Author: ArabianRecords.org

US President Trump praises ‘new beautiful day’ as Gaza war comes to an end, but questions about the future remain.

Political leaders from around the world have convened in Egypt for a ceremony to sign a ceasefire deal in Gaza, led by United States President Donald Trump and mediating partners such as Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye.

Speaking in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, Trump envisioned a glimmering future for Gaza as a hub of development and investment, even as the Gaza Strip lies in ruins following Israel’s devastating, two-year assault.

“A new and beautiful day is rising and now the rebuilding begins,” said the US president, who praised regional leaders who helped broker a deal between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

“Rebuilding is maybe going to be the easiest part,” he added, stating that “we know how to build better than anybody in the world.”

The ceasefire deal has been greeted with a combination of relief and anxiety about the future in Gaza, where Israeli attacks killed at least 67,869 people, with thousands more likely buried beneath the rubble.

“We drove by entire neighbourhoods that have been levelled to the ground,” Mahmoud said. “There is nothing left. There is nothing recognisable about many of the neighbourhoods that we knew.”

Despite the toll of Israel’s military campaign, which left most of the Strip unlivable and has been described as a genocide by a growing number of scholars and rights groups, the US president has framed discussions of Gaza’s future around Israeli security demands.

“Gaza’s reconstruction also requires that it be demilitarised,” Trump said in his remarks.

But later on Monday, Trump and the leaders of Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye released a joint statement emphasising equality between Israelis and Palestinians.

“We seek tolerance, dignity, and equal opportunity for every person, ensuring this region is a place where all can pursue their aspirations in peace, security, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, faith, or ethnicity,” the statement said.

Separately leaders from the region such as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi praised Trump at the summit, but warned that only the creation of a Palestinian state could offer a durable end to the conflict.

“Egypt reasserts along with its brotherly Arab and Muslim nations that peace remains our strategic choice, and that the experiences have shown over the past decades that this choice can only be established upon justice and equality in rights,” he said.

But progress towards that goal remains distant.

Israel has insisted that it will not allow the creation of a Palestinian state, and the US, which continued to assist Israel with massive arms transfers and diplomatic support during the conflict despite growing anger at the destruction of Gaza, has offered only vague comments about its vision of the Strip’s future.

The possible involvement of strongly pro-Israel figures, including former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, in the post-war governance of Gaza has also raised concerns.

“We’re seeing these global leaders gathering together, ensuring that they’re all aligned, that they want to end this conflict,” Zeidon Alkinani, a lecturer at Georgetown University in Qatar, told Al Jazeera.

“But how sustainable is the long-term future after this peace treaty? Are we ending all the issues that ended up accumulating to leading to the events of October 7 and everything that happened [after]? I think that’s the question we need to look at.”

Trump’s Gaza plan calls for a group of Palestinian policy experts to rule Gaza, but the local authorities would be supervised by a so-called “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and Blair.

“We need to look at the legitimacy of a political committee that would be governing a future Gaza,” Alkinani said. “Who would be making the decisions? Who would be nominating these people?”

source/content: aljazeera.com (headline edited) /  News agencies and Brian Osgood

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US President Donald Trump speaks during a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, October 13, 2025 [Yoan Valat/Pool via Reuters]

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EGYPT / GAZA

Originating in the Horn of Africa and first cultivated in the Arabian Peninsula, coffee has been providing the world with refreshment for at least 500 years.

While there is still disagreement about who first cultivated the coffee plant in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula, it seems that this took place in around the mid-15th century CE. It is of course the berries of the coffee plant, a kind of shrub or small tree, that enclose the seed, and it is this — the coffee bean — that, once roasted, ground, and steeped in water, is used to make the now ubiquitous drink of coffee.

According to Arab tradition, Sufi groups in Yemen discovered that drinking coffee, in Arabic qahwa, could raise levels of alertness and stamina, useful when carrying out religious rituals that could go on into the early hours. Having made this discovery, they began to profit from it, and within a few years coffee had established itself as the refreshment of choice across the region.

Nobody drank coffee at the courts of the Umayyad or Abbasid Caliphs, and there is no coffee-drinking in the stories of the Thousand and One Nights, which are otherwise full of all manner of foodstuffs from every part of the then known world. However, by the middle of the 17th century coffee and the cafés in which it was drunk were a feature of most Middle Eastern societies, with visitors to the region eagerly sampling what is still often called “Turkish” coffee.

