Sharjah Returns over 300 Smuggled Antiques to Egypt

Sculptures are displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on October 28, 2017. (AFP)
Sculptures are displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on October 28, 2017. (AFP)
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Sharjah Returns over 300 Smuggled Antiques to Egypt

Sculptures are displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on October 28, 2017. (AFP)
Sculptures are displayed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo on October 28, 2017. (AFP)

The Egyptian Ministry of State of Antiquities said Monday that UAE’s Sharjah Ruler Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi has returned 354 smuggled Egyptian antiques, which were confiscated by the emirate’s authorities.

"The initiative of His Highness Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi comes as part of the cultural cooperation between the two brother countries and the efforts to preserve the cultural, civilization and humanitarian heritage," the statement quoted Foreign Minister Assistant for Cultural Relations Heba al-Marasi.

The statement reported by Reuters said that the Egyptian Embassy in Abu Dhabi received earlier an official notification from Sheikh Sultan Al Qasimi on the confiscation of the smuggled antiques.

The returned pieces belong to archaeological collections dating back to different eras of ancient Egyptian and Islamic civilizations.

The most prominent of the pieces was a collection of bronze statues of various sizes of ancient Egyptian gods, including a statue of the goddess Osiris and another of the goddess Isis. The collection also included faience amulets and tombstones from the Islamic era.

The Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities said in a previous statement that a special committee received the returned pieces in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It also unpacked and recorded them.

Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani said some of these pieces will be soon displayed in a temporary exhibition at the Egyptian Museum.



Saudi Astronauts on Board ISS Conduct Interactive Experiment with School Students

Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni carry out an interactive scientific experiment on heat transfer with high school students in the Kingdom. (SPA)
Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni carry out an interactive scientific experiment on heat transfer with high school students in the Kingdom. (SPA)
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Saudi Astronauts on Board ISS Conduct Interactive Experiment with School Students

Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni carry out an interactive scientific experiment on heat transfer with high school students in the Kingdom. (SPA)
Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni carry out an interactive scientific experiment on heat transfer with high school students in the Kingdom. (SPA)

Saudi astronauts Rayyanah Barnawi and Ali Al-Qarni have conducted an interactive scientific experiment on heat transfer with high school students in the Kingdom via satellite from the International Space Station (ISS).

 

The experiment allowed students to communicate with the two astronauts for questions and to compare results in microgravity environment with results on Earth. The astronauts, along with the students, were able to measure the variation in the speed of heat transfer in the microgravity environment compared to that on Earth. The results showed that heat travels at a slower speed through space than on Earth.

 

The experiment aims to motivate a new generation of Saudi leaders, explorers and scientists and achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030 by building human resources and promoting a culture of research, development and innovation.

 

Such experiments seek to heighten the students' interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and grow human capital by attracting talent and developing the necessary skills. This will boost the Kingdom's role in developing the space sector, become an important part of the global community in space science research and invest in research, in the service of humanity.

 

The experiments are being organized by the Saudi Space Commission (SSC) in partnership with the Communications, Space and Technology Commission (CST), and in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, the King Abdulaziz and His Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity (Mawhiba), and Riyadh and Misk schools.


Interior Ministry Issues Special Stamp to Commemorate Saudi Crew’s Mission to ISS

Saudis watch the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts, two of whom are Saudi nationals, to the International Space Station, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, US, in an event organized to celebrate the first Saudi woman into Space in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Saudis watch the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts, two of whom are Saudi nationals, to the International Space Station, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, US, in an event organized to celebrate the first Saudi woman into Space in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 22, 2023. (Reuters)
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Interior Ministry Issues Special Stamp to Commemorate Saudi Crew’s Mission to ISS

Saudis watch the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts, two of whom are Saudi nationals, to the International Space Station, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, US, in an event organized to celebrate the first Saudi woman into Space in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 22, 2023. (Reuters)
Saudis watch the Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule, carrying four astronauts, two of whom are Saudi nationals, to the International Space Station, from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, US, in an event organized to celebrate the first Saudi woman into Space in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia May 22, 2023. (Reuters)

The Saudi General Directorate of Passports issued a special stamp in commemoration of the launch of the Saudi astronauts’ mission to the International Space Station, reported the Saudi Press Agency on Monday.

