Will Egypt be anointed as an energy export hub for the EU today? Egypt is expected to sign a new oil and gas cooperation agreement with the European Union this afternoon, a government source told us yesterday. The agreement comes as EU Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete arrived in Cairo on Sunday for energy cooperation talks with Oil Minister Tarek El Molla, according to an Oil Ministry statement on Sunday. We’re taking "Strategic Cooperation in Energy" as euphemism for a long-awaited agreement which could see Egypt turn into the natural gas export hub to Europe for the East Mediterranean basin. Egypt and Cyprus are close to signing contracts for a pipeline to connect the latter’s gas fields to liquefaction plants in Egypt’s Idku or Damietta, according to statements by Cypriot Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides earlier this month.

Egypt to receive funding from World Bank and EU for gas connection project: The EU, the World Bank and French Development Agency have provided Egypt with mns to fund the connection of more households to the natural gas grid. We have more in today’s Speed Round, below.

World Bank to raise capital by USD 13 bn: This came as the World Bank Group announced yesterday that its shareholders “endorsed an ambitious package of measures that include a USD 13 bn paid-in capital increase, a series of internal reforms, and a set of policy measures that greatly strengthen the [World Bank’s] ability to scale up its resources and deliver on its mission in areas of the world that need the most assistance.” This is good news for Egypt, which could be looking at a large funding package of up to USD 1 bn this year now that the World Bank is replenishing its resources. The World Bank has already pledged USD 500 mn this year to supporting Egypt’s educational reform.

Pharos-affiliated Pride Capital, Egypt’s first fintech-focused accelerator, is hosting a workshop titled “Financing Small Merchants” today at 5:30pm at the Greek Campus.

Our friends at Renaissance Capital are holding their third annual Egypt Investor Conference in Cape Town tomorrow and Wednesday. Senior management from leading Egyptian companies will meet one-on-one with South Africa-based investors at the gathering.

In the run-up to the conference, we have an exclusive op-ed from RenCap Global Chief Economist Charles Robertson, Extel’s top-ranked frontier markets analyst for 2017. Charles is a sought-after commentator for global business and finance publications including Bloomberg and the Financial Times. In today’s Spotlight, he writes about how he sees Egyptian manufacturing as one of the biggest emerging market beneficiaries of Europe’s economic recovery.

Also worth a moment of your time this morning:

• Meet the Arab world’s “best-performing stock,” Abu Dhabi-based NMC Health, which closed up 1,650% last week since it started trading six years ago, “more than any other company based in the Arab world.” Bloomberg preorders it to DXB Entertainments, whose stock has lost more than 30% this year and “could be poised for a deeper slide starting next month.”
• The Trump travel ban is still a thing: The US Supreme Court will hear a challenge on Wednesday to the lawfulness of the Trump administration’s travel ban targeting people from Muslim-majority countries. (Reuters)
• Without comment: A gunman wearing no garments save a jacket shot dead four people at a Tennessee Waffle House in the middle of the night, was disarmed by a patron of the restaurant, and is still at large. (Reuters)

And to get you ready for Ramadan, some entertainment news:

New addition to our already-ballooning to-be-read pile: Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the new science of the human past, by the Harvard population geneticist David Reich. Jared Diamon, of Guns, Germs and Steel fame, has a review for the New York Times.

Season two of Westworld debuts tonight on OSN. We’re going to save up whatever airs between now and the start of Ramadan as a Holy Month binge / antidote to mosalsalat. The WSJ has a rundown on what you can expect as the “human characters are increasingly on the receiving end of android violence.”

Season three of Stranger Things starts filming today, and Collider writes that it will be an eight-episode season, among other gems.

The Financial Times wishes to explain millennials to Gen X and the Boomersin a new series. God help us all.

PSA- It’s a short work week. Banks and the EGX will be closed on Wednesday for Sinai Liberation Day. Enterprise is also taking the day off, and we’ll be back on Thursday at our usual time.