Egypt-UK deals BRITISH Trade Minister Liam Fox arrived in Egypt on Monday. Fox will discuss new agreements on transport, health care and financial services. In a press release on Monday, the UK Embassy in Cairo said that Fox will meet with Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar and Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr to discuss investment opportunities in Egypt. It is Fox's first visit to Egypt since his appointment in 2016. According to the British Embassy, “the UK is committed to becoming the largest G7 investor in Africa by 2022, with a particular interest in strategic job-creating sectors that will see our mutual economics grow.” “I look forward to establishing new partnerships during my visit to enhance trade ties between Egypt, North Africa and the UK,” Fox said ahead of his visit. 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Watching Watch iT UNITED Company for Media Services (UCMS), owner of the video streaming mobile application Watch iT, issued a statement on Sunday saying it was acting to protect the copyright of Egypt's broadcast heritage. The statement came days after the company signed a protocol with the National Media Authority, which oversees the Egyptian Radio and Television Union (Maspero), granting it exclusive broadcast rights for all productions of Egypt's national television. The agreement gives Watch iT a monopoly over broadcasts of Egypt's TV archives. The public only became aware of the existence of Watch iT this Ramadan, when it was granted exclusive rights to online broadcasts of drama series produced by Synergy, the media production arm of UCMS. News of the protocol agreement was greeted with criticism that an allegedly private company was being allowed to monopolise a part of Egypt's cultural inheritance. The UCMS statement noted four times that it was a state-owned company, and stressed that it was dedicated to protecting the copyrights of Egyptian creators and producers. Watch iT, it said, “will halt the piracy and theft… by applications, programmes and foreign channels as well as social media… which threaten creativity and production companies. “The company will not only protect and showcase the creative products of Maspero, it will also offer great surprises in future productions able to compete with digital platform giants and present Egyptian drama and cinema to the world,” said UCMA. Meanwhile, on Monday, Watch iT announced it had acquired exclusive digital rights for the Egyptian Football League for four years as part of its strategy to enrich sports content on its platform. 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Marking Khufu's boat THE KHUFU solar boat “has survived more than 4,600 years, although its true purpose remains a mystery”, wrote Google in its description of the doodle celebrating Egypt's famed Pharaonic boat. The doodle has a large outreach and is visible across Asia, North Africa, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and chosen parts of Europe. On 26 May 1954 the Khufu boat was discovered near the Giza Pyramids. The boat was a symbolic means of transport to heaven of the soul of Khufu (Cheops), the second Pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. 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Stopping the swarm THE MINISTRY of Agriculture said on Sunday it was intensifying efforts to curb the advance of locust swarms through the southern governorates of Luxor and Aswan. Swarms of locusts appeared on Friday along Egypt's border with Sudan, prompting Aswan's governor to deploy pest control teams in Abu Simbel and areas east of Lake Nasser. The ministry is taking all necessary measures to halt the advance of locusts through 54 bases and central operation rooms, sources at the ministry said, adding that it is now the beginning of the insects' breeding season. Teams have been deployed in Abu Simbel to inspect crops and determine the locations of the swarms. Egypt witnessed locust swarms from the Arabian Peninsula between 2007 and 2011, though they caused minimal damage.
