CBE’s Negm says term limits for bank MDs aren’t optional

In case you were harboring a shred of doubt that we are officially experiencing summer climes, a 72-hour heat wave is set to hit on Saturday, with highs of 43°C in Cairo and the Delta, Ahram Online reports. Thinking of escaping to the coast? Forget it. The North Coast is set to experience highs of 40°C, according to the weather office. Elvis Costello’s This Is Hell (runtime: 4:28) is going to be our weekend’s theme song.

Members of the engineers’ and physicians’ syndicates and a number of independent trade unions are expected to join the Press Syndicate in a demonstration today calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar, Al Mal reports. The demonstrators are also demanding the release of detainees arrested for “expressing their opinions.” (See Egypt Politics + Economics for more on the clash between journos and the interior ministry.)

WEF on Africa underway: Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame on Wednesday inaugurated the 26th annual World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which played host to 1,500 high-ranking politicians, business executives and academics descending on the capital for three days discussions.

El-Whats goes native on Mac and PC: Facebook-owned Whatsapp has released Mac and PC desktop clients, meaning you’re no longer going to be shuffling between computer and phone to check the incessant pinging of groups including “nth grade parents” and “Fufu’s 29th Birthday Bash.” We’ve downloaded the app and, in a couple of hours of use this morning, it seems much more stable than Whatsapp Web. Want to give it a try? Tap here to go to El-Whats’ download page.

Oh, and a word to the wise if you’re installing Whatsapp for Mac: Write down how many GB of drive space you have free on your machine, then check back a couple of weeks from now. Why? To see whether the desktop app eats HDD space as much as Whatsapp Web does. If you’ve been using Whatsapp Web on a Mac, odds are good that phantom backups from Whatsapp Web are eating huge chunks of your hard-drive. The problem? It seems iCloud backs up your entire Whatsapp archive daily to a backup folder on every machine on which you use the web-based service. We lost 79 GB of space on a 256 GB MacBook and nearly 70 GB of space on a MacBook Pro. Thankfully, it’s super-easy to delete the offending folder — which seems to stay gone once nuked provided you don’t open Whatsapp Web again. The interwebs have some background here.

The Egyptian Capital Market Association’s 20th anniversary takes place next week at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza Hotel’s Plaza Ballroom on 17 May 2016. Pharos Holding is platinum sponsor of the event. The occasion gets underway at 5pm with registration and networking, followed by remarks by ECMA Chairman Dr. Mohamed Taymour, Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority Chairman Sherif Samy and Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid. The evening will feature dinner and live entertainment. Joining for a panel discussion headlined “Egypt: For a Better Future” and chaired by Dr. Hany Sarie El Din are:

• Former Foreign Minister and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa
• Former Finance Minister of Finance Dr. Ahmed Galal
• Former Minister of Trade and Industry Mounir Abdelnour (who also served as minister of tourism)
• Former Deputy Prime Minister of Egypt for Economic Development Dr. Ziad Bahaa El Din (who also served as minister of international cooperation)

Ticket information and other details of the event are available from Dalia Younis (01021188844 | dalia.younis@excellentdandn.com).

The central bank-imposed term limits for banks’ managing directors are not a “non-binding recommendation,” Central Bank of Egypt deputy governor Gamal Negm said yesterday, according to Al Mal. Negm denied reports that the nine-year limit for top bankers was just a recommendation, saying the decision is clear and binding as outlined in the directive on the CBE’s website.

Germany has lifted a ban on joint transportation of check-in luggage on flights to and from Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday. The ban was imposed in November after the Metrojet air disaster, and the restrictions put a halt on direct flights to the city. “Germany’s aviation authority has officially notified all tour operators of the ban removal which will see flights resume normally to the Red Sea resort, the ministry added,” according to Ahram Online, which notes that it could not reach German embassy staff for confirmation. There was no news of the policy shift on the German transportation ministry or Federal Aviation Office’s websites at dispatch time. The Egyptian foreign ministry spokesperson said Egyptian diplomats are in talks with their host countries to lift any travel restrictions to Egypt, particularly Russia, according to Al Mal. The lifting of the ban was likely due to to Egypt agreeing to transport luggage in sealed containers from passenger terminals to airplanes, said the head of the Airport Holding Company Ismail Abou Al Ezz. He tells Al Borsa that the Egyptian Airport Services Company and EgyptAir have provided 45 sealed baggage carts to run luggage from the airport to the planes in Sharm El Sheikh airport.

