As concepts and buzzwords on women s financial inclusion increasingly penetrate boardrooms and ‎local communities alike, the gender gap in accessing the formal financial system persists globally. ‎According to the latest Global Findex data, 56% of the 1.7 billion of adults worldwide who do not have ‎a bank account are women and data on account ownership shows a gender gap at 9% in favour of men ‎across all developing economies ‎.‎ In Egypt, significant efforts have been made to increase women s access to financial products and ‎services. According to the Global Findex Database, formal account ownership among women has more ‎than tripled between 2011 and 2017 (from 7% to 27%). However, it is still below the rate among men ‎‎(39% in 2017). ‎

For six decades, Serge and Beate Klarsfeld devoted their lives to hunting former Nazis -- from death camp guards to leaders of the Gestapo -- and bringing them to justice. It was the Klarsfelds who identified the Butcher of Lyons, Klaus Barbie, who was living in exile in Bolivia under an assumed name. Thanks largely to their efforts, Barbie was extradited to France and spent his last years in a French prison, convicted for having sent some 14,000 French Jews and resistance leaders to their death. The Klarsfelds identified fascists who had scattered after the end of World War II, at times to hidden exiles. The duo pursued them, often at great risk, and held to account politicians and diplomats who sought to mask their Nazi backgrounds and carve out a new life in post-Holocaust Europe.

During my summer trip to Paris, where I had planned to investigate developments in world ideas, I found that a number of Egyptian-related events topped the agendas of my conversations with writers, journalists and politicians. Foremost among these, of course, was Egypt s participation in the World Cup tournament. This was a natural conversation opener given that I am Egyptian and our national team was playing at the time. It was not always the most gratifying opener, though.

On Thursday, 28 June, the White House press secretary released a statement that President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin would meet 16 July in Helsinki. The two leaders would discuss bilateral relations between the United States and Russia, in addition to a “range of national security issues”.

Harley-Davidson -- and, really, the American motorcycle industry -- is in many ways iconic of America. Motorcycles are symbolic ambassadors for the American spirit. At the same time, the industry, which employs many people in both manufacturing and retail, runs on a very thin profit margin. Cutting into that profit margin does not help the motorcycle industry, motorcyclists or the American economy in general. Recently, the Trump administration raised tariffs on some European products, which, predictably, led to something of a trade war. The European Union came up with its own tariffs -- including higher duties on American-built motorcycles -- that will add an estimated $2,200 to the price of Harley-Davidson motorcycles exported to the EU.

A little more than 37 years after Ronald Reagan s first appointment to the Supreme Court was announced, his last appointee will retire. For the first time in nearly four decades, there will not be a Reagan appointee on the court. To some, that is regrettable. To others, it may be something to celebrate. Either way, it is worth noting that Reagan s first appointee -- Sandra Day O Connor -- and his last appointee -- Anthony Kennedy -- were perhaps the two most important and influential justices in the last three decades. Reagan announced his intention to nominate O Connor to be an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1981. She would, upon confirmation, be the first woman in history to serve on the nation s highest court.

On Wednesday, the North Korea watchers at 38 North released satellite imagery that shows North Korea making improvements to the Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center. While this report is unsettling, it is not at all surprising. More unsettling than the report is the possibility that President Donald Trump believed that the North Korean nuclear threat could be solved by a handshake. In the immediate aftermath of the Singapore Summit, Trump said that, "There is no longer a Nuclear Threat from North Korea." That statement was false, and the North Korean activity at Yongbyon proves it.

I do not think at all that Mubarak , Morsi or Elsisi are the solutions to Egypt problems . The solution is simply secular capitalism that is based on performance and ability only . Sports ,economy, industry ,tourism and the health system have to improve .Egypt is far away from progressing if it insists on playing the same way and applying the same regimen . Do you think there is a difference between Elsisi or Morsi . Both have the same agenda that is based on emotions not on the real facts which is based on performance and ability. Do you think that a military brain has the ability to understand or to perform in a ferocious secular system . Choose the brains of whatever colour creed ,race or religion and Egypt will progress .Egypt has the brains but these brains are hidden purposely by the Egyptians .If Someone can simply look back at the history of The old pharoic regimen and how it progressed you will find that they applied a western system.

During the presidential campaign, when Donald Trump recited his favorite riff: "Build the wall," I would always advise him, "Make sure that wall has big gates for immigrants to enter legally." Over the next few weeks, Congress has some big decisions to make on immigration, and this comes at a time when both parties seem to be leaning in the wrong direction.

Shortly after this year s presidential elections during a meeting with political party representatives at the Fifth Youth Conference in Cairo on 16 May, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said there were too many political parties in Egypt and that they needed to merge into a smaller number. Although Al-Sisi had called on the political parties to unite their ranks in the past, this time round his statement was followed by actions on the ground that suggested that this latest proposal was more than just a suggestion.

