A year has passed since the heads of states and government of Africa's three economic blocs — COMESA, SADC and the East African Community (EAC) — met in Sharm El-Sheikh on 10 June 2015 to sign and launch the largest continental alliance through a free trade agreement (FTA) between the three blocs.

The reality of terrorism certainly extends far beyond the alleged definition the world has assigned to it. While the US depicts terrorism within the narrow frame of specific individual groups, such as Islamic State (IS), it is in fact a universal phenomenon that needs to be addressed not only structurally, but also from the motivational and environmental perspectives. Focusing on fighting IS alone will eventually weaken the group (as with Al-Qaeda previously), but as long as the root of the problem continues to exist, another terrorist group will emerge in due time.

I am sorry to say that despite officials’ nods to the importance of investment and the need to increase it and improve its climate, Egypt today does not have a clear investment policy or even an overall economic vision, as evidenced by the continued execution of plans and programs that have proved unsuccessful over the past two years.

He who witnessed the flowing human river of last Friday going to pray in Al-Aqsa Mosque and he who saw crowds of tens of thousands pouring from all over Palestine towards Jerusalem will realise definitely that the attempts to isolate Jerusalem from its surroundings is still and will remain a failure.

Next week, the House of Representatives will discuss next fiscal year's budget, set to go into effect on July 1, 2016. Despite the few days allotted for debate, which will allow only the narrowest review and revision by the House, a discussion of the budget in and out of the parliament will provide an opportunity to understand and assess the government’s economic program, which is vital given the ambiguity of economic policies so far. So to make this debate more accessible to the general public, I’llattempt here only to highlight the general features of the budget and the challenges it poses, leaving analysis and opinion for another occasion.

Aridity: It is not so odd that the new preachers are dressed in the robes of hermits. What feels oddest is the state of caste they embody. Finding their origins in a wealthier class has inevitably and unwillingly presented them as preachers to that very social class, which is not degrading, as the existence of the essential least of religion is better than its vanishing.

Ousted President Mohamed Morsi actually pardoned one of those convicted of the killing of Farag Fouda, and this man has since joined the Islamic State group in Syria. Fouda was a secular liberal who took part in the re-launch of the Wafd Party – the New Wafd as it was called – in the 1970s when late President Anwar El-Sadat allowed the presence of political parties. Fouda, however, resigned from the party when it decided to enter into an electoral alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood for the legislative elections. He insisted that joining hands with the Muslim Brotherhood ran counter to all secular principles the Wafd supposedly stood for. He was convinced that this alliance would mark the end of the Wafd as a leading civil party.

Germany’s highest court has ruled in favor of one of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) crisis-fighting tools, but the real problem facing the eurozone is chronically low interest rates, argues DW’s Christoph Hasselbach. It was to be expected that Germany’s constitutional court would neither totally dismiss the ECB’s anti-crisis measures nor give the green light without any reservations. From the beginning, the judges have been weighing a raft of legal, political and economic arguments. Judicial purists have always said that ECB chief Mario Draghi’s promise to buy unlimited amounts of government bonds from debt-stricken countries if need be violated the ECB’s mandate of not funding governments. Others countered by asking: What’s the point of interpreting the ECB’s mandate so strictly that it harms the common euro currency?

The refugee crisis has finally made the subject of refugees’ fates a topic of discussion around the world. But little has improved for most of them, says Oliver Sallet. The situation in Greece is orderly once again. The chaotic tent camps at the Macedonian border have disappeared. Life in the filth of smoke, garbage and human waste has ended. The Greek government has cleaned up. And now, with the evacuation of Idomeni, authorities have cleared the last of these horrible camps. Europe can take a deep breath and relax, for its citizens no longer have to look at images of refugee children living in mud.

Today, it is a given among the majority of Egyptians that the Western media is against them. As Egyptians try to present themselves as being on the right track, someone out there continues to slander their every move and flagrantly ignore their accomplishments.

