A French soldier shot and injured a machete-wielding Egyptian at the Louvre Museum in Paris.Egyptian security officials have identified the alleged attacker as Abdullah Reda El Hamahmy, 29, from Dakahlia, Reuters reports. El Hamahmy is alleged to have attacked two soldiers checking bags near the museum’s shopping mall and was shot in the abdomen, prosecutor Francois Molins said. The Associated Press says the investigation is now looking at whether El Hamahmy acted alone. French President Francois Hollande, however, said he is certain it was an act of terrorism. El-Hamahmy’s family denied their son had any affiliation with terrorist groups and said he was a “normal young man.” The New York Times also has the story.

More subsidy cuts coming soon as IMF delegation reviews Egypt’s progress on reform program: The Ismail government is preparing a series of new “austerity measures” which it plans to discuss with an International Monetary Fund delegation currently visiting to review progress on the reform program Egypt agreed as a condition of its USD 12 bn extended fund facility from the IMF, government sources tell Al Shorouk. The measures include further hikes in the prices of fuel, electricity, and subsidized food commodities. There are divisions within the government over when to implement these new increases, as many senior officials fear the social backlash, said the source. He added that while the delegation is “sympathetic” to the dilemmas of the government, they warned of the consequences of delaying implementing them. As we noted last week, the delegation’s report on the implementation is a requirement for unlocking the second installment of the USD 12 bn IMF funding.

While we’re on subsidies, Patrick Werr points to Egypt’s fertilizer industry as a clear case of how subsidies distort the market. In his column for The National, Werr notes that subsidising energy to fertilizer producers has not only led to farmers overusing them on crops, adding pollutants to the Nile and Mediterranean, but also resulted in shortages in the market as producing fertilizers and selling them at the prices set by the government became a money losing endeavour.

Licenses for cars, driver and company required in new Uber, Careem Act: Ride-sharing platforms including Uber and Careem would require multiple licenses and permits under legislation to regulate the industry expected to be proposed by the Ismail government, Al Borsa reports. Ride-sharing companies as well as individual cars and drivers would all need to be separately licensed under the proposed measures. Company officials say the regulations would simply turn their fleets into taxis that can be hailed online instead of networks of independent drivers.

The new law would also outline a new tax framework for the industry, something MP Ahmed Zaidan, a member of a joint committee in the House of Representatives currently reviewing the draft, said would be welcomed by both Uber and Careem. Had the committee members read Enterprise (or stayed awake during hearings with representatives Uber and Careem), they would have remembered that industry leaders — including Careem MD for Egypt Wael Fakharany — have called for amendments to existing executive regulations instead of a new law. Don’t expect the legislation to be ready anytime soon, as Zaidan said that they have to work on other acts before getting to this one.

On a related note, Careem plans to announce the launch of Careem Go and Go Plus services at a press conference scheduled for tomorrow, Al Mal says. The announcement reveals exactly nothing about what the service might be.

A final date for the resumption of Russian flights to Egypt has yet to be determined, the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement cited by Al Masry Al Youm, but Cairo International Airport has set specific routes for Russia’s Aeroflot at the request of a Russian security delegation, the Egyptian Airport Company’s president told Al Borsa. The ministry’s statement comes after Cairo Airport’s Terminal 2 passed a key Russian security audit on which state-owned television channel Russia 24 aired a report, sources from the airport told the newspaper.

In other tourism news, Ukrainian tour operators are asking Egypt for incentives including lower ground handling fees so they can increase tourist inflows to the country. Senior Ukrainian officials promised the governors of South Sinai and the Red Sea that they would work to deliver 1 mn tourists to Egypt per annum during a tourism-centered press conference in Kiev, Al Borsa reports.

New discoveries to be announced in 2H2017 will put Egypt on the natural gas export track, Bloomberg reports, citing remarks by Oil Minister Tarek El Molla. The discoveries will bring Egypt “closer to its goal of self-sufficiency by 2019,” the story says, quoting EGAS chief Mohamed El Masry as noting that “Egypt will start exporting natural gas in 2019” and will “import 43 to 45 cargoes of liquefied natural gas between March and December this year from Oman, Russia’s Rosneft, and France’s Engie.” Reuters’ Arabic service also has the news, as does Al Borsa.

