Egypt

Demands for Egypt’s U.S.-backed Egyptian Strongman al-Sisi to Release Activist Alaa Abd El Fattah, detained for 2 Years without Charge

By Ellery Roberts Biddle | – The life of Egyptian blogger and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah is in danger. The 39-year-old was jailed in 2019 on charges of spreading fake news, but, despite the limits of Egyptian law, he has yet to go to trial. At a recent hearing concerning the case, his lawyer […]

Donald Trump

In Siccing Justice Dept. on Jimmy Kimmel and SNL, Trump Channeled worst Mideast Dictators

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Bassem Youssef was Egypt’s most famous comedian in the 2000s and until 2014. His weekly half-hour satire, “The Program,” skewered the government of president-for-life Hosni Mubarak in the run-up to the 2011 youth revolt. Mubarak was thin-skinned but did allow some comedians and pundits to blow off steam. He did, […]

Egypt

How Renewables could Forestall an Egypt-Sudan-Ethiopia War over the Grand Renaissance Nile Dam

Sustainability Times

By Laureen Fagan | – ( Sustainability Times) – Renewable sources have the power when it comes to the energy future of East Africans, but they also may prove a solution to a complicated diplomatic and geopolitical problem. That’s according to scientists at Belgium’s Vrije Universiteit Brussel, who say that adding solar and wind energy […]

Egypt

The Ever Given’s Blockage of the Suez Canal and World Trade showed the Downsides of Monopoly Capitalism

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – News media, maritime experts, and a curious public could hardly take their eyes off the Ever Given, the mega cargo ship as long as the Empire State Building is tall. Viewers were stunned to see the ship swung sideways to the canal and thus blocking transit in […]

Egypt

Egyptian Foreign policy under Sisi: diminishing independence in the service of dictatorship

Ebrahim Deen

Johannesburg (Special to Informed Comment) – Egyptian foreign policy under the tutelage of Egyptian president Abdul Fattah El-Sisi has seen the country lose much of its independence in an attempt to secure gulf aid and in the service of combating the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. In addition, the country’s myriad domestic challenges has seen its influence […]

Books

An Egyptian woman writer who dared: the Nawal El Saadawi I knew

The Conversation

By Omnia Amin | – Throughout the Middle East and beyond, the name Nawal El Saadawi is not one that can be received with indifference. During her lifetime and even after her passing on 21 March 2021, the Egyptian author, physician and activist evokes intense feelings that range from love and respect to hatred and […]

Egypt

Suez canal: what the ‘ditch’ meant to the British empire in the 19th century

The Conversation

By Jonathan Parry | – The week-long blockage of the Suez canal by the Ever Given container ship has reminded us that the canal, though immensely important to the world’s commerce, is also very vulnerable. Since its completion in 1869, it has symbolised global interconnectedness. But it has also demonstrated how fears, rivalries and bottlenecks […]

Egypt

Egypt’s Sisi threatens ‘Instability that no one Can Imagine”: Will the Next Mideast War be over Water?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The closure of the Suez Canal for a week by the Ultra Large Container Ship, the Ever Given, signaled the importance to world commerce and energy supplies of the canal, through which some 12 percent of world trade passes. Another danger to that world artery, which connects the Indian Ocean […]

Egypt

How the Imperial past set the Stage for Nile Dam Conflicts between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia

The Conversation

By Mahemud Tekuya | – Ever since construction began a decade ago, there’s been serious contention between Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a huge project straddling the Blue Nile in Ethiopia. For Ethiopia, the project is meant to offer a solution to its severe power problem, providing electricity access […]