It’s a mixed bag this afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, as capital markets guides the conversation locally, while covid is leading headlines globally.

THE BIG STORY TODAY- Score another foreign acquisition for an Egyptian startup: Following last week’s announcement that mass transit startup Swvl acquired Europe-based Shotl, B2B food and grocery startup MaxAB has acquired Moroccan ecommerce and logistics platform WaystoCap for an undisclosed sum. We break down the transaction in detail in the Speed Round below.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from this morning EnterpriseAM:

• Siemens inks new green hydrogen MoU: Siemens Energy and state-owned Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC) have signed an MoU to jointly build up the green hydrogen industry in Egypt.
• New SDRs are heading our way: Egypt will receive a foreign currency boost equivalent to c. USD 2.8 bn through the IMF’s new USD 650 bn SDR allocation.
• Nafeza arrives on 1 October, like it or not: The Finance Ministry has no plans to respond to calls from some in the business community to postpone the roll out of the ACI system on 1 October.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD- Apart from Afghanistan, promising results from new J&J vaccine tests topped the conversation in the foreign press. Johnson & Johnson today reported a ninefold increase in antibodies in those who have received a second booster jab, citing interim data from a clinical trial. Trial participants appear to have been administered a second shot six months after receiving their first J&J jab. A study in July found that the single-shot vaccine provides immunity for at least eight months.

Your daily dose of covid news: The origins of the virus remain a mystery even to US spooks. US intelligence agencies have not been able to determine whether covid-19 evolved naturally or was manufactured in a lab in an assessment personally ordered by President Joe Biden, the Wall Street Journal reports. Officials were unable to access lab data held by the Chinese government, and thus weren’t able to come to a firm conclusion on its origins, the paper reports.

It’s not just Salah: The Premier League will not allow any players to compete in upcoming international games taking place in “red list” countries, it said in a statement yesterday. The decision was taken unanimously by Premier League clubs, and will mean that almost 60 players will be unable to represent their countries at the World Cup qualifiers next month. Egypt, Brazil, and Argentina are among the 60 countries currently on the British government’s red list, which features countries where the risk of contracting covid is highest.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

It’s Jackson Hole week: The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual gathering of central bankers and policy makers at Jackson Hole will take place on Friday, 27 August. This is the second year in a row that the gathering will take place online.

The Tokyo 2020 Paralympics will run through 5 September, with Egypt sending a 49-athlete-strong team to the games.

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Rich countries are under pressure to cough up their new SDRs to poorer nations: International pressure is mounting on developed countries to forego their share of the IMF’s USD 650 bn emergency support package, agreed earlier this year to help countries through the pandemic, the Financial Times reports. Low-income countries received only USD 21 bn of the issuance of special drawing rights (SDRs), while USD 375 bn went to the 40 richest countries. Developing countries got USD 275 bn. International organizations and IMF head Kristalina Georgieva are calling on the richest to redirect their allocations to low-income countries, which the IMF estimates need some USD 450bn to recover from the pandemic. Egypt received SDRs worth USD 2.8 bn, which were disbursed earlier this week.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-

Starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, Grace and Frankie try to find solace after they discover that their husbands were romantically involved for over two decades. Delving into themes of divorce, loss, and ageing, this witty sitcom is funny one moment and heart-wrenching the next. The raw and authentic chemistry between the two lead actors is probably due to the history the cast has on a number of projects together such as Newsroom and West Wing to name a few. Despite being in the pipeline for over a year, the show’s production was halted last year due to covid but the first four episodes of the final season premiered last week on Netflix.

⚽ There are a couple of games in the Egyptian Premier League tonight: Ghazl El Mahalla will play against El Mokawloon tonight at 7pm, while Pyramids are away to Misr Lel Makassa at 9pm.

If you haven’t heard already: Zamalek were crowned champions last night after beating Entag El Harby 2-0. This is their first league title since 2014-2015, and finally ends Al Ahly’s spell of dominance which has seen the club win the league for five consecutive seasons.

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The iconic Wust El Balad will be taking stage tonight at 9pm at Cairo Jazz Club 610. The band will be playing all their top hits that combine traditional Arabic music with a modern and Western twist, from their very first hit Antika to their latest single Talamizna.

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How not to run a company: Written by Wall Street Journal reporters Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell, The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann and the Great Startup Delusion follows the downward spiral of a Silicon Valley unicorn, demonstrating that lofty ambitions and grand visions aren’t always enough to make it in the startup game. The bestselling book documents a company’s fall from grace while revealing deeper problems in the US financial system, while laying out the fundamentals of corporate governance, venture capital, and other financial topics.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect much the same as today in the capital, with daytime highs of 39°C and nighttime lows of 25°C, our favorite weather app tells us. In Sahel, the mercury will max out at 32°C during the day and fall to 23°C at night.