Coronavirus on the Nile : A new month with a new week of COVID-19 live updates and news in Egypt

Another week, another live update of that Pandemic re-shaping the whole world.

Egypt is witnessing a re-increase in the official daily tally of coronavirus cases registered by the Egyptian Ministry of health.

The man with a  mask and the camel at Giza's pyramids plateau "AFP"

Unofficially, many people began to report the return of COVID-19 among their circles but they do not go to hospitals or report to the authorities.

This increase in infections is happening at the same time, Egypt has officially removed the last signs of lockdown by allowing the Friday prayers in mosques nationwide last Friday.

Egyptian officials are still warning the public that they should follow social distancing and wear masks.

I am currently at the north coast for a short break and I can affirm that I am from the very few who still wear a mask.

The month of September is critical for the Egyptian government because I believe the number of cases will affect the decision to start the school and academic year as well as the start of a touristic season in the fall in October.

Here is our weekly live update widget.

Coronavirus on the Nile : Live weekly COVID-19 updates and news in Egypt and Arab world

It is a new week under the coronavirus pandemic which the WHO says that it may be over under two years.

This will be too much and honestly, I do not know if I can keep this weekly lives updates for all that time !!

COVID-19 killed almost 800,000 people and infected nearly 23 million and yet it failed to remind the world leaders that there is something important than fighting each other.

This crisis shows that there is a need for universal healthcare rights around the globe.

A woman tested for high temperature at
Cairo University in April "Reuters"

It also showed that that disease can kill people more people than wars in no time.

World leaders should have released that investments in healthcare are better thousand times than in weapons and arms.

They won’t realize that thought anytime soon and just look to the United States only and its current president. 

Anyhow, here is our weekly live update widget.

Kodak Agfa Presents : Prince Mohamed Ali Palace's Mosque and Clock Tower

First of all, Happy new Hijri year 1442 to all Muslims around the globe.

I hope that year 1442 would better inshallah for the whole world.

On this occasion, I would like to share with you couple of photos I took while visiting the Prince Mohamed Ali Palace or rather an estate or El-Manial Palace as commonly known last August with a group of friends in Cairo. 

Built from 1899 to 1929, El-Manial Palace was designed by Prince Mohamed Ali Tawfik “1875-1955”, King Farouk’s Uncle and it is considered one of the best-preserved remaining palaces form the Mohamed Ali Royal Family era.

The Prince Mohamed Ali Palace or rather estate is so big and a good many interesting attractions. Interestingly, this huge piece of land was originally owned by Prince Mohamed Ali Tawfik's great Uncle Prince Fadel.

Prince Fadel had a mosque named after him in El-Sayida Zeinab.

Prince Mohamed Ali Tawfik's Mosque in his Cairo estate

This time the photos are the for the Prince  Palace’s Mosque and its clock tower.

The younger brother of Khedive Abbas Helmi II built a mosque in his estate and it is a very beautiful small mosque. Prince Mohamed Ali Tawfik and his staff in his estate used to pray in that mosque

Coronavirus on the Nile : A look into 6 months of COVID-19 in Egypt in graph

It has been officially six months since Egypt witnessed its first coronavirus case in Mid February when a Chinese national tested positive for the virus and since then it had been a very long 6 months.

According to many is the first phase of the virus that infected nearly 21 million people around the globe, killing from them at least 774,000 at least according to the official numbers of the World Health Organization.

According to many experts, those 6 months have been actually the “first wave”.

Just like any other countries, Egypt had its ups and downs in this stage.

This is just an attempt to recorded those ups and downs in the graph to make it easier for us to understand what has happened.

All the numbers mentioned here are based on the official numbers released by the Egyptian Ministry of Health.

Here are the COVID-19’s total numbers in Egypt from February to July 2020. You can click on the tab

Coronavirus in Six Months: Egypt
Infogram

Here is a breakdown based on monthly total cases, you can click on the tabs.

Coronavirus on the Nile : COVID-19 in July in graph or the big decline in hot summer in Egypt

We are back with this monthly post about the freaking coronavirus status in Egypt during the month of July 2020.

The month of June 2020 a decline in the daily infection cases and deaths as well as an increase in the full recovery based on the official numbers released by the Egyptian Ministry of Health.

July witnessed a huge decline in the daily recorded infection cases of coronavirus across the country.

