How to cut 10 mn welfare beneficiaries. Plus: Pharma crisis. Power subsidy phase-out to go slower post-float?

It is with the deepest regret that we note this morning the tragic death of Nevine Loutfy, an iconic Egyptian banker with an international profile. We join the Federation of Egyptian Banks in offering our condolences to Fatma Loutfy, Nevine’s sister, and in mourning the passing of an outstanding professional.

Hesham Ezz Al-Arab, chairman of the Egyptian Federation of Banks, said yesterday, “Our world is poorer today. All of our members mourn the passing of a woman who was not just a consummate professional — an excellent banker and helpful colleague — but of a good, moral and positive human being who many of us were honored to call a personal friend. Nevine will be greatly missed."

At the time of her death, Nevine was managing director and chief executive officer of ADIB Egypt, where she became the first Arab woman to lead an Islamic bank. She joined ADIB after a storied career at Citibank, where she was previously chief operating officer, managing director and business senior credit officer at Citi’s EMEA Commercial Bank in London.

Ahram Online republished yesterday an older interview with Nevine it had previously run. It made us smile in places.

The dates for the USD 2-2.5 bn eurobond issuance roadshow will be announced at the end of the week, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmed Kouchouk tells Al Borsa. Talks continue with investment bank advisors (BNP Paribas, JPMorgan, Citi and Natixis) on the best date considering the volatility of global markets of late, added Kouchouk. Speaking on a new exchange rate for customs, Kouchouk told the newspaper that the government is currently considering all options to help ease pressure on importers and manufacturers.

The AmCham Egypt Real Estate Committee is hosting the conference “Sustaining the Real Estate Industry in Egypt” on Sunday, 27 November. The conference will feature Finance Minister Amr El Garhy and Housing Minister Moustafa Madbouli.

Also coming up next week:

• The 2016 edition of tech gathering Cairo ICT gets underway on Sunday, 27 November.
• Opec meets on Wednesday, 30 November in Vienna.
• Citi’s Global Consumer Conference takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday in London.
• A Russian delegation will visit Egypt next week to finalize all outstanding issues and sign the contract for the Dabaa nuclear power plant with Egypt’s Electricity Ministry.

Lamees El Hadidy called out importers, saying that with USD now available within the banking system, importers will take advantage by importing non-essential goods. She questioned the commitment of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce to halt imports of non-essential products for three months. She said that the USD reserves in banks are now needed medication and other critical products (watch, runtime: 5:44).

The ration card system also featured heavily last night, with Supply Ministry official Alaa Mortada telling Lamees that “Regulations for eligibility for the smart cards will be announced in early 2017.” (Preliminary criteria have made it to the press, and we have more extensive coverage in the Speed Round). Cutting freeloaders, Egyptians abroad, and the deceased from the system will be completed by March, Mortada said (watch, runtime: 24:58).

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail will hold a cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss the Nubian protests, said MP Moustafa Bakri told the host (watch, runtime: 11:52).

Amr Adib discussed low-income housing, saying the average price of a residential unit has risen to EGP 270K from EGP 154K. Housing Ministry PR flack Hany Younes dodged the issue, saying there is no single price: “The prices [of low-income housing] differs from one applicant to another due to discrepancies in age, salaries and marital status” (watch: running time: 36:00).

Adib ran a video of living conditions of Ras Gharib city after nearly one month since the flash floods that hit the city hard. (Watch: running time: 4:36)

Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer interviewed Mohamed Ali Rezk, head of the Administrative Prosecution Authority (APA).

Amer also dedicated a portion of the episode to discuss developments in the tragic murder of high-profile banker Nevine Loutfy. He reported that authorities have a suspect in custody who is allegedly linked to fingerprint evidence from the scene. The assailant had apparently unplugged security cameras before breaking in, said Amer.

The full episode of Yahduth fi Masr is on MBC Masr’s Shahid portal here (runtime: 50:42).

The drop in the value of the EGP coupled with state price controls on medicine has made a large number of products “unprofitable to produce or import,” Arwa Gaballa and Eric Knecht write for Reuters. “We aren’t a charity. We have expenses and production costs, and if a company isn’t making profit it will have to halt production,” said Said Ibrahim, factory manager at EIPICO says. Pharmacies nationwide are running short of product, they write, and that is translating to pressure on the government. "Distributors are now telling [stores] nothing imported is available. The problem has been going on for a while, but has only turned into a crisis in recent weeks," one retailer of meds says. A health ministry spokesperson says the crisis is “orchestrated … the decision to float the [EGP] was taken…and two hours later people began saying we have a crisis and we don’t have meds … It’s a way to push for a rise in prices, which will not happen."

