King_of_dark

Music:: Fifth Harmony -- Messy (sped up) Release date: Aug 2024/03/22 Signer: Riley Rilo Official YouTube link:

It comes nearly a year after Mr Gandhi wrapped up a 4,000km-long "unity march" in which he travelled from the country's southern tip in Kanyakumari to Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir in the north. The journey this time would see him travel from east to west, by bus and on foot. He plans to cover 100 parliamentary constituencies across 110 districts in 15 states, many of them electorally crucial, and finish in Mumbai in 66 days. On Sunday, Congress flags fluttered in the air as Mr Gandhi addressed a rally that kicked off his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (United India Justice March) in Imphal city, capital of the north-eastern state of Manipur. Over the past eight months, Manipur has witnessed violent ethnic clashes between its majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities. More than 200 people have been killed and thousands of families displaced by violence. But on the sunny afternoon, thousands of women cheered as top Congress leaders addressed the crowd amid massive security presence. Among them was Waikhom Ibemma Devi, who reflected on the tough life in the state. "Whenever I go to a relief camp, I feel sad looking at the victims," she said. "We understand the pain the people of Manipur have been through. And we promise you, we commit to you, that we will bring back what you valued," Mr Gandhi told the gathering. Many analysts and Congress supporters such as Tehseen Poonawala say last year's unity march had burnished Mr Gandhi's political image, "recharged party workers and gave the Congress organisation, often criticised for being lethargic, a shakeup". They expect the current campaign - aimed at demanding economic, social and political justice for the masses - to do the same. But journalist and author Neerja Chowdhury says "people like it when politicians come to them to listen but whether this makes a difference to the party's prospects in the elections is debatable". The march comes as the opposition faces the challenge of preventing the widely po[CENSORED]r Prime Minister Narendra Modi from scoring his third consecutive victory. A recent survey has predicted he will retain power. "As the battle for 2024 begins in earnest, the incumbent BJP [Bharaitya Janata Party] undeniably maintains the upper hand," said Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The BJP has long painted Mr Gandhi as a non-serious politician born into privilege. Last week, senior party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, "Rahul Gandhi is not taken seriously in our country."Following the Congress' recent losses in three state elections, the BJP now rules 12 of 28 states in India with coalition governments in three. The Congress, which ruled India for decades after independence in 1947, has been reduced to three states. The opposition says that under Mr Modi's 10-year leadership, there's been a backslide in democracy and civil liberties, misuse of federal investigative agencies, bulldozing of government institutions and a proliferation of a culture of hate and violence against the minorities and marginalised communities - allegations the government strongly denies. The recent suspension of nearly 150 opposition MPs over their demand for a government statement on a parliament security breach has further strained relations between the two sides. In such a politically charged environment, it's no surprise that some, including former Congress spokesperson Sanjay Jha, are calling the next elections a "do or die situation" for the opposition. The party believes that Mr Gandhi's justice march and the choice of strife-torn Manipur to kick off the campaign will help them gain public and media attention. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-67911170

CHUBYNSKE, Ukraine (AP) — Natalia Popova has found a new purpose in life: Rescuing wild animals and pets from the devastation wrought by the war in Ukraine. “They are my life,” says the 50-year-old, stroking a light-furred lioness like a kitten. From inside an enclosure, the animal rejoices at the attention, lying on her back and stretching her paws up toward her caretaker. Popova, in cooperation with the animal protection group UA Animals, has already saved more than 300 animals from the war; 200 of them went abroad and 100 found new homes in western Ukraine, which is considered safer. Many of them were wild animals who were kept as pets at private homes before their owners fled Russian shelling and missiles. Popova’s shelter in the Kyiv region village of Chubynske now houses 133 animals. It’s a broad menagerie, including 13 lions, a leopard, a tiger, three deer, wolves, foxes, raccoons and roe deer, as well as domesticated animals like horses, donkeys, goats, rabbits, dogs, cats and birds. ADVERTISEMENT The animals awaiting evacuation to Poland were rescued from hot spots such as eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Donetsk regions, which see daily bombardments and active fighting. The Ukrainian soldiers who let Popova know when animals near the front lines need help joke that she has many lives, like a cat. https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-animals-pets-99eee46cf74470edb3c01f1ee102b003