Prepared by boiling ground coffee in a little water and allowing the grounds to settle in the bottom of the cup before drinking, this method of preparing coffee is still used today in cafés across the Middle East region, often with plenty of sugar added to take the edge off what for coffee-drinkers used to other methods of preparation can be quite a strong brew.

They may be more used to filtered coffee, in which the water is either forced or dripped through the coffee grounds, producing an altogether thinner brew, or even instant coffee made from freeze-dried coffee reconstituted with hot water — the kind of thing doled out across the world in now ubiquitous coffee machines.

However, whatever form of coffee people choose to drink the world over, its origin is the same. The seeds or beans of the coffee plant, first grown in the Ethiopian highlands before making their way to Yemen and from there across the Arab world, are today at the heart of a multi-billion-dollar global business that is essential to providing a morning — or later — caffeine hit to millions worldwide.

Yet, while coffee originated in the Arab world, little is grown there today, and while some coffee may still be grown in Yemen — associated with the famous mocha variety of coffee named after the Yemeni port of Mukha — and Ethiopia, the plant itself long ago went global, with first Southeast Asia and Latin America, particularly Brazil, providing most of the world’s needs, along with, later, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Even so, coffee is still an essential part of many Middle Eastern and Arab lifestyles. While tea with mint is perhaps a more standard offering in the Maghreb countries in the west of the Arab world, in the east and in Turkey the offer of a cup of usually Turkish coffee is still an essential preliminary to many social situations, with its absence being immediately felt.

Perhaps even more important than coffee are cafés, for centuries a fixture of Middle Eastern streets. These fulfil functions that show little sign of disappearing even as some, particularly younger, coffee customers may prefer more international forms of coffee to the traditional Turkish drink.

Even if they may in some cases prefer to drink filtered coffee to that made by the traditional method in the Arab world, they are still likely to spend time in cafés — which continue to provide the functions that they always have as places of social gathering, of work, possibly now on computer, and to mull over the day’s events, not necessarily now through reading newspapers, but through discussing the latest posts or tweets.

ORIGINS: So familiar do such places feel that perhaps few people ask themselves when they started to become a fixture of Egyptian and Arab streets. But, of course, Arab cafés like other institutions have a history, one that can tell us much about changing lifestyle habits across the region.

Living in Cairo for seven years in the middle of the 19th century following several earlier visits, the English orientalist Edward Lane was a regular customer in Egypt’s cafés. It was probably there that he recruited the informants who told him about the lifestyles of the city’s population, information that ended up in his famous book Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. It was probably there, too, that he did much of the research that went into his famous Arabic-English dictionary — a monumental achievement that he almost single-handedly managed to complete to the letter qaf, the 21st of the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet.

In his book, Lane repeats the accepted story that coffee, discovered by Sufi groups in Yemen, was imported into Egypt at the beginning of the 16th century, from where, “about half a century later”, it found its way to the capital of the then Ottoman Empire in Istanbul. “Formerly, it was generally prepared from the berries and husks” of the coffee plant, he says, but now “it is prepared from the berries alone, freshly roasted and pounded.”

“Cairo contains above a thousand ‘kahwehs,’ or coffee-shops,” Lane says, “generally speaking, a small apartment, whose front, which is towards the street, is of open wooden work in the form of arches. Along the front, excepting before the door, is a mastabah, or raised seat of stone or brick two or three feet in height and about the same in width, which is covered with matting, and there are similar seats in the interior on two or three sides. The coffee-shops are most frequented in the afternoon and evening… [and] coffee is served by the kahwegee (the attendant of the shop) at the price of five faddahs a cup.”

Unfortunately, Lane, usually so punctilious, does not tell us what a faddah was worth. At the time Manners and Customs was written in the mid-1830s, Egypt was transitioning from the Ottoman currency of piastres and paras to a new system, introduced by Mohamed Ali, of pounds, piastres, and paras. Presumably, since he says that the Cairo coffee-shops were mostly frequented by “the lower orders and tradesman”, the coffee was inexpensive.

Cairo’s cafés were not the only places where coffee was drunk. In an earlier chapter of his book on “Domestic Life”, Lane says that in the houses of the “higher and middle orders” of Egyptian society most people eat little or nothing for breakfast, aside from perhaps a fateerah, “a kind of pastry saturated with butter, made very thin, and folded over like a napkin,” or fuul medammes (fuul — bean stew), eaten “with oil or butter and generally a little lime-juice”. However, all of them drink at least one cup of coffee, “made very strong and without sugar or milk”.

