have,” Gardot told Reuters. “It can make us feel a little more connected despite what is going on. We cannot touch each other, we cannot travel, this is kind of a postcard,” she said. Participating musicians will receive instructions on how to record and film themselves performing the piece at home and can file their contributions till May 18 at midnight. Gardot, who sells more records in Europe than in the United States and is very popular in France, is one of many musicians worldwide who have tried to break the barriers of lockdown by using social media for live or recorded performances. The Grammy-nominated singer said the lockdown had knocked her out of her rhythm of constant touring, often playing several days a week, 11 months a year, but she said the isolation had been relatively bearable compared to being in hospital for a year after being knocked off her bike by a car when she was 19. “(the lockdown) is heartbreaking in a fraternal way, but for myself I have seen rainier days,” she said.

A young Egyptian physician found her way of dealing with the stress associated with her profession while sharing hope and joy with thousands of viewers on her Songraffiti Facebook page. “I always liked drawing and I was always listening to music. One day I thought of drawing what I hear,” pediatrician Nada Salah Amer shares with Ahram Online the beginning of her journey in what was yet to become one of the most popular Facebook pages of the past couple of years, where art is inspired by songs. Amer s page Songraffiti, a portmanteau of the words song and graffiti , has garnered over 200,000 members, with a large number interacting with the artist virtually. Songraffiti on Instagram has almost 20,000 members. The idea of the page is to take songs, their music and lyrics and transfer the feeling into illustrations. As the page s description reveals "it is like making music, only in a different way," one that is visible to our sight. At times, however, Amer also draws inspiration from chosen scenes in well-known films. “Drawing has always been my hobby, something I enjoy and that takes me away from the daily stress of my profession,” she comments on a unique connection she created between songs and her passion for drawing. The first drawing published on Songraffiti was created when Amer was listening to My Baby You by Marc Anthony. “I just felt this sudden inspiration, something that came from the lyrics which says you re the reason I feel so alive ,” Amer reveals. Then came other drawings, inspired by other songs, all of which Amer was sharing on Songraffiti. As she reveals, she wants to embed her drawings with hidden message, those that are coming from the songs. Within a few months since its founding in early 2015, the page s community expanded far beyond the young physician s friends. As the interaction increased, the members began placing their requests for drawings reflecting their favourite songs. The artwork by Amer has also developed, moving from simple drawings to graphic design and more recently to a bit of animation. As Amer reveals, her main aim is to spread joy through Songraffiti, hence the yellow colour which symbolises hope and happiness is the page s theme. The repertoire of Amer s songs has no borders. On her page we will find Western pop songs as well as many well-known compositions from the Arab world. The big breakthrough and a big increase in the page s followers came in December 2019, when Amer made a drawing inspired by one of the well-known Arabic classics, the song Mawood by Abdel-Halim Hafez. Among the most popular drawings is also one representing El Sohab (Friends), a 2018 song by Zap Tharwat and Sary Hany featuring Hamza Namira. Amer capitalised on the idea underlined by the lyrics that point to good friends being like family. The drawing shows two fingerprints of different people placed close together. “We are brothers, not just friends. The only difference between us is in the way we look,” Amer adds a verse from the song in her drawing. Most of the art-music pieces are upon the request of the page s fans. As the number of requests increases, Amer says that she tries to schedule all of them as to be able to respond to the many fans she has gained. She does not reject any music genre, as her drawings reflect on songs by hundreds of Arab and international singers: From Um Kalthoum, Fairouz, Massar Egbari band, Egyptian Project, Amr Diab, Mohamed Hamaki to Sia, Coldplay, Enrique Iglesias and many others. With the outbreak of coronavirus, one of the recent drawings created by Amer is to an older song by Medhat Saleh Zay Ma Heya (Take It As It Is) which references those making sacrifices for other people. Amer uses the lyrics to transpose the idea on the white soldiers, the doctors who are at the frontline of the struggle with pandemic. The idea of COVID-19 keeps returning in Amer s works as she often looks to the songs released in the past and finding in them a verse that could serve as an inspiration or a comment to the current situation. During the Ramadan, Amer also launched a daily puzzle for the fans presenting a drawing and asking them to guess the song it is inspired by. The winners of each riddle then can place a request for another drawing. The success of Songraffiti led to an exhibition of Amer s works which was in October 2019 at the Wosdom Hall of El-Sawy Culturewheel. In an online interview, Amer revealed that most recently she got a request to create t-shirts with her drawings. She explained that she has not started this project for profit but just to share joy; however, she might consider studying the t-shirts option.

Egyptian star Adel Emam is the highest paid actor in Ramadan television series this year, earning EGP 40 million for his role in Valentino, Al-Ahram daily reported. The comedy drama is directed by the actor s son Ramy Emam and written by Ayman Bahgat Qamar. Second on the list of the highest-paid actors comes Mohamed Ramadan, scoring EGP 18 million for his role in The Prince series. The social drama is written and directed by Mohamed Sami with co-stars Ahmed Zaher, Nour, and Rojina, among others. Amir Karara, starring in the series The Choice, was offered EGP 11 million. Other best earners include Yasser Galal who recieved EGP 9 million for his role in The Ruffian (El-Fettewa), while Yusra was offered EGP 8 million for starring inThe Betrayal of Ahd series. Nelly Karim is reportedly paid EGP 7 million for her role in With 100 Faces, and Yasmine Abdel-Aziz was offered EGP 5 million for Why Fall in Love Again? The two protagonists of television series Omar and Diab, namely Ali Rabie and Mostafa Khater, were offered EGP 3 million each, according to Al-Ahram report.