An Egyptian girl beat 40 million students

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A court in New Cairo fined Mada Masr’s editor-in-chief EGP 3 million on Tuesday and ordered the website closed, at the first hearing in the case. The day before, parliament gave El-Sisi a mandate to help defend Saudi Arabia, by a two-thirds majority that was announced without a published count.

And the Central Bank raised interest rates for the first time since 2024, in the same week the dollar went through EGP 56.

On happier news, Mayar Othman won the Arabic Reading Challenge, which attracted more than 40 million students!

Let’s get into it.

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• A court orders Mada Masr closed 📰

• Parliament authorises El-Sisi to help defend Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦

• he Central Bank raises rates for the first time since 2024 🏦

MEDIA | COURT | PRESS FREEDOM
A COURT ORDERS MADA MASR CLOSED

The New Cairo Misdemeanour Court fined Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, EGP 3 million on Tuesday 27 October for running a website without a licence, and ordered the website closed and its equipment confiscated. The fine is the maximum the law allows. It was the first hearing in the case, five days after she was referred to trial.

Inside the courtroom: According to Mada Masr’s account, Judge Mohamed Mubarak rejected every defence request, including to submit documents and call witnesses, and then appointed a lawyer for Attalah although eight lawyers of her own choosing were in the room. Attalah was taken into custody after the ruling and released hours later, once the fine had been paid.

The licence at the centre of it: Mada Masr, founded in 2013, says it applied to the Supreme Council for Media Regulation in October 2018 and again in August 2020 and heard nothing either time. In a 2022 court case the council said the application was missing documents. Mada says it filed a complete application in June 2023 and has had no decision since; in October 2023 the council ordered the site blocked for six months for operating without one.

A second sentence, and a dispute over the appeal: During her release, Attalah learned of a one-year prison sentence passed against her in absentia in 2024; a retrial hearing is set for 11 November. On Saturday the Supreme Judicial Council said she had waived her right to appeal Tuesday’s ruling in writing, and that her defence had refused access to the case file. Mada Masr says she “did not at any moment waive” it, and her lawyers began appeal procedures on Sunday. They have also filed a complaint with judicial inspection over the conduct of the hearing.

Where the profession stands: Journalists Syndicate head Khaled El-Balshy said the syndicate would submit a legal memo supporting the outlet, arguing that licensing disputes belong before administrative courts rather than criminal ones. On Wednesday, Egyptian Streets published a statement expressing deep concern at the ruling and supporting the syndicate’s call for “clear, transparent and accessible licensing rules for news websites, applied equally to every outlet.”

The same week, elsewhere: On Wednesday the cabinet said it plans to raise the fines for publishing false news and to turn the telecoms regulator’s content unit into a national monitoring centre; the new fines have not been specified.

SAUDI ARABIA | THE HOUTHIS | PARLIAMENT
PARLIAMENT AUTHORIZES DEFENSE OF SAUDI ARABIA

After three closed sessions, the House of Representatives approved on Monday 26 October a mandate for El-Sisi to take “the necessary measures” to support Saudi Arabia, in coordination with Riyadh, to defend its territory, sovereignty and holy sites against any external aggression. The Speaker announced a two-thirds majority, the threshold Article 152 of the constitution sets for sending forces on a combat mission abroad. No count was published.

What it does, and what it does not: IEl-Sisi has said Egypt would act only if Riyadh asks, and only to defend Saudi territory and borders, not to attack Yemen. Saudi Arabia has made no public statement on the request or the vote. The mandate sets no time limit and no requirement to report back to parliament. Hussein Haridy, a former assistant foreign minister, called it “purely defensive” and a “precautionary measure” not “directed at any party in the region, whether a state or a group.”

The war did not pause for it: On Thursday and Friday the Houthis claimed six more attacks, on the Ras Tanura and Abqaiq oil sites, the Riyadh and Dammam airports, Rabigh and a military headquarters in Najran; the claims are uncorroborated. Saudi forces said they intercepted a drone aimed at Mecca, which the Houthis denied targeting. In Tehran, Saudi, Iranian, Turkish and Pakistani officials met, and Iran’s readout said only that they had agreed to keep talking.

Cairo kept talking too: Abdelatty called his Saudi and Emirati counterparts on Tuesday to press for a political track, and at the Manama Dialogue on Saturday he called Gulf security an integral part of Egypt’s own and proposed a regional early-warning system. UN Secretary-General António Guterres met El-Sisi in Cairo on Monday, the day of the vote; their talks took in Gaza, Sudan, Libya, Iran and the Strait of Hormuz.

INTEREST RATES | EGP | INFLATION
CENTRAL BANK RAISES RATES FOR FIRST TIME SINCE 2024

The Central Bank of Egypt raised its key rates by one percentage point on Thursday 29 October, to 20 percent for overnight deposits, 21 percent for overnight lending and 20.5 percent for its main operation and discount rate. It is the first increase since March 2024, after five meetings in a row at which rates were held. Most analysts polled by EnterpriseAM had expected a sixth hold.

Why it moved: The bank said “a more restrictive monetary policy stance was necessary to anchor inflation expectations more firmly.” It named three risks: the regional conflict lasting longer and pushing up energy and import prices, tighter global financial conditions, and fiscal measures at home adding more to inflation than expected. Annual urban inflation eased to 13.9 percent in September, but the monthly rate jumped to 1.3 percent. The target is 7 percent, plus or minus two points, by the end of 2027.

The pound, meanwhile: The dollar reached EGP 56 on Monday, according to Reuters, four days after first passing 55, and foreign and Arab investors sold a net of about USD 664 million of Egyptian treasury bills and bonds that day, according to Zawia3. Governor Hassan Abdalla had said at the Egypt Forum the week before that “the most important thing for us is unifying the exchange rate, not the exchange rate itself.”

What it means at the bank counter: Banks began reviewing their savings and lending rates from Sunday, and the government went to market the same day with EGP 110 billion of treasury bill auctions. Higher rates mean better returns on deposits and dearer loans, and they raise what the government pays on the treasury bills it sells every week.

Two loose ends from the last fortnight: An IMF mission is in Cairo for the final review of Egypt’s programme, which has been extended to 15 December, with board approval targeted for mid-December. “We have a mission in the field right now discussing the reviews, the programme,” IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said. And there is still no official word on the USD 5.3 billion Saudi deposit at the Central Bank that fell due in October.