“In preparing the coffee, the water is first made to boil; the coffee (freshly roasted and pounded) is then put in and stirred; after which the pot is again placed on the fire until the coffee begins to simmer, when it is taken off, and its contents are poured out into the cups while the surface is yet creamy. The Egyptians are excessively fond of pure and strong coffee thus prepared.”

Lane’s account, dating from the early decades of the 19th century, will be immediately familiar, with, for many people, little or nothing having changed. This is so even if his account, like those of other writers earlier and later, seems to imply that traditional café culture was for men only. There is no mention of women customers in Cairo’s coffee-shops.

Another aspect of traditional coffee culture that Lane does not mention is the habit, later made famous in films and songs, of telling fortunes from the coffee grounds that remain in a cup of Turkish coffee after it has been drunk. Perhaps this was more widespread in Turkish culture than Egyptian at the time that Lane wrote, though it is the 20th-century Egyptian singer Abdel-Halim Hafez in his song Qariat Al-Fingan (the fortune-teller), a rendition of a poem by Syrian writer Nizar Qabbani, who has made it most famous.

While the Arab traditions are united in saying that coffee originated among Sufi communities in Yemen, they can differ on the date at which it began to spread across the wider region. Nevertheless, the evidence suggests a date in the first quarter of the 16th century for the spread of coffee to Cairo and probably a little later to Damascus, Aleppo, and Istanbul, no doubt helped by the Ottoman conquest of Mameluke Egypt and Syria in 1517 CE.

It seems that at first the new drink was eagerly seized upon, with customers including merchants, students, and others, as well as some men of religion. According to one Western authority on the coffee culture of 16th-century Istanbul, the cafés set up for the consumption of coffee “attracted gentlemen of leisure, wits, and literary men seeking distraction and amusement, who spent the time over their coffee reading or playing chess or backgammon, while poets submitted their latest poems” to the approbation of their friends.

Unfortunately, this new style of sociability soon attracted the attention of the authorities, worried that cafés were places where “current politics were discussed [and] the government’s acts criticised and intrigues concocted.” Edicts were issued against the coffee-houses by the Ottoman Sultans Murad III and Ahmed I, but it was not until the reign of Murad IV (1623-1640) that they were finally banned, even if coffee could still be bought on a take-away basis as long as it was not consumed on the premises.

This situation apparently continued until into the 18th century, so much so that when no less a person than Antoine Galland, famous for his French translation of the Thousand and One Nights that introduced this mediaeval Arab story collection to the European public between 1704 and 1717, turned his attention to coffee in a treatise on the subject written in 1699, he reports that coffee in Istanbul can be bought and consumed as a take-away product but not drunk in a public café.

Galland’s book on coffee, De l’Origine et du progrès du café, has recently been republished in an illustrated edition by Orients Editions in Paris, and in it one reads that coffee, originally cultivated in Yemen, made its way first up through the Hejaz before crossing to Egypt and arriving in Cairo.

According to Galland, the then Mameluke Sultan Qansur Al-Ghuri took a comparatively relaxed attitude towards coffee-drinking, and it was only after the end of his reign — he was killed fighting against the Ottomans in 1517 — that coffee made its way to Istanbul.

CAFÉ CULTURE: The social aspect of café culture is of course still well-known today, even if generally it does not now attract official disapproval. Many people today will have a favourite café, somewhere to go to after work perhaps, to meet friends, or to work in a more relaxed ambiance than is to be found in a library or office.

Many towns and cities are also famous for their cafés, among them Paris, where it is said that the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre wrote his novels and essays sitting in a café in the central district of St-Germain-des-Prés, or Vienna, where writers and artists are said to have rubbed shoulders with scientists and politicians in the city’s cafés during the final years of the Habsburg Empire before World War I.

Cairo, too, is famous for its cafés. Everyone will know the ancient Fishawi’s Café in Khan Al-Khalili in Islamic Cairo, its traditional ambiance drawing on its location in an ancient part of the city just a stone’s throw from the Al-Azhar Mosque. Then there are the cafés of Downtown Cairo, some of them set up by foreigners in the late 19th or early 20th centuries and drawing from the first a mixed or cosmopolitan clientele.

