The displacement of dozens of Christian families in Sinai as a result of increasing threats from Daesh topped international coverage of Egypt over the weekend — which saw significant foreign media coverage of some of our top stories. Reports on the number of Coptic Egyptians fleeing Sinai (mostly from Al Arish) differ from the AP and AFP, with the latter citing 250 people and the former reporting 90 families have left and keeping a tally of the number of Christians killed in Al Arish over the past month. Most of the reporting appears to heighten the sense of fear and lawlessness in Sinai, with conservative publication the Washington Examiner going so far as to state that Christians were fleeing Egypt. Copts in the UK are calling for more to be done: “What we haven’t seen done robustly across Egypt in all of these situations is people actually being brought to account and this gives rise to a sense of impunity.”

Also driving the narrative on Egypt this morning: UK Foreign Minister Boris Johnson pledging three new aid packages to Egypt that target the economy, education, and entrepreneurship, in addition to a USD 150 mn facility to Egypt despite calls to address human rights during his trip to Cairo. The Associated Press’ pickup of Egypt doubling the price of entry visas for foreigners has also received widespread coverage.

On the resurrection of the US-Egyptian partnership: Adel El Adewy pens an oped for The Hill arguing that US President Donald Trump could bring in a new era in US-Egyptian relations after what he describes as the “controversial and naive” policy of the Obama administration to build relations with the Ikhwan. Ties can be improved by US backing for a large-scale debt relief program; increasing military assistance to the Egyptian Armed Forces and allowing them to purchase advanced weaponry; reinstating the Egyptian cash-flow-financing privilege to allow large-scale military purchases from American defense contractors; encouraging U.S. allies to invest in Egypt and boost its recovering economy; expediting the designation of the Ikhwan in Egypt as a terrorist organization.

Talk of Egypt’s “deep state” plays out over US politics: As the dysfunction in the Trump administration plays out daily, the Chicago Tribune picks up on the discourse on whether there is a “deep state” in the US in a manner in which it says is present in Egypt and Turkey. The paper recalls talk back in 2013 of how former President Mohamed Morsi was plagued by endemic economic and structural failures that evaporated a week after he was toppled is indicative of a shadow government made up of state security and the bureaucracy.

Other coverage of Egypt in the international press worth a skim:

• The Associated Press is getting wide pickup for a piece on inflation hitting 30% in January. The story is dismissive of the IMF’s view that inflation should subside this year and subtly hints that popular patience may not wait that long.
• Canada’s CBC covers the story of an LGBT Egyptian who is concerned about his safety if he returns to Egypt and is applying for asylum in Canada.
• Not even in death are we spared from the Blind Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, whose story is being used by some racist over at the American Center for Democracy to pat herself on the back for being among the first to say Muslim immigrants come to America to terrorize it.

• Rolling Stone shines the spotlight on the case of author Ahmed Nagy, convicted six months ago of "violating public morality," for his book The Use of Life.
• Palestine is yet again generating press for Egypt internationally, with conservative Christian publication CBN News running an asinine piece criticizing Egypt and Jordan’s commitment to a two-state solution, while China’s Global Times quotes Chief Palestinian Negotiator Saeb Erekat’s statement thanking President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Jordan’s King Abdullah for supporting the two-state solution.
• In a poorly-written, slang-ridden piece for Kenya’s Standard, Oluoch Madiang’ blames Egypt and Ethiopia for a drought that has hit Kenya. Madiang’ mockingly faults Egypt for historical treaties which guarantee it 55.5 bn cubic meters of water.
• Vocativ takes a look into the plight of Syrian refugees in Egypt, some of whom, it claims, are forced to sell their organs on a thriving black market in the country.
• The Nigerian Guardian has unfortunately picked up on the news that Wadi Degla football club has been trying to sell eternal national team goalkeeper Essam El Hadary on Facebook. Shameful treatment of a national treasure.