US Vice President Mike Pence travels to Eastern Europe on Sunday to meet with important US allies. The visit -- with a subtext focusing on the future of US-Russia relations under the Trump presidency -- will see stops in Estonia, Georgia and Montenegro from Sunday to Tuesday, comes in the wake of the US Senate and House of Representatives votes this week to impose new sanctions on Moscow.

Since the annexation of Crimea in March 2014 and the subsequent involvement of Russia in the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Western powers -- led by the United States and European Union -- have been remarkably firm in maintaining a united front when it came to the hard business of dealing with Russia. This was nowhere more notable than in the West s use of economic statecraft as the primary tool in exerting pressure on Russia to change its policy concerning Ukraine. The sanctions regime that gradually came into effect targeted strategic sectors of the Russian economy, including energy, defense and finance. But as well as hitting Russian entities, Western firms also suffered.

Conflict remains the world s greatest problem; conflict prevention our biggest hope, but if we do not face down crime and uphold justice, we simply risk swapping the challenges. Over the last century crime has been transformed. Mobsters are more likely to be board members of companies; safecrackers and getaway drivers have been replaced by worldly accountants and lawyers. Billions are laundered in the 21st century through the world s financial centres. UNODC s study of illicit flows showed that the combined proceeds of all crime amounted to some USD 2 trillion. If crime were a country, it would fall somewhere between Italy and India in the GDP league. That s enough money not just to bribe and corrupt the odd customs or law enforcement officer, but to pocket ministers and ministries in fragile and vulnerable countries. And crime also adores a vacuum.

Germany s Angela Merkel is often referred to as the "climate chancellor" because of her impassioned stand on climate protection, which has included the muscular arm-twisting of laggard nations in Europe and beyond -- as she demonstrated at the G20 summit in Hamburg in earlier this month. And during her three full terms in office, she s guided Germany s vaunted Energiewende, or renewable energy transition, which has vastly increased the number of renewables in the power mix to make up a third of the country s electricity supply today -- and an astounding 85% of power generation on particularly sunny, windy days.

Since the very first moment that four states – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates – announced their boycott of Qatar, followed by the leaking by the latter of the 13 demands presented by these countries to the Kuwaiti mediator, Doha alleged that these demands are inapplicable because they conflict with the principle of sovereignty, which it insists on and won t forsake. Turkey said the same and its President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeated the same argument. From a purely formal perspective, it is the right of every state to stick to the concept of sovereignty as an absolute right in administering its affairs without any foreign interference, and in return it should refrain from interfering in other states affairs, whether directly or indirectly. This is done as a commitment to the principles agreed by the international community concerning good neighbourly conduct and refraining from harming others. According to which, the state s absolute sovereignty – even if we accept this concept – is not absolute in reality, neither in the external sphere nor internally.

After 25 January 2011, the army and police directed their efforts towards maintaining law and order. Many then considered the security vacuum that emerged a golden opportunity, enabling them to do as they please. As authorities did not have the time or the manpower to go after the corrupt and fraudulent souls, state and agrarian lands became free for looters.

During the last few months I followed the arrests of several young people who protested the border agreement with Saudi Arabia according to which Egypt would give up the Tiran and Sanafir islands. These protests, it should be noted, were all peaceful: no weapons were brandished, roads cut, or citizens or security personnel attacked. Protestors simply held posters against the ratification of the agreement, urging parliament to postpone its debate pending the opinion of the Supreme Constitutional Court. Since that time, the detention of many of these youths has been renewed, and some were referred to criminal trial on charges of inciting to demonstrations and joining illegal organizations, even though they are members of legitimate, legal political parties operating under state oversight.

Reports this week that US President Donald Trump s son, Donald Trump Jr., met Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, apparently believing she possessed compromising information on Hillary Clinton s election campaign, has added to the woes facing President Trump s White House. The irony, missed in much the reporting, is that whether she was part of some Russian "active measures," dirty-tricks campaign, or merely a sharp opportunist who knew the best way to get an audience with the Trump team, the Kremlin gains, either way. After all, for Russian President Vladimir Putin, being considered a Machiavellian grandmaster of geopolitical skullduggery arguably gives him more power than he deserves.

Wonder Woman” starts, as most stories do, with a hero on a mission, an evil that must be conquered, and, if executed right, a viewer already enamored. On that last front, “Wonder Woman” definitively succeeds. The movie opens with Diana Prince s upbringing on Themyscira Island, a Pandora-meets-Mykonos wonderland inhabited by the all-female, all-powerful Amazons. The island was created and cloaked from the rest of the world by Zeus, and the Amazons are training on it to defeat Ares, the god of war, who wants to see humanity perish. Diana was molded out of clay to spearhead this battle. She is strong and effeminate, noble and naïve, a compilation of juxtapositions put together charmingly by Gal Gadot. The movie is set during World War I, and, with the help of Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Diana sets out to end the war to end all wars by killing Ares.

Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins, follows the origins of one of DC Comics most popular superheroes from her life among the Amazonians in the sheltered island of Themyscira to the frontlines of World War I. The film is beautifully shot, with remarkable colours, solid acting, and impeccable choreography. It cannot, however, escape its political dimensions. Diana (played by Gal Gadot) is raised on the island, knowing that the duty of the Amazonians is to protect humanity from the corruption of Ares, Greek god of war. From its first moments, the film uses colour schemes to set up a dichotomy between the idyllic landscape of the dome-enclosed island—endless green and Mediterranean blues evoking peace—and the world outside: grey, chaotic, violent. The duty to protect humanity against the violence of war is the driving force behind the film. Diana leaves the island because she cannot fathom that the death and destruction left behind by World War I could be anything other than the work of Ares. She vehemently defends humanity s goodness, repeatedly affirming that she need only kill Ares for mankind to return to its peaceful ways.

The curtailing of electricity to Gaza conducted by the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah in connivance with Israeli authorities seriously hurts the people of that region. They have become the victims of the political fighting between the Palestinian Authority (PA) ruled by Fatah, and the Palestinian leadership in Gaza ruled by Hamas. The PA pays Israel for the provision of electricity to Gaza. However, the PA has decided to reduce the electricity supply to Gaza from three hours a day to only two hours, thus worsening an already serious situation.

It s widely thought among the public and media that steep price increases over the last year were a result of government decisions to float the pound, institute a VAT, and cut energy subsidies. While largely true—all these measures have inflationary effects—it doesn t entirely explain the huge, recent spikes. There are other factors at work, related to the nature of markets and tools of state administration. The majority of our serious economists agree that the inflation seen in Egyptian markets in the past several months cannot be solely explained by higher import costs due to the devaluation of the pound or increases in fuel and electricity prices. We re now dealing with market instability that has pushed up prices beyond what can be explained by economics, especially for goods and services that are largely unaffected by the price of the dollar or fuel, even taking into account the secondary impact of inflation.

“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.