When the president of Egypt labels a segment of Egyptian society as the “evil people”, he probably does so based on a particular inspiration of his own. The phrase may have been coined to better serve the president politically, or the president may genuinely believe in the existence of a “true evil” that he has been assigned to pursue and combat. In either case, it is a phrase that leaves a bitter feeling among millions of Egyptians, who should either be prosecuted fairly (if they have committed crimes), or be left in peace.

Russia have been heavily punished by UEFA for the behavior of their fans at Euro 2016. It is the right decision, but also one that is only made in the worst case scenarios, writes DW’s Jens Krepela. UEFA’s disciplinary commission delivered a stern warning to Russia on Tuesday – a “suspended disqualification” from the European Championship and a 150,000 euro (168,000 dollar) fine. It might have been unfair to disqualify the team outright, but it may be the only way to clamp down on football’s hooliganism problem.

In the desolation and stillness of the prison cell, you sit with all your senses in a state of alertness, waiting for one of two things. You wait for either a voice from within you to keep you company throughout the night, mixed with memories of your friends, and your loved ones. You talk to them as if they were there. Prison gives you a lot of time, maybe too much time, to look at the faces of your loved ones.

On 8 June, President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi completed half of his first presidential term, and there are only two years left before he faces a new presidential election. I do not think the coming election will be similar in its circumstances and consequences to the former election that led Al-Sisi to Itihadiya Palace two years ago, obtaining 23 million votes. In the 2014 elections, Egyptians were looking for a “saviour”, not just a new head of the executive authority. However, the upcoming 2018 elections will be different, and the considerations that must be made will be different, too. This situation will be reflected on the nature of the electoral competition, and the level of support for candidates will differ whether Al-Sisi was one of those candidates or not.

The Muslim world’s battle over the legitimacy of political Islam has expanded to the soccer pitch as proponents and opponents of interpreting the faith politically seek to impose their public morals, with men’s hairstyles and facial hair taking centre stage.

The good news is that the cabinet has sent the law for organising media to parliament for discussion and approval, after reportedly it made slight amendments to the legislation developed by the 50-person committee, which is an independent committee of journalists and media personnel.

This piece might be uncomfortable for some people. Over the years, we have grown accustomed to celebrating the holy month of Ramadan as one of the most festive occasions of the year. Undoubtedly, the religious value of the month in the Islamic faith and its spiritual purposes are unquestionable. In Egyptian society in particular, Ramadan creates a sense of solidarity and mutual cooperation that transcends many of our daily negativities and hostilities.

As soon as I heard about the sectarian events in Abu Qirqas in Minya several events popped into my mind. I looked them up in newspaper archives and have collected them as they are presented below. Quoted from Al-Masry Al-Youm on 6 February 2008: “Four of Al-Ahly fans are arrested and accused of burning a Zamalek fan.” Cairo Security Forces succeeded in arresting four people involved in burning Mohammed Abd Amawla, the Zamalek fan, last Saturday on Al-Ouroba Street before a football match between Al-Ahly and Zamalek in Cairo Stadium.

In a village in Minya, a group of around 300 young men attacked the house of an elderly Christian lady. They dragged her out of the house, stripped her naked and chanted around her: "God is Great."

Hepta (The Last Lecture) was probably the most anticipated Egyptian movie of the year, which comes as no surprise as it is based on the massively successful, best-selling novel of the same title. The novel received polarising reviews, which ranged from being called a masterpiece of modern Egyptian romantic fiction to a piece of overly sentimental literature that exclusively targets teenagers. The movie, on the other hand, though suffering some fatal flaws, proved to be a much better product than the source it was based upon. Topping the list of things that made both fans of the novel and non-readers excited for the cinematic released, is the film’s massively talented and star-studded cast. Hepta definitely benefits from having Maged Al-Kidwani as its protagonist and narrator. From the moment his ‘Dr Shoukry’ is introduced to us on screen, one can’t help but fall in love with the simplicity and spontaneity of Al-Kidwani’s performance. The presence and command that he brings to the movie with every scene makes viewers eagerly await his plotline coming back to the screen, allowing the movie to be more enjoyable, and his character to be the most memorable within the plethora of fairly similar characters.