The IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings begin tomorrow in Washington, DC, and wrap up on Sunday. Finance Minister Mohamed Maait and Investment and International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr are among those set to attend the meetings.

Egypt will be on stage today and tomorrow in Moscow at the CIS Petrochemicals Conference, where Carbon Holdings’ Peter Skelley will give a presentation on the development of large-scale polyolefins in the Middle East as part of a discussion on the outlook for the global petrochemicals industry. Carbon is “advanced stages” developing “what will be one the world’s largest single-train naphtha cracker facilities” in Egypt, the company said in a statement (pdf).

Egypt has reportedly backed out of Trump’s “Arab Nato” strategy, four sources told Reuters in an exclusive this morning. Cairo allegedly decided not to send a delegation to a summit held in Riyadh last Sunday, the newswire cites an unnamed source as saying, adding that “Egypt withdrew because it doubted the seriousness of the initiative, had yet to see a formal blueprint laying it out, and because of the danger that the plan would increase tensions with Iran.”

Also on the agenda for next week:

• The House of Representatives will vote on the proposed constitutional amendments on Tuesday, 16 April.
• A delegation of 21 Hungarian companies will arrive in Cairo to explore investment opportunities on 16 April.
• The two-day North Africa Iron and Steel Conference gets underway at the Four Seasons Nile Plaza on 16 April.
• OPEC+ oil ministers will meetin Vienna on 17-18 April to discuss an extension to the oil supply cuts.

The EU and UK agreed to delay Brexit until 31 October in the early hours this morning. The so-called “flexible extension” will allow the UK to leave the EU at any time during the next six months, provided a political solution can be found in the UK’s divided House of Commons. The UK was originally due to exit the bloc tomorrow but political paralysis forced PM Theresa May into negotiating with Brussels for another delay. The BBC has more.

In other news worth knowing about:

• Saudi Aramco’s raised USD 12 bn in its bond sale after investors put in orders for as much as USD 100 bn. The bonds have softened slightly on the secondary market in the time since, reports the Financial Times.
• Uber plans to sell USD 10 bn-worth of its stock in what could be the biggest IPO since e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014, Reuters reports. Uber plans to register its offering today and kick off its investor roadshow on 29 April. The ride-hailing app was last valued at USD 79 bn in the private fundraising market and is seeking a valuation of USD 90-100 bn.
• Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading into a fifth term in office, CNN reports, after Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz conceded.

Stuff that has us scratching our heads (or otherwise interested) this morning:

• You can now pay online with a bitcoin debit card launched in the United Kingdom. (CNBC)
• A previously unknown human species has been discovered in the Philippines. (WSJ)
• The WSJ profiles the woman at the forefront of the search for extraterrestrial life.
• Amazon employees are listening to what you’re telling Alexa — and they’re also making fun of you. (Bloomberg | Business Insider)

*** QUESTION OF THE MORNING: We asked you the past couple of days and the answers have been inspiring. So we’re asking one more time: Does anyone out there know of homegrown Egyptian businesses that have successfully scaled up and expanded beyond our borders (not necessarily just to shiny Dubai)? We’re looking at great growth stories to feature in a new product we’re developing. Know someone? Drop us a line at editorial@enterprise.press.

Thank you to readers Wafaa Z., Mohamed A., Abdelmalek S., and Mohamed S. for your insightful suggestions.

Start the weekend in the best possible way: With Ned Flanders, reimagined as a real, live metal band. Via Rolling Stone: “The closing credits of the 659th episode of The Simpsons were suddenly interrupted. The standard black screen disappeared and was replaced by five adult men tearing through a brutal heavy metal track, guzzling white wine and smashing glasses and instruments while dressed as Ned Flanders.” Meet a band named Okilly Dokilly, the world’s only Ned Flanders tribute band. You can learn more on their Bandcamp site — or just hit Youtube for their hits White wine spritzer (runtime: 3:10) and Reneducation (runtime: 3:40).

PSA #1- The first episode of the last season of Game of Thrones airs on Sunday, 14 April in the US. So far as we’re aware, the only way to watch the series legally in this corner of the world is on OSN, so it’s time to renew your subscription, ladies and gents. Pro tip: OSN’s mobile app will do nicely for this, so if the OSN box that gives you Bloomberg or CNBC in your office has a package that includes GoT, you can stream on your iPad from home. Vox has a recap of where every major character stood at the end of season seven. You can also check out OSN’s schedule here.

PSA #2- It’s going to be hot on Saturday. Look for a daytime high of 35°C before the mercury returns to a more seasonal 25-29°C the rest of the week.