Kodak Agfa Presents : Once in a super blue moon "Updated"

Kodak Agfa is back to photograph the space and whatever appears in our skies, especially on our long summer nights.

Updated on Wednesday: 

Here are a couple of photos from Wednesday night as the Super Blue Moon reached its peak.

A full Super Blue Moon

Super blue moons occur on average every 19 years. The last super blue moon occurred on August 31, 2023, and the next one will occur on May 20, 2026, inshallah.

A full Super Blue Moon

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Earth is having one big Super Blue Moon lightening its night and it is not to be missed

A super blue moon is a special event in the night sky that happens when the moon looks bigger and brighter than usual. As you may have known already if you are a regular friend of Egyptian Chronicles, Supermoons are called "super" because the moon is closer to Earth, making it appear larger.

Zambia’s T7WSS private jet mystery: More Mysteries as 5 Egyptians to face espionage charges in the gold gate

In an unexpected turn of events on Monday, Zambia's Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) formally levelled accusations against five Egyptians and six Zambians, all entangled in the controversy surrounding the T7WSS private jet's gold gate scandal.

Notably, the DEC has implicated these individuals, including a senior officer and a state house official from both nationalities, with charges of espionage.

Zambian Newspaper's News Digger published the photos of two Egyptian detainees

This curious development raises questions about how espionage allegations emerged, especially since the initial press release and conference by the DEC Commissioner omitted any mention of espionage.

Adding to the perplexity is the discrepancy in the count of Egyptians involved, fluctuating from six to five, as per varying statements from the DEC.

Zambia’s T7WSS private jet mystery: What we know so far including "Julian Assange's French lawyer joins East Africa's gold controversy"

First of all, Egyptian journalist Karim Asaad who was arrested on Saturday was freed on Sunday. 

Asaad, a member of the editorial team of the fact-finding platform Matsada2sh in Cairo was detained on Saturday following the impressive and revealing coverage of the platform to the T7WSS private jet incident.

Following the release of Asaad, Matsada2sh announced on Tuesday that it would take some time off till next week. Asaad’s detention and release were like the first implication back in Cairo involving the controversial T7WSS private jet mystery.

Many people are wondering if Matsada2sh, which has become one of the few independent free fact-finding and news sources will continue the same path after what happened.

In those three days, I believe the absence of Matsada2sh and its unbiased news coverage for real resulted in the spread of rumors in Cairo that travelled to Lusaka. It is better to give freedom to Matsada2sh and similar independent news websites instead of letting rumors and fake news for real to spread.

The rumors are currently about one thing: The identity of the sixth Egyptian detained in Lusaka but we will deal with that later.

Kodak Agfa presents The Shot : A peacock in full action

It is not every day you can see a peacock; thus, I could not waste the opportunity to see that magnificent up and close.

As you have known from my post and quick camera tour at the Spring Flowers Fair 2023, there was a peacock and its female partner on display.

A peacock or Indian peafowl displaying his tail in action 

It was the first time for me to see a peacock in person alive in its magnificent glory. I have not seen a peacock alive at the Giza Zoo during my visits to the famous landmark currently in danger.

I have seen one taxidermized at Giza Zoo’s Zoological Museum.

A taxidermized Indian Peafowl at Giza Zoo's Zoological Museum 

The label read its official name in Arabic and English: Indian Peafowl.

Yes, its official name is Indian peafowl because that species originated originally from the Indian subcontinent specifically in modern-day India and Sri Lanka.

I am not embarrassed to admit that I did not know this fact.

T7WSS gold scandal: The mystery of the six in Zambia’s jet

There is no doubt that many people in Cairo are now aware of the importance of open-source intelligence (OSINT), at least in the past 72 hours following the unfolding of the private jet that was busted in Zambia and its interesting connections to Egypt.

The Zambian guards guarding the T7WSS at Kenneth Kenuda International 
On Thursday "DEC"

On Friday, in the latest developments concerning the incident of Zambia’s jet, as it is known in Egypt, or the gold scandal, as it is known in Zambia, Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema asserted at a press briefing that no one is above the law and that "there are no sacred cows in this case."

The mysteries of T7-WSS or that private jet in Zambia

It's official: Zambia has secured a prominent place among Egypt's most searched words for August and the year 2023 as a whole. Remarkably, this newfound attention has nothing to do with football, which is a departure from the usual context.

Typically, Zambia garners attention in Egyptian media when Egypt's national football team competes against Zambia's team in various African tournaments, or during official visits between the two countries' presidents—either Zambia's President visiting Cairo or their Egyptian counterpart journeying to Lusaka.

The events of the past 24 hours, however, have propelled Zambia into Egyptian headlines in an unexpected manner.

The sequence of events commenced with the landing of a private jet at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in a distant African country on a Sunday afternoon.

By late Tuesday, Al-Masry Al-Youm and Cairo 24 had reported that Zambian authorities had made a startling discovery aboard the private jet: approximately USD 5 million in cash and 127 kilograms of gold bars. The jet had originated from Cairo, Egypt, and six out of the ten individuals on board, all Egyptians, were detained for further investigation.

The news found its way to Sky News Arabia and other regional Gulf news websites but was subsequently removed from Al-Masry Al-Youm and Cairo 24.

Unfortunately pulling the news off the Egyptian websites made it as if something fishy was going on fueling speculations even without knowing the rest of the details.

Delving into Zambian media accounts, it was revealed that Zambia's Drugs Enforcement Commission (DEC) had issued a press statement and convened a press conference regarding the incident.

When the ice began to melt between Cairo and Tehran

On Monday, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed El-Tayeb issued a statement where he expressed his huge welcome to the message he received on Saturday from Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, the director of the religious Shia seminaries in Iran.

Very few paid attention to the statement despite its importance and timing.

Ayatollah Arafi sent on Saturday a message to Sheikh El-Tayeb, the head of the biggest Sunni institution in the world thanking him in a strong statement for his stand against the frequent insults against the Holy Quran hoping that officials and religious men in the Islamic world would follow his steps.

“Noble Egypt with its esteemed scholarly and religious institutions, especially Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, holds a prestigious, decisive, and inspiring position," Arafi said in what I considered the first message of its kind to be sent to an Egyptian official like Ahmed El-Tayeb from Iran and from the Shia world.

In his message, Sheikh El-Tayeb hoped that this incident would be the greatest incentive to heal the rift and unite the world of Muslims around the globe.

He renewed his call to move forward to hold an "Islamic - Islamic" dialogue between Islamic scholars around the world, of all sects and schools, to establish unity, rapprochement and acquaintance, and to reject the causes of sedition, division and difference. The Egyptian sheikh did not use “Sunni-Shira” but rather “Islamic-Islami”.