Does this mean we have to figure out how to pronounced “Attijariwafa”? Attijariwafa Bank is getting lots of ink this morning on news it wants to start doing due diligence on a potential acquisition of Barclays Egypt, having appointed UBS as financial advisor, sources told Al Mal. The Moroccan bank is preparing a preliminary acquisition offer that would allow it to conduct due diligence after it obtains Barclays and central bank approvals, according to the paper. Sources say the process is “moving slowly” and Barclays has not accepted any official offers yet. Also in the running for Barclays Egypt operations — for which the lender is said to be expecting well over 2x book value — are First Gulf Bank, ADCB, Rakbank, Lebanon’s Byblos and Emirates NBD.

Barclays, which is looking to entirely divest its African operations over a period as long as three years, said last week it would sell a 12.2% stake in Barclays Africa Group Ltd. (which doesn’t include Egypt) for USD 879 mn. Meanwhile, we caught former Barclays chief Bob Diamond on CNBC this week blathering on about his belief in “Africa Rising” as he continued his quest to buy Barclays’ African assets.

Investors are looking to move to Jebel Ali in Dubai from Egyptian Free Zones, GAFI CEO Alaa Omar told Al Masry Al Youm. Omar said Investment Minister Dalia Khorshid is working to amend clauses in the Investment Act that would restore the preferential treatment and benefits given to investors in free zones, to which former Finance Minister Hany Dimian was ideologically opposed. Khorshid is seeking the cabinet’s approval to renew licences for free zone investors, he added. (Don’t even get us started on the investment incentives other North African nations are offering some Egyptian manufacturers if they go set-up shop there.)

The Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) will bring charges of market manipulation against some traders in Beltone Financial’s shares after the stock hit record highs for weeks on end, according to Al Mal, which revealed no details of the allegations. The EGX had been reversing trades on Beltone’s shares for weeks now on an almost daily basis due to suspicions of stock manipulation, prompting Beltone to file a complaint against the EGX with EFSA on 28 April.

And speaking of Beltone, OTMT has requested another 15-30 day extension on the deadline for Beltone Financial’s acquisition of CI Capital (the fourth extension request to date), a request to which CIB is expected to respond today, sources tell Al Mal. The transaction remains on hold until EFSA determines that OTMT has addressed its alleged violation of amending the ownership structure following its 2012 demerger. Sources also state that OTMT had not yet reached a settlement with EFSA on the issue.

Among the companies to have reported earnings in the last day or so:

• GB Auto felt the FX pinch as it reported a 70% drop in bottom-line results to EGP 14.1 mn as a lack of FX liquidity in the market limited imports and the revaluation of FX liabilities hit the bottom line. The company continues to see very strong demand for its full range of products in Egypt and successfully protected gross margins, it said in a regulatory filing.
• EFG Hermes reported 17% rise in net income from continuing operations at its core brokerage, advisory, asset management, PE and finance arms. At the group level, a non-cash charge ahead of the sale of Crédit Libanais saw its bottom line flip to a net loss of EGP 128 mn in the first quarter.
• Integrated Diagnostic Holdings reported a 16% rise in revenues for the first quarter in a trading update that also saw the nation’s largest medical diagnostics firm note a stable EBITDA margin and 11.5% rise in average revenue per test.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has cut its growth forecasts for the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEMED) region to 2.9% in 2016, compared to 4.1% in the November forecast, due to political tensions and a slowdown in global trade, according to the EBRD’s May 2016 Regional Economic Prospects report (pdf). However, a recovery to around 4% is expected in 2017. Growth in Egypt slowed to 3% in the first quarter of FY2015-16 driven by a sharp contraction of exports of over 25% due to “a fall in tourism receipts; declining Suez Canal earnings reflecting a slowdown in global trade; and weak competitiveness.” The bank expects to hold growth at 3.3% for FY2015/16 as a whole, but a rebound to growth of 4.2% is expected in FY2016/17, helped by improved competitiveness.

Put your water bottle down: The Health Ministry has reportedly found that some Nestlé, Aquafina, and Baraka bottling plants had unacceptably high levels of algae and E.coli bacteria, Al Borsa reports. Criminal charges could be in the works, the newspaper suggests, after bottling plants in Beheira and Al Sharkiya were found in violation by Health and Food Control Administration inspectors. The Health Ministry has reportedly ordered the recall of 1.5 L bottles of Nestle, Aquafina, and Baraka as well as of 300 ml Nestle bottles and 600 ml Aquafina bottles.

