The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee torture report has brought back painful memories. Now everyone knows that our government has “tortured some folks”, as President Obama has put it when he wanted to be homey and cute. As someone who was tortured himself in an Egyptian jail, such charm is wasted on me. And contrary to what CIA director confuses knowable and unknowable things , nothing is unknowable about Torture; the emotional and physical details remain vivid in my memory even after more than 40 years.

As the West experiences a rise in the sort of terror attacks that are endemic to the Islamic world -- church attacks, sex-slavery and beheadings -- it is only natural that the same mainstream media that habitually conceals such atrocities “over there,” especially against Christians and other minorities under Islam, would also conceal the reality of jihadi aspirations “over here.”

There is an old saying: "They thought that under the dome there was a sheikh (an expert or scholar)." It is an expression of bankruptcy, helplessness and lack of means. The saying makes one ponder on the next House of Representatives and the capabilities of those who will be elected to it.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who is perceived as the strongman of Egypt, constantly claims that his goal is to lead a strong country – yet he is actually working on neutering Egyptian society.

Egyptian and Turkish football pitches are set to re-emerge as battlegrounds between militant, street battle-hardened fans and authoritarian leaders in a life and death struggle that involves legal proceedings to brand the supporters as terrorists and efforts to undermine their widespread popular base.

They call themselves “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.” On the other hand, clerics prefer to call them “Da’ish,” while the Western world and international press call them “ISIS,” which is the initials of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Egypt has been making impressive progress in straightening up its balance sheet in recent months. Steep cuts in energy subsidies coupled with a drop in world oil prices have given the Middle East’s most populous country some fiscal breathing space, following three years of increasing budget deficits, mounting debt and reduced foreign currency reserves.

Every year, the world joins in a worldwide and national campaign between 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) and 10 December (Human Rights Day) to send a message that violence against women is a violation of human rights and that it must be ended.

Very little has changed with regards to Egypt’s trajectory of descent into a social and political abyss ever since its security forces dispersed the Islamist sit-ins using great force and even much greater impunity. The slope of decline into a more oppressive police state has indeed been very slippery and while there’s room for more damage, what has already transpired will take years and years to fix.

The vast majority of people were struck with the impression that the judgment acquitting Mubarak was not simply a court ruling issued by an independent judge acquitting Mubarak from specific crimes, but instead served to acquit the personality of Mubarak and his regime in general.

Bishoy Armia Boulous who currently on remand in Tora prison following his release on 20/7/13 and his re-arrest same day for conversion from Islam to Christianity receive inhuman treatment in Egypt prisons, he is being tortured physical and mentally.

In a recent interview on CBN News, Andrew White, an Anglican priest known as the “Vicar of Baghdad,” tried to recount the horrific atrocities Christians in Iraq are suffering at the hands of the Islamic State. After explaining how Christian minorities fled Baghdad to Ninevah when Islamic militants began terrorizing them and bombing their churches, White said:

At the end of last week, a statement was issued by the King of Saudi Arabia announcing the Riyadh supplementary agreement, whose goal is to clear the air in the Gulf. He hoped that moving forward with the agreement would bring about cooperation, free of past disagreements. Just one day before this, an announcement was made that the Saudi, Emirati, and Bahraini ambassadors would return to their posts in Qatar, representing a significant step forward in ending the Gulf crisis. But will this actually lead to the end of the crisis, and has Qatar responded to the demands of the Gulf states?

Perhaps it would be repetitive to say that Egypt is standing before a decisive moment in its history, one upon which its future and destiny depends for years to come. This moment became extended since the January 25 Revolution broke out against deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak and his corrupt and unjust regime until now.

When almost everybody thought that Lionel Messi’s best times were in the past, the Argentine player became the top scorer both in the Spanish and in the Champions League – an extraordinary achievement – proving again his exceptional qualities. There is, however, another side to Messi that is as remarkable and much less well known: his work as a humanitarian.

Mubarak’s regime entered into decline when contradiction and conflict reached their peak among the ruling class and junta, as with what happened previously within the 1952 family.

Culture matters! And when it comes to Egyptian politics, it matters enormously. In the absence of a proper political structure, where the existing structure is often altered to better serve the ruler, culture plays an essential role in mobilising Egyptians.

Qatar is signalling the rejection of demands of human rights and trade union activists to grant trade union and collective bargaining rights to its majority migrant worker population with the detention and likely deportation of more than 100 predominantly South Asian labourers who went on strike to protest low pay as well as poor working and living conditions.

This week concludes the visit by an IMF delegation, the first in Egypt since March 2013, though this visit is dedicated solely to assessing current economic conditions and offering counsel, with no specific program commitments to follow. Preparations are also well underway for the economic conference for donors and investors, scheduled for March 13–14, and for the projects and legislation to be announced at the conference. In substantive terms, over the last six months the government has implemented several major policy decisions. It has reduced energy subsidies, increased fertilizer prices, developed a new distribution system for bread and other subsidized items, raised corporate and personal income taxes, launched the Suez Canal project, and expanded infrastructure projects.

Human rights groups and trade unions have stepped up pressure on Qatar to reform its restrictive labour system, and have expanded their campaign to include all six wealthy members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).