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Egypt

Maroon silhouette of two people performing in front of a crowd of people

Mahraganat artists in Egypt are defining hip-hop culture, despite government crackdowns

Planet Hip Hop

Hip-hop has taken root in Egypt. Authorities are trying to suppress it. But the raw power of the music may be unstoppable. Yasmine el Rashidi, author of “Laughter in the Dark: Egypt to the Tune of Change,” tells host Marco Werman how young Egyptians are pushing hip-hop to the limit.

Sameh Shoukry, president of the COP27 climate summit, left, speaks during an opening session at the COP27 UN Climate Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt

COP27: UN chief tells climate summit, Cooperate or perish

Climate Change
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi holds a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum, Sudan

New restrictive regulations in Egypt will shut down access to independent information, legal director says

Free speech
A general view of Tahrir Square in Cairo, Egypt

Egypt ends its state of emergency amid intense criticism of its human rights record

Global Politics
A gas station is empty because the gas pumps are out of service in Tehran, Iran, after a widespread outage of a system that allows consumers to buy fuel with a government-issued card

Iran faces widespread gas station outage, believed to be a cyberattack.

Top of The World
An array of bitcoins

El Salvador becomes the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender

Top of The World

El Salvador becomes first country to approve bitcoin as a legal currency. And, US President Joe Biden begins the first overseas trip of his term in the UK, hoping to repair relations with Europe. Also, Nicaragua’s National Police continues arrests of potential challengers for the upcoming November presidential elections.

President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi at a podium with an Egyptian flag behind him

Activists look to Congress after Biden requests military aid for Egypt without human rights conditions

Global Politics

Egypt has been the second-largest recipient of US military aid since the Camp David Accords in 1978.

A man holds a placard depicting Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sissi and reads he is a criminal as he stages a protest by the National Assembly in Paris, Dec. 8, 2020. 

Powerful countries break their silence on Egypt’s human rights abuses 

Human rights

It’s the first time the UN council has weighed in on the situation in Egypt in seven years. And, it represents a policy shift by the US, which was among 31 countries that brought a resolution forward.

A person paints a sign that says "I can't breathe" on a wall with a purple background.

Public art honoring Egyptian American Moustafa Kassem sends universal human rights message

Human rights

“His name will be remembered not just as a failure of US foreign policy, but to remind people that it’s not just him,” says Mohammad Soltan, founder of the Freedom Initiative.

Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zied, known by his nickname Shawkan, gestures in a soundproof glass cage.

10 years after the Arab uprisings, Egypt at ‘lowest point’ for human rights

Human rights

Egypt has gone from a human rights success story to a place where thousands have been detained or executed — and human rights activists have gone underground.

Latest Episode

The Race for 2016, An American Imprisoned in Egypt, and A Piece of Civil Rights History