The stamp, "Saudi Arabia Toward Space", was issued in cooperation with the Saudi Space Commission.

It will be made available to travelers at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport, Riyadh’s King Khalid International Airport, and Dammam’s King Fahd International Airport.

The Saudi Space Commission launched the "Saudi Arabia Toward Space" campaign to boost the Kingdom's global position in the field of space, its contribution to international space activities, and promote its efforts to achieve the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.


China Prepares to Send First Civilian into Space 

A member of People's Liberation Army (PLA) runs on the site of Shenzhou-16 manned space flight mission on the eve of launching in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 29 May 2023. (EPA)
A member of People's Liberation Army (PLA) runs on the site of Shenzhou-16 manned space flight mission on the eve of launching in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 29 May 2023. (EPA)
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China Prepares to Send First Civilian into Space 

A member of People's Liberation Army (PLA) runs on the site of Shenzhou-16 manned space flight mission on the eve of launching in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 29 May 2023. (EPA)
A member of People's Liberation Army (PLA) runs on the site of Shenzhou-16 manned space flight mission on the eve of launching in Jiuquan, Gansu province, China, 29 May 2023. (EPA)

China will send its first civilian astronaut into space as part of a crewed mission to the Tiangong space station on Tuesday as it pursues its ambitious plans for a manned lunar landing by 2030.

The world's second-largest economy has invested billions of dollars in its military-run space program, trying to catch up with the United States and Russia after years of belatedly matching their milestones.

Until now, all Chinese astronauts sent into space have been part of the People's Liberation Army.

Gui Haichao is a professor at Beijing's Beihang University, and will manage scientific experiments on the station during the mission, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) spokesperson Lin Xiqiang told reporters on Monday.

His mission will "carry out large-scale, in-orbit experiments... in the study of novel quantum phenomena, high-precision space time-frequency systems, the verification of general relativity, and the origin of life," Lin said.

"I've always had this dream," Gui told a press conference on Monday.

His university said he hailed from an "ordinary family" in the southwest province of Yunnan.

He had "first felt the attraction of aerospace" listening to the news of China's first man in space, Yang Liwei, on campus radio in 2003, the institution said in a post on social media.

Gui's addition is "particularly significant", independent analyst Chen Lan told AFP, given previous missions only carried astronauts trained as pilots responsible for more technical tasks and not specialist scientists.

"It means that, from this mission on, China will open the door to space for ordinary people," he said.

Gui is set to take off onboard the Shenzhou-16 spacecraft from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Tuesday at 9:31 am (0131 GMT), the CMSA said.

The commander is Jing Haipeng -- on his fourth mission into space, according to state media -- and the third crew member is engineer Zhu Yangzhu.

Jing said he hadn't gone home for nearly four years because of fears travel could disrupt his training.

"As astronauts going into space... our main responsibility and mission is striving for glory for our country," he said at a press conference on Monday.

The three will stay in Earth's orbit for around five months.

'Space dream'

Under President Xi Jinping, plans for China's "space dream" have been put into overdrive.

China is planning to build a base on the Moon, and CMSA spokesman Lin on Monday reaffirmed Beijing's plan to land a manned mission there by 2030.

"The overall goal is to achieve China's first manned landing on the Moon by 2030 and carry out lunar scientific exploration and related technological experiments," he said.

The final module of the T-shaped Tiangong -- whose name means "heavenly palace" -- successfully docked with the core structure last year.

The station carries a number of pieces of cutting-edge scientific equipment, state news agency Xinhua reported, including "the world's first space-based cold atomic clock system".

The Tiangong is expected to remain in low Earth orbit at between 400 and 450 kilometers (250 and 280 miles) above the planet for at least 10 years.

It is constantly crewed by rotating teams of three astronauts.