Between October 12 (Thursday) and October 18 (Wednesday), TLC will be competing in the Rally of Morocco 2023 which is being held in Morocco on the African continent, as a real-world test for the 2024 Dakar Rally. A 2-car formation is planned, using rally cars based on the Land Cruiser 300 GR SPORT which have been developed for the next Dakar Rally. The Rally of Morocco 2023 will start in Agadir, a city in the southwest of the country on October 14. It will then pass through Zagora in the southeast, and on the 18th, it will reach the goal in Merzouga, running a total of five stages and covering a total distance of 2,240 km. After finishing the early stages, mainly consisting of gravel terrain, the rally will take teams through the mid and later stages which are to include a wide variety of routes, including sand dunes. As they aim for the goal in the Rally of Morocco, the team will be confirming the raw power of the rally-spec car for the 2024 Dakar Rally. At the same time, they will be setting up the machine to match the various conditions to enable a successful completion of the Dakar Rally. Regarding the recent earthquake in Morocco and its impact on the rally, the organizers have confirmed the safety of the area and we expect to see the rally proceed as planned. We pray for the quick recovery of affected areas and hope to inspire courage and lift the spirits of locals through this rally. To see the team’s efforts at the Rally of Morocco 2023, tune into official TLC social media channels. For a more immersive experience, we will also be streaming live footage, where you will be able to leave comments to support the team members on the field. Please be sure to visit our feeds to catch all the action! https://www.toyota-body.co.jp/dakar/en/news/2023/21.html

Paris 2024 has taken the opportunity provided by the IOC in the Olympic Agenda 2020 to propose additional sports to enhance its programme and overall concept. The IOC is keen to set a new standard for inclusive, gender-balanced and youth-centred games. Paris 2024 submitted its proposal to the IOC to integrate four new sports that are closely associated with youth and reward creativity and athletic performance. These sports are breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding, surfing. All four are easy to take up and participants form communities that are very active on social media. Over the next five years, the inclusion of these events in the Olympic Games will help inspire millions of children to take up sport. The IOC confirmed the event programme, related athlete quotas and the integration of new sports for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in December 2020. https://www.paris2024.org/en/olympic-sports/

t’s 2064. A Queensland great-grandmother, let’s call her Lisa, is sweltering in her living room as she waits for a driverless car to take her to hospital. Her robot carer delivers water and medication while a nanobot circulating in Lisa’s bloodstream sends real-time health data to her doctors. Lisa’s health crisis was sparked by a recent bushfire, a regular problem by mid-century. The air is still thick with smoke and the temperature has broken 48 degrees for the second time in a week. Heat from the fire destroyed her solar-power system and her home’s air filtration and cooling systems have failed. She is struggling to breathe and heat stroke is setting in. Even at age 98, Lisa lives alone. More than 4 per cent of the po[CENSORED]tion is now over 85, up from around 2 per cent in 2000, and it is common for Australia’s elderly to lead independent lives. But after a conversation with her doctor via hologram, it is decided Lisa will head to hospital to stabilise her vital signs. As she waits, Lisa uses the computer interface embedded in her brain to message her children, using just her thoughts, updating them on her health. It is all so different to the 2020s when Lisa was caring for her own mother — tapping on the window of her aged care home during the COVID pandemic, trying to sync up a charged iPad with an internet connection and an agreed time to chat over FaceTime or WhatsApp. How wonderful it would be to chat to her mother now, Lisa thinks, as she opens an app and calls up the digital clone of her husband Dave, who died four years ago aged 101. This digital twin sounds exactly like him and is programmed with hours of memories, ideas and opinions that can be used to generate conversations years after he has passed away. As Dave’s holographic image sits before her, they talk through happy memories together and he counsels her to stay positive while she waits for her transport to arrive (solar powered, of course). https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-20/future-ai-what-will-life-be-like-in-2060s/103408964

