It’s interest day here in Cairo. Expect the central bank’s monetary policy committee to leave interest rates on hold when it unveils its decision late today. The CBE had previously signaled it would bring rates down this fall and winter, but outflows of hot money amid the EM Zombie Apocalypse have pundits speculating the CBE will opt to leave rates where they are to provide incentive to investors to leave their hard currency parked here. The downside: High local-currency borrowing costs for both Egyptian companies and the state treasury. We have chapter and verse in this morning’s Speed Round, below.

Melania Trump is coming to Egypt next month to “promote child welfare and education,” says Bloomberg. The first lady of the United States made the announcement on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York, saying she plans to visit Egypt, Ghana, Malawi, and Kenya starting 1 October.

Meanwhile, Melania’s husband said he “likes” the two-state solution for Palestine, according to Ahram Online. Mr. Trump voiced on Wednesday in a UNGA sideline meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his administration’s advocacy of a two-state solution, what he called the “ultimate” resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Some miscellany this morning to see you through your commute and into the weekend:

US markets will grind to a near-stop today. That’s when Bloomberg writes that “everyone will be watching and not working” as US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh faces off against a woman who accuses him of [redacted] misconduct in a Senate hearing. Kavanaugh now faces at least three allegations of misconduct; the New York Times will be running live coverage of the hearing starting at 4pm CLT.

For bitcoin geeks (aka: us): Bitmain Technologies, the “secretive” bitcoin miner, has opened its books ahead of a possible IPO. The company is the “largest operator of Bitcoin mining collectives and the dominant supplier of virtual currency mining machines” giving it “enormous influence over the global crypto ecosystem,” Bloomberg writes. Geek like us? Go read through its full prospectus (pdf) as filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

I’m not in your bitcoin cult, but curious. Where do I start? The Industry Overview starting on page 98 is the best entry point for the would-be novices in the Cult of Coin. It outlines, in simple legalese (only a modest contradiction in terms, we promise) what the industry is and how it operates.

How to handle your team members’ personal crises: “Managers cannot escape from this part of the job, but help is at hand,” the FT’s Michael Skapinker promises.

Humans of New York has finally left Egypt. The creator of the popular Twitter feed visited Egypt in August and appears to have found little other than tales of woe and misery.

Everybody’s beating up on Canada. Saudi Arabia rejected a reported Canadian overture at the UN to mend fences (“What are we, a banana republic?” KSA Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir is quoted as saying. “Would any country accept this? Fix it. You owe us an apology.”) and The Donald said yesterday he rejected meeting Canada’s PM at the UNGA and is thinking of slapping tariffs on cars imported from Canada. “That’s the mother lode. That’s the big one,” said The Eloquent One.

Planning to download the new macOS this weekend? We are, now that we’ve backed up our machines. You can get the rundown on what to expect here from Gear Patrol.

PSA- Awater outage is expected on Saturday in eight districts in East Cairo, the Greater Cairo Water Company announced yesterday, according to Al Shorouk. Upgrades will affect residents of Sheraton, Ain Shams, Matariya, Alf Maskan, New Nozha, Al Matar, Fatah Mosque, and El Hegaz square.