…Some multinational pharma manufacturers have reportedly threatened exit Egypt, Al Mal says. The producers gave the government two months to help industry cope with the impact of the float. Representatives of 25 companies have refused a proposal by the Health Ministry to “change” their prices or have the state provide them with a subsidy per unit produced or sold. Sources said that companies are trying to escalate the problem all the way to Ittihadiya, providing documents that profits of 5-20% prior to the float turned into losses of 80% as their selling prices continue to be fixed by the government. Sources add that international producers have already started looking into exiting Egypt and others are going to step-up layoffs.

How the gov’t plans to cut up to 10 mn welfare beneficiaries: The Supply Ministry has laid out a plan to wean moochers off of the subsidies system. Ministry sources tell Al Shorouk that while it is still too soon to tell how many people will be taken off subsidies, early estimates predict that 5-10 mn out of the 73 mn (82 mn by the Finance Ministry’s data) who receive monthly subsidized goods will be struck from welfare rolls as part of the first phase of the plan, while 1.5-2 mn people will be added. The plan was reportedly devised in cooperation with other ministries, the newspaper says, citing ministry sources as blaming former Supply Minister Khaled Hanafy’s subsidies smart card system, which added 47 subsidized goods to the system from three, as having attracted the freeloaders including white-collar professionals and civil servants. The government plans to complete a national database for all citizens to monitor subsidy use by September 2019. The ministry has reportedly has set 10 criteria for people it plans to strike from the list of eligible beneficiaries:

• Individuals with incomes exceeding EGP 3,000 per month and households earning EGP 10,000 or more per month;
• Households who send their children to international schools or pay private school tuition of EGP 20,000 or more per year;
• Individuals who own a property or households that own more than one piece of real estate;
• Those who own a personal automobile with an engine of more than 2,000 cc, a new model car, or more than one vehicle;
• Those who own over three feddans of agricultural land;
• Those who own over 10 feddans of agricultural land will be paid market prices for their crops;
• Those who have travelled outside the country more than once;
• Small to medium-sized grocers and commodity retailers.

Gov’t may slow down phase-out of electricity subsidies: The Electricity Ministry is re-calculating the cost of electricity subsidies and of power generation in the wake of both the float of the EGP and of rising of fuel prices, said the ministry’s Undersecretary Sabah Mashaly. Mashaly tells Al Borsa that this could involve rescheduling the five-year plan to eliminate subsidies. Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker had previously stated that the float and rising fuel prices might see the ministry’s subsidies bill double to EGP 60 bn this year. Mashaly does not comment on how the process might impact feed-in tariff rates for renewable energy agreed with the private sector, especially considering that a number of companies were lobbying for rate changes last week. As we noted yesterday, the Ismail cabinet will form a committee to look into repricing contracts signed prior to the float.

Aramco is the elephant in the room at Egypt, Saudi oil ministers’ meeting: Oil Minister Tarek El Molla met with his Saudi counterpart, Khalid Al Falih, on the sidelines of the Arab International Mineral Resources Conference in Jeddah, Al Borsa reported. The meeting was their first since Aramco halted fuel shipments to Egypt in October. No newspaper is reporting what, if anything, was said on the cutoff. The meeting came as the EGPC plans to hold another international fuel tender in December to help cover the shortfall from Aramco’s apparent boycott, an EGPC source tells the newspaper. The EGPC wants to import 5 mn barrels of crude per month, which will be refined in Egypt, a source tells Youm7. Two mn of these will be sourced from Kuwait, another 2 mn from Azerbaijan and 1 mn from Iraq, said the source, adding that talks for fuel imports at on easy payment schedules are underway with the UAE and Libya.

Egyptian banks have “tamed” the FX parallel market, bankers and traders told Reuters’ Arabic sources. Banks have reportedly been buying USD in large quantities from FX traders at rates higher than those offered to retail clients and using them to cover demand for imports of non-essential goods. The report notes that the FX parallel market reappeared, briefly, last week when banks could not meet USD demand from non-essential good importers. Now, an importer tells Reuters, “Banks are providing us with USD … we do not need to resort to the parallel market anymore.”

