Head of the National Institute for Astronomical and Geophysical Research Gad El-Kady on Thursday said that the out of control Chinese rocket passed over Egypt for the first time at 5:34 am, adding that the it would fly over again at about one o’clock on Friday. He stressed that there is no confirmed information about whether the rocket will collide or fall on a particular area, but its path is being closely followed. Kady added that the institute has close relations with the Chinese Space Administration, and from time to time, the two sides communicate. The whole world has their eyes on the rocket, he said, stressing its landing spot will not be known until it get closer. The rocket is expected to orbit the earth roughly sixteen times.

Egypt’s Health Ministry on Thursday confirmed 1,110 new coronavirus cases, up from 1,102 on Tuesday. The ministry also reported 59 deaths, and 900 recovered cases. The country has now disclosed a total of 234,015 confirmed cases, 175,117 recovered cases, and 13,714 deaths. Cairo, Giza, Fayoum, Minya, and Sohag are the five governorates with the highest infection rates, Health Minister Hala Zayed said last Wednesday. Egypt has banned Tahajjud prayers (night prayers) within mosques, their annexes, and their surroundings, only allowing Tarawih prayers.

Human Rights Watch offered a bleak assessment of women’s health care in Afghanistan in its latest report, saying that even basic information on health and family planning is not available to most Afghan women. New health facilities that have opened over the years are often insufficiently staffed and inadequately equipped, HRW said. The group’s researchers visited several health facilities in the capital of Kabul, where many of the country’s better clinics and hospitals are located. Before that, the Taliban regime, which was also heavily sanctioned, had mostly ignored women’s health issues. “The question everyone should be asking is why after 20 years and hundreds of millions of dollars the state of women’s health care is so grim,” said Gossman in an email.

Reuters - Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley said it is time for the "dark forces" preventing the Tyneside club from becoming a powerhouse to step aside, after initiating legal proceedings against the Premier League, British media reported. Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters said the bid failed after the consortium declined an offer of independent arbitration and withdrew. "It's now time for the dark forces that are preventing this football club from becoming the powerhouse that the fans deserve to step aside," Ashley said in a statement to the British media on Thursday. A Premier League representative was not immediately available to respond to an emailed request for comment. "The claimant alleges that the defendant (Premier League) prevented, or hindered, the proposed takeover and knew that its actions would prevent and/or delay the proposed takeover," a court document stated.

CAIRO – 6 May 2021: Since the beginning of May, catastrophic scenes of tremendous decline in water level of Euphrates, the longest river of Western Asia, became a meme on social media platforms. Under hashtag #الفرات_ينحسر (the Euphrates declines), Syrians posted photos of the water level of the river, showing how parts in along the river inside the Syrian lands dried up. The Euphrates runs from Turkey to Syria and then to Iraq until it joins the Tigris in Shatt Al Arab in Iraq. The Syrian regime accused Turkey of depriving Syrians of their water share of the Euphrates river, saying electricity production at the Euphrates Dam stopped and water level in Lake Al-Assad, the Syrian state-owned news agency SANA reported on Wednesday. Autonomous Administration of Northeastern Syria, which controlled by Kurds, announced that the water level at Lake Assad declined by three meters, Syrian news online Enab Baladi reported on May 3.

CAIRO – 6 May 2021: IHS Markit Egypt Purchasing Managers’ IndexTM (PMI) recorded 47.7 in April, down from 48 in March, registering the lowest reading since June 2020. According to IHS Markit, one of the main contributors to the PMI, the Output Index, signaled a fifth successive monthly fall in business activity in April, coinciding with a further decline in new business inflows. This allowed firms to clear backlogs, and employment levels fell at the quickest rate for four months,” it added. "On a positive note, there was a renewed increase in new export orders as external client demand picked up. “A recent rise in domestic cases and concerns about financial liquidity meant that fewer businesses were optimistic of a rise in output over the next 12 months.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Wednesday approved an amendment to the grant aid agreement between Egypt and the United States. 697 of 2020, regarding the approval of the fourth amendment to the aid grant agreement between Cairo and Washington regarding stimulating trade and investment in Egypt. The agreement was signed between Egypt and the United States governments June of 2020. Under it, roughly US$90 million in funds have been allocated to Egypt as contributions through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Egypt is the second largest recipient of foreign assistance from the US, after Israel.

File - Al Ahly will face Mamelodi Sundowns in the CAF Champions League quarter-finals for the third straight seasonCAIRO-6 May 2021: The details have been confirmed for the quarter-finals of this season's CAF Champions League competition. Al Ahly will host South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns on 15 May at Al Ahly Stadium in the first leg of the quarter-finals while the two teams will meet again on 22 May at Lucas Moripe Stadium. Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane will face his former team, Mamelodi Sundowns for the first time, after leading them in the last two encounters against Al Ahly. The South African coach joined Al Ahly in October 2020 and led them to win the CAF Champions League title last season, having defeated Zamalek in the final. The winner of the clash will face the winner between Tunisia's Espérance and Algeria's CR Belouizdad.