The Israel-Gaza war has taken a severe toll on journalists since Hamas launched its unprecedented attack against Israel on October 7 and Israel declared war on the militant Palestinian group, launching strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip. CPJ is investigating all reports of journalists and media workers killed, injured, or missing in the war, which has led to the deadliest period for journalists since CPJ began gathering data in 1992. As of March 21, 2024, CPJ’s preliminary investigations showed at least 95 journalists and media workers were among the more than 32,000 killed since the war began on October 7—with more than 31,000 Palestinian deaths in Gaza and the West Bank and 1,200 deaths in Israel. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Reuters and Agence France Press news agencies in October that it could not guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip, after they had sought assurances that their journalists would not be targeted by Israeli strikes, according to a Reuters report. Journalists in Gaza face particularly high risks as they try to cover the conflict during the Israeli ground assault, including devastating Israeli airstrikes, disrupted communications, supply shortages, and extensive power outages. As of March 21: 95 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 90 Palestinian, 2 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese. 16 journalists were reported injured. 4 journalists were reported missing. 25 journalists were reported arrested. Multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members. CPJ is also investigating numerous unconfirmed reports of other journalists being killed, missing, detained, hurt, or threatened, and of damage to media offices and journalists’ homes. “CPJ emphasizes that journalists are civilians doing important work during times of crisis and must not be targeted by warring parties,” said Sherif Mansour, CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Journalists across the region are making great sacrifices to cover this heart-breaking conflict. Those in Gaza, in particular, have paid, and continue to pay, an unprecedented toll and face exponential threats. Many have lost colleagues, families, and media facilities, and have fled seeking safety when there is no safe haven or exit.” The list published here includes names based on information obtained from CPJ’s sources in the region and media reports. It includes all journalists* involved in news-gathering activity. It is unclear whether all of these journalists were covering the conflict at the time of their deaths, but CPJ has included them in our count as we investigate their circumstances. The list is being updated on a regular basis. https://cpj.org/2024/03/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/

No @7aMoDi?

VOTED

In my opinion, I give you because your activity has improved very much and you could be better than this

VOTED

Yes @NINJAAAA?!

VOTED

A very good activity, and you do a good job, and I will give it to you Good Luck

Video title:Best News Bloopers 2021 Content creator ( Youtuber ) :News Be Funny Official YT video:

Nick movie:NEW UPCOMING MOVIE TRAILERS 2024 (Weekly #11) Time: FilmSpot Trailer Netflix / Amazon / HBO: Netflix Duratio

Music:: NewJeans x J.I.D | Zero (Remix) | Coke Studio Release date: Aug 2023/06/21 Signer: Coke Studio Official YouTube link:

The European Union will provide Egypt with a funding package of €7.4 billion ($8.06 billion) from 2024-2027, the EU Commission announced on Sunday. The funding is intended to assist Egypt in stabilizing its economy while reducing its dependence on Russian gas. It includes a grant to help address the flow of migrants from the region into Europe. The deal includes €5 billion of macro-financial assistance, €1.8 billion of investments and €600 million in grants over the next three years to support Egypt's faltering economy. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen headed a delegation of several European leaders meeting President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo. Egypt's strategic importance The agreement lifts the EU's relationship with Egypt to a "strategic partnership" aimed at boosting cooperation in renewable energy, trade, and security. "With Egypt’s political and economic weight and its strategic location in a very troubled neighborhood, the importance of our relations will only increase over time," von der Leyen wrote on X, formerly Twitter." El-Sissi's office said in a statement that the deal aims to achieve "a significant leap in cooperation and coordination between the two sides and to achieve common interests." Egypt's economy, which is focused on expensive infrastructure mega-projects, has been hit hard by recent economic shocks. The country is under political and economic pressure due to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Fighting there has meant important income earners for Egypt, like tourism and shipping through the Suez Canal, have been throttled. Earlier this month the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to an $8 billion loan package after Cairo implemented a flexible exchange rate and raised interest rates. That followed an announcement in February by Egyptian leaders that the United Arab Emirates would be investing €32 billion directly into the Egyptian economy, mostly via a construction project at Ras al-Hikma, a Mediterranean peninsula near the city of Alexandria. EU concerned by migration flows European governments have long been worried about the risk of instability in Egypt where economic adversity has pushed increasing numbers to migrate. This is in addition to the 9 million migrants and refugees that the UN's International Organization for Migration has residing in the country. A senior European Commission official said the deal includes steps on "security, counter-terrorism cooperation, and protection of borders, in particular the southern one" with Sudan. It follows other controversial deals the EU has sealed in North Africa, including Libya, Tunisia and Mauritania, to stem https://www.dw.com/en/eu-to-provide-egypt-74-billion-funding-package/a-68594823