The Sugar industry’s problems persist: Sugar refineries are buffing their figures ahead of a meeting with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, Al Borsa reported. The companies will ask that cabinet increase the price at which the Food Industries Holding Company (FIHC) purchases refined sugar. The demand will come in the wake of a recent decision to hike the price of sugar for industry to EGP 11,000 a tonne (only one week after they had surged by nearly 43% to EGP 10,000 per tonne).

Businesses across the spectrum are pinning the crisis on the FIHC, which had been claiming the market was well-stocked and perhaps even oversupplied, Juhayna Food Industries Chairman Safwan Thabet told Ahram Gate. That’s the basis on which policymakers raised tariffs on white sugar imports, prompting a slowdown of imports. The spiraling cost of sugar is driving higher the prices of halawa, jams and juices, and several producers of sugar and sugar-based foods have already confirmed they would be gradually increasing the prices of their products as early as next week. Sugarcane growers are also unhappy, threatening not to grow crops in the next season if cabinet doesn’t approve raising the price at which the state buys sugarcane and sugar beet, Sugarcane Producers’ Association chief Youssef Abdel Rady told Al Borsa.

The Ismail cabinet is set to discuss the final draft of the proposed Labor Act today before introducing the bill to the House of Representatives. The bill would give workers new rights and balance these with the needs of employers, according to Labor Minister Mohamed Safaan. Discrimination in hiring based on union memberships would be forbidden under the law. The right of workers to strike would be enshrined and the arbitrary firing of employees forbidden. The bill would, however, include provisions that enforce a notice period for resignations. The law also allows employers to set wages based on performance. Employers will receive incentives for providing on-the-job training. The act will lengthen maternity leaves and allow women to cut back on working hours starting in the second trimester. It would also ban overtime work for pregnant women. Employment and recruitment companies will see the required capital for establishment reduced to EGP 50,000 from EGP 100K, Al Mal reports.

Is the gov’t going to force the private sector to give annual raises? The government apparently going to knock on the doors of business associations to make sure that the private sector makes good on an annual raise of 7% every January, government sources tell Al Masry Al Youm. According to the sources, the private sector is under obligation to pay out an annual raise, and has the option of paying additional bonuses in July. Sources from the Federation of Egyptian Industries stated that they received no such calls and that they are committed to pay the raise.

El Sisi’s interview with Portuguese state television: Fundamentalist ideology is the single greatest security threat facing the region and the world, President Abdel Fattah El Sisi stressed in an interview with Portuguese state broadcaster RTP that focused on regional politics and human rights. The president suggested that it was this threat that prompted US president-elect Donald Trump to suggest during the campaign that Muslims living in the US be required to register. On Trump’s other policy planks, El Sisi emphasized that Egypt is taking a ‘wait and see’ approach (watch; 18:06).

On regional wars: Addressing the conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, El Sisi said the fight against terrorism should be the primary goal for all political actors — it’s the goal that unites all of them. In that spirit, El Sisi said it was essential to end the arms embargo against the Libyan National Army, during a speech in Lisbon Al Masry Al Youm reported.

On Syria, El Sisi justified Egypt’s vote in favor of seemingly contradictory resolutions from France and Russia at the UN, saying both resolutions called for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, which was his country’s primary concern. On a related note: El Sisi also said in his Lisbon speech that world governments must collaborate to resolve the Syrian refugee crisis if they hope to end illegal immigration to Europe. He confirmed that Egypt is clear of refugee camps and that “[Syrians] live normally among Egyptians and are not discriminated against,” noting that the Egyptian government receives no outside aid to help alleviate the pressures associated with hosting mns of refugees on its soil. Germany and Austria have floated proposals that would see Egypt given economic assistance or other benefits in return for hosting more migrants.

As the conversation shifted to domestic politics, the President rejected the notion that there were thousands of political prisoners in jail. He denied that the case against the head of the Journalists Syndicate was political. “The Journalists Syndicate issue isn’t a case of freedom of thought but a criminal case on charges of harboring suspects and obstructing the law. None of them are being tried for being journalists or for having an opinion,” El Sisi said. He stressed that Egypt is a democratic country with “no more room for dictators,” and that it upholds citizens’ rights to freedom of thought and expression (watch; runtime 2:05).

El Sisi’s next stop is Equatorial Guinea to attend the Arab-African Summit, which is reportedly being boycotted by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Morocco for inviting the Polisario separatist group to take part, according to Bahrain’s foreign minister Sheikh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, AMAY reports.

