President Donald Trump's trip through the Middle East should puncture a myth Americans have been fed for generations: that this country's foreign policy lives up to its high-minded rhetoric on the advancement of human rights. Donald Trump took a lot of heat several weeks ago for his warm words for Philippines authoritarian leader Rodrigo Duterte, who has been widely criticized for alleged human rights abuses in his war on drugs. But in his cozying up to Duterte, President Trump has simply followed a long tradition. For decades, Democrats and Republicans alike have chosen allies principally based on the strategic and economic priorities of the United States, no matter how much blood flowed from such choices.

We are haunted by an unanswered question: why is Egypt’s share of tourism less than one percent of the global tourism market? But, there is another important question we do not want to ask ourselves.

It is a confusing question: Who is responsible for Egypt’s image? Perhaps the mystery lies in Egypt’s “important cards”, which are capable of producing a “wonderful image”, but the new image of Egypt is usually “temporary”. The investment conference in Sharm El-Sheikh created an “attractive atmosphere”, however the Egyptian government did not complete it. The same thing happened with Lionel Messi when he came to Cairo to promote the treatment of Hepatitis C in Egypt. Finally, Pope Francis’ visit to Egypt shed light on Egypt’s efforts in religious tolerance. After the visit, we were very happy and exchanged congratulations, but we did not realise, as usual, that the difficult part would be in the next day. It leads us to the same question: Who is responsible for Egypt’s image?

Give me my freedom, release my hands Indeed, I’ve given you yours and did not try to retain anything Ah, your chains have bloodied my wrists I haven’t kept them, nor have they spared me Why do I keep promises that you do not honour? When will this captivity end, when the world is before us? This was how Om Kolthoum sang Ibrahim Nagy’s poem Al Atlal” (The Ruins). While I was looking at Alexandria’s angry sea, I was stunned by the words when Om Kolthoum said, “your chains have bloodied my wrists” and “why do I keep promises that you do not honour?”

So maybe a few times in your life you have screamed at the television set. And then what? You flip the channel, and get on with your life. Ah, unless you're the current President of the United States. Because he probably watches way more TV than you do, and when he sees something he doesn't like, he doesn't flip. He stews. He calls his friends and complains. He tweets. And then he acts, because he can. According to a source with knowledge, Trump told friends he was increasingly concerned that FBI Director James Comey had grown "out of control" and was "pursuing his own agenda." Comey's testimony last week, this source says, "pushed him to the edge."

The AUC kicked off the first-ever virtual session series at the Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism, a conference call with professor Vince Gonzales, who is an investigative journalist, professor of professional practice at the University of South California, and coordinator of the University’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism’s masters degree programme in journalism. He spoke to students about credible news-making on social media. It was a great discussion titled “Critical News-Making for Social Media.” The session was moderated by professor Dr. Hussein Amin, director of the Kamal Adham Center for Television and Digital Journalism, and in the presence of guest of honour Mr. Brian A. Shott, press attaché at the US embassy.

Today US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is in Fairbanks, Alaska to attend the Arctic Council's tenth ministerial meeting. The meeting comes amid new research that climate change is reshaping the arctic much faster than expected, and as Trump administration officials engage in an unusually public debate about whether the United States will remain in the Paris climate agreement. After pledging to 'cancel' the agreement during his campaign, Trump has now softened his tone, noting that he had an open mind about the global agreement to limit the effects of climate change. Rival factions within the administration are pitted against one another as President Trump closes in on a decision expected later this month.

Terrorism hits again with its evil hand in the heart of Cairo, the Egyptian capital, targeting this time police forces stationed on the outskirts of Nasr City in a semi-desert region. The blow’s circumstances in terms of timing and method of implementation is indicative of the bankruptcy and weakness of such organisations and also a function of the relative ability of the Egyptian security services to pre-empt successful strikes of its own. These strikes led these organisations to try to change their tactics and shift from the mechanisms of bombing, booby-trapping, and suicide operations to the mechanism of armed attacks with automatic rifles and fast vehicles. We are not discussing the tactics and techniques of terrorist groups. There are experts who have the ability and knowledge to discuss this and to provide systematic information related to the change in these tactics, but we are talking here about the political, societal, informational, and human dimensions of this crime and its predecessors targeting the police and army forces and Christian religious institutions since the beginning of this year.