Coronavirus cases in Egypt: Daily infection cases in July 2020
Infogram

Comparing to the previous two months "May and June", it seems that the decline is obvious.

UAE to have official normal relations with Israel : It is normalization out of a closet agreement , not a peace agreement

Last Thursday the United States, the United Arab Emirates aka UAE aka Emirates and Israel announced in a tripartite statement that the UAE and Israel decided to officially normalize the relations.

The statement added that due to the agreement Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu decided to suspend the Israeli plans to annex the West Bank. 

Joint Statement of the United States, the State of Israel, and the United Arab Emirates pic.twitter.com/oVyjLxf0jd

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 13, 2020

It was huge news because UAE was the first Gulf state and the third Arab State or rather the fourth state after Egypt, Jordan and Palestine represented in the Palestinian authority to have official relations with Israel.

The only difference is that UAE does not share borders with Israel and realistically speaking it was not directly involving in war with Israel and the Israelis are not giving back land as in the previous agreements.

It is about terms

The Pro-UAE Media including the Mainstream media tried to market that the agreement allegedly “saved” the West Bank in a historical sacrifice but it only took two hours to find Israeli officials saying themselves that the plans to annex the West Bank are not cancelled but rather suspended temporarily.

Emirati flag in Tel Aviv "Reuters"

The Western media and the UAE media machine, as well as Israeli media, are presenting this agreement as peace agreement but it is not technically and realistically speaking.

There has been no war as far as I recall between UAE and Israel so there cannot be peace agreement logically speaking.

At the same time, you can’t speak about a true history made here when actually the two countries have had unofficial really that goes back to 2009 at least according to the Wikileaks.

Personally, I believe it goes beyond that.

The UAE and Israel had secret unofficial relations for quite some time.

Before UAE, we had unofficial relations between Israel and  Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Qatar, Bahrain and even Saudi Arabia and Sudan

It is not a big secret.

Coronavirus on the Nile : A New Week of COVID-19 Live Updates

It is a new week under the coronavirus pandemic, which will be for sure the Person of the Year on Time Magazine cover in 2020 along with the Medical teams around the globe.

Without the medical teams around the globe, things would have been worst by all measures including in Egypt.

A doctor during the coronavirus pandemic by Nermine Al-Mofty 

We owe much to the doctors and other medical professions in this crisis.

Officially, coronavirus is under control with daily numbers in 100s but unofficially people including friends and family in my circle report it is back.

It is noticeable that last week that I began to see many warnings that the cases began to reappear following the Eid and going to resorts.

Now without more talk, here is the weekly live updates

Senate Elections : Voting Gal Upper Chamber elections 2020 Edition

Unlike my Voting Gal posts, I have posted since I began voting in Egyptian elections in 2005, this post won't be long.

It will be a very short post.

I did not vote in Egypt’s Senate Elections nor go to a polling station on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Senate elections banners in the street 

Aside from the coronavirus pandemic, I did not support having an Upper Chamber in the first place especially it is toothless Senate.

The political parties with whom I share similar political and economic ideas are boycotting these elections

I won’t elect a list with the same NDP faces on it from businessmen tycoons as its stars while the rest of the names in the list are unknown to me and to others.

The same thing about individual candidates.

I only saw their banners and posters in those two weeks but I have not heard them or seen them in the media before

Some candidates used boldly fake twitter accounts and hashtags to support their candidacy and it turned in to comedy.

One candidate hired fake twitter accounts allegedly from the Gulf to support him !! I am ready to pay the fine for not going to vote. 

Anyhow, I am waiting to see what will happen in the upcoming House of Representatives elections.

It is supposedly going to be next November.

Egypt got Senate elections on Tuesday in case you do not know

In case you do not know Egypt has got Senate elections tomorrow Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yes, and already the Egyptians abroad should have participated and elected their representatives on Sunday and Monday via mail around the globe due to coronavirus pandemic.

Back in Cairo, most of the Egyptians would have not known that there would be Senate elections or Senate in the first place if it were not the big banners.

I would say that the Senate elections banners revived the billboard and outdoors ad industry after it was hit hard by the coronavirus.