SILIGURI: Calcutta HC bench in Jalpaiguri on Thursday said the name of Sita, the lioness in Siliguri's Bengal Safari Park - which has been in the eye of a stir after VHP filed a petition alleging that it has hurt religious sentiments - should be changed "to avoid controversy." "Direct authorities to avoid controversy, discontinue with present names and give separate names to animals," Justice Saugata Bhattacharyya told Bengal additional advocate general. "A zoo officer can give any name to a pet dog. But in a welfare state, why should one invite controversy by naming animals in a zoo after a revered individual - be it a God, a mythological figure, a freedom fighter or a Nobel laureate?" Justice Bhattacharyya asked the additional advocate general. Observing that naming the lioness Sita had needlessly invited controversy, the judge said he was also against the lion in the safari being named Akbar, after a Mughal emperor, who was both successful and secular. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/high-court-rename-lioness-to-avoid-controversy/articleshow/107923799.cms

A man in his 50s suffered minor head injuries and another in his 30s suffered chest injuries. Both were taken to hospital in a stable condition. Police said officers spoke to a 14-year-old boy who later left with a family member. Images of the incident posted to social media show a red vehicle at a standstill next to a cosmetics counter, with mannequins lying flat on the floor nearby. SafeWork NSW is investigating and a crime scene has been set up. You've read 6 articles in the last year Article count on Do you know who hates the Guardian? The billionaires creating a world that’s more unequal than ever. The populist politicians spreading discord and misinformation. The fossil fuel executives watching the planet burn as their profits swell. The tech giants shaping a new world around us without scrutiny. And do you know who does like us? People who believe in a free press. People who believe that the truth should be available to everyone. And people who recognise the importance of challenging those in positions of power and influence, including in Egypt. Does that sound like you? The Guardian knows that not everyone can pay for a subscription to keep up to date with the important stories shaping our world. That’s why, even though good journalism can cost a lot of money, we still choose to keep ours open for you to read. But we can only fund our work with your help. Will you choose to join us today? It only takes a minute. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/16/two-injured-at-westfield-liverpool-after-teenager-accidentally-reverses-display-car-into-department-store

have joined Arsenal and Manchester United in showing an interest in Borussia Dortmund's Netherlands winger Donyell Malen, 25. (Bild - in German) West Ham boss David Moyes is planning a new bid for Manchester United's England centre-half Harry Maguire, 31, in the summer. (Sun) England forward Marcus Rashford, 26, is set to snub a potential move to Paris St-Germain and stay at Manchester United. (Sun) Atletico Madrid have enquired about a summer move for English forward Mason Greenwood, 22, but Manchester United have set a £50m asking price. (Football Transfers) Greenwood's Manchester United team-mates have backed him to play again for the Red Devils after his loan spell at Getafe. (Sun) Chelsea target Leny Yoro wants to join Real Madrid, although Lille are asking for 100m euros (£85.6m) for the French defender, 18. (Marca - in Spanish) A mystery player Can you name the Premier League player? Try naming this current or former footballer from these clues Newcastle United will be forced to sell one of their key players this summer in an effort to balance their books. (Football Insider) Christian Eriksen will leave Manchester United at the end of the season if a suitable offer comes in for the 32-year-old Denmark midfielder. (Football Transfers) Brighton are keeping tabs on Arsenal's English winger Reiss Nelson, 24, before a potential summer move. (Football Insider) Brighton also maintain an interest in Leicester City's Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall after failing with a January bid for the English midfielder, 25. (Talksport) Inter Milan are confident that Argentina striker Lautaro Martinez, 26, will sign a new contract. (Fabrizio Romano) France striker Olivier Giroud, 37, wants a Major League Soccer move to either Los Angeles or New York when his contract with AC Milan expires at the end of the season. (Gazzetta dello Sport - in Italian) Liverpool are closely monitoring Ajax's 18-year-old Netherlands defender Jorrel Hato. (Football Insider) Manchester City are in advanced talks to sign 14-year-old USA youth forward Cavan Sullivan, who is part of the academy at Philadelphia Union but is yet to sign a professional contract https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/gossip

