In a Way That Does Not Harm Citizens’ Interests: Electricity Load-Shedding Continues until March
Officials at the Ministry of Electricity said that electricity load-shedding will continue until next March because of the decline in the quantities of fuel supplied to power stations in order to benefit from gas exports in the coming months, explaining that the daily rate of load-shedding will range between 600 and 800 megawatts, and that these capacities will be distributed across all the governorates of the republic for no more than 10 minutes, according to the “Asharq Business with Bloomberg” platform.
According to the officials, a committee of several ministries is to be formed to draw up scenarios for the load-shedding plan in a way that does not harm citizens’ interests and at the same time does not burden the state with additional dollar costs for importing mazut.
Closing Cafés at Midnight to Save Energy
The scenarios expected to be discussed within days include setting a closing time for shops and cafés at midnight, as well as holding football matches and sports activities during the day as far as possible, with the possibility of returning to a work-from-home system for all employees one day every week.
Hebrew Newspapers: Egypt Joins the Land Bridge for Transporting Goods to Israel
The Israeli newspaper Maariv said that Egypt will join the land bridge for transporting goods from Gulf states to the occupation state, after the naval blockade imposed by the Houthis on maritime traffic in the Red Sea.
The Hebrew website Walla said that an agreement of principles was signed by the Egyptian company “WWCS”, through its president and founder Hesham Helmy, the honorary consul of Ireland in Alexandria and the former head of the logistics company Maersk Egypt, under which it will be allowed to use the occupation’s border crossings to transport goods by land from the port of Dubai through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to it.
The land route will shorten shipping times by about 10 days, in response to the Houthi threats to Israeli shipping routes passing Yemen in the Red Sea.
Maariv said that, according to the memorandum of understanding, the two parties decided to cooperate on land transport from the UAE to the ports of Haifa and Ashdod or Eilat, and to Egypt and other destinations in the Middle East.
Food Division: Citizens Will Notice Lower Prices in the New Year
Hazem El-Menoufy, a member of the General Food Division at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that starting next January, sugar prices will see a decline that citizens will notice, explaining that there is no crisis in the provision of goods. The member of the General Food Division believes that with the start of the new year Egypt will see lower prices and greater availability of goods, and that the sugar crisis is on its way to ending, noting that it has been made available in the markets at a rate of 75%.
Minister of Supply: No to Compulsory Pricing, and We Have Enough Sugar
Minister of Supply Ali Moselhy objected to the demands for compulsory pricing of goods, saying: “It has never been a solution,” and added: “The constitution and the law must be respected in commercial activity and in freedom of competition.”
Sugar is sufficient
The minister added in press statements that “the quantities of sugar currently available are enough for consumption until after the month of Ramadan” and that “the ministry is working in an integrated manner in preparation for the coming Ramadan season in all goods, including rice, poultry and meat”, adding: “We had a strategic reserve of sugar of up to 8 months, and two months of the reserve were consumed to ease the crisis in recent days.”
Vegetables Division Promises an End to the Onion Crisis: Prices Are Exaggerated
Hatem El-Naguib, deputy head of the Vegetables and Fruits Division at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that the greed of some traders, climate change and temperatures are among the most important reasons behind crises in the unavailability of some basic goods and the rise in crop prices.
He added, during an interview on Sada El-Balad channel, that some of the prices being announced are “exaggerated”, and that there is an abundance of crops in some governorates, especially in Upper Egypt.
El-Naguib believes that the Egyptian market is witnessing stability in onion prices, and that the price of the new onions starts from EGP 10 to 14, and he heralded the end of the onion crisis, with its price falling in the markets soon.
Water Connected to 74 Families in El-Ayyat and Atfih after Community Surveys
Engineer Mansour Badawi, head of the Giza Drinking Water and Sanitation Company, said on Monday that water had been connected to 63 families in the village of Kafr Ammar in El-Ayyat district, in cooperation with a care and development foundation, while in the villages of Menyet El-Raqqa and El-Raqqa El-Bahariya in Atfih district drinking water was connected to 11 families, in cooperation with an NGO.
Badawi continued in a statement that connecting drinking water to the families most in need comes after conducting community surveys to provide comprehensive information about the families, and field research to study the families’ social circumstances, to ensure that water is connected to those who deserve it.
Egypt’s Exports and Imports Decline
Egypt’s exports fell by 22% in the first nine months of the current year, year on year, according to data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics.
Egypt’s exports during the period recorded about $30.8 billion, compared with $39.4 billion in the same period of the previous year, while imports recorded $58.5 billion, compared with $74 billion for the same period of 2022.
Imports also fell by 21% year on year, recording $58.5 billion, compared with $74 billion for the same period of the previous year.
