CMG releases cultural, creative products for 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Chinese state broadcaster China Media Group (CMG) on Monday released a series of cultural and creative products for its 2025 Spring Festival Gala, as the Year of the Snake in the Chinese lunar calendar is approaching.

At the releasing ceremony held in Beijing, the CMG unveiled its copyright and cultural and creative product cooperation plan, cooperation model and channel building plan for the upcoming Spring Festival Gala.

The CMG stated that it will boost IP brand authorizing and marketing cooperation on copyrights and cultural and creative products and build a comprehensive and multi-level channel network, by taking the programs of the coming Spring Festival Gala as the basis and combining the traditional cultural customs of the Spring Festival and the popular culture in the emerging digital economy era.

A slew of cultural and creative products were displayed at the event, such as mascot, Spring Festival couplets, Spring Festival Gala bowls, and red scarf with Spring Festival Gala logos.

The CMG will go all out to create a series of cultural and creative products and also launch colorful cultural activities in an effort to drive the high-quality growth of its cultural and creative brands and expand the influence of the Spring Festival Gala.

In addition, the CMG also inked agreements with multiple enterprises to work on the integration of copyrights and cultural products.

The broadcaster also announced that it will join hands with the Beijing Dance Academy to adapt and explore the original dance "Koi" performed at the Spring Festival Gala in the Year of the Dragon and jointly choreograph a 90-minute dance drama "Koi".

The Spring Festival Gala hosted by the CMG has been an essential part of the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration since 1983. The gala includes songs, dance, comic sketches, operas and folk arts.

The annual spectacle, known as the most-watched television program in the world, is broadcast on the eve of the Chinese New Year, when families come together to ring in the new lunar year.

The 2025 Spring Festival Gala will be on the air on the lunar New Year's Eve, which falls on January 28, 2025.

CMG releases cultural, creative products for 2025 Spring Festival Gala

Egypt's Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy announced late Saturday price hikes for commercial and residential electricity consumption effective this April, citing the global energy crisis triggered by the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran.

In a statement, the ministry said that the current "acute and unprecedented global crisis" across all energy resources, caused by the ongoing war in the Gulf region, has necessitated price increases for certain commercial and residential consumption tiers starting this month.

According to the statement, commercial consumption prices across various brackets will rise by an average of approximately 20 percent.

For residential consumption, prices for tiers consuming 2,000 kWh per month and above have been raised by an average of 16 percent, while rates for all tiers below the 2,000 kWh threshold will remain unchanged.

The ministry added that around 40 percent of subscribers fall within the lowest residential consumption categories, and most of them are exempt from the price increases.

Austerity measures announced by the government in late March included activating remote work systems, slowing the implementation of fuel-intensive mega-projects, and cutting fuel allocations for all government vehicles by 30 percent.

Additional measures included cutting business hours for shops, restaurants, cafes and malls as well as reducing street lighting and billboard illumination by one-third.

Egypt raises electricity prices amid global energy crisis