One of the elections banners in Giza's Agouza 

So here is what you need to know about the Egyptian Senate which is having a comeback :

• The Upper Chamber of the Parliament returned back thanks to the 2019 Constitutional amendments.
• The Senate is made up of 300 members aka Senators.
• One-third of the Senate is appointed while the two-third are elections.
• The Two-third is divided between One third elected in single-member constituencies and other third is elected.
• The Senate will review and assess the laws passed by the House of Representatives.
• Just read this report by Mada Masr for more background juicy details about it “How We Moved backwards”

Coronavirus on the Nile : Senate elections week edition

Another weekly live update post with all things coronavirus as much as I can from Egypt and the Arab world.

It is a very interesting week.

Egypt is already going to have its Senate Elections on 11 and 12 August 2020 during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Egypt has been witnessing officially a stable decline in the numbers

A file photo of Egyptians in the metro in March 2020 "Reuters" 

It won’t be a shock or a surprise considering that most people act as if there is not pandemic in the first place despite the official warnings. of daily infections and deaths but doctors, on the other hand, have been reporting last week a return to an increase.

Once again people are ignoring the social distancing policies and the masks.

Very few are still wearing the masks while the majority act as if there is nothing at all.

I am afraid we may have to pay a price for this behaviour like the price the public is paying in Europe and the United States.

Anyhow, here is our weekly live updates widget.

Kodak Agfa Presents : A full Moon , Jupiter and Saturn in the city

It is not every night you can see Jupiter and Saturn by the naked eye.

It is not every night you can see Jupiter and Saturn by the naked eye in the city with all the streets lights.

It is not every night you can see Jupiter and Saturn by the naked eye just besides a very bright full moon.

So last Sunday , it was very special night to see Jupiter and Saturn appear to the naked eye like that in a city like Giza with lights are everywhere clear.

Beirut Blast : Welcome to post-apocalyptic Beirut

First of all, this how you can help Lebanon as a person if you can.

You can donate to Lebanese NGOs through this link.

You can donate to buy food items directly through this link

You can donate to the Lebanese Red Cross directly through this link

It is nearly 24 hours following the huge blast in Beirut port that is changing the fate of a whole country in the saddest way ever.

Last night Beirut was on another date with misery with those series of explosions that made it trend for all the wrong reasons once again, a city of disaster.

An old Lebanese lady spending the night at the street due to the explosion 
"Twitter"

What makes me sad for real is that Beirut is a synonym for happiness and bon vivant for us, the Arabs but for the west Beirut is only in the centre of news for this kind of disasters and civil wars.

The photos and videos showing post-apocalyptic Beirut in a very sad way. 

Victims numbers are increasing

In the past few hours the Lebanese health officials announced that the number, we are speaking about at least 150 dead and over 5,000 injuries according in addition to hundreds of missing people.

On social media, you will find sisters searching for brothers and nephews searching for uncles.

According to the Lebanese officials, 300,000 Lebanese people spent their night in the street because they could not spend their night at their homes due to the huge damages the buildings suffered.

All the journalists living in Beirut I know or I follow online reported that some kind of damages in their homes.No one was spared.

Beirut Port Explosion : The Cost of negligence “or Warehouse 12 of hell ”

2020 won’t be an easy or unforgettable year by all measures as it seems

In case you do not know the news yet, the Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked by huge multiple explosions at the Port of Beirut. The explosions that shocked the city to the core killed at least 78 people and injured over 4,000 people.

The explosions happened at 6.30 PM Beirut Local Time when multiple explosions took place at a warehouse in the port. At first, it was reported that it took place at a fireworks warehouse but it was soon debunked.

According to the Lebanese Prime Minister Hasan Diab, the explosion happened at a warehouse that stored explosives and chemicals specifically Ammonium Nitrate.

After the explosions in Beirut Port by AFP 

The Lebanese officials say that the warehouse stored 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, which is equivalent to 600 tonnes of TNT for nearly 6 years !!

It is unclear yet what caused the first explosion or fire that led to multiple fires.

The Lebanese High Council of Defense declared a state of emergency for two weeks as well as Beirut as “Disaster City”.

The situation is more than horrible according to citizens and reporters online.

Warehouse 12 in the Port of Beirut or the bloody cargo of m/v Rhosus

The story of Black Tuesday’s explosions started on 23/9/2013 when M/V Rhosus flying a Moldavian flag sailed from Batumi Port, Georgia heading to Beira port in Mozambique carrying a cargo of 2,750 tons of Ammonium Nitrate.