Such cafés include Groppi’s on Talaat Harb Square, Groppi’s Garden, originally on Adli Street, and Café Riche on Talaat Harb Street leading to Tahrir Square. Thanks to their fame and central position, there can be few accounts by visitors to Cairo in the first half of the last century at least that do not mention time spent in Groppi’s or Groppi’s Garden café. Café Riche, occupying the same premises since it was opened by originally Greek proprietors in the early 20th century, long served as a meeting place for many of Cairo’s writers and intellectuals, as can still be seen today in the photographs, many of them signed, that adorn its walls. 

Writers in particular often thrive in cafés, and there can be few modern writers at least who have not either written parts of their works in cafés or used them as the settings for their works. Sartre certainly seems to have thrived on the mixture of sociability and anonymity that cafés provided, often to be seen writing his novels in a corner of the Café de Flore or Les Deux Magots in central Paris where he might be persuaded to open up to a group of friends.

Egypt’s writers and intellectuals have also been drawn to cafés in a similar way, with Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz being possibly the best-known example. While Mahfouz may not have written his works in Cairo’s cafés, he certainly used them as stopping-off points on his daily routine and as places in which to gather with his friends in the evenings for literary meetings.

There are many stories of Mahfouz, as regular as clockwork, stopping off at the Ali Baba café in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in the early morning to read the papers and drink a cup of coffee on his way to work, in his later years at Al-Ahram. His literary nadwa, a kind of discussion circle, would meet closer to home in the evenings, at first in Abbasiya and then in Giza.

Many of Mahfouz’s novels also use cafés as settings, whether traditional or modern depending on the characters described or the situations he was trying to create. Who can forget Kirsha’s café in Zuqaq Al-Midaq, for example, the centre of the social life of Midaq Alley in the old part of the city but a place that Hamida, one of main characters, is trying to escape? Who can forget, either, the cafés that begin to appear with increasing frequency in the Cairo Trilogy, notably as the families move out of the older districts of Cairo as the trilogy develops?

Coffee earlier had led to the economic development of Yemen, and, with it, large parts of the Middle East. That was not the motive of those who began to develop coffee-drinking as a sort of universal habit, practiced as much in the home as in the public location of the café, but slowly it began to change society in unplanned ways.

This seems to have been the case for Yemen, and then for other countries too, as a result of the swift development of the coffee trade beginning in the early 17th century. According to one Western authority, “as early as 1609, the ships of the English East India Company were sent to Mukha in Yemen to inquire about trading possibilities” in coffee. In 1616, Dutch traders “managed to obtain very favourable commercial terms from the [ruler of Yemen the] imam.”

By the 1660s, Yemeni coffee was being sold in London by the East India Company, and by the 1690s it was being imported on a regular basis to the rest of Europe by the Dutch.

This led to a transformation of the economy of the region, such that by 1690 some 298,816 pounds of coffee were being exported from Yemen through the Red Sea by the East India Company alone, worth the then astronomical sum of 9,821 pounds sterling. “One of the by-products of the coffee trade was a very large influx of precious metals, largely silver, into the Red Sea area, which enabled traders to import luxury goods from India and elsewhere.”

However, this unexpected windfall was not to last. “By the end of the 18th century, when a Turk or an Arab drank a cup of coffee both the coffee and the sugar had been grown in Central America and imported by French or English merchants.”

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* A version of this article appears in print in the 24 April, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg (headline edited)

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Illustration: Fathi Abul-Ezz

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ARAB

Qatar and the United States have signed an agreement to establish a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho to host F-15 jets and pilots, strengthening bilateral defence cooperation and joint readiness.

The United States and Qatar have agreed to establish a new Qatari air force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho, aimed at strengthening bilateral defence cooperation and providing advanced training for Qatari pilots.

The agreement was signed today, 10 October, by Qatar’s Minister of Defence, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

During a ceremony at the Pentagon, Secretary Hegseth highlighted the significance of the agreement, stating: “Today, we’re announcing a letter of acceptance in building a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho.”

He explained that the facility would host a contingent of Qatari F-15 fighter jets and pilots, aiming to “enhance our combined training, increase lethality, interoperability,” and described the initiative as “just another example of our partnership.”

The establishment of the facility also reflects Qatar’s pivotal role in recent diplomatic efforts. Secretary Hegseth acknowledged Qatar’s contribution to securing a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, noting, “You have been a core part of what has unfolded in Gaza, a historic moment.”