France outclasses the UK by not advancing its own agenda in approving USD 12 bn IMF bailout for Egypt: France did not try to impose any caveats or insert conditions when its board members at the IMF approved the USD 12 bn loan to Egypt, said France’s ambassador to Egypt André Parant at the French Investment Conference organised by Ahram Hebdo. Last week, the UK embassy had issued a (poorly) veiled message that its approval of the loan came with a condition that Egypt pay up arrears owed to its IOCs. Parant commended the Ismail government on the float of the EGP, a move that he said will encourage French investments, according to DNE. He singled out Total, Danone, and Orange’s 4G license acquisition to demonstrate French companies’ commitment to Egypt.

White cab fare hike approved in Cairo: Cairo governor Atef Abdel-Hamid and the and Cabinet have officially sanctioned the rise in cab fares that has taken effect this week, Al-Ahram reports. The starting fare, which covers the first kilometer of the journey, rose by EGP 1 to EGP 4, while the price per kilometer has increased to EGP 1.75 from EGP 1.40. An hour of waiting will now cost EGP 14, with each hour after that costing riders EGP 7. The Cab Drivers’ Association had asked the House of Representatives to adopt these measures last week, in light of the increase in gas prices.

Orascom Construction (OC) announced a 17.3% y-o-y increase in net income to USD 75.4 mn in the first nine months of 2016. OC says its backlog stood at USD 7.5 bn as of the end of 3Q2016 and new awards increased by 56.5% y-o-y to USD 755.9 mn. It recorded revenues of USD 962.1 mn and a net income of USD 26.0 mn in 3Q2016. OC says the 3Q2016 results “emphasize our strong performance in Egypt and our ability to maintain our backlog level… The large infrastructure work in Egypt continues to make excellent progress. We are currently executing a number of strategic projects across sectors including transportation and power while continuing to pursue new projects in the pipeline.”

OTMT’s offering of 11.83 mn shares of Beltone Financial at EGP 12.56 per share was 39% covered on day one of the offering, Al Borsa reports. The offer period is due to close at the end of tomorrow’s trading session.

MOVES- Ambassador Ashraf Sultan was appointed spokesperson for the Cabinet of Ministers, Al Masry Al Youm reported. Sultan succeeds Hossam El Qawish.

The Court of Cassation has overturned a life sentence handed former President Mohamed Morsi and ordered a retrial in the case that revolves around accusations of espionage with Hamas. Reuters says the ruling by the nation’s highest appeals court “overturns all convictions in the case including life sentences against Mohamed Badie, the General Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, and 15 others. Senior Brotherhood officials Kheirat al-Shater and Mohamed al-Beltagi as well as Morsi aide Ahmed Abdelatti had originally been sentenced to death in the case and also saw their convictions dropped on Tuesday.” Hamas welcomed the verdict, saying “the decision confirms the fact that Egypt stands at equal distances from all the parties involved in the Palestinian conflict.” The story is the lead item on Egypt in the international press this morning, with pickups as far afield as the Wall Street Journal, the BBC, the New York Times, Reuters and CNN.

The Financial Times’ 2016 business book award has been award to “The Man Who Knew: The life and times of Alan Greenspan” (Amazon or publisher’s website). Described as “the most influential economic statesman of his age, Greenspan spent a lifetime grappling with a momentous shift: the transformation of finance from the fixed and regulated system of the post-war era to the free-for-all of the past quarter century.” It’s the first biography to win the FT prize, and the salmon-colored paper describes it as “exceptional” and “colourful and exhaustive.” You can learn a bit more about author Sebastian Mallaby (a journalist and husband of Economist editor Zanny Minton Beddoes) here; visit him on Twitter here; or visit the FT’s landing page for past book award coverage here.

