CAIRO – 28 January 2022: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that the US is committed to fostering partnership with Egypt to “bolster regional stability and respect for human rights”. Blinken’s remarks came after a phone call with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Thursday, during which they discussed bilateral relations and regional issues, according to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. “Spoke with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Ukraine, Libya, and regional developments,” Blinken said in a tweet. The United States is committed to strengthening our partnership with Egypt to bolster regional stability and respect for human rights. The phone call also discussed a number of regional issues with the aim of exchanging views and coordination in a way that ensures resolving the different crises and achieving stability and security in the region.

NEW DELHI, Jan 28 (Reuters) – India’s capital Delhi lifted a weekend curfew and allowed restaurants and marketplaces to reopen on Friday, following a sharp drop in new infections of COVID-19. Under new orders, however, the city will remain under night time curfew, and schools will be closed, Delhi’s lieutenant governor said. Restaurants, bars and cinemas will be allowed to operate with up to 50% capacity and the number of people at weddings will be restricted to 200. The number of new cases in Delhi fell to 4,291 on Jan. 27 from a peak of 28,867 on Jan. 13. India reported 251,209 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours, taking the overall tally to 40.62 million, the health ministry said.

CAIRO – 27 January 2022: According to the PUNCH website, the Egyptian Government has offered to assist Nigeria in the preservation of the 1,130 looted Benin bronzes being expected in the country from Germany. Egypt Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled el-Enani, made the offer in Cairo, Egypt when the Nigerian Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, paid him a visit. Mohammed had led some private sector stakeholders involved in Digital Switch Over, to Afreximbank to assist them on how they can source funds to complete the wholly private sector financially driven project. The Egyptian minister said they were willing to deploy their wealth of experiences in antiquity preservation management to assist Nigeria in preserving the treasure being expected from Germany. The Egyptian Minister of Tourism & Antiquities Khaled el-Enani also offered to help Nigeria in the areas of capacity building, museum management and tourism statistics.

CAIRO – 28 January 2022: Foreign Minister and President-designate of the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) Sameh Shoukry said Thursday that funding allocated for international climate action is still insufficient. In a virtual Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) meeting at the ministerial level, Shoukry said providing more funding to face climate change consequences is highly required, Foreign Ministry Spokesman ambassador Ahmed Hafez said. The meeting was hosted by US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and attended by ministers and other high-ranking officials from the European Commission, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the office of the UN Secretary-General. During the meeting, Shoukry said Egypt is now witnessing the implementation of commitments concerning facing the climate change consequences via implementing the recommendations of the Paris and Glasgow summits on climate change. This comes within the framework of preparations of the 27th Conference of Parties (COP27) expected to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh city in 2022

During the meeting, the Talgo delegation announced that the first train would be shipped to Egypt in the first half of February, according to a statement released by the Transport Ministry on Thursday. The transport minister asked the Talgo delegation to dispatch the seven trains in 2022 to bolster the Egyptian railway fleet, the statement added. The Spanish delegation also offered to manufacture seven luxury sleeper trains under a soft loan from the Spanish government. The two sides agreed on holding intensive meetings in the coming period to consider all details of this Spanish offer, especially as the transport ministry seeks to localize the manufacturing of sleeper trains in the country under presidential directives.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Wednesday that the security of the Gulf countries is an extension to the Egyptian national security. He stressed not to allow it to be transgressed, to effectively confront the threats faced by the Gulf countries and to reject any practices that seek to destabilize them. Sisi affirmed Egypt’s condemnation of any terrorist act committed by the Houthi militia to target the security, stability and safety of the sisterly UAE and its citizens. Egypt’s support for all measures taken by the UAE to deal with any terrorist act targeting it, within the framework of Egypt’s firm position on supporting the security and stability of the UAE and the close link between Egyptian national security and security of UAE. The Egyptian President stressed that solidarity, unity of Arab countries and consistency of positions are among the most effective ways to ward off external dangers from the Arab world as a whole.

The Egyptian Interior Ministry, on Wednesday responded to leaked videos that went viral on social media about the torture of a person in police detention. It said that the video confirms the extent to which officers appear able to inflict violence on civilians with near total impunity, according to human rights groups. The report said that the video, covertly recorded by a detainee through a cell door, appears to show two inmates hung in stress positions. The detainees are naked from the waist up and suspended from a metal grate by their arms, which are fastened behind their backs, the Guardian reported. The report added that the video is one of two believed to have been recorded in November last year inside a police station in the working-class el-Salam neighbourhood of northern Cairo.