or a few weeks in 2022, Vladimir Putin’s world was unravelling fast. Russian troops had failed to take Kyiv and the west was coalescing around Volodymyr Zelenskiy, freezing Russian assets abroad and imposing unprecedented sanctions. Putin himself appeared unhinged, railing against Lenin or appealing to Ukrainians to overthrow their “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis”. As Russians go to the polls on Friday in an election with only one possible result, the Kremlin will claim a mandate for that war, enshrining Putin’s bloodiest gamble as the country’s finest moment. The Russian leader has often succeeded by presenting his opponents with only bad and worse options; these elections are no different. Now convinced that he can outlast the west, Putin is seeking to wed Russia’s future, including an elite and a society that appear resigned to his lifelong rule, to the fate of his long war in Ukraine.“You are dealing with the person who started this war; he’s already made a mistake of such a scale that he can’t ever admit it to himself,” a former senior Russian official told the Guardian. “And he can’t lose that war either. For him that would be the end of the world.“We all – thanks to Putin – have been led into such a shitshow that there is no good outcome. The only options go from very bad to catastrophic,” he added. And if Putin begins to lose, the person added, then “we may all see the stars in the sky” – suggesting a potential nuclear war. Putin’s re-election campaign, which has included a more than £1bn propaganda push, according to leaked documents obtained by the Estonian outlet Delfi and reviewed by the Guardian, has put the war front and centre, as he envisages a militarised society stripped of its liberal trimmings. Insiders said that while his team had insisted that he focus on a positive agenda of social spending or cultural achievements he instead chose to declare his candidacy while speaking with veterans of the war, whom he has said should help form a new “management class” to replace the old, disgraced elite. And he has appeared confident on TV as he suggests he is ready to continue fighting until victory. “It would be ridiculous for us to start negotiating with Ukraine just because it’s running out of ammunition,” Putin said in an interview this week with the propagandist Dmitry Kiselev. One of Putin’s goals in these elections is to “deprive most Russians of the ability to imagine a future without him”, wrote Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipman in Foreign Affairs. And the prospects for his next term, or even two terms until 2036, appear clear: a forever war, an increasingly militarised society, and an economy dominated by the state and military spending. Consolidated elite In May 2022, Boris Bondarev, a counsellor at the Russian mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva, resigned in protest against the war. At the time, he accused the foreign ministry of “warmongering, lies and hatred” and wrote: “never have I been so ashamed of my country”. Two years later, Bondarev remains the only Russian diplomat to have publicly defected to the west since February 2022. Asked why, he said: “Because I am the only one maybe without a sound mind,” adding: “All the others are sitting at home, probably feeling pretty good, even better now. They are getting their salaries, can still travel and are not mobilised for the war. They now think, soon we will win and we will be able to travel to the west again once sanctions are lifted.” He said he had been looking for a job since defecting. Only a handful of top businessmen, including the billionaire banker Oleg Tinkov and Yandex’s Arkady Volozh, have spoken out against the war, and they have done so from relative safety outside the country. Both no longer have businesses in Russia. There was a moment when others could have been peeled away from the Kremlin, observers believe. But as Russia has stabilised its battlefield position and its economy, and western support for Ukraine has become mired in political infighting, the shifting balance of power has discouraged further defections. “I don’t talk with people still in Russia about their futures,” one major businessman who has had sanctions imposed on him told the Guardian. “That is a stupid question. Everyone has already made their choice.” At the same time, the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and the crackdown on all opposition politics in the country have raised the stakes for any perceived opposition to Putin. Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the ex-oligarch who was imprisoned under Putin and is now a member of the exiled opposition, said that the moment for a schism among the elite “has been missed.” “Without suffering an obvious military defeat,” he said, conflicts among the elite would not provoke “serious change, at least while Putin is alive”. Increasingly, Russia has sought to lure back the more than half-a-million people who fled the country after the war began, including some of its most educated and wealthiest citizens. “I don’t believe there will be any public defections,” said the businessman who has received sanctions. “And what for? Clearly, it hasn’t worked out very well for those who left. Those who say it should be easy to speak out [against the war] don’t understand the realities and the consequences.” Forever war footing Although Putin’s war planners envisaged a lightning attack that would take Kyiv in a matter of days, diplomats, insiders, observers and activists largely believe that Putin is now ready for a far longer conflict that could take years, if not decades. “Putin appears to have dug in; he will not stop the war unless he is forced to do it,” said a senior western diplomat in Moscow. “We do not believe he is serious about any peace talks and it would be up to Ukraine anyway to decide them. From my rare meetings with Russian diplomats, I get a sense that they are feeling more self-assured than after the start of the war.” Russia is devoting an estimated 7.5% of its GDP to military spending, the highest proportion since the cold war, and the government’s lavish spending has meant that factories making weapons, ammunition and military equipment are working double or triple-shift patterns, and welders collecting overtime can make as much as white-collar workers. A defence insider predicted that levels of spending would only continue to increase, he said, calling the change a “new permanent phase” that could last “many years”. On the home front, restaurants in Moscow and St Petersburg remain full, projecting an image of normality, “parallel imports” – importing of western goods via third countries – and other new schemes have sought to prevent Russians from noticing a loss of creature comforts and luxury products. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to This is Europe Free weekly newsletter The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans – from identity to economics to the environment Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion “The Kremlin wants to cosplay the Soviet Union but without the food and product deficits,” said a well-connected source in Moscow media circles. “Their generation remembers the consumer goods deficits really well and wants to prevent them at all costs.” Publicly, Putin has played down the potential for an all-out war with the west, saying this week he did not believe that the United States was planning on nuclear war by modernising its strategic forces. But, he added, “If they want to, what is there to do? We are ready.” And while Putin claimed he is “ready to negotiate” with Ukraine this week, he also dismissed “wishful thinking” and smeared Zelenskiy as a drug user. “I don’t want to say this, but I don’t trust anyone,” he told Kiselev of potential security guarantees from the west. “I believe any signals that Putin might be sending about wanting peace are just a way for him to delay western weapon deliveries to Ukraine,” said Bondarev. Even anti-war Russians regularly parrot views that the west bears some culpability for propping up the Ukrainian side, either by deterring possible moments to conclude a peace or prolonging a conflict that they believe Putin will never allow himself to lose. “It’s clear that this war isn’t going to end with a victory for either of the sides,” said the former senior Russian official. “It won’t end. It will end as a frozen conflict. And that frozen conflict is going to continue for 100 years.” If Donald Trump is re-elected US president in November, it will put pressure on Ukraine to concede territory as he has vowed to end the war “in one day”. Societal transformation Speaking before Russia’s legislature last month, Putin announced an initiative called the Time of Heroes, a programme meant to bring veterans of the invasion of Ukraine into the upper ranks of government. But the announcement was also clearly targeted at Russia’s liberal elite, whom Putin said had disgraced themselves through insufficient patriotism since the outbreak of the war. “You know that the word ‘elite’ has lost much of its credibility,” he said. “Those who have done nothing for society and consider themselves a caste endowed with special rights and privileges – especially those who took advantage of all kinds of economic processes in the 1990s to line their pockets – are definitely not the elite.” Even senior members of the pro-Kremlin cultural elite, who often mingle with senior Russian officials and meet Putin, now find their positions are no longer secure. In a crackdown that highlighted Russia’s conservative shift, household names like pop icon Philipp Kirkorov were forced to make tearful apologises after footage spread of them attending a raunchy “almost naked” celebrity party in Moscow. “For many of the elites, the naked scandal backlash was the most alarming event of the year; it shook them even more than Prigozhin’s rebellion,” said the Moscow media source. “Many realised that their private lives would no longer be off-limits.” Putin’s recent rhetoric could summon images of a Mao Zedong-style restructuring of Russian society reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, although most observers played down that comparison. “The government is clearly worried about the loyalty and morale of the military, and the defence industry,” said the person close to that industry. “They know that they need to at least choose some examples of people who fought in the war who are now in positions of power.” But the programme is part of a larger issue that will trouble the Russian state for coming years and has been lobbied for by the country’s loudest war hawks: how to manage the influx and return of tens of thousands of soldiers, many with serious injuries or post-traumatic stress syndrome, thousands of whom were recruited from Russian prisons. “Now our guys, fighters, are returning from their training, many of them are very smart people with education and experience, of course, they should get their place in the management apparatus,” Anastasia Kashevarova, a former assistant to State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin and one of the most vocal pro-war bloggers, told the Guardian. Under constitutional changes he orchestrated in 2020, Putin could remain in power until 2036, when he will be 83 years old. For young Russians, often referred to as Generation Putin, another decade looms under the increasingly authoritarian rule of the only president they have ever known. “I am pessimistic about the long-term prospects of Russia,” said the businessman living under sanctions. “I would advise young people with a good education to leave and build a new future abroad. Russia is not going to run out of money … It will just be a stagnant, militaristic nation.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/15/a-forever-war-more-repression-vladimir-putin-for-life-russias-bleak-post-election-outlook

