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Installations by renowned international artists including Italy’s Michelangelo Pistoletto and Portugal’s Alexandre Farto have been erected in the sand under the great pyramids of Giza outside Cairo. The fifth edition of the contemporary art exhibition “Forever is Now” is due to run to December 6.The 92-year-old Pistoletto’s most famous work, Il Terzo Paradiso, comprises a three-metre-tall mirrored obelisk and a series of blocks tracing out the mathematical symbol for infinity in the sand.”We have done more than 2,000 events all around the world, on five continents, in 60 nations,” said Francesco Saverio Teruzzi, construction coordinator in Pistoletto’s team. “There is an estimate that it’s more or less five million people reached by the message of the Third Paradise.” The Franco-Beninese artist King Houndekpinkou presented “White Totem of Light”, a column composed of ceramic fragments recovered from a factory in Cairo. “It’s an incredible opportunity to converse with 4,500 years — or even more — of history,” he told AFP.South Korean artist Jongkyu Park used the measurements of the Great Pyramid of Giza to create the geometric structures of his installation “Code of the Eternal”. A thousand small cylindrical acrylic mirrors planted in the sand compose a Morse code poem imagining a dialogue between Tangun, the legendary founder of the first Korean kingdom, and an Egyptian pharaoh. Farto, better known as Vhils, collected doors in Cairo and elsewhere in the world for a bricolage intended to evoke the archaeological process.Six other artists, including Turkey’s Mert Ege Kose, Lebanon’s Nadim Karam, Brazil’s Ana Ferrari, Egypt’s Salha Al-Masry and the Russian collective “Recycle Group”, are also taking part.

Iraqis voted for a new parliament Tuesday, with an unexpectedly high turnout of more than 55 percent, at a pivotal time for the country and the wider region.Iraq, which has long been vulnerable to proxy wars and is closely watched by Iran and the United States, has recently regained a sense of stability.But, even as it tries to move past two decades of war since a US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, the country of 46 million suffers from poor infrastructure and public services, mismanagement and corruption.Iraq’s electoral commission said more than 12 million people took part out of 21 million eligible voters, despite influential Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr calling on his supporters to boycott the vote.The unexpected turnout is a sharp jump from the record low of 41 percent in 2021, belying a sense of apathy and scepticism.Preliminary results are expected within 24 hours of polls closing, but Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, who hopes for a second term, is expected to secure a large bloc but fall short of a majority.Many boycotters told reporters the elections wouldn’t bring meaningful change to their daily lives and said that the vote was a sham that only benefits political elites and regional powers.No new leadership contenders have recently emerged, with the same Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish politicians remaining at the forefront.- Failed boycott? -Analyst Hamzeh Hadad said the higher turnout, even if still lower than the scores of 62 percent in 2010 and 2014, “is a positive step for Iraq” and shows Sadr’s “influence is really limited to his followers”.”It means no political leader can hold back democratic elections in Iraq,” he added. The ballot this year was marked by the absence of Sadr who retains a devoted following of millions among Iraq’s majority Shiite population.In 2021, Sadr secured the largest bloc before withdrawing from parliament following a dispute with Shiite parties which culminated in deadly fighting in Baghdad.IN the years since US-led forces ousted Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, Iraq’s long-oppressed Shiite majority has dominated, with most parties retaining ties to neighbouring Iran.By convention in post-invasion Iraq, a Shiite Arab  holds the powerful post of prime minister and a Sunni Arab that of parliament speaker, while the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd. Sudani is likely to win but, with no single party or list expected to achieve an outright majority, must win over a coalition that can secure enough allies to become the largest bloc.Sudani rose to power in 2022 with the backing of the Coordination Framework, a ruling alliance of Shiite parties and factions all linked to Iran.Although they run separately, Shiite parties within the Coordination Framework are expected to reunite after elections and likely pick the next premier.Sudani has touted his success in keeping Iraq relatively unscathed by the turmoil engulfing the Middle East.Sunni parties contested separately, with the former speaker Mohammed al-Halbussi expected to do well.In the autonomous Kurdistan region, the rivalry between the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan remains.- Delicate balance -On the ground however, Iraqis said they cast their votes hoping for a change. “We have unemployment and people are tired, we need progress,” said Ali Abed, 57, in the northern city of Mosul.But the next prime minister has also another difficult task. He will have to maintain the delicate balance between Iraq’s allies, Iran and the US, even more so now that the Middle East is undergoing seismic changes, with new alliances forming and old powers weakening.Even as its influence wanes elsewhere, Iran hopes to preserve its power in Iraq — the only close ally that stayed out of Israel’s crosshairs after the heavy losses Iran’s other allies have incurred in Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza since 2023.Tehran has meanwhile focused on other interests in Iraq — challenging the US with powerful Tehran-backed armed groups, and keeping the Iraqi market open to products from its crippled economy.Washington, which still wields influence in Iraq and has forces deployed there, conversely hopes to break Iran’s grip, and has been pressuring Baghdad to disarm the pro-Iran groups.

UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher held Tuesday what he called “constructive” talks with Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to ensure life-saving aid reaches all corners of the war-ravaged country.Since April 2023, the war between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 12 million, creating one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.”I very much welcome the constructive conversations I had with President Burhan… aimed at ensuring that we can continue to operate everywhere across Sudan to deliver in a neutral, independent and impartial way for all those who are in such dire need of international support,” Fletcher said, in a video released by Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council.The UN official’s comments came after he met with Burhan in Port Sudan, the de facto capital since the war began.Fletcher arrived in Sudan on Tuesday for a week-long mission, pledging to “back peace efforts, uphold the UN charter, and push for our teams to get the access and funding they need to save lives across the battle lines.” During the meeting, according to thae army-backed council, Burhan “stressed the need for UN agencies to respect Sudan’s sovereignty and national interests, in light of what happened in the city of El-Fasher”.Fletcher also met Egyptian diplomats to discuss ways of scaling up aid, according to a statement from Cairo’s foreign ministry. Burhan also met World Food Programme deputy executive director Carl Skau, who praised their “honest and constructive discussion”. Sudan’s army-aligned government expelled two senior WFP officials last month, declaring them “persona non grata”, despite the agency warning that 24 million Sudanese face acute food insecurity.- Fighting persists –  The talks come two weeks after the RSF captured El-Fasher, the last army stronghold in western Darfur.Reports of mass killings, sexual violence, abductions and looting have since emerged.Burhan had previously vowed his forces would “take revenge” and fight “until this land is purified”.Last Thursday, the RSF said it had agreed to a truce proposal put forward by the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. But attacks have persisted.On the day the paramilitaries backed the truce, they shelled a hospital in the besieged city of Dilling in South Kordofan, killing five. Explosions were heard in the army-controlled capital Khartoum the following day.The UN migration agency said nearly 39,000 people have fled fighting in several towns across the oil-rich Kordofan region since El-Fasher fell. On Monday, the RSF deployed forces to the strategic city of Babanusa in West Kordofan, threatening to “fight until the last moment.”In North Kordofan, residents told AFP they fear an imminent assault on El-Obeid, a key cross roads between Darfur and the national capital Khartoum.Sudan’s army-aligned government has yet to respond to the truce proposal.- ‘Grinding to a halt’ -Since El-Fasher’s fall, nearly 90,000 people have fled, while tens of thousands remain trapped in “famine-like conditions as hospitals, markets and water systems collapse,” according to the UN migration agency. Last week, the Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification declared famine in the city.Famine has also been confirmed in Kadugli, South Kordofan, with 20 more areas across Darfur and Kordofan at risk. Last year, the IPC declared famine in three displacement camps near El-Fasher.Amy Pope, director general of the International Organisation for Migration, warned that without safe access humanitarian operations “risk grinding to a halt at the very moment communities need support the most”.UN Women’s Anna Mutavati said on Tuesday that women fleeing El-Fasher “have endured starvation… displacement, rape and bombardment”, with pregnant women giving birth “in the streets as the last remaining maternity hospitals were looted and destroyed”.Analysts say Sudan is now effectively divided with the RSF dominating all of Darfur and parts of the south while the army holds most of Sudan’s north, east and centre.