Centamin gets love from the FT after quadrupling dividend: Egyptian miner Centamin is getting love from the Financial Times as it promotes company analysis from sister publication Investors Chronicle. Noting that the company has quintupled its full-year dividend, the publication writes that “a payout equivalent to 70 per cent of free cash flow looks improbable if gold stays at USD 1,211, but Centamin’s USD 0.135 final dividend has set the benchmark for cashed-up peers not considering mergers and acquisitions.”

Egypt is kicking Sicilian artichokes to the curb: Sicilian purple artichoke producers are being swamped by produce from Egypt, according to Fresh Plaza. One producer says “prices are very low (for the Purple variety) because the domestic produce is being replaced by the Egyptian one. Markets and stores are literally flooded with large quantities of artichokes from Egypt, which are cultivated at a much lower cost.” He says Egypt artichokes are pushing prices below the cost of domestic produce. (We still won’t eat the things, happy as we may be about an export success story…)

“Minor fire” at El Sewedy Electric warehouse, production no interruption to manufacturing: A “minor fire” at an Elsewedy Electric warehouse in 10 Ramadan City yesterday was contained in under an hour and resulted in loss and damage of no more than USD 10k, a source with first-hand knowledge of the incident tells us. The warehouse stored accessories at a fiber poles factory. Manufacturing was not interrupted by the incident, we’re told.

BPE Partners has inked a partnership agreement with SSAT Education in its bid to build 200 PPP schools for the Egyptian Education Ministry, Al Mal reported. We reported in November that BPE and Orascom Construction are two of 79 companies vying for the project. SSAT would provide BPE Partners with technical support for the bid. A government representative said the ministry will issue a shortlist of the bidders qualified for the state tender “soon.”

Water returned to Giza on Friday: The Water Holding Company and National Tunnels Authority might impose a fine on the Société Egyptienne d’Entreprises (Mokhtar Ibrahim) after technical difficulties caused delays in maintenance works and disrupted water services in Giza for more than 48 hours, Al Mal reported. The government had announced that pipelines would remain dry for 24 hours while Mokhtar Ibrahim relocated a water pipeline the make way for construction of a new section of the Cairo Metro. Water began returning gradually to homes as of Friday morning.

14-year-old Demyana Amir succumbed yesterday to her wounds from the St. Peter and St. Paul Church bombing, bringing the total death toll from the December attack to 29, Ahram Online reported.

US Congress members introduce legislation to honor Sadat: US senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Representatives Chris Stewart (R-UT) and Grace Meng (D-NY) introduced a bipartisan, bicameral bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat “for his courageous and steadfast contributions to the history of peace in the Middle East.” The Congressional Gold Medal is the highest civilian award bestowed by US Congress, and its backers want to see it awarded by the centennial of Sadat’s birth in 2018. “Sadat was a once-in-a-generation leader,” said Rep. Chris Stewart. “He demonstrated a moral and political courage that is rare among world leaders, and which transformed the course of history. It’s wholly appropriate that we recognize that courage with the Congressional Gold Medal.”

Federal judge suspends Trump’s “Muslim ban”: Nationals from the seven Muslim-majority countries listed in President Donald Trump’s ban are boarding flights to the US “normally” after a federal judge temporarily halted the executive order and reversed around 60k visas that had been revoked (as long as they were not physically canceled), CNN reported. The Justice Department has filed an appeal against the judge’s order, which Trump promptly attacked in a tweet. US Customs and Border Protection have notified Cairo International Airport of the suspension of the ban. Airlines in Egypt have returned to allowing citizens of the seven countries to board US-bound flights, Al Ahram reports.

Oil prices jump in response to new US sanctions on Iran: US crude shot up to USD 53.83 per barrel after the Trump administration imposed further sanctions on Tehran this past Friday, CNBC reports. The sanctions bar 12 entities and 13 individuals from accessing the US financial market and is seen as an initial reaction to Iran’s ballistic missile program and support for Houthi militia in Yemen, a senior US official said. Oil prices are likely to continue climbing in light of these sanctions, particularly after OPEC’s decision to cut oil production came into effect last month, the broadcaster suggests.