The results of the 2017 census are leading the conversation on Egypt in the foreign press this morning, with most taking note of the country’s population ballooning to nearly 95 mn people. The Associated Press notes that, since the last census in 2006, Egypt’s population has grown by around 22 mn people and that Egypt “has been struggling to check its population growth — about 2 [mn] a year — to allow its ambitious economic reforms to make a difference to the country’s poor majority.”

Six men arrested for allegedly raising the LGBTQ flag at a concert last week “will be subjected to invasive forensic examinations” ahead of the first hearing in their trial today, according to Amnesty International, which condemns the tests for being prohibited under international law. The men are being accused of “promoting [redacted] deviancy” and “debauchery.” The Supreme Media Council issued a decision banning LGBTQ references from all audio-visual media, unless they mean to a shine a negative light on the issue, chair Makram Ahmed tells Al Mal. While Egypt’s Coptic church also announced it would be organizing a conference meant to shine light on how to “cure” gayness, according to Al Masry Al Youm. Human Rights Watch issued a report asking authorities to “stop the anti-LGBT crackdown.”

The issue is causing quite the stir in the international press, with pickups on various news websites and wires, including the Associated Press and Foreign Policy.

Human rights was also subject de jour with President Abdel Fatah El Sisi pledging to continue efforts to protect them while maintaining a commitment to fighting terrorism, Presidential Spokesman Alaa Youssef said in statement picked up by state news agency MENA.

Con Coughlin, the Telegraph’s defense editor, asks why the current British government finds it so difficult to maintain a constructive relationship with Egypt, in a piece for The National. “I have been struck by the number of senior officials who, to put it mildly, have expressed exasperation at what they regard as Britain’s lack of concern regarding the difficulties they face,” Coughlin writes. He also points to the refusal to lift the flight ban to Sharm El Sheikh, despite Egypt undertaking “a complete overhaul of the resort’s security arrangements, to the extent that British officials have declared the airport as one of the safest in the region… as well as a recommendation from British foreign secretary Boris Johnson that the ban be lifted, Downing Street still refuses to remove the restrictions on the grounds it is still not reassured by the security arrangement.” Coughlin, the Telegraph’s defence editor who recently called on the British government to resume flights to Sharm El Sheikh, says “while Britain continues to insist that Egypt is an important regional ally, the government’s policies suggest otherwise, leaving many Egyptians to ponder that Britain is not serious about having a strong and constructive relationship with Cairo.”

Egypt requested a UN Security Council meeting last Thursday to discuss the escalating violence against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, alongside the US, Britain, France, Sweden, Senegal, and Kazakhstan, according to Reuters.

Also worth a brief note today:

• Life has gotten easier for Egypt’s Shiites under President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, but still they face interrogations and questions upon their return from visits to their ayatollahs in Iran, The Economist says.
• USA Today zeroes in on Egypt’s woes over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which threatens to reduce the country’s water supply
• Amnesty International is calling on Egyptian authorities to release blogger and activist Alaa Abdel Fattah and 24 others, who are being charged with insulting the judiciary.
• The family of geologist Richard Osman were promised by coroners “that answers will be found” regarding flight MS 804, which crashed while heading from Paris to Cairo last year, Wales Online says.