Speaking of water: The Nile’s flooding has hit an all-time low, Al Mal quotes Irrigation Ministry spokesperson Waleed Hakibi as saying. The ministry will resort to strategic reserves from the High Dam if this is confirmed, he said. However, Salah Bayoumy, VP of the Holding Company for Water and Wastewater, stated that Hakibi’s statements were being misinterpreted by the media and that drinking water supplies remain steady, Al Mal reports. Another VP, Ahmed Moawad, said the company cannot comment on the potential of a drinking water crisis at this time, but will announce reports of water shortages if they arise. Despite the reassurances, another Irrigation Ministry source told Al Mal that a citizen’s average share of water per year has dropped to 600 m3, down from 1,000 m3 — a level that had already seen Egypt marked as “water poor.”

Supplies of gas to fertilizer manufacturers has been unstable of late, stoking fears in the industry of a return to supply cuts summer, Al Borsa reports. AlexFert has been running on 70% of its capacity all week as EGAS diverted some of its supplies to power companies, said a company source. A source from Misr Fertilizers Production Company also tells Al Borsa that the inconsistent gas supplies will affect the bottom line.

It’s becoming almost certain that former Deputy Investment Minister Ibrahim El Eshmawy will be appointed the next head of GAFI following the retirement of current head Alaa Omar, government sources tell Al Masry Al Youm. A number of heads of government bodies have called El Eshmawy to urge him to accept the post, the source added.

Is this good news? Egypt has overtaken South Africa as the second-largest economy in Africa behind Nigeria, leaving South Africa in third place, according to a report by KPMG South Africa published yesterday. Based on the IMF World Economic Outlook released in April, South Africa recorded a decline in the USD value of its economy “because of slowing real growth (in local currency terms) as well as a depreciation in the value of the rand,” according to KPMG. Meanwhile, Egypt’s GDP grew at an average of 7.5% annually between 2012-15 and its currency depreciation at the time was not as sharp as the ZAR. Of course, the statistics used to compare the economies do not take into consideration the most recent EGP devaluation, and the IMF WEO did not venture to guess where the exchange rate might be heading.

Turkey will play host an Islamic "megabank" within the year, Anadolu Agency quoted Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek as saying on Wednesday. “We have been in contact with the Islamic Development Bank to found a megabank in Turkey. Indonesia has made a similar request,” Simsek said during an address at an Islamic finance meeting in Istanbul. Indonesia, Turkey, and the Islamic Development Bank have set up committees to look into the issue during a visit to Washington in April. The size of Islamic financing assets in Turkey reached TRY 120 bn (USD 40 bn).

Apparently it’s British officials caught blundering on camera week: China has refused to to say whether a “golden era” of relations with Britain still exists, according to the Guardian, after Queen Elizabeth II was caught on camera calling Beijing rude in a discussion with British Ambassador to China Barbara Woodward during President Xi Jinping’s first state visit to Britain last year. The news came one day after After British Prime Minister David Cameron was caught on camera telling the queen that he would be hosting an anti-corruption summit to be attended by “leaders of some fantastically corrupt countries,” as we noted yesterday.

We need to stop looking to stocks for recession signals, a Fed economist told Bloomberg. Stock and bond turbulence was part of the Fed’s benchmarks for slowing interest rate increases in February, but according to a new paper by Julieta Yung, an economist with the central bank’s Dallas branch, relying on the equity market for economic signals is a mistake. “There’s a definite divide between the state of the economy and any decline you might see in the equity market,” Yung in a phone interview. “Benchmark gauges such as the S&P 500 Index are such flawed mirrors of the economy that they probably fail as predictors of gross domestic product … Half the components are manufacturers, for one thing, much more than is reflected in GDP.”