Terrorism is a persistent and evolving global menace. No country is immune. Social media, encrypted communications and the dark web are being used to spread propaganda, radicalize new recruits and plan atrocities. The threat ranges from the crude tactics of lone actors to sophisticated coordinated attacks and the horrific prospect of terrorists using chemical, biological or radioactive weapons. Our response needs to be equally agile and multifaceted. That is why I am convening the first-ever United Nations High-level Conference on Counter-Terrorism this week in New York. Heads of national counter-terrorism agencies and representatives from international institutions and civil society will discuss how to improve international cooperation and build new partnerships.

We may think we know a lot about Saudi Arabia s Mohammed bin Salman, one year after he was elevated to Crown Prince. After all, the past 12 months have seen him blitz world capitals, wooing politicians, business leaders and populations alike promoting his vision for modernizing his country. In London alone, he lavished a cool $1 million on advertising during a three-day trip, according to a source with knowledge of the visit. The US got a two-week version of the same charm offensive.

When a politician with authoritarian tendencies takes office -- even in a democratic country -- there s no way to know what the future holds. It s easy to take comfort in the prospects for setting everything right in the next election, to feel reassured by massive turnout in protests against excesses, and to believe that democracy is being protected by court rulings, by Congress, and by human decency. But recent history in the many countries now governed by authoritarian populists has shown that there s more reason for alarm than for comfort, more reason to remain on guard than to relax.

Cairo, the third-fastest growing city in Africa, has suffered from traffic congestion and a lack of adequate and planned transport networks for years now, putting pressure on and posing a risk to its economic development. According to the World Bank, congestion in the Greater Cairo Metropolitan Area costs Egypt 3.6 per cent of its annual GDP, and it is therefore clear that Egypt s economic development is closely related to Cairo s expansion and transport systems.

The biggest concern for any society undergoing difficult economic reform is the condition of the middle class and how it is impacted. The primary measure of any economic reform plan is the middle class; if reforms preserve this class then they are on the correct path, but if the middle class begins to erode, then it is a serious problem. According to experts, even if the role and rhetoric of the government is to protect limited income families, the middle class remains the main indicator of success.

President Trump is heading to Minnesota for a campaign rally right in the middle of a severe humanitarian crisis that is taking place on our borders. The last time he appeared in the state was a few days before the election, when he railed against Syrian refugees who were pouring into the country. As children are now literally being torn from their families and sent into caged shelters, the President, almost like a comic book character, will likely use his time in the spotlight to rip into his world of villains -- the news media, the MS-13 gangs, the special counsel s investigators, and more -- and give his adoring crowd exactly what they want to hear: Trump, Trump and more Trump.

Every week is "interesting" -- in the apocryphal Chinese curse sense of the word -- when Donald Trump is President. But the past seven days left the world even more flabbergasted than almost any other in this mind-boggling presidency, as Trump strutted into the spotlight of world affairs, making grand pronouncements and sparking flames of fury at home, anxiety among US allies and glee among America s foes. Trump, of course, will declare victory on every front. But many of his actions this week left America diminished even if they made him stronger by satisfying his base.

Donald Trump and his eldest children were hunkered down with Washington lawyers at the President s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. It was the summer of 2016 and some combination of Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka -- and Ivanka s husband, Jared Kushner -- had been meeting to help vet the vice-presidential candidates. Kate Brower But at this final, decisive meeting it was Donald Trump s wife, Melania Trump, a former model seemingly disinterested in the political world her husband had flung her into, who drew the bottom line on a running mate.

The votes were not even fully counted in the South Carolina First Congressional District primary before the verdict was decided. Congressman Mark Sanford, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump, had lost to uber Trump supporter Katie Arrington. His loss was about far more than his election -- it was a warning that any Republican critical of Trump will face a firing squad from Republican primary voters. "Mark Sanford of South Carolina found out the hard way, in his surprise primary defeat," the New York Times reported, that "having a conservative voting record is less important than demonstrating total loyalty to Mr. Trump."

President Trump s abrupt departure from the G7 summit on June 9 and puerile parting shots at Canada and Europe underscore a somber state of affairs that many believers in the transatlantic alliance had refused to accept, until now. Washington in the era of Donald Trump isn t just an eccentric, out-of-sorts, old friend to Europe, but rather an opponent that wishes it harm. The Europeans have no choice but to respond immediately, which means taking bold collective action to shore up the euro and the crisis-battered EU itself, their best defenses against the storm that is raging on multiple fronts. This was evident long before last week. In fact, looking back at the highly undiplomatic barbs of the US s top diplomat in Germany, the freshly-minted Trump appointee Richard Grenell, Trump s actions in Quebec were even predictable. He sees one-time allies as enemies.

Surely, Vladimir Putin let out a smile when he heard it. The Russian president has many reasons to rejoice these days, all courtesy of President Donald Trump, whose latest stunning statement was a call for America s allies to bring back Russia to the world s most prestigious club, the G7, a group of seven wealthy democracies. The call is mindboggling for many reasons, not least of which is, well, the elephant in the room. There is no credible justification for democratic powers to invite Putin to their meeting and there are countless reasons not to do it. And yet Trump -- under the shadow of a special counsel investigation over the nature of his presidential campaign s relationship with Russia -- took Putin s side in a dispute with America s allies.