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50 Years On, Umm Kulthum is Still Arab World’s Voice

A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
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50 Years On, Umm Kulthum is Still Arab World’s Voice

A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)
A statue of the late Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum stands in the Zmalek district of Cairo on January 28, 2025. (Photo by Khaled DESOUKI / AFP)

Half a century after her death, Umm Kulthum's singular voice still echoes through busy streets in Egypt, across time-worn cafes in Iraq, and in millions of homes from Morocco to Oman.

"As long as people listen to music, there will be Umm Kulthum," said Abu Ahmed, the manager of a Cairo cafe named after the Arab world's most revered singer.

"She still lives in every song and every note," he told AFP, adjusting the volume on an antique recorder as visitors to the historic bazaar the cafe is housed in peered in from outside.

Sepia-toned photographs of the icon adorn the walls of Abu Ahmed's cafe, alongside posters from her concerts.

As her voice in her most famous ballad, "Enta Omri" (You're My Life), rose to a crescendo, conversation around a nearby table fell to a hush.

"Umm Kulthum is the voice of the nation," Aya Khamis, 36, whispered as she sipped her tea.

On a wooden stall just outside, a vendor laid out tiny figurines of Umm Kulthum and her orchestra.

Each piece was carefully crafted -- musicians in sharp suits, miniature renditions of classical instruments the qanun and the oud, and Umm Kulthum herself, with her signature scarf and sunglasses.

"These are my bestsellers," said Shadi Said, 37, holding up a figurine of the singer.

More than 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away, the same music poured out of Baghdad's own Umm Kulthum cafe -- open since 1970, five years before the singer's death at 76 plunged the Arab world into mourning.

Far away from her state funeral in Cairo, the cafe in Baghdad held its own ceremony for bereaved fans like Iraqi engineer Youssef Hamad.

Now 77 and retired, Hamad told AFP he still comes to the same cafe every day to listen to Umm Kulthum's hours-long concerts.

Another cafe-goer, Khazaal Abu Ali, struggled to put his love for her into words.

"She once sang 'if a day passes without seeing you, it can't count towards my lifetime'. That is how I feel," the 83-year-old said, his eyes tearing up.

"A day without her voice is a day that is lost."

Born in 1898 in a small Nile Delta village, Umm Kulthum rose from humble beginnings to become the most celebrated voice in the Arab world.

Her father, an imam, recognized her talent early on, but fearing the ire of early 20th-century Egyptian society, disguised her as a boy so she could perform in public.

Her full-bodied voice and magnetic presence soon captivated audiences, and in the 1930s, she moved to Cairo.

Her music revolutionized Arabic music, as she blended classical poetry with grand orchestral arrangements.

But it was her improvisations that made her a legend, feeding off the audience's energy in a hypnotic exchange, as she stretched and reprised verses.

Western musicians were also mesmerized, with Maria Callas, Robert Plant and Bob Dylan all paying tribute to her.

"She is one of my favorite singers of all time," Dylan once said.

More recently, Shakira and Beyonce have sampled her songs.

This year, her story is set to return to the big screen in a new biopic starring Egyptian star Mona Zaki.

The film will portray her not just as a musician, but also as a feminist figure challenging societal norms.

Though she eventually married at 56, Umm Kulthum never had children.

In the 1940s she became the first woman to head Egypt's Musicians' Syndicate.

"She was a woman who held immense power in a male-dominated industry," Fayza Hendawi, an art critic, told AFP.

"She was incredibly strong and completely in control of every detail -- her songs, her image, her choices in life," she added.

In Cairo, a bronze statue of Umm Kulthum stands looking out on the Nile River 50 years after her death, commanding and timeless.

Across the water, a museum dedicated to her legacy offers glimpses into her world.

Visitors marvel at her ornate gowns, notebooks and the diamond-encrusted sunglasses that became her signature look.

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Varieties

Olives, Opera and a Climate-Neutral Goal: How a Mural in Greece Won ‘Best in the World’ 

A building with the mural entitled “Kalamata” depicting opera legend Maria Callas by artist Kleomenis Kostopoulos is seen in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Athens, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP) 
A building with the mural entitled “Kalamata” depicting opera legend Maria Callas by artist Kleomenis Kostopoulos is seen in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Athens, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP) 
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Olives, Opera and a Climate-Neutral Goal: How a Mural in Greece Won ‘Best in the World’ 

A building with the mural entitled “Kalamata” depicting opera legend Maria Callas by artist Kleomenis Kostopoulos is seen in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Athens, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP) 
A building with the mural entitled “Kalamata” depicting opera legend Maria Callas by artist Kleomenis Kostopoulos is seen in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Athens, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026. (AP) 

Long known for its olives and seaside charm, the southern Greek city of Kalamata has found itself in the spotlight thanks to a towering mural that reimagines legendary soprano Maria Callas as an allegory for the city itself.

