PM — Raouf Ghabbour dies at 69 + Alaa Abdel Fattah puts focus on human rights at COP27

Good afternoon, friends. Before we get underway this afternoon, we’re going to ask you all to pause for a moment and have a thought for the family of Raouf Ghabbour, who passed away earlier today at age 69 after a long battle with cancer.

Raouf was one of the good guys. A leading figure in our community, he became CEO in 1985 of a decades-old family business that he grew and took public in a landmark IPO. Raouf went on to lead its transformation once again, taking it outside the nation’s borders and turning it into a pioneer of Egypt’s now-booming non-bank financial services industry as he turned the subsidiary known as GB Capital into a business that’s even more compelling than the core automotive unit.

He was smart, hilarious, and profane — and thoughtful, kind, and one hell of a strategist. Raouf was guy who reveled in the intricacies of wholesale and retail politics, but who built a world-class assembly and manufacturing business and prided himself in creating meaningful jobs that made a lasting contribution to the nation’s economic development.

Raouf Ghabbour was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He thought critically about a country he loved and — in his own, colorful way — was never shy about making sure everyone knew where we were doing well, and where we could do better.

We’ll miss you, Doc.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Day four of jailed activist Alaa Abdel Fattah’s hunger- and water-strike has made human rights one of the top issues at COP27, with Egypt’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva putting out a statement this afternoon hitting back at UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk, who yesterday raised concerns about Abdel Fattah’s detention. Abdel Fattah has been on a hunger strike since 2 April; his family said on Sunday that Abdel Fattah had taken his last drink of water until he dies or is released.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have both called for Abdel Fattah’s release and his case has set off a firestorm of criticism in the international press. Abdel Fattah’s sisters and mother are continuing to lobby for his release and are asking for an update on his health, the AFP and BBC report this afternoon. The story is getting lots of ink in the foreign press, including Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, and Deutsche Welle, among others. Politico reports that American President Joe Biden will press us on human rights when he meets on Friday with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.

MEANWHILE- The human rights narrative comes as several websites, including Human Rights Watch and Medium, have once again become accessible in Egypt.

ALSO THIS AFTERNOON-

#1- We just got USD 1 bn from Qatar: The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) deposited USD 1 bn in the Central Bank of Egypt to provide “interim” support while the QIA continues to work on procedures to acquire state-owned stakes in listed and non-listed companies, Bloomberg reports, citing people with knowledge of the matter.

#2- OC wants to add 3 GW to its Egypt wind portfolio: Our friends at Orascom Construction consortium, along with a consortium of France’s Engie and Japan’s Toyota Tsusho, signed an MoU to set up a new 3 GW wind farm in Egypt under a build, own, operate (BOO) framework, according to a statement (pdf). The consortium signed the agreement on the sidelines of COP27 today.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

The international business press is focused largely this afternoon on the US midterm elections, which are currently “too close to call.” NBC projections suggest that Republicans could secure a “narrow” majority of the US House of Representatives, while the fate of the Senate still remains unclear as votes are tallied. The story is on the front pages of the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Reuters, and CNBC.

HAPPENING NOW-

The Finance Ministry’s “Finance Day” is currently ongoing as we hit “send” on this afternoon’s edition. Among the highlights:

The launch of the Sustainable Debt Coalition Initiative, a platform bringing together debtor and creditor countries, ratings agencies, and DFIs and MDBs in a bid to increase access to affordable green finance, reduce the cost of green debt and encourage fresh green investments among developing countries.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Egypt lined up commitments for up to another 15 GW of wind power yesterday, bringing to 25 GW the total new wind-power generation capacity it has locked in recent days.
• Commissioning kicks off at Ain Sokhna green hydrogen plant: Norway’s Scatec, the OCI / Adnoc joint venture Fertiglobe, Orascom Construction, and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) began commissioning of the first phase of their 100 MW green hydrogen plant in Ain Sokhna.
• Egypt unveils initiative to help poor countries adapt to climate change: COP27 President Sameh Shoukry yesterday launched a plan that envisions channeling bns of USD into the world’s poorest countries by 2030 to help them adapt to the effects of climate change.

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The Senate will reconvene next week on Sunday and Monday to discuss the FX incentive bill and another draft bill setting up the Digital Egypt Fund. The first bill, which received preliminary approval by a Senate committee earlier this week, would grant income tax breaks to investors who use FX to finance at least half of the cost of their projects. The second bill would set up a fund to support the Communications Ministry’s Digital Egypt initiative.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Temperatures in Cairo will hit 25°C tomorrow during the day before falling to 15°C at night, our favorite weather app tells us.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide — GHG emissions are now fully tracked: A group of research NGOs, backed by former US Vice President and longtime climate activist Al Gore, unveiled Climate Trace, an online platform monitoring and publishing greenhouse gas emissions for the top 72k polluters worldwide, spanning across 20 sectors, according to a statement. The platform monitors power plants, steel mills, oil and gas fields, cement and aluminum producers, among other contributors to climate change across the world. Climate Trace offers the world’s first platform identifying and tracking the most prominent emission producers, using AI to help its fleet of experts analyze and calculate emissions that previously-used methodologies would have missed. The platform wants to fill in the gaps left due to a lack of transparency from nations and individual emitters. “As of the end of October, no nation has submitted a complete accounting of its emissions for 2021 to the UNFCCC. 52 countries have not submitted any emissions inventories covering the past ten years,” the statement read.

