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Sunday, 14 April 2019

Egypt in the News on 14 April 2019

Driving the conversation on Egypt on a day in which there is lots of coverage, but no single narrative: The New York Times is out with a lengthy piece about the treatment of animals in Egyptian society. The paper says there are calls for tourists to boycott animal rides at Egypt’s most popular tourist sites due to what it calls the “rampant mistreatment” of camels, horses and donkeys.

Startups leading new waste recycling initiatives in Cairo are generating pushback from the city’s Zabaleen, who see them as encroaching on their market share, the Guardian says. The conflict over waste has led to threats and attacks from the Zabaleen, although recycling startups offering financial incentives for residents to separate recyclable materials maintain that the two provide different services, making peaceful coexistence possible.

Other stories worth noting in brief:

  • A new foreign policy challenge: Egypt should wait and watch events play out in Khartoum before it forms a response to the overthrow of Sudan’s President Al Bashir last week, Hamza Hendawi writes in a piece picked up by The National.
  • Congress should do something about Trump’s support for President Abdel Fattah El Sisi ahead of a vote to extend the Egyptian president’s rule, according to a Washington Post editorial.
  • Behind the US-Egypt pleasantries: Egypt’s planned arms deal with Russia, as well as Trump’s long-touted Middle East peace plan, is causing friction between Egypt and the US, Amr Emam writes for The Arab Weekly.
  • Third time's a charm (el talta tabta): This nicely sums up the story of Android-based browser Wasla, a startup by Egyptian entrepreneurs Serag Meneassy, Taymour Sabry, and Mahmoud El Said, writes Wamda’s Yasmeen Nabil.
  • Russian bellydancer Johara was last week sentenced to a year in prison for “immorality” and “inciting debauchery,” according to the Irish Sun.

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