The government’s response to last month’s protests is still getting coverage in the foreign press. Police have released dozens of people who had been arrested in response to protests that occurred in several Egyptian cities last month, officials said yesterday, according to the Associated Press. Authorities determined that they had no connection to the protests or the Ikhwan and were freed without charge. Human rights group the Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms confirmed that dozens of detainees had been released. More than 2k people had been detained.

The roots of discontent: Discontent among some Egyptians is being driven by an economic policy that has “pushed people to their limits,” human rights activist Gamal Eid tells Deutsche Welle, which also carries a piece by novelist Alaa Al Aswany, who argues that the fact no protests took place last Friday doesn’t signal the end of discontent. Daanish Faruqi, a visiting scholar at Rutgers, in turn attacks Aswany in Foreign Policy, criticizing him for both writing passionately in favor of democracy, but supporting the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi.

Also getting attention in the international press:

• Do women have equal labor rights in Egypt? That’s the question asked by the Washington Report as it looks at women’s increasing contribution to Egypt’s labor force in the midst of gender-based wage disparity and a lack of maternity laws.
• Surprise: Ethiopia doesn’t like Egypt’s GERD proposal. Egypt’s proposal on the filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is “dangerous,” and puts Ethiopia in a losing position, Ethiopian water experts say, according to Ethiopian media.