Alaa Abdel Fattah ends hunger strike + FT editors want the west to put diplomatic and economic pressure on us over human rights
Human rights is still topic du jour in the international press.
The Financial Times’ editorial board wants western governments to use “diplomatic and economic leverage” to get us to make progress on human rights, while the the Guardian continues to beat its drum on the topic.
The big human rights story is news that jailed dual-national activist Alaa Abdel Fattah said he has ended the hunger strike he began in April. Abdel Fattah told his family in a letter that he had stopped his hunger strike, after previously escalating it to include refusing water at the start of the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh. Abdel Fattah is expecting a visit from family members on Thursday. (The Guardian | AFP | AP | FT | NYT)
In climate news:
- The Financial Times’ on-point Heba Saleh is out with another piece on environmental threats to our agriculture sector, as COP continues to draw eyeballs to the impact of climate change on Egypt.
- Be careful of the water in Allouga: Bloomberg is running a story on the expansion of uranium mining in South Sinai even as evidence mounts that radioactive waste is contaminating water supplies in the area.