The Global Firepower Index (GFI) ranked Egypt’s military as the 11th most powerful worldwide ahead of Israel, Vietnam and Brazil, in a list of 127 countries with the most powerful military in the world for 2017. The GFI criteria ranks the countries based on more than 50 factors, including each country’s military budget, its manpower, the amount of equipment each country has in its respective arsenal and its natural resources.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said 1.93 million feddans of agricultural land has been encroached upon and 1.7 million feddans were recovered. Ismail added that 168.5 million square meters of state land was encroached upon and 118 million square meters were recovered.

Egypt is still discussing with Ethiopia an initial report issued by two firms tasked with assessing the impact of the under-construction Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on downstream countries, Egypt s irrigation ministry spokesman Hossam Imam told Al-Ahram Arabic news website on Tuesday. Egypt is currently negotiating with Ethiopia the period of time over which the dam s reservoir should be filled after construction is completed.

Lawyer Khaled Ali and political activist Shawqiya al-Kurdi filed a lawsuit on Tuesday before the Administrative Court to compel the President, the Prime Minister and the Parliamentary Speaker to dissolve the House of Representatives in accordance with Article 137 of the Constitution and to suspend its sessions as it represents a threat to national security and the territorial integrity of the Egypt. The Parliament recently referred a maritime demarcation agreement that would transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia to its Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, which expects to discuss it within few days.

The US Embassy in Cairo released on Monday a security message for US nationals in Egypt warning of possible terrorist attacks targeting religious sites outside Greater Cairo. The Embassy called on US citizens to avoid visiting religious sites outside Greater Cairo, in addition to being “prudent” when it comes to their personal security and safety by following security guidelines issued in the US State Department’s travel warnings.

Egypt decided on Monday to cut off its diplomatic relations with the Arab Gulf State of Qatar and accused the Qatari government of following a hostile policy against Egypt, in addition to sponsoring terrorist organization such as the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) group, the Egyptian Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

Al-Masry Al-Youm learned that the Parliament’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee will discuss next week the Red Sea islands maritime demarcation deal, under which Saudi Arabia was recently given sovereign right over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir.

Egyptian expatriates in Qatar woke up on Monday to the news that Egypt had decided to sever diplomatic ties with their host country, on charges of sponsoring terrorism. According to statements from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Libya, Yemen and Egypt, Qatar stabilizes its national security by supporting terrorists groups such as the Islamic State and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Egypt is looking to ramp up petroleum production over the next two years, aiming to reduce fuel imports to about 10 percent of total consumption from 30 percent currently, media quoted Oil Minister Tarek El Molla as saying. Once an energy exporter, Egypt has turned into a net importer in recent years, squeezed by declining production and increasing consumption.

The Education Ministry has arrested the student responsible for leaking this morning’s Arabic language exam one hour after it began, ministry official Reda Hegazy announced.

Abanoub Guirguis Naeem, a Christian dental student was recently granted admission to complete his final year of experiential training at Al-Azhar’s Faculty of Dentistry in Assiut, an unprecedented rarity in the prestigious Islamic University. Naeem is the first recognized case of a Christian student enrolling at Al-Azhar University, which is considered a beacon of centrist, moderate Islam in Egypt. The 1,000-year-old seat of Sunni Islamic learning has been training clerics and scholars from around the world, and is known to only accept Muslim students into its colleges for educational purposes.

The US dollar exchange rate has been stable during Sunday tradings. The purchasing rate at the National Bank of Egypt, Banque du Caire and Banque Misr was LE17.95, while the selling rate was LE18.05.

Military spokesperson Tamer al-Refaei said on Saturday that the air force succeeded in destroying the targets planned in Libya.

Jordanian King Abdullah II offered his condolences in a phone call to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi following the recent attack in Minya which left 28 dead and 25 injured.

The US Embassy in Cairo warned its nationals on Wednesday of a possible terrorist attack in Egypt without mentioning any further details. “The Embassy is aware of a potential threat posted on a website by the Hasm Group, a known terrorist organization, suggesting some kind of unspecified action this evening,” a statement published on the Embassy’s official website read.

The Court of Cassation accepted on Thursday the challenge filed by activist Ahmed Douma against his three-year prison sentence on charges of insulting an Egyptian judge during a court session. The court ordered Douma’s retrial. The Cairo Criminal Court, headed by Judge Nagy Shehata, presided over Douma’s trial along with 268 other defendants, over violent charges in connection with clashes outside the Egyptian Cabinet in December 2013.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi stressed on Wednesday that his country "does not conspire against anyone," in response to claims by Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir that Cairo has supported rebel groups in Sudan fighting against government forces.

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi invited recently elected French president Emmanuel Macron in a first phone call after congratulating him on taking office, according to a presidency statement. Al-Sisi wished Macron success in carrying out his new tasks and stated his willingness to work with him during the coming period in order to continue to promote Egyptian-French relations at various levels and to consolidate the partnership between the two countries and the close cooperation existing between them in all fields.

Egypt’s population officially reached 93 million on Monday evening, according to a statement from the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Tuesday. The new official population count brings the total number of Egyptians worldwide to 101 million, including 8 million living abroad. In its statement, CAPMAS said that the population meter shows the number of Egyptians in Egypt at 93,044,937.

Education Minister Tarek Shawki announced on Monday that international school fees will be increased by 14 percent for the next school year 2017-2018; and another 7 percent yearly, starting from the year after that. He also announced that fees for private Arabic and languages schools will increase by 7-11 percent for each stage segment.