He expressed gratitude for Qatar’s ongoing support, particularly highlighting their assistance at Al Udeid Air Base, a key U.S. military installation in the region.

pic.twitter.com/2UFoiLE2oR

— وزارة الدفاع – دولة قطر (@MOD_Qatar) October 10, 2025

Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, hailed the “deep defence partnership” shared by both states.

“Our nation shares a deep defence partnership grounded in a mutual respect and a common vision for peace and stability in the Middle East. Qatar’s hosting of Al Udeid Air Base stands as a cornerstone of this alliance and a testament to our collective commitment to regional and global security,” he said.

“We further welcome the signing of the letter of acceptance establishing a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. This step strengthens interoperabilities, enhances joint readiness and advances our shared defence goals,” he added.

“Together we will continue to deepen this strategic partnership in pursuit of lasting peace and shared security.”

Mountain Home Air Force Base, located in southwestern Idaho, is already home to the 366th Fighter Wing, which operates F-15E Strike Eagles. The base also hosts the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s F-15SG fighter jets.

The addition of the Qatari contingent is expected to further enhance the base’s operational capabilities, providing a platform for joint training exercises and fostering closer ties between the U.S. and Qatari air forces.

source/content: dohanews.co (headline edited)

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QATAR / U.S.A

The 33rd edition of the Arab Music Festival and Conference, running from 16 to 25 October, will explore the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and traditional Arab music. More than ever, this year’s festival stands as a vital laboratory for the future of Arabic sound.

While paying tribute to the legendary diva Um Kalthoum, the programme features 41 concerts with 83 Egyptian and Arab artists across Cairo, Alexandria and Damanhour. Yet the heart of the event lies in its symposiums, which will gather 40 researchers from 15 Arab and Western countries to debate how the Arab musical world can fully enter the age of algorithms.

Among the highlights is a major symposium titled Arabic Music Facing Digital Transformation: Horizons and Challenges, alongside other events examining the impact of AI tools on Arab music.

A century-long debate
 

The discussion around the role of Arab music and its categorization is not new to the region.

“The Arab Music Festival was founded by Ratiba Al-Hefny, and this year marks its 33rd edition. But conversations about Arab music began as early as the first half of the 20th century,” says Shereen Abdel-Latif, head of the festival’s scientific committee. She refers to the historic Congress of Arabic Music, held in Cairo in 1932 under the patronage of King Fouad I.

“This historic event, initiated by French ethnomusicologist Rodolphe d’Erlanger and attended by leading Eastern and Western composers and musicologists such as Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith, sought to codify the maqams (musical modes) and archive the region’s diverse traditions in the face of new technologies like the 78 rpm record and radio. These innovations threatened the essence of tarab — the art of improvisation (taqsim),” Abdel-Latif said.

“Today, AI has replaced the phonograph as both a source of hope and concern. While 1932 focused on recording heritage, AI aims to reproduce, analyze and reinterpret it,” she added. 

She has also curated several key presentations exploring the challenges of archiving and digitisation that will be discussed during the festival.

Among them: The Representation of Egyptian Musical Memory in the Digital Era by Ihab Sabry (Egypt); The Need for Documentation and Digitisation of Singing in Yemen by Mohamed Sultan Al-Yousifi (Yemen); Technological Innovation in the Service of Archiving by Salim Al-Zoughbi (Palestine); Documentation Efforts of Tunisian Music and Their Prospects in the Digital Revolution Era by Noura El-Shelli (Tunisia); Documentary Visions Since the 1932 Congress: Egyptian Leadership in Scientific Documentation by Souhaila Abdel-Moati (Egypt); and New Possibilities for Arabic Music in the Digital Age by Jennifer Jolley (United States).

Paradoxes of algorithms 
 

The symposiums will focus on four main themes: creation, education, archiving and the music industry. The scientific committee points to a central paradox in AI’s dual role.

On one hand, AI positions itself as a guardian of heritage. By accelerating production processes and analysing the subtleties of maqams through vast datasets, it can help compose new works that remain faithful to Arabic musical identity.

On the other hand, it poses an ethical and existential threat. Critics fear that Arabic music could lose its soul and emotional depth. The essence of tarab lies in improvisation and deeply felt interpretation, qualities that resist algorithmic reproduction.

Vocal cloning
 

A major debate is also expected over vocal cloning—or “deepfake” singing—where AI creates a synthetic version of a person’s voice.