Other stories at home and abroad worth noting this morning:

• Donald Trump has establishment Washington, the mainstream press up and the alt-right up in arms. The US president-elect earned the ire of his right-wing supporters when he backed away from a promise to “lock up” rival Hillary Clinton for her use of a personal email server, saying he doesn’t want to cause the Clintons “pain” and wants Hillary to have time to “heal” after having lost the election. Nobody in the US appears to be cheering his decision to “keep an open mind” about whether to withdraw the US from last year’s Paris climate change treaty, It goes on. The best place to start: Trump’s interview yesterday with the New York Times, which reporters live-tweeted.
• A record collapse of the Turkish lira is “causing headache for Turkey’s central bank,” the FT notes. Meanwhile, Erdoland has withdrawn a bill that would have allowed men guilty of statutory [redacted] with underage girls to avoid jail time by marrying their victims, the BBC reports.
• We’re delighted to report that our friends in Mexico aren’t doing so badly despite the rise of Mr. Trump. The Financial Times has a nice overview here, noting that while Mexico’s IPC is down more than 7% since Trump’s election, it’s still beating the CAC and DAX on a YTD basis.

Don’t expect yesterday’s MSCI Emerging Markets rally to last. That’s the take-home message from the Financial Times’ coverage, with the paper noting that, “The prospects of EM assets still look uncertain, however. ‘We believe 2017 will present a more challenging environment for EM assets,’ said UBS strategist Bhanu Baweja, citing slower economic growth in Asia and a lack of tailwinds in 2016 such as rising property prices in China. Citi said ‘portfolio managers may seek to build precautionary cash balances fearing potential redemptions.’”

The silver lining: Corporate profits in emerging markets look set to improve, the FT notes elsewhere, citing JPMorgan’s senior global economist Joseph Lupton as saying, “We would expect profits, which are quite depressed across emerging markets as a whole, to start to improve. That’s part of our 2017 view.” Does that mean EM are a buy? “We would never say buy [emerging markets] because it’s cheap, because it can stay cheap for a long time. You need a catalyst and [rising profit margins] is it. The relative trade between emerging and developed markets could become more compelling,” says Fabiana Fedeli, senior portfolio manager for EM equities at Dutch asset manager Robeco.

Morsi appeal verdict dominates headlines: The Court of Cassation’s decision to overturn a life sentence handed to former president Mohamed Morsi is the story of the morning on Egypt, as we note in Speed Round (above).

Press freedom in the spotlight this week: Meanwhile, continued coverage of Egypt’s record on freedom of the press, with ongoing coverage of the two-year sentence handed Press Syndicate boss Yehia Qalash. “The shocking verdict issued gives the impression to a lot of journalists, and even normal citizens, that this is narrowing the borders of freedom,” Qalash told NPR’s Jane Arraf in a segment aired on NPR’s wonderful Morning Edition.

Meanwhile, imprisoned photojournalist Mahmoud “Shawkan” Abou Zeid was named the recipient of a 2016 Committee to Protect Journalists International Press Freedom Award, according to the CPJ’s website.

Elsewhere: The US appears to have deemed Egypt a safe destination for vacationers in the latest travel advisory issued by the State Department on Monday. Other safe countries in the Middle East according to an independently compiled map are Jordan, Oman, the UAE, and Qatar. Europe now seems to be where the danger is, according to the statement, which asks US Citizens to “exercise caution” at public events this Christmas. The State Department’s country page for travelers to Egypt is here.

Former Deputy Prime Minister and Al Shorouk columnist Ziad Bahaa El Din says the new NGO draft law is restrictive and came about in a potentially unconstitutional manner. The House of Representatives’ failure to see NGOs as playing a constructive role in development is only the latest of a series of attacks against civil society, he says.

Financing agreements with France: International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr will be signing two agreements today with French Ambassador to Cairo André Parent to build a power transmission control center in the Delta and a 200-250 MW wind farm in the Gulf of Suez. The two projects will be financed by the French Development Agency, which has reportedly provided the country with EUR 889 mn to-date through a combination of loans and grant packages.

Direct flights to Kiev: Egyptian members of the Egyptian-Ukrainian Businessmen Council want to bring back direct flights between Cairo and Kiev after a 10-year-long suspension.

Wadi Degla has decided to withdraw completely from both phases of the feed-in tariff program for renewable energy, unnamed sources told Al Borsa. The company has returned the land plots allocated for the projects, a source within the company said, but did not clarify why the company withdrew. Wadi Degla were set to build a 20 MW solar power plant. Nubian has also reportedly withdrawn, sources told Al Borsa. Nubian is an affiliate of the Desert Technologies Company, whose two other subsidiaries including ARC are participating in FiT phase one with 50 MW solar power plants. We had reported yesterday that a total of 17 companies have withdrawn from FiT as of last Thursday.

Global building materials outfit LafargeHolcim has partnered with subsidiary Geocycle Egypt to build an EGP 210 mn waste recycling plant in Egypt with a production capacity of 350k tonnes of refuse-derived fuel a year.

