Ben Cardin, the new chairman of the powerful US Senate foreign relations committee, said on Tuesday that he was blocking military financing to Egypt over human rights concerns.
Mr Cardin took over as chairman last month as Senator Bob Menendez stepped down after he was charged in a federal corruption probe for allegedly taking bribes to benefit Cairo and three Egyptian businessmen.
Mr Menendez has denied the charges against him.
“I believe it is imperative that we continue to hold the government of Egypt, and all governments, accountable for their human rights violations,” Mr Cardin said in a statement.
“I intend to exercise fully the committee’s oversight responsibilities and my authorities to hold foreign military funds and the sale of arms to the government of Egypt, if it does not take concrete, meaningful and sustainable steps to improve the human rights conditions in the country.”
Mr Cardin said the committee demands that Egypt introduces pre-trial detention reforms and releases political prisoners.
The committee also wants Egypt to ensure freedoms for human rights defenders, journalists and opposition groups.
A long-time human rights advocate, Mr Cardin said he had shared his concerns with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“My hold on current funds will remain until specific human rights progress is made,” he said.
Foreign military funding to the US ally has been a contentious issue under President Joe Biden's administration, as Congress and non-government groups have expressed human rights concerns with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi's leadership.
Nevertheless, some military sales have been approved.
Mr Menendez has asserted that he held Egypt accountable while on the Senate foreign relations committee.
“If you look at my actions related to Egypt during the period described in this indictment, and throughout my whole career, my record is clear and consistent,” he said.
But federal prosecutors say Mr Menendez ghost-wrote a letter for Egypt to send to his Senate colleagues urging them to release a hold of $300 million in US aid to the country.
Prosecutors also say he met Egyptian military and intelligence officials.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
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Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
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AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations
Edited by Sarah Cleave, Comma Press
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The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part two: how climate change drove the race for an alternative
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Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
