Egypt human rights in western media spotlight: Human rights in Egypt were in the western press’ spotlight this weekend after the UN named Egypt one of a record 29 countries that “have retaliated in the past year against citizens who cooperate with the United Nations,” the organization’s human rights office said last week, according to Reuters. Saudi Arabia, China, India, the UAE, Venezuela, and Cuba are among the other countries listed by the UN where “people communicating with the rights body had been abducted, detained, held incommunicado, or had disappeared,” UN Assistant Human Rights Secretary General Andrew Gilmour said. The Hill also features an opinion piece on the same topic by contributor Aayah Hossam and The Sunday Times says that the “lawyer for murdered [Italian] student Giulio Regeni [is being] tortured in Egypt.”

The US administration should sanction Egypt-based terror groups Hasm and Liwaa Al-Thawra to confirm its commitment to fighting terror in spite of withholding military aid to Egypt, Jonathan Schanzer writes for the New York Post. While critics may point out that the move is an indirect sanction on the Ikhwan — which Egypt says is the root organization of Hasm and Liwaa Al-Thawra — Schanzer says it would be a smart move on America’s part to control the Ikhwan’s overtly violent factions.

Egypt’s tourism sector is definitely on the mend, but it’s not healing fast enough for the thousands of shopkeepers and bazar owners who had made their living selling tourist trinkets and souvenirs, AFP’s Bassem Aboulabass says. Tourists are bound to return to Egypt, as this gradual recovery that saw receipts climb 54% in 7M2017 has shown, Omar Al Ubaydli writes for The National. Recent research has also shown that terrorism “rarely destroys tourism for good.”

Also worth a skim this morning:

• You can fit a lot into a 48-hour stay in Cairo including museums, restaurants, palace visits, and boutiques, Sarah Reid takes writes for Independent.
• “Is the Hasm Movement the Future of Militancy in Egypt?” Michael Horton wonders in a piece for the Jamestown Foundation.