“We never dreamed our brother Mina would be a martyr. He s a hero, a saint just like Mar Girgis, and Mar Mina,” declares Mina s sister, Dimyana Fouad, in the wake of his death in the Palm Sunday bombings in Alexandria earlier this year. Huddled in one of their home s two rooms, the family passed a blood-soaked shirt around.

I get a lot of different responses every time I talk about my religion, but a very common response is usually a glazed look while I m talking followed by some variation of, “That s nice, but what about ISIS?” To many people, I have a watered-down, selective, “kid-friendly” version of Islam, and therefore my narrative is unreliable for what Islam really is. Religion, especially Islam, is set along a strange sort of spectrum, and Western media usually has a great time trying to decide how “Muslim” things really are. True to its definition, the two extreme points on which things are measured on this spectrum are very clear: Islam and humanity, with radical Islamic terrorist groups representing the pinnacle of all things Muslim

Founders and leaders of many parties that emerged after the revolution, including our party, the Egyptian Social Democratic Party, have taken part in the 25 January Revolution. Long before the founding of these parties, many of these leaders played great roles in paving the way for the revolution and preparing for it. Besides several other democratic parties, these parties were keen on being part of the battles of Egyptians towards achieving the goals of the revolution. When the Muslim Brotherhood tried to monopolise power and started to create a religious authoritarian state, our party stood against them, together with the National Salvation Front, and took part in their ousting. Our party encouraged the various bodies of the state to move forward after the ousting, and it agreed to allow senior figures in the party to be part of the first government formed after 30 June.

The worst thing is for the people to pay the price of fiscal reform without getting its reward. And this is exactly what is happening now. Every economic decision inevitably entails a cost and a benefit. Under the program agreed between the government and the IMF Last November, which included currency liberalization, fuel subsidy cuts, and a VAT, the cost was clear: drastic price hikes affecting everyone with an overall inflation rate of 32 percent last year, and even higher for food.

Last month, a van ploughed through a group of Muslim worshippers who were leaving a mosque in Finsbury Park, London, having completed the "Taraweeh" Ramadan evening prayer. It was a deliberate act as the van intentionally veered into the victims who were helping a fallen, taken-ill man on the street. As breaking news, the story was described in the following fashion. The Independent called it a “major incident,” and The Guardian was unable to confirm if it was a “deliberate attack or terrorist incident.” CNN also called it an “incident.” The Daily Mail called the attacker a “white van driver.” As for the BBC, it said: “… a man drove a van into worshippers near a north London mosque.” This, while Metro said that Teresa May described the “incident” as “terrible.”

Recently, as I picked up a book from my bookcase, I realised that one word in its title had the answer to a problem that had been bothering me for months. The book is “The Voice Imitator” by Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard. And the word that solved the mystery, you may already have guessed it, is “imitator”. What imitators do, in many cases, is impersonate a celebrity. According to Wikipedia, “celebrity impersonators are entertainers who look [like] celebrities and dress in such a way as to imitate them. Impersonators are known as look-alikes, impressionists, imitators, tribute artists, and wannabees.” And there, bingo! I had the answer to my problem: Donald Trump is impersonating a president!

When it is estimated that there are more than 37 new Egyptian TV series released, one has to be picky when deciding which of them to give their time to. Usually, people decide which series they should watch based on the cast (an actor who they know always chooses the right scripts to play, a director who they have not forgotten their previous work, or, rarely, a writer who always gives them something original). This strategy of attaching acclaimed names to a series and increasing its overall “star power” is one that producers consistently use to attract audiences to pick their show. This only guarantees an audience attachment for a couple of episodes, where they test whether the series deserves dedicating their time to it or whether there are better ones that could satisfy their entertainment and artistic needs. In the case of 30 Youm (the 2017 Ramadan psychological thriller), to watch the first episode was sufficient to hook the most undedicated viewer to watching it until the finale.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), by breaking off not only diplomatic but also economic relations with Qatar, are likely to make it this time round far more difficult for the Gulf state to resist pressure to change its controversial policies. The stakes are far higher than when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain withdrew their ambassadors from Doha in 2014 for a period of 10 months but failed to force Qatar to change its policies. Saudi Arabia and the UAE, by now also breaking off economic ties, are also seeking to disrupt Qatar s air, sea, and land links and complicate its exports and imports—particularly its food supplies.

State media warmly welcomed recent government decisions increasing some pensions and subsidies, seeing them as an expression of the state s concern for poor and low-income Egyptians, and an effort to mitigate the impact of inflation, and calm resentment in the street. But others in the remaining independent media questioned those decisions , arguing they would do little to stem the constant increase in the cost of living, and that with forthcoming price rises the government will simply be giving with one hand while taking with the other.

Ladies and gentleman, please welcome the 46th President of the United States: Stephen T. Colbert." That has a nice sound to it, and given Colbert s comments over the weekend, perhaps the late night host is truly thinking of running against Donald Trump in 2020. And if he did, Colbert very well could be the ideal candidate to crush the current President come November 2020. Colbert s remarks came Friday during an appearance on the Russian late night TV show, "Evening Urgant." While being interviewed by the show s host, Ivan Urgant, Colbert revealed that he had a big announcement. Then, with a straight face, Colbert declared, "I am here to announce that I am considering a run for president in 2020." As the audience applauded, Colbert quipped, "And I thought it would be better to cut out the middleman and just tell the Russians myself."