“Vocal cloning raises the thorny issue of desecrating the myth of great Arab icons. It is crucial to assess AI’s positive and negative impacts,” says Abdel-Latif. “Examples such as the recreation of Um Kalthoum’s voice, or that of Abdallah Al-Rowaished (Kuwait)—whose voice was synthesized with his consent during illness—show that a recreated voice is never the original.”

“By infiltrating music production, distribution and consumption, AI risks stripping away the creative and human dimensions, along with artists’ intellectual property rights. The research presented at the festival seeks to protect our heritage from such distortions,” she explains.
 

The master-disciple bond under threat?
 

The symposiums will also examine Perspectives on Music Education in the Digital Age.

The key question is: how can modern tools—online learning platforms, software and so on—be integrated without eroding the traditional essence of Arabic music, which depends on a deep master–disciple relationship and acute auditory memory?

Educational institutions, says Nahla Mattar, professor of theory and composition at Helwan University’s Faculty of Music Education, are being urged to rethink their curricula and introduce adaptive learning methods.

But can this new partnership with AI preserve the authenticity, human creativity, and melodic genius that gave tarab its glory? Can it ensure continuity without distortion, or must Arabic music simply learn to “dance with AI”?

About the Arab Music Festival and Conference
 

The Arab Music Festival and Conference is Egypt’s largest annual event dedicated to Arabic music.

Across its 10 days, concerts will showcase Egyptian and Arab musicians, ensembles and orchestras on stages operated by the Cairo Opera House, including the Gomhoreya Theatre and the Arabic Music Institute, as well as the Sayed Darwish Theatre in Alexandria and the Damanhour Opera House.

Earlier this year, organizers announced that the 33rd edition will be dedicated to Um Kalthoum, in line with year-long celebrations marking 50 years since the death of the Star of the East.

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This article was originally published in Al-Ahram Hebdo (French) on 8 October 2025. Translation and additional edit: Ahram Online.

source/content: english.ahram.org.eg (headline edited)

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EGYPT / ARAB

The Saudi philanthropist received a prestigious Fair Saturday Award during a ceremony at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain.

Rania Moualla, ZADK Culinary Academy founder and chairwoman, has received global recognition for her pioneering social entrepreneurship and contributions to community development.

The Saudi philanthropist received a prestigious Fair Saturday Award during a ceremony at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. The award recognizes her leadership, transformative vision and efforts to promote education, sustainability and the preservation of cultural heritage through gastronomy.

Moualla said: “ZADK is more than just a non-profit culinary academy — our goal is to preserve local culture, protect heritage, promote job creation, emphasize sustainability and drive social transformation. I’m thrilled that our success has now been recognized on the international stage.”

ZADK aims to drive positive social change through excellence in culinary education and innovation. It provides a foundation for passionate Saudis who aspire to be chefs and restaurateurs, nurturing their creativity and knowledge while emphasizing local culture and cuisine.

It provides scholarships for qualifying students and offers a range of culinary courses, including a two-year higher culinary diploma, a one-year associate diploma, and a six-month professional certificate program, along with shorter courses and other services.

The comprehensive training programs aim to prepare students for the workplace, providing employers with competent employees who add value in a professional environment.

The Fair Saturday Awards were launched in 2017 with the aim of recognizing the initiatives of inspiring individuals and organizations, which have proven to generate social impact through art and culture. They emphasize the value of promoting new models of action with the mission of generating more inclusive, fair and sustainable growth.

Other recipients of the 2025 Fair Saturday Awards include Nobel laureate in economics, Joseph Stiglitz; journalist and author Martin Wolf; actress Adjoa Andoh; dancer and choreographer Ahmad Joudeh; pianist Joaquin Achucarro; and cultural association Gerediaga Elkartea.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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Rania Moualla, ZADK Culinary Academy founder and chairwoman, has received global recognition for her pioneering social entrepreneurship and contributions to community development. (Supplied)

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SAUDI ARABIA

Multiply Group, the Abu Dhabi-based investment holding company that invests in and operates businesses globally, announced today that it will acquire a majority position in ISEM, a European leading packaging group, subject to regulatory approvals.

Upon completion of the transaction, Multiply Group will hold 60.8% of ISEM, while Peninsula Capital and minority investors will own the remaining 39.2%.

