We’re keeping a close eye on the fallout from the deadly attack on a North Sinai mosque on Friday, which claimed at least 305 lives, including 27 children, and injured some 128 others. The assailants were flying the Daesh flag, the Prosecutor General’s Office says, but the terror group has yet to officially claim responsibility for the most brutal attack on Egypt in its modern-day history. We have extensive coverage in the Speed Round, below.

Housing Minister Mostafa Madbouly will be leading Cabinet for the coming three weeks, until Prime Minister Sherif Ismail returns from Germany, where he is receiving medical treatment and undergoing surgery. Cabinet spokesperson Ashraf Sultan had said last week that the procedure was “routine” and dismissed earlier rumors that Ismail was suffering from cancer.

A small handful of stories worth noting if you’re looking for a momentary change in pace from the torrent of stories about the hideous terror attack in Sinai:

• Who will run Goldman Sachs next? The New York Times’ Kate Kelly has penned an excellent piece that humanizes the two guys vying to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as chief of Goldman Sachs, but which doesn’t quite go deep enough into GS politics.
• South Africa downgraded to ‘junk’: S&P downgraded South Africa’s “local currency debt to ‘junk’ territory on Friday, citing a further deterioration in the country’s economic outlook and public finances, sending the rand tumbling,” Reuters reports. The Financial Times has analysis.
• Looking to buy real estate in Toronto? Canada’s largest city and the surrounding satellite cities and suburbs is to Egyptians what Vancouver is to the Chinese. The Globe and Mail is suggesting that 2018 may be a year of reckoning for both markets.
• Black Friday online sales hit a record high in the United States this weekend, Reuters reports.

Gen-X hits middle age, and with it the depths of depression. With the news this weekend from Sinai, you could be forgiven for feeling down — and if you’re over 40 and not yet in your “golden years,” it’s likely that you’re feeling extra blue. That’s because, in general, our level of reported happiness starts at a high in early adulthood and hits bottom around age 46 before climbing again as we get older. The FT’s ‘Books Essay’ this weekend looks at how to “Think your way through middle age,” asking, “The emotional lows of the forties and beyond are not so easily explained. Could our obsession with goals be the problem?”