Egypt is seeking to boost its exports and reduce imports to compensate for the scarcity of foreign currency. It released goods worth $53.7 billion from Egyptian ports up to last September, and the government also provides support to exporters to boost their exports. Most of the support is concentrated in the “Exporters Support” programme implemented by the Ministry of Finance, which said it has disbursed more than EGP 50 billion to companies since 2019.
British Documents: The Aim of the Tripartite Aggression against Egypt Was to Get Rid of Nasser
British documents have revealed that the states behind the 1956 Tripartite Aggression against Egypt planned for something beyond seizing control of the Suez Canal, as the main aim was to get rid of former President Gamal Abdel Nasser and his regime.
The documents, excerpts of which were published by the BBC, said that the aggression carried out by Britain, France and the Israeli occupation state aimed to destroy Egypt economically and militarily and to pave the way for a new regime after toppling the rule of President Gamal Abdel Nasser.
The aggression began on 29 October 1956, and the documents reveal that the United States warned the British and the French of the consequences of any military move against Egypt.
They also show that planning for the attack on Egypt had actually begun only three days after Nasser’s decision to nationalise the Suez Canal, while the Israeli occupation state prepared its own plan, which it called “Kadesh”, under which it occupied the Gaza Strip, then under Egyptian administration, and the Sinai Peninsula.
The documents indicate that Britain appointed an official to run psychological warfare. The first aim was to silence Radio Cairo, to “be replaced by the British Near East Broadcasting Station”. The silencing plan included striking the four transmitting stations in Abu Zaabal, in addition to the two less powerful stations in Cairo and Alexandria.
Ethiopia Objected to the Construction of the Administrative Capital and the Martyr Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel
Alaa El-Zawahiri, a member of the Egyptian negotiating delegation on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam file, said that the failure of the latest negotiations with Ethiopia was expected, and that this was apparent at the third meeting, which was held in Cairo.
He pointed out that Ethiopia had reservations about what it called unilateral Egyptian actions, and that it objected to agricultural projects, the construction of the New Administrative Capital, the Martyr Ahmed Hamdi Tunnel and the renovation of the barrages without consulting it.
Irrigation Minister Warns Ethiopia against Any Unilateral Measure
Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Hani Sewilam warned Ethiopia against taking any step, modification or unilateral measures that could affect Egypt’s water security.
He said during an interview on Al Arabiya Al Hadath channel that if Egypt’s water security is affected and harmed, Egyptian institutions will have ways of dealing with this harm, and that all negotiation tracks with the Ethiopian side have stopped by decision of the Egyptian state.
Leaks Reveal Israel’s Intention to Take Control of the Philadelphi Corridor on the Egyptian Border
Leaks from Netanyahu revealed his government’s intention to take control of the Philadelphi Corridor, which runs along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip for 14 km.
Under the peace treaty, this corridor is a buffer zone that was under the control of the Israeli occupation before its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Israel signed with Egypt the Philadelphi Protocol, which allowed Egypt to deploy 750 soldiers along the border with Gaza; this is not a military force but a police force to combat terrorism and infiltration across the border. Two years after Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Hamas took control of this corridor, and as Israel tightened its grip on Gaza, Palestinians crossed this corridor to the Egyptian side, and since then Egypt has tightened its security grip on this border strip.
Israeli media say that Israel is seeking to take control of the corridor again to confront the tunnels beneath this border strip, but an Israeli return to control of the Philadelphi Corridor may not be a welcome idea on the Egyptian side, and may require the signing of a new protocol similar to the one approved in 2005.
Until this moment, Egypt has not commented on Netanyahu’s leaks, but Israel’s control of Philadelphi could lead to further humanitarian crises in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Commenting on reports of the Israeli occupation’s intention to take control of the corridor, strategic expert and thinker Major General Samir Farag said that the Philadelphi Corridor is a Palestinian buffer zone between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, that the armed forces secure the Egyptian border to a great degree, and that talk of Israeli forces entering the Egyptian border is not true.
He added, during a phone call with TV presenter Ahmed Moussa on Sada El-Balad channel, that no Israeli forces have approached the Egyptian border, and no one approaches it because it is a red line, noting that Israel’s entry into the Philadelphi Corridor is still in Gaza, and pointing out that President Sisi concluded an agreement with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, to amend the Camp David Accords so that the Egyptian armed forces could reach the border.
UNHCR: Sudanese Are the Largest Group of Asylum Seekers in Egypt
The UN Refugee Agency in Egypt said in a report that the funding it had received to support refugees and asylum seekers residing in Egypt, up to last October, amounted to $151 million, to respond to the needs of refugees and asylum seekers.
The report explained that this funding is used to respond to the needs of more than 451,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered with the agency’s offices in Egypt and residing there, belonging to 58 nationalities.
The report indicated that the number of Sudanese registered in Egypt from the start of the Sudanese crisis until 8 December this year reached 188,000 asylum seekers, the largest number of those registered with the agency, compared with 153,000 Syrians and 109,000 of other nationalities.
