The founder of Egypt’s PR firm defends company from LGBTQ controversy: The founder and executive chairman of PR firm APCO Worldwide is defending its relationship with Egypt following an article from the Intercept critical of the arrangement and questioning of the company’s commitment to LGBTQ rights, according to PR Weekly. Margery Kraus contends the agency’s work has nothing to do with Egypt’s LGBTQ crackdown, saying that “the work we’re doing [for Egypt] is of a general nature. It’s in our foreign agents filing and has nothing to do with this particular issue,” she said. “What [the writer is] doing is trying to say that maybe we should’ve done something about this issue, but Egypt is a sovereign government. When we work with a client like that, you try to engage with them and you try help shape them, but … we never whitewash anything.”

LGBTQ community’s wannabe savior: On a related note, the co-founder of dating app Hornet with a case of white-savioritis takes to the pages of Newsweek to tell the world that he won’t be following in the footsteps of other apps and closing, saying that the Egyptian LGBTQ have asked him not to (nice plug). The self-serving Sean Howell says Hornet is working with local NGOs, lawyers, foreign ministries and international press outlets to apply pressure to the Egyptian government to establish a safe environment for the LGBTQ community in Egypt.