While China does not plan to use Tiangong for global cooperation on the scale of the International Space Station, Beijing has said it is open to foreign collaboration.

China "is looking forward to and welcomes the participation of foreign astronauts in the country's space station flight missions," Lin said Monday.

China has been effectively excluded from the International Space Station since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from engaging with the country.


City Walk Jeddah’s Carnival...a Place for Fun, Enjoyment

The Carnival entertainment zone embodies excitement and challenge, including kinetic game - SPA
The Carnival entertainment zone embodies excitement and challenge, including kinetic game - SPA
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City Walk Jeddah’s Carnival...a Place for Fun, Enjoyment

The Carnival entertainment zone embodies excitement and challenge, including kinetic game - SPA
The Carnival entertainment zone embodies excitement and challenge, including kinetic game - SPA

The "Carnival" zone at City Walk is offering a number of events within the Jeddah Events Calendar 2023, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Carnival entertainment zone, which embodies excitement and challenge, including kinetic games, also comprises various games for different ages.

The City Walk zone offers a variety of options for visitors, as it features a unique atmosphere for ten different sub-zones, offering its distinctive experiences, many other daily shows, watching entertainment events, experiencing adventures and exciting shows, and various games.


Eastern Canada’s Halifax Declares Emergency Over Wildfire 

Thick plumes of heavy smoke fill the Halifax sky as an out-of-control fire in a suburban community quickly spread, engulfing multiple homes and forcing the evacuation of local residents, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Sunday May 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP) 
Thick plumes of heavy smoke fill the Halifax sky as an out-of-control fire in a suburban community quickly spread, engulfing multiple homes and forcing the evacuation of local residents, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Sunday May 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP) 
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Eastern Canada’s Halifax Declares Emergency Over Wildfire 

Thick plumes of heavy smoke fill the Halifax sky as an out-of-control fire in a suburban community quickly spread, engulfing multiple homes and forcing the evacuation of local residents, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Sunday May 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP) 
Thick plumes of heavy smoke fill the Halifax sky as an out-of-control fire in a suburban community quickly spread, engulfing multiple homes and forcing the evacuation of local residents, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Sunday May 28, 2023. (The Canadian Press via AP) 

The eastern Canadian city of Halifax declared a state of local emergency late on Sunday after a wildfire caused evacuations and power outages.

"Emergency responders are working around the clock to keep people safe and reduce the threats posed by the fires," the municipal authority in the capital of Nova Scotia province said in a press release.

The fire sent a huge pall of smoke over the port city.

The state of emergency would be in effect for seven days, unless lifted or extended, the municipality said.

Nova Scotia Power had temporarily disconnected power in the affected area, it said on Twitter.

Telecommunications firms including Rogers and Bell Canada's Bell Aliant said in posts on Twitter that some customers in communities evacuated due to wildfires may experience services disruption.

This month, the western province of Alberta declared a provincial state of emergency after tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes as unprecedented wildfires raged.


Venice’s Waters Turn Fluorescent Green Near Rialto Bridge

Gondolas navigate by the Rialto Bridge on Venice's historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it, Sunday, May 28, 2023. (AP)
Gondolas navigate by the Rialto Bridge on Venice's historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it, Sunday, May 28, 2023. (AP)
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Venice’s Waters Turn Fluorescent Green Near Rialto Bridge

Gondolas navigate by the Rialto Bridge on Venice's historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it, Sunday, May 28, 2023. (AP)
Gondolas navigate by the Rialto Bridge on Venice's historical Grand Canal as a patch of phosphorescent green liquid spreads in it, Sunday, May 28, 2023. (AP)

The waters in Venice's main canal turned fluorescent green on Sunday in the area near the Rialto bridge and authorities are seeking to trace the cause, Italy's fire department said.

The regional environmental protection agency has received samples of the altered waters and is working to identify the substance that changed their color, the department said in a tweet.

The Venice prefect has called an emergency meeting of police forces to understand what happened and study possible countermeasures, the Ansa news agency reported.