The massive artwork on the side of a prominent building in the city center has been named 2025’s “Best Mural of the World” by Street Art Cities, a global platform celebrating street art.

Residents of Kalamata, approximately 240 kilometers (150 miles) southwest of Athens, cultivate the world-renowned olives, figs and grapes that feature prominently on the mural.

That was precisely the point.

Vassilis Papaefstathiou, deputy mayor of strategic planning and climate neutrality, explained Kalamata is one of the few Greek cities with the ambitious goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2030. He and other city leaders wanted a way to make abstract concepts, including sustainable development, agri-food initiatives, and local economic growth, more tangible for the city’s nearly 73,000 residents.

That’s how the idea of a massive mural in a public space was born.

“We wanted it to reflect a very clear and distinct message of what sustainable development means for a regional city such as Kalamata,” Papaefstathiou said. “We wanted to create an image that combines the humble products of the land, such as olives and olive oil — which, let’s be honest, are famous all over the world and have put Kalamata on the map — with the high-level art.”

“By bringing together what is very elevated with ... the humbleness of the land, our aim was to empower the people and, in doing so, strengthen their identity. We want them to be proud to be Kalamatians.”

Southern Greece has faced heatwaves, droughts and wildfires in recent years, all of which affect the olive groves on which the region’s economy is hugely dependent.

The image chosen to represent the city was Maria Callas, widely hailed as one of the greatest opera singers of the 20th century and revered in Greece as a national cultural symbol. She may have been born in New York to Greek immigrant parents, but her father came from a village south of Kalamata. For locals, she is one of their own.

This connection is also reflected in practice: the alumni association at Kalamata’s music school is named for Callas, and the cultural center houses an exhibition dedicated to her, which includes letters from her personal archive.

Artist Kleomenis Kostopoulos, 52, said the mural “is not actually called ‘Maria Callas,’ but ‘Kalamata’ and my attempt was to paint Kalamata (the city) allegorically.”

Rather than portraying a stylized image of the diva, Kostopoulos said he aimed for a more grounded and human depiction. He incorporated elements that connect the people to their land: tree branches — which he considers the above-ground extension of roots — birds native to the area, and the well-known agricultural products.

“The dress I create on Maria Callas in ‘Kalamata’ is essentially all of this, all of this bloom, all of this fruition,” he said. “The blessed land that Kalamata itself has ... is where all of these elements of nature come from.”

Creating the mural was no small feat. Kostopoulos said it took around two weeks of actual work spread over a month due to bad weather. He primarily used brushes but also incorporated spray paint and a cherry-picker to reach all edges of the massive wall.

Papaefstathiou, the deputy mayor, said the mural has become a focal point.

“We believe this mural has helped us significantly in many ways, including in strengthening the city’s promotion as a tourist destination,” he said.

Beyond tourism, the mural has sparked conversations about art in public spaces. More building owners in Kalamata have already expressed interest in hosting murals.

“All of us — residents, and I personally — feel immense pride,” said tourism educator Dimitra Kourmouli.

Kostopoulos said he hopes the award will have a wider impact on the art community and make public art more visible in Greece.

“We see that such modern interventions in public space bring tremendous cultural, social, educational and economic benefits to a place,” he said. “These are good springboards to start nice conversations that I hope someday will happen in our country, as well.”

Varieties

Nine Skiers Missing, Six Rescued after California Avalanche

FILE PHOTO: The snow-covered Sierra Nevada Mountains are seen from the air during a Pacific Gas and Electric snowpack survey near Nevada City, California, US April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Bob Strong/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The snow-covered Sierra Nevada Mountains are seen from the air during a Pacific Gas and Electric snowpack survey near Nevada City, California, US April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Bob Strong/File Photo
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Nine Skiers Missing, Six Rescued after California Avalanche

FILE PHOTO: The snow-covered Sierra Nevada Mountains are seen from the air during a Pacific Gas and Electric snowpack survey near Nevada City, California, US April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Bob Strong/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The snow-covered Sierra Nevada Mountains are seen from the air during a Pacific Gas and Electric snowpack survey near Nevada City, California, US April 3, 2017. REUTERS/Bob Strong/File Photo

Nine skiers were missing after an avalanche in California's Sierra Nevada mountains on Tuesday, but six others, who had been stranded, have since been rescued, authorities said.

The avalanche swept the Castle Peak area of Truckee, California, about 10 miles north of Lake Tahoe, at about 11:30 a.m. Pacific time, engulfing a group of skiers, according to a Facebook statement posted by the Nevada County Sheriff's Office.