Glencore CEO Ivan Glasenberg said that the commodities industry needs to learn from past over-investment after a USD 1 tn spending spree cause the world to be awash with metals. "Accept that volume growth cannot be an end in itself,” according to Glencore’s slides from the Bank of America Merrill Lynch mining conference in Miami. Meanwhile, Vale SA, the world’s biggest iron-ore producer, said on Tuesday it would look into selling USD 10 bn of its best assets to reduce the debt it accumulated during the boom. But it’s not just the miners, writes Bloomberg, with Royal Dutch Shell Plc, ConocoPhillips, and other oil bigwigs stepping away from hefty licenses in the Arctic worth over USD 2.5 bn as crude oil prices have plummeted to less than half their June 2014 levels.

The international press is honing in on press freedom in Egypt once again. "Arresting journalists, sentencing reporters to death, treating media as an enemy of the state – such actions are thoroughly counterproductive,” the US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power said in a thinly veiled attack on Egypt, which was chairing the UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday. H.A. Hellyer writes in Vox that the press has “so severely” turned on President Abdel Fattah El Sisi due to Egypt’s economic woes, while Australia’s ABC Cairo correspondent Walt Curnow rounds up the Press Syndicate’s raid in a bluntly titled Egypt’s military regime tightens noose on country’s media freedoms. Haaretz writes that Egypt’s “muzzled” press is trying to “bite back” in what the paper says is a sign that the El Sisi regime “is worse than those of former presidents Hosni Mubarak or Mohammed Morsi” when it comes to journalistic freedom.

The Associated Press’ very intelligent Hamza Hendawi was out yesterday with a piece on a wave of arrests in Egypt following the Sanafir and Tiran protests. Activists have been startled by the scope of the arrests and how little it takes to bring severe charges over demonstrations that gathered a few hundred people, according to the wire. Al Monitor sums up the world’s frustrations with Egypt’s glaring rights violations surrounding the crackdown on NGOs, running down what reads like a list of international condemnations of the raids, detentions, and fund confiscations.

Egypt has requested that Microsoft advise world leaders on confronting violent extremism at the UN Security Council meeting, putting the tech giant in “somewhat of a pickle,” writes Colum Lynch for Foreign Policy. Microsoft has to avoid becoming a prop for a country that has “mercilessly cracked down on social media and other agents of free speech.” Critics believe the Egyptian initiative is designed to rally international support for Cairo’s policies that suppress free speech in the name of reining in the now outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Veteran finance writer Patrick Werr says Egypt should raise prices gradually, which should tame the shock element for the economy, he writes in The National yesterday. “In a best-case scenario, the government would free prices altogether and let supply and demand decide what products should cost. But if the government decides this is politically impossible, a second best solution would be to build in automatic increases based on the consumer price index, which seems to be a fairly accurate measure of inflation. The more gradual and frequent these price increases are, the better. Under current practice the government tends to do nothing for years, then as a financial crisis looms it hikes prices massively and suddenly.”

“Private equity’s golden age may be in the rear view mirror… private investments are driving up private asset valuations and dragging down expected returns,” writes Nir Kaissar for Bloomberg Gadfly on Wednesday. “Private equity returns have also historically benefitted from liberal use of leverage and 30 years of declining interest rates — a potent combination that is coming to an end.” (Read Private equity’s diminishing returns in Bloomberg)

Photo of the year? Arab affairs commentator Sultan Al-Qassemi is calling the photograph of detained Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abou Zeid, also known as Shawkan, 2016’s photo of the year. Shawkan, whose trial (along with over 700 others) was postponed to 17 May on Tuesday, was photographed gesturing behind bars as if holding a camera.

Youm7 claims this video depicts a segment from the welcome party the Suez governorate threw Norwegian Ambassador to Egypt Sten Arne Rosnes. They pulled out all the stops on this one, folks, hiring DJ Bondok and his dance crew to commemorate the visit. There are no words. (Run time 0:30)

Italy has appointed Giampaolo Cantini as its new ambassador to Egypt, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Tuesday, as per Ahram Online. Former ambassador Maurizio Massari was recalled on 8 April following the death of Giulio Regeni. It is unclear when the new ambassador will assume his role in Cairo. Unnamed sources at the Italian Embassy claimed yesterday that the change in ambassador had nothing to do with Regeni, adding that this is part of “usual diplomatic shifts,” according to Al Mal.

World governments’ understanding of the Middle East and Arab states is confused, said Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in his speech at the UN Security Council. After calling for a moment of silence for the victims of terrorism, he went to state that there were some regional nations that have been using terrorism and organizations for their own regional agenda (wink wink Qatar, Turkey, Iran). He then said that the question of Palestinian statehood remains one of the most pressing regional issues and must be prioritized, going on to condemn rising Islamophobia and hate speech in the West, AMAY reports.