Those answers are expected this week — even though the U.S. and its allies have already made clear they will reject the top Russian demands. Earlier this month, Lavrov’s deputy pointedly refused to rule out the deployment of Russian military assets to Cuba and Venezuela — far closer to the U.S. than Ukraine — if Moscow’s security demands aren’t met. Presidential advisers from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany are set to meet in Paris to discuss ways to revive a stalled peace agreement for eastern Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly accused Ukraine of planning to retake the areas controlled by the rebels — something Kyiv denies. Britain is also promising sanctions, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has urged European nations to do more to support Ukraine.

The new network signed with Tamares Telecom will be an alternative to existing cables that connect Europe with Asia via the Suez Canal. Partner said it would deploy 300 km (186 miles) of fiber optics at a cost of tens of millions of shekels to expand Tamares’ network and create a corridor between the Mediterranean sea and Jordan. The project is expected to provide high capacity and address the growing increased data flow between the West to the East, Partner said. Avi Zvi, Partner’s chief executive, said in addition to being a significant growth engine, it will turn Partner into a global communications infrastructure player. It is in the process of deploying a fibre network in Israel.

Despite warnings from Egypt and Sudan about any unilateral steps regarding GERD before said agreement is reached, Ethiopia implemented the second phase of filling the dam in July without the two countries’ consent. In 2015, the three countries signed the Declaration of Principles, per which the downstream countries [Egypt and Sudan] should not be negatively affected by the construction of the dam. In March 2021, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stated, “No one can take a drop of water from Egypt... This is not a threat.”Sudan, as well has warned more than once of filling the GERD before reaching a legal binding agreement. Ethiopia, on the other side affirms that the second filling will be conducted, despite all negotiations and mediations.

CAIRO - 25 January 2022: Egypt officially approved Monday the COVID-19 antiviral oral pill Molnupiravir, becoming the first country in MENA, and the fourth worldwide to provide the drug, according to Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and acting minister of health Khaled Abdel GhaffarThis comes in accordance with relevant directives from the political leadership, he said. In this regard, the minister expressed thanks to the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) for the efforts it has made to accelerate licensing five domestic companies to manufacture Molnupiravir after passing accurate lab tests that approved the drug for emergency use. Meanwhile, EDA President Tamer Essam said Molnupiravir has been authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for emergency use for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19. It reduces the risk of being hospitalized by 50 percent, he added. Local companies have so far produced 25,000 packs of the drug, he said, noting that the move comes in line with the Egyptian State’s efforts to mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19Parts of the report were taken from MENA agency

But he said “ending the acute phase of the pandemic must remain our collective priority.”“There are different scenarios for how the pandemic could play out and how the acute phase could end. But it’s dangerous to assume that omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the endgame,” Tedros told the start of a WHO executive board meeting this week. Omicron is less likely to cause severe illness than the previous delta variant, according to studies. It also more easily infects those who have been vaccinated or had previously been infected by prior versions of the virus. “Let me put it plainly: If the current funding model continues, WHO is being set up to fail,” he said.

The Egyptian Drug Authority announced granting an emergency use license for the “Molnupiravir” drug, after passing the necessary assessments to deepen the localization of the pharmaceutical industry in Egypt. According to the authority’s statement, thanks to the continuous cooperation between the Egyptian Drug Authority and various state institutions and industry partners, Egypt will be the first country in the Middle East to issue an emergency registration license for a coronavirus drug – a global leap in the pharmaceutical industry locally. “Molnupiravir” is the first oral coronavirus treatment for adults at high risk, the authority explained, cutting the threat of hospitalization and death by half for mild to moderate cases. The drug will be restricted to hospitals only to ensure that it is used under full medical supervision. Egypt was the first country in the Middle East to locally manufacture remdesivir and favipiravir coronavirus drugs as well, and to achieve self-sufficiency in them and export the drug to various other countries.

LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) – British police will investigate alleged lockdown breaches at Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Downing Street residence after receiving evidence from an internal government probe into a series of gatherings. New allegations emerged late on Monday that he broke the COVID-19 lockdown rules he imposed by attending a surprise birthday party in Downing Street when social gatherings indoors were banned. That added to a long list of alleged lockdown breaches in Downing Street, including one ‘bring your own booze’ party, which Johnson has said he attended thinking it was a work event. “I can confirm that the Met (Metropolitan Police) is now investigating a number of events that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years in relation to potential breaches of COVID-19 regulations,” she said. Reported revelry throughout Britain’s multiple coronavirus lockdowns includes boozy staff parties, suitcases of supermarket wine, a broken children’s swing, a wine fridge and jokes by staff about how to present such parties to reporters.

Italian fashion designer Stefano Ricci announced on social media that he would celebrate the 50th anniversary of his brand in Luxor Governorate. Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled al-Anany, said that Ricci will present his latest models in a fashion show in front of the Temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor in March. Ricci attracts a certain segment of high-spending tourists which the ministry targets, Anany stated.