Trump touches down in Turkey for Nato summit

Good afternoon, friends, and happy Tuesday — tonight is the night. Egypt vs. Argentina kicks off in a matter of hours, and we have everything you need in the sports round-up below. In the meantime: if yesterday’s Instapay scam story had you on edge, today’s feature will not help with that — we’re looking at why the human eye can no longer reliably catch deepfakes. On a lighter note, we found a family-run dessert shop in Nasr City that tastes like it came straight out of a loving mother’s kitchen.

But first, the news…

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 No single story is getting top billing this afternoon, but all eyes drift to Ankara, Turkey as the Nato summit kicks off. US President Donald Trump touched down for the two-day summit, expected to signal he’s ready to sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets — reversing a ban from his first term — as the alliance rolls out fresh multi-bn-USD arms agreements to show seriousness about the 5% defense spending pledge it made last year. Trump is also set to meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on Wednesday, with Kyiv pushing hard for more Patriot interceptors after Monday’s Russian strike killed at least 14 people in the capital. The US is also currently in talks with Germany to start joint production of high-demand missiles for Ukraine’s defense in Europe.

^^Read more on: Reuters, The Guardian and CNN.

MEANWHILE- Twin explosions ripped through central Damascus this morning, wounding at least 18 people, just as French President Emmanuel Macron — the first major Western head of state to visit Syria since Bashar Al Assad’s fall — sat down with President Ahmed Al Sharaa at the presidential palace. The blasts went off near the Four Seasons hotel where Macron had been staying and where he’d just met civil society representatives. The bombs — one in a parked car, one in a garbage container, according to Syria’s interior ministry — mark the second attack in Damascus in under a week, after a café bombing killed at least nine people last Thursday.

^^Read more on: CNN, BBC, Reuters and Associated Press.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• Shipping giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will reroute their joint AE15 Asia-Mediterranean-Europe service through the Suez Canal instead of around the Cape of Good Hope. This puts Egyptian ports back on a direct Asia-Europe loop, rather than the longer Africa diversion, for the first time since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran;
• The CBE is laying the groundwork for what could become its most ambitious monetary project yet — the digital EGP. As central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) move from concept to reality globally, Egypt is weighing the promise of financial inclusion and efficient government payments against cybersecurity risks, banking sector stability, and a deeply entrenched cash economy;
• Modon Ras El Hekma awarded Hassan Allam Construction the contract to build the Montage Hotel & Branded Residences at Ras El Hekma. The project features a 200-key Montage-branded hotel, 96 branded residence villas, a clubhouse, and supporting infrastructure in Wadi Yemm.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- The heat’s still on, albeit to a relatively lesser extent. We’ll be in for a high of 35°C and a low of 23°C in Cairo. It’s going to be several degrees cooler up north, with temperatures peaking at just 30°C before hitting a low of 23°C, according to our favorite weather app.