Shoukry also expressed his extreme annoyance at the international attention focused on the raid against the Press Syndicate and the arrest of Amr Badr and Mahmoud El Sakka, whom he accused of inciting to murder President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, at a press conference following his speech. He criticized the characterization of Egypt as a place that attacks freedom of speech, AMAY reports.

While in New York, Shoukry met with his counterpart from New Zealand on Tuesday to coordinate on several issues at the UN Security Council meeting, the ministry said in a statement.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail inaugurated the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation Trade and Industry Minister’s Conference on Wednesday. The D-8 Organization’s Secretary General Seyed Ali Mohammad Mousavi stressed the importance of following through on the recommendations of the organization’s 13 workshops to improve cooperation among the member states of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey, Al Mal reports.

And we’re not hating on Turkey at the moment: On the sidelines of the conference, Industry and Trade Minister Tarek Kabil insisted that the free trade agreement with Turkey is ongoing and that bilateral trade between the two has not been affected by deteriorating political relations between the two. He said the reason was that the “roll-on / roll-off” maritime route between Egypt and Turkey had simply expired and not renewed, Al Masry Al Youm reports. That does not mean the free trade agreement was scrapped.

Eni brought production from the Nooros field (often referred to in Egyptian media as “Noras”) to around 65,000 boe/d, a “milestone” achieved just 10 months after discovery. This followed the start of production of the Nidoco North 1X exploration well and the Nidoco North West 4 development well in the field located in the Abu Madi West concession. Nooros’ production consists approximately of 10 mcm of gas and 5,000 bbl of condensate per day. Eni says its next target is to increase production from the field to 140k boe/d by the end of 2016 and to continue exploration activities within the license area, where more potential was identified. (Read)

Orascom Construction is close to finalizing a USD 80-90 mn loan from the OPEC Fund for International Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, unnamed sources told Al Mal. The loan can be finalized as soon as August and will be used to build a 50 MW solar power plant, the sources added. Construction would begin between September and October and will take a year to complete. The loan represents 75% of the project’s total cost, with the remainder set to be self-financed. (Read in Arabic)

ACWA Power has received approval from the New and Renewable Energy Authority to push forward the date for receiving land for its USD 80 mn solar power plant in Benban to complete the required technical studies and preparations for the project. The government should also extend the timeline for launching wind farm development to allow investors to complete required studies and obtain financing, said Acwa Power’s regional head Hassan Amin. He also suggested the government pay part of the feed-in tariff to investors in EGP and part in USD as they’ve borrowed in USD. (Read in Arabic)

The first phase of the fourth metro line, known as the Haram Metro, is set to commence in 2017, an unnamed official at Egyptian National Railways told Al Shorouk. The five-year project is set to be complete in 2022 and consists of 19 km of tracks and 17 stations, the official said. The authority is currently evaluating prospective contractors, he added, noting that studies on the project have been completed and financed by a Japanese consortium through a USD 1.2 bn facilitated loan. (Read in Arabic)

Domty will invest EGP 200 mn in 2017 to increase its production capacity, CEO Mohamed El Damaty told Al Borsa. The company is working on investing EGP 150-200 mn until the end of this year and plans to build an EGP 100 mn production plant. El Damaty says the official devaluation will be reflected in a price increase, but El Damaty says it will not match the devaluation as the market cannot tolerate further price increases. He added that the company has already increased the prices of some of its products by 5%. (Read in Arabic)

Arju Food Industries, a joint venture with Danish dairy food company Arla Foods, is expected to begin production in August at one of Juhayna’s existing plants until a new factory can be developed, said Juhayna’s Chairman Safwan Thabet.. (Read in Arabic)

Palm Hills established a company at the Dubai Multi Commodities Center Authority by the name Palm Hills International to manage any future projects outside Egypt, said Palm Hills CEO Tarek Abdel Rahman. There was no specific project that drove the company to this decision, he added. The company’s capital is AED 100k, he said. (Read in Arabic)

The government will offer a total of 49 mn sqm spread over 73 plots of land ranging from 10,000 sqm to several mn sqm in the next few days, according to Tourism Development Authority (TDA) head Serag El Din Saad. The offering, which Saad describes as the largest in TDA’s history, are being offered on the North Coast, the Red Sea governorate, South Sinai, and Luxor, he tells DNE. (Read)