China’s New Hope Liuhe Company is planning to invest the equivalent of USD 31.04 mn in in one poultry project in Egypt and two in China, Reuters reported. Looking at Liuhe’s statement (in Chinese), we gather that the company’s project in Egypt involves 21 mn birds at a total investment cost of USD 14.5 mn to be located near Beni Suef.

Egypt signed an MoU with China to supply the latter with fresh grapes, Agriculture Minister Essam Fayed told Al Mal. Additionally, further MoUs will be signed in the fields of horticulture and foodstuffs he added. The agreement comes as part of wider strategy to access new markets especially in Southeast Asia within the coming five years, Agricultural Export Council representative Samir El Naggar told the newspaper.

The Federation of Egyptian Industries has formally asked Cabinet to come up with a standard pricing system for natural gas supplied to factories, FEI Chairman Mohamed El Sewedy told Al Mal. Manufacturers are struggling at USD 4.5-7 per mmBtu after the float of the EGP.

Schneider Electric exports to neighbouring markets up to 30% of its output from its Egyptian plant, Country President Albert Fuchet told Al Borsa. The EGP float will help with exports, he noted.

Capital Group Properties have signed an agreement with the Smart Village Company to build a business park within the company’s Al Burouj compound in Shorouk at an initial investment cost of EGP 1 bn, Al Borsa reported.

EgyptAir is allowing customers to purchase air tickets and pay in monthly instalments through NBE credit cards over a period of 6-12 months, EgyptAir Chairman Sherif Ezzat told Al Mal. The offer is applicable to around 60 destinations at what he described as “affordable” interest rates.

Royal Jordanian (RJ) airlines are looking to repatriate EGP 70 mn in revenues tied down in Egypt with the help of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). RJ said it has been able to transfer less than 5% of its funds since last June and has suggested to the Central Bank of Egypt that it can sustain the difference in the EGP-JOD exchange rate if it was allowed to transfer its revenues. A number of airlines, including KLM and British Airways, had expressed concerns earlier this month that the value of their funds stuck in Egypt plunged by nearly 50% post the float of the EGP. Airlines have been complaining to IATA for months that they’ve been unable to repatriate funds, prompting KLM to announce it will stop flights to Egypt this coming January.

Raya Holding announced it started operations of its e-payments arm AMAN across Egypt. AMAN will begin actual commissioning to collect bills and “provide general services.” Raya says AMAN is part of a strategy aimed at promoting financial inclusion.

The New York-based international telecoms carrier UNIFI Communications Inc. has acquired a 100% stake in WIS Telecom S.p.A. and its subsidiary, WIS Telecom S.A., from Libero Acquisition, an investment arm of Orascom TMT Investments, a company majority owned by Naguib Sawiris. “This transaction comes as part of our strategy to divest non-core assets and consolidate our operations within our new areas of focus,” Sawiris is quoted as saying in a statement.

The Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) will sign an agreement with East Port Said Development to rehabilitate and develop 4 mn sqm of land for industrial usage in East Port Said. Negotiations are in their final phases, according to the head of the SCZone Nasser Fouad, who said that developed land will be earmarked for four industries, including automotive, household goods, industrial engineering and the packaging of chemicals and building materials.

Five people have died in police stations in Egypt over the last two weeks, giving rise to allegations of torture from their families, Al-Shorouk reports. The Ministry of Interior denied the accusations, citing health reasons as the cause of death in each case. The allegations come days after fish seller Magdy Maken died in police custody. Maken’s family have accused a police officer of torturing the merchant; Interior Minister Magdy Abdelghaffar has ordered an investigation of the case.

“A day without migrants”: The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Egypt has launched a social media campaign headlined “A Day Without Migrants” in partnership with Bassita, to highlight the real and positive impacts that migrants have on the communities that host them. IOM’s A Day Without Migrants “seeks to start dialogue about the impact of migration that is centered on evidence and facts rather than propaganda.”

FT on education in the Arab world: The Financial Times has published the latest in its occasional special reports on education in the Arab world, with stories including:

• Saudi Arabia, cutting its budget, turns to private schools
• Free Arabic-language online courses thrive in popularity
• Dalia Fadila teaches Israeli-Arab students girl power
• Syrian exiles in Lebanon seek a refuge in work
• Reform learning to enable Arab democracy