The new Cairo City Break program is aimed at transforming the capital into a dynamic, must-visit long weekend destination. The visitors will have the opportunity to explore many tourist and archaeological sites by offering diverse and varied tourist experiences encompassing various historical and cultural places, whether Pharaonic, Coptic, or Islamic. This will contribute to increasing the number of tourist nights spent in Cairo from an average of three to four days to 12 days. “There is no other city that can offer visitors monuments from every great civilization starting from 3500 B.C. We are dedicated to turning Cairo into a destination that can be enjoyed over the span of multiple visits or a long weekend,” stated the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, H.E. Ahmed Issa. Egypt has also been actively developing emerging destinations and elevating traveler's experience at archaeological sites by introducing new destinations and improved, faster, and environmentally friendly ways of commute to key destinations such as Luxor. For instance, in Q4 2025/Q1 2026 Hurghada and Luxor will be connected by a high-speed train. A Transformative Reform and Infrastructure Development Egypt's tourism industry is undergoing a transformative reform towards deregulation, paving the way for new investors, and redefining the relationship between the government and the private sector. In tandem with the reform, Egypt’s strategic deregulation efforts and the allocation of 22% of GDP to infrastructure development over the past seven years are paying off, demonstrating a strong commitment to boosting the country's global tourism reputation. The aim is to double Egypt's hotel capacity to 60,000 rooms within the next five years. Record-Breaking Tourism Results and Main Travel Trends Egypt witnessed an extraordinary surge in tourism during 2023, with a record 14.906 million visitors gracing its shores — an exponential increase from the 4.9 million recorded in 2021. This upward trend is expected to continue in 2024, with a remarkable 8% year-on-year growth in the first 50 days of the year. Most visitors come from Germany, with 1.6 million tourists recorded last year, followed by Russia, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and the United Kingdom. About the Egyptian Tourism Authority Established in 1981, the Egyptian Tourism Authority is dedicated to promoting Egypt's vast historical assets and diverse destinations, fostering domestic tourism, and connecting Egyptians with their rich heritage. Under the leadership of the Minister of Tourism, the Egyptian Tourism Authority spearheads marketing strategies, supports tourism development, and sponsors various events to enhance Egypt's tourism industry. For more information, visit Experience Egypt. View source version on businesswire.com: Maria Linul – Senior Account Manager Media consulta International Holding AG Tel: +49 30 65000-410 E-Mail: m.linul@mcgroup.com; egypttourism@mcgroup.com © Business Wire, Inc. Disclaimer: This press release is not a document produced by AFP. AFP shall not bear responsibility for its content. In case you have any questions about this press release, please refer to the contact person/entity mentioned in the text of the press release. https://www.afp.com/en/news/1314/itb-berlin-2024-cairo-city-break-become-new-egypt-travel-trend-202403061259561