The incident echoes recent episodes in Italy where environmental groups have been coloring monuments, including using vegetable charcoal to turn the waters of Rome's Trevi fountain black in a protest against fossil fuels.

However, unlike previous cases, no activist group has come forward to claim responsibility for what happened in Venice.


70 Years after First Summit, Everest Keeps Giving

In this photograph taken on May 20, 2023, a painting of late mountaineer Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's Everest summit is on display at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute museum, in Darjeeling. (AFP)
In this photograph taken on May 20, 2023, a painting of late mountaineer Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's Everest summit is on display at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute museum, in Darjeeling. (AFP)
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70 Years after First Summit, Everest Keeps Giving

In this photograph taken on May 20, 2023, a painting of late mountaineer Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's Everest summit is on display at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute museum, in Darjeeling. (AFP)
In this photograph taken on May 20, 2023, a painting of late mountaineer Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's Everest summit is on display at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute museum, in Darjeeling. (AFP)

When Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa first climbed Everest 70 years ago, they paved the way for thousands of foreign climbers to try to follow in their footsteps.

The eight-day trek to the Everest base camp is among the most popular multi-day hikes in Nepal, with tens of thousands of tourists making the journey every year.

What were small agrarian villages when the British expedition passed through in 1953 have since been transformed into tourist hubs with hotels, tea houses and equipment shops, boosting the livelihoods of local communities.

In many homes, three generations have found employment in mountaineering -- a far more lucrative occupation than farming or yak-herding.

The work is hazardous by definition, but in a climbing season of about three months, an experienced guide can make up to $10,000 -- several times the country's average annual income.

And other Sherpas and Himalayan community members have opened restaurants and guesthouses that line Everest's money trail.

Veteran mountain guide Phurba Tashi Sherpa was born and raised in Khumjung, a village about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from base camp.

He grew up watching his father and uncles go to the mountains for work, and soon joined them on expeditions, eventually climbing Everest 21 times before he retired.

"There would be just a few expeditions before but now there are so many every year," he said.

"That means an increase in income. It has helped improve the lifestyle here. A lot has changed."

Since the first British teams set their sights on summiting Everest in the 1920s, Nepali climbers -- mostly from the Sherpa ethnic group -- have been by their side.

"Sherpa" became synonymous with high-altitude guiding as they became the backbone of the multimillion-dollar industry, bearing huge risks to carry equipment and food, fix ropes and repair ladders.

Now local expedition groups -- instead of playing second fiddle to foreign climbing agencies -- bring the bulk of paying clients into Nepal.

And a younger generation of Nepali climbers is slowly being recognized in their own right.

Renowned Italian climber Reinhold Messner told AFP in a 2021 interview that it was a well-deserved climb up the ladder.

"It is an evolution," he said. "And this is also important for the future economy of the country."

'Gift of the mountains'

The first ascent of Everest brought Nepal to the world's attention and its mountains have since captivated adventurers and tourists alike.

That has played a crucial role for Nepal's branding as a destination, according to tourism writer Lisa Choegyal.

"Through Covid and earthquakes and all the other setbacks, the insurgency even, that Nepal has suffered over the decades, mountaineering has really endured," she said.

The Khumbu region welcomes more than 50,000 trekkers a year.

"It is a gift of the mountains and we have to thank the first summit for opening this region to tourism," said Mingma Chhiri Sherpa, chairman of the local municipality.

"Education and modern amenities have come here because of it."

Driven to help the community he worked with, Hillary funded the region's first school in Khumjung and is said to have hauled timber himself to help build it.

One of its first students, Ang Tsering Sherpa, now owns an expedition company.

"It is because of mountaineering that the young Sherpas today have higher education," he said. "It has brought a wave of economic prosperity."

More than 10 percent of Nepalis are employed in tourism and the government this year collected over $5 million in Everest permit fees alone as a record number of summit hopefuls arrived.

Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, 30, whose grandfather Kancha Sherpa was part of the 1953 expedition, is a glaciologist and said that education had opened up options for Sherpa youths.

