Good morning, friends, and happy hump day. We have a moderately heavy news day for you — where the biggest business story is unfolding in Washington, DC — and plenty of housekeeping to which to attend.

Let’s start with the housekeeping:

PSA #1- Brace yourselves for what could be a third day of dusty winds in Cairo and Alexandria as well as along coastal areas, the national weather service warns. Our favourite weather app sees the mercury slowly rising in the capital city from 28°C today to 33°C all next week.

PSA #2- We have so many holidays coming up that there are (if you squint) just five workdays left through Sunday, 8 May (six, if you count today).

• This coming Monday, 25 April, will be a national holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day and Sham El Nessim, the Madbouly cabinet announced in a statement yesterday.
• The entirety of the following week will be off: Cabinet also confirmed that the public sector will be on holiday from Saturday, 30 April, through Thursday, 5 May, in observance of Labor Day and Eid Al Fitr. Labor Day falls on Sunday, 1 May. Expect follow-on announcements for the private sector, banks and capital markets in the coming days.
• What’s next: Coptic Easter falls this year on Sunday, 24 April. It is typically a bank holiday, but not a national holiday (though it should be). We’re keeping our eyes open for an announcement from the Central Bank of Egypt and the EGX on that front.

PSA #3- Covid measures remain in place for Eid Al Fitr prayers: The Awqaf Ministry is once again limiting Eid Al Fitr prayers to “major” mosques and facilities at universities, according to a statement. All the usual social distancing and masking measures apply. One thing has changed: Women’s prayer halls will be open as they have been throughout this year’s holy month, in contrast to last year.

PSA #4- There are two days left to file your ESG report: EGX-listed companies and all non-bank financial services outfits regardless of listing status need to submit their first quarterly ESG questionnaire by this Wednesday, 20 April. The regulator is making it mandatory for companies to publicly disclose their performance on key environmental, social and governance metrics each year when they submit their annual financial statements, starting 2023. Reach out to Moustafa Taalab at InkankIR, our parent company, if you need some help.

SO, WHEN DO WE EAT? You’ll be breaking your fast at 6:25pm CLT this evening in the capital city, while fajr prayers are at 3:52am.

*** Looking for something to help you kill that last hour before iftar? May we suggest listening to the second and final part of our talk with industry leaders on what’s next for fintech (on our website or on Apple Podcasts — or reading our interview with the World Bank’s Mari Pangestu?

WATCH THIS SPACE- Saudi’s Shura Council nods to USD 10 bn investments here: KSA legislators have approved the agreement signed between Egypt and Saudi Arabia last month that would see Saudi sovereign wealth fund PIF invest up to USD 10 bn in Egypt’s healthcare, education, agriculture and financial services sectors. The investment plan — which Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly in March said was pending “constitutional procedures” to move forward — came as part of Gulf efforts to help shore up our finances amid global fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine. The state-owned Saudi Press Agency also covered the council’s decision.

FROM THE WB / IMF SPRING MEETINGS-

The World Bank will cut its global growth outlook for 2022 to 3.2% from 4.1% to reflect the economic fallout from the war in Ukraine, WB President David Malpass told reporters yesterday. While Europe and Central Asia are unsurprisingly set to see the biggest impact, the international lender will also be cutting growth projections for other wealthy economies and “many” developing countries because of spiking food and energy prices, Reuters quoted Malpass as saying.

The WB will also be setting a new USD 170 bn “crisis financing target,” Malpass said. The funding is set to be disbursed starting this month until June next year, with USD 50 bn to be allocated in the next three months. It will be targeted at countries taking in significant numbers of Ukrainian refugees and those (like us) facing food supply issues. Emergency financing and debt relief for developing countries are key themes at this week’s spring meetings.

We’ll find out today what the IMF thinks is in store for the Egyptian and the global economy when it releases its World Economic Outlook. Expect the Fund to downgrade its growth projections for both Egypt and the world. In January the IMF forecast the Egyptian economy to grow at a 5.6% clip in FY 2021-2022 and penciled in 4.4% growth for the global economy. The IMF will publish the report here later today.

AMBER LIGHT- The Wall Street Journal is sounding a note of caution about the Fed’s ability to manage what could be around the corner for the US economy, warning that the US central bank has “never successfully fixed a problem like this” — namely tamping down inflation without creating significant unemployment. “During the past 80 years, the Fed has never lowered inflation as much as it is setting out to do now — by 4 percentage points — without causing recession,” the Journal notes. Read the full story here.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD this morning: Russia has begun a new offensive in eastern Ukraine and missiles have fallen on Lviv, about 60 km from Poland in the west, for the first time. Western military analysts see Russia’s movement in Donbas as “merely the preliminaries to a much larger assault.” The news leads the front pages everywhere, from the New York Times to Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.

SIGN OF THE TIMES- The Biden administration will no longer enforce masking on planes, trains and public transport after a US judge struck down a recent extension of the mandate. (Skift | Boston Globe)

Are we stuck in a Hot Tub Time Machine? “It took five weeks and three attempts. But around 7am on Sunday the Ever Forward, a 1,095-foot container ship operated by the same company whose vessel blocked the Suez Canal last year, was finally freed in the Chesapeake Bay.” (NYT Twitter)

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

Another chance for private firms to get in on PPP language school tender: The government has extended to 25 May its deadline for private companies to pre-register to participate in tenders in the second phase of its program to establish 1k language schools, according to a FinMin statement. A total of 24 language schools have been set up under the first phase of the program and the second phase targets the creation of 57 schools.

Check out our full calendar on the web for a comprehensive listing of upcoming news events, national holidays and news triggers.

*** It’s Going Green day — your weekly briefing of all things green in Egypt: Enterprise’s green economy vertical focuses each Tuesday on the business of renewable energy and sustainable practices in Egypt, everything from solar and wind energy through to water, waste management, sustainable building practices and how you can make your business greener, whatever the sector.

In today’s issue: “A code red for humanity.” That’s the single-line summary of the UN climate panel’s latest report on the global climate crisis. The last report in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) years-long cycle is also the final study to be released before COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, making it all the more important. We take a look at what the scientists say about how the environment is set to change in the coming years and decades, and how to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change in Egypt and beyond.