Everyone is banning everyone else’s media outlets this morning, from Egypt (targeting pro-terror and alleged Islamist-leaning sites) to the GCC (where everyone — for a change —joined us in beating on the statelet that calls itself ‘Qatar’). We have coverage in Last Night’s Talk Shows and Speed Round.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will meet with Guinea’s President Alpha Condé in Cairo today to sign a number of security and military agreements, Ahram Online reports. Condé will also be looking to sign education and culture agreements and meet with Egyptian investors, Guinea’s ambassador says.

CBE Governor Tarek Amer is in Switzerland until Sunday, 28 May for an annual gathering of central bank governors from francophone countries, Al Masry Al Youm reports.

The Wall Street Journal’s series on quants continues, and while the Thursday stories weren’t out at dispatch time this morning, three pieces from yesterday are on our reading list for the weekend. Whether you’re buyside or sellside, they should be on your weekend reading list, too:

• This old school hedge fund is going quant
• Alexa’s new avatar: Financial advisor
• A history of trading (a timeline / infographic)

Wait, humanity emerged from the Mediterranean, not Africa? The Independent’s science editor reports that new research suggests humanity emerged from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, not Africa: “The discovery of the creature, named Graecopithecus freybergi, and nicknamed ‘El Graeco’ by scientists, proves our ancestors were already starting to evolve in Europe 200k years before the earliest African hominid.” (Read)

We’ll know this evening whether Ramadan is tomorrow or Saturday. (We think Saturday is most likely, but still, formalities are formalities…) From all of us to all of you, please accept our very best wishes for a happy, healthy month filled with the love and warmth of family and friends. Kolo sanna w ento tayebeen.

The nation’s banks will be open to clients during Ramadan from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm, the CBE announced in a statement (pdf). Bank staff will work from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm.

The trading session on the EGX will run 10:00 am to 1:30 pm starting Sunday.

Gastroporn being a thing in our office during Ramadan, we’re suggesting you also bookmark Bloomberg’s Around the World in 30 Steaks: The Best From Las Vegas to Tokyo. There are glaring omissions (Hy’s Steakhouse and Jacobs & Co in Toronto come immediately to mind), but isn’t the debate over who isn’t on the list almost as fun as discovering who is?

What will the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Consumer Protection Agency ban from the airwaves this year? Ads that ran afoul of the self-appointed morality squad last year included Juhayna (“dondoo,” for innuendo related to the milk produced by human mammary glands), Birell ([redacted] innuendo from the use of a flip-flopping logo and one character examining another’s netherparts in a public restroom), Cottonil ([Redacted] innuendo in a scene showing women exercising; promoting unsafe behavior by showing a family of five on Vespa); and Dice (again with the [redacted] innuendo and a closing shot showing a woman’s torso in briefs).

Will you join us this year in boycotting whatever idiocy it is that Ramez has planned? This year’s installment (“Ramez Taht El Ard”) apparently has something to do with quicksand and a (faux?) komodo dragon. Watch the trailer here, if you must (runtime: 2:20)

When do we eat? Iftar in Cairo will be at 6:48pm CLT on Saturday, while the cut-off for sohour will be at 3:15am CLT, according to Islamic Finder.

We will now go dread the pending withdrawal of caffeine.