"A Sherpa can now be a doctor, engineer or a businessman, anything they want to be. That is very good," he said.

"And if they want to be a mountaineer, they can."


Indian Official Suspended after He Drains Reservoir to Retrieve Phone He Dropped While Taking Selfie

Indian villagers collect water for drinking from a well running dry at Padal village of the district of Samba on June 2, 2019. (AFP/Getty Images)
Indian villagers collect water for drinking from a well running dry at Padal village of the district of Samba on June 2, 2019. (AFP/Getty Images)
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Indian Official Suspended after He Drains Reservoir to Retrieve Phone He Dropped While Taking Selfie

Indian villagers collect water for drinking from a well running dry at Padal village of the district of Samba on June 2, 2019. (AFP/Getty Images)
Indian villagers collect water for drinking from a well running dry at Padal village of the district of Samba on June 2, 2019. (AFP/Getty Images)

A government official in India has been suspended from his job after he ordered a water reservoir to be drained so he could retrieve his smartphone, which he had dropped while taking a selfie.

Food inspector Rajesh Vishwas dropped his Samsung smartphone in Kherkatta dam in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last week, The Times of India newspaper reported.

Vishwas first asked local divers to jump into the reservoir to find the device, claiming it contained sensitive government data. But after the initial efforts to retrieve his smartphone failed, he asked for the reservoir to be emptied using diesel pumps.

Over the next three days, more than 2 million liters of water were pumped out from the reservoir, which is enough to irrigate at least 1,500 acres of land during India’s scorching summer, local media reported.

In videos that went viral on social media, Vishwas is seen sitting under a red umbrella as diesel pumps run to drain water from the reservoir.

Vishwas told local media the water in the reservoir was unusable for irrigation and that he had received permission from a senior official to drain it.

The smartphone was eventually retrieved but wouldn’t even start because it was waterlogged.

Authorities later suspended Vishwas after he was widely criticized for wasting water resources.

India is one of the most water-stressed countries and extreme temperatures had led to severe water scarcity, causing crop losses, forest fires and cuts to power.


Saudi Space Experiment to Increase Artificial Seeding

The Saudi astronauts aim to carry out 14 scientific research experiments in several fields during their mission to the ISS.
The Saudi astronauts aim to carry out 14 scientific research experiments in several fields during their mission to the ISS.
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Saudi Space Experiment to Increase Artificial Seeding

The Saudi astronauts aim to carry out 14 scientific research experiments in several fields during their mission to the ISS.
The Saudi astronauts aim to carry out 14 scientific research experiments in several fields during their mission to the ISS.

Saudi Astronaut Ali al-Qarni began an artificial seeding experiment in space, which will contribute to the development of the technology used on the earth and raise its efficiency by more than 50%.

His colleague, Rayana Bernawi, shared a video of the Grand Mosque in Mecca from the International Space Station (ISS), to which they arrived on Monday, where they joined seven other astronauts who are already on board.

The Saudi astronauts aim to carry out 14 scientific research experiments in several fields during their mission to the ISS, which will include human medicine, biomedicine, and physics.

Al-Qarni appeared in a video he posted on his Twitter account, carrying a green box inside the Columbus unit, which he said was an artificial seeding experiment and prepared by Saudis.

“The cloud seeding will help us to raise the artificial raining rate by 50%,” he stated.

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, headed by Dr. Ashraf Farhat, and in cooperation with the Saudi Space Authority, is supervising this experiment, which aims to simulate the cloud seeding process that is used in Saudi Arabia and many countries to increase precipitation rates.

The experiment aims to help scientists and researchers to devise new ways to provide conditions suitable for humans - including artificial rain - to live in space colonies on the surface of the Moon and Mars. It will also contribute to improving researchers’ understanding of rain seeding technology, which will help to increase rainfall rates.

Saudi Arabia seeks to enhance water resources, develop vegetation, and benefit from renewable sources through the artificial cloud seeding program, which was approved by the Council of Ministers in February 2020.

