It’s another morning of slim pickings in the foreign press, with no single issue dominating the conversation on Egypt.

Security forces are still struggling to contain the insurgency in Sinai despite “widespread public support,” Reuters says. The newswire points to last December’s attempted attack against Interior Minister Magdy Abdel Ghaffar and Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi as “a reminder that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, expected to easily win re-election this month, is still engaged in a major military campaign to deliver the security he has promised to Egyptians.” Nevertheless, El Sisi’s supporters argue that the security situation is currently better than it was in the immediate wake of the 2011 revolution.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s pet project, NEOM, is seen by Egypt as “a new space for more cooperation, for creating more Egyptian employment,” Ben Gurion University Egypt specialist Yoram Meital tells JPost. Brandon Friedman says the project aims to “create a more integrated relationship among Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia” but that “some of the sectors planned for the mega-project coincide with areas of Israeli expertise: energy and water, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing, and technological and digital sciences.” There is potentially a role for Israeli economic integration too, Friedman suggests, “depending on how the project evolves and how Saudi relations with Israel evolve.”

Watch the World Cup on an Israeli channel with Arabic commentary: Israel’s Broadcasting Authority has obtained the rights to broadcast the 2018 World Cup with Arabic-speaking commentators, Telecompaper reports. The matches will be available to viewers in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, West Bank free of charge on the Israeli channel over satellite. The news comes as Egypt has announced its full schedule for World Cup warmup matches, which will include friendlies with Belgium, Colombia, Kuwait, Portugal, and Greece, the Associated Press reports.

Egypt could be having its own #MeToo moment, Mona Eltahawy writes for the New York Times. Eltahawy cites a couple of high-profile cases in which men accused of [redacted] misconduct were forced to step down as well as the case, caught on video, of a woman who fought back against a man who groped her in the street.

Also worth noting in brief:

• Rat out the press: “Egyptian authorities have published a list of telephone numbers for citizens to use to bring attention to any media reports they perceive as undermining the country’s security or hurting public interest,” the Associated Press reports.
• No Sinai land swap: The idea of a land swap in Sinai as part of a regional peace plan “is not an acceptable one for the Egyptian leadership,” Professor Tarek Fahmy tells the Washington Times.
• There are growing calls in Egypt to dissolve Islamist parties over alleged links to terrorism, Ramadan Al Sherbini writes for Gulf News.
• Coptic community divided on US protection bill? A US bill calling on Egypt to ensure equal rights and safety for Coptic Christians has prompted “deep disagreement” among Egyptian Copts residing in the US, according to MEMRI.
• Female artists being targeted? Artistic freedom advocate Freemuse expresses concern over the increasing number of women artists being imprisoned and prosecuted in Egypt.
• Bahraini journalist Sawsan Al Shaer says she can’t find a reason for why some people are upset by Saudi-Egyptian rapprochement in a piece for Al Arabiya.
• Egyptian-Austrian knife attacker in Vienna had radical Islamist sympathies, Austria’s Interior Ministry has announced, according to Reuters.
• 80-year-old Egyptian bodybuilder Sobhi Mohammed “amazes younger gym mates,” Global Times reports.