It is thought the Roman emperor Claudius could have inspired work found in the temple of Dendera
Archaeologists have unearthed a sphinx-like statue and the remains of a shrine in an ancient temple in southern Egypt.
The artefacts were found in the temple of Dendera, in Qena province, 280 miles (450km) south of Cairo, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said.
Continue reading...Tony Sami, held for 10 years, is fighting to stay with his two children and had been preparing for landmark high court case
An Egyptian man challenging the lawfulness of Australia’s indefinite detention system in the high court has been warned that Border Force is preparing to remove him from the country “unwillingly” within a month if he doesn’t agree to leave on a commercial flight.
Tony Sami, who has been detained for a decade after his visa was cancelled in 2012 and who is fighting to stay in Australia to be with his two children, had been preparing for a landmark case that could determine the freedom of hundreds of asylum seekers and detainees.
Continue reading...The 4,300-year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre shaft near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara
Egyptologists have uncovered a Pharaonic tomb near the capital, Cairo, containing what may be the oldest and most complete mummy yet to be discovered in the country, the excavation team leader has said.
The 4,300-year-old mummy was found at the bottom of a 15-metre shaft in a recently uncovered group of fifth and sixth dynasty tombs near the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, Zahi Hawass, director of the team, told reporters.
Continue reading...Egyptian authority says vessel was towed away for repairs after briefly disrupting traffic in vital waterway
A Norwegian-owned cargo ship briefly ran aground in the Suez canal before being refloated and towed away, according to the Egyptian authority running the vital waterway.
The vessel, which had experienced a sudden technical failure, was being removed by tugboats for repairs, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) chief, Osama Rabie, said on Monday. Maritime traffic was normal, he added.
Continue reading...Arrest of Sherif Osman while visiting family in Dubai raises fears for activists at Cop28 climate conference
The United Arab Emirates is preparing to deport an Egyptian-American citizen detained in Dubai who called for protests during the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, sparking fears about the treatment of civil society during next year’s Cop28 in the Emirates.
Sherif Osman, a former Egyptian army officer who has lived in the US for decades, was detained at a restaurant in Dubai, where he had travelled with his fiancee to see family.
Continue reading...Poverty puts thousands into the grip of people smugglers plying a deadly trade in the Mediterranean
Youssef initially doesn’t want to remember the treacherous boat journey that took him from Egypt, then to Tobruk in Libya and finally to Italy, but he knows clearly why he left.
A young man in his 20s, Youssef is recently married and expecting a baby in a few months, and fears about the increasing cost of living in Egypt overwhelmed him. He gave in and contacted a people smuggler on the internet, using a Facebook group where those looking to migrate can post information about crossings.
Continue reading...The country is highlighting China’s status as top polluter after being called out for climate inaction
The US, fresh from reversing its 30 years of opposition to a “loss and damage” fund for poorer countries suffering the worst impacts of the climate crisis, has signaled that its longstanding image as global climate villain should now be pinned on a new culprit: China.
Following years of tumult in which the US refused to provide anything resembling compensation for climate damages, followed by Donald Trump’s removal of America from the Paris climate agreement, there was a profound shift at the Cop27 UN talks in Egypt, with Joe Biden’s administration agreeing to the new loss and damage fund.
Continue reading...Harassment of climate summit delegates and holding pen for protesters mar country’s attempt to polish international reputation
An empty pen designed to contain protesters in the middle of the desert, harassment and surveillance of Cop27 delegates (including evidence that the official conference app could spy on them), food and water shortages, and widespread problems with accommodation have all served to undermine the Egyptian government’s attempts to use the climate talk to bolster its international image.
Belgian politician Séverine de Laveleye said she was briefly detained by Egyptian security forces while entering the conference centre simply for carrying badges depicting some of Egypt’s 65,000 political prisoners, including British-Egyptian democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah. “It’s clear that human rights aren’t even respected at the heart of the Cop,” she said. “Sisi’s Egypt is one of repression.”
Continue reading...Developed countries agree to ‘loss and damage’ fund for vulnerable nations, but delay approving wider deal
The world’s poorest countries have scored a historic victory at the Cop27 climate summit, after countries agreed to set up a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, but delayed approving a wider deal outlining global resolve to fight climate change.
After tense negotiations that ran through the night, the Egyptian Cop27 presidency early on Sunday released a draft text for an overall agreement – and simultaneously called a plenary session to gavel it through as the final, overarching agreement for the UN summit.
Continue reading...Despite breakthrough on fund for developing nations, Ursula von der Leyen says Cop27 has not delivered on commitment to phase down fossil fuels
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The main sticking point of Cop27 has been over the creation of a loss and damage fund – finance provided by rich nations to poorer ones to help them prepare for and recover from the worst impacts of climate breakdown.
Some, especially in the rightwing press, have framed this as “reparations”, a highly loaded term. It’s also misleading, as under article 8 of the Paris climate agreement it is explicitly made clear that loss and damage “does not involve or provide a basis for any liability or compensation”.
Continue reading...Xie Zhenhua said he’d had ‘very constructive discussions’ with John Kerry at Cop27 but there’s no change on finance issues
China and the US have renewed their partnership to tackle the climate crisis, and are working closely and productively on ways of bringing down greenhouse gas emissions, China’s head of delegation has said.