The operational work of the program, which already completed three phases, has achieved a success rate of more than 97 percent. Preliminary studies of rainfall point to precipitation amounts amounting to 3.5 billion cubic meters of water in the targeted areas, according to Dr. Ayman Ghulam, CEO of the National Center for Meteorology, the program supervisor.

For her part, Bernawi shared a video clip on Twitter showing the Holy Mosque of Makka from the ISS.

“After I finished my experiments for today, we happened to pass over Makka Al-Mukarramah,” she said.

On Thursday, Bernawi began her first scientific experiment, by testing the response of immune cells to infections using the live experiment box.


Arian Moayed Plays Creepy Men for Thoughtful Reasons

Arian Moayed. EPA
Arian Moayed. EPA
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Arian Moayed Plays Creepy Men for Thoughtful Reasons

Arian Moayed. EPA
Arian Moayed. EPA

By Laura Collins-Hughes

The actor Arian Moayed has an old passport photo that he usually keeps in his wallet: a black-and-white image of a small, darling boy with big dark eyes, wearing a whimsical sweater.

We had been talking for nearly 90 minutes when he mentioned it. I’d asked if he remembered anything from his earliest childhood, in Iran in the 1980s.

“The thing that I remember the most is fear,” he said. “The feeling of fear. Everywhere.”

Then he told me about the picture. It’s him at 5 or so, shortly before his family immigrated to the United States in 1986. He described the look on his face — “real angry” — and his memory of sitting for the photo: how his mother, her hijab slipping, kept urging him in vain to smile.

At 43, Moayed is a million miles from the fraught reality of that frightened child. He is widely known to fans of the HBO drama “Succession” for his recurring role as Stewy Hosseini, Kendall Roy’s old friend. And he is currently starring on Broadway as the ultra-controlling husband Torvald Helmer in “A Doll’s House,” opposite Jessica Chastain as Nora, the wife who walks out the door.

Still, Moayed likes to keep the photo close.

“I always want to remind myself that this is where it all came from,” he said.

It was late April when we spoke at the Hudson Theater, on West 44th Street in Manhattan, and the show’s six Tony Award nominations were yet to come — the one for him, for best featured actor in a play, his second. His first was for his Broadway debut, as a sweet Iraqi topiary artist turned wartime translator, opposite Robin Williams in “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” in 2011.

Moayed’s Torvald could not be more different. A lawyer tapped to run a bank, he micromanages his wife, monitoring what she eats and spends. At once chilling and comical, he speaks to Nora in a voice soft as a cat’s paw, muscles and claws hidden just beneath the fur. He does not take her seriously as an adult human being, ever, yet he seems totally unaware of his own fragile vanity. He is the kind of man it is dangerous to laugh at, because ridicule infuriates him.

It is an insidiously knowing portrayal of one of the great terrible husbands of the stage. But Moayed, who grew up in a suburb of Chicago and spent most of his career pigeonholed into Middle Eastern roles, hadn’t been sure he wanted to play Torvald at all.

“I had no relationship with ‘A Doll’s House,’” he said. “When I moved to the city in 2002, the only roles available for me were being an ensemble member in some sort of Shakespeare regional theater thing, or playing a terrorist. ‘A Doll’s House’ and Ibsen was like: Oh, that is a category of things that’s never going to happen for me.”

The British director Jamie Lloyd had other ideas. After seeing Moayed in “Bengal Tiger,” he noticed him over the years consistently giving standout performances — as the scheming Stewy in “Succession,” of course, but also in YouTube clips of the Off Broadway two-hander “Guards at the Taj” (Moayed won an Obie for that, in 2016), and in the film “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” as Peter Parker’s enemy Agent Cleary.

Gearing up to stage Amy Herzog’s “A Doll’s House” adaptation on Broadway, Lloyd spotted Moayed on a list of possible actors for a different role, but sensed that he was “more of a Torvald than anything.”

“My feeling was that he’s clearly someone who doesn’t mind being unlikable,” Lloyd said by phone. “Because he knows that there’s a reason for it. And he’s so compelling as these unlikable characters.”

The New York Times