I didn’t intend to speak of the investment law again, having already written about it several times, first to criticize the changes made in March 2015, on the eve of the Sharm al-Sheikh conference, and later to express reservations about the draft law approved last week by parliament. But I’m compelled to comment, not only because of the content of the revised law, but because the chaotic debate about it in recent weeks exposes a severe confusion in economic policy decisions.

The main appearances of the president have now come at the Youth Conferences, in which he answers the questions of those in attendance, reflecting part of what is going on in the Egyptian street; but I have a general remark on all of the president's interviews and speeches, which I'll start with. I will then relay remarks on the most recent interviews during the Youth Conference in Ismailia. My basic observation is that the president is talking about an Egypt which we are not living in; an Egypt that is witnessing an unprecedented level of achievement; one that awaits only the participation of its inattentive sons to support it -- that Egypt is the poor country that will overcome its helplessness with the determination it derives from the intention and optimism of Sisi.

Neutral Switzerland has been a renowned facilitator in peace negotiations and a traditional meeting place for parties in conflict. At the same time, little is known about Switzerland’s role in a historic step that helped Egypt establish sovereignty and gain full independence. Eighty years ago, on 8 May 1937, the Montreux Convention Regarding the Abolition of the Capitulations in Egypt was concluded. Foreigners in Egypt were finally placed under the Egyptian legal system. The capitulations phenomenon, started by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, was a fundamental impediment to Egyptian sovereignty. Based on the principle of extraterritorial jurisdiction, it allowed capitulatory powers—Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Greece, Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United States—to manage judiciary, legislative, and fiscal issues of their nationals living on Egyptian territory. Not only did this deprive Egypt of its right to exercise self-determination, but it also resulted in unequal treatment. Any civil or commercial disagreements between foreigners and Egyptians had been handled in mixed courts, which often tended to favour nationals of capitulatory powers at the expense of Egyptians.

The law of nature is inevitability, and the law of life is choice. Humans live between the ability to choose and the inevitability of life. You might wonder “how?” and the answer is that the law of nature does not recognise exceptions. Despite the renewing nature of life, it is stable and unchangeable. The change of seasons is inevitable, because the sun cannot just rise from the west. It is inevitable for the sun to rise from the east. The same goes for night and day. This is the law of nature that will not let an apple float; it falls on the ground instead where there is gravity and Newton’s law that knows no exceptions. Law in nature is the rule, not a coincidence.

A lot of unnecessary energy has already been expended on Egyptian television arguing over the planned reforms ofresidency and naturalisation procedures, with accusations of treason flying both ways. The idea is that you get a five-year long residency if you stash a lot money in the bank that the government will then spend and invest as it sees fit, with an IOU certificate promising to hand it all back when the residency permit expires. Knowing the government’s record, such as old-age pensioners’ funds of workers’ syndicates, maybe this isn’t the best way of going about things. But that’s a concern for those depositing the money, not the self-righteous brigade here thatisafraid that the country will somehow be swamped by necessarily ‘evil’ foreigners who want to change the ethnic-sectarian composition of the country or spy on behalf of a foreign country. (If a Russian or a Chinaman wanted to come here to ‘invest’ in the country, say in the Suez Canal industrial zone, would anybody be up in arms against them?) This, in turn, is seen as a stepping stone towards naturalisation, since after ten years you can apply for the passport. This just goes to show how paranoid, and how ungrateful, some people are,given that places like Syria and Lebanon have always housed Egyptians in exile. Mohammad Abdu in Lebanon is the most famous case on display—somebody who was welcomed with open arms by everybody in Lebanon, Muslims and Christians alike, whohelped him and Gamal Al-Din al-Afghani set up newspapers calling for unity between Christians and Muslims and among Arabs in general.