Qatari Finance Minister Ali Sherif al-Emadi was arrested for questioning over allegations of embezzlement, abuse of power and crimes related to the public sector, a statement carried by state news agency QNA said on Thursday. Emadi has been minister of finance in the wealthy Gulf Arab state since 2013 and sits on the board of its powerful $300 billion sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority. The contraction however was smaller than expected and the smallest in the Gulf region, according to International Monetary Fund data. Emadi was named as 2020’s best minister in the region by The Banker, an international financial magazine that organises an annual celebration of finance ministers. ___IMAGE: Qatar’s Minister of Finance Ali Sherif Al Emadi speaks at the Qatar UK Business and Investment Forum in London, Britain March 27, 2017 REUTERS/Neil Hall

The talks, which are led by Egypt's Deputy Foreign Minister Hamdi Loza and Turkey's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Sedat Önal, started on Wednesday at the headquarters of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the ministry spokesman, Ahmed Hafez. Turkish-Egyptian ties have strained since 2013 when Erdogan criticized the Jaune 30 Revolution that thwarted the ruling of the banned Muslim Brotherhood group. Also, Turkey’s relations with some Gulf countries strained due to its support to terrorists and interference into other neighboring countries’ affairs like Libya and Syria. In March, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry affirmed the government keenness to maintain close relationship between the two people of Egypt and Turkey regardless the ‘negative political stances’ of Ankara against Cairo. He added during the meeting of the Foreign Relations Committee in the House of Representatives, that no relations or communications between the two countries ‘outside the normal diplomatic channels.

In its Wednesday print edition, newspaper staple The Wall Street Journal featured the Global Council for Tolerance and Peace President Ahmed Bin Mohamed Al-Jarwan as a lifetime achiever. Jarwan was the only Arab personality featured in the article, which described him as an outstanding professional, influencer, and world changer in the field of tolerance and peace. According to the article, Jarwan has spent a lifetime promoting peace and tolerance at all levels and fighting discrimination, violence, terrorism, and racism. It also praised him for strengthening the principles of tolerance in order to to make the world better and safer. Jarwan holds a baccalaureate in aeronautical engineering, a diploma in Aeronautics, a diploma of Senior Engineering from the Airforce Institution, and a military protocol diploma (United States of America 1995).

Sudanese Prime Minister Abdullah Hamdok said that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s comments in April on negotiations around the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam indicate the seriousness of the issue. Back in April, Sisi warned that “all options are open” when it comes to the dam, which major media outlets interpreted as a threat to Ethiopia. Sudan, Egypt, and Ethiopia have held several rounds of negotiations over the past years, but have ultimately failed to reach an agreement. The construction of the dam, which began in 2011, is considered to be one of Egypt’s most serious water issues. Ethiopia, on the other hand, has stressed the importance of the project to bolster its economy, where more than half of the population currently lives without access to electricity.

CAIRO-6 May 2021: Smouha face Zamalek on Thursday night in the 20th week of the Egyptian League at Cairo International Stadium. The Blue giants of Alexandria hope to follow the steps of Ghazl El Mahalla, who are the only team in the league this season that managed to defeat the Cairo giants Al Ahly and Zamalek. Smouha will go into the game in high spirits after securing a draw on Saturday in Alexandria derby against Al Ittihad and they hope to maintain the good vibes against the league leaders, Zamalek. Zamalek are leading the league table with 41 points and they are four points ahead of their arch-rivals Al Ahly, who still have two games in hand. The White Knights hope to extend their lead atop of the table before the Cairo derby, scheduled on 10 May.

CAIRO-6 May 2021: Al Ahly are expecting another tough test ahead of the Cairo derby when they take on Al Ittihad of Alexandria away from home. The Red Eagles have been struggling since they won the derby over Zamalek on 18 April, having achieved just 7 points from their last five matches in the Egyptian League. However, Al Ahly still have a chance to jump to the top of the table as they are second in the league table with 37 points, four points behind the leaders, Zamalek who played two games more. Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane hopes to get the three points from tonight's game to silence critics against the team ahead of the crucial clash against Zamalek on 10 May. On the other hand, the team midfielder Mahmoud Metwally was named in the team's squad for the first time since 20 August 2020 after his successful recovery from the ACL injury.

The Egyptian Cabinet announced on Wednesday that beginning May 6, all shops, restaurants, and cafés must close at 9 pm, in order to slow the nationwide spread of coronavirus. The cabinet chose to exclude several shop categories from the decision, including restaurants and cafeterias located in hotels, grocery stores, supply grocers, vegetable, fruit, meat, poultry, and fish shops, pharmacies, and supermarkets. Licensed wholesale markets, gas stations, and car maintenance centers also are excluded from the cabinet’s curfew. Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-YoumIMAGE: A man wearing a protective face mask shops at Exception Market before the start of night-time curfew to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19 in Cairo, Egypt March 26.