Egypt’s role in brokering Hamas’ potentially landmark step toward elections and reconciliation with Fatah topped coverage of Egypt on an otherwise slow news day. Other headlines worth noting in brief include:

• Forbes Middle East published a list of what it says were the top 10 selling cars in Egypt in 1H2017. The top selling car during the period was the Nissan Sunny, followed by Mitsubishi Lancer.
• There’s a movement afoot in diplomatic circles to have Cairo boost its military presence in the Sinai to better battle terrorism, despite the restrictions placed on the country by its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, Ibrahim Ouf writes for Middle East Online.
• Government officials and religious scholars are up in arms against a fatwa issued by a former official from Dar Al-Ifta allowing citizens to illegally excavate treasures and artifacts, Al Monitor reports.
• Amr Salama’s “Sheikh Jackson” is a “well-crafted but middling drama whose attention-catching gimmick only gets in the way,” Variety’s Dennis Harvey says in a critique of the film.
• American citizen Ahmed Etwiy has been in prison for four years on charges of being involved in a protest and may get a shot at freedom today in a mass trial, according to the Huffington Post.