The Middle East is a region of great opportunity. We have a large and young population with more than its fair share of problems, and as every entrepreneur knows, every problem is an opportunity; the bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. As a region, we are also one of the largest exporters of capital to the world. Investors from the region own the priciest global real estates and are shareholders in the largest companies of the world. The big question facing local entrepreneurs is how to attract big regional capital into opportunities from the region, for the region. Having successfully raised multiple rounds of funding from the region, we believe the Careem’s journey has teachings that can help us solve this puzzle.

Emmanuel Macron may well become the next president of France, but he's not making it any easier for the French to vote for him. t the same time his arch foe, Marine Le Pen, is pulling every trick from Donald Trump's playbook. Halfway through France's bizarre two-week election campaign before the final vote May 7, here are just some of Macron's faux pas: The victory bash Last week, when the ballots giving him a first-round win over 10 other candidates were barely counted, Macron staged a victory bash at the same restaurant where the Socialist incumbent, Francois Hollande, had celebrated five years ago.

Michael Flynn, the man who holds the 24-day record for the shortest tenure as national security adviser, continues to tarnish the reputation of the Trump administration even after his very public retirement from the position. The former three-star Army general was forced to resign by President Trump for allegedly lying to Vice President Pence about his discussions with the Russian ambassador. In the latest development, the inspector general of the Department of Defense released documents responding to congressional subpoenas revealing that Flynn allegedly received payments from entities tied directly to foreign governments after his retirement from the military, without properly notifying and receiving permission from both the Defense and State Department. So far, the conduct does not appear criminal in nature, but could force Flynn to forfeit part of his military pension.

A year and a half has passed since the downing of the Russian plane in Sinai, but the Russian government is still preventing its citizens from traveling to Egypt, the closest, cheapest and favorite tourist destination for Russians. During this period, the Egyptian government introduced an airport security system based on the demands of the Russian side and introduced everything new and modern available in the world. This was witnessed, followed and examined by the Russian experts who traveled to Egypt dozens of times to see their list of demands implemented. But, despite the understandings reached between the two sides on the security agreement which is soon to be signed, nothing has really happened. The return of Russian tourism to Egypt became a clear issue to the public and to industry specialists in Egypt. Everyone has realized that the issue is not about securing the airports, aircrafts or tourist security, but rather about the two countries' differences when it comes to certain other economic matters and matters of Egyptian sovereignty.

In 2003 President Bush Jr insisted beyond a shadow of a doubt that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Consequently, Hussein deserved a showdown like no other, one that ultimately saw Hussein hanged, prosperous Iraq destroyed, and law-abiding Iraqis obliterated as divisive and unruly sects emerged. And let’s not forget Islamic State finding in Iraq an easy gaping void. It was proven afterwards that Saddam Hussein never possessed weapons of mass destruction, but after 11 September some country had to be at the receiving end of the bashing stick. Iraq was unfortunate enough to be the picked-on country, earning the wrath of the US.

UNESCO is a UN organisation concerned with education, the sciences and culture. It is a crucible in which the world's cultures melt and come closer to each other; a forum for the exchange of ideas, inspired by various civilisations and the experiences of nations and peoples. Consequently, taking charge of this organisation should be on a rotation basis among representatives of different cultures in a way that permits — through every director's culture for a certain period — articulating the potentialities of such a culture, its civilisational facets, vision in dealing with current challenges and displaying its value system and how such a culture interacts with other cultures.

Next month’s annual congress of the world soccer body, FIFA, is likely to become the first international forum since US president Donald Trump took office to debate Israel’s controversial settlement policy in the occupied West Bank. Israeli efforts to prevent FIFA from debating and possibly censoring it for allowing soccer teams from Jewish settlements in occupied territory since 1967 to play in Israeli leagues are further complicated by the fact that Mr. Trump has called on Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu to freeze settlement activity.

In a research paper, I am currently preparing, I determined that there were decisions made by some opinion-making circles in the West that blame Egypt and Egyptians occasionally, then look for justifications for those claims later. The presidency of Egypt is the most condemned, followed by the Armed Forces, the police, media, intelligence, judiciary, and then the parliament.