Due to technical problems, the Rhosus stopped at Beirut Port and upon inspection by the Lebanese authority, it was forbidden to continue its voyage because of its highly explosive cargo.

The cargo was transported later to warehouse 12.

Nobody understands why the Lebanese officials let a highly explosive material like that for 6 years in a civilian port in a civilian area.

#Hajj2020 to remember indeed : Hajj in time of coronavirus

There are millions of Muslims worldwide who envy those lucky few who enjoyed very unique and organized Hajj this year for the most unexpected reasons.

Earlier Saudi Arabia decided to downsize the Hajj or Islamic pilgrimage from 2.5 million pilgrims from around the globe to 10,000 pilgrims from residents and Saudis living in the Kingdom.

Saudi authorities had to downsize the Hajj due to Coronavirus outbreak.

They could have cancelled it as they did with Umra pilgrimage and the decision would have been supported religiously but because we are speaking about Hajj pilgrimage; one of the original pillars of Islam, I think it was kind of huge challenge. 

One can say that the Saudi authorities succeeded in arranging unforgettable Hajj Season for Hijri year 1441/2020.

The photos were amazing like every year but this time they were unique. This post is to memorize Hajj in time of coronavirus. 

The pilgrims around the Kaaba in Masjid Al-Haram  "CGG Saudi government"

Kodak Agfa presents : A very short drive-through tour of El-Sayida Zeinab area’s Mosques in one street

There are good reasons why UNESCO chose Historical Cairo as a World Heritage site.

One of those reasons I believe personally is that Cairo is one of those cities where you can see a long history, a long tale of man since the dawn of history till our modern time manifested in architecture; even if those buildings are tombs and cemeteries.

I can’t drag myself to write what is happening at Cairo’s City of the Dead because the whole thing depresses me and if I go deeper, I will be depressed more. “More about it from AP”

Reading what happened to the cemetery of legendary Egyptian journalist and novelist Ihsan Abdel Kouddous by the pen of his grandson Sharif Abdel Kouddous made me feel helpless.

Cairo’s City of the Dead included some of Egypt’s greatest pioneers in the 19th and 20th century like Abdel Kouddous.

It shocked me how the Ministry of Archeology and Tourism officials from archaeologists justified this disrespect to the deceased and how they regarded those cemeteries as “modern”.

They should know better.

Some of those cemeteries were designed and constructed by the brightest architects Egypt and the Arab world have seen till this day like Hassan Fathy.

I knew that in the 1980s or the 1990s, a similar project was proposed and planned during Mubarak era but Dr Galila El-Kady, the first Egyptian woman to survey and write down the history of the Cairo's City of the Dead stood against the project and succeeded in stopping it but now another project is here and it seems Goliath is winning.

El-Kady made important books about the history of Cairo in English and French above them “Architecture for the Dead: Cairo’s Medieval Necropolis”

Some people supported online the government in those highways plan to claim that those modern “Mamluks” useless places, a highway is much better.

Other claims that there is no history in those places, unfortunately, some regard that history in Egypt stops at the ancient Egyptian era as well as what the government renovates only.

“It is a 19th-century building, it is not historical,” They say or “It is just building”

Sometimes you are captured by the beauty of a villa or a cemetery entrance or a mosque and you ask more about it and its history to know that the owner of the cemetery was a famous Egyptian politician or a famous doctor or an industrialist who contributed a lot to the history of the industry in this country away from foreign control.

Back to the starting point, why UNESCO considered historical Cairo including Islamic Cairo a World Heritage Site.

An Exhibit below from very few photos can explain my point when it comes to Historical Islamic Cairo

Those are some of the mosques I found on the way from the Mosque of El-Sayida Zeinab to the Islamic Museum in Port Said street.

I took their photos while I was in the car and I returned to read more about them only to find names I have not known before.

Prince Tamraz Mosque from the Mamluk era

Prince Tamraz Mosque 

This is the Mosque of Mamluk Prince Tamraz built in the year 1471 during the era of Sultan Qaitbay.

What we know about late Prince Tamraz was that he was a Circassian slave boy that was purchased and enrolled in Egypt’s Mamluk system. Soon, he became a leading Mamluk from the ruling class that controlled Egypt and Levants in several centuries. There had been renovations that took place in the mosque in 18th and 19th century. 

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