This marks the start of a strategic partnership between Multiply and Peninsula, combining Multiply’s platform-building playbook and patient capital approach with Peninsula’s deep sector knowledge and Southern European dominance.

Together, the partners will reinforce ISEM’s leadership position and accelerate its global expansion, while safeguarding the company’s long-term values of craftsmanship, design excellence, and client trust.

The deal represents an expansion into packaging by Multiply Group, establishing the Group’s fifth consumer-focused vertical and strategically complementing its existing beauty and apparel businesses.

Founded in 1949 and headquartered in Bologna, Italy, ISEM Group is a highly automated leader that reinforces the ‘Made in Italy’ brand hallmark, globally recognised for its quality, innovation, and association with key luxury clients. Its key global clients include LVMH, Kiko, Gucci, L’Oréal, Puig, and Coty Lancaster.

ISEM products include rigid boxes, folding cases, silk paper, and dust bags, with an industrial footprint comprising 11 manufacturing plants spanning more than 100,000 m².

Commenting on the transaction, Samia Bouazza, Group CEO and Managing Director of Multiply Group, said, “This transaction is our second in Europe this year as we continue with our global growth ambitions. With 3x revenue and 4x EBITDA growth from 2021–2024, a long-standing blue-chip client base, a highly automated industrial footprint, and strong fundamentals, we believe ISEM Group is a great fit for our portfolio.

With this acquisition, alongside Peninsula Capital and the management of ISEM, we see opportunities to maximise competitive advantages, elevate value creation, and create synergies within the industry and potentially with our beauty and apparel sectors.”

Borja Prado, Founding Partner of Peninsula Capital, commented, “We are proud of the journey accomplished together with ISEM Packaging Group, which has become a European leader in packaging, and a partner of choice for global beauty and fashion leading brands. Since our entry, revenues have tripled through strong organic growth and targeted M&A, underscoring the strength and the distinctiveness of ISEM’s platform.”

Francesco Pintucci, CEO of ISEM Group, commented, “I am proud to welcome Multiply Group as the new majority shareholder of ISEM Packaging Group, alongside Peninsula and the management. This important step represents full continuity with our long-term vision and growth strategy: to build the world’s leading industrial group capable of supporting our customers at 360°, combining the highest standards of quality, innovation, and service with a strong ESG commitment.

Multiply Group’s investment will further strengthen ISEM’s industrial platform and accelerate our global expansion, enabling us to serve our clients even better – with greater scale, agility, and technological excellence – while preserving the entrepreneurial DNA and human values that define our success.”

source/content: wam.ae (headline edited)

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ABU DHABI, U.A.E.

Al-Anany succeeds Audrey Azoulay, marking historic milestone for Egypt and Arab world at UN cultural body.

Egyptian candidate Khaled al-Anany was elected Monday as the new director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), succeeding French civil servant and politician Audrey Azoulay.

His term will run until 2029, according to the Egyptian news agency Mena.

Al-Anany, Egypt’s former Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, secured a decisive victory with 55 votes out of 58 during a session of the organization’s executive board in Paris.

His sole challenger, 69-year-old Firmin Edouard Matoko of the Republic of the Congo, received two votes, while the US abstained.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi congratulated al-Anany on the “sweeping victory,” describing the election as “a historic achievement added to Egypt’s diplomatic and cultural record and to the accomplishments of Arab and African peoples.”

He added that the victory reflects Egypt’s civilizational status and expressed confidence that al-Anany will strengthen cultural dialogue and protect global heritage.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, who headed the Egyptian delegation in Paris, noted that this is the first time an Egyptian and Arab have led UNESCO since its establishment in 1945.

He said the result reflects the “leading position Egypt enjoys regionally and internationally” and highlighted al-Anany’s unique cultural background, representing layers of Egyptian civilization — Pharaonic, Greek, Roman, Coptic, Arab-Islamic and modern.

Abdelatty stressed that member states’ overwhelming support demonstrates their trust in Egypt, the Arab world and Africa. He pledged that under al-Anany’s leadership, UNESCO will remain “a home for cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue, peace, heritage protection, creativity, knowledge expansion, and youth and women’s empowerment.”

With this election, al-Anany becomes UNESCO’s 12th director-general, the first Arab and the second African after Senegal’s Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow (1974-1987) to hold the post in the organization’s 80-year history.

source/content: aa.com.tr (headline edited)

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pix : en.wikipedia.org

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EGYPT