LEGISLATION WATCH- The House of Representatives passed amendments to the Companies Act, which allow for setting up sole proprietorship companies, Al Borsa reports. The changes govern how legal persons set up businesses in their own names and set out the framework for transforming them from a sole proprietorship into a joint stock company.

With nuclear plants and a space agency, we’d like to welcome you to 1969: The House also passed a law establishing a USD 100 mn space agency on Monday, Al Masry Al Youm reports. The move appears to preempt a launch of an Egypt-made satellite in cooperation with Japan, according to Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar. The satellite is expected to hit the stratosphere in July 2018, he added, according to Al Mal. Egypt has had a pretty bad track record keeping tracking of satellites, after losing Egypt Sat 1 and 2. The agency is expected to help ensure we don’t treat these as car keys.

From the department of Thought Police: Some member of parliament says the Religious subcommittee is in process of revising a bill that would criminalise atheism, according to Al Shorouk. The bill, as reportedly drafted by the wannabe members of the Spanish Inquisition, carries prison sentences and financial penalties. An enlightened member of the subcommittee says the draft bill does not go against the constitutionally-protected freedom of belief clauses, but atheists are “shallow people who do not have enough knowledge and, therefore, the ‘phenomenon’ should be criminalised.” Thank you for putting our taxpayers’ money to good use, honourable members of parliament.