The data: Surprising no one, all the data is pointing the finger at oil and gas fields, which make up more than half of the 50 largest emission sources worldwide. Power plants made up more than half of the top 500 emitters worldwide, which collectively accounted for 14% of global emissions last year.

Having trouble falling asleep, getting up on time, or staying awake? You might be suffering from social jet lag™: The fatigue and confusion you often feel on the first day of your work week may very likely be the result of social jet lag, which is characterized by irregular sleep patterns during the week and on the weekends, according to a new study from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, UC San Francisco (UCSF), and Baylor University. Contrary to the severe symptoms of travel-related jet lag, social jet lag can be chronic and manifest itself in less evident ways. It is “more insidious, often hiding in plain sight though it may have an impact on our health” — increasing our chances of developing depression, obesity, Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular issues, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a UCSF psychologist. It’s also shown a correlation with poorer academic performance and less healthy eating habits.

Why is social jet lag so harmful? Inadequate sleep is detrimental for our health, but an irregular sleep schedule can be just as, if not more, problematic as “the circadian rhythms coordinate most physiological functions and most of the body’s cells have their own clock,” the WSJ says, citing sleep experts. In a recent large-scale analysis of 9k participants, 47% of US adults had social jet lag lasting two or more hours, which is equivalent to traveling one time zone, according to the WSJ citing the director of sleep medicine at Ohio’s University Hospital. The advent of daylight saving time last weekend could be seen as a form of widespread social jet lag that worsens existing circadian misalignment, according to a CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination survey.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
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Season 5 of Netlflix’s The Crown follows the Royal Family through the turbulent 90s. The new season depicts the royals as they endure three high-profile divorces (most notably then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s) and a fire that damages much of Windsor Castle, all against the backdrop of Tony Blair being elected as prime minister and anti-monarchy debate picking up steam amid the public. The show recasts all the main roles for the final time, with Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Dominic West as Prince Charles, and Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana. Highly anticipated moments from the period this season covers include Diana’s explosive interview with the BBC and her iconic revenge dress, which she wore hours after the airing of a documentary in which Charles revealed his infidelity.

⚽ The second day of the third round of the EFL League Cup has several important encounters, leading with a match between Manchester City and Chelsea at 10pm, playing at the same time as Liverpool vs Derby County. The remaining matches will roll as follows starting 9:45pm:

Arsenal v Brighton

Nottingham Forest v Tottenham

Newcastle v Crystal Palace

Southampton v Sheffield Wednesday

West Ham v Blackburn

Wolverhampton v Leeds

Tonight’s matches in La Liga:

Sevilla v Real Sociedad (8pm)

Almeria v Getafe (8pm)

Espanyol v Villarreal (9pm)

Real Mallorca v Atletico Madrid (10:30pm)

The most important matches in Serie A:

Sassuolo x Rome (7:30pm)

Inter x Bologna (9:45pm)

???? OUT AND ABOUT-
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It’s “Taxi El Sahra” night with Djunkie at Cairo Jazz Club in Agouza at 9pm. Get ready to travel back in time with some 90s Arabic hits.

Shaabi superstar Abdelbasset Hamouda and DJ Saddam will be taking over CJC 610 tonight at 9pm with some of the best local music.

In the mood for a laid-back night out? Head to The Tap East tonight at 9pm for a live piano and vocalist performance by Marie Chain.

Don’t miss Antigone’s Law Play tonight at the AUC Malak Gabr Theatre at 7pm. The play will take you on a journey of Sophocles’ tragedy — adapted to modern times and presented in Egyptian dialect — and the mourning of an entire city following a destructive civil war.

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The 99% Invisible City directs our gaze to the often unnoticed yet crucial features of cities. The book is a compilation of the episodes of Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt’s podcast 99% Invisible. It addresses questions like why traffic lights are red on top and green on the bottom and why maintenance hole covers are round shaped, and celebrates the small details that we seldom pay attention to but that are essential elements to cities around the world. The book dives into the stories behind these design elements, the designers and people affected by the designs, and also includes line drawings throughout. A great read if you’re looking to learn more about urban spaces.

The EGX30 rose 4.6% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.24 bn (11.1% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net sellers. The index is down 1.4% YTD.

In the green: Eastern Company (+15.7%), CIB (+11.4%) and Alexandria Containers and Cargo Handling (+4.7%).

In the red: QNB Alahli (-3.1%), Ezz Steel (-2.3%) and GB Auto (-1.9%).