The contrast could not be more extreme: a loud, pushy, anti-intellectual President Donald Trump versus a soft-spoken, recessive, philosophical former president, Barack Obama. The difference has become especially glaring in recent days, with Trump repeatedly breaking the tradition of a new president refraining from dissing his predecessor. Trump has, in fact, gone out of his way to attack Obama, as in his recent nonsensical reversal wherein he attacked Obama for his lack of response to Russian meddling in the 2016 election: "Obama did NOTHING," Trump tweeted. He went on to accuse Obama of colluding with the Russians! Trump continues to take aim at Obama legacy

The death of Otto Warmbier, a 22-year-old student from Ohio imprisoned in North Korea since last year, should be a wake-up call to the international community. Warmbier, who was arrested in January 2016 after attempting to remove a political banner from his hotel, was subject to a show trial and sentenced to 15 years forced labor. There is, sadly, nothing unusual about the Warmbier case in the abstract. North Korea citizens are regularly subjected to arrest for trifling crimes and sentenced to labor camps. As documented in harrowing detail by a recent UN report, many die in prison from beatings, malnourishment, or untreated sickness, among other causes.

The Middle East is not short on crisis. Syria remains engulfed by wars and the worst humanitarian disaster since World War II. Iraq faces conflict with ISIS over Mosul, with thousands displaced and a referendum looming over the Kurdish regions. In Yemen, 18.8 million are in need of aid, triggered by both conflict and a naval and aerial blockade, with nearly 100,000 suffering from cholera. Two million Palestinians in Gaza have less than four hours a day of electricity, and another war with Israel is looking an increasing possibility.

The progress on ratification has been extraordinary - the Paris Agreement entered into force on 4th November last year and 148 countries have already ratified it. We welcome and appreciate the finalisation of the internal ratification process of the Paris Agreement in Egypt.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is a leader bruised and battered. In a matter of weeks she has suffered a toxic combination of an election that left her without a parliamentary majority, public anger at her response to the Grenfell Tower disaster and open criticism of her leadership from senior figures in her own party. But Thursday she goes to Brussels to meet with European Union leaders. She still appears determined to deliver on her promise to "get on with the job" of governing the country and take Britain out of the EU.

Saudi Arabia s King Salman has elevated his 31-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman to first in line to the throne, in a dramatic reordering of the kingdom s line of succession that will have far-reaching consequences for the key US ally and the Middle East as a whole. In a series of royal decrees issued overnight, the King, 81, removed his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince and installed Mohammed Bin Salman in his place. The newly-anointed crown prince was also appointed deputy prime minister and will continue in his role as defense minister, where he has overseen the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

Several years ago, when I was a young reporter and desperate to prove myself, I found myself barreling down a highway toward Falluja. This was 2004, when Iraq was beginning its descent into chaos. A squad of American Marines had just been killed and I was eager to get the story. I was new at The New York Times and took on what I now see was a stupid amount of risk. The road was supposed to be clear. But as the highway bent to the left, a blue van shot across our path and screeched to a halt 50 feet in front of us, cutting us off. The van s doors flew open. Our driver slammed on the brakes. We careened off the tarmac, and by the time we stopped, dust hanging in the air, we were surrounded by dozens of armed masked men.

Bizarre scenes emerged Monday from Moscow as thousands of protesters chanting, "Putin is a thief!" and "Down with the Czar!" intermingled with costumed actors re-enacting scenes from Russian history to mark Russia Day, a national holiday. Mass protests are a rare occurrence in Russia -- the last ones of this scale took place in the winter of 2011-12 in response to allegations of widespread vote rigging in parliamentary elections. What makes the recent protests -- which first began in March -- significant is their reach, engulfing almost 100 cities across the country and including the participation of Russian youth, once thought to be politically apathetic.

I write these words as the parliamentary debate on the border agreement with Saudi Arabia is still underway. All indications are, however, that parliament will approve the deal and Egypt will relinquish the Tiran and Sanafir Islands. If that happens, we ll have entered a new phase, and the consequences will be grave, though perhaps not immediate. Since the agreement was signed last year, I ve chosen not to address the historical and legal aspects, reasoning that many others discussed those dimensions in great detail and based on an exhaustive analysis of documents and evidence.

What s happening in relation to the Qatari crisis clarifies to a great extent that the Arab region is in a state of severe liquidity. There is a re-positioning in regional relations and behind it there are precursors for international changes that so far have not materialised, especially as every day new Arab and African countries are joining the boycott of Qatar, punishing it for spreading extremism and financing terrorism.

In the early spring of this year it was widely speculated by some that Marine Le Pen could become president of France, that Geert Wilders would be the leader of the largest party in the Netherlands and -- most significantly -- that the Pro-European German Chancellor Angela Merkel could lose power.