🎬Podcast race

February 28, 2025

Good morning. For those of us who will jump the gun and say it by noon, it’s pronounced T-GIFF.

— Geraldine Ndzomo.

CURRENCIES

Currency exchange rates against the US Dollar as of market close. Here’s what these numbers mean

TOURISM
The resting place of a Pharaoh

Sarah Lucy/AFP via Getty Images

Last week, archaeologists—the graverobbers of the scientific community—found the tomb of King Thutmose II, an Egyptian pharaoh who ruled briefly around 3,500 years ago. It’s considered the most noteworthy discovery of a royal tomb since King Tutankhamun’s final resting place was discovered in 1922—and it could provide a potential plotline if the Indiana Jones franchise ever gets rebooted.

Thutmose II’s tomb was heavily damaged and originally thought to have been robbed when it was uncovered. However, the excavators believe that his mummified remains, which were found two centuries ago along with many of the relics he was buried with, were moved due to the floods not long after his death.

What was recovered this week was considered significant by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The historical items recovered include:

  • Alabaster jars bearing the names of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, his wife and half-sister who ascended to the throne after his death and was one of the few female pharaohs.

  • A ceiling painted blue with yellow stars and scenes from the Amduat, a religious text reserved for kings that served as a guide to the afterlife.

The entrance to the tomb was discovered in 2022 in the mountains west of Luxor (the city, not the inexpensive hotel in Las Vegas) 1.2 miles from the Valley of the Kings, where tombs for Thutmose I and III and dozens of other royals have been excavated.

Keep digging: There are a handful of tombs of Egyptian royalty that have yet to be discovered, including Nefertiti, Ramesses XIII, Cleopatra VII, and Alexander the Great. -GN.

TRENDING
The new place to get your podcasts

Anna Kim

Podcasts are unlikely to be a modern refuge for smooth talkers without a photogenic face because, increasingly, “wherever you get your podcasts” means YouTube. More than 1 billion people watch podcast content on the video site each month, putting it well ahead of Spotify and Apple’s Podcasts app in the race to be the top podcast destination, according to Bloomberg.

YouTube’s parent company, Alphabet, told Bloomberg it was no accident but the result of its investments in the genre, which now has its own tag to help the site’s algorithm serve up the content to podcast fans. It’s been building for a while: In 2022, as Spotify shut down its in-house podcasting studio and laid off staff to curb expenses, YouTube began offering podcasters up to $300,000 to make video versions. Spotify has embraced video, too—it said in June that ~170 million people had watched a video podcast there, and it debuted new ways for creators to monetize their videos in January.

SHOWER THOUGHTS

“Many people would rather feel right than be right.”

NEWS
Round the continent

WIRED

  • The case against Apple over its sourcing of minerals in conflict zones by the Democratic Republic of Congo was dropped yesterday in Paris due to insufficient evidence.

  • President Trump says he’s likely to support the UK returning control of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

  • Chinese smartphone brand, Realme, posted the highest growth in number of smartphones shipped to Africa last year.

  • A deadly explosion at an M23 rally killed 11 and injured 65 yesterday.

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