Five arrested near RAF Fairford in suspected Iran-linked terror plot + Nvidia launches AI security system to stop agents going rogue

Good afternoon, friends, and happy Monday. Our lead story today is all about food, history, and where Om El Donia stands, told through a book three years in the making: 420 pages, 150 recipes, and a fervent exploration of the multilayered history of Egyptian cuisine. Elsewhere in today’s issue, we have a Ryan Reynolds Cold War action-comedy on Apple TV that is cheerfully silly and knows it. Plus, AFCON and Nations League recaps below.

First up, the news…

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 More updates on the arrest near the US-used RAF Fairford airbase in Gloucestershire are leading the digital pages this afternoon. The five men arrested are being questioned by British police on suspicion of explosives and terrorism offences, though they have not been publicly identified. US President Donald Trump claims the suspects had been under investigation for some time, though reports suggest the police operation was not intelligence-led.

Amid confusion over how the alleged attack was stopped, UK Defense Secretary Wes Streeting said the woman who tipped off police after spotting suspicious activity involving three white vans only had “a partial picture.” Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation, with an Iran-linked motive among the possibilities being considered, though Streeting declined to comment on any potential links while the investigation remains ongoing.

^^Read more on: BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, The Guardian, and Financial Times.

IN AI NEWS- Nvidia is spearheading a push for more secure AI agents, releasing a new open-source, double-layered security system that it says could prevent incidents like OpenAI’s Hugging Face breach. The chip giant is introducing two new security tools designed to control what AI agents can access in real time and shut them down when they violate predefined safeguards.

^^Read more on: Bloomberg, CNBC, and Wired.

IN THE BUSINESS PRESS- The US and China are planning to cut tariffs imposed on USD 60 bn worth of goods — 30 bn from each country, including imports of toys, sports equipment, cosmetics, Christmas decorations, and American agricultural products. The reciprocal tariff reduction was among the key takeaways from the summit between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Washington last week. It is not yet clear when the lower tariffs would take effect and by how much.

^^Read more on: Bloomberg, CNBC, and Reuters.

We’re happy to welcome Ahmed Mohsen as a guest speaker at the 2026 EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum — the AI edition.

Ahmed Mohsen is the co-founder and CTO of MNT-Halan, one of the fastest-growing fintech platforms in the Middle East and Africa, serving over 8 mn customers across Egypt, Pakistan, Turkey, and the UAE. He leads the company’s technology strategy and architected Neuron, MNT-Halan’s proprietary core banking system, overseeing a team of more than 90 engineers building the company’s digital infrastructure. A serial entrepreneur with deep roots in cybersecurity, Mohsen also co-founded SecureMisr, one of Egypt’s pioneering cybersecurity firms, acquired by Cysiv in 2020.

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Attendance is by invitation only, and we’ve reached full capacity.

Request your invitation here to join the waitlist.

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

• Egypt and Russia are in talks to simplify bilateral trade procedures and advance a freetrade agreement. Discussions also covered introducing electronic document management for cross-border transactions and developing new logistics routes;
• Egypt’s first hedge fund framework cleared the Official Gazette on 23 September, giving the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) the green light to license funds that can short stocks, trade derivatives, and borrow to invest, with each fund setting its own risk limits, signed off by the FRA one prospectus at a time. The framework covers equities, debt, futures and forwards, exchange-traded options, and borrowed stock for short selling on the EGX;
• The Suez Canal Economic Zone signed a contract to develop and operate a EGP 1 bn digital truck-management yard at Ain Sokhna Port — and its link to Nafeza, Egypt’s national single window for foreign trade, is already live. The 167k sqm yard will handle up to 1.1k trucks a day at full operation, using real-time planning and digital yard management to regulate truck flow;
• BP is pushing ahead with its USD 700 mn, four-well drilling program in Egypt as it negotiates the sale of roughly USD 1 bn of its local assets to Med-focused Energean. The wells fall on both sides of that dividing line: the first is in a field Energean is lined up to buy, and two of the next three go to Arcius Energy, the joint venture BP is keeping.

The Egyptian government locked in enough LNG and crude to carry the country through peak demand this summer, and the real question now is who pays for it and for the rebuild ahead.

PowerTrip, our new four-part signature series, follows the money behind an energy sector that went from exporting gas to importing it in just five years.

Over the four issues this autumn, we'll look at how the lights stayed on and what that cost, who will own the next generation of power, how fast renewables can really scale, and whether Egypt's claim to be the region's energy hub still holds.

Issue I lands Wednesday, 30 September, and looks at how Egypt avoided rationing this summer, how the country went from gas exporter to importer in a decade, and what keeping the lights on actually cost us.

Coming straight to your inbox — Wednesday, 30 September.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- We’re in for some much-welcome breeze in the capital tomorrow, with temperatures set to peak at just 32°C, followed by an even cooler overnight low of 22°C, according to our favorite weather app.