Those rescued have varying injuries and two were ‌sent to a hospital ‌for treatment.

The sheriff's office revised the number of ‌people ⁠in the group to ⁠15 from an earlier estimate of 16, adding that no further updates were expected on Tuesday evening.

If all nine of the missing skiers should perish, the incident would rank among the deadliest single avalanches on record in the United States. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center has tallied six US avalanche fatalities so far this season.

Avalanches have claimed an average of 27 lives ⁠each winter in the United States over the past ‌decade, the center reported.

A winter storm warning ‌was in effect for much of northern California on Tuesday, with heavy snow ‌forecast in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada.

The Sierra Avalanche Center ‌had posted an alert before dawn on Tuesday, warning of a "high avalanche danger" in the ski region, the sheriff's statement said.

"I don't think it was a wise choice," Greene said of the decision of a ski tour company to take paying ‌customers out into the backcountry under such conditions, adding, "but we don't know all the details yet." He declined to ⁠name the company involved.

Rescue ⁠ski teams were dispatched to the avalanche zone from the Boreal Mountain Ski Resort and Tahoe Donner's Alder Creek Adventure Center.

The survivors had taken refuge in a makeshift shelter, constructed partly from tarpaulin sheets and communicated with rescuers via radio beacon and text messaging.

Greene declined to say how many of the ski guides and how many of their customers were among the missing.

Weather conditions remained hazardous in the Sierra backcountry slopes, with additional avalanche activity expected through Tuesday night and into Wednesday, according to the sheriff's statement.

California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the avalanche, and state authorities were "coordinating an all-hands search-and-rescue effort" in conjunction with local emergency teams, his office said in a posting on X.

Varieties

Surprise Shark Caught on Camera for 1st Time in Antarctica’s Near-freezing Deep

In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)
In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)
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Surprise Shark Caught on Camera for 1st Time in Antarctica’s Near-freezing Deep

In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)
In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)

An ungainly barrel of a shark cruising languidly over a barren seabed far too deep for the sun’s rays to illuminate was an unexpected sight.

Many experts had thought sharks didn’t exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. The shark, filmed in January 2025, was a substantial specimen with an estimated length of between 3 and 4 meters (10 and 13 feet).

“We went down there not expecting to see sharks because there’s a general rule of thumb that you don’t get sharks in Antarctica,” Jamieson said.

“And it’s not even a little one either. It’s a hunk of a shark. These things are tanks,” he added.

The camera operated by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, which investigates life in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, was positioned off the South Shetland Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula. That is well inside the boundaries of the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, which is defined as below the 60-degree south latitude line.

The center on Wednesday gave The Associated Press permission to publish the images.
The shark was 490 meters (1,608 feet) deep where the water temperature was a near-freezing 1.27 degrees Celsius (34.29 degrees Fahrenheit).

A skate appears in frame motionless on the seabed and seemingly unperturbed by the passing shark. The skate, a shark relative that looks like a stingray, was no surprise since scientists already knew their range extended that far south.

Jamieson, who is the founding director of the University of Western Australia-based research center, said he could find no record of another shark found in the Antarctic Ocean.

Peter Kyne, a Charles Darwin University conservation biologist independent of the research center, agreed that a shark had never before been recorded so far south.

Climate change and warming oceans could potentially be driving sharks to the Southern Hemisphere’s colder waters, but there was limited data on range changes near Antarctica because of the region’s remoteness, Kyne said.

The slow-moving sleeper sharks could have long been in Antarctica without anyone noticing, he said.

“This is great. The shark was in the right place, the camera was in the right place and they got this great footage,” Kyne said. “It’s quite significant.”

The sleeper shark population in the Antarctic Ocean was likely sparse and difficult for humans to detect, Jamieson said.

The photographed shark was maintaining a depth of around 500 meters (1,640 feet) along a seabed that sloped into much deeper water. The shark maintained that depth because that was the warmest layer of several water layers stacked upon each other to the surface, Jamieson said.

The Antarctic Ocean is heavily layered, or stratified, to a depth of around 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) because of conflicting properties including colder, denser water from below not readily mixing with fresh water running off melting ice from above.

Jamieson expects other Antarctic sharks live at the same depth, feeding on the carcasses of whales, giant squids and other marine creatures that die and sink to the bottom.

There are few research cameras positioned at that specific depth in Antarctic waters.

Those that are can only operate during the Southern Hemisphere summer months, from December through February.

“The other 75% of the year, no one’s looking at all. And so this is why, I think, we occasionally come across these surprises,” Jamieson said.