The surprise news from Xie Zhenhua, who briefed a small group of journalists at the Cop27 UN climate summit in Egypt on Saturday, comes as a rare moment of progress amid a conference mired in stalemate and bitter fighting between developed and developing countries.
Continue reading...The European Union has backed a loss and damage fund, one of the key demands of developing countries at the climate talks
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The low-lying Pacific island of Tuvalu has been reacting to the EU’s proposal on “loss and damage”. Its finance minister, Seve Paeniu, called for support for phasing out all fossil fuels, language so far missing from the draft Sharm el-Sheikh agreement.
He described the EU position on loss and damage as a “breakthrough”.
Continue reading...China is responsible for more cumulative emissions than any country other than the US
Late on Thursday night in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Cop27 UN climate talks seemed stuck in an irretrievable logjam. Rich and poor countries had reached deadlock, a “breakdown between north and south”, according to the UN secretary general, António Guterres.
By Friday morning, the talks had been upended and the battleground dramatically redrawn, in a way it has not been in 30 years of these annual talks. At stake is the question of whether some of the world’s leading economies – countries such as China, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf petrostates, Russia and countries with high per capita income such as South Korea and Singapore – should start contributing for the first time to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries with the impacts of climate disaster.
Continue reading...The activist’s mother was allowed to visit her son for the first time in nearly a month on Thursday
The family of the British-Egyptian political prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah say his health has visibly deteriorated due to the escalation of his hunger strike, after being allowed to visit him on Thursday.
It was the first time the activist’s mother, Laila Soueif, had been allowed to visit him in nearly a month. Prison authorities repeatedly denied her access last week.
Continue reading...Egypt foreign minister Sameh Shoukry says delegates are shying away from taking ‘difficult political decisions’. This live blog is closed
As global politicians face difficult discussions on the draft over the coming hours, public opinion appears to be supportive of the idea that richer countries should pay loss and damage finances for climate action in poor countries.
Damian Carrington, our environment editor writes: A significant majority of people in the UK think the country has a responsibility to pay for climate action in poorer and vulnerable countries, an opinion poll conducted for the Guardian shows.
No details of a fund on loss and damage financing for poorer countries
“Welcomes” the fact that parties agreed for the first time to include “matters related to funding arrangements responding to loss and damage” on the summit agenda.
No call for a phase down on all fossil fuels
Stresses the importance of exerting all efforts to meet Paris Agreement goal of holding global average temperature to well below 2C and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 C
Brazil’s president elect beat Jair Bolsonaro, under whose watch deforestation had rocketed, in last month’s election
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A long-mooted deposit return scheme in the UK will not be in place for a further two years, the UK environment secretary said on Wednesday, writes Fiona Harvey, Guardian environment correspondent.
“It will be another couple of years at least,” Thérèse Coffey told journalists at Cop27. “Scotland has not started theirs yet. We are getting on with our environmental targets and a business plan and Elms. We are coming up to the fifth anniversary of the 25 year environment plan.”
Let’s talk to the secretary-general of the UN for the next op to be done in Brazil, in the Amazon. I think it is important that the people who defend the Amazon know the region and the concrete reality.
Continue reading...Leaders say December biodiversity summit in Montreal is ‘unprecedented’ chance to turn tide on nature loss
The architects of the Paris agreement have urged world leaders to reach an ambitious sister deal for nature at the Cop15 biodiversity conference this December while warning that limiting global heating to 1.5C is impossible without protecting and restoring ecosystems.
On biodiversity day at the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, Christiana Figueres, Laurence Tubiana, Laurent Fabius and Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, who helped design the Paris agreement, said that Cop15 would be an “unprecedented” opportunity to turn the tide on nature loss.
Continue reading...British-Egyptian political prisoner had been on a partial hunger strike of 100 calories or less a day for six months
Alaa Abd el-Fattah, the British-Egyptian democracy activist jailed in Egypt, has told his family in a letter that he has ended his six-month-long hunger strike, which he began in protest against his detention conditions.
“I’ve broken my strike. I’ll explain everything on Thursday,” he told them, in reference to his monthly family prison visits to the Wadi el-Natrun desert prison where he is being held. The democracy activist was sentenced to a further five years in prison last year for sharing a social media post about torture, shortly after gaining British citizenship through his mother.
Continue reading...Conference in Sharm el-Sheikh follows decade-long crackdown on civil society in Egypt
“Honestly, what I want is to be in Sharm el-Sheikh and just scream,” said Amr Magdi of Human Rights Watch. Like dozens of other prominent human rights defenders, researchers and environmentalists, Magdi has been unable to attend Cop27 as he is exiled from Egypt because of his work.
“I just want to tell everyone about the injustice happening in Egypt. I can’t do it personally and I’m trying to do it with my work. I’m even helping others who are able to travel there to do this,” he said.
Continue reading...As negotiations develop, some countries pushed to weaken the goal of keeping a global temperature increase to 1.5C
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We’ve been reporting a lot on the lack of food at Cop (it’s been on our reporters’ minds for obvious reasons).
But my colleague Damian Carrington has found that vegan campaigners have capitalised on the burger shortage.
Continue reading...