CIB-owned Falcon Group is looking to increase its investments to EGP 400 mn by the end of next year through SME projects primarily in the security field, Chairman Sherif Khaled told Al Borsa. The company’s current investments represent EGP 300 mn, he added. The company is studying security services for airports and tourism resort beaches in South Sinai, he said, noting the company had recently purchased the necessary equipment. (Read in Arabic)

All eight changes to the Civil Service Act recommended by the House when it rejected the last draft of the bill were adopted in amended legislation that is currently being looked at by the House Manpower Committee, said Planning Minister Ashraf Al Araby. These include amending the clauses on punitive salary deductions that will be set by infraction and which now give the bureaucrat the right to appeal any such decision. The changes also set a maximum 42 hours of work per week and a minimum civil service wage, in addition to financially compensating workers for lost vacation time. The amendments also establish a single salary rate, compared to the two under the old system, making it triple the current base salary. On a separate note, Al Araby stated that the Media and Journalism Act help enact administrative and financial reform at state-owned media. Cabinet is due to wrap up its discussion of the act in the coming weeks ahead of sending it to the House for review. (Read in Arabic)

An Israeli freight rail linking the Red Sea port of Eilat with Ashdod in the Mediterranean and Chinese shipping using the melted Arctic Sea will not be as economically viable as using the Suez Canal, said Abdel Qader Darwish, head of the Suez Canal Economic Development Zone. Transporting a container through the the Israeli freight link will cost USD 1,200, as opposed to only USD 80 for the Suez Canal. As for China using the Arctic Sea, he added that the route will only be viable for four months in the year. Using the route will also cost Chinese ships USD 60,000 per day on average due to the need for icebreakers, he tells Al Borsa. He added that these reports are being used to pressure Egypt into lowering the transit fees on the Suez Canal further. (Read in Arabic)

The Press Syndicate handed a letter to the House Media Committee outlining its version of events concerning the raid against its headquarters on 1 May to capture journalists Amr Badr and Mahmoud El Sakka. The letter, tabled during a meeting between parliamentarians and syndicate leaders, states that the two did arrive at the syndicate’s headquarters on 30 April shortly after their homes were searched by the Interior Ministry with the syndicate’s head Yahia Qalash’s knowledge. “As per standard protocol,” Qalash then phoned the syndicate’s lawyers and the Interior Ministry to inquire about the authenticity of the warrant and to coordinate the handover of the suspects. It was during this time that the Interior Ministry raided the building without warning. The letter follows one sent to the house by the Interior Ministry stating that no raid had taken place, and that Qalash gave sanctuary to the two wanted journalists knowing that there was a warrant for their arrest. The letter maintains that the raid was illegal and provides a lengthy explanation as to why.

The resignation of non-traditionalist Mohamed Kamal from the Muslim Brotherhood’s guidance bureau paves the way for his rival, the exiled deputy / acting supreme guide Mohamed Ezzat, to assume full control of the Ikhwan, said Kamal Habib, an expert on Islamic movements. Speaking to Al Mal, Habib takes the view that Kamal was pressured from within and was probably ousted. Kamal and Ezzat have been embroiled in a factional struggle of supremacy over the Ikhwan, with Kamal leading the new guard, based in Egypt, while Ezzat (Badei’s deputy and officially acting supreme guide) led his faction from exile. (Read in Arabic)

The youngest ever example of a mummified foetus (16-18 weeks) from Ancient Egypt has been found, according to the Independent. While the tiny, 44cm coffin was actually unearthed in Giza in 1907 by the British School of Archaeology, experts at the UK’s Fitzwilliam Museum only just put it through a micro CT scan and discovered it did not contain just organs routinely removed during embalming as was originally thought. Julie Dawson, head of conservation at the museum: “This ground-breaking find educates us further still in our conception of just how precious the unborn child was in Ancient Egyptian society.”

Frequently shared image of Egyptians standing around filming fire from 2011: An image circulating on social media in Egypt over the past few days showing a large number of Egyptians standing around filming a fire with their phones as firefighters struggle to extinguish the blaze is actually from 2011, and not the recent spate of fires. The image has also re-emerged on non-Egyptian social media thanks to Reddit, with the image being frequently shared with people not knowing where the photograph was taken.