Good morning, wonderful people. Join us, please, in a quiet expression of gratitude for the simple fact of having made it to the end of the workweek. (At least for our readers here in Omm El Donia.)

The mood in Egypt this morning is perhaps best summed up here and here. (It’s vulgar and best not played if little ears are with you in the kitchen / car / wherever.) The first clip is an oldie-but-goodie dating back to perhaps 2017, while the second is from yesterday in Downtown.

The war in Gaza is continuing to drive the news cycle at home and abroad this morning, with the nation in three days of mourning for the more than 470 victims of Tuesday’s hospital bombing and mass protests called for the weekend.

We have all the key updates in this morning’s War Watch, but here’s the tl;dr:

  • Mass protests tomorrow: The National Dialogue is calling on Egyptians to take to the streets on Friday to denounce Israel’s war in Gaza and the prospect of it forcibly displacing Palestinians into Sinai.
  • Gaza aid tomorrow? That’s according to Joe Biden, who seems to have left Israel with an agreement for Egypt and Israel to allow a limited number of aid trucks into the besieged enclave (emphasis on limited).
  • In shock news: The US vetoed a UN Security Council to call for a temporary humanitarian ceasefire because it wasn’t sufficiently pro-Israeli.
  • Washington’s MidEast policy in two figures: USD 10 bn for Israel. USD 100 mn for the Palestinians.

We’re looking for a big weekend on the diplomatic front:

  • Gaza summit in Egypt: Regional and world leaders are scheduled to gather in Cairo on Saturday to discuss ending the conflict and finding a solution to the Palestine issue. There’s no word on who will be attending.
  • The UN secretary-general is in town today: Antonio Guterres will meet with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi to discuss the entrance of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
  • And the next foreign diplomat to visit Egypt is… British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. A statement from the Foreign Office didn’t detail his itinerary, saying only that he would begin on Wednesday a three-day tour of Egypt, Turkey and Qatar.
  • There’s one diplomat who’s heading in the opposite direction: The Israeli ambassador to Cairo and embassy staff, who all have been evacuated from the country in response to the rising risk of unrest, according to Israeli media.
  • A travel warning: The US and UK are now warning their citizens against all travel to Lebanon as fighting intensifies between Lebanese armed groups and the Israeli military.

DATA POINT- Egypt hosts 390k UNHCR-registered refugees and asylum seekers from 59 countries, with Syrian refugees accounting for most of them, according to the UNHCR’s latest fact sheet (pdf). Some 317k people fleeing the crisis in Sudan have also entered Egypt since mid-April who are yet to be registered on the humanitarian organization’s records.

CREDIT CARD WATCH-

Banks in Egypt are now following strict new CBE instructions on credit card use for foreign-currency transactions. The measures, which came into effect at midnight last night, effectively put an EGP 7,750 per-month cap on FX-denominated transactions in Egypt. Folks wanting to use their cards abroad will need to contact their banks and provide proof they’re planning to travel before card issuers allow a more generous limit. The measures come after most banks imposed curbs on debit card spending.

WATCH THIS SPACE-

#1- S&P is next up to review our credit rating: S&P Global Ratings will publish its review of our sovereign credit rating tomorrow. Moody’s downgraded its rating for Egypt to Caa1 from B3 earlier this month due to worsening debt affordability and the FX crunch.

AND THEN- Fitch will conduct its review at the beginning of November.

#2- Unknown buyer acquires chunk of Fawry: An undisclosed investor purchased a 4.7% stake in e-payments giant Fawry in a block transaction on the EGX yesterday, according to an EGX bulletin. Almost 161.5 mn of the company’s shares were acquired for almost EGP 904 mn, the bourse said.

CHINA WATCH-

Xi Jinping promises USD 100 bn in new financing for developing economies: Chinese President Xi Jinping promised foreign companies wider access to the Chinese market, as well as USD 100 bn in new financing for developing economies during the Belt and Road Forum on Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.

Xi and Putin discuss deepening economic and political ties: China’s President Xi Jinping told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two nations should partner in “strategic emerging industries” and work towards making “substantial progress” on the long-awaited Sino-Russian natural gas pipeline, according to a Chinese readout of the conversation.

ALSO- China is unlikely to receive advanced AI chips any time soon, after the US announced it will cease shipments of the products, the nation’s latest measure designed to limit China’s military development, reports Reuters.

CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

The Toma family’s bid to acquire an additional 46.9% of Dice starts today, the EGX announced yesterday. The company’s shareholders will have until 15 November to respond to the offer. If successful, the acquisition will be executed five trading days after the offer period ends. The Toma family is asking for EGP 0.65 per share, valuing the 838.14 mn shares targeted at up to EGP 544.8 mn per the mandatory tender offer (MTO) published earlier this week.

The deadline is ticking for Dar Venture’s DarE incubator applications: Submissions for the DarE Incubator program by Dar Al-Handasah’s venture capital arm Dar Ventures will come to end this Friday. The six-month